Prologue 1 - The Jedi of Equus
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Striding through her teacher’s modest home, Twilight marvelled at the simple beauty. Coming here was always a pleasure, even after years learning from its owner. She stopped to gaze at the vista before her. Its slightly elevated second level provided a view of the settlement. The home she had known her entire life.
Brushing of her dark hair out of her eyes, Twilight turned and continued on. Her fringe settled around her primary horn, nearly hiding the two far smaller horns flanking it. Along with the lines that seemed almost engraved into her face, connecting to form a six pointed star, the horns made no secret of her species. Twilight knew Zabrak were common, though she knew few herself.
‘I wonder if Master Celestia knows which subspecies I am...but if she does, she won’t tell me,’ Twilight thought, not for the first time shaking her head at her teacher’s inscrutable ways. She had spent as much time with the leader of their little town of Canterlot, just one of only a few settlements on Equuis, as she had with her brother, yet she still knew so little.
Stepping into the next room, close to the heart of the carved everwood pine her master lived in, Twilight breathed in deeply. The scent of ink on paper filled the chamber, the walls lined with books. A datapad might hold terabytes of information but they lacked the feeling, the impression of a real book. Defunct a format it might be in the core but on their little world, too small to attract the attention of the galaxy and only able to sustain a single large settlement or two it was, to Twilight, it was the smell of learning and knowledge.
Her teacher sat in the middle of the room with her back to Twilight. Long hair with three colours perfectly divided hung nearly to her waist, gossamer strands glittering in the light.
“Master?” Twilight knew better than to fidget but in her Master’s silence the urge was hard to resist. She stared at the Jedi’s back, shrouded by Celestia’s waves multi-hued hair, and without thinking she chewed at her bottom lip nervously.
“You’ll hurt your lip,” Celestia’s voice was gently chiding and brought a blush to Twilight’s face.
Shame coloured her words as she hung her head. “Sorry, Master.”
Familiar, gentle fingers with perfectly soft skin cupped her chin. Celestia tilted her student’s face back up to her and smiled. “I told you, you don’t have to call me that. I am Jedi no longer and have not been one since before your birth. I am simply a teacher now,” she said quietly.
Twilight frowned slightly. “A teacher who taught my brother and I how to move objects with our minds,” she pointed out.
Releasing the young zabrak’s chin Celestia smiled ruefully as she turned away to pace the room. Twilight liked her clean definitions, to know that something was exactly in one category. Logic was imperative. She was defined by clean, logical reasoning and a need to have an explanation. Clear thinking and reason were both things high in Celestia’s view and she wished more of the galaxy shared Twilight’s way of thinking. But in matters of the Force logic and reason so often failed to fully convey its meaning. Emotions were vital and to feel your heart was to feel the truth of the Force. Just as the Dark Side was fuelled by rage and hate, so too was the Light empowered by love and compassion. Only by trusting your emotions and your heart could one so gifted wield the power of the Force.
No, she was certainly no Jedi. They had come to shun emotion, seeking clarity without feeling, to be without the passion they believed led to the Dark Side. Each generation of Jedi would have just continued down that path, tipping from their balance of compassion without passion into closed, empty vessels. The path of the Jedi was one without love and Celestia believed with all her being that love, true and deep for friends, family and life, was the true gift of the Force.
Pulling her thoughts from the shattered past, Celestia answered her student’s remark. “Only so you could avoid detection by the Emperor and to warn you of the Dark Side’s power.” She said, stepping past Twilight.
“You’ve trained Shining to fight off a dozen droids without breaking a sweat.” Twilight turned to watch her teacher. They had been through this discussion dozens of times and knew how it ended. That didn’t stop her from trying again. There was such a wealth of knowledge waiting for her, if only the former Jedi would teach her more.
Celestia grimaced, hiding her expression until it was gone. “Your brother merely learns mundane weapons from me and any abilities he has come to learn are of his own initiative.” She replied. “He is not asking for the Force lore of the Jedi Order.”
That got a wince from Twilight. “You’ve told me so little.” She said, trying her best not to sound like she was whining. “What I know is so intriguing.”
There was Twilight’s other weakness. It was not quite that simple, Celestia knew. She possessed a healthy taste for learning herself but Twilight seemed to hunger for more. Twilight had to learn, had to find out more about everything. She devoured information like a starving bantha. Every book had to be read, every data-slide had to be picked clean. More than once Celestia had awoken from dreams, nightmares, of Twilight ignoring her as she shouted warnings. Dream-Twilight always reached for a pyramidal holocron, its innards lit by a sinister red glow that highlighted the zabrak’s hungry expression.
“What little you know...” She echoed, passing through the room. Glancing out a window Celestia’s gaze took in the modest rise of the Governor’s Building. Too simple to be a palace but too large and multi-purpose to be a mere house, it rose above the plane of the roof tops and tree tops scattered across the modest settlement. Crafted from native everwood conditioned to duracrete-like strength, it was a simple beauty to behold.
