Niki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
niki_chidon) wrote2007-11-24 09:33 pm
niki_chidon) wrote2007-11-24 09:33 pm
Fic: Nights of the Old Republic (5/?): Taris, Second Night (Carth/femRevan)
Title: Nights of the Old Republic (5/?): Taris, Second Night
Author: Niki
Fandom: SW:KotOR
Disclaimer: I wish
Previous parts: Prologue, Chapter 1, Interlude, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Taris, Second Night
------------------------------------------
According to Mission, the best time for their excursion was the early morning. They were all quiet after too little sleep, dressing and eating, checking their weapons. No banter this morning, no jibes about Zaalbar's appetite, no tiny smiles shared by the humans.
It's not like a place like Taris would ever be empty or quiet but the streets still looked different before the sunrise: drunkards stumbling back home from the cantina, illegal aliens looking for food when fewer hostiles were about, less Sith cluttering the streets.
They made their silent way through the Lower City to the elevator down. Now sun, no real difference between night and day here... except... maybe Mission was right. Most seemed to be sleeping.
"The vermin comes out at night," she shrugged, when questioned, "and sleeps during the day."
- - -
The sewers were not more pleasant the second time but the sense of urgency was absent this time. After one false turn that led to a dead end and a few dead Gamorreans they reached the greatest obstacle: the rancor.
”Holy...” Shin couldn't ever remember seeing anything even remotely like it. Of course, with her, that wasn't saying much, she mused.
"No way are we fighting *that*," Carth decided.
"And no way are we sneaking by it either with its ass firmly in front of the door," Mission pointed out.
"So we need to be sneaky," Shin grinned, showing a datapad she'd discovered from a nearby corpse. Apparently, someone had been able to synthesise a substance that attracted rancors and had outlined a plan to feed this specimen something 'unsuitable'.
So, armed with what the datapad ingenuously called "synthesised odour" Shin went stealth and placed a couple of grenades coated with the stinky substance as a meal for the beast.
"Booom!" yelled Mission as the inevitable happened.
"Bit anticlimactic, in the end," Shin sighed.
"What, you wanted to fight that, you big hunter?" Carth teased, then pushed her towards the door the thing had guarded.
"Maybe," Shin grinned, even though the size of the rancor up close was enough to make her feel glad they hadn't tried it that way.
- - -
Well, they had *meant* to sneak in. The first set of Vulkars they managed to silence using vibroblades (and Carth knocked one out with the butt of his blaster) but when sentry droids spotted them and started shooting Shin was sure the whole base would descent on them.
Except... they didn't. Apparently, one could blast away to one's heart's content and not attract undue attention. Sweet.
"You think it's due to their work ethic or...?" Shin smiled at Carth.
"Incompetence, perhaps?" Mission suggested, grinning.
"Let's not get cocky, ladies," Carth reminded, taking cover next to them as someone did indeed show up to check on the racket. Or happened to amble down the corridor, as might be more likely.
- - -
Inevitably, they encountered some heavier resistance along the way, but in the end, emerged victorious, armed with 'loot, loot, and, yeah, the swoop accelerator' as Mission put it.
"I had half hoped we'd run into Bastila here," Carth admitted quietly to Shin as they were making their way towards the Hidden Bek base.
"You really don't like the idea of me racing, do you?" Shin asked, and Carth could have sworn there was concern in her voice despite the light tone.
Still, he tried to keep it less than serious, "On a prototype? In a vehicle you have never even tried? What gave you that idea?"
"Funny, Flyboy. You want to ride in my place?"
"Wasn't offered to me, was it? No, they only want the great glorious Mysterious Stranger Shin Cidon for the job." Now, *that* probably came out a bit meaner than he'd originally meant.
He should apologise. As he found it so damn hard, why did he always set himself up so that it was required?
"Sorry," he mumbled, after they had walked in silence for a while, and the guard on the entrance was getting closer by the moment, "can I chalk it down to lack of sleep?" he asked with a small smile, looking at the woman from the corner of his eye.
She looked at him directly, and answered with a hesitant smile of her own, "this time."
Mission was rushing to meet the Bek guard she obviously knew to share their good news, and Zaalbar was, as ever, right next to her. Carth used the moment of privacy to stop and turn to face Shin, hand resting lightly on her arm. The touch wasn't only to make her stop with him, he also wanted to reconnect with her on some level, to recapture the closeness they'd shared when it had only been the two of them.
He thought about making a joke, defusing the tension, going back to the light-hearted banter that passed as conversation between them but something in Shin's earnest – even vulnerable – gaze made him reconsider.
"If I thought I would be better at it, I would demand the right to take your place. For your safety, as well as Bastila's. But I don't," he shrugged, as if belittling his serious tone, "You'll ace it. Just like everything else you do. I... I believe in you."
