Sleheyron: Welcome
Yay! I managed to get this chapter in before leaving!
I didn't think that I would, as I had to re-write part of it from memory because my computer died. X.X
As always I'd like to thank my wonderful beta, Moonmythology, for all her hard work. Without her efforts, this would be nothing more than a tangled mess that would cause the heads of anyone who attempted to read it to explode in an uncomprehending fireball of illegible doom.
The Jedi waved her hand. 'We don't need to pay the docking fee,' she tried again.
'Yes, you do.' The stubborn hutt answered, irritated. 'I told you. 10,000 credits.'
Her left eye twitched. This obviously wasn't working. Defeated, Victoria reluctantly paid.
'Thank you. Welcome to Sleheyron.' Victoria glared at the hutt as it rode away on its hover sled. Curse the hutts' resistance to mind manipulation.
'I told you that wouldn't work.' Yuthura Ban reminded.
'Yeah...' Victoria admitted with a shrug, 'but it was worth a shot.'
The twi'lek shifted her weight impatiently. 'What's taking them so long?' She asked rhetorically, twitching her lekku subtly in the direction of the Ebon Hawk. Most of the other crewmembers had wandered off to scout the area a bit, none venturing too far from the docking bay. Carth and Dustil were the only ones still on board. Victoria hoped that the time she'd wasted attempting to negotiate with a hutt had given the Onasis enough time to work on their issues a bit.
'So, Yuthura, what can you tell me about this planet?' Victoria asked as the pair marched up the Hawk's loading ramp to collect the men.
'Slaheyron is a hutt-controlled world, as you can see,' She said gesturing all around the general area. 'It's a highly industrialized volcanic world known for its docking bays, ship construction yards, gas refineries...' She finished grimly, 'and slave pens.'
Victoria winced, she hadn't meant to upset Yuthura, only make idle conversation. Just as they were about to enter the ship's common room, Yuthura grabbed the Jedi's arm, stopping her. Victoria turned to meet pleading eyes.
'We have to help them, Revan. The slaves here.'
Victoria was speechless for a moment. She was a bit taken aback by Yuthura's sudden,
unmasked concern. Finally, she nodded. 'We will. I promise.'
A shout from the common room jarred the women to attention. 'Yeah, right!'
'Dustil, please!'
'No! You can't possibly seriously expect me to believe that!' He yelled almost laughing. Dustil attempted to storm out of the room but bumped into a very surprised Jedi. The Jedi was knocked off-balance by the angst-filled youth. Fortunately, she was saved from falling over backward by a purple twi'lek. The young Onasi stared back at the newly stabilized woman, apparently surprised and somewhat embarrassed himself.
'Umm...' She didn't really know what to say. 'Lunch?'
Lunch had been an interesting affair. Carth and Dustil were pretty quiet throughout the whole meal. Victoria might have attempted to break the ice but doubted Carth would appreciate it. He was still acting somewhat cool towards her. She couldn't really blame him, though. At least he didn't seem so openly hostile anymore.
Although Carth's attention was on his son, Dustil's seemed a bit divided. Occasionally, Victoria would notice the young Onasi staring at her curiously. He would immediately avert his gaze whenever caught but would be found looking again later. Idly, Victoria wondered what he and his father had been discussing.
Victoria left her plate half-finished as she set out to chat up whoever she could. 'Yo, barkeep,' She called for attention. 'Pour me something.' She would begin with the barkeeper, and the move on to the cantina patrons. She could only hope that someone here might have some information, however vague, about the Star Map or could at least point her in the right direction.
Mission was as an expert at earning her information, not to mention some credits playing pazzak. Victoria was pleased to see that the young twi'lek had already found some locals to play with on the other side of the room. Victoria smirked slightly when she heard the little card shark call for her next victim.
Carth usually helped out by chatting up spacers but was preoccupied at the moment. Bastila, the group's other star information gatherer, had unfortunately been kidnapped some time ago and could therefore not render any assistance. It seemed that finding information would mostly be up to Victoria and Mission.
'So...' Victoria began when the rodian returned with her drink. 'Can I ask you some questions?'
'You dirty cheat!' Shouted a large, graying man.
'It's not my fault you suck at pazzak!'
Furious, he shot up out of his seat. 'Nobody beats me!'
'Apparently I do.' The smug twi'lek folded her arms behind her head.
The man yelled and threw the table. 'You dirty brat!' He lunged towards her. Instantly, he found himself suspended off the ground, a large, furry hand tight around his throat. The wookiee roared loudly directly in the man's face. Mission giggled.
