Just Passing Through

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"Karma Chameleon, you are clear for approach. Sanctuary One out."

Rai'raa Anjumi leaned forward as Kale brought their ship down into Ossus' atmosphere, their cargo hold full of consumables they were planning on selling to the backwater outpost. "Wherrre is it? All I see is jungle - oh!" The Horizon-class yacht cleared a mountain range, and in the valley nestled a town, a big transport ship the first thing that caught her eye. A road stretched away from the main group of buildings to a walled compound, and there were more buildings centered around the landing pad they were quickly approaching.

"I think we'll get a good prrrice forrr the food herrre," she said, for the hundredth time to her companion. The Ossus colony wasn't self sufficient yet, and needed a variety of foodstuffs to keep life going. Of course, they were heading that direction - she saw several fields in various stages of growing or being planted that they flew over. "Not that we should rrraise the prrrice..." Rai'raa winked, sitting back as the Karma settled down on the pad.

[Kale]

"Price-gouging a bunch of mendicant monks? Seems a little crooked, even by our standards."

Kale released the flight yoke and leaned back as far as his bantha calf leather bucket seat would go, propping his feet up on the dash. The auto-pilot could take them the rest of the way in; it wasn't like he was actually flight-rated or anything.

"It's gonna be weird, though," he said. "If things had broken just a little differently, I could've been one of these guys."

He turned toward his emeraldine partner, grinned, and wiped an imaginary sweatdrop from his forehead. The Karma Chameleon settled elegantly on her landing struts and instantly increased the property value of the landing pad by a cool million credits.

"So what do you think? You ever considered life as a space wizard?"

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"Me?" Rai'raa laughed. "My big ambition used to be headlining my own show at Madame Eleandrrra's. Neverrr thought about the Jedi - and I hearrr Cizerrrack arree as sensitive as a rrrock."

She got up, wrapping a robe over her short dress and belting it in place. At Kale's look she shrugged. "Don't want to offend any conserrrvative locals. Might hurrrt business."

[Kale]

Kale and Rai'raa were greeted by a pair of Alliance army grunts in blue fatigues and white helmets as they descended Karma's boarding ramp. They flashed some ID and a cargo manifest, ticked some boxes and signed the dotted line like good, law-abiding citizens of the galaxy. After five minutes of cordial bureaucracy, the senior of the two soldiers thumbed his helmet and said, "Welcome to Ossus, Mr. and Mrs. Ivanov."

They walked arm-in-arm along the dusty road that ran from the spaceport to the colony center, occasionally passed by utility trucks dragging cargo sleds or a column of troops marching double-time. Kale waited until the traffic had thinned to say, "Yeah, I was meaning to tell you. You go through illicit channels for new IDs, sometimes you don't get to dictate all the details, and... apparently it was easier for them to push it through if we were married. If it's a problem, we can go back to the old ones."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Rai'raa laughed, shaking her head. "Doesn't botherrr me at all." She looked over at him, linking her arm with his. "Unless it botherrrs you. Might cut down yourrr prrrospects among the Jedi ladies." She kissed him on the cheek and then pulled back excitedly.

"Oh, a cantina! The Crrrystal Lounge," she read. "I wonderrr what sorrt of things these monks get up to in theirrr down time."

[Kale]

The Crystal Lounge stood out from its neighbors - while most of the buildings in the colony were prefabricated units or form-poured duracrete, just four walls and and a ceiling erected as fast as possible until something better came along, whoever had built the cantina had decided that style was substance. With its arched windows and red-tile roof and the white pillars on either side of the doorway, it could have been an old mission anchoring a dusty frontier town somewhere in the Dantooine wastelands. And from the clamor that spilled out of the open windows as they approached, the patrons inside were thinking along the same lines.

Kale pulled the front door open and was greeted with what sounded like a barfight. In point of fact, there was a fight, but it was safely contained on the stage at the back of the establishment, with a cluster of dock workers and miners hooting and shouting, raising drinks and exchanging bets. Others clustered at the bar, and a few dotted the booths in melancholy solitude. There weren't many robes to be seen, and Kale suddenly felt overdressed in his duster and slacks.

