Pick up

[James Justice]

James had seen many disturbing things in his life. Thraxis dominated the title for the worst, and what James was witnessing was pretty much sealing the deal. This being was sick. Truly demented. Part of James wanted to slag him and put the poor fellow out of his misery. All things considered it would be a mercy killing instead of a murderer.

No, Thraxis was alive and would serve his purpose. A purpose in James' need to exact revenge and restitution in the galaxy.

"Done."

He could see a series of landing shuttles and dropships beginning to make their way to the surface, "I be sending troops down to look for Kay. Dun't start shooting, ye hear me? They ain't gonna hurt ye. I will contact ye when I have my next job for ye, expect to be hearing from me very soon."

James looked over to one of the men at the comm-station, "Begin sending out a message on all bandwiths calling for Lady Kay. Tell her we are sending soldiers to help."

[member="Dominik Borra"]
[member="Lady Kay"]
[member="Dominik Borra"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

"I wouldn't be surprised if he had something planned." She got up from the fainted boy and had another gulp of water before replacing it in his pouch. " [member="Thraxis"] told me that I had three weeks to leave and that I couldn't call any of you. How did you get here without being shot at? Though I guess they wouldn't know you as being my friend."

The sound of engines overhead caused her to look up. A whole armada of drop ships was coming down near them. "Oh great....The last thing that we need is to be caught in the middle of an invasion." With no access to comms or anything electronic, she had no idea that the soldiers were [member="James Justice"] 's men. The street rat was just pretending to have fainted. He quicjly got up and ran as soon as Kay and [member="Dominik Borra"] were distracted and looking elsewhere.

"Are the soldiers going towards your ship? Or can we still get there safely?"

 

[Dominik Borra]

Dominik's head snapped to the rat fleeing. Almost carelessly, he raised his left arm with a hangun nobody but [member="Lady Kay"] would recognize. It was the handgun that Ultimatum gave him back in the Mirrorverse, and it tore through armor like an anti-tank rifle. Force bless alternate universe technology. A squeeze of the trigger later, and the rat had a baseball sized hole burned through his chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.

A transmission started coming through as the dropships came down, but it was full of static. He placed his fingers on a button on the side of his helmet, shutting off outside sound so he could listen to the transmission. The only words he was able to pick out were: "Soldiers", "Find", and "Kay". That sealed it in Dominik's mind.

"Kay! I think [member="Thraxis"] meant to say you only had 3 hours, because he sent men after you! If we run hard and duck right, we'll get to my ship, come on!" He reached down with his right hand, after holstering his gun of course, to help her up. He wasn't going to just leave her behind after fighting so hard to keep her safe.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

As [member="Dominik Borra"] raised his gun at the fleeing boy, Kay couldn't believe it. "No!!" But it was too late. The shot rang out and the boy fell to the sands dead. Her mouth hung open as she just wanted to pinch herself awake. "Why did you kill him?!! He was just a scared boy!! He wasn't attacking us! You just murdered him!!" She wanted to hit Dominik, but doing so would hurt due to his armour.

Kay got to her feet on her own. She didn't want to be touched right now. Maybe she deserved to be caught. But not right now. Without a word she followed Dominik, doing her best to keep her anger down.

[member="James Justice"] [member="Thraxis"]

 

[Dominik Borra]

Dominik widened his eyes at Kay's upsetness. Sure, he was just a boy, but... No, he wasn't with the Sith anymore. He mentally kicked himself. He was wrong to have shot the boy! ..but nothing he could it now. He would apologize later. Right now, he had to worry about them getting to the ship safely.

[member="James Justice"] [member="Thraxis"]

 

[Thraxis]

"Whatever. Betta go get the boy to bring her back to the White Palace I suppose." he said as he rocked the ceiling chair back a bit, activating his Comlink his voice would ring from the boy, "Yo, Demitre, bring Kay back. Got a special surprise for her." his voice was still crumpled as he continued to repeat the boys name, trying to elicit a response.

