Chapter one: What's your name again?

Two months have passed and I still haven’t found the ancient Jedi texts. Planet after planet, ruins after ruins and I still haven’t been able to sort through my feelings as well. I sigh heavily, my head beginning to throb mercilessly, groaning in pain. This is the second headache today... I hold my head in my hands, turning it a little to the noise of a message coming through. I go to press the comm button to listen to it when suddenly I feel a jolt of my ship coming out of hyperspace. I tilt my head up and a vast, big, blue nebula is coming up; and fast.

“Kriff,” I exclaim under my breath, taking the controls into my hands to steer away, but it’s too late. I reach over to quickly put on my reverse thrusters but a bolt of electricity jumps through the panel and into my hand. I feel myself spasm and stiffen from the sudden exposure and everything goes dark.

My thoughts are jumbled.

“Mikacele!” I hear Aydgage’s voice echo through my head.

“How did you end up out here darling?” an unfamiliar voice rings through my head.

I move my head side to side, finally my senses come through and I can see again, though it still feels foggy. I sit up, my head aching along with my left arm. I groan, trying to see my surroundings. I turn my head to the right and a man is standing at a computer terminal, tapping at the panel next to the screen. I turn my head again to view the room. I’m in a... med bay? Did I go unconscious? Did someone find me?

“Morning darling.” The man finally says. I look in the direction of the man again and he is turned to face me now. His skin is blue, almost black. A midnight sky color, and his eyes are a crimson red. His hair is black and short, with some wisps touching his forehead. He wears a black leather jacket with strange patches and stitching’s in green and white. The jacket isn’t zipped up, revealing an off-white shirt. His pants are brown and seem to be made of thick fabric. A gun holster goes down his right leg and has a blaster pistol resting inside.

“You’re a...Chiss?” I finally say, slightly shocked that a Chiss would be out of a military uniform, and helping someone out here.

“And you’re a Miraluka. Very observant.” He says in a teasing tone. He walks over to me, smirking and holding out his hand to me. “The names’ Darryl Trileav.” He waits for me to take his hand to shake. I slowly reach my right hand to shake his and let go after one shake, but not before I feel a jolt of...something jump between us. “You must be a Jedi. I saw your ship in that nebula but my scans didn’t show any lifeforms on board. So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw you in the cockpit. There was barely any oxygen on the ship and yet...I came over to you and you were just barely alive.” my head is still scrambled. I try to shake it, but it makes my headache worse.

“I...my navicomputer...it must have not known...about that nebula...being in this system?” I finally put together.

“Makes sense.” the man shrugs his shoulders, “that nebula is known as the traveling ship wrecker. It moves around and has intense energies running through it. Very dangerous to pilots with ships that have low to no shielding.” He walks over to a container that has a medical sign on it and opens it, pulling out a small bag and small water container. He comes back over to me and hands me the items. “Here, take these medicine tablets. They should help with the pain. Your arm was pretty badly messed up. Almost burned to a crisp. I managed to heal most of it but as far as the damage to your nerves...” He looks at me with concern and an alert rings’ out from the computer terminal and walks over to it. “We may need to see a proper doctor for that. Have you bathe in a kolto tank, and maybe that might work but I wouldn’t bet on it.” I might be able to heal it myself using the force but I haven’t used that technique for serious wounds like this. My head pings with intense pain then. And this headache doesn’t help. Maybe another time. I will just keep it at bay with other methods.

“Thank you. I appreciate you saving me.” I tilt my head to look at what he is doing but the fog hasn’t lifted. I take the medicine tablets and hope that it eases my headache with the plan that the fog will lift. I try to remember his name but it jumbles out of my head and I just sigh. “What was your name again? I apologize, my head isn’t in the best place right now.” He just chuckles at me.

“Darryl Trileav.” He turns around and smiles at me.

“Darryl Trileav...” I try out his name, “that’s...not a normal...Chiss name, is it?” I say with curiosity. I slide to the edge of the bed I am on, trying to get off. He comes over to offer help but I put my hand up, knowing that I need to do this myself.

