An Audition, of Sorts

[Ben Merasska]

Somewhere in Hutt Space

"Contact!"

Ben's voice carried in the still, dark interior of his Ghtroc 720, Alderaan.

"Everyone ready?"

Alderaan was parked on an asteroid in a dense but well mapped and cleared field, on the outer edges of a small, out of the way system, whose name Ben couldn't pronounce.

"Ready, Cap'n." Shuvin was quiet; an unusual thing to be sure. Even so, without the background noise of multiple systems running, her voice still seemed to carry easily. The Togruta sixteen year old (or was she seventeen now? Ben wasn't sure) wasn't a naturally quiet soul to be sure.

Ben glanced over to Cerie, the third member of Alderaan. A human woman with blonde hair and light eyes, and many talents besides.

"We've gone over the plan so many times we should be able to do this in our sleep," he said, his eyes turning back to the viewport. In the distance, a BFF-1 freighter (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BFF-1_bulk_freighter), with four containers attached (as their informant had assured them there would be) had jumped out of hyperspace, flanked by four Z-95s (again, just as they'd been told there would be).

"But if we're turning back, now's the time to speak up."

[Cerie Moreau]

With a last, long sigh, Cerie bit her lower lip as she mulled over Ben's last words. Sure, they could back out now, but the payout if they didn't - if she was understanding everything correctly - was too good to pass up.

Her arms crossed over her chest, a thumb and forefinger going to turn over one of the buttons of her overshirt. It popped off, and she felt her shoulders sag as her musings immediately shifted to her wardrobe. Shirts that were fading fast, a few pairs of trousers that desperately needed patches, socks with holes, and her last remaining good bra had just snapped an underwire that morning.

"Well, I don't know why we'd turn back now," she mumbled out thoughtfully, her mind still steeped in uncomfortable disappointment. Her hand shifted down to adjust the left cup.

"... I've been needing some new clothes, and credits help with that."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Right," Ben said. "Shuvin?"

Shuvin looked up, and grinned.

"Ain't never done nothin' like this before," she said, keeping her tone low. "Smuggling? Little things? Sure. But it kinda feels like there ain't no turning back after this. But I'm with ya, Cappie. Everything goes right, they won't even know who we are."

"That's the plan, yeah," Ben nodded. "All right then. Wait for my mark."


One Week Earlier

Shuvin Undhi jumped out of their (comparatively) new hauling speeder, stretched out, and took a deep breath.

"So this is Longwind," she said, resting her thumbs in her waistband and looking around. "Sure don't seem like much. I'd think we were on Tatooine if the weather were hotter."

"Starports are starports, wherever you go," Ben answered, smacking the control panel to the cargo bay lift. It ascended, and Ben pushed the hoversled with their cargo out from underneath Alderaan. "Longwind is mostly textiles and farming anyway. Not the most lucrative of exports."

Shuvin sighed, turning away from the view of the city, with its many magrails and roads leading into and out of it out into the distance. "Well, we could use some new clothes for sure. Me an' Cerie are needin' underclothes somethin' fierce."

Ben grimaced.

"Don't know if we'll have the coin for more than fuel and necessities. We'll have to look for work while we're here. Just keep your head about you. Longwind's where the Republic used to dump off their criminals with no prospects after their sentences, so there's a reputation about this place, even if that was a while back."

Shuvin nodded and jumped back into hauler while Ben hitched the sled to it.

"Cerie!" She called. "Let's get going!"

[Cerie Moreau]

There wasn't too awful much to be said as she trotted toward the hauler, and pulling herself up and in, the blonde let herself fall into one of the canvas-covered seats. It was about as comfortable as utility vehicles went. Ben had a look on his face, but there weren't many times when he didn't look completely relaxed. Or at least not disturbed by something. Experience had taught her that a large portion of the time it was Shuvin saying something that caused it, but to her own credit, she was starting to gain on the Togruta.

Speaking of...

"I had to borrow a pair of your socks," she admitted to the young woman without shame while clipping together the buckle of her safety harness.

