Kaili Talith
Forgotten, not gone.
“You need pilots?”
“Yes.”
“Crew members?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you have droids you could make for that?”
This was the third time Kaili had asked around the cantina. Third time she had been met with the same response. Andromeda must have reached further from the Core Worlds than the girl would have thought. Her hand landed with a thud. Disappointment and disbelief weighed down on her and she turned around to leave the man alone. Maybe he had a point, maybe Kaili should create a crew for her ship. They sure were easier to manage, easier to talk to. The girl caught herself before she quite possibly wrecked herself in an almost certainly literal way. There were some things she was comfortable with giving an AI the responsibility for, but a ship was not one of them. When it came to ships the human error factor was far more manageable than that of an AI’s.
“Actually, no.” Kaili said as she raised her finger and turned back towards the man. “I am offering you and your people an opportunity to live comfortably aboard a ship with luxur-”
“Look, little lady, you don’t do our kind of work.” The man interrupted her. The girl looked annoyed.
“Your kind of work?” She grumbled.
“Our kind of work.” He repeated. “We’re not a service provider, missy. We’re more into… Let’s call it acquisitions.”
“Piracy.” Kaili stated to him plain.
“Acquisitions.” The man repeated himself again. “There is no need to be crude about it.”
The girl gritted her teeth, had half a mind to deck the man right where she stood. Yet instead,
“I see.” Kaili hissed and took a step back only to find her shoulder pressing against a solid surface. Head turned slightly to get a look. Two armed men surrounded her. “... I see.”
“Hard way, easy way, it makes no difference.” The pirate said as he stood up from the table, finished his drink in one sweep and pointed his blade towards the blonde. “Valuables are our thing. You seem the kind to have them.”
“...Question is, are you the kind to hand them over or not?” A grin grew on the pirates lips.
The girl’s lips grew thin. Air came bursting through her nose as she slowly rolled her eyes and shoulders. Her hand seemingly reached towards her jacket as she turned around but her eyes locked onto a nearby bottle. The air grew heavier and her heart began pounding just a little bit harder. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the pirate’s grin grow wider at the prospect of some quick credits, but Kaili had no intentions of letting it last. Her hand swiftly reached up for the bottle’s neck. She didn’t see the look on the man’s face as she smashed it across his face, didn’t care about the way his men recoiled in surprise at what they saw.
The element of surprise was Kaili’s and she utilized it to its the fullest extent. One hand extended itself towards the rodian thug with a kinetic blast before giving the third suspect as clean of a right hook as the moment would allow. The captain staggered back, tried to grasp at the blonde’s neck but found himself out of reach as the world grew blurrier for each moment that passed. The rodian fell over on his back from the push, his pipe slipping out of his reach.
“You schutta!” The captain cried out as he tried to wipe the glass and debris out of his face.
Kaili didn’t listen. Her hands latched on to the thug before her. A growl parted her lips, exposed her teeth to the world as she thrust her knee as far into the man’s front as she could. A small whine parted his lips as he promptly fell to the floor upon release. Another kinetic wave grabbed ahold of the Rodian trying to get up from the floor. She had him at her mercy, but that mattered little. One upwards motion had him off the ground, a rapid tug downwards sent him crashing into the ground.
The captain remained stationary as he hopelessly tried to get rid of the debris.
A firm hand latched on to the back of his head. Kaili could have stopped but she didn’t. His kind were scum, his kind deserved no less. The girl could feel the grease in his hair, the dried out spots of blood. Innocents, the people that his kind preyed and forced themselves upon. Her teeth gritted at the thought and with as much force as she could muster she sent the man flying. A loud whack would be the last thing this man would remember from this evening much like the dirty bar counter would be the last thing he ever heard.
The girl turned around to face her adoring audience to make sure no one else wanted a piece of her. Her fists remained tied into tiny little knots, her breath heaving through the whites of her teeth. As it grew more and more obvious that it was all over she slowly began to lower her guard, relax and brush the dust off her shoulder.
“I’ll see myself out.” She nodded at the bartender who most certainly nodded back.
Look like a flower, but sting like the serpent underneath it.
