The Derelict

[Kal Olorin]

"What?!" I nearly dropped my commlink, but quickly tightened my grip on the damn thing to yell into it. "Weston did what!?"

"Asteroid particles, he said. I dunno what that really means. But its just outside of the Hoth system. He ejected in a life pod and he called me on its comm system." Top of the line comm systems in all life pods. Sassy liked her people to think she cared about them, but really all she cares about is what they're transporting for her.

"So the whole shipment... its just... sitting there?" I rubbed my free hand over my face. "I'm going to have to tell Sasseeri about this."

"I know, look, its not my fault. Talk to Weston. Except his comm system fizzled out after he gave me the coordinates. Not quite sure where he is at the moment."

"Okay, okay. So, let me get this straight." I was going to need some headache meds. "Weston gets off course because of some Imperial picket ships sitting on the trade route. He skirts too close to the asteroid field trying to stay invisible, gets hammered by... asteroid particles... and abandons ship. Life support went out, but other than that, the freighter is fine?"

"You got it, Olorin. Look, I wouldn't have even called you, 'cept you're closest to the derelict right now - Bespin isn't far from the Hoth system. I'm all the way out in frelling Core territory."

"And you didn't want to call Sassy directly. I know, really, I do. And I'll return the favor someday." I growled at the commlink that was in a death grip in my hand. "Don't worry, it'll be taken care of."

[Smitty]

"Yo ho ho and bottle of... mom's old fashioned cider! mom's old fashioned cider!" Smitty worked the controls of his PB-950 as he sang to himself. Oblivious to his co-pilots discomfort. It had been a good business trip, lots of credits in the bank and now they were headed back to Bespin and his loverly docks on level 121. "Yo ho ho..."

"Cap'n!"

"Ho?" Smitty turned in his chair.

"Scanners have picked up something." the co-pilot brought up the display for Smitty to look at. "Light class freighter, no life support, it's just... drifting."

"Ho ho ho..." Smitty started scanning the comm channels. "Hrm, no homing beacon, no distress call." He rubbed his scruffy chin a bit and chomped on his cigar. "Let's take a closer look shall we?" Smitty altered their course and headed for the drifting derelict. "AND a bottle of..."

[Kal Olorin]

Well, I didn't tell Sassy. Not right away, anyway. She's a busy woman and was right in the middle of her vacation, too. Of course I should have told her, but I didn't.

No thanks. I'd rather take my chances naked in a sandstorm in the Junland Wastes of Tatooine. Which, in hindsight, is probably where I would end up if things went bad with the recovery operation.

No, no, I left Cumulus, where Sasseeri was entertaining in the exclusive and elite club Nimbus, and headed for the docks. I brought Figgy McPherson with me, as well as a few lackeys. I didn't even feel ashamed that I didn't have any idea what their names were. In this line of work it was best not to get close to the help. Usually they were dead before the job was over, anyway.

If they were good at their jobs, they lived, and perhaps I learned their names. Anyway, I hardly ever saw the Cloud City crowd since Sassy kept me tied up in the Core.

Sometimes literally.

I scrubbed a hand over my face, using my other palm to unlock a small private ship.

"Just restore life support, right?" Figgy looked up at me with squinted eyes. "Or slave it to our ship and..."

I nodded, "Yeah, that's right. We just need to bring it home, however we can. And quick." Figgy was good at his job, which was fixing just about anything that could be broken. He was centered at Cumulus, where he was kept happy with broken hyperengines and slot machines. He'd rigged up the slots to pay out only -

"Ready boss," grunted a lackey, and I slipped into the pilot seat of the shuttle. Receiving clearance within seconds, I punched it up and we left Cloud City.

[Smitty]

The PB-950's docking hatch reached out and latched onto the dead freighter. The ships rocked back and forth a bit. Smitty stood ready in a life support suit and stepped into the air lock then sealed the hatch behind him.

