Kai's Journal #9
[Holojournal entry: 2 BBY]
Bacta tanks are useful, but feel strange when you're inside. Floating there, weightless, I had a lot of time to think. About the protest, the escape from Coruscant, and the crazy adventures we've had since. I haven't heard anything about uncle Garm since that holocast - I wonder where he's at. Is he really captured, or is it just another propaganda campaign by Palpatine?
I've noticed a change in me since I've come to the Outer Rim. Society, politics, morality, all of life seemed more black and white growing up in the Corellian sector, Alderaan, and even later when I was working at Coruscant. I don't want to lose my idealism, but here on the Rim I'm just not sure who is good or bad, or whom to trust. I assumed even Syndicates would have some sort of moral code, but after dealing with Hosk I've realized my error.
After Crim described what he knew of this upcoming “job opportunity” in Bespin I was conflicted. It sounded shady, but my fellow adventurers seemed interested and I don't have much else to do right now. I need purpose and direction.
We dropped Crim off at Naboo and continued on towards Bespin. He told us to pick him up again after the auction. Strange, but what choice do we have? I think my only hope for clearing my name is to get a good rep with the ISB, if that's even possible, and Crim seems to be in with them, now. Maybe we can stop Trykin's corruption. Purpose and direction…
And then I had the dream.
I heard my mother's voice call from the shadows, a cry for help. I ran toward the sound but every step I took brought me further from her. Then I felt eyes staring at me, and I spun around defensively. A strange man, very pale with angular features, but almost familiar, spoke. “Kai Bel Iblis… impressive. And yet you have much to learn. Your destiny is approaching; to save those you love, retrieve the Corusca gem.”
And then he burst into flame, agonizingly bright, with a brilliant gem pulsing in the center of the inferno. I stepped back and fell as flames engulfed my vision, and my mother screamed in terror as I woke.
An alarm was going off, warning that we were about to drop out of hyperspace. I took a deep breath, trying to slow my pulse, trying to will away my panic. The Trap lurched suddenly as we entered realspace, and the creaks and groans did nothing to settle my thoughts.
I rose from my cot, dressed, and headed into the cockpit where Slee was busy at the controls. “Bessspin. Ever been here before?”
“Not anywhere close, but I've heard about it,” I replied, trying to focus on the present. As we entered atmosphere the Wing Guard police flew to meet us, and we got clearance to land in Port Town. “Impressive city.”
Cloud City is a marvel of modern engineering, hovering in the clouds, mining tibanna gas. The sun was low in the horizon; a new day was dawning here, perhaps it's a fresh start for us?
We traveled to Market Row, and it was bustling with commercial activity. We were supposed to meet Aris Shenn here, and despite leaving early, the crowds slowed us and we arrived at the rendezvous point right at noon.
We casually glanced around, and we saw a pretty Pantoran casually walking through the crowd, but with company. It appeared as though Aris was being trailed by four beefy thugs.
They weren't too close, and it was crowded here, so as the Pantoran passed me she stopped to look into a nearby store window. “Meet me at the Droid Access hatch in 10 minutes. We'll try to lose these tails.”
And then she was gone, slipping off into the crowd. We tried to look nonchalant, and hopefully didn't attract any attention - the rest of the crowd was quite diverse like us.
“We have a few minutes to spare - I want grenades!” squeaked Keva as he pointed to the shop's window we were staring at. Sure enough, a few cases lined a window, so we stepped inside.
A large Wookiee murmured at us as we stepped in, and in my very basic Shri-wook I started haggling over the price. He made the mortal error of admitting that he'd had them in stock for much too long, and I ended up getting an excellent deal, but the conversation went a bit longer than I wanted. 3 minutes to get to the Hatch. Quickly scooping up 2 cases of stun and frag grenades we tossed him the credits and ran towards the Droid Access hatch.
