Float On

[Ben Merasska]

She sat at the galley table, her chin resting in one palm. Across from her sat an older Togruta, bags under his eyes, tall and thin, clad in a shabby tunic. He must have been starving, but he ate gingerly. There were scars on his horns and head-tails and fingers, and she suspected there were many more all over him. The markings on his horns oddly seemed like they were black marked with white rather than the other way around. He studiously did not look at her while he ate.

Ben coughed as he walked up and set down another bowl of soup and some bread. Shuvin glanced up at him, and he shot her a pointed look.

"Okay," Ben said, breaking the awkward silence. "We'll be taking you to the old Corporate Sector. Empire's gone, C-Sec Authority's gone, Alliance doesn't have the manpower or the fleet strength to take direct control. It's a bit rough, not much in the way of law in a lot of places, but at the moment there's nowhere better to lay low."

"Thank you," the older Togruta said seriously. "I owe you my life."

"If you had more'n a set of clothes I couldn't even give away, I'd give you a price and have you pay it," Ben answered. "But... no point in fleecing a sheared bantha. Now our other guests don't quite know we're running with stolen goods of various kinds, and you know what they say, 'Ignorance has a higher chance of keeping you alive than killing you.' Or... something like that. Let's just keep our mouths shut tight on this whole... thing, and things will be just fine."

Ben stepped back. The awkward silence descended once more.

"Well, I'm going to call the others for food. Perhaps we can pretend we're not hiding, or guilty of something?"

He received no answer, and jammed his hands into his pockets and stalked down to the passengers' cabins to rouse the others.

[Karin DeLumiar]

Commodore Een Barxara, acting commander of the Corporate Sector Occupation and Consolidation Fleet, permanent commander of the newly finished MC90 cruiser Severance, and impatient Klatooinian with a growling disposition and the canine teeth to match, impatiently growled at Lieutenant Karin DeLumiar as she worked with the comm officer in the Severance's secure communications center.

"You won't regret this, Commodore," Karin reassured him. "I promise."

"If I regret it, I promise you'll also regret it," Barxara grumbled. Then he softened. "If I don't regret it, you may get the Captaincy your squadron's been pushing me to give you."

The admission caught Karin by surprise two ways. No one in the Starfighter Corps had let on that a) they wanted her to Captain a full wing or that b) Barxara had a soft side.

"It's just a matter of finding the right tool for the job," Karin replied, then gave the comm tech (a human female) her attention. "Okay, now sync the array with the frequency on this commlink's C-setting."

The tech 'yes ma'am'ed and took the personal commlink Karin offered her. Barxara used the pause to ask a question. "And you think this man is right for our job?"

"He's right for any job. Now hands over your ears, both of you."

The bewildered comm tech dutifully plugged her ears with fingers; the less bewildered but still out of the loop Barxara followed suit. "Activating in three, two, one..."

With Karin's flip of the switch, the electronic version of a thousand screeching hawkbats breaking glass and then scraping chalkboards with the shards erupted from the comm array. "Longshot!" Karin bellowed. "Cut it out!"

The screeching stopped. "Why you do that is beyond me," Karin sighed.

"If you are who your voice print suggests, then you know why I do it," the droid brain of Pierce's ship smoothly admonished her. "Would you kindly offer the call-response?"

"Screaming Beauty, at your service."

"Karin DeLumiar, Alliance Starfighter Corps, Lieutenant, Senior Grade. Trinary access enabled."

Trinary? Karin found herself grinning. "He upped my access level."

"It was necessary to permit any requests you might make of me through long-range communications," Longshot explained. "How can I assist you today?"

"I need to talk to Spooky. Is he in?"

"He is." The droid voice paused. "As you are not alone, I will require additional confirmation from the Night Watchman before I can connect you. Please hold."

"Tell him to get his ass to the tac room," Karin said with a backwards glance at the Commodore. "I've got a mission."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Oathkeeper," Longshot's droid brain echoed through the vehicle bay's communications system. "A Trinary access holder is requesting you on secure communications."

Pierce slid from under the speeder bike he was working on. "One, I asked you not to call me Oathkeeper anymore."

"You did ask," Longshot replied. "But you did not command."

Pierce sighed the sigh of a thousand smaller sighs rolled into one. "Second, only one other person in the galaxy has any access to you, Longshot. Call her by her name."

"As you command, Oathkeeper," Longshot agreed passively. "Miss DeLumiar is on the line."

"Karin," Pierce ground out through gritted teeth. "Just. Call her. Karin."

"Certainly, Oathkeeper. Karin specifically requests that I tell him to get his ass to the tac room. I've got a mission." Longshot toggled back to its normal voice from the recording. "Please note: her communication is originating from a location at the edge of the former Corporate Sector. The communication encrypt is Alliance military, but it bears an unfamiliar signature - possibly from one of the newest Calamari cruisers."

Pierce hung the clamps and voltage tester back on his toolbench wall and headed for the interior of his vessel. "Noted."

"A word of warning - she is not alone. Voiceprint communication will be modified to ensure your identity remains uncompromised."

Pierce paused at the bay door, nodding appreciatively at the droid brain's anticipation of all his needs. "Thank you Longshot. Good work."

"Of course, Oathkeeper."

Most of his needs.


######

Pierce stood by his tactical holotable and keyed up his commline. "Watchman here."

"Hey Spooky," Karin's voice greeted him. "Long time no chat."

Pierce sighed again, this sigh a thousand times more sigh than his earlier one. Apparently everyone was using callsigns he hated today.

Karin picked up on the tired note it held. "Sorry," she apologized. "Didn't mean to crack the plating there."

Not your fault, Pierce wanted to say. Longshot decided to pick today to engage its malfunctioning humor subroutines. "I hear you have a mission."

"Unfortunately, yeah," Karin said. "I'm with the CorpSec Holding Fleet right now and we've got trouble. There's a guy violating our borders. We know very little about him except he's currently in possession of one slave, possibly more, and we suspect he's with a crew that means to cause trouble."

A potential slaver? "I'm listening."

"Commodore, I'd like to transfer over our file. Could you authorize the upload?"

Another voice - Klatooinian, Pierce guessed - uttered an authorization code and the holotable lit with information of all kinds: a few explanatory paragraphs, interstellar maps and trajectory lines, and most interestingly of all, the image of a Togruta male showing all the deliberate injuries of torture.

The horn-tails stood out the most. Most Togruta horn-tails had white-patterning with colored bands; the white in this male's coloration seemed so thin as to suggest the reverse.

"So this is our prize?" Pierce asked.

"Yeah. Spooky, our only alternative to catching this guy is to dragnet the entire sector and we don't have the ships or the detection network for that. Anything you can give us on where this guy's going would be invaluable."

Pierce turned his attention to the starcharts. The trajectory lines showed a confirmed travel path up through Jerrist; after that, several guess-branches veered off in multiple directions. They were all wrong, but one of them seemed closer than the others.

Pierce used his hands to segment that area of space and pulled it from the rest of the map. The table responded by miniaturizing the other information and expanding his selection. "All your guesses have him going to or near major population centers."

"This is Commodore Barxara." The Klatooinian was apparently tired of staying in the background. "Our analysts predicted he would seek out places to refuel and resupply. We estimate that his needs are rather large."

"I kinda think he won't," Karin added. "Doesn't seem the type to like attention and a visit to one of those places will get him some."

"You're right, they're wrong," Pierce confirmed. "He's on the run, which means he's looking to hide somewhere. He wants a quiet place: big enough to suit his needs but small enough to bully if he has to. That place will have to have resources for an extended stay, even if he doesn't linger. That eliminates all non-populated worlds in the area, as well as colonies below a Size Three threshold."

Most of the stars in the tacmap went dark as the search parameter narrowed. As he examined the remaining systems, he spotted a tag from Longshot's datamining attached to one of them. He opened the tag and read the description. "Son of a Dathomiri crone," he snarled as he finished.

"What is it?"

"There's an Alderaani colony in the Nogolis system. Established a year ago with the blessing of the old government. Size Four: has a large network of small towns and no major cities. It's right in the sweet spot, a fair number of people but not organized in a way that will give him trouble if he decides to make it."

"Vader's charred bones!" Karin swore. "Alderaani- Spooky, there are few enough of them as it is."

"Yes," Pierce replied grimly. "And I'll do whatever it takes to protect these."

Karin's end was silent for a good half a minute. "Is- Spooky is that-"

"Whatever it takes: that's the promise," Pierce said solemnly. "I'll be at your location in a day to discuss mission parameters. Have the Commodore transmit an official support request to my handler. I'll let them know it's coming and that I've already picked it up. Watchman out."


######

The commline clicked off much more quietly than it had engaged. Karin stood, mutely processing their discussion.

"Lieutenant," Commodore Barxara interrupted her thoughts. "What did this- this agent mean by his promise?"

Karin turned to him, an uncertain look on her face. "It means, sir, that there are some Alderaani who are going to get protected whether they like it or not."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Shuvin," Ben's voice pulled her eyes from the access panel and to his face. "We've landed. Not C-Sec. Passengers needed to get out here."

"Okay," she said, going back to her work.

"Shuvin, you need to talk to him."

"And say what? Ben, he sold himself into slavery. For what? My dad and mom ended up in the same place despite that. I never saw him before. He might as well be a stranger."

