Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Being hit by a car in full cosplay on the way to Comic Con was not the way Vivian Foreman imagined herself dying. 

That was always between dying in bed of old age next to her (future) wife, getting lost while on a hike, or maybe the towers of boxes of shipment from Hot Topic falling on her like a Jenga tower. 

She had been rushing to meet her friends. She had overslept, gotten a later train, and had started going the wrong way because Google Maps sucks. 

She had her white and gold High Republic Jedi robes flowing behind her and her purple hair frizzing in the heat of the summer day. Her lightsaber hilt was bouncing against her leg. She had even done her makeup to put little markings on her face as well. 

She took one step into the street and knew she fucked up. There was the sound of tires screeching, a horn honking, a loud crunching noise, and then a very lightweight feeling in her chest like she was floating. 

And then she was somewhere else entirely. A ship. It looked like it was out of Star Wars. There were lasers being fired outside the ship, they could be seen through the windows. 

There was a woman wielding a double bladed yellow lightsaber clashing with a cloaked figure with a red blade. Why was she thinking about Star Wars in presumably her dying moments? This was such a visceral experience. Vivian felt like she was floating as she watched this duel. The woman with the yellow lightsaber, who she now recognized as Bastila Shan, seemed to be on the backfoot. An explosion rocked the ship, throwing the Sith, who she now realized was Darth Revan, onto the ground, their armor making a loud clattering and knocking them out cold. Bastila looked over the unconscious Sith, seeming to decide what to do. 

And then she woke up to an explosion. Several explosions in fact and she rolled off the bed she was laying in and onto a hard metal floor. The doors hissed open and a man in a red uniform was shouting at her. 

“We’ve been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire is under attack! Hurry up! We don’t have much time!” He shouted. 

“Huh—wha—huh?!?!!” She said. 

“Soldier, we don't have time for this, get dressed and get moving!” He commanded. And Vivian realized she was in underwear and made a squawking noise before throwing some clothes on. It was pretty difficult to do so with the ship being rocked with explosions and the fact that she was alone in a room with a man she didn’t know. She was wearing an off white shirt and brown vest, black pants and thick black boots. There was a sword, a blaster, and a pack. The pack contained some binoculars, grenades and a small pouch of some strange metal strips. 

“Who are you?” She asked. 

“I’m Trask Ulgo, ensign with the Republic Fleet. We’re bunkmates, but we work opposite shifts, which is why we haven’t seen one another. Do you not remember me? I greeted you when we were first on board.” 

“Uh—“ 

“Listen, we’re under attack from the Sith fleet. We’ve got to get to the escape pods. We’re evacuating.” He walked over to the door. “Have your blaster at the ready.” 

Oh fuck. 

She was in Knights of The Old Republic. 

She wished she had beaten the game before this happened. Last she left off, she had just finished the Kashyyk level. 

Would the universe use her real name or her character’s name? Did she have her character’s stats? Or did it not matter now since it was real life as opposed to an RPG?

“My name is…” She started saying, before she could figure out what she was going to say.

“Vivska Fenn. Republic Scout. I’m aware.” He tapped a datapad on his hip. “I know you’ve traveled far and wide in this galaxy of ours, seeing planets I’ve never heard of. I know you aren’t a front line soldier, but you must prove yourself here and now, for The Republic.” He said. 

Ah yes, she wanted to choose a name with her initials. That took a while to find in Fantasy Name Generator. She had to mash a few names together to get her first name and only afterwards did her friends point out her name was a few letters off of Vriska from Homestuck which she never read but knew enough about to cringe. 

“Ready? We have to find Bastila. We have to make sure she makes it off this ship alive.” 

“Alright. Okay. Alright. Okay.” She said. “Let’s do it.” 

Sith troopers were in the corridor, their shiny silver and black armor, in the middle of a firefight with fellow Republic troopers, there were bodies scattered across the floor. 

Trask cocked his blaster and fired shots into the back of the Sith trooper, who cried out. Vivian gritted her teeth and raised her blaster, squeezing the trigger and sending a red bolt into the Sith’s head. In the games she could loot the bodies, but that felt a little less important right now than getting out of here. 

