The Brothers of Last Chance

[Rufus Delauvay]

Rufus smiled, leaning back against the chair of the pilot seat. Stars streamed by in lines as they traveled through hyperspace. Rufus didn't bother looking behind him as he spoke to Constilance, his younger brother.

"Hey kid, the course pretty much straight and narrow from here?"

They had set off only a little bit ago, making it away from their last stop in a bit of a hurry. Rufus didn't like sticking around when Imperials appeared on the scene. They always got snatchy and wanted to cherry pick from Rufus' cargo. He'd become real tired of those antics real quick and made a point to keep a few good hundred kliks distance. So they had hit hyperspace as soon as possible, Rufus hadn't been too sure whether or not Constilance had the time to make the right calculations. Or at least the most accurate.

"You did plot Bespin, right?"

[Constilance Delauvay]

The response came through the system speaker in front of Rufus, "Bespin? I thought you said Tatooine. Heheh. Yeah, Bespin it is. You don't honestly think I of all people would make a mistake do you? I triple checked those equations in a second, they're sound."

In his tank, Constilance blinked and nodded his head by habit, knowing that his brother wasn't looking at him. The habit was one of a few physical things left to him after the accident that had crippled his body. He extended his mind, weaving in and out of the programming codes spewing from his mind into the communications array and from there to his 'other' body. The droid shell walked over to the co-pilot seat and sat down next to Rufus.

This time when Constilance spoke, it was through the droid. "So what's at Bespin anyways?"

[Rufus Delauvay]

"Celia."

She was the daughter of Rondo, one of the best freelance entrepreneurs Rufus had ever met. He was also one of his best contacts for jobs. He'd met Rondo years ago, being referred to him by another freelancers Rufus had been working for. He'd also met a younger girl Celia who over the years had become quite the jewel. Maybe it'd been a stereotypical courting process but it had seemed to work. Rufus had feared everytime he left that maybe he'd come back one time and she'd be taken, preoccupied with some local spoof. But it never happened.

And this time he had a plan. It was nearly a year after the death of the Emperor and the Battle of Endor. Both sides, the Empire and the Alliance were struggling to get back on their feet. Sure the Heroes of the Alliance had bit the dirt, but the Empire was walking around now without a brain. Rufus figured it was safe enough to get involved. He'd been sympathetic for obvious reasons before, but he didn't have a death wish. Not when he'd worked so hard to establish so much for his brother and himself.

All of the main equipment that Constilance used to support himself had been bought and paid for by Rufus years of work. Their ship, the Last Chance was also another result of Rufus' work. He'd left Constilance in a medical facility after the incident when he was 16 and his brother was 12. Coming from Alderaan, it was just social engineering that steered Rufus away from the Empire. He had a ship by 18, the Last Chance, at the time a light freighter, and he made work with a medical company and acquired some older equipment. Taking that and some things he might've acquired through not so honest means, Rufus withdrew his brother from the facility at the age of 20 and 16 and set out. A few months later, their homeworld was destroyed.

Six years later, both men were much more experienced in the ways of the galaxy. Constilance's equipment was much more advanced now and they had even slaved a flexible HK protocol droid to him. They both had taken so many adaption kits and modifications to the Last Chance, Constilance referred to the vessel as a freighter-fighter hybrid. It compared very little to what it had been before, now much more maneurvable, carrying more versatile weaponry, and a better engine set. 'Professionals' would call it an Mutant, a vessel 'mutated' from an excessive amount of adaption kits. Rufus didn't give a bantha's rear what they thought. The ship could outfly and outlast any opposition, at least it had so far, between the combined piloting skill of the two brothers, they'd gotten out of some otherwise fatal situations.

The removal of their home planet had left quite a sting though. Neither of them talked about it very much, Rufus attempts to play it cool in the face of the Empire were often wasted on Constilance. His little brother knew what Rufus thought, he'd seen the treatment from Rufus returned to the Imperials they had encountered in their... space exploring.

But things were looking clear and good so far. With their last take, they could get to Cloud City, pick up Celia, maybe Rondo would have something even, and then set out. Set out in search of one of two things. The Alliance or the Jedi. Rufus was pretty sure they went hand in hand so either one was worth the find. Rufus had already told Constilance that they were going to attempt to devote their freelancing to the Alliance if possible and then Celia.

So, Celia was an adept. A fact Rondo had done a good job hiding from everyone but those extremely close to the family. Rufus liked to consider himself close to the family considering just how close he had gotten to Celia so far. But she didn't have any training. Rufus thought she was fine as is, force powers weren't going to make her anything better or change the way he felt about her but it was something she wanted, and he was more than willing to help her accomplish as much.

[Constilance Delauvay]

Ah. Celia. The mysterious woman his brother hardly talked about. From his minor probing, Constilance knew that his brother had some kind of feelings for the woman, but the extent of those feelings were in an area he considered inaccessible. Not that he cared all that much. In reality, his brother's personal life was not much of his business. Besides, the way Constilance saw it, if his brother didn't want to talk about it, what position was he to make him?

