Private Glittering Pains

[Daiya]

(Theme: "Stardust" by Zeds Dead)

She tried every way she could think of to get info on it.

The teen wrapped it in one of her old shirts, and smashed at it with the butt of her blaster. It did not shatter.

With her omnicutter, the young shadowrunner tried scoring or slicing into it like a door or access panel. It did not crack.

After scores of CryptNet searches to seek out its truth with an ever-narrowing set of keywords, Daiya even tried a few cautious HoloNet searches in the clear. It did not show up.

Finally, she brought the thing to the Freeport Club in Lum Rouge, seeking appraisal from the exclusive black market dealers there. It did not pique much interest.

Frustrated, she hurled it toward the other end of her apartment. It clattered off the aluminite walls, leaving a small dent in the artwork she'd painted there. Her lips released a grown that grew to a roar as Daiya stared at it, its faceted sides gleaming back in the most taunting manner a rock could manage.

It was just a rock, Daiya knew. Even still, she couldn't shake the feeling of something more. It was strangely warm when she held it, but then the teen's body just ran warm to begin with. It looked like glass, and that's what almost every appraiser had told her, but then why could she swear it exploded with color every so often? It was just a rock, just a nicely-cut rock made to look like a gemstone, but just a rock.

Worthless.

The young shadowrunner knew enough to shy away from this. Experience taught Daiya not to trust that glimmer just beyond the mundane. Danger and hard truths usually lurked behind that veil, and her life had been full of enough lately. The smart thing to do would have been to drop it in a trash compactor or hawk it for enough credits to buy lunch.

Daiya ignored that part of her brain screaming at her while following the suggestion of the one appraiser who didn't laugh or scoff at the idea of the rock being anything more than just a rock. He wasn't too difficult to find, though the young shadowrunner grumbled in annoyance at having to use the HoloNet to do it. Shouldn't a professor realize the academic potential the CryptNet held, with security and anonymity there to ease leaks of secret information that would aid research?

Whatever the case, and whether dumb or not, Daiya found herself staring at the holorecorder in her datapad. She braced for a moment, then went to pick up the rock from its resting place across the room. The girl gave herself a moment to roll her eyes and let out a sigh, then started the recording.

"Hi Professor Nimdok. You don't know me, and I've never heard of you before, but you came recommended. I think this," she held up the faceted stone, turning it in front of the recorder, "is more than just a rock. Can you help me?"

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

A notification chime pierced the quiet.

Nimdok, seated in his favorite chair in the living room, didn’t even look up from his datapad. He was immersed in an academic journal, the latest work of an old colleague, and neither hell nor high water could’ve pulled him away from it. The research he had led years before had borne fruit—new scholarship was emerging as historians re-examined the conclusions of their predecessors.

Shortly after the chime faded from his hearing, a notification bar appeared at the top of his screen. 1 missed call. He dismissed it with a flick of his thumb.

Less than a minute later, he heard another chime. 1 new message. Again, he swiped it away, resuming his reading.

A third chime. 1 video file sent by—

He tapped the bar before he could even finish reading it, half annoyed and half curious.

"Hi Professor Nimdok. You don't know me, and I've never heard of you before, but..."

"It's some kid?" he murmured, raising an eyebrow. "Again?" After suffering a brief bout of deja vu, he leaned forward to study the mysterious rock she displayed.

The quality of the video wasn't great, but it looked to be some sort of crystal, deliberately cut and faceted like a gem made for jewelry. Though, this particular gem was much too large to be worn around the neck or on a finger. While it appeared to be transparent, it had a strange luster that caused different colors to appear depending on how the light hit it. Or, now that he looked closer, he realized the colors were coming from within the gem itself, not from refracted light.

"Damn," he whispered. "Another teenager with a magic rock."

Leaping to his feet, he was about to head to his office to prepare a response, when the front door opened. Nimdok's eyes widened like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. If it was Elise or the kids, he didn't want to arouse their suspicions. Or their nosy interest...

Miri entered the house, Jacen trailing behind her. "Hey Dad," she greeted. While she headed into the kitchen, Jacen dropped his backpack on the floor and flung himself onto the couch.