Together they fled through the ship’s corridors encountering Sith troopers and Jedi. 

Killing the Sith troops was unnervingly easy. She didn’t like guns on her planet, but it all felt so easy to wield a blaster. The holes it left in her enemies were much gorier than in the animated series and movies. She often caught glimpses of the ruined flesh and bone in the smoldering holes. 

Vivian found herself shocked that she didn’t get hit at all by any of the Sith troops’ shots. It was like it was a miracle. She was always just missed. Though it was a bit close for comfort. She was mostly following Trask around. 

Then she heard a sound, a voice, coming from some communication device on both their belts. It looked like what C3PO had in A New Hope, but a much older version, and not as compact. 

“This is Carth Onasi – the Sith are threatening to overrun our position! We can't hold out long against their firepower! All hands to the bridge!”

“That was Carth contacting us on our portable communicators. He's one of the Republic's best pilots! He's seen more combat than the rest of the Endar Spire's crew put together. If he says things are bad, you better believe it. We have to get to the bridge to help defend Bastila! There's a map of the Endar Spire in your electronic journal, just in case we get separated.” 

“Okay.” She nodded. 

The next door they went through opened up on a furious battle between a Sith and Jedi. The Sith was wearing a grey and black body suit with a hood covering most of their face except their eyes. The Jedi was a woman with brown hair in standard cream color Jedi robes. Trask held out his hand to hold her back. 

“This fight is above our station, we best stay back.” He said. 

The red and blue blades were blurs that moved faster than her eyes could process. 

“Yeah I can tell.” She said in a small voice. 

The Jedi had made a swift and fatal strike in the Sith’s center mass when an explosion went off, launching the pair of them into the ceiling with sickening cracks. 

Vivian winced and covered her eyes for a few seconds. When she removed them she saw both duelers were now dead, the Sith had been cut nearly in two by the explosion forcing the lightsaber through the rest of their body up through their head, and the Jedi seemed to have broken her neck. 

“She was a Jedi who accompanied Bastila. Damn, we could’ve used her help.” 

“Oh my god.” Vivian said, feeling sick. 

“Come on!” He pulled her toward the bridge. Down the halls, through the fury of battle, and over bodies of friends and foes alike. Trask stopped at a door. 

“The bridge is just beyond that door. You should use your vibroblade since we’ll be in tight quarters.” He said, holstering his blaster pistol. 

“What if there’s more Dark Jedi with lightsabers?” 

“Vibroblades should be strong enough to cross blades with a lightsaber.” He opened the doors and sure enough inside the cramped room there were some Sith, standing over the bodies of their Republic comrades.

When they noticed the living Republic soldiers in front of them, they charged, with their own blades drawn. 

“Fuuuck.” She whispered under her breath.

“For the Republic!” Trask jumped forward, immediately skewering one of the Sith on his blade. Vivian shortly followed, letting him take on the one that seemed higher ranked. She might as well get used to sword fighting. Their blades crashed together and she was forced to stare into her own distorted reflection in the mirrored armor of the Sith. She was pale with fear and her hair was a mess. They both were pressing on the blades in hope someone would give up. The blades separated and both were panting. 

The Sith was quicker to recover, aiming a blow at her throat but she felt something she couldn’t describe and was moving before her brain processed what was happening. She intercepted his strike with her own blade going right through his arm. Blood splattered onto both of them and he screamed in pain, dropping his blade, which she then used his distraction to take it and stab him in the gut, pinned against a nearby computer console. The Sith was screaming as electricity ran up his sword through his wound and into his body. 

It felt oddly good to do that. Like she had been itching to kill someone brutally like that. It also made her feel sick, feeling so good about it. 

“Shit.” Trask said, having finished off his own foe. “Good job.” 

She opened her mouth to say something and immediately vomited. She felt a hand on her back. Trask was patting her gently, in as comforting a manner as he could now. He gave her a few moments to collect herself, which she spent staring at the gently smoking corpse of the soldier she just killed, trying not to go into a full blown panic. His blood was on her face. His blood was on her face and she was there. She killed him. That was someone’s brother or son or father or—

“Are you okay?” He asked gently.

