@[member="Syn"] | @[member="Iella E`ron"]
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"But the organic nature of your stash would only have served to shield the true reason for it's demise. But if you say she would not accept that .. then yes we seek another plan."
She lost me with that one. I didn't see how poodoo could mask a baradium explosion. I tried to picture it in my head, but all I could imagine was vaporized shavit and a smell worse than a Hutt's backside. Well,
almost worse. Besides, the Gamorreans did all the 'dirty work'.
They retrieved the spice from the vat of fertilizer -- I had never, and would never go fishing around in a 100 ton volume container of poodoo, organic or not. I'd even made Tee Nine insert the explosion into the vacuum sealed crates of spice; how he managed
that particular feat was a mystery, but Tee Nine
was disturbingly clever, and I'd outfitted him with so many modifications -- many of them illegal -- that even I couldn't remember all the gidgets and gadgets he had hidden beneath that blue, cylindrical frame.
"I am ready, but how are you going to explain us?" Iella asked. "We will follow your lead."
That one was easy.
"The best lies are the ones that are true," I began, leading them from the secluded room and into the ship's main corridor, proximity lights overhead flashing a pale yellow. The Gamorreans were probably waiting outside.
"You two are my new crew. Goldie," I said, gesturing to Iella,
"and Lidwir," I finished, sending a thumbs up at Syn. See what I did there? I made his real name into an alias; ain't I just the cleverest? And it
was true -- they were my friends, and they were on my ship; that made them crew, in my eyes.
I heard Tee Nine's servo motors whirring as he wheeled up behind us, his loud whistle indicating that all was well. The explosive, he beeped, was practically invisible thanks to his efforts. I scoffed; of course
he'd take all the credit. Baradium was pretty lethal, which was why I'd concentrated the blast radius to encompass only the containers of spice. The resulting concussive force from the explosion wouldn't be that strong -- at most, if anyone was standing right beside the spice when it blew, they'd have a concussion and a few bruised or broken bones. Nothing a dip in bacta wouldn't fix.
"Very well then," Master Syn began, "we shall follow your lead for now. I will deter to you in this but I advise caution."
Syn had to be the oldest sounding young man I'd ever encountered. Was he some sort of royalty somewhere? He certainly had the formal speech of one. I turned back and gave him another thumbs up and a wink, inexplicably light-hearted. Without spice thickening my brain I wasn't my usual moping, broody self, and without the cacophony of foreign thoughts and emotions driving me crazy, I felt... I felt like a nineteen year old. Young. Free. Randy; well, randier than normal. Maybe I could weasel a Lethan Twi'lek outta Zaragga before I ruined her reputation? She owed me for all the repairs and enhancements I'd made to her droids and ships and transports. I'd even made a gravchair strong enough hold her considerable girth.
Eh, it was worth a shot. No harm in asking, and I could certainly do with a pretty Lethan right about now.
"Don't worry my young Jedi friend -- like I said, this ain't my first bantha ride. Caution's my second middle name." I didn't tell him my first middle name. It was
lacks. Kale 'Lacks Caution' Arkin. It had a nice ring to it, actually.
"Before we invite in our guests though, you two need blasters. Every spacer carries a blaster." Tee Nine was one step ahead of me. A port on his side opened and two blasters were ejected, one after the other, soaring through the air to land perfectly in my hands.
If he'd shot out a third, I'd probably have started juggling them, I was so giddy. I handed out the heavy blaster pistols, absently checking my own pistol still hanging at my belt. I wondered if I could learn how to wield one of those Jedi swords. I'd never seen one in action, but I'd heard other spacers speak of them. They sounded pretty badass. Maybe I'd ask Syn, when this whole thing was over.
Or maybe I'd get that Lethan Twi'lek and take a well deserved vacation. Sakura was still in its springtime, by my calculations.
We came upon the cargo hold once more, and I crossed the massive room to lower the ramp and let the two burly piggies in. The two brutes entered with heavy, clanking steps, muttering in broken Hutteese and Gamorreese.
"Stinky and funky!" I called out amicably, walking towards them. They didn't know much basic. I waved Iella and Syn over, in case they hung behind.
"Meet my new crew members, your 'smellinesses' -- the beautiful Goldie, and my good friend Lidwir." The Gamorreans barely paid me any mind; they never did. I'd known them since I was a wee lad making deliveries for Borjo; they'd worked for him before Zaragga, just like me, and frequented only the sleaziest of cantina's. They had pretty disgusting appetites. Literally, the karking kung that they are. "
You lot have fun wading through all that poodoo -- we'll be waiting outside."
I gave the order -- in binary, I should add -- for Rex to activate the ships defenses. He wouldn't be accompanying us on our little journey; Tee Nine was though. He was by far the more adventurous droid. Rex hardly even left the cockpit. He
always stayed with the ship.
I stepped off the ship and out into the hangar bay, eyes roving the flowing crowd spread across the durasteel concourse. As always, the spaceport was teeming with activity, and riddled with half-naked flesh. Some species barely wore clothing at all. In fact, a trio of Togrutan women walked by clad in what looked liked dinner napkins. Tantalizing, perfectly placed dinner napkins.
Boy was I hungry.
"This place is so much better now that its quiet," I said in an aside to Iella, yelling over the loud din of people of spacecrafts.
"I've been thinking -- Stinky and Funky in there ain't the smartest gooberfish in the pond, and there've been rumors that they're looking for better paying employment." I'd heard it from a pair of smarmy Duggs after I trounced them in a game of Sabacc last time I was here, which wasn't that long ago. Not even six days, now that I thought about it. It seemed like longer after everything that had happened.
"I reckon I can pin it on them -- Zaragga likes me better anyway."
Minutes later the two Gamorreans were ready. Iella, Syn, Tee Nine and I took the turbolifts to the first level of the port while they took a separate bulk transport to meet us outside amidst the hustle and bustle of Mos Espa, pulling up alongside us in a heavy transport cruiser laden with the weight of the spice. I frowned at that. It shouldn't have been laden, not with the modifications I'd made...
"What did you two idiots do to the anti-grav lifts I installed last time I was here? That transport should be able to handle 1000 tons based on my designs." Possibly more. It
was anti-gravity technology. Just like the kind on standard ships, just reversed and refitted for transport speeders.
Yep, I'm a technological genius.
Stinky -- his real name was just a short series of threatening grunt like sounds -- threatened me, as per usual, and Funky -- with an equally 'enlightening' name -- ordered me to fix it when we returned. Zaragga had something else for me to fix too, he grunted. Apparently the server droids were acting up, and their comms. had been hacked recently. I tried not to smile. That made my job all the more easier.
"No use standing around then." I climbed onto the transport behind Stinky, motioning for Iella and Syn to join me. Tee Nine activated his repulsor lifts and floated up to the top of the transport, locking himself in place with his magnetic treads.
Within moments, we were off. Zaragga's palace was on the outskirts of the east side of the city, not far from the spaceport, if we took the back streets. We'd be there in ten minutes tops -- maybe fifteen, I reasoned, taking a gander at the semi-heavy traffic.
Oddly enough, despite the fact that I was about to sabotage my future as a smuggler, I wasn't the slightest bit nervous or hesitant. I was free now.
Freedom felt
good.