Ben stayed quiet for a moment, and the only reason she knew he was still there was the shadow cast on the floor.

"But he's not," her captain said finally. "And I won't try and force you to talk to him, but at least think about it. You may not have another chance."

She sat back, and watched his shadow grow thin and then widen out again; he'd turned around.

"I'm going to find some more passengers. Give us a good reason to enter C-Sec and get to Nogolis. We might be here a few hours. I'm not sayin' anything about you, or your family. Just... don't wait until you can't talk to them to want to."

Ben's shadow shortened and disappeared in time with the metallic clanking of his boots on the decking. Shuvin grabbed a spanner and went back to work. She'd managed to push everything but the engine block she was working on out of her mind; the repairs continued steadily without a break until she reached back for a plasma torch, only to have it pushed into her hand.

"Thanks, Be —" she said, only to stop at seeing the tall, scarred Togruta from earlier.

"I'll leave you alone, if you wish," he said kindly. Shuvin shook her head quickly. He remained quiet for another moment. "So this is the life you've chosen. Not quite the life of the rich and famous, is it?"

She glanced up at him.

"My brother — your father, told me everything he could about you when you left. He hoped I could keep an eye on you, but by that point it was too late."

"Why did you do it? How was it worth it?" she asked.

"I had to. He is my brother, and he sold himself into debt in an attempt to give you all the life he felt you deserved. Debt, especially to the people he owed, Shuvin, is a dangerous thing. Once you are in debt, it becomes progressively harder to get out of it. The brokers he traded with were unscrupulous, but they were the only ones who would give him the amount he'd asked for."

"I don't need a lecture from you, Uncle Nichavara." Shuvin said, regretting the sharpness with which she spoke, but unable to take it back. He smiled sadly.

"No, I don't suppose you do," he answered. He sat down. "So tell me, how did you manage to get in with Captain Merasska?"

Shuvin smiled despite herself at the look of utter curiosity on Nichavara's face.

"It's a long story."

Nichavara opened his arms.

"I have nothing but time."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben took his time setting up the area, fiddling with the half dead announcement post until it read freighter alderaan bound for Nogolis fare negotiable in bright green letters on a black background, but the letters flickered and changed at random intervals. Ben gave up trying to fix the damn thing and went about hooking his commlink to the comm unit on the announcement post.

They had landed in some dirty transport station that was only bearable due to the fact that it was on a planet rather than a space station, which would have been cramped and even more filthy.

"Cerie!" he called. "Hey, Cerie! I need you to check this for me! Make sure the comm unit's properly keyed to the link."

[Pierce Tondry]

Starlines shrank into stars, and Pierce arrived.

As fleets went, only a small one greeted him upon his emergence from hyperspace. His scan picked up a smattering of smaller vessels accompanied by a large Calamari cruiser hanging before him in the void. A series of mobile dots signifying the presence of starfighters on patrol also dotted Longshot's HUD, but they neither posed a threat nor offered anything of interest. His eyes turned to the cruiser instead.

The cruiser whose transponder identified it as the Severance - of the new MC90 layout, if his intelligence was accurate - stood as both center and centerpiece of the group. Pierce angled Longshot towards the ship, letting his eyes perform a tactical read across its design. Flaws existed, but what ship had none? This one bore few.

A sound ship to station Karin on, he decided. It deserved her.

Transmitting the clearance codes bought him an escort through the perimeter patrols to the Severance's primary docking bay. As the tractor beam guided Longshot into the bay, Pierce saw a trio of figures awaiting his arrival through the cockpit viewport. Neither the Klatooinian with Commodore's bars or the Pantoran in a Fleet Admiral's uniform held his attention.

But the raven-haired Human Lieutenant offering the cockpit an enthusiastic wave caught his eyes and made him smile.

With Longshot safely landed, Pierce flipped the tactical settings in his visor to supply information relevant to interspecies diplomacy and left the cockpit.


######

The exit hatch to Longshot's cargo bay opened smoothly and with minimal noise. As Pierce strode down the ramp, he noticed that only the Klatooinian and Pantoran stood before him. Karin was missing.

She'd remembered.

Acting more on a hunch than any real tactical decision, Pierce leapt into the air, grabbing hold of the cargo door frame and pulling himself up. Beneath him sailed a string of curses that would make a Klatooinian's hackles rise, and judging by the Commodore's expression they'd done so.

Pierce dropped back onto the ramp and, seeing Karin there scrambling to her feet, swiftly snap-kicked her face. She rolled backwards and came up on one knee.

"Agent! Lieutenant! Stand down!" barked the Commodore, but Pierce and Karin both threw forestalling hands in his direction.

Then Karin threw the first punch and they fought in earnest.

[Cerie Moreau]

Her name being called wasn't anything new. In fact, in a strange way it'd become normal. So normal in fact, that she was at Ben's side less than thirty seconds after he'd called her.

"What comm? What link?"

Her blonde hair was trussed up as she stared groggily at the flickering letters, a sign that she'd been this close to a nap. Having shut herself away in her small cabin, Cerie had opted to try for a small bit of shut-eye before... well, she didn't know before what, but time spent with Ben and Shuvin had acclimated her to having to deal with the unexpected. Such seemed to be the existence of those aboard Alderaan.

She gave a small grumble before reaching out slender fingers to the connection port of the commlink he held. She made a show of fiddling with the plug, twisting it about a few times before running two fingers up the length of the wire to the comm unit itself.

"Seems fine," she offered with a shrug.

Something caught her eye. "Hold on a sec - "

A non-too-gentle rap to the unit's side yielded nothing, and Cerie sent her eyes back to the commlink.

"You got the latest compatibility software installed on this thing?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben simply eyed her for a moment, holding his comm link loosely in one hand.

"I was going to hand this to you and have you walk inside the ship so i could make sure that it was linked properly."

He held up the comm link.

"By, you know, talking. Through this. To make sure we can hear and be heard. Through that."

He pointed at the announcement post.

"Have you slept?"

[Cerie Moreau]

She gave an exasperated sigh while snatching the comm from his hand.

"Well I was trying to," she huffed out before turning on her heel and clomping her way back up the boarding ramp in her still very much untied boots.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben waited until she was gone before hitting the button on the post.

"Hello? I hope no one's missed their nap because I'm looking for passage. If there's a dashing Captain aboard who's had his nap time, I'd sure like to speak with him and not some mean tired blonde."

Ben thought for a second.

"Who is very pretty in spite of her crankiness. I'm sure she could make life miserable for anyone dumb enough to not qualify their harsh observations with flattering if very logical statements of fact."

[Karin DeLumiar]

In the middle of managing her squadron's supply requests via wireless datapad, Karin's wristchrono began beeping relentlessly. She switched off the chirping reminder of Pierce's arrival, grabbed her gloves, and headed for the docking bay.

The extra ten minutes built into her timeline allowed her to put her hair into a topknot ponytail, pull on her gloves, and stretch out. By the time her commlink requested "Lieutenant DeLumiar to the main hangar", she'd been there long enough to stretch out and warm up.

"Already here, sir," Karin snatched the comm up and replied to her commanding officer.

"So you know, Lieutenant," Barxara continued. "I'm bringing our new Fleet Admiral to meet you and our guest. I trust there won't be further surprises from either of you?"

"Can't promise that, sir," Karin replied. "But any surprises we come up with will benefit you, that I guarantee."

The comm growmphed.

The Commodore and the newly arrived (and very blue) Admiral of the Holding and Reconstruction fleet joined her less than a minute after he'd commed. "Officer on deck!" Karin bellowed, saluting as she did so.

With the exception of the lifter droid operator, the deckhands dropped what they were doing to salute. "At ease," the Admiral called in a voice that conjured to mind a mug of hot caf sweetened by a few too many sugar spoonfuls.

Barxara returned her salute. "Lieutenant, this is our new Admiral Zost Tosi. He's officially in command as of this morning."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir," Karin smiled, offering a gloved hand. "Welcome to the Severance. I look forward to serving with you."

"Lieutenant," the Admiral gripped her hand lightly and shook. "I've heard a lot about you. In fact, you're nearly all I've heard about so far. Among your accomplishments, I hear you're a top pilot, exemplary squad manager, and a Kalidor Crescent bearer. I daresay the Commodore is trying to put in a good word for you."

"The Commodore's supported me in a lot of ways," Karin acknowledged Barxara with a nod. "I hope I prove him right."

The docking buzzer chose that moment to sound across the bay. After the crew cleared the entry section, the docking shields switched position. "I should say," Karin grinned at the incoming ship. "I hope we prove him right."

"I've seen that look," Commodore Barxara's voice hinted at wariness. "You spoiling for a fight, Lieutenant?"

"Well, you know," she grinned, waving at Longshot as it sat down to rest.

Then it struck her: no, they didn't know. They didn't know Pierce, and she'd forgotten to tell them.

Karin facepalmed. Motherf- wait, no, no time for kicking myself. "Sirs, I have to do a call-response here," she said, darting towards a less visible spot beneath Pierce's ship. "Just stay put for about five minutes."

The cargo bay ramp slowly unfolded from Longshot's underbelly. A familiar figure in a black Alliance operative's armor and tactical helmet strode down the ramp with purpose.