“Yes, well my family name isn’t really supposed to be spoken to others and only by family and plus it is kind of difficult to say.” He says, watching me shakily stand up.

“My name is Mikacele Brelow.”I finally say, holding steady on my feet after a bit.

“Miraluka names are always so odd. Mika...celia?” He tries to say my name, messing up. I turn to look at him.

“No, Mikacele. And we do not have odd names, Chiss do. Always so long and broken sounding.” I retort back.

“Yeah, well at least the name I told you doesn’t sound like some made-up language.” He teases. “I’m gonna come up with a nickname for you.” I look at him with uncertainty.

“I... don’t really like nicknames.” I give a more serious look. “Especially ‘Mika’ or ‘Sweetie’ or ‘Darling’.” I say the last bit with venom but softness to not sound too rude. He puts his hands up in surrender.

“Alright, alright. I get the message.” He’s still smiling. “I’ll come up with something better then. I always come up with a nickname for anyone I meet.” He puts his hands down and heads for the door. He motions with his hand for me to follow and I follow slowly. The fog feels as if it slowly lifting as I walk with him to a hatch with a window. “I brought you ship along, in case you wanted to leave as soon we get it fixed. It got rather...mangled in that nebula.” I can tell through the window that ‘mangled’ might be a bit of an understatement. It looks like it crashed landed on the dirtiest planet and then thrown into some ashes of a volcano. “I’m headed to Nar Shaddaa right now. I need to get some supplies myself and figured you’d want to fix your ship.”

“That is...awfully nice of you.” I have caution under line my voice. “Why are you so willing to help me though? Why are so you far away from your home planet and not in a military unit?” He shrugs his shoulders, then runs his hand through his hair.

“I wanted to... explore my options before I officially decided I wanted to be in the military. My parents were...kind of forcing the issue and I didn’t feel that it was fair.” He says it with uncertainty but I'm not going to press for more. He doesn’t fully trust me and I don’t blame him. I don’t trust him either. “And as to why I am helping you... well that’s just who I have become over the years of doing this job, plus your ship is a twin-tails. Super rare to find out here and I wasn’t about to let one slip through my fingers.” He smiles mischievously, “although I can’t sell it now seeing as you are, well alive.” He starts to walk again and I follow.

“Gee, thanks.” I mumble under my breath. It’s times like these where I wish I did in fact have eyes, if only to roll them at people and they can see it happen.

“Where were you headed for anyways? Aren’t you Jedi in like some war or something?” He looks at me with quizzical look. I look at him, my lips parting a little in disbelief.

“War? The Jedi went into war?” Master Dauula hadn’t sent a message to me saying they finally went to war...wait. “My computer, did you download it at all?”

“Not yet. I was a little bit preoccupied.” He looks at me with a comical look on his face. I look at him with a seriousness and he goes back to a normal face. “But of course, we can go and download it. Come on, follow me.” He starts walking towards what looks like the cockpit. The window goes as far back as the cabin starts and has the blue swirling in front of it, indicating that we are in hyperspace. He goes over to the comm station behind the co-pilot chair.

“Whoa...” I mumble under breath. He turns around and just smiles.

“Here, this should be able to connect to your computer on your ship.” I sit down in the chair and start tapping on the screen to get into my computer. “So, I’m guessing you probably haven’t heard about the bounty on Jedi either, huh?” He crosses his arms in front of his chest. I look at him and hear him think that someone will recognize me and take that bounty on my head. I just shake my head in disbelief.

“Wow... Revan is being... fanatic now...” I tilt my head to the side a little. “Do you plan on collecting then?” I deadpan, keeping my guard up, ready to go on the offensive if needed. He now looks unamused.

“No, I'm not a bounty hunter. I don’t take credits on beings. Only rare artefacts, and ships.” He puts a hand over his heart. “Ouch, I’m hurt that you would think so lowly of someone who took care of you for three days.” He pretends to be hurt. Three days? How long was I out there for before he even found me?