"I'm dead," the boy announced.

"I see," Nimdok noted, beginning to relax. "Was school that tough?"

"Ah," was all Jacen said in response.

"Well, if you don't want to talk about it, I've got some work to do." He turned and headed down the hall, belatedly realizing his mistake.

"Work?" Miri blurted between sips of juice. "I thought you were supposed to be retired?"

"Just some housecleaning!" he called over his shoulder, quickening his pace. Upon reaching his office he shut the door behind him and took a seat behind his desk.

He was about to turn the recorder on when Miri opened the door. "Housecleaning, huh?" she asked, hands on her hips.

Nimdok held up his hands. "I was contacted by someone claiming to possess a magic rock. A young person. A young girl, in fact, and I can't resist it, Miri, please."

She blinked. "Uh, okay?"

While she stood on the other side of the desk, the professor began recording.

"Hello, this is Professor Nimdok. That looks like quite the rock you have there. May I ask to whom am I speaking?"

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

"This is dumb."

Daiya tossed the rock on her bedspread, letting it quietly tumble to a stop near her leg. The teen had other things to do, she shouldn't be letting a fake gemstone enchant her so much. For a while she really tried, scrolling the contracts posted on Darkwire's listserv until it turned aimless, and then reaching out to contacts who were offline or too busy to respond to her. She let out a frustrated sigh of resignation, feeling the urge to be productive slipping out of her grasp.

Setting the datapad in her lap, she popped out the stylus and flipped open to her holojournal. Tapping her chin with its end, she finally put the tip to the screen, sketching the outline of a familiar critter. The vulptex took form, long lines to define its lean body, with short strokes for its spiky coat. Filling in the creature's body, Daiya found her mind drifting to other thoughts, ignoring the warmth pressing against her leg, while her hands moved of their own volition. It was simple, she had done this a dozen times before already. The vulptex was a familiar object for her skills, the crystaline fur made it easily recognizable in different forms.

Today, the artwork took a form she wasn't expecting. Daiya blinked at the image, not remembering her fingers avoiding the blank area that stared back at her from the screen. It sat right in the center of the creature, right at...it's heart. She tossed a glance to the gemstone, and then shook her head. "There's something very wrong with me today."

She wasn't one of those girls who obsessed over shiny rocks.

Daiya hated those girls, the prissy way they looked down their noses at her, how they giggled at whispered secrets at everything in their view, the loud disregard they had for anything deeper than nail polish or boyfriends. Daughters of Corpos or social climbers, true tenants of cafes and market thoroughfares, they were sirens of a life the young shadowrunner could never have. It disgusted her to see a moment of their indolent naivetè in herself.

Daiya still couldn't stop herself from opening the message from Professor Nimdok the moment it came in.

There wasn't a hint of consternation in the face that appeared on her holo-recorded reply. She held up the gem again, as if it was her key to access more of the good professor's services. "We're in the clear, so you can just call me Powderpunk."

Daiya grinned coyly at the recorder, unfazed at how little her clever alias would stop a determined slicer. If that's how Nimdok rolled, the teen would at least boost her rep some more, nothing quite ensured she could raise her fee for a job completed like being pursued by bounty hunters. "If you look me up on the CryptNet, we can talk freely. Or you can tell me where to meet you in the Real."

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Nimdok squinted at “Powderpunk”. Her speech was loaded with enough slang terms that it took him a few seconds to figure out what she was saying, and beyond that there was the somewhat troubling implications of her using an obvious code name and requesting they communicate via the CryptNet. What did she have to fear from the regular Holonet?

In any case, Nimdok had no clue how the CryptNet worked. Wasn’t that where criminals did business? He’d heard stories of people stumbling across snuff films and the like. Or was that only on the “dark web”?

“I see,” he murmured. “Well, a face-to-face meeting is more my style…”

Since he wasn’t about to invite a stranger over for dinner, he ran through a mental list of locations where they could meet up. Alderaan, his homeworld, was familiar to him, but also a bit too obvious. He didn’t want to risk running into an old colleague, either—the last thing he needed was to be pulled back into his old life.