And with a single blink it was burning.
Streaks of fire rained from the sky. Turbo-lasers unleashed annihilation from above, falling upon the settlement in a screaming fury. Each blast chewed away at everwood walls and left nothing but ash. Flame billowed out from collapsing building as lives vanished in the deadly storm of energies and fire. Peace was shattered and screams rent the air as white armoured figures marched the streets already reduced to rubble, advancing behind the curtain of destruction. Survivors died with a single shot, slumping against the ruined homes that were now little more than charred mass graves. With a great groan the Governor’s Building collapsed and a wave of destruction covered the city, washing over her, the flood of fiery orange all she saw.
A dark laugh seared her ears and soul, deadly in its familiarity and from the sea of swirling flames two figures strode with blades of hateful light. One loomed great and commanding, the other pulled in the wake of the first by chains forged of shadows and pain. A living Nightmare.
A spear of fire erupted from behind the chained figures to pierce Celestia’s breast. The tiniest crack that should have gone unheard in the inferno filled her ears and for a moment as she faded Celestia saw-
-Twilight leaning over her, expression pinched with worry.
“Master?” It sounded like she had been repeating the word urgently for some time. Relief and worry warred for her expression. “Master, are you alright?” She asked.
Reaching out gently to the Force, Celestia smiled soothingly and calmed Twilight with a mental touch. The nascent bond forged in her teachings of the Force made it a simple gesture and reassurance flooded Twilight’s mind. Pushing herself up from the hardwood floor she felt the delicate network of life and emotions filling the small city.
All was at peace. She had known the moment the vision ended that it had not been real but some part of her had needed to check, needed to be sure. Such an attack would have been starkly obvious both in the physical world and in the Force.
When the attack came it would be obvious.
“I’m fine, thank you Twilight.” Standing to her full formidable height Celestia smiled weakly. “I am sorry, I think I need to rest awhile. We can continue this discussion later if you do not mind.” Despite her repeated denial of the title ‘Master’, it was clearly a dismissal.
Troubled but obedient, Twilight forced down the questions she wanted to ask. Celestia had been her teacher in all things for years and a constant presence in her life. Learning when to trust her had never been an issue, and right now the older woman was being very serious. It was still hard to leave so soon after the mighty woman had seemingly collapsed for no reason.
No reason Twilight knew at least, which was nearly as bad. The moment she left, Twilight decided, she was going to call her brother and ask for a medic to come with him. Today was a slow day and between the two of them perhaps a medical check wouldn’t be beyond what they could convince Celestia to submit to. Using a med-droid was out of the question, the last one to come into Celestia’s presence had been sent to the scrap heap. There was only so much that could be done.
Sighing, Twilight nodded reluctantly and turned to leave. She paused at the door, a silent mind-touch bringing her up short.
“Perhaps a little more instruction,” Celestia said quietly. “Spike will need lessons soon and you should know enough to be able to help him.”
Twilight just stood in the doorway for a second before leaving without a word. A smile twitched at Celestia’s lips as she felt the joy Twilight was radiating. A squeal of joy pierced the wooden wall the moment the door closed behind her as the zabrak girl fought the urge to jump in circles.
Taking a moment to draw a deep breath and steel herself, Celestia strode back into her study. From the heavy everwood desk to the walls lined with bookshelves and a thick woven carpet it was the very model of a respectable study. It took her a moment to take the small cube lit from within by a soft blue glow out of the hidden compartment. The image of six shimmering shards sprang from it, holographic images spinning gently in the air before her. Each a different colour; red, blue, pink, violet, green and orange. Their images turned in harmony with each other, and brought a smile to her face.
They had chance, so long as there was hope for Harmony.
Sitting at the centre of the room, the cube shifting shapes in her hands as she fell into the Force, she began to work and plan to save a world and, perhaps, a soul.
Author's Note
Yep, the first chapter of a whole new story! Two new stories all at once, impressive, eh? Have some art I had done by the lovely Luminaura a while back in anticipation of this.
This first chapter, along with the next several, are introduction chapters to let you meet the Mane Cast in their Star Wars formats. Here's the first; Twilight Sparkle, Jedi Padawan (kinda) to Jedi Master Celestia.
If you liked reading my ramblings, let me know what you think in the comments. If you didn't like it, you can let me know why down there as well. Just don't tell me to spell like an American. I have my dignity, you know! Or perhaps not, given the next paragraph, but if you want more things I've written check out Treacherous Mists and Justice Itself, along with Bloodlines.
I've just started up a Patreon thing, because why not? Not paywalling anything or such, but if you have some loose internet change and you want to throw it at me as you scream 'TAKE IT, TAKE IT YOU FILTHY PERSON', I won't object.
