Emergence: Strange Bedfellows

Serena Laran rolled carefully out of bed, smoothing her waist length red hair away from her face and pulling on a pair of soft boots. It had taken a full day in hyperspace for the jump into Hutt Space, and their journey was soon to end.

It was the work of a few minutes to braid her hair and secure the thick coil to her head with some pins, and then the Jedi left her cabin to check on the only other occupant. She knocked gently at the door to Rhianna's room. "We are at our destination. I found you some more suitable clothing to wear, and you should find it on your chair. It may be a little long, as I am taller than you." There were some rustles from behind the door, but no answer, and Serena had to leave to monitor the ship as it exited into real space.

It would be trickier than normal, as the ship had been sitting in dry storage for approximately twenty years before leaving the planet known to the Empire as RX-271. It had been shot at and their deflectors were badly damaged, not to mention the fact that the woman was fairly certain that there was not another jump left in the outdated hyperdrive system.

And there was the small fact that she was a wanted human, voluntarily jumping into a system full of gansters, bounty hunters and people of ill-repute that would put a blaster bolt in her brain-pan as soon as they knew what she was.

A Jedi Knight of the Republic. The former Republic.

Forced out of hiding on RX-271 by the massacre of a gentle clan by Imperial Scoutroopers, she had rescued the only survivor and taken the girl to her Republic marked ship and blasted off the planet. She did not second guess her plan or her actions - she had made the best decision with what information and resources were at her disposal. Master Mundi would not have done differently. Master Kenobi might have, but he usually preferred to stand and fight no matter the odds.

At least, that was how she remembered him. Vaugely at best - anyway, she had been a girl of twenty-four, newly raised to the lightsaber when the Purge had begun.

She knew nothing of their fates, only hoped that some other Jedi had managed to survive the Purge of the Empire. Right now her first priority was getting her outdated Mon Calamari style yacht with Republic markings updated and repainted.

Nar Shadda was the best place for 'no questions asked' business, and she had plenty of money. She just didn't know if it was any good still. Serena handled the controls deftly as Serenity reverted to real space, the yacht shaking slightly and then settling as the sublights kicked on with an impressive squeal. The Jedi gritted her teeth, made sure the transponder was flicked off, and started her descent to the Smuggler's Moon.

It wasn't a rare occurance that Clive came to his ship depot on Nar Shadda to check up on things. It was just that after starting his smaller business on Corucsant, well, he wasn't seen here often.

He'd made the trip out only a few days before to get some extra supplies for the new shop, to check on some repairs being made to ships owned by "special" customers, and to have a few upgrades made to his own ship.

Having left his side kick, Raunkks, at the new shop had made him a bit uneasy. But he knew the big Barabel could take care of himself. Hell, with his slicing and hacking abilities, he'd probably know if the authorities were on to him before they even knew they were onto him.

Clive let out a sigh and leaned back in his office chair, propping his feet up on the desk and placing his hands behind his head.

Just another normal business day.

She needed a place to set her ship down quietly. The sublights were shot, however, and she had a feeling that the repulsors weren't in much better shape. Serena accessed the holonet through her antiquidated system, and found the names of a few likely places.

Guide me to the right one... The Jedi dialed up the first store with the ship's communication system, while heading towards the correct quadrant of the planet. The ship had settled into a lower orbit, and she was drifting as discretely as possible towards her destination. Well, what she hoped was her destination.

The transmission buzzed quietly through, and then a man's voice answered on the other end. He sounded bored. Serena licked her lips, a small show of nervousness. "Ah, yes." Her Basic was accented from two decades of speaking another language. "I need some work done on my yacht - and I need to avoid any unnecessary... Imperial entanglements."

"One moment." The technition put the woman on hold and flipped on another channel, calling his boss.

Clive had dozed off somewhere between thinking of the new additions to his ship and thoughts of a scantly clad Twi'lek he'd seen a few days ago at a bar when his comm buzzed. It startled him out of his doze, nearly toppling over his chair. Swearing and righting himself, he slapped the comm. "What?"

The tech didn't seemed phased by the annoyance in the boss's voice, as if it was the way he always answered the comm. "Some woman wanting special repairs to her ship."

Clive grunted and flipped on the monitor to his computer, contecting to the tech's. "Check the ship's tags." Clive kept the line open, but muted it on his end so he could hear the conversation.

The tech switched back over to the woman. "I'll need to have the identification numbers for your ship please."

"Ah... that might be a problem. My internal computers are antiquidated, and it's been giving me trouble when I try to access even the most needed information." Serena had the ident numbers right in front of her, but it was never a good idea to enter potentially hostile waters with a big sign broadcasting "ENEMY OF THE NEW ORDER."

There was a pause on the other end of the transmission, and she added, "My ship is called Serenity - I do know that it was once registered to the Republic."

