Keeping the Galaxy Intact

[ForceFightWMe12]

He listened to the conversation silently, his eyes moving from one person to another as each spoke, seeming almost as if he were watching a tennis game. He drew in each of the words spoken, drinking all the information in.

 

This Katya Skyhawk sounded like quite a piece of work, but he wasn't scared. Hell, he wasn't even worried. When you went through life and did the type of things that he had done...it took quite a lot for you to get worried.

 

"Count me in," he said, "I'm intrigued now."

[Rogue Nine]

"Skyhawk, eh?" the lips said, rolling the name around almost lazily. "A curious name, though appropriate for her line of work, I suppose." The mismatched eyes gazed upward. "I don't think her father would have liked it too much, rest his soul..."

 

Lane gazed back down and noticed the four pairs of eyes staring. "Ah, apologies, I must have been talking to myself." The lips curved enigmatically upward. "Of course, Lady Odnova, I'd be delighted to accompany you to see this Skyhawk person. It should prove informative in more ways than one."

[Tysyacha]

"It's settled, then." Tysyacha reached out a fragile-looking mesh-gloved hand, and Rika Saben, the mysterious Lane, the mechanic without a name, and Kimber Quitaan all placed their own hands on top of hers in a quintessential gesture of loyalty. "We seek out Katya Skyhawk, and whatever foes pursue us, we will take them down. No one ever saved the galaxy by playing it safe--or by selling cookies." Kimber grinned.

 

"As for Katya herself, where do you believe her present whereabouts lie, Rika?" The Exile put one hand on her generously curvy right hip and waited for a reply.

 

*****************************************************

 

Darkness is a sign of corruption, of decay. All light--no darkness anywhere...

 

The world's gravity had been turned, tilted, to lie in the exact region where twin white-hot suns never stopped shining. The planet itself was quite pleasant, habitable at least, but the creatures upon it still had not evolved to the point where they did not require darkness for sleep. They scuttled around in a half-daze when awake, not sure why they were on this world or how they had come to feel so perpetually tired.

 

An explorer on a foray in the cool, white night. Beautiful, she was, with calm eyes that were the flesh-and-blood examples of the serenity all Jedi sought in their souls. Hatred was beneath her, she was beyond love, and revenge was mere childish folly.

 

Her goal was Light, only Light, both on planets and in hearts and minds. Why should there be evil, when it was at last within her grasp to cleanse the galaxy of it?

[Jae Onasi]

Bastila looked up at the twin suns and closed her eyes for a moment to bask in the blue-white light. I shall be the Light of the Galaxy. And when this planet yields up its enormous mass of palladium, I shall have all the fuel I need to power the fleet needed to find Revan and with him rid the universe of the scourge of the 'True Sith'. It is my destiny..

 

Bastila opened her eyes again and spoke to the heavens beyond the stars. "Soon, my love. Soon we'll have everything we need, and I can hold you in my arms, hear the beat of your heart, and feel your strength against me. My heart aches for you, Revan."

[ForceFightWMe12]

The priorly stagnant air suddenly began to move ever so subtly between the large high-rise buildings that stuck up like jagged teeth from the gaping maw of Nar Shaddaa, the stink and decay of the area momentarily forgotten as the breeze made the air seem almost...clean. Fresh. As if it had come sweeping across the plains of Dantooine, rather than a cesspit like the Smuggler's Moon.

 

He tilted his head to the skies, looking to the small sliver of sun that beat down between the tops of the buildings, closing his eyes as the warm rays shone down on his skin. He took a deep breath while the breeze lasted, enjoying this fresh breath of air while he could.

 

The light of the galaxy...

 

"The last I heard of her, Katya had been spotted on Tattooine. Rumor says she had been hunting a Krayt dragon nearby the settlement of Anchorage. My guess that she would be hiding out at the dragon's lair, if she weren't in the settlement. Or...she could be dead, of course, but..." he lowered his head again, his eyes now on Tysy. "That would put a bit of a damper on things, wouldn't it?"