“I’ve never had to get that up close and personal.” She said. Not a lie. 

Trask nodded. 

They were now the only ones on the bridge. 

They walked around the bridge, but it was clear no one but the Sith troopers and ill fated Republic troopers had been there. 

“Seems like Bastila's not on the bridge – they must have retreated to the escape pods. We better head that way too. The Sith want Bastila alive, but once she's off the ship there's nothing stopping them from blasting the Endar Spire into galactic dust.”

She felt cold at his words.

“Alright let’s go.” 

Together they rushed to the escape pods, these hallways were more vacant. They seemed to have left the fighting behind. They were stopped by another door. 

“There’s something behind this door.” 

“Yeah it’s called a room.” She said, trying to make her companion laugh. He did crack a small smile. 

“I mean something dangerous.” He opened the door. Inside stood a Sith. “Damn! There’s another Dark Jedi!” This Sith was in the same garb as the one that faced the Jedi woman, except this one had a double bladed lightsaber. “Listen, you get to the escape pods, find Carth, he’ll take care of you.” 

“Trask I don’t know where to go!” She hated how high her voice went in this moment. The Sith was approaching. 

“It’s alright.” He squeezed her shoulder and for a moment they locked eyes. He was scared, but he knew what he had to do. And then drew his vibroblade. “For the Republic!” The doors shut behind him. 

What the fuck was she supposed to do? She heard the duel happening faintly. Carth was on the opposite end of the ship from her. 

“Come in! Can you hear me?” Carth’s voice crackled on her comms. Vivian fumbled with it before raising it to her mouth.

“Yeah! I can! How do I get to the escape pods?” 

“Where are you?”

“Just left the bridge, it’s like behind me around a corner to the left.”

“Alright, it should be a straight shot if you make another right at the next branching path. Hurry!” 

“I’ll do my best!” She started running, faster than she ever had in her life. Even faster than when she had been in track for that one year in high school. 

-

Vivian stopped by a door that she had to get through, it looked like a common area or something based on her map. 

“Wait a minute!” Carth’s voice said. “There’s a whole squad of Sith Troopers on the other side of the door. You’re going to have to figure out a way to thin their numbers!” 

She pressed her ear to the door and heard the rumble of voices. 

“Does sound like a lot of them. Hmm.” She looked around, and noticed a droid, standing powered down by the door. She remembered it being how she did this part in the video game. She needed one of those repair chips or whatever the hell they were called. 

“Aha!” She found it and opened up the back panel to the droid. It had an empty spot just for this it seemed. It activated and turned towards her, blinking its photoreceptors. “Hello! I’m Vivi—Vivska Fenn. Can you help me?” 

It nodded. 

“Cool. So I need to get through that room, there are a bunch of Sith. And I need backup. So here’s this.” She handed over a blaster she had picked up off a Sith corpse. “You have a shield right?” 

It nodded at her again. 

“Activate them on my mark, and then start blasting until the Sith are all dead.” 

It nodded a third time and then waited for her. 

“Now!” She opened the doors and started firing from behind the droid which marched into the room. The Sith were all very unprepared for this attack. They had probably thought they killed everyone. There was one in red armor. If she remembered correctly this was a commander. One by one they went down, their returning fire was deflected off the shield of the droid. 

She remained behind the droid, supporting it as it slaughtered the Sith squad. The commander wasn’t going down so easily and left the last man standing. Together she and the droid were able to overpower him, leaving him a blaster hole ridden corpse.

“Thank you for your help.” She shook the droid’s hand, which seemed to confuse it. 

“Excellent job! You’re almost at the escape pod bay! Just hurry!” Carth’s voice said through her comms. 

“On my way!” 

-

It still took her a few minutes to get there. She burst into the escape pod bay. Carth Onasi was there, she had startled him and he drew his blaster. He was a tall man in Republic uniform, he had a scruffy beard and dark brown hair that was normally in a neat cut, but the heat of battle had disheveled it. He looked to be at least in his mid 30s. 

“It’s just me!” She squeaked, holding her hands up. 

“Where’s Trask?” 

