Woman without a Country

They walked back to the ship. Ludmilla wondered why Bao-Dur hadn't come out to meet her, or more specifically, to yell at her.
Atton looked around curiously as they entered. "Do you hear something?"
There was a slight hissing noise, and he collapsed. "Atton!" Ludmilla knelt at his side. He was unconscious, and she could smell a faint gas in the hall. "Who's there?" she called.
No one answered, but she felt a presence, strange and dark. Ludmilla walked down to the unused portside cabin, and saw the intruder. "What have you done to my crew?" she demanded.
"They sleep," said the Miraluka gently. She was slender to the point of starvation, and her veil covered more of her face than Miraluka headcoverings normally did. "When we have done what we must, they will wake unharmed."
"What do you want with me?" There was something unusual about this Miraluka. Among the Jedi Order, the sightless Miraluka were best known for their wisdom and patience. They were excellent administrators and teachers, but rarely became full-fledged Jedi.
"I was sent to find you. You are an echo in the Force, a whisper that once heard, cannot be ignored. We heard that you were weak, barely able to touch the Force, armed with little more than a toy, clad in worn rags, and surrounded by companions blind to your true nature."
Ludmilla snarled, and the Miraluka drew her lightsaber. It glowed a bitter, angry red, and Ludmilla stared at it in shock. "You're with the Sith? I thought Miraluka saw too clearly to fall to the Dark Side."
"I serve one greater than all your Order. He has made me see."
"Well," said Ludmilla as she drew her own lightsaber, "your Master should see about checking in for updates more regularly."
The Miraluka started in shock. "You have a lightsaber? This is… unexpected."
"So, what do you want with me? Are you here to kill me?"
"I was sent to draw you to his service. If you will not come, then I will destroy you before he learns of your true potential."
"I serve no one," said Ludmilla firmly, "and I will not walk that path. How did he draw you to it? You, a Miraluka, who has seen the life in a seed grow into a flower? How?"
"Silence," hissed the Miraluka, and attacked. "You will never understand, not until you see it for yourself."
Their blades clashed, and Ludmilla knew immediately that the Miraluka was no match for her. "Your Master sent you to your death. Why?"
The Miraluka shook her head. "There are more ways to defeat an opponent than with blades." She threw a wave of Force energy that would have frozen Ludmilla in place, but she dodged the wave with lightning speed. The Miraluka immediately sent blasts of dark energy at her, sensing Ludmilla's location through the Force. Ludmilla used her lightsaber to block the blasts, then bounced herself off the wall, doing a complete flip over the Miraluka's head, forcing the Sith to look up to track her movements. In midair, as soon as she could see the Miraluka's throat, she switched her lightsaber off and sent a brutal kick directly at the soft spot in her throat. The Miraluka staggered backwards, unable to concentrate on her Force attacks. Ludmilla dropped down beside her, and punched the Miraluka in the stomach. Never physically strong, the Miraluka collapsed under the blow and fell to the floor.
"You… you have defeated me," coughed the Miraluka. "I yield to you, and what you are." She pulled herself up to a kneeling position.
Ludmilla looked at her in irritation. "Are you all right? I was trying not to injure you too badly."
The Miraluka shook her head. "You must slay me. My life, for yours."
"Must? Says who? I'm not going to kill you." Ludmilla shook her head. "You're supposed to be a Sith? Really?"
The Miraluka's shoulders shook, as if she was holding back a sob. "You must," she insisted. "I would rather be killed here, now, at your hands, then return and suffer." The Miraluka sagged, and almost fell to the floor.
"Then don't return," said Ludmilla calmly. She took away the Miraluka's lightsaber, then lifted her over one shoulder and carried her to the medbay. "Come on, let's get you patched up."

"Is this necessary?" said Kreia angrily as she tended to the wounded Miraluka. "The seer is of no value to us, and a danger. Her connection to her Master is no less strong merely because it is unwanted."
"She's still out," observed Atton. "We could just kill her. It would be a kindness."
Ludmilla ignored them, and finished stripping the Miraluka's lightsaber.
"Well, we can't just send her back to tell her Master everything that she's learned about the General."
"Something destroyed her colony, leaving her the only survivor. She had no choice but to join the Sith. Her heart isn't in it, and she's more scared than anything else."
"You wouldn't have done it," said Atton quietly.
Ludmilla looked at Atton, wondering at his admiration. "There are four of us and T3, we can keep an eye on her. But I don't think she's going to try to betray me." She pushed Atton's hands away from the Miraluka's veil. "Don't do that, it's not polite."
"Neither is gassing the entire ship and trying to kill you!"
"The seer needs rest. Leave her." Kreia shooed everyone out of the medbay.
Atton turned back to look at the Miraluka one last time, his eyes worried and dark.
"What is it?" asked Ludmilla. "You look upset."
Atton looked at her. "It's nothing, just…I don't really like competition, and I never knew that before."
"What? Competition?" She looked quickly at the medbay, then back at Atton. "For what?"
"Oh, you know. Sparing innocents. Rescuing damsels in distress. Falling in love. That sort of thing."
"She's not a damsel in distress! She tried to kill me! She's more of a defeated dragon," mused Ludmilla. She looked at Atton, and smiled at him. "She's not anywhere in the same class as you. Also, I just discovered how shallow and superficial I am. That's rather disturbing."
