Knights Of The Old Republic: Darkness Falls

[The Doctor]

Tegan woke suddenly. She thought she had heard someone enter the TARDIS. She lay there, not daring to move, when she heard the TARDIS engines begin to grind. She got up, trying to keep quiet. When she got to the door of the console room, the engine had stopped. She opened the door a tiny bit, and saw The Doctor bolt out the door. Opening he door the rest of the way, she ran to listen to what was going on outside.

[3yks]

(Uhm, brax is not in the cockpit anymore, he's currently moving from the hallway to the cockpit to where Karda's ship is docked with the Ebon Hawk.)

[ExtreamJedi12]

(Oh, I'll change it.)

[The Doctor]

((Hey, do you guys realize that this RP has surpased the Secrets of the Sith in number of posts, which was started months before this one?))

[3yks]

"No I won't" Brax said, standing a good five feet away, as he apeared, waved and dove into the other ship, reaching out with the force to press the cycling controls. The airlock cyceling, and letting him onto the other ship.

[The Doctor]

Tegan heard the sound of the airlock cycling, and wondered what was going on. Through the crack in the door, she could see the Docotor standing a few feet from the TARDIS, his arms crossed, waiting. A sudden movement behind her made her jump, and she saw K9 standing there, his face torn open.

"K9! What happened to you, are you alright?" she asked urgently but quietly - she didn't want the Doctor to hear her.

"I am damaged, Mistress, but it can be repaired."

"The Doctor's outside the door, waiting for something, by the looks of him. I want you to go wake up Nyssa; it looks like the Doctor is going to need our help."

"Yes, Mistress." said K9. He turned around and went out the door Tegan had come from, on his way to wake up Nyssa. Tegan returned to the door, just in case the Doctor needed her help.

 

==================================================

 

Nyssa woke with a start.

"Mistress Nyssa?"

"What is it, K9?"

"Mistress Tegan requests your presence in the consol room."

"Oh, alright, I'm coming." she said sleepily. She got out of her bed and followed K9 to the control room, wondering what on "Earth" she could want

.

==================================================

 

Tegan stood at the door, staring at the back of the Doctor's head.

'What do--" began Nyssa as she entered the console room, but Tegan silenced her with a quick hand gesture. Nyssa lowered her voice: "What do you need, Tegan?"

"Come here a moment. What do you make of this?" she moved over so Nyssa could see out the crack in the door.

"It's the Doctor." said Nyssa, thinking this was a bad idea of a joke.

"Look at him."

"What about him?"

"He's just standing there. What do you think he's doing?"

"Waiting for something, by the looks-- wait, tis isn't the Ebon Hawk!"

"I know. I heard the engine noise - that's what woke me up - and I came here to ask the Doctor what was happening."

"K9, do you know what's going on?"

"Affirmative, mistress."

"Well? What is it?" asked Nyssa impatirntly.

"An unidentified alien life form was detected in the cockpit of the Ebon Hawk. It damaged me, and fled towards the Jedi ship. The Master Doctor is wainting for the life form, hoping to intercept it."

"Well we'd better hope that Kira will be able to help! We have no weapons." said Nyssa.

"K9 does! You have to go help him!" siad Tegan

"I would be of no assistance, Mistress. My laser is damaged and inoperable. I would be a huinderance, not an asset."

Well then it's up to us to help the Doctor!" Tegan moved past Nyssa to open the door, but Nyssa grabbed her by the arm.

"No! The Doctor probably has a plan. One that depends on us being out of the way! If he's in danger, we'll go out!"

So they waited with bated breath to see what the Doctor was up to.

[RobQel-Droma]

As Brax fled down the Ebon Hawk, Karda heard the airlock making noise, and ran for his ship. It sounded like someone was trying to get in it.

[ForceFightWMe12]

As the others left, Kira turned to Disciple and Atton. "C'mon guys, you know what to do."

"Search and destroy." Atton said, making sure that the battery in his blaster was at a safe level.

Disciple and Kira took sabers in their hands and ran after the others, heading for what seemed to be the airlock.