“Have you ever been to Jerrilek, Miss, er, Powderpunk? It’s a lovely resort world located in the Core. White beaches, blue seas, ancient underwater ruins, great seafood. And very low-key, mind you. I’ve held secret meetings there before. In fact, someone else about your age came to me with a crystal there. Although his rock was smaller, it proved to be quite the find. A shard of a famous Jedi Knight’s lightsaber crystal. That was some… oh, fifteen years ago, by my count.”

He was getting off track. “Right, anyway. Would Jerrilek work for you? And may I bring my partner to this meeting?”

Still standing on the other side of his desk, Miri rolled her eyes. So much for retirement.

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

Daiya giggled from almost the first moment of Nimdok's response holo. She knew so little about him, but already she was starting to form a picture in her mind. It fit the stereotype of the academic far too well, the bumbling scholar too focused on his books than the world around him, struggling with new concepts not yet written down.

Even the way he talked about the proposed rendezvous planet sounded like reading off the travel brochure, as if he'd only experienced it through the windows of the conference center.

"Yeah, so travel's a little hard right now. I'm on Denon, and so is the rock. Soooooooooo, if you're interested, you gotta come here." Daiya grinned at the recorder, fully aware that she was taunting now. The teen didn't mean to make it a hardship, exactly, she just wasn't about to spend money for a worthless piece.

Her mouth twisted as the girl thought twice about her approach. "Okay, tell you what? I'll sweeten the deal, come meet me on Denon and I'll get you into the auction house where all the good storage lockers get put up for bid." She winked with a coy grin, "This is Denon, you know what I'm talking about. Nobody just 'honestly' owns rocks like this, they're only borrowing until it gets conveniently lost and turns up in these auctions again."

There, Daiya figured as she turned off the recorder, that should be enough to pique the professor's interest. The young shadowrunner included a time, date, and the location in Lum Rouge they would meet at, and send the final response to the professor.

Either he would show, or she'd just toss the stone away.

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Oh, Denon.” He paused for a moment, brow furrowing in thought. “...Yeah, that’s fine.”

Had he ever been to Denon? If he had, he couldn’t remember it.

She’d provided a time, date, and location—the Freeport Club in Lum Rouge, the red-light district of the Seven Corners. One would hope that a teenage girl did not indulge in regular business there, but given that this was Denon…

Days later, at the appointed date and time, Nimdok walked through the doors of the Lum Rouge. He was accompanied by Miri, who was carrying quite a few concealed weapons on her. While she was more appropriately dressed in a red leather jacket, Nimdok stood out like a sore thumb in his scholarly robes.

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

The pulsing throb of the Freeport Club music resounded out into the alleyway, a low trance beat that offered more to ambiance than dance. Dressed almost all in black, her satchel slung across her chest, the blonde-haired teen turned down the alley that was unremarkable to the casual eye. The Zabrak, who looked to be observing the low-stakes gambling game off to the side, was the tell-tale sign that Daiya was in the right place.

She stepped aside to let a euphoric couple exit, one of them already taking a deep breath from the small canister she held up to her nose, and then the teen walked into the black market lounge. At first glance, the place was no different than any other club, and to any random wanderer or tourist they would find similar offerings here.

With the pass Daiya carried, she could unlock the true nature of Freeport Club.

"Oh my stars!" The young shadowrunner laughed when she spotted the professor, dressed in attire that screamed outsider. He was standing by a woman in a leather jacket, and Daiya was almost certain that she was going to take him for everything he had unless she intervened.

"Uncle Nimdok!" Daiya shouted to be heard over the music, grateful of its presence to keep from eavesdropping. Even the dark-haired woman nearby might have trouble making out their conversation, especially if she was Factory Default. A glancing eye toward her told the teen little, so she wrapped her hands around the professor's arm and gave a little tug towards one of the booths. One tucked away where he would be a little less conspicuous. "Why'd you have to wear this ratty, old thing?"