"Ok then. Well. If you can hear this Kay. Well it means the kid wasn't eaten by some sort of creatures in the sands but by you." his voice slightly irritated as the words oozed from his mouth, "You will most definitely regret it. Because... well I got this nice cozy box with your name on it." the sound of booze dripping down his neck slowly took over for a second, before being controlled once more by Thraxis.

The comlink went silent from there on, his head rolling back as he looked to the ceiling of his office. "Arrrggghh. That was the first kid I had hopes for." he whinged as he pulled out a piece of paper with the kids likeness and life detailed. A blaster bolt rang through the office as his head singed and the paper evaporated into ash.
[member="James Justice"] [member="Dominik Borra"] [member="Lady Kay"]

 

[James Justice]

James nodded, he had reached an agreement with [member="Thraxis"], he didn't seen any reason to let this linger on, wasting the psychopath's time or his own. He ended the transmission and looked to the comm officer.

"Sir, no reply."

"Did I tell ye to stop?" the spacer asked angrily, sending a puff of smoke.


"N-no sir."

"Keep sending it, she will hear it and she will get back with us. She may take a while. Give the order for the soldiers to not shoot on site. Anyone may have intel, so walk gingerly, ye hear?"

"Yes sir, understood sir."

James nodded and looked back to the view port. He grit his teeth and let out a worried sigh. Inside he just knew she was ok, but there was part of him nagging, saying she was in danger.

"Come on, Kay, make it out alive," he muttered, "Make it for me. I can't lose another one."

[member="Thraxis"]
[member="Dominik Borra"]
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay, luckily enough, was not close enough to the dead boy to hear [member="Thraxis"] ' message. And as she had no commlinks of any type on her, she couldn't even hear the message recorded by [member="James Justice"] . All that she had was her anger and bitterness towards [member="Dominik Borra"] , and the memory of that boy being murdered right in front of her, going through her mind over and over again.

She followed his lead through the dunes, staying quiet, her arms folded across her chest as she walked in the heat. What a horrible couple of days. The only good thing that had come out of it was that maybe now her bounties were gone and she wouldn't have to be so careful anymore. But habits die hard. Oh she might forgive Dominik in time, but what he had done was so very wrong. If he was in Republic space, he'd be arrested. So he was very lucky that he wasn't.

Kay topped the crest of one of the dunes and spotted some of the soldiers and a few drop ships. But instead of hiding, she just stood there. She had nothing to fend them off with and her Force training was not at par to help defend herself from all of them. So she just waited to see if they were after her or not. Only time will tell if she was to be spotted.

 

[Dominik Borra]

The moment Dominik crested the dune and saw the soldiers and drop ships was the same moment he turned on his heel and walked straight the kark back a few feet. He knew that fast motions caught the eye better than slow ones, so walking away could have been better than ducking down.

Once he was sure he was out of anysight, he turn back around, crouched and ready to move forward when he saw Kay standing ontop of the dune, not doing anything. "Kay! Get down! Look, I'm sorry about the boy, I shouldn't have done it but don't get captured again! I'll have to come get you inside the White Palace, and that place is karking scary. So please, GET DOWN."

 

[James Justice]

The soldiers did see her, and they thought they saw the man with her. At first glance, from a far distance their white armor might have been mistaken by for a bunny a man wearing a helmet.

Luckily, one was an Ithorian, his booming natural voice with its two mouths and four throats shouted out, "Empress Kay? Is that you? Stay right there, we are sending men to come pick you up. We have medical attention for you as well and food," he looked to the others in his squad, "Come on, men, radio it in, we found her."

A group of soldier and a medic began running toward her. Four of them were carrying a stretcher, another two had rifles.

***

"Sir, they found her," said one of the officers on deck joyfully.

The series of expletives that leaped from James' mouth were ones of relief this time, instead of rage. "Get her here to me, as soon as possible."

[member="Dominik Borra"]
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

The White Palace was indeed a scary place to be. And Kay didn't quite want to go there either. At least not as a prisoner. She turned and looked to [member="Dominik Borra"], "But isn't your ship down there somewhere?"