A look to Ben, and Cerie studied him for a short moment before returning her eyes to Shuvin.

"Did you say something to him? He's got that look like he just ate a whole bowl of mynock guts."

[Ben Merasska]

"...and now I have that image in my head," Ben said. Shuvin laughed.

"He's just super uptight about this place bein' a former penal colony," Shuvin said, and then stopped talking and starting visibly thinking.

"Shuvin, no penis/penal jokes."

"But, I had a good one! Like, a colony of criminal peens, versus a colony of criminal's peens, or..."

Ben sighed pressed a little more on the accelerator.


Two hours later


"Thank you kindly," Ben said, accepting the payment. Ferg, the man in charge of the textile plant their cargo was meant for, nodded.

"Job's well done. I've been thinking about what you asked for, and I know there's jobs available at a couple places. The Depot's got all the hauling and freight jobs going in and out," the wiry human in his dirty grey tunic said. He leaned in closer. "But the pay, well, it's not so good on those. The best paying jobs are more dangerous and distinctly less than lawful, if you catch my drift."

Ben eyed the man for a moment.

"Credits is credits," he answered finally, giving the man a loaded look. It hadn't escaped him that some of the cargo was not meant for a manufacturing plant. "Not going to complain about where they come from as long as I don't have a problem with the job itself."

Ferg grinned, uncertainly at first but then with more confidence, and nodded.

"We're mostly law-abiding folks 'round here, Captain," he said. "But there's a tradition going back to parents and grandparents of being more open to less than savory avenues of employment. A little way of saying 'thank you' to the government what left them here on their own, I wager. In fact, a couple guys came in from Blackrock, a little mining town far out on the rails. Got a mayor there, is turning the place around on her own terms. As long as it don't hurt me none, I have no problem, but the point is that the Blackrock folks usually do their own work. Them coming out here and asking around about people interested in work, well, it's turned a few heads."

Ben shrugged and tossed the credits over to Cerie, who caught them deftly and looked them over. Shuvin crowded her, looking a little disappointed.

"Can't hurt to take a look, I suppose," Ben said. Ferg winked at him.

"Ask for 'em at the Hyperspace Halton. Heard they got themselves a room there."

Ben turned away from the plant manager and walked back to the girls.

"Well, got a lead on a potential job. Sounds like a bit of a nerf chase, but we don't have much to go on. We'll go talk to these guys and see if it's worth our time."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Shiny, Cap'n," Shuvin answered. "We barely got enough for fuel and food and water with this."

Ben grimaced and started up the hauler. It weren't their old cargo speeder that they had left in ruins on Junction, it didn't have the thrust and handling for two things, but it did the job and was far faster than walking or running. Shuvin could probably work on the handling, but a speeder's engine was not something she had a lot of experience working in.

The ride through Longwind Starport was somewhat long and they had to stop several dozen times for traffic, pedestrians, animals, and droids. No one had any sense of designated crossing zones, and all of them seemed to be awfully busy, lost in their own little worlds or focused on their destinations. The smell of industry, smoke and sweat and dust, hung over them like a pall.

In many ways, it reminded her of Syragor.

In the distance, she could see the rise of a few taller buildings. If that was downtown, Longwind was not a bustling economic powerhouse.

"So where're we headed, Cappie?" she asked, leaning forward and watching a couple big haulers with bleating sheep on their caged beds drive past.

"A hotel, not too far away now," Ben answered, bringing up a little map of the Starport. "Hyperspace Halton. I don't know what we'll find there, either. I haven't been to Longwind in years."

"You've been here before?" she asked, gripping the backrests of Ben and Cerie's seats to hold herself steady. The speeder jolted back into motion. Ben nodded.

"Long time ago. I ran with a little group of... well, we weren't mercenaries. Bodyguards? Hired toughs? We'd get hired to deliver things and people to different places, on and off planet, if the journey looked dangerous. I was just a pilot and driver. Ended up moving on after a couple years, went to the Core and did some voice work and consulting for a couple hologames. Paid a little worse, but wasn't nearly as dangerous."

