Archive of Our Own

Your life was void of guarantees. Nothing was sure to last, nothing was sure to vanish – nothing was sure at all; and that despite your profession being one that was traditionally a fairly stable one; you were a mechanic with some knowledge of programming, though the two had gradually blended more and more with time, as those two professions were the only ones to understand and know to fix or alter the hyper-complex modern machines, that the entire rest of the galaxy only knew to use – and use they did them daily.

With a never-ending need for people like yourself, job opportunities were fairly vast, all things considered, the only issue being that jobs typically forced you to pick a side. Republic or Sith.

You would like to choose the side of the survivors, but sadly with an inability to predict the future, if you were to choose, it’d be a coinflip. So, instead of hoping for the best after a bit of research on both sides and making a pick, as most of your peers had done after finishing their education, you had decided to enter a life of risk. At first, you had expected it to be far less risky, but hey, no one ever forced you to retain it after you found out the contrary.

You had decided to become a neutral freelancer, offering your services to both sides, as well as other neutrals. It was a job that paid for well as long as you had a customer, and that drained earnings and much more importantly lots of time, whenever you stopped having a customer, in keeping up with all the new technology – time that you could not spend earning more money. You always stayed up-to-date. You hadn’t missed it when stabilizers were made to send signals through a more precise scale than before, and all new ships with them had new code to handle the new input; You hadn’t missed it when group med-packs were invented and their lengthy documentation had been published; You had not missed it when blades were finally designed to wield the power to withhold a slash of a lightsaber and the way that see-through shield operated …

But you had missed other things.

It was impossible to keep up with everything at all times, and even if you tried your best, you ended up finding yourself with gaps in your knowledge. Too much was expected of you. The typical layman expected you to know to fly all ships perfectly, to know to fix all technology always, to know how to hack into any system, to know how to perfectly protect any system from being hacked into, to reprogram anything and everything …

Because those jobs had slowly merged, you were now not rarely expected to be all of them all at once. And to be clear – you sort of were. Sort of.

Having given up on your most recent attempt to catch up with new technology when your savings had dropped to two-hundred credits after purchasing your dinner two hours ago, you decided to update your status to available.

It was long dark out, and none of the green outside your window looked any green anymore. You had last been hired by Czerca to help install all kinds of tech on Kashyyyk, and afterward simply decided to stay there for your next ‘holiday’ interval of studying new inventions and changes in technology. You had no real “permanent residence” and had decided to firmly keep things that way ever since hearing about Taris.

“Perhaps everyone’s lives are getting less stable, if even real estate isn’t a safe investment anymore …”

Then again, you were probably the most pessimistic creature on real estate, since few others seemed to have taken Taris as a sign to become a permanent traveller. Not that you were one either – having stayed on Kashyyyk for months, burning all your income slowly while catching up with as much new technology as possible, which was still ignoring the time you’d also spent on Kashyyyk while working with Czerca.

You felt a bitter feeling of hopelessness surge within you. Why was it not raining? It should have been. Storming perhaps. That would have suited your mood.

Your life was unhealthy, unstable and unrealistic. You should just get employed at Czerca with a contract that would run for effectively the rest of your life. Then you could drown yourself in work without having to worry about your own unrealistic expectations for your knowledge and getting hired before your money would run out.

With a frustrated huff, you threw your datapad across the room and rose from your bed. You had been reading things from that glowing rectangle for months, including today. You buried yourself under your blanket and tried to forget the negative feelings that had appeared at the thought of needing a job direly again. Luckily you were assisted in that task by the late time of night and your own fatigue, which quickly shut your consciousness, and with it your worries, off.

The sun had risen before you, and all you saw when you opened your eyes were the very last remnants of dawn. Knowing you had to find work, you forced yourself to get up and get ready for the day. After dressing and washing up, you plucked your datapad from the ground and turned it on. No visible damages.

A notification. Somebody had sent you a job offer. Already.

You had expected Czerca, but instead the request came from an individual. More importantly however – the nature of the request:

“I was hoping you could inspect my ship, the Ebon Hawk, for possible spyware, malware, tracking – that kind of thing. If you’re interested, ask to speak to Mission on the Ebon Hawk – she will tell you the details.”

And with that, the plan to get employment at Czerca was forgotten. You practically flew out and to the Ebon Hawk in the next instant, your datapad in hand for identification. You were happy not to have to return to Czerca and to get into a new environment – that was typically always fun, but more importantly, you were glad to have your worries about finding a job diminished so quickly.

