Private Spaceport Blues

[Das]

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The docks used to be one of Das’ favorite spots to go. Her dad would bring her around on their way home just so she could watch the parade of ships coming and going from their city-wide homeworld. Now, it only solidified Denon’s prison-like nature. She never stopped coming here, even through the few years since her parents disappeared. Even after her father resurfaced in the Tombs. This place was like a bittersweet morsel in a spread of otherwise very chitty dishes she’d had to swallow.

She looked longingly to a small cargo ship as it lifted from its bay and turned upward to the stars. It made her wonder what total freedom was like. Not the kind that kids enjoy, before their nativity and idealism wears off. The kind that sentients enjoy. Adults. She’d be one next year, after all. Would it change anything?

Probably not…

Even if she wanted to stow away on one of those ships, she couldn’t. There was too much left to be done on Denon. She had friends who needed her, and Darkwire’s mission was still underway despite the crackdowns. She couldn’t just leave everything behind. She may have been her father’s daughter, but abandonment wasn’t a choice she was willing to make.

With that, the teen kicked off the short ledge she was perched on and followed the thin crowd of dockworkers towards the loading bays. Her scruffy jacket and fingerless gloves did a lot to blend her with the group. It made her invisible. When the group kept for the main drag through the heart of the docks, she took her chance and slipped away. The private hangars were always where the work was, and even if the pilots didn’t pay her in credits, they at least gave her a meal.

Sometimes, that was almost better.

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Tags: Spek Zhio
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[Spek Zhio]

-- Prelude --
-- Theme --​

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source: Star Trek Online​

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-- Denon, The Denon System
-- Inner Rim Territories


The only meal Spek Zhio had had to eat for the past who knows how long it has been already, was nerf-flavored chips. There were still several full containers of the stuff occupying much of both cargo bays - though not the hidden compartments beneath - but at least he had managed to eat his way through the ones cluttering the corridors, private quarters, engineering, and cockpit.

Nostalgia struck him in a weird way, for surely he was not about to actually miss the distasteful synthetic tang of those food-substitutes, now that he finally had a considerable amount of credits to spare. "And most of those are gonna be spent on you, Alcy!" The captain of a one-man crew reassured his starship.

Azure Alcyone, the retrofitted CEC's YT-1930 Light Transport, whose refurbished computer system was nothing more than an old pilot droid's heuristic processor with an inadequate astrogation buffer for navicomp, was half-way done with the landing procedures.

On his part, Spek was already ready to disembark as well, wearing his long red jacket that helped conceal his blaster, and with his lightsabers safely stored inside one of the utility belt's many pouches. A few smooth gigs, back-to-back, with no shenanigans and more than adequate compensation, to him could only mean that the poodoo was about to hit the fan.

Either that, or he did not felt comfortable casually walking around a world that has recently been the subject of several terrorism-related scoops, with him being the holder of a small fortune. But if you want to buy good tech, apparently Denon was still the place to go.

"First, we need to find a local that'll show us around," he told his ship, before flipping up the switch that would normally open the cargo bay to the outside world. "Just because we're now rich," a whimsical hyperbole, "it doesn't mean we should let ourselves be swindled, now does it?"

The Zeltron smiled while his ship displayed her agreement by rhythmically having the bay's emergency lights flicker a couple of times, before actually opening the gates.

Spek flicked up his red collar, and stepped outside, into the planetside space dock.

Das

 

[Das]

​

Das kept her eyes open for prospective marks, eying the quality of their ships as a baseline for how easy it’d be to make a quick cred. Freighters we’re the exception, though; In her experience, the dingier the outside, the better the internal mods. It wasn’t long before she spotted a fine ship freshly docked at the port, with its captain still close by. She gave him a wave, flagging for the red-suited man.

“Hey!” she called, quickening her pace and glancing for any security patrols nearby. She might have been good at hiding in crowds, but her face was live in all the CorpSec scanners.

“New to Denon?”

Hopefully new enough not to have seen anything wanted clips on the local holonet.

“I’m- Joules,” she lied. “Do you, uh… need a hand with anything? I’m pretty handy with a fusion cutter.”

