Scraping Together the Past, the Future and the In Between: Chapter VI: Escaping Rumours

The man was heading towards the docks again. Still not willing to be seen, he did not forget to take the longer route of dark, narrow alleys and abandoned walkways. The conversation he was just forced to have came dangerously close to subjects such as himself and his past, but somehow he wasn't anymore that much worried about it. The man opened his jacket and pulled out the bandages that had covered the healed wound on his side. Without much concern over those who lived in the lower levels of the kilometre-high building structures of Nar Shaddaa he flung the bandages over the ledge of the walkway.

He had just had a chat about his personal history and the Force with a Jedi. Maybe he was a bit confused after everything that had happened, that he'd have to admit. Still, she didn't know much about him, and would any of this matter anyway if he got off this moon by tomorrow night? He would also conveniently leave his debt on the Smuggler's Moon. It might not be the most decent thing to do, but to be frank, Rila was right. He could never pay her in proportion to what he owed. He wouldn't want to see her again anyways, that would be awkward. What he would do is go see the dock supervisor now, negotiate a new deal with him and leave Nar Shaddaa for good.

Dadah W. Berd was not in his office. The man found the dock supervisor at the loading platform, where he was screaming and cursing at his employees. It was not hard to locate Berd at the docks, so mighty was his voice. 'You juma-heads have not enough brain capacity to work for me. Idiots! I'm going to space your mothers for this! You were supposed to load the 'special merchandise' in the ship and do so discreetly, not hang around spiced up gathering problems for me. You schuttas can now go space yourselves and get out of my sight or I'll...'

'Beautiful words, Dadah,' the man grinned.

Berd's angry expression lit up instantly in excitement as he saw who was talking to him. 'Yeah, very poetic. Do you have what I am expecting from you?'

'No, and you're not going to get it. This will not work out the way we thought, so forget it. Give me another job, one that can be done.'

Anger crept back to Berd's voice and his face started turning red. 'Don't you come here to tell me you're as incompetent as everyone else around here. You can't seriously say you cannot clear a job like stealing something from a woman who mixes medicine for living. Maybe I should start hiring mandalorians!'

'Calm down, Berd. Just believe me, it's not worth the trouble; nothing can be gained there. I'm sure you have something that I can help you with. You know I can be useful, and you know I am quite willing to work for a travel ticket.'

Berd was obviously in a bad mood, and the tone of his voice reflected his annoyance. 'Maybe you would be most useful to me as a bounty delivered to Scrubus' friends. Now they are actually offering one for your glorified person or your dead corpse, either will do. I also heard something of Jedi involvement in some of this, but it must be some drunken rumour, because it simply sounds so incredibly dumb. As if someone like you would have connections to the Jedi, especially when they are practically wiped out of the galaxy nowadays.'

The man managed to pull off some kind of a grin. His face was with it's recently ashened colour in obvious contrast with Berd's bright red cheeks. 'Don't I look like I'm best friends with the Jedi? I bet. Who told you this nonsense?'

'It's of no importance to you. I was also told that the bounty on Jedi is valid again. That's pretty ridiculous too, if you ask me. If you hunt me a Jedi so I get to collect the hefty bounty offered on them you will get your ticket to Coruscant. Deal, right?' Berd ranted with an ugly grimace.

'Yeah, right. I'm not laughing, so it was a bad joke. Give me a real job, Ok?' The man hated the way things were starting to seem once more.

'I can't think something like this at the moment. My gizka-brained numbskull workers screwed up an important delivery and I'll have to sort that mess out. Maybe it's not a good thing for me to be around someone with a bounty on his head and some sick rumours spreading around. Why don't you vanish for a while, I can't help you.'

There was nothing that could be done at the docks, so the man walked back in the city not really knowing where to head or what to do. Oh, how he could use a juma right now... The very first thing that popped on his mind was going to some cantina for a drink and to gather his thoughts. No matter what, he couldn't avoid understanding that it would be more than stupid in these circumstances. Moving in the streets or public places such as bars would be very dangerous for him. ...Not to mention that he was still short on credits. Checking his means to defend himself he realized his vibroblade remained at Rila's medical station. At least he still had his blaster. The man's thoughts wandered back at the discussions had in the station. Had Rila leaked the information that was now spreading on Nar Shaddaa? Why would she have done it? However it was, maybe they should discuss some more now that he was in a little better position to have a conversation compared to the last time when he was laying on a table drugged and helpless. Yeah, he would indeed go back to the station, get his vibroblade back and get some real answers.

The medical station's door was locked, and the man had to bang his fist against it for some time before Rila came to open it. 'You? I thought someone was really in the need of my help' She stood on the threshold, not letting the man in. 'Why are you here?' Her expression was strict, but something in her voice gave it away that she was not only suspicious but also curious.

'I need to talk to you, and I'd like to have my vibroblade back too.' The man said, trying to sound convincing but friendly.

'Come in,' was the answer he got.

They walked in the medical station, Rila locking the door behind them. At first Rila handed the man his vibroblade. 'Here you go. I hope you know better than to try anything inconsiderate with it.'

