Private Of All the Gin Joints in the Galaxy

[Arlo Renard]

Kai had been sent to deliver a message.

He didn't like to think of himself as an errand boy, but so far the resentment hadn't quite settled in. He was more annoyed and begrudging than bitter about it. That, and the problem of the moment - how he was going to even find Senari Gravis - was more pressing.

When he'd asked the Jedi where Gravis was, they had given him an address on Alderaan ("probably outdated, but we know he's definitely somewhere on Alderaan, so that should narrow it down a bit") with an addendum that Gravis could probably be found in any one of the local bars. Sure enough, an inquiry had led him to McGraw's Cantina. Alderaan wasn't the sort of planet that could pull off seedy dive; McGraw's ultimately came across as more rustic than gritty.

Hurrying through the doors, Kai looked around the bar, his gaze darting from face to face, until he spotted someone who approximately resembled the hologram of Gravis that had come with the mission info.

<Excuse me, are you Senari Gravis?> He held up the package. <This is for you.>

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

As far as the planets he'd been bouncing around over the last few years went, Alderaan was one of the best. Better even than Commenor was, although Commenor at least had a bit more to go for in terms of lower-end establishments, the type you'd go to if you were trying to find some smugglers, pirates, bounty hunters, or just generally trying to lay low and avoid too much notice. And of course, searching for low lifes and laying low were both what he was doing.

He'd already gone through and gotten as much information as he was able out of the various regulars in this cantina hours ago, and had mostly been sitting there reading, checking over his notes, and partaking of the local libations. Boring stuff, but, well, when there was an unlicensed bounty hunter brazen enough to be acting on the border between Alliance and Concord space, it stood to reason that they'd be pretty sneaky with it all—which meant keeping an eye on news reports, dispatches from the local law enforcement (More like lawn enforcement on this planet), and just chasing what he could.

He'd gotten fairly close at one point, but, well, he was laying low about it now just as much for his own protection as to avoid tipping off his quarry. He wasn't quite willing to use himself as bait yet.

Evidently, he wasn't laying quite as low as he thought.

He gazed up warily at the man speaking to him from under the hood of his robe. Had his lips even moved? It didn't look like they had. Speaking without sound and knowing him by face and name.

A concerning combination, to say the least.

He wordlessly took the parcel that was held out to him, tearing it open and skimming over the sheet of flimsiplast inside. Pretty standard fare; this time, instead of the SJO, it was the NJO that had noticed his bouncing around the core and mid-rim. Maybe even somebody that knew him from back on Deneba, rather than only knowing him as 'random order-less Jedi number who-even-knows-what.' Typical well-wishing, accompanied by suggestions of some things he could do for the benefit of galactic society.

He stopped suddenly, peering more closely at the letter.

They already got that bounty hunter? Bloody hell, I've been here for three weeks for nothing?

He looked back up to the one who'd brought the message his way. He certainly looked old enough to enter into the cantina, but—somehow—Senari got a noticeable impression of...

Of youth.

Hmm.

A flash of suspicion came and went quickly; he couldn't deny it, it wouldn't be the first time any Jedi Council or similar group had tried to pull something like that, but it wouldn't do well to dwell on it either. The sheet of flimsi was rolled up and placed in a pocket, and he stood, motioning for the kid to follow him on out, leaving more than enough credit chips where he had been sitting to cover his tab and a healthy tip.

"So, did they tell you what else they wanted you to do out here, or did they just say to find the old man, he'll explain everything? Because if you thought you'd be heading back to Coruscant immediately, you're going to be disappointed."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

"So, did they tell you what else they wanted you to do out here, or did they just say to find the old man, he'll explain everything? Because if you thought you'd be heading back to Coruscant immediately, you're going to be disappointed."

Kai inclined his head, curiosity overriding any sense of disappointment he might've felt. So, this wasn't just a run-of-the-mill errand they'd sent him on...

<They only said to deliver the message.> He nervously twisted the amethyst ring on his right hand ring finger. <Is there more to this job than that?>

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

Definitely talking in his head. Wonderful.

"Well, that answers that, then."

Poor kid, he thought. They couldn't even tell him what they wanted. Then again, when did councils ever share more than they decided they needed to? Senari certainly couldn't think of any time they had, especially not when he was walking with a kid that was talking in his mind and worrying at some strange ring.

Weird day.

"You ever been to Telos?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<No.>

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

"Well, sithspit."

Even more fun.

"Alright, take your pick of transport: Fast, but tight and uncomfortable, or slower and more comfortable."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai shrugged. <I'm not really in any hurry. Slower and more comfortable, I guess.>

But now, as they were walking, he found it prudent to ask, <What are we going to Telos for?>

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

"Apparently your council caught wind of a shipment of crystals from Pho Ph'eah, one of the nearby planets. The Sith Empire was very interested with them a few years ago, and when they packed up and ran, this box was missed. Now some of their agents, they're hopping around some of their old planets—the ones that the crusaders and neo-imperials haven't taken, anyways—and trying to get it out of there. Instead, well, the NJO wants to grab it instead and keep the crystals inside from getting used."

He lifted up his right arm, tapping in a command on a small wrist-mounted datapad, opening up a channel to his own ship. "Alright, Mee, I want you to take off and hang out in the Telos system," he said into it. A few beeps rang out, and he rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'll be there soon. Taking a different route." He ended the call, turning back to Kai.