“When you found me... how long had I been out there for?” I ask, ignoring his mocked pain.

“About two weeks, give or take a few days.” Two weeks? A surge of emotions flow through me. How am I not dead? Subconscious breath control? Maybe... I will have to meditate, and soon. Somehow, I am alive and I know it has to do with the force... Darryl waves his hand in at me. “Hey, you okay? You spaced out there.” I shake my head.

“Uh... yeah... Just a bit... shocked is all.” I finally say, trying to smile but I'm still shaken at that thought. I look back at him, thinking about what he had thought earlier. “You still want to help me? Even if a bounty hunter recognizes me?” I say his thought out loud.

“Hmm, no no. I know Jedi can read minds but no reading mine.” He looks at me comically again with a hint of seductive tone underlining his words. “Wouldn’t want you hearing my rather...interesting thoughts.” He raises an eye brow and I just let out a sigh.

“I didn’t even try to read your thoughts. It practically jumped out.” He’s about to retort back something to me but is interrupted by the navicomputer chirping at him. He gives me a sly look.

“This isn’t over.” He walks over to the navicomputer that is across from the comm station and starts tapping on it. I look over at the comm computer and see that my ships computer has been downloaded and I start looking at the messages. I’ve missed...several...I must have been in an ion radiation rich area of space for quite some time to not have received these... I start the first one, turning down the volume so Darryl doesn’t have to hear the messages. An image of Master Dauula comes up in static blue. He is in his classic pose, with his back straight and hands clasps behind his back. It makes me smile a little.

“My fellow Jedi, I regret the following news I have to give. Revan has announced a war on all Jedi who don’t follow this new empire he is making. He is calling it ‘The Sith Empire’. The council has informed me to instruct anyone who might be away to recall back to their home temples and to await further instructions. This decision is final. May the force watch over you.” He bows and the image disappears. I sit back a little in the chair, a little a taken back. I shake my head and start the next one. No image pops up this time, it is just audio.

“Mikacele, little one. I don’t have much time to talk. I wanted to warn you, stay away. I know I sent a message out to every Jedi to recall back but you must stay away. Stay on your path. I believe in you. Master Reneji has fallen...” his voice has sadness hidden underneath, “He has fallen at the hands of Revan’s newly found cult within the Sith Empire, the Revanites. Aydgage being the first of this new found order and the one to deal the killing the blow. I worry he might try to contact you, and confuse you with false assurances that Revan has promised the dark side can give. Be wary, little one. May th-”, Master Dauula sounded hasty towards the end, the message getting cut off. I look at the clip again and see that there was no problem on my end. My lips twitch a little. Aydgage? Falling in line with Revan? I sigh, and start the next one. A blue image of Aydgage pops up, he wears his hood back and looks to be in darker robes. I can’t tell if anything else has changed from the image though, being that it is blueish color.

“Mikacele,” I see him smile but it looks almost...sinister, “I’ve missed you. When are you coming back? I have so much to tell you. Revan...he’s shown me so much. I never thought I could ever feel this...” he spreads his arms out, curling his hands into fists and then letting them drop, “This powerful. Please come back. Revan will show you just how much the Jedi code, “he says with venom, “is wrong.” The holo message ends. I lean back in the chair again, putting my hand to my forehead and rubbing my temples... That’s when I remember Darryl has been standing nearby. I tilt my head back up and look over at him.

“I’m sorry. I thought I turned the volume low enough for me to hear...”

“Um... do you want me give you some privacy?” he asks slowly.

“Actually... I think I am done listening... for now. I don’t know if I want to hear the last one. I don’t think it’ll bring any good news.” I say, trying to avoid the message I got just before my ship got fried.

“Alright... if you say so...” he says with curiosity but seems to shake it off, “We’re about to come up to Nar Shaddaa... Before we get there, you should know that not only will you get wary eyes, but I might as well. I haven’t exactly built a good rep there. ‘Why go there’ you may ask? Because it is one of the cheapest places to get parts at and I’m hoping we can blend in enough to not get recognize by anyone.” I give him a skeptical look.

