Star Wars Character Cafe - Heavy Lifting Chapter 4

HEAVY LIFTING

CHAPTER 4

“What was I supposed to do?” Maxx thought bitterly as he puffed on his pipe. He had just completed the job of a lifetime and returned a minor legend. And he now had more money to his name than he had seen even before he had spent his life savings buying the Wild Nerf. He should have joined Lo when she headed out to celebrate. Instead he sat alone in the ship’s lounge with his pipe and a pot of herbal tea and reflected on the good that he had failed to do. As Maxx watched the smoke rise towards the Nerf’s upper hull, images of Linh Ah being used by Braga the Hutt played over and over in his head. She had walked off his ship to more of the same and Maxx had not done a thing to stop it. Still, what could he have done? It was painfully obvious that trying to leave with Linh Ah onboard would have been suicide. Maxx had used up over half the Nerf’s engine and shield reserves escaping from one Corellian Corvette and a handful of TIE fighters. How could he have escaped from Nal Hutta with its squadrons of X-Wings and their proton torpedoes? He could have tried, but did he have any right to throw Lo’s life away in the attempt?

As he dumped the ashes from his pipe and started cleaning it, he saw TC-23J walk into the lounge.

“The air’s getting to be rather thick in here sir,” she said gently. “Would you mind if I cycled the ventilation system?”

Maxx shook his head.

“Please don’t,” he replied sullenly, “I like it like this.”

“So you’re still torturing yourself over your failure to help Linh Ah?” the droid replied sternly.

“Don’t I deserve it?” Maxx replied bitterly, “I mean, what would Trix think?”

TC-23J shook her head as she listened; Maxx always had a way of bringing Trix into these conversations.

“I think she would have understood.”

“How could she have?” Maxx replied sharply, “She had done so much to help her people.”

“And many others,” TC-23J replied gently. “Still, she never asked herself to do the impossible; she merely tried to do the good that she could do. She never would have expected you to do more than that.”

“Yeah, I merely looked after myself. Linh Ah would have been better off if I had just walked away and left Braga to face Nalma himself.”

TC-23J posted her hands on her hips and looked Maxx squarely in the eye.

“Maybe she would have,” she replied defiantly, “Or maybe she would have ended up being killed when Nalma’s forces had finally cornered Braga, or worse!”

Maxx looked up and stared into TC-23J’s photoreceptors.

“She already is doing worse,” he replied

“Perhaps, but I can imagine things even worse than being Braga’s slave.”

“How?”

“It’s likely that Nalma would have handed Linh Ah over to the swoop gang that had managed to bring Braga to him alive. I’d hate to think of what they would have done to her.”

Maxx frowned.

“I can’t imagine being raped by a swoop gang as being any worse than being abused by a Hutt,” he replied sullenly, “Do you have any idea of what he did to her?”

“With all due respect sir,” the droid replied after a moment of silence, “I do. Braga was using her during the flight to Nal Hutta.”

“He did!?” Maxx growled, his face clouding over, “I thought that that miserable worm was stuffing his face with our inedible food during the whole journey.”

“It certainly seemed like that sir,” TC-23J responded solemnly, “but Hutts have all sorts of appetites, and apparently there is only so much time that even a Hutt can spend eating.”

Maxx smiled sadly.

“I guess we should be thankful that Braga never developed a taste for herbal tea,” he said wryly.

“Thankfully there’s enough food left over for breakfast,” TC-23J replied brightly. “I’ll reprovision the autochef tomorrow morning.”

“That would be good, thanks Twenty Three Jay.”

“Just doing my duty sir,” the droid replied gently.

Eventually Maxx visited the ship’s refresher station and drifted into an unpleasant sleep. In his dreams he was sitting in the Twi’ light lounge watching Linh Ah and Trix embroiled in a heated argument over Maxx’s behavior on Nal Hutta. Linh Ah accused Maxx of being a heartless mercenary. She told Trix about how Maxx had seen Braga the Hutt abuse her and yet did not lift a finger to prevent her from returning to Braga’s clutches. Trix argued that there was little that Maxx could have done, but the way she looked at Maxx suggested that she felt that he should have been able to think of some way to help Linh Ah. Lo was sitting next to Maxx on the love seat. She wore the black nerf hide halter and tight low cut pants that she had often worn to the clubs. She was drinking heavily and laughing as she watched the two “snake heads” fight.

Suddenly the ship’s warning claxons sounded. Maxx sat bolt upright in his berth and the claxons died immediately. All of the Nerf’s interior lights were on.

“Sithspawn!” Maxx yelled, “What’s going on around here!?”

A loud, rapid series of whistles and beeps came over the ship’s loudspeaker system as Trouble explained that two armed men were dragging Lo back towards the Nerf.

