Star Wars Character Cafe - Heavy Lifting Chapter 2

HEAVY LIFTING

CHAPTER 2

Maxx stopped at the space port’s main office before going to visit Braga. He wanted to settle his account and inform the port captain that he may be lifting off tonight. The port captain was busy that evening and Maxx didn’t ride out of the space port until two hours after he had left the docking bay.

As he rode along with the other land speeder traffic, Maxx struggled to keep his custom-built sport swoop in his lane. The short-coupled Mobquet Overracer that his swoop was built to resemble was notorious for being a handful and this swoop, Maxx’s last ride as a courier, was even more highly strung. Every element from the strengthened chassis to the special repulsorlift and turbothrust engines were designed to maximize speed, maneuverability and high altitude performance. This bike had allowed Maxx to escape capture countless times during his last two years on Tapan. As he struggled to stay behind a repulsorlift bus, Maxx wondered how he managed to use this thing for everyday street riding during those years. Now that he wasn’t able to ride that often, he wondered if it wasn’t time to change for something a little more relaxed. Maxx almost felt relieved when he turned into a dilapidated warehouse on the West end of town and was finally able to ground the swoop.

The single story structure seemed to be deserted; it was dank and poorly lit. Maxx slowly drew his blaster pistol and turned around as he attempted to get his bearings. As his senses adjusted to his new surroundings, Maxx noticed what seemed to be a muffled groan. It sounded like a young woman was being tortured. Maxx released the safety on his blaster and set it to stun. TC-23J had lectured him countless times about the risks of accidentally roasting the wrong being.

The groans led Maxx to the far corner of the warehouse to an enclosed office. Maxx grabbed the handle and slowly opened the door. His insides writhed when he saw what was inside. Trix had often told Maxx of the horrors she had been forced to endure during the years she was a slave but her words hadn’t prepared him for this. Fortunately the Hutt was engrossed in his use of Linh Ah that he was unaware of Maxx standing there, blaster drawn. Maxx quickly lowered his weapon, pointing its muzzle to the ferrocrete floor and fought to control his features. Maxx didn’t want the anger and disgust that was burning inside him to show and that was anything but easy. Even the powerful meditative techniques that TC-23J had taught Maxx could do only so much to help while he watched one of Trix’s people being abused like this. The sight of her lekku trembling in a mixture of fear and disgust infuriated him.

Eventually the creature noticed Maxx out of the corner of his eye and dropped the poor girl. Linh Ah quickly scampered out of the room to cover up, and hopefully wash off some of the slime. The Hutt turned to Maxx and roared in Huttese.

“You’re late!”

Maxx feigned ignorance of the Hutt’s language and replied calmly in basic.

“Are you Braga the Hutt? Linh Ah had informed my droid that you wanted to see me.”

“Of course I’m Braga the Hutt you fool!” The monster bellowed in Huttese, “Who else could I be!?”

Maxx just stood there feigning ignorance, a puzzled look on his face.

“Linh Ah!” Braga bellowed. Maxx regretted his stubbornness as the young Twi’lek raced back into the room, her wet skin soaking through the flimsy robe she had thrown on.

“Yes master?” she asked.

“This scum you recruited is too stupid to speak our language. Translate for me!”

“I will do my best, my lord,” Linh Ah replied fearfully.

Braga bellowed in Huttese, and Linh Ah replied.

“Lord Braga says that you’re late.”

Maxx shrugged.

“I’m sorry about that,” he replied agreeably, “I had a feeling that I might have to lift off soon, so I stopped by the port captain’s office. I’m afraid that the needs of independent captains are low on the port captain’s list of priorities, and my visit took much longer than I would have liked. Breaks of the game.”

Linh Ah relayed the message in Huttese which caused Braga to roar with displeasure and hit the Twi’lek with a back handed slap, knocking her into a pile of rubbish.

“The mighty Braga should never be kept waiting by a common spacer!” Linh Ah replied with as much firmness as her trembling voice could muster.

“Well, I’m here now,” Maxx replied coolly, “Linh Ah had informed me that you were seeking passage to Nal Hutta. Do you want to discuss terms, or should I just return to my ship?”