Her heart sank, thinking about leaving him to his grisly fate against the Sith. She shook her head slowly, fearing if she opened her mouth she’d be sick again. 

The soldier nodded grimly. 

“Listen, we don't have much time now. There’s only one working pod.” Another explosion rocked the ship. Too close for comfort. “Get in the pod!” Carth ordered. 

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” She practically dove into it. 

Carth crouched into the pod and as he got seated he pressed the release button. She felt very light for a moment as they suddenly dropped. It felt like a rollercoaster drop mixed with the take off of an airplane.

And together they fell towards the planet below. 

It was kind of dizzying, watching the Endar Spire and the Sith flagship get smaller and smaller out the window. So she looked away. 

It felt smooth for maybe a few minutes until the pod entered the atmosphere. It started to shake violently as gravity took hold. 

Carth was fiddling with the buttons that as far as she could tell were supposed to be some sort of steering. His cursing and unpleasant beeps didn’t give her any confidence though. And the pod’s shaking grew more violent. 

“You might want to hold onto something! We’re going to crash!” Carth yelled. 

“Oh shit!” She gripped on tight to whatever she could but a particularly bad jostle caused her to slam her head against the wall of the pod with a loud crack and clang. And then everything went dark. 

-

There was the duel again. Bastila and Darth Revan. Red and yellow blades dancing in a flurry of deadly blows. Barely missing the other or barely being blocked. The explosions rocked the ship. Neither dueler is saying anything, they are both focused on surviving. And then they separate by a few feet. A larger explosion rocks the ship, knocking Revan to the ground, and Bastila stands over the fallen Sith, contemplating what to do. 

~

“Mmmf… Fuck...” Vivian groaned, holding her head. A dull pain throbbed in her… everywhere. 

“Good morning to you too.” Carth said. He was sitting by the bed. “You’ve been out for a few days. Nice to see you up instead of thrashing around in your sleep. You must have been having one hell of a nightmare.”

“I wouldn’t call what I do thrashing but I guess you saw it.” She said slowly. “Nightmare?” 

“Yeah. Unless your dreams usually cause you to writhe about like you’re being tortured.” 

“I usually just roll in my sleep…” 

“It wasn’t rolling sweetheart.” 

“Please don’t call me that.” 

“Alright then.” He held out his hand. “I’m Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you on the escape pod, do you remember me?” 

“Yeah… Yeah I know…” She accepted his hand and he pulled her into a sitting position. “‘M Vivi—Vivska Fenn… Where the hell are we?” 

“We’re on Taris. We had a rough crash. I wasn’t as injured and had to drag you out myself. I found an abandoned apartment to hide away in too.” 

“Oh neat… thanks for saving me.” 

“No need to thank me. I’ve never abandoned anyone on a mission, and I’m not going to start now.” He then handed her a plate of food. And never had she felt more ravenous than in this moment. She tore through some fruits and bread and drank a hell of a lot of water. 

Carth watched her in silence until she seemed content. 

“Oh thank you so much. Holy shit.” She muttered, closing her eyes. 

“Well, now that you’re awake and fed. I need your help.” 

“With what?” 

“Taris is under Sith control, martial law and a planet wide quarantine has been imposed.  But I’ve been in worse spots.” 

“Good lord.” She said. “Well I’m glad to have you at least. You’ve got a plan?” 

“Not as glad as I am to have you. You’re pretty skilled yourself, with all those languages you know you’ll come in handy in a place like this.” 

She tried to arrange her face like she knew this information and it wasn’t brand new to her. 

“Well, you have a skilled woman here. Where should we start?”

“Well first we’ll have to find Bastila.” 

“I hope you have more than that.” 

He gave her a look that was one she recognized as older sibling annoyance. 

“Of course, I did some scouting around. There are reports of a couple of escape pods crashing down in the Undercity. That’s probably a good place to start. Though we should be careful and prepare, it’s quite dangerous down there. We won’t be able to help Bastila if we get ourselves killed.” He looked confident as he spoke. 

“Okay. Let’s go then.” She said.

As soon as they stepped outside there was trouble, but Vivian recognized that it at least wasn’t their fault. Probably. A Sith officer and two droids were rounding up a bunch of aliens. 