“Don’t hit the lights until I give the word,” Maxx replied as he threw on yesterday’s pants. He then stopped at the ship’s equipment locker, pulled out an old Imperial blaster carbine, inspected it and loaded it with a fresh power pack. He took a pair of portable flood lights and plugged them into the Nerf’s power panel. His heart was pounding as he climbed onto the small freight elevator in the engine room and let it glide silently down. He set up the lights under the Nerf’s starboard aft quarter and did a few quick breathing exercises to calm down.

The night air at Ord Mantell chilled Maxx awakening his senses. He hid in the shadows underneath the ship and lifted the blaster to sight the trio. A burly looking human who was almost as tall as Maxx and a slender Rodian sporting twin blaster pistols were guiding a confused looking Lo back to the Nerf. Maxx waited for the trio to walk into the path the floodlights would illuminate before he gave the word.

“Halt!” he yelled

Suddenly the lights flashed on, blinding the trio. The Rodian reached for his blasters and Maxx quickly pumped two stun bolts into him. He quickly shifted the weapon towards the Rodian’s partner.

“Uh, uh uh!” Maxx said clearly, “I want those hands raised where I can see them!”

Maxx smiled grimly as the big guy raised his hands.

“Good,” he replied, “Now kindly tell me what you’re doing with my partner at this hour in the morning!”

“I’m just coming to get what’s mine!” The man bellowed, “This bit…ah lady owes me and my friend sixty thousand credits, so we’re taking her ship as payment!”

Maxx frowned, but didn’t let his aim waver.

“Is that true, Price?”

Lo’s head dropped, she couldn’t bring herself to look in Maxx’s direction.

“You see,” her voice trembled as she spoke, “There was this high stakes sabacc game and I was feeling lucky…”

“And you got in over your head and didn’t know when to stop!” Maxx cut in sternly.

“I…I had a good hand and thought I could win it all back. So, I made one last bet that I couldn’t cover.”

Maxx’s frown deepened.

“And you wonder why I don’t approve of gambling,” he said sharply.

“Now your problem,” he said to the man, “is that Lo only has a half interest in the Nerf, so in theory, you and your friend have just become my new partners.”

“What!” the man yelled outraged.

“Uh, uh,” Maxx scolded, “Hands up where I can see them! Now I don’t think this new partnership is going to work out, so I’ll tell you what. If I pay you two the sixty thousand Imperial credits that Price owes you, would you be willing to relinquish any claim on my ship and leave the two of us in peace?”

The stranger scowled at Maxx. After years of crewing on other people’s ships, his friend and him were looking forward to having a ship of their own, particularly a fast ship with a reputation. He couldn’t argue that this smuggler’s offer wasn’t fair, but he didn’t like negotiating at the wrong end of a blaster.

“It’ll do!” he growled at Maxx.

“Good! Good!” Maxx replied, not lowering his aim one degree. “You got that Jay?” he intoned into his comlink.

“You want me to visit the ship’s vault, take out sixty thousand credits of your money and bring it out to our guest?” TC-23J calmly asked.

“Exactly,” Maxx replied. “Be certain to slowly count it out to the large looking gentleman. I don’t want him to think that we aren’t honest.”

“Will do,” she replied crisply.

“Ok, now my droid’s going to be bringing your money out to you, you can bring your hands down, but I wouldn’t advise going for a weapon. Oh, and one thing, if you harm Price or my droid, I’ll be shooting to kill.”

The man’s eyes widened in horror as he stared at Maxx. He was afraid to wonder what was going to happen next.

Eventually the ship’s boarding ramp lowered and a protocol droid with tarnished gold plating walked down it. She meticulously counted out sixty thousand Imperial Credits in one hundred credit bills into the man’s hands and handed him a satchel to put it in. The man was stunned by the droid’s cool professional demeanor. Most of the 3PO protocol droids that he had known were nervous and flighty. When the counting was complete, the droid warned the man that Ord Mantell was a dangerous place and that he should be very careful to store such a large amount of money in a safe place. Then the droid turned around and walked back to the ship. Maxx then asked the man if he wanted to count the money for himself. He said no, and dumped the money into his satchel and left dragging his friend with him.

Maxx waited until the two were out of sight before he emerged from the shadows.

“M…Max!” Lo said as she saw her partner’s familiar scowl. “I’m so…so..sorry.”

“I know,” Maxx replied firmly, “You should get to bed. We can talk about this in the morning.”

Lo nodded weakly and Maxx followed her up the boarding ramp.

Maxx was a little too wired to go back to bed so he retired to the lounge for one last pipe and a special cup of tea made from relaxing herbs. Maxx didn’t want to disturb Lo, so he didn’t bother with the lights. He knew the Nerf well enough that he didn’t need lights to make his way around. As he sat there in the dark, puffing and sipping, it occurred to Maxx that he was now free to do something he had ached to do for most of the past year. The only thing was, he wasn’t certain that he really wanted to do it.

