Common Charm

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac raised an eyebrow at [member="Jim Pehico"], he didn't have enough money to pay for the tab but he had enough money to fire someone to come and fix his ship? Mac wasn't a palace guard, he was too street smart to be swindled by this spice smuggler. Yet Mac was not going challenge the guy who just talked his way out of a fight with an angry bar. The Commenor Crown should have more than enough money to pay for the tab and Mac reminded himself that he just promised Tarro five million dollars should he find Rae-Anna, he wasn't about to be a hypocrite.

"The Tognath bounty hunter won't be giving us much trouble for now." Mac chose his words very carefully. He wasn't going to promise that Tarro won't follow them, nor was he sure that Tarro won't give him trouble. "We can use the ship that [member="Lady Kay"] used to get here." Mac then turned to Kay. "That is, if you didn't bring a Commenori ship." Surely she traveled more discreetly then that.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay raised a brow at the odd circumstance surrounding [member="Jim Pehico"] and his credit situation. But as [member="Macoda Haberon"] didn't bring it up, neither did she. And now Jim was wanting to go back to Commenor with them? Why was that? It was all very suspicious. Maybe he wanted to not be found when he failed to pay the bar's tab? Regardless, it didn't matter. She needed to get off this station and back home.

For once Kay was quite subdued. All of her thoughts were kept to herself. She was in the wrong today and she wasn't taking it very well. It wasn't exactly what she had planned. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. "No...I brought a different ship....Follow me."

Kay led them through the corridors to one of the hangers, a transport vessel with 'Rusty Bucket' painted on the sides awaited them. As they approached, the ramp lowered, her pilot having seen her when she entered the hanger. When she got to the passenger compartment, Kay took the furthest seat and sat down, buckling herself up before wrapping her arms around her chest as though she was hugging herself.

She was a little defeated. What was worse was seeing Mac so angry at her. She had never seen him get that way before. It was reactions like that that had kept her from telling people her secrets. Kay hoped that Veiere would never get that angry with her. That would be heartbreaking.

The sooner that she could go back to her office to hide, the better. It didn't even cross her mind to worry about what to do with Jim.

 

[Jim Pehico]

They gave Jim an odd look about his credit situation. "Look I'm currently broke, and being the lowly scoundrel I am, I have lots of people who owe me and I owe a lot of people. One such person is on Commenor, I saved her daughter from slavery after her ship wandered to close to this station, y'know before you took over. I typically wouldn't ask for money for a job like that, but considering how deep in trouble I'm in, I suppose I've got no choice but to ask for some credits." Jim said regretfully.

"I'm not that bad a guy. I swear." Jim said defensively.

Jim looked to the entrance of the hangar, where his droid was R2-3Z. His grey and green dome shined in the dim light of the hangar. As he got on the ship, Jim patted his head.

"Alright, we're good to go."

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac ducked into the beat up freighter as he ascended up the ramp into the lounge. He saw [member="Lady Kay"] seat herself down in the furthest seat that she could find, and Mac initially wanted to let her sit alone. He was still mad, not at Kay exactly, but just at the whole situation. What happened wasn't exactly her fault, she couldn't have known about Tarro and neither would Mac had he not contacted him in the first place. Mac just hoped that he made the right decision in involving him in the first place.

But what really made him irritated was that Kay could've told him that she was making a trip to Kwenn Station. Hell, she could've brought him along instead of the two guards. Who else would be better? They could've had some fun just escaping from Commenor, Mac was doing that anyways in his little meeting with Tarro. But she didn't tell him, and he was going to be Head of Security! What does that say about her trust in Mac?

Mac looked over at Kay and sighed when he saw her sitting alone with her knees pulled to her chest, wanting to make herself disappear. He didn't regret yelling at her or saying the things he said, or maybe a part of him did. Mac sighed, maybe Tarro was right. Maybe he was getting soft. Regardless, Mac got up and moved to the seat next to Kay. He didn't know what to say, he wasn't going to apologize, but he didn't like seeing her this way.

He let out a half-hearted laugh. "Out of all the things in the universe, you might just be the death of me, Kay."

Spoiler

[member="Jim Pehico"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

The remaining guard walked up behind [member="Jim Pehico"] and his R2 unit. "Have a seat. We'll let her decide just how bad of a guy you are." As he spoke the word 'her' the guard inclined his head towards Kay.

The ramp closed up behind them and he took a seat. The transport shook a little as the engines fired up, the repulsors lifting the vessel off the hanger floor. A smooth rotation was made before it exited the station.