“Jesus Christ can we not get a break?” She muttered. 

“Okay you alien scum, everyone get up against the wall! This is a raid!” A Sith officer said.

“There was a patrol here yesterday, and they found nothing! Why do you Sith keep bothering us?” A Duros said. 

Before she could even suggest doing something to Carth, they gunned down the Duros. Vivian gritted her teeth and reached for her blaster. She saw Carth reaching for his blaster pistols too. 

“That’s how we Sith deal with smart mouth aliens! Now the rest of you—!” His eyes fell upon the pair of Republic soldiers. “Hey! What’s this? Humans hiding among aliens? They’re Republic fugitives!” 

She felt something in that moment, like a chill going through her body. A low rumble in her soul that ignited her anger. 

She drew the blaster and fired a shot that went right through his face under his eye. He collapsed, dead. 

“Nice shot!” Carth drew his blasters pistols and fired at the two droids quickly before either could even let off a shot at him. 

The Duros around looked shocked, but happy that they had not had to fight alone.

“Thank you!” They said, and looked down at their friend. “Poor Ixgil. He should have never talked back to the Sith. Thankfully you were here to help us. This isn’t the first time Sith have come in here and caused trouble for us, but hopefully it will be the last.” 

“I’m happy I could help.” Vivian said. “Sorry I couldn’t save your friend.” 

“Don't worry about the bodies. I will move them so it looks like they were killed elsewhere. That should throw the Sith off the track. With any luck, they won't be bothering us again for a while.”

“Thank you.” She inclined her head and they made their way out of the apartment complex. 

Chapter Text

In the game she could look inside other apartments and look for loot, but since this was real, she wouldn’t be able to. Or rather she wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that. She still had yet to loot a dead body aside from taking a few blasters that had fallen out of some Sith troopers’ hands. She’d need to do something otherwise they’d be out of money soon. 

The outside of the apartment complex was a huge platform where many humans, aliens, and Sith troopers were wandering around. 

“Should we worry about these guys recognizing us?” 

“I think we’re in the clear. The one guy didn’t raise any alarm and we quieted him.” Carth said. “They didn’t bother me the past few days.” 

“Okay. We should probably stock up on gear.” She said. “But for that we need money.”

“I’ve spent most of my credits on just getting food.”

“Hmm. Do we have anything we can sell?” 

“I don’t have much. And I’d rather keep everything we have.” 

“Nor do I. Don’t think they’d like the clothes off our backs. But maybe a few Sith blasters will help? Stole a few, well, like 3 while going through the Endar Spire.” She went through her bag. “Ah. I’ve only got two pistols. I think I gave a rifle to the droid.” Vivian looked at her current pistol and one of the Sith ones side by side. “Might sell my old pistol, it’s kinda shot to hell.” 

Carth had just been watching her as she rambled. 

“We do have to find a place first.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard, place like this. Surely there’s something we can get.” 

Any other conversation was cut off by a commotion nearby. Two big goons were ganging up on a frightened looking old man. One was a human and the other an alien, an  Aqualish if she remembered correctly. The human had a wicked looking knife in his hand, while his compatriot laughed. 

“Davik said you missed your last payment.” The human man said. 

“Davik doesn’t like you missing payments!” The Aqualish agreed.

“Please! I don’t have the money right now! I’ll be able to pay soon! I have 50 credits!” An old man was saying. “A down payment! That should buy me time, right?” 

“Sorry, you’re out of time. Now it’s all or nothing. Davik can’t have people not paying their debts!” 

“But I don’t have that much! How can I give you credits I don’t have?” 

“That’s too bad. Davik’s going to make an example of you. You’re coming with us!” 

“No! Please! Someone! Help me! They’re going to kill me! HELP!” No one was close or paying attention beside her and Carth. 

“I know we should be careful of drawing attention to ourselves but we can’t just let them drag this man away.” He whispered. 

“Wasn’t planning on letting them take him. A little intervention couldn’t hurt.”  She whispered back. 

Together they walked over to the two bounty hunters.

“Hey fellas what seems to be the problem?” Vivian asked loudly. “Harassing an old man over some bullshit?” 

