A Short Stop

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

He frowned for a moment, trying to look at the odd starmap that had been placed onto the wall before him.

Two dimensional Star Maps had always been rather...complex things. They didn’t accurately place things how they should have been. Stars were moved, planets were shifted, and trade-routes...well trade-routes seemed to be drawn in direct lines that made absolutely no sense. Kurt let out a sigh, shaking his head and turning away from the map as he scratched his head.

He wasn’t quite sure where to go from here.

The planet he had landed on was one that had no real name, traders and smugglers used it most often as a way-station on longer trips. The planet was nice enough, tropical and warm with few storms. The only kind of ‘town’ that was here however was a small starport and a few dozen buildings surrounding it. Really not much to look at.

That didn’t stop it from becoming a natural stopping point for people on this corridor though, spacers just looking for a days rest and fun before they headed out on the next leg of their trip. Of course for Kurt it had been meant as a place to ask for directions, if only because he was finding it increasingly annoying to constantly have to get fuel while he tried to find his way back to Sullust and Kaile.

A sigh escaped his lips, and he decided that it might be best to ask around.

Without further hesitation Kurt wandered away from the Spaceport, leaving The Messa behind in the hangar bay and heading towards the nearest Cantina, the warmth of the planets sun striking down almost immediately as he stepped outside.

 

[George]

[ T H E M E ]​

The joke went that when the first daring explorers had arrived on the boondocks jungle planet, the owner of The Blasted Opee had already been there to greet the travelers and invite them for a cold glass of lager. Of course, everyone knew it was myth made up by drunken space farers, but still the story was rooted in truth to some degree. The Blasted Opee was an age-old establishment, having served generations of cargo haulers and smugglers for as long as anyone could remember.

The Blasted Opee was a palm tree surrounded cantina which consisted mainly of a small indoors area and a large veranda with an open-air bar for times such as these when the weather was exquisite. By the bar on the veranda, George sat in a pair of red loose-fitting trunks, a locally bought straw hat resting on top of his bearded head. He was large man, his skin tan, face weathered and body burly and broad shouldered. Large tribal tattoos could seen on his left arm and breast as well as on both of his legs.

Like many weary travelers, George had been captivated by the planet upon arrival. The lush jungles and the echoes of exotic bird song a marvelous sight to behold when compared to the innards of dull grey spaceships. However, to George this magical place also reminded him of home.

While it may have seemed like he was enjoying a vacation, he had only been there for half a day, forced to wait on his cargo to arrive before he could continue his journey. Currently he sat with an old datapad in his large hand, reading a mail of apologizes from his delayed partner, while sipping on a glass of whatever delicious beverage he had ordered. Soon, the clinking of ice cubes were heard and with a sigh, George glanced to his empty glass and the young girl behind the bar, a broad smile forming on his wrinkled face: “Oh well, lass… I guess ‘nother of these would not hurt, aye?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]​

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

Kurt hadn't actually entered a cantina since...well pretty much since he'd gotten together with Jamie.

It wasn't like he was no adverse to them or anything, and he certainly doubted that Jamie would even care, but he had just tended to avoid the seedier side of the galaxy. Perhaps it was because it really wasn't his element more, but in truth he couldn't really say way. Either way Kurt didn't think about it as he opened the door, peering inside of the tropical bar for a few moments before deciding that it was probably best to simply head to the bar.

He ignored the dancers on the far side of the room, three or so Twi'leks that seemed to be trying their best to bend themselves into pretzels. Instead he looked towards the other people within the establishment. To his surprise most of them weren't all that bad. Usually when one entered a cantina they expected to see dirty unwashed pirates, cutthroats, smugglers, and half a dozen people that wanted you dead, but here...well it seemed that most people were simple spacers. Couriers, traders, the kind of folk you wouldn't mind sitting down next to.

Not bad really. "Just some water for me."

Kurt said as he approached the bar. He intended to be off of this rock sooner rather than later, and getting drunk meant that he would have to stick around.

