Heirs of Adventure

[Taataani Onashi]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...


star
Wars

HEIRS OF ADVENTURE

It is a future beyond Empire and Alliance.
two hundred years have passed since
the Galactic Civil War ended. In its wake, an
uneasy conflict between the FIRST ORDER and
the RESISTANCE continues to embroil entire
star systems.

On the distant planet of SOMOV RIT, threats
of war seem light years away. A farmboy full of
wanderlust and a brash street tough go about
their business as an heirloom of their past awaits
discovery...




Luwaalo Village - nearest recharging station 184 kilometers



Meditation was an act of emptying. Thoughts, emotions, sensations of motion, sight, sound, and smell. A conscious act of placing self inaccessible to all else.

Her mother had taught her that. Her mother's mother taught her. It was all a part of the family secret. There was a lot more to it than that, but another part of the family secret was that you always focused on what was in front of you.

The speeder lorry lurched, the repulsorlift feathering not quite preventing the passengers from feeling the buffeting. One of the caged nunas squawked. Ack, all broken. Dammit.

Taataani opened her eyes slowly, reluctant to fully abandon meditation and let in other things like irritation. Too late though.

It was too bumpy to meditate. Too chilly in the early evening to sleep. She didn't dare ask the farmer to climb in the cab to take a load off for the long trip. He'd almost had kittens when she'd cajoled him for a ride in the truck bed for five creds. She coulda walloped him, sure, but weren't nothin' in it for her to do that. You didn't use the family secret for no good reason.

Something got her to looking at the particularly gabby nuna that broke her meditation. It got to looking back in that bird kinda way. The way where they tilted their head just so, and looked at you so hard that you didn't know if they were really good at focusing or if that's all it was and the lights weren't on up there no matter.

"Y'know, you'rre goin in someone's pot tomorrow. Don't let that rruin yourr sleep now."

The nuna blinked obliviously. Taataani shrugged, and slinked further down in the truck bed. She looked down at her booted feet, resting just shy of the edge of the flat bed, and watched them gently bob up and down with the contours of the country road. It was kinda hypnotic, and she felt that familiar empty come over her. Not quite meditating, but she was letting as much of it go as she could.

Up above, the stars. On Somov Rit, there might be a good four freighter loads of people, so the story went. The rest was all combine droids and dewbacks and nunas and corn. Out in the deep country like this, with the clouds off to sleep, seemed like you could see straight to Coruscant. Taataani let her eyes relax, seeing a few more stars than when she'd first looked. You never felt all that alone on nights like this one. With one last look at the stars, Taataani winked and aimed a gun made of her finger and thumb at the brightest in the sky.

"Bang bang."

And with that, her other hand slid her wide-brimmed hat over her face. Still a good hour before village.

[Taataani Onashi]

Luwaalo was about like any other "town" that sprung up on the planet. Someone over there's got something that someone over here wants and vice versa. They meet in the middle, have a swap meet. Voila, town. In this case, folks to the west grew a lot of corn, and the folks to the east put their dewbacks to pasture on the foothills. Winter comes, and the ranchers want to finish their herds on the good stuff, not the hill ranges and their well-cropped, browning grass.

You saw Luwaalo a long damned way before you got there, on account of the silos. A few core slickers got excited sometimes when they made the last fifty click approach, thinking the tall things up ahead were buildings. About the time the neighborly aroma of Dewback poodoo hit, they got the notion they were in the wrong sector. Of course, core slickers weren't bad folk on principle. They brought all kinds of things with them. Fancy clothes, fast speeders. Money. They lost that in sabacc though. One other thing about this place. If you wasn't farming or ranching, you was hustling. Could count on a hand or two the number of honest trades out there. Taataani counted herself as honest enough. She never lied or stole not unless it was small potato stuff or real important. That was another part of the family secret. You might not have two chits to rub together, but you always got a name, and that matters.

Bout the time that Taataani had gotten used to the smell of dewback poop, the lorry glided to a stop, followed a few beats later by the sound of a hand banging against the side of the vehicle.

"Alright you, git!"

"Yeah I'm goin', I'm goin'."

Taataani collected her things and hopped off the flatbed, pausing at the last moment to snatch up her hat, which she carefully framed on her head, passing a hand over the brim as a last flourish. The blaster at her hip was quickly concealed over by her plaid jacket, and she paused for a moment to unwind her body in a thorough stretch, finishing off with a brief shiver to shake off the cold. The farm hand who'd carried her this far, a tough-looking Gotal shit-kicker, watched her suspiciously as he pulled a well-wrinkled pouch from his back pocket. He opened it up, pinching a measure of sticky cured leaf with a thumb and forefinger. Taataani's eyes fixed on the pouch, and she shifted her weight in contemplation.

"Crredit forr the rrest of that chew therre, misterr."

The Gotal tucked his pinch in a corner of his mouth, grinding it slowly as his ears flicked.

"Ain't the sort of habit for a nice lady like you."

Taataani's blue eyes flicked down the main drag of town. She could hear the piano going at the watering hole.

"We all starrt out nice, misterr. Being nasty takes prractice."

[Taataani Onashi]

One credit later, Taataani Onashi had her first tabac chew. Red Zabrak. Some rugged-looking horn-head on the label. She gave the contents a sniff, which smelled sorta like spicy raisins. As the lorry pushed on down the road, Taataani pinched a petite portion off from the mass in the bottom of the pouch, and as she'd watched the Gotal do before, tucked it in the corner of her mouth. It was strandy and would come apart in a mess if you didn't mind where it was and keep it all tucked at the side in a neat little bolus. Didn't take much chewing to get the juices going. Sorta spicy-sweet. Made her gums tingle. Perked her up too.

Now the important bit. She wasn't the last cabbage off the cart, and knew darn well that you'd get sicker than a bantha with vertigo if you swallowed the juice. Besides, the juice was important. Craning her head over her boots, Taataani pursed her lips, and let a ropy strand fly. It didn't go far, landing only a few inches beyond her toes, and leaving a sad little shimmer tracing from her lower lip to her chin. Undaunted, she wiped that free with the back of her hand.

If at first you don't succeed...

She got a good round of chewing again, feeling another round of juice ready to go. With more careful intent, she expectorated an artful lob a good meter away. Taataani smiled - prematurely - as a dribble went down her lip again. Another pass of her hand to clean up, and she was ready for her next trick. Her blue eyes moved here and there across the dusty thoroughfare. There was enough light here to see the street plainly. She was looking for...there. A prickly beetle. The insect lumbered through the pebbles and dirt, carrying a kernel of corn with it like a prize. Taataani's eyes fixed to her target - as sharp as the look she'd gotten from that nuna. Razor focus. The tabac, the juice, her taut lips. Weren't none of those things.

She was a weapon.

phhfftht!

Bullseye. The staining gout broadsided the beetle with full force at what had to be two meters, knocking it on its back and forcing it to lose it's prize corn kernel. Beetle legs kicked and flailed uselessly as Taataani carefully removed the spent tabac from her mouth, and then spat repeatedly to knock the taste from her lips.

[Taataani Onashi]

She hadn't counted on the pick-me-up. The tabac had her a bit wide-eyed. Wouldn't be a problem if she was over-the-road speeder haulin', but what she aimed to do would have her heart going no problem. Might just beat out of her chest if she did much else.

The piano down the way got a bit louder as Taataani headed to the source. This late out, weren't no folks out but for only two things, the saloon and the bawdy house. Both was lit up like life day, cause in a place like Luwaalo, you couldn't even get the holos without a signal booster. So-called decent folk turned in early, 'cause runnin' generators cost money and it didn't make much sense to stay up for no good reason.

Taataani stood at the road between the two institutions of sin in the village. She eyed the bawdy house with a frown. Sure hoped her mark weren't in there. Not on account of being scared of a whorehouse, more like the whores probably had enough trouble already without her stirrin' up the nest. Plus, never did seem to be any men whores in dens of ill repute. Mama said there was on some other planets. Bet them core slickers knew all about that.

Nah, he was gonna be in the saloon. Night's young, after all.

Taataani paused at the double doors leading in, and closed her eyes. Empty it all out. Let go. Let it all fall away until only you remain. The piano fell silent. The din of the crowd. The flickering lights beyond her eyelids went away. The weight of the gun on her hip felt like nothing. At the threshold, Taataani parted her lips, letting out a long, rattled breath before opening her eyes once more and letting the world in.

Boonta Races. It was always Boonta Races. Boonta Races Ten Clicks Long, All The Twin Sun Day. Everyone knew it, and they all sung along. The piano player could bang away the melody with enough blood alcohol to light a match. Taataani passed through the double doors, which creaked as the swung and followed through. She expected every eye in the saloon to turn her direction. Somehow, she was disappointed that they didn't. Life continued on without a beat, and her petite shadow darkened no one enough to damage their calm.

She could still feel the beat in her chest a measure too fast for her liking. Wouldn't do to mess up her timing. She eyed the bar, full to capacity. Still, she eyed a gap between two ranch hands, pushing between shoulders like she was as big as they was.

"Whiskey."

Maybe they'd ask for ID on Coruscant. Sure as ten hells didn't on Somov Rit. A fat Rodian gave her a scrutinizing look, and figured she had enough hat to make up for what wasn't beneath it. She supplied the chit, and he supplied the brown liquid, at a quarter measure up the side of a jelly jar. Wasn't her first whiskey, not by a long shot. Knew well enough that it was worth the destination to skip as much of the journey as you could, so Taataani rocked the glass back in one quick pull, scarcely letting the hooch hug tongue as it fell down her throat. It burned good. That buzzing in her belly countermanded the off tempo thumpy-thump in her chest. Balanced the equation. Made her feel whole. From her perch at the bar, Taataani turned her back, leaning against the lacquered wood. The piano man had moved on to Ol' Organa, for pretty much all the same reasons. Two tables ahead were full up for sabacc. Two Bith were playing darts at the far wall, with probably a bottle of whiskey more in their system than they ought to have to negotiate such deadly missiles.

He wasn't here.

Taataani sighed. He wasn't here. All dressed up and no ball to attend.

Her eyes shifted.

The Dejarik table.

And there he was, just like he ought to be. Tash Rumiah. Big. Square jaw. Broad shoulders. Had a look to him that said he might knock out a tauntaun if he put the haymaker just right. Taataani watched him play against a Gran. Dejarik weren't her game, and she couldn't tell a Savrip from a Ghhhk if her life depended on it. Still she watched and let the whisky work. He weren't lookin around, and he looked cool as a glass of water. Which meant he either didn't expect trouble to come knockin', or he did and he had that handled. Taataani's blue eyes moved about. Everyone's eyes was on their vice of choice, be it the gambling or the hooch or the spice. No shifty feet. No sweaty hands, save for the folks losin' their roll at sabacc.

Only now did Taataani reach for the pouch of Red Zabrak again. She was pulling the trigger now. From here on, the weapon was just firin' in slow motion. Fingers now familiar to the motion pinched the tabac. Placed it in the corner of her mouth. Taataani began to chew. To build up the juice. She broke from her perch at the bar, moving past the too-close shoulder. Again she was invisible. A thing not seen. She moved for the dejarik table, and figured the jig was up when her shadow crossed the holograms on the table. Even then, she was a ghost. Taataani's eyes moved from the dejarik pieces and off the table. Down to the floor, and an awful nice pair of boots. Too nice for a shit-kicker like Tash Rumiah to come by honestly.

The weapon fired.

Taataani spit a stream of tabac juice. She had the distance and the aim. Tan suede forever sullied by sepia stain with a wet pop.

Now they noticed. Even the drunken piano player. Ol' Organa died on his fingertips.

"You Tash Rrumiah?"

Put as a question, but it weren't one at all.

[Taataani Onashi]

The chair slid out with a groan of wood that got contagious in a hurry as all the rubberneckers liberated themselves of their seats. Mostly to get a good look, but also it was prudent if they needed to beat a retreat to the door if things got more violent than a brawl.

Tash Rumiah was a bull of a human. Over two meters, and over 120 kilos. Taataani got a good look at his knuckles. She noticed knuckles. They were a very truthful body part. Tash's said that he'd spent a goodly portion of his life using 'em. They were broad and pronounced, and each one buttressed with enough callous to give a history lesson. He loomed, forcing Taataani to relinquish her initial advantage and look up. Her eyes barely cleared beneath the brim of her hat. Beyond that, she gave him nothing.

"Whores next door."

That little comment got him some laughs. If he expected it to bring color to her cheeks or cause her to flinch, he was gonna be disappointed.

"I ain't no whore, like them ain't yourr boots. Way I figure it, you put about fifty crreds on them outta the thrree hundrred you stole from Gwando."

The rubberneckers took a collective step back. This was gonna happen. Tash stared her down for a seeming eternity and laughed, lips curling over stained teeth.

"Hahahaha...that's like Gwando. Send a girl to do a man's job!"

He made a dismissive gesture with one of those broad-knuckled hands.

"Go on, little girl. I'd hate to mess up your doll face."

Taataani held her ground. The rest of the saloon gave up another step.

"Thrree hundrred back to Gwando. Fifty forr my fee."

Tash gave a belly laugh, which was followed up by less-assured laughter from the rest of the saloon.

"I'm afraid I'm fresh out of credits, missy. What now?"

This was gonna go the hard way. Taataani reflected on this with utter calm. She was empty. Ready.

"Then I give you a thrree hundrred fifty crredit beating. Starrting with yourr teeth. Teeth arre expensive."