His attention was clearly forward. Maybe she'd take him by surprise this time.

Her feet were just leaving the ground when she spotted his barest hesitation. Unfortunately, he'd sussed out her plan too late for her to change it. She dove forward onto the loading ramp, swearing a blue streak as she landed beneath where he'd been standing not a moment before.

He landed, kicked her in the face, and took up a ready stance. She rolled backwards, recovered, and did the same.

Barxara shouted at them to stop, but they both gestured that he should hold his interference. This was part of the ritual.

She threw a punch at him. Hi, it said.

Deflect, counterstrike. Hi yourself. We safe?

Block, headbutt, jab, jab. Yup. Trustworthy as far as I can tell.

Dodge, dodge, absorb blow, gutpunch. Time's questionable. Let's get down to business. Pause, intentional whiffed punch. I missed you.

Intentional strike miss, intentional missed reverse elbow. I missed you, too.

The two combatants had managed to arrange themselves back-to-back after their brief, but explosive duel. Each took a breath and spun; Karin punched with her left hand and Pierce caught it with a right-handed palm block.

We are in accord, each told the other.

Though Pierce's expression couldn't be seen beneath the helmet, Karin knew he was smiling, same as she was. Clapping interrupted the moment. "Impressive display," the Admiral stated, stepping forward. "Lieutenant, the Commodore neglected to mention your personal combat skills in his description."

"I keep it under wraps, sir," Karin said, catching her breath. "This is one of Allied Intelligence's spooks- sorry, Special Operators. May I introduce the Night Watchman?"

At the introduction, Pierce saluted. The Admiral returned the salute. "Let's discuss this mission you're undertaking for us, shall we?"

"Aye, sir," Karin said. "Come on, Spooky. No time to play just yet."


######


As briefings went, theirs was short. Pierce came to the meeting equipped with a complete mission structure, including suggested primary and alternate approaches, required equipment, necessary personnel, and communication schedules. (Had to kill time during hyperspace somehow, he'd joked during one of his few speaking intervals) The Commodore agreed to it faster than she'd seen him do anything; the Admiral showed a tad more hesitation and questioning, but in the end, he also approved the plan.

Without eyes already at Nogolis, they couldn't be sure of the situation there. Step one called for the two of them to transform into civilians, catch a quick shuttle to the nearby spaceport, and then hire civilian transport to their destination.

"I'm going to have to show my face for this one," Pierce had remarked as he added scar-makeup to the side of his face.

"That's fine," she'd said. "It's the Big Stupid cover, so I'll be talking. I'll just make it a point to keep the attention off you."

"You're the best," he'd replied.

"Damn right I am."

The hour after their arrival flight's docking found the two of them wandering the spaceport, taking in the view of the planet while they slowly scanned destination listings for a ride. Small moments where they could just be together helped keep things running smoothly between them and they were in no rush to end it.

Their alone time closed with a ping. "Got something," Karin remarked. "Freighter Alderaan, headed for Nogolis. Fare's negotiable, it says. Must have some empty spots they're trying to fill last minute. I'll book us."

Stepping to the side, Karin clicked the response frequency in the ad.

The comm suddenly sprang to life. "-who is very pretty in spite of her crankiness. I'm sure she could make life miserable for anyone dumb enough to not qualify their harsh observations with flattering if very logical statements of fact."

"Awww, thanks," Karin clicked her microphone on. "Not a ton of people out there who get me before they've met me, but you pretty well hit the nail on the head there."

Confused noises came from the other end of the comm. "So, I was looking to book passage to Nogolis," Karin continued. "And the ad said to contact this frequency. Hope I didn't interrupt something private?"

[Cerie Moreau]

She'd only made it just inside before a voice on the other end that was most certainly not Ben's sounded off in answer. Stopping, Cerie stared down at the comm in her hand. A light scowl, and she gave a pinched expression before pushing the talk button.

"Hey guess what Ben," she purposefully talked past the mystery woman's voice, addressing a - more than likely - rather stupified Ben Merasska.

"Your ad works!"

[Shuvin Undhi]

"So, I am quite stuck. The Gamorrean was laying dead on top of me, Maayna is long gone — and the Hutt is due back in fifteen minutes. I can't move: I don't have the strength to move this massive very smelly dead creature on me. So I start to make up a story, hopefully one that will convince the Hutt to kill me quickly instead of feeding me to his nexu. I planned on blaming the Gamorrean, which wasn't too bad a cover story. Gamorreans are notorious for being great guards and dumb thugs, but they're also very crafty when they have the desire, and you won't believe the amount of killings I've heard of that involved a Gamorrean trying to take over a gang or usurp control over a lucrative aspect of a Hutt's business. The Hutts don't mind too much, as long as they still get their cut of the earnings and the gangs don't get too uppity.

"But before I'm done crafting the story, using as many details as I can remember to make sure the Hutt is more focused on the story than killing me, I hear the door open. And I am very afraid, Shuvin. The Gamorrean is pushed off of me, and I look up into the eyes of the person I fully expect to be my executioner, only to find the bounty hunter looking down at me with a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

"'Now this inn't what I expected,' the bounty hunter said to me. I was angry.

"'I had to kill him!' I hissed, careful in case someone was just outside in the hall. 'You said you were going to do all of this!'

"'I was busy,' the bounty hunter said. I suppose now I was lucky he was so entertained, otherwise he might have killed me for speaking to him like that. 'But ye've held up yer end o' the bargain. I'll hold mine I will. Even though yeh let th' little one run off.'"

Nichavara paused, clearing his throat. Shuvin leaned forward.

"And then?" she asked. Nichavara smiled.

"He talked to the Hutt, and I was sold. It wasn't freedom, but I was too valuable and had nothing to trade. The girl was let free, at least for the moment, and disappeared. I haven't heard from her since. I don't suppose I will now, given that there's quite a bit of galaxy between us. I'm sure her story of being a Senator or Admiral's daughter was a complete fabrication."

Shuvin hummed in agreement. Nichavara raised his eyebrows at her. Shuvin shifted in her seat.

"Okay. So, at one point me an' Ben are parked in this town. Ben goes off to find some way to make money, and I see some guy selling necklaces. Beautiful things. Only, it turns out that the necklaces were slave collars..."

[Ben Merasska]

"Uh, thanks a lot Cerie," Ben said, before addressing the mystery woman loudly so as to keep Cerie from making any more observations and potentially scaring off these passengers. "So, nothing private has been interrupted. But that was fast. I'd only just got this thing set up. You said I had an advertisement up?"

Ben glanced at the announcement post with a little more respect. He'd thought they'd have to wait until someone passed by and pressed on the announcement post. But anything that came that quickly was to be treated with caution. Nothing good ever came this quickly.

"Well, I'm not going to say you've got a ship until I've at least seen your faces, and hammered out a price. Gate C, Strip 79."

[Karin DeLumiar]

"Ah, yeah, been using a listcrawler to find local rides," Karin answered. "Sometimes it picks up saved drafts, even if they aren't supposed to be active yet. Sorry for the surprise. I'll see you in a few, 'kay?"

Karin shut the comm off and pocketed it. "You heard?"

Pierce nodded. "Gate C, Strip 79. You want to wait a bit, or are we done?"

Karin took a last glance at the spaceport window. The scenery consisted of mostly barren stretches of dirt, dotted by the occasional rock formation. She wouldn't miss it. "We're done."

Turning from the window, she saw Pierce was already picking up their luggage. "One of the things I like most about this con," she grinned at him. "Is that you do the heavy lifting."

"Only because you can't," he jabbed amicably.

"You scale model of a Rancor's ass," Karin growled, snatching at her bag. "Give me that."

Pierce tugged it just out of her reach. "Can't break cover," he said, his words accompanied by one of his famous microfrowns. "Speaking of, guess I better get into character."

Karin watched as Pierce adjusted his posture and gait. Gone was the Alliance Special Operations commando. In his place stood a slouching farmhand with a face that struggled to communicate. The nasty scar down the right side of his face suggested an accident, probably with farming equipment, had robbed him of speaking capabilities.

Karin, on the other hand, now affected her most charming smile with eyes just-a-bit-too-wide. She couldn't play entirely vapid, as she was mouthpiece for both of them, but she also had to seem just dumb enough to be nonthreatening. "You look great," she said, laying a hand on his arm. "C'mon, my big ol' ox! We're gonna catch us a ride to Outlaw Country!"

[Pierce Tondry]

Their luggage sacks each weighed, at a guess, thirty Imperial pounds or more, most of it clothing. They couldn't risk a search undoing their cover, so the luggage contained no traces of their day job. The closest anyone might get (and it would take digging to get there) would be the newness of their physical identicards. Beyond that, Dref and Milwa Tinnfostle, the nomadic couple who preferred agrarian-world work, existed as far back as the Palpatine-era Empire.

Which wasn't to say anyone was likely to look. This far from the Galactic Core, what you did today mattered a lot more than your travel history.

How much money you paid also mattered, and haggling was to be expected.

Pierce and Karin found the slip with the freighter Alderaan and approached the tousle-haired blonde man in pilot-ish togs out front. "Hiya!" Karin turned her smile up a thousand amps and displayed it. "Me and the ox here are looking for transport. You the captain?"