Maxx sighed as he glanced across the corridor to where Lo was sleeping. He never understood how his partner could tumble into bed without undressing or even slipping under the covers. The way she was lying on her stomach had to be uncomfortable. Maxx smiled as he sat up and gazed at his former partner for a moment. As much as he hated to admit it, he was going to miss views like this. Maxx stood up and stretched. He knew that he would be wise to head for the refresher station. It was hard to enjoy a shower with Lo pounding on the door cursing and demanding to be let in.

Maxx had settled down to a full breakfast by the time Lo came rushing by on her way to the refresher station. Apparently Braga the Hutt thought that nerf meat was below his station, so TC-23J was able to serve up spicy roast nerf with caf, fresh fruit and nerf milk. TC-23J noticed Maxx glance at Lo as she raced passed.

“What are you going to do about her?” the droid asked gently.

“I really don’t know,” Maxx replied somberly. “It really depends on what she wants to do.”

***

Lo felt better as she exited the refresher station. The shower had helped clear her head and trading last nights clothes for a clean shirt and a pair of loose fitting work pants made her feel more ready to face Maxx. Her stomach was bothering her again and she still didn’t understand what had happened outside the Nerf last night. Those two men had dragged her back to the ship, intending to take it as their own. Maxx had somehow made them go away. As she rubbed her temples, Lo realized that she had no idea of how Maxx had made the human and the Rodian leave.

Lo was oddly relieved to see Maxx sitting at the table in the ship’s lounge. He was staring at the screen of his datapad, Lo assumed that he was reading the morning’s news or planning his daily activities. Lo sat down across from him.

“What cha lookin at?” Lo asked feigning curiosity.

“My shopping list for today.” Maxx replied pleasantly. “Trouble performed a diagnostic of the shield generators last night and this is what I’ll need to bring the present system back up to full capacity.”

Lo squinted as she scrolled through the list.

“Hmmm… there aren’t any engine parts on the list.”

“I know, you never gave me a parts list for your new sublights. Besides, we need to talk before I go shopping for engine components.”

Lo winced as TC-23J set a cup of caf and some bland roast nerf in front of her.

“Does this talk have anything to do with what happened last night?”

Maxx stared across the table at Lo.

“Do you have any recollection of what happened last night?”

Lo shook her head.

“Lots of breaks and gaps…too much to drink I guess.”

Maxx frowned.

“That’s putting it mildly Price, you lost your share in the Nerf in a high stakes sabacc game last night. I bought it back with a blaster and sixty thousand credits, making me the sole owner of the Wild Nerf.”

Lo’s eyes narrowed.

“Where did you get sixty thousand credits?”

Maxx shrugged.

“That’s what happens when one doesn’t blow every credit on booze, clothing and clubbing. I managed to save thirty thousand credits over the course of our year together and the other thirty came from our ‘friend’ Braga the Hutt.”

Lo looked down at her food and sipped a little of her caf.

“When do you want me gone?” She asked.

“Do you want to leave?” Maxx asked in reply.

“Well, I know that you don’t want me here, that has been obvious for a while now.”

Maxx shook his head.

“I’m not so sure about that,” he replied solemnly. “I am tired of your Corellia Tech frat girl antics and I wonder if you are ready to deal with the risks of crewing on what is going to be a top flight smuggling ship. Still, you are good at keeping the Nerf in top condition and it would be nice to have someone with your technical expertise around.”

Lo’s eyes flew wide open.

“Then I can stay?!”

“If you want to,” Maxx replied sternly. “Mind you, there are going to have to be a few changes”

Lo favored Maxx with a puzzled look.

“Changes?” she asked quizzically.

“For starters, when we touch down, I’d like you to make getting the ship ready to lift off your top priority. I know that you like to have a little fun, but I need to have the ship ready in case an important job or a serious threat turns up.”

Lo nodded.

“That I can do, what else?”

“You are going to have to learn to control your tongue. It’s one thing to be surprised by the appearance of many of the species that populate our galaxy or to have a low opinion of some of them. It’s another to stare too long or say something stupid and get yourself into trouble. If you do land in trouble, I’ll do what I can to help, but there may be nothing I can do.”

“Have you ever had a low opinion of certain species?” Lo asked after swallowing her first forkful of roast Nerf.

“I don’t care much for Hutts or Trandoshans, but the former are very powerful and the latter often work as bounty hunters, so I keep my opinions to myself.”

Lo wrinkled her nose as she took another sip of caf.

“What’s a Transdoshin and what do you have against them?”

“First its TRAN...DO…SHAN, a muscular reptilian species that can see in both the visible and infrared spectrums of light. They are very aggressive hunters and often turn to bounty hunting. I don’t care for them because they enjoy hunting and skinning Wookiees.”

Lo had just started swallowing another bite of roast nerf and had to cover her mouth as she struggled to finish swallowing it. When she finally got it down, she took a big gulp of caf and took a deep breath before she spoke.

“Ok, so you want me to put the ship first and watch my tongue, anything else?”

Maxx gazed at Lo for a few seconds; this was going to be the big one.