The walk outside had weighed with the stares of cautious admirers and careful opportunists. Nobody tried anything but it felt like it was all an inch away. The door outside swept open and the smooth sandstone floors were soon swapped for cold metal tiling. Kaili kept herself alert, played the exit off as any other exit on any other day. Inside of her a storm was brewing, chastising her for another momentary lack of control. Another temper tantrum in which someone got hurt, deserving or not.
The blonde swept into an alleyway a few blocks away from the cantina to recollect her thoughts. Her forehead planted itself against the chilly wall. Her hair fell by each side of her like a drapery of shame. A shiver ran down her spine like a river of guilt. Kaili took a deep breath and found herself in a shaky exhale. It felt like all blood was about to drain from her face, as if her knees wanted to give way to gravity and let the girl fall. She refused, but the temptation to admit defeat was stronger than she’d wanted. She staved it off, tried curling her hands into a fist and bashing it against the wall with little to no result at all.
“You alright, kid?” The voice caught Kaili off-guard and she pushed herself off the wall in panic.
“You seem a bit worked up.” The kid stared at the man uncertain what to do. She blinked, she tried to speak but couldn’t find the strength to make it happen.
“Yeah,” She mumbled. “Just have to catch my breath.”
The man merely nodded. His attention went towards the back of the alley and then back to Kaili again. The girl did the same. Kept her eyes peeled on the other end as if she expected someone to jump out of the shadows and hit her over the head with a bat. No one did, but she kept expecting it to happen. She gave the man a brief sidestare and then looked back down the alley. The man perked his brow and decided to have another glance down the alley as well.
“It’s… Empty.” The man said, perking his brow at the girl in confusion. “Are you high?”
“What? No, I’m-” Kaili cleared her throat and straightened her back. “I’m just… Jumping at shadows, I guess.”
“Why?” The man quickly added.
“Cantina brawl.” Kaili responded.
“Aren’t you a bit too young for that?”
“Not really?”
“Pretty sure you are.” The man snickered and got up off the ground and walked on over to Kaili.
“Name’s Quin. Quin Serrano.” He said, extending a hand as a greeting. “And you are… ?”
“Kaili Talith.” The girl said, grabbing the man by his hand and giving it a firm shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”
The man stared at her for a second as if he tried to recognize her. Kaili was still trying to get used to that; the idea that people would suddenly seem to be somewhat aware of who she was. She was far from a household name, but being the face of a corporation that helped rebuild Coruscant was most certainly bound to attract some attention, unwanted or no. The man’s brow dropped and he didn’t seem to make as much of a fuss about her name as the girl had already expected. Truth be told it was almost Kaili herself who would be the one to perk a brow.
“Well I hope you don’t mind me saying, Kaili Talith,” The man grinned. “But you don’t really strike me as the kind of woman who would visit such places.”
The girl broke; her eyebrow quirked out of curiosity. “Oh really?” She said as she leaned back with an ever growing smirk. “Where do you think you’d see me then, Mister Serrano?”
“Oh you know. Board meetings, workshops, drawing board…” Quin said — grin withstanding.
The girl laughed out loud. “Well, maybe you would. Who’s to say a girl can’t enjoy both?”
“Common sense.” The man responded with a retort as dry as the dunes of Tatooine.
Kaili laughed again. “Maybe so.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, ma’am-” Quin began.
“Kaili.” Kaili interrupted and the man snickered.
“Alright then. If you don’t mind me asking, Kaili,” He threw a quick glance around them and then shrugged. “What are you doing here?”
The girl looked around as well, tried to see if anyone was listening. Her eyes saw nothing, the force sensed no one. The girl nodded and then looked back at Quin. He was a likable sort, knew how to talk to people and make them feel safe. A trait as equally beneficial to the wielder as it was dangerous to those he surrounded himself with. Still, he felt pure at heart and Kaili wasn’t going to turn away from a conversation based solely on unbased paranoia.
“Hiring.” Kaili said rather plain.
“Hiring?” The man inquired as he ran a hand through his scruff. “For what?”
Something caused the man to grow nervous. Kaili leaned back again.
“It’s a personal matter, why?”
The seemingly happy man turned quiet, hesitant. He gave the girl a careful glance again, as if he was treading on shards of glass and crystal. Maybe it was something in what the girl had said, or maybe it was the way she had said it? The reasons why the man would suddenly freeze up so was lost on her, but in an effort to make him calm down Kaili eased up for a second. She stopped leaning back on her heel and shook her head while trying to find the words that would break the silence before it turned uncomfortable.
