Space

[Scorpion]

Pure pazaak!

 

Pure pazaak? Really?

 

What was this spacer thinking? And why was he programmed to repeat the same phrase before and after every hand? If anyone had to live with this nattering every day, they'd probably have shot the holo in the face a long time ago. Whoever wrote this Rand.exe persona was probably a little loose in the brainpan.

 

Sara stared long and hard at her cards. Her brow sloped closer to her eyes, flattening the faint wrinkles on her forehead and sighed through her nose. Her left hand kept her head from slamming into the metal of her dining table as the hum of her ship kept her idle thoughts at peace. Her other hand kept her bundle of cards from slipping to the table. 

 

There was a total of eighteen laid out on the table between three cards. And, in Sara's hand, she had: a plus/minus one, a plus/minus two, and a plus three. She knew she had the game in the bag and one more win would cement her streak. But she didn't see the point. This had been going on for hours. This was barely better than twiddling her thumbs. And if she had not invested in this holo-unit, she would probably be adding to the black marks on the ship's hull barely five feet away.

 

The holo asked for a hit.

 

'3'

 

Pure pazaak!

 

"I SWEAR BY THE FORCE THAT IF YOU…" Sara furiously intoned, clutching her right hand and sending her cards flying all over the floor. Her sweet amber eyes filled with murderous intent. Her thoughts were a hive of aggression and were just about to come to a head when a prick of sensation outside her perceptive bubble belayed the rising tide. Her cheeks flushed and her fist clutched even tighter. But, for the moment, her tirade was done.  A loud beeping noise came from her cockpit, accompanied by a subtle groan from her stomach. A lazy glance noticed the hollow bags of rations left open nearby and despite the liquid fury still simmering beneath her skin, she decided there were things more worthy of her attention.

 

Sparing one seething glance for the simulation still in progress, Sara got to her feet, paused to shake out her leg that had fallen asleep, and made her way toward the Luridae's cockpit. 

 

"What is it baby? Something good?" Sara cooed as she activated the transmitter on her dash.

 

Her monitor fizzed for a moment before displaying the signal of a ship out in Calamari space. The signal was weak, but it was clearly a distress signal and not a job. 

 

Dang…

 

Sara leaned against her ship and wiped her face with an open palm. She looked out at the empty void and lost focus, her gaze drifting toward the stars. 

 

"Well, it might be worth checking out."

 

Pure paz--

 

Faster than she thought possible, fatigue plaguing her for the past few hours, her slug-thrower leaped to her hand and the holo-projector went up in smoke.

 

Wasted creds

 

"Anyway, time to see what this is about."

 

Sara entered the coordinates into her navigational computer and initialized a hyper jump to the area; as close as the drive would take her anyway.

Edited March 16, 2020 by Scorpion

[Scorpion]

The striated tapestry of piercing white and blue came violently to a halt, allowing the tableau of planetary bodies that decorated the big black obsidian to resume their silent watch. Sara clicked a few switches on the right half of her control panel and listened to the familiar hiss of contingent systems that compensated for the hyper drive as the ship came to a slow drift on the edge of Calamari space. 

 

The Luridae took a bow-ward shift and instinctively Sara’s right hand grabbed the yoke, arresting the ship’s momentum. She took a moment to listen to the distress signal in its entirety, now that it was accompanied by a comm message, and scanned the horizon with her amber eyes, looking for any sign of ambush or pirates moving in to take advantage of what could potentially be a big payday; or… a big pain in the butt.

 

When she spotted the source of the signal, she let out a small sigh. It appeared to be a standard medical freighter. It also appeared to be in working condition, which was a big red flag. Sara reached over to initiate a diagnostics report using her ship’s sensor suite. It wasn’t a surefire way to suss out what was wrong, but it would give her a basic idea. And, from the readout, it looked like the freighter was perfectly fine. But it was completely out of fuel. 

 

“Huh. Looks like someone didn’t plan properly. Or it could still be a trap,” Sara mused aloud to herself while keeping a steady watch on her weapon systems.

 

She leaned the yoke forward and watched as the Luridae edged closer, warming to the hum of her baby’s thrusters. Then she carefully adjusted the yaw to match the other ship’s docking port with the clamps on her freighter’s starboard side and initiated the docking sequence all the while keeping her eyes on a swivel and listening for her proximity sensors. Once on the other side, there would be no turning back. But never let it be said she didn’t try to be aware of her surroundings.

 

Once the docking procedure was initiated, Sara sauntered to the starboard port of her freighter on the wings of yet another thundering grumble from her stomach. I really wish I wasn’t doing this on an empty stomach, but it is what it is. 