The radiant smile he got as an answer made the painful confession worth it.
Continued in Chapter 5
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Author: Niki
Fandom: SW:KotOR
Disclaimer: I wish
Previous parts: Prologue, Chapter 1, Interlude, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Taris, Second Night
------------------------------------------
According to Mission, the best time for their excursion was the early morning. They were all quiet after too little sleep, dressing and eating, checking their weapons. No banter this morning, no jibes about Zaalbar's appetite, no tiny smiles shared by the humans.
It's not like a place like Taris would ever be empty or quiet but the streets still looked different before the sunrise: drunkards stumbling back home from the cantina, illegal aliens looking for food when fewer hostiles were about, less Sith cluttering the streets.
They made their silent way through the Lower City to the elevator down. Now sun, no real difference between night and day here... except... maybe Mission was right. Most seemed to be sleeping.
"The vermin comes out at night," she shrugged, when questioned, "and sleeps during the day."
- - -
The sewers were not more pleasant the second time but the sense of urgency was absent this time. After one false turn that led to a dead end and a few dead Gamorreans they reached the greatest obstacle: the rancor.
”Holy...” Shin couldn't ever remember seeing anything even remotely like it. Of course, with her, that wasn't saying much, she mused.
"No way are we fighting *that*," Carth decided.
"And no way are we sneaking by it either with its ass firmly in front of the door," Mission pointed out.
"So we need to be sneaky," Shin grinned, showing a datapad she'd discovered from a nearby corpse. Apparently, someone had been able to synthesise a substance that attracted rancors and had outlined a plan to feed this specimen something 'unsuitable'.
So, armed with what the datapad ingenuously called "synthesised odour" Shin went stealth and placed a couple of grenades coated with the stinky substance as a meal for the beast.
"Booom!" yelled Mission as the inevitable happened.
"Bit anticlimactic, in the end," Shin sighed.
"What, you wanted to fight that, you big hunter?" Carth teased, then pushed her towards the door the thing had guarded.
"Maybe," Shin grinned, even though the size of the rancor up close was enough to make her feel glad they hadn't tried it that way.
- - -
Well, they had *meant* to sneak in. The first set of Vulkars they managed to silence using vibroblades (and Carth knocked one out with the butt of his blaster) but when sentry droids spotted them and started shooting Shin was sure the whole base would descent on them.
Except... they didn't. Apparently, one could blast away to one's heart's content and not attract undue attention. Sweet.
"You think it's due to their work ethic or...?" Shin smiled at Carth.
"Incompetence, perhaps?" Mission suggested, grinning.
"Let's not get cocky, ladies," Carth reminded, taking cover next to them as someone did indeed show up to check on the racket. Or happened to amble down the corridor, as might be more likely.
- - -
Inevitably, they encountered some heavier resistance along the way, but in the end, emerged victorious, armed with 'loot, loot, and, yeah, the swoop accelerator' as Mission put it.
"I had half hoped we'd run into Bastila here," Carth admitted quietly to Shin as they were making their way towards the Hidden Bek base.
"You really don't like the idea of me racing, do you?" Shin asked, and Carth could have sworn there was concern in her voice despite the light tone.
Still, he tried to keep it less than serious, "On a prototype? In a vehicle you have never even tried? What gave you that idea?"
"Funny, Flyboy. You want to ride in my place?"
"Wasn't offered to me, was it? No, they only want the great glorious Mysterious Stranger Shin Cidon for the job." Now, *that* probably came out a bit meaner than he'd originally meant.
He should apologise. As he found it so damn hard, why did he always set himself up so that it was required?
"Sorry," he mumbled, after they had walked in silence for a while, and the guard on the entrance was getting closer by the moment, "can I chalk it down to lack of sleep?" he asked with a small smile, looking at the woman from the corner of his eye.
She looked at him directly, and answered with a hesitant smile of her own, "this time."
Mission was rushing to meet the Bek guard she obviously knew to share their good news, and Zaalbar was, as ever, right next to her. Carth used the moment of privacy to stop and turn to face Shin, hand resting lightly on her arm. The touch wasn't only to make her stop with him, he also wanted to reconnect with her on some level, to recapture the closeness they'd shared when it had only been the two of them.
He thought about making a joke, defusing the tension, going back to the light-hearted banter that passed as conversation between them but something in Shin's earnest – even vulnerable – gaze made him reconsider.
"If I thought I would be better at it, I would demand the right to take your place. For your safety, as well as Bastila's. But I don't," he shrugged, as if belittling his serious tone, "You'll ace it. Just like everything else you do. I... I believe in you."
The radiant smile he got as an answer made the painful confession worth it.
Continued in Chapter 5
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -