Waste Management

Artwork by Farlander, fiction by WinterOnasi. Far had the original plot gizka, I just fleshed it out. :)

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ical stood fuming in the corridor of the Ebon Hawk, jaw and fists clenched and a new web of veins appearing at his temple. He watched Atton's back as the fool swaggered away, whistling, towards the cockpit. I can take the jokes about my hair and teeth, he thought, but I don't think I can stand another loose comment degrading Akuji.

Bao-Dur materialized from the shadows, his face an intricate mask of black and blood-red tattoos. "Something must be done, before the General hears what he says about her."

Mical shivered; it was as though Bao-Dur had read his mind. "Stop just appearing like that. And you are right. Master Akuji is wasting her valuable time training him, and he doesn't take her seriously. She would have more time to train us, if he were...absent."

"Tonight. Let's have a little 'boys night out', shall we?" Bao-Dur twirled a heavy hydro-spanner between the fingers of his menacing mechanical arm as though it weighed nothing. Mical watched with a shudder as the Zabrak flowed back into the shadows of the garage like liquid.

Mical continued on to the med-bay, where he'd been heading before the fool so rudely interrupted him. He completely missed the extra shadows that had been in the corridor all along.

Mical opened some cabinets that were hidden in the back of the medical supply closet. A few months ago, the old Mical would have been horrified to find himself plotting the death of another, even one as evil and dangerous as Atton. After months under the intoxicating influence of his chosen Master, he had no compunction. He pulled out a bottle of the Corellian ale Atton favored. He'd been saving it for just this occasion.

"Is that for me?"

Mical turned from the cabinet at the mellifluous tones of Akuji's deep voice. He never understood how she managed to make everything she said sound like an imperial command and a sweet request at the same time.

"Well, I have been saving this for a special occasion." Mical repeated his last thought in case the exile had been reading his mind. "Nothing in the galaxy is more special than you."

He cringed inwardly at his clumsy words, but Akuji just smiled and moved closer to him. The smile didn't reach her golden almond eyes.

"I sense...dissension amongst my troops, Disciple." The exile ran a taloned finger down his arm gently. "Use this negative energy to strengthen your use of the Force. The Dark Side will sustain you when your companions desert you."

She thinks I'm the weak one, the one getting picked on, Mical thought. Won't she be surprised. Aloud he asked, "Would you like me to pour you some, Master Akuji?"

"No," she waved her hand in dismissal. "I am going to meditate with...what did HK call her? The baggy meatbag. She always knows when I've been drinking. And I'll have to lie down after she pokes through my brain...it's getting harder to hide our plans from her. Be a good boy and keep an eye on the others for me."

"Oh, I will."

Akuji turned in a whirl of raven hair, and left with the grace of a maalraas, clicking her wickedly long nails along the plasteel corridor as she went. Mical leaned out the door of the med-bay and watched her go, his eye attracted to the graceful lines of her black jumpsuit. She seemed...irritated with the prospect of further training from Kriea.

When Mical was sure she was gone, he slipped back into the med-bay and carefully sifted through his supplies. There. He poured a vial of a sleep-inducing drug into the ale and swirled it around. This would at least put Atton out so they could get him off the Hawk. If Bao-Dur wanted to play with him a little more once they were deep in the jungle, Mical wasn't going to stop him.

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he sun set and Onderon's moon was bathed in inky shadows. Mical pulled up a chair at the common room table and put out the Corellian ale, counting on Atton to wander in shortly after full dark to grab a bite to eat. The Disciple calmly pulled out a pack of Pazaak cards and began to shuffle. A pleasant smell wafted in from the galley. Atton wouldn't be long now.

Bao-Dur appeared out of nowhere and oozed into the seat beside Mical, making him jump.

"Nervous?" Bao smirked, his soft slippery voice sending chills down Mical's spine.

"Stop doing that. And no, I am not." He paused. "I am not doing this all by myself, just so you know.'

He looked up from the deck of cards, but Bao-Dur was nowhere in sight. Mical muttered to himself in irritation and shook the hair out of his eyes.

"You really oughta get that mess taken care of," Atton quipped as he sauntered into the common room, scratching himself and chuckling. "Looks like somethin' died on your head."

"Charming as usual Atton."

"I smell gizka pie," Atton said, ignoring Mical and glancing hopefully into the galley. Seeing no one was in there, he pulled up a chair next to Mical and sat down. "Jiji finally get off her fantastic butt and do something womanly, or what?"

