Force of Nature: Book 2 - Apprentices of the Abyss | A Star Wars Story

Temperance (.2)

While Mak got the droid out of the ship, Karaay swam through the door, expecting to find the owner of the life sign. He popped his head out of the water and found a woman hunched over a broken beam just above the water. Karaay made his water over to the unconscious woman, quickly checking for broken bones and other injuries.

Once he found it safe to move her, Karaay placed a spare rebreather over her face. He carefully lifted her off the beam and wrapped an arm around her, swimming out of the wreck and back to the Holtite. Trying to focus on getting inside and ignoring a sizable hungry-looking creature heading towards them.

Once he was inside, Karaay heard Mak make a distressed noise. "Gigantic leviathan heading right for us!"

"What?! I shot a beacon to distract it!" Ruta shouted as she helped the now-waking woman sit up.

"Just go!" Karaay rushed over to the controls. "We've got who we were looking for."

Mak put the sub into motion. Trying not to show how much he panicked over how close the aquatic beast was to them. Meanwhile, Ruta checked over their new guest.

"Are you breathing alright?" She asked, and the woman just nodded. "Is it okay if we check for injuries?" The woman nodded again.

Karaay went about looking for bruises while Ruta asked the odd question to the mystery woman. His eyes landed on a pendant hanging around the woman's neck. He could have sworn he had seen it somewhere before.

Without even thinking, he reached out to look closer, only for the woman to snap her hand around his wrist, causing him to let out a yelp of pain.

"Sorry!" Karaay apologised. "That was out of line."

The woman gave him a look of warning before dropping his wrist. Karaay moved his wrist around, trying to ease the sting.

The ride back was thankfully uneventful. The whole time Karaay was thinking about where he had seen that pedant.

"Welcome to the Enarsa Sept," Ruta smiled as she led the woman down the halls. She didn't respond, just looked around the place like something was about to jump out at her.

Melinoe had yet to see the outside, but inside, the foundation was made of dark silvery material, with glowing green power lines built into the wall. Designed to blend in and pass for patterns. It reminded Melinoe of a colourful metal she once saw but couldn't place the name at that moment.

"I need to go tell Cordelia about your 'guest'. You okay with helping her check into the med department?" Karaay asked Ruta, who moved to answer but noticed something.

"We have an audience," Ruta pointed to the next floor up, where several beings were looking down at them with curiosity.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you about lulking?!" Karaay shouted up to them. They all screamed in surprise and scattered.

All except one small boy who hadn't been able to see through the group of teens moments ago. "Pa! Did you find anything cool?"

Karaay made an indecisive huff to his son as Ruta led the woman up the walkway. "I'll tell you about it later. I've got to sort something out."

Melinoe looked up at the boy curiously. There was some kind of familiar energy coming from him.

If she remembered correctly, the human woman was called Ruta. She led Melinoe to another area where they reset her arm and applied several bacta patches to bruises and cuts on her body. After a few hours, Melinoe was lying in a hospital cot with the 20-something girl by her side.

"So, do you want me to get your droid?" Ruta asked.

The Sith didn't register what Ruta said for a moment. "He's his own droid. He can do what he wants."