With a single sentence, Karin walked the line between her and her character at a pitch-perfect pace. Pierce felt his admiration swell, then subside as he reined it in. He couldn't let stray reactions give himself away.

Then again, he felt little concern over the thought of giving himself away. He'd been told time and again (by Karin, no less) that if he ever fully expressed an emotion, whatever planet he stood on at the time would dissolve in surprise.

'Enough. Time to get to work,' thought Pierce, and he focused his attention on observing the conversation coming to life before him.

[Cerie Moreau]

She'd busied herself in the galley, making a Cheez-O and shaak ham sandwich. It was really one of the few things she could think of to put together in some semblance of food. Which was better than nothing, she figured. Spending a small amount of time perusing an old OKWear fashion flimsimag, she finished off half of her small meal before deciding to make her way back outside. She still had the comm anyway.

Clomping her way back out from the galley, the blonde made her way back to the boarding ramp's opening, but stopped short of traveling down its' full length. It was the over-joyous sound of a hello being directed at Ben that gave her pause. A moment of though, and Cerie settled for squatting down, perching at the middle point of the boarding ramp with her arms supported on her knees.

Another bite of her sandwich, and she chewed thoughtfully while watched as a man and a woman approached Ben.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben glanced over at them from where he was standing. A large chunk of the bottom hull was open and wires were hanging out in massive clumps, tied together in some spots with string. A soft white mist descended from the opening, as well as from the mouth of a pressurized spray can that the Captain was holding.

"Sure am," Ben replied, immediately recognizing them as farmhands of a kind. The man looked like he'd had something a bit scrambled, probably from whatever had given him that scar, but otherwise they both seemed non-threatening. "Stay back a bit. This stuff can be dangerous."

He set the can down and walked over to them, wiping his hands with a mostly clean rag. Stuffing it into a pocket, he extended a hand to them.

"Ben Merasska, Captain of Alderaan." He gestured to the ship behind him. "You said you were looking to get to Nogolis, right?"

[Shuvin Undhi]

Stories, Shuvin had to admit, were a great way to break the ice. Trading them had told each of them quite a bit about the other, and she was feeling a lot more equitable and generous to her father's brother.

"Come on," she said, finally ending their getting to know each other phase, for the moment. "Let's see what's going outside. Stars know that I could use some help fixing up some things around here. But don't think I won't get the whole Marvin the Shistavanen story out of you! That sounds way too fun to hold back."

Nichavara smiled. "We'll see. I don't know how much help I can be, but I'm not going far from you now that I've found you. Er, you've found me."

Shuvin couldn't help but feel a little happy at that, as well as a little perturbed.

"Don't worry, I won't stop you from any of your liaisons," Nichavara said. "I'll be plenty far away from you at those points I wager."

Shuvin laughed.

"You're better about it than Ben is," she said, standing and offering her hand to the elder Togruta.

"Oh, I suspect I may do a bit of underhanded threatening and background checking behind your back. I may let you live your own life, Shuvin, but I'm not going to let someone try to ruin it for you without doing something about it."

Huh. Maybe this was why Ben was all weird about losing his family.

"You're going to ask Ben to stay on?" she asked, not quite sure how she felt about that at the moment. Nichavara nodded slowly.

"I don't have much to offer, but I feel I must. Either that or I'll learn some useful skill and reapply later."

She led Nichavara through the ship to the entrance ramp, where Cerie was sitting and eating a sandwich while Ben was speaking with a bubbly looking woman and a strong silent type man.

"New passengers?" She asked, stepping past the blonde woman and immediately seeing the white mist slowly dissipating from the open section of the ship. "Oooh, he's finally cleaning all that gunk out!"

She turned to Nichavara.

"Uncle Niche," she said, ignoring the bemused expression on his face. "Go grab a rebreathing mask. Right side of the entranceway, a little marked door in the wall. Actually, grab two."

[Karin DeLumiar]

"Yup! Nogolis or bust!" Karin said proudly. "I'm Milwa Tinnfostle and the ox here is my beau Dref. We're agriworkers - heard they started up a colony out there and had a call out for hands. We finished up a growing season on Brolson out off Triton Trade a few weeks back. When we got the news about Nogolis, we figured we'd see what was out this way. Took several hops to get from the south end of nowhere to the northwest end of diddly, but we made it this far."

She took Ben's hand and shook it, coming away with a smear of whatever cleaning agent Ben had been using. She sniffed it. "That Chlorothan spraymist?" she asked, pulling a wipe rag from her back pocket. "That'll clean out your manifolds, your filters, your pipes, your nose, your ears, and probly the space 'tween your ears too."

Here, Karin paused, turned to Pierce and made several finger gestures with her hands. Pierce shifted a bag to free a hand and responded in kind. "So, Ox here thinks you're trustworthy," Karin said, turning her attention back to Ben. "Which is good enough for me. If you feel the same, let's talk credits and passenger berths."

[Cerie Moreau]

She had a mouthfull of Cheez-O and shaak ham sandwich, but that didn't seem to stop her from answering Shuvin.

"Sheems li' iff."

Another few chews, and Cerie swallowed, angling up to look at the young Togruta.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben looked at the two warily while the slender Nichavara stepped out of the ship and handed Shuvin a rebreather.

"Mind showing me how to use these?" he asked. Shuvin rolled her eyes and put the mask on, and flipped up the protective eye-plates. Nichavara aped her, and was handed a thick large rag.

"We'll figure out cabins when it comes to it. Price'll be one thousand," Ben said. "In advance. Alderaan's not a pleasure yacht, but she's got water showers, real food, and individual cabins. And this is the old corporate sector we're talking about here. Not the safest place to travel."

[Karin DeLumiar]

At the words "water showers", Karin's eyes lit up. She spun and began signing at "Ox" with furious speed. I was gonna haggle, but - water showers! Can we skip ahead to just paying the man? Because I would kill for a water shower.

"Ox" lifted his eyebrows and made a few signs back. It's not really our money you know. We're only supposed to spend what we need.

I mean, can't we just pay a little extra ourselves to cover the difference? Please?

You can pay a little extra yourself. I don't care whether the showers are water or not.

Karin bit her lip. I can't afford the full bump myself. Pleeeease?

If you can't afford it, don't buy it.

I know we usually offer some mechanic work as a trade to cut our pricing, but I'd prefer to use the extra time to get into character. An impish grin crossed Karin's features and she lightly slapped Pierce's chest. 'sides, we'll have to shower together anyway. I promise I'll make it worth your while.

Do I look like a Zeltron ambassador to you?

Yes! A big, strong, sexy, generous Zeltron ambassador.

I'd rather be a Gungan, and that's saying something.

You can be whatever you want, as long as it's naked in the shower with me.

'Milwa'-

Listen, I haven't seen you since Dac. I don't know when I'll see you again. The showers are fun but really I just don't want to be fixing or cleaning a ship when we could be, I dunno, training, or learning, or planning, or doing something together. If you think it's not appropriate, I understand. I just-

Pierce's hands closed around hers, interrupting her. You win, he signed. We can chip in for this.

Karin smiled a slow smile back. Thank you.

"You got a deal, Captain Merasska," she said, turning back to Ben. "A thou's out of our usual spending range, but agriwork seasons take a bite out of folk and me and Dref could use the downtime. Long as we can get a bit of privacy together, we'll make do on the price."

She stuck out her hand for another shake, as folk do when they have an agreement. Pierce, meanwhile, fished out a credit chit and debited enough to cover the costs of their travel and stuck that out.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben's eyebrows rose, but he shook her hand.

"Well, let's introduce you to the crew and get you situated. We got some cleaning to do and then we'll be off."

He led the two over to Shuvin, Nichavara, and Cerie.

"Everyone, these are..." Ben paused and realized he'd forgotten their names. "...our passengers."

He gestured to the two Togruta, and Cerie.

"This is everyone." He finished lamely.

[Cerie Moreau]

Finishing off the last of her sandwich abomination, Cerie rose up to her feet, and dusted her hands along the sides of her pants while sending a silly look to Ben. Her eyes shifted then, to their new passengers before one hand came up to offer a shake to the woman.

"Name's Cerie."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Hi!" Shuvin said, pulling down her mask and waving at the woman and man. They looked nice and normal. "I'm Shuvin, Ben's mechanic. I do the maintenance on the Alderaan, anything from hyperspace booster coils to oiling the seats in the galley. This here's my uncle Neesh. He's new to this whole thing."

Nichavara smiled and nodded politely to them, though he seemed guarded.

"It's funny he's not saying anything now, since he was talking my montrals off earlier," Shuvin said, staring at the male pointedly. He grinned.

"Just needed to get you to open up to me," he answered with a smooth voice. "Can't have my niece hating me for not being there for her after all."

[Karin DeLumiar]

"Milwa Tinnfostle," Karin took the proffered hand from the blonde and gave it a firm shake. "Daaaang, girl. You look like- Dreffy, who's that famous Alliance lady?"

'Dreffy' made a series of hand gestures, including a vertical slash across his right eye. "Yeah, her." More gestures. "Captain s'Ilancy, right. That's who it is. Guess what they say really is true: everyone's got a double out there somewhere. Must get ya a lotta free beers, am I right?"