The freighter was an average run of the mill job. Nothing special, he doubted there was any cargo still on board. Nobody leaves a ship like this unless it's worthless. Well, worthless to most. But Smitty had an eye for beauty where others saw junk. The scrap metal alone on this heap would pay for the extra fuel to drag it back to Cloud City, and then there was the computer components, the engine parts... oh yes. It was a derelict, but to him it was a thing of beauty.

He whistled softly to himself as he pried open the hatch and staggered a bit as all the air in the lock sucked out into the vacuum of the other ship. After walking around a bit and inspecting the damage, Smitty called back to his co-pilot, "Looks like there was a massive decompression in here." Debri floated past his face plate as he shined his torch around.

Walking over to a control panel he plugged in a portable diagnostic tool and began scanning what the computer had recorded just prior to is abandonment. <i>Ah, yep...</i> "Some glitbiter who couldn't fly strayed a bit too far into the astroid field, tsk tsk tsk." The technical readout displayed multiple hull fractures and one big gaping hole on the upper port side. "<i>Probably too busy recalibrating his decce to pay attention to the proximity alarms. *sigh* Nobody has any pride anymore in their work.</i>" He continued scanning the computer's data, the captain's log and ship manifest scrolled across the screen.

"Heya Sal, go ahead and hook up the towing rig and " Smitty's finger's shook.

Sal in the pilot's seat waited a moment then called back, "Smitty? You ok down there?"

Smitty quickly unplugged the data link and ran down the corridor to the cargo hold. "Sal," he reached the hold doors and began working the emergency controls to open them. "how fast can we get back home hauling this baby behind us?"

"Depends on how much fuel you want to burn. Why?"

Smitty stood at the door of the cargo hold and shined his light into the dark cavern. "Oh," As far as the light fell sat crate after crate, "no reason."

[Kal Olorin]

The hyperjump to the Hoth system was short, but still too long to stay cramped in close quarters with guys that want to call you Boss and talk about a holovized sabacc tournament that they were watching before you called them away. I finally glared them all into silence and was left relatively alone with my thoughts.

It looked like everything was going to be fairly straightforward. No Imperials in the area (fingers crossed, unless some jumped in system while we were doing the same), and the freighter had only been sitting adrift for... I closed my eyes, calculating. Three hours. Then our half an hour of hyperspace time... Weston's pod wouldn't be transmitting a homing beacon. When we got to the freighter the protocol was to ping twice on a specific frequency, then the person in the escape pod would switch on the homing beacon to draw in the rescue party.

If they hadn't frelled up enough that Sasseeri told us to leave them out there.

I leaned back in my seat, crossed my arms and closed my eyes. Maybe I'd get some sleep on the way. Just a quick nap. Sassy was keeping me up late, and I'd complain if I didn't enjoy it.

[Smitty]

"Move it, move it, move it!" Smitty started pulling and shoving the co-pilot out of his seat.

"What is your problem man!"

"No problem," Smitty sat down and fired up the engines. "No problem at all." He suddenly swiveled in his chair and pointed a finger right into Sal's young face. "YOU keep your eyes glued to the spotter's scope for anything and I mean anything that moves you got that?"

The Sluissian began to get nervous. "What's wrong? We don't rush! We never rush! Rushing is is is..." the tip of his long green tail started to shake.

"Sal! Don't get wiggy on me." Smitty hit the controls and the ship lurched forward dragging the freighter behind it. "We're not rushing." Smitty watched the stress tension levels of both ships satisfied that the couplings would hold he punched up the nav computer and synced the freighter's engines with his own. "We're expediting judiciously."

Smitty ignored the further protests of his co-pilot. He triple checked that the slave connections to the freighter were solid. <i>Whatever moron was piloting this bird deserves to lose the shipment anyway,</i> he reasoned to himself. <i>Nobody leaves a fully loaded cargo ship a drift,</i> the nav computer beeped that it was ready to make the jump. <i>nobody...</i> for a split second the idea that maybe it wasn't left alone crossed his mind. The computer beeped again.<i> Doesn't matter.</i>

Sal continued to make a fuss about how many safety protocols they were breaking by rushing through the sequence. "Sal, shut up." A slight smile broke out as he punched the controls and visions of his own private small paradise colony with bikini clad waitresses floated about in his head.

