"Taking advantage of the chaos but not the one orchestrating it? I don't know why he's targeting me though. To stop me from fixing the problem? I'm hardly getting anywhere in that department."

"Could be anything. Maybe he has slaver contacts. Pretty girl with mechanic skills; you'd go for a lot in some sectors." 

"What about you? You're the best slicer on station. And you're pretty. I guess they could be put off by your mouth and attitude problem. Can't relate to that myself."

"I dunno about that. Most people don't know about my slicer skills. Anyway, slicers aren't the hot commodity on the market right now, according to the rumours."

"You hear rumors? What kinda rumors." She turns to face him him properly. "Nobody tells me anything."

"Sure we do, you just don't pay attention," he smirks over his shoulder at her.

He refocuses on the console, "Rumour is, the Exchange has put a massive bounty out on Jedi," he says, nonchalant. 

Her face scrunches and she feels a rising anxiety. Thoughts of - thoughts she doesn't want to have.

"...what would the Exchange want with Jedi? That's just asking for their shit to get fucked up."

"They do go for a lot on the market," he shrugs, "Or, the young ones do. Trained ones are more trouble than they're worth. Apparently. I mean," he shrugs again, "I can see it. Especially now they've all vanished."

"I'd hardly call them vanished. The war took out a bunch of them, sure, but there's still the Order."

-he looks up at her now, "What, you hadn't heard? The whole order up and vanished in the past few years. There was some meeting that turned into an ambush that took out a bunch of them, but they were dropping like flies before that, too." 

What??? "That sounds wrong. They're Jedi, they don't just up and disappear, and they don't get caught in random ambushes."

Shrug, and back to the console, "Maybe they missed a sith in the civil war. You know those things are like roaches." 

"Civil war."

Okay, now he turns to stare at her.

"Yeah, the Jedi Civil War. You know, Revan and Malak, Sith Lords, trying to conquer the republic? Revan doing a heel-face-turn and killing Malak to save it? All of that?" 

"What rock were you hiding under?!"

"Verth 27I. Sith? That's - there's no way."

He snorts, "I promise, there's a way. I mean, no idea what happened to them to make them go all," he gestures at his jaw, "Psycho Murder Conqueror. But they definitely were. Malak bombarded Telos, you know? That's where most of the fuel here goes, powering the project to rebuild." 

"I knew it goes to Telos but... that's..."

"Well," he coughs, "Sorry to be the one to tell you? It was a big shock for everyone back then, too. Hero of the Republic turning around to lead an army against it? Yeah." 

Should he, uh. 

He joins her back at the wall and. Hug? 

...she buries her face into his shirt. Which smells like he's been locked up in a cage for the entire day and also burning and —

She curls up small.

Okay. He'll just hold her then. 

Helps. Makes her feel as close to safe as she's been in. A long time. She can't remember...

Sharra swallows hard and tries to steady her breathing. Her heart, her chest, feels hollow. Empty and yearning for —

Nothing.