Private Is It a Crime?

[Inanna Harth]

Kaal was full of archipelagos, island chains rife with beautiful beaches. But in true resort world fashion, they had built swimming pools on a planet that was already mostly water. Inanna didn’t mind—she tended to view any body of water bigger than a bathtub with suspicion, and it was easier to monitor the kids in a pool compared to the open ocean. Wasn’t too crazy about the chlorine, though…

“Mom! Mom, look at me!”

Inanna adjusted her sunglasses as she turned her head to fully focus on her eight year old son. Ashur was climbing up the stairs to the diving board, just as he had done several times since they left their hotel room to swim. Thing is, he never actually jumped, always getting too scared and climbing back down again. He’d take the plunge eventually, she figured. Or if not, his big sister would shove him in if he got in her way.

There was a splash as Serena hit the water, having leaped from the board before her reluctant brother. Inanna watched as her head broke the surface amid a cloud of bubbles, snorting and pulling wet hair off of her purple goggles. “How many times have you jumped?” she asked.

Serena grinned and held up six wrinkly pink fingers.

“I’m going to jump this time!” Ashur announced, having made it to the top of the diving board. Though as he began to cautiously inch forward, Inanna had her doubts.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Sooner or later you're gonna have to stop sayin' it, and actually do it, dude," Cato called out from the slightly taller diving board right next to Ashur's. His father glanced down at him, smirking as he rocked back and forth on the board, which wobbled under his weight. "Tell ya what. Why don't we jump in together, at the same time?" He asked. With a few more bounces in sync, he counted down, "Three… two… one!" Regardless of whether or not Ashur actually followed, Cato surged forward and leapt off the diving board, doing a frontward flip midair before curling into a cannonball that splashed most explosively.

Serena laughed, and reemerged from the waves that temporarily submerged her, "Cool!"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

"Sooner or later you're gonna have to stop sayin' it, and actually do it, dude."

Ashur looked over at his father with wide red eyes. "I'm gonna do it!" he protested, not very convincingly.

Inanna watched Cato from over the rims of her sunglasses. The afternoon sun shone on his wet skin, still corded with lean muscle. It was hard to believe they were coming up on their tenth wedding anniversary. He certainly hadn’t aged much in a decade…

"Tell ya what. Why don't we jump in together, at the same time?"

"Okay..." Ashur agreed,

"Three… two… one!"

Ashur managed to sync up with his dad, but when it came time to jump, he froze up. The board continued to bounce, effectively bucking him off. He lost his balance and fell forward, narrowly managing to catch the edge of the board. There he hung, legs kicking, fear and frustration written across his Chiss features in equal measure.

Cato slammed into the water below, spraying far enough he even managed to hit Inanna. “Hey, you got me wet!” she complained, looking down at the water spots on her black one piece swimsuit. It didn't matter, of course, but she took that as her cue to get out of the splash radius. "Ashur, you better get down from there," she said, standing up from her chair. "I'm going to the snack bar. Anybody want anything?"

"I want ice cream," Ashur called out, still clinging to the board.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Ashur agreed, but sure enough, did not manage to jump in. To his credit, he did nearly complete the attempt, only to falter at the last minute. It left him hanging from the board. Cato reemerged from the water, not quite hearing Inanna's complaint as the water drained from his ears. He only gave her a stupid grin in response to whatever it was she said.

"I'm going to the snack bar. Anybody want anything?"

"Yeah!" Serena said. "But I don't know what they have…" So rather than sit by, she climbed out of the pool and followed her mom as she headed for the snack bar to browse.

"I'm good," Cato said, in a rare moment of not being hungry. He looked up at Ashur, who was now effectively hogging the board with his inability to jump off. Cato flicked his wrist, and telekinetically wrenched the boy's grasp from the board, causing him to finally fall into the pool.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna grabbed a dry towel and wrapped it around Serena’s shoulders. Taking her daughter’s hand, they walked to the snack bar together.

Ashur felt his grip loosening. He didn’t have much time to panic before he fell with a loud splash. Resurfacing, he swam frantically into the shallow end of the pool, where he snorted and shook his head vigorously to clear out his ears. “I… I’m gonna do it again!” he declared bravely, climbing out of the pool and heading back to the diving board ladder, shivering all the while as water streamed off his skinny body…

“Oh great, there’s a line,” Inanna muttered as they turned the corner. She and Serena went to the back, where they stood behind a large family of Kitonaks. Cato’s old landlord on Narsh, Gurt, had been the same type of alien. Wonder how he’s doing now…

“Can you see the menu from here?” Inanna asked Serena. She had a feeling they wouldn’t be waiting long, and wanted to be prepared.

An agitated voice drew her attention. Over in the dining area, a man with blue skin—a Wroonian, if her ability to differentiate between the various blue humanoid species was still sharp—was being dragged away by a pair of burly Ssi-ruuk. Inanna's first assumption was that they were security, and he was being kicked out for one reason or another. It was hard to make out what he was saying, but she thought she heard something about not having their money. Typical.