Comment and all if you want, I'd love you if you did (or I'd say so at least).
Prologue 2 - The Smugglers
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Nar Shaddaa: a moon-sized durasteel covered sinkhole, filled with the galaxy’s criminal scum. Speeders and spacecraft filled its meager atmosphere with noise and pollutants. Few people could honestly claim to be happy here without chemical assistance, but then, few people were particularly honest anyway. Not that happiness, if only chemical happiness, was hard to find. Cantinas were, in the words of street preachers on a thousand worlds, 'temples of vice where only fleeting pleasure could be found'. Fortunately for one woman, fleeting pleasure was exactly what she wanted from the Smuggler’s Moon.
This woman was no local, with her clean, long blonde hair, and clothes that resisted the perpetual grim. She might have stood out in the cantina had it not been for the blaster at her side and the ease with which she strode fearlessly through. She became just another spacer tough, albeit with an unusually high degree of personal hygiene. She gave the bar droid a nod as she slid onto a stool, and a low grunt. It sounded like a heavily accented order for lum ale to the bar droid. Its photoreceptors registered her order with a flash, one of a dozen arms reaching for an empty mug to fill it with the foaming alcohol. Technically one of the cantina rules, buried deep within memory banks that had been serving drinks since before the Clone Wars, was that patrons were meant to remove headwear. Rules later coded into it added the amendment ‘unless said patron can be reasonably said to appear threatening or fits patron category A3 – likely to cause an affray’.
In its thirty years of service the bar droid had come to the conclusion that anyone who came to a bar on Nar Shaddaa was likely to cause an affray. So it said nothing about her battered Stetson, calmly handing over her mug of lum and taking the credits she dropped in its collection hand.
For her part AJ didn’t give the droid more than a thought, absently guessing its value and half-heartedly scolding herself for it. She had become far too focused on money lately. Counting credits for every purchase was a habit she couldn’t break.
'Get a new ship, then ya can spend credits on whatever takes yer fancy,' she told herself. She snorted. 'Yeah, right. Can't even lie to myself.'
Money was always going to be tight. Even after she got a new ship, she knew better than to expect much. The thought made her grimace. She raised her drink for the solace of alcohol.
Taking a swig, she considered how life had brought her to this situation. Her grip on the mug tightened and it took all her self-control not to snap it like a twig. What would her family think of her, AJ asked in the privacy of her own head, when she agreed to meet a dealer probably fencing a stolen ship?
Too busy with her head full of shame and grinding out curses, AJ didn’t notice the staggering figure until it crashed into her shoulder. She caught the bar to keep her balance, replacing shame with annoyance.
“He~eeey, bar dude!” A loud, cracking voice blared in AJ’s ear as she was nearly knocked from her chair. “Another! Bring me doom, bring it soon, but most of all bring me lum! Ah hahaha!”
Rhyming was clearly not one of her talents.
“I am afraid you have reached your tab limit, Miss. I cannot serve you,” the bar droid. Artificial as it was, it almost managed to sound peeved with its tinny vocabulator.
The swaying figure rested an elbow on AJ’s shoulder, ignoring the roughness of her leather jacket to lay a thin limb casually over her. The larger woman scowled and pushed her away. The drunk swayed, but her grip proved surprisingly strong. AJ groaned, her expression fouling further.
“Hey girl, wanna buy me a drink? Jus’ a lil’ one, ‘s all ‘m askin’.” The slender woman turned her head, wild hair whipping into AJ’s eyes. She grinned in the face of AJ’s scowl, seeming to not notice. “I’ll totally make it worse- wiff- worth your whale. While. That’s it!”
AJ snorted and jerked her shoulder away from the drunk’s grip. It took more effort than she liked. Apparently those skinny arms had more muscle than they seemed. The girl – AJ couldn’t bring herself to call this slip of sentience a woman – had hair dyed every colour of the rainbow, which was only a little out of the ordinary. You got all sorts in Nar Shaddaa. Just one glance and she saw that everything about this drunk was thin, or rather, slender. A full head shorter than AJ herself, the girl just grinned up at her with rosy cheeks.
“C’mon!” She whined, trying to grab AJ again. Her other hand tugged the sky blue scarf wrapped around her neck as she pouted plaintively at the bigger woman.
“Maybe ya’ll have had enough.” She fended off the hand, shifting away on her stool. This was the part about going out for a drink she hated. When she finally got a ship she could drink in privacy again.
The girl stared at her for a moment before grinning and leaning forward before AJ could stop her. “You have such a sexy accent,” she stage-whispered it like a revelation from the gods.
If it wasn’t for her swaying, the smell of her breath or, really, all the other physical signs she might not seem drunk. That is to say, if her state of soberness was judged only on her ability to talk she might not seem so drunk. Her slurring was confined to a few words and she could probably manage a coherent conversation. Well, she could speak. The amount of sense when those words were strung together would likely not be high.
