Star Wars Character Cafe - Heavy Lifting Chapter 1

Title: Smugglers of the Outer Rim I: Heavy Lifting
Author: John E. Martin (mrcalabash@aol.com)
Characters: Maxx Murtel (Captain of the Wild Nerf)
                    Lo Price (Maxx's partner)
                    TC-23J (The Nerf's Protocol Droid)
                    Trouble (The Nerf's Astromech)
                    Braga the Hutt and Nalma the Hutt (Crimelords)
                    Linh Ah (Braga the Hutt's Twi' lek slave girl)
Era: 3 Years before "Star Wars IV: A New Hope" I consider this to be "Classic Era"
Category: Drama
Summary: A pair of beginning smugglers run into trouble and have to make choices when they accept a job transporting a Hutt out of danger. This is the first of three novelettes, but it should work well as a stand alone story.
Disclaimer: I am not making any profit from this story beyond the pleasure of writing and any feedback I may recieve. The Star Wars universe and non original characters (like Han Solo) who are referenced in this story do not belong to me.

HEAVY LIFTING

CHAPTER 1

“Good morning sir! Did you sleep well?”

Maxx smiled as he looked up from his datapad and returned TC-23J’s gaze. At first glance, it was nearly impossible to tell that his ancient gold plated protocol droid wasn’t the standard flighty 3PO unit, but the more sophisticated and very expensive TC unit.

“Much better than Price by the look of it, what time did she get back in?”

“An hour or two before sunrise, I think. Trouble was looking for the information you requested on Tindalaire when she came, and let her in.”

Maxx frowned.

“It’s a good thing that I wasn’t up, I would have been tempted to keep the boarding ramp up and let her sleep it off outside.”

“Now Maxx,” TC-23J replied in a disapproving tone, “that’s hardly the way to treat a partner.”

“Some partner,” Maxx replied, the annoyance rising in his throat. “I fly the ship, find the jobs, pay the bills and take care of the provisioning! All sleeping beauty ever seems to do is blow her money on booze and sabbac and pick up strange men.”

“Quiet,” TC-23J whispered urgently, “you’ll wake her.”

“You kidding?” Maxx chuckled. “In her shape, she’d sleep thru an orbital bombardment.”

“Besides, she does a reasonably good job of keeping the ship in peak condition.”

“She does when she gets around to it,” Maxx allowed begrudgingly as he took another sip of caf.

“You’ll have to live with her anyway, so you might as well make the best of it.”

“I’m trying, you of all droids should know how hard I try.” Maxx groaned.

“In any case, what would you like for breakfast.”

“Surprise me,” Maxx replied, a hint of a smile playing across his face. He was painfully aware that the ship’s autochef was running low on provisions and knowing TC-23J’s longstanding concern with nutrition, Maxx knew that breakfast would consist of hot cereal, a few strips of roasted fowl and a glass of fruit juice.

As he sipped his caf and concentrated on the datapad, Maxx sighed. He really didn’t begrudge Lo the opportunity to have a little fun – he knew that everybody wasn’t as driven as he was – Maxx just wished that Lo would put taking care of the Wild Nerf a little higher on her list of priorities. They had just landed on Tindalaire yesterday and Maxx had already offloaded the legitimate cargo he was carrying for this run. He had made arrangements to drop off the datacards this morning and was already preparing to look for their next job. With any luck, he would be able to raise ship in five days, ten at the latest. Was it unreasonable to expect Lo to have the ship ready to fly by then? On Tindalaire, Lo seemed to be following the same pattern that she had been following for the past year: Hitting the clubs every evening, following strange men home and spending most of her time on the Nerf sleeping it off. Maxx usually had to spend several days prodding his “partner” before he ever got any work out of her and then the two of them had to rush in order to have the ship ready in time for lift off. As TC-23J placed his breakfast on the table, Maxx was thankful that Lo’s modifications had not made the Wild Nerf as high strung as some smuggling ships. If the Nerf was as finicky as the Millennium Falcon, they’d never get her off the ground.

As Maxx chewed on his first strip of roast fowl, he shifted his gaze away from the story about a missing Hutt and pondered how he had gotten himself into this mess in the first place. His first two years of tramping around in the Wild Nerf had not been unprofitable, but he desperately wanted to break into smuggling and that required that the Nerf run a little faster. When a run to Ord Mantell brought him in touch with a band of outlaw techs, Maxx couldn’t resist asking how much it would cost to improve the ship’s ancient hyperdrive system. Maxx figured that bringing the hyperdrive multiplier down from 2.1 to .90 would make the ship fast enough to risk a few runs to Ryloth. The credits earned would provide Maxx with the resources that he needed to turn his old YT-1300SP into a REAL smuggling ship.