[Kal Olorin]

"Approaching coordinates," reported Figgy, as I piloted the shuttle towards the expanse that was the Hoth Asteroid Field.

"Maybe we'll see Kerane's Folly," quipped one of the guys. "Can you imagine? An asteroid of pure platinum!"

"There's a reason they call it his Folly," I said, rolling my eyes. "He never found it again. No one has. He was probably high on glitterstim and imagined it."

"Speaking of glitterstim," mumbled Figgy, "The freighter isn't at the coordinates."

I snapped my head around to look at the long range scanners. "Son of a bitch." Accelerating, I reasoned, "It may have drifted, so expand the search perimeter."

"Right-o, Olorin." Figgy hunched over the console while one of the lackeys peered over his shoulder. "Ah, here it is. Moving steadily away at less than sublight, but picking up speed..." he rattled off the new coordinates and I punched them into the navigation system and adjusted course.

"Son of a - accelerating?! I thought this puppy was unmanned and drifting!" I glared at the cockpit window, "Frelling Weston, we should jettison him from an airlock for bringing us all the way out here for nothing." Bringing up the comm system I was just about the hail the 'lost' freighter and tear Weston a new one when Figgy put a hand up.

"Wait, wait, there's another craft forward of the freighter." He magnified it on his screen and I craned my neck to look at the display. The freighter had been screening the other ship before, which is why we hadn't seen it.

"Frell it, someone else got here before us. Frelling Weston." I punched the console angrily, and the comm system sent out an automatic ping on a wideband transmission. "Krasst, what did I just do," I groaned.

"Looks like you just tipped off whoever it is that we're here," offered Figgy. I glared at him.

[Smitty]

"Wide band transmission coming in on all frequencies!" Sal called out. "It's a shuttle closing in fast."

"Don't just sit there fire at them!" Smitty boosted power to the engines as he punched in the destination coordinates, just a few more seconds was all he needed.

Sal quickly slithered up to the gunnery turret while cursing the day he met Smitty. <i>Sure, quick easy money just repair the ships, that's all.</i> Sal went over the firing control procedures in his head and aimed carefully, <i>Such a shame to damage such a work of art.</i>

"Quit dawdling and get firing unless you want to be grilled over a hot fire!" Smitty called up to him. <i>Kid's going to be the death of me, I just know it.</i>

Sal's eyebrows, if he had eyebrows, furrowed together as he started firing. He cycled through the ion cannon and laser cannons, first one then the other, that was after all the proper procedure. At least it should be the proper procedure if he had anything to say about it. And since he was the one sitting in the gunnery chair, then that was definitely the way to do it.

It pained him to no end that he was going to be the cause of damage to the shuttle. But he had to admit, the bolts of light did make a very satisfying pattern as they arced through space and impacted on the ship approaching them.

Back in the pilots seat Smitty gripped the controls tighter and prayed the nav computer would finish it's calculations. A droplet of sweat ran down the side of his face.

[Kal Olorin]

"Frelling - !" I didn't finish my curse as the small ship towing the derelict opened fire on us. I did, however, save it for later.

The men behind me jumped into action nearly immediately, one swiveling to a console in the bulkhead that controlled what weapons the shuttle was outfitted with. Seeing as this was a Black Sun shuttle, it was a little more than the standard fare. I jinked and yawed and generally tried to be evasive while gaining ground on the rogue ship.

Brightly colored energy bolts slammed into our shields, and I shouted, "Why the frell aren't we firing back?!" Another blast rocked the entire ship and the console lights flickered. Figgy was muttering under his breath - I think it was a prayer. "Well?! Someone better frelling have an answer as to why we're being shot all to hell and -"

"They're cycling ion shots with regular energy Boss, its wreaking havoc on our weapons!" Thug 1 slammed his fist into the console while Thug 2 and 3 unbuckled and hurried to the manual controls.