"So, Kai, right? That's what it said on the flimsi? What're you good at, kid? I want to try and avoid going into this lightsaber-first if I can."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<I can fight.> But every other Padawan could do that, and Senari had just said he didn't want to go in lightsabers-first. <And I'm a shapeshifter. I can sneak around, squeeze through tight spaces, swing from a grapple, read thoughts, cloud men's minds...> His eyebrows rose higher as he listed off his talents, hoping the master would find one that was useful for this mission.

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

"..."

Senari turned, peering at Kai again.

"Okay, so, I think swinging from a grapnel isn't going to be very applicable, but everything else is, yes. What about locks and computers? Any good slicing through those?"

...

"As in, not with a lightsaber."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai scratched his head. He might've eaten someone else's knowledge of lockpicking or slicing somewhere along the way.

<I guess? I'm not a whiz at it or anything.>

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

Senari nodded once.

"Alright. We'll have to see what the situation of things is when we get there, then, but from what they wrote on the flimsi—assuming I can still parse the shorthand—they're taking the box of crystals from Thani up to one of the dock modules on Citadel Station. That'll probably be the best place for us to try and intercept it." He turned down a side street, leading them towards one of the nearby hangar facilities where they'd hopefully find a transport heading where they needed to go.

Up ahead, a single starfighter rose into the sky, quickly accelerating past escape velocity and off into the distance. "I really hope I don't need that starfighter during all this." Shaking his head, he kept walking. "So. Shapeshifting and clouding minds might be the really helpful thing. Find whatever tramp freighter captain they've hired to transport the box for them, no-questions-asked, knock him out, take his face, they hand over the crystals, and then we burn lines back to Coruscant."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<Okay good, okay fine.>

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

"I'm really not used to being the one carrying the conversation."

He pulled the flimsi back out, looking over it again. Dock Module 087, Bay Three. Aurora T60 Freighter "Astrov Hammer."

Not a whole lot to go off of, but it was more than he was used to getting.

"Alright, kid, see if you can't find us the fastest transport to Telos you can. I'm going to get my hands some data spikes to hopefully make our job a little bit easier." And see if the few lowlifes around on such a well-to-do planet knew anything about the ship that he and Kai were going to try and commandeer; it certainly wasn't one he recognized, but he wasn't a smuggler. The who's-who of that circle tended to only be known in that same circle.

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai smiled. <Right now we're just figuring out mission protocols. Not very interesting conversation. Maybe I'll talk more on the way to Telos.>

He left to locate a ship, a task which proved more difficult than he thought. Though Alderaan featured a major transport hub, there were no commercial flights to Telos available. That meant they would have to find a pilot willing to take them there, or at least drop them off on the way to a different destination.

Kai's mute nature created further problems; his telepathy could only be "heard" by Force sensitives, of which the galaxy actually held very few. He knew sign language, but it was an equally limited form of communication in a crowded, loud, distracted starport.

Eventually he found himself standing before a Trandoshan pilot, his hands moving rapidly as he explained the situation. The Trandoshan nodded along. "I take you to Telos. A thousand credits each."

Kai's eyebrows shot up. He signed frantically, trying to get him to lower the price, but the Trandoshan would not be haggled with. Sighing, Kai went to find Senari.

<I found a pilot who will take us to Telos for a thousand credits each.>

Senari Gravis​

 

[Senari Gravis]

The only downside to running through a spaceport trying to find information and supplies was that Senari hated spaceports. Too many people, all bustling around and about, at least on planets like Alderaan. Further out into the Outer Rim, and the problems instead turned into poor maintenance and the constant worry that the next time he got back, his ship would be stolen. Unfortunately for him, they were often a necessary part of life, and certain items were really easiest to find with the vendors that hung around the ships that were always coming and going. Almost like the duty-free shops found in a lot of the space stations in the galaxy, just...planetside.

And less legal, relying on the ability to hop onto a ship and fly away before authorities could show up and say anything.

A diminutive Chadra-Fan he'd come to know in his first week on Alderaan solved the problem of data spikes and security tunnelers easily enough. Senari even liked the little rodent enough to part with the credits, full price, for everything he was looking for. "Best you head off planet soon, Pfiti," he told her as he handed over the credits. "One of the Twi'leks you sold to last week was just arrested the other day, trying to break into the local magistrate's office. I wouldn't be surprised if he implicated you as the one he bought the spikes from. Good luck."

Problem one, solved. Now, to get back to the kid...

"Only one thousand? That's not terrible, actually. Won't be surprised if he tries to raise the price on us as soon as I get a chance to talk to him, though. It might go up an order of magnitude after that."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

"One thousand?! I said ten thousand each!"

Heaving a sigh of frustration, Kai's hands moved rapidly, still trying to reason with the Trandoshan. But he only shook his lizard head.

"I tell you what," the pilot said. "You give me seven thousand now, and the rest when we reach Telos. Eh?"

Kai's eyes fixed upon the Trandoshan's. "You'll take us to Telos for a thousand credits each," he said in a weak whisper of a voice, raspy with disuse.

"Ah, why not? I'll take you two to Telos for a thousand credits each. I'm feeling generous. Charitable really..."

Senari Gravis​