30 Minutes Til Hedonism

[Paddy Quick]

Klaxons sounded throughout the space station as countless spacers, bounty hunters, smugglers and the like busied themselves with the task of getting the feth out of dodge. It was like being in an ant colony out here, with people running this way and that way. Danger in its purest form was coming, and those who could were getting well out of its way before it hit. This space station could only survive so much. No one wanted to see if it could withstand the approaching peril.

Amongst this chaos was one Paddy Quick, the captain of the *legitimate transport ship* Subtle Gamble ... a half-Tachyon, half-YTA-1300 class light freighter. It was a rust bucket, it was prone to mechanical failures ... and it had picked now of all times to not start.

--- ETA thirty minutes. I repeat, thirty minutes. ---​

​

A howl of horror swept the busying crowd, and Paddy sighed with resignation as he studied the fried wires. He'd need to bypass the power coupling and connect the shortened wires to the filter port ... and to do that, he'd need a hydrospanner. And his had just shorted out. He was doomed.

--- Force help us all. I'm getting out of here ... I hope you're with your loved ones in this perilous hour. Good luck ---​

​

Damn it, even the automated distress voicebox was bailing. This was not good. Danger was approaching. Thirty minutes until a party freighter full of Zeltrons arrived, and they would not stop partying and using their Force-damned pheromones on poor unsuspecting folk until this station was space dust. Quick needed a hydrospanner or he was in grave danger of being partied to death. He would find one, or he would die trying.

Peril rapidly descended on the space station. It was thirty minutes until hedonism.

[member="Lenna Praxon"]​

 

[Amz]

By now, Lenna's feet were hurting from pounding the permacrete floors in flight-mode, searching through the frantic crowds for a hitch off of this floating speck of space.

She was halfway to her destination when a wave of spacers shoved passed her in the same direction, all pushing toward the last shuttle - which was now apparently full - with a blue skinned Duros at the tail end, practically crawling up the rapidly closing ramp. An intense wave of shock and annoyance overcame her, and Lenna watched in helpless agony as the last shuttle lifted off without her.

"Son of a mynock!"

With less than thirties minutes warning, Lenna knew she had to brace herself to resist what was to come shortly, and tried to concentrated on not stepping on those who'd been trampled down in the height of confusion.

Everyone's gasps and cries filled the air, but no one could expect to see anything through all the movement. The crowd was still heaving, and although considerably more sparse, it was damn near impossible to escape back the way she had came. Lenna jumped up onto a few crates full of a dumped spice shipment, and strained her eyes, trying to pick up on anyone lingering, someone who might need her help as much as she need theirs.

"Holy Fra- !" The crates she stood on began to creak and bend underfoot, thanks to the ignorant people below who were crashing into her platform. Lenna's balance faltered, she tried to catch herself, but it compromised to gravities persuasion and she came tumbling down to what should have been a crushing fall, but was broken by the back of one [member=Paddy Quick ].

 

[Paddy Quick]

Clad in classic spacers attire coupled with his leather jacket, Paddy definitely looked the part. He was a desperate man. He'd kill a man for a hydrospanner at this juncture, okay, maybe not kill ... but certainly maim. He could not be here in twenty-eight minutes. That much was obvious. The Zeltrons would tear this place apart with their antics, and Quick had no intention of 'swimming' home with no space suit.

Paddy jostled through the crowd, making his way towards the mechanics station where he could surely loot a hydrospanner when-

"Oof!" The smuggler was knocked off his feet by one hundred and twenty pounds (or thereabouts) of hottie. Not that he knew that instantly ... all he knew was that he was falling, twisting in mid-air ... somehow, despite being hit in his back, that was where he had landed. About a millisecond later, a slender brunette landed on top of him. Now children, in any other circumstance, this is exactly where Paddy would want to be. On his back, hot girl on top of him ... but this was definitely not the time or place. Quick now maintained a dual existence ... the survivalist in him wanted her OFF of him so he could get the feth out of here, but the man in him was quite happy to stay here for eternity. A shipload of Sith Lords could not move the man. But there was a duality, and when there was a duality there was always compromise. Be cool, Padster, don't make a bad impression.

"Hey," said the Cinnagarian innocently to the brunette that had used him as a landing pad, who still seemed to be getting her bearings. Gorram it, his back hurt like hell. "Do you have a hydrospanner on you?"

[member="Lenna Praxon"]

 

[Amz]

She didn't really remember the moment of impact. One second she was on top of chaos, and the next she was on the belly of a man, who honestly, wasn't so hard on the eyes. Even if his scruff did make him look like a nerf herder.

Lenna shook off the fall best she could, trying to regain some form of composure. Dignity. She ran unsteady hands through her hair, pushing off of his chest and sitting up to an even more awkward position. With a sheepishly apologetic grin, Lenna crawled - or rather, rolled - off.

