Scraping Together the Past, the Future and the In Between: Chapter VIII: In to a New World

After hours of travelling in the quiet the two stowaways in 'Latea Tek's cargo hold were awakened by the sound of the freighter dropping out of hyperspace. They had arrived at Coruscant and soon they would be landing on the planet. However, Rila and the man would need to find their way to the docks and out of there safely before their journey was complete. How difficult a task that was about to become would much depend on what kind of docks they were landing at. The fact that 'Latea Tek' had used Berd's not so reputable docks at Nar Shaddaa gave the man some hope about them ending up somewhere without strict regulations and tight control, but on a planet like Coruscant with lots and lots of possibilities one could only guess. However, they should find out soon enough since the freighter was already docking. The man and Rila stepped out of the cargo container quickly before anyone came to inspect it or seek to unload its contents.

Pretty soon they realized that the ship had unfortunately landed at docks quite unlike those of Dadah W. Berd's. Officials were already going through the first crates and checking the licences of those who wanted to pick something up from the cargo hold. It wouldn't be easy for the stowaways to even leave the freighter. Sneaking past the dock personnel or acquiring proper cargo licences certainly seemed tricky enough. Thinking through the other possible means to get off the ship the man spotted Mose Shade. The swoop racer was again struggling with his disproportionably large bike, just like the boy did the last time the man had seen him. Maybe Mose could help them somehow? It sure was worth a try, since the boy too was in need of assistance and they had already helped each other before. The man walked towards the racer, perplexed Rila following behind him. 'Hello Mose, I figured you might be in need of a helping hand again? We'd be happy to help you out, and maybe you could aid us a bit too...'

'You are stowaways, doing some unofficial travelling, I knew it! These days I have enough credits to buy me and my bike real tickets, it's so much easier... You know, being good at swoop racing pays off really well...'

The man decided to interrupt Mose's endless flow of self-glorification and swooptalk. Rila's bewilderment was starting to get a rather negative shade. 'Yeah, we have no tickets or cargo licences to get us past the guards. Figure a way to get us out and we'll drag your swoop in the docks with us.'

'Well, I don't know. It can be difficult, I know from personal experience. Trust me, it's even harder to do with a swoop bike. If the dock employees are swoop fans they might know me, I'm something of a celebrity in the sport. They could be willing to help me. But it's too bad about you, I don't know...' Mose changed the subject and kept on talking. 'So she's with you? She sure looks nice, but you sure have noticed, of course. Are you two...'

Rila decided she didn't need to hear more of the boy's babbling. It was totally useless and not a bit less annoying in the current situation. She turned her back at the conversation and to those who were having it. She had to get things done herself. Heading towards a pair of dock employees unloading a crate not so far away from them Rila effectively grabbed the man's attention and he was soon running after her. All his concerned look got as a response from her was 'I'll handle this, stay back.'

Nothing better came to his mind, so the man obeyed as they reached the dockworkers. The officials lay off their work for a while and turned their attention to the ones approaching them. To the dockworkers, the two seemed awful lot like a common case of illegal travellers, so they were only willing to listen what they had to say briefly and be naturally suspicious about it.

Rila couldn't entirely hide the focused look on her face as she spoke directing her intensive words to the dock officials. 'Hello. I need you to go take a look at a malfunctioning refresher system at the freighter's crew quarters, there's something weird about it. But before you do that, you need to leave your uniforms with us so they don't get wet.'

The sharp expressions melted away from the faces of the dockworkers. They became very co-operative as Rila's words took effect on them. 'We should check out the refresher system at the crew quarters now,' said the rodian, and his bothan partner added: 'But first we have to leave our uniforms with you.'

As soon as the dock officials were walking away from the stowaways in their underwear the man and Rila hopped behind a cargo container and started pulling their newly acquired uniforms on them. 'You have to admit the Force has its uses, though I'm sure that dockworkers dressed in that manner will draw some attention to themselves when they get to the crew quarters,' the man commented.

'There is more to it than using the Force to one's own purposes and you know it. But yes, we should hurry out of here before the trouble arrives,' she answered with a bit of a grin. The rodian's outfit suited Rila surprisingly well.

The same couldn't be said of the man and the bothan's overly large uniform. Rolling up the suits sleeves the man continued: 'It's just that I didn't know that mind tricks are what they teach the healers to do with the Force.'

'You don't know everything, do you?' Rila threw her answer in the air and continued: 'I doubt you knew for example that Coruscant is the place where I was once trained. In some way, you could say that I'm back home now.' Then she started walking confidently towards the cargo hold's loading ramp, the docks and the city that covered the planet Coruscant.

The two stowaways could already see the glare of the Coruscant's sun filter through the clouds on the planet's sky outside at the loading bay when a sharp yell stopped them in their tracks. Mose was running after them waving his hands. 'You seem to have things in order... Now you can come to help me, Ok? You kinda promised...'

The man and Rila changed looks. 'We really didn't promise anything, and I don't see you doing your part anyways, but I think we'll help,' the man answered with a curious smile, and Rila nodded as a slightly reluctant sign of agreement. Together they went to get Mose's swoop bike and started moving it towards the loading ramp. It actually worked as a good cover, since now the two passed well as dockworkers on their normal duty, helping a paying customer. Escorting Mose and his bike to the docks was a good deal for all of them. Mose waved the man and Rila a happy goodbye as they walked out of the docks feeling some relief for a first time in a long while.

Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa were so very similar and yet so entirely different places. Nar Shaddaa was a relatively small moon on the Outer Rim, completely covered in one city. Coruscant was the same thing in much larger scale and in the centre of the galaxy. Still, it was the atmospheres of the two places that had the greatest differences in them. While the Smuggler's Moon and its inhabitants usually reflected things like poverty, decay, neglect and desperation, on Coruscant one's eyes were filled with signs of wealth, development and a galaxy-wide sophisticated cultural scene. Of course Coruscant too had its darker corners, but it was something someone who had lived on Nar Shaddaa wouldn't have a problem with. Actually exactly these were the places where the man would have least difficulties to adapt to a new life on his new homeworld, the man thought strolling forwards on one of Coruscant's busy streets.

'So what are we going to do now that we are here?' Rila's question interrupted the man's pondering.

'Well, you'll finally get rid of me, and that's probably the best thing that has happened to you in a while. You can start a new medical facility or something, I'm sure it will be much better business in here than on Nar Shaddaa. I'm going to get back to what my life was a few days back, only this time I'll be more careful with what I say or do.'

'I don't see medicine as a business. What I had on Nar Shaddaa was something like a mission, and I don't think this planet is in need of something like that. And you then, I'm a little disappointed. Seeing the results of your past lifestyle doesn't make you reconsider continuing it? You could be so much more. You have the Force within you, I can feel it...'

The man stopped dead in his tracks. 'You can't be saying that, not here in the open, it's dangerous. And no, I'm not buying it anyways, so please... I think we should also ditch these uniforms right now, before they start raising suspicious glances.' The man stepped in the next shadowy doorway that came their way and got the dockworker's overalls off him. The very next thing he did was heading towards the ledge of the walkway, intending to get rid of the stolen uniform altogether by throwing it down to the gap below. However, Rila grabbed his sleeve and stopped the attempt with a resenting 'No.' The man didn't listen to her scolding about his irresponsible behaviour, but instead threw the uniform in the steps of the nearby doorway and headed forwards. Rila stumbled out of her own 'borrowed' overalls and followed after him with swift steps.

'Can you at least listen? Do you even know where you are going? She asked.

The man did not slow down the pace of his steps. 'No, actually I don't. What does it matter, really? He answered in a slightly irritated voice.

Rila was getting annoyed too. 'This is just unbelievable. No, you are unbelievable. Is there anything you do that is not completely aimless? We need a place to settle in, maybe for just long enough to get some sleep and have something planned on what to do on this planet.' He didn't answer or even show that he had heard her. Rila demanded her words to get noticed. 'You know I'm right,' she added.

The man's steps lost some of their drive and he spoke. 'Yeah, you may be right. Let's rent a room for a couple of days so that you can get your things in order and I'll find something to do.'

The two rented a small apartment. It consumed most of their cash but neither one of them worried about credits. Both were sleep-deprived and drained of energy. The man sat on his bed, exhausted but relatively happy about the current circumstances. There had not been in a situation this good in a long time. Hell, considering the last few days it was a vast improvement that nothing was horribly wrong at the moment. His tone was quite casual as he spoke to Rila who was arranging her belongings in the closets. 'So have you already figured what to do next?'

'Well, there are some options on that...' She responded.

'No need to hurry with that, you can keep this apartment as long as you want to and all. I should be able to arrange something for myself pretty quickly now that the trouble's gone. At least it should be... I'll just get myself a new faked name, find some dump to waste my time in and get another ungrateful job to do so you don't have to tolerate my presence for long.'

A thoughtful grin decorated Rila's face. 'You want to get rid of me, nice. Maybe you should know that you could be a little more tolerable if you...'

The man interrupted her. 'Don't make any suggestions on that. It's just that all this is something that I'm not used to, and this mess we were in should pretty much be cleared by now.'

A sudden beep from the door broke their conversation. This was truly unexpected, since no one should know they were here. Even the woman who had rented the apartment wasn't at all interested in her new tenants. Rila proceeded to the door warily and the man pulled out his blaster. However, the sight that waited them behind the door was all but intimidating. A small, battered blue and white coloured astromech droid introduced itself as T3-M4 and said in loud beeps and chirps typical to its model, that its master had a message to the new residents of this apartment. Rila asked the droid about the message and T3's master, but all the droid said was that the message held all the information it was programmed to deliver.

This wasn't only weird and unexpected; it could be dangerous as well. How could anyone be sending them a message? It was possible that the news of the bounty on the man's head or about the one rewarding those who managed hunt down a Jedi had arrived on Coruscant. This could be behind the droid's arrival, and doing something like rigging a messenger droid with explosives would be childishly easy for a bountyhunter on a mercenary. Despite that, the man walked to the door and Rila let the droid in, perhaps mostly out of curiosity and knowingly ignoring the danger.

T3-M4 rolled in the room and activated the message. The holorecord the droid was playing cast an eerie greenish glow in the room. Only an image of single pazaak card appeared where one would expect to see a speaking hologram of the message's sender. An unfamiliar voice that probably belonged to male human started talking on the record. 'I'll skip the formalities. I know you're here and I need to see you on a certain matter. T3 will give you the coordinates of the place we'll meet in. You will come there tomorrow night, and your companion, she'll be there too.' After the short message the recording shut down, the image of the pazaak card and the somewhat distant-sounding voice disappeared. The astromech droid grabbed the man's datapad from a nearby table. It loaded data on it without further request and then left the apartment, chirping a high-pitched goodbye from the door.