McQueen's Interplanetary Sundries

[Patience Darklighter]

*Pop*

Patience continued to chew her gum as she did her morning rounds. Her family's shop, McQueen's Interplanetary Sundries was a proverbial one-stop shop, and had generated a lot of business since even before Baron Calrissian ran the mining town of Cloud City.

Of course, that was years ago.

Now, McQueen's was becoming a common name through the mid and outer rim. And for good reason. Anybody with a case of wanderlust and a ship to steer it by could find what they needed for their travels. Starship parts, check. Good pair of corellian boots? Sure thing. Nonperishable, unappetizing space rations? Well not every planet grows sugar trees and meatballs.

A trusty blaster at your side? Well...

Patience ran her little hands along the glass display case, and grinned giddily as she always did.

Guns. Rows and rows of them. A girl's best friend. Anybody's best friend, if the price was right. They were a universal commodity, especially now that people openly questioned whether the Empire would hang on without the Emperor. The rim was even more wild than it had been during the Galactic Order era.

The constant pioneering spirit of the rim, combined with the unruly nature of frontier life had made it profitable to set up over three dozen other franchises of McQueen's. Patience had insisted on staying close to her roots on Cloud City. Something about the place appealed to her stubborn nature. Something that a bunch of offworlders arrogantly stuck in mid-air and held aloft with nothing but willpower, elbow grease, and a bunch of tools and spare parts.

This was her kind of town! And people like that certainly would always need the sort of things that could be bought at McQueen's.

[Tirsa]

:: A Nebari wandered into the shop, gazing about in curiousity as she moved with feline grace ::

[Patience Darklighter]

A chime dinged, signalling a customer's arrival. Patience stood up straight behind the counter, tugging at the edges of her gunsmithing apron.

"Welcome to McQueen's Sundries. How can I help you?"

[Tirsa]

:: Tirsa tilted her head as she looked at the woman ::

"Just checking out the place. Hardware is your stock in trade, yes?"

[Patience Darklighter]

Patience glanced down a dozen rows from where Tirsa stood.

"Sure. You lookin for starship maintenance, or something else?"

[Tirsa]

:: Tirsa scanned the wall of firearms and leaned on the counter ::

"Is this all you got?"

:: She gave a wink, the kind that let Patience know she was here for big business. The kind of business that goes on off the showroom floor ::

[Patience Darklighter]

Patience's eyes brightened. Hardware, of course! Patience was used to being frank about her trade, but some people couldn't help playing discrete.

"They're our most common lines. 'Course, we can always make specialty orders. I wholesale buy from seventeen distributors in six sectors."

Her eyes slyed toward the back.

"We keep a sample stock in our in-shop firing range of everything you see here, and a few things that are owner preference."

Clapping her hands together, she leaned on the counter again, eyeing her customer a little.

"Anything got your fancy? Single shot blasters, repeaters, autoblasters, slugthrowers, laser weapons, alternative plasma, less than lethal, etc?"

[Tirsa]

:: Tirsa leaned in closer, to almost purr in the woman's ear ::

"Can I get a DX-2 Disruptor here?"

[Patience Darklighter]

"Hrrm."

Patience crossed her arms and sucked on her lower lip a little.

"Depends on how long you can wait and how much you can pay. They're technically legal on Cloud City, but light out from Bespin and you probably can't carry one within two sectors of here."

Busying herself, she sat at a terminal and begin keying up a search on the Holonet.

"Alternate Energy Weapon lisence is five hundred credits, and I have to order it from offworld. I see six sellers with recent postings on the holo, what's your price range?"

[Tirsa]

"Oh, money's no object. Who's selling?"

:: She craned her neck to get a better look at the monitor ::

[Patience Darklighter]

Gently tipping the monitor's side so that it was easier for Tirsa to see, Patience squinted at the text.

"I've got a dealer on Nar Shadaa. That looks like the closest seller. Could ship next day for delivery. If you're sure price is no object, he's your best bet, but he seems to be asking awfully high."

[Tirsa]

:: Tirsa clicked her tongue and made a note of the dealer ::

"How many pieces?"

[Patience Darklighter]

"Twelve."

She stopped squinting at the monitor, and looked back at her customer's look of slight disappointment. Guessing at the reasoning, she continued.

"DX weapons are really rare on legit markets. You have to jump through a few flaming hoops to clear them, so they don't turn up as often as say a BlasTech or OspreyArms carbine. That's half the reason they're as pricey as they are as well."

[Tirsa]

"Yeah, I know all that."

:: She took a mental of the suppliers names ::

"You have a good day."