Chapter 2.

JORAN KATHA

Joor-an cath-uh

Joran sat down in the booth the service droid took her to. Her feet were killing her! She hadn’t walked this much since she was back on the farm. Thank goodness she didn’t have been assigned a padawan yet. That was the last thing she needed. She ordered tea and waited for it quietly observing the people in the small street side restaurant a few tired humans sat close in a booth most likely coming from an all-nighter, she sensed only weariness from them. A Twi’lek sat hunched in the corner, watching everything. He was one to keep an eye on; if he left trouble was sure to be on its way. Sighing over her warm drink, Joran relaxed into the well-worn seat. Master Lien-Tsai Qel-Droma had sensed a potential for a disturbance in the force in this sector and Sent Joran. This was her third mission as a Jedi Knight and the first by herself. She hoped she was up to the challenge. Alone Bothan sat at the bar, curiosity radiated off him in waves as he studied her with interest, through his feline eyes.

BOOM! A huge explosion rocked the building making the Duracrete outside crack. Joran shot up from her seat; her simple brown robe swirled around her as she hurried outside. Down the street, an Airspeeder had crashed into a patrol speeder. One of the buildings had been damaged badly, plasma had scorched the Duracrete and slagged most of the glass. Lucky the smog hadn’t caught on fire if the accident had happened a few more levels down the fireball would have been blocks wide. Rescue droids where already on scene. Joran rushed over, to see if there was anything she could do. The Patrol speeder was nothing but pieces smoking on the causeway. The Airspeeder was completely engulfed in flames, its power cells rapidly eating through all of the fuel in an uncontrolled reaction. The bystanders were sheltered from the heat by the low wall of the crater the accident had made in the Duracrete.

A huge shiny speeder bike was laid carelessly on its side next to the crater. A young Twi’lek wearing a leather jacket with the Space Navy wing leader patch was beating at the flames trying to force his way into the burning vehicle. Joran jumped into the air and force pushed off the ground. She cleared the wreckage and landed next to the Twi’lek.

“There’s nothing you can do! Get back,” she said in basic and tried to pull him back. He shoved her away without looking and wrapped his jacket around his hands. Gritting his teeth he wrenched the glowing door off. A terrified family of Mon Calmari fell out of the wreckage; she grabbed the smallest and jumped back. The Twi’lek helped the other two up out of the crater left by the Patrol speeder. Joran quickly assessed the fish like Mon Calmari, it looked to be a family of three.

The male was dressed plainly, his skin dull red. His large lidless eyes looked frantically at his mate. She was wearing exquisite flowing robes that were slightly singed. Her delicate arm and leg fins where bright pink speckled with white, now torn in several places and oozing blood. The youngster was also a female and she clutched tightly to Joran shivering in shock. Joran made soothing sounds and gently soothed the child’s emotions with the force until she dropped off into an exhausted sleep. Joran handed her back to her anxious parents, the rescue droids helped the Mon Calmari, and they were excited but not seriously hurt. The Twi’lek’s hands where burnt slightly but he let the medical droid bandaged them quickly. Then he grabbed his Speederbike and sped off under the protests of the medical droid.

“Curious.” checking one more time to make sure the family would be alright she followed after the retreating Speederbike. She flagged down a shuttlecraft.

“Council business, follow that Speederbike.” the Bothan driver glanced at her, saw her dark brown robes and her lightsaber clipped to her belt. He grunted and took off after the barely visible Speederbike. The Twi’lek was weaving in and out of the levels of traffic with ease. Her Bothan driver was losing ground steadily as they descended deeper into the maze of Coruscant. The thick fog of the industrial level swirled just below them one more level and they would lose him for sure. He swerved just above the gray and white surface of the fog and parked on the balcony of a seedy looking bar. It was a huge business for so low in the City. It took up nearly a whole block by itself and fancy Airspeaders and Speederbikes lined the parking balcony. She had the driver drop her at the side entrance around the corner from the Twi’lek. Her driver waved off the credits she tried to pay him for the ride.

Joran ran to the corner and extended her senses to track the Twi’lek. He was still out front; she slowed as she reached the corner and looked around the Durasteel edge of the building. The Twi’lek was unloading a large military travel bag from the Speederbike, glancing around he palmed a hold-out blaster into his boot and strapped a heavy blaster onto his thigh.