The landing ramp of the ship was drawn out, and a large man with a blaster rifle in hand stood to it’s right and a red HK-model robot, similarly equipped, to it’s left.

It was an intimidating sight, so you slowed your motions as you approached, and entirely stopped moving when the man walked up to you.

“What’s your business with the Ebon Hawk? Davik doesn’t own the ship anymore, so if you’re here for him or the Exchange, you might as well leave now.”

“I-I was sent a request to inspect the ship for spyware and malware – if you’d like, here’s my datapad”, you said, handing over one of your most prized possessions.

After a moment of silence, the man returned your datapad to you and entered the Ebon Hawk wordlessly. Not a minute later, he exited the ship once more, this time in the company of a young Twi’lek.

“Hi there, I’m Mission – you must be [Name]?”, the blue Twi’lek girl introduced.

You nodded, tension leaving your body, upon being faced with a smiling girl, instead of the stoic fighter.

“That’s right.”

“Great. Follow me, I’ll show you around the ship.”

As you quickly found out, Mission wasn’t ill-informed on technology herself – she had already identified and defused a bit of the referenced spyware. She simply did not feel confident she would be able to find it all, and was uncertain in her ability to defuse and properly remove a few more complex structures. Luckily, spyware was something you had always prioritised, so you were well-equipped to combat it.

You and Mission decided to start with a piece capable of stopping and potentially even breaking the ship’s hyperdrive, as it seemed to be the piece most direly necessary to remove.

“With the other pieces you already removed, did you make sure they sent no changed signal to the host?”, you asked, gesturing towards the antenna of the piece the two of you were working on.

“Yes, don’t worry, we probably won’t get blown up out of nowhere – so long as we remove the rest of these fast enough anyway.”

You made a nod, refocusing on the work at hand. She was right. You had to work quickly.

“Looks like I’m in yet another unstable part of my life …”, you silently noted.

As you carefully pried away the covering shell of the device, you were reminded that you had indeed chosen the most complex of them all to start with. You did not let it discourage you, though, and kept yourself focused on the antenna that was likely responsible for sending back signals and how to keep that part – and only that part – of the system running. You took out your datapad-with-extra-functionality¹ and attached it to the system. A slight frown crossed your features as you noted the code being encrypted.

“Let me take care of that – I’m usually pretty good with things like that …”

Mission took your datapad from you thanks to no resistance given from your side and then after briefly scanning it, set it down and took out her own, smaller device. Whatever she did during the next few minutes worked, because your datapad started showing the code you had been trying to reach. Luckily, whoever had programmed the piece had been quite organised and it was easy enough to find the signifier code. It had it’s claws almost everywhere. Modifying anything without blinding the signifier first would lead to a signal being sent to whoever had planted the spyware.

“Mission, can you come over here for a moment?”, someone called from elsewhere in the ship.

“I’ll be right back, good luck.”

Mission got up and by the sound of her footsteps you could tell she had left even though your eyes had immediately returned to the screen in your hands.

Somewhere distantly you registered the sound of movement somewhere in other parts of the ship. A few things were said, though not many, and it hardly seemed like a conversation, then again, you weren’t focused on that at all.

You only stopped thinking of the signal that was clawed to every part of the machine you were modifying, when the ground itself shook. It was a familiar feeling, but due to the element of surprise, it made you flinch in shock. Was the Ebon Hawk taking off?

Unable to quickly or efficiently remove your datapad from the spyware, you set it down and started towards another part of the ship, the tell-tale signs of a take-off tallying up with your every step.

The first person you encountered was the same man who had first received you at the landing ramp of the ship. You felt the slightest bit of comfort upon noticing he was no longer holding his rifle, and that it instead clung to some part of his armour that you spent no further attention on identifying.

Words just fell from your lips when faced with potential to answer your questions:

“Are we taking off?”

“Of course. Can’t you tell? I thought you were supposed to be a mechanic”, he confirmed condescendingly.

“Hey hey, no need to be so harsh on her, Candy”, Mission’s voice announced her just a moment before she joined you and the man, “he didn’t tell her we’d be taking off today”.

Mission shot you an encouraging smile, but the man she’d called Candy spoke before she could give you any reassuring words.

