Private Spacer's Remit

[Ranna Sejast]

Halden Chaussidier

Slow strands of plucked strings drifted through the cockpit of Sin's Tangent much as the Y-Wing drifted aimlessly across a planetary orbit. Ranna had her pilot seat reclined all the way back and had unbuckled her harness to stretch out, enjoying the zero-g as she tooled through documents spread out across several data pads floating around her, the ambient 'chill wave' music chased away the silence and helped her think.

After the attack on the station Runner's Haven she'd gone back in to look for more survivors, she'd found them and with the help of a few remaining station personnel had managed to rig up enough power to keep at least partial air support going before the Rimward Rangers had showed up to complete the evacuation. In the meantime she'd done a more thorough search of the mysterious attackers before dumping them in a partially opened airlock. The dirty version of cold storage. She'd also gone back to the bar to claim a few more bottles and riffle through the Aqualishs' pockets as well. Near as she could tell they'd been the first target of the mysterious group and with their ship stolen and nobody else alive who knew anything, she was hoping for a lead. The few comms she'd picked up from the men had all remained stubbornly encrypted and she'd turned all but the fist one she'd picked up over to the Rangers in case they pursued the case.

The Aqualishs had proven to be a more fruitful path of investigation. The three she'd met were brothers and, pretending to be an investigator, she'd managed a holo call to their family. It hadn't been easy breaking the news, but along with a fuel bill from Conglomerate Prime she'd found, had been able to determine that they were way off their usual course when they'd met their fate on Runner's Haven. That put them coming down the Sanctuary Pipeline, but that dead ended at Endor, a no-nothing system. Searching the public databases showed a gas giant only of interest to mining corporations and a few moons that had played host to some historic battle or other.

Composing her thoughts, she activated her comm to record a message. "Halden, its Ranna. I've been butting my head against this for a few weeks now between jobs and have got basically nothing. The Aqualish were way off their usual route but nobody I've found who knows them seems to know why. The other side of things has been even less forthcoming. They're a complete blank. Fake ID's, travel histories, the works. Good ones too according to the authorities." She paused here, the next part was difficult, "Unless you think we can find a slicer for this comm pad I picked up, I'm basically at my wit's end. I doubt we're going to find the freighter and asking around on conglomerate Prime after them seems a long shot. Let me know your thoughts or if you've found anything, or even want to continue. I'll be hanging around Sullust working on a job for a week or so if you want to meet up" Signing off, Ranna hit 'Send' before busying herself with getting flight ready.

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

The last few switches were flipped, powering down the engines and giving the stabilisers some rest. The chair bent slightly as Halden leaned back into it and looked to his astromech, crossing his arms briefly. Finally, he let out a slow "No" and was immediately met by a grumpy 'bweep-bwoop' The spacer leaned his head to the side with a shrug "Well, I thought about it and it's probably for the best that you stay with the ship. If she's working here, it might be a bit shady."

A few moments passed as the droid processed the argument. It made a few concerned beeps. Halden's lips rose in a smile as he stood up and walked over to put a hand on the droid's head "Thanks Arreight, but I'll be fine." The hand lingered for a bit before he moved into the backend of the ship to take on a brown leather jacket, covering his blaster pistol by the back of his belt "I've got this and she'll look out for me" he trailed off, thinking for a while before adding a low "... I hope"

As soon as the ramp lowered, the youngster jogged down and continued towards the hangar doors at high pace, maintaining the momentum form the descent, relying on the droid to close the landing ramp and keep the ship locked up. It wouldn't be long until he had left the spaceport perimeters and purchased a rather fancy speederbike.

He would arrive to the café they had agreed to meet up at with style, parking the new vehicle on the landingpad by the establishment. At first, he remained standing by the speeder, slowly scanning the patrons of the café. As soon as he found his friend, he jogged over with a bright smile "Hey, Ranna! Long time no see. How have you been?" The young captain looked to her with bright blue eyes, clearly happy to see her again.

 

[Ranna Sejast]

Ranna hadn't been waiting long, an open-front cafe wasn't really her usual idea of a place to grab a bite. However she was giving it an honest shot and had ordered a special kaff drink without understanding why it was so expensive and an appetizer of fried mollusks she was still waiting on. This place was definitely fancier than most she'd usually consider going to unless she was meeting a client. She was wearing her nice clothes for it too. A grey business suit with a chic high-cut jacket and brown vest. The jacket was just long enough to cover the blasters she wore in a double shoulder rig.

A new-looking speeder pulled into one of the spaces out front and Ranna had to keep from rolling her eyes as Halden dismounted to scan the tables. "Heya Halden," she returned, "It's been good other than what I talked about in my message. Not too often I get work back to back this close." Under the table she used her foot to push out a chair for him. She nodded off to the side where a waiter was casually heading over, likely to offer the newcomer a menu.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

His eyes shot down to the chair as it was ejected from under the table. Halden's hand casually shot forth to catch it as he sat down with one smooth motion. "Thanks" he spoke softly but quickly as his attention turned to the waiter, intercepting him before he could deliver the menu. "Do you have the Piringiisi caf?"

A knowing smile appeared across the waiter's features as he gave an affirmative 'Yes, of course'. Halden nodded "I'll take one of those. No cream, no sugar." he said. The Sullustan then offered a head-bow before leaving. A happy "Thank you!" was sent after the waiter as he departed.

Halden's attention then returned the mechanic whom he met on the space station. "I'm honestly impressed. I didn't think the Sullustans, of all people, would need to hire a mechanic, at least not here on Sullust." his tone of voice was positive and upbeat as he leaned onto the table with his arms propping him up "I got your message. I wouldn't say that I have any slicers on call" he spoke with a slight hesitation. "but maybe we can find someone here. Sullust is teeming with tech savvy individuals. Oh, and I like your jacket, by the way!"

 

[Ranna Sejast]

That brought forth a genuine burst of mirthful laughter from Ranna and it was a moment before she got herself under control. "Did you think I was some sort of roaming mechanical mercenary?" She broke off as another waiter delivered her plate of fried sea creatures, probably farm grown, and she took the pair of provided chopsticks from their little black paper sheath. "No most of my work comes from the ship I fly," She shot him a finger gun to demonstrate the type of work she meant and let the quiet drag on a bit after as she plucked up some food and savored its taste and textures. Okay, maybe this wasn't so terribly over-priced.

"But no, I've got a contract with some researcher types. Going to be dropping some modified sonic charges on one of this place's moons, Sulon. The return echoes will map out forgotten and lost underground structures and maybe mineral veins." She shrugged and picked up another piece of food with the chopsticks to eat. This was relatively peaceful work for her, hence the downtime to work on personal projects while the geologists went over their results, determined where to drop next, took down and reassembled the sensor nodes in their net. Time she wouldn't normally have if she was running defense or escorting convoys.

"And yeah, not a bad place to find techs, even if most of them are affiliated with the companies." Ranna slipped a pocket sized data pad from her pocket and flicked it on to reveal a local map with various independent tech shops already marked out before handing it over to Halden.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

A curious expression marked his face as she asked him what he kind of mercenary he believed she was. His gaze fell as his brows furrowed, seemingly considering her question a serious thought before she revealed the answer. An impressed "Oh" was followed by a nod to the hand that had formed the finger gun "I should have known, you're a good shot. Still - seems like dangerous work."

Perhaps not. She continued explaining what her current contract was. Halden chuckled and let out a bright "Okay" with a soft smile. "I guess that isn't all that dangerous if you know what you're doing."

His eyes shot towards her food a couple times when it seemed like she wasn't looking. Halden threw a glance towards the waiter before letting his gaze return to Ranna with a light shake of his head.

"Thank you" he said upon receiving her datapad. The broad-shouldered spacer spoke a distracted "You've done your homework" whilst taking a look at the map. Upon having read all the names, Halden allowed his hand holding the pad fall onto his lap as he leaned back against the chair and allowed his gaze to shoot up to the ceiling.

After a bit of thinking, the spacer 'returned'. He straightened his back and his gaze returned to his tablemate. "Let's go for NSV, uh; Nielum Spaceborn Ventura that is." The chosen tech shop didn't stand out much from the others. It was independently operated by a Sullustan named Nielum and had decent reviews. Although it wasn't the closest shop, it was only a short ride away from their current location. It focused on repairing tech, tech support and R&D. One of Nielum's achievements had been his contributions to the development of the PULS.

"I can give them a call. My caf hasn't arrived yet." he said before handing her datapad back and making a call from his own device.

"Hi, I have trouble accessing the data on a com pad and was wondering if you could help me access it?" It would quickly become apparent that the volume was all too low for anyone not holding the device to overhear what the person on the other side was saying. "I don't know. That's what I'd like to find out." Halden paused again as the person on the other end replied. "Yeah, sure, we could come over" A brief paused ensued after which Halden let out a surprised "Name?" his eyes darted from side to side before he splurted out her name instead of his own "Ranna, I'm calling on behalf of Ranna Sejast." Another paused and then a quick "Sounds good. Thank you." before the call ended.

Halden pocketed the device and looked to her "He wanted us to come by so that he can take a look at the com pad. He's closing in four and a half hours. We've got plenty of time to finish up here."

 

[Ranna Sejast]

"Smooth," She complimented him sarcastically before raising her cup to her lips. She wasn't about to lecture him in public on how bad of an idea it was to use her real name for something like this. Legalities of breaking into someone else's comm link aside, her killing the previous owner even further aside, every spy and thriller holo made it clear that she probably didn't want her real name connected to this comm and the likely criminal activity it contained. Or the potential of the former owner's friends tracking them back if some sort of sleeper program was activated.

Ranna settled for narrowing her eyes at him and taking a particularly strong bite off her chopsticks, turning away from him to look out the window as she did. A bit theatric, but like most women, she was when she really wanted to get a nonverbal point across. To make it worse, he'd used her full name.

She held onto it for a moment and then decided to let it go, hopefully it wouldn't really matter in the long run. Her last bite was dipped in the sauce the café had served on the side. "If we have time to kill, reviews say this place has good sandwiches. You may as well stop stealing glances at my plate." The chopsticks were wiped down with a napkin and banished to a thigh pocket. Nice as they were, she didn't see the restaurant reusing them. Then while waiting for the waiter to return with Halden's kaff, she took her 'pad back and read through the displayed information on NSV which didn't stand out to her beyond its independence. Was probably a good choice.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

"Thanks" Halden responded to the compliment quickly - way too confident and happy when receiving her praise. For she was sure to make him realise what she really meant in a prolonged process. Tone, facial expression and a killer gaze. His brows furrowed wearily and he gasped for a bit of air upon seeing her take another bite - angrily. His shoulders fell as he let out a small and somewhat confused "Sorry" The spacer obviously didn't know what more to say, for after the apology, he just sat there, seemingly looking in all directions but hers as the uncomfortable silence festered.

Once Ranna seemed to move on, Halden was more than eager to do the same. Bright but somewhat weary eyes quickly met hers as she spoke to him normally again. "That's a great idea" he said before darting off towards the waiter, currently preparing his caf. Once there, he would exchange a few words and pay for the table before returning to the mechanic with his caf and a plate carrying the sandwiches.

"Feel free to grab one" he mused, looking to the four sandwiches he had received. Halden placed the plate down onto the table and set down. With a sip of caf, he let out a satisfied "Ahhh" and smiled. "They sure seem to know what they're doing here."

A brief pause erupted as a wave of uncertainty seemed to wash over him followed by a warm "Once again, I'm sorry that I did something wrong earlier." He offered a gentle smile and a look to see if she was alright. If she was, he would shine up and move on "So, what was the most important lesson you learned growing up?"

