Woman without a Country

Ludmilla wasn't prepared for the look on his face, because she had forgotten what she was wearing. Or rather, that she wasn't wearing anything besides her underwear.
In the stories her mother had told her as a child, the handsome Prince was always grateful to be rescued from imprisonment. They were rarely sarcastic, leering jerks who had been locked up for unspecified security violations. She looked at him curiously. He was certainly handsome, however. He had fine, narrow features; slim hips and slender hands. Clearly not a descendant of the working class.
She also realized that he bore no resemblance to the boy in her dream. Was there still one more person alive on the station, somewhere? Or had someone reached her mind from a nearby starship?
"Who are you?"
He introduced himself, tearing his eyes away from the clearly outlined shape of her form with some difficulty. "Atton... Atton Rand. What's your name?"
She didn't answer him at first, and walked around the force cage, looking him over. "Rand? You're a Corellian. And that's a Corellian Bloodstripe." He may not have been a prince, but he was at least a hero.
Atton flushed. "Yes, I'm from Corellia. Yes, it's a Bloodstripe. No, I'm not going to tell you about it. It's ancient history, let's move on to the present. You know, the present where you stop walking around aimlessly and let me out."
"What happened here? Do you know?"
"There was a Jedi. You know how that goes, one Jedi shows up, and the Republic goes nutty and starts crawling all over you. It gets better, though. See, the Jedi was sick or something, and some of the idiot miners here started thinking about collecting that gigantic bounty on Jedi that the Exchange posted."
She raised an eyebrow in surprise, but let him continue.
"So, one group wants to turn the Jedi in for the money, the other group calls the Republic for help, there's a big explosion, and then I'm sitting here all alone for a long time. Then you showed up, in your underwear, and things got a lot better," he grinned.
"There's a bounty on captured Jedi?" she asked slowly. "Why?"
Atton shrugged. "Not a clue. I'm sure the bounty is pretty high, though. It's the Exchange, and they don't mess around. Not too many Jedi left, so a sick one that can't fight back would be a pretty sweet deal."
"What do you mean, there aren't many Jedi left?" She felt a horrible chill run down her spine.
"Well, most of the ones that didn't get knocked off in the Jedi Civil War hung up their lightsabers and went home. Word is, there isn't even a Jedi Council anymore." Atton shrugged, careless of the implications of his words. "But, who really knows what the Jedi do anyway."
"Jedi Civil War?" she repeated in shock. She had heard rumors of a war, but… a war between Jedi? "What?"
"Where have you been?" he asked curiously. "How did you miss the whole Malak against Revan, all the Jedi picking sides, and laying waste to the entire galaxy thing?"
She flinched at his words. "Malak fighting Revan? I… I've been away, since the Mandalorian Wars." Her head was spinning. "Tell me… tell me what happened."
"You're not going to let me out until I do, are you? Fine. Revan and Malak turned on each other, with all their little pet Jedi on their side following them. Sith, Jedi, whatever," he said hurriedly, at the look on her face. "What's the difference, really?"
"I – I had heard that Revan saved the Republic. That she had returned to the Jedi Order, and had killed the Sith leader in a final, unavoidable confrontation."
"Well, I wasn't there, thankfully. That story sounds great for the masses, but come on. This is Revan we're talking about here. You've heard stories of her battles in the Mandalorian Wars, right? That woman didn't spare anybody. Unavoidable, my ass. She probably killed Malak because he was cheating on her or something."
She looked away, hoping her face wasn't showing the wild emotions in her soul. Malak, a Sith Lord? Malak fighting Revan? The two lovebirds turned to bitter enemies?
"Seriously, Dark Jedi are bad enough. Sith, whatever you want to call them. But when a woman falls to the Dark Side, you'd better space yourself before you fall into their hands. Uh, no offense or anything."
"None taken," she said quietly. "I have some other questions for you."
Atton sighed. "Okay, I'm not going to pretend I'm not secretly enjoying the half-naked interrogation, but come on! Are you going to let me out of here or what? Wait. Wait a second. You're that Jedi everyone was talking about, aren't you? That's why you have no idea what's going on."
She shook her head. "I am not a Jedi. Not any more, anyway."
"Right. But you're still the one they were talking about, aren't you? Where is everybody?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "The facility seems deserted, and the mining droids have gone crazy. The emergency lockdown has shut off access to the hangars, too."
"What? The miners can't all be gone. Can they? Look, will you let me out of here already? I can help you. I've gotten out of bad situations countless times. This isn't a military installation. I'm sure I can get around the security here."
"You do seem like the type that doesn't deal well with authority," she smiled. "Here, let me open that. Sorry I took so long, I was just distracted by all the catching up." She turned off the power to the cage, and he stepped out.
"Oh, I can understand distractions. Trust me." He grinned at her.
She tried to glare at him, but couldn't quite make herself sound angry. "My face is up here."
"Oh, right. My bad. Come on, let's see what we can do with the console about getting out of here. You know, you still haven't told me your name."
"The command console is over here." She walked out of the holding cell area back to the main console.
"Fine," Atton followed her out. "I'll just keep calling you 'Naked Jedi Chick' in my mind. I have no problem with that." Atton started working with the console.
"I am not a Jedi," she protested again, but he ignored her. She watched in fascination as he worked. Her mind was still reeling from his earlier revelations, and she found comfort in watching his graceful hands dance over the touchscreen.
Atton snarled at the console, and said a few choice phrases in Corellian. "Great."
"What is it?"
"We're trapped," he explained. "This lockdown – someone is trying really hard to keep you here, Naked Jedi Chick."