“He didn’t tell anyone. I suppose he finished his business here early.”

“No matter that, why am I still on board? I live on Kashyyyk”, you voiced your concern.

Of course you had never planned to permanently live on Kashyyyk, in fact, you had planned to leave soon, but the situation you found yourself in now felt almost like a kidnapping. You hadn’t agreed to being taken from Kashyyyk to god-knows-where.

“He can be a little unpredictable sometimes, but even I’ll admit, this is …”, Mission started.

“Who is he?” , you found yourself interrupting.

Mission fell silent. It seemed odd, as she had just a moment prior spoken openly about the man. The man whom she’d called “Candy” made a low chuckle and to your surprise was less apprehensive about speaking.

“If he plans to keep her around, which it seems like he does considering she’s still on board now, then there should be no concerns about secrecy”, he snapped his gaze over to you and continued, “You’ll meet him soon enough – and I’m sure that is when proper introductions will ...”, he started.

“What is going on! I know you are hiding something from me!”

A distant exclamation rang through the ship, enticing the three of you to head towards the source of the voice.

“Where is Jolee? You visited Kashyyyk to get rid of the last man who could control you, didn’t you?”

“Please calm down, Carth. I had no idea you were so keen on exact documentation of my actions”, a calmer voice responded.

“I am not. I just – Where is Jolee?”

The first voice had calmed a little, as the three of you were arriving at the cockpit, which was where the fight was happening. A man whom you vaguely remembered as being introduced to you as the pilot looked pleadingly at another man, of whom the first thing you noticed was the lightsaber at his belt.

The second man crossed his arms and sighed.

“Jolee is, as you suspected, on Kashyyyk. But tell me …”, he pinned the pilot into eye-contact, “… what would you rather I had done? Murdered him in cold blood on Manaan? You should appreciate I decided on the diplomatic route of persuading him to return to his prior residence”.

The concerned mechanic in you made you cast a glance at the abandoned controls of the ship and you confirmed with relief that autopilot was in fact turned on.

“What would I rather you had done? None of this. Kept Jolee around! I want … All I want is confirmation that you are not your past – that you are not …”

“Careful, we’ve got company”, the second man suddenly interrupted, nodding absently towards you and your party.

“So you got a replacement for Jolee, or something? It doesn’t matter. She deserves to know it as well!”, the pilot snapped, “Revan. That is what I was saying. I want confirmation that you are no longer Revan”.

Revan. That was a powerful name.

“Revan? What does that mean?”

Your words drew a smile from the man that had been referred to as “Revan” by the pilot.

“Exactly what you think it does. I am Revan. I was captured by a group of Jedi the day that they announced my death. They used the Force to reprogram my identity, my memories, everything ... it – well, in any case, I was kindly reminded by Malak very recently of who I was, so you are not late at all to the news”, Revan said.

“Are you going to stop following the orders of the Jedi Order and the Republic?”, the pilot suddenly asked.

Revan’s expression sobered and he turned his attention back to his prior conversation partner.

“Likely yes.”

“I won’t allow it! I won’t sit by idly while you return to the dark side!”, the pilot exclaimed, drawing a blaster and aiming it at Revan, who was wholly unfazed by the threat.

“Canderous, if you don’t mind, take Carth to the empty room ideal for a temporary prison, I have to talk to the latest addition to the Ebon Hawk before I can figure out what to do with him”, Revan said lackadaisically, waving a hand from Canderous to Carth to the way out of the cockpit.

Carth shot directly at Revan, but his blaster was knocked from his hands after just a few shots and those did not seem to have done much to hurt Revan. Canderous, the man whom Mission had referred to as “Candy”, then overpowered Carth and dragged him out of the cockpit, leaving only Revan, Mission and yourself there.

“Are you really sure about locking Carth up? I feel like we could have talked things out …”, Mission quietly critiqued.

“And that’s still the plan, Mission. As I said to Canderous, I have to talk to the latest addition to the Ebon Hawk first though”, Revan snapped his eyes over to you and a fond smile flashed across his features, “Welcome to the Ebon Hawk”.

You felt yourself a little unsure of what to do. You had just seen that Revan would deal whatever treatment he saw fit to the people on the Ebon Hawk – which now included you – and then also he was apparently Revan. As in, the Sith Lord Revan. That Revan.