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Tags: Spek Zhio
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[Spek Zhio]

The little girl was a sneaky one. Enough for Zhio not to have notice her until she called out to him. What the Zeltron could see from a mile away though, was her duplicity.

"Nah, kid," he waved her off and carried on unperturbed. "Ship's fine. Shouldn't you be in school or something, anyway?"

A cantina. That was where he was going to find the help he needed. It had never failed him before. If not help, at least some alcohol while he waited.

In the distance, he saw a dock patrol pacing towards him. "Poodoo, meet fan," he whispered to himself. Old model starships, particularly light transports, sometimes caught unwanted attention from the local authorities. Despite this time having a cargo bay with nothing but chips and an old speeder, these guys could cause trouble if they wanted to. And the determined pace on those two officers, seemed to indicate as much. Could it be that the fake transponder code was flagged, this time? "It's an older code, but it checks out..."

He glanced back at the kid. Taking a moment to ponder if she could be of any use to him, in that situation.

Das

 

[Das]

​

"Nah, kid."

She hated that endearment, but she was used to pilots turning down her work. If only her name carried the weight of her engineering talents and not the false criminality that CorpSec slapped on her. Das furrowed her brows at the thought, but she shook them away quick enough. There were plenty of others in the spaceport who could flip her a couple creds for some good handiwork.

​

"Suit yourself," the teen said with a shrug, turning on her heels. She halted when she saw the dock officers closing in.

"Chit..."

Das looked back to Captain Redcoat, avoiding the officers' gaze as naturally as she could.

"Sure there's nothing you need touched up? I-I can fix just about anything. Lines, terminals, engines."

Her fingertips danced nervously over her holster, reluctantly prepared to draw her Night Sniper if either of the officers recognized her face from the CAD profiles.

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Tags: Spek Zhio
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[Spek Zhio]

Spek rolled up his sleeves, using that as misdirection to turn off his bracelet's pheromone suppression feature. His natural Zeltron airborne chemicals had countless times helped grease the wheels, enough for him to get out of some very sticky situations in the past.

With any luck, this would be no exception.

Turning around, he threw the kid a wide smile. "Alcyone! There you are! Almost didn't see you over there, kid! Did you shrink some more while I was away?" He adjusted his coat, in such a way as to let her get a glimpse of his holster, then jerked his head ever so slightly, as if nodding in the direction of her quavering hand, eyeing it attentively. Finally, he slightly shook his head. Hopefully, she would get the message.

"Come here, you little rascal," he said, while opening his arms and motioning with the hands towards his chest, "Let daddy give you a pat on the head, just the way you like it." That's what he could come up with, in the heat of the moment. He relied on the pheromones to play their part in convincing her to trust him.

If she played along, Zhio would press her head against his shirt, fondling her hair aggressively so as to mess it, enough to hide her face.

"Haha! Don't mind us officers! Just a local parent happy to see his daughter! Hope you don't mind she's missing her classes! She just couldn't wait to rush and come see me, since I've been away from home for so long!" the Zeltron looked down at her, then added, "Adoptive daughter... But I love her like she's my own flesh and blood!" He beamed.

Das

 

[Das]

​

Das was ready to shoot. She’d dealt with these Corpo fethers for too long, and while these guys were just crummy customs officers, they would bleed and die like any other Seccer. But then she felt an odd whimsy in her head. She’d felt it before, around Yula in her shop…

A Zeltron?

If he wasn’t the only thing between her and a shootout, she might’ve resisted more. Found a way out. But he regrettably seemed to be her best shot at not getting shot.

“Dad!” she said awkwardly, trying to match his energy. But then he pulled her into an unexpected embrace. Instinct number one was to pull out her gun, but she held herself together and played the part.

This guy definitely wasn’t from Denon.

The idiot Corpos seemed to take it easier after that, though. Or they just didn’t feel like bothering with something as small on their radar as a parental visitation. Good fathers rarely smuggle anything worth stealing. When they were gone, she was quick to push backwards.

“Daddy?” she echoed, annoyed. Her icy blue eyes looked him over.

