KotOR I: Orin Dakall

Big thanks to everyone for your patience, and my reviewers especially! I know you don’t have to bother with giving me feedback--it means a lot to me that you do.



And just a quick wow, too. RyuaAlba, I love “Solace”, so I was a bit star-struck when you reviewed. Thanks so much! I always thought Jolee had it right with his gray path, and Orin's choices are very much based on what my own would be.



yoshidoce, Mission’s time is coming, but it’ll be a while yet.



On to the story.



-----



“Why?”



“What?”



“Why does it matter what we were doing before we rescued you?”



Bastila glared down at her. “I managed to free myself, as I recall. In fact, if I hadn’t been there Brejik and his thugs might have killed you in that fight. It’s probably more accurate to say that I rescued you.”



“Right,” Orin said through clenched teeth. The med droid was now spraying balm onto the burn. “If you hadn’t been there to wear Brejik out a bit.”



Bastila’s smugness faded slightly. Orin lowered her head, stretching her neck from one side to the other.



“Anyway, you didn’t escape until after I’d arrived, as I recall. Look, could you sit down or something? You’re killing my neck and it’s distracting me from my snarkiness.”



Bastila harrumphed and lowered herself to kneeling.



“Gee thanks,” Orin said sans conviction.



“I’ll admit that I probably wouldn’t have been able to free myself if not for the brawl after the swoop race. I guess I should thank you for that, at least.”



“The very least.”



Orin waited.



Bastila didn’t actually thank her.



“Your presence at the track is what I’m curious about,” she said. “It couldn’t have been an easy task to find me there. Yet somehow you managed.” She shifted on her knees uncomfortably.



“You can sit down,” Orin said with muted amusement. “I’m not going to call up the Council or anything.”



Bastila hesitated, but sat. “You also avoided detection by the Sith, discovered I was a Vulkar prisoner, gained sponsorship for the race and became the Taris swoop champion. That’s quite a resume.”



“You weren’t nearly so impressed after I’d finished off Brejik.” The med droid poked Orin until she moved up to sitting. It began whirring around her, wrapping her bandage.



“Due to the situation I didn’t have time to realize how much you had to accomplish to get there.”



The droid secured the end of the bandage, beeping pleasedly at its work and bobbed off. “What can I say?” she said, scratching at the bandage already. “I’m a talented individual.”



“Yes,” Bastila replied, looking almost disappointed. “I can see you do not lack in ability. Although modesty is another matter.”



“Modesty’s overrated. If I’m not going to praise my abilities, no one’s going to.”



“Hn. When you were chosen to join this mission, I doubt any of us expected this much from you... A Jedi could have done such things, of course. But only by drawing heavily upon the Force.”



Just when I think she can’t possibly get more annoying. “I think you’re underestimating us non-Jedi.”



Bastila blinked. Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t that. “Perhaps. But the Force works through all of us to some degree or another. There are some individuals outside the Jedi Order that we consider “Force Sensitive”.”



“Like the Sith?” Orin drawled.



“They were once members of our Order,” Bastila said stiffly.



“All of them? Man, that’s got to be irritating. You guys go to all the trouble of training your mini-Jedi, and then the Sith swoop down and snatch them all away.”



“Not all of them,” she returned, raising her head with a small show of pride. “And Sith aren’t the only ones capable of stealing forces.”



Orin showed interest at that. “Really? You guys are re-snatching Sith?”



“It’s... one of many projects the Order is working on.”



“Wait,” Orin said, holding up her hand. “Projects? Shouldn’t you be focusing on the war?”



“We are.”



Orin waited for extrapolation. Nothing came.



“It is obvious to me that the Force has been working through you,” Bastila continued. “There is no other explanation for your great success, though I am not certain what to make of this discovery.”



“No other explanation?” Orin scoffed, hauling herself to her feet and attempting to assess the damage the shot and med droid had done to the back of her armor. “How about Carth and I worked fucking hard to find you and stay off the Sith’s radar? How about you’ve been cloistered up with the rest of the Force-junkies so long that you don’t have a clue what the rest of us are capable of?”



Bastila allowed her to finish, then continued on as though she hadn’t spoken.



“Perhaps if you weren’t so... well. If you were younger the Jedi might take you for training. But as it is...”



“I’m doomed to a normal existence, including sex and emotional outbursts whenever I like? Gee, darn. Just be glad I’m “sensitive”, or I couldn’t have rescued you.”



Bastila stood. “Ah, yes, the rescue again. Very well. For what it’s worth, I concede the point to you: you rescued me from Brejik. And yet we’re still stuck here on Taris. Hopefully between your abilities, my Jedi training, and the skills of our companions we can find a way off this planet.”



Orin stalked over to Ajuur to collect her credits.



“I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear,” she said over her shoulder, “But if it weren’t for you, I’d have been back in space ages ago.”