Tash moved to laugh again, drawing in his breath. There wasn't an inch of waver in the girl's eyes. His eyes glinted, and his smile disappeared as he closed the distance dangerously. He pushed the brim of Taataani's hat upward with a thick finger.

"I tell you what. What, with me being a gentleman and all. I'll let you have the first shot. Go on, lay it OOOHHH!!!"

Tash Rumiah pinwheeled off his boot heels, smashing across the dejarik table as three bloody teeth tinkled on the wooden floor. Taataani's head and hands remained as they'd been. Her right boot poised high where Tash's head had been a heartbeat before. She eased it down with complete control, and drew her hands up into guard almost as an afterthought. There was no sound in her ears. Not Tash's scream or the crowd's gasp. Everything was in the now and simple. Always focus on the now. That too was part of the family secret.

The rest happened as involuntary response. As unthinking as breath. Tash recovered, gap-toothed and enraged. His bulky frame charged like a reek, right into Taataani's fist. She moved it an inch. Her entire body unwound like a bull whip, an explosive release of efficient motion that sent Tash to the ground with the surety of a concussion grenade. A hail of body blows rained down on his prone body. A thick arm flailed up uselessly, and Taataani hyperextended it. The shifting of her petite weight was still enough to break the elbow with ease. Tash choked profanities at her. Gargled threats in her direction. She felt his blood on her face, warm like the drops before a summer thunderstorm. Action begat reaction in a perfect balancing of equations until there was nothing more to react to. Just a blubbering, moaning wreck of a man she now straddled.

It was only now that Taataani noticed the gun at Tash's hip. This could have all ended differently. Taataani liberated the weapon as she stood. She also managed to fact check Tash's financial status with a pat-down, finding his credit purse still quite full. From the amount of money remaining, plus what she could hock his heater for, she was easily in the black on this job. She considered that. Weren't right taking more than you had coming your way. Taataani fished out a chit to her liking, tossing a fifty piece on Tash's chest.

"Forr the boots. Maybe not suede next time. They stain like hell."

A familiar swell in the corner of her mouth. Taataani winked, then drilled Tash between the eyes with Tabac juice.

Wasn't hard at all finding her way out of the saloon from there. Every eye in the establishment was on her.

And they all gave her a clear way.

[Ben Hadrana]

Somov Rit felt a lot more massive than it actually was. Vast fields of grains and corn, and the huge barns and warehouses built to house them from the elements. The silos that reached towards the sky; when you were right next to one you could almost feel like they challenged the mountains in terms of height. He'd heard there was a huge factory somewhere on the world that was about the size of a mountain, but he'd never seen it.

Most people on Somov Rit weren't great people, or horrible people. They were just people. Even the small Alderaani town of Juranno couldn't boast of the refinement and well heeled that their ancestors of years past laid claim to, though on the whole they were moreso than the other inhabitants. They were farmers, farmhands, and ranch-hands, just like the rest of the people on the planet, save for the export/import folks in Starport, which was called that because there was a starport there. People were both very poetic and very unpoetic at the same time.

It wasn't like people didn't have their own ships. More than a few had old boats they flew around, like the racers in their T-25s, or the richer folks in their small shuttles which they'd take for short vacations. Air shows were popular and weren't infrequent, with even a light freighter or old fighter design making an appearance by a dedicated oldster with enough free time in their 'retirement' to put to their care. Fairs and festivals often featured them as a main attraction. Swoop bikes were popular with the rowdy kids who liked to leave trails of flattened grain behind them and look at the nonsensical designs with pride.

The Alderaani of Juranno were freehands — that is, ranchers when the time came for ranching and farmers when the time came for farming. One of the larger combine and equipment warehouses was located in Juranno, meaning it got a fair bit of traffic and trade with people coming for parts and droids. When old Esther Hadrana established herself and those who came with her on the planet, she'd made sure they could make themselves indispensible. The governors that traveled the planet and taught the kids of various towns and villages during the school year were usually Alderaani, droid makers and mechanics and veterinarians all had small trade schools in the town, and when the Combine Warehouse (again, that blunt poetry of the people of Somov Rit) was built and stocked, Juranno was a dot on the map that wasn't going to blow away.

Every year, the town would celebrate Yavin Day, which once had been a festival for the destruction of the great weapon that had killed their planet but had met its end soon after, but was now an amalgamation of a harvest and folk festival. Prize nunas and banthas were shown, air shows were a given, and there was a great retelling of the stories of great Alderaani heroes. Princess Leia, Bail Organa, and the most revered if not the most talked about, Ben Merasska. Quite a few of the old families had tales about how Ben Merasska had personally helped an ancestor of theirs, usually at great risk to himself, and had made good on their debt by helping Old Esther with her establishment of the colony. Plays of how Ben and Den, partners, had rescued the last history of Alderaan from the evil Empire were favorites, and so full of drama and bombast in some versions the performers themselves would laugh.

Ben Hadrana liked to think he bore a resemblance to the man, and he wore his face like a badge of pride, like it was a portent of his destiny. It's what he wanted more than anything else: to leave Juranno and the great waves of grain behind and travel the galaxy, saving pretty girls and righting wrongs and thumbing his nose at authority when it got in his way. After all, he was Esther Hadrana's descendant (as were a good fifty or so others at least but that didn't bother him), and she was the granddaughter of old Den Hadrana himself, partner to Ben Merasska.

Or so the legends went. Hadrana wasn't an uncommon Alderaani surname after all.

[Ben Hadrana]

"Ben!"

No answer.

"Hi, you Ben!"

No answer.

"BEN!"

No answer.

"Now where is that boy?" Rafine Hadrana grumbled to herself, stepping down onto packed lawn of their yard and placing her hands on her hips. "If he thinks he can shirk and still go to the Yavin Day shows I'll skin and tan him! Ori!"

A small, high pitched shout from inside the house heralded an equally small and dusky haired boy who nearly tore the thin storm-door off its hinges on his way out and almost tumbled his way down the porch steps and next to his mother. She smiled, but then slapped him on his temple.

"Careful with that door!" she scolded. "If it breaks we'll need to get new hinges made, and that's expensive. Need to get Ben to fix the slides so we can have the regular door back. Anyway, I want you to go find Ben."

"But ma," Ori panted. "I can't!"

"Sure you can," Rafine said sternly. "You got eyes, don't you? Ears? A mouth? And, oh I hope this is true, a brain in that thick skull of yours? Use 'em to find Ben!"

"I can't ma," Ori insisted, stomping one foot in injured pride and childish determination.

"Didn't I just say—"

"I can't, cause Ben ain't around! He's out with Littlefoot, lookin' at the skyhoppers over at the corn fields! I can't find him there, it's too big!" Ori explained before saying in the satisfied way a child does when he knows someone's done wrong and he's helped catch them out, "I heard him talkin' on the comm afore he left."

Rafine frowned and motioned for him to come along.

"Come on then Ori. Let's fetch Ben and get him back on task."

"We're going to the combines?" Ori asked, eyes wide.

"Not until you put your boots on we aren't."

Ori left a trail of dust on his way back inside.

"Careful with that door!"



"Now," Littlefoot said. "Bolt da block toda frame. Likein dis."

Ben glanced back and looked at the diagram held in the Gungan's hands. Normally the Gungan was the well and water supply mechanic, but like most people on Somov Rit even though he wasn't human, he was an avid fan of the air shows.

"Thanks," Ben grunted and pressed the activation switch on the tool. With a loud ratcheting, the bolt was tightened, and Ben couldn't hear the warning before it was too late.

"BEN!"

Ben jerked and hissed in pain as his hand scraped the opening of the panel on its way out. The ratcheter clanked down into the chassis, causing Ben to grimace before focusing on his hand.

"Ben Hadrana!"

"Oh my my. Looks likein yousa in some big doo-doo," Littlefoot murmured. Ben rolled his eyes and turned back to the oncoming forms of his mother and little brother. He glared at Ori, who just smiled and slid a little further behind Rafine.

"I finished all my tasks, ma," Ben said before his mother could get going. He loved her to death, but she tended to let some words fly when she was angry she regretted, but was a bit too proud to take back. She glared.

"Don't cut me off, mister," she said.

"I didn't. You hadn't started yet." Ben danced backwards as his mother stepped forward, a fire in her eyes. "All the tools are in the shed. Droids are shut down or put on night routines. The well system's been checked, and I set the timer for night consumption. The speeder I put in the barn. Little Meri took care of the eggs, and Ori had the house taken care of."

"What about Aunt Eline's house?"

Ben frowned. "What?"

"Aunt Eline's house. She died only a week ago, Ben. Her son Uli is coming down in two weeks to see to the property."

"Why can't he see to it then?"

"It's the oldest house in town, Ben! It, and the property it sit on's been in our family for generations! If Uli stays on with the export company in Starport, why, the house could go to you!"

"I don't want it, ma. Why don't you go live there?"

Rafine frowned and Ben mumbled an apology, feeling like a heel.

"Fine," he grumbled. "General clean-up?"

"Yes," Rafine said, calming down after having won her victory. "I want you to be happy, Ben. Since you love the stories so much, I'm givin' you a chance to look through the place before the hawks come down and pick through. Uli's a good boy, but he left home the second he had a chance."

Ben felt a spike of guilt stab him at those words. He suspected she knew they would cause that reaction.

"He won't care for it like you will."

Ben sighed and nodded. Rafine nodded once imperiously, before turning to Littlefoot with a smile. Ben spared a quick sneer for Ori, and left on his swoop bike for the very edge of town. Given the size of the some of the properties, he had some time before he would make it.

[Taataani Onashi]

Was a saying that went a ways back. Maybe back to Onashi-sama himself. You can drink for free after a bar fight, but you can't stay there. Either way, Taataani had taken her fill of Luwaalo. Weren't even no good way to hitch a ride back to Juranno till daybreak, but she weren't complaining save for a growlin' belly. She pushed to the edge of town to find a heated barn. Weren't nothin' to break in, and lo and behold she found an empty stall with fresh hay, like someone was lookin' out for her on high. She'd slept a whole lot rougher than that, so it didn't confront her none, and the vagabond fighter fell asleep the moment she hit the bale, with one hand on her chits and the other on a gun.

The thing about sleepin' 'round a bunch of farm animals is that you don't oversleep one bit. Oh sure, you might power on through the nuna crow at sunup. You might get by a while. But when one of them dewbacks is up and sees you on a fresh pile of breakfast, he's liable to get pushy. Wet nose. Hot puffy breath that stinks but not enough to get out out of that dream about that fella there to clean your pool and you don't even have a pool anyway. And that fella gets fresh with you without no pretense whatsoever and you've seen this holo before and wow, his tongue's so big and...

"Ah! Ah! Awwww!!"

Taataani pushed the loving dewback away, leaving a trail of saliva from the big lummox's choppers to her mussed-up hair. She retreated into the embrace of the hay, which didn't do a lick of good other than to affix a lot of hay to the wet bits.

"I liked you morre when you was a pool boy, y'know!"

Course there was a sliver of rouge against the retreating purple sky, as if she needed a clue that it was sunup time. The nuna squawked again like an alarm you just hit snooze on instead of havin' the mental faculties to turn off. That meant a farm hand was liable to come a knockin' any time now. And sadly, they didn't normally behave in the way that holovid farmboys behaved. Taataani hopped off the hay bale, giving the dewback another firm shove before she made for the door, but not before boosting a pair of nuna eggs, which slipped in her pocket. She shook the hay from her hair, looked down the long road that bled into the horizon, and started to walk. Weren't gonna get there on her own two feet, but meeting a friendly face in a truck somewhere on the road was bound to happen. Say what you will about Somov Rit, but when you ain't got but a handful of folks on the planet, most folks tend to the friendly side of things.

Taataani hummed a familiar tune, realizing a few bars too late that Ol' Organa had earwormed into her brain from the night before. She kicked a rock on the path down a ways, reached into her pocket for a nuna egg, and cracked the contents raw into her mouth.

"Ol' Orrgana! Oh don't you crry forr me!
I've come down in the Falcon with the aim to set you frree!"

She heard the speeder long before she saw it, turning back on the country road. It slowed it's speed, and the driver hung his head out of the window, raising a friendly hand. he spied her outstretched thumb as that universal sign of a passenger in need.

"Where ya headed, miss?"

"Rround Jurranno way."

Made sense. It was Yavin day and all. Wasn't putting any undue burden on him.

"Five creds for fuel cell money and I got you a seat."

Fairer than the Gotal. She actually got to ride in the cab now. Taataani nodded, and the trucker leaned over to wedge open the opposite door for her. Taataani hopped in and fixed the man with a handshake with the chit already inside. Easy peasy and they were on their way.

Again, Taataani was watching the endless open road. That invitation to meditate grew. She felt the world melt away. Everything simplified. It all broke when she could've swore he said somethin'.

"Huh?"

"I said, ain't I seen you before?"

Taataani glanced over at the driver. Weren't a face she knew. Taut-lipped, she shrugged her slender shoulders.

"Rreckon you might've. I don't much blend."

And she didn't. Not that there weren't any mongrel semi-humans on Somov Rit, but that weren't the reason. She walked a certain way, talked a certain way. Acted a way folks didn't tend to do.

"You're Onashi-kage..."

He held onto his trailing breath, and Taataani only gave a cryptic grin as she turned back to the road.

"...ain't you?"

If you had to ask, you already knew just about. Taataani didn't have no trouble with this stranger, but that didn't mean he didn't cross the wrong tracks with one of her kinfolk waitin' on him at the other side.

"That trouble last night up at the Dusty Gulp?"

Again, if you had to ask...

"Misterr, arre we gonna have a prroblem?"