“Rascal? You’re lucky they didn’t sniff around your fancy scent and chitty slang.”

She sighed. It was chitty, but it got them out of a tough spot.

“Thanks for the bailout. I uh- I guess I owe you one?” Das said, nodding to the ship.

“You probably need a better code in your transponder. You’re not one of the regular smugglers, so they must’ve just flagged you. Anything else you need to call it even?”

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Tags: Spek Zhio
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[Spek Zhio]

Zhio knew from the start that the teen was either trouble or in trouble, likely both. Best-case scenario, she was one of those panhandlers that tells you a sob story in order to get you to lower your guard. Kids of all ages were the best at eliciting pity from passersby.

He thought they could help each other out. Fly under the radar. She could have been an ace with a blaster but, sometimes, taking the high hyperlane is also the easiest thing to do. The Zeltron had just landed there, he was not about to be chased out of the planet.

Making sure to mess her hair enough to cover her face, just in case the patrol had her on file, he stepped back once the danger had passed and realized he might have gone a little overboard with his enthusiasm.

"Err... Sorry about that kid," he felt a tang of remorse about his chosen ruse, somehow. It had something to do with the way she called out to him. "But you don't owe me anything, we're even. I also didn't want them sticking their noses all up in my business, where they don't belong."

"Still," he gave her a reproachful look, "it's not nice to go around calling other people smugglers! Just so you know, I'm actually an independent contractor... But say, you seem to know a bit about starship tech. Know of any good market around?" He winked at the word market.

"I can make it up to you by... Maybe... Paying for a hot meal?"

Das

 

[Das]

​

“Sure,” Das said with a smirk, elongating the syllable.

“I’m an ‘independent contractor,’ too. I can definitely find a market for whatever you want.”

She started visualizing all the black market joints she knew of that were outside of District 7. There was one on the scruff of District 3 that had only been hit once by CorpSec, months ago. It was a bit out of the way these days considering the new patrol routes, though.

The Gemini Strand in District 11 had become a much better option recently.

Das’ shoulders relaxed while she was buried in thought, returning her stature and presence to that of an actual teenager instead of a feral street urchin. She might have even been convincing as a stand-up citizen, had she wiped the smudges of speeder oil off her palms.

The girl slid her hands into her pockets when she noticed it, then looked up to Spek Zhio with eagerness from his offering.

“Y-yeah!” she said, keeping her excitement in check. Spacers usually hate beggars, and working for food already has a poor connotation in most places.

“What, erm- what did you want done on your ship?”

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Tags: Spek Zhio
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[Spek Zhio]

"I'll tell you all about it over some burgers, kid," he smiled. "There must be a decent burger joint around here, somewhere, right?

"Well, that's your first task! Take us to it!"

Following her, Zhio would throw into casual conversation, "I'm looking to upgrade my ship, I'll tell you the details over lunch. It's not that I'm not a capable mechanic," he was not. "It's that my ship is... well... unique. And I need someone with real expertise to be able to upgrade its tech without erasing its heuristic processor."

Das

 

[Das]

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Luckily, Das hid her cringe at his use of ‘kid’ again behind a hungry smile.

She was grateful to Gideon and the Amavikkan for everything they had done for Darkwire since the lockdown, but cave mushrooms and large rodents could only stretch so far in a regular diet.

“I know a place, sure,” she said with a smirk, “but we’ll need to be… discreet.”

She drew an imaginary circle around her face with her finger, then pointed to one of CorpSec’s rolling info kiosks as they walked by.

“My face is worth a lot of trouble these days. It’s all a misunderstanding!” she added quickly, hoping he wouldn’t back out on their arrangement - or worse, turn her over for a quick payday.

“I was in the worst possible place, at the worst possible time, and that’s made me a terrorist in the Seccer’s eyes.”

Das tried not to sound mopey, but it was difficult to stay on the up and up when your totalitarian corporate overlords slapped you with a crime you didn’t commit. Street racing? That was Das. Even the occasional heist, sure. Guilty.

Bombing a train?

That wasn’t her.

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Tags: Spek Zhio
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