Kai's Journal #5
[encrypted holojournal, 2 BBY]
We decided to head back to Keyorin to see Crim. Technically the ship is not ours, and while we have some creds they're not going to last forever. On our way back we briefly stopped in at Nar Shadaa, which is of course the place to buy anything one wants in the Outer Rim. It was surprisingly uneventful, but I managed to score enough parts to mod my stun blaster carbine and pick up a couple of cheap stun holdout blasters that Slee graciously modded for me as well. I decided to name them “Peace” and “Justice” - one is very concealable, the other packs a punch! Hopefully our future negotiations won't fall apart, but it's good to be prepared. The rest of the crew picked up gear as well, and I actually feel ready for whatever will come our way.
I tried to send off an encrypted holomessage via my Corellian and Alderaanian channels, so hopefully I can find out more about my uncle and the other Senators. Nothing more on the holovids that I could find. Uncle Garm is a resourceful man, and maybe the Resistance can do something about his arrest; may the Force be with him.
The trip back to Keyorin was restful, and we landed at Gate City. I thought we might be attacked by the Black Skulls, but apparently they were otherwise occupied. Then again, there are dozens of battered YT-1300's coming and going every day here.
Our first stop: The Spitting Unark. As soon as we stepped in we knew something was off. A flash of white at the back caught my attention, and I recognized the standard stormtrooper uniforms. We had already caught their attention, so we played it cool and sat down at an empty table. I think Keva was hiding under it…
The sargeant stepped over to Slenahn, who was visibly twitching or something, and asked him a few questions. Slee recovered himself and comported himself well, and the sargeant went back to his group, where I now noticed our old friend Crim. And that pesky droid, T9-81. He didn't seem to recognize us, though, and the troupe marched out, with Crim clearly under arrest. So much for sorting out our job situation!
“What should we do, guys?” I whispered, but we were a bit too taken aback to plan anything to save Crim. We didn't know if we even wanted to. AD-87's fingers were twitching for his rifle, but surprisingly he kept his discipline. Maybe he remembered my orders not to fight the last time we were here.
Keva tried following, but the stormtroopers and T9 pushed Crim into a transport, and they sped off. I spoke to the patrons, but everyone was non-committal, avoiding attention, and I didn't blame them. The barkeep, Wynar Chokus, was talkative once I bought the crew a few drinks.
“That droid, he used to work for the Black Skulls, but now he's with the Imps.” He spat into a mug to clean it, and I warily looked down at the cup in my hand, setting it aside. I asked about Crim, but he didn't know much. Chokus did let something drop about Crim having several ships, but the rest wasn't particularly useful. At least we got half-decent Corellian Ale out of the deal, but a bit watered down. Gotta get back to Corellia soon…
The crew and I grabbed a map of Gate City, and headed for the nearest garrison. It looked on the small side, but before long, without warning, first Slee slithered off, and then Keva tiptoed after him, keeping to the shadows. I looked at AD-87 with a raised eyebrow. “Let's cover the street,” suggested 87.
A minute later Keva squeaked over the comm, “Hey guys. Uh… why don't you follow us at a safe distance.” Click. I shrugged at 87 and we stepped into the back streets. I just saw Keva slip around the corner and so we followed quietly, looking around.
It was getting dark, but there was nothing interesting in the area that I could see. A few battered durasteel crates and cracked duracrete. We stopped at the corner and watched as Slenahn disappeared into a dark alley, with Keva looking on. Alleys aren't to be trifled with, so I nodded to 87 and we joined Keva and peered into the alley.
Four humanoids were speaking quietly to each other, but Slee was acting strange. I asked him what he was looking for. “I think one of them issss a Sssssluissi,” he said. I recalled our conversation about his sister and so I stepped into the alley and introduced myself to the closest person standing there. He was pleasant but wasn't really interested in talking. “Might be a Sluissi, might not be,” He said. I looked at Slee as he jumped back a step. He was speaking to the two guards, but it didn't make any sense. Then he squealed and jumped out of the alley and around the corner.
I decided to push past the unarmed guards and I pleasantly asked the tailed humanoid if he was a Sluissi. He looked up at me and shook his head. I could see his face, and I was pretty sure he was an Anacondan, and so I apologised for the interruption and we all left to look for our strange companion.
“He-he-he shot me,” gasped Slenahn.
“What? No one had weapons” chirped Keva, looking at me.