Maxx’s first meeting with Eva Maru was less than promising. It was painfully clear that Maxx couldn’t afford even the minor upgrades that he had sought. After that information had settled in, Eva did allow that she had a young engineer who was anxious for a little adventure. If the two of them combined their resources, they should be able to afford a few improvements to Maxx’s old freighter. Maxx’s first meeting with Lo Price was promising. She had been something of a prodigy at Corellian Engineering Corporation and had worked in a group that was dedicated to developing kits to upgrade CEC’s older YT series light freighters. Lo was familiar with the YT-1300’s basic design, and had a few ideas that she had wanted to try. Lo gave the Wild Nerf a quick, but thorough inspection and spent that night working out a modification plan. If Maxx had any qualms about the wisdom of taking on a partner, he forgot them as soon as he had read Lo’s initial report. She was planning to upgrade the hyperdrive, the sublight engines, and the control system, reinforce the hull and even add weapons. If she could make the Nerf perform as well as her initial specs suggested, Maxx would be able to outrun TIE fighters and be agile enough to surprise a few fighter pilots if he ever had to mix it up with them. Maxx could really make a name for himself in a ship like that.

Maxx frowned as he took another sip of juice. Perhaps he should have been suspicious when the techs were so generous with their parts and services. At the time he merely assumed that they were helping one of their own. It was not until later that he heard rumors that the young Corellian’s behavior was causing discipline problems in the group. By that time, he was hardly surprised. Still, the Nerf was making profitable runs and Maxx had been able to save enough that he should be able to buy Lo’s share of the Nerf next year, if the opportunity came along.

As Maxx stopped at the exit of Docking Bay 36 he turned, as he usually did, to gaze at his ship one last time. As he stared at the old freighter, it amused Maxx to think that there was a time when he thought she was ugly. As he chuckled, Maxx recalled that he was a lot younger then and dreamed of the day when he’d have a star fighter of his own. The old YT-1300 may not have been as sleek as the Z-95 Headhunters that he used to fantasize about owning, or his father’s high performance yacht, but her saucer shaped hull and wedge shaped forward mandibles had grown on him.

Maxx was even starting to like the things that he once thought he’d never get used to. Maxx was surprised at how well he had adjusted to flying the Nerf from the offset cockpit that seemed to be hanging off the starboard side of the hull. Trying to maneuver the ship from a place so far from the ship’s centerline had driven Maxx crazy during his student pilot days. In time he had grown so comfortable with the ship that he often found himself working acrobatic maneuvers into his day to day flying. The ugly old rectangular rectenna that sat on top of the port side of the hull had grown into a funky reminder that his Wild Nerf was a survivor from the first year that Corellian Engineering Corporation had built the YT-1300.

As Maxx savored the details of his old ship, he noted how little her appearance had changed since he had acquired her from Marshal. He had never bothered adding the externally mounted weapons that were common on ships working the outer rim. Sith! He had never even gotten around to painting over the freighter’s faded but still garish red and white color scheme. As Maxx adjusted the collar of his long overcoat and turned towards the door, he whispered a silent prayer of thanks to Marshal Thonas for selling the old ship to him three years ago.

Was it only three years ago that a ryll overdose by the son of a prominent Imperial Official on Tapan had turned the young courier into a fugitive with an Imperial death mark? Maxx shook his head as he continued to walk along the spaceport’s corridor. It didn’t even matter that Maxx was relatively innocent in this case. He just happened to be at the wrong place when the boy took his girlfriend to score some ryll. Maxx had even heard the dealer warn the young fool to be careful with his first taste. At any case, the dealer was executed without a trial and Marcel (as Maxx used to be known) had a warrant for his arrest. Fortunately Marshal Thonas was more than willing to part with old Number 17, the oldest of the YT-1300SPs that Thonas shipping had used in its more legitimate business. Mr. Thonas was also happy to use his underworld connections to help young Marcel forge a new identity. He even gave the young man a particularly difficult R-5 astromech to help fly the freighter. The droid was named Sithspawn and had a reputation for being unreliable and ill tempered, but Maxx was desperate and found that, with a little TLC, the droid was actually quite useful.

In those days, the most impressive thing about the ship had been her age. Lo had once ran the ship’s hull number against her database and learned that the Wild Nerf had been the sixteenth YT-1300 to glide down Corellian Engineering Corporation’s production line, making her possibly the oldest YT-1300 flying.