She hoped the man would get the hint, and the teen beckoned with her head for added measure. Daiya needed him away from prying eyes as soon as she could, the club's overpowering music and dark corners were half the very reason they had come.

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

"Uncle Nimdok!"

Nimdok spun in confusion, his eyes landing on a blonde-haired girl emerging from the crowds. It was indeed Miss Powderpunk—he recognized her from the holovid messages. The teen took hold of his arm and started to tug him towards a booth.

The club was noisy, as clubs tend to be, and crowded mainly with ravers and tweakers huffing from canisters.

“Ratty old thing? This is a tweed suit!” Nimdok said, raising his voice to be heard. “It’s quite stylish!”

Miri followed them, her face scrunched up. Pounding music assaulted her pointed ears, which were unfortunately more sensitive to sound than a human’s. “Dad,” she practically shouted to get his attention. “Make this quick, please!”

Nimdok turned to Powderpunk, holding out his hand. “Professor Nimdok, at your service. This is my assistant, Miri. Now, where’s the gemstone?”

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

Daiya rolled her eyes at the dusty professor, unable to keep from giggling at how oblivious he was. Now she was doubly glad to have suggested meeting here, for all she knew the daft old man would have suggested meeting in a Caf Shop and put the rock on display for everyone and their ForeverKitten.

"Nimdoooooook, that's not style. C'mon, I should know, I'm young!" The teen wondered if she was overselling it, when the leather jacket woman stepped up behind them again. Daiya was about to grab the professor to drag him away, when she took a second look. The woman was young as well, and even in the club's garish lighting Daiya could see more than a passing resemblance to Nimdok himself.

The woman confirmed it by addressing him as 'dad.' Well, that explained it, followed up by the professor introducing her as his daughter. Now Daiya was glad for the lighting playing up the shadows and casting her clothes in glows of shifting hues, her blushing cheeks wouldn't be so obvious to them. "Oh, ummmm..."

Of course the professor was going to skip the small talk.

Daiya held up a finger, an idea coming to mind. The finger became a hand, and her hand beckoned them still as the young shadowrunner made her way through the outskirts of the dancing crowd. They didn't just need a booth for this, and that meant the teen had to throw her weight around already. Something she was more than happy to do here.

Approaching a bouncer guarding a roped-off area of the club, Daiya slipped the black pass from a pocket in her satchel strap. Her giddy glee was hard to conceal from her face, but the teen tried as hard as she could. Her toes curled instead while her stomach did somersaults, and she lifted the card up to meet the bouncer's eyes. "Private sale. I need a room."

Energy radiated off the teen while the bouncer checked over the card, a bouyancy that made her climb and fall from her tiptoes. The bouncer checked over comms to a manager unseen, and finally gave her card back with a sigh. The slightest of head tilts announced her success, making Daiya break into a grin again as she kept motioning for Nimdok to follow.

Leading the way through a room hazy with smoke and strewn with tables, where beings gambled away the credits they'd just earned on the black market, the bouncer finally led them to a nondescript black door set into a black wall. He unlocked it with an old-fashioned manual key, holding it open long enough for the trio to get inside.

The noise and ambiance dampened as soon as the door closed on the small room, a wall-sized mirror mounted at one end with a secure terminal on desk at the other. A thin table ran the length of the room, with not enough chairs to accommodate its size. A room for bargaining, not for talking.

Daiya slipped off her satchel, setting it on the table with a heavy exhale. "You did good out there," she remarked while unzipping the main compartment of her satchel. She fished around inside, pulling out her datapad to give her hand enough clearance. "This place deals in secrets and deception, if you're honest out there then you're lying. Or lying dead pretty soon."

Her slender shoulders shrugged, as if that was the most natural thing in the world to point out. And it was, on her world. "Powderpunk is just another secret, by the way. My name's Daiya." Her hand finally clasped around something in her satchel, and withdrew it. Unwrapping the old shirt she had used to keep the rock safe inside, the shimmering gemstone was finally on display. "And this is what you came all the way here to see."

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Oh yes, the young know plenty about fashion, but not style.” This weird, yet amusing banter was eventually swept away, as Nimdok was led by Miss Powderpunk to a private room. Mercifully for Miri, the chamber was soundproofed.