AJ sighed, taking another swig of her drink. It was half empty but hopefully that would be enough. She held it out to her annoyance.
“Knock ya’self out sugar,” she said, really meaning it.
Drunk-girl squealed and snatched it from her. “Fanks!” She slurred mid-guzzle. A trickle threatened to snake down her chin but a nimble tongue darted out to collect it.
For one insane moment that tongue hung in AJ’s mind and her cheeks went bright red. It was the ale, she told herself, perfectly aware that she could down a barrel without more than a hiccup. The image of that tongue would haunt her for the rest of the night.
The empty mug clattered onto the bar as drunk-girl turned to grin at AJ again. She threw an arm over her shoulders. “You an’ your sexy accent are alwaysh welcome to drink with me, babe.”
Rolling her eyes AJ gently eased out off her stool and out of the girl’s arm. “I appreciate the offer sugar, but I’m gonna have ta call it a night.”
“Aw,” the girl whined, trying to pull herself over the stool in pursuit of AJ. “But- but your sexy accent- I dun wan’ it ta go!”
About to shove her away AJ found her passage blocked by a large, angry figure. The angry quarren was just AJ’s height and the most formidable example of the species she had seen so far. His mouth appendages twitched aggressively and his blue eyes shimmered with anger.
“You!” he bellowed, advancing without giving AJ a chance to move. He ignored her as he stomped towards the drunk she had just left.
“Yo, squidy!” Drunk-girl grinned at him without seeming to notice the anger he was extruding. “Been a while-”
“Be silent!” he roared. “You owe me, girl! Your debt is long overdue.” Quarren didn’t have the proper teeth to grind in frustration like a human would, so this one was doing his best to do the same with tentacles. The result was much more...squelchy.
She stared up at him in confusion. “Uh...I paid you back...didn’t I? Yeah, I totally did.”
‘Squiddy’ writhed his tentacles angrily and glared past AJ, who was beginning to feel distinctly awkward trapped between the two. The rest of the bar had fallen silent, watching the confrontation as she did her best to get out.
“’scuse me sir, gotta- if ya got could just- I’m tryin ta-” Despite her best attempts the quarren failed to react, only giving her enough space to just stand off to the side. She finally twigged, seeing the discolouration on the tips of his tentacles and around his eyes. Whoever this guy was he was hopped up on shard, the black-purple like discolouration the signature of this new drug.
Lifting her head up drunk-girl smiled widely and laughed. “Yeah, I paid! Since I paid you, how ‘bout we celebrate old times with a drink on you-”
His fist shot past AJ’s head as she ducked out of the way. Whether a timely drunken stagger or a sign that she might not be as drunk as she had first let on the girl had swayed back off the stool and his fist slammed into the padding. AJ tensed. If this turned ugly she was not about to get caught in the middle of it.
“I demand payment! You still owe compensation-”
A quiet hum cut him off. AJ blinked, not quite sure what had happened. She replayed the moment in her mind. In front of her the drunk girl swayed but the hand holding a blaster pistol to the quarren’s skull was steady as stone.
“I’m drunk,” she said, entirely unnecessarily. “An’ I’m guessin’ you are too. So hows ‘bout you buy me a drink, skriff off an’ leave me in peace before I vape what brains you ain’t turned to mush with shard.”
Her rough, crackly voice hadn’t changed nor had her vaguely drunken smile but the blaster never even twitched. Drunk-girl’s finger was steady on the trigger as her threat made its way through his drugged brain and he dropped a handful of credits on the bar. Slowly, hesitantly, he staggered away suddenly overcome by his chosen poison.
Having apparently forgotten about AJ, the drunken girl cackled happily, throwing the credits to the bar droid who accepted them and poured out a drink. She did remember to thank the woman she had plagued, but too late, finding the spacer already heading for the exit.
AJ sighed and walked out, dodging a menagerie of aliens as she ignored the calls of her would-be drinking buddy. It was probably a good idea to save the credits for tomorrow rather than drinking tonight. Ships don’t come cheap and every drink was a little less she had for the purchase. No chance of waking up without a clear head tomorrow.
Behind her the drunken girl struggled to her feet after nearly tripping over them and staggered off, looking for someone to help her drown her sorrows and the horror tomorrow was going to bring.
*
AJ eyed the dealer with no small amount of little suspicion. She had caught sight of him the moment she entered the vast landing bay, a tunnel wide enough to fit ten ships and going straight through a rising complex. This, she knew without a doubt, was the man she was after and he looked too slimy by half to be selling a ship. A moustache that looked like he had spent hours waxing it and bright red hair slicked back added to the look of his cheap suit and faux-straw hat. It was not an altogether great indication of things to come. AJ experienced a moment of doubt, but her chance to leave vanished when he spotted her and called out with a flamboyant flourish of his hat. Engrained politeness forced her to acknowledge him with a far more subdued tip of her own battered hat.