Maxx wondered what Mr. Thonas would say if he could see his old ship now. The only visual cues of any changes would have been that Max had painted over the Thonas Shipping Co. markings and applied the ship’s new Imperial registration numbers, but Lo’s modifications had turned the vessel into something else. She may not have been a top flight smuggling vessel yet, but Maxx was still confident that the Nerf would easily wax some of the newer performance oriented YT-2000s and YT2400s that CEC had offered. Maxx hadn’t needed to use the ship’s new capabilities yet, but it felt great to have them there, just in case.

***

“Good morning Mother, is Captain Kill-Joy around?”

TC-23J turned around to face Lo.

“Captain Murtel is out,” she replied brightly. “I believe that he was going to deliver the data cards this morning and possibly visit the guild halls.”

“That was definitely a mixed blessing,” Lo thought as she shook her head and tried to concentrate. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with Maxx until she felt a little more lucid. Having to deal with Maxx and that half pint astromech of his was bad enough when her head was clear. As TC-23J gently placed a mug of caf in front of her, Lo wondered where her partner got off bossing her around like some droid. “Sith,” Lo thought as she gingerly took her first sip of caf, Maxx was nicer to his droids than he was to her.

As Lo took her next sip, a strange thought hit her. Maxx was not only the same age as she was, but their birthdays were only a few days apart. Lo took another sip and recalled that that little fact slipped out last year as they were discussing a possible partnership over drinks. It was hard for Lo to believe that Maxx Murtel was actually a few days younger than she was. Granted, Maxx’s long slender frame and his gaunt face made him look older than he was. His manner also reminded her of the other old people she had to answer to: Trace Anders who used to lecture her about the need to study hard and improve her grades; Leo Long at Corellian Engineering Corp who was always on her case about being a few hours late for work and who kept shoving her all of the work group’s boring assignments. Even Eva Maru, the outlaw tech boss had a nasty habit of reprimanding Lo about her work habits in front of the techs.

Lo had hoped that working with someone her own age would be different, that working on a smuggling ship would be new and exciting. Unfortunately, flying with Captain Murtel was more of the same. As soon as they touched down, it was always, “Lo, I need you to fix a small flutter in the control system,” or “Lo, you need to recalibrate the thruster banks.” Lo might not have minded these boring assignments as much if Maxx would come up with something interesting more often, but they hadn’t upgraded the Nerf since Maxx had her retrofit a second hand deflector shield generator from a YT-2000. That was more like it, but Lo was ready to try something more creative. She had a few ideas about a new custom built sublight engine that had the potential to transform the Nerf. Not only would the new engine increase the Nerf’s max speed by over twenty percent, but Maxx would be able to use that speed without risking damage to the thruster bank. The real beauty of her design was that it would be virtually impossible to detect. The new thrusters would use the existing exhaust ducts and, by flipping a switch, Maxx would be able to adjust the engine’s ion stream so that the Nerf would scan as just another tramp freighter with a mildly sick engine. Lo had brought the idea up with Maxx. He seemed impressed at first, but was concerned about the cost. “This would be a great thing to pursue later,” he replied, “but we need to take care of the existing engine for now.” Lo wondered if Maxx would ever find time to incorporate one of her ideas.

As Lo stood up and prepared to leave, Trouble swiveled his flower pot shaped head around and asked her where she thought her well lubed bottom was going.

“Out,” Lo replied sharply. Before she had met Trouble, it had never occurred to Lo that it was possible to curse in droid speak.

Trouble hooted nastily saying that Lo would be free to pursue all of the intoxicants and reproductive interfaces her addled brain wanted as soon as she aligned the ship’s inertial compensators.

“Captain Murtel hasn’t asked me to do that yet,” Lo replied as she walked over to the boarding ramp and marched off the Nerf.

***

Maxx allowed himself a rare feeling of satisfaction as he took a few puffs on his oddly carved wooden pipe. The delivery of the data cards had been as smooth as Trix’s skin and he was now sitting with a good five thousand Imperial credits in his coat pocket. His contact had also allowed that while they didn’t have any work for him at the moment, they were bound to have a shipment of “parts” going out in the next fifteen days and that it should pay well. Maxx wasn’t certain if he wanted to sit on Tindalaire for the next fifteen days, but it was good to have a possible job lined up just in case.

As he took another sip of tea, Maxx glanced around and took in his surroundings. The Tandro spaceport cantina was not that unlike most of the others that Maxx had seen in his travels. It may have been more utilitarian than some with its unadorned gray ferrocrete floors, walls and ceilings, but he doubted that many of the patrons were here for the atmosphere. Maxx glanced around at the other patrons, being careful not to let his eyes linger on any individual or group for too long. It looked like the usual mixture of humans and aliens. Max was certain that most of them were either spacers, people looking to hire a ship or passengers waiting for their ship to depart. Maxx also noted a few humans who were staring around. He guessed that they were locals who were looking for a little excitement. “If they kept staring like that, they might get a little more excitement than they bargained for,” he thought. In one corner there was a human musician sitting on a chair. He was cradling what looked like a large wooden board with maybe twenty strings on it. As the man fiddled with the strings, he rocked back and forth to the music, lost in his own little world.