Clinging to the fact that he had not looked at you with hostility or apathy, but rather fondness, you allowed some hope to rise in you as you asked:

“You said you dropped someone off on Kashyyyk – Jolee or something, right? – will you drop me off on Kashyyyk after Mission and I remove all the spyware as well?”

Revan’s smile remained unshaken, but his response could not have been less encouraging.

“Well, we will see about that when you get there I suppose, but for now I’d really rather keep you around, [Name]. Your profile said you could fly spaceships on a standard level – that’s something I would like to keep around while I haven’t sorted things out with Carth yet. Furthermore, Mission is a hacker and knows to set and disarm a mine, but you’re a mechanic – that’s a new skillset. One I’d like to have around for now.”

“And when ‘for now’ is over? Will you kill me? Will you drop me off at a random planet? Or will you return me to Kashyyyk?”

Voicing your question had been hard, but when it fell from your lips you found yourself glad you had.

“Don’t most of those options sound disagreeable? How about you make yourself useful and extend ‘for now’ as long as possible? That’s the best advice I have for you, my dear.”

Well, and that confirmed that your gut had been right and you had in fact been kidnapped. You could only assume the fondness in Revan’s gaze was something rooted in happiness for a new skillset to have walking around his spaceship. Possessiveness over a new tool.

“Revan, are you sure this is what you want to do?”, Mission spoke quietly.

“Yes, Mission. I like my crew, including our newcomer, including Carth and including Zaalbar and yourself. I don’t want to have to kill or abandon any of you, but I can’t allow you to stop me from my plans.”

“All right, Revan. Would you like us to get back to work on the spyware? I think it might be best we remove it before flying anywhere in case there are more trackers”, Mission offered with a sigh of resignation.

“Yes, please do that.”

Revan headed for the centre of the ship, while you and Mission strayed from the path to get to the hyperdrive. You did not have to guess where Revan was going. Even you knew which room ‘the empty room ideal for a temporary prison’ was, and it happened to be attached to the central room of the Ebon Hawk.

You had worked for Czerca two months ago, and everything they had ever done had been unethical, but what Revan was doing felt realer. It felt closer. Scarier. You had no doubts that this was the former Sith Lord. Until you reached the hyperdrive, neither Mission nor you spoke a single word. You could only assume locking up Carth was the brand new extreme and that Revan’s actions hadn’t been quite as bad until now to explain Mission’s sudden shift in mood.

“Well …”, you began, your voice seeming to ring loud in the otherwise silent room, “that was something.”

Mission made a pained smile and nodded, slowly sinking down to the ground before the hyperdrive.

“Yeah … to be honest, it’s never been that bad before.”, Mission pinned her attention to you, disregarding the hyperdrive, and made a melancholic smile. “Things were really nice just a few weeks ago. I wish you could have been here then. Revan was a Jedi, and Bastila was always around – well admittedly she was always a little vain, but she had good morals. Everything used to be so positive around here! We’d play Pazaak after dinner together, accuse the Jedi of cheating via the Force whenever they won … Ah, I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

You had sat down close to Mission and slowly leaned against the wall behind you.

“It’s okay. Well, then, what happened? How did we get here from the past you are reminiscing?”

“Well, Bastila and Revan were looking to retrace the path that Revan and Malak had gone years ago – collecting starmaps to locate the Star Forge. I still don’t quite understand what it is to be honest, but apparently it is something with the power to win this war. Anyway, after getting the second-to-last starmap we took off, and Malak caught us in his tractor beam. By the by, Malak’s the reason there is spyware on the ship now. He must have installed it while we were captive. Anyway, long story short we narrowly escaped after Bastila sacrificed herself and Bastila, Revan and Carth had some kind of showdown with Malak. Apparently Malak told Revan and Carth about Revan’s true identity”, Mission paused, exhaling and averting her eyes to some distant point, “From there, Revan was different. At first just a little. He was upset with the Jedi for wiping his memories and his entire identity, and when Jolee – he was a Jedi – revealed he’d always known, Revan grew some kind of vexation against him. He made us change course from Manaan to Kashyyyk. He already had the starmap of Kashyyyk, so none of knew why he suddenly wanted to go there...”, Mission paused once more, “...I suppose we know now. It was to drop off Jolee.”

“I see. What was Revan like before? Was he a typical Jedi?”

“Sort of. He was always very quiet, so it was tough to gauge, but he never did anything then.”

You drew in your knees and wrapped your arms around them, your eyes on some detail of the floor.