‘Lookit you, polite as Granny taught ya ta be, in a den a’ thieves,’ she couldn’t help but think as the dealer hurried over to her. ‘Course not like I’m much better.’ AJ took in the ships around her that filled the landing bay and their less than reputable looking crews. The eternal night of the Smuggler’s Moon dotted with stars and the lights of the pervasive city glittered at each gaping entrance as the buzz of speeders and repulsors formed a background chorus. The urban stink of Nar Shaddaa was a constant reminder that home was far, far away.
“I see my dear brother’s description of our lovely buyer hardly does you justice.” He grinned at her with the open, welcoming expression of a man wanting to make a sale. “My name is Flim. I take it you are Ap-”
“AJ. Call me AJ,” she interrupted, adjusting her belt self-consciously.
Flim cocked an eyebrow but just nodded. He had dealt with buyers who were name shy. “Of course, of course. Now my dear AJ, to business. You approached us to find you a ship on the strength of a recommendation, yes? Something a little up class from the usual smuggler’s fare?” He paused as if waiting for some response but all she gave him was a nod. “Then we have a wonderful opportunity!”
She nodded again, following as Flim set off through the bay at a brisk pace. “Issat so?” Her doubts must have shown in her voice.
“Indeed it is. Why, only yesterday a debtor failed to repay us. She has had more than enough time so we have chosen to collect collateral. Her ship is going to cover some of her debt, and a fine ship it is too,” he told her enthusiastically.
“Some? Most good ships’d cover a debt,” AJ pointed out with a frown. Part of her was worried, concerned she was taking advantage of someone who for all she knew could have been cheated or tricked by the all too slimy Flim-Flam Brothers. Another part of her, the part that was cold and calculating, hardened by life, told her it wasn’t any of her business. It was their own fault for being stupid or lazy.
He tipped his hat to her. “Normally you would be correct; however our dear debtor rather overestimated herself. Overconfidence is something of a trait of hers.” His smirk all but screamed that he had been well aware of this and invited her to share his amusement.
She didn’t. AJ just grunted. They were on Nar Shaddaa after all and only a fool took a man like Flim at his word. Whoever she was, their debtor was an arrogant idiot.
“And here we are!” With a flourish of hat Flim stood to the side and gave her a wave towards a ship nearly a hundred yards away. “The Rainboom.”
She had seen holos of A-Wing Starfighters used by the New Republic and this ship looked almost like somebody had taken one, smoothed its edges, and made it the size of a light freighter. Narrow and thin at the bow it widened and spread until it reached the engines, which were a half circle curving around from the widest point of each side. It took her a few seconds to place the design.
“A WR-five four two Shooting Star, originally manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems. The Imps stopped using them about a decade ago. I’m sure you’ve seen a few about. This beauty has been substantially modified. Its former owner has kept its zero point five hyperdrive but made a few fine tunings and made it a tad more energy efficient,” Flim began his pitch, rattling off details and expositing with an eager tone.
‘Zero point five...’ The number nearly made her drool. That was fast, especially for a ship this size. Most freighters had flat class four hyperdrives and even modern line-of-warships were class one. Zero point five was fast enough to outrun any officials or pirates. “Enough to outrun an ImpStar.”
Flim smirked. He could see the spark of interest in her eyes. “Now now my dear, the Brothers Flim-Flam would have no idea about that sort of thing,” he chided her with a sly look. “But the previous owner certainly did that a time or two from what I’ve heard. She even managed to boost its sublight engines, coax out a little more speed.”
“Shields?” As they got closer she made out a splash of colour along it side, a band of seven colours lining one of its widening edges. The mental image of the girl from last night and her damn, sleep-stealing tongue. The question was as much to distract herself as to get a real answer.
“Finely tuned but not, admittedly, the most robust,” he answered before smoothing running past that detracting detail. “But with this ship’s fine handling and speed, is that really important? I think I would be right in saying that a stand up fight is not the business you need such a ship for.”
“My reference?” she asked, already knowing the answer as she looked it over. Weak shields, but he was right, speed and maneuverability meant more to her.
Flim nodded with a crooked smile. “Correct. The individual who sent you to us made mention of what you might require.” He led her closer to the ship and she saw another man, the other half of the Flim-Flam Traders in his matching vest, leaning against one of the landing struts.
“Flam.” She tipped her hat and began to inspect the ship, walking slowly around it. Her critical eye ran over it and AJ found herself nodding. Whoever the Rainboom used to belong to knew how to keep it in good condition. She could see all the signs of regular maintenance and care.
Flam smiled widely at her. “Ah ha, I see you have a good eye miss Ap-”
“-AJ,” Flim finished for Flam with a quick smile
The brothers followed her, chattering away as they did their best sales pitch. She mostly ignored them until she got back around to the front. Staring up at the sealed ramp AJ glanced at them with a question to ask.