"No ma'am. N-no ma'am no trouble here."

She knew when to be sweet too. Toothy grin, doe-eyes, and all that sugar.

"I knew I liked you. Can we get brreakfast too?"

One does not live off raw nuna eggs entirely after all.

[Taataani Onashi]

The Onashi Clan.

Everyone on Somov Rit knew 'em, or knew of 'em at least. And everyone had an opinion, sorta like everyone had an asshole. Except for noncorporeal someones.

The tale told anywhere from the Onashi clan being ruthless gangsters to a gaggle of nerf herders without a nerf to herd. From gypsy thugs to merry mischievous mystics. Folks like to talk about what's true, and forget that sometimes truth is kinda stretchy and can fit over things if you want it to. That's why the family secret was a secret. 'Cause no matter how folks tried to define the Onashi, only an Onashi could really tell the tale.

Went sorta like this. Taataani asked for breakfast. That hayseed fella (Joburn, his name was, though he looked like a Clyde to her) heard her insinuate that either he foot the bill or she'd offer him breakfast by way of a knuckle omelet. Weren't Taataani's fault he misinterpreted. Weren't up to her to correct his misunderstanding neither. Her stretchy truth was that Joburn was just being gentlemanly, after all. So they run upon the dot on the map of Midway (named on account of being midway between Luwaalo and Juranno) and hit the greasy spoon. She got a waffle. Then a pancake. Then blue grits. Then bacon. Then more bacon on account of the first bacon being too floppy. She mashed her second stolen nuna egg into the grits and added the crunchy bacon to make hash, then paused, as if noticing the hayseed sitting across from her for the first time.

"Well ain't you gonna eat nothin?" she asked, wiping a smear of syrup off her cheek.

Joburn just gawked, as if he'd left all his breakfast banter in the truck. Stars, he had dewbacks that ate less than this twig. He only then seemed to notice his untouched egg, dry toast, and sausage link. Taataani noticed too, and her expression turned from annoyance to self-serving curiosity. If he weren't gonna eat none, she had room on her plate for that sausage. He caught that look too, and whether it was Onashi intimidation or gentlemanly virtue, he surrendered his link to a good cause.

"You know..." Taataani decided the conversation wasn't gonna happen without her, so she went about it unilaterally "...I knew I liked you..." she managed through a half-full mouth, sponging up syrup with a bite of sausage as she re-allocated Joburn's untouched namana juice. "...I think it's because you'rre a rreal good talkerr."

Joburn sipped at his caf, and finally picked at his eggs to mount some last stand at defending his own breakfast.

"Thank you, ma'am."

So there was a time that country boy manners spread a little thick, and Taataani gave him a funny look.

"I'm Taataani. I ain't no ma'am. Only ma'am's I know arre all old and pearr shaped."

He weren't younger than she was, and while Taataani might permit a free breakfast out of misunderstanding she wasn't fixin' to get goosed by a brown nose.

"Sorry. I'm just, well. You know. Y'all are..."

"I ain't a y'all, countrry boy, I'm just a me. Ain't gotta go puckerr butt on my account, I done told ya I liked ya."

That seemed to put him square, and Joburn finally managed to take Taataani off the pedestal of his making and salvage his breakfast.

[Ben Hadrana]

The swoop bike's engine thrummed lowly in the windy air of Somov Rit, and Ben imagined himself with a pretty girl hugging him from behind, and a mess of angry and defeated pirates watching helplessly as he drove off with her, just like Ben Merasska at the end of one of his adventures.

The sun was nearing it's highest point in the sky while Ben made the unnecessary sharp turn into the path that lead up into the hills. In the far distance the mountains were gray and dark and peaked with white snow, capped with clouds, and visible above the sparse trees beginning to thicken into a forest some seventy five kilometers north-east. The Hadrana ancestral homestead, the first built and considered the founding home of the town of Juranno, was built atop a hill where the trees were here and there in little copses that broke up the neatly divided borders and smooth lines of the bean and grain fields, and shielded from view the fruit orchard in the far back.

All of it unfolded from the hill like a quilt, with the house at the top, quaint and looking its age. Ben thought for a moment that he wouldn't mind this place too much before reminding himself of his determination to get out there be the hero he was meant to be.

The house itself was much as Ben remembered it when he visited with his mother when he was younger. One floor, it looked almost modular for a home built from wood and old duracrete. A long porch stretched across the front, and Aunt Eline's rocking chair still sat there as squat and tough as a rock snail's shell. On the other side of the porch a bench hung suspended from two chains that had definitely seen years of weathering. The door was the usual powered sliding variety, but it was obvious that was a later addition; the molding and door jamb were both wood. The windows were thin glass, double-pane, and were hand operated to open.

Ben keyed open the door and stepped inside. Pressing the controls next to the door, the shades opened with a swish of air and the soft sound of old servos working; light spilled into the house and Ben looked about into each of the rooms, only to find them neat and orderly, save for Eline's bedroom, which had crates and boxes stacked everywhere. Ben set to the task of going through the boxes and organizing them by contents in the main room, though most of them would have to wait until Uli showed up and claimed what he wanted out of them. In the closet sat more boxes, some of them already open. These had old holos and pictures and clothing in them. Ben pulled all of them out and stacked them in the main room also. When he had finished, he saw part of the closet floor had come loose.

"Stupid old house," he grunted, trying to wedge the board back into place, only to have it come off completely. Underneath looked like a metal film instead of the duracrete block that should have been there. With his energy renewed by curiosity, the seventeen year old worked the rest of the boards up to reveal a tarnished and fairly dented pivoting door. Taking the latch, he pulled it open. A hiss of air and pressurization showed that the seals hadn't given way for however long they'd been closed, and a single box was illuminated as the small safe's contents. Ben pulled it out with some effort, and set it in the main room, and opened it. A beige jacket was pulled out first. It was a flight jacket, and the discolorations from removed patches and ranking tiles were still quite clear. Ben tried it on; it fit nicely. Digging through the rest, he found a blaster pistol of an odd design, and working it for a moment revealed chambers for both slugs and gas. Ben set it to the side. A dress folded into a tiny plastoid container was pulled out. Holostills came next, Ben looked through them, seeing pictures of a young girl with shortish messy hair and wide dark eyes and a small smile standing next to a Togruta girl wearing a blaster at her hip and a confident grin. A third woman, with light hair and a sneak's smile sat next to a fair haired man with deep-set eyes and a tremulous smile. The man seemed to be waiting for something to happen. More pictures, of a twi'lek woman who looked as sensual and dangerous as anything Ben had ever seen stared at him with dark eyes that glinted a bit in the holo like a night sky. A dark skinned woman with a serious expression holding a blaster rifle. An old Cizerack woman standing in the back garden looking at him with satisfaction.

Ben wondered who these people were. Most of the backgrounds were of places he wasn't quite sure he could place; the old ciz lady was definitely sitting in the back garden of the house he was in. The short messy haired girl's backgrounds were mostly on a ship it looked like. The best one was of her looking back at him with a grin from the pilot's seat of a ship. Ben felt like she looked familiar.

The last one was of a huge barn that he recognized. It was built with its back end butting into the incline of a hill by the fruit orchard, which wasn't there in the holostill, but a note in the corner caught his eye:

Alderaan's in the back. Don't forget.

Ben frowned, but then grinned.

"No better way to find out than to look!" he said, standing and looking out through a window to the orchard in the distance.

[Ben Hadrana]

Compared to the ride to the house, the ride to the barn was minuscule. A huge structure, more like a warehouse, it was filled with trailers and work speeders and tools and stalls for banthas back when the orchard and the corn fields were pastureland. Ben could tell that no one had used it in years. The door creaked and groaned and squealed as he pushed it open, and light stabbed into the dark interior. Most of the work on the fields had been done by relatives and other workers once Uli had left. With her husband dead and her boys and girls all gone, Eline couldn't take care of it all by herself, and the land couldn't go untended. City folk tended to think of such land as open game and tried to run the odds their way and take it by force. It had happened to the Delry girls.

Ben tried the lights, but it seemed power had been cut for a while. With a sigh he smacked the little torch he'd brought to life, and made his way to the back of the barn. All he could see was the wall, sheer seven or so meters high and plated with thick metal. Tools and cable and rope hung on hooks, tables had been set up against it, but he couldn't quite see what was meant by Alderaan's in the back. With a sigh, he just looked at it for a moment.

"Mystery mystery," he murmured, before walking back to the opened front doors of the barn. Halfway there he stopped, and noted that the floor, which along the sides was packed earth, was in the middle a strip of metal. He looked back at the rear of the barn. He couldn't have been the first to notice this, but instead of pushing on the rest of the way out and back to the house, he followed the right side of the strip and came up against the metal plated wall once more, only this time, just below eye height was what looked like an out of place square on the wall. Taking a prying bar, he tested it and worried the edges until with a quick snap and screech the metal plate broke free and fell to the tabletop with a clatter. Underneath the plate was a faded and dusty keypad, tiny aurebesh lettering barely visible on the keys.

As if it were a herculean effort, the panel started flickering and powering on, a dull glowing backlighting the keys.

Ben reached forward and pressed the keys: a l d e r a a n

The panel flickered brightly for a second and then went dark. Ben glanced around, but hearing or feeling or seeing nothing, he spit to the side in disappointment.

And then with a deep groan the back wall's center slid back, pulling some tables with it, and opened down the middle. Hooks snapped off the wall loudly and the tools and cable clattered to the floor, tables were split and bent before the bolts that held them to the wall gave way, a growing pile of old detritus along either side of the opening door, but nothing distracted him from the mystery that was for the first time seeing light in what seemed like hundreds of years. Ben stepped backwards, and watched with wide eyes as a pitch black recess was exposed behind the wall, that slowly was dimly lit by his torch and the light from the open barn doors. The back wall, or doors, he knew now, stopped suddenly not completely as power or ability suddenly ran dry.

His mouth dropped open as his torchlight fell upon the cockpit of a starship, sitting in a large empty room.

And on the ventral hull, in large blocky lettering:

A L D E R A A N

[Taataani Onashi]

With a belly full of breakfast, Taataani was asleep within five miles. She'd liberated her boots and socks, stashing the boots beneath her seat as she tied the day-old socks to the side view mirror for a little air drying. That left her bare feet free to hang out of her window, and her head tilted onto Joburn's shoulder. Weren't a speeder for a mile in either direction, leaving the farmer with more than a few opportunities to glance at his fearsome hitch hiker. The credit purse cinched on her belt loop by a carabiner looked fat. He half considered a hair-brained idea of deducting the cost of breakfast from the Onashi's balance, but the moment his right hand fell from the yoke and his arm brushed her shoulder, he heard the unmistakeable sound of a priming blaster.

She was still asleep, or at least her eyes were closed with a face as peaceful as a dove. He hadn't kept track of her right hand, though, which was now under her flannel jacket, about where he'd calculate a gun holster would go.

"Drrive on, countrry boy." she sleep murmured, stretching her toes in the breeze.




* * *


The rest of the way to Juranno passed easy as you please. Joburn put in at the old Plowshare Inn at the town outskirts. Was technically in town and only just so, and he figured he'd done his bit of highway chivalry and didn't want to risk an Onashi as a passenger a mile further than he ought to.

"Hey." Joburn ventured. She'd nearly drawn a gun on him in her sleep, best not to go whole hog on the wakeup. By this point she'd taken to covering her face with her wide-brimmed dewpoke hat to keep out the brightening sun.

"We're here."

"You'd best be the pool boy." came a muffled, irritated voice from beneath the hat.

"Huh?"

Seven hells, the dream never got to the real good part. A hand reached up to pull off the hat, and Taataani glanced up at the farm hand. She winced at the daylight, cracking an eye open again to glance around familiar territory. The Onashi girl yawned, a brief flashing of tipped teeth betraying her semi-human nature as she pulled her feet back into the truck, remembering to untie her socks. They was dry, mostly. She gave 'em a sniff, made a face, and began to work them back on her little feet. Joburn just watched her collect her things, drumming his fingers along the steering yoke as he looked around for trouble. Trouble like a half dozen other Onashis figuring why bother to hitchhike when you can have the truck for free.

"Hey."

She was talkin' to him. Joburn glanced back as Taataani squared her hat on her head. With the dewpoke hat, she somehow transcended her girlish nature, and looked every bit as tough a customer as he'd seen on the range. Blue eyes fixed on the town in the distance, narrowed against the sun like a hawk surveying to the horizon.

"You can unpuckerr yourr butt now."

She glanced in his direction. Knew what he was thinkin' too. One good deed and all. Whether good favor with one Onashi meant good for the gaggle. It didn't, but weren't a bad idea to try.

"Thanks forr the lift, countrry boy. Now, speakin' of unpuckerrin' butts"

The leather bench seat squeaked beneath Taataani as she opened the door as she exited the scene of the crime. She slammed it closed, tipped her hat, and winked.

"That's forr pawin' my bank roll. You have a good'un."

[Taataani Onashi]

First stop in Juranno was Gwando's. The Aqualish ran a general store on the east side of the main drag. Weren't much for personality, but the tusk-head never runned out of nothin'. He was also smart enough to recognize that payin' an Onashi for a bit of honest-enough work and havin' 'em buy from you was a fair sight better than havin' nothin' to do with 'em and gettin' shook down by happenstance. The automatic door of the shop slid open with a bell chime, and Taataani stepped through the threshold, tipping the brim of her hat up a few degrees.