Maxx glanced at every new arrival as they walked into the well-lit door. Experience had taught him that it was wise to take advantage of the time it took for a newcomer’s eyes to adjust to the darkness and size him or her up before they could recognize anything inside. Eventually he saw Lo’s familiar figure standing in the doorway. The tall slender woman wasn’t exactly what most men would call beautiful, her face was a little too round, her nose a little too prominent and her close cropped blonde hair way too short for that. Still, even Maxx had to admit that his partner was not without her charms. He was somewhat fond of her wide blue eyes that were just large enough to give her an eternally perplexed appearance.

Maxx smiled as she stood there and looked around. Lo may not have been as shapely as some of the women in the cantina, but he had to admit that when his partner traded the loose work clothes she was wearing now for something that was more provocative, she could be sexy in a geeky sort of way. He particularly appreciated the way her pale skin contrasted with her favorite pair of black nerf hide hip huggers. Maxx sighed; he could have really had a thing for Lo if only she wasn’t such a sithing idiot.

Once Lo had entered the Cantina, she strode to the bar and ordered a glass of Corellian whiskey. She glanced around the cantina as she waited for her drink. Maxx watched her out of the corner of his eye while making a show of staring at the door. Lo suddenly recognized her partner and briskly walked to the battered metal table where he sat.

“Good morning Maximus, whatcha thinking?”

“The musician definitely knows his instrument, but I can’t say much for his sense of composition.” Maxx replied lazily.

“Huh?”

“It seems like he’s just playing randomly, stringing together certain patterns of notes. That sort of thing’s okay for awhile, but it doesn’t take long to get old.”

Lo frowned and shook her head.

“Can’t you ever talk about something interesting?”

Maxx shrugged.

“I figured that anyone who spends as much time in clubs as you do would find music to be interesting.”

Lo shook her head.

“I like music as much as the next being, but I’ve never cared for this intellectual stuff. It’s so long and boring and you can’t even dance to it.”

Maxx chuckled.

“I bet that Trix could have danced to it,” he said with a grin.

“Trix?” Lo asked, her eyes growing wider.

“My old girlfriend from Tapan. She was trained in dance on Ryloth and was extremely graceful and agile even when she was into her forties.”

Lo couldn’t think of anything to say at the moment, but the way that her eyes widened even further said it all. Maxx sighed.

“Believe it or not, Captain Killjoy used to have a girlfriend. She was the proprietor of a pleasure lounge on Tapan, was maybe twenty years my senior and very beautiful. She was almost as tall as you are, but far more clever and graceful. And she had the softest yellow skin.”

“Uh, did you say yellow skin?” Lo asked feeling puzzled.

“Yes,” Maxx replied feeling somewhat wary, how could Lo not know that Ryloth was the Tw’lek’s home world? “Trix was a former Twi’lek slave girl who had won her independence and eventually worked her way up from being a courtesan to operating the Twi’light lounge on Tapan. I used to visit her in the evenings after I had finished my rounds during my courier days.”

Lo could hardly contain her disbelief.

“You used to pump a snake head!?” She asked loudly.

Maxx suddenly nailed Lo with a backhanded slap to her left cheek. Lo stared blankly at him, they may not have gotten along that well, but Maxx had never assaulted her in the year they had been partners. As her left eye started to tear, Maxx whispered harshly.

“That should bruise up nicely in a few minutes, is there any bleeding?” When Lo shook her head, Maxx discretely handed her a red capsule. “Then bite into this and let some of the blood trickle out of the left corner of your mouth.”

Lo stared at him bewildered.

“A blood capsule?”

Maxx nodded.

“Exactly, and while you’re doing that, shut up and listen.”

Maxx watched Lo put the blood capsule into her mouth and bite down on it. Once he was satisfied that the blood oozing out of the corner of her mouth looked realistic, Maxx continued.

“Now if you are going to follow me into rough establishments like this one, you are going to have to learn to hold your tongue before someone takes a vibroblade and cuts it out. Now you may be able to say things like that in Corellia, but not here.”

Maxx paused to sip a little tea and see if his words were registering with Lo.

“Did you happen to notice that there were three very rough looking Twi’lek gentlemen sitting at one of the tables by the corner? I’d be willing to bet your miserable life that they don’t like being called snake heads and that they don’t appreciate hearing about a human male ‘pumping’ one of their women. If they come over here demanding satisfaction, I’ll have half a mind to leave you at their mercy.”