“Can I get a look inside?” she asked, rapping her knuckles on the hull. She didn’t notice the look the brothers exchanged.
“About that, while we would love to-” began Flim.
“-the previous owner has yet to give us the security codes,” finished Flam. “We were expecting her to be here by now. But, as ever, dear Dash has let us down.”
“Our sincerest apologies,” took over Flim, clasping his hands and doing his best to look regretful. It had to be said it was a very well practiced expression of regret.
Her glance turned sharp. “Ya’ll expect me to ta buy somethin’ without even lookin’ inside?” her voice was carefully empty, her stare cold and sharp.
Apparently sensing they may want to avoid offending their customer further they were already going into ‘placate’ mode when an angry voice cut them off.
“What the hell are you doing to my ship?” A cracking, rough voice AJ could still remember all but roared. She looked between Flim and Flam and her suspicion was confirmed. A slender, rainbow haired girl was doing her best to stomp towards them.
She was only really getting half the effect. Her feet were coming down with a loud stamp but every time she winced and clutched at her head and she had to take a few staggering steps before she could stomp again. She sabotaged any intimidation she had, which given her slight form wasn’t particularly much to begin with.
Parting the brothers practically spun to face her. “Ah, dear Dash-” Flim began.
“Don’t ‘dear Dash’ me, you scummy shit,” she snarled, glaring at them with bloodshot eyes. “Get the skriff away from my Rainboom before I vape you, and your stupid hats. They’ll probably throw me a party for burning a hole straight through the two of you.”
Their smiles were tight and their eyes hard in contrast to how they had acted to AJ. Her threats seemed to just bounce off them, but after seeing her ability to hold a weapon steady while drunk off her tits AJ wasn’t sure that was a good idea. A little caution was always good in a place like Nar Shaddaa.
“This ship, if you remember, is collateral,” Flim said with a quiet but smug tone. It instantly grated on AJ and she watched him through narrowed eyes. “You have missed the final date.”
“A final date we’ve pushed back, out of the goodness of our hearts-” both women snorted at the same time when Flam said that, “-and you have once again failed to pay us. This time there will be no extension.”
Dash began to grind her teeth, dropping her hands from her forehead to dangle dangerously close to her belt and the twin blaster pistols holstered there.
“Is that so?” she growled. “You’re taking my Rainboom? You think you’re taking it? Well, I don’t.”
Almost without thinking AJ’s hand dropped to her own belt. She had no interest in a fight but if this slip of a girl wanted to start one, the smuggler would oblige her. Her trigger finger twitched, but she resisted the urge to draw. This was something for the traders to settle with their debtor, she reminded herself, and unless Dash targeted her she would stay out of it. Not her business, no matter how much she wanted to see the girl trying to live up to her threats.
“Please, brother, Dash, lets not get carried away. We’re all grown sentients here,” Flim assured the irate pilot. Stepping forward, Flim held up his hands to calm things.
Dash hesitated for a second. The sound of gears moving in her head were almost audible from the look on her face, although it was doubtful she would have been able to endure any sounds so close to her head with a hangover.
“In fact, how about we offer you a deal?” With a smile Flim stepped to the side and a blue bolt flew past him to slam into Dash. “One free stunbolt.”
Flam lowered his concealed blaster with the same smug smile on his face. “Very generous of us, given the circumstances, wouldn’t you say brother of mine?” he asked with a jockular chuckle.
AJ blinked. Her blaster, half-drawn the moment he fired, slowly returned went back into its holster.
‘More dangerous than they look,’ she decided. Her opinion would have to be revised, it was all too obvious. Teamwork could make or break any team, and theirs was flawless. Flim had moved to hide Flam without so much as a suspicious glance between them.
Looking at the downed girl for a moment, AJ was just glad it had been set to stun. She paused as she began to turn away, focusing on Dash. She should, by all rights, be out cold or at least unable to move. To her surprise the girl twitched. Not much, admittedly, but more than she expected.
‘Either that stun blast was set to its minimum power level or she’s a lot hardier than she looks.’
“I do apologise, Miss AJ,” Flam said with a smile. It was so charming, it might have distracted her from noticing his brother checking to make sure Dash wasn’t about to get up. “Dash is a rather impulsive girl and we felt this way would be better for everyone involved.”
Flim stood, Dash’s pistols in his hands. She twitched and shook but all the rainbow haired girl could do was glare weakly up at him.
“We would have had to do this anyway,” he added almost lazily.
“I don’t imagine she was gonna let her ship go too easily,” AJ conceded with a frown. Much as she hated to admit it...this was good. For her at any rate. She suppressed the pang of guilty for the mercenary thinking. They all had to make sacrifices. “But if ya ain’t gonna pay what ya owe, ya gotta take what ya get.”
