Not on my ship

[Malia Afredane]

"I find it interesting you classify that as a childish tantrum," she chuckled as she turned in her chair to look at him. The cockpit of the Grey Warden was massive and she found it rather nice to be quietly sitting in the big room by herself while the rest of the crew slept. She could get away with watching her trashy soap operas without Kairon noticing that she was hopeless glued to them.

Mal had been more formal in her leadership since they started on the Warden and the former Republic officer shined through in her actions and words from time to time. Jarrick had taken to it like nothing and even Asmus was toeing a sharp line most of the time.

"I suppose we could try it. You've been good about deferring to my orders. I think the others know who to listen to in this room. I can put you in the pilot rotation if you want."

She leaned over to kiss him but about that time, a warning light went off on the console, and alarm blaring as the indicators for the environmental controls in the cargo hold went off. Mal's attention was immediately back on the situation in front of her and she swore harshly as she flipped the controls to drop them out of hyperspace, and call back to the twins to start moving the crates out of the affected bay and into an adjacent.

Shaking her head, she rose from the chair to go back to engineering.

"Come on, no rest for the wicked..."

[member="Kairon Rees"] [member="Narasa Kelori"] [member='Rusty'] [member='Sidara Vercopa-Vhett']

 

[Kairon Rees]

As Kairon stepped after Mal, he spied the datapad nestled into the controls. A wry smile graced his lips as he stepped in behind her. The screen was still on the Holoflix home screen. He idly wondered if she'd been binding on Romancing the Seeker or Garqi Hospital this time. Must have been between seasons as she hadn't moved with any speed to turn the screen off.

“Mai, a hand please!” he called as they walked briskly towards the hangars. Nearly the whole crew would be up now, either getting up or relaxing before turning in.

“Anything serious?” she asked as she fell in with them.

There was a moment as Kairon was taken aback by her lack of insubordination. Perhaps Mal was just a much better captain than he had been, but the cathar was definitely softening. “Probably just the twins getting confused and putting a crate in front of a conditioning vent again,” he said.

 

[Rusty]

Rusty was in the middle of his pre-shift workout when the alarm went off.

One of the downsides of the HRD was that it required a certain amount of maintenance in the form of physical exercise. It was annoying at first, but as time went on, the Shard began to enjoy the routine. It was as close as he got to relaxing most days.

He burst out of the room with a toolkit in one hand and a rifle in the other and sprinted to meet the others. He didn't fool around with getting dressed first. Athletic shoes, workout shorts that came down to mid thigh, and a thin white T-shirt that was pretty thoroughly soaked with sweat at this would have to do.

"What's the situation?"

[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]

 

[Sidara Vercopa-Vhett]

Sid lay there looking at the ceiling. Did he really leave her? Were things really bad between them? Or was this a result of some deal that inevitably had gone wrong that Corr most definitely had gotten himself mixed up in. And nothing had come of her search at the bar. None of it made any sense.

Sid stood up and started talking to herself. "Suck it up Sid. You are better than this. Would your parents be proud of you right now? Would Corr? Would he want you to be reduced to a whiny little girl? No. Not even a little bit. You promised Mal to do a job... now stop crying about Corr and do what you came here to do."

Sid stooped down, and grabbed her pack of cigarettes from the floor, taking one out and lighting it. She was going to go find Mal and see what she could do to get them off and running.

[member="Rusty"]
[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]

 

[Narasa Kelori]

[member="Kairon Rees"] [member="Malia Afredane"] [member="Rusty"] [member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]

Narasa was already awake when the alarm sounded or her response might have been more agitated. It had been an interesting evening, signing on with Mal as their temporary extra pilot and working her way through the initial conversations with her new crew that would dictate their understanding of one another. She'd spent some time in the cockpit the previous evening to get a sense for the controls and had intended to spend a bit more time today to thoroughly master them, but apparently that plan wasn't going to work out.

She pulled on her boots and moved into the hall with quick steps, catching a glimpse at the backs of her captain and crew members. She followed them down the hall at a more casual pace-- just fast enough to catch up before they could get out of sight again-- and rounded the corner to find that Rusty, too, had decided to join them. Her eyes skimmed over his outfit as her eyebrows went up, perhaps lingering a bit too long.