"Her name is Akuji. Show some respect. And no, it was Visas turn in the kitchen tonight." Mical struggled to keep calm, and more veins spread along his jawline like fine cracks.

"Ooh, I love that girl's cooking. She musta been a great slave." Atton raised his eyebrows suggestively and grabbed for the ale bottle, but Mical snatched it away.

"I thought while we were waiting for dinner we could have a little round of Pazaak."

"Why?" Atton asked bluntly, a suspicious gleam in his tawny eyes. "You hate me and want nothing to do with me. Besides, I don't have any credits."

"True, all of the above is true. Actually, I thought we'd play for training time with Master Akuji." Mical said, carefully watching Atton's death-pale face for a reaction.

Atton didn't say anything for a moment. Mical could imagine the rusty wheels creaking in his opponent's mind. Finally, Atton said, "There must be some catch. It's too good of an offer."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, if I win, I get extra time with Jiji. She'll have ample time to show me how much she wants me. If I lose, I get to skip out on her lectures on using the Force. I win either way."

Mical rolled his eyes. "I suppose you could look at it that way."

"Fine. I will. And I deal."

They began to play a round, when all of a sudden Bao-Dur just was in a chair at the playing table. "Mind if I join you?"

"Sithspit!" Atton cursed. "Stop doing that! And man-- er, whatever you are-- did anyone ever tell you what a creepy voice you have?"

Bao-Dur just chuckled and dealt himself in. Mira and Visas walked into the common room, giggling evilly between themselves. Headed for the kitchen and the smell of gizka pie, they ignored the men, caught up in talk about the virtues of various ancient weapons.

"Hey, Red, grab me a plate of that, wouldja?" Atton pinched Mira's posterior as she walked by.

Instantly her vibrodagger was at his throat and she gazed at him calmly. "Do that again and you'll wish you hadn't." Her voice was as dead as her amber eyes.

"I already wish that, sister. Does, uh, this mean you're not getting me any dinner?"

"Get your own."

The girls dished themselves up and returned with their food to the back of the Hawk. HK wandered by on his rounds, but nothing else disturbed the men as they continued to play. A couple of hands later, Bao-Dur slipped into the shadows of the darkened kitchen. He materialized from thin air with three steaming plates of the savoury gizka pie.

Mical and Atton jumped together. "Stop doing that," they chorused. Atton shook his head and opened the ale.

The common room was eerily quiet as the Pazaak game wore on, the only sounds were soft chewing and Atton's occasional belch. The ill-fated pilot began to fade around the fifth round, and was out entirely by the seventh. "You're bust, buddy." Bao-Dur murmured. He stretched and added, "By the way, I win, Mical. I get your training hour with the General tomorrow."

Mical clenched his teeth but did not retort. When he and Bao had finished their delicious gizka pie (and Atton's); Mical asked, "How do we get him out of here?"

Bao-Dur produced out of nowhere an extra-large thinplast bag; the kind they lined the garbage chute of the Hawk with. "Just tell the General we'll take our turn at garbage duty tonight instead of tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me."

They loaded the snoring Atton into the bag. Bao went to the galley for the kitchen trash; Mical gathered the cockpit wastebasket and the bio-hazard can from the med-bay. They dumped it all in on top of Atton. "Ladies," Mical called down the hallway. "Please bring me your wastebaskets."

Mira came down the hall with the garage can and Visas glided out of the shadows with the girl's dorm trash. Akuji appeared in the doorway, sleep-rumpled but alert and darkly beautiful. "You boys seem to be earning your keep." Her liquid-chokoa voice was smooth and sweet, her sculpted black eyebrow raised appraisingly. "Don't be out long digging the refuse pit, tomorrow's going to be a long day."

Mical and Bao-Dur glanced at each other as the women went back to their dorm. Both men wondered how much of their plot Akuji knew or suspected. They quickly dumped the rest of the trash into the bag tied it closed. They shouldered the heavy load and headed for the loading ramp, where they were met by HK-47.

"Statement: I hope you don't expect me to help you with the garbage. I'm a highly valua-"

"Can it, bolt-brain," Mical muttered, causing Bao-Dur to smile. They struggled down the loading ramp with their bag and headed out into the cool, wet Dxun night.

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ightning flashed somewhere nearby, illuminating the path ahead. Bao-Dur motioned with his horned head to turn off the path to the right, deeper into the jungle. Mical muttered irrtatedly as leaves whipped him in the face, and grunted with the effort of carrying Atton's snoring upper end. He was glad the pilot was somewhat rangy and slim; Force alone knew how he would get rid of the body when it was Bao-Dur's turn to go. The Zabrak was huge.