 

[Ranna Sejast]

Ranna was all to happy to move one of the sandwich slices to her plate and pick up another to eat. "It's fine, I wasn't thinking about it either until you gave them my name." She took a bite, frowned, looked at her cup of dipping sauce and, with a shrug, tried it for her next bite. Wasn't bad. Also bought her time to think about Halden's next question. "I duuno. My parents taught me lots of good stuff. Always be polite, or at least honorable." Childhood wasn't something she thought of often, neither were her parents and this was bringing back memories. She leaned back with a faraway look on her face, a finger idly toying with the edge of the plate. "Dad taught me to shoot. Some might think that's important given what I do. But I don't think that's what you're looking for." Growing up though... "If you're in a fight, fight to win. The boys were all bigger than me, but I could be tougher, meaner."

Rough maybe, but Lonesome was that kind of planet. No matter how good your parents tried to be. You had to look out for yourself, and if you were lucky you had family or friends watching your back too.

"How about you? Any words of childhood wisdom?" Ranna finished her first sandwich half and moved on to the kaff before it grew too cold.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

Halden offered a light-hearted shrug when she expressed that she was uncertain about whether she was actually answering his question or not. When she asked about him, he quickly leaned forth and let out a playful "Wait a minute! Hold on" His features wore a happy and curious expression "I still wanna know more about you"

He gave her another curious look "Your dad taught you both to shoot and how to fight dirty? Not everyone receives that sort of training. And you're quite the chameleon too" he said, eyes shooting towards her nice clothing. After a quick bite and a long sip of caf, he continued, leaning his head to the side and asking "Got any ideas as to why he prepared you so well?"

Ranna Sejast

 

[Ranna Sejast]

Ranna placed her empty cup down as she shook her head. "He just taught the shooting, and what? A girl can't like nice clothes? Also if you're not going to answer then you should eat. I don't want to be one of those people that walk into a shop right before closing and ask for an hour's worth of work." She pointed to his as-yet untouched sandwiches before picking up her last half. Even if Halden didn't want to share, Ranna was pretty sure he'd never been rushed to eat.

As for herself, Ranna grabbed the last half of hers and headed to the to register to pay while still eating. Though when the nice lady there explained that Halden had already gotten the table, she just nodded and went to stand out front where she watched the street, passerby's, and checked out Halden's speeder a little more. It was better to look on the bright side, she'd had an excuse to dress up, got some nice food, and hadn't even had to pay for it. Maybe she had been a little unkind to Halden even if it was just in her head.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

A somewhat surprised expression appeared on the young spacer's face as she answered his question with her own rhetorical ones. "I was just curious" he mused, doing what he could do muster a meek smile. Once more, Halden averted his gaze, he then picked up the half-eaten sandwich and took a big bite, chewing fast before finishing it up. "That's a very good point" he stated with a pointed finger - despite keeping a generally sunny disposition, his tone of voice was slightly lower.

It would not be long before Halden picked up the second sandwich and took a bite before letting out an eager "I can have this one on foot, let's go." He stood up as she did and consumed the rest of his caf at lightning speed before moving towards the exit with swift steps. Once outside, he waited for a moment to let Ranna - who had stopped by the register to pay - catch up. By then, he had taken two out of three bites of the second sandwich. Tossing the last third in the bin, he unlocked the speeder from a distance

"Got a ride of your own? If not, you could come with me. I don't have a spare helmet - or a non-spare helmet for that matter" he chuckled "But I'll drive safe, I promise." With that, he hopped onto the speeder bike and turned it on. The vehicle let out a soft but deep rumble as the engines came to life and the frontlights turned on. "I should have a decent idea of where to go. I remember the map pretty well. But I might need a hand navigating once we get closer."

Ranna Sejast

 

[Ranna Sejast]

Taking a moment to regard the bike and where Halden sat, Ranna swung her leg over it and snugged in. "Even with the big seat there isn't really room for two." On hand on his shoulder for balance, she used her toe to push the foot pegs she'd noticed earlier out and got settled in. "I'm ready, just take it easy for a bit, I'm not used to being a passenger."