“Nothing big, just… Hiring.” Kaili re-assured the man that he had done nothing wrong. After all, he had only asked a question. There was no harm in that. “Actually, if you need to know, I am looking for a crew. A workforce, really.”
The man stared at the ground. “Oh, you are?” His voice had taken on a lower-pitch, a mumble.
“Yeah, the uh, brawl was me approaching the wrong kind of people.” Kaili snickered and took a step closer to the man. She gave her hand an awkward glance of hesitation before observing as she extended it towards his shoulder. “Is something wrong, Mister Serrano?”
“No, nothing is wrong, Miss Talith.” The man’s voice wavered. A moment passed before he snickered again, tried to bring himself up. “Not sure why you would visit that particular cantina is all.”
Kaili looked out at the busy street before looking at the man again. “Really now?”
“Worst dump this place has to offer.” The man smiled again. Kaili let her hand slide off his shoulder and slump by her side again. “Just, uh, what kind of crew are you looking for? Maybe I can help?”
“Just a crew in general. Someone to monitor the systems, small repairs, maybe the occasional flight.” Kaili shrugged and bounced her head from either side to the other. “Which, yes, I could technically create a droid for, but there are some things I just don’t feel comfortable passing over to an AI.”
“Makes sense.” The man said as his inexperience with such things showed in his clueless expression.
“But yeah, hiring…” Kaili waved her arms by her side. “You seem like reasonable sort,” She said looking at the scruffy man. “You wouldn’t happen to know someone who could use a job, would you?”
The man’s smile slowly faded again.
“As a matter of fact I do.” He said.
“Oh?” Kaili said rather excitedly.
“Me.” The man pointed at himself as the shame proved too much. His eyes set on the floor again.
“... Oh.” The girl perked her brows. “How about that.”
It was a bit like a scenario out of a fairy tale of sorts. The rich and young company director who stumbled upon a man down on his luck and hired him. The mere craziness of the idea had Kaili reconsidering. She had just met this man, she didn’t know him, yet something about him made her really consider it. He was a rugged man with a scruff that few could match and his heart seemed to be in the right place. Which, if you considered Kaili’s most recent Cantina encounter was already a step up in itself. Her eyes darted up and down as she tried to see beyond his appearance, poke at what he had to offer.
“So what do you do?” Kaili asked. Her lips curled into a vague smile and she tried to sound as encouraging as she could. The man clearly had his issues with the fact that he was in his current position, she had to at least try and make it more bearable for him.
“What do you mean?” Quin responded as his head seemed to lift from the floor and carefully set his attention at Kaili.
“What do you do? Have you had a job before?” Kaili answered the man’s question and urged him to look straight at her. The man obliged, straightened his back and took a deep breath.
“I used to work in the factories.” He said. Kaili perked her brow, her interest piqued. “Had to keep the conveyors running. We sold weapons to the Lords of the Fringe when they were still a thing, but with their dissolution I quickly found myself out here on the streets as the factory closed down for good.”
“But they’re open again, aren’t they?” Kaili asked out of surprise at what she was hearing.
“Droids took the job.” The man gave the girl a serious look and for the first time in a good while Kaili felt something that she hadn’t expected herself to feel. At least not in this context, not in regards to her own job.
Her stare lingered, her voice lowered into an inaudible. “Oh.”
It quickly became her turn to stare at the ground.
“I can offer you a job, if you want.” The offer was genuine. Kaili owed the man. “Pay might not be the best but I can offer you food as well as a roof over your head.”
The man’s brows perked, his sadness still showing. “Oh?”
“Yeah, it’d be onboard the ship that I am building.” Kaili scratched the back of her neck and pulled herself out of the pit of guilt that the man had sent her into. “If you have anyone else that could use a job, or if there is anyone you need to take with you, then I can see to that as well.”
“But why me?” The man asked, Kaili recoiled in surprise. “You can find better people.”
“Can I though?” The girl asked in response. “I have talked to three groups of people so far and out of all three of these groups you are the only one who hasn’t given me the cold shoulder.”
Quin dragged a hand through his rugged black hair trying to find the words. To have gone one day from begging in the streets to being offered a job and housing. Thoughts went to his wife and child and what they needed. Kaili had extended her hand for them as well, but this didn’t feel like a decision that was his to make alone. The hand that had run through his hair ran once more through his beard.