And then she heard the booming voice. Empress Kay? Only James called her that! She quickly turned to look at them and waved frantically from the top of the dune. "Yes it's me!! Oh thank the Force!" Again she looked to Dominik. "It's okay. They aren't with [member="Thraxis"] , they are with [member="James Justice"] . He's my friend, sort of...like a brother to me. Keep your weapons holstered or they'll think you're a threat. Come on!"

She held out her hand to help him up to the top. Maybe it was a sign of forgiveness, but she didn't want him to be stuck here or to get hurt by James' men. She owed him that at least.

 

[Dominik Borra]

Dominik hesitantly reached up for her hand, pulling himself up. "Friends? Oh... But, what is James Ju-" He stopped mid sentence. "Oh... James Justice.. Uh.. I.. should just fly away then.." He slowly turned towards his ship and made his way towards it, hoping and praying for the force that Kay wouldn't stop him and insist on meeting James Justice, or that the soldiers wouldn't stop him. He didn't know if James would recognize him, but Dominik recognized James' name. He almost killed James Justice once, when he was ordered by the Sith to take out a space station that James was on at the time. The whole thing went up in smoke, but in the end they both made it out, obviously. Apparently James did something with his life and gained support. Dominik had lost his.

 

[James Justice]

The soldiers crested the area, one began giving [member="Lady Kay"] a thorough medical scan from a hand-held device, it checked her vitals, her organs, blood pressure, and the like in a matter of a few minutes as it let the various scanners do their work. The others snapped into a smart salute.

"Madam, please do not resist, we have orders to take you to Commander-Sovereign Justice right away and give you pertinent medical attention," said the leader in a thick Huttese accent.

He nodded to his comrads, the big wookiee and his massive Herglic friend lifted her delicately off her feet and set her down on the stretcher. The bearers began trotting off as carefully as they could. The leader looked to the man, "Sir, I request you cone with us, Commander-Sovereign Justice will want to reward you for assisting in rescue his sister. Trust me, sir, you will not want to miss out on this."

If he chose to come along, then the ship would go up into the atmosphere and take him with her to the command vessel of Justice Shipping's current navy holdings.

[member="Dominik Borra"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Well at least they didn't call her 'Empress Kay' again. She was far from that. But a stretcher? She didn't think that she was that bad off. She shielded her eyes from the sun as they carried her down. "I can walk, you know..." More than likely that fell on deaf ears. At least no one else she knew was around. She wondered if [member="Dominik Borra"] would go with them.


****************************

An hour later, Kay was laying in the med bay, an IV in her arm as the medics worked to rehydrate her system and fight off any infections. She was in a gown instead of her clothes, with some bandages on various parts of her arms and legs where she didn't get to heal herself fully. Her shoulders were also bruised from when Ghorua squeezed them.

She wanted to rest, but then didn't at the same time. Her eyes were on the door as she just knew that [member="James Justice"] would come running in.

 

[Dominik Borra]

Dominik tried his darnest to just, walk away. Like nothing happened and there was no reason for him to be a part of this, but the leader of the group still came up to him and started to try to convince him. He talked about rewards... which seem nice... but....

Maybe James wouldn't recognize him in this armor. and if he did, Dominik might be able to escape if things turn for the worse... maybe.. "Uh, alright, just make sure I can come back to pick up my ship.." He motioned to his ship, landed in the sand.

He boarded the ship, and went with them, making sure to stay close to [member="Lady Kay"].

 

[James Justice]

"Sir, she is on deck," one of the officers, an Umbarian reported.

James bolted from his chair on the bridge, dropping a bottle of fine ale and half a pack of unused cigarettes in the process. His feet clomped through the corridors as he sprinted there, his guards had a hard time keeping up. The spacer pushed over more than a few employees and ran over a few droids.

Then the spacer emerged from the doors, pushing down an unfortunate medical droid who happened to be in the way. It began clawing at the air.