Karin offered Cerie a friendly elbow nudge, then turned to the Togruta who'd spoken first. "Hiya, Miss! Nice to meet a friendly face out at this end of the galaxy. I've done some maintenance a time or two myself - maybe we can swap some stories during the flight."

Lastly, Karin turned to the final crewmember and his visage gave her immediate pause. "Them scars," she said, her voice dropping from 'friendly' to 'soft', though the surprise of seeing their quarry didn't quite knock her from character. "They look mighty fresh. Fella, you all right?"

What she wanted to ask of him was: are they holding you against your will?

[Ben Merasska]

"Something seems a bit off about these passengers Cerie," Ben whispered to her after pulling her off to the ramp out of earshot of Milwa and Dreffy. "Or is it just me? Please tell me it's just me."

He paused and sniffed a couple times, before looking at Cerie in confusion. He leaned forward and sniffed her hair.

"Them scars. They look mighty fresh. Fella, you all right?"

Ben tensed and froze, cursing that he'd once again be cursed with a curious and talkative passenger. He listened intently for his cue to scramble up the ramp, forgetting for a moment he was still nose-deep in Cerie's hair.

[Shuvin Undhi]

Nichavara ducked his head in embarrassment, while Shuvin's smiled dimmed a bit. The older Togruta put a calming hand on her shoulder.

"It's the montrals," he answered. "If they get dinged up in adulthood, after growth has stopped, they tend to heal slowly or not at all. But these are just old testaments to an old life I've left behind for good now that I'm with Captain Merasska. Actually, I owe him quite a bit for taking me on in the first place."

He, as well as every eye around, turned to see Ben looking at them wide eyed, his nose in Cerie's blonde locks. Shuvin and Nichavara, in unison, raised one brow at the sight.

[Cerie Moreau]

She stood frozen, like an eopie in speederlights. With Ben's nose shoved as far into her hair as she'd often enough said Vader's had been up the Emperor's backside, the blonde wasn't exactly sure how to act. And so she simply stared back with wide eyes and blinked.

Another few blinks, and she opened her mouth to speak. Nothing came out in that exact moment, and she snapped her jaws shut.

With Ben's nose still in her hair, she finally opted to give a weak smile and a nervous laugh at their would-be passengers while ever so slowly stepping away from Ben.

"He does this all the time," she reassured in a decidedly not very reassuring tone of voice.

[Karin DeLumiar]

“Awww, that's sweet,” Karin nudged Pierce. “Look at 'im, Dreffy. He's trying to sneak a kiss all bashful-like.”

“Thing is though, fella,” Karin told Ben, taking a few steps towards him and the blonde. “If you want to kiss a girl, you gotta put aside all the shy and go for it. Like this.”

And at the end of her sentence, Karin turned and kissed Cerie full on the mouth.

When she finished, Karin gave Cerie a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Gotta show 'em how it's done or they'll never learn, am I right?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben just stared at Karin and Cerie with his mouth open for a moment, before turning to look at 'Dreffy' and Nichavara. Neesh at least was looking as bemused by the turn of events as the Captain, but he also looked intrigued.

"I... I just saw that right?" he asked. "She just up and put her lips..."

He turned back to Karin and Cerie.

"Could you do that again, perhaps? I'm not quite sure I got that the first time."

[Karin DeLumiar]

Karin crossed her arms. "Do it again?" she said, taking a few dangerous steps towards Ben. "Y'mean, like on you?"

A quick hand darted out and deftly, gently cupped Ben's chin. Her face drew closer, her eyes locked onto his and peering into him, her lips parted oh-so-slightly...

And then she playfully shoved his face away. "Nawp," she grinned. "Not interested."

Turning back to the boarding ramp, Karin approached Shuvin. "Y'mind showing me 'round the ship? I'd love to get to know her before we get settled in for the trip."

[Cerie Moreau]

Cerie Moreau could only stand and stare, the shock of the woman kissing her a difficult one to shake off. It certainly wasn't exactly an experience that she'd intended on having when she'd woken up in the morning. Hell, getting out of her bunk had been a feat in and of itself! Not to mention making herself a sandwich and actually slipping her boots on (but not finding a need to actually tie them).

Out of her peripheral vision she barely registered the woman feigning a kiss to Ben himself.

This woman was insane! She was banthashit crazy! And then she was off again, moving to Shuvin with a request for a tour.

And then the spell was broken, and the blonde blinked, eyes narrowing as she roughly grabbed a hold of Ben's arm, pulling him in close for an angry and hushed 'conference'.

"I thought we were trying to stay away from the crazy," she hissed so that only he could hear, "... and this... this... "

She trailed off then, fully digesting the look on her Captain's face. And in the very next moment she shoved him away with an exasperated growl.

Clomping her way back up the boarding ramp, Cerie yelled at no one in particular just before disappearing inside.

"No encores!"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben's face went slack as he realized what she was thinking, and followed her up the ramp.

"Well, excuse me," Ben hissed in return, "but you do recall that they've been here for all of five minutes, right? And it's not like I got a line out there waiting for passage; I can't just take the time to screen people. No one would fly with us then! And I'm sorry, but that whole kiss thing just broke me a little bit. You know, being here for five minutes before full on lip on lip action."

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin looked at Karin blandly.

"You didn't make many friends with that, even if it was pretty funny," the teen warned. "And I've got to keep Uncle Neesh from killing himself cleaning this out."

She gestured to the still open piece of the hull where a slight white vapor still slightly drifted down and hung in the air malevolently. Nichavara made to say something but Shuvin merely shot him a look which made him quiet with a sense of muted frustration.

"Sorry, but this stuff is dangerous. If you want to wait for a minute or so, then I'll be able to show you around a bit."

[Karin DeLumiar]

"Sure," Karin replied, thinking as she did that if people weren't such damned prudes about fun or pleasurable things, everyone would be a lot happier. Besides, she knew she was a good kisser and that was that. "Like I said, I've tinkered in the maintenance hangar my share. I know the drill."

"Anyways, I don't guess we'll be much burden or bustle from here," she continued. "Dreffy 'n me tend to keep to ourselves. We don't upset but so many applecarts." Except the Empire's.

At the mention of her 'beau', Karin looked Pierce's way intent on catching his eye. Unfortunately, he was busy offering his hand in greeting to Nichevarra and didn't notice her Pierceward glance. She decided to let him do whatever he was up to - which was probably gauging the Togruta's condition as surreptitiously as possible - and focus on making friends with what seemed like the friendliest member of this crew.

"That's a Ghtroc model, right? She give you grief often?" Karin asked of Shuvin as she eyed the ship.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Actually, no," Shuvin answered, her voice muffled by the mask. "She's one of the most stable platforms I've ever worked on. Not as modular as a CEC ship so after market additions are more difficult to install and get to work correctly, though."

She glanced back at 'Milwa' with her head cocked to the side.

"Kinda strange to see a farmhand recognizing a Ghtroc so quickly. Not an uncommon ship, but it's not your run of the mill freighter."

Off to the side, Nichavara was introducing himself to 'Dreffy'.

"Nichavara Undhi," he said, looking at the scar on the human's face before going over the rest of his features. "Pleasure to meet you."

[Karin DeLumiar]

Karin scoffed. "Farmhand? Aw, hon, we're not farmhands. Me and Dref? We're agriworkers. Big diff'rence."

An expansive gesture encompassed the Alderaan and the space beyond the sky in which it flew. "Farmhands stick it out in the same spot year after year. Ain't no staying in one place for an agriworker. We spend as much time in spaceports as we do in fields and if you want to get anywhere, you know your ships."

"Here in the Outer Rim, the word is that all the haulers love themselves a Ghtroc. Couldn't tell you why. Just know that the local agriwork circles talk about catching rides in 'em constantly." Karin paused, considering. "Not that I know 'em that well. We used to work the Core through the Mid Rim circles ourselves. 'course, that was before the Truce. These days, we gotta make do on the Alliance side of the Line."

Realizing how this sounded, Karin held up a hand. "Got nothin' against the Alliance, mind ya. We just had a thing for a couple planets Coreward. Before the Salliche Ag restricted their agriwork to droids, me and Dref worked an eleven-month stint for them. On their dime, we went up and down the Perelman, from Salliche all the way out to Orron III, and back again to Ruan. After the Empire forced 'em to close up contracts to agriworkers, we went to Chandrila..."

Her voice failed her.

Why did the walk down memory lane have to lead to Chandrila?

Why did it have to be on the wrong side of the Line?

Why couldn't he have just stayed?

"Sorry," Karin said, drawing her emotions back with a sniffle. "We just- Chandrila was our favorite. We had friends- were thinking of staying- calling it home-"

And then, despite her best efforts, a pair of tears spilled down Karin's face. Others threatened to follow, and so she did the only thing she could think of to do: grabbed one of Pierce's shoulders, spun him around, and burrowed herself into it to cry.

[Ben Merasska]

Despite herself Shuvin looked sympathetic. While she couldn't quite find it in herself to feel all that horrible about the situation on Chandrila and their passengers' inability to stay there, the woman sparked some old emotional fears of the girl's own, and sympathy won out over bitterness.

Nichavara on the other hand simply watched them intently, though 'Milwa' and her tears pushed him to look away politely.