“Can I talk to my wife about this?” He asked.
“Of course,” Kaili nodded. “I’m not in a rush.”
“Good, okay… Uh,” The man hesitated. “Good.”
His feet began shuffling towards the street again. “You’re free to come along, if you want.”
“Uh, sure.” Kaili shrugged. “I’d be happy to.”
The man felt a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth.
“We live around the corner.” The man said, pointing towards another alley.
A knot formed in Kaili’s stomach. She had the sneaking suspicion she knew what that meant.
“Yes.”
“Crew members?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you have droids you could make for that?”
This was the third time Kaili had asked around the cantina. Third time she had been met with the same response. Andromeda must have reached further from the Core Worlds than the girl would have thought. Her hand landed with a thud. Disappointment and disbelief weighed down on her and she turned around to leave the man alone. Maybe he had a point, maybe Kaili should create a crew for her ship. They sure were easier to manage, easier to talk to. The girl caught herself before she quite possibly wrecked herself in an almost certainly literal way. There were some things she was comfortable with giving an AI the responsibility for, but a ship was not one of them. When it came to ships the human error factor was far more manageable than that of an AI’s.
“Actually, no.” Kaili said as she raised her finger and turned back towards the man. “I am offering you and your people an opportunity to live comfortably aboard a ship with luxur-”
“Look, little lady, you don’t do our kind of work.” The man interrupted her. The girl looked annoyed.
“Your kind of work?” She grumbled.
“Our kind of work.” He repeated. “We’re not a service provider, missy. We’re more into… Let’s call it acquisitions.”
“Piracy.” Kaili stated to him plain.
“Acquisitions.” The man repeated himself again. “There is no need to be crude about it.”
The girl gritted her teeth, had half a mind to deck the man right where she stood. Yet instead,
“I see.” Kaili hissed and took a step back only to find her shoulder pressing against a solid surface. Head turned slightly to get a look. Two armed men surrounded her. “... I see.”
“Hard way, easy way, it makes no difference.” The pirate said as he stood up from the table, finished his drink in one sweep and pointed his blade towards the blonde. “Valuables are our thing. You seem the kind to have them.”
“...Question is, are you the kind to hand them over or not?” A grin grew on the pirates lips.
The girl’s lips grew thin. Air came bursting through her nose as she slowly rolled her eyes and shoulders. Her hand seemingly reached towards her jacket as she turned around but her eyes locked onto a nearby bottle. The air grew heavier and her heart began pounding just a little bit harder. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the pirate’s grin grow wider at the prospect of some quick credits, but Kaili had no intentions of letting it last. Her hand swiftly reached up for the bottle’s neck. She didn’t see the look on the man’s face as she smashed it across his face, didn’t care about the way his men recoiled in surprise at what they saw.
The element of surprise was Kaili’s and she utilized it to its the fullest extent. One hand extended itself towards the rodian thug with a kinetic blast before giving the third suspect as clean of a right hook as the moment would allow. The captain staggered back, tried to grasp at the blonde’s neck but found himself out of reach as the world grew blurrier for each moment that passed. The rodian fell over on his back from the push, his pipe slipping out of his reach.
“You schutta!” The captain cried out as he tried to wipe the glass and debris out of his face.
Kaili didn’t listen. Her hands latched on to the thug before her. A growl parted her lips, exposed her teeth to the world as she thrust her knee as far into the man’s front as she could. A small whine parted his lips as he promptly fell to the floor upon release. Another kinetic wave grabbed ahold of the Rodian trying to get up from the floor. She had him at her mercy, but that mattered little. One upwards motion had him off the ground, a rapid tug downwards sent him crashing into the ground.
The captain remained stationary as he hopelessly tried to get rid of the debris.
A firm hand latched on to the back of his head. Kaili could have stopped but she didn’t. His kind were scum, his kind deserved no less. The girl could feel the grease in his hair, the dried out spots of blood. Innocents, the people that his kind preyed and forced themselves upon. Her teeth gritted at the thought and with as much force as she could muster she sent the man flying. A loud whack would be the last thing this man would remember from this evening much like the dirty bar counter would be the last thing he ever heard.