"You get my money, Onashi?" He croaked, clenching his fists as he remembered the audacity of Tash Rumiah crowbaring his strongbox in the dead of night. A bulging credit purse slapped on the glass counter with a thwack. Gwando looked up at the mongrel youngster, who eyed him back with an even expression, her right cheek bulged slightly as her jaw worked with a steady pace. The Aqualish looked back to the purse and laid a hand on it, followed quickly by Taataani's hand resting on top of his. She turned to her left, lined up the spitoon, and drilled it with a satisfying metallic zing before turnin' right back.

"My cut, plus whateverr I get forr this."

With her other hand, Taataani produced the heater she looted from Tash Rumiah. A BlasTech DR-49. Gwando blinked, moving his pinned hand until Taataani permitted him to withdraw it to inspect the weapons with both hands. The Aqualish turned it over, ejected the power pack, and inspected the action like a man with experience.

"Don't see one of those every day. Vintage surplus. Let'see here, a little scoring on the action, and the serials don't match. But other than that, not bad, not bad. I give you one hundred store credit, or eighty in chits."

The usual Gwando hustle, trying to keep cash from passing hands the wrong way. Didn't confront Taataani none, but she still didn't like the price.

"That's hand-polished cocobo wood and a beam focus on the barrrel, I ain't a ignorramus. One twenty."

"One ten."

The Onashi girl eyed the gun and Gwando one more time, pinging the spitoon.

"In chits."

Gwando grumbled. "Ninety."

"And my findin' fee."

"One forty."

Just as she was about to say deal, Taataani's eyes fixed on something hanging on the wall behind Gwando. There, hidden like a golden lamp in the trash was a dress. Not one of them homespun pioneer dresses. A real lady dress. With baby blues and flower print and...

"Is that silk?" she asked, mouth slightly agape to reveal the plug of tabac tucked to the side.

Got her, Gwando thought. He drummed his fingers on the counter and looked up at it.

"Got that in last week. Real silk. Imported all the way from Naboo!"

"That's purrty..." Taataani gawked, her voice a whisper. She was a million miles away now, all washed up and clean, and at some galactic ball, dancin' slow with a prince. Mid-daydream, the Onashi girl's hips swayed a little to the music that only played in her head. Gwando watched her, wondering just what in the seven hells some Onashi street rat figured she was gonna do with what had to be the nicest dress for sale on Somov Rit. Not that he was going to be the one to burst her delusions of grandeur. Until he told her the price, that is.

"It's 150 credits." he revealed carefully, watching Taataani squirm. And squirm she did. Adding numbers in her head and weighing all the stuff she might otherwise blow her wad on. Parts for her busted-down swoop bike. Parts for that dumbshit protocol droid. A few bottles of hooch. More chewin' tabac. Food.

Taataani peeled her hat off her head, afraid to look away from the dress, lest it fly away back to Naboo and leave her here. On simple yokel Somov Rit, with all her roustabout kinfolk and all the dewbacks and a whole lotta not much else. She didn't even have nowhere good to wear a dress like that. Not even Yavin Day shindigs were that fancy. All the fam'ly would laugh till she was red in the face and had to pop someone or two. That left her puttin' it on in her room when no one was lookin'. Or hell, maybe she'd just hang it on the wall and look at it Look at it and pretend she had places to be and things to see.

"Oh kosa..."

Gwando was waiting, but he done had her figured. Weren't like she ain't done nothin' stupid before.

"Guess I'll do storre crredit afterr all."

Ten minutes later, Taataani stepped out of the general store holding an oversized gold and green box. Even the box was purty. She held onto it like it was a baby.

[Ben Hadrana]

The day was waning, and Ben could see that Yavin Day festivities hadn't quite died down. At this point it wasn't purely a family friendly celebration, but that didn't stop a lot of families from taking part. Some folks inducted their sons or daughters, brothers and sisters, as young as fifteen. Others at least tried to hold them back from such unwholesome and frankly silly activities at least until they were seventeen or eighteen. Drunken pistol shooting at bottles on a fence (surprisingly few fatalities meant that fatalities still occurred), swoop and speeder races on short well lit tracks, and other activities kept Yavin Day pretty active up into the morning of the next day, prompting some to call it 'Yavin-After Day'.

He gunned his swoop bike and raced down into Juranno proper, with only one thought on his mind.

I have a plan.

[Taataani Onashi]

Taataani beat a beeline straight through Juranno. Through the main drag, through the square, and through the full throes of Yavin Day. All the way over to Starport, or at least the part of Starport that weren't a port, but a town. Tenement, more like. They took the big shippin' containers that weren't fit for space no more and welded 'em together to make livin' spaces for the poor folk. Most of it were down on their luck types, but a good bit of it was Onashi turf. This was home. Weren't Home with a capital H, cause that was a special place up on the mountain you went to get real empty and shake the world off, get right with yourself, and take care of the family secret. This was the livin' home, with all the graffiti in block letterin' and cartoon faces comin' at every set of eyes like an angry rainbow. Everything written in Kanzi, so them square-heads in the outer tenement can't read it but know better than to come knockin'.

Taataani'd put out her plug of tabac, and had begun to question her new-found filthy habit in light of her new-found taste in finery. She watched the Onashi-kun up on the awnings above, standin' with impossible balance while other Onashi-kun below swigged malt liquor and threw pebbles at them to try and break their concentration. They was both takin' the family secret seriously.

"Eh Taataani! Howza? Wherre ya laai?"

Sibo crossed under the awning, tossing a full bottle her way while knowin' full well her arms was full. Unphased, Taataani flung her treasure parcel up in the air, caught the bottle of skank, and caught the dress on it's way down by balancing it on her instep. She drained the malt liquor by half, and passed it back to him with a wrist-flick.

"Yonderr 'rround Luwaalo, strraight eha, ja ne."

It was how they spoke. Family talk. Weren't for square-heads to get it.

"You fix that raasho good, din'cha?"

Taataani winked, merely kissing her fist in reply. Were all she had to say about that. Sibo laughed, letting loose a whoop that became an echo as the other Onashi-kun chimed in. Were important to know that if you was aimin' to get in a fight that you finished it.

With the youngers back to katas and carousin', Taataani headed home. It was hers and hers only. Couldn't none of the others who wanted it whoop her like she sure as hell whooped the previous occupant. She opened the slidin' door, and made a beeline for the mattress on the floor. They was poor, but they wasn't shaaks in a sty, and Taataani kept her place simple and orderly. A peg by the door for her hat, a little mat by the door where her boots went. A punchin' mat on the far wall that done about give up the ghost., and a mirror catty-corner to that.

She couldn't get to that mirror fast enough. Careful hands worked the twine around the parcel loose, and Taataani opened up her dress box. Her hands moved to pick it up outright, but she paused on account of their grubby state. A tub of fresh water and a rag in the privy fixed her right up, and soon Taataani was back, kneeling in front of the mirror. She carefully reached for the blue material, her fingertips gliding along it's impossibly sheer surface.

"Kuu'ai."

With a reverence almost religious, Taataani at last held the dress up against her in front of the mirror. Her face was still dirty and her hair was a muss, but she could see it. And even though it was too fancy for Yavin Day, a part of her still wanted to wear it. To turn heads for reasons other than whatever shit-kicker she knocked in the dirt, or whatever her name was.

So that's exactly what Taataani set about doing.

[Ben Hadrana]

There was only one place to go in Juranno for good parts of almost anything. It was a shop that didn't have an outright name, run by an old Verpine who's hive or something owed Old Esther something. His name was Ruz'im, though there was some debate about whether the pronoun 'he' fit, the old bug never argued it so people went on about their business. He was about the only one aside from Uli that Ben had told about his dream to be like Ben Merasska one day. The old bug had expressed his support of Ben, but was unaware of how the young human was going to go about getting off planet with as few resources as he had.

The town was brightly lit, streamers and lines with glowing colorful lights dangling over the streets and people along the walkways and in the street itself. Ben blasted through the crowds up to Ruz'im's shop and leaped off the swoop bike into a jog up to the door, only to find it dark and closed. Ben cursed to himself and looked around, almost as if the Verpine were just sitting somewhere nearby.

"Oi, Hadrana," a voice called from behind. Ben spun around. "You lookin' for the ol' bug? I think I saw 'im at the racing strip."

Ben waved his thanks and jumped back onto his bike. With a loud roar, the Hadrana sped down the street and hooked a turn.

[Taataani Onashi]

Taataani'd washed up real good. Twice even. She got behind her ears, that fussy spot under her tail nub, and between her toes. Not that she was a slob by nature, but sometimes it paid to be double thorough. She even brushed her teeth twice! She grit her teeth through the torture of pulling the nits and snarls out of her hair with a raggedy brush so that it behaved when dry. For a minute or two Taataani just stood in front of the mirror, naked as a towbird. She was just fit enough to not be skinny, and her wiry muscle showed here and there. Still bug bites for tits as her ma said, but she said not to worry she just ain't growed into 'em yet. Everything as it ought to be, save her hands and feet, which was calloused and ugly. Then again, Taataani ain't ever seen an Onashi with purty hands and feet. Weren't a matter of genes, but definitely a family thing. Still, Taataani couldn't help but look from her too-honest knuckles to that beauty of a dress and not feel a little self-doubt. She swallowed that down with one last staredown in the mirror, and proceeded to get dressed. Not in the silk, sure as seven hells not here. She put on clean dungarees and second-hand tee shirt. One of them smashball shirts they gave away to poor folk when they printed the wrong team that won the championship. Clothes was clothes. Up until today she hadn't given a rip about 'em, save for good boots and a hat to match.

The last thing she did before headin' out was to take that purty blue dress and lovingly fold it into her old backpack. From here, it was on to Juranno proper.

The way into big town was spent with Taa's head on the swivel, lookin' for a good spot to change. A spot away from family, like a shop's lavatory. First one she run into was dirtier than hell, and she lost her nerve. Next one, the fella at the counter said she hadta buy somethin' first. Somethin' in the pit of her belly scolded her for that as Taataani remembered the lonely ten credits left to her name. As she got closer and closer to the festive noises down in the square, she realized she was gonna be fresh outta luck and had to improvise. That lead her to duck between two long-haul cargo speeders parked at a recharge station. Taataani looked left and right, and when she was convinced she had a little privacy, she began to work out of her clothes and into the dress.

Weren't like nothin' she'd ever wore before. Course she'd been all moon-eyes over the colors and the flowers. The zipper was in the back! That was pants-on-head stupid! Taataani reached to the small of her back, feelin' for the little tab, which she worked up a ways. Eventually she got to the no-girl's land between the middle of her back and between her shoulder blades. Now, she was bendier than hell, but this was pushin' things. Taataani reached and contorted and shimmied, pushing her tongue through her taut lips as she grunted against the limitations of anatomy.

"Shit firre and save a match" she grumbled, kicking the asphalt with her boots. Her boots. With laces! A spark of an idea formed in her head, and Taataani immediately began removing the lace from the one on the right. She pulled the tab back down to the starting point, and threaded the shoelace through the hole on the tab. Again she pulled it as far as she could get it, but now she flipped the lace over her shoulder. Easing out the slack, Taataani carefully gave it a pull, grinning when she heard the tab hum along the zipper teeth up her back. She pulled it far enough to get between her shoulders, then reached up with a hand and pulled it the rest of the way. A second to untie the lace, and a minute more to relace her boot, and...

"I'm rready."

She grinned, her hands running down her sides to bunch at the patterned pleats that spread at her hips to run just below her knees. She swished her dress, moving her hips back and forth to cause the bottom bit to almost open like a parasol. Sure wished she had the mirror back home now, but again she got ideas just when she needed 'em. The street lamp's light caught on one of the trucks side-view mirrors, and Taataani reached to tilt it out and away, so it could catch as much of her as it could. Taataani stood there for a moment, looking at this whole different person in front of her. This girl who looked like she'd been places and had places to go.

She wanted to get to know this girl.

With a sudden afterthought, Taataani squirreled away her near-forgotten street rat clothes, tucking them into her ruck. She kicked the ruck beneath the truck, hopin' that the truckers wouldn't be comin' round for a long haul before the night was done. Her head turned in the direction of the music and carrying-on.

"Alrright. Herre I come."

[Ben Hadrana]

"Yeah, he was here," Wil Sooks spat into the dust bitterly. "Won some money he did. Said he was going to get himself some of those fruit drinks he loves so much down at Atton's."

Ben gunned his engine and sped off.

"Your welcome!" Wil shouted after him.

[Taataani Onashi]

Felt like she was walkin' into a fight.

Weren't a bad feelin' at all. It was familiar and easy as breathin'. Taataani walked the street of the main drag into big town and began to mingle with the throng comin' and goin' to the festival ground. Just like the lead into a dust-up, she could feel eyes on her as she walked. Fellas stopped and gawked. Girls did too, though with nasty faces. Everyone gave her room like she was in a class all her own. Felt so much like a fight that Taataani reached up to her head, her hand halting midway as she remembered she weren't wearin' a hat that needed it's brim tipped. One particularly handsome fella didn't get out of the way the way the others did. Taataani flipped a cocksure grin. He thought he had what it took. Sizing him up, Taataani figured he might.

She moved to cross the street, slowing her gait as she turned back to see his eyes still followin. He had a ladyfriend with him that he must've forgot was there. Too bad for her.

"Well, you comin' orr ain'tcha?"