“That’s a lot of firepower for a student.” she thought as he swung a bandolier over his shoulder. He walked into the bar, Joran waited a few minutes outside. She called Master Lien-Tsai Qel-Droma to check in.

“Master, I think I was there for the disturbance you sensed,” Joran said.

“Good, did you sense anyone or see anyone strong in the force?” Master Qel-Droma asked.

“No Master, a Druid patrol speeder crashed into an Airspeeder with a family of Mon Calmari. A Twi’lek rescued them and then took off on a fancy speeder bike. The odd thing was he didn’t even wait to get his burns treated or for the Police to show up. He just took off as soon as he pulled them from the wreckage.” Joran said quietly.

“That is odd, he may be the one I sensed, but you said he didn’t have any force powers?”

“No master, none that I could sense,” she answered

“Hmmm keep following him, see if you can get a better reading on him or a tissue sample for a Midiclorhin count.” Master Qel-Droma said.

“Master, I think he is running from the authorities or in some kind of trouble, he has at least 3 blasters that I could see and several other weapons.” Joran said nervously “he also just went into a Bar just above the smog layer.”

“Well be extremely careful in that case. Don’t approach him if you don’t have to, but I sense that you are on the right path with this. Be careful Joran, may the force be with you.” Master Qel-Droma said

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“And also with you master” Joran answered clicking off her Comm. device. She followed the Twi’lek into the bar.

“Hey you, Spiky! No weapons allowed in here.” a Trandoshan yelled at her from a counter behind a visible energy shield.

“Council business,” she said with a wave of her hand and a slight push with the force to sooth his suspicions and anger. He grunted and sat back down on his stool looking board. The bar was packed with all types of beings several Sullustans laughed loudly as they played an elaborate drinking game; their uniforms marked them as pilots, planetside for leave. A few Rodians sat hunched together in a corner nursing tall glass of bubbling liquor and staring at the crowd with hostile eyes. They looked like they were going to start some trouble. Joran pulled her hood over her head spikes and slid onto a stool at the far end of the bar. The Twi’lek sat in a shadowed booth, the bartender nodded to him and a door panel slid open, and he walked through casting a Glance her direction. His bright green eyes glittered in the light of the bar his skin that she had thought was black was actually an extremely dark green with darker stripes molting the surface like the camouflage of the predatory Nexu. His extremely long and thin lekku or head tails were braided together with a thick cable or possibly cord of some sort. The door closed cutting off her detailed study of their target. Joran ordered a drink when the Kel Dor bartender asked her what she wanted; it was the first thing on the menu. It turned out to be a huge mug of some kind of rancid smelling pond water. She pushed it to the side and settled in to wait. She could sense the Twi’lek in the other room, his mood was extremely agitated, and then nervous finally he settled into a gloom of depression.

After nearly an hour he walked back out and sat down at the bar. While he had been gone, the bar had swelled full of even more patrons. Several had started to approach her stool, but a subtle push was enough to make them go in another own direction, usually wondering what they had been about to say.

“SO, how long are you going to Not look at me?” the Twi’lek said loudly over the din in the bar. He was staring right at her. Resigned at being spotted, she waved him over. He just raised one hairless eyebrow speculatively at her, with a small sigh she got up and went over to him.

“Was I really that obvious?” She asked sitting down in the booth across from him.

“No. it just that when a bar is this packed, good looking women such as yourself, would have a much larger crowd. But,” he glanced pointedly around, “No one’s sitting within two stools of you.” he laughed at her chagrined expression.

“Plus I saw you follow me from the crash.” he threw back his drink and looked at her untouched glass. “Quarren spit bucket. That’s not a very ladylike drink,” he stated

“I’m not a lady, I’m a Jedi Knight. Joran Katha, we sensed a disturbance in the force, you.”

“Ketch, Ketch Vantil. Washed out Pilot, ex-naval officer. Nice to have met you, Joran Katha. Now stop following me.” he turned and went to walk away. She stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Wait, Vantil, there was something about you on the Net,” Joran said thinking hard.

“Forget you ever met me.” Ketch’s eyes had gone flat and his face was completely still. Hostility came off him like heat waves, and his hand strayed towards his jacket.

“You are a wanted criminal.” Joran stood up freeing her lightsaber from her belt; she levitated it to her hand slowly but didn’t turn it on. “You saved that family at the crash site.” Relief flooded him and he relaxed slightly but didn’t take his hand off his hidden blaster.

“Good, I didn’t want anyone hurt on my account.” He said.

“We should go someplace and talk; I’m not going to arrest you. I sense very little of the darkness in you,” she said returning her Lightsaber to its belt sheath. Ketch studied her for a few seconds before taking his hand out of his jacket.

“I have a safe house nearby, do you have a breath mask?” he asked, Joran shook her head, and she hadn’t been issued one for this assignment. He sighed and motioned to the Bartender who came over. He rasped something to the Kel Dor who laughed and grabbed a breath mask from under the bar.

“You speak Kel Dor?” Joran asked shocked.

“There a lot of things you don’t know about me slim,” he said and flicked one of her head spikes. Her mouth hung open in outrage, she reached one hand up and rubbed her abused spike.

“There was nothing wrong with her spikes! True they were very thin, but they where nearly needle-sharp, and a very pleasing color of bright red.” she thought snatching the mask away from him. He led the way out of the crowd, nearly to the door he stopped and she bumped into his broad back.

“Uh oh, looks like you won’t have to arrest me after all slim,” he said and inched towards the weapons cage. Joran peered around him, a group of six Rodian, bounty hunters by the look of them, were pushing through the crowd stopping all of the Twi’lek males. Ketch was at the weapons cage and he turned in his ticket, the weapons keeper placed his bag and a sizable stack of weapons on the counter.

“How do you carry all of that?” Joran demanded.

“Skill.” ketch answered, Joran rolled her eyes, and Ketch slid a giant antique slug thrower into its sheath and the heavy blaster pistol went back into its holster on his thigh. The rest of the blasters and knives he swept into his bag and swung it over his shoulder. Joran jumped to the side. The Force warned her and she grabbed Ketch pulling him along with her. A red blaster bolt zipped past them and hit the wall. Pandemonium broke out behind them as people fled the bar, overturning tables for cover.

“Damn! Almost made it.” Ketch said through gritted teeth. Joran activated her lightsaber and stood up. She deflected the next wild shot from hitting the fleeing innocents. The bolt shot back at its owner and struck his blaster. It exploded in his hand and a blast of pain spiked into her head from the force. The Rodian clutched his mangled hand gasping in pain; another had been thrown to the ground in the explosion.

“ARE YOU CRAZY?” Ketch demanded grabbing her he ran towards through the door dragging her along behind him. “You could have been shot!“

“I am not helpless, Ketch,” Joran said evenly as they sprinted out of the bar.

“You got that right, get on.” He started up the Speederbike just as the Rodians crept out of the bar. “Hold your breath till you get your breath mask on!” he said through the voice modulator of his own mask. He zoomed off the balcony and they dove into the thick smog. Joran turned off her lightsaber before they entered the toxic air and held her breath struggling into the unfamiliar breathing mask.

“This! This is your idea of safe!” she demanded once she got the mask on, “You can’t even see anything!”

“That’s kind of the point! And neither can anyone else unlike them, I know where we are going.” He wove through the suddenly looming pillars and alleys with the ease of long practice. Joran didn’t relax her grip on the force, trying to feel out paths through the swirling white and gray fog.

“He must have some connection to the force. No one could pilot this way without it.” Joran thought as Ketch coasted to a stop in front of a Duracrete balcony.

“Home Sweet Home,” Ketch said hopping off the Speederbike. “She’s not pretty, but she’s always there.” Ketch worked the keypad which was the only surface free of rust on the building. Heavy bangs echoed from inside, Joran gazed steadily at Ketch.

“After you slim,” he said with a half bow. Joran reached for the door, the force warned her before she touched the door and she drew her hand back and shot him an arch look.

“Oh, sorry forgot about that.” with a sheepish smile he reached up above the door and worked a hidden catch. Sparks flew off the door as it discharged.

“It was only enough to stun you for a few seconds. Nothing too potent, some of the Smoker kids still hang around this level” Ketch pushed the door open after about six inches it stopped and he had to slam his shoulder into it a few times. His expression was slightly embarrassed as he held open the door for her.