The girl turned around to face her adoring audience to make sure no one else wanted a piece of her. Her fists remained tied into tiny little knots, her breath heaving through the whites of her teeth. As it grew more and more obvious that it was all over she slowly began to lower her guard, relax and brush the dust off her shoulder.
“I’ll see myself out.” She nodded at the bartender who most certainly nodded back.
Look like a flower, but sting like the serpent underneath it.
The walk outside had weighed with the stares of cautious admirers and careful opportunists. Nobody tried anything but it felt like it was all an inch away. The door outside swept open and the smooth sandstone floors were soon swapped for cold metal tiling. Kaili kept herself alert, played the exit off as any other exit on any other day. Inside of her a storm was brewing, chastising her for another momentary lack of control. Another temper tantrum in which someone got hurt, deserving or not.
The blonde swept into an alleyway a few blocks away from the cantina to recollect her thoughts. Her forehead planted itself against the chilly wall. Her hair fell by each side of her like a drapery of shame. A shiver ran down her spine like a river of guilt. Kaili took a deep breath and found herself in a shaky exhale. It felt like all blood was about to drain from her face, as if her knees wanted to give way to gravity and let the girl fall. She refused, but the temptation to admit defeat was stronger than she’d wanted. She staved it off, tried curling her hands into a fist and bashing it against the wall with little to no result at all.
“You alright, kid?” The voice caught Kaili off-guard and she pushed herself off the wall in panic.
“You seem a bit worked up.” The kid stared at the man uncertain what to do. She blinked, she tried to speak but couldn’t find the strength to make it happen.
“Yeah,” She mumbled. “Just have to catch my breath.”
The man merely nodded. His attention went towards the back of the alley and then back to Kaili again. The girl did the same. Kept her eyes peeled on the other end as if she expected someone to jump out of the shadows and hit her over the head with a bat. No one did, but she kept expecting it to happen. She gave the man a brief sidestare and then looked back down the alley. The man perked his brow and decided to have another glance down the alley as well.
“It’s… Empty.” The man said, perking his brow at the girl in confusion. “Are you high?”
“What? No, I’m-” Kaili cleared her throat and straightened her back. “I’m just… Jumping at shadows, I guess.”
“Why?” The man quickly added.
“Cantina brawl.” Kaili responded.
“Aren’t you a bit too young for that?”
“Not really?”
“Pretty sure you are.” The man snickered and got up off the ground and walked on over to Kaili.
“Name’s Quin. Quin Serrano.” He said, extending a hand as a greeting. “And you are… ?”
“Kaili Talith.” The girl said, grabbing the man by his hand and giving it a firm shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”
The man stared at her for a second as if he tried to recognize her. Kaili was still trying to get used to that; the idea that people would suddenly seem to be somewhat aware of who she was. She was far from a household name, but being the face of a corporation that helped rebuild Coruscant was most certainly bound to attract some attention, unwanted or no. The man’s brow dropped and he didn’t seem to make as much of a fuss about her name as the girl had already expected. Truth be told it was almost Kaili herself who would be the one to perk a brow.
“Well I hope you don’t mind me saying, Kaili Talith,” The man grinned. “But you don’t really strike me as the kind of woman who would visit such places.”
The girl broke; her eyebrow quirked out of curiosity. “Oh really?” She said as she leaned back with an ever growing smirk. “Where do you think you’d see me then, Mister Serrano?”
“Oh you know. Board meetings, workshops, drawing board…” Quin said — grin withstanding.
The girl laughed out loud. “Well, maybe you would. Who’s to say a girl can’t enjoy both?”
“Common sense.” The man responded with a retort as dry as the dunes of Tatooine.
Kaili laughed again. “Maybe so.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, ma’am-” Quin began.
“Kaili.” Kaili interrupted and the man snickered.
“Alright then. If you don’t mind me asking, Kaili,” He threw a quick glance around them and then shrugged. “What are you doing here?”
The girl looked around as well, tried to see if anyone was listening. Her eyes saw nothing, the force sensed no one. The girl nodded and then looked back at Quin. He was a likable sort, knew how to talk to people and make them feel safe. A trait as equally beneficial to the wielder as it was dangerous to those he surrounded himself with. Still, he felt pure at heart and Kaili wasn’t going to turn away from a conversation based solely on unbased paranoia.