"This doesn't strike me as a Jedi kind of hangout," he shouted over the noise. "But I bet we can find out who's buying canned goods."

A thunderous blow from the stage was answered by an equally thunderous roar from the crowd, and there was much back-slapping and cursing as the spectators began to filter away.

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Rai'raa raised her eyebrows at the sight of the fighting ring. "Cerrrtainly not what I was expecting." They stood still for a moment as the crowd thinned out, and then she pushed her way to the bar. "I'd like an eyeblasterrr," she told the bartender, who stared at her a little longer than necessary before nodding.

[Untaaura Verratoa]

Untaaura Verratoa opened the fight cage, stepping out of the fighting circle as she reached for a bucket to spit into. She wore a tight tank and shorts, stained in patches with sweat that beaded down the uncovered areas of her spot-dappled skin. Her frame was wiry and athletic, ripples of muscle seemingly as tight as steel cable running across her arms and thighs. She paused at the impact fencing, stooping down to retrieve a packet of cigarettes she'd deposited on the floor, plucking one out with her lips as she ignited it.

Pushing past a human male and his mongrel companion, the Cizeri Major climbed her 5'1" figure onto a barstool, counting a wad of credit chits she'd taken for her bout.

"Whjisskejy."

[Kazahan]

"That footwork was sloppy," Kazahan said to the fighter, who glared at him. Kazahan merely looked back placidly. "You did not allow your weight to keep you upright."

"Shut it, cat," the fighter growled. Kazahan raised his clawed hands placatingly, and the fighter realized that the Trianii apprentice was several inches taller than he.

"This one is not trying to mock you," Kazahan said. "Merely offering observations."

"Then why don't you fight?"

"Oh no! This one cannot. Jedi cannot fight, and Solomon told Kazahan that 'Jedi cannot fight in the cantina' doesn't mean that because Kazahan is a Jedi apprentice he can fight in the cantina. It was very disappointing, but this one must honor his master."

The defeated fighter looked at the Jedi padawan for a second as if he couldn't understand him, before shaking his head twice and walking away muttering about 'crazy Jedi'. Kazahan merely smiled.

"Best of luck on your next match!" he called. "This is exciting! So much is going on. What will Kazahan do now?"

[Kale]

"And I'll have a--"

Kale found himself shouldered aside by one of the combatants, a scar-riddled fireplug of a Cizerack woman who might just as well have ordered a glass of freshly-poured duracrete, on the rocks. With a face like that, she might have lost the bout, but then he saw the other guy. He immediately vaulted her to the top of his list of People In The Immediate Vicinity Who Could Frell His Dren, even ahead of the smiling manka cat towering over everyone by the ring.

"Corellian ale for me," he said, not wanting to seem pretentious. This seemed like a salt-of-the-planet kind of community. He surveyed the crowd and, seeing no one else nearby who even seemed to be remotely paying attention, he addressed the miniature tiger lady at the bar: "So is this a regular thing here? Gotta say, it's not what I expected."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

While Kale addressed the female Cizerack on his left, Rai'raa looked out over the rest of the cantina. Now that the fight was over things seemed to be settling down, except for an extremely tall Trianii trying to talk to the other fighter. Rai'raa studied him openly, and when he happened to look her way she winked at him.

[Untaaura Verratoa]

"Everrjy Ssaturrdajy njight."

The barkeep poured the whiskey generously, overtopping the shot glass with a light splash. The Cizerack major rested the cool glass briefly over her swollen right eyebrow. She sucked down a quarter of her cigarette's length, cinching the filter between two fingers long enough to pound the shot in one smooth action before exhaling smoke from her nose. Her right fist curled over the spent shot glass as she popped her neck with a sudden turn.

"Not exactljy ssanctjioned bjy the people of the cloth, jif jyou take mjy meanjing, but jit ssujitss the rresst of uss jusst fjine."