With his daughter standing by the door, Nimdok turned his full attention to the girl, who now introduced herself as Daiya. “Thank goodness Powderpunk isn’t your actual name.”

The girl unwrapped the gemstone, which was hidden in an old shirt. The professor raised an eyebrow at the sight of it. Though he hadn’t noticed it in the hubbub of life in the club, now he could detect a faint, but unique, Force signature. “May I?” he asked, holding out his hands.

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

Daiya had her hand halfway over the professor's outstretched hands when she paused. The rock felt warm in her palm, pulsing like a heartbeat. Sometimes the teen was sure she was imagining it, but here she was sure. There was something special about this gemstone.

Still, before she just gave it up, the young shadowrunner was going to make him own up for his remark. "What's wrong with Powderpunk? Do you, like, not understand how easy it is to exploit your real name? Or do those robes actually repel anyone who wants to take advantage of you?""

Giggles followed her question as the teen dropped the rock into Nimdok's waiting palms.

"At least your assistant has a sense of style." Daiya turned toward the woman. The professor was lucky she was there, he had let her get close enough to clean all his pockets. The young shadowrunner had seen her wandering eyes, Miri looked like she could actually handle herself on a place like Denon. She grinned in the woman's direction. "I love your jacket, by the way."

Daiya couldn't help herself from adding, "'cept it'd be better in pink."

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

When Daiya protested his assessment of her cover name, Nimdok sighed. “I suppose in a galaxy where people have surnames like Skywalker, Sunrider, and Starkiller, Powderpunk isn’t so strange after all.” As for being taken advantage of, his gaze softened and he looked at the teen with a little more sympathy.

She handed over the gem. Nimdok turned it over in his grasp, studying how the light hit the different facets. It was warm to the touch, radiating energy. Probably a Force-imbued crystal of some kind… He frowned. It was all well and good to detect these unusual attributes, confirming that there was indeed something special about it, but his primary interest was in the history of the rock.

He turned around to find Daiya’s attention had shifted to Miri. His daughter viewed the younger girl through narrowed eyes, as though she suspected Daiya was up to something… or perhaps she was just annoyed that this whole affair with the magic rock had pulled her father out of retirement. She did smirk a little at the remark about her jacket. “I would’ve preferred it in purple myself.”

“Where did you get this?” Nimdok asked. “And do you have any clue as to where it originated? A mine, a museum, a private collection, a laboratory…?”

“She probably stole it,” Miri said rather bluntly. When Nimdok turned toward her with a grimace, she shrugged her shoulders. “If she didn’t steal it, she probably got it from someone who did. Force-imbued crystals don't just materialize in urban chitholes like Denon.”

"Miri," Nimdok warned, but the damage had been done.

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

Daiya's satisfaction deepened as the frigid woman seemed to thaw a bit, a smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth. It was the first hint of personality she'd seen on Miri, and it loosened a bit of the tension in the teen's own muscles. Unflinching bodyguards were the worst sort, as ready to stare at a wall as they were to blasting someone's brainpan out over one.

"Purple's acceptable," Daiya said, nodding astutely at the admission. She tilted her head as if she could imagine it on the woman. "Yeah, purple would have looked good on you. That's my best friend's favorite color."

She didn't hear a reply from Miri before the professor started in again. His voice held the accusation he wasn't willing to say, but Daiya heard it nonetheless. The young shadowrunner opened her mouth, losing out to Miri's perfect explanation of how acquisitions went on Denon. She let out a moment's giggle, grinning again at the woman she was quickly warming up to.

The smile left her voice as she clasped her hands behind her back, looking up at Nimdok's judgemental eyes. "Well, I wouldn't know anything about its origins. Or who might have stolen it." A hapless shrug tossed her shoulders as she tipped her head up to the ceiling. "Or why it was in a big place with no one around it..."

Daiya reached up on her tiptoes, and settled back down. She looked back at Nimdok, honesty poking at the edges of her lips. "Really, I just thought someone had thrown it away. And for something that pretty?" A wry chuckle escaped her lips. "Now, the real crime would be letting it go to waste."