[JasraLantill]

Kimber snorted at the mechanic. "Nah, she's alive. Anyone who has the gumption to hunt krayt dragons, or worse hang out within the dragon's lair, certainly has got to have enough will to stay alive. If for no other reason than pure stubborness or spite," she added with a quick grin. "But living in a krayt dragon's lair on Tatooine? How apropos for a 'necessary evil.'"

 

She looked upwards, looking at the space traffic above them. "If it's Tatooine we're going to first, I can get us there in a couple of hours." She grinned secretively. "I know a shortcut. And," she added, looking at Tysy, "that's a good place for us to resupply if we need to. I've got some favours I can call in with a certain well-known Hutt."

[Tysyacha]

Tysyacha made a small poluvazhenie half-nod to Kimber with her gaze. "Good plan. Tatooine, even though it's hotter than a basilisk's warmth rock, would be a vast improvement over this stinkhole of a planet." She made a face. "Sorry. I know I sort of helped things here, back when I was still wandering the galaxy and trying to find the last three Jedi Masters, but even the best of changes can slip back into inertia or decay if no one makes any real effort to keep those changes up." Knowing nods.

 

Maybe it was her picturing Tatooine in her mind's eye that caused her to feel a warm, almost hot breeze. At the same time, she experienced a vision, or merely a flash of a vision, about a glass of water. Her imagined self was tipping the glass up toward her mouth, drinking with relief and almost pleasure, and then doubling over in utter shock.

 

"Acid!" her imaginary alter-ego cried, coughing and spitting. "I've swallowed acid!"

 

Then reality came back into focus again, and Tysyacha shook her head in a rapid reflex gesture. "Sorry about that--blanked out for a minute. Saw a vision of myself in my imagination, and I was drinking acid by mistake. Maybe that's a warning not to try Tattooine's tap water. Heh, heh." Confused looks from the crew, and a blush from the captain. "I guess I'm starting to sound like Kala-Naa. Come on. Let's go before the steam and fumes from down below find their way up here and do that to me again."

 

Unsettlingly, the look on the mechanic's face said It wasn't the core fumes at all.

[Grace]

After her own vague comments on Katya Skyhawk, Rika fell mysteriously silent, not even answering when Tysyacha directed a question to her. Then, the Exile recoiled and Rika's eyes snapped suddenly into focus on Tysyacha. At the woman's feeble explanation, Rika's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

 

"You may want to keep that in mind," she said softly, almost reproachfully. She shook her head and blinked twice. Then she nodded. "Yes, Tatooine will do fine."

 

Abruptly, she turned and lead the way back toward the ship.

[ForceFightWMe12]

Hyperspace travel this time was longer than the travel that it took to get to Nar Shaddaa, Tattooine having been quite a few quadrants away. No shortcuts this time - shortcuts through Hutt territory was never very advisable, and even a roguish Corilliean knew that.

 

With another half an hour of nothing to do ahead of him, he sat back in his bunk in the men's dorms with a sheet of tools spread out beside him. Pulling off the glove of his left hand, rolling the sleeve of his shirt up past his elbow and halfway up his bicep. A small sliver of muscular skin was visible beneath the edge of his shirtsleeve, but from the elbow down, the skin disappeared. In its place was gleaming biomail.

 

The robotic arm's face was open, and his miniature hydrospanner was whirring in his hands as he cut out a small section of faulty gears, a replacement visible in a small plastic bag sitting on the roll of thick cloth beside him with the rest of the tools.

 

Within the past few hours, the fingers had begun to jam ever so slightly, and he had grown far too annoyed to put up with it any longer. Rather, he decided to take this extra time to sit down and fix it for good.

[Tysyacha]

HK-47, far from being bored or "stifled" by patrol duty (as much as a droid could be stifled), rather enjoyed it. Not only did he get to intimidate absolutely everyone, but he also got to form deeper impressions of the newest crew of the Ebon Hawk. This served to let HK know, of course, whether or not he should "terminate" them.

 

As of now, his suspicions were not exactly put to rest when it came to the nameless mechanic. Any being, droid or meatbag, that refused to identify himself/herself/itself by any sort of name was automatically suspect in his mechanical mind. HK wondered if this mechanic were in fact a spy, and he was spying upon a spy. He'd soon find out.