As they marched past the line, the Wroonian continued to struggle—until he somehow managed to break free of their grasp. He took off running toward the pool area, while the Ssi-ruuk gave chase.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

“That’s the spirit,” Cato said, raising a thumbs up. Maybe now that Ashur had (technically) done it once, he’d be able to do it for real this time. Cato had his doubts, though.

“Uhh… yeah,” Serena answered, squinting to get a better look. As they waited there was a slight commotion boiling up nearby. It wasn’t the voices that first got Serena’s attention, but the emotions. She whipped around and shamelessly stared at the scene playing out in front of them. Most others around them wrote it off as some casual hooliganism, but Serena was more shaken. As the Wroonian ran past, she muttered, “That guy was really scared,” Not just anxious or startled. Afraid for his safety.

Cato climbed out of the pool, and stood up just in time to become an incidental roadblock for the Wroonian. He bumped into Cato, knocking himself onto his back and nearly tossing Cato back into the water, “Woah!” He said, slipping and quickly regaining his footing, “Don’t you know there’s no running around the pool, speedy?” Cato proffered a hand, then looked up to see the Ssi-ruuk closing in, already suspecting something more was going on, “...Can I help you all?” He asked both the man and his pursuers suspiciously.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna picked up on the emotion in her daughter's voice at once. The poor girl had that infamous Zeltron empathy, easily overwhelmed by the emotions of others. She wrapped an arm around Serena, stroking her wet hair, seeking to comfort the girl. But in the back of her mind, even the Shi'ido was beginning to get a bad feeling about the situation. She wasn't about to go and get involved, though—not when she had Serena with her. "Don't worry about it, honey," she said. "I'm sure it's just some silly disagreement."

As the person in front of them finished paying for their food, Inanna and Serena stepped forward to order...

... Ashur, meanwhile, had climbed back up to the top of the diving board. He was just starting to creep toward the edge when the Wroonian came running around the corner, crashing headlong into Cato as the latter was getting out of the pool. He fell flat on his ass, uttering a grunt of pain on impact. One of his two Ssi-ruuk pursuers then slipped on a puddle and nearly did a backflip. Ashur couldn't help but laugh at the sight, the board wobbling with his chortles.

“Don’t you know there’s no running around the pool, speedy?”

The Wroonian looked at Cato with wide eyes. "You gotta help me!" he blurted out. "They're tryna fethin' kill me!"

“...Can I help you all?”

The other Ssi-ruuk helped its partner back to their feet, and the pair looked at Cato with disdain. "He owes the boss man money," one hissed.

"Lots of money," the other added. "We're here to collect."

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Serena seemed skeptical of her mother's explanation. But she said nothing else, and simply stepped up to order with her.

One of the pursuers slipped into a rather embarrassing pratfall, driving home Cato's comment about pool safety. "Woah-kay," Cato raised a palm as if to stay any rash movements from either side. The Ssi-ruuk notably did not say anything to deny the man's claim, instead clarifying that the Wroonian owed their boss money. If they were trying not to sound like criminal enforcers, they didn't do a very good job of it. "Chasing a man down in broad daylight? Is that how things are done around here?"

"Surely there's gotta be a better solution for you all than this." He didn't want to do anything rash. This planet wasn't familiar to him, and the details of this particular shuffle certainly weren't. But with how things were already going, Cato was mentally preparing himself for trouble.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

"Chasing a man down in broad daylight? Is that how things are done around here? Surely there's gotta be a better solution for you all than this."

The two Ssi-ruuk exchanged looks. "Why are you getting involved, man?" one asked. "This doesn't concern you."

"Sorry to bother you, enjoy your vacation—" the other added, reaching for the Wroonian.

He yelped and leaped away from their grasp. The Ssi-ruuk lunged, each one seizing one of the man's arms while he struggled and screamed for help.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"You're the ones making it our concern…" Cato stood up a little taller, sizing up the Ssi-ruuk. He was actually a little bit taller than one of them. He pointed his gaze towards the other pool patrons now watching the disturbance, accentuating his point. One of them tried to defuse things with Cato, but when he reached for the Wroonian, the chaos started all over again.

"Hey!" Cato grabbed one of them on the wrist, "Unless you two can show me a badge, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave empty-handed."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Despite the escalating tensions, Ashur wasn't worried. His dad was a Jedi; these two dinosaur dudes were cooked if they tried anything. Sure enough, the Wroonian managed to break free of his captors and took off running again.

That is, until one of the Ssi-ruuk pulled out a weapon, took aim and fired. The Wroonian was hit in the back; his body went limp and he collapsed in a heap. Grimacing, the other Ssi-ruuk pulled out his paddle beamer and trained it on Cato, expecting a fight.

Chaos broke out as other pool patrons began screaming and running from the scene. Ashur was still stranded at the top of the diving board. The boy's fear of the deep end was finally overwhelmed by his desire to not get shot, and he jumped into the water below.

Inanna and Serena, naturally, returned at that exact moment with their snacks, only to find a panicked stampede fleeing the pool. "What the—" Inanna blurted in surprise, pulling her daughter behind her. "Ashur!" Her eyes scanned the crowds for the missing Chiss boy. "Cato!"

Cato Harth​