Koa glanced around to make sure no one was watching. A small slip of a girl stood next to him grinning.
“Relax,” Astrid poked him playfully. “No one will care if we get caught, it’s not like it’s that illegal.”
He sighed and fought the urge to snap at the girl. She was only a year younger than he was, but she looked like a child. A short, skinny, human with a mop of curly black hair. His mother had caught her trying to slice into the security cameras in their suite on Nar Shaddaa when he was nine it was the only time Astrid had ever been caught in the three years she had been helping a gang rob high end flats. Typical of his bleeding heart mother, she felt sorry for the little street urchin and set her up with a more comfortable living situation. As a result, Astrid worshipped his mother.
“Not that illegal, is still illegal.” He reminded her.
Astrid ran away from the first family his mother sent her to live with and the next three, his mother kept finding her, setting her up and letting her go. Finally, when it was apparent she would always run away she gave Astrid a small apartment to live in by herself. At ten years old, that suited her perfectly.
“But you’re Sith.” She grinned while deftly tapping several conduits in the circuit board. “Sith do whatever they want, especially you.”
Koa had never learned slicing, his mother tried to teach him but he considered it a waste of time. He regretted that decision, he would rather not have anyone know what he was trying to do. “There.” She announced, “The Imperial, Republic, and Hutt news archives are at your disposal, my lord.” She bowed mockingly.
He frowned at her and took his place at the console. She jumped up and down behind him trying to see over his shoulder, it was futile she was barely five feet tall. He elbowed her away.
“Go wait outside and make sure no one’s coming.” He ordered.
She grinned and bowed again pretending to shake as she backed away holding up her hands. She reminded him of his mother. He scowled and made a few searches and cross references downloading everything he could. When he was finished, he turned off the console.
“Wait here.” He said as he emerged from the room. He hurried to the student archives and downloaded the data he was supposed to be getting for his classwork.
“So why the sudden interest in the Jedi and Hunter Grey?” Astrid asked as she followed him out.
“Were you spying on me?” he asked, clenching his fist. It was not an actual force choke but she would feel the pressure around her neck.
She swiped her hands at the invisible power surrounding her throat. “Quit it! I erased your tracks idiot. Anyone who turned that console on would know it had been sliced and what you searched for. I made it look like a circuit blew and wiped the logs so it looked like a malfunction.”
He let go choosing to stare at her broodingly instead. He did not want to kill her, she had been a childhood friend and she was still useful, but she knew what he was after.
She eyed him shrewdly, he had no idea how much he telegraphed his thoughts on his Sith pureblood face. “If you kill me, I’ll miss my holo-call with your mom tonight and she’ll be worried.”
“You still talk to my mother?” he was not terribly surprised but wondered if it was pure coincidence that they would speak that evening.
“Every night for the past five years.” She said cheerfully, “Part of the deal to let me live on my own.”
He snorted, “Why didn’t she just adopt you?”
“She asked,” she grinned at his stunned expression, “much to your father’s discomfort I imagine, but I’m born to be free.” She twirled around like a dancer. “Besides, you’re an awful friend, you’d be a worse older brother.”
“Don’t tell anyone what you saw.” He warned her catching her hand so she would stop spinning.
“Not even mommy.” She confirmed trying to look serious and failing utterly. They exited the Dromund Kaas data archives, the guards bowed to him as they left and eyed her suspiciously.
“How will you get back to Nar Shaddaa?” he asked. He did not even know how she had gotten to Dromund Kaas in the first place.
“The usual way.” She said mysteriously. “I won’t leave till tomorrow though so if you need anything else holo me.” She skipped off into the street heedless of the suspicious glares and the rain. He stared after her for a moment wondering what it was like to be free.
Koa went back to his rooms, his parents chose to live on an estate just outside Kaas City, but they obtained an apartment for him so that he would have his own space when he visited. He relaxed onto his favorite couch and loaded the data disk.
As expected, the Republic versions of events were different from Imperial. In the Republic version, his father was a defector who was first defeated by a Jedi then begged her help in destroying a threat to all life in the galaxy. He watched footage of the attack on Dromund Kaas. He watched a tiny Jedi take down waves of guards then board a small shuttle that presumably took them to the Dark Temple. He watched as his mother was honored by the Jedi council, and he watched Grand Master Shan make snide comments to his father. He made a face and switched to the next file.
He watched a fight on Tatooine, a Jedi jumped out of a speeding smuggler ship and landed in the middle of a battle, killing a Sith and fighting an army of mercenaries. He watched a figure identified only as Bounty Hunter Grey on Imperial footage strung together from shoulder cameras. It was disconcerting but it was clear in the end the bounty hunter blew herself up and took a few Imperial squads with her.
He watched hours of footage in fast mode, they could not all be lies. His head swam. He heard the stories, the words were the same but now they meant something different. He watched the Imperial versions, watched how they manipulated the words until the story made no sense. He watched as later Republic footage did the same thing, failing to even mention his mother’s role in their annual celebrations of the Emperor’s fall because she had become a Sith. He turned off the holo-projector and closed his eyes.
The Republic and the Empire, both bloated institutions that were more concerned about their image than the truth. For a moment, he was angry with his parents for keeping him in the dark. They should have told him who his mother really was. Then he remembered his mother’s words,
You sure are slow to catch on kid.
“Yeah.” He said aloud to himself. He pulled out his com, intending to call his mother, but his fingers called Astrid instead.
“Bro.” She grinned.
He hated when she called him that, to her he was just a kid she knew. She did not care about what he was or who his parents were. He wondered what it would be like if everyone were that way, it gave him an idea. “What exactly is the usual way to get to Nar Shaddaa and can you take me?” She looked surprised for only a second then beamed at him.
“Oh this is going to be fun.” She smiled ominously and ended the call.
***
Koa guided the ship out of the private hangar. He felt a little guilty for not letting Astrid come with him. She had been the one to slice through security and trick the guard droids into standing down but she was not a fighter and she got on his nerves. He pre-recorded a message for his parents and sent it to them. It was cowardly but he could not face his father right now, and he certainly did not want to face his mother, he had just stolen her ship.
He pondered where he should go first. He had not planned much, he knew he would need to learn the ropes and buy some gear. He had money of his own stashed away where even his parents could not get to it.
“Where are we going?” Astrid materialized next to him. He had not sensed her at all.
“What are you doing here?” He exclaimed angrily pretending he had not jumped three feet in the air. “I told you, you can’t come with me.”
She grinned, “You’re going to be a bounty hunter?”
She had probably watched him record his message. “Yes, I’m going to kill people. So you see it’s safer if I take you back to Nar Shaddaa.” He started to alter the ships course back to the hangar. He would escort her to the door to make sure she got out.
“So when you get to wherever you’re going,” she interrupted him, “What’s your plan? Stand at the spaceport and yell ‘Who wants me to kill somebody?’”
He frowned at her, but stopped trying to steer the ship back to the hangar.
“You know nothing of mercenary work, you have no skills outside fighting, you’ve never been on your own, and you only speak basic.” She crossed her arms looking serious for once. “You will need help from someone. I have underworld contacts, I speak six languages, I know how to repair this ship, and you know I’m a slicer. I can help you.”
“What about fighting?” he asked trying to cover that he had not even thought of those things.
“Do I have to do everything for you?” She grinned. “Come on, bro, this is going to be fun.”
“I’m regretting it already,” he muttered sullenly.
“We can always go home to mom.” She smiled sweetly.
He grumbled a bit longer but realized she was right. He cracked a grin, freedom making him giddy again. “Not a chance.”
“A new course,” she bowed to him and entered the hyperspace coordinates. “Next stop, Hutta.”