Kay didn't look to [member="Macoda Haberon"] as he sat down. She just kept her brows furrowed as she went over what happened in her head. Her cut on her neck wasn't healed, but then it wasn't very bad either. The blood was already dry and scabbing over as it started to heal naturally. Kay was planning on having that cleaned up before Veiere or anyone else could see it.

As Mac laughed a little and spoke, she smirked a little, but kept her gaze straight ahead. "You're not the first to tell me that." It was true. It was her mangetism for trouble that kept plenty of people on their toes. And some had died because of it too. Kay remained silent for a moment before speaking again. "I'm sorry Mac. I shouldn't of gone away from home. You told me that I was a slave to my position and I wanted to prove it to myself that I wasn't, that I had freedom like any other person." She sighed. "But that didn't go so well..." Her actions against the Hutt Cartel were still very well known, it seemed. Especially if there were people gunning for her head.

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim looked over at Mac and Kay. "I don't mean to pry but Mac man take it easy man, On paper your right, she should be more careful, but don't forget she's not like us. I mean if I was a royal and couldn't go out to my favorite shady cantina I'd probably go crazy. However she's not the only one to blame here, why were you meeting with that bounty hunter in the first place?" Jim asked quizically, he then realized he was on the edge of making accusations so he stopped himself.

"Of course thanks for the lift. I appreciate it." He said with a smirk

His droid then whistled at him. He then whispered to the droid "yea I know I'm treading in dangerous waters, I'll cool it."

[member="Lady Kay"]
[member="Macoda Haberon"]

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac stood up shook his head. "Kay I don't care that you left Commenor. I'm not Darlyn, I know you hate being surrounded by guards at all hours of the day. I don't want you to be a slave to your position anymore than you do and I understand that you need to get out sometimes. But you didn't tell me! Hell I would've loved to go with you and one less guard would be dead. I know how mercenaries and bounty hunters and pirates think and act unlike your guards. I mean I'm going to be your Head of Security of all things Kay! You have got to trust me on these things."

Before he could continue, [member="Jim Pehico"] interrupted and practically accused him of causing the whole mess in the first place. Mac's jaw clenched and his hands went to his axes. If it had not been for this guy's loud mouth, then the whole scene would've been avoided. Mac closed his eyes and concentrated in managing his temper. He muttered under his breath before turning around to face the spice dealer. "I swear I'm going to kill this man."

He stared at Jim and moved towards him while slowly raising his voice. "But above all Kay, I'm disappointed that you blew your cover and endangered yourself over the life of one drunken, loud-mouthed, craven!" [member="Lady Kay"] had to be smarter than that. On Commenor, or surrounded by a battalion of guards, she could choose to be the savior that she wanted to be. But she couldn't do those things undercover, out in the real world.

Mac briefly loomed over Jim, his hands on the axes holstered at his sides, doing his best to get his point across. "That bounty hunter is none of your concern. There was no way that Kay could've prepared for him. Tarro had already tracked her down through some means to the bar that we were at. Had I not been there to talk him down, Kay would've been dead or sold to the highest bidder." He looked around at the two sitting. "Unless either of you speak Huttesse?"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay frowned a little. In [member="Jim Pehico"] 's mind, he probably figured that she was born into royalty, or never knew what it was like to be creditless. But she knew it very well. Being Queen was more or less a recent thing. Yet here Jim was, almost telling [member="Macoda Haberon"] what to do and how to treat her.

But of course Mac wasn't having any of it. Instead he continued to get after her for being there. She felt bad for it, yet she was getting a little angry too. Mac had it wrong. He assumed as though she had been trying to hide this trip from him. "I do trust you, Mac! I didn't know where you were. It is your time off. How was I supposed to know that you'd be here? It isn't as though you give me your whereabouts every day, you know!" She paused, having the need to control her anger. "I won't do it again. I promise you that..."

Mac went towards Jim then, telling Kay of his disappointment in her, all the while insulting the spice dealer too. She huffed and folded her arms across her chest. Revealled herself? Over Jim? She didn't think that she did, but then again, she did try to save the man, but ended up needing saving herself.

Her eyes were drawn to Mac as he spoke of the bounty hunter Tarro. Sold to the highest bidder? She had never been sold before. She wasn't property. More than likely she'd of been killed. Kay wasn't sure which fate was worse. "No I...I don't speak Huttesse." She clenched her jaw a little. What would that matter anyways? It wasn't as though she'd be able to talk her way out of a cell.