"You don't think he's gone to Karda's ship?" Disciple asked, "What would be the point?"

"I don't know, but there's only one way to find out." she said, and continued on.

'Don't trust a robot to do the work of a telepath.'? What had she meant by that?

[The Doctor]

((3yks, I hope you're not planing in any way to have something to do with the tracer? Is that why you're going to Karda's ship? Because I have a plan as to how the tracer got there. One that affects the story a great deal, actually.))

[RobQel-Droma]

Karda punched the controls for the airlock, which opened up to his docked ship. Drawing his lightsaber, he carefully walked into his ship, looking around for the intruder. He saw nothing, but he knew someone was in his ship, somewhere.

[3yks]

Brax had frowned at the Doctor, since the man was in his way. Luckily for him, the doctor's hope that his 'device' was broken, was wrong, he was only mildly injurd from the blaster bolt he had taken, and his device was infact, himself. So he cycled the airlock but stayed in the Hawk, moving out looking for EVA suit, and after a few moments located one. Pulling it on, and recloacking himself with the aid of the force to move a bit faster. The suit was standard, and his gloves clicked into place where the normal one's would have.

 

Now to get out of either ship to where his own could pick him up. He pondered this, part of him considered simply cutting his way out one of the walls. His claws were no sabers, but it wouldn't take them long to work through the hull. Still ... No, he didn't have any desire to murder those in the ship with no cause. He was really just after Revan. But he knew that the others would help Revan. He moved back to the Airlock, watching Revan looking for him. How to throw him off so he could get to the doctor.

[The Doctor]

((you need to read my post more carefully.... the TARDIS is blocking the hallway:

The Jedi ship sat there, quiet and empty. The TARDIS' engine niose filled the main bay again, the TARDIS fading into existence just in fron of the docking ramp. The TARDIS was possitioned so that this... thing.... couldn't get past it. The Doctor stepped out the door, closed it behind him, and stood in front of it, his arms croosed, waiting.

 

Ah well, who cares. It would suck to have your character get captured, especially this early.))

[3yks]

(I'm willing to change it, but is he In Karda's ship blocking the way? Or in the Ebon Hawk ... either way I will change it so that he gets the EVA suit int he hawk realizing he can't get into the other ship easily. (he'll still cycle the airlock to throw people off him) then come back and threaten the Doc ... *goes to change it*))

[The Doctor]

((Clicky. Thanks. I think I PMd you about....maybe it can happen now.))

[The Doctor]

The Doctor heard the airlock cycle, and his hearts began to beat faster. The stranger would no doubt be arriving soon. The Doctor smiled to himself, imagining the alien's surprise to find that the Doctor had beaten him here.

*I love time travel.* he thought to himself.

[JasraLantill]

((I don't mean to step on any toes and just 'barge' into the storyline, but I haven't heard a yes or no yet from Sion about joining and the Doctor and I were concerned that this thread is dying a quiet death. As this is my first post in the thread, its kind of long. Sorry.))

________________________________________________________

 

From the cockpit of her small ship in orbit around Dantooine, Jasra Lantill grinned as the co-ordinates of her homing device indicated Karda’s location. “Ah, just out of Nar Shaddaa. The cesspit of the Galaxy. I should have known.”

 

She had been extremely fortunate to have intercepted the transmission from Master Verga to Karda. It hadn't taken her long to realise he could find the Exile easier than she could. And it had been easier still to place a tracking device on his ship before he had left. She tweaked a button on the ship’s console, and listened. It wasn’t long before the static gave way to a conversation, its modulation slightly distorted.

 

"This is Jedi Knight Karda, to the Ebon Hawk. Do you read me?"

 

"This is the Ebon Hawk; we hear you loud and clear, Karda. What's your business tailing us?"

 

"I was sent by the Jedi Masters on this mission. They sighted you off Hal Hutta, and they sent me to find out what the Ebon Hawk was up to. Who is this? Is this the Jedi Exile, or another occupant of the ship?"

 

"This is Kira, the Jedi Exile. What business does the Council have with me? I thought they were all dead."