Drawing from her cigarette again as she tapped the counter for a repeat, Verratoa spied the woman in the human's company on the second pass. All half-breeds had a flair of the exotic to them, but she even moreso.

[Kazahan]

Kazahan blinked a few times as the green-hued female (at least he thought it was female; sometimes one could not be sure) did that odd gesture with her eye again. He walked up to her, and bowed.

"Forgive this one, but is there something wrong with your eye?" he asked. He glanced over, and saw the little cat woman that had kept him from riding the loading droids the first time he'd met Raji. While he was still disappointed that he'd not been able to ride those majestic machines, he did not hold it against her. Some were just bitter fun-ruiners, and even they had to be respected. He bowed to her as well. "And this one must ask, for clarity's sake: are you a cat?"

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Rai'raa laughed, "Oh, no, I am fine. And I am mostly a cat." It was a funny question, and she brushed away some of hair that had escaped from the braid loosely wound around her head. "Are you a cat?" she asked in her most serious voice.

[Kale]

The barkeep turned again and handed Kale a sweating mug topped with a full head of froth, which he took in hand and sipped. He wasn't particularly thirsty, but sharing a drink was one of the best ways to get people to open up to you. It also made them think they knew what your hands were doing.

"Makes sense to me," he said. "Everybody needs to let off a little steam once in a while. My wife and I just finished some high-pressure contracts up in the Calamari Sector, figured the Jedi homeworld would be a good place to find a little peace and quiet. But I can live with this, too."

Kale offered the major a hand. "Kale Ivanov. You wouldn't happen to know anyone who needs six crates of canned food, would you?"

[Untaaura Verratoa]

Ivanov was a queer manner of name to take, judging from the look of his wife. Untaaura's head craned as she got a better look at Kale Ivanov's better half, remembering at the last moment it was her husband who had taken to the social pleasantries. Remembering the human custom, she set aside her shot glass and passed her cigarette to her left hand, grasping his hand in a firm grip and being mindful to keep her claws in.

"Ja irra, Kale jIvanov." she gruffed in a gout of smoke. "Untaaura Verratoa."

His shipment problems couldn't have disinterested her more, yet the Major was reluctant to relinquish her seat. She hunched over the bar slightly, settling in over her second shot.

"Canned food doesn't brreathe well enough forr me. jI jimagjine the Alljiance cjivjil engjineerrss would thjink djifferrentljy, howeverr."

Again her whiskey was tossed back. Verratoa drew her last good use from her cigarette, extinguishing it in the dregs of her empty shot glass. Again, she found herself looking past the human.

[Kazahan]

"Do the cans have lungs?" Kazahan found himself wondering aloud to himself. This talk of canned food breathing seemed a bit odd to him. Instead he focused on something the male had said.

"Ossus is fairly unsettled," Kazahan said. "In more than one sense. But that also means you find a good market for canned goods."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

He ignored her question, but she didn't mind. Rai'raa put her hand on Kale's shoulder, looking past him to the extremely butch looking Cizeri woman. She smiled at her. "What is it like, being herrre on Ossus with the Jedi? Does everrry one get along?"

[Untaaura Verratoa]

A half-second of stupefied glance went to the Trianii. She'd initially figured Kazahan for mentally defective from the moment the mouth-breathing lummox had crossed her path in that tinkerer's workshop, and he was determined to race to the bottom of her expectations as if he expected to find candy down there. The only thing that stilled her tongue was Mrs. Ivanov's honey voice. And her radiant blue eyes. Major Verratoa wavered just slightly, ears barely askew.

"Harrmlesss mjysstjicss, even jif thejy'rre sstrrange. jI don't botherr them, and thejy don't botherr me."

Her tail beat a quickened staccato against the bar, settled only by force of will into it's normal sway.