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim knew that he spoke out of place. Jim also knew that the future chief of security was not going to kill him right in front of the queen, far too messs, also he'd probably have to be a psychopath. However drunken loud-mouth craven, He might be drunken he might be loud-mouth, but he certainly was no craven.

"Look, buddy," Jim said slightly irritated,

"First she never revealed herself to me, you did that while scolding her calling her, 'her highness'. Secondly, Craven? I talked down an entire angry mob back there. Now sure, I'd rather talk my way out of a situation, but I'm no coward. Plus those cartel goons caught me off-guard, Just like Tarro caught you off-guard. And lastly, of course I speak Huttesse, what kind of two-bit smuggler do you think I am. Trust me pal, Tarro would not have been the hardest person to talk down."

Jim did not know Tarro, but he knew that most bounty hunters always put credits and strategy before anything else.

"First of all, Tarro wouldn't kill Lady Kay on the space station too many people, and since he didn't know lady kay was going to be there, he most likely wouldn't have looked at the station's security system. If anything he'll strike us on our flight back to Commenor..." Jim thought about it. "No wait.
he wouldn't do that too obvious, however he's tracking this ship. He's going to wait until you go out again with your two guards."

Jim has seen the technique done before, typically very efficiently. Hell it's almost happened to the queen of Naboo before, back when he was an Honor Guard for Naboo. Jim then took his flask out, and took a sip hoping that they would believe him.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac's jaw clenched when he heard [member="Jim Pehico"] open his mouth again. What he said had only infuriated Mac even further, but that was because he knew that Jim was partially right. The spice dealer did get them out of a bind that was partly Mac's fault when he scolded [member="Lady Kay"] so loudly. But even before then, Kay's whereabouts was exposed to Tarro. But perhaps what ticked Mac off the most was Jim assuming that Tarro was just a lowly bounty hunter that could be easily talked down. He had no idea what he was talking about and It belittled Mac's effort to save Kay's life in the first place.

"No you listen here. I've known Tarro along time and he would've gotten away with Kay had I not been there. The only reason why I could talk him down was that I offered him a bigger prize than Kay's bounty." Mac shot Kay a glance. "He is working for us now. Tarro won't be tracking us, he is tracking someone else.

He could sense Kay piecing together the situation. He tried to be somewhat vague as he didn't want to spice dealer to know exactly what he was talking about when he referred to someone else. Mac had offered information to Tarro to help find Kay's daughter Rae Anna for five million credits instead of killing Kay outright for a lesser amount. He could feel the tension mounting in the air, the glare coming from Lady Kay for possibly endangering her daughter and the judgment of a spice dealer for being at fault for getting them in this mess.

He had just saved the life of the Queen of Commenor and this was his thanks? Kay immediately went on the defensive when she was to blame for not telling her own appointed Head of Security about her whereabouts. And the spice dealer pretended to know what he was talking about, meddling in business that he shouldn't. His stupidity should've gotten him killed in that bar. But no, Mac felt attacked from the moment he stepped onto this ship. He curled his fists and clenched his jaw, frustrated at the situation that he so tried hard to fix. "Kark this. And kark both of you." Mac spat and eyed both Jim and Kay. He removed himself from the room before he lost his temper.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay frowned as [member="Macoda Haberon"] and [member="Jim Pehico"] argued as though she wasn't even there. It was awkward and annoying. But she watched and listened as they made their points. Being trained mostly in politics, listening was one of the skills that she had mastered well.

Then Mac revealed part of the deal to Tarro. Yet instead of a glare, it was a look of shock that she gave him. Her jaw had dropped slightly. Tarro was working for them. He had another target. As Commenor had no enemies, the target had to be Rae Anna. Kay knew what her bounty was set at, over a million credits. So how much did Mac offer? She'd have to honour it, but still...This little misadventure was becoming quite expensive.

She closed her eyes as Mac stormed off, putting her head in her hands for a brief moment before she got to her feet, opening her eyes again and walked over to Jim. "Thank you for your help. You won't be sent to work in the mines, but you still need to be punished for your illegal activities in Commenori space. What that will be...I don't know yet....But I'll figure it out soon enough. I just have other things to take care of first. So please excuse me." Kay started to go to where Mac had stormed off to, but then she paused. He wanted to be away from her, just as she wanted to be away from the both of them. But that wasn't solving anything and it wasn't helping matters. So she had to risk it, had to risk a blow up.