“Yes, remaining on this ship is going to have its risks. You are going to have to understand that and accept the risks.”

Lo stared at Maxx.

“Risks? you mean like the Hutt thing?”

Maxx frowned.

“Hutts are only the beginning. Smuggling is a criminal activity and it forces one to deal with criminals, gangsters, thugs, thieves and other dangerous beings. It goes without saying that dealing with such people has its perils. You should always watch your tongue, your step and your back when you are around such people.

“There are also dangers caused by those on the other side of the law. I am an outlaw with an Imperial death mark on my head, the Nerf is illegally modified. If you choose to remain on this ship, you too will become an outlaw. For us, every police officer, customs official and military vessel is a potential threat. If arrested, we can be shot, tortured or spend the rest of our lives in some hell hole like Kessel.”

Lo stared blankly at Maxx.

“Kessel?” she asked.

“Never heard of it?”

Lo shook her head.

“Kessel is the only world that produces glitterstim, one of the most powerful, most addictive and most expensive spices. Glitterstim is mined at the Imperial penal colony on Kessel. I’ve never been there, but if one tenth of what I’ve heard about the place is true, I don’t want to go there.”

Lo’s eyes opened wide in disbelief.

“The Empire mines glit? That’s illegal!”

Maxx smiled wryly.

“The Empire never did care for following its own laws. Most of the spice is carried on Imperial vessels and is used for various official purposes. The governor of the penal colony, Moruth Doole I think, is known to siphon off a significant portion of the spice and sell to smugglers. Hauling glitterstim is profitable, if somewhat risky.

Lo’s eyes widened even further and she leaned forward and stared at Maxx.

“Is it risky because of the law or the criminals?”

Maxx’s lips curled into a faint smile.

“The people on both sides of the law are one factor, but a greater reason involves the best route into Kessel. In order to avoid Imperial detection, smugglers are required to fly near a series of black holes known as ‘The Maw’ in hyperspace.”

At that, Lo started giggling and then broke into laughter.

“Now I KNOW you’re kidding me,” she said as she continued to chuckle. “There’s no way that any captain would plot a hyperspace route near a black hole, it’s virtually impossible.”

Maxx’s smile widened a little.

“It’s not impossible if you have the right equipment, but it’s still extremely dangerous. If you don’t believe me, run the numbers for yourself. Go pull the locations of Kessel and the Maw from the navicomputer, and get the gravitational info for the various black holes while you’re at it. Load it into your datapad and run a few simulations with a hyperdrive multiplier of point seventy nine. It’s a dangerous exercise, but not impossible. You’ll find that it’s safer to fly with a lower multiplier.”

Lo’s eyes narrowed.

“I may just do that, but one more thing.”

“Shoot.”

“What if I choose to leave the Nerf?”

Maxx sighed.

“That may be the best thing for you to do. I need to upgrade the sublight engines, and your design is hard to resist. If you’ll give me a complete design for this new engine you’ve been working on, and I want it to be good enough that any competent outlaw tech can fabricate and install it into the Nerf, I’ll pay you ten thousand credits and fly you to any world in the known universe, Kessel and other penal colonies excluded.”

Lo frowned, she was going to have to think hard about this.

“How long do I have to decide?”

“It’ll take Trouble and me about three days to repair the shield generators, and I’ll want to do a few other things so I’d say that you have at least five days to give me an answer.”

Lo nodded.

“I should be able to have the rough schematics and a parts list available in two days. With any luck, I should be finished in five or six days.”

Maxx smiled.

“Sounds like a plan, would you mind if I borrowed your speeder bike? I need it to go shopping.”

Sure,” Lo replied as she returned to her roast nerf meat, “Just return it with a full tank.”

***

It was very late in the evening when Lo finally shut down her datapad and walked to the locker by her bunk to get a little something to drink. The day’s work had been more exhilarating than any engineering work she had seen since college, but her head was starting to swim and her eyes were getting bleary. As she sat down at the table, she saw Maxx exit the refresher station.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“Pretty good,” Lo replied in a contented voice. “I’ve gone over my initial layouts and have confirmed my initial calculations. I’ve also selected the new turbothrusters that you’ll need. Tomorrow I’ll be going over the circuitry between the power cores and the thrusters.”

Maxx shook his head as he listened to Lo talk.

“Wait a minute, did you say ‘power cores’, as in more than one?”

Lo nodded.

“In order to boost the Nerf’s speed without overheating the turbothrusters I’ll have to replace the existing power core with two YT-2400 power cores. I had originally planned to use Skipray power cores, but I was afraid that they might be a little hard to obtain, so I decided to go with YT-2400 cores instead.”

Maxx smiled grimly, saying that Skipray components, “might be a little hard to obtain,” was like saying that a Star Destroyer was a little on the big side. Maxx wasn’t sure if he had ever seen a Skipray power core for sale anywhere. YT-2400 power cores were not uncommon, but so many pilots were slipping them into older YT series freighters that a second hand YT-2400 power core was almost as expensive as a new one.