“Hiring.” Kaili said rather plain.
“Hiring?” The man inquired as he ran a hand through his scruff. “For what?”
Something caused the man to grow nervous. Kaili leaned back again.
“It’s a personal matter, why?”
The seemingly happy man turned quiet, hesitant. He gave the girl a careful glance again, as if he was treading on shards of glass and crystal. Maybe it was something in what the girl had said, or maybe it was the way she had said it? The reasons why the man would suddenly freeze up so was lost on her, but in an effort to make him calm down Kaili eased up for a second. She stopped leaning back on her heel and shook her head while trying to find the words that would break the silence before it turned uncomfortable.
“Nothing big, just… Hiring.” Kaili re-assured the man that he had done nothing wrong. After all, he had only asked a question. There was no harm in that. “Actually, if you need to know, I am looking for a crew. A workforce, really.”
The man stared at the ground. “Oh, you are?” His voice had taken on a lower-pitch, a mumble.
“Yeah, the uh, brawl was me approaching the wrong kind of people.” Kaili snickered and took a step closer to the man. She gave her hand an awkward glance of hesitation before observing as she extended it towards his shoulder. “Is something wrong, Mister Serrano?”
“No, nothing is wrong, Miss Talith.” The man’s voice wavered. A moment passed before he snickered again, tried to bring himself up. “Not sure why you would visit that particular cantina is all.”
Kaili looked out at the busy street before looking at the man again. “Really now?”
“Worst dump this place has to offer.” The man smiled again. Kaili let her hand slide off his shoulder and slump by her side again. “Just, uh, what kind of crew are you looking for? Maybe I can help?”
“Just a crew in general. Someone to monitor the systems, small repairs, maybe the occasional flight.” Kaili shrugged and bounced her head from either side to the other. “Which, yes, I could technically create a droid for, but there are some things I just don’t feel comfortable passing over to an AI.”
“Makes sense.” The man said as his inexperience with such things showed in his clueless expression.
“But yeah, hiring…” Kaili waved her arms by her side. “You seem like reasonable sort,” She said looking at the scruffy man. “You wouldn’t happen to know someone who could use a job, would you?”
The man’s smile slowly faded again.
“As a matter of fact I do.” He said.
“Oh?” Kaili said rather excitedly.
“Me.” The man pointed at himself as the shame proved too much. His eyes set on the floor again.
“... Oh.” The girl perked her brows. “How about that.”
It was a bit like a scenario out of a fairy tale of sorts. The rich and young company director who stumbled upon a man down on his luck and hired him. The mere craziness of the idea had Kaili reconsidering. She had just met this man, she didn’t know him, yet something about him made her really consider it. He was a rugged man with a scruff that few could match and his heart seemed to be in the right place. Which, if you considered Kaili’s most recent Cantina encounter was already a step up in itself. Her eyes darted up and down as she tried to see beyond his appearance, poke at what he had to offer.
“So what do you do?” Kaili asked. Her lips curled into a vague smile and she tried to sound as encouraging as she could. The man clearly had his issues with the fact that he was in his current position, she had to at least try and make it more bearable for him.
“What do you mean?” Quin responded as his head seemed to lift from the floor and carefully set his attention at Kaili.
“What do you do? Have you had a job before?” Kaili answered the man’s question and urged him to look straight at her. The man obliged, straightened his back and took a deep breath.
“I used to work in the factories.” He said. Kaili perked her brow, her interest piqued. “Had to keep the conveyors running. We sold weapons to the Lords of the Fringe when they were still a thing, but with their dissolution I quickly found myself out here on the streets as the factory closed down for good.”
“But they’re open again, aren’t they?” Kaili asked out of surprise at what she was hearing.
“Droids took the job.” The man gave the girl a serious look and for the first time in a good while Kaili felt something that she hadn’t expected herself to feel. At least not in this context, not in regards to her own job.
Her stare lingered, her voice lowered into an inaudible. “Oh.”
It quickly became her turn to stare at the ground.
“I can offer you a job, if you want.” The offer was genuine. Kaili owed the man. “Pay might not be the best but I can offer you food as well as a roof over your head.”
The man’s brows perked, his sadness still showing. “Oh?”