 

Sara checked herself briefly, making sure her weapons were fastened and her gear was in order. She listened for the clunk and hiss of the decompression and then took a ready stance with her slug-throwers at the door. Her fingers hovered over the triggers just as the doors opened and she took one step forward as she heard a squeak from the other side. 

 

Quick on her feet, Sara swung her guns toward the unknown assailant. But it wasn’t what she thought. A small Mon Cal looked up at her with a mixture of unknown emotions written across her fishy face. And although Sara was prepared for the worst, she honestly had no idea what to make of this. A lance of fear and uncertainty worked into the area above the Zeltron’s left temple while she stood and looked at the little girl. It was clear Sara’s presence - while expected - was not what the little girl expected. Sara eased her slug-throwers into her holsters one at a time and held her hands out toward the Mon Cal in the hopes of communicating a peaceful message and removing the lance of fear lodged in the side of her head that was quickly building to a very painful headache. 

 

“Hey, hey hey… It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you,” Sara grunted, recalling the message she listened to and looking around the unknown ship and spotting a few unopened ration packets nearby. Her stomach lurched almost immediately at the sight of food, but Sara kept her edge. She took stock of her exits one more time before relaxing her stance and coming once again to stare at the frightened little fish.  

 

"Alright lil guppy, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I was almost hoping this was a trap so I could raid you for money and supplies. But seeing as how you transmitted a distress signal, you likely don't have a lot of money. I mean the medical supplies would fetch a pretty good price, but despite what you might be thinking right now, I'm not THAT heartless." Sara said with an even tone. Even though she could tell the gist of what people were thinking, she wasn’t super adept at talking them down in a crisis.

 

“Huh. Well, I was really hoping you weren’t a pirate. I mean wouldn’t it be better, feel better I mean, to help all the sick people down on Dac?”

 

Sara blinked for a moment. It occurred to her that she hadn’t thought of how all this must look from the other side. It was kind of odd. Scorpion did raid empty freighters from time to time because there were a lot of bills to pay to stay in the air. But she was not - strictly speaking - a pirate. However, standing here in her dirty clothes, with her days old smell, and two slug-throwers poised to end what ended up being a child with expensive cargo, she wasn’t painted in a flattering light. But she had to work with what she had.

 

"Provided you don't mind me grabbing a bit of food," Sara continued commenting as she grabbed an unopened ration pack and started to snack on it, "you have two options." 

 

“Help yourself to some of the rations.”

 

"I could tow you to the nearest fuel depot where both of us could fuel up, or we could move your supplies to my boat and come back for your freighter another time. It's not ideal, but it will take twice as much energy to tow your ship with mine and fuel isn't cheap. So, what's it gonna be?"

 

Sara stood patiently while the little Mon Cal made her decision. Worst come to worst, Scorpion had food and could leave the guppy to her fate. But Scorpion could see the care in the little guppy’s eyes. This was important to her. 

 

“It’d probably be faster to cart these all aboard your ship. I know. I know. You could probably just fly off and leave me to rot, but something in the force tells me you wouldn’t do that. Maybe one day I can return the favor or if it is money you are really after, I am sure the Jedi Order would reimburse you for your troubles. Who knows maybe you’ll want to stick with me and help the folks planet side. I could always use another helping by hand. Maybe we could get a drink or go for a swim or something. I’ve been told the seas of Dac are not something one wants to miss. Have you ever been there? I haven’t. I mean, I was born there, but I don't really remember anything. My earliest memories are of the Jedi. I bet you’ve been there dozens of times. Maybe you could show me the places I just have to see.”

 

Honestly, Scorpion had never been to Dac either. There wasn’t much of a reason for her to go. She’d been to other destinations in Mon Cal space but never Dac. She tried very hard to stay out of the bacta trade. It might have been lucrative and straight in its own right, but it was also extremely dangerous if you got caught on the wrong side. 

 

“Alright guppy. Let’s get the show on the road then. Show me where the stuff is and we’ll get it all carted over.”

 

Sara chose to leave the ‘Jedi’ mention in the air and re-package that another time. It wasn’t important right now and if they both sat there interrogating one another nothing would get done. 

 

As it was, it took a few hours to disable the distress beacon and transfer all relevant cargo to the Luridae. When it was all said and done, Sara stuck a tracer on the Mon Cal's freighter tied directly to an encrypted signal on the Luridae's sensor suite and gathered the guppy before locking up and initializing another jump; this time aimed at Dac. 

 

“Oh, and the name’s Scorpion by the way.” Sara said as she punched in the coordinates and ran through the last countermeasure before initiating the jump. “You might want to sit down.”

Edited March 21, 2020 by Scorpion