“Is there any chance we could use something less expensive, like YT-1300 power cores instead of the YT-2400 cores?”

Lo gritted her teeth.

“You could, but performance would suffer. These new engines we’ll be installing are really going to need all of the power they can get, with older YT-1300 cores, you may find yourself making tradeoffs between speed and shield capability. The YT-2400 cores will provide enough power to yield maximum thrust and still yield enough extra juice for more powerful shields and even more for charging weapons.”

Maxx winced at the thought of charging weapons.

“Hopefully we can put of charging weapons for awhile, but I see your point. Continue designing for YT-2400 power cores. I’ll fly to Corellia if I need to.”

Lo smiled.

“You won’t regret it; the new cores will leave you with extra potential for all kinds of upgrades.”

Maxx nodded.

“That would be good, mind if I join you?”

Lo smiled as she poured Corellian whiskey into a clean cup that TC-23J had brought.

“I hope you don’t mind my having a drink, I need a sedative to counteract all of the caf I’ve been drinking.”

Maxx shrugged as TC-23J put a steaming mug of herbal tea in front of him.

“I can’t begrudge a drink to someone who’s been working as hard as you, thanks Jay.”

“You’re welcome sir,” TC-23J chimed in pleasantly.

“Mind if I smoke?” Maxx asked.

Lo shrugged.

“I’d join you, but I’ve been puffing all day. By the way, thanks for letting me use your tabac.”

“Anything to help,” Maxx replied as he pulled an elegantly carved wooden pipe and a jar of tabac from the wall mounted rack.

“You know?” Lo said as she finished savoring her first sip, “Sitting here with you brings to mind one of my favorite drinking games from my days at Corellia Tech. It was called ‘Truth’. The idea was that one person would ask a question and the others in the group would have to answer it truthfully.”

Maxx arched an eyebrow as he listened.

“Sounds like a game to be played only amongst trusted friends, if you ask me.”

Lo frowned.

“Why do you say that?”

Maxx chuckled.

“I thought it would be obvious, or maybe it’s just that I’m too in love with my secrets.”

Lo nodded.

“You are way too secretive. I mean, we’ve been flying around for about a year now and I just learned that you actually had a girlfriend. Mind you, I don’t know how this game would work with us. The idea is that everybody would get so blasted that nobody could be clear enough to think up a decent lie.”

Maxx chuckled.

“The real problem with the game is that nobody would be coherent enough to ask any interesting questions.”

Lo frowned.

“Maybe,” she replied, “but it was a great way to have a little fun. I guess I thought of it because I’m just learning about how little I know about you. I wonder how much more there is to learn.”

Maxx smiled.

“Quite a bit actually, though I could say the same thing about you. Hmmm…maybe it wouldn’t be unprofitable to play a few rounds and see what we learn.”

“But how would I know that you were telling the truth?” Lo asked as she narrowed her eyes. “Like you said, you are in love with your secrets, and you’re way to sober to just tell the truth.”

Maxx smiled wolfishly.

“That may be true, but I do have Twenty Three Jay, she’s been around me long enough to know all of my secrets, even a few that I don’t know.”

Lo’s eyes widened.

“What could she know that you don’t?” she asked.

“The circumstances surrounding my birth, for one thing; it’s my understanding that Twenty Three Jay used to belong to my mother, that she delivered me to my father’s house and has been looking after me ever since. Still, she has never really told me anything about my mother, why I was sent to live with a father who didn’t want anything to do with me or anything like that. Every time I’ve asked her about it, she’d say that it wasn’t time yet. Sometimes I suspect that it’ll never be time.”

TC-23J stared at Maxx as he listened. “That time will come soon enough,” she thought, “It just isn’t here yet.”

Lo just stared at Maxx for a few minutes.

“But can I trust her to tell the truth?” she finally asked.

“I think you can expect as much of the truth as I do,” Maxx replied, “at least if I order her to do so. Do you want to play?”

“I do, but how will you know if I’m telling the truth?” Lo asked playfully.

“I won’t,” Maxx replied. “I’ll just have to trust you.”

“Ok, I’m in,” Lo replied with a curt nod.

“Ok, Twenty Three Jay?” Maxx asked.

“You want me to listen to your conversation and state when you are lying and give Lo the correct answer to her question?” TC-23J asked.

“Exactly,” Maxx answered. “Now being a gentleman, I’ll give Lo the first question.”

Lo giggled, this was going to be fun.

“I’m not much of a lady, so my first question is whether you have ever been with a woman, not a Twi’lek, I mean a REAL woman.”

Maxx gritted his teeth as he listened.

“Trix was as real as any woman I’ve ever met. Still, I assume what you really want to know is whether I have actually had sex with a human female.”

Lo nodded.