Shuvin forgot sometimes that Ben hadn't always been a freighter pilot. He seemed to fit the lifestyle and it seemed to fit him so well that she couldn't picture him doing anything else, and he didn't feel that much older than her. But at times like this, she'd be reminded that Ben had years of travel and experience to him, that he was over ten years older, and some of those things must have marked him as much as if not more than the past couple years of freighting had done. He carried a lot of hurt, and not all of it came from losing his homeworld; she was sure of that.


They finally left the industrial sector of the town and entered what looked to be the commercial and entertainment sector. Or what passed for one, at least. There was a cinema, with a hand-painted sign and the billboard flickered intermittently. A theater stood on the corner of the main road through and a side street, with a still hologram of a human and twi'lek dancing girl over top the awning with its name on it. There were a general store and a parts 'emporium', which seemed to sell everything from droids to speeders to industrial equipment.


On another corner, facing the general store, stood an anachronistic building, made of duracrete bricks and a wood facade. It stood four floors high, with cheery white balconies dotting the structure on its third and fourth floor, leading into what were obviously hotel rooms. Shuvin glanced over the painted sign, where Hyperspace Halton was displayed proudly next to a silhouette of a YT series freighter. People were milling about outside the theater and general store, and Ben parked a short distance away, making sure to choose an alley and not a road where their hoversled took too much parking space.

"Now, let's keep our heads down, stay together, and stay out of trouble," Ben said when they were all out of the hauler. "Clear? Let's go, then."

[Cerie Moreau]

"I saw an aphren (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Aphren) market on the way in," slipping from her seat, the blonde was mindful to stick close to Ben. Her hair had been drawn up into a tight bun, with a few errant wisps framing her face. She'd chosen her dumpiest, rattiest clothes for this trip, as the encounter on Junction was still fresh in her thoughts. For the first time in a long while, the fact that she was a dead-ringer for Loklorien s'Ilancy had become something she was actively looking to dispel. And so, that meant no contact, no scar make-up, no respectable clothes... everything she wore now made her look like the lowliest of transients.

"I bet they would have some stuff we need."

Well, not undergarments, that was for sure. She was in dire straights, but she'd never ever stoop to purchasing underwear from a market. That was just inviting disease.

[Ben Merasska]

"Sounds good to me," Ben answered, leading the way across the street.

The Hyperspace Halton's ground floor was a bar, with a grand staircase leading up to the second floor, where patrons could literally look down on the folks below. The music was low but still carried, underscoring the sound of sabacc and roulette tables above.

Ben ignored most of the scenery. He made a note of how many people were about and above (a busy day, but the place wasn't crowded), and walked over to the bartender, who was talking to a group of three drivers, wearing thick but fitting coats.

"I heard that there's work from a place called Blackrock around here," he said, passing the man a credit chit. The barhop regarded Ben and the two women on either side before smiling.

"Upstairs. Playing sabacc with some of the band."

Ben nodded and made his way to the second floor, which at direct sight was a small gambling den. A small group of men were throwing dice, another table for roulette, and a couple more tables for card games. One table was completely full, and that was where Ben went first.

"Excuse me," he said. "I heard there was work to be had, from a place called Blackwater."

"Is that so?" One of the players looked at him, and then at Cerie and a long look at Shuvin. He glanced over to a couple of the other players, both of whom merely shrugged. He sighed and tossed his cards to the table. "All right, come with me. Come out when the hand's done."

The other players at the table grunted in agreement.

The sabacc player walked slightly bowlegged, and wore thick clothing, but of a style meant for a desert; good for keeping the sun off, and able to keep a body from freezing to death at night. His skin was tanned, but not in a manner that suggested he did it for vanity's sake. The goggle lines around his eyes, faint but still visible, testified to that.

He took them out to the balcony, and sat down at a table, gesturing to the other seats.

"What's your name?" the player asked, leaning back in his seat and pulling out a stim from his pocket. "All of you."

"Name's Ben. This here's Cerie, and this is Shuvin. I hear there's work needing to be done."