"You're well-prepared," she commented as she fell in step.

 

[Malia Afredane]

Mal hit up the console just inside the cargo bay, and disabled the blaring alarm, which could have called horrors from the grave with the loud screeching sounds it issued through the long hull of the Warden. The twins were already trying to take the affected crates out of the bay and Mal had activated a force field in order to seal off the cargo doors. It would protect the contents well enough, but Mal wasn't taking chances. They had room in the other bay to stash some of the protected containers and this way, they could be assured that everything would arrive intact. The twins were moving in and out through the shielding, but she had asked everyone else to head into the other bay to rearrange the cargo containers so that everything could fit neatly into one bay.

As one of the twins wheels around fast, the container on the lift slid off and hit the bulkhead hard, spinning off the lift and slamming into the decking. Mal cursed loudly as she rushed to the fallen crate. Great, it was one of the environmental ones. The impact had fouled up the control panel on it, lights going off and alarms sounding. Why was everything so danged fragile. The panel indicated that the old container had seen its last days and with a whoosh, the crates environmental systems cut off.

"HEY! This one just got busted! We gotta save the contents. We don't happen to have a climate container on here from the Quin do we?"

She looked worried. The Hutt wasn't going to like this.

She and the twins managed the right the thing and now that it was standing up, she noticed the lid was twisted and bent, with one edge unsealed. She pulled a wedge out of her cargo pants and jammed it into the lid to try and get it open to see if they could fix the lid. It popped up the rest of the way with a click. Mal raised the lid and froze, her eyes wide.

Curled in the container, in cryostasis, was a young Twi'lek woman, with lavender skin.


[member="Kairon Rees"] [member="Narasa Kelori"] [member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"] [member="Rusty"]

 

[Kairon Rees]

[member="Rusty"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]

Kairon was busy carrying one of the smaller crates with Mai from one container to another when he heard something hit the deck hard behind him. He grimaced and nodded to one side and started to shuffle sideways to put the heavy load down quickly.

“We couldn’t get the KDY interface adapter to tie it to the Warden’s systems!” he called to Mal over his shoulder. There was a quiet hiss behind him, but his attention was drawn to the look of abject horror frozen on Mai’s face.

As they deposited the metal crate she hissed: “You promised. You promised we’d never transport them.”

Kairon turned to look over his shoulder to see what the fuss was about. There were only two things he refused to smuggle: hard drugs and….

He came up on Mal’s shoulder. “Oh hell Mal,” he sighed. His eyes went to the container number. Memorising the manifest was something he always endeavoured to do. “The container they wanted us to discretely deliver to Alderaan. Figures. You don’t waste the credits packaging up every day slaves like this; you cram them into the hold,” he said. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Asmus come up beside them. His eyes already squinted, preparing to be embarrassed by some remark about the state of undress of the Twi’lek…

“Kark. I’ll go get the medical kit and a thermal blanket,” Asmus exclaimed. “You’re not supposed to come out of cryosleep like this!”

The Twi’lek twitched, her head slowly turning back and forth. She was alive at least.

 

[Sidara Vercopa-Vhett]

Sid walked up behind Mal to see what she and Kairon were gawking at.

"I see how you all are, standing around not doing...."

Her voice trailed off as she noticed the lavendar lekku of a twi'lek protruding out from the case it was in.

"Mal.... what in the force?.... we are shipping slaves? Did you know this before you agreed???"

Sid's fingers twitched aching to light up a cigarette. Her head started to pound as the adrenaline in her body started to course through her. This made her feel very uncomfortable. She avoided the slave trade. It was just asking for trouble. She knew at one point Corr had dabbled in it, and it never ended well for him, even though he seemed to avoid any big consequence.

"Mal, I have a really bad feeling about this."

[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Rusty"]

 

[Rusty]

"You're well-prepared," she commented as she fell in step.

"I try," Rusty said as they rounded the corner and entered the cargo bay. "You never know what you'll-"

He stared, dumbfounded, at the woman in the crate. He knew two things right away.