We arrived at the hatch just in time, but the thugs were still trailing Aris. Slee surreptitiously nodded his head. “We need to ssseparate them. Disstraction plan?”
“Oooh, ooh! I know! I'll pickpocket the leader, and get him to chase me. If the leader goes, they'll all go!” volunteered Keva. He seemed much too happy to break the law, but the poor little guy obviously didn't have a decent upbringing so I don't really expect him to be civilized. And it might just work.
“I'll try to trip another one, that shouldn't be too hard. I'll pretend I'm malfunctioning or something,” added 87.
I nodded. “Slee, if you help out the others, I'll try to slip over and get Aris out of sight and we'll rendezvous after with the comms. Try to be somewhat discreet, guys.”
With that I started walking away from the group, and the others moved into position. I admit, I didn't mind avoiding attention from these thugs, in case I needed to do some Face work later - no sense in them knowing who I am. Right - that's it. I watched Aris gracefully striding away from us, and then followed with a spring in my step.
I glanced back while Keva scurried over to the leader, deftly slipping his little paws into his cloak pocket, and then bumping him on purpose. The leader looked down, glaring at Keva, who squeaked a little, but it appeared as though he didn't realize he'd been pickpocketed.
Behind them AD-87 started careening around, lurching into people, causing quite the stir. He managed to miss the henchman completely. I'm not sure how.
By this time I had quietly stepped beside Aris. “We need to get away from those guys,” she commented, and I nodded. “My friends are working on it - let's find an alley to duck into.”
I glanced back again, and by this time Slee was busy shouting something about a restraining bolt, 87 managed to step on another tail's toes, and Keva had shouted and waved something in the air and started sprinting down the street in the opposite direction. I looked back at Aris and she was just sneaking off to the left, around a vendor's cart and into an alley. I caught up with her and she nodded, clearly impressed with our group's capablities. Or amused, I'm not sure which.
I enjoyed walking casually beside her for a moment until Keva's voice squeaked over the comms, “All clear! We lost them!”
“Excellent, Keva. Let's meet one street over,” I replied. I chatted a bit with Aris, idle talk, until we all met together.
“Sorry about that,” she said to the group. “Those guys are hard to lose. Welcome to Cloud City. I'd like you to meet with my father within the next half hour, level 50. His name is Arend Shen.”
I asked, “So what's the scoop on the henchmen?”
“Well, they work for my husband.”
“Nuts!” I said out loud to myself. And blushed a bit when the others stared at me.
Aris smirked and said, “He sends them to 'protect' me - in other words, keeping tabs on my activities. He's Vors Taborith.”
“What'ss he do?” questioned Slee.
“Oh, a little of this, a little of that,” Aris replied evasively.
“He's a gangster, guys,” Keva stated. “I've heard his name before.”
We looked at each other, and back at Aris. She shrugged and went on to describe the city, answering our questions about the layout and the local casinos. I'm itching for some sabacc, though I might stay away from the high end stuff - a bit out of my price range, I think. The “4 1/2” sounded promising, if risky.
“We'll talk about the Jewel at my father's,' she commented as she motioned us to follow her into the public transit system.
We kept chatting as we rode up the turbolifts to level 50, and we entered a posh neighbourhood. Once inside the fancy apartment complex, Aris knocked and an older Pantorin, dressed in elegant blues and maroons, answered the door. “Ah, welcome friends. Come on in. Aris, why don't you fix us some drinks?” He gestured for us to enter and take a seat at a fine wooden table.
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As we moved to sit down, I nudged Slee. “I'm getting some weird vibes here, Slee. Notice anything?”
He looked around casually and whispered back, “I don't think anyone livesss here - probably just a meeting place.” Hmm.
“I'm pleased you came,” Arend looked at each of us in turn. “You've been recommended to me as a party with special skills. The job is illegal, and possibly dangerous. But the payout is significant - tens of thousands of credits.” He smiled and leaned back in his chair.
