Turn Over Every Rock

[Kad Tor]

"Frak! Every time I get a shot lined up, you move the damn ship!"

Kad was frustrated. The job was supposed to simple, Eliza promised. When was her work ever simple. The last time he went out with her they almost sped into a trap. However, that was for the Underground. This was business, all business, and Eliza had been double crossed. What was supposed to be a crate of generic weapons turned out to be crates full of military grade blastsr tech, and all of it from a major faction which wanted it back. Kad and Lizzy knew it was a boon they had to get back to Coren Starchaser and funnel through the Underground channels. Good rebels needed these weapons. With the updates in, the good guys were losing ground. Hell, even the Mandos suffered.

*KABOOM*

Finally a hit, but it was to be short lived as a Star Destroyer dropped out of hyper space. What the Manda!? Had they been tracked.

"Those crates got a tracking device somewhere. Liz'ika we gotta dump them, or Rhal has to find it and disable it. Not sure we're gonna outrun all this company we got. Any place we can hide?"

Kad was desperate, and it wasn't like him to turn tail and run, but when the hyperdrive was knocked out by a direct hit, Kad had to fix it before they could go anywhere. Besides, close quarters with Lizzy was never a bad thing.

[member="Eliza Steele"]

 

[Eliza Steele]

The job was simple: Pick up a shipment of weapons on Rodia, then transport the goods back to the Underground's main shadowport where they would be refurbished if need be, then reissued to one of the many resistance cells the minor faction was helping throughout the galaxy. But right now, things had gotten real complicated.

Eliza kicked herself for not being more paranoid when the exchange went down so easily. But…. the petite smuggler had not had her head fully in the game as of late because of one [member="Kad Tor"]. Ever since she and the Mando'ad had hooked up, business before pleasure had been reversed. The Corellisi's mind was clouded with thoughts of lust as the two had a long distance relationship and when together, well… It got hot. The goran wasn't to blame per say for her lack of clarity, but he had contributed to it. Not saying it was a bad thing, but it wasn't a good thing either as their present situation dictated. A healthy balance would be needed if the lovers were to continue their present course.

Well practiced nimble fingers flew over the controls of the Corellian Dawn as it's captain threw the YT-1930 Light Freighter into wild spins, dives and climbs to evade their pursuers, but without being able to go to light speed at this most inopportune moment, they wouldn't last long against the Star Destroyer and its assets.

Then, a thought came to mind… something [member="Remy Steele"] said he'd done in a similar situation back in his day at the helm of the family smuggling ship.

"I've never dumped a load before and I'm not gonna start now," Lizzy spatted out over the intercoms, then she began dishing out orders to her three-man crew. Okay, one man, one Wookiee, and one droid. If she wasn't PMSing before, the Corellisi was surely doing so now.

"Rahly and Leebu… Find the frakking tracking device now and send it out the airlock."

"Oh and Kad… JUST USE THE FORCE for force sake!"

With that said, Eliza took them into an asteroid field…

 

[Kad Tor]

"On what!? It's not like I've had any real training!"

Kad muted his comm before he said something that would ensure he was not going to get laid later. He knew when to keep hisouth shut, and this was a stressful moment. He was better off saying nothing than the wrong thing. This was putting stress on them. They'd both been so into each other they had let their guard down. The problem was the distance. They liked eachother too much to keep their hands off each other. Both expressed affection and feelings through touch. That fact made the sex hot! Gods it was always hot!

He tried to focus on the force, and line up his targets that way. Somehow he managed and blasted three fighters out in three shots. Kad let out a woop throwing the comm back on. If he weren't in the gun well her kiss his lover.

"How's that tracking device coming? We dump it yet?"

[member="Eliza Steele"]

 

[Eliza Steele]

The spirited Corellisi muttered under her breath something about men, but with her forceful "pep talk" given to [member="Kad Tor"] it seemed to have done the job as four TIEs were now suddenly down to one pursuing them through the asteroid field.

"Kandosii, ner vod! Don't get cocky," Lizzy responded with a smirk at the end, then a hearty roar was heard echoing over the intercom. "That's an affirmative… Now to get rid of that last eyeball, then I'll find us a place to set down so we can fix our hyperdrive."

Eliza had a plan and lined the Dawn up with a smaller tumbling asteroid coming their way. It would be like a game of chicken, though when she flinched, the enemy starfighter behind her wouldn't see it until too late….

*KABOOM*

"Whew… That was too close. Cost is clear for now."

 

[Kad Tor]

"Way to close," he said leaning against the back of the chair. He shut the comm off and headed for the hyperdrive. Eliza already had something in mind, so he'd get to work on getting them lightspeed again.

He always went for a hydrospanner. Kad was not the mechanic Ral had been, and for a brief moment he wished she were here to fix the engine. Funny, it had been the first time he found himself missing her since being with Eliza, and it was because of what she was skilled in. He sighed again, he'd moved on, and he knew it. Kad was good with that, because Eliza was flesh and blood. When he missed her, he knew he was still pinning for someone still in the galaxy. A grin stretched on his face. He liked missing Lizzy, but he didn't like that missing her had led to their oversight and ignoring their feelings about the job.

Kad burried himself into the repair as soon as he could. His gut told him Lizzy was going to be coming down for a talk. Was it going to be "the talk?" The one which started out with, we need to talk, and ended with Kad getting dropped back off on Mandalore alone again? Hopefully not. Kad gathered all his thoughts, there was another talk they could have. That one started the same, we need to talk, but ended with one of them making a move to keep them together on a more regular basis. He heard the booted feet walk into the engine room. Kad just kept working until he heard her say something.

[member="Eliza Steele"]

 

[Eliza Steele]

Eliza continued to fly through the asteroid field very carefully until she came across a nice sized crevasse on a giant rock to set the Dawn down into that would keep them hidden and well out of possible scanner range while they made repairs to the battered YT-1930 Light Freighter.

While the petite smuggler had Rahly and Leebu run diagnostics on the rest of the ship, she refilled her travel mug with some strong caf to settle her nerves on the way back to the engineering compartment where [member="Kad Tor"] had gone to try and fix the hyperdrive. She needed to have a "talk" with him, but prolly now wasn't a very good time… or was it? But first things first. The Captain needed to know the status on the hyperdrive.

The Corellisi walked around to the engineering area and found the Mando was taking apart the hyperdrive unit.

"Hey Kad'ika… How bad is it? Anything I can get you from the workshop?"

 

[Kad Tor]

"Well I was never the mechanic," he said stopping short of mentioning his late wife. He tried not to mention her when Lizzy was around. They were the ones living and his energy was spent on their relationship, not the loss of his wife, not anymore. "But, I think I'll have it here soon. There is a short in one of the wires, and the cooking unit is about to go bad. I think I can patch it up enough to get us somewhere to replace the unit."

The entire time he never pulled out of the hyper drive to talk to her, he just kept working. Finally he came out and grabbed a towel to whipe off his hands. His light eyes went to her chocolate ones. They were thining the same thing, so he might as well bring it up. Kad sat up, then stood up, as he sighed.

"The engine is gonna be fine, but we gotta talk about what happened. Neither one of us had our head in the game, and it's because of this distance thing we're doing. I like us, I LOVE us, but I don't want to lose you because we get sloppy. I think... I think I need to close up my shop for a while, and work with you for a while, more long term. I mean if you're okay with having me around more often, like for a really long time."

Yeah, he was nervous. Kad was basically telling Lizzy it was time for them to start living together if they were going to make this work without getting killed. Hopefully she took it well.

[member="Eliza Steele"]