Kai's Journal #7
[Data error recovery… decryption successful]
I stared at the smoking body of 87 - it didn't look good. Slee, Keva and I stared at each other, and decided to drop the dead lieutenants off the edge of the hangar bay. I shook my head: what a waste! All we wanted to do was talk, and if the Force wasn't strong with us, I think we'd be the ones in a crumpled heap in the alley below.
We turned back to my bodyguard droid, and strangely, I felt some regret and worry. In my head I know he's only an advanced computer, and everything he does is programmed; but our adventures over the past few weeks have created a bond. “Slee, do you think you can fix him up?” I asked gently.
“Hmmm. I'll sssee what I can do, but his circuitsss are sssmoked. We'll have to find a repair bay, or maybe an oil bath facility.”
I realized I was a bit scorched myself, and I was feeling a bit woozy as the adrenaline left me, and so I stimmed up to get my brain back in gear. Slee was busy patching up Keva, and once he was stabilised, he bandaged me up a bit. I've never had a knack for medicine - it's good I'm associated with details-oriented people!
Hosk was still lying on the permacrete, so the three of us hauled him into the ship, tied him up, and locked him in the cargo room. Keva looked at me and said, “I'm gonna need some serious medical help still. We need some supplies - I'm outta stims!”
“I'm low, alssso,” Slee replied.
“Go ahead - I'll watch over Hosk. He seems to be very talented, and I don't want our first lead in this Moff investigation to escape without helping us,” I answered. “I'll keep the comms on in case you need anything.
Before they left, we also brought 87 into the mechanical room and he looked comfortable enough - not that droids need to be comfortable when they're shut down.
On my end, it was fairly uneventful. Hosk was down for the count, so I read over my holo-journals and caught up a bit.
“Uh, Kai, we have a chance to get a really cool bacta tank. A Sullustan over here is gonna give us a great deal,” came Keva's voice over the comm.
“Alright. I have the creds if they'll accept it on delivery. We probably don't want to give them many credits before it's installed, anyway!” I said. “And let's pay for the complete package - I don't want weak bacta.” Keva and Slee both had looked quite poor when they had left, and I didn't want to take any chances on losing anyone.
Half an hour later, the Bacta Installers came by, very professional and quickly installed our shiny “Healing Station 2000 (Titanium Edition)”. “Hey, da boss says we're throwing in a couple of free medpacks. Congrats, man. You are da proud owner of da finest healing station in de Outer Rim. All sales final, uh, satisfaction garr.. garan, uh teed.” The burly deliveryman looked up from reading his notes, gave me a nod when I handed him the credits, and he left with his Sullustan assistant.
As they left, a voice chirped over the comms. “Okay, so, we went to find a mechanic, and I'm thinking our best choice is to buy a portable healing oil bath for our bucket of bolts.”
“Keva, how much? Our New Ship Fund is heading in the wrong direction here.”
“Only 5. Thousand. But we're in rough shape without AD-87.”
“Alright, alright. Send them over, too. I have a feeling we'll need it.” I want that YT-2000, but I suppose that our health and well-being might be a more immediate need. And 87 has the majority of our firepower, which we may unfortunately need to make use of before this is over. I wonder if it ever will be done? Running forever in the Outer Rim… something has to change.
After a minute or so, Keva called again, on the private channel. “Kai, I'm getting worried about Slee. He told me he was losing credits, from a hacker or something, but when I checked, everything was there. He was looking at me real funny.”
“Interesting. Maybe he's not getting enough sleep. We all have our off days. I mean, we were just about all killed today. That's enough to set anyone off. Just keep an eye on him,” I answered. Hmmm.
It wasn't long before our crew was back together, with 87 soaking his damaged parts in the healing oil bath. Hosk began to stir, so Slee lifted off and we decided to microjump to a completely isolated location to question this Crime Boss. We bantered back and forth for a while, Keva trying to be intimidating while I, naturally, was my charming self.
It turns out that Hosk had been trying to bid for the “medical supplies” (he holds to the story that it was really weapons), but Crim won the job. I guess Crim's need for pilots makes sense now. I finally got through to Hosk that our goal is to take down Trykin, and he seemed to appreciate that sentiment. At least he believes now that we're not trying to muscle in on his territory.
Hosk then said, “I've heard there's another “transport” job up for auction shortly. Maybe that's your chance to get Trykin.”
As we haggled about his cut and what kind of deal we could make with him, we heard the noise of blaster fire coming from the cockpit area. “Uh, Slee, is everything okay up there?” I called over the intercom.
“I didn't like your negotiations much,” came a muffled reply.
Keva looked at me, and he squeaked, “I'll be right back!” and he scurried off. I continued to negotiate with Hosk, though he seemed to smirk slightly.
When Keva returned, he pulled me off to the side. “Slee is acting very strange - again! He blasted the doors shut! I talked to him a bit, but maybe he needs help - I don't know if he's going to flip out or what.”
“Is everything alright?” Hosk called out.
His demeaning tone didn't sit well with me, and I didn't want to show him weakness or let him get any goods on us, so I replied, “We're fine. Just a minor inconvenience. Keva, let's get this negotiation finished, and I'm sure everything will be fine.” Show a criminal any weakness and he'll hang it over your head forever. At least that's what I recall from Galactic Justice 101 back at the U of A.
Hosk finally agreed to our terms, and described the procedure for bidding on Trykin's jobs. The info was thorough, and seemed legit. It may have been my imagination, but I sensed a slight softening in his attitude toward us. Even if this is the case, I imagine he'd blast us if he had the chance. We fulfilled our end of the bargain and let him off back at Keyorin. As Slee was busy fixing the cockpit doors, we came up with an epic plan; maybe we'll get out of this mess after all…