“Recognized by whom?” He gives me sheepish look as he gets into the pilot chair and nudges his head to the co-pilot, wanting me to sit there. I get up from the comm chair and head over to the co-pilot chair.

“I’m um...not really gonna go into detail about it right now, but just know that sometimes when you try to do a good deed for a bad person it ends up somehow bad to them anyway.” He pulls a lever and we come out of hyperspace, pulling up to the planet Nar Shaddaa, the Smugglers Moon. I’ve only heard stories of this place, actually seeing it instead of pictures is... a little breath taking. The lights of the city shine so brightly that maybe there are patterns to the maddness down there. I help Darryl fly into the atmosphere and a small patrol ship flies up next to us, the comm rings at us.

“Welcoming party? I thought Nar Shaddaa didn’t have that, hence the name 'the smugglers moon'?” I say, not really looking at Darryl this time. He lets out an annoyed sigh and clicks the comm button in; a man’s voice comes through.

“Ship with designation ‘Dauntless’, you are trespassing in a controlled sector owned by Rosco Dearling. Provide proper clearance codes or you will be forcibly removed.” the mans’ voice is monotoned and almost bored sounding. I hear Darryl click some buttons and presses the comm button to talk.

“Codes have been sent, sir. And can you tell Rosco that he doesn’t need to send his goons every time I come within a centimeter of his stupid sectors?” He lets go of the button and mumbles something under his breath that I barely catch, “stupid, good for nothing, idiot.” it takes a bit but finally the patrol men comms back.

“Your codes have been cleared. Please land on pad 826.” It would seem that the patrol men disregards Darryls’ other request and flies off, leaving us to start the landing sequences. I can sense that he is a little bothered by it but doesn’t let it show on his face, instead all I see is anger and the anger hits me as well.

“I’m gonna kill him this time. Every time, I swear he does this to annoy me. Just because I helped and he didn’t think he -” He lets out a huff and then composes himself again, the anger leaving his body and only calm and poise comes through. “It’s in the past. He is letting me land now. I can’t stoop to his level.” I turn my head to finally look at him.

“Do you often talk to yourself?” I smile a little, but try to hide it from him. He stiffens, as if he had forgotten that I was there. He lets out an embarrassed chortle.

“Uh... Oh, hit that button over there. It’s the clamps for the docking pad.” he points to the glowing button next to my hand and I click it in, leaving the question be, for now. Not like I have any room to question anyway. He gets up after the ship lands and heads over to a ladder that leads to the exit ramp. I follow after him. He stops short of the ladder and turns around to look at me. “We are going to need to cover you up.” I frown a little.

“What do you mean?” I tilt my head to the side a little. He only smirks.

“Jedi tend to have very distinctive clothing, along with their robes. Although, your robes are gone now. They kind of got... burnt up, along with some of your tunic.” I nod my head slowly, finally understanding what he means. I know all too well what he means now.

“Do you have any spare clothing for me to borrow then?” He slides down the ladder and I follow after him. Perhaps after we get parts for my ship, I can go to a clothing vendor and get new clothing for myself.

“Well, I do have some that...might fit you? You are much smaller than me.” he gestures to his rather muscular, tall body and I purse my lips together.

“Yeah, yeah okay. I get it.” I say. He raises an eye brow and smiles, turning to a locker near the ladder and opens it. It’s not very big but has some items like a leather, wide bream hat, a couple of ponchos' and a few other items I can’t distinguish. He throws me one and I look at it. It looks beat up and gray, or at least now it is gray now. I put it on and it covers most of my upper body, with the tip just barely reaching mid-thigh. Just enough to cover my lightsaber. I look back at him and he is putting on the hat and closing the locker. We walk towards the ramp and it opens up for us.

As we walk out, I see him pull out a remote of some type and he presses a button it to close up the ship. We continue to walk and then I sense them, a couple of men beyond the corner that we need to turn to get into the district. Three with guns and one with a vibro sword. Another walking past them and rounds the corner. He looks human but has spots going down either side of his head, near his ears, and has slicked back black hair, his skin is an olive color. He wears a sporting outfit with a long synthetic fabric jacket, and a gun to complete the look of a classic crime lord.