Lo stared at Maxx in wide-eyed horror.

“You wouldn’t,” she whimpered.

“I won’t,” Maxx replied coldly, “you may deserve it, but you’re my partner and I was taught that a captain should always look after his crew.”

“Uh thanks,” Lo replied quietly.

“You’re welcome,” Maxx replied agreeably. “Things went very well with our customer this morning.”

“Then we got paid?” Lo asked, holding out her hand. She was nearly broke and was more than willing to forget about being slapped if it meant a few thousand credits in her pockets. Maxx handed her a one hundred credit note.

“Hey!” Lo cried in anger.

“You’ll get the other nine hundred when the inertial compensators are aligned and retuned to my satisfaction.” Maxx replied harshly.

“But only ONE thousand!?”

“Lower your voice!” Maxx whispered harshly, “I’d rather the other patrons didn’t know that we had that much on our person.”

Maxx paused for a moment to make certain that his words had sunk in.

“We’ve been partners for a year now, and you should have figured out a few things by now. I like to pay the ship first. Three thousand is going to the Nerf’s account and we’re splitting the rest fifty-fifty.”

“Oh, I’m familiar with your ways,” Lo whispered fiercely, “it’s just that three thousand is a lot of money to go toward the ship. Shouldn’t it be one thousand for the ship and two thousand for each of us?”

Maxx sighed, why did he have to explain this every time they got paid?

“You seem to forget the costs of operating a ship,” he said quietly. “Between spaceport fees, fuel and provisioning, we should spend a good thousand credits here before we raise ship. The rest of the money is for future repairs and modifications. I have done a little preliminary investigation of that new sublight engine you proposed and… uh oh.”

Lo narrowed her eyes.

“Uh, what?” she asked quietly.

“Our three Twi’lek friends are headed this way,” Maxx whispered as he pulled his blaster out of his left “pocket”. The pocket had been removed from Maxx’s overcoat several years ago and now served as a flap that allowed him easy access to the pistol he kept holstered below it.

“Just remember to let me do the talking.” Maxx said quietly.

As he held the blaster under the table, three large Twi’lek men walked up to him and Lo. They all looked like humans except that their skin was bright red and that each man had two lekku, or brain tails that sprouted from the tops of their heads and dangled down past their waists. Maxx could tell from the way the lekku were twitching that these men were very not happy with him. He pointed his hidden blaster towards the man in the center and hoped that he didn’t have to use it. Maxx had figured that the man in the center had to be the leader, he was a little shorter than the other two, but something about the way he carried himself suggested that he was used to being in charge. He turned to Maxx as he spoke.

“I hope that you oh so civilized HUMANS don’t mind it if a couple of SNAKE HEADS stopped by to say hello,” he said gruffly.

Maxx shook his head.

“I’d offer you seats if we had any,” he said in his best Twi’leki. “I’m deeply sorry about my companion’s thoughtlessness. She is a fool with a bad mouth and often says things without thinking.”

“And you are an idiot who only brags about pumping one of our women,” the leader growled back in Twi’leki.

Maxx frowned.

“I merely told my companion that I used to have a Twi’lek girlfriend named Trix that I loved very much during my time on Tapan. Lo here just assumed…”

“So, did you pump this Twi’lek girlfriend of yours or not!?” The leader replied, the anger rising in his voice.

“Sir,” Maxx replied firmly in an indignant tone, “I am not going to honor that with an answer. Trix was a wonderful woman who deserves much better than to have her former boyfriend talk about her behind her back.”

“Well, if you loved this Trix of yours so much, why are you with this,” the leader said while pointing towards Lo, “instead of this woman that you claim to love so much!”

“I’d be with her now,” Maxx replied with a sigh, “but she can’t leave her business on Tapan and I have a death mark there."

At this the three Twi’leks chuckled, displaying their sharply filed teeth for the first time.

“A death mark is not an easy thing to live with,” the leader said warmly, “I should know, I have them in ten systems. Mind you, if you’re trying to forget your old love, you’ll need something stronger than that.”

Maxx glanced down at his herbal tea and shrugged.

“I suppose so, but I like to keep my wits around me in places like this.”

“Good idea,” one of the younger Twi’leks replied, “You know they even allow humans in here.”

Maxx’s eyes widened in mock horror.

“Humans!?” he replied in a frightened voice, “I guess I’d really have to watch my step around here.”

“I’d let you buy us drinks,” the older one replied, but we have to go. Our ship should be lifting off within twenty minutes.”

“Clear skies and happy travels!” Maxx replied.

“Same to you kid,” the oldest replied as the three of them left the table.

“Now that was close,” Maxx said quietly as he reholstered his pistol.