"Y'all ain't from 'round here, are you? I can tell from the clothes and accent. You got the freighter voice. That's good. Last few reprobates were local idiots, couldn't tell an asteroid from a moon, or night from day." When Ben remained silent, the man huffed a laugh and lit his stim. "Right. Well, the job'll pay you well. Very well."

"How well?"

"At least thirty thousand." His smile widened at the look on their faces. "At least."

"Ain't nothing paying out like that weren't dangerous. What would we be doing?"

The balcony door opened, and a woman, a Rodian, and a man walked out, dressed similarly to the man who'd led them out. They fanned out, the woman and Rodian going to sit next to the man while the other man walked over to the railing and lit a stim of his own.

"You don't seem like idiots. So I'll tell you this. The job pays this well, but it's more of an audition, of sorts. We have something in the works that'll make this job seem cheap. But, you're right. This job ain't child's play."

"Come on, Coran. Stop listenin' to the sound of your own voice and tell 'em. Or I will," the woman sighed, using a little knife to trim her nails.

"Bitch," the man, Corran, grunted. The woman smirked but didn't say anything else.

"Right. You'll be hitting a Hutt pay transport."

Ben leaned back.

"Now, now. Listen, my friend. We wouldn't be asking this if it were suicide. My boss wants a couple items from it. One of them, the Hutt stole from her. I think she just wants the other one. The transport'll be lightly defended. It's a short route, and they make it once every month. Most of the time all it has are four snubs."

He grinned widely.

"Don't sound so impossible now, eh?"

[Cerie Moreau]

There had to be a catch. There always was. She'd pulled enough jobs to know that generally if the circumstances were too good to be true... well, they usually were.

A small voice in the back of her head tickled through her mind, and Cerie gave a frown as she cast her eyes downward, thinking through this 'audition'. It all sounded so neat and tidy, and the four obviously had something a big larger down the line if this job was meant to be a test. She hated tests; never did well with them even in primary school, ages back. Nowadays though, the sorts of tests that sometimes came with this line of work could get you a fair bit more than a simple F. They could get you a cozy plot of wide open vacuum. It wasn't a comforting thought.

She scowled, crossed her arms, then let her gaze lift to look at the gent taking a drag from his stim.

There had to be a catch.

But, wherever Ben chose to go, she would go with him. His heart was almost always in the right place, and she had grown rather fond of the Alderaanian who had taken her in. She'd never let him know though.

Finally she let a snort out, an expression that was a strange incredulous sneer pulling her lips back.

"Your call, Ben."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben glanced over to Shuvin, who shrugged.

"How good is this information you have? I don't think a Hutt pay transport goes about with only a couple snubs to protect it."

Coran smiled.

"This is platinum information, friend. I trust it with my life."

"Thing is, it isn't your life your trusting with it."

"What do you want me to say? You can go there, take a look. If you don't like it, fly away. It's not like you're taking a contract. It's not like we're going to go after you either. Unless of course the Hutt somehow manages to learn of our interest and information."

Ben leaned back and pursed his lips.

"Fine. We'll take a look."

Coran's smile widened.

[Shuvin Undhi]

Twenty minutes later, only Cerie, Shuvin, and Ben sat on the balcony, daylight dimming around them as evening crept in. Nobody had said much of anything after the man with his unkempt appearance had left; Ben was busy thinking deeply, and Cerie and Shuvin both didn't have much to say that weren't said already.

"We need a plan, more'n anything else," Ben said finally, bringing himself out of his thoughts. "Whether we go through with it or not. Shuvin, get with Deemo and look up the system. Get me the most up to date maps you can find. If it's a Hutt system, chances are they won't be very recent or true, but as long as we get the gist of it, we won't be flying in completely blind."

"Aye, Cap'n," Shuvin said with a wide smile.

"Cerie, do an inventory. Everything we got. We need to know what we have to work with.

"I'm going to do some looking around, see if I can't find something more legitimate we can use as cover. We'll meet back up and update tonight on the ship. 2200 hours."

"Will do," Shuvin said. "Cap'n, you bein' all take charge and givin' orders is all sorts of hot."