[Pierce Tondry]

While Karin chatted with the teen Togruta, Pierce pursed his lips. His role in "Big Stupid" was the Observer but most covers still gave you the opportunity to talk. Given his cover story, even casual speech broke that role; on the flip side, a good cover required the agent to make connections reinforcing the role. After weighing the options, Pierce decided to attempt the latter.

He extended a hand to the older Togruta, who turned a pair of intent eyes on him.

"Nichavara Undhi," the Togruta replied, accepting the hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

The other's grip reminded him of a wireframe droid he'd interacted with once: possessing of limited strength, but nonetheless functional and in control.

Pierce made a half-helpless expression and began mouthing words, accompanying them with slow and exaggerated gestures. I (he thumbed at himself) am pleased (he patted the chest over his heart twice with both hands, miming a heartbeat) to meet you. (he extended his open palms to Nichavara)

I (thumb to himself) hope (a still hand over his chest) we (circle in the air towards everyone) have a smooth flight. (one hand through the air, kept level) Pierce inserted a pause, then continued. How long (he tapped his wrist) have you (open palms to Nichavara) worked here?

After his last words, Pierce began miming various ship tasks: hammering, cleaning, plugging the occasional item into something. Before he could finish, a hand on his shoulder spun him around. He got a half-second's look at Karin's face before the mass of hair and tears vanished into his shoulder.

There weren't many things that made her cry: the end of the Top Jockeys holo, losing her momento of Orianna the one time, and when she lost members of her flight squad. Krakana Steak Centaxday in the Officer's Mess on Dac also fit in the list, but for a different reason.

Somehow, most of those didn't seem to apply. Only one thing leapt to mind.

The home they'd lost.

Pierce set both their carrysacks onto the boarding ramp and wrapped his arms around Karin. The two of them stood still, freshly feeling a years-old shared loss for the next minute.

Karin thumped his chest once, then twice, clearing her throat as she disengaged from him. "Sorry," she apologized, wrangling her emotions in. "That don't happen often, but sometimes it sneaks up sideways on me."

"So," she continued with a wan smile. "When that stuff finishes working, I guess I'd really love that tour of the ship. Could use a distraction to clear the head."

[Cerie Moreau]

She'd stomped her way into her small quarters, sitting down heavily on the bunk as she let out a grunt. Leaning back a little bit, the blonde kicked off her boots, reached over to the inset nook that held an old copy of Heavy Bionics, and brought it into her lap. In the same motion she shifted, her legs coming up to fold themselves beneath her, and Cerie flipped open the dog-eared story mag.

Hard Dive Madness

It was a story she'd read enough times to have memorized, but in light of recent events, she set about reading it yet again.

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin scratched one of her lekku awkwardly, but nodded. She nudged her uncle, whose responses to "Dreffy's" questions had been lost in the sudden fit of crying, and put on the face mask, which sealed itself with a hiss of air. Nichavara did the same, and they turned to the opened section of the hull and went to work.

"All right, here's how you set the outer ventilation ducts and fans," Shuvin said, her voice slightly distorted by the mask. "Doing it like this makes sure the interior ventilation system is isolated, so we don't flood the ship with anything that can kill us."

A sudden low frequency whirr throbbed through the area as the freighter's ventilation system cycled the cleaner through the outer hull, and a slight wisp of white fog was ejected from a vent on the the top hull of the ship. They sprayed the cleaner inside a couple more times and let the ducting and vents cycle it through the parts of the ship they could reach, before finally closing up the last section of the hull and running the ventilation system full blast; no one could hear anything over the loud organ-shaking thrumming of the ship for a good minute, before Shuvin opened an access panel, flipped a switch, and pressed a button near where they had started the entire process.

She turned, walked away from the ship, and pulled of the mask, shaking her head and running a hand over her lekku.

"Hate the straps on those things," she grunted, and took the extra one from her uncle. She took a rag from her pocket and wiped off her hands, before tossing it into a nearby garbage receptacle. "Okay. So, we ready for that tour? I think you'll like Alderaan. Ben loves her, and it shows. Much more homey than most other freighters you'll find."

She turned and gestured to everyone to follow her.

[Ben Merasska]

"...entrance ramp takes us here," he could hear Shuvin saying. "These are the passenger cabins. Pick one unless you guys are rooming separately, and I'll show you how to access the amenities. That one's Cap'n Ben's cabin. That there is Cerie's. Mine is near the back. I like my privacy, as does Cap'n Ben. Last person who walked in on me in my cabin had industrial cleaner sprayed into his eyes. Thankfully Ben managed to clean them out, so now the guy's not completely blind, but he learned his lesson and was warned, and most importantly Ben took the guy's payment upfront so we didn't have to worry about him not paying."

Ben huffed a laugh as he looked down at his datapad and keyed in another set of coordinates into the computer.

"Up the ladder is the cockpit. Cap'n Ben is usually up there. Follow me back here, and I'll show you the galley and cargo bays and after that we'll get to the fun stuff: how to the work the water showers!"

[Karin DeLumiar]

Karin caught Pierce's eye with a questioning look. His fingers flickered a brief message - unpacking - and he disappeared into one of the passenger compartments. A thunk echoed from the room. Even though he hadn't carried their luggage around the spaceport for long, he was probably glad to set the burden aside.

The thought of a Pierce without burdens made Karin smile.

"Dreffy's going to unpack," she told Shuvin. "And he probably needs a bit of alone time to recharge the ol' power cells. He'll catch up."

The latter was already leading her onward to the promised galley. Karin followed, noting both the ship's layout and aesthetic. Alderaan wasn't pretty or elegant, but she had a closed-in hominess to her. If Merasska ever decided to retire from flying, Karin had the feeling he'd just park the craft on some planet somewhere and finish the rest of his days in it.

"I s'pose I oughta ask," Karin spoke up as they entered the galley proper. "Who cooks, 'n are they any good?"

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Most of the time, it's Ben who cooks," Shuvin answered, stretching and wiggling a bit before opening the cooler and pulling out a somewhat opaque pitcher and pouring herself a tumbler from it. "Nothing fancy I suppose, but it's good and not the same thing every time, which is better than the last guy I knew who cooked. Bachelor food gets old quick."

"I suppose that's something else I can use to convince the Captain that there could be a place for me here," Nichavara said, leaning against the wall near the galley table. Shuvin glanced over at him while draining her drink and pouring herself another.

"You can cook?" she asked, gesturing to ask Karin if she wanted something to drink. Nichavara smiled.

"Nothing fancy I suppose, but it's good and it won't be the same thing every day."

Shuvin stuck her tongue out at the older Togruta.

[Cerie Moreau]

Hard Dive Madness was a relatively short story; made even shorter when one had practically memorized it. She already knew the opening line...


Give an astromech an inch, and the little bugger will drag you on a journey that'll last a lifetime. Or at least that's how it'll feel. I figured the job would be a quick in and out; find the dame and reunite her with her lost astromech, and then be on my way with my money. Little did I know I'd end up on Cloud City with a blaster pointed at my face and the cloudy skies of Bespin at my back. I guess it was just my fate. I guess I was a sucker. But at least I knew one thing. I hated that droid a whole hell of a lot right now.


Yup. She could probably recite it over dinner one night, without leaving out a single word.

A sigh, and Cerie swept her feet down to the decking, closing the mag and tossing it onto her pillow while heaving forward to stand. She could hear Shuvin's voice, muffled and low, but the gist was well enough understood, and the blonde ambled her way back out of her small room to shuffle barefoot to the galley. A small smile was passed to the two Togruta, but melted into a somewhat more level expression when her eyes fell on the woman.

She blinked, then looked sideways to Shuvin.

"Ya'll're makin' me hungry with all this talk about food."

[Karin DeLumiar]

Karin laughed. "I'm with blondie," she said, jerking a thumb at Cerie. "Spaceport food leaves a might t' be desired. Dreffy's a fair hand with a skillet 'n spatula. If I ask real nice, I'm sure he'd put something together."

Despite her offer, though, Karin didn't want to entrap Pierce in the task of cooking. You couldn't cook and watch other people and that was his task on this run. "Or not," she contradicted herself. "I did say I'd lay off him for this ride, but if we need a cook he can cut it."

[Shuvin Undhi]

Nichavara shook his head, standing straight.

"No, no," he said. "Let me handle the cooking. It definitely beats standing over Shuvin's shoulder while she's doing the work on Alderaan. No better way to feel useless than to watch your niece play with machinery that rips spacetime because you don't know a thing about mechanical engineering."

Before everyone gets cozy, we're going to take off folks. Wherever you are, strap in please, Ben's voice echoed from the comm system. Turbulence and such, and walking on this ship is a verbal waiver against all injuries accrued while being an idiot and not following the captain's orders. Shiny? Shiny. Hmm. Where is that switch? Oh, there it is. Good. So, flip flip flip. Dum dum dum. Engines, repulsors... dampeners are... well they work. Fuel? Probably should have checked that before we started up the ship, huh. Oh well. We're good. Pointing up? Yes? Good. Right direction is always the best direction.

Shuvin laughed.

"Ben forgot to turn off the comm system again," she explained, checking Karin and Nichavara's straps. "Sometimes what he says worries me, but we're still flying now, and I've heard worse before so we should be nice and clear."