Across the bar, a radian shouted, 'Hey, no fighting in here!' as if he really thought he could enforce the rule. Zalbaar snarled, never taking his eyes of those of the quaking, and now blue-tinted man. The giant growled and tossed the man to the side. He landed hard on his back. Immediately, he scrambled to his feet. The wookiee stalked after him. That's all it took to send
the man screaming out of the dive, probably in need of fresh pants.
'Thanks big Z!' Mission grinned.
'Serves him right.'
Mission turned to see Yuthura leaning over her. 'Incidentally,' The teen confessed as she idly
shuffled her deck, 'I was cheating.'
Yuthura laughed heartily as she walked away. 'Atta girl!'
Mission whistled to herself as she continued fiddling with her cards. She heard someone reset the furniture, and take a seat. She glanced up at the young man.
'Wanna play?' He asked as he coyly waved his deck.
Although they'd been on the Hawk together for some time, Mission and Dustil had rarely spoken. In fact, Dustil had always been quite aloof, never really talking to anyone with the exception of the occasional argument with his father.
Mission raised a brow as she placed a card. 'You'll lose.'
The boy smirked. 'We'll see.'
The two played a few hands in silence before Mission piped up. 'What are you looking at?' She turned her head to see.
'Well...'
He didn't say anymore. Mission couldn't take it. 'Well, what?'
'That woman over there, Victoria...'
'Yeah, what about her.'
'My dad said...' He leaned in close over the table and lowered his voice. 'He said that Darth Revan isn't dead.' Mission was silent. Waiting to see where this was going. 'He said that she' He nodded his head at a woman at the bar. 'is really...'
'Revan, I know'
Dustil stared back in shock. 'Wha- how-?
Mission gathered her cards and stood from her seat. 'I win.' She turned and left young Onasi to his thoughts.
'What do you think you're doing?' Yuthura hissed. 'Get down from there!'
'Please, stop! If my master finds out I spoke to you-' The young, green twi'lek was so distracted she didn't notice that she'd fallen out of step with the other dancers.
'You just let me worry about that.' She would soon have to.
'Chuba!' An angry voice called in Huttese, 'You'd better dance right, shag, if you want your break later.' The green twi'lek whimpered, knowing she would be punished later.
Yuthura slowly turned about simply itching to mangle whatever poor soul owned the offending voice. It was an old nasty-looking hutt, fatter than most. Across his collar, he wore a long, angry scar. He narrowed his soulless eyes.
Suddenly, Yuthura gasped, her expression marked with surprise and disbelief. 'Omeesh!' She recognized this hutt.
'... Yuthura!' He recognized her.
'How- How could this be?!' She stammered. 'I-I slit your throat! I killed you!' Her shouts cut through the air attracting everyone's attention. The cantina fell silent. 'No matter...' She twirled her light saber and cocked her head to one side. 'I'll just have to kill you again!' And with that, the cantina erupted into chaos.
Finally, the cantina fell silent. It was completely empty except for the twenty bodies on the ground. At least half of them appeared to be dead. This the rodian bartender noticed when he finally found the nerve to peer over the bar counter to inspect the damage. The floor was stained with copious amounts of blood, the walls were covered in scorch marks, some of the overhead lights were sparking and hanging dangerously from the ceiling, tables and chairs were broken and strewn about everywhere, and the stage where the now missing dancers once performed was on fire. Fighting wasn't anything new for the cantina, but the veteran bartender had never witnessed a brawl like this.
'Gfersh.' With a shaking hand, the rodian reached up and grabbed a glass from the counter. A Jedi woman had ordered it but had hardly touched the drink before the fight broke out. He pulled in down with him as he returned to hiding. His boss wasn't going to like this.
'What the brix just happened?!' Carth demanded. His son simply rolled his eyes. During his stay at Korriban's Sith Academy, he'd grown somewhat used to random brawls breaking out over lunch.
The group had left the cantina and was gathered in common area of the Ebon Hawk. Mission distributed med pacs while Jolee used the force to heal to treat the injured. Luckily, no member's of the team had been seriously hurt.
The Mandalorian answered. 'Where ya been Onasi? We do this all the time.'
'This was different. Yuthura stared an unnecessary fight and endangered us all. Bringing her was a mistake. I knew she couldn't be trusted!'
'Yeah, father,' Dustil cut in. 'Once a Sith always a Sith, right?'
'That's not what I...' He trailed off as he noticed Victora as she slunk out of the room.
'Yeah, it is.' His son finished, leaving as well.
Juhani looked about the room, counting heads. One was missing. 'Where is Yuthura?'
Right, so that will probably be it for a while as I'm going off to basic in 5 days. By the time this passes the mod queue, I'll probably be gone. I'll miss you all to varying extents.