 

"Reporting Statement: I have been 'picking up' some odd noises from the men's dormitory, Master, to use the inferior terminology of meatbags," he announced. "They are slightly outside your normal range of hearing, so I decided to alert you of a possible mishap or malfunction of one of the locker containers. Perhaps the still-unidentified mechanic is attempting to fix a problem, but my perception is that this is not the case." A cough.

 

"You're probably right, HK," said Tysyacha, "in that he may be trying to fix something. Nevertheless, I'll go see, because the way the Hawk is right now, she's an old girl, and we can't afford to have her malfunctioning in the middle of hyperspace." She rose from her place in the co-pilot's chair to check on the possible "situation".

 

"Is everything all right?" she asked the mechanic, smiling gently. "HK said you might be fixing a--problem--?" Was she seeing things, or was his arm not quite an arm?

[ForceFightWMe12]

His eyes flicked up to the door when he heard Tysyacha's voice. He did not jump in surprise, even if shock did flit across his eyes for a moment. His only immediate reaction was to pull his arm back out of view behind his leg, his eyes focused on her the entire time.

 

"Exile..." he said, the faintest smile coming to his lips, "Everything is perfectly fine. Is there something I can help you with?"

 

He had been hoping that no one would have had to see him and his arm...but he supposed that while in such close confines, it was only to be expected - especially if he had to constantly be fixing it. But, even so...

[Tysyacha]

An embarrassed blush came to Tysyacha's cheeks. "Erm--I'm sorry, no. HK was just getting a little suspicious, and he supposed one of the lockers in the men's dormitory might have malfunctioned. I apologize if I disturbed you, and now I'm going to go and disassemble one nosy protocol droid." Her eyes narrowed. "Assassin droid, I mean."

 

"Interjection: No need, Master. I am simply here to inform you that we shall soon be landing at the Anchorage station on Tatooine. You might wish to fasten your seat belt." HK-47 saluted sharply and returned to patrol duty, and Tysyacha scowled at him.

 

"Next time, I'll make sure he stays out of here unless it's an absolute emergency. I'll leave you be, unless you want to come up front and view our descent. It's quite a light show." A wink and a crisp quarter-turn to the right, and the Exile was gone.

 

************************************

 

Tatooine. The very name was a synonym for not only hot, but so kriffing hot that you could fry a krayt dragon egg on the sidewalk. Tysyacha could not think of any time she had been on this planet's desert surface without almost fainting from sun exhaustion. Were the Sand People still here? What about the Czerka merchants and corporate drones? The Exile had heard that Revan, being of just nature, spared both.

[ForceFightWMe12]

His smile became a bit more prominent. "There's no need to apologize - really, Tysy. It's quite alright."

 

The annoyance that flickered across her face made his eyes soften. He recognized the expression from so many years ago...from a time that was both brighter and darker than the days now. It was rather...nice, strangely.

 

"I'll be out momentarily." he said, nodding before lifting the hydrospanner in his hand again. "Thank you, Exile."

 

When she and HK had left - HK hesitating to give him what he thought was supposed to be a warning look - he lifted his arm into his lap again, finishing taking out the faulty gearing and replacing the parts in question. The whole process took about ten minutes - ten very rough minutes, due to reentry. He was rather amazed that he hadn't accidentally cut something that he shouldn't have...

 

Snapping the casing closed again, he twitched all of his fingers experimentally. When they didn't jam, he shook them, curled them, wiggled them - and they all worked. Wonderful! He pulled the long glove back on, pulling the straps tight. Quickly, he rolled the tools back up and deposited them in his locker before sliding that under his bed. Straightening his vest, he proceeded to the cockpit.

 

-----------------------------

 

He leaned against the wall near the starmap, his arms folded over his chest as he looked out the viewscreen at the dock outside, his blue eyes following the progress of the Czerka officer that was already coming towards the Hawk, clipboard in hand. His upper lip pulled back in a small snarl.

 

"Ugh...not them." he muttered. "The worst part about Tattooine is the Czerka. They're allowed to run completely rampant around here - hell, they're practically the only government they have."