[Ben Hadrana]

'Atton's' was short for Atton's Place of Good Repute. A higher end cantina in that it was both a cantina and a restaurant, it was known as the spot to go for a first date or a last date, for an anniversary, or for a wedding or a wake. There were other restaurants in town, but Atton's was regarded to be 'high class'. It was about as high class as a mid range restaurant in Spaceport, but it had plenty of room, two floors, an outdoor bar and patio with tables, and knew its clientele, and had areas reserved for formal functions and others for more run of the mill day to day operations and transactions. It held high credit land right in the middle of town, and it had a soft-lit sign that didn't obnoxiously blare its own name like the neon lit signs or holoboards.

The racetrack was near the outskirts of the main town proper, the conglomeration of buildings that most people thought of as Juranno when the name was said, even though all the homesteads surrounding it up to some ten kilometers away really marked the boundaries of Juranno, making it more of a county than a town. They had themselves a little Starport district, called that because the import/exports kept some offices there to staff during the buying seasons and with some Onashi buildings marked with Kanzi and gibberish basic. Ruz'im could read it, and it was said he was a pretty good speaker of the Onashis' private pidgin too, though no one had ever heard him speak to them. The racetrack was high fenced so as to keep gawkers from running betting pools outside the track. It didn't cost anything to enter the track, but room could get scarce, especially for some of the nuna fighting tournaments and the Wrangling Shows. Even folk from Starport proper would come down to watch those.

Ben didn't know how long ago Ruz'im had left with his earnings, so he blasted off on the straightest path to Atton's there was, which he knew could get him in trouble as it curved through town since the main roads were blocked off for various performances and street shows and musical jamborees. All the roads were crowded so he gunned the engine loud as he could and sped through the streets. He was making good time.

And then there she was, a little red head with a pixie face and a dress that could catch the moon's eye.

Right in his way.

He gunned the engine and continued, it was too late anyway, and blasted right on past her. He missed her by centimeters, and he was close enough to catch her blue eyes widening and her mouth opening as she threw herself backwards. Ben couldn't give her backwards glance; he took the turn to the left and then to the right that he needed and pushed on to the town center.

[Taataani Onashi]

Just like the truth, time was a stretchy thing. The family secret didn't hurt none in that regard. Even with all that, Taataani only just avoided an ignominious fate as roadkill. Weren't time for a graceful exit with a swoop comin' in at full throttle, so it was all she could do to fall back. Everything in that moment went funny. Couldn't see the folks on the other side of the street. Sure as hell couldn't hear 'em either, though she couldn't hear the swoop for that matter. All Taataani saw as she fell was the face of a fella who seemed just as without a clue as she was. She could see that face plain as day.

Then time snapped it's rubber band and came back in a hurry with a throaty engine hurtin' her ears and a spray of dust. Taataani hit the street hard, right on her nub which stung like hell. This damn dress weren't good for takin' a fall like a pair of dungarees. Weren't no protection at all.

This damn dress

Taataani's eyes widened, suddenly forgetting about her smarting tail. She scrabbled to her feet in a panic, shaking off the dust like it was a swarm of bees.

"Oh no no no no no..."

She quickly pulled at the pleats, shifting the dress a few degrees around her waist to get a vantage at the back. Weren't gonna get a full view, but even in passing, she saw a streak of brown that didn't go away when she beat it with her hand.

"...no no no no my drress! My drress! That kin'rrou sumbitchin' hayseed zuza!"

The crowd moved on when they saw she weren't hurt or killed. The handsome fella she'd seen remembered he had something else to do.

Deadly icewater poured over her sizzling temper, and Taataani pushed all the shame and shock away. She banished the rubberneckers and the sounds of all that music she wanted to go dance to. Fists balled at her side as she began the ritual of cracking her array of unsightly knuckles.

Could still see his face plain as day. Weren't gonna look the same when she got through with it.

[Tobio Onashi]

Tobio Onashi would be the first to tell you many things about himself. Pride of the Onashi Art, he'd say of himself with a straight delivery that was both all fact and all arrogance at once. Handsomest devil this side of the Outer Rim he was called he'd say, rippa rippa the girls in Starport called him; and more than a few young ladies would agree with that. But even though he was a prideful fellow, with a petty streak half a kilometer wide and a reputation for not turning down any challenge made to him, none could say he was particularly bullisome. Throw around his weight? Sure. But if he considered someone weak, or a noncombatant, he'd ignore 'em unless they pushed him too far. Hell, he was a pretty honorable guy, and would stick up for 'em if he felt like it. It usually got him a good fight when he did. The biggest reason he weren't some jimeko, a bully, was that he was lazy. If he didn't have no interest in something, he wouldn't even pretend to do it. And there weren't no sport, and thus no interest, in picking on the weak.

But one thing he knew he couldn't do at all was throw a party like Yavin Day. Onashi kids heard about those parties growing up. Everyone did. Every year a small group would go and see what the yokels would get up to, and even Onashis would toast to the hayseeds and their swoop bike races and their fast dances, and more than a few times to their surprisingly fast fists.

He was sent here to check up on Taa. As the baby girl of the Onashi clan proper, the daimyo family, she was proper royalty in a sense. And Tobio was expected to keep his eye on her. Both eyes, if he could spare 'em. As the future daimyo himself, he was held to higher standard, and it was a point of pride that he met it and then some. When she was sent out to do some jobs and remind folk that if they wanted some roughing done they didn't wanna do themselves they had Onashi around to do it for 'em, he was right pleased. She was growing up, could kick anyone's ass up and down the length and breadth of Starport — well, not his ass, or their Pop's ass, and definitely not their Ma's either, or a fair few of the older generation, but anyone else she had a fair shot of knockin' 'em senseless quicker'n anyone else — and was going to make a name for herself. For the clan. If you had the balls, personal and group rep would twine together into an armour of nothing that couldn't be breached by nothing.

She was takin' her good ol' time though, and Tobio, who was getting antsy himself, sitting cooped up in their village by the mountains as pretty as it was, took the message to find Taa and see how she was doin' and lend her a hand if she needed it and ran with it all the way to Juranno.

And he was right glad he did, too. He was getting plenty of looks, though he weren't interested. Only thing that stirred him up was the promise of a good fight or learning some new technique or move; once he was the greatest practitioner of his family's art ever, he would settle himself down and knock some lucky girl up with a sprog or two and go about expanding the family business. Oh, he had ideas.

But, the looks. Not all the looks were good. Some of 'em were down right mean. He wouldn't respond unless they started actin' orrokana, but none seemed like they were.

"Oi oi, Tobio!" one of the boys near his age called. He was Feerro, and he had his eye on Taa something fierce. Tobio found it amusing, mostly because he knew Taa weren't having none of that. "Let's go check out the drrinking down town centerr, danna?"

"Feh," he responded. "We'll get therre when we get therre. We got plenty o' jyaki and beerr arround rright herre, danna? Can't let the gakis get too far orr they'll tan ourr hides if'n somethin' goes wrrong."

"Um," a little voice sounded nearby. Tobio could hear the boys round him stifling some laughs, and he turned his head lazy as he could to give a narrow eye to the girl it belonged to. "Y-you're Onashi, right?"

"Not just any Onashi, kichona," he said, hooking a thumb into his chest, right in the middle of a nice new shirt he was wearing just for the occasion with a stiff collar, all the hems done up in shiny black thread, and with brass buttons. Made him look exotic and caught the eye. And it allowed for plenty of movement so it wouldn't get in the way when he got in a fight. "You'rre talkin' to Tobio Onashi. Ain't none betterr you could be talkin' to, danna!"

He winked, and was pleased to see her blush a bit. She was too young for him, looking like she was just this side of thirteen, but she was a cutie and had some courage to come up to him flanked as he was by his boys. She impressed him.

"Well," she started. "I have a problem, and... and well, he's been drinking and he knows pa's only gone for a few months but he's still looking at ma all intent."

"Girrl, we don't have time forr such stupid..."

"Oi," Tobio turned around with a raised eyebrow and his hands in his pockets. "You speak forr me now, eh? Think you some omono? Eh? Trryin' ta tell me whatta do, eh?"

The boy, Cirr, shook his head quickly, causing his hair to flail about his longer ears. He weren't so mixed as most of the other Onashi, but the little signs that told him how far along in his training were far more important. Kid was good, but not that good yet.

"I'll do it, girrlie," Tobio said, turning back to the girl, who looked frightened and regretful that she'd ever walked up to them. He grinned. "Sounds like fun."

[Tobio Onashi]

She led them down to a blocked off road where there was a bunch of dancing going on, and Tobio spared a few appreciative glances at the women; he was here last year, so he recognized for than a few, but Juranno was a large enough little place that he hadn't come close to seeing everything it had to offer.

"There," the girl said, pointing over to where a definite yutanpo was standing and talking to a big man with a rancher's tunic and nerf-leather boots. Tobio knew exactly the type of guy he was. He was one of the guys who had just come back from one of the drives, taking the nerfs and banthas that were slated for slaughter up to Starport. He was flush with creds, flush with alcohol, and flush with a desire for little somethin' somethin'. The woman didn't seem to mind so much, though she was makin' a token effort at puttin' some distance between them. Or maybe she just wasn't all that good at making herself understood and wasn't very zuyoi.

Tobio nodded decisively.

"Come on then gaki," he said. "Let's start havin' fun."

The little girl blinked and watched as he walked up to her ma and the rancher. It took her a second, but she scampered after him and up to them.

"Oi oi!" Tobio called, getting quite a bit of attention, but not the attention of the people he wanted. He called again. "Oi! I found your daughter strollin' 'bout. Thought perhaps you'd want her a little closer'n that."

The rancher turned around, annoyance written all over his face. The woman looked at him and at her girl, and then at the rancher, and then back to him. But Tobio hadn't stopped. He pushed between them and then for a little added spice pushed the rancher farther away.

"Your daughter was worried," Tobio said, affecting a more educated manner of speaking. Something about the woman reminded him of his ma, which cleaned up his Basic quick. "So I brought her here."

"I was talking to the lady," the rancher said, stepping up to him.

"Bry," the woman mumured. "Stop."

"No, this little brat thinks he can step up and try to worm up next to you?"

"Well, if she were interested maybe," Tobio answered. "Prolly get her too."

The rancher spat to the side. "Boy, thanks for lookin' out for the younglin' but it's about time you left."

Tobio smirked and crossed his arms.

"Nah. I'll stay right here. Kinda like the sprog. She's got a backbone in her."

"Boy, I've had enough of your—" The rancher stepped up into Tobio's space, but then a meaty smack echoed through the suddenly quiet area, and he staggered back, shaking his head, before falling to one knee, and then hitting the dirt, unconscious. Tobio rocked backwards onto his heels, almost as if his quick movement forward weren't even an attack.

"Feh," Tobio spat. "An' I thought you mighta been fun."

[Taataani Onashi]

It took a few strides of runnin' to sort out the dress. It swooshed and whooshed and caught air all wrong if she weren't careful, and Taataani didn't quite hit her sprint with the handicap. Not that it woulda' done a lick of good in a straightaway against a swooper. She watched the trailing lights on the chassis, two glowing red targets she honed in on even as it left her behind. Then, it hooked a left. That would take it right into the snarl of town proper! If he weren't headed to the racetrack and weren't beelinin' outta town, he might have somewhere to be. And if that were the case, she'd catch up with him.

Quickly, the Onashi girl began to move with her environment. Weren't such things as obstacles, just a means of gettin' somewhere differently. She leapt over a few pedestrians, mindful not to flip her dress as she sprung off a parking meter, using her trajectory to hook a hand on a building's signage, which carried her momentum forward and up just enough to where she could release, bouncing off an awning which allowed her to catch a strong hand grip on the uneven brickwork. She kicked up her legs, then pushed upwards like a springing frog, defying gravity's intent to send her back to the street as her wiry body flipped up and through an open window. A few beats later and Taataani was atop by means of a roof door, and she sprinted to the ledge, vaulting it as her dress whooshed out to expose bare legs passing over the alley below.

Even through the people and music, Taataani still heard the throaty growl of the swoop's repulsor moving through the ever-congested merchant blocks. It weren't as assertive as it was on the straightaway, and instead of roarin', it purred and growled through the side streets. Taataani leapt to another roof, then cut a corner to take a blind two story leap where she knew she could catch another awning. The awning provided just enough spring to kick her out toward the sidewalk, and she caught a streetlamp with both hands to whirl her around 180 and bleed off momentum before letting go into a full run again.

[Tobio Onashi]

"Now, there wasn't any call for fist throwing," a larger man said, stepping forward out of the crowd that had gathered round to watch the drama. Tobio heard the song change, and he realized it wasn't a live band but a recording.

"He was goin' to put a fist'n my eye," Tobio shot back.

"Didn't seem that way to me."

"He didn't even manage to take a step before he was knocked out."

Tobio looked around. More than a few of the men that had seen him were stepping forward now.

"He's one of those wanderin' folk, inn't he? Thugs for sale or somethin'?"

"Is he?"

"He don't look so tough."

"You sure it weren't him botherin' the lady and that rancher didn't try to stop him?"

But the first man to speak had only looked at him.

"You wanna tataka?" he asked, looking at him, and then looking at the other older boys and men who'd stepped up. Tobio grinned and entered a loose stance which still infuriated his mother: his feet were planted shoulder width apart and his hands were in his pockets. He slouched a bit also, making it seem that he didn't see any of them as a threat. "Come on then. I ain't scared. You scared?"

The finishing touch on the stance was an arrogant smirk that condescended to anyone who looked at it.

"You scared? Got somethin' to say? Say it," Tobio called out. A young man only a littler older looking than him stepped forward.

"I ain't scared. Listen, whatever happened here, this ain't the place for rough sorts like you."

"I don't feel like leaving now," Tobio said, yawning. His grin widened. "If you want me t' leave, you'll hafta make me."