"What do you mean?" Atton looked at her curiously.
"It's really shallow," she confessed, and leaned over to whisper in Atton's ear. "She doesn't have eyes!" Ludmilla kissed his ear, then pulled away and made a little face. "Isn't that a horrible thing to think?"
"Yes," smiled Atton happily, and pulled her into a kiss. "Utterly horrible," he murmured against her lips, and kissed her again.
"General, what are you even doing back at the ship?"
She reluctantly pulled away from Atton. "Oh, there was this guy…."
"Yeah, that's right, you were going to give our ship away."
"What?"
"I was not," Ludmilla protested. "We could have worked something out. The guy said he owned the Ebon Hawk, and that he could prove it."
"Nonsense," said Kreia sharply. "This ship was given to me by … a friend. All of the papers are in order."
"Well, he said that it had been stolen just at the end of the Mandalorian wars – "
"Oh," said Kreia in surprise. "Well. The ship would have changed hands a few times since then. Before it came into the ownership of… oh, dear."
"What?" asked Bao-Dur.
"Nothing. We should meet with this man and discuss this."
"I told him to meet us at the ship. You guys didn't see him?" Ludmilla looked around. "Wait. How did the Miraluka get on board?"
"She must have deactivated the security," said Atton with a shrug.
Ludmilla shook her head. "No, that's impossible, Miraluka can't use standard consoles – they don't have eyes. Someone else must have turned off the security!" She ran towards the boarding ramp, took one look outside. "Weapons! We're under attack! T3, lock the medbay door!"
"Is it the Sith?" asked Bao-Dur as he got his rifle, and tossed a blaster to Kreia.
"No, it's the thugs who were supposed to be on this landing pad!" Ludmilla tried to raise the ramp, but the system wasn't responding. "Atton, T3! Get to the security room, see if you can figure out what's wrong."
Atton started for the main computer room, and tripped over a body. It was the man who had claimed to own the Ebon Hawk. The gas had overcome his system, already ravaged by years of poor health and drinking. Atton considered quickly, and knelt down to search the body while T3 zipped in and connected to the computer.
T3 beeped at him. "What? Oh, you need fingers, do you? One second." Atton carried the papers over and helped T3 with the console, overriding the droid lockout that the mercenaries had put on the system. "And while, we're in here, let's just update this ownership with a few more registered sales, and finally, one to um… Patience Keçrye. There, that completes the chain and makes Kreia the legal owner. Now we just need to change the registry numbers."
Atton listened to the blaster fire going on outside. "We should probably help them, huh?" Atton checked the scanner, then reactivated the ship's external defenses. "Fun!" Explosions and screams erupted from outside, along with the noise of blasters and Ludmilla's lightsaber. "Do you think we should do anything else? We could go outside and look." Atton leaned back against the console and played with the dead man's wallet. "I hate fighting, though. You go. Oh, you don't want to go either, do you?" T3 chirped in response. "I know, blaster burns on your clothes are the worst." The firing stopped. Atton waved to T3, "Quick! Look busy." He bent over the scanner again, and checked the perimeter before turning to leave, and ran right into Ludmilla. "Oh, hey, I was just coming to find you. I guess we won?"
"Yes, we did," Ludmilla grinned. She quickly checked the hallway, and pulled Atton to her for a swift kiss. "Thanks for getting the defenses back online so quickly."
"Anytime," smiled Atton happily.
"Do you feel like explaining to the guy who runs this pad what happened to his 'friends'?"
"Yeah, that sounds like something I should be doing," grinned Atton. "I'll go take care of that." He kissed her one more time, then ran off.
Ludmilla watched him leave with a smile. She turned to see Kreia stuffing something into the incinerator shaft. "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning up trash," said Kreia. "Where did you find the parts for a lightsaber?"
Ludmilla grinned, and explained how she found the armor and the damaged lightsaber. "I could probably make you a lightsaber from the remains of the Miraluka's lightsaber."
"It would certainly be more to my liking than these clumsy blasters or cheap vibroblades. But it has been years since I have wielded a lightsaber, child. Perhaps you will need the parts for other purposes."
"I'm a duelist, I never use more than one saber at a time. And the Miraluka isn't getting a lightsaber until I trust her."
"You are wise in that, at least. Nevertheless, I have no intention of leaving the ship for the near future. Perhaps when you return from finding Master Ell we can speak of this again. We have time."
Ludmilla nodded, and wondered what the old woman was seeing that she didn't. "Well, I guess we should get back to exploring, and see if we can find out something about Master Ell, or the Exchange."
"You will take the alien with you," commanded Kreia. "I don’t know what I was thinking, permitting you two to wander about with only that scatterbrained machine as a chaperone."
"I don't need a chaperone!"
"You almost gave away our ship! And I note, your clothes fell off again. As usual."
"I did not – " Ludmilla snarled in frustration and embarrassment, and turned away to go find Atton and Bao-Dur. "Why do I ever try arguing with her?" she asked herself as she walked away.
T3 beeped at Kreia.
"Be silent, machine. I am not interested in your opinion."
T3 chirped again.
"What body? I saw nothing, machine. You are mad. Go about your duties, and do not irritate me more than necessary." Kreia walked away, her robes swirling gracefully behind her. "And be sure that the seer remains unconscious until the Exile returns."