“I’ll say,” Lo replied. “How exactly did you talk us out of that one?”

Maxx frowned.

“You’d be surprised how far a little respect will get you with some people. I just apologized, said that you were an idiot and assured them that Trix meant much more to me than a simple conquest. Oh, and it didn’t hurt that at least one of them had a death mark.”

“I guess it didn’t,” Lo replied with a sheepish grin.

As their conversation died down Maxx picked up his elegantly carved wooden pipe, dumped out the ashes and refilled it from a tin he had sitting on the table. As Maxx lit the pipe and started puffing on it, he saw Lo pull out a cheap duraplast pipe and stare longingly at the tin.

“Be my guest,” Maxx said with a shrug. It always amused him that a woman who could blow so many credits on clothes, clubbing and sabacc could never afford something as reasonable as tobac. Maxx never begrudged Lo the occasional fill as puffing on a pipe tended to keep her quiet.

As he slowly puffed on his pipe, Maxx went back to scanning the crowd. He quickly noticed that a green skinned woman at the bar was staring at him. She was wearing a loose fitting brown hooded robe that reminded Maxx of the robes that the Jedi were supposed to have worn. The tell tale lumps under the hood suggested lekku. As their eyes met, the woman raised her glass to Maxx and took a sip. Maxx repeated the gesture with his tea. As the stranger stood up and walked towards the table, Maxx spoke quietly to Lo.

“Looks like we shall soon have a little company. Do me a favor and let me do the talking.”

Lo turned around to see the woman and then glared at Maxx. She had absolutely no use for Twi’lek women, but after their last confrontation with the ugly trio, she thought better than to complain. As the woman approached the table, Maxx took a seat from a nearby table and offered it to her. She spoke softly in basic, her voice quavering nervously.

“You are a smuggler?”

Maxx took the pipe out of his mouth and favored the newcomer with a smile.

“I prefer to think of myself as an independent trader. I am Captain Maxx Murtel of the Wild Nerf and this is my partner Lo Price.”

Lo continued puffing on her pipe and didn’t bother acknowledging the girl.

“I am Linh Ah, servant of Braga the Hutt. Mighty Braga is seeking passage to Nal Hutta on a fast ship, no questions asked.”

Maxx nodded, this could be interesting.

“The Wild Nerf should be fast enough to suit your master, but it’ll cost him.”

“Wise Braga figured that. He is willing to pay you twenty thousand credits for a safe passage.”

Lo’s eyes flew open and the pipe fell out of her mouth, spilling hot ashes all over the table. Twenty thousand Imperial credits!? They had never been offered even half that amount before. Maxx favored the young lady with a smile and slowly shook his head.

“I was thinking of something more on the line of one hundred thousand credits.”

Lo stared at her partner, her lips moving as if to silently say, “Are you crazy!?” Maxx stared at her for a moment and raised his right index finger off the table as a restraining gesture. Linh Ah seemed to be taken aback and didn’t say anything for a few minutes. When she finally spoke, her voice was so soft as to be nearly inaudible.

“I will need to talk to my master about this. I will contact you later.”

With that, Linh Ah stood up and quickly strode out of the cantina. Lo swiveled her head and watched the young woman leave. Once her attention returned to Maxx, Lo whispered fiercely.

“One hundred thousand credits!? Are you crazy!!!?”

Maxx sighed and shook his head.

“Just trying to make certain that we’re being paid enough to cover the risks we’ll be taking on,” he replied coolly.

“Risks!? What risks?”

Maxx frowned as he opened his data pad and switched it on, this wasn’t going to be easy to explain.

“Didn’t our little exchange with Linh Ah seem to be a little unusual?”

Lo narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips together.

“Every conversation with an alien seems, ‘a little unusual.’ “

“Hutts are notorious for being one of the most extravagant species in the galaxy. Why is one trying to book passage to his home world on a cargo ship?”

Lo frowned thoughtfully.

“Maybe he’s trying to keep a low profile,” she replied.

“But why?” Maxx pressed.

“How should I know, you’re supposed to be the brains of this operation Maximus.”

“I understand that,” Maxx replied, “That’s why I’m so suspicious about this job. It’s my understanding that Hutts only try to keep a low profile when they’re in grave danger.”

While he gave Lo a little time to ponder the matter, Maxx glanced down at the data pad and started scrolling through the articles that Trouble had downloaded last night. Maxx was certain that he had seen something about Braga the Hutt this morning, but he couldn’t remember the exact details.

“And while we’re pondering the matter of Braga the Hutt,” Maxx continued. “Why was Linh Ah booking passage for him in the first place?”

Lo frowned and stared at Maxx, that should be obvious.