[Ben Hadrana]

Ben had caught a glimpse of the girl's face as he pulled off the street, and mentally grimaced, hoping she wasn't hurt. He slowed for a moment, and when she turned with menace in her eyes towards him, Ben decided she was all right and sped off.

Atton's was still a good ways off, and Ben felt a chill in his spine. After pulling off the side streets, he found himself on a straightaway that would take him quickly to the person who could answer his questions, but it was clogged with people, who seemed to be standing around one boy around his age with black hair and a cocky grin. A few other boys dressed similarly to the one all the attention was on were walking up cautiously, and a few even gave him some wary looks. But Ben was too busy looking for a way through. That is, until a girl in a familiar dress with fiery red hair landed lightly on the walkway near him screaming something, only to stop when one of the boys shouted at her, causing the boy in the crowd to perk up and look their way.

"Taa?" he called, his face scrunched up in confusion. Ben looked at 'Taa', back to the older boy, to the group of boys, and then back to Taa, and gunned his engine and made for the walkway to go around the group.

[Tobio Onashi]

Tobio wasn't all that interested in talking things out, but the addition of his boys behind everyone, and some guy on a swoop, and Taa in the most ridiculous looking dress he'd ever seen, things went from simply tense to them being vayye. Well, he was told that he had a talent for makin' 'em such they couldn't see straight.

"Taa?" he called.

"He brought his gang to tear up the place!" someone shouted, and Tobio had to grin. Suddenly there were three guys running toward him, while the guy on the swoop made for the walkway, and his boys gleefully jumped into the crowd and started makin' a melee. Tobio laid out two right quick with a well placed fist for each of them, and a kick for the third, and he was making his way to Taa as quick as he could go.

"Taa!" he shouted, and went to deck a guy but instead got himself thrown onto a walkway table covered in hats and shirts. He punched, but couldn't put much strength into the blow. The guy holding him picked him up once more and threw him straight over the heads of four people into a couple boys trying to black each other's eyes.

[Taataani Onashi]

"Aanay Tobio!" grumbled the younger Onashi girl.

Taa cast an irritated look back at her brother callin' after for her. He was goin on about how he always did, lookin' for a big enough dog that might bite back. If things got proper rowdy, fam'ly business meant brothers and sisters backed each other up. Weren't much to the townies from the look of it though, plus Tobio wasn't swingin' lonesome.

"Ain't got time forr it, gotta laai."

She's seen the look of that swooper. Eyes got big as saucers. Damn right they did, he recognized her too, and knew what he'd did. And right as she tensed up, he pushed the juice on his bike, popping the curb to try and squirt through the scrum.

"Get back herre you hayseed oroka!"

Taa's temper took on the color of her hair and she took off like a shot. The thick-necked roustabout who heaved Tobio into the scrum stood in her path like an old tree. He'd expected to see one of the Onashi hoodlums coming at him, not some ginger-headed mongrel in a debutante dress. Must've made him slow his hand, 'cause he sure weren't in fightin' figure when Taa planted a booted foot into his gut. Took all his air out, and the lummox deflated around his belly, only to have Taa knuckle up his chin to put him on heels. The big fella rocked back and went to fall the other way like felled timber, but not before his petite pugilist opponent used his temporarily-upright form as a springboard. She ran up his chest and sprang off the falling man's shoulders to make headway on Ben, boots stamping across town folk heads as she danced over the ensuing brawl.

[Ben Hadrana]

The problem with brawls was that they got big, quickly. The walkway had become crowded, far too crowded for him to maneuver his swoop, and he needed to get through before whatever insanity had taken hold of all these people took hold of him too.

And then he saw a pair of wildly swinging antenna hanging from the back of an insectoid head that bobbed over the sea of human heads.

"Ruz! Ruz!" Ben shouted, ditching his bike to make his way to the mechanic.

[Tobio Onashi]

Taa was making good time on the hapless Alderaani, until a hand gripped her booted foot and pulled, her yelp lost in the din of the fighting. A quick swing had her cartwheeling in mid air, only to be arrested suddenly by a firm grip on her wrists. She was dangling, feet a couple inches from the ground, and bright blue eyes looking directly into the grey blue irises of Tobio Onashi.

"Whatta hells you thinkin' you doin' Taa?" he asked. "Runnin' around dressed like a carrtoon ovva city girl? Givin' Feerro enough imagination to fuel his dreams fer weeks."

Oddly enough, they were being left alone in the middle of a brawl. No telling how long that would last, Tobio grinned.

"Though I bet all o' the girls were right vayye, lookin' at you, eh?"

[Taataani Onashi]

"Best let me loose Tobio!"

Taa wriggled side to side in frustration before giving her wrists a sharp pivot to break his hold free of her. Tobio was havin' a field day with her dress, and she weren't in the jokey sorta mood.

"I got this drress cause it's purrty and maybe I wanna put on rripa rripa sometimes."

The Onashi girl smoothed out the silk ruffles again, but not before their little moment of peace briefly collapsed and a townie charged in, only to have his fist sail over Taa's head. The fire-haired pixie paused her sibling rivalry for a moment to crash a left hook into the man's kidney, then booted him in the behind sending him out of play.

"Ain't even about them bein' all vayye, but yeah..."

She smirked.

"...maybe they was a little."

Tobio was wasting what little time Taa had, and her blue eyes tracked beyond her brother to catch a glimpse of the reckless square-head what put her in the dirt.

"But I ain't got time to jaw. That orroka put me in the dirrt and I'm gonna put him worrse so I ain't. got. time."

She gave Tobio a shove and pushed past him to continue the chase.

[Ben Hadrana]

"Oh! Ben Hadraannna!" Ruz'im the Verpine exclaimed, one thin appendage reaching out and waggling in a facsimile of a wave. "Thizz izz mozzt livelly, izz it nnot?"

Ben was nearly there, when an Onashi boy stood in front of him with a glare.

"Now what would a lady like Taataani Onashi want with a hickboy like you, eh?" he asked, his long ears twitching. Ben backed up, and looked around. "You don't look like much."

"I don't know!" Ben exclaimed, mostly truthfully. "And you're right! I don't! I'm not much, not much at all!"

The mixed Onashi boy spat to the side and clenched his fists.

"Defend yourself!" he growled, and started forward with a lightning fast jab. Ben danced backward, but still only barely managed to dodge the attack. Another two punches were thrown at him, and Ben, not wanting to lose too much ground when Ruz'im was right there, ducked one and allowed the other to miss him, and threw an upper cut straight into the boy's jaw. Ben didn't waste any time, and threw a right hook into the boy's jaw and watched as he collapsed to the ground in a daze. Not wanting to be caught while he was distracted, Ben looked up, only to see a tiny waif of a girl step right in front of him.

She looked like she was about to say something, or punch him with those fearsome little fists, when a boy about his age seemed to materialize right behind her and grab her by the waist with one arm.

"This ain't the time, Taa!" the boy shouted, giving him an intense look before focusing mostly on the girl, Taa, again. She wriggled out of his grip like a fish out of a man's bare hands.

"Tobjio!" she shrieked, and turned back towards him, but Ben wasn't going to let his chance to avoid this craziness slip away, and he turned to run again. "Oh no jyou don't!"

A hand gripped his shirt, and pulled. Ben moved with it, and smashed his already bruised right fist into the face of the tiny red head. His eyes widened, in unison with Tobio's.

"Oh shit," he murmured. "Oh shit."

[Taataani Onashi]

Weren't the first punch she'd took. Hell, she was about as takin' 'em as givin' 'em out. Still, for a skinny hayseed, he'd come at her with a lot of steam. If Tobio weren't kakin' everything up like he was, she would've been pretty as a daisy. Instead, she got a little stardust in her eyes and a little water. Not enough to put her to heels, but it definitely had a way of getting her attention.

Taa's little pink tongue pressed at her lower lip, tasting copper. Got a good lick, huh. But before that thought could completely amble through her brain, she felt the drip. Time went stretchy once more, and Taataani's eyes followed that single solitary dot of crimson, slipping the bond of her lip on it's way down into a sea of blue flower-print silk.

pip

The drop of blood hit her dress. Taataani gave it a fastidious few wipes, but the bloodstain was now indelibly a part of her dirty attire.

Blue eyes slowly righted their trajectory back onto Ben, turning as ponderously as howitzers with every deadly intent. Taa wiped the rest of the red from her bottom lip with the back of her hand as she tilted her neck just so.

Pop

Vertebrae popped as part of the old ritual, and Taataani tilted in the opposite direction to repeat. Next came her calloused hands. Little fingers drawing up like hawk talons, forming a kind of deadly sign language as each one in turn pop pop pop popped. Taa bent down, hiking her dress up to pull free the laces from each of her boots. Working heel against heel, each came free of her now bare feet. Behind her, Tobio witnessed the old ritual at it's most serious, and took a step back from experience. Taa's petite yet well-used feet rocked on their blades, as even her toes popped.

"I spent a hunnerrt-and-twenty crredits on this kin'rrou drress."

Taataani took a barefooted step forward to Ben. All eyes were on her.

[Ben Hadrana]

"Now now," he said, backing up. "I can explain!"

She stopped, one eyebrow raised. Ben paused, thinking.

"Eh heh heh," he laughed weakly. "I was in a hurry?"

[Tobio Onashi]

The sounds of speeders and swoops began to be heard in the sudden silence.

"Izoge, Taa," Tobio said, looking around. "Looks like the law's comin'."

Taa seemed to be completely focused on the boy she was going to kill, and the boy was still backing up.

The other Onashi boys had picked themselves up and were gathering themselves around Tobio, while the Alderaani had settled into their own loose group. The two sides stared at each other, and didn't stop until a huge form parted the Alderaani and strode out into the no man's land between them. Tobio tensed as he took in the beat looking armor and a cylinder hanging from a belt loop.

It was an Imperial Knight.

"Well now," the Knight said in its deep, rumbling tone. "Things seem to have got out of control, no? Otherwise Lhungar will have to enforce some detentions until the morning."

"Put those Onashi boys in detention!" one voice shouted. Tobio spat to the side in response. A couple Alderaani stepped forward, and Tobio and couple of his boys firmed up. Lhungar, the giant Trianii Imperial Knight, stepped forward.

"Lhungar and no one else will decide whom he will throw into detention," the big felinoid growled affably. "Do not push this one's patience."

"Taa, it's a Knight," Tobio hissed.

There was a squawk from Taa behind him, and the Knight turned, his curiosity piqued.

It seemed in the moment that Tobio's warning had distracted Taa, the rustic had run, and was gaining distance pretty quickly, with the big bug following him along with Taa. The Knight was going to put a stop to that.

"Oi, you should keep your eyes on the folks in front o' yah," Tobio said, stepping forward. The Knight's eyes dropped to him, and he kept himself from taking a step back. "Your most dangerous opponents are in front of you."

Tobio stepped forward once more, and jumped, leg extended for a powerful kick, but the Knight raised on large fingered claw, and the Onashi's attack was arrested in midair. The seventeen year old Onashi tried to break the implacable grip of the Trianii's magic, but he remained floating in the same spot.

'You'd better thank me for this later, Taa,' he thought to himself fiercely.

[Taataani Onashi]

Fight or flight or flight to fight. The moment Taataani put eyes on Ben Hadrana's heels, she was after him. Before she heard the sound of blood rush in her ears, she could hear Tobio kickin' up a fuss good and loud to get the Knight's eyes on him. For the briefest moment, Taa felt a bit of shame that she'd gone after quarry rather than hold the fam'ly line, but she had a wrong that needed rightin'.

In passing, Taa's blue eyes caught sight of the looming figure of Lhungar. He was Somov Rit's Knight. The traveling watchman of the First Order. Mostly dealt with proper raashos in the rare case they showed their head. That he was stepping in at all rather than the Juranno constables was a surprise. Tanglin' with the Knight weren't the sort of habit the Onashi-kage frequented. Weren't no accounting for Force Magic, so was dumb to try.

But she's done played her sabacc card and Tobio had done played his, and the pot was too sweet to fold just yet. The ranks of Alderaani roustabouts closed up behind Ben and his Verpine buddy, and Taataani had no mind to let them slow her down long enough for the Knight to drag her off by an ear. Taataani's dress bloomed open as she spun on a heel, jumping to press the balls of her right foot into one dude's face as she used that kick as leverage to sweep just past him with her other foot to cut some even taller dude down like a tree. Grubby hands with bottles and sticks and other makeshift weapons reached at her, but she was too spry by far. Taa caught a beer bottle mid-cartwheel as she did a hand-stand on a man's bald head, returning it to sender with a crash of shards as she sprang-pounced off yet another man, dropping back to the street with barely a half dozen strides lost to idiot Ben.

[Ben Hadrana]

"Bennn!" Ruz'im called, following the running Alderaani teen with flailing antennae and limbs. Ben reached back and pulled the Verpine into a small space between two buildings and looked around, but the girl did not show. "Ben, what is it? And why are you being chased?"

Ben turned, gasping for breath with the largest smile he'd ever had on his face.

"I've found on, Ruz," he said, pulling a holoprojector out of his pocket. "I've found a ship."

The holoprojector turned on, bathing Ruz'im's face in a blue glow and engendering two bright points of light in his bulbous eyes; the ship's form materialized. The insectoid remained quiet, and Ben looked at the hologram with all of his dreams on display in his blue eyes.

"Her name is Alderaan," he breathed.

[Taataani Onashi]

"There she is! Get 'er!"

THWACK

"Aagh!"

CRONK

"My spleen!"