One, the Captain would never willingly transport slaves. He had his own thoughts on the matter, but to transport sentient beings as property was anathema to her ideals. They had discussed the idea very early on in their partnership, trying to feel out their boundaries, both personal and professional. Rusty didn't see it as being any different from employing droids. He knew better than most that many were self aware, had feelings, hopes and dreams, and no one ever seemed twice to think about trading them as property. It seemed only fitting that organics would be given the same treatment. But the Captain had been adamant, and out of respect for his feelings, they didn't trade in sentient droids, either.

Two, someone had set this up. Maybe it was a member of the crew, or maybe they all had been had by the Hutt. Either way, no good would come of this.

"There had best be some explanations forthcoming," he said, his voice quiet and cold as ice. He set his toolbox on the ground carefully and gripped the rifle in both hands, at the low ready. "The Captain wouldn't have agreed to this. If someone else did, I do hope you come forward now, because if I find you out after the next sixty seconds, I won't bother to shoot you before I put you through an airlock. Are we all absolutely clear on that?"

[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]
[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]

 

[Narasa Kelori]

The sound of a falling crate hadn't been particularly important to her; cargo fell over all the time and as long as it . It was Mal's called question about climate containers and the following exclamation from Asmus that drew her attention. Narasa followed [member="Rusty"] into the other room and stopped as he did, eyes darting from the exposed parts of the slave woman to the looks on the faces around her, assessing the mood in the room. Dark, dangerous, and, with Rusty's addition, threatening. Well, better than casually dismissive. Narasa forced her shoulders to relax; at least she was among friends (of a sort) here. Rusty seemed convinced that someone had agreed to the transport, but Narasa thought she had an idea of how slaves could have gotten on board when the crew seemed so vehemently opposed to the idea.

"It's the Hutt's cargo, right? I doubt he asked anyone to agree to anything. What was it he said you were transporting?" Narasa raised her brows. "Medicine? Mighty lot of medicine you have here." Her eyes moved back to the other crates the Hutt had provided that had yet to be moved into the other cargo bay. "How much medicine do you suppose is in there?"

Her eyes returned to [member="Malia Afredane"], knowing the woman could hear her, though it was obvious she was lost in thoughts of her own.

[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]

 

[Malia Afredane]

"The manifest lists this as live vaccines. I don't cart slaves." She shouted defiantly, then muttered as she reached a hand in to the Twi'lek. "Not knowingly."

She swore as she helped the young woman out of the crate, sending Jarrick to go get the medroid they picked up. She flashed her eyes over to Narasa, wondering very suddenly if her presence on the Warden was to safeguard these crates but there was nothing in her behavior that made Mal truly suspicious. She shot Rusty a look that clearly said his outburst wasn't helping.

"Kairon and I saw the manifest and neither of us would agree to this. This was the Hutt. The question is now, what do we do? There is no way this is gonna end good."

[member="Narasa Kelori"] [member='Rusty'] [member='Sidara Vercopa-Vhett'] [member="Kairon Rees"]

 

[Kairon Rees]

[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Rusty"]
[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]

Kairon’s mind ran through several thoughts as he stood dumbstruck by events. These were not cheap slaves. Their lives wouldn’t be plagued by hunger or disease. They’d likely be kept well clothes, and get better food than he did on his ship. Artisans and teachers for the rich family likely. Maybe they’d be better off…

Kairon saw Mai’s expression again. He silently chastised himself for thinking such thoughts. A practical man, he had thought perhaps of his crew’s safety first. Shaking his head to himself, he looked down at his feet. “Feth,” he grumbled.

Asmus was already back, and he passed to thermal blanket for Mal to wrap around the Twi’lek’s shoulders.

“They weren’t on the manifest,” Kairon affirmed. “This one was for the second drop-off on Alderaan after we dropped the main cargo. The on the Hutt said had to be done quietly. We’d best see how many there are,” he said. The Twi’lek looked around with wide eyes, still not speaking.

 

[Rusty]

Rusty slowly lowered his rifle, letting it hang from the sling. It was clear the Captain wouldn't be happy if he shot anyone just yet.

This was bad news. The Hutt had hired them to transport the cargo, but he didn't see that happening now. And Hutts, by and large, were not known for taking no for an answer. They could return the slaves, return their fee, and still probably end up dodging bounty hunters. If they turned the slaves over to one of the many agencies focused around rehabilitating freed chattel, it was certain that the Hutt would come after them. Hard.