'The thought would have never crossed my mind, thanks.' The man tucked the weapon on his belt while answering the mirialan's comment with a bit of a smile on his face. He continued in a more serious tone: 'Last time when I was here I was not in the best possible state to have a conversation. Now you can tell me...' The man's words were suddenly broken by a blast on the station's door. A small but accurately placed detonator took out the door's locking mechanism efficiently. The man reached for his blaster and Rila grabbed her silvery blade as a heavily armoured rodian walked in.

'Back in here again? This must be important. You are the killer, is she the Jedi then? Good. You should have not annoyed Scrubus' friends. Now I'll take you both to see someone. No rash moves or...' The thug's speech was interrupted by a bolt from the man's blaster. A small black hole decorated the rodian's forehead as the thug collapsed on the floor.

The man had barely put his blaster back in its holster when he found Rila shouting at him, her blade raised against him. 'What in the space was that? You sithspawn told someone, didn't you?'

'No I didn't!' He yelled back at her defensively. 'Actually I was about ask the same from you. But now it isn't relevant anymore, is it? We are both in danger. They know enough about us to want to kill us, and we will die if we don't leave right now.

His words made Rila even more upset. 'What is this all about? I still don't understand. What do they know and how? What have you done and how did I and the Jedi get mixed in all this?"

'Look, I'm sorry. It's all my fault. I messed up, and I managed to get you in the line of fire as well when I tried to clear things up. Again, it wasn't supposed to go like this. If I had any choice I'd leave the Jedi out of anything I have something to do with. Again, I'm sorry.' Rila seemed very unhappy with the man's answer, so he continued with his explanation. 'There will be more mercs and bountyhunters after us, not just Scrubus' common thugs like that one. If we wish to live, we'll leave. I'm doing just that, and I recommend you to do the same.'

The fact that the man started going through the medical station's lockers and shelves as he spoke didn't exactly improve Rila's impression. 'What do you think you are doing?' She yelled at the man, holding her blade in an aggressive stance.

'Where do you keep your stronger stims?' Was the man's rather direct response to Rila's question.

'What?! No, you're not going to...' She could hardly control her anger anymore.

The man didn't stop browsing though the contents of storage shelve, but the tone of his words turned softer and more defensive as he spoke. 'We have to leave Nar Shaddaa. You cannot come back to this station. I got you in this, so I'll help you out of it too, Ok? We need something valuable to bribe us out of here with.'

'Are you serious? I can't leave my station, I can't leave Nar Shaddaa.' Rila was now fighting off the panic that was starting to appear beside the earlier dismay.

The man was on his part beginning to feel guilty. 'Trust me on this, there is no other way. They have connected us to the Jedi and are hunting us until we're dead or captured. You never have to forgive me, but please do believe me. I don't want you to get killed for this.'

Rila answered plainly, finally lowering her blade. 'The stims are in the locked footlocker in the storageroom.'

Somewhat relieved, the man replied to her: 'Good, thanks. Now grab whatever you need with you, and we'll head to the docks. There's a ship docked that will take us to Coruscant if we have any luck.'

'Coruscant? Could be worse, couldn't it?' Rila commented as she pulled a stuffed-full bag on her shoulder. She walked right out the station's door, the man following behind her.

It was already dark on Nar Shaddaa. The night had fallen and an uncountable number of glowing advertisements provided little light to the shady walkways. The two made their walk to the docks faster and easier than either one of them would have anticipated. At the docks they would still have to avoid anyone's attention, especially the docksupervisor Dadah Berd's, who knew both of them all too well. Finding 'Latea Tek' wasn't difficult, as it was the only large freighter getting loaded at the moment. The man couldn't believe his luck when he saw the dock officer managing the loading of the cargo. The duros was one of the men Berd was verbally bashing earlier today because of careless conduct on duty. For once coincidence was on his side. The two went to negotiate with the dock officer. 'Hey, you there, I may have a good proposition for you...' The man shouted at the scruffy-looking duros in green overalls and red hat.

'What is it?' The dock officer asked, seeming somewhat interested.

'I suppose you might be able to get couple of unofficial passengers on that ship if you were properly compensated, am I right?'

Greed made the duros' eyes flicker. 'We dock officers can do much about such things, but it's troublesome. Very troublesome. How could such a thing be compensated?'

'We have certain items we could trade for a safe, convenient passage off the Smuggler's moon. These items are quite hard to obtain, very useful and certainly of some value.' The man's words seemed to work the way he had hoped.

'Show them to me,' the duros demanded.

Rila pulled two stimulants out of her bag. 'These are high grade stims, ones that are almost impossible to get without a medical licence. These are the strongest ones there is, and can certainly have some other popular uses than the conventional and intended. These fetch prices so high that with a couple of these we should get to Coruscant more than nicely.'

The dock officer was obviously familiar with the goods Rila told him about and the duros could barely contain his excitement as he kept negotiating the price of the trip of two stowaways. 'One stim for each of you and one for my trouble, Ok?'

'Deal,' the man responded and Rila dug a third stim from her bag. They followed the duros in 'Latea Tek's huge cargo hold. The dock officer yelled a couple of dockworkers to empty one of the large cargo containers that had already been loaded with goods.

As the container was unloaded the duros waved his hand towards it. 'This is your suite, it should do fine for the trip. Lock the door after you, and use this security spike to open it if such is needed, Though, I don't recommend leaving the container, just wait until you are at Coruscant. The ship will leave tomorrow night. That's it then, and good luck,' the dock officer said and left the man and Rila with their so-called 'suite'.