[JasraLantill]

Kimber spun around in the pilot's chair to face the mechanic. "Yeah, well...," she said in a slow, disparaging tone. "It's either Czerka or the Hutts. And of the two, neither is desirable. But..." She gave him a quick grin, "not to worry. I'll get us a discount on the docking fee."

 

With that, she rose and headed out of the ship to meet the Czerka officer. She put an arm around the man's shoulders, guiding him away from the ship and towards the Czerka office as she talked to him in hushed tones. In a few minutes she was back on board the Ebon Hawk, with a couple of permits in her hand.

 

"One permit for docking," she said, waving the permit in the air, "and another for... wait for it...." She grinned. "Krayt dragon hunting." She wiggled her eyebrows. "'Course, I don't know the first thing about dragon hunting, so...." Smiling, she tossed the other permit card to the mechanic. "But you look like the capable sort. I'm sure you can advise the rest of us on how to 'blend' in with the hunter crowd around here."

[Tysyacha]

Tysyacha shrugged, and her gesture betrayed cynicism with just a hint of sadness. "I guess someone has to sell things to the tourists from off-world and keep some small semblance of law and order around here. Although," she said ruefully, "having been their flunkie and fall-girl once, I shouldn't be the one to sing their praises. I know just how hollow Czerka's 'law and order' can be, and also their sense of 'fair play'."

 

At a surprised look from the mechanic(?), a tall, dark-haired female approached them.

 

"Welcome to Tatooine," she said with a lipstick-glazed smile. Her teeth must have been capped and bleached with the most intense Kaminoan salt-bath methods. "I am Bah'ri, and I hope that your stay on this planet will be a pleasant one, although not too long. The sandstorms are coming--it's that season. Is there any way I can help?"

 

Tysyacha smiled in return, although far less effusively. Jana Lorso certainly didn't teach me to grin that way, she remembered. Then again, I wasn't exactly in the customer-service department. I was more in the 'stealing droids and smuggling' one. "We're looking to go big-game hunting," said the Exile, which earned a pleased murmur from Bah'ri. "The weapons are with us, but what we don't have are any maps of notable caverns or lairs. We'll also need a sandbroom to ease our way on the trails, and a supply of rations for five." Bah'ri nodded appreciatively and went to get the supplies. She certainly was efficient, and the materials she brought of good quality.

 

"That will be one hundred credits," she said, her smile re-pasted onto her pale face. One hundred credits was a lot, but the rations were real food, not the synthetic kind that was often fabricated off-world and sold to Tatooine dwellers at exorbitant prices.

 

"Much better than dried bantha jerky," the Exile complimented. "Thank you, Bah'ri."

 

Deciding not to travel in the heat of the day, Tysyacha, Lane, Kimber Quitaan, the mechanic, and Rika Saben trudged along a marked trail toward one of the massive lairs. "Krayt Dragon's Cavern," it was labeled, and yet the Exile wondered if any of the huge beasts had ever shown their faces since Revan had slain one on his visit here.

It was sunset, or nearing sunset, and any reptiles might be out hunting or foraging.

 

"There it is." Tysyacha pointed. The cave was as dark and deep as the entrance to Malachor V, sprawling for hundreds of feet. Such space would be required by animals as large as krayt dragons, although humans would find it rather hospitable in a pinch.

It looked empty, although you never could be too careful around any strange caves.

 

The Exile lit her lightsabers, and Rika did too, once they neared the mouth of the lair. It looked lived-in, with (presumably) bedclothes scattered about, and crude dishes. Datapads, possibly broken, rested in the corner, and gnawed bones lay here and there.

 

"Ugh," said one of the other females, perhaps Rika or Kimber. "What's that smell?"

 

Tysyacha tried hard to keep from laughing, only smiling instead. "Bat guano and reptile droppings. Not fresh, though--perhaps only a day old, and matted with straw. "Good thing this sandbroom will come in handy." She took it from the mechanic and handed him one of her petite silver sabers. "Please, hold the blade. If Katya Skyhawk lives here, I can't fathom how she can stand it." The dung was dry, so her work was light.

 

"Why are you even doing that?" someone mumbled. "Maybe this cave is abandoned."