She walked out of the galley and to the Engineering station by the reactor.

What's this?! I can't... I don't... What even... oh. Oh. It's that slippery piece of green that kept trying to fall out of my sandwich! Found you!

[Cerie Moreau]

She was moving quickly, slipping back out of the galley and towards the ladderwell that would take her to the small bridge. A short trip that she'd gotten rather used to. Bare feet padding across the deckplates, Cerie met the ladder in a little upwards hop, skittering up each rung like an ungainly, drunken rathtar.

She heaved up the last wrung, heading for the co-pilot's seat and practically falling into it.

Her crash-webbing was quickly pulled on as she could feel as Alderaan's engines went from that initial starting rumble to the high-pitched thrum of enough power to hurdle a decent sized ship up into space.

But, she still had the wherewithal to reach out and turn off the ship-wide comm.

"Good to know you found the star of The Great Sandwich Escape," she grinned.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben's face reddened.

"Ah, forgot to turn off the comm again, eh?" he laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Well, at least nothing bad happened during warm up."

Alderaan's engines rumbled and whined loudly for another second before the ship lurched off the ground and hovered for a moment while the repulsors gathered more energy for the final thrust upward in the normal sequence for an unhurried take-off. The release of that energy bucked the ship slightly, but other than that, their path out of the atmosphere and into the vast black of space was calm and smooth.

Good girl, Ben thought, sending his ship all his love. This was probably the best part of flying; the take-off, the beginning of a new journey, with cargo and passengers and life both behind and ahead. Alderaan buzzed when they'd passed the magnetosphere of the planet, and soon after the gravity well no longer gripped them and they were making excellent speed into space.

"Queueing up coordinates for jump to hyperspace," he said out loud for Cerie's benefit. "Engines are warm, inertial dampeners are working. Motivators are singing, practically."

Cerie responded with her own checklist, fingers flipping switches and pressing buttons with the practised air of routine.

"Nav-computer is online, spooling coordinates now," he announced, spinning around to check the sensor station before turning back to disengage the locks on the hyperdrive. "Scanners are clear."

"Everything reads shiny," Cerie responded.

"Activating hyperdrive," he announced and pushed the lever forward. The engines' whine rose in pitch and the star elongated into a tunnel of unreality. He looked over at Cerie and smiled, before undoing the crash webbing, and sliding down the ladder.

"Hokay!" he said, clapping as he entered the galley. "Who's cooking, and what're we making?"

[Shuvin Undhi]

"At the moment, I believe myself and Mister uh, Dreffy are both offering our services as cooks," Nichavara said. "I know I'm not quite a crewmember, Captain, but as they are passengers of yours and have already paid their dues, I'd like to pay mine in some small way."

Ben blinked, taken aback at Nichavara's earnestness over cooking.

"I've told you before, Undhi," Ben said. "I'm not the type to scrape a dry well. I mean, I would if I were dying of thirst. But that's only in the literal sense, not in the metaphor I meant that to be. Though I suppose if I were desperate enough, I'd try and make something back off a red run. The ship don't run off well wishes and clean morals. Or bad wishes and bad morals either; it runs off of money. Or gas. I don't think I'm doing a good job of this, am I? I'm going to stop talking now. Go ahead and cook, whoever wants to."

Ben stopped talking, looked around the room once, and backed out nonchalantly as possible. He nearly made it to the ring corridor before tripping slightly, catching himself, and then turning around and walking away.

The galley remained silent for a moment, before Nichavara turned to regard Shuvin in disbelief.

"He's like that sometimes," she said with a smile and a shrug.

[Pierce Tondry]

Thunk thunk.

Pierce's arriving footsteps drew the attention of the room. His eyes canvassed the assembled; ultimately he looked to Karin. 'What's going on?' he signed.

'We're discussing who will make dinner.'

Pierce's upper body slumped with slight exasperation. 'And how long have you been at it?'

Karin's response was injured. 'Not long. Coupla minutes.'

'Two minutes is too long to pick a cook. You were dithering like a committee.'

'Was not!' Karin's response included some indignant palm smacks to emphasize her objection. 'Coming to accord just takes time.'

Pierce waved a dismissive hand. He pointed to Nichavara. 'We don't need to spend time on this. The Togruta can lead and I can sous chef.'

Karin frowned. 'You sure? I thought you might want to rest a bit-'

Pierce interrupted. 'It's fine. Rest after food.'

Karin shrugged. "Have it your way. Dreffy says you can run the kitchen and he'll help. Doesn't like folk dithering." An eyeroll accompanied her final word.

Non-deterred, Pierce caught Nichavara's eyes and nodded in the direction of the ship's kitchen.

[Ben Merasska]

Nichavara inclined his head, and followed Dreffy to the galley.

Two hours later, the galley table strewn with dishes, Ben had a hologram up of Nogolis. He was speaking with Nichavara, who was keeping a softly snoring Shuvin from falling all over the table.

"So the climate's varied, but it's temperate for the most part except the poles. It's mostly farming; energy and food, with some mining operations."

Nichavara frowned but nodded.

"I know a guy," Ben continued, "he's trying to get a branch office set up out here. It's not in Hutt space, and it's just far out enough that he can market to hunters and such. He'll want to test you, make sure you can read and write. But there's a job for you."

"I'd prefer to work here," Nichavara answered, "but you've already made your position clear."

"Maybe once things cool down," Ben said, evading the question. He turned back to the hologram. "There's a native population, but there's also a newer colony of Alderaani down there. So far there's been some friction but no fires. I'll be dropping you off with a friend in one of the larger towns, we'll fuel up and bone up on supplies and get on out. Same as usual."

[Shuvin Undhi]

Note: given the time it's been since the last posts, I'll continue the story as I remember it, as this is a fairly important event in both Shuvin and Ben's arcs as I've envisioned them. If my fellow writer wishes to continue from his end, I am more than happy to make it easier for him to continue the plot points he had in mind, but until then I'll just have Pierce and Karin as background characters and do as little character revelation on their end as I can, so as to not be a "god-modder".

Consider it a limited third person point of view without the glimpses into the others' minds, I suppose.





Nogolis was, as he’d said, brown and green and a jewel in the vast darkness in space. The hologram spun in monochrome, and the holoprojector rendered lines onto the planet with small blocks of text to explain what was there.


A city there, a town there. A mountain range. A single large ocean and many smaller seas, but the landmass was still largely connected. The ice caps were lopsided, with the southern pole’s extent much smaller than the northern.

She zoomed out, and the planet became a tiny speck amidst the twelve major bodies that orbited the star.

“It’s very small,” she said, finally acknowledging the other presence in the galley.

“It is,” Nichavara said, taking her voice as permission to sit. He placed himself across from her. “I did some research of my own. The planet was uninhabitable when settlers first arrived. Due to its smaller size, the core cooled too quickly, and the magnetic field withered away. The larger planet was too young to sustain life at that point. So they put satellites, large ones with huge nuclear magnets, in its lagrange points, and set up corresponding stations on the surface. An artificial magnetic field to shield the planet from solar winds. They steered small comets and asteroids to crash onto the surface to generate heat and repopulate the surface with water and reintroduce frozen nitrogen and other chemicals into the atmosphere. Despite its small size, Nogolis is quite dense, so gravity is still close to standard.”

She glanced up at him through the holographic model of the system. He was looking at his hands on the tabletop, and didn’t speak.

“How long did it take?” She asked, breaking the silence. He glanced up quickly, regarding her with an expression she couldn’t quite make out through the whirling globes of light that represented the planets of the Nogolis system.

“A short time, relatively. The atmosphere coalesced in the span of three hundred years or so, thanks to the comets and asteroid collisions and the heat they generated. Once that started, they set up small domed cities, much akin to the cities of Mandalore, and waited for the planet to warm and the seas to fill. That took another thousand years, and they sped the process by introducing plant life and bacteria to the biosphere when it could support them. At first it was lichens and such, but as water seeped from the surface, they introduced algae and grasses and small hardy trees.”

“You looked this up from here?” she asked.

“I have a great many books,” he said. There was an absent, somewhat aloof, smile on his scarred face.

The galley was quiet. Ben and Cerie were sleeping, and ostensibly Dreffy and Milwa were as well.

“Why did you do it?” she asked finally. “I mean, really. Why?”

Nichavara sighed.

“I was your father’s elder brother, a fact that he seemed to take great offense to. There were many of us. Eight children, and our mother and father, and our grandparents. A veritable clan unto ourselves. But I had no real role. My brother was the outgoing one, and he was the major role model for our younger siblings, and our parents and grandparents worked and supported us.”

He paused, a look of pain on his face.

“I was just there, if you can understand. I wanted to be more, but there was nothing more to be; and I didn’t know what I wanted to be as well. I wanted to be of use, to be needed, but like all children, and especially us Undhi, I was remarkably good at skirting work when the mood struck me. And when your father had that string of ill fortune, I brashly stepped in and did what little I could to mitigate the damage, though now I see it was an arrogant and self-centered martyrdom of a sacrifice. I should have helped sooner, but it is now what it is now.”

Shuvin hummed quietly.

“I barely remember you,” she said. “Dad and Mum never really talked about you.”

“I wasn’t nearby, but I was around. I recall you were only a little more fond of me then as you are now, but you were barely six or seven when I found opportunity elsewhere.”