“Things really are not looking great for us. Then again, I think I believe him in the claim that he does not want to kill any of us and values us in some way – even if he sees us more as tools than people – and considering we have one of the strongest men in the galaxy on board, we may not be all too unsafe either, and we’re being fed and have a place to sleep, so for now I suppose things could be worse”, you mumbled bleakly.

“I suppose that’s true, and I have lived through times where I would have loved to be here instead. So long as we stay on his good side our conditions of living should remain good ... I just – I’m discomforted by the idea of having to work against the Republic.”

“Well, that’s politics. I understand that they’re the good guys in more ways than one, but at some point you’ll have to put yourself first. Even if the entire crew went up against Revan, I’m not certain we’d win (and I have my doubts we could sway Canderous and the robots). Besides, even if the Sith end up winning, it’s not like they will destroy the galaxy – then they’ll have no more galaxy to rule and wasn’t there a thing about the Force always equalising things?”

“I think I’m just scared.”

“And I get that, and we can talk about it every single day if you want to – I promise I’ll have something encouraging to say. For now though, let’s get rid of this spyware before it kills us faster than we can cast a verdict on Revan”, you said, patting Mission’s shoulder softly.

She made a nod, and soon the both of you were immersed in spyware, angst set aside due to distraction by the imminent threat of the malware. Within the next two hours you removed all the spyware you had been able to identify, leaving you with one less Sith Lord that could end your life on a whim.

“I’m definitely glad I had you around for that”, Mission said, handing the last piece of disarmed spyware to T3-M4 to dissect and destroy, “Heww, I’m tired now. I guess between this morning and then having to remain very careful and attentive for the spyware, I just need to shut down my brain for a bit.”

You shot Mission a sympathetic smile and nodded.

“You do that, get some rest. I’ll talk to Revan and tell him we’re done.”

There was evident gratitude and relief written into Mission’s features at your offer to speak to Revan. She made a nod and left towards the eastern dormitory.

Bracing yourself more than you had hoped to have to, you slowly turned to separate from Mission and to look for Revan. Even if you had only known Mission for a few hours, you instinctively wanted to take her under your wing. She was evidently young and could use someone capable of talking her out of trouble and she was lovable and talented, so volunteering to face Revan in her place had come naturally to you. You knew she had Zaalbar, but you doubted he could offer her the kind of diplomatic protection that she’d need in front of Revan. The only thing that could protect her and the crew from Revan in that regard were words. You had to retain Revan’s favour largely with words alone (though naturally you could not allow your actions to conflict them all too much either).

While wandering the ship in search for your captor, you briefly met the red HK-model droid that had guarded the Ebon Hawk with Canderous on Kashyyyk, but he was evidently not feeling all too willing to converse, the only words he said to you being:

“Statement: Master has let me know you are part of the crew now, meatbag”, and, “Warning: I suggest you behave yourself better than the meatbag you are indirectly replacing unless you wish to find out whether he really made it home and then join him”.

You could only assume he had referenced Jolee, but you decided against asking for clarifications. T3-M4 stopped you in the next room, letting you know all spyware had been destroyed, and two rooms later you found yourself next to Revan’s swoopbike, Canderous, and Revan himself.

“Ah, there she is. I really think I chose wisely for our latest addition to the crew”, Revan mused in a singsong voice, “Why hello there, my dear, anything you needed?”

“We removed all spyware we could locate. We should be ready to keep flying now.”

“Wonderful. I hate to have to chase you to the next task right away, but please set course on Manaan. I will join you in the cockpit shortly.”

You made a nod and left for the cockpit. Manaan. A planet you had always been fond of. The laws were sensible and many of the people were neutrals – just like you (had been). Had you known the language, you would have liked to work there. It felt strange that Revan would want to travel there, but you were not planning on questioning him. You had a feeling you’d lose a fight with Carth, Canderous, Zaalbar … pretty much anyone in the crew, let alone Revan. No, you valued your life too much to oppose Revan.

You sat down in front of the endless sea of controls and closed your eyes for a moment to recall the times you had piloted ships before – there were not many, and the ships had all been small (essentially shuttles). You opened your eyes and formed an expression of determination and let yourself fall into immersion as you set course for Manaan.

¹  I can hardly have it be a phone or a tablet, so bear with me as I imagine this datapad as a lame version of a tablet.