“Show me your wound,” I prompted, and Slee pointed at his side. Hmmm. “Slee, there's nothing there. Are you okay?” Keva checked his vitals and confirmed that he was stressed out a bit, but couldn't find anything else wrong.
He seemed a bit dizzy, and he peeked back around the corner. “Caslisse?” he asked into the darkness. There was no response and Slee slid back to us quietly. “I think we're done here.” I made some joking remark about Corellian ale and cantina food. But I wasn't laughing on the inside.
Confused, we all headed back to the garrison, but by the time we returned everything was locked up and the lights were out. Keva checked his scanner. “Sixteen lifeforms.” A bit steep for a frontal assault, and again, we weren't sure that Crim was there, or if we even wanted to rescue him.
We bantered around some ideas for breaking in and slicing the Imperial network, but in the end I told the rest I wasn't really interested in completely breaking the law here, and so we went back to the ship to get some sleep. No sense intentionally becoming a wanted criminal.
The next morning we rose bright and early and headed back down to the garrison. I decided to try the straightforward approach, and walked right in. I spoke to the receptionist who didn't know anything, and so I lodged a formal complaint against Crim for unfairly compensating us. In hindsight maybe that wasn't the brightest idea, but at least it ended up getting results. I was clever enough to sign “Kai Drall” - not that naive!
A new brainwave hit our group. Since Crim wasn't locked up in the garrison, perhaps we could find record of an Imperial transport leaving for the Belderone system, where criminals logically would be processed. We walked back to the hanger bay and found a terminal out of the main thoroughfare. The tall members of the group provided cover while Keva sliced in.
Keva's high-pitched cursing made Slee turn around and start giving him a hand, but even with both of them tapping away (or whatever those techies do) we seemed to be hitting a wall. I was running out of Bantha jokes to tell whenever someone walked past, though 87 and I were still having a pretty good time. Keva squeaked in a happy tone, but just then we noticed stormtroopers walking down the alley with the Hangar supervisor in tow.
The supervisor pointed at us, and so I decided to play it cool and walked over. I bandied about in Drallish, but the stormtroopers were not amused, so I ended up giving in. I decided to toss the chance cubes, and willingly allowed the troopers to take us in for questioning. Either it turns out all right and we're free to go, or at the very least we find either Crim or someone who knows him. I just needed closure.
The rest of the crew followed along (how loyal - I thought Keva might stay with the ship!), and we entered the transport and were taken past the garrison to a nondescript warehouse. Inside there was the prototypical interrogation room: a bright light on a central table, bare furnishings, and probably one-way transparisteel windows somewhere. When they asked to take our weapons, I called their bluff and refused. “I'll give up my gear when you provide a warrant.”
They surprisingly backed down - I knew the legalities, but I also knew that in the Outer Rim legalities tend to be overlooked. This actually gave me pause. Perhaps we're not dealing with the standard frontline troops here. In any case, T9 soon entered and I played it friendly with him.
My straightforward and open answers seemed to placate him, and so I played up the naive green fringer role, which he completely bought. Probably because I didn't have to act much. In any case, events started falling into place. It turns out the local Moff is in deep with several crime Syndicates, probably including the Black Skulls. T9 was indeed an undercover agent, and he revealed we had taken a shipment of weapons to Bargos rather than medicines. I bet my uncle's Corellian Resistance would have appreciated a full shipment of weapons, though I didn't know he was arrested at the time.
When we explained the Imperial Interdiction checkpoint, I realized why it all had seemed so easy. Because we kind of knew something was strange about our cargo. And now I realized we were waist deep in Bantha poodoo.
In the end, we agreed to work for T9, and try to uncover Moff Trykin's smuggling ring. And I was happy to. As much as I disagreed with Emperor Palpatine's flagrant disregard for Democracy, not every Moff in the galaxy was as corrupt as him. The balance of order and freedom may not be correct, but it is better than the anarchy or bully tactics of the Syndicates.
So we left the warehouse and returned to our ship. OUR ship. Crim is, for better or worse, clearly a criminal. If he had been smuggling weapons to a legitimate resistance group I might have compassion, but HUTTS - he deserves his fate. Imperial law would confiscate all his goods anyhow, and so, as a legitimate representative of the Senate, there would be a bit of a case that we have rights to the ships.
The question is, keep the banged up old YT-1300, or sell them to go for something a tad more… durable? Maybe after we take down Moff Trykin we'll have more resources to draw on. In the meantime, let's christen the old girl.