This line of thought brought Mical up short. Why was he grunting with effort? And for that matter, why was he short of breath and sweating? Atton was rangy and slim. And Mical had been fighting off laigreks easily for weeks before he joined the Ebon Hawk crew. Since that time, Master Akuji had been working them all to weariness with lightsaber training and hand-to-hand combat. Not to mention his training with the Republic Navy. No, there was something wrong with him. He couldn't put a finger on it...

"Here," said Bao-Dur, and dropped his end of the burden.

Mical's previous thoughts were forgotten and he dropped his own end. The thinplast bag gave a deep moan and rolled to one side, then was still. The low snoring resumed. Once again, lightning flashed, illuminating their surroundings. They were in a stand of low brush, off the beaten path near a stream that was beginning to overflow its banks. Mical did not look forward to digging an Atton sized hole in the oozing mud, and said as much to Bao-Dur.

Bao-Dur stood off to his right, melted into the night. If not for the eerie glow of his mechanical arm, he would have been invisible. "We didn't bring shovels, anyway," he replied in his low, calm voice. Mical thought he sounded somewhat out of breath.

Picking up a rock and rolling it between his palms casually, Mical grinned wickedly. "So. What do you have in mind?"

"Watch."

The Zabrak propped the Atton bag up against a boulder and brought out a hydrospanner the length and width of Mical's forearm. In a particularly bright flash of lightning, Mical watched in fascination as Bao-Dur brought the hydrospanner around in an arc towards Atton's head. It hit with a meaty thwack and the snoring stopped for good. The last two thuds were muffled by the thinplast bag. Bao-Dur hooked the hydrospanner back to his belt. The bag slumped over and hit the ground.

Mical shuddered. The psychotic gleam in Bao-Dur's eyes reminded Mical that Bao-Dur was the architect of the Mass Shadow Generator and had the blood of countless Mandalorians on his hands. Mical would have to watch out for the Zabrak in the near future. He turned his attention back to the fun at hand.

"Too bad he was in the bag," commented Mical as deep purple veins spidered across his forehead. "I would have liked to have seen his face."

"Too dark, anyway," replied Bao-Dur. "Besides, the bag contained the splatter. I didn't want to wash him out of my clothes. Open the bag; we'll let the maalraas have him."

Mical untied the bag and cringed at the smell of blood mixed with garbage. Immediately, cannocks and Force knew what else stirred in the nearby brush. "We had better get out of here," he told Bao-Dur.

They headed back out for the path, moving briskly but not running. Mical was finding it harder and harder to breathe, his chest constricting painfully. Was it guilt of conscience? He didn't think so. The demise of the arrogant fool was not only necessary, but had proven quite enjoyable.

"Are you...having trouble...breathing?" gasped Bao-Dur.

"Yes.." rasped Mical.

Suddenly, the lightning illuminated a small figure directly in their path, red hair blazing. "Going somewhere...boys?"

The men stopped short and watched her warily, breath coming in heaves. Mira trained her wristlauncher on them. In the glow of Bao-Dur's arm, Mical noticed Mira's chest heaving as well.

"Is something wrong?" Mical asked Mira.

Mira shook her head. "I don't feel so well. But I'll feel...better when I've taken care of...the two of you. Master Akuji's time has been...wasted enough by you incompetent...fools. She only needs...one...apprentice."

Before she could fire her wristlauncher, she crumpled into a heap in the mud. Mical moved over to her and felt her neck. No pulse.

"It seems that...whatever is making us sick...got her as well."

Bao-Dur crouched next to him, breaths ragged and quick. "What...do you think...it was?"

As both men collapsed near the fallen body of the little huntress, they had a sudden insight. Before they closed their eyes forever, both men whispered, "Gizka pie."

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isas watched through the brush as the red heap in the path faded to grey, and the lighter grey figures of animals came to feast. She stood and turned to the brilliant bloody red figure behind her.

Akuji smiled, her small incisors almost like fangs. "Well done, my apprentice.The Force is strong with you, but you've also learned that using the Force is not the only way to get things done. A powerful Sith you will become. "

Visas and Akuji headed back to the Ebon Hawk, allowing the jungle night to cover all.

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Marketing information:

Bao-Dur's Multipurpose Mechman Hydrospanner (adamantium head) available at the Hardheads Hardware Store on Coruscant for 25 credits. Mical's Waterproof Perma-Mousse available at Vogga's Haus O' Hair & Beauty on Nar Shaddaa for 13 credits.