 

"If you mean Vrook, Kavar, and Zez-Kai, then yes, they are dead. But the Jedi were able to rebuild and gather more force-sensitives to them after the war. The Jedi Enclave on Dantooine has been partially rebuilt, and is home to several Jedi. The current Jedi running things are the 'Masters' of which I spoke."

 

Jasra snorted with disgust.

 

Karda continued. "When you fled from the smuggler's moon, I followed you, perhaps not the only one.”

 

Jasra raised an eyebrow.

 

“My intentions were just to see what you were doing. Would you mind if I boarded, where we could talk better?" There was a pause. "I assure you, I mean you no harm, and I doubt I could cause any trouble there anyways. I need to speak with you."

 

"Very well, if you wish to board the Hawk, we will be waiting for you."

 

Jasra shook her head. “That was just too easy.” She drummed her fingers on her comlink, thinking for a moment before activating it. There were some bleeps as the link connected.

 

“Begin transmission,” said a metallic-sounding voice.

 

“It’s Jasra,” she said. “I’ve found her.”

 

“So soon?” There was a short pause, then the voice continued. “I see I may have underestimated your tracking abilities. No matter. Transmit the co-ordinates to me and return to the rendezvous point for further instructions.”

 

“Whoa, wait a minute. What further instructions?” Jasra frowned. “What about my payment?”

 

“All in due time,” said the toneless voice.

 

“Yeah? Well I say payment’s due now. No credits, no co-ordinates. That was the deal.”

 

“The deal was for you to locate the Exile and bring her to me.”

 

“No, the deal was that I locate her for you to speak to her,” Jasra said firmly. “I’ve done that. Once I give you the co-ordinates and frequency, you can speak to her all you want over a comlink. My job is done.”

 

“Her physical presence is necessary for the conversation to be productive.”

 

“You don’t speak to me face-to-face,” Jasra chided. “And if that’s good enough for me, it’s good enough for her. If you want the co-ordinates, then pay up. Otherwise, you can forget it. I’m not getting burned on this one.”

 

“Then perhaps we can come to another arrangement,” said the voice. “Bring the Exile to me and I will double my original offer.”

 

Jasra thought a moment. “Triple it and I’ll see what I can do. But I still expect payment for what I’ve done so far. I’ll need the credits to cover any unexpected expenses.”

 

“Agreed. I am transferring your payment now. Transmit the co-ordinates to me. They will be helpful in case you should fail.”

 

“So good to know you have such confidence in my abilities,” she said dryly, as she punched a few button on her console. “Done.”

 

“Excellent. Return to the rendezvous point for further instructions when you have the Exile. End transmission.”

 

Jasra let out a heavy sigh. “So much for easy credits.” She punched Karda's co-ordinates into the navicomputer and her ship jumped into hyperspace.

 

*******

 

Coming out of hyperspace, Jasra approached Karda’s ship. It was docked with another--the Ebon Hawk, she presumed. “Well, isn’t this convenient.” With the two ships linked together, it wasn’t as if either of them could jump into hyperspace without plenty of notice. She frowned slightly. “Too convenient,” she said slowly.

 

Something was odd. As former Jedi Padawan, Jasra could sense the presence of more than two Force users on board the two ships.

 

Not wanting her own Force Sensitivity to be detected by either Karda, the Exile, or whoever else was on board, she used the masking technique she had developed, drawing the Force so deep within herself as to be indistinguishable from any average sentient being. She didn’t trust Jedi. Not anymore. They had abandoned her, and so she had abandoned them. They had lied. And now so would she.

 

She hailed the Ebon Hawk. “This is the Republic scout ship Moon Shadow. You appear to be adrift. Can I offer you any assistance?”

[Writer]

Crystal was just leaving the cockpit when the transmission came in. She glanced around uncomfortably and found that she was the only person still there. With a little sigh, she moved to the comm unit.

 

"This is the Ebon Hawk," she said. "We are not adrift, thank you, Moon Shadow. A meeting between Jedi is taking place... not quite my cup o' tea... then again, not much happening over here is really anything I'm too happy about." She shrugged. "Then again, I'm more or less unimportant to the others, so who cares what I think?" She allowed a bit of annoyance into her voice for her last words.