Being in the city streets it wasn't like they could really open up the throttle anyways, not without breaking several traffic laws at least. She also had her hair back in its usual plaits and tail so she wasn't worried about the lack of helmet allowing the wind mess up her hair. Instead she relaxed as much as she could with the bike shifting under her, trying to ride the motion by tensing her legs. Several thoughts flitted through her head considering where Halden was situated, but she quickly banished them all and reminded herself to be professional.

Instead she looked out at the streets, watching for pedestrians and checking the few street numbers she could see. It actually reminded her of home in a way. After their conversation she couldn't help but draw the parallels. Barely breathable atmosphere, cities either under ground or under domes, the majority of the work was corporate labor. She could only assume the wealth disparity was similar, though it looked as if the criminal element was less on Sullust. It looked cleaner, better kept. Could just be they were in a more affluent area.

"Left up here!," she said in a half-yell to be heard over the bike's whine. "And then second right, it'll be on the right maybe another hundred meters down!" She didn't know if he needed the directions, but he had asked for a hand earlier.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

"Yeah, of course" he spoke with the sort of confidence that stemmed from experience. With a bit more enthusiasm, he glanced back towards her "Back home, we used to do tricks on these things. Flips and such! Grand'ma said we were insane." With those words, the two of them took off and steadily slid into one of the main lanes above. Perhaps fifty to a hundred metres later, Halden chuckled a little. He turned back with a momentary glance before letting his eyes return to the lane and hollered loudly "But don't worry! We aren't doing any flips now!"

As promised, no flips ensued. At large, the trip was relatively peaceful with the speeder adapting to the ebb and flow of traffic. At times, the young spacer brought them forward between other broader speeders and at other times, he stayed in his lane and waited for an opening. Perhaps his manoeuvres were bold at times, but for someone used to dogfighting and treacherous space lanes, the decisions could easily appear as well-considered.

A loud holler: "Thanks!" Halden followed the instructions that Ranna gave. Eventually, the two of them arrived by a medium sized shop with the 'Nielum Spaceborn Ventura' lable. Being 85 floors up, the spacer parked the speederbike on the wide landing pad. This pad was just one among many, for a multitude of shops seemed to be located at this altitude. His eyes gazed out over the surrounding area, slowly scanning for potential threats and law enforcement whilst waiting for Ranna to hop off the bike.

He didn't turn to her immediately upon getting off of the bike. Instead, he took a few steps away from her and towards the edge. A slight blush was fading from his cheeks and he took a deep breath before letting it out "I like this planet" he stated, quite matter-of-factly before turning back to her and moving towards the shop. "I've heard good things about Nielum." he spoke casually and continued after a short pause "The reviews were good, yeah"

Once inside, a Sullustan in a red jumper appeared from a backoffice. His shop was modern with streamlined designs and big surfaces - but it was also filled with various machines. Some well known, other prototypes and some appearing to be his own machinations. "Hello, hi, and welcome to my workshop." His speech was - for a Sullustan - slow and low pitched. "I am Nielum, and I am among the 7 best engineers this side of town." He walked towards them with rapid but small steps, his arms shot forth in a protocol droid-like fashion whilst he wiggled his fingers, motioning for them to give him something "Was it you who had something you wanted examined? Here, give it to me and I will, uhhhh... ehhh, examine it"

 

[Ranna Sejast]

Right after Halden got off the bike, Ranna was standing to stretch her legs. She rocked up onto her toes a few times while his back was turned. Idly she wondered why hearing good things about the shop sounded like it was separate from reading the reviews. She'd thought he'd picked the spot rather fast for it to have been anything other than random. Following Halden into the shop she casually reached up to adjust the weight hanging under her armpit.