 

[George]

Another glass of ice-cold liquor mixed with fruit juice was pushed across the counter towards George as Kurt approached the bar on George's left side. Hearing the request for water provoked a quiet chuckle from George, his brown eyes quickly finding the voice’s source. “Water? In an establishment like this, son?” He said as he turned off his datapad and placed it on the bar counter while looking towards Kurt from over the top of his half-moon spectacles.

Judging from the mans appearance, George figured he was not a local. Most likely a spacer like himself, though he had to admit he rarely saw such young people on remote worlds such as this one. George had only been able to explore the galaxy for the last couple of years, having been restrained to explore the Cadi system for most of his life. It was often, that he wondered where he would be today had he been able to just pack his things and escape in his youth. It was an odd thing, being reminded that he had once been just as young as the man in front of him.

He raised his glass, examining it for a second before he took a swig: “This on the other hand. Whatever it is. Is great.” George said enthustiastically, his accent a thick drawl. A testimony to the fact he was definitely not from the core worlds.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]​

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

He looked at the older man. "Can't fly when drunk."

That was a lesson he'd learned at a pretty young age, though at the time he'd really only ever piloted Pod-Racers. Still, getting himself half knocked off on Tusken Brew and running half-naked around Tatooine after speeding around the local canyons had taught him a lesson like nothing else. There of course had also been the incidents in the Navy, that time on Zeltros...okay maybe he hadn't quite learned his lesson on flying while intoxicated.

Not like it was all his fault.

"Have to be responsible." Kurt said with a grin. "Otherwise I think there's a few women out there who'd have my head."

Jamie...Kaile...Mom...yeah.

 

[George]

They were for reading; The half-moon spectacles. In his old age George had found them useful for such business. According to some of his mates it also made him look intelligent. In one if those proffessor like manners. Some of his other pals however thought they made him look like a wuss. But that was most likely because they could not read themselves. Slowly George took off the glasses and placed them on top of his datapad on the counter, the smile behind the bushy beard of his still broad.

"Good point." George replied, raising his glass to take another sip. George was a large man, so while it was indeed his third drink, he had not lost his head yet. Though the shimmering feeling drunkness could be sensed at the tips of his fingertips and toes. "But that is also why ye always bring a co-pilot." He chuckled, glancing to a tough-looking woman that sat at a nearby table alone. "Aye, aye. Probably the last one for me as well. Can't have the women in our lives worry too much." He was silent for a bit, as if pondering on those very words. Speaking after having taken another swig.

"So how come ye're here? Not to be rude mind ye, but ye seem a bit too young to be a cargo hauler. Eh?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

Unfortunately, his co-pilot was on Sullust.

He frowned for a moment, considering if he would even let Kaile fly while he was intoxicated. She would probably bash him over the head with something to stop him, but the last time he’d been really drunk flying had been on the top of his list of things to do. It was one of those things that if done right wasn’t even all that dangerous.

Space was really big after all.

”I’m a little lost honestly.” Tough for any spacer to admit. ”Trying to get to Sullust.”

People thought that every pilot automatically knew every hyperspace route that existed, but in all honesty it really wasn’t that simple. There were nuances to traveling through space, mostly because again...it was really really big. Trying to find your way from one world to the next wasn’t always the easiest thing.

Especially if you didn’t tend to frequent the area of space you were heading to.

 

[George]

“Sullust? That’s not far.”

Luckily, George was familiar with the planet in question. He himself was from Alexandria, meaning that the first major hyperlane he had ever traveled on was the Sanctuary Pipeline. It lead straight to Sullust. George’s headquarters for his freight business was placed there, a decision that had ended up being a very wise choice to make. The planet was after all connected to many major hyperlanes, making it a great hub for trade. So far, George’s company was not a very big deal, and for that reason they usually stayed to the Pipeline and Rimma Trade Route and the smaller roads between those two. It was still a large territory to cover however and while George was years away from visiting every notable system in that sector of space, it was still a region he was more familiar with than say, the Corellian Run or all the hooks and crannies of Hutt Space.