THWOCK

"No, no don't! Aaagh!"

A man's figure ragdolled into view just outside the alley, falling limp to the pavement. A second later, a petite silhouette of a girl in a dress stepped over him, her shadow darkening Ben and Ruz'im's view of the street beyond.

"Now wherre ya think you'rre goin, huh?"

[Ben Hadrana]

"I don't know," Ben answered, the hologram deactivating. "But it's certainly not going to be on this ball of dust."

Realizing that it wasn't Ruz'im who'd spoken, the seventeen year old turned and actually looked at the Onashi girl for the first time that night as a person and not an obstacle in the path of his destiny.

"I did that, huh?" he asked, his mind going back over how blinded he'd become in his rush to find the Verpine. "I'm sorry. I had to get to Ruz here in a hurry and wasn't thinking about anything else but getting to him."

He paused and dug in his pockets. "Listen, it probably won't stop you from kicking the tibanna out of me, but I'll spring you for a new dress. How much was it again?"

[Taataani Onashi]

"It werre a hunnerrt-an-fifty crredits, it werre!"

Taa stomped ahead barefoot in her diminuitive menace, leading in with a closed fist as a preview of what Ben had in store.

"Go on then! Turrn them pockets out oroka. Ain't like you'rre good forr it."

Something the sod-kicker said was just now percolating in Taa's brain, and she paused with a blink, her closed fist lowering slightly before raising again.

"Say! What you mean 'bout that beforre?"

[Ben Hadrana]

"O-one hundred and what?" Ben stuttered, his jaw going slack. One hundred credits?

"Say! What you mean 'bout that beforre?"

"About what?" Ben asked, before blinking and pausing in his count of his twenty credits. "About leaving this planet? I am. Got me a ship and everythin'. Needs a bit of fixing up, but can't complain. And I'm nowhere near good enough to pay you back that much."

Ben blanched.

"Uh... would you take store credit?"

[Taataani Onashi]

"A hunnerrt-fifty!"

Taa's nostrils flared indignant as he balked at the cost, as if it weren't obvious how fine a raiment adorned her figure. Square-heads didn't know a lick about the finer things. He must eat with his spoons and forks all out of order and with his elbows on the table. Well, Taa did too, but she sure as seven stars would learn which utensil to use first if she had the dress to match!

"Don't you low-ball me, hayseed."

Quick like a cobra bite, Taa helped herself to the chits Ben was hen-pecking from one hand to the next. She gave the paltry sum a glance, then cast a skewed expression back up at the so-called spacer.

"Uh huh. Maybe pay forr my drry cleanin' with all that couch change. You'd best prray to yourr god and go on and prray to someone else's god that everry purrty silken stitch comes out like a daisy, or I'll give you daisies to push up."

Pausing mid-menacing with a fist held between her and Ben, Taa briefly relented at all the starship talk. At first, her eyes went large and dreamy, but all that fluff was quickly subsumed by street-savvy cynicism as the mongrel girl sneered Ben down.

"Must think I'm a waterr-noggin, feedin' me a whopperr like that'un. You can't even peck out enough chit for a bottle of hooch, and you got yourrself a ship all-yourrself like some rreal omono, eh?"

Taa's hand that was unburdened by Ben's money soon burdened itself with a handful of one of Ben's ears, wrenching it and bringing him down to about her knee level.

"You got a name, Cap'n boy?"

[Ben Hadrana]

"Hey now!" he said, twisting his head and pulling out of the girl's grip, his ear stinging something fierce. Straightening up and glaring down at the girl, Ben crossed his arms. "Twenty's nothin' to sniff at you know when it's off-season! Haven't sold the crops yet, so don't go all high an' mighty on me for bein' hard up, lil' miss brawler!"

He stepped back, straightening his shirt.

"My name's Ben Hadrana," he said. "I'm gonna be famous someday, got it? And my ship's my way off this planet and to that fame."

[Taataani Onashi]

Taa clenched at her fist full of chits, suddenly cursing her dress's lack of anything as practical as a pocket. If her breasts would hurry up and sprout she could even avail herself to the space between 'em like she'd seen some of the tavern girls do. For now, she was up one installment of a payment, and down an extra fist with which to clobber idiot Ben...and his friend too, probably. The Bug weren't doing much bumpin' of gums (mandibles?) but she hadn't picked on a bug that was bigger than a boot before.

"Well, go on then."

Money-hand on her hip, Taa smirked at the pre-famous Ben Hadrana.

"Let's go on an' see that ship. If it don't fly you can always turrn out enough parrts to pay me."

[Ben Hadrana]

The very idea of tearing the ship apart seemed to be a foreign concept to Ben Hadrana, who stared at the little Onashi girl uncomprehendingly for a few moments.

"Don't care if it don't fly. You'll be beating me up and down this here street, and I still won't let you touch that ship if that's what you're gonna do to it."

Ben looked at her one last time before exiting the alley and heading back down towards the scrum he'd left behind to talk to Ruz'im. It looked like there was still something going down too.

"Taa! Taa, you ain't gon' believe this!" one of the younger Onashi boys that had followed Tobio gestured wildly to her, after giving Ben and Ruz a quick measuring glance. "Tobio busted outta the Knight's magic! They're fightin', Taa!"

Sure enough, the Onashi Ben figured was called Tobio was presently going all out on the Knight, who didn't take any real stances, but juked and blocked the Onashi's attacks. Tobio backed up a bit, breathing heavily and looking at the Knight intensely before a wide grin spread over his face.

"Looks like I can't hold back on ya," the hill-boy said. The Trianii knight said nothing. Tobio Onashi once more made a leaping kick at the Knight, who caught his foot easily. But instead of being caught out, Tobio twisted and locked his legs around the Knight, his momentum pulling his opponent off-balance enough that Tobio, with one last great effort, wrenched him off his feet and to the ground. The whole crowd went silent at the sight of a Knight being knocked off his feet. Even the Knight looked intently at the teenaged bruiser before standing up.

"Tobio Onashi is my name," the eldest Onashi said, hooking a thumb into his chest. "I'm the best there is. Nothin' 'll hold me back, got it? Not no one. Not even a Knight and his magic."

The Knight remained silent.

"You gonna say something?" Tobio challenged.

"You are not the best," the Knight said. Tobio snarled. "This one has barely shown what he is capable of."

"I ain't backin' down!" Tobio said. The Onashi watching the fight seemed to Ben to exude approval at those words. "Come at me!"

The Knight stepped forward, and Ben thought blood was rushing through his ears; a sudden pressure pressed down on him lightly. The redhead and Ruz and even the Alderaani behind the Knight all seemed to feel it also.

[Taataani Onashi]

As they stepped from the alley, her kinfolk rushed up to give her the news. It weren't over and done like she figured. It were still goin on. Didn't no one stand up to a Knight and their magic. It just weren't done. The hand that wasn't holding Ben's chits reached and took the hayseed boy by the wrist, tugging him along like a milk nerf. She wasn't 'bout to turn him loose. Not till they was square.

Weren't hard to find the fight about where they left off, and Taa's bare feet padded to a halt at the outer fringe of the scrumb. Tobio was in fine form. As fine as she'd seen him in any dust-up. Weren't a lick he didn't lay nor a move he didn't stick. Weren't any doubt to Taataani that in his present state, he could lick just about anyone on Somov Rit. And when the Knight fell, it looked like he'd done proved her right. Taataani's blue eyes were as big as glass plates.

Then the Knight got back up. The big cat were about as calm as a sip of water, like he ain't even kissed the dirt at all. Somethin' sat funny in Taa's belly as she watched it play in act two. Her kinfolk hollered and egged on, but there weren't none of that swagger comin' out of Taataani's mouth. She had a feeling. A bad one. Worse yet, if Tobio weren't braindead he probably also had that feeling. He knew more than the moves, he heard that music inside that they danced to. No one in Onashi clan could stand up to her, save for her big brother. Some was bigger, some was stronger, but Tobio kept the family secret best of all. It was the wisdom that weren't come from no book, and the kind that you could only half tell and had to know the other half.

But Taataani knew that other part of the family secret. The part that told every Onashi around that Tobio weren't backing down, even if he knew the trouble he was in. And that's when Taa felt it - like static electricity on the hairs of her arms and a quiet buzz in her ears.

[Tobio Onashi]

Tobio had never felt more alive than when he was fighting.

It wasn't just a sense of the adrenaline pumping through his veins and arteries. He could feel it, whatever it was, just beyond his perception. Onashi-sama had words about such things, words like 'inner music', 'no-mindedness' , and a bunch of other things that were interesting but also hokey; Tobio had never paid them much attention. He honored his ancestor as much if not more than most in the Clan, but as far as things went he wasn't the navel-gazing type like Old Lady Haba, or the oldest member of the clan, ninety-seven year old Myoshihisa, but the guy was so old that there wasn't much else he could do other than tell stories and meditate even if he was spry for a geezer.

Tobio just did things. He didn't think about them or wonder about them and how important they were or nothing like that. He did them. He applied this to his art, refining the Onashi style into a whirlwind of chaotic strikes from almost anywhere he could position his hands, elbows, knees, and feet. The clash of wills, the conflict, and primal strategy of overcoming an opponent was his drug.

Tobio never felt more alive than when he was fighting.

And this Knight was fighting like Tobio was shouting out what he was going to do before he did it. Tobio let the frustration and annoyance drift away, instead glorying in the ache of his muscles, the feel of his heartbeat, and sweat beginning to bead on his face and back; the way the light from the sun didn't quite seem to penetrate the Knight's eyes and the breeze that picked up, causing the Trianii's robe to sway...

He smirked and rushed the Knight again, his fist coming up to the big cat's face.

"Oi! Don't move!" he shouted at the last moment, a dirty trick his father had specialized in to get over opponents when he was younger.

[Ben Hadrana]

Ben blinked, the moment drifting away, and he tugged at Ruz'im's arm, and after a slight moment of indecision, poked Taa's shoulder.

"Let's get goin' while the goin's good, yeah?" he stepped back and walked around the crowd to his bike, and set it aright. "I don't think there's enough room for everyone."

Ruz'im's antennae waggled.

"Thaat izz finnne Benn Haadrraannna," Ruz clicked through his vocabulator, which fizzled and spat out his words like a holoprojector with a grainy hologram. "I will go back to thee shop annnd pick up my tools annnd speeeederr annnd meeet you after."

"Eline's house," Ben said to the Verpine, who nodded and stalked off. The Alderaani straddled his bike. "Well, come on Onashi. Hop on."

[Taataani Onashi]

Taa spelled a few beats longer to get a look at Tobio. He was just where he wanted to be, even if the music were changin' tunes. She thought about layin' a blind haymaker on the big cat, but even if that turned the tide, she wouldn't dare go and do it. Her kin knew better to give Tobio his space. If the fight tipped on account of Taa's knuckle-dustin', Tobio would be sore as ever. More sore than if he got whupped...which was about where Taa felt this were headed.

"Alrright, I'm comin' alrready!" Taa growled, gritting her teeth as she straddled in tandem with Idiot Ben. She held on snug with both arms, and rather than put her grubby bare feet against hot engine, she wrapped her bird legs around his lap.

"Don't think I'm gettin' frresh, hayseed, I jus' ain't got no boots on!"

[Ben Hadrana]

Ben just gave her the look his mother always gave him. Everyone knows it, though they call it loads of different names. In essence though it could be boiled down to a three word phrase, question, or statement:

Are you stupid?

"I don't care, skinny! Just hold on!" he shouted, gunning the engine and garnering the attention of the Onashi boys not fighting the Imperial Knight.

"Oi, that juwai ren is makin' off with Taa!"

"She beichu or somethin'?"

"I can't tell!"

The dust left behind them in the evening dark was as good a cover as anything else.




The stars were shining fully, and Ben took his time getting onto the road to Eline's house, since he needed to make sure they were heading in the opposite direction to shake off the boys following around Taa's big brother or whoever he was. The road stretched on through the fields, and Ben had to admit he liked the scene, two oceans of grain on either side of a lonely road in the moonlight of a balmy night. Still, the sight of the house was welcome after everything else that happened.

As for Taa (which was likely a shortened form of her name, but she'd never actually introduced herself that he could recall), he could feel her head against his back, though he couldn't tell if she was asleep or not. A swift check revealed her eyes were closed, and for a moment he wondered if she were playing some sort of game to catch him doing something. With a mental shrug, he simply carried the girl inside and settled her on a bed upstairs, and passed out on the divan in the common room downstairs without changing.

His last thought before sleep claimed him was that the girl would probably need some clothes in the morning.

[Taataani Onashi]

"Huh?"

Taa cracked open a bleary blue eye, then winced it down to a pinch at the sun comin' in the window.

"Huh!"

The mongrel girl sat up on the bed like a shot, and both eyes were wide like owl eyes was. Her crown of strawberry hair was a nest no rat would want. Out yonder past the window, she could hear the warbles of the Soobis and the pee-pe-heee of the Kabucks. That meant morning time. That meant...

"HEY!"

Taataani came down the stairs like a wrecking ball, skipping six steps at a bound as she stormed down the stairwell.

[Ben Hadrana]

Downstairs, the form of Ben Hadrana lay sprawled on the divan, one leg somehow lifted over the back rest, one arm slung over his head and off the arm rest, and the other trailing on the floor in possible one of the most uncomfortable looking sleeping positions ever encountered.

On the caf table a comm link buzzed, and went silent.

