Scraping Together the Past, the Future and the In Between: Chapter III: Dirty Work

It wasn't a long walk to the medical station, though avoiding the most popular streets made his journey a little longer. The man's steps were paced by his determination. He hadn't forgot what the dock supervisor had said about the thugs who were looking for him because of the last night's incident. Yesterday had been bad, no doubt about it. Now he had to clean up that mess, or at least make it so that he could leave it behind him along with the whole of Nar Shaddaa. Maybe he should have realized even earlier, that it was time to move somewhere else. It was possible, that all that had happened last night would have been left unsaid and undone in the first place, if he had not stayed on the Smuggler's Moon for so long. Sporadic thoughts drifted on his mind as he walked the alley forwards, but these lacked purpose. He had to concentrate on the task at hand. It was necessary that he accomplished the mission he was given now.

The stims and the painkillers were starting to wear out, and slight hints of pain could already be felt on his wound. He must keep the job simple and get the job done and over with fast enough. If everything went smoothly, if mild threats and calm and efficient demeanour were all that was needed to get the items he had come for, he might even try to do something about his injury while at the station. In a less desirable scenario, he would likely have to resort to violence to obtain the goods. In that case, the wound would have to wait. Such inconveniences were of course something he would just have to endure, as the most important thing now was getting on the ship that would soon take him to Coruscant. The central planet of the galaxy did not hold too hopeful visions on his mind, but at least it would be something different, more distant from the past and maybe closer to something he could call future.

Rila Kajastus' medical station operated on one of Nar Shaddaa's poorer and more degraded districts. The station was small, but kept well in order by its owner. Rila herself was the whole personnel of the station, unless the two old medical droids were considered some sort of employees. The morning had so far been slow and quiet; Rila had only patched up a couple of patients who had come to see her because of the result of the last night's squabbles. In other words, it had been exactly what the mornings at the medical station usually were. The most interesting thing so far had been the visit of a small sentient of an unidentified species, who had bought a large number of big kolto tanks. The undeniably funny mental image of the tiny winged alien struggling with tanks way larger than the being itself reminded Rila of the fact that she needed to order more kolto to fill the stocks. She was distracted from her thoughts and forgot all about the kolto, as the station's door opened and a stranger entered the room.

The man took an evaluating look on the medical station as he stepped in. The establishment was a privately run small-scale business and the way the place reflected this made the man believe a little more in his chances of having things work out in a less troublesome way. Next his eyes stopped on the woman in a white labcoat behind a desk. She was obviously the owner of this station. Her exotic beauty, dark violet-blue eyes and the elaborate black patterns around her eyes and on her forehead identified her as a mirialan. She was probably in her late twenties or early thirties, and looked sharp and capable even though she was smiling at him, a potential patient or customer. He was in no way afraid of the woman, but he hoped she wouldn't make things difficult.

'Hello, and welcome to my medical station. My name is Rila. Would you like to purchase some medical supplies or equipment, or are you here for a health check-up or some medical services?' As the woman welcomed him and introduced herself, the man walked a little closer to her.

Sliding his hand to a position next to the handle of his vibroblade, the man answered her plainly. 'Good morning. I'm here for something important. I need a certain thing from you, and we need to discuss about it.'

Rila's friendly smile turned into wary suspiciousness. 'What is this, what do you mean? Rila asked her questions with a tense seriousness about her voice.

The man answered in a tone that was emotionless and echoed of control. He chose his words so, that she would probably believe that he knew more than he actually did. 'For some reason you are very good at what you do. I want you to share your secret with me. We both know what I'm talking about.'

'Ah, you low-life murglak don't understand medicine. There's nothing worth a single credit you could squeeze from me like that. I'm just a professional doing my line of work, and I get to enjoy of success every now and then. Now, get out. Me and my station are quite well protected against the scum like you.' Anger was set ablaze in Rila's words.

The man no longer held high hopes for this job going well and smoothly. This time his response was more intimidating and straightforward, an unquestionable threat. 'Maybe it's you who doesn't understand the situation here. It's not just plain luck or simple medicine that saved those critical patients of yours. We might either have a civilized discussion on the matter or handle things otherwise; it's your call. Things will not turn out nicely, if you don't start co-operating now.'