"What?" Ben jerked as if he were a puppet and the one on his strings had a scare. Shuvin laughed.

"Good thing the Cap'n I know so well's still in there."

"Right. Get on then," Ben grumbled, still a bit flushed.

[Ben Merasska]

"Okay, so I did some digging and I found a couple maps," Shuvin said, starting their little brainstorming session later that night.


Deemo wubbed once and a projection of the system flared to life above the galley table.

"Fairly standard as far as systems go," Shuvin said. "Small, out of the way. No real draws save for what looks like an ore-rich asteroid belt some ways out from the Hutt planet. The kind that'll play small havoc with scanner systems. One gas giant, but it's mostly methane and probably smells like farts."

She zoomed the map, focusing on the belt and the lone planet orbiting the star within it. Ben eyed the map for a couple moments.

"Is this accurate for orbit and calculation?"

Shuvin blinked, and glanced back to Deemo, who wubbed in succession for a couple seconds.

"Should be."

"Feed this to Deemo and let's see the positioning."

Shuvin plugged the data chit into her astrodroid and waited. The planet swung around the star in a manic dance until it slowed and finally stopped.

"What about the largest asteroids and any accumulates?"

Within a few moments, the largest documented asteroids and other bodies in the belt were highlighted.

"Looks like they only have a few real routes through the belt," Ben said. "If the information's accurate and they jump in here, then they'll probably try to go through like this."

He drew an imaginary line through the static approximation of the system. Shuvin blinked a few times.

"Hey, Cerie, we still got those ion nets, right? You know, the ones Ben thought we could use to drop on any following snubs or drone fighters following us before we educated him on how easy it would be to dodge. What if we set some up on the asteroids around the route in? A comm jammer in the area with those, and they'll be drifting and dark without anyone else the wiser."

[Cerie Moreau]

She watched the map that Deemo projected. She watched as Shuvin pointed out the relevant points, and as Ben had his say.

It was when Shuvin turned to her that she finally shook the focus from her eyes and settled on the Togruta girl.

"The nets? We've got 'em still, I just packed them away incase some decided to use them anyway."

She shrugged as she spoke.

"They're still good and ready, and those jammers are all still in their charging cradles, so they're ready to go also."

[Ben Merasska]

"That's... that's a brilliant idea, Shuvin," Ben said, eyes still on the hologram.

"Course it is," she smiled brightly. "I thought of it."

"We still need to get the containers off the transport, though. With the power and communications jammed, it'll have to be manual, through access panels on the hull. We'll have to act quick, too, else the ships will just drift on through until their power's back up and running."

Shuvin's smile dimmed in thought, and she glanced over at Cerie.

"A harpoon's probably the best bet for stopping the transport," she said. Ben looked up at her and smiled, before turning to Cerie and nodding. She smiled back.

"Girls, I think we can make this work."

[Shuvin Undhi]

2 Days Later

"I don't like it."

Ben sighed loudly as Shuvin frowned at Alderaan, her face as stormy as a Kamino sky.

"It's only until we get this done, Shuvin. Then you can tear it off and do what you want with it," Ben soothed. "We're on a time limit now what with how long it took to get this on, so we shoul--"

"Look at it! Cerie, look! It's ugly!" Shuvin pointed at the harpoon gun that she had unhappily installed at the dorsal hatch. "And it cost us almost all of the credits from the last job! I could o' installed a tube or a launcher."

Ben tossed his hands in the air and marched into the ship.

"You think's it's ugly too, don't ya, Cerie?" Shuvin sniffed. "Ben was just bein' Ben when he said that there was no way we'd get a launcher installed in two days, right?"

[Ben Merasska]

"We need to get going!" Ben's voice carried from inside the ship, "tight schedule from here on out!"

Shuvin rolled her eyes and gave the bulky harpoon-thrower another baleful expression, before stomping onto the ship and back into the reactor core even as the ship warmed up and the entry ramp began closing.

Ben grimaced as Shuvin loudly complained to herself in the distance.

"Remind me to make some waffles or something as an apology," he said to Cerie as she settled in the copilot's chair.