And There Was Another✔️

Chapter 12: Silver & Sunshine

The doctor, or maybe whoever had sent the information over, had managed to include a pretty useful map in the datapad, leading him away from the clinic, to a safe place to surface in the Upper City, and then finally to the location of the seller. Several thoughts were drifting through Seth's head as he rode the old maintenance lift up, like starships gliding soundlessly across space, viewed from a window.

Was this legit?

What if someone recognized him as a Republic soldier?

What if something else went wrong?

What if rakghouls had attacked while he was gone?

But Seth was strangely insulated from these concerns by the fact that he was mainly just focusing on two things. One: get to his destination. Two: don't freak out. Changing his clothes and having a shower had helped calm him down, but right now it felt like he was walking on very thin ice, and it could crack at literally any second, plunging him into the icy depths of madness. His actions at the rundown apartment complex had really freaked him out, more so than he had initial realized. And initially he'd thought it was pretty bad.

His hands were shaking, his head was throbbing, his mouth was dry. Oh man...what if he had caught something? Down in the Undercity? How many diseases were out there where psychosis or mood swings were a common symptom? Then again, Seth had never had particularly good control of his emotions, and he'd certainly snapped before...

The lift shuddered to a halt, settling into its metal nest, and released him, its doors parting and disappearing into their niches. Seth took a few seconds to collect himself, but the effort was lost as the doors began closing again and he had to hastily shove himself out of the lift. "Piece of crap thing," he growled, resisting the suddenly almost overwhelming impulse to turn around and punch the closed elevator doors.

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, tried to calm himself.

If he did something stupid up here, it could get him killed a lot easier than the Lower City or the Undercity, because up here, the Sith no doubt reigned supreme. Seth looked around the area he'd come to. It was another back section, tucked away from the general population, but already he could see a massive improvement. The metal here was clean and shiny, there was no garbage anywhere, and he saw sunshine, real sunlight streaming in through a few windows and an opening to the right. Feeling drawn towards it, Seth walked forward.

And came out into a place of wonder.

The opening led to a platform of white metal, and he felt the sunshine on his skin, a cool breeze whispering across his face, moving his hair. Staring around him, Seth felt something he hadn't felt in a long time: true awe. Above him, the sky was a pure, clean blue, and he saw the spires, the towers of Taris reaching skywards, pristine and smooth, silver and pastel. They were beautiful. Ships of varying make and model zipped by overhead. And it even smelled nice up here, crisp and clear, with a faint whiff of something sweet, like fresh doughnuts from a bakery. And the people. There were so many people walking around on the platform ahead of him...

Seth caught sight of a different kind of silver, and the effect was immediately lost.

Sith. There were a good half-dozen Sith troopers, clad in their head-to-toe, high-tech silver armor, touting their blaster rifles of polished metal, swords on their hips. Bastards. He had a pistol tucked down the back of his pants, it was the only one he could bring, and it was the expensive one. He had to fight not to pull it out and start picking off Sith. It would be so easy...at first. But then they'd swarm and murder his ass.

There were always more of the bastards.

Like insects.

Despite the Sith presence, something about the Upper City had a very calming effect on him. Seth collected his thoughts and gently pushed down his emotions, submerging them for now. He could deal with the emotional fallout later...provided there was a later. But now he had to focus. Dozens of people were counting on him with their very lives. He set off, still feeling that kind of ambient wonder as he began moving along a large platform that granted access to a dozen different buildings. A few apartments, what looked like a warehouse, a bakery, a cafe, and access points to other platforms. Taris was so strangely beautiful.