“Ssso, who are we up againsst?” Slee asked cautiously, and Arend held out his hands.
“Not so fast. Before I say anything more, I need to know if you're in or not.” He arched his eyebrow at me, and I looked over at the others.
“I'm in!” Keva squeaked immediately.
“Me too” replied both AD-87 and Slee. Everyone looked at me.
I sighed. “Well, I've got nothing else to do - I'm sticking with you guys.” Hopefully this won't be TOO illegal.
“Excellent! Now, as you may have heard, the gem we're dealing with is the famous Jewel of Yavin, up for auction in 3 days. It's a rare Corusca gem of unparalleled size, clarity, and radiance. Your job will be to manipulate the bidding system to raise the stakes as high as possible, then slice in and steal the credits of the winner.” He paused, grinned, and continued. “Then, we steal the jewel itself.”
“We steal it twice…” I sat up straighter. “Mr. Shen, you certainly think big. Impressive.”
He nodded. “You'll have to come up with your own plan. The most straightforward way to access the auction is to race in the Cloud Car Grand Prix. The winner receives a ticket to the gala banquet. I happen to have a Cloud Car that I can lend you.” He went on for a while about the history of the Grand Prix, and then opened the floor for questions.
Slee asked, “Who ownss the gem now? And who are the bidderss?”
“Ah, yes. Aris will tell you more later, but the current owner is Maris Greyson, Imperial Commissioner of the Trade & Commerce Authority. There are seven bidders, including Kalto the Hutt, Shreia Ordessa, Mil Miceer, Vors Taborith…”
“You know that's yo« Journal #8ur son-in-law.” I stated, glancing towards the kitchen.
“Business is business. Aris has more to say about that.” He didn't seem bothered at all.
Keva piped up, “Do you have any resources for us to draw from?”
“Yes, besides the Cloud Car, I have set up an off-world dummy account that's untraceable to you or me.” He handed over a datapad to Keva. “It includes routing and accounting information and is the key to diverting funds from the winner. I wouldn't recommending telling anyone else about this - there are many interests on Bespin. I must be going now, but Aris will fill you in with the rest of the details. Thank you, again, for meeting me, and I hope our time together will be most profitable.”
As he left, Aris entered the room with drinks. AD-87 looked bored.
We discussed the situation with Aris further, planning our next steps. Keva asked the question on my mind. “So, why do you want to double-cross your husband?”
“My marriage was arranged by my father, and I want more than just this posh lifestyle.” Maybe it was my imagination, but did she look at me when she said that? Focus. “He's obsessed with wealth and status.”
The Pantoran's blue face tightened. “But this job is personal. My father is a financier, but before Bespin he was a wealthy investor in a subsidiary bank, mainly dealing in venture capital. One client was Marus Grayson. His enterprise flopped, but instead of bankruptcy, he managed to seize bank assets and ruined the Shen family. Now, he's turned up on Bespin to auction off this gem. We want to make him squirm.”
Ah, things are starting to make sense. We spoke for a while longer, analyzing the situation and taking stock of what information, equipment and other resources we'll need. I started getting excited - I do enjoy strategizing and unraveling problems.
I'll just try hard not to think of the legalities surrounding this. It helps that Grayson sounds annoying, and really, we're merely collecting a debt that he owes the Shens. And the bidders all seem to be criminal as well - I have no patience for slimy Hutts, and our interactions so far with other Crime Lords have left a sour taste in my mouth. It also helps that the Empire has no presence here, and so in a way there is no question of galactic justice. Corusca jewels are contraband, so I'd also be preventing the illegal sale. Rationalization definitely comes easy on the Outer Rim.
“By the way, here's an image of the actual gem. Beautiful, isn't it?” Aris placed her datapad on the table. I did a double take, and instantly the memory of my dream filled my mind. It was precisely the same gem from my dream, a gem I'd never set eyes on before.
I have a bad feeling about this.