She continued on towards where Mac was, stopping just short of him. Kay's head was lowered as she spoke up to garner his attention. "Mac I'm..I'm sorry. This whole mess was my fault. I didn't mean for any of it to happen. I thought that it was safe, but I was wrong. I don't blame you for being angry at me, yet it hurts all the same. Whatever protocols or rules you want me to follow, I'll do so. I promise. I learned my lesson, I know my place. Death happens when I am being selfish. So I won't be selfish again." She shifted her weight on her feet a bit. "I hope that in time you'll forgive me..."

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim took a sip from his flask, He took notice that he offended both of the people who saved his life. The R2-3Z whistled at Jim. "Yea, I do realize that they saved our lives." the droid whistled at him again. "Look, if you think you can do a better job, you can do the talking next time." Jim said slightly irritated. While kay followed her angered guard, Jim decided to take a peek around the ship. Noticing that the queen's guard had been sleeping, Jim quietly got up and started looking around the Junker. the R2 unit whistled at him, "Look, they won't notice and if they do tell them I went to find the lavatory then."

[member="Lady Kay"]
[member="Macoda Haberon"]

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac kept his back to [member="Lady Kay"] as she followed after him, apologizing for the incident that took place and taking full responsibility for her actions. But something seemed off about her apology to Mac, it just didn't sit right with him. Maybe the events of today had just put him in a stubborn and cynical mood, but it sounded like Lady Kay was only telling him what he wanted to hear. In an instant, she had taken full responsibility for her actions and completely learned her lesson for what she had done. That, and she promised to never be selfish again, as if that was what Mac wanted. Kay's apology was too dramatic to be sincere. It was times like these that reminded Mac that he was dealing with a politician. He suspected that Kay fully expected Mac to forgive her after such an apology, such an expectation only frustrated Mac further. She wouldn't have gotten off so easily had she not been there. Surely ought to know that.

Yet Mac couldn't reject her apology, nothing good would come of it. He didn't need to further raise tension between himself and Kay before his official promotion. Not that she would take away the position of Head of Security from Mac over a situation like this, but his new position would be a lot harder if he and Kay were at odds with each other. Besides, the situation was not entirely her fault. There was risk in every venture, no matter how many guards that Kay would bring. Tarro tracking her down to that bar was not the fault of Kay but simply unlucky, just as Mac's presence in the same bar was also a matter of luck. Mac just needed to accept that the Queen of Commenor was a naturally dangerous occupation, and that it was Mac's job to make it not so.

With this in mind, he turned back to Kay. "Look, I'm not asking you to never be selfish or to wear chains when outside of the palace. I'm not Darlyn who insists that you have guards at all times with you. Hell if anyone knows about how your job restricts you, it ought to be me." Mac sighed and paused briefly before he continued. "I'm not mad, just scared at what could have happened. Commenor could have lost you. Bradshaw and Veiere could've lost you... I could've lost you. Now I know that there will always be risks in being the Queen of Commenor but you have to trust me enough to help make those risks go away."

Mac let a small teasing smile in an effort to end on a positive note. "Next time just take me along, I promise I'm not horrible company."

[member="Jim Pehico"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

It took a bit for [member="Macoda Haberon"] to turn around and that got her a bit worried. But then he turned to her and began to speak. Kay listened, keeping her head low, that is until he let her know how scared he had gotten. At that she lifted her head. Her eyes showed the shame that she had felt for being so reckless and for not thinking.

She smirked a little at his cheeky comment. "No, you're not bad company. That wasn't it at all. But next time, I'll have to run everything by you anyways. It'll soon be your job to hand pick the people that go anywhere with me. Just try to make sure that they won't scoff at my tea."

It was a poor attempt at her own joke. But a try nonetheless. She wondered what [member="Jim Pehico"] was up to. It was awfully quiet behind them. "Can we check on our helper? We can't exactly just let him go." He had planned on extorting someone for money from someone that he helped. And he smuggled illegal goods, possibly through Commenor. "He'll need to be questioned, at least."

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim continued looking around the ship. There wasn't anything special about the junker ship, though from what he could tell the insides of the ship were quite nicer than what you'd expect after all it was technically a royal ship. Jim walked by the engine room. And took a peek at the ship's hyperdrive. Nothing too special but it was advanced for this type of ship. he decided not to give his hosts anymore angst and went back to the front of the ship, Jim got back to his seat and sat down. Of course Jim now had to plead his case to the Queen of Commenor. he took out a flask from his pocket and took a sip. the hard liquor gave him a slight burn in his throat. The burn was once an annoyance back in his teenage years, however now it gave him a comforting sense of familiarity. The world around him may change, but booze will always be booze.

[member="Lady Kay"]
[member="Macoda Haberon"]