They chuckled as though she had told a mildly amusing joke. The look they shared set alarm bells ringing; the same ones that had gone off every day back home, and no matter how much she ignored them, rang they did.
“Well, there is that,” Flim admitted.
“But the ship won’t cover her entire debt,” provided Flam.
Behind them Dash, spread eagled across the bay floor, made vague grunts. They were, if AJ was any judge, probably curses on the brothers. Her glare’s intensity could have powered a capital ship. Her fingers twitched, but her body remained numb and weak.
AJ frowned. She was getting a bad feeling. “How’re ya gonna get the rest then, if ya’ll don’t mind my askin’? She a good pilot?”
“One of the best I have ever seen,” Flim answered, but his smile thinned. “But no, she is too unruly. Fortunately for us a rather eager customer came forth when he heard her debt was unlikely to be paid. A buyer with a rather select taste, you might say.”
“Buyer?” She echoed, not understanding. Louder and louder the alarms rang, and nothing would make them go away. ‘It’s not my business. I have to remember that. No matter what he says; it’s not my business.’
On the ground the shivering movement that was the stunned Dash suddenly stopped. For a moment AJ felt like the air around her had frozen in a chilling, desperate frost. It clung to her, adding weight to every muscle in a sudden psychological terror.
She blinked, and the feeling was gone. The girl was still unmoving. Neither of the traders seemed to have noticed.
“Yes, although don’t ask for names. Between you and I, I gather he has had his eye on her for quite some time. But Dash is nothing if not prideful,” said Flam. He smiled down at the pilot, a hint of admiration in his eyes. “Not many are so good at keeping beyond the reach of the rich as our young friend here.”
“Which is a shame, her price will have to be a bit lower. Breaking a headstrong new slave is a rather tedious business we would rather not be involved in,” sighed Flim.
‘Ignore it.’
Slave.
‘It’s not my business...’
They were going to sell Dash as a slave to make up for her debt. Obviously. It was obvious, and she should have guessed, though she didn’t want to. AJ wanted them to take it back, to laugh it off as a joke, but she knew they wouldn’t. Worse, she knew she would never have believed them.
AJ’s eyes flicked down to see Dash’s reaction. She saw none of the bravado from before. She met a pair of terrified magenta eyes. Everything about the girl changed in that instant. Pride and confidence were stripped away. Even drunk or hungover she had just extruded an aura that screamed that she was a winner, that she could take on any challenge, but that was gone. Her eyes, when she had tried to flirt a drink out of AJ, had been alive and bright. For lack of a better term, she had glowed to AJ.
Dash lay on the floor with eyes wide in bone-chilling terror. Everything in her stunned body screamed that she wanted to run. AJ could see the fear in those suddenly dull eyes. She almost could see what Dash was thinking; she could practically hear it.
She was trapped, she couldn’t get away. There was nothing she could do.
In that moment she would have thrown herself from the bay into free fall rather than be sold off like some kind of meat. Fear and impotent rage beat at the cage her useless body had become but Dash couldn’t move. She couldn’t escape.
“How much is her debt?” AJ’s mouth asked without bothering to consult her brain. She blinked, sharing the brothers’ surprise.
“I’m sure that’s not-” Flam waved away.
“No need to bother with her-” Flim started.
“How. Much.” It wasn’t a question so much as a very pointed statement. AJ could feel Dash’s confused stare on her as she looked at the traders with a dark expression. “Ya gonna answer or am I gonna have ta find someone else willin’ ta deal me a ship. Surely it ain’t nothin’ ta whistle over.”
That decided it for them. There was really no reason not to tell her anyway. Her reference was too important for them to risk offending by planning to cheat her, so the price they had prepared already was an honest percentage of Dash’s debt. So they told her.
AJ whistled.
“Sithspit girl, how the hell did ya rack up a debt like that?!” she demanded, ignoring the fact Dash was unable to answer beyond a quiet ‘nnnnng’ right now. She wasn’t sure there were any words fit to explain it she wanted to hear anyway.
“Now dear customer, I do apologise but we’ll have to delay the rest of the tour until tomorrow. You may take it as a guarantee of the Flim-Flam Traders that we will be able to show you in the interior then.” Flam smiled at her, clearly hoping to move on to a subject of making money. Ever the helpful soul, she obliged, just not in the way he was expecting.
“Yer makin’ a loss like this, ain’t ya?” She jerked her chin at Dash. “Cause I got an idea that’ll make everyone here happy.”
“Those are the kind of ideas we like, do we not, brother?” asked Flim.
Flam nodded. “We do indeed! Tell us, Fair AJ, this idea of yours.”
“Now, ta my way a’ thinkin’ this ship is mite bit too good fer me,” AJ admitted with a rueful smile. “I saw Dash there move last night while dead drunk an’ she’s got reflexes like a stim junkie. Without the stim, I hope.”