“Davik doesn’t like witnesses.” The human grunted, now turning to wave his knife at them. 

“What a shame, isn’t that right?” She looked to her companion. 

“Yeah. Now how about you two leave him alone now, before things get messy.” He put a hand near his blaster. 

This enraged the bounty hunters. Both soldiers were prepared for this encounter. 

“I’ll show you messy!” He lunged at Carth with the knife, the pilot shoved his knife arm to the side and punched him in the face. 

Vivian drew her blaster and fired a few rounds at the alien bounty hunter, who clearly wasn’t ready for a competent fight and barely fumbled for his blaster. They hit him in the chest and he stumbled back, dropping his blaster, and falling off the side of the platform. She then turned to see Carth unload a few shots into the human on the ground. 

“Oh thank you both!” The old man said. “I owe you my life! Those bounty hunters were going to take me away and kill me! My wife warned me not to take a loan from Davik.” He looked at the body of the human. “Now I can't pay him back. It's not good to owe a crime lord money. He'll just keep sending more bounty hunters after me until I'm dead!”

“It’s alright, maybe I can help you.” She rummaged through her bag for the pouch of credits. “Ah. Here we are.” She doled out some of the credits (which if she was counting right, she barely had over 100) and handed them over. “And that with what you have now should cover it.” 

“You’re giving me 100 credits? Just like that?” Tears welled up in his eyes. “I don’t know what to say! Thank you! Thank you!” He hugged her and she awkwardly patted him on the back. 

“You’re giving him 100 credits? That’s generous.” Carth commented. 

“Now I can pay off Davik! You’ve saved my life! Thank you!” He rushed off. 

“We do still need money.” Carth said. 

“We’ll think of something. We have at least two braincells to rub together between the pair of us.” And then she searched the bounty hunter’s body and found a not great amount of credits, but at least she had some to recuperate some of her losses. 

“That’s not a phrase I’ve heard before.” He said curiously. 

Fuck. If she wasn’t careful she would be introducing her meme culture to the Star Wars universe. 

Though… it would be funny to imagine a timeline where Leia Organa says to Luke and Han “do I have to have the braincell around here?” before taking Han’s gun and blasting open the trash chute. 

“I’ve got a lot of odd phrases rattling around in my skull. Better get used to them.” She looked through the bounty hunter’s belongings again. 

“What now?” 

“Maybe he has some stuff we could sell.” There were small round balls that she recognized as detonators, these were the standard ones, frag grenades. She was aware of the different types. These would probably come more in handy if she kept them as opposed to selling them. “This knife could be worth something?” He was giving her a look. “Listen, I’m not thrilled with stealing things off dead men—“ 

“Which you have already done multiple times.”

“—Which I have already done multiple times— but it’s all we have right now. Unless you want to try and get a job?” She looked up at him with half a smile. He rolled his eyes but was also definitely smiling. 

Vivian stood up putting the two frag grenades in her bag and sliding the knife into her belt. 

“Should we do something about the body?” 

Carth looked from the body to the edge of the platform. 

“Alright. You want to take the legs I’ll get the arms and we chuck him off? Let him join his friend?”

“Sounds good.” They did the deed as quickly as possible and Vivian picked up the dropped blaster pistol. 

They then continued their walk around the platform. 

“So tell me more about yourself. Since we have basically nothing to do other than try and scrounge up money before saving Bastila.” 

“Me?” He looked surprised to be asked that question. When Vivian nodded, he rubbed his chin, as though considering where to start. “Well, I've been a star-pilot for the Republic for years. I've seen more than my share of wars... I fought in the Mandalorian Wars before all this started. But with all that, I've never experienced anything like the slaughter these Sith animals can unleash.” Carth gritted his teeth. “Not even the Mandalorians were that senseless. My home world was one of the first planets to fall to Malak's fleet. The Sith bombed it into submission, and there wasn't a damn thing our Republic forces could do to stop them!” 

Vivian looked around to see if his outburst had caused any attention before turning back to him.

“I’m so sorry Carth. It’s not your fault you know?” She said, reaching out a hand to place on his shoulder. He shrugged it away. 