"Do you have a hydrospanner on you?"

At this point, she didn't even care that she'd complete humiliated herself - it was worth it. Why? Because he needed something from her.

Force be thanked! Maybe. Just maybe her luck was changing.

She licked her dry lips to wetten them, forcing herself to relax, trying to not come across as being overly eager. "That depends." Lenna said indifferently, brushing off some dust from her greyish vest, and letting a dramatic pause linger.

It was time to get on her bargaining face.

"You have a ride?" she finally inquired, tapping the brown tote-bag that was strapped across her left shoulder. "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine." she didn't know who this guy was, and neither did she care. She just wanted to get off this frelling station before a pink horde of pleasure cruisers showed up and took over everything! "C'mon. What do you have to lose?"


Besides your pants, if we just keep sitting here.

[member="Paddy Quick"]

 

[Paddy Quick]

"I have a ride if you have a hydrospanner." Paddy said matter-of-factly, raising an eyebrow. Though the prospect of having some company on the ship for an hour or two didn't sound too bad. Especially because she was cute. If she wasn't, well, there might have been negotiations, but in this case ... Wait, Paddy ... she could be a pirate or something. A hot pirate. She could steal the ship. She wouldn't want the ship, the ship sucks. She could be on the run or something. Nah, she has an honest face. A hot, honest face. Paddy. Shut up dude, I got this.

The Tetan smuggler pulled himself to his feet and dusted himself off, rubbing his neck gingerly. He'd taken quite a knock from the stunning brunette, one that he was still processing. It was not every day you got knocked to the ground by a perfect ten. Usually it was some lardass or a hairy, seven foot tall alien ... by Paddy's standards, this was a good day. If he were a gambling man, which he was ... let's rephrase that. If he had been at a sabacc table, he'd have gone all in. Maybe the chick liked to gamble? Paddy, focus. He grinned amiably at her now, straightening up to his full six feet. His bargaining face was cheekier than hers.

"You show me a hydrospanner, sweetheart, and you've got yourself a ship."

[member="Lenna Praxon"]

 

[Amz]

Her expression scrunched, and a forced smile twisted on her face. "It's not 'sweetheart'. My name is Lenna." a short and to the point introduction. Something to get started on. "...And I believe you have yourself a temporary partner."

Lenna proffered a hand to seal the deal then shrugged the bag from off her shoulder and yanked out the discussed object of their agreement. "It's a bit grimy and greasy," stated Lenna rather nonchalantly, gripping the spanner in her fingers and pulling it into her chest, examining him with a careful eye. "Where's your ship?"

Mistrust wasn't that uncommon for people of their persuasion. Most the time you'd get a half-wit cheater, or your typical thief that was just looking for an easy buck on the black market. But he wouldn't be able to make any money off her hydrospanner. Lenna was just being overly paranoid. He didn't seem like the trickster type, either. Then again, she'd already held up her end of the bargain - where he so far, had not.

Really, if this didn't work, she was stuck ... he was stuck. There was no 'winning' side unless they worked together. He was her last hope, her only hope.... for saving her credit account from being cleaned out in a single night.

[member="Paddy Quick"]

 

[Paddy Quick]

Of course it wasn't sweetheart. It was never sweetheart. Paddy grinned, realising quickly that this 'Lenna' would be a tough girl to get to know. Whatever, they'd have time enough to talk later. He met her hand with his in a not-too-firm handshake, completely ignoring a bustling crowd of screaming Sullustans.

"Paddy Quick." Sweetheart. He eyed the hydrospanner greedily, not giving a single kark about the state of the thing. As long as it was functioning, he could use it, and they could get the feth out of dodge before hedonism destroyed them all.

"Where's your ship?" Now for the fun part. 'Lenna' would get to see what her hydrospanner had bought her a ride on ... the famed Subtle Gamble! It had made the Kessel Run once, and in a respectable time! The thing wasn't exactly in the best of shapes. It was a rust bucket, was what it was. A YTA-1300 Light Freighter, with external parts that were obviously originally from a Tachyon, one of Silk Holdings ships, it wasn't exactly pretty. To be fair, it was damn ugly, and pretty suspect looking. And pretty suspect. Paddy put a right hand on the stunning brunette's back and turned her around a full one hundred and eighty degrees, before pointing at it in a manner that said Behold! He began moving through the desperate crowd, clearing a path for the chick to follow.

"She may not look like much!" He yelled over the throng. "But she's got it where it counts!"

[member="Lenna Praxon"]

 

[Amz]

Lenna allowed 'Paddy' to turn her, squinting through the bustling crowds; eager, and now only interested in seeing this 'ship' that was going to take them the frell out of here. On que, her bottom lip began to quiver and mouth fell completely agape, her eyes couldn't peel themselves from off the space faring vessel. She was shocked, and it wasn't a good kind of shock. "WOW!" She hollered back to him. She hardly looks like anything, Lenna thought. "That is... just..."