[Taataani Onashi]

With no small amount of grace, Taataani transformed from reek in a china shop back to girl with poise. She skidded to a halt a few steps past the landing as she noticed the pathetic resting state of Idiot Ben. Idiot Ben who seemingly hadn't taken her back to his abode to have a little fun at her expense. Not that she were averse to a poke from the right sorta attractive fella, but it was gonna be on her terms. And bumbling farmboys who ruined her purrdy dress weren't the endearin' sort.

Still, he'd apparently let her have the comfy bed all to her lonesome while he'd slept in a sad little heap downstairs. That were awful gentlemanly. Normally, Taa would make a tidy bit of scratch off fellas who fell over themselves to be gentlemen. But that too was on her terms. Random acts of gentlemanly behavior were new.

"Ahem!"

She cleared her throat obnoxiously to get Idiot Ben's attention.

"Hey, you got any eggs?"

[Ben Hadrana]

Ben rolled over to face away from Taa, burying himself into the crook of the divan's cushions in an attempt to flee the sun, while she'd stood there looking at him.

Her loud obnoxious noise-making however woke him up completely.

He rolled off the divan with a yelp and a thud.

"Hey, you got any eggs?"

He sat up, eyes bleary and hair mussed from the awkward sleeping conditions. It took him a moment to process the question.

"Check the icebox," he grunted. "If there ain't none in there we'll have to grab some from the nuna coop."

He stood and stretched, and stumbled over to the kitchen where he started making caf with a practised ease, and the smell of it wafted through the slight chill of the house. He simply stood in front of the caf-maker and stared at it while it brewed.

[Taataani Onashi]

A quick inspection of the icebox turned up a fat zilch, so Taa traipsed outside to the nuna coop to reconnoiter up some breakfast. Shooing away a few straggling hens, she began to scoop up eggs. One, two, seven, eight, ten. Handy thing about a dress was that you could bunch up the pleated front and put a whole heap of stuff in there. Taa hiked her dress, and carefully brought her haul back inside. The aroma of caf hit her nose and sent a psychosomatic jolt of awakeness down her spine. Carefully, she rolled the eggs in her dress pleats up on the counter next to the burner top. A quick scout-about turned up a skillet, and Taa slapped in on the burntop as she struck the heat.

"Hm hm hmm hm hm hmm..."

In her own headspace, the mongrel girl hummed a few bars to a song she only half knew, twisting her hips back and forth to let her pleats catch some air while she waited for the cast iron to heat.

[Ben Hadrana]

Ben had grabbed himself a mug and mixed together some rednectar and some milk; he tended to add a bit too much nectar and over sweeten at times though. Leaving a mug on the countertop for the girl who was shooing off nunas off by the coop, Ben stomped upstairs and dug around in random boxes until he found some clothes that looked like it would fit her.

A longer shirt that looked as if it had been made at home fifty years before, a pair of thick trousers, and a pair of children's boots hit the tabletop inside the kitchen and he leaned back.

"Don't know what else we got here. Not much is fresh if we got anything. Here's some clothes if you want to change after you eat," he gestured awkwardly at the clothes. "Boots were the smallest ones I could find. If they fit you, keep 'em."

He poured himself another mug of caf with this time the perfect amount of nectar.

[Taataani Onashi]

"Eggs is good enough."

Which were true, though Taa weren't about to play modest. If Idiot Ben had a whole side of nerf in the ice box, she'd help herself to half of it.

The mongrel girl hovered over the stove, raising and lowering on her toes as she placed a hand just above the skillet surface. The radiant heat swelled by the second, and Taa played with the distance, easing her hand ever closer to the hot pan without touching. When it was right about there, she spat in the middle. The little wet pop immediately bubbled up and receded back to dry.

"So how'd a shit kickerr like you get yourr mitts on a ship, huh?" she asked, cracking eggs two at a time into the pan.

[Ben Hadrana]

"Guess you'd say it's an heirloom or something," Ben answered, frowning at her continued brashness. "Came to me. I'm gon' use it to get the hells outta here. See the galaxy."

He sipped at his caf while Taa ate her eggs like she was trying to eat them before someone stole them from her.

"Leave the plate in the sink. Come on," he said.

He led her out the back door. The sun was rising, casting a homey glow over the mist covered orchards and fields. There was a chill in the air that would disappear with the mist, but for now there was a fine sheen of dew on the banisters of the back porch, and their breath escaped their mouths in short lazy clouds of vapor.

"It's a bit of a walk, but the fuel cell on the bike's gotta last me for another few days," he sighed while they walked past a big tree with a swing hanging from one of its branches. Nearby a tractor rested on the ground, with grass growing tall right around it. A long dirt path started by it, winding down into the orchards.

Beyond the orchards were the large empty fields, ringed and squared with aging wire fences, their tall grasses swaying in the early morning breeze. In the distance a hill rose somewhat steeply, and at its base was a large barn built slightly into the rising hillside. More tractors rested around it, a couple tall trees grew with their branches framing the huge doors that spanned its front.

[Taataani Onashi]

"Hahaha!!"

Taa found something in Ben's words to be hilarious as she laughed between raked forkfuls of egg.

"Swearr on the elderrs, everry single Hadrrana, Merrasska, and Orrgana on this dirrt clod think they'rre a good harrvest away frrom becoming adventurrerrs. Get about as farr as town beforre they get theirr pockets turrned out."

She rolled her eyes, but he didn't seem deterred. Ben urged Taa on right at the point where she was lickin the plate clean of the last smudge of runny egg. With a wary look of strained patience, the Onashi girl decided that curiosity trumped seconds (for now). She permitted Ben to lead her on - after, of course, she changed out of her poor besmirched dress and into Idiot Ben's hand-me-down hillbilly duds. The shirt and pants hung loose on Taataani's wiry frame, and she opted out of the boots entirely. After all, she weren't no tenderfoot.

After a lengthy walk, the unlikely pair arrived at what looked like any of the ten thousand barns on Somov Rit. Taataani surveyed the scene through half-lidded eyes, yawned, and scratched her behind.

"I swear if you'rre about to show me a T-16 with a boosterr module, I'ma rrub yourr face in a bantha pie."

[Ben Hadrana]

"You want to see the damn thing or not, Onashi?" Ben snapped, leading the redhead through the massive doorway. "There's got to be more to things than what's on this planet, than growin' crops. Gettin' up at the crack of dawn and dealing with the same things every day. Us Hadranas and Merasskas, we still got those tales to remind us and we still tell ourselves what we got is enough."

They passed through the cavernous interior of the barn while he spoke, avoiding the rusting hulk of an old GR-2 Harvester whose corpse served as the home for a nest of birds, if the sudden rush of flapping wings was any indicator. They approached another massive opening in the rear of the barn, with piles of twisted metal and old detritus at each side of it. He rubbed his nose, picking up and activating an electrotorch from the wall.

"Careful, it's dark back here," he warned Taa before continuing with his previous subject. "Well, just hearin' about those places isn't good enough. I want to see them with my own eyes. And now I can."

The torchlight fell upon the hull of the starship, ALDERAAN stenciled on its ventral hull just underneath the cockpit.

He smiled.

"Now I can."

[Taataani Onashi]

It was a good thing it was dark, on account of the dumbfounded expression Taa wore on her face. No, it sure weren't a measly T-16. How they'd managed to fit this big metal lummox into a barn, she hadn't a clue.

The mongrel girl ran a hand through her tussled snarl of hair, letting stray tresses fall in her eyes as she rocked back and forth on her heels. A ship. A real actual ship. Didn't none of her kin have no kin'rrou ship.

A sight like that seemed like it deserved a profound statement. Taa stepped forward, slapping a palm on the hull to make sure it weren't just a clever display made of painted wood. It rang with a nice weighty metal din.

"Thing's uglierr than a crross-eyed Gamorrrean."

It wasn't entirely an insult. She turned back into the light of the lamp, a curious expression on her face.

"It fly?"

[Ben Hadrana]

"Dunno," he said with a sigh. "I only found her yesterday."

He walked forward, his footsteps echoing slightly in the dark, and searched along the hull until he came across an old access panel. With a small grunt of effort he pulled it open and pressed a switch, and nothing happened.

"Gonna have to get Ruz up here to help me get her running," he sighed.

[Taataani Onashi]

Ben was nearly pushed off his feet as Taa shoved him away from the control.

"Ain't you neverr tweaked an electronic doorr beforre?"

Bending down to eye level, the mongrel girl inspected the mechanism. Boxy control housing. Overbuilt indicator screen. Big tactile buttons. She spit on the screen, wiping away some of the smudge...then rared back and punched the whole thing with a closed fist.

B-WOT

The control flickered to life, causing the door to suddenly open with an initial rusty whine, leading to an interior softly illuminated by running lamps adjacent to the floor.

Taa blinked a few times, then stood stoic as she could, motioning the way forward with her other hand.

"Ladies firrst."

[Ben Hadrana]

With a bemused 'huh' and raised eyebrows, Ben turned the electrotorch to the darkened interior of the ship. Metal grating was made visible, but the small tool seemed unable to illuminate the darkness enough to get a good idea of what was directly before them.

"Looks like whatever you managed to do didn't catch on to the rest of the ship," he grunted, stepping up on the plating of the ramp and entering his ship. He felt a pulse of pleasure at the thought of this being his ship.

Silence seemed to press up against his ears as he cast the beam of the torch about, seeing nothing spectacular directly around him, until he turned nearly completely around and saw a set of metal rungs at the end of a narrow walkway whose bright yellow paint scheme could barely be seen under the thick layer of dust.

"Maybe we can figure out the power up there," he said.

[Taataani Onashi]

Taa hung back for a moment as Ben took point. When he was well and truly out of earshot...

"Aiiieee! Aaah! Owza! Ooh! Oooo!"

The mongrel girl hopped from tiptoe to tiptoe, cradling her smarting hand as she blinked tears from her eyes, blowing frantically on her reddening knuckles as she anguish danced.

Panting in the throes of endorphin release, Taa thumbed tears out of the corners of her eyes, putting her take-no-prisoners face back on as she bounded into the ship with silent bare feet like she'd been there the whole time. Catching the last of what Ben said, Taa nodded unseen.

"Yep, yep. Up therre. Sounds good."

Still unseen, Taa allowed one last grimace, squeezing her eyes shut in pain.

[Ben Hadrana]

Ben stepped along the walkway, careful to keep his bearings; a slip would mean a fall through the open rampway, which while only potentially injurious to his health, would be certain to injure his pride. Carefully holding the torch, he gripped the rungs of the access ladder and ascended into the cockpit, which was just as dark as the rest of the ship, with dust hanging heavily in the air, moved by the change in pressure and flow by the open entry ramp.

"Wow," he breathed, for some reason pitching his voice just above a whisper. Something about the quiet stillness in the ship just prompted respect, and he obliged it. "Look at this. It's untouched."

Ben wiped a finger along the console in front of the pilot's station, leaving a streak in the heavy blanket of dust. An almost dizzying array of switches and buttons were in front of him, and the farmer's son didn't take long to realize he didn't have much of a clue as to what they all did. He sat in the pilot's seat and set the torch on the console, squinting at the switches.

"Okay," he breathed. "So this is the yoke and yaw and pitch control... that means power activation has to be somewhere right along... here?"

He pressed a button and looked up. Nothing.

"Right. Try again."

It took three tries before he got a response out of the ship; and that was a brief screech of an alarm along with red lights coming on in the console in front of him, and the sound of something clicking throughout the ship. A display blinked, and he wiped the dust covered screen off, revealing a blinking red light along with the text: POWER LOW, FUEL LOW, REFUEL.

He looked back at Taa, his eyes gleaming and a wide smile on his face.

"She works," he said, looking back at the console with happiness pouring out of him like light from a star. "She works!"

[Taataani Onashi]

Still nursing her smarting hand, Taa quickly tucked it out of sight once Ben put eyes on her again. She was the picture of feigned disinterest, but even she was getting tired of the charade. Rocking back and forth from her heels to the balls of her feet, the mongrel girl tapped the fuel gauge with a pause.

"You'rre not gettin' verry farr with a tank that drry."

The gears in her head were turning, and Taa upturned her chin with a smirk.

"Not without a parrtnerr, that is!"

[Ben Hadrana]

Ben blinked up owlishly at Taa in the dim cockpit.

"You're asking to be my partner," he said in bemusement. "Wait wait wait. First you call me all sorts of stupid, and tell me I'm lying to you about this ship, and then once you learn it's real you just flip and want in? Why should I? What can you even do about an empty tank?"

[Taataani Onashi]

Taa smirked at Ben as she drew her finger along the console, tracing a line in the dust. She raised her finger up to her lips, and blew the residual fluff off the tip and into Ben's face.

"Ain't it obvious, hayseed? I'm Onashi. That's what we do. We get things. By hustle orr by muscle."

She raised an eyebrow.

"What, you was gonna go hat-in-hand to some depot with big ol' eyes and just ask forr it?"

Taa's eyes rolled.

[Ben Hadrana]

"Now I'm gettin' just about fed up with all this mouthin'—"

Ben's retort was cut off when with a reverberating mechanical clack, the lights and power in the ship shut down, once more enveloping them in sightless black save for the tiny beam of light from the electro-torch and the dim light that managed to filter in from the front of the barn.

For a beat, both he and she just remained quiet, until Ben's voice cut through the dusty darkness:

"Damn it."

[Taataani Onashi]

In the pitch black, Taa piled on with an unhelpful Ha-Ha at the momentary setback. That was all the naysaying she had for Ben. In the dark, she draped an arm over his shoulder.

"Well parrtnerr, guess this is wherre ourr big ol' adventurre starrts, huh?"