The Shard's mind began calculating their chances of survival. Simply returning the slaves was their safest option, but that was relative. The bounty hunters would probably be instructed to take them alive so they could be tortured for a bit. Probably released after their ship and all their available assets were forfeited. This was not a solution Rusty cared to try, and he knew the Captain wouldn't want the slaves turned back over in the first place.

If they released them, they could buy a little more time by feigning mechanical issues. Their ship was ancient, after all, and they could safely be on the other side of the galaxy by the time the Hutt wised up. However, when he did figure it out, every hired gun in the sector would be on their ass, and simply ditching the Warden and fleeing in the Wicked Grace wasn't an option either. Not only were both ships known to the Hutt's people, the Wicked Grace was simply too small to support them all for long, and to the best of his knowledge, the Quin was still in dry dock. On top of that, there simply weren't a lot of functional, original 3-Zs floating around. All the Hutt had to do was offer up a reward on information for any and all of them, and eventually they'd be found out.

There was a third option: stand and fight. If they chose the place to make their stand, they might impress upon the Hutt the folly of trying to have them captured or killed. Most bounty hunters tended to be pretty cowardly; they had a predator's instincts, and with that came the wisdom to turn down jobs on prey that were demonstrably more trouble than they were worth. There were still a few heavy hitters out there that might come for them, but they were few and far between. The Shard felt a pang of guilt and fear stab through his gut. What if [member="Laguz Vald"] were to take the contract? The shifter had parted on good terms with the Shard, but xe was what xe was, and if it came down to a fight, he couldn't guarantee the Captain's survival.

All of this would have to be discussed at some point. In the mean time, Rusty decided to take a few steps back and let the Captain and Rees figure out their next move.

[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]

 

[Sidara Vercopa-Vhett]

Sidara shook her head. "I'm sorry Mal, of course you didn't know. It was foolish of me to even ask that question."

Sid's anxiety was amplified now. She should have expected this from a Hutt to take advantage of a situation. They always did. So what now? They'd have to sit down and weight their options. Sid absentmindedly reached down and adjusted the blaster holstered to her hip. They may have more complications than they bargained for. The Hutt's didn't like to be told no. She knew that first hand, and had the scar across her cheek to prove it. If they went through with the transfer, that could mean trouble too. There was no easy solution here. Either way she was ready for a fight... that was one thing she wasn't afraid of.

"Mal, we are in a bind here. We are going to have to sit down and make a plan as soon as you have these slaves taken care of."

[member="Rusty"]
[member="Kairon Rees"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]

 

[Narasa Kelori]

"If the other two are still in cryo, we could just leave them there for now," the Zabrak suggested. She found a perch on a box that she decidedly hoped was not a slave, expression serious. "They won't know time is passing, and we don't really need more than the one for questions. Let them sleep while you sort the matter out."

Narasa rather hoped they didn't decide they needed to finish the slave transfer. It made her all kinds of uncomfortable, though there wouldn't be much she could do about it without risking her own neck. Mal might be the kind to call for a group vote, but Narasa had doubts that she wouldn't veto the decision if it wasn't one she agreed with. She found herself looking at the pale purple Twi'lek and pulling absently at the fabric of her pants. Cryosleep didn't usually make for voluntary enslavement; this was going to be messy for this crew-- and now her by extenstion.

Internally, she sighed at herself. I sure know how to pick 'em. Why couldn't I have just stayed with my ship?

[member="Kairon Rees"] [member="Malia Afredane"] [member="Rusty"] [member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]

 

[Malia Afredane]

"Considering the feth that can go wrong with waking up bad, I'd rather not have a full blown medical emergency on my hands. Until we can decide on a plan, I'm with Narasa."

The medroid instructed the freezing Twi'lek to be put on a gurney and she was wheeled down to the meager little medbay that the Warden had. Thermal blankets and warmed saline were in order to help bring her core temperature up to a point where she could be stabilized, albeit with a mild sedative as well so she would relax. With the droid seemingly having everything under control, Mal called everyone to the mess for meeting. Once everyone was seated with a cup of caf or rum or whatever drink could lubricate their jangled nerves, she began.