Red sirens began flashing and going off, alerting everyone to the impending doom that wasn't long from arrival. She looked toward him with a mix of skepticism and interest. "Nevermind. Let's just get this girl in the air before pants start dropping, and the hangar becomes a dance floor. ...I hope she's enough." Lenna signed with resignation, and looked around. "What do we have to do before they arrive? How can I help?"

I've got a bad feeling about all of this. Lenna thought.

"Ya won't be doing anything! Give us that ship!" roared an unknown female voice.

She turned briskly to see a snarling Devaronian male and female.

Just....what?

"It's a bucket of bolts!" She tried to reason, astounded that anyone would want to steal this thing. Because surely, there was another ship that was better somewhere around here.

The male turned his head to look at Paddy Quick and then Lenna, his waxed, polished horns glinting off the dim lighting, and making a show with his sharp-feral teeth. "SHUT UP! Puny humans! Give us the ship, or we'll chomp your faces off!"

Lenna took one look at the gaping mouth of the Devaronian, and knew that they were big enough to make good on that threat. Her right hand dropped down to her thigh with blurring speed, the well worn grip was there, nestled up against her palm. Her hand, still moving with extraordinary speed, started back up. She began her draw - only to stop short when the blaster was hung up in the holster! "Ah, crap!"

[member="Paddy Quick"]

 

[Paddy Quick]

"You've never heard of the Subtle Gamble?" Paddy quirked a brow at 'Lenna's' will she be enough statement. No one talked chit about the Tetan smuggler's baby. "Maybe you'd like to have a go at floating home, sweetheart."

Hot girls, always so entitled. This one didn't seem to be much different. However, Paddy Quick was an average man, and average men often gave women free passes on just about anything for being gorram gorgeous. So Paddy decided that Lenna was just stressed, due to the impending doom of Zeltron party animals descending upon this space station. Just stressed ... she obviously needed to de-stress ... maybe after they got out of here, they could relax on the couch, Paddy could open that bottle of wine he'd been saving, then maybe- GORRAM IT PADDY, FOCUS. His gorram daydreaming was going to get them both killed, or worse. Partied to death. It had happened before many times. Paddy was sure of it ... he just didn't have any facts or scientific studies to back that point up at the moment. Whatever. He pushed through the crowd, reaching the ship with Lenna in tow.

"What do we have to do before they arrive? How can I help?"

"I need to bypass the power coupling and connect the shortened wires to the filter port. So be a dear and pass me that-"

"Ya won't be doing anything! Give us that ship!"

Ah crink. Paddy looked around to see two Devaronians approaching with snarls plastered on their faces. Brilliant. Just fething brilliant. Nothing like a couple savages to ruin his day.

"SHUT UP! Puny humans! Give us the ship, or we'll chomp your faces off!"

Paddy screwed up his face. Gross. That was not a nice mental image. Getting his face chomped off by a Devaronian was right up there on his 'do not want' list, right below 'get partied to death by Zeltrons' and way, way above 'get with smoking hot spacer chick called Lenna.' Speaking of which ... the hottie went for her blaster, only for it to get caught in the holder. Chit well and truly hit the fan at that point. The two Devaronians lunged for her, and Paddy only had a limited time to act. Thankfully, he wasn't actually the worst shot in the world. He was kind of a decent one. Drawing his blaster a little slower than Lenna ... okay, a fair bit slower, but who's timing ... Paddy whipped out his DL-44 and fired a burst of four shots. Two missed, two hit. Two dead Devaronians, one saved beautiful brunette space princess. That was probably the most badass thing Paddy had ever done in his life. As for the two missed shots, the Tetan smuggler didn't worry about that. It was Chaos on the space station, who was going to miss a couple of loose blaster bolts?

Shrugging as if to infer that he did stuff like this all the time, Paddy looked nonchalantly at Lenna. Nice one, Padster.

"That's two you owe me, Lenna." Yeah, maybe he wouldn't overdo the 'sweetheart' bit. Maybe that was wise.

[member="Lenna Praxon"]

 

[Amz]

She glimpsed a blur of furry brown and red leap from the corner of her vision, and looked up just in time to dodge a missed shot and catch Paddy drop the pair of Devaronians. She looked down at the damage and back to the smuggler, about to thank him for saving her rear... until he opened his mouth. Lenna's eyebrows shot up, "So, you're arrogant, too." Lenna puffed, putting the holster back to her thigh and unsticking the blaster. Nimble fingers ruffled through her thick, dark hair, hand falling to her neck and rubbing the side of it. Her nose wrinkled, and she looked away and then back at Paddy again. "Anyway... Let's get back on track? I want to get off this station."

[member="Paddy Quick"]