 

"Penitential labor, long story," replied Tysyacha. "Don't worry. This won't take long."

 

It didn't, and when the Exile had finished, she created a great Force Wave outside of the lair to bury the droppings under six feet of sand. Everyone else had stood back(!) After the dust had cleared, Tysyacha looked around once more. "Well--doesn't seem like I did any good. No one's shown up yet, and it's almost nightfall. We don't want to be out here in the dark." Not that she was afraid--only cautious, only desiring safety.

[ForceFightWMe12]

He was still twirling the silver saber round and round, watching appreciatively as the blade lit curving arcs in the air. He didn't cut himself, and it didn't come anywhere near his body - so much for lightsabers being 'unruly' weapons. It handled just like a vibro blade.

 

"No, we don't." he answered, "But I don't know that we would want to leave here. It seems pretty well-lived in - everything seems quite recent." his eyes didn't leave the acrobatics of the spinning blade. "I'm sure that whoever lives here will soon be back. The night usually brings people crawling back to whatever hole they crawled out of."

 

With one final toss, he flicked the saber off, the blade withdrawing into the hilt. He smirked faintly, pleased with himself, before offering it back to the Exile. "We can either stay here for the night, and maybe catch whoever we're looking for, or return and get back to Anchorage a good thirty minutes before nightfall and return in the morning."

[Grace]

"Whoever or whatever we might catch here will not be Katya," Rika said. "I did not speak earlier, for it mattered very little where on the Outer Rim we went. Tatooine will suit our purposes just as well as any other planet out here." She looked into the cave for a moment. "Katya has eyes everywhere out here. We merely need to... catch her 'eye', so to speak."

 

She nodded toward the cave. "It may do us well to stay here overnight. Let us see what we can see. I sleep very little as it is. You all can rest. I will stand watch in case we have any unexpected visitors."

[Tysyacha]

Maybe it was sleeping on bare rock that was only flimsily covered by crumpled sheets that did it. Regardless, Tysyacha had a nightmare, one that caused her body to break out in sweat. Or was that the night heat, customary for all seasons upon Tatooine?

 

She was standing before a Jedi, a Twi-lek, with a saber as silver-white as her own.

 

"Come with me," she said softly, her eyes kind. "Or, please, let me kill you before my Master does. She's severe, and the methods she uses to persuade her prisoners are even more severe. I can't pretend I don't see the power in you, because I do. You and the man Master loved are the two most powerful reported Jedi in the galaxy. However, neither one of you will last before the Indoctrination, or the Judgment Seat. I will make your exit painless if you'll kneel down and bow your head, lovely Exile."

 

Instead of shaking her head, fleeing, or even poising to attack, Tysyacha asked, "Who is your Master? What does she want?" A brief pause. "To vanquish the True Sith?"

 

The Twi'lek's laughter, like the tinkling of silver bells, made Tysyacha shiver inside. "My darling! Don't you know who the True Sith are? They are all of us, every one, because we have all done wrong and made harmful and dark errors in our judgment. I am no Jedi, Lady Dvukh. I am one of the True Sith, but I have been forgiven. As will you be, if you turn to the Light. My Master is waiting. Submit. I don't want to have to kill you, but she will if she finds out you are still hostile to her plans by the time we've finished speaking. Let the Light of the Galaxy find you, cleanse you. Let it fill you."

 

"Light has no place for murder, for domination, for torture and interrogation," Tysyacha said. "Let me turn you to the Light, and perhaps we can stop your Master before it's too late." She reached out a hand, sensing no intentions of harm on the Twi'lek's part.

 

"Ah, Ty-sya-cha..." Her name said slowly, like a caress. "She is unstoppable. With her Battle Meditation, she can conquer the world, and the galaxy. Don't walk this path. In her eyes, and in mine, you are still a Sith, though you can turn back and be saved."

 

"Take me to see her," came the terrifying words, "and if I die by her hand, I die."

 

Tysyacha convulsed with fear, knocking her head against a rock and not even caring.

[ForceFightWMe12]

The softest, almost inaudible whir emitted from his hand as he shifted his fingers every few seconds, his hands joined behind his back and feet spread in military at-ease fashion. The glow from the item before him shed a blue light on only half his face, leaving the rest in ghastly shadow.

