Tempted (Kotor Novelization)

Chapter 2

A dark Jedi swings his glowing crimson lightsaber in the direction of a young woman who I recognize as Bastila. She parries the swing with her own golden weapon, grey eyes focused and determined. She raises her golden lightsaber, its yellow light glowing against her brown hair, and she slashes her weapon down on the dark Jedi's head, but he blocks the strike with his weapon. The young Jedi brings her weapon to the dark Jedi's side, he blocks it easily, but the woman goes for the head again and manages to strike him. He cries out and falls to the ground dead. She looks at me regretfully... sadly but before anything else happens, I am taken by blackness.

I tentatively opened my eyes to find a man hovering over me. I yelped in surprise and tried to back away, but he had my hands pinned above my head. It took me a few moments to register that it was Commander Onasi and he was dressed in civilian clothes instead of that blindingly orange jacket that he had been wearing before. When I looked more closely, I realized he had a pretty nasty bruise on his cheek.

"Look who's finally up," said Commander Onasi with a smile.

"Yeah... uh... you can let go of my hands now, Commander." The Commander let go of my hands and stepped away. I sat up and I suddenly got a huge headache. I put my fingers on my forehead and closed my eyes.

"Call me Carth. Sorry I had to pin your hands down... you were thrashing about in your sleep and you punched me when I tried to wake you up." He rubbed the spot on his face where the bruises were. "You have a strong arm."

"Sorry," I muttered with a slight blush. Carth chuckled.

"It's okay. If you punch like that in your sleep, I don't even want to know what you can do awake," I chuckled and smiled slightly. My smile disappeared as I thought about what happened on the Endar Spire and my mind started to conjure up more questions. At least these ones were easily answered.

"Where are we? How did we get here?" I asked. I figured we were somewhere on Taris, but other than that, I didn't know.

"You don't have to worry; we're safe – for now, at least. We are in an abandoned apartment on the planet of Taris. We landed in the Upper City so, it could be worse. Anyway, you were banged up pretty bad after the crash... luckily, I wasn't seriously hurt. I managed to get you away from the pod before the Sith swarmed over it. That's when I stumbled onto this abandoned apartment."

"I... guess I owe you my life. Thanks," I said. I didn't really like owing people but if it weren't for Carth, then I would have been captured by the Sith and who knows what would've happened to me then. Or I could be dead. Dead's probably worse.

"You don't have to thank me. I've never abandoned anyone on a mission and I'm not about to start now. Besides, I'm going to need your help," he replied.

"My help? Why would you need my help? You don't even know me."

"You're right, I don't know you, but I read your service records and I was quite impressed. I don't know of any raw recruits that know as many alien languages as you. That may come in handy on a foreign planet."

"But... isn't Taris a human dominated planet?" I asked.

"For the most part. But the Lower City is packed with aliens. The humans here are very prejudiced," Carth explained with a slightly bitter tone in his voice.

"That's just great!" I snapped exasperatedly. "The sooner we get out of here the better. Have you found us a ship yet?"

Carth's expression turned serious, well...more serious than it already was. "It's not as simple as that," he began.

"And why wouldn't it be?" I asked slowly.

"I did some scouting around while you were out and found out that Taris is under Sith control; they've declared martial law and imposed a planet-wide quarantine. No ships can land or take off." I frowned and shifted nervously. Carth suddenly put his hand on my shoulder. "But don't worry; I've been in worse spots," Carth added reassuringly. I guess my nervousness showed on my face. I rolled my eyes and scoffed.