"Hello." She replied to the engineer and listened to his opening and wondered in one corner of her mind how he'd been judged seventh best, or had the competition stopped at seven. It seemed an odd place to do so, but some cultures considered it to be a perfect number. "Yeah, here." She reached into a bag on her belt and produced the comm she took from the murderous stranger on Runner's Haven. "Really just need it unlocked please." She paused to meet his eyes, still holding onto the device as he reached to take it. "I am given to understand that the contents are highly private. Given that you are one of the top seven engineers in the city, can I take it that discretion is guaranteed?" She held onto the comm as he tried to take it, staring into his eyes without blinking, staring as if the eyes truly were windows to the soul.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

Nielum took a step closer as she produced the comms pad, hands ready to receive it and fingers beaconing eagerly for her to hand it over. When she paused, he stopped in his tracks as his head tilted up, allowing his gaze to shift from the pad to her eyes. He studied her intensely with big black eyes as she asked for his discretion. Eventually, his forehead furrowed and he gave her a questioning "Yes?"

Seeing as she held onto the comm, his lip formed a somewhat flat line before he let go. The eagerness to get a hold of it seemed to disappear as he turned away from her and walked in behind the long counter running along the wall on the side of the shop. "If I wasn't going to offer you discretion, the answer would've been the same. This will be a leap of faith." the last sentence could barely be heard as he dove in under the counter to dig for a device with a wire on the one end of it.

Upon coming back up over the counter, Nielum pointed to the counter "Please place it there when ready."

Soon, his brows rose as he let out a happy "Ooh, by-the-by, could I interest you in my wares? I recently crafted an electro-whistle." The Sullustan produced a narrow cylindrical item, placed it against his lips and blew, creating an obnoxiously loud whistling sound. "It is very good for bringing yourself to the centre of attention. If you ever get lost in the Idle Rocks, this is the tool you'll want. It is also magnetic! Very convenient." he then raised his index fingers before giving a disclaimer "But, it has the unfortunate side effect of disrupting electrical equipment"

With a sudden burst of movement, the slow talking Sullustan threw the electro-whistle at a lamp, causing it to flutter for a bit before turning off. Produly, Nielum observed it with both hands resting on his hips as he let out a tentatively sarcastic "Such an unfortunate side effect. Crafting a good whistle can be tricky, eh?" He strolled over to the lamp and removed the device, causing the light to come back alive "156 credits. Same as four medpacks - but this isn't single use. Quite a bargain, I'd say."

 

[Ranna Sejast]

Ugh, aliens, didn't even know when someone was trying to intimidate them. It would almost be endearing if she wasn't so annoyed that it'd had almost zero effect. Still it at least sounded like he wasn't going to be making copies or calling the authorities about a plot to blow up a station or steal freighters. "Fine," she ground out and placed the comm pad where he'd indicated.

He then offered to show them a side-sale, "Please no," she begged, but he did anyways. It was a whistle and she didn't like drawing attention to herself, Halden was probably loving it though, she glanced at him to gauge his reaction.
"But, it has the unfortunate side effect of disrupting electrical equipment" It WHAT? Her head whipped back around as the lamp flickered and she snatched for the comm back.
She'd been upset before but now she was seething. "Why would you do that? We're here to recover a comm, not destroy it!" Fortunately the device was off when she checked it. Unless it'd just been forcibly switched off like the light. Heart sinking, she checked her own personal pad and saw the screen flickering quite badly. "Just, just go turn it off before you're fixing three comm units and whatever else you've broken." She was just done, this was too much and she just wanted to be finished here.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

She knew him well. By the time Ranna threw a glance at him, Halden's eyes had already lit up with clear enthusiasm. As the light flicked off, he let out a low "Whoow" before looking to Ranna as if to exchange impressed looks. Clearly, she was not going to reciprocate the look - instead she sprung to action and snatched the comm back before checking her own.

By the time, Ranna brought her own comm out, Nielum had already placed the electro-whistle onto the counter. With a somewhat befuddled look, the Sullustan blinked confusedly "That must be unrelated" he spoke matter-of-factly before raising an excited finger "But! You are in luck! I can have a look at your datapad, do a bit of troubleshooting. Very good, very secure, yep, that's me. Seventh best, this part of town." he nodded, fully convinced by his pitch.