“What, eh. Yer Navi broke or something, son?” He raised a hand to scratch his beard, thinking: “I dunno if my navi is able to read yers, it's pretty dang old. But we can try to transfer the coordinates if yer stuff is busted, I don’t think ye'll be able to find anyone that could repair it on this rock."



[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

Navi computers were of course the saviors of many pilots, but even they didn’t know every path and angle that one could take, and this...well this wasn’t exactly his forte. His Navicomputer might very well have been broken. Kurt didn’t know, that was one of the few things Kaile took care of on the ship.

Kurt was really more of an old-school pilot.

He could do the flying, and he could do the mechanics of making his ship work, but...well when it came to the more advanced stuff he was really out of his element. The computers especially represented a rather difficult obstacle in his path. Before he’d met Kaile he’d always let someone else take care of it, now she did, though at the moment she was gone. ”I just need the jump coordinates.”

Kurt pointed out.

”I can probably write those down on a piece of flimsy.” He didn’t need to know every little details, once the navi-computer knew where it was going it could pull down the rest off of the holo-net. The Messa’s systems were advanced enough for that. ”Be great if you could get me that.”

He took a sip of his water.

 

[George]

“Flimsy? Haha, son. Ye’re a real ace, huh?” George said, chuckling as he stood from the bar stool he had been sitting on, grabbing his reading glasses and datapad in the process. When he was standing, he took off his straw hat and tossed it to the tough-looking woman he had been looking at earlier. “Nani, I’ll go back to the Osyka. If our contractor shows up ye take care of it, aye?” The woman -Nani- nodded lazily, seeming almost half-asleep as she put on the straw hat.

They had spent a lot of time in real space in order to get to this planet safely, being exhausted was a standard response to long work hours. George knew that all too well.

Slowly George walked down the verenda and in turn out of the cantina, the wooden boards creaking under him. While he was indeed an enormous man, this was mostly in weight and width. His belly was large, his arms massive and his hands calloused from obvious use. However, his height was not impressive; in fact, he stood a few centimeters shorter than the much younger Kurt.

“So wha’ ye work as boy?” George asked in a friendly chatty tone as he began to walk up the path leading to the hangar complex.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]​

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

"Courier." Kurt explained.

The job wasn't all too common in the galaxy. Most people preferred bulk delivery or simply using a freight service, but Sif had landed him in a rather unique position. The company catered to the rich and well off, usually only dealing with people that could pay for the extra mile. Kurt was used to it by now, though at first it had all been rather strange. The business suited him though, and in truth he wouldn't give it up unless something far, far better came along.

"Smuggling never suited me." Despite where he was from. "And being just another freighter pilot?"

He shrugged. "I meet a few more exciting people this way."

That was certainly true. On the job Kurt had met everything from Sith Lord's to Planetary Governors. It wasn't super common to meet someone famous of course, most of the time Sif just shipped things between back-water warlords, but it had all worked out rather well int he end. Of course once or twice he'd landed in jail due to his work...but in the end he'd gained the love of his life from it so maybe it wasn't all that bad after all.

"Yourself?" Only polite to ask.

 

[George]

He chuckled once again, his laughter a bubbling quiet one. Grandfatherly almost. “Hehe. Well, I’m just another freighter pilot then, son.”

That was what he had been ever since he had left the Alexandrian military, since he had made peace with the war. For some time he had transported countless supplies to the colonies that had needed the food, the weapons or personnel. He had trained the insurrectionists using his experience from his time as a Shock Trooper. However, that was his past now. He had quit the fight against the Commonwealth years ago and was now simply a civilian freighter pilot. A cargo hauler and a damn good one at that. Well, at least he thought so. Confidence was key in this business.