“I suppose it’s her job.”

Maxx favored Lo with a withering glare.

“I sincerely doubt it.”

“Why?”

“If Linh Ah was used to hiring ships for Braga’s various endeavors, she would have asked a few pertinent questions. She didn’t ask anything about the Nerf’s accommodations, not even basic matters like the width of doorways and corridors. That can be a major issue when one is dealing with a being as large as a Hutt. And while she claimed that it was important to hire a fast ship, she didn’t press for any verification for my claim that the Nerf was fast enough for her purposes.”

Lo frowned as she pondered Maxx’s words.

“Maybe Linh Ah wasn’t the technical type.”

Maxx nodded.

“Then why would she be in the business of hiring a fast ship for her master’s escape? You don’t need an engineering degree to have a working familiarity with a few of the more commonly accepted parameters for starship performance like hyperdrive multipliers, maximum sublight speed and maximum atmospheric speed.”

“Everybody knows that the specs bandied about by most starship captains are lies.” Lo scoffed.

“True,” Maxx replied thoughtfully “but even those lies would give her something to go on beyond a hollow reassurance. Besides, if Linh Ah had some experience with dealing with spacers, she could use the figures given and the way they’re given to guestimate the degree that she was being lied to. Besides, she didn’t seem to be much of a negotiator.”

Lo chuckled.

“You think?”

“I know,” Maxx replied somberly, “The secret to successful negotiation is to start asking for a price that is lower than you expect and lower than you can afford to pay. You will probably have to give a little ground while bargaining, but you’ll never take it back.”

Lo’s face contorted in confusion.

“Wait a minute!” She whispered fiercely, “You’ve got me all confused. At first I thought that twenty thousand credits was very high for this job, then you argued with greenie girl that twenty thousand was way to low and that you wouldn’t touch the job for less than one hundred thousand credits. Now you’re saying that twenty thousand credits was too high?”

Maxx glared at his partner.

“Watch your tongue,” he snarled quietly, “I don’t care if you don’t like Twi’leks, that last reference was pushing it. Now as far as the matter of twenty thousand credits is concerned, it depends on what we’re being asked to do. Twenty thousand credits is high for a normal illegal transport job with the usual risks and that was how Linh Ah was trying to present this run. Now if I’m right on this… ah, that’s what I’ve been looking for. Feast your eyes on this.”

Maxx turned the datapad around so that Lo could read the short article about how Braga the Hutt, an alleged local crime lord, had been reported missing by his uncle Nalma the Hutt. Once she had finished reading, Lo looked back up at Maxx.

“So you think that Braga the Hutt is in trouble with this Nalma and went into hiding.”

“Exactly,” Maxx replied as he beamed at her. “Only, Braga’s trouble with Nalma must be quite severe as it seems to have driven off all of his hired help and hangers on, leaving his Twi’lek slave girl as the only being who could arrange for his passage off world.”

Lo frowned and bit her lip as she tried to follow Maxx’s logic. For all of his highhanded arrogance, her partner had an excellent grasp of galactic affairs and a good working understanding of the behavior of various beings. During their time together Lo couldn’t remember ever seeing Maxx make a mistake when sizing up a customer. Still, she couldn’t say that it was easy to understand how her partner’s mind jumped from one conclusion to the next.

“But why doesn’t she leave him?” Lo finally asked.

Maxx fiddled with his pipe and took a couple of long puffs before answering.

“It may be that she feels some affection for Braga and doesn’t want to leave, but I suspect she’s afraid to leave.”

“Afraid of what Braga might do if he managed to catch up with her?”

Maxx shook his head.

“More likely just afraid of being free.”

Lo buried her face in her hands and started giggling.

“Laugh if you want,” Maxx replied between puffs, “But freedom can be frightening if you lack certain survival skills. I remember my visits to the Twi’light lounge. I could always tell the newest girls because they had an almost child-like dependence on Trix.”

Lo’s eyes narrowed.

“Wait a minute, your Twi’lek girlfriend used to own Twi’lek slave girls?”

Maxx took one last draw from his pipe and emptied it in the ashtray before answering.

“Trix used to populate her stable of girls by buying them out of slavery and having them work in order to pay her back While these ex-slaves were working their way toward freedom, she taught them the survival skills that you and I take for granted, like how to find work and manage money. It was a rare woman who needed to spend more than three years in the Twi’light lounge before they were ready to leave the business of pleasure altogether.”

“I see,” Lo replied. She fell silent and continued to sip her drink as she watched Maxx clean his pipe. It was several minutes before she thought to ask another question.

“Aren’t you afraid that you may have driven away a potential customer?”

Maxx frowned thoughtfully before answering.