“Boredom inspires people to do dangerous things.” – General Therridan’s Soldiers and Ships

Morgan had returned to Nar Shadda after his stint on Corellia, deciding to hide in plain sight. He wasn’t frequenting any of his normal haunts, but he was planet-side, and that was plain enough for him.

Overwhelming curiosity had him jacked into a “shipwright’s” business. Most of the work done was of sketchy legality at best, much like the rest of Nar Shadda. He listened to the conversations below through an earpiece on the roof of the building, and ate cheese puffs.

Quote:

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"My ship is called Serenity - I do know that it was once registered to the Republic."

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This would be interesting to look at.

Clive listened as the tech continued to speak to the woman.

"One moment while I look up the name." He was off the comm no more than a few seconds when he came back on the line. "Looks like your ship is old, miss. Anything in particular you'd like done to your yatch?"

Clive's other line started beeping and he looked over at it. It was Raunkks. Sighing, he switched over. "Make it quick. Potential customer on the line and all that jazz."

Raunkk's holographic image nodded. "I wasss checking the sssecurity sssyssstemsss, and a blur on one of the sssecurity camerasss. Sssomeone may be monitoring."

Clive nodded. While they kept their systems as tight as possible, every now and then an intelligent individual would find a way in. "Here at the hidden facility or at our family friendly garage?"

"Family friendly." Raunkks said.

"Right." Clive responded. "Thanks for the heads up."

Raunkk's nodded again and signed off.

Clive switched back over to the conversation. Apparently, the tech was waiting for the woman to get back to him on what specs she was looking for to upgrade her ship.

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The Jedi Knight explained, "I need a complete systems overhaul. Some of the fluidics are -"

The tech coughed, counting up the credits that even a halfway functioning Republic-era fluidics system would garner from a collector, "You have a fluidics system? And you got here on it?"

Serena frowned, "...Yes. I need the ship repainted as well. There are certain... insignia on it that draw more attention than I care for. And the hyperdrive and navcomp are shot."

She paused for the deal breaker. "I can pay in Republic credits."

fptppftppt Morgan spat orange saliva all over the permacrete.

"Republic credits." He marveled at the concept for a moment before he disolved into hard laughter. Had this person been spaced in the wilds for the last twenty years?

It sounded like they'd need a slicer for the ship's ID codes, though. A paint job wasn't going to cut it. And a fludics system? That was old when the clone wars started. Many vessels still existed from the era, but no one ran something with a cranky fluidics system if they could help it. This was an opportunity to do something interesting.

The tech choked back on awe that the ship had made it this far with what the woman had been describing. And Republic Credits??

He could only imagine Clive falling over his chair laughing back at HQ.

The tech cleared his throat. "We can certainly make all the repairs and changes you request, but paying with Republic Credits is going to be a little more difficult. An extra charge will have to be made for that as most banks don't exchange Republic Credits easily, and it will take time to find one that does."

Serena frowned, but charging more was better than refusing completely. She was not one to hope, but she certainly was hoping that the Republic credit had retained at least most of it's value since her exile. As she'd been shot and left for dead during a humanitarian mission, her ship had been outfitted with enough credits to finance rebuilding a village, albeit a small one.

"That is acceptable." Serena's ice green eyes looked behind her, in the direction of the girl she'd started considering her padawan. Rhianna spoke not a lick of Basic, and would have to be protected from whatever predators lurked on Nar Shaddaa. If she could have left her in her cabin, she would have considered it. "You will have to give me the landing coordinates verbally - I am going to have to fly in manually."

The tech did so, with what seemed to be a snigger, and the Jedi Knight piloted the decrepit yacht into the atmosphere of Nar Shaddaa.

The coordinates the tech gave her were to the family friendly garage where he was stationed at. Once he'd given the woman the coordinates, he flipped over to the other channel where Clive waited.

"Well, boss, there you have it."

"I heard." Clive rubed his chin. "Start searching for a bank that will exchange the Republic Credits. I'm definitely intrigued as to why this woman is still carrying such decrepid currency. But it should still serve the purpose of getting us paid." He paused. "Oh, and make sure we don't get raped on the exchange rate."

"You got it, boss." The tech was about to sign off, when Clive caught his attention once more.

"And one more thing. Have a hauler brought into the garage. We're going to need to haul her ship into the main docks at HQ for the repairs she was talking about. Sounds like this ship is as ancient as they can come."

"On it." With no further instructions from Clive, the tech signed off, and called in a mechanic to await the inbound ship in hangar number two. Once the mechanic had departed to await the ship, the tech got to his duties of calling the hauler and then the banks.

The coordinates were on the other side of the district.

He grabbed his equipment and sprinted to his speeder: a nice, midsized model that was exceedingly quick stock.