“Yeah, it’d be onboard the ship that I am building.” Kaili scratched the back of her neck and pulled herself out of the pit of guilt that the man had sent her into. “If you have anyone else that could use a job, or if there is anyone you need to take with you, then I can see to that as well.”
“But why me?” The man asked, Kaili recoiled in surprise. “You can find better people.”
“Can I though?” The girl asked in response. “I have talked to three groups of people so far and out of all three of these groups you are the only one who hasn’t given me the cold shoulder.”
Quin dragged a hand through his rugged black hair trying to find the words. To have gone one day from begging in the streets to being offered a job and housing. Thoughts went to his wife and child and what they needed. Kaili had extended her hand for them as well, but this didn’t feel like a decision that was his to make alone. The hand that had run through his hair ran once more through his beard.
“Can I talk to my wife about this?” He asked.
“Of course,” Kaili nodded. “I’m not in a rush.”
“Good, okay… Uh,” The man hesitated. “Good.”
His feet began shuffling towards the street again. “You’re free to come along, if you want.”
“Uh, sure.” Kaili shrugged. “I’d be happy to.”
The man felt a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth.
“We live around the corner.” The man said, pointing towards another alley.
A knot formed in Kaili’s stomach. She had the sneaking suspicion she knew what that meant.
The girl tried to smile as sure enough her suspicions were true. Quin stopped for a second at the entrance to the alleyway. He looked over his shoulder at the girl and then the alley.
“It might be best if you stay here.” He said. Kaili stared down the colorful bazaar of tents and bedrolls that seemed to cling to the walls of the place. A shack town in which she wasn’t a welcomed face. She gave her guide a careful nod and took a step back to distance herself just a little from what she was seeing. Perhaps to distance herself from the risk at having others noticing who she was as well. Andromeda most likely had little to do with these people losing their jobs, Kaili had no memory of ever agreeing to create such a thing, an industrial droid. Hegemonic Automaton, perhaps, but not Andromeda. Never Andromeda.
The girl watched as the man slipped into the crowds and further into the depths of the colorful maze of shacks, housing that most likely met the basics worthy of sentient life before bright colors were slapped onto it. The people weren’t in obvious squalor, but they certainly weren’t sipping century old wine either. They were cast aside and had formed a community of their own out of the common bond that held them together. Perhaps what pained Kaili the most was the fact that she knew she couldn’t fix it either. She was richer since her company had grown, but she wasn’t on such a level that allowed her to buy a factory and rehire them. Not only would that undermine everything and build a dependency, move their lives into her hands, but it would set an example for other worlds that she couldn’t possibly live up to.
Kindness birthed kindness, too much of it birthed trouble. One good deed outweighed many. She would hire one man and his family, but anything beyond that would be a burden on not just the girl but also the employee.
A few looks went her way but none of them remained. Children gave her a curious look every now and then trying to make out who she was, but playtime always had a way of bringing attentions elsewhere.
Now that made Kaili smile.
Out of the crowds she could see as Quin returned with his wife. Kaili watched the couple push on through the people in their way until eventually they both stood before her. Kaili looked them both over, gave them a cordial smile and extended her hand for the wife to grab.
“I’m-” Kaili began. “Kaili Talith.” They both finished.
“I know who you are, girl.” The woman stared at Kaili and swept her ginger hair aside. “You are one of them people from the billboards.”
Kaili wanted to correct her but quickly remembered that the days of being a mere small-town shop was over. For all Kaili knew, she very well might have actually been on a billboard or in an ad around here. Maybe not in person, but her company might have. Kaili herself would never in her life agree to be in her own advertisements. Something about it just felt so fake.
“I, uh… Yes, that may have been me.” Kaili admitted as she took a deep breath and tucked her hair behind her ears. “I’ll be straight to the point with you, miss-”
“Ari.” The woman interjected.
“Ari.” Kaili repeated. “I offered your husband a job. He said he wanted to talk to you, I was under the impression that he had, uh-” The girl looked at Quin. “Told you already.”
The woman blinked before she too looked over at her husband looking quite unamused. “No, he did not.” She perked her brow and the man merely grinned, rolled his shoulder in a shrug and looked at the two women in front of him.
“I wanted it to be a surprise!” He offered in response.
“Mhm.” His wife hummed. “And what exactly would that job entail, Miss Kaili Talith?”
Kaili looked at the two. “Well…”