 

"The Star Map." he whispered under his breath.

 

And so it was. When everyone else had fallen to slumber, he had risen, unable to resist the item's call. With a single touch of his human hand, the three arms of the device slowly opened, and the great map that was hidden within its ancient databanks had expanded before his very eyes. Those eyes now examined every inch that he could take in. The hundreds of planets, billions of stars, and multiple systems from his many years of space travel were recreated here - data holes and all.

 

When a sudden shifting of clothes sounded somewhere behind him, he spun and ducked to his knees, his blue eyes piercing the darkness. It was Tysyacha who had been moving - and as she twisted in the blankets that covered her, he slunk further into the shadows, expecting her to wake.

 

But she didn't. She uttered a small moan, and thrashed once more - her head colliding with the rock beside her - and lay still once more. That didn't last long, however. She shifted again - and then again.

 

She was having a nightmare.

 

Knowing from experience just how terrible nightmares could be, he touched the Star map again, allowing it to close before dashing quickly over to where she lay. With a gentle hand, he knelt next to her, his hand touching to her shoulder.

 

"Tysy? Tysyacha."

[Tysyacha]

The Exile jerked awake, startled, saying not a word besides her muffled gasp. Her eyes were half-full of sleepy grogginess and half-full of something else, some deeper form of consciousness besides what kept her alert and functioning during the daytime. Not noticing the mechanic per se, but rather a warm and sentient figure needing guidance and clarity, she motioned to him with a quick snap of the wrist and slowly walked outside, drawn by an enveloping hypnotic trance. In her white nightclothes and with her ghostly pale skin, she looked like a wraith newly risen from the dead.

 

Not minding the rocky floor of the krayt dragon lair or the desert sand beneath her feet, Tysyacha kept walking until she and the perplexed mechanic were about a thousand yards out into the desert. Not once did the Exile break from her state or look back to see if the man was still following her. It was as if she knew the Force would have him follow, and no matter if he professed to the contrary, he'd obey it.

 

When she had reached her destination, surrounded by a billion stars and their cold and dispassionate fire, she turned and pointed to a faint speck in the sky. A lost planet, perhaps, or a star that had turned into a white dwarf, dying at last?

 

A rhyme came to her lips, dark and insidious, making the mechanic's blood run cold.

 

Where the darkness used to be, that's where you'll find the Light.

The Star Forge may have been destroyed, but not its center's sight.

Malak was only a pawn, as are we all, somehow,

In this war between Light and Dark, the Light shall conquer now.

She waits for you, she waits for him, the one he left behind.

The price of life for this one is his love, but he is blind.

He'll say she plans to use him for the Dark Side's greed and gain,

But once he yields, and once I yield, we all shall feel no pain.

We have the option to retreat, and that can be our choice,

But if we do, the galaxy will lose its only voice.

She's there, the one who rules us all. She's waiting, the Sublime,

And we must find her and join her before the death of Time.

 

Tysyacha fainted. Her body lay limp on the sand. Was the mechanic there?

[ForceFightWMe12]

He was there, and by falling to his knees in the sands, he caught the Exile just before she hit the sands, one arm of strong human warmth and one arm of cold mechanical preciseness closing around her small form as he held her away from the hot sands. He could feel her life force - beating and pulsing strong through the Force - and was not worried. Something or someone had simply used Tysyacha as a gateway, as a channel to send this message. The question was, had it been direct straight to him?

 

Looking back to the sky at the bright, abnormal star that the woman in his arms had pointed to, his sharp blue orbs locked onto its position, widening slightly. He knew that star - he had seen it from the ship as the Star Forge was destroyed, falling and collapsing in upon itself. A shiver of frightening power wracked his body. The last place he wanted to return was there...

 

His mechanical arm supporting her upper body, his right arm slipped beneath her legs. Standing up, he picked her up and cradled her against his strong chest, striding back in the direction that they had come.

[Jae Onasi]

Bastila peered out the large window into the bright white day, overlooking the palladium mines and refineries.