"I'd like ten" Halden intervened before Ranna had a real chance to respond.

"Ten? Ahh, you know a good whistle when you see one. And to answer her question: Yes, they can be turned off. Here, look" The sullustan pressed a miniscule tile down, deactivating the device "When deactivated, you can't use the whistle" to demonstrate, he brought the whistle to his lips and blew into the whistle which didn't produce any sound.

"That's great. Thanks a bunch Nielum" Halden spoke whilst paying for the whistles.

Nielum then spoke with a warm voice as he turned to Ranna with a knowing smile "Now, Nielum is going to his back office, I've got ten electro-whistles to pack. My instruction to you is this: First, try turning the comms unit off and then back on again, half of the time, that solves it. If that doesn't work, plug this in and type in security code 4 6 2 9, go forward two times and then initiate a manual override. The device will handle the rest." With that, the sullustan left, leaving the two spacers alone by the counter.

Halden looked to his new friend "Guess that counts for discretion. Wanna give it a go?" He picked the device up and studied it for a bit whilst mumbling the code as if to prevent himself from forgetting it. He then looked down to Ranna and extended his arm to hand her the device.

 

[Ranna Sejast]

Ranna was going to need to stop by a pharmacy after this and find something for blood pressure, head ache medicine at the least. One was already letting itself be known. The 'engineer' had bundled off to his back office to get more of the blatantly illegal whistles for Halden which also gave her time to reset her comm by turning it off and on again before giving serious consideration to becoming a serial killer, or singular murderer.

"No, sounds like a factory reset. But we can look it up on the 'net after we leave to make sure Mr. Problems isn't misleading us." She replied after taking the offered comm from Halden. Thinking it over, she pocketed the device and made for the door that would lead back outside. "I'm going to wait by the speeder, much more of this guy and I'm going to lose my temper," she shrugged on her way out.

Back at the bike she sat reversed on the seat and leaned back over the controls, put her feet up and pulled out her comm pad again. Tapping away at it, she set it to restart before tucking it away. Out in public she preferred to people watch rather than focus her attention on something right in front of her face. It let her stay aware of her surroundings and aware people weren't as attractive as a victim.
Halden Chaussidier

 

[Halden Chaussidier]

Spacer's Quarrel​

Ranna walked out of the shop, speaking of being on the verge of losing her temper. Halden's eyes followed her, clearly confused. He then looked back to the Sullustan and lied awkwardly "She probably just wants some air. I'll borrow this for a sec, okay?" Upon receiving a nod in response, he picked the device with the attached wire up and jogged out after her.

Upon getting back to her at the speeder, he looked to her with a soft smile and understanding eyes "Having a bad day?" The tall spacer leaned against the railing next to the speederbike and extended a hand for her to hand him the comms pad. "Let me try." he quickly interjected. Halden soon got to work whilst speaking to her with a warm tone "Don't worry about it. We all have 'em. His quirkiness probably didn't help much, eh?"

He looked up from the device, just having plugged it in and entered the code. Halden's gaze swept across his friend's features, as if to gauge her reaction. A few beeps came from Nielum's device and he pressed a button for manual override, causing it to shift onto a loading screen with a bar indicating the progress. Despite the name, the needed manual operations appeared to be rather minimal.

"I think he knew what he was doing. You don't make an 'electro-whistle' without at least being able to mind basic safety. But he shouldn't have put the fright in you like that. That was uncalled for."

Another beep came from the device, causing the spacer to look down: The override had been completed and the display offered a clean "WELCOME ROONGLE". Halden chuckled before flashing a smile at Ranna "Roongle...." he mused, shaking his head. "I'll go and return this wired device to Nielum. You won't even have to see him again. You can check out the comms pad without me if you'd like." he trailed off for a bit before speaking to her cheerfully "If it'll cheer you up, you can drive us back to the spaceport."