[The Doctor]

Tegan stood there in the Ebon Hawk, staring at the back of the Doctor's head. A sudden sound from the TARDIS console made her jump - someone was trying to contact the Ebon Hawk, and the TARDIS was picking up the signal.

"This is the Republic scout ship Moon Shadow. You appear to be adrift. Can I offer you any assistance?"

"Nyssa, do you hear that?"

"It sounds like someone is hailing the Ebon Hawk."

"Why are we hearing it?"

"I don't know." Nyssa scanned the TARDIS controls for a moment. "There - the spacial transiever is active for some reason. The Doctor must have forgotten to deactivate it after the message from Gallifrey." ((The message from Gallifrey has no bearing on the current story.)) "If I can modulate the frequency to the same as that of the ship out there, we might be able to call for help."

She fiddled around with the controls a little bit, not entirely sure she knew what she was doing - she had only ever seen the Doctor operate the transiever once before. She bent over to speak into the microphone in the console.

"This is Nyssa of Traken, onboard the Ebon Hawk." she said. "In a way." she added under her breath. "There's something strange going on here. The Doctor - our "captain" of sorts, and a friend of Kira Starr's - is standing inbetween the two ships, wainting for something. We don't know what."

There was no response. "It didn;t work. We must not be able to transmit through the hull of another ship."

"Then we'd better hope somebody else responded." ((You are not supposed ot hear this, Jasra. I posted this before I saw WJ's post, and have modified it so that the Doctor still turns his back to the Ebon Hawk - it's important.))

====================================

The Doctor heard voices. They were coming from inside the TARDIS. He turned around a opened the door, and saw Tegan and Nyssa at the console. He opened his mouth to speak...

 

((3yks, this is a good time for what we discussed to happen))

[RC-1162]

((where the heck is Darthsion101? he is needed to make our part continue))

[The Doctor]

((Well, if he doesn't show up soon, Jasra and I have a cool idea where ths story could go. PM me or her if you want to know more. I PMd him about it, but he hasn't answered. Maybe if we emailed him, we could get permission to implement our idea.))

[JasraLantill]

"This is the Ebon Hawk. We are not adrift, thank you, Moon Shadow. A meeting between Jedi is taking place... not quite my cup o' tea... then again, not much happening over here is really anything I'm too happy about. Then again, I'm more or less unimportant to the others, so who cares what I think?"

 

Jasra raised a doubtful eyebrow. She had expected either Karda, the Exile, or perhaps the Ebon Hawk’s pilot to answer her query, but the woman who was responding didn’t sound like any of them. But she didn’t particularly sound like she was part of the crew either. In fact, she seemed unhappy to even be on board. Jasra’s eyes narrowed as a suspicion rose in her mind that the voice on the comlink might belong to a servant, or even worse, a slave. She despised slavers, and took the greatest of pleasure in disposing of them at every opportunity. It seemed unlikely that a Jedi would keep slaves, but Jedi could not be trusted. And if the Exile had fallen to the Dark Side….

 

She needed to know more.

 

“Ebon Hawk, this is Jasra Lantill on the Moon Shadow. Identify yourself. Are you sure you do not require any assistance?”

 

Yet even as she spoke, she flicked the switches that activated her shields and charged her cannons, readying herself for a potential battle.

[Writer]

"My name is Crystal," came the reply. "Not a member of the crew... just a passenger, you might say, but when everybody else runs off somewhere, who else is there to answer your call?" She paused for a moment. "As far as I know, we don't require assistance. I'd get the Exile in here to talk to you, but I'm not sure where exactly she is... should I look for her?"

[JasraLantill]

“…not sure exactly where she is….” The words made Jasra’s head ache, and with two fingers she lightly massaged her brow between her eyes. Even when she had found the Exile and her ship, she still eluded her! Well, at least she knew that the Exile was definitely on board, and she exhaled a breath of relief in the knowledge that the Ebon Hawk was not a slaver ship.

 

Now she just had to figure out how to get the Exile to the rendezvous point and hand her over to Jasra’s employer. She had a few ideas. Time to test the waters….