He took a closer look at the man besides him. A courier? From what he had heard, it was hard if not impossible making a living as a Courier. Most of them turned into smugglers if they could not get the contacts. But those that surpassed that? They became legends, regular ace pilots. “Heard an awful lot of good things about that business, son. But I’m a freighter pilot myself. A Cargo hauler. Less stress, just plain ol’ flying. That's what I enjoy.”

Finally, they reached the hangar. An old, but well taken care of MPD-11A stood at the spot George had reserved. It was a reliable craft, originally made for transporting military personnel. “This is the Osyka, what a beaut...” George said when they reached the craft, stopping to admire his babe for a second. "I'm George by the way. Good to meet ye."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]​

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

"Nothing wrong with it." Kurt said with a shrug. "Just not for me."

Freighter piloting was a fine profession, it was just...well a tad bit too boring. There was no denying that Kurt got to do things that others simply didn't get to. If he'd just been a freighter pilot he wouldn't have met Jamie, he wouldn't have gone to the deep core, hell he wouldn't have done have the things he did daily. The truth was Kurt loved his job, and he loved the company he worked for. It was an odd thing for a man as young as he was, but that fact hadn't ever really bothered him.

"Kurt." He said plainly. "Kurt Meyer."

Had George been from Tatooine that name would have meant something to him, but as it was Kurt was content without being recognized. "My girls' a bit smaller."

The Messa was a slimmer ship, though not by much really.

 

[George]

“Good meeting ye, Kurt.” George said, giving the fellow pilot a friendly pat on the shoulder before George walked towards the Osyka, the ramp entrance to his ship slowly lowering with a loud mechanical hum as he approached. “But aye, I could imagine yers to be a bit smaller. With ye couriers needing to be fast and all. But ye're right. It's not for everyone. I just enjoy the peace. The adventure."

It was obvious the ship had once been a troop transporter, its design militaristic. However, George had tried his best to refit it for its job as a cargo transporter. It was homely as well, various decorations and pictures hung inside the small spacecraft. Inside posters of swatches of beaches and tropical waters could be seen. Two wooden surfboards also hung under the roof and at the entrance to the cockpit hanging bamboo door beads separated the rooms.

Pushing the beads aside, George casually entered the cockpit, sliding into the large and comfy co-pilot chair with a groan. “Eh… How is this done again...?” He mumbled at himself as he slowly activated the navi computer, trying to bring up the coordinates. “So how did ye end up here, Kurt? Late on a delivery?” George asked while he fiddled with the controls on the dashboard of the co-pilot chair, obviously seeming to have a little trouble with displaying the coordinates.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]​

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

"Just back from one." Kurt said with the same friendly smile. This was one thing that he had always enjoyed about spacers, they were friendly. Sure there was the occasional pirate, smuggler, or low-life, but by and large people tended to help each other out. It was a strange sort of comrade that existed between people who plied their trade mostly in space. Kurt couldn't really explain it, but over the years he'd grown quite used to it, and in the past had even relied on it.

"Picking someone up from Sullust." He explained. "A friend."

Kaile was likely getting a bit mad by now, but she was used to waiting. Besides, there was plenty of things on Sullust to keep her busy, like the Jedi...and...well that was pretty much it. The Alliance had their government there, but Kurt somewhat doubted that Kaile would even be allowed near that. Not because she wasn't qualified of course, but because governments tended to be somewhat paranoid about everything.

He scratched his head. "Should've asked her for directions, really."

 

[George]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]


“Ah? A lady?” George asked, a hint of amusement heard in his voice. It was good knowing the kid was not all alone out here in the big black. Life as a spacer tended to be lonely, which was why a good co-pilot was always needed. If not to serve as a Navigator then at least so they could provide the pilot with a bit of company. His own navigator had been left in the cantina. Hopefully their contractor would show up soon to exchange cargo so they could be on their way. These swimming trunks were starting to itch.