“I'm just a soldier; I go where the fleet Admirals tell me to. I follow my orders and I do my duty. It just...” He sighed, “doesn't seem right that doing that means I failed them! I didn't!”

“I’m sorry.” She repeated. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I know. Don't worry about it. I just... must not be making much sense.” He looked back at her. “You probably mean well with your questions. I'm just not accustomed to talking about my past very much. At all, actually. I'm more used to taking action... keeping my mind focused on the business at hand. So let's just do that. If you have more questions, ask them later.” 

-

“That seems to be the entrance to the undercity.” She said, looking at the elevator, an armed Sith trooper standing in front of it. “Doubt they’ll let us pass. But I’m gonna try something.” 

“Wait—“ Carth started, but she was already moving. 

Hello officer, me and my buddy seem to have lost our mutual friend, we think she went down here by accident and is now passed out drunk. Can you please let us pass so we can find her?

Vivian repeated it under her breath a few times before speaking up to the mirrored armor of the Sith trooper.

“Excuse me, officer, I just wanted to get down to the undercity. My friend and I seem—“ The lie she had come up with didn’t even get to leave her lips. 

“No one is permitted down below.” He said snappily. “Only Sith. Move along.” 

She felt annoyed. She didn’t have anything else up her sleeve so she turned away, back to Carth. 

“That didn’t go well.” 

“Yeah. I saw.”

“We’ll figure another way down.” 

-

As they made their way around trying to discern other avenues down that didn’t involve a jump and splat off the platform, she noticed an Ithorian being harassed by two kids. His eyes focused on her as she drew near.

“Please human — I am injured and in need of assistance. These children keep hitting and kicking me. I cannot reason with them, but if I fight back I’ll be arrested!” Vivian nodded in understanding and turned to the kids, adopting her hardest authority voice. 

“Hey! What the fuck is wrong with you two? Get the hell out of here and stop bothering him before I kick your asses!” 

“Ahh! Run for it!” The boy said, and the two scrambled away almost in a comic fashion.

“Thank you human. I was returning from a visit with a work associate when these human children attacked me and chased me through the streets.” 

“Of course. Now hold on a moment I have a medpac I can give you. You look hurt.” Vivian looked through her bag and found what she was looking for. She gently applied it to the Ithorian and he started looking better immediately. 

“You are too kind human. I thank you for your generosity. Most of your kind here on Taris care little for aliens like myself.”

“I care for everyone, got a big ol’ bleeding heart. Take care sir.” 

“Once more, I must thank you for saving me from those human children. I must take leave of you now. my life mate will be wondering where I am.” He walked away. 

Carth was staring at her. 

“Yes?” She said. 

“Do you always jump in with zero hesitation to help a stranger?”

“Yeah.” 

-

“Ah! Finally! The store!” She said, walking in confidently. 

“Welcome to the Equipment Emporium, I haven’t seen you two around before… allow me to introduce myself. I am Kelba Yurt. You looking to buy some supplies? My shop's the largest one in all of Upper Taris. Best selection on the planet. Whatever you need, I've got. Well, mostly.” A young woman with dark skin asked. 

“What do you mean mostly?” Carth asked. 

“Well, the Sith have confiscated all my heavy weapons and impounded my ships and swoop bikes. But I’ve still got a nice selection, if you’re interested.” 

“Hmm I’d like to sell some things first.” Vivian said. 

“I can do that. What do you have?” 

Vivian handed over the bounty hunters’ knife and blaster pistols, and then the two Sith blaster pistols. 

Kelba examined them. 

“All good and intact, I can give you 100 credits for all of this.” 

“Oh hell yeah.” She held out her hand and was handed the small pile of credits. “By the way, do you know of ways I can make money?”

“Well, there’s the dueling ring, bounty hunting, and Pazaak. I’m sure if you asked around you could find a job too.” Kelba said. “The medical facility, Droids by Janice. I’m sure they wouldn’t say no to some help.” 

“Hmm. Thank you.” She wasn’t really looking for a normal wage. Plus she couldn’t just wander in and be like “hey can I have a job?” right? Though maybe Star Wars in this era worked like the Wild West where people just were like “I’m a doctor” and no one said anything. 