As the man spoke, he slid his hand on the handle of his vibroblade to make it clear that he was willing to use his weapon to get what he was in here for. However, the woman behind the counter showed no willingness to submit to his threats. Rila certainly had a low tolerance for thugs and criminals who wanted to take advantage of others. It was especially so with the ones who did this in the most unscrupulous way, in the expense of the poor, the weak and the suffering. The less fortunate ones were those whom she was trying to help at the station, and again, these same beings were the ones to pay the price if the others, such as this vile creature could bother her work at the station. The man was all too obviously one of these parasites of the society. She had had enough of him. 'Get out of here you sithspawn, now. Drag your useless threats and violent weapons out with your miserable self, or you'll be sorry. I won't ask you again.'

Wow, she was feisty. This was unfortunate for him, as by now it was pretty clear that he had to do the job the hard way, and all this was only because the mirialan had guts. ' I wish it hadn't come to this... ' The man said, pulling the vibroblade from his belt.

'Yeah, I bet you do, and for once we agree.' Rila showed no signs of fear and she controlled her anger well. She pushed a button on the counter, and two hatches opened on both sides of the room, revealing two industrial-grade defensive turrets.

The man had expected a station like this to have some sort of security system, but he was surprised to see heavy-duty turrets that were usually encountered in places where they protected a lot of credits, like Nar Shaddaa's many safehouses and storagerooms. Though, the turrets were not a problem for him. He rolled a small, self-modified ion charge at both turrets as they activated and focused on their target. In a short but bright flash of light, the charges detonated and the turrets fell still and silent, as their circuits shorted out. Along with the turrets, some of the most sensitive medical machinery suffered irreparable damage in the blast, and one of the station's two medical droids succumbed to a systems failure.

Seeing all this happen still did not make Rila helpless. She slid a narrow, lightly built blade that seemed like its primary purpose was something else than fighting from a shelve next to the desk. She handled the shiny, silvery blade with skill and confidence. It was not the man's intention to hurt her badly, only enough to scare her co-operative. This wasn't an easy task though. As soon as he made the first moves to start the fight, he could again feel the pain on his side. The woman he had to fight against was by far more ready to counter threats than he would have imagined. Still, he had the upper hand as a seasoned fighter, and he would eventually get what he needed this way.

Their blades exchanged a few blows, and their feet danced across the floor that was littered with shattered glass and remnants of broken machinery. The room had little space for fighting, and this encouraged the two towards a quick resolution of the situation. The man didn't leave unused the chance he got when Rila left her guard down for a short moment after getting her delicate blade pushed aside by a heavy strike from the man's vibroblade. The man lifted his blade for a new slash, and cut it instantly down on his opponent in one broad, accurate swing. Rila stayed silent and focused, even though the vibroblade cut a deep wound on her left arm just below the shoulder. For a split second, the man could see surprise, pain and a hint of fear in his adversary's eyes, as blood dyed the sleeve of her labcoat to a deep scarlet colour. To his amazement, his hit wasn't awarded with a chance to negotiate about the things the man wanted from her.

After one deep breath and a short glance, Rila raised her blade again and delivered a blow with it right to the intruder's vibroblade. The strike was easily parried by the man, but it also locked his weapon in a position that was a little too low. Rila continued her attack with seamless precision. In a swift move she flipped the blade around in her hand, and thrusted its hilt in the man's unprotected right side, between his ribs, exactly where the wound was. The man's face twisted with pain. A subdued noise erupted from his mouth, and he doubled over in agony. Still, he managed to stay on his feet and maintain some sort of grip on his vibroblade as he staggered a couple of steps backwards, to get some distance between himself and the mirialan. He tried to get himself together. No matter how much it hurt, he'd still pull this off. He'd have to. Holding his side with his left hand, the man straightened up to something that almost resembled a fighting stance. At the same time he prepared to continue the fight by turning the vibroblade on his other hand to a little less awkward angle.

However, the attack he was waiting for never came. Having succeeded in making him back off and seizing the fight for a moment, Rila focused on something else. She had lowered the blade she held in her injured left hand, and put her right hand just above the wound on her arm. The expression on Rila's face spoke of deep concentration, like she was meditating. It didn't take long for the man to realize what was happening. Right after that, he could feel it as well. The currents of the Force gathered in the room and strengthened on the spot, making the bodies and the minds of those who could feel them tingle, as Rila called the Force to heal her. The sensation of this, what it meant to him and what it represented for him was too much for the man to bear. He dropped his vibroblade on the floor, limped to the door and escaped in the street outside.