“Well, me friends say ladies are trouble. So keep a good eye on her, aye?” He grinned once again, finally managing to tap the proper button as the coordinates were displayed on a center screen in the cockpit. “Ther’ ye go, son.” George said as he stood from the co-pilot seat, giving the screen a single tap with a grin. “Coordinates for Sullust. Matter of fact, it's good ye helped me get 'em. Just realized I'm going there meself as soon as I get my next cargo."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

"Just a friend." He assured the old man with a smile. He half wished that Jamie was waiting for him on Sullust too, but he knew that wasn't very likely.

His girlfriend was traveling around the galaxy learning how to use the force. It made his heart-ache some times, an odd thing to admit, but it was better that way. She had originally left Naboo so she could see the galaxy, and right now she was doing that and more. She was learning things that Kurt could never even dream of, seeing things that would amaze her, and eventually the two of them would unite once again. It was all that he could really ask for.

"Yeah I've been there before." He said with a smile. "Not a great place for tourists."

He shrugged. "You'll probably be delivering to the Temple, right?"

Sullust had some shipyards, but the biggest entity there now were the New Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance Government. Those two pretty much domianted the system at this point. Not a bad thing really, they kept the peace pretty well.

In this day you couldn't ask for more.

 

[George]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“Don’t know, Kurt. Tha’ is written on the ship manifest that will arrive with my next batch of cargo. That lazy bugger is late for his meeting with me ye see. But hopefully I will know sooner than later.”

George trudged back into the troop -now converted- cargo bay and grabbed a shirt from pile of what looked like laundry, pulling it over his head. It was growing cold when you were not standing in the light this planets vigorous sun. The over eager air conditioning of the hanger facility did not really help either.

“But ye’re probably right. That or at the Naboo Embassy. Those fellas keep ordering fruit in bulk like there’s no tomorrow.” George said, finishing his sentence just as the hum of repulsorlifts was heard outside the ship. The echo of boots against the boarding ramp resounded and soon enough Nani –his navigator- appeared in the opening, resting her hand on the side of the entrance. It seemed she had just picked up the delayed cargo, outside the ship three large cargo boxes stood ready to be delivered. "Ready Cap'n?" She asked as she tossed George the ship manifest he had been talking about moments ago, her gaze looking towards Kurt briefly as she gave him a curt, yet friendly nod as a greeting.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="George"]

Naboo, now there was a planet all to familiar to him. It made sense that they had an embassy back on Sullust of course, he imagined that nearly every major planet within the Galactic Alliance did. He wondered briefly what all those Embassies must have contained, though it would be no surprise to find that most of them were likely devoid of anything really special.

”Looks like you’re ready to go.” Kurt said as he folded the piece of flimsy and slipped it into his pocket.

There were few things in this galaxy as relaxing as flying, at least to Kurt, and he imagined that the old freighter pilot would agree. He knew that whenever a new launch was on the horizon he got a feeling in his stomach, like a kid waking up on life-day. Perhaps it was the same way for George, perhaps not.

Either way Kurt didn’t want to get in his way.

”I’ll get out of your hair.” He said with a smile. ”Maybe I’ll catch you on Sullust.”

 

[George]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“Haha! Knew it.” George exclaimed as he tapped the manifest with one of his large fingers. “Fruits again. And… A few other items.” He said with a broad smiley as he continued to inspect the manifest for a second or two before he looked up towards the courier.

While George loved to explore nature on foot, swim in lakes and surf on the waves of the ocean there was something special about flying through space. Exhilarating and yet the most peaceful thing imaginable. It was time once again to turn on the engines and say goodbye to new discovered territory, he sensed this in the man in front of him too.

“Alright, son. Still got a few preparations to make me-self before I can leave. But ye better be on yer way. Got yer lady friend to pick up, aye.” He said with a smile, extending his large hand out to Kurt for a handshake. “And well if that happens, ye owe me a drink. Was a pleasure meeting ye."