Private Dissecting Gizka

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna nearly groaned as well. She thought she had left all this behind her when she stopped being the partner of a vigilante…

Yet while Gatz went to fetch the instructor, some part of her wanted to try and solve the mystery herself. She envisioned sneaking the spice home, showing it to Cato, and the two of them cracking the case just like in the old days.

Of course, that whole fantasy was batchit insane. There was no way she could rationalize bringing narcotics home where the kids might get a hold of them, and though she apparently needed reminding, she was not Mimic anymore. And Cato wasn’t Moonlighter. They had put all that behind them after they left Narsh, and for good reason…

Gatz would find the Ithorian trying to calm the stab-happy student down. The student’s partner seemed rather anxious and jittery. Were he observant enough, Gatz would notice a similar bag of powdered spice lying inside this group’s tray—only this one had been torn open, its illicit contents exposed.

Gatz Derrevar​

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Training Saber
Tag: Inanna Harth

Suddenly, the other student's jitteriness made sense. He was on spice. Now, why had he consumed spice he found packed inside of a dead alien frog? Gatz would never truly understand, but some people were simply that desperate for a fix. He'd seen that firsthand far too many times to be surprised at such behavior. Admittedly, though, hiding spice inside of animals was a new smuggling trick for him.

He preferred to do it the old fashioned way: a ship, and secret compartments.

Their Ithorian instructor was clearly having a difficult job calming down the hopped up student, and confiscating his scalpel. Gatz couldn't blame him. Why would anyone in their right mind approach an armed man who was on spice? But Gatz didn't have time for this guy to have a breakdown.

The student brought his hand up to stab the frog again. That was when Gatz struck: grabbing his wrist, twisting his arm, and plucking the scalpel away from the idiot with his free hand. Only once he was disarmed, did Gatz let go of him. He passed by the instructor, handing him the pilfered surgical tool, and walked away with a message:

"He's not the only one with a baggy of spice hidden in their gizka. Ours had one too. I suspect many will."

Gatz didn't bother to inspect the open bag of spice on the stabby guy's tray. He had no interest in knowing the quality of the goods. It wasn't important information to him, at least, not anymore. So, instead, he stepped back to Inanna's side.

"Yeah, it's not just us. I'm curious how we ended up with a shipment of gizka stuffed with spice. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd smuggle onto a spaceborne Jedi Enclave."

 

[Inanna Harth]

The dazed partner of the student with the scalpel veered back in terror when Gatz disarmed him. “D-Don’t hurt him!” he sputtered, outstretched arms trembling. “It was an accident! The bag got cut a-and the dust went airborne!”

"Then the atmosphere in this room is contaminated," the instructor announced. "Class is dismissed for today. I recommend all of you undergo decontamination, just in case."

Inanna watched the scene unfold. Gatz hadn’t done anything wrong by disarming the man; anyone acting that way with a sharp object posed a potential danger. He was just as confused—and intrigued—about how the drugs got there as she was.

“It’s possible there was a shipment mixup,” she suggested. Then, lowering her voice she added, “Or maybe the Vonnuvi isn’t as safe as it claims to be.” Despite the reputation of the Ithorians as a peaceful species and the presence of the Jedi Enclave on their station, Inanna didn’t believe there was a place in the galaxy that was totally devoid of evil and corruption. Something was clearly up, and she intended to find out what.

Gatz Derrevar​

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Training Saber
Tag: Inanna Harth

The cry from his fellow student hurt Gatz immensely. He wasn't trying to hurt anyone. He was trying to prevent someone from getting hurt, by removing a blade from someone clearly hopped up on spice. He was trying to do the right thing, before someone ended up bleeding. And yet, here he was, being seen as the villain.

His fellow student was more right than he knew.

"Relax. I only took the scalpel from him before he did something stupid."

He covered the pain of the accusation flawlessly—sounding bored, not hurt—accustomed to wearing a façade as he was. But within was conflict. Would he always been seen as a threat? Did the last year he'd spent doing good matter? Or would he always be scum, deep down? Gatz was no stranger to pondering those questions. But he usually thought on them alone, late at night as he failed to sleep. Rarely were they inspired by someone else.

He pushed them out of his mind for now. He could sulk later.

“It’s possible there was a shipment mixup,” she suggested. Then, lowering her voice she added, “Or maybe the Vonnuvi isn’t as safe as it claims to be.”

"Where there's people, there's crime." Gatz agreed, his voice quiet. "...Maybe someone should swing by the hangar, and find out exactly what freighter delivered these Gizka."

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna side-eyed Gatz. “Would that ‘someone’ potentially be the two of us?”

She glanced around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation, before lowering her voice. “I don’t have any more classes for the rest of the day. Call it curiosity or simple boredom, but I can’t just let this slip by. I could look into it by myself, but I know from experience it’s better to have a partner in things like this. What do you say?”

Gatz Derrevar​

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Training Saber
Tag: Inanna Harth

“Would that ‘someone’ potentially be the two of us?”

"Seems the best plan to me. Doesn't look like any of our classmates are interested in anything other than class ending early, and at most, our instructor will only report the incident."

Still, were the two of them the best qualified? Gatz didn't know. He had plenty of experience smuggling drugs, and maybe his insights about that life could prove handy, but he was no investigator. He was a scoundrel playing at being a Jedi—and failing at that. And while Gatz had no doubt that his dissection partner was a capable woman, he had no idea what she was capable at.

She'd seemed pretty handy with that scalpel, but did she have other skills that would translate to catching a smuggler?

"I'm in," Gatz confirmed, "I'm just not sure how best to handle this. This is Master Serys-Organa's Enclave. Should we make a point to inform her, before we investigate? See if we can't get proper clearance and permission? Or do we dive into this right away, in case getting that permission takes too long, and gives our smuggler a chance to slip away unnoticed?"

He'd always been an 'ask for forgiveness, not permission,' kind of man. But that had bitten him in the ass many, many times. But did that approach suit them better here? He didn't know. And that was why he pitched the question to his partner.