[Kale]

"Personally, I'm surprised they lasted this long," Kale said, and he took a bracing measure of his ale. "What with the Empire's standing bounty, what was it, ten thousand credits a head, and that was just for unregistered adepts. They're lucky the Rebellion decided to make 'em a protected species."

His eyes darted from preening mint julep rubbing his shoulder to the scowling whiskey sour sitting at the bar. He'd known Rai'raa long enough now to recognize the little flutters of passion that followed her even when she wasn't trying, and Major Verratoa seemed to have more than a neighborly interest. Kale filed that morsel away for future reference.

"So how about you, big guy?" he said to the Trianii towering over all three of them. "What's your opinion on Jedi?"

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"Yes," said Rai'raa, turning to look at the Trianii. "What do you think of the Jedi?"

[Kazahan]

Kazahan looked down at the pretty green part cat (green! and a cat! so interesting!), and flicked his ears back and forth.

"This one is in training to be a Jedi, so Kazahan thinks they are very interesting and strong people," Kazahan answered. "The training is very difficult; Kazahan has much to learn."

He stooped down.

"Did you really come here just to sell canned food and talk about Jedi?" he asked curiously. "Ossus is quite the destination, so it is a good decision, but not one Kazahan has seen at all before."

[Untaaura Verratoa]

And then a nugget of rare wisdom fell out of Kazahan's mouth, as if he had scooped it in there indiscriminately and upon realizing it wasn't made of candy, spit it out. Untaaura's ears tilted forward again as she finished another shot, readying another cigarette for duty.

"Arre jyou conssjiderrjing becomjing a Pad...pada...sstudent?"

Stupid forrda words.

[Kale]

"Me? Nah."

Another sip of the Corellian stout. The flavor was starting to grow on him.

"But I was considering it, once. I ran into some Jedi back when they were holed up in Cloud City. Ended up taking a different career path, but I figured I'd check in here, see how thing were going. Looks like the treaty's treating you well."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"I like to experrience new things," Rai'raa purred, winking at the big cat. "I'd neverrr been herrre beforrre, and who wouldn't want to help the Jedi get rrreestablished? So, you'rrre a Jedi? Can you rrread my mind?" She looked up at him with big eyes and slightly parted lips.

[Kazahan]

"You are teasing Kazahan," the Trianii said pleasantly. "You find it humorous. Other than that, this one cannot tell. As far as Kazahan can tell, it is less reading minds and more being able to sense emotions and intent. After a certain point though one well versed enough in reading emotion and intent may be able to seem as if they are reading minds.

"Though that is pure conjecture on Kazahan's part," the Trianii said cheerfully. "This one is but an apprentice, still with much to learn."

[Untaaura Verratoa]

The thrust of the conversation had drifted into alien territory. With Untaaura on the fringes, she simply smoked in solitude, watching Mrs. Ivanov share company with the towering shaggy dolt Kazahan. Fortunately she was nearly able to tune him out.

[Kale]

"Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure you're parsecs ahead of me," Kale replied. And it was probably true, in terms of lightsaber combat, or meditation, or not being a self-serving son of a bith. He doubted very much the Jedi would look favorably on his own unique application of Force knowledge. The less they knew about his skills, the better.

"But those cans aren't going to shift themselves. I don't suppose either of you could show us to the commissary, or whoever else buys food around here? Need to make sure we can afford the fuel to take off again."

[Untaaura Verratoa]

"Surre."

Untaaura extinguished her cigarette again in the empty shot, hopping off her barstool.

"jI'll sshow jyou wherre the commjissarrjy jiss. Therre'ss alwajyss a sshorrtage of ssomethjing. jYou'll do well, jI thjink."

The Major reached for her jacket, sliding it over her glistening shoulders.

"When jyou'rre rreadjy, of courrsse."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"I'm always rrready," Rai'raa innuendoed, hopping down from her bar stool. "Isn't that right, sweetie?" She gave Kale a solid kiss on the mouth, mostly because she could.

She turned to Kazahan. "Will you come along as well? I am verrry interrrested in hearrring morrre about the Jedi."