 

Her apprentice, a beautiful green Twi'lek, joined her at her side. "I delivered the message, my Master. I used the poem and planted it in her mind. She was powerful, Master, and resisted so strongly I had no choice but render her unconscious."

 

Bastila acknowledged her with a slight tilt of the head and kept watching all the faraway activity. "Her power is no match for the Light, E'lina. She carries much darkness from her time with the Betrayer, but she cannot defeat the Light. We will be ready for her, you and I and our other followers. The Force wills that all who do not submit to the Light, those 'true Sith', must be destroyed, and we are the agents of that Light. We cannot fail."

[Grace]

The area just outside the cave was suddenly tossed up by the descent of a small shuttle. It landed several meters from the mouth of the cave and the boarding ramp descended slowly. A cloaked man stood at the top.

 

"You should not have chosen this cave, strangers," the man said slowly. His voice was loud and clear. "Strangers do not fare well in the barren wastelands of Tatooine... even strangers with exiled Jedi for companions."

 

Rika rose from the meditative position she'd taken for her night's watch and strode forward boldly. "Speak, stranger. Katya Skyhawk has sent you."

 

"My mistress commands," the man said. "I obey. And you must obey as well. Come aboard and I will take you to my mistress. She knows you wish to speak with her."

 

Rika nodded. "Of course she does," she said. To her companions, she said, "Kala-Naa might have given our descriptions to one of Katya's eyes. If we are to speak with her, if we are to get information from her, this is the only way."

 

"It is risky," the cloaked man cautioned. "Katya Skyhawk has no great love for Rika Saben. Board this shuttle if you are without fear."

 

Rika boarded immediately.

[ForceFightWMe12]

He had been kneeling beside the sleeping Exile, his eyes on her blissfully peaceful features as her breath came evenly in and out, his mind whirling with the apparent prophecy she had uttered nearly an hour ago when the ship descended. He flexed his left arm, closing the fist as his right hand gripped around the wrist, as if readying himself for whatever will come. He did not stand, but his eyes shone alertly in the light of the docked ship, watching the cloaked figure move down the loading ramp.

 

Listening in silence, he tried to make head or tails of the situation - and found that there was little for him to go off of. This would be risky, as the man had said...apparently, this Katya Skyhawk wasn't on good terms with Rika, making their situation only that much work. Turning to the Exile as Rika immediately proceeded up the ramp, he gently touched her shoulder.

 

"Awaken, Tysyacha," he said softly, giving her a small shake. "We must move."

[Tysyacha]

The Exile immediately became alert, as it seemed her ship's mechanic and rescuer had given her a "small shake" with more than just his hand. Her mind had been touched by the Force as well, and she gave him a grateful smile, though she was confused.

 

"What? Huh? Oh, sorry--must have really dozed off for a moment there." With a nod from the mechanic, she let him guide her aboard the mysterious shuttle that did not seem to be the Ebon Hawk. Apparently, one of Katya Skyhawk's minions had found Tysyacha and her crew sleeping in the lair of the krayt dragon and was now condescending to take the five of them to where his mistress waited. Excellent. Although, the Exile felt more than just a queasy feeling in her stomach this time.

 

"What happened?" asked Tysyacha to the mechanic. "I feel rather strange right now."

 

After debating whether or not to tell his Captain about the possibly Force-driven midnight occurrence in the desert, he gave a knowing nod and told her everything. It did no good to keep too many secrets on such a critical mission to save the galaxy. After he finished explaining, he wished he could narrow the Exile's blue eyes a little.

 

"Let me get this straight," she said slowly. "I had a nightmare, I hit my head on the rock I was using as a pillow, and then I got up and walked out into the desert and said a freaky poem?" A nod from the mechanic. "Oy! Maybe I really am going crazy."

 

"Don't forget about the ashen star," he reminded her. "It seemed dead, like a lost planet or a nova that had changed into a white dwarf or neutron star. Also, you only 'got up and said the freaky poem' under some kind of a hypnotic trance. Trust me--I know you wouldn't do that under normal circumstances. You love your sleep, as do I." The Exile started giggling uncontrollably, and a blush came to the mech's face.