"The Hutt pulled one over on me but that doesn't mean I've played my last card. We need options. I'm not delivering slaves, I'm not taking them back to the Hutt so he can just hire some other lowlife to do the job. If you've got an idea, let's hear it."

[member="Narasa Kelori"] [member='Rusty'] [member='Sidara Vercopa-Vhett'] [member="Kairon Rees"]

 

[Rusty]

"Kill 'em all and let the Force sort 'em out?" Rusty offered helpfully. "I mean, it's not like the galaxy will miss one measly Hutt and his coterie."

Tactically, the Shard had decided, this was the safest decision. The others didn't even have to get involved. A quick jaunt back to the crime lord's palace with Gertrude, a couple of R2-AUs, a Jar of Bees, a box of AP-12 rounds and a reliable pump gun, three hundred kilograms of detonite and a cauterizing garrote would end their problems on that front for good. And if, by some strange chance, another Hutt took offense instead of trying to fill the power vacuum, he could rinse and repeat as necessary.

Rusty didn't normally consider the complete eradication of a species as a viable tactical solution, but it was looking pretty appealing here. It was the only way he could see to keep his friends safe. To keep the Captain safe. The Hutts would be too busy worrying about the lone madman trying to take them all out to focus on a single insignificant shipment of escaped slaves. If it cost him his life, well, so be it. The Captain would be safe, and she had others in her life now. She wouldn't be left alone if he was gone.

"I can hop on public transportation, swing by Dressel for a few goodies, and be onsite by this time tomorrow. You guys can be halfway across the galaxy and in friendly territory by then."

[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]
[member="Kairon Rees"]

 

[Sidara Vercopa-Vhett]

Sidara looked at Rusty with concern. Her mind reeled with all the possibilities of killing the Hutt. None of them ended well, regardless of what Rusty might think or how good he is at eradicating problems.

"So you don't think that killing this Hutt won't incite a bigger man hunt for us by more Hutt's? Because in my experience, and believe me, when you are associated with Corr, there are lots of experiences, if you mess with one of them, you mess with the lot of them? And if that's the case, are we even remotely prepared for the war that is going to wage against us?"

Sid lit another cigarette. " I am all for not shipping these slaves like cargo, but I am not feeling all warm and fuzzy about going on a slug killing spree. I'd like to come out of this alive. But that's just me. I am open to suggestion here."


[member="Rusty"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Kairon Rees"]

 

[Rusty]

"Not us," Rusty replied. "Me."

He gestured towards his HRD body.

"Unlike you guys, I can change my face. They don't know who I am, or where I'm from. They'll be too busy worrying about the maniac droid to care much about you guys."

There was something dark and unyielding in his expression. People tended to forget what the Shard really was, what he had been before he met the Captain. There were some days when he could forget himself. But never for long. He was a killer, and even if his talents had been turned more towards keeping the Captain alive as of late, that didn't make them any less effective.

[member="Sidara Vercopa-Vhett"]
[member="Malia Afredane"]
[member="Narasa Kelori"]
[member="Kairon Rees"]

 

[Kairon Rees]

Kairon was leant forwards over the table, his head in his hands. Taking a deep breath in through his nose he sat back up, dragging the balls of his hands down from his eyes to his chin.

“I've got something, but it's high risk high rewards. So let me play devil's advocate here for a moment and please, please don't be angry at me for saying it. I just wanted to to put this in words to set some context for what I'm going to say.

“Those aren't everyday slaves, they're going to some high up alderaan nobility. These aren't going to be pleasure slaves or labourers. Probably bulters, teachers, artisans. They're not going to a life of squalor,” he said quietly, his hands nervously wringing together on the table. He paused a moment to let that set in. His stomach turned and he felt bile at the back of his throat just for saying it. Someone had to though.

“That said, kark sending them to that life. I say we make the drop, but somehow - and I don't even know how yet - we tip off the local law enforcement. If we make it a set up the slaves’ll be in the hands of the authorities and the Hutt are none the wiser and we simply wash our hands of them.

“High risk, high reward,” he reiterated. His blue eyes turned to Mal, hoping she wouldn't be looking at him with disappointment for what he'd said earlier.