Flim nodded. He shared a curious look with his brother. “You are correct. Why, if we didn’t already know that she was out drinking last night we would never have simply gone about business this way. The morning after, she’s not quite up to scratch. If I may be so bold as to ask where you’re going-”
“So this ship is probably way too delicate for me ta handle,” AJ rolled right over him. “The way I see it, if I buy it off you I’m gonna need a pilot anyhow, an’ findin’ a good one’ll take longer than I wanna be groundside,” she went on. The alarms had gone quiet, leaving only the dreaded silence that might force her to stop and reflect for a moment..
“You want to buy Dash along with the ship?” Flam asked sharply.
She shook her head. “No.”
Her expression was firm and her eyes hard. AJ had stooped low and would do so again but she would not, could not, bring herself to even consider owning a slave. She had to have limits, she had decided, no matter how far from where they should be she might set them.
“I’ll buy the Rainboom right enough, an’ I’ll pay off the rest of her debt.” A few steps carried her to Dash’s side and she squatted, locking gaze with the pilot. “If you, Dash, agree to be my pilot. It’ll be my ship, but you’ll be flyin’ her and it’s better than endin’ up dancin’ in your undies.”
Behind her the brothers closed ranks, whispering an argument. Or perhaps a discussion. The distinction is generally small and easily ignored, particularly between family. Right now AJ was ignoring it entirely in favour of focusing on her prospective pilot.
The fear was still there in her eyes, the desperate terror AJ had seen a few times before. It was raw and animalistic, the sort of fear a sentient only got after having it beaten into them. But it was slowly being locked away and she could already see....already feel the glow returning to Dash.
Dash looked her straight in the eye and she seemed to search for something. Her expression was halfway between hopeful and suspicious.
One of the brothers cleared his voice. AJ looked up and the brothers smiled in perfect timing, holding their hats against their chests.
“We have discussed your suggestion. It has some merit, as the repaying of the entire debt is a most desirable outcome,” began Flim.
Flam added; “But we must be sure you can pay it in its entirety. It is a rather large amount.”
Sighing she slowly stood up, one hand reaching into her satchel. A bottle wrapped in protective gauze came out and she brought it over. Slipping away the thin protection AJ held it out for them to see. She couldn’t help a flash of pride at the same moment as their eyes lit up.
“It’s genuine. I got a crate a’ this, fifteen more bottles, stowed away in storage. Aged and fine, y’all won’t find better. If ya can get this to the Core I can promise you’ll make more than enough to cover the last of her debt,” AJ told them quietly, her tone almost sad. When one of them reached out she passed the bottle, despite a voice suspiciously like her grandmother’s whispering in the back of her mind how wrong it was.
Looking between her and the bottle, understanding suddenly dawned on the brothers’ faces.
“I see,” Flim murmured with a slight smile. “How interesting.”
Flam turned his most flattering smile on AJ as he handed the bottle back. “I think we may be able to come to an understanding. Why, I think I know just the ship to get this to a few parties I know will be interested,” he said, eyes flicking back towards the Rainboom.
Stepping past his brother Flim nodded down at Dash. “Of course, Miss Dash has yet to agree.”
AJ looked down at Dash. Their eyes met again.
“It’s your choice sugar,” AJ muttered. ‘It’s this or slavery’ went unsaid. She didn’t much like the idea of gloating or rubbing it in the girl’s face.
Dash stared back, looking for something her eyes. She seemed to find it, finally giving a slow, painful nod. With that she slumped back onto the deck and stared at the ceiling, her expression unreadable.
“Looks like we have a deal, boys,” AJ said. They began to smile in return until she suddenly frowned. “Now where the hell is a medic? I got a pilot I want up and about before the end of the day.”
The captain of the Rainboom left the hangar, her pilot slung over her shoulder mumbling incoherent protests. For some reason, AJ felt like she was going to get familiar with this sort of thing, if last night was any indication.
But somehow, she was sure she wouldn’t mind.
Author's Note
Yep, the second chapter! Have some art I had done by the lovely Luminaura like last chapter.
Here's chapter two, with my favourites, Dash the Pilot and AJ the Captain, Smugglers of things big, small, fine and crude.
If you liked reading my ramblings, let me know what you think in the comments. If you didn't like it, you can let me know why down there as well. Just don't tell me to spell like an American. I have my dignity, you know! Or perhaps not, given the next paragraph, but if you want more things I've written check out Treacherous Mists and Justice Itself, along with Bloodlines.
I've just started up a Patreon thing, because why not? Not paywalling anything or such, but if you have some loose internet change and you want to throw it at me as you scream 'TAKE IT, TAKE IT YOU FILTHY PERSON', I won't object.
Stick around for chapter 3, which will be...about maybe Fluttershy.
