Private Places

[Rinea]

It had been a while since Rinea had done honest field work. It felt a little silly now, given her position, but this had to be off the record.

The Chiss sauntered into a busy spaceport on Druckenwell, the oh-so-infamous corporate world. She traded her usual uniform for a set of typical spacers' digs. A thin jacket, tight black undershirt, pilot's trousers, and work boots.

What she needed? A pilot, their ship, and 5,000 credits worth of discretion. Her hand fondled the precious chits in her pants pocket. Red eyes glanced around at the gathering in the spaceport cantina. Holographic dancers, gamblers, live jizz, and crowded tables full of drunken space rats.


She reached into a jacket pocket and plucked a cigarra, brought it to her lips. "Anyone got a light?" She spoke up but didn't yell.

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

"Over here, Darlin'."

A nearby voice rang out, coming from an obviously armed and somewhat flashily dressed merc sitting in a booth and nursing a glass of cheap whiskey. In her gloved hand was a lighter, shaped like a slugthrower round with the tip on a hinge, and a steady blue flame coming from the center of the cylinder.

The woman was staring lazily at the chiss, having no qualms about whether the woman saw her looking. A cigarette hung lazily in her mouth, the ash leaving a long trail on the end of it as if Sana had forgotten it was in her mouth.

 

[Rinea]

"Over here, Darlin'."

The words trickled into Rinea's ear. She glanced over to the table immediately and put on a performative smile as she walked over.

"Thanks," she said while leaning in to catch the end on fire. She inhaled before the flame could rise and took a long drag.

Just like that, she slipped into the empty seat across and offered the smoke. "Do you partake?" It smelled of spices and something sweet.

 

[Sana Kinree]

Sana flicked the lighter closed once Rinea had lit her cigarette, before stowing the trinket away into a pocket. Taking a drag of her own, she blew the smoke out into the air above the table between the two women.

"You got eyes, don't'cha?"

A humorless smile reaches her lips, before she reaches for the smoke offered by the other woman and takes a short puff. Closing her eyes, Sana savored the taste for just a moment extra before she blew out the smoke, and offered the cigarra back to the woman.

"Don't know what fancy smokes y'got, but that one's nice'n smooth. What brings you to a place like this?"

 

[Rinea]

"You got eyes, don't'cha?"

"People have all opinions about them," she quipped.

Rinea leaned a little bit forward to reclaim the smoke and held it idly between her fingers as she leaned back again.

"Fancy?" She chuckled. "The only ones I've smoked my whole life." As for why she was here, "I'm actually in the market for a pilot--with a ship." Her brow furrowed as she scanned the room like a sensory droid.

"Wouldn't know the first place to look, so I tried the spaceport cantina." She feigned a city girl's sense of the world.

 

[Sana Kinree]

Ah. She's got money. Chuckling, Sana finally takes her smoke out of her mouth to ash it, and takes a sip of her whiskey. This ought to be interesting.

"Most people here've got a ship. Question should be what you want 'em to do with it. Followed by what your budget is."

Tilting her head, Sana scans the woman briefly before simply shrugging. She didn't have enough worldliness to figure out whether the city girl routine was an act, but knowing that the woman had money seemed more important to her in the moment.

"Y'must have something going on to be offerin' jobs to random strangers in cantinas. Humor me. What is it?"

 

[Rinea]

"Figured me out that easily, huh?" She smiled coyly and laughed. "Well..." Her words trailed off, and she took another drag.

A server droid rolled on by and stopped at their table. It looked at Rinea expectantly.

"Oh, no thanks! I wouldn't want someone to take advantage of me," she dismissed the droid with a wave.

Then, the Chiss brought the cigarra back to her lips and took another drag. She exhaled the smoke so gently that it lingered by her mouth before gently trailing up. "I need transport and protection. Nothing crazy," she insisted, "but as you may be aware, the war in the Deep Core has made some worlds less safe to travel these days." Rinea sighed.

She paused and blinked a few times, as if collecting her thoughts. When she stopped spacing out, her red eyes slowly spanned the table to the whiskey glass, and followed Sana's grip up her arm, until finally their eyes met again.

"Say... You look like you can hold your own. You don't happen to have a ship, do you?"

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

Sana rolled her eyes at the words to the droid, before sipping her whiskey expectantly. She waited not-so-patiently for Rinea to speak, drumming her fingers on the table with her cigarette dancing precariously between them and trailing smoke upward as she listened.

"I can fight. Gotta ship, too." She began, confirming before she took another drag of her cigarette. She blew the smoke out harshly before she smothered the butt of the cigarette in an ashtray, "But I like t'know who I'm fighting for. And your price."

The human couldn't put her finger on why, but she suspected there was more to this than the chiss was letting on. Something about the other woman was just too clean to be in a place like this.

 

[Rinea]

I can fight. Gotta ship, too." She began, confirming before she took another drag of her cigarette. She blew the smoke out harshly before she smothered the butt of the cigarette in an ashtray, "But I like t'know who I'm fighting for. And your price."

"Well," Rinea smirked, "it's my lucky day, then."

The follow-up didn't surprise her, but the Chiss still leaned into some faux puzzlement.

Her lips parted once, then closed, as if she had to really think about it before she finally answered. "I'm just a woman who needs a ride to Carida, and from there I need someone who can stand around and look positively not to be fucked with while I meet with someone." She paused and took a long drag. Ash collapsed onto the table.

Rinea leaned forward, "As for the price... How does 1,500 credits sound? 500 up front and the rest when the job is done."

Sana Kinree