She glanced over to Miri, trying to gauge her reaction. If the professor was going to make off with her prize over some moral ruling, Daiya wanted to be ready to take on his assistant. She had come prepared not to lose the rock, not that she really wanted that kind of mess in here.

Freeport Club had a reputation to uphold, and Daiya was only a guest.

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

To Nimdok’s relief (and surprise) Daiya did not appear offended by the accusation of theft. Quite the contrary, she not only owned up to it, but seemed very proud of herself. He had no intention of taking the gem from her by force, but as someone who was used to selling stolen goods, she probably expected a hefty price for her prize.

Turning to Daiya again, he smiled. “You know, I’m something of a thief myself—although I normally only steal from the dead.” He tapped his lip thoughtfully, then said, “What would you say to… ten thousand credits?”

“Now, Dad,” Miri protested. “It’s worth at least fifty thousand.”

Nimdok reluctantly nodded his head. “That’s true. But really, what’s a kid going to do with sixty thousand credits? You got college plans, Miss Daiya?”

“With seventy thousand, she might be disinclined to a life of crime.”

“Or she might waste the eighty thousand on junk. I wouldn’t give you a hundred thousand even now, gelfling.”

Miri blinked, surprised he was willing to go that high. “A hundred thousand?”

“A hundred thousand?” Nimdok echoed, glancing at Daiya. “Do you take credits or UCks?”

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

"Well, who says they weren't dead?" Daiya shrugged at the professor's comment, her muscles relaxing again. If he was trying to find common ground, the man had already achieved that the moment he returned her holo-call. The young shadowrunner wouldn't have invited him all this way if there wasn't a modicum of trust already, especially not this deep into the—

"Wait, what?" The teen's eyes bugged out at the mention of a credit amount. Already? Her attention shifted from the professor to Miri as the woman countered Nimdok's offer.

Her head swiveled back and forth between the pair, each negotiating a higher value with every riposte. While the Nimdoks ping-ponged the offer, dreaming up the life Daiya could have with it, all she could think was how suspicious it seemed. Ten thousand credits quickly climbed all the way up to one hundred thousand credits, more money than the teen had ever seen, much less dreamed of having, in her entire life.

What the feth?

"What the feth?" The young shadowrunner asked, though it was more of a declaration. Her eyes narrowed at the professor, darting over to Miri. His daughter, while also his assistant, she must have an angle for driving up the asking price. "Do you want a cut or something?"

To Nimdok, Daiya was more pointed. "Yeah, this just got weird. Real fast." She held out her hand to him, palm open. "I'll take the rock back. No one in their right mind would pay that much for it, I'm not falling for whatever you're pulling."

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

"What the feth?"

Both the professor and his daughter turned to face Daiya with almost identical quirked eyebrows.

"Do you want a cut or something?"

"Oh, nah," Miri replied with a wave of her hand, bracelets jingling with the gesture. "I just want the magic rock in safe hands. Can't think of anybody safer than my old man."

Nimdok smiled vaguely at that. But it seemed Daiya was convinced she was being conned. "I don't play around when it comes to imbued artifacts of ambiguous origin," he said. "If there's no telling where it came from, who might be looking for it, and what it could be used for, I get anxious—and when I get anxious, I'm more willing to spend lots of money."

Reluctantly placing the gem in her hand, he sighed. "Would you prefer if I lowered the price? I've bought other pieces for much more. And if you're worried the check will bounce, I can always do cash if you get me to a bank—although that would be a lot of credits to carry around, especially in public."

"On Denon," Miri added sourly.

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

Daiya might have laughed if she wasn't trying to maintain a credible persona in front of the Nimdoks. Their simultaneous eyebrow raise was threatening to turn the whole situation into a comedy play, with Daiya as the unintentional straight man. No, the Nimdoks, for all of Miri's expertise and savvy, seemed to be nothing more than a pair of naïve newcomers to the underworld. Daiya found herself relaxing tensed muscles at the realization, she could handle newcomers.