“I’ve done it once. She was a swoop racer from Mos Espa, Tatooine. I had just delivered a load of second hand swoop parts to a shop on Mos Eisley and was taking a long ride in one of the local canyons. It had been a while since I had really opened my ride up like that and I was enjoying myself, when someone on a modified Flare-S blasted right by me. We diced for an hour or so and eventually stopped at a tavern at some local hamlet. It was getting late, so we decided to share a room for the night. It was quite enjoyable, but I’ve never been tempted to do it again.”

Lo frowned.

“Why not? Was she that bad?”

Maxx frowned.

“I just said that I enjoyed it. She may not have known some of the things that Trix did, but then she didn’t really need to. It was fun in its own way, just not that compelling.”

Lo gave Maxx a puzzled look.

“Compelling? Why does sex have to be compelling? I thought it just had to be fun.”

Maxx frowned.

“If just having fun is good enough for you, that’s great. I guess I just expected an intimate relationship to have meaning.”

Lo stared at Maxx, her eyes wide.

“Why do you expect sex to have meaning?” she blurted out.

Maxx sighed.

“I guess it’s just that Trix and I had such a close relationship. We had known each other for over a year before I had reached the age of consent so there were a lot of feelings between us by the time we consummated our relationship. Every night I would visit the Twi’ light lounge just after closing time and we’d sit around a table in her apartment and drink tea together. I really knew a lot about Trix by then, her dreams and frustrations, the things that drove her. When we made love it just wasn’t about pleasure, not that there wasn’t a lot of that, but that pleasing each other was a way of expressing our feelings for each other.”

Maxx frowned as he noticed Lo’s eyes glaze over. He might as well be explaining hyperspatial navigation to an Ewok.

“I see,” Lo replied distractedly, even though she doubted she would ever understand what Maxx was talking about. “You’ve answered my question, now ask one of yours.”

“Okay,” Maxx replied, “Have you ever been sober during sex?”

Lo winced as she remembered the incident.

“Once, but I didn’t like it.”

Maxx eyed Lo quizzically.

“Why not?”

“It was rough and painful,” she replied. “It’s just easier to relax and enjoy myself when I’ve had a few drinks in me.”

“Some fun,” Maxx thought. He didn’t understand how anyone could enjoy sex when they were too drunk to feel anything.

“If you say so,” he replied with a shrug, “Your question.”

Lo narrowed her eyes.

“What do you have against drinking anyway?”

Maxx stared thoughtfully at Lo.

“That’s your question?” he asked.

“Yes, and you can’t blame me for bringing it up. I mean after that last question! In the year we’ve been partners, I’ve never seen you drink ONE alcoholic beverage. Sithspawn! You even bring that vacuflask full of herbal tea when you visit a spaceport cantina. You always get on my case any time you think I’ve had too much. What gives!?”

Maxx nodded thoughtfully, this could get interesting.

“Quite a few things give, as you put it. For starters, the reason I ‘get on your case’ for being drunk is that you tend to be slow at taking care of the repairs I’ve asked you to do, and your returning to the ship hung over doesn’t help matters.”

“But why are you always in such a rush to have the ship perfect anyway? It isn’t like we couldn’t lift off if we needed to.”

Maxx took a deep breath before answering.

“After our last job, THAT should be obvious. The Wild Nerf isn’t just some tramp freighter, she’s a smuggling ship. Sometimes smuggling ships are asked to do things that wouldn’t occur to the average light freighter captain. I am in a rush to have the Nerf in top condition just in case a job comes up that requires her special talents.

“Now with regards to my habits, I don’t drink because alcohol is a sedative and I want to be in top condition just in case something comes up that requires my special talents. When I was a courier on Tapan, I often had to weave around traffic, race through sewers and do other things that wouldn’t occur to most swoopers in order to avoid being captured. I don’t think I would have survived being a courier if I wasn’t sober at all times. I’ve always assumed that smuggling is more of the same.”

Lo frowned.

“But other swoopers and smugglers drink,” she said.

“I know,” Maxx replied darkly. “That’s why so many swoopers and smugglers wind up dead, or worse.”

“Worse?”

“Arrested and sentenced to Kessel.”

Lo nodded.

“Okay, your question.”

Maxx thought for a few seconds before asking his next question, was Lo really ready to answer this one?

“What ever possessed you to sign onto a smuggling ship in the first place?”

Lo frowned as she eyed Maxx suspiciously.

“What do you mean what am I doing on a smuggling ship? I thought that would be obvious.”

Maxx put his pipe down and shook his head.

“Not to me it isn’t. I’ve been hanging around smugglers ever since I started working for Marshal, and most of the smugglers I’ve known are experienced. Some are spacers trying to make a little more money, others are petty criminals trying to work their way up the skill chain, and a few are a little bit of both, like me. Now you are a degreed professional with a promising career at one of the galaxy’s major starship manufacturers. You have no criminal background, you can’t fly and you can’t aim a blaster to save your life. What the Sith are you doing out here?”

Lo lowered her gaze and stared at Maxx’s mug of herbal tea.