Constilance diverted a part of his attention inward to the streams of data he was transmitting and receiving from the rest of the ship. He had had Rufus install sensors all over the ship's inside so that if there was an engineering problem, Constilance could detect and fix it in the same way that a mechanic would but with a little forewarning if something was about to break. His prosthetic hand opened fully in reflexive response as Constilance reached out with his mind and flexed all his sensor power. He took diagnostic on all the ship's systems, the powercore, the integrity of the durasteel plating that made up the inner hull, everything he could see, he saw. He instructed his droid shell to go fix a plate here that was loose, a wire there that was corroded. All the basic maintenence was done by him through the sensors and the his HK model droid shell.

As part of his mind performed all the maintenence routines that were a part of everyday life on the ship, another part of his mind calculated random hyperspace vectors and, with help from his extensive star charts, plotted the hyperspace vectors in and out of Bespin. Each vector was of course impossible to calculate accurately because of several variables that could only be entered in at the moment of transition, but all the major variables could be calculated. Gravity-wells of stars and planets usually stayed within a certain range. Part of what his brother didn't know was that the reason why he didn't take as long as a nav-computer would take to calculate hyperspace vectors when they were leaving somewhere was because usually he had already done about one-fourth of the calculations already in his spare time.

When he finished all the calculations he cared to do, Constilance pulled himself back from the constant flow of data, letting the back of part of his mind keep the routines going while him, his consciousness, focused on the world around his physical body. He checked the liquid ratios of his tank, and then indulged himself in one of the few luxeries he had, courtesy of his brother. Holovids.

Sure, he could just download the vids into his neural net and into his mind in about 1 nanosecond, but he enjoyed indulging himself in watching them like he used to, on the liquid-proof vidscreens situated inside his tank. He enjoyed sitting (relatively) watching the holovids for hours, soaking in the details and the richness of it all. Of course, then he'd usually discuss the more subtle items in the vid with his brother.

Constilance sighed, another physical habit left to him, causing bubbles to rise from his rebreather. There was the occasion when Constilance envied his older brother and his being able to leave the confines of the ship. The feeling was lessened only slightly by the freedom he could find in the HK droid shell, but the droid's range was limited to 300ft of the ship. Only occasionally did Constilance have the chance to talk to anyone and even then, his droid shell was generally regarded as just that, a droid. Granted, he might be considered an eccentric droid, but that wasn't unheard of either.

Hours later, the ship came out of hyperspace and the star-lines came to a screeching halt as they entered in the Bespin system. Notably, they were only slightly off the normal hyperspace entry point for the system. Constilance had brought them several hundred meters closer to Bespin.

[Rufus Delauvay]

"You should know by now, kid. Planet Security forces generally frown on such an entrance. Feel lucky we're a familiar face and there aren't any bloody snobs making a pit stop at Bespin."

The comm light flashed, signalling an incoming message. Rufus snapped, a general gesture he had between Constilance and himself saying he'd take care of it. Constilance wired the channel to a small screen on Rufus' console, the impatient face of a human greeting Rufus as the connection was made.

"Last Chance, this is Cloud City Security. We need you to decelerate and wait for clearance."

"No problem, pal. We ain't going nowhere."

The screen blacked out and in its place appeared a 'please wait' screen. Rufus faced forward as he brought the thrusters down to a crawl, keeping them straight and away from being pulled into orbit just yet.

"Constilance, send word to Rondo Aracely. I'll be there in a day or so after I make sure everything is a green."

[Constilance Delauvay]

Planet Security does dislike it when I pull in to far into the system. Heh. But Rufus seemed to be in a hurry to get away from those Imps before they decided to pull a customs check. Ah well, Planet Security can get over it.

Constilance sent Rondo a message saying that Rufus Delauvay had just arrived in the system and would join him in a day or two. Constilance moved his attention into the HK driod shell.

Ah, freedom.

Constilance remembered the day Rufus had gotten him the droid. It was at least a year after he was confined to his tube and he had been pressing Rufus to get him some kind of droid...anything that would give him a little bit of freedom. Rufus had brought the shell to the ship shortly after Constilance had begun complaining in the offhand, subtle-but-obvious way that he did. At the time, it had been just that, a shell. The droid had been hit at one point with some kind of powerful EMP that had managed to completely wipe the droid's memory core right down to the most basic protocols and functions. It had actually taken Constilance three long, antagonizing weeks for him to write or copy the programming code needed to allow the droid to perform all it's functions as well as not develop sentience. If it had developed sentience, it would be almost impossible for Constilance to have complete control over it.

And now look at it. It can do everything I need it to do on the ship and in port. Sure, there are some thinks that are lacking, range being one of them, but I can wait. One of these days Rufus and I will get a job and get paid so well, we can upgrade.

Constilance sat back down next to Rufus. He kept all emotion out of his voice as he asked, "So...is she pretty?"

[Rufus Delauvay]

Rufus eyed the droid with a smirk. His brother was horrible at hiding anything. He just didn't get enough practice with other people to try it. For all the genius that the kid had, he was pretty linear in the social equation. Not that he was a square, any intellectual individual could talk about misprints in the galactic encyclopedias for hours with Constilance. Or lose in any game that might possibly be worked into a mathematical equation. Sometimes Constilance was nice enough to let Rufus win just so the scene wouldn't get too boring.