“It may be for the best if I did, interfering in a dispute between Hutts is not without its risks.”

“Oh?”

“Hutts may be quick to forget a favor or kindness, but they never forget a grudge. Thus, any involvement in a dispute between Hutts is bound to create powerful enemies. If Braga and Linh Ah can find somebody else who will do the job for twenty thousand, I’ll be more than happy to leave it to them.”

Lo took another sip of her drink before replying.

“Do you think she’ll find somebody else?”

“Don’t know,” Maxx ambivalently replied as he finished the last of his tea, “It was curious that she left after talking to us.”

“She could have been talking to other crews before visiting us.”

“I know, but in any case, I want to get back to the Nerf and make certain that we’re ready to raise ship just in case.”

With that, Maxx looked around for one last time, stood up and discretely left the Cantina with Lo following.

***

“Okay Maximus, now tell me why you’re so hot to have me tear through the inertial compensators!”

Lo was struggling to keep up with Maxx as he walked his swoop through the space port’s cargo loading corridors.

“I noticed that some of the cargo in the forward hold had shifted during flight, and I was doing my best to fly smoothly. If we had cargo shifting then, I’d hate to think of what might happen if I had to do some sporty evasive maneuvers. The prospect of carrying a Hutt to safety makes the matter more urgent. I may have to push the Nerf to her limits to get out of here, and Hutts don’t like being tossed around.”

“Even if it’s his fault that we’re having to fly hard?”

Maxx shook his head.

“Hutts are generally about as reasonable as enraged Wookiees.”

Lo winced at the thought.

“My father used to tell me that Wookiees were mentally inferior creatures. That’s why the Emperor had them enslaved for their own good.”

Maxx frowned.

“It sounds like your father was as big an idiot as my father.”

“Hey!” Lo shouted in protest.

“And another thing, I wouldn’t recommend repeating that around a Wookiee. At least if you want to keep your arms in their sockets.”

Lo winced as she listened to Maxx.

“Is there any species you know that doesn’t hate humans?”

Maxx shrugged.

“Most aliens don’t hate humans, in fact they can be quite friendly if they’re treated with a little respect. They just don’t like being insulted, abused and oppressed by humans. Sadly, there has been a lot of that going around since your father’s beloved Emperor came to power.”

“Watch it!” Lo snarled at Maxx, “That last remark could get you arrested for treason.”

Maxx shrugged.

“Are you going to turn me in?” He asked.

“No,” Lo replied, “It would be too hard to hire a decent pilot.”

Lo fell silent as she trooped behind Maxx. If there was one thing that had surprised her since she had left Corellia, it was the level of anti-imperial sentiment she had run into. It hadn’t surprised her that aliens hated the Empire, her father used to tell her that most aliens were foolish beings who couldn’t stand the way the Emperor pointed out their inferiority to humans. What really surprised her was the number of humans who despised the Empire. Eva Maru and most of her techs on Ord Mantell made it clear that they had no use for the Emperor and they were downright friendly on that matter compared to Maxx.

At any rate, the last thing that Lo wanted to do during what might be her last night on Tindalaire was recalibrating the ship’s inertial compensators with Max and his aptly named astromech for company. At least, the job shouldn’t take long. With any luck, Lo should have the problem fixed in an hour and she would be able to spend a few hours in better company while Maxx test flew the ship. Lo was already thinking of what she was going to wear when they turned into Docking Bay 36. As the pair strode towards their familiar red and white ship, Lo noticed that the vessel’s running lights blinked three times. The starboard boarding ramp lowered and TC-23J walked out of the ship and slowly made her way towards the pair.

“Captain Murtel,” she said quietly as she discretely handed Maxx a data card, “a young Twi’ lek named Linh Ah stopped by the ship fifteen minutes ago. She said that her boss wanted to see you.”

Maxx smiled grimly as he grounded the swoop. The lady didn’t waste any time. He turned to Lo.

“You know what I need you to do,” he said earnestly.

“Fix the inertial compensators?” Lo replied sullenly.

“Yes, and call me on the comlink saying ‘finished’ when the ship is ready for flight.”

“Aye,” Lo replied glumly as she lowered her head and sulked her way aboard the ship.

Maxx watched her walk away and pulled the comlink out of his breast pocket.

“Trouble?”

Maxx smiled as he heard his R5’s familiar whistles and beeps fill the comlink.

“I’m glad to hear from you too buddy. Lo’s on the way to fix the inertial compensators and get the ship ready for lift off. Please do me a big favor and be nice to her.”

The droid hooted affirmatively and Maxx replied, “Thanks buddy,” before restarting the swoop’s repulsorlift engine and walking it back out of the docking bay.”