 

“Thank you, Crystal, but no,” Jasra said, trying to sound as nice as possible while she typed a message into her comm unit. “You just stay put for now. This area of space is known for pirates and raiders, so it would be good to have someone manning the bridge at all times.”

 

She added her co-ordinates to the message.

 

“Having said that, I’ll try to keep an eye out for you until your captain returns to the bridge and takes over.”

 

She filtered the message through an encryption device.

 

“But you could you tell me what’s happening on the Ebon Hawk that is so important that they left you in charge? It seems like an awful responsibility for a passenger to bear.”

 

If the Exile was being distracted by something or someone on board, Jasra wanted to know what it was. The information could prove to be useful to her later on.

 

“And quite an unusual protocol.”

 

She hit the ‘send’ button. Message away. Now all she had to do was wait.

[Writer]

Crystal was suddenly uneasy. She had telepathic abilities, but had also trained herself to listen to voices... this Jasra Lantill was trying to sound friendly... almost too much so. Again calling on part of the minds of her companions, she stretched her 'thought bubble' out, enclosing Jasra's ship as well.

 

Just as quickly as she'd located Jasra's mind, she pulled back. It would do her no good to be detected. So she kept her consciousness on the fringe of Jasra's mind, trying to pick up any lies the other woman might be telling.

 

"Truthfully, I'm not sure," Crystal said, allowing her voice to fill with uncertainty. "They said something about a stowaway before everybody hurried out." She paused for a moment. "I'm really quite unsure what to make of the whole situation."

 

((Jasra, just so you know, Crystal is not Force sensitive. Her prodding of your mind won't feel the same as a Force sensitive might and it'll be harder to repel... though you'd probably feel it after having had Jedi training yourself. ))

[JasraLantill]

((Thanks for the info on Crystal, WildJedi. Since Jasra was only a young Padawan when she lost her Master, she's not that experienced with the Force. (Even though she's been learning a few things on her own.) I don't think she would detect Crystal's intrusion unless it was rather blatant. So, if Crystal wants to probe her mind, let her do so. ))

 

 

“A stowaway?”

 

Jasra recalled Karda’s transmission in her thoughts.

 

"When you fled from the smuggler's moon, I followed you, perhaps not the only one.”

 

Was someone trying to steal her bounty? Or had her anonymous employer hired another to bring in the Exile, just to ensure success?

 

"Transmit the co-ordinates to me. They will be helpful in case you should fail."

 

He did, Jasra thought. That slimy little hutt-slug! Just wait until I get my hands on him. But if there was someone on board the Ebon Hawk with intentions to bring in the Exile, she had to deal with them first. The Exile was hers. And since Jasra was outside the Ebon Hawk, and the interloper was inside, she needed to act quickly.

 

“Crystal, listen to me carefully. I want you to close and lock the door to the bridge. Lock yourself in. I believe that your stowaway could be dangerous.”

 

Well, that wasn’t a lie. If the stowaway was a bounty hunter, they most certainly would be a danger to anyone who got in their way.

 

“There have been recent pirate raids in this area…

 

A half truth, granted, but still completely plausible. There had been pirate raids out here, but none recently. She’d seen to that last month. Had been paid well for bringing in the leader’s corpse, too, as she recalled.

 

“…and this could be an attempt to overtake your vessel by causing a distraction elsewhere on the ship, leaving the bridge unattended.”

 

Because that’s what I would do, she thought.

 

“If that’s their intention, you must not allow them to have access to the bridge controls.”

 

Because then they will attempt to shut off life support in order to knock everyone unconscious, so they can take the Exile intact to wherever they want. Not a bad plan, Jasra thought. Too bad I didn’t think of it first.

 

“Do you understand, Crystal?”

 

She hoped she did. Crystal sounded like she was genuinely confused about what was happening on board the Ebon Hawk, and even though Jasra brought in the occasional bounty, she didn’t like to see innocent bystanders get hurt in the process. It was just bad form. Anyone else though…well, they just got what they deserved.

 

"Crystal?"