The airspeeder came to life with a quiet snarl, and the trademark bark of an opposing pulse repulsor system echoed against the towers of Nar Shadda as he flattened the accelerator.

He'd have to wait until the ship's captain left the shop. She'd probably want to get supplies. Something that old would take a while to refit.

She'd had to hand over her life savings (from an account frozen by the Empire many years previously, but she had managed to have most of it sliced out before she went into hiding. She'd left it in a few Republic credit chits, all safely stored in her cabin, for a rainy day. Well... it was pouring now.) to the clerk at the garage she'd managed to get Serenity landed in.

Rhianna followed closely behind her, taking in everything in silence. Serena had instructed her to listen, not to talk, and the girl was obeying thus far. Thank the Force. After hearing how long it was going to take, the Jedi asked about a place to rent a room for herself and the gypsy girl.

They were directed to a place not far from the garage, and Serena thanked the clerk for the information. "I would like to talk to the owner of this shop today. I need assurances against my information being... mishandled."

The tech took in a deep breath through his nose before letting it out. "I'll see what I can do about getting the boss down here to meet with you. He's at another facility at the moment."

That seemed to satisfy her for the time being, and she left him a contact number where she could be reached.

He went back into his office. Upon entering, he noticed his comm blinking and reached over to answer it. "Yeah?"

"Sir, the hauler you requested is here."

"Yeah, thanks. Have it hold for a few. I gotta get the boss on the line."

"You got it."

The tech switched to another line and called Clive.

----------

Clive was just walking back into his office after grabbing a quick bite to eat, when his comm buzzed. The caller ID showed who it was and he answered. "What?"

The tech took in a breath. "Hauler's here, but I'm having it held. The woman that left the ship requested to see you today. Something about making sure her ship isn't mishandled or something."

Clive rolled his eyes. "Alright. I'll be there in a few."

Clive signed off, sighed, grabbed a few things, and made his way to his speeder in a small, off-shoot hangar adjacent to the main one.

On his way to his speeder, he got another call on his comm. This time it was from a distinctive reptilian voice, one he knew all too well.

"I wissshed to inform you that I wasss on my way to Nar Ssshadda. There are a few upgradesss I wisssh to make to the sssyssstemsss... and to check up on that anomaly from earlier today. I ssshould be there in a few hoursss."

Clive nodded to no one in particular as he slid into the drivers seat of the speeder. "Sounds good to me. Give me another buzz when you get into town."

There was an affirmative click on the other end before Raunkks signed off.

With that, Clicve zoomed out of the garage and into the busy airways of Nar Shadda, headed towards their family friendly garage on the other side of town.

Serena gathered her new padawan and their bundles and made it to the hotel just down the way. They had switched out of the native clothing of Rhianna's home planet and were garbed in what appeared to be greviously outdated clothing.

At the sight of the tight canyons between buildings and the whine of speeder traffic, Rhianna clung tightly to Serena's shadow. Her sense was not of one terrified, but of awe. "Do not get lost, Rhianna." Serena herded the wide-eyed girl into the lobby of the hotel.

A green tinted protocol droid greeted them. "Greetings gentles, a room?"

"Please." Serena didn't bother smiling as the droid would not be offended. "I need one for two nights, with the option for longer if necessary. My business needs fluctuate." She slapped the tinceir girl's hand away from the shiny stylus that guests signed in with. Rhianna opened her mouth, and the Jedi shot her a look that brooked no nonsense and called for silence.

"Certainlee, ladiees, room 263 on the second floor." It gestured jerkily towards the turbolifts. "Rooms are a hundred credits a night for two."

Laran blinked. Inflation seemed not to have affected the New Order, but if prices were being kept low even here on the Smugglers Moon it meant that the Emperor was tightly controlling commerce. Stagnation would surely be the consequence of such arrogance. Republic credits, however, were worth a little more than half of the newer Imperial credits. "Can you exchange credits here?"

"Certainlee. What currencee do you carriee?" The droid's voder had been imprinted with a strange accent. Or it was just wearing out.

"Republic." She was glad that no one else was in the lobby. Just as the thought crossed her mind the door jangled and Rhianna touched her elbow.

"Visitor," the girl spoke softly in her native tongue.

"Certainlee, Imperial exchange to Reepublic ees one to three."

Her right eyebrow raised slightly. "It is not. It is one to two."

The droid's expressionless face swung towards the door. "A better price you weel not get on the Smugglers Moon, ladiees."

"Very well." Serena pulled a credit chit from her pocket and placed it on the counter on the liquid screen of the sign in book. "Please exchange this amount for Imperial."

"Certainlee." The droid reached for the chit, servos whirring in it's joints. The only good thing about droids was that usually they were programmed not to ask too many questions. But on Nar Shadda, who knew that information it was squirrelling away to send to it's owner.