“You don’t think I belong here,” she said crushed.

Maxx softened a bit as he gazed at Lo.

“I’m trying to help you figure out if you do belong here,” he said gently. “You can be very useful when you want to be. You have been keeping the Nerf in top condition and there are times when I could definitely see the advantage of having an engineer of your caliber aboard ship. It’s just that a smuggling ship can be a dangerous place to be, and I don’t want you getting in over your head. Could you answer my question?”

Lo sighed.

“I guess I was just looking for a little fun, a little excitement. My job at CEC was a bust. I thought I’d be working on the next generation of light freighters, instead I ended up in some back office working on mod packages for old YT-1300s.”

Maxx frowned thoughtfully as he picked up his pipe and relit it, he could see where this was going but he knew there were certain thoughts he’d be wise to keep to himself.

“But that should have worked out well for you. Look at what you’ve been able to do with the Nerf.”

Lo looked up at Maxx and shook her head.

“It was never like this,” she replied sadly. “Nobody ever said to take this YT-1300 and see what you can do with it. I was always crunching numbers for the other engineers. I just got sick of it after four years and left at age twenty two.”

Maxx’s eyes widened as he pondered what he had just heard.

“You started working at Corellian Engineering Corp at age eighteen? When did you ever find time to go to Corellia Tech?”

Lo giggled mischievously.

“I had already graduated by age eighteen. See, I was something of a prodigy when I was growing up. I was always good in math and science so I skipped high school and entered Corellia tech when I was fourteen. I bet I could have graduated even sooner if I hadn’t moved into a coed fraternity.”

Maxx blinked, this was almost too much.

“Wait a minute, your parents allowed you to join a coed fraternity at age fourteen?”

Lo chuckled.

“Of course not, I spent my first year in the dorms like everybody else. I didn’t join Freighter House until I was fifteen.”

Maxx took a puff on his pipe and tamped it, this was getting interesting.

“Still, isn’t fifteen a bit young to enter a coed frat? I mean those places had reputations even on Tapan.”

Lo shrugged.

“Maybe it was, but I was used to doing things before I was supposed to. Sith, I got my first landspeeder when I was thirteen.”

“But didn’t your parents have any trouble with your joining a fraternity?”

Lo giggled.

“Why would they care? You see,” she whispered conspiratorially, “Daddy was a big shot in the Imperial Navy and was too busy to check up on his daughter and Mom was arrested for being a Rebel sympathizer so I could do pretty much whatever I wanted as long as I kept my grades up.”

Maxx shook his head, this was almost getting to be too much.

“Your mother was in the rebellion?”

Lo was sipping her drink when Maxx said this and it made her laugh so hard she spat Corellian Whiskey all over him.

“Of course not, Mom was a good little girl and wouldn’t have done anything that would have gotten her into trouble. She just made the mistake of questioning the Jedi Purge in the occasional social conversation. Dad had just gotten his first command in the Imperial Navy and didn’t want people questioning his loyalty, so he had her arrested

Maxx shuddered and accidentally blew ashes out of his pipe.

“Your father had his own wife arrested?” he asked incredulously.

Lo shrugged.

“You make it sound strange,” she retorted. "Daddy was an officer in the Imperial Navy! He couldn’t have his wife going around questioning Imperial policy like that, so he just informed the authorities in Coronet City that he suspected that his wife had Rebel ties and that was that. I think I was twelve at the time."

Maxx couldn’t do anything but stare across the table at Lo. Anyone who could blithely accept that her father would have her mother arrested and join a coed fraternity at fifteen might just be confused enough to wander onto a smuggling ship and have no idea what she was getting into.

“I think you’ve more than answered my question,” he replied, “Your turn.”

“Okay hotshot,” Lo replied cheerfully as she poured herself a second drink, “What’s a nice Tapani aristocrat like yourself doing on a ship like this?”

Maxx’s face clouded over and he took a deep breath and counted to ten before answering.

“For starters, I have never claimed to be a Tapani aristocrat, I merely said that my father was one.”

Lo frowned quizzically.

“You mean there’s a difference?”

“When one is the illegitimate son of a Tapani nobleman, there’s a BIG difference. I was an infant when Twenty Three Jay brought me to my father’s house. Tapani custom demanded that he take me in, but it said nothing about treating me particularly well, much less like his son. Twenty Three Jay and I had a small room in the basement next to the fixer’s quarters.”

Lo had leaned forward, her large blue eyes focused on Maxx.

“What’s a fixer?” she asked.

“Your family didn’t have one?” he asked in reply.

“Uh no,” she replied.

“I guess Imperial officers don’t make that much,” he replied. “I imagine all large houses have a fixer, they may call it something else, but they’ll need someone to keep the house’s systems and its army of servant droids in top condition. Our fixer, Deak Thonas, was a pretty cool guy. He took an interest in me early on and it wasn’t long before I was helping him with his repairs after school. When I turned twelve he bought me a broken down scooter and showed me how to get it running. I used to love skimming above the family grounds, hunting hawkbats on the country side and dodging pellet gun shots from Vicky and his over bred friends.”