Braga gasped even as Linh Ah translated Maxx’s words back into Huttese. The former crime lord of Tindalaire just couldn’t believe that a lowly spacer could talk to him like that. He narrowed his large beady eyes as he reexamined Maxx. The tall human appeared to be calm and business like, his face showing neither fear, anger nor arrogance. He pondered the matter for a few moments before speaking to Linh Ah.

“The mighty Braga forgives your arrogance Captain Murtel. He is seeking passage to Nal Hutta and would be happy to pay you twenty thousand credits for passage on your vessel.”

“Well that’s mighty nice of him,” Maxx thought as he willed his face to remain mask like.

“I’m afraid my standard fee for carrying a Hutt out of danger is one hundred thousand credits,” Maxx said with forced calmness.

“What!” Braga roared in Huttese as he swung his arm and knocked Linh Ah off of her feet. He grabbed the Twi’lek by the neck and screamed at her for thirty seconds. Linh Ah was visibly shaken when she finally spoke to Maxx.

“The mighty Braga insists that twenty thousand credits is more than a scoundrel like you deserves for this task!”

Maxx found himself growing more ambivalent about taking this particular job and had no trouble remaining calm as he replied.

“That may be, but I’m not willing to accept this job for one credit less than one hundred thousand Imperial credits. I am aware of your troubles with Nalma and will not place my ship into a conflict between put two Hutts unless I am well compensated for my trouble.”

Maxx coolly watched Braga squirm. He had taken a strong dislike to the fallen crime lord and would have liked nothing better than to see Nalma get his hands on Braga. He pretended to pay no attention as Braga spoke to Linh Ah in Huttese.

“The mighty Braga has already found another crew that is willing to accept twenty thousand,” Linh Ah said with as much haughtiness as she could muster.

Maxx was certain that she was lying, but played along.

“Oh? Then why did you bother inviting me here?” he asked, feigning curiosity.

“Master Braga felt that your ship was better equipped for the journey,” Linh Ah replied.

“It may have been,” Maxx replied agreeably, “but I have my price. I wish Braga well in his travels.”

With that, Maxx backed towards the door. Something told him that it was not wise to turn his back on a desperate Hutt.

“Wait!”

Maxx stopped moving immediately. This was the first time that Braga had bothered speaking in Basic.

“I need you to carry me to safety,” Braga continued in Basic, “but I only have twenty thousand.”

Maxx kept his face mask-like, not allowing even the hint of a smile to cross his lips. He had deduced as much from his first interview with Linh Ah.

“I am willing to accept twenty thousand now and eighty thousand when we land at Nal Hutta.”

Braga narrowed his eyes at Maxx. He had hoped that a little honesty about his plight would have brought out a little sympathy in the tall human.

“And what if I can’t raise the eighty thousand credits?” he asked warily.

“I know enough about Hutt culture to doubt that you’ll have too much trouble raising a sum as small as eighty thousand credits. Though if you did, I would be willing to take Linh Ah in lieu of the eighty thousand.”

Linh Ah’s eyes grew wide and she struggled to hide the hope that suddenly sprang into her heart. She had no idea what this Captain Murtel would be like as a master, but he couldn’t be worse than Braga. Her reverie ended as Braga howled with displeasure.

“I will not surrender my favorite slave girl to a lowly spacer!” he roared in disgust.

“It’s your choice,” Maxx replied coolly, “She should provide some comfort while Nalma’s enforcers close in on you.”

Braga roared furiously, causing Linh Ah to cower and Maxx to hope that Nalma didn’t have any informants in the area. Suddenly, Maxx heard a high-pitched beep. He pulled the comlink from his pocket, held it to his ear and switched it on.

“Maxx!” Lo yelled over the din, “I’m finished and the Nerf is ready for take off!”

“Good,” Maxx enunciated clearly after holding the comlink to his mouth. He would have to talk with Lo about not using names over a comlink. “Stand by for further instructions.”

“Is something wrong!?” Lo screamed over the comlink.

