Equipment : One(1) shoto lightsaber, One(1) standard E-11D blaster carbine, One(1) industrial-strength syntherope (50m),
Libeta (under eyepatch), One(1) encrypted comlink transmitter
Ship: Standard-kit HWK-290 light freighter
Tags:
LE-03 (Leigh)
, Open
It was supposed to have been a gambling run. Gods damn it all, it was
only supposed to have been a gambling run.
Vidalu Na'an had slipped out of her ship in the Dockyards with a faint, slippery feeling of unease in her gut. Gambling runs were, surprisingly, quite common among some of the Eclipse cells she had met in the months since her escape from Kalidan. The casinos of places like Antham Prime were good places to launder the funds that kept the cells going, given access to a fake ID, a sympathetic dealer, and a solid understanding of the mechanics of sabacc.
...Or, in lieu of two of the three, access to the Force.
It had been Leigh's idea. Na'an, of course, had resisted soundly. The Network, after all, had made it perfectly clear that the Empress herself would be on Antham Prime, and the events of Batuu still made her bones rattle in her for reasons she couldn't quite articulate. She wanted nothing more than to make her way back to the green planet with what she'd learned, to make some sense of it. But, as the droid had so pointedly countered,
The Voice of Abbaji had a duty to the Eclipse to do her part and ensure that the funds they were siphoning couldn't be traced. And with the Force--especially with Na'an's newly intense sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of those around her--they could use new tactics to get the job done, on planets and in casinos beyond any Imperial suspicion. Perhaps they could even come away with more money than when they arrived. Na'an had finally agreed, partially out of guilt, partially out of curiosity, and partially because the droid had, at least, promised they could finally go back once the money was good and untraceable.
One gambling run. It was only supposed to be one measly gambling run, then they could finally go back to the green planet.
And then Na'an got five steps into the dockyards only to get caught up in a gorramed
bomb threat.
The dockworker had stumbled out from an alley next to the main throughway with his face streaming with blood, mumbling something about
"gonna blow" and
"can't reach them all" before falling prone almost at Na'an's feet. The slippery feeling at last sharpening into real alarm, Na'an ducked down to half-pick him up, dragging him to one side and flipping him onto his back.
"Hey," she said, keeping her voice deliberately calm as she slapped lightly at his face. His skin under her fingers was clammy despite the warmth of the blood streaming from his scalp; she let herself reach into him with the Force to find the source.
"Hey, hey, I'm here. I gotcha, but you have to keep awake. Talk to me."
The worker's eyes couldn't seem to focus properly. His mind was...unsteady. Fuzzy and flickering, like a candle under an uncertain breeze...He'd been bleeding much worse somewhere other than his scalp, it seemed.
"You--you gotta--"
"I know. I'm here." Na'an's fingers were already exploring his chest, his stomach, his side, looking for a wound. There wasn't any sign of a cut on his clothes, no blood; was the damage internal?
"Tell me where they hurt you. I'm not fully trained in it yet, but I think I can--"
"No."
His voice was unexpectedly forceful. Na'an pulled away from her exploration to look into man's eyes, now fully focused on her face.
"You gotta listen," he said, his voice ragged and desperate.
"Bombs. In the casino. Warehouse. Others, I didn't hear. Gonna blow in an hour, maybe less."
And there was the source of the slippery feeling. The uncertainty. This was why Na'an had been put here, despite wanting to go straight to the green planet. She leaned in to hear the worker more clearly, flipping up her eyepatch to let the implant's sensors work without barrier.
"You're saying there's bombs here," she said, repeating his words and watching him respond with gratitude that he'd been understood
. "Do you know who planted them?"
He shook his head.
"They caught me. Beat the shab--" He coughed, a deep booming note interrupted by gobs of bloody phlegm.
His lungs. "But I got out. You gotta--you gotta--"
"I know."
And Na'an did know this time. Knew as well as this worker did, that his time was up the minute he'd been caught by whoever he'd overheard talking about all of this. She palmed his face again, gentler this time, letting him lean into the touch for comfort. She could feel it now; the beating he'd took had left his insides little more than bloody pulp. The fact that he'd made his way here, into her arms, was a miracle in and of itself. He'd be dead in seconds, but had chosen to try to warn someone about the danger rather than try to buy a few seconds more by staying still. He was depending on someone taking him seriously--taking the
threat seriously--and finding the bombs he had no proof were all over the sector.
"I know," she repeated.
"I can find them. You did good, buddy."
She smiled, although she didn't feel it. He smiled back, more genuinely than her even despite the blood on his lips. He was still smiling when the life left his eyes. Na'an signaled for one of the other dockworkers, then slipped the ID transmitter off the dead man's wrist and onto her own as they rushed to take his body off her knees.
Her next move, obviously, was to call Leigh. Good thing she had the comm.
"Gambling will have to wait. We've got a bigger problem. I need you with me off the ship, and I need a better map of the Dockyards. We've got reason to believe the whole place's going up in flames in about an hour if we don't move fast, and you're much better at these kinds of games than I am."