"We're going to lose shields to this frelling piece of nerf in a minute, and won't that be embarassing," I growled, managing to pilot into the shadow of the freighter, giving our shields a rest from the barrage of energy. "Get me weapons! I don't care if you have to EV suit up and use a blaster rifle from the top of the shuttle to do it!"

[Smitty]

A series of lights on lit up and blinked ready.

"Hang on Kid!" Smitty called up to Sal. Sal stopped firing and braced himself.
Smitty's hands punched the controls. In front of him the stars streaked into thin lines of light.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YEAH BABY!!!!!!" The ships jumped to lightspeed and were gone.

Sal watched the shuttle chasing them disappear into nothing. He unbuckled himself and slid down the shaft and made his way back to the cockpit.

Smitty was lighting up a fresh cigar. "Sal my boy," Smitty clicked off his lighter, "we're rich beyond the dreams of avarice!"

"I don't know..." Sal resumed his seat at the navigator's console. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Nonsense! There's no way they got a good look at us." Smitty stretched a bit. "None whatsoever." <i>Unless... nah.</i>

[Kal Olorin]

Silence reigned inside the shuttle as the freighter winked into hyperspace and out of reach.

"Uh, the nav comp is offline for the moment," ventured Figgy, fingers already flying across the console as he worked to fix the problem. "Shouldn't take too long..."

I slammed my fist into the arm of my chair, and sat back. Looked like I might have to tell Sassy after all. Hooray.

"When you get it working again, Figs, get us back to Bespin. Either they were headed there too, and we might still catch the frellers, or they weren't and we'd never find them anyway." I ran a hand through my hair, and closed my eyes.

"Right-o, Olorin." Figgy looked uncomfortable and nervous, but with something to keep his hands busy he'd be all right. "The trajectory they were on seemed right for Bespin... but..."

I sighed again, and swiveled my seat around. Opening my eyes, I fixed a glare to the lackeys who'd come along for this very unproductive ride. "Anyone breathes a word of this to anyone, they won't be breathing for very long. Our job is to find that freighter and return the merchandise, so until we do that -"

"Hey, Olorin, I've got a contact drifting a klick to port."

I turned my glare on Figgy, but he wasn't looking at me so it was wasted. "What is it?"

He hummed as he accessed the sensor array, then beamed unexpectedly. "Its Weston's life-pod. Looks like he's still in it."

I sighed again. "Well, lets pick him up before we go home." Perfect frelling day this was turning out to be.

[Smitty]

Smitty hummed to himself as they cruised through hyperspace. <i>Smart thinking you did back there ol'boy. Smart thinkin'. You show up home draggin this baby behind you, somebody's gonna take notice. Somebody always takes notice. Then there'll be the questions. Nah... can't have that now can we.</i>

He chomped a bit on his cigar and began rubbing his chin.

<i> Dumping the ship is a good idea... yeah. Dump it, move the spice to a nice safe place no one would think about and then shoot the ship off towards the Kathol Sector or somethin' yeah.</i>

Sal looked at the coordinates, "Smitty? These coordinates from the nav comp don't look quite right..."

Smitty's eyes slid towards Sal. "Really?" He turned slowly in his seat and casually reached for a wrench.

"I mean they sorta look right at first glance," Sal started punching up the coordinates. Smitty rose behind him. "but the vector is just a hair o..."

WHANG!

The Sluissian slumped forward in his chair. Smitty quickly checked that the kid was still breathing. Satisfied he dropped the wrench back in it's tool bag beside his chair.

"You know, you're right Sal, it's just a little side detour, thank you very much." He sat back down in the chair and gripped the controls. "Can't have you knowing where we're going right now though Sal. Can't have that at all."