“Just a little intense negotiation,” Maxx replied, “Out!” He then switched the comlink off and put it away.

After what seemed like an eternity to Maxx and Linh Ah, Braga quit yelling. He felt defeated as his eyes shifted between the fearful Twi’lek and the calm spacer. He wondered if his slave girl had engineered this as a way to escape him. “I’ll never let you leave me,” he vowed silently.

“You ask too much,” he said quietly to Maxx.

“I feel that my terms are entirely reasonable,” Maxx replied.

“Then it will be as you say,” the Hutt replied in defeat. “Linh Ah, show Captain Murtel to the van.”

Maxx allowed himself a thoughtful frown as the three of them walked to the ancient SoroSuub repulsorlift van. He had been so preoccupied with his negotiations that he had missed a huge flaw in his plans. Maxx was pretty sure that he could fly the Nerf around any impromptu blockade that Nalma the Hutt could set up around Tindalaire, but first he had to load Braga aboard the Nerf. As he watched Linh Ah skillfully guide Braga into the large van, the difficulty of bringing the Hutt to his light freighter became apparent. Docking bay 36 was not along the space port’s outer walls and Braga would be forced to negotiate several long corridors to get to the Wild Nerf. As he carefully loaded his swoop into the van, Maxx racked his brains to find a way to bring Braga to the Nerf while avoiding the informants and thugs that Nalma would be post at the Tandro spaceport and probably every other spaceport on the planet. As he and Linh Ah climbed into the truck’s cab, an idea started to form.

Once Linh Ah had explained a few of the van’s modifications to Maxx, he switched his comlink to Trouble’s frequency.

“Hi buddy,” Maxx smiled as the R5 astromech hooted a greeting.

“Lift off in twenty minutes and head west. We’ll be in a dark green SoroSuub van.”

Linh Ah stared at Maxx as the droid whistled in acknowledgement.

“You’d better inform your master that there’s been a slight change in plans. It’s too dangerous to bring Braga to the ship, so we’re bringing the ship to him.”

“You’d better know what you’re doing,” Linh Ah replied as her eyes narrowed. “It’s never wise to double cross a Hutt.”

***

“He wants me to do WHAT!?”

Lo could hardly believe her ears as Trouble ordered her to put her well lubed bottom in the captain’s chair.

“Doesn’t Maxx know that I don’t know how to fly one of these!?”

“Captain Murtel is painfully aware of your limitations as a pilot,” TC-23J replied reassuringly. “Trouble is more than capable of handling the ship without your assistance. He just needs you to sit in the captain’s chair and pretend that you know what you’re doing.”

That made some sense to Lo. Some droids may have been known to make reasonably competent pilots, but Imperial law placed strict limitations on the circumstances under which any droid could act as pilot in command of a ship. As she sat down and adjusted the seat’s crash webbing, Lo heard TC-23J calling spaceport control to request clearance and vectors for leaving Tindalaire. As she heard the ship’s engines spool up, she muttered to herself.

“I hope Captain Killjoy knows what he’s doing.”

“That makes two of us,” TC-23J thought to herself.

***

Maxx struggled to maintain a calm demeanor as he piloted the aging repulsorlift van towards the outskirts of town. The aging van may have been highly modified -- Linh Ah claimed that it was capable of three hundred killometres per hour -- but it would still be no match for even a clapped out speeder bike, to say nothing of the hopped up swoops that kept thundering by. Maxx was certain that Nalma the Hutt had promised a nice fat reward for the gang that brought him Braga alive. He just hoped that nobody glanced into the cab of this nondescript van and noticed the beautiful green skinned Twi’lek riding shotgun. Maxx had tried to explain that it would be best for Linh Ah to ride in the back with Braga, but the Hutt insisted that she stay up front in order to keep an eye on the spacer. Maxx frowned, it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before he learned what he could do with this van.