She ignored him. "Well, the communications are still working, right? Let's see if we can reach anyone."
"Help yourself." Atton stepped back, and let her bend over the console.
Ludmilla brought up the comm system, and tried the various departments. Not until she hailed the Hangar Bay did she get a response, in the form of a series of frantic clicks and beeps. "A utility droid! Hello? Can you read me?"
The camera flickered to life, showing a battered little utility droid.
"Oh, the poor thing," she murmured. "Do a diagnostic," she commanded, "and let me know how you are."
"You do know that it's just a droid, right?" muttered Atton under his breath.
Ludmilla didn't bother answering him, and started giving the little droid instructions.
Atton sighed, and watched the perfect curves of her lithe, muscular body as she spoke into the console. Jedi were all strange, but this one was really strange. For one thing, most Jedi preferred to keep themselves wrapped in those shapeless cloaks. This was the first time he'd ever met a Jedi exhibitionist. It kind of took all the fun out of undressing her with his eyes.
She was tall, a bit taller than he was, and built on a generous scale, all muscles and curves, and obviously much stronger. She moved like a warrior, graceful and smooth, and carried the unsheathed sword in her hand comfortably, as if it belonged there. He wondered what had happened to her lightsaber, the traditional weapon of the Jedi.
She continued working out a plan with the little utility droid, talking to it as if it had feelings and treating it with respect. He wondered again who she really was, and where she had been during the Civil War. But there was no question what side she would have fought on.
"Well, now we just have to wait. I hope he'll be okay." She sat down at the console, and idly spun the chair in a circle.
"Right, waiting. So," said Atton hopefully, "how long have you been a Jedi? That life must suck, I mean, no family, no husband…."
She raised an eyebrow. "No worse than putting up with your false sympathy while you're staring at my boobs."
"Hey, I didn't – did you just say boobs?"
She grinned, but a beeping from the console interrupted their flirting, and they both leaned over to check the readout.
"Hey, the little rust bucket came through. Good thing I didn't offer you that bet, I would have lost my pants."
She rolled her eyes, and Atton laughed. "But why didn't he contact me?" she wondered. "Is the comm not working?"
Atton checked the console. "The connection is still live, maybe it just forgot to call you back."
She shook her head. "No, he wouldn't do that. Something must be wrong."
"Look, if the turbolifts are working again, we can just head right down to the hangar."
"The turbolifts were locked down, I have to release them manually. I told him to –"
"Wait." Atton stared at her. "No, you're not going down there! Are you nuts? The explosions must have ripped the sublevel of this place apart. You'll be killed, or –"
"Someone has to go," she said patiently, "and naked or not, I'm still the best chance we have. I'll be fine."
Atton tried to think of a good argument to stop her, but couldn't. "You're out of your mind, but in a good way. Okay, fine, I'll stay up here and try to keep an eye on things. Maybe I can get some more control working or something. Just, you know, be careful."
She smiled at him. "You're actually looking at my face."
"What? I, uh… look, I just don't want to be stuck here trying to escape this mess by myself. It's not like I care or anything." Inwardly, Atton cursed himself for letting his feelings show. She was a Jedi, like all the rest of them, and not someone he needed to get involved with. "Look, just take the commlink, and I'll do what I can from up here. The sooner we get off this rock, the better."
She left him with the command console, and ran off to the now open shaft. The connection was open, and she made her way down to the mining tunnels.
The commlink beeped. "Can you read me?"
She smiled to herself at the sound of his voice, then tried to shake it off. She couldn't let herself become involved with anyone, not now. Not even a handsome Prince with a voice like silk. No attachments. Maybe they would all get out of here alive, and she could leave him somewhere so they would never meet again. "I'm here, you're very staticy though."
"There's a lot of interference where you are, and a lot of mining droid chatter. Watch yourself down there." He described the path through the tunnels ahead to her. "Assuming the passages haven't collapsed, of course. Oh, hey, there should be some emergency supplies in the room right ahead. Maybe there will be something in there you can use."
"I'll check it out." She ran up to the door, and opened the plasteel container. It was full of supplies, including something she really hadn't expected to see in the tunnels.
"Did you find the emergency supplies?"
"Yes, and it looks like there are some clothes in here, too!"
"Dammit! Uhh… I mean, that's great. You running around half-naked was getting kind of distracting. To the droids!" Atton laughed nervously. "Okay, now you really do have to tell me your name, though."
Ludmilla laughed. "I rather liked being the naked chick." She pulled on the mining uniform, and straightened her hair. "My name is Ludmilla Sîvoš."
"There, was that so hard? Pleased to meet you, Ludmilla. Hrm, I don't recognize any world markers in your name. Where are you from?"
"You really don't know who I am?" she asked, a little stunned.
"Sorry, I failed my Jedi History class. Not a clue."
"Well, then let's just keep it that way. I'm not from anywhere," she said shortly. Her accent slipped again, clipping her words strangely, with an oddly musical rhythm.
"Yeah, and you're not a Jedi, either, or so you keep saying. And now you don't have a homeworld. What are you, some kind of – " He stopped suddenly, a whisper of memory floating back to him.
"Anyway, I'll be going now. Let me know if you find out anything important." Her voice was cold now, and she knew she didn't have to worry about him falling in love with her anymore. No one did, not once they knew. She closed the commlink and headed into the tunnels
Atton sank back in the chair, staring at the darkened screen in shock. The Exile. The Jedi General. Revan's War Beast. That was her. He'd never imagined that she would be so… nice. He realized that she had been completely honest with him, which was more than he had done. She wasn't a Jedi, not anymore. But then, she still moved like one, thought like one, fought like one. What was she?