"You don't need to lower the price..." Daiya smirked at the professor's cheek, "If you're that anxious about the rock, what about two hundred thousand?"

The young shadowrunner knew her generous offer was likely to be turned down, but any streetwise being on Denon knew not to take the first offer at face value. Still, as a gesture of good faith, she let her arm fall back to her side. Reaching for her satchel, she verified the pass still tucked in its pocket, then grinned at the professor. "I don't want hard cash to carry around, that's dumb, you said it yourself."

One of the few things the professor himself seemed to know about the underworld.

Daiya hefted the satchel around her shoulder again. She gestured toward the other door, opposite of where they came in. "They do currency exchanges here. You can wire or write your check, whatever, and they'll change it to cryptocreds that can't be hacked or snooped on by Corpos."

She could easily take the Nimdoks to the currency exchange booth if the professor agreed. The exchange booth might take a percentage fee, but that would make it safer for both of them. Cash would just get the teen mugged, and credits in the bank would just make her a target for Corpos. "And besides," Daiya offered, her one last remark before they let her lead the way, "You might need some for yourself to shop the market in here."

Out the other door lay the Freeport Club's black market and auction house, a far cry from the noisy dance club it used as a convincing front.

Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

“Make it a hundred and fifty thousand, and you have a deal,” Nimdok countered.

Was he naïve? Perhaps. But the professor had meant what he’d said about artifacts and the potential dangers involved. When lives were on the line, no price was too great.

With Daiya having lowered her hand, Nimdok tucked the gem away somewhere on his person as they followed her to the black market/auction house. Once she had accepted the price, he’d go and handle the cryptocurrency exchange. Hopefully the process wouldn’t be too convoluted or time-consuming, as he’d rather not hang around here for too long. Too many unsavory types around…

Daiya​

 

[Daiya]

"A hundred and fifty..."

Daiya snapped her mouth shut, not trusting her own ability to speak right then. She glanced over at Miri for a moment, as if expecting the younger Nimdok to interject this time. When silence finally ruled the moment, the teen nodded at the professor in agreement. "You've got a deal."

She eagerly led the pair into the Freeport Club proper, where the wheeling and dealing took place. The club noise had no power here, the market simply hummed with steady conversation that loosened the teen's tensed jaw again. She chattered away at the Nimdoks while they crossed over to the currency exchange, set in a corner office with conspicuous-looking patrons hovering nearby as security.

"Lorrsi's shop over there will fix your blaster, just about any blaster no matter how old or how illegal. He's got some really astral ones, too, just don't ask about his nose." Daiya pointed from one booth over to another, pattering the whole trip over. "That's where Nrune's usually at, they only come 'when the second moon rises over Bestine' which I guess happens once a month? Oh, they sell water, and don't scoff, it is the most a-mazing water in the galaxy. You could search this whole planet and never find cleaner, better, realer water."

They reached the currency office without much other fuss or ceremony, and there Daiya stood back to let Nimdok do his business. She kept a careful watch on the professor, still not entirely certain the man wasn't about to double-cross her at the last moment. Daiya didn't expect he could get too far here, the Freeport Club took a dim enough view to that sort of behavior, but it didn't relieve her from hovering until it was time to offer up her CryptNet wallet details.

When it was all done, Daiya motioned toward the other stalls as if she was one of the vendors herself, presenting wares. "My pass got you this far, they're not gonna hound you for it now. Go ahead and shop, I guarantee you'll never find another good place to spot some rare artifacts. Maybe not exactly the same as what I found, but Waawa over there is a good place to start."

She pointed at an Ithorian vendor set a row back from them, before waving off to the side. "I gotta make a call."

Daiya found a quiet place to pull out her datapad, double-checking the CryptNet for her wallet balance. Her eyes bugged out at the amount, still in disbelief at its crazy number, before flipping over to her contacts list. She wasn't about to spread the news just yet, the young shadowrunner had to look out for number one first. "Hey Ivory, I need your help. No, no, I'm fine, I'm not in trouble. You're not gonna believe this, but..."

Jacen Nimdok​