“The cantina sounds like a good place.” She said. 

-

Vivian had never been to a bar while on Earth. It wasn’t really her thing. She knew there were ways to earn money here, in this cantina. You could be a dueler, or be a bounty hunter, or play Pazaak. She never understood the card game and didn’t want to be a bounty hunter or dueler, but considering she didn’t have a phone to distract her, she ought to do something. And Pazaak seemed like the best way to earn money that wouldn’t get her hurt. Unless she made her opponent really pissed off at her. 

There was a Sith officer she recognized from the game making eyes at her from the moment she walked into the Cantina. He wore a dark grey and red outfit and his hair was short, there were some others in similar uniforms. The women either also had short hair or tight buns. Carth seemed to notice her discomfort.

“Want me to handle him?” He asked quietly. 

“No, no, I’m good, I can handle it.” Vivian said. “I’ll gesture you over if I need you. Side note how good are you at playing pretend boyfriend?” 

Maybe that was the wrong thing to say. She remembered he had a dead wife and kid from playing the game. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking under that hard stare. But it did seen he was considering it. 

“It’s not real. I like women. I just want to make sure you can do the play for like a minute.” Vivian said very quickly. 

“I can do it.” He said finally. She gave him a thumbs up and then went to the guy.

“Hey.” She said putting on as casual and non flirty a tone as possible, and the guy seemed flustered immediately. 

“Sorry for staring. I just never seen you before. They don’t give us Sith officers from the base much time off.”

“You’re from the Sith base?” She said, trying to act casually curious. “You don’t look like a Sith.” 

“I'm off duty right now, so I'm not in uniform. My name is Yun, junior officer first class with the Sith occupation force.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” she lied through her teeth, much like how she would talk to cops. Why couldn't the girl officer have tried talking to her? “I’m Vivska.”

“I'm actually a little surprised you're talking to me at all... most of the people here on Taris can't stand us Sith. It can make this job pretty lonely.”

She really hoped her smile wasn’t murder-y or showed her disgust with both him and what she was about to say. 

“Well, you’re just doing your job, right? Can’t hold that against you. God knows I’ve had to do things I don’t like on my jobs.” Including this. 

“That's true, but people don't appreciate what we've done for them. We could have slapped a curfew on this whole planet, but we didn't.” Yun said. “You know, it's like everyone on this backwater planet is in a permanent bad mood. Don't they know we have to make the best of things?” He gestured with his drink. 

“You’ve got a pretty good attitude about this.”

“Exactly! It's all about attitude. I didn't ask to be assigned to this backwater planet, but I try to make the best of it. It's pretty easy to get depressed on an assignment like this, but we do what we can to keep our spirits up.”

“I’ve had jobs like that before. Feel you there, brother.” She needed to scream into a pillow. Calling a willing Sith officer brother made her feel sickened with herself. She imagined punching him in the face a few times to alleviate that. 

“That's true. It's nice to meet someone who understands what I'm going through. It's good to talk about this stuff – It gets pretty lonely up at the military base.” He checked a something on his wrist, which may have been a Star Wars equivalent of a watch, she wasn’t sure if they had those. “I have to get going soon – I've got a shift at the military base. But some of us junior Sith officers are having a party tonight to blow off some steam. I'd really like to see you again. Why don't you drop by the party? It's in North Apartments Block, the door will be open until it starts."

“Sounds good to me. I’ll try and be by.” 

“Don't be late. We're starting right after our shifts end. Most of us won't even be going back to the base to lock up our uniforms. I look forward to seeing you there.”

She made her way back to Carth. 

“Well?”

“Well, I have an invitation to a party with a bunch of Sith guards.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I can probably steal a uniform from them.” 

“During a party? Where you’ll have eyes on you the whole time?” 

“I think they’ll be busy getting drunk or high or both. Either way, I don’t see how they can stop me.” His expression suggested he did have several thoughts of how she could be stopped. "I'll be right back." Vivian said, before he could poke holes in her plan. made her way over to the front of the cantina, where the man had offered her Pazaak lessons was. “Excuse me, sir, I think I’d like to take you up on the Pazaak lessons.”