“Vicky?”

“Victor Tekel, my legitimate half brother. He’s about five years my junior and an over bred Imperial twit. Still, he was not without his uses. Vicky was trained in fencing at age seven and he became so good that none of his friends wanted to practice with him. Thus, I was drafted to be his sparring partner. Father had Vicky’s fencing instructor teach me the basics and soon I was able to humiliate that competitive little twerp at will. One year before I left Tapan, Vicky became world-fencing champion, taking honor in saber, foil and epe’e. He still couldn’t defeat me in a duel, fair or otherwise.”

Lo blinked.

“You never told me you were into fencing, how did you do in competition?”

Maxx smiled grimly.

“I was never allowed to compete. That’s the way life is when you’re illegitimate. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you never get a real chance. I guess that’s why I drifted to the other side of the law. Say what you will about criminal society, it does reward merit.

“When I was fourteen, Deak bought me a junked Moberquet Trailmaker II. Within a year I had that thing hopped up to run five hundred and sixty clicks an hour. Once he was satisfied with my riding, he introduced me to his cousin Marshal. Marshal Thonas had a small shipping company that handled both legal and illegal cargo. I don’t know if the legitimate work was a front for his smuggling operation or if the smuggling was just a profitable sideline. I do know that he really looked out for me. He hired me to ferry spice to the local dealers and eventually had me receive flight instruction in one of his milder YT-1300s. I think he was grooming me to fly smuggling runs. Unfortunately things went sour a few years ago and I had to leave. Even then, Marshal helped me forge a new identity, gave me an excellent deal on the Nerf and even gave me Trouble to boot.”

Lo rolled her eyes at Maxx’s last comment.

“Giving you Trouble may not have been much of a favor.” she whispered conspiratorially.

“It’s not wise to insult a droid who could turn off the hot water when you’re in the middle of a shower,” Maxx whispered back.

Lo’s eyes grew wide.

“He wouldn’t,” she gasped.

“Little buddy!” Maxx called out loudly, “Please do not turn off the hot water, the cold water or do anything else to harm Lo while she’s in the refresher station.”

A series of beeps and whistles issued from the engine compartment.

“He won’t now,” Maxx replied. “Say what you will about my R5, he’s never broken his word to me. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be nice to him.”

“I see your point,” Lo replied in a relieved voice. “What is it between you two anyway?”

“Huh?” Maxx asked.

“Why is it always, ‘…hey buddy…’ or ‘…little buddy…’ I mean most people aren’t even that nice to their R2s. And why do you spend so much money modifying such a piece of …I mean, R5s aren’t top of the line astromechs.”

Maxx shrugged.

“They’re not, that’s one of the reasons that Trouble and I get along so well.”

“Huh?” Lo asked in confusion.

“Each of us has a certain amount of bitterness regarding our respective origins and we both feel that we have a lot to prove. Besides, I needed an astromech to help with the Nerf and Trouble was about this close to being smelted down for scrap, so we made a deal. Trouble has always given me his best, and I have continued to repair and upgrade him. Right now, nobody could pay me enough to take Trouble from me, not even if they added a few top of the line R2s to sweeten the deal.”

Lo frowned thoughtfully. She didn’t like Trouble very much, but even she had to admit that he did an excellent job of flying the Nerf during Braga’s escape. In any case, it wouldn’t hurt to be a little nicer to the droid.

Maxx and Lo spent another hour or so talking about their respective lives until the conversation started to be punctuated by a few too many yawns and the couple finally retired to their respective berths along the corridor behind the cockpit.

***

“Heh heh heh, now that’s my kind of scum: talented, inventive, daring and determined.”

Nalma the Hutt chuckled as he read Qui Ah’s report. He was glad that he had sent the young Twi’lek to Braga’s clan home. He had hoped to learn of Braga’s future plans so that he could surprise his nephew when that worm left Nal Hutta, but Qui Ah’s report on how Braga escaped from Tindalaire was not without its uses. Nalma had been impressed by the way Braga’s pilot had managed to evade his fleet, and he could scarcely believe his swooper’s stories about how this Captain Murtel managed to get Braga and his slave girl aboard his ship. Qui Ah’s report on Linh Ah’s account of the journey fleshed out the swoopers’ stories, but he was also impressed by how the smuggler was willing to stand his ground with Braga and left Nal Hutta with the full one hundred thousand credits that that miserable worm owed him.

As Nalma sat on his dais and looked down over his entourage, it occurred to him that it might be good to have Captain Murtel and his Wild Nerf in his employ. His greatest concern was that the young smuggler was likely to be very independent. Nalma would need some sort of leverage to bend the young man to his will. As he relaxed and watched a trio of Twi’lek acrobats perform, he started to think of how he might gain that leverage.