"Of course. She's like one of those immortal flowers those two planets fought over in that holovid we watched a few days ago. Totally worth it, ya know?"

Rufus brought up the hold screen left by the security forces, sighed with impatience and then looked back to the droid.

[Constilance Delauvay]

Constilance nodded in response...well, the droid nodded at least. Constilance recalled that flower, like everything else that had ever happened to him since before the accident, with harddrive clear memory. He even remembered his first, and his last girlfriend ever.

It had been when he was 16, just weeks before the accident that changed his life. She was an intellectual, like Constilance, and they had enjoyed many things they had in common. At the time, they debated about the Rebels and the Empire (she was sympathetic to the Rebel's cause but Constilance had calculated that the Empire would eventually subdue the Rebels. Granted, she had been right in the end.) They also talked about slightly normal things like family, the business world, the ineffectiveness of bacta on the disease people called stupidity (something seemingly rampant all over the galaxy), and even the weather on occasion.

Of course, she was on Alderaan when...

Constilance let that thought hang in the air, unwilling to finish it. It had been a couple of years since the destruction of Alderaan but Constilance could still not bring himself to come to terms with the loss, no matter how un-genius it made him look or feel.

She had pretty much broken up with me by then anyways, what with the accident and all, who can blame her?

The accident had been hard on her, almost as much as it had been on him and Rufus. But she had moved on, she came to see him at the hospital less and less until she eventually stopped coming but every once in a while.

Gah. Gotta keep myself occupied. I can't afford to become depressed and wallow in my own self-pity.

Constilance grinned in his tank and his droid shell stood up and made a triumphant pose.

"I'm gonna go do—something!"

With that, Constilance set the droid to working on tweaking the output of the main reactor core. He also set-up his battle simulation program and ran about twenty different space battle simulators involving the ship in several unfavorable situations...and set to run them all at once.

I wonder if geniuses are subject to bloodlust every once in a while—even ones with a little actual blood as me.

Again Constilance grinned in his tank. He was feeling particularly prideful at the moment, usually not the best trait for a genius, but it served its purposes from time to time.

Beware all who try to stand against the Delauvay Brothers!

[Rufus Delauvay]

Rufus smirked as the droid clanked away. He had done so much for his brother, suffering from a degeneratiing cancer caused by a radioactive leak, and he could still only wish that there was something more he could do. Anything really, Rufus had done enough and then some to just get his brother out of that medical ward. And further improvements were to come hopefully. Their funds weren't limitless, in fact, Rufus was definitely hoping their was a job to be had on Bespin.

He turned back to the please-hold screen, his shoulders slumping slightly. He wasn't this patient though, no one was. He hit the call button again and the please hold screen shook slightly to indicate the buzz was being transferred. It only took a few moments before the screen flickered and was replaced by some other authority figure.

"How can I help you, Sir?"

"Yeah, this is the captain of the Last Chance. We were waiting for clearance..."

The guy seemed surprised someone had even been on hold. Rufus wanted to roll his eyes but he wasn't in the mood to be bothered with trouble from the Bespin authorities right now.

"Oh yes, its right here. The clearance codes are being transmitted now. Thank you for waiting."

Rufus nodded with feigned gratification as he let the transferring file find its way back to Constilance.

"Right, take it easy then, pal."

The screen blacked out and Rufus slapped the side of the lounge like pilot seat, indicating it was about time they got moving.

"Let's rock this atmosphere, kid."

[Constilance Delauvay]

Rock and roll time!

As soon as the clearance codes finished transmitting, Constilance set everything up for their atmospheric entry. There was a distinct tingling sensation in the back of his mind like there was everytime he fully extended his mind within the ship. Suddenly, he wasn't just in the ship, not just a passenger, he was the ship. The powercore became his heart, the wings became his arms and hands, the engines became his feet, the sensors became his eyes and ears...all of it brough together under his complete control. He was the mind, the force behind all the ships functions.

He amped up the inertia dampeners and plummeted staight for the planet full-speed.

Had he hit the atmosphere, the ship would have been smashed to many flying pieces of debris. Instead he pulled up at the second to last second and leveled them out, skimming the top of the upper atmosphere. Slowly, with deliberate care, Constilance eased the ship into Bespin's atmosphere. Once they were inside it, he began a rapid descent ending it with a barrel-roll to the left as he leveled it out again.

If Rufus wasn't used to him doing this by now, Constilance was going to be in deep trouble at the end of the flight. It was his kind of freedom, one that every pilot gets to experience at least once in their lifetimes. When two cloud cars appeared from the clouds, Constilance stopped his antics and fell into proper formation and followed the cloud cars along the predetermined flight paths to approach Cloud City. Anyone who strayed from the paths usually ended with a suprisingly powerful laserblast to the back from one of the escorts.

Constilance had tried it once...and only once. It was not an experience he wanted to repeat.