Maxx had just eased away from a traffic signal when he saw a small swarm of swoops racing towards the van. He fought the urge to floor the throttle. He had been passed by several gangs that night and nobody had bothered with the decrepit looking van yet. He was feeling much less comfortable with this particular group for some reason. He took his right hand off the steering wheel and placed his index finger on the switch that caused the turbine’s afterburners to kick in. The lead swoop pulled up along side the van’s cab and its female passenger pointed a nasty looking blaster carbine at Maxx’s head. Maxx slammed the accelerator to the floor and lit the afterburners. The van fishtailed as it rocketed up to speed, knocking several swoopers off their mounts.

Maxx hit a second switch boosting the repulsor field generator, causing the ungainly vehicle to float up to an altitude of eight meters. Maxx was painfully aware that flying a land speeder above traffic like this was highly illegal, but he was more concerned with keeping the van between the rows of buildings that lined the street. Boosting the rough looking van to three times its maximum design speed and flying out of ground effect had made the craft’s ungainly handling downright unnerving. The only good thing was that the swoopers who had survived Maxx’s first few swerves had fallen back and were following the van from a safe distance.

***

Lo was puzzled as the Wild Nerf slowly floated up from its docking bay and followed the vectors that spaceport control had sent for departing Tindalaire. Why were they departing Tindalaire without Maxx? Lo had figured that Maxx would either be bringing Braga the Hutt to the ship or returning alone. Had complications forced Maxx to leave this world by another means with the hope of finding his way back to the Nerf later? If so, she kind of hoped that he would return soon. As irritating as Maxx’s imperiousness may have been, it would be hard for Lo to imagine life on the Wild Nerf without him. She was certain that the droids had a better idea of what Maxx’s plans may have been, but this didn’t seem to be a good time to disturb them.

Lo was lost in thought when Trouble suddenly whistled that she should hold onto her glands. The Nerf suddenly pitched upwards and continued to loop around until she was descending west upside-down. Lo felt disoriented as she looked “up” and saw the city lights growing closer. She had just recognized the lights of the club she had visited last night when she heard Trouble whistle and beep.

“I found them!” he said as he hooted excitedly.

“Are you sure?” TC-23J replied hesitantly. She knew Trouble well enough to know that the astromech did not like being challenged, but she also knew that they could not afford mistakes.

“Who else would be flying a dark green SoroSuub repulsorlift van like that at this hour?” Trouble hooted derisively.

***

As Maxx rocketed out of the city of Tandro he felt torn between hoping that the Nerf would come soon and wondering how he was going to get the three of them onboard the ship if Trouble managed to make it before all was lost. It seemed like every swooper in the city was either racing after them or trying to cruise up alongside the van in hope of climbing onboard and capturing Braga single-handedly. It amazed Maxx that there were still a few swoopers left who were crazy enough to try. Maxx had managed to adjust to the boosted van’s wild dynamics and could easily swing the beast right or left as he pleased. Still, this fun couldn’t last much longer. The van’s afterburners were consuming fuel at an alarming rate.

***

Lo’s every fiber tingled with excitement as the Nerf skimmed along the ground at slightly above tree top level. In all her years at Corellian Engineering Corporation the last thing she would have expected a YT-1300 to do was blast along a roadway upside down at an altitude more fitting for swoops than star freighters. It amazed her that a mere astromech would be able to fly the ship like this at six hundred kilometers per hour. As antagonistic as that half pint droid could be, she couldn’t help admiring its talent and nerve.

She suddenly saw lights in the distance. The Nerf pitched down, at least from her perspective, and raced above a battered van that was being swarmed by what looked like one thousand swoops.

***

Maxx’s heart leapt as he saw the Nerf flash past. “Good boy Trouble,” he thought as he took a hand off the wheel and fished the comlink out of his pocket. He switched it on and handed it to Linh Ah with instructions to hold it up to his mouth.

“Hey buddy, am I glad to see you.”

The little astromech hooted a quick greeting and asked if Maxx had any idea what he was going to do next.

“I think I do, feel up to a little precision flying?”

“You want to do what!?”

Braga the Hutt cold hardly believe his hearing as Maxx outlined his plan.

“I know it’s a little risky, but we’re badly outnumbered, badly outgunned and the truck’s afterburners have nearly drained the fuel tank. If you have a better plan, I’m all ears.”