He laughed softly, but there wasn’t much humor in it.

“I am glad, at the end of all this, to see you’ve done well,” he said. “And I suppose, with the work Captain Merasska has promised me and little else to drive me, I’ll continue to try and help the rest of the family. Find them and bring them all together, maybe. Set up a home or homes on Nogolis, and if everything works out well, you may consider coming to live with or near us.”

“I’m kinda stuck on this tramper life,” Shuvin admitted.

“Then perhaps just a visit every now and again.”

“That sounds doable,” she sighed. “It’s just weird, this family feeling, or whatever it is.”

“Like you have no idea what to do, or what to say; and there’s no script to follow, no role you can fall back on,” Nichavara said. She nodded. “I know the feeling, but I’m afraid I don’t have any advice to give you on how to deal with it. I’m not a very friendly or social sort of person.”

She gave him a wry look.

“If you couldn’t tell,” he said, a more natural, living sort of smile on his face.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Well, we're on the way now, and if I know Sarin, he'll have something set up and waiting for you when we get there. He's scary efficient like that," she said.

"So you know him?" Nichavara asked, cocking his head slightly to the side, his brow quirking.

"Knowing Sarin is the wrong way to put it," she said, laughing a bit to herself. "He's like frosted glass, you know? You can kinda see through it, but it's difficult to make out what's on the other side, or knowing what you're looking at."

"I understand. And well said." He said, and then yawned loudly and with his mouth wide. "I think I'll turn in now. We will be at Nogolis sooner rather than later, and I think I'd prefer to be rested for the conversation with this Sarin fellow."

"'Night," Shuvin said, standing and stretching. "Don't know if I'll turn in just yet, but it probably won't be too long. Ben'll wake up sometime soon. Doesn't like it when the crew's all asleep when there's strangers on board. Makes him antsy, if you get me."

"A very pragmatic sort of worry," Nichavara commented. "I won't keep you. Sleep well, when you do finally go to sleep, that is."

"I'll probably have more questions about Nogolis and all that when we're both awake, if you don't mind me asking."

The older Togruta smiled.

"Of course," he said, and left the galley. His footsteps tapped on the grating and through her montrals until the door of his cabin slid closed behind her, and she mulled over that one phrase: I wanted to be more, but there was nothing more to be.

[Veskasa Vel Aath]

The doors to the conference room opened, and Lieutenant Dam marched in, smart and disciplined. The Captain was seated at the end of the table, a part that could be more aptly described a desk than a table. A large hologram dominated the room, a woman, dressed in the unmistakable cut of an Imperial Intelligence Agent. Unlike most Agents, however, she wore a hat, a small cap on her head, with monochrome tiling on the brim. She only looked at him for a moment, but her eyes were dark and piercing, even through the projection.

"We have entered the Nogolis system, and are currently in stationary orbit around the planet's moon, Captain."

Ferris Banoun hummed and looked up from the projection on his desk. Lieutenant Dam clicked his heels and bowed, though he did not hide the curiosity on his face. Banoun stood and walked to the view port. The shutters slid open, giving him a view of the small fleet of Imperial warships, whose forms could only be seen due to the glow of their hundreds of cabin lights. Warships, every one of the them. All of them, full of refugees. Women, children, scientists, engineers.

"Thank you, lieutenant. Put together twelve teams, two from each ship. I've sent manifests to each commander; the goods will be sold for as much as you can glean, and you will buy what the manifests tell you to buy. Put down in every major settlement on the planet, and do not overtly display tiles or uniforms."

Banoun gestured to the desk, and Dam saw a datapad there. He reached down to pick it up.

"That we've been reduced to this," the Captain breathed. "Running and selling our livelihoods for food and fuel, like common tramp freighters."

"Sir?"

"I have some of my own ships on the way," the woman said. "You should not take long, and take special care to remain hidden. Follow my instructions, and you will not only survive, Captain. You all will flourish."

The Captain turned from the viewport and nodded, though to whom the gesture was directed was not clear.

"You have your orders, Lieutenant Dam. As you have heard, once we do this, our time of skulking about will end."

The woman smiled, and to the Lieutenant it seemed a hooded, veiled expression; vague and mysterious, both menacing and alluring at once.

"As you command, Captain," he said, and left the room behind for the hangar bay.

[Karin DeLumiar]

Pierce and Karin were lying in the room’s only bunk, covers over both of them, her back to his front. One of his arms draped over hers; not quite a lover’s embrace, but any surprise inspectors would have no reason to believe they were anything but what they said they were.

Still, Karin felt the distance there even as she felt the warmth. It reminded her of a question she’d had since they started their mission.

They’d turned in a few minutes earlier and the rhythm of his breathing signaled that he wasn’t asleep yet. Running her hand down his arm, Karin intertwined her fingers with his and began making some quiet hand signs.

‘You feel like talking?’

Pierce shifted. ‘What about?’

‘Your promise. About the Alderaani. Why “whatever it takes”?’

A long pause, and then ‘There was a bad day.’

Sympathy immediately washed over Karin. ‘I’m sorry.’

His fingers lightly drummed the back of her hand in an amused way. ‘Wasn’t actually my bad day.’

'Change of pace for you. Was it someone you were protecting?”

‘Complete stranger. Let’s sit up. It’ll be easier.’

The two of them disengaged and took up sitting positions on the edge of the bunk. Karin leaned over and grabbed a glowrod from her pack. She activated it, sending a gentle, warm glow over the two of them. 'So when was this?'

'About a month after we met. I'd gotten Longshot out of impound. The Empire was turbulent, so was I, and a lot of my old connections were dead or missing. I was trying to track down a ship tech who knew enough about classified Imperial designs to safely modify Longshot. I'd managed to follow a trail as far as Ralltiir when I lost my immediate leads. Without a better plan yet, I decided to take a break and get some food at a local cafe. That's where I met the boy..."

[Pierce Tondry]

It was a beautiful day on Ralltiir. The sun dominated a brilliant, blue sky where puffy white clouds dotted the view as picturesque accents. Flocks of birds soared to and fro, chirping out the songs of their kind. And despite the presence of an Imperial Star Destroyer visible in high orbit, the locals moved with a spring in their step. If anything, the Emperor's fall at Endor had shifted the cloud of gloom from the average citizen to the Imperial troops still scattered among the populace.

Even Pierce had to admit that his current frustrated aimlessness had a certain freedom to it. Maybe Karin- 'No. Not down that road. No.'

Turning his attention from past back to present, Pierce scanned the commercial plaza again, though not entirely sure why he was making the effort. He'd continuously monitored the area for three days, picking out various vantages and occasionally playing the role of a businessman making deals whenever he felt eyes on him. Unfortunately, the ship technician he'd been seeking hadn't made an appearance. It was anyone's guess whether they were even still on the planet.

His stomach rumbled, alerting him to just how far past breakfast the time had gotten. With an inner sigh and a shrug, Pierce picked up his datapad from its place on his lap and went over to the line-less taco speeder at the corner. "Three please."

The server nodded, then tapped the order into the register. Pierce pressed a credstick into the payment terminal, pressed his thumb to the credstick's print reader, and waited. The transaction finished with a quick ding and the server nonchalantly signaled his order to the nearby cook. "Be right up," she said.

Pierce stepped to the side and turned back to scan the plaza while he waited. As soon as he did, he felt the difference.

It wasn't immediately clear where this shift was coming from, at first. All he could tell was that it was localized: some part of the cheerful landscape had been disrupted and small waves of discontent were rippling through the mood. His eyes gradually traced the disruption up the street, past the crowd by the statues, and finally found the source by the fountain.

It was a person in an Imperial officer's uniform.

There was a brief tap on his arm; Pierce accepted the outstretched taco tray with a brief thanks and began moving towards the small crack in the otherwise cheerful day. By the time he got close enough to see them clearly, one taco was gone and another was half-finished.

What was most striking about his first glimpse was the age; it was a human male who couldn't have been older than 17. As Pierce continued to get closer, his eyes took in the entirety of the person. The slump in their shoulders, the unsteady stance, and the direction of their gaze into the fountain all signaled an internal turmoil so great the boy'd become oblivious to everything else.

Pierce hesitated, but the hesitation was pushed aside by something inside him. "Everything alright, officer?"

The eyes came back to the present, took in his response. "I'm not- I do not- Your help is not r-required at this time, citi-" the voice, maturing but with enough crack to signal the vestiges of puberty, suddenly dissolved into a rush of breath. The form struggled and eventually managed a half-hearted headshake.

Pierce finished the second half-taco, then set the taco tray onto the edge of the fountain. "Have a taco."

"I'm n-" the voice tried again, briefly, ending in a soft "I cannot."

It was the word cannot that echoed familiarly in his ears. "Nonsense," Pierce said, sitting down next to the tray. "It's not every day one meets an Alderaani Lieutenant of the Empire. The least I can do is give you lunch for the privilege."

Eyes turned on him, pain cascaded through an otherwise vacant expression. "I'm a monster."

Pierce's own words to Karin came back to him. I believed I was serving right. But I was the monster.

"You need to talk" Pierce said, coming to an immediate decision. "And I'm willing to listen. Come on; let's go somewhere private."