"Help! I have fallen and I can't get up," it said in a protesting, mechanical voice.

Someone later would advice it to get an alert--a life alert.

But that didn't matter right now. James' sister was ok and that was all that mattered to him. The spacer hurried to her on the gurney and swept her up in a warm embrace. Relief and joy flooded his body.

"I were so worried about you," he murmured.

It took him several moments before the spacer could release her from his embrace and gave her head a gentle, but playful pat, "Ye need to stop getting yeself into so much trouble, miss."

He looked to the stranger in armor, "I have ye to thank for helping rescue her. Words cannot express how grateful I be. If there be anything ye want, a job, money, a ship, ye can have it. Just say the word."

[member="Dominik Borra"]
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Yup, she knew it. Kay held her breath and braced herself as [member="James Justice"] hugged her tightly. She returned it of course. He was the closest thing to family that she had and she didn't want to lose him either. "Me? Get into trouble? It was just a couple of bounty hunters that decided to kidnap me for a date....or something. But they were paid, so my bounties should be gone now. Then you could worry just a little less."

When he wasn't looking, she smacked the backside of his head, lightly. "You told your men to call me Empress Kay? Do you know how embarrassing that is?" She wasn't a blue blood by any means, nor did she see herself as being above others, even as a Senator. But for some reason James thought that calling her that was funny.

 

[Dominik Borra]

Dominik was leaning against the wall, watching over [member="Lady Kay"] when there was loud crashing outside. His hand gravitated toward his pistol, but when the door opened and the face of [member="James Justice"] appeared. He went back to his normal 'lax position.

He waited and watched the two embrace eachother. They didn't look like family, but they definently seemed like it. Then James addressed him and he just stared at him through his helmet. He knew James couldn't see his face, but he smiled that James didn't recognize him. He also thought about his offer. Other than generally opposing the Sith, he couldn't think of something he actually was doing... but, best to tell James right off the bat something.

"I'll.... take the job. But, What about after hearing my voice? Don't you recognize it?"

 

[James Justice]

Sure the voice was semi-familiar, but a lifetime of more faces than he could count, drinks, cantinas, and smoking left things more than hazy. This wasn't the first time that someone had walked up to him and told him something he didn't know or acted as if they knew the spacer quite well when all he had was a vague recollection. He was sure this guy had done something for him sometime, but damn that was so long ago. Or maybe it was two weeks ago when he got black-out drunk on Chroma Zed.

Either way, he didn't want to hurt this guy's feelings the way he hurt Seanna Val's feelings.

He gave the man's shoulder a firm slap, accompanied with a hearty laugh, "Aye, mate I could never forget the time we were on," he intentionally let his sentence end with a hearty laugh, "And, oh boy when you--" he laughed again, "And you said--" he let out hooting laugh, wiping away what were feined tears of laughed, "Man, ye were something el--"

Lady Kay slapped the back of his head and he gave a sharp, "Ow!"

The spacer gave a nervous chuckle, blushing slightly, "That be ye codename, miss. Its to help keep the likes of Thraxis off ye backs."

Thraxis. Oh boy, if she found out that he had hired the socopath, then he was in hotter water than ever. He chuckled and smiled warmly, giving Kay's arm a brotherly squeeze, "I missed ye too, lil sis."

[member="Dominik Borra"]
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay smirked at [member="James Justice"] , both with his goofy laughter and his excuse of sharing his nickname for her to everyone. It was a weak excuse at best.

Thraxis. His twisted mind games and torture was more than she could handle at times. When things became overwhelming or strange, she still waited to see if she would wake up at his mental institution. Seeing him dressed like a doctor again drew a chill down her spine. "Are we out of Hutt space yet? Thraxis gave me just a short time to get out and if he knows that you rescued me, he will probably try to stop us from leaving." She started to worry now. She had no idea about James' fleet. "And my satchel is gone too, with all of my things, including my tea!"

With what [member="Dominik Borra"] was saying about himself, she didn't say hus name for she had no idea of their history.