Braga fell silent and wondered if this spacer wasn’t trying to kill him after all.

***

As she snapped the d-ring of her harness to an eyebolt that was conveniently by the ship’s boarding ramp, Lo wondered if Maxx or one of the ship’s previous owners had actually contemplated anything as insane as what they were going to attempt. It wouldn’t have been that impossible to get Braga on board the Nerf if the van had been small enough to fit between the Nerf’s mandibles. Lo could have opened the front loading doors and the three of them could have stepped from the van’s back doors into the freight loading room. As it was, Lo was just glad to be tethered to the Nerf.

Lo backed into the ship’s circular main corridor and hit the switch that lowered the starboard boarding ramp. When Trouble gave the word; Lo faced the ship’s bow, crouched and slowly inched onto the boarding ramp. As her head ducked out of the ship, Lo noted that Trouble had managed to maneuver the ship so close to the rear of the van that the boarding ramp was nearly level with the truck’s aft loading door. Lo grabbed onto the boarding ramp’s massive forward actuation cylinder and knocked onto the van’s door with her right hand. The door rolled up and a feminine green hand reached out and grasped Lo’s right arm. Linh Ah then stepped out of the van and gracefully made her way up the boarding ramp. Lo shivered as she saw the young Twi’lek brave the cold with nothing but a damp robe. She suddenly appreciated the heavy jacket she wore under her harness.

Lo winced as a huge greenish brown hand reached out and grabbed her arm. She had never seen a Hutt before and couldn’t believe that Maxx had expected her to pull this giant slug like thing on board the ramp. Fortunately, Braga wasn’t that old, and was athletic enough to be able to make his way onto the boarding ramp with only a little support from Lo.

Once the two of them were safely inside the ship, Lo wondered how Maxx was going to get himself on board. Lo had studied the flight characteristics of land speeders at relatively high altitudes at Corellia Tech and was amazed that Maxx could keep the van this stable so far from the ground. There was no way that he could expect to lock the truck on autopilot and expect it to remain so close to the Nerf while he dashed back. Lo was wondering if Maxx had even thought this far ahead when she heard his voice on the ship’s com panel.

“Is Braga on board!?”

“Yes!” Lo screamed over the rushing wind.

“Good, get back inside the Nerf, but remain just outside the boarding ramp. Trouble?”

The droid hooted a quick reply.

“Drop the shields, slow down and climb to one thousand meters and wait for me. Oh, and keep the boarding ramp down.”

Lo heard the droid issue a series of uncharacteristically subdued whistles and beeps as he asked if Maxx was certain that he knew what he was doing.

“No, but lets hope this works out little buddy,” Maxx replied gently.

Lo felt her heart sink as she watched the battered van fall away. She never really liked Maxx, but as the van disappeared, Lo realized that she had always been able to rely on him. If Captain Murtel didn’t make it back, she’d be stuck between two Hutts with nothing but two droids and a hot ship that she couldn’t fly. She was lying on her stomach in the main corridor peering forward into the distance when she thought she heard a speeder bike’s sonic claxon at the end of the boarding ramp. Lo was amazed to look up and see Maxx riding his swoop by the ramp’s end.

“Hey Price!” he yelled over the noise. “Could you give me a hand?!”

Lo got up on her elbows and knees and slowly crawled down the boarding ramp. Trouble may have slowed the ship down, but the two hundred kilometer per hour wind was still treacherous enough for her, particularly without the repulsorlift van to act as a windbreak. Once she reached the end of the ramp, she lay down and held her arms up. Maxx quickly grabbed her gloved hand, stepped onto the ramp with his left foot and swung his right leg over the swoop, collapsing on top of Lo. The swoop quickly swerved to the right and dropped out of sight.

As soon as Maxx was sure that neither he nor Lo had any body parts hanging off the ramp, he called for Trouble to raise the boarding ramp. Once the ramp had closed and they were safely inside, Maxx got up and helped Lo to her feet.

“Now that…was something,” Lo gasped.

“And the fun’s just started,” Maxx replied deftly as he quickly strode towards the cockpit.