“Darryl Trileav.” The man spreads out his arms and smiles big. “So glad you could come back”. I feel the anger wash over Darryl again, but it leaves as soon as it came and he is...calculating. I hear multiple plans go through his head before he lands one but I can’t hear it though. He smirks, crossing his arms across his chest. Rosco falters a little but seems to be unmoving.

“Rosco Dearling. How are things? Still having problems with the hutt cartel?” Darryl tilts his head to the side. Anger now wells up in Rosco, and he puts his arms down to his side. The anger doesn’t go away.

“I would have been perfectly fine if you had minded your own damn business. I would be in control of five other sectors instead of the two in this one and the one near the refugee sector.” Rosco hisses, and he waves his hand. “But no matter. You’re here now and all is forgiven. For now.” He looks at me then, putting his hands behind his back, anger still spiking within him but now a curiosity takes over. “And who is this fine specimen?” He starts walking towards us and circles me. I feel greed now take over his emotional state, and... lust. I shiver slightly, trying not to show it though. A sickening feeling crawls over my skin but I keep my mind on other things, trying not to hear his thoughts. He looks closer at my face. “A miraluka huh? A Jedi, perhaps?” He looks over at Darryl and I feel nervousness take over Darryl a little. “how did you manage to capture a Jedi huh?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Sell her off to pay off your debt to me? You’re lucky you even gained any sectors. That hutt had you over a gundark pit and you are fool if you think that hutt would let you control all of his sectors while he was ‘away’. As for the girl, no. She is not a Jedi nor a miraluka. She wears the cloth to hide her scars as she had her eyes cut out at a young age.” He takes my left arm gently and tugs on me. His plan flows into my thoughts and I understand what he wants me to do. I feign a slight trip and give a small gasp to improve his plan. Rosco actually buys it, I can see the pity on his face and he opens his mouth to say something but Darryl interrupts him. “Was there a point to this special visit you so... gracefully have paid me?” He says it with such finesse. As if he knew this would happen. Almost as if he knew everything would happen like this. Who is this man?

Rosco doesn’t seem to be pleased by being interrupted. He turns around, starting back towards where he came from, I can see his men pass him to follow behind him.

“Don’t think you have won Darryl. I’m just one of many who hold a grudge against you.” and with that, he disappears behind the corner with his men. I turn my head to face Darryl and he stares at where Rosco disappeared from and then finally looks back at me.

“Sorry about that. I did mention that I had a... bad rep here. Though, I wasn’t really expecting him to show up at all. I don’t know why; this is his sector.” His arm is still linked with mine. I feel the jolt again but only slightly as pain shoots down my arm and I pull it away slowly, to cradle it against my chest. “Oh, right.” He puts a hand behind his head seeming embarrassed, “Sorry about that too.” He’s about to comfort me but thinks twice about it, shaking his head.

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” I let my breath out slowly and let go of my arm, the pain subsiding to just a dull sting. Then I turn to face him again, “I uh... I thought you didn’t want me to read your thoughts?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking him. He looks almost complacent.

“Ah... Yes, well, you did say it was like I was thinking out loud so I took a calculated chance and it looks like it paid off.” He smirks now, “Nice touch with the gasp by the way. I didn’t plan for that. You surprised me.” He starts walking towards where Rosco came from and I follow behind him.

“I thought it would help with the uh... story you came up with. I could feel that he... wanted me... in more ways than just selling me.” I shiver uncontrollably this time. I can tell he tenses a little but keeps walking.

“Yes... I figured that would happen. Rosco is known in this sector to be a bit... greedy with women. Any type of women, and if he likes them, he will keep them but if someone will pay for them, he sells them. He’s not the kindest man here, but certainly not the worst.”

“I could tell...”

“Come on, let’s get those parts for your ship quickly so we can leave quickly.”