"We have a stowaway," Shard begins, sticking to the obvious first.  She catches her balance on a nearby handhold, but leaves her right hand under her cloak.  "A Twi'lek - the stormtroopers back there mentioned they were looking for one of these."

The older woman purses her lips thoughtfully.  "Everything started to go bad when we heard an odd sound and a couple of stormtroopers took a long fall out of a building.  I've heard that sound before - a lightsaber.  And before anyone gets bent out of shape on how those things aren't around any more, she's got one hanging from her belt."

Her eyes rise to the Twi'lek's.  "You a Jedi, little girl?  Or just someone who got lucky?"

At the word 'stowaway', Rhijans rolled his eyes.  Yep, something DEFINITELY had to go wrong...  It just hadn't been the 'something' he'd been expecting.

At 'lightsaber', he shook his head, and at 'Jedi', he snorted in outright disbelief.  He didn't say anything, however.  He'd heard of Jedi...who in the galaxy hadn't?  But it, like many other myths throughout the galaxy, had never had any place in his life, or his culture.  But he was willing to wait and hear how Shard's question was answered.

"Oh my aren't you an inquisitive bunch! Let's see now, who was first with what? Oh yes! Why?" Tfalta waved her hands as if trying to fend of all the questions ganging up on her.

"Can I answer now? Alrightie! Why is of course a huge question but I will make a leap of conclusion and make the bold deduction that you mean 'Why are you hiding in our vehicle?' and nothing else, such as 'Why does the sun rise' or any other general life brooding and usually bigger 'Why'." The words poured out with both ease and speed, the hands doing as much talking as the mouth. Catching her breath inserted a pause, however brief.

"Oh yes, why. Right. Because it was evidently from out of town and ready to leave! An obvious place to hide away!" She nodded her head eagerly, then stopped and began to shake it instead. "But, oh no no, no, I did not draw attention to you at all. I hid, obviously in the locker too, but what I mean is I concealed myself from her. Oh she is a piece of work that one! Ghea Nimadda, right hand of the Imperial governor and all that. Jedi? Me? Well yes and no and perhaps more than most today but not yet at the same level as those who were before, but, hmm, yes, I suppose so."

Another brief pause and then a smile and step towards Shard.

"You are familiar with things then! Yes, one of those, as you say. Are you a Jedi yourself? But no, perhaps not? But there ..something..." She finally began to slow down and stared at Shard with great interest, starting to half reaching out towards her.

Mark's blaster did come out when the Twi'lek emerged from the cargo. "Ok. You're doing a lot of talking, but you're not really talking. Tell us what we want to know."

"And tell us what you think we don't want to know."

Mark glanced at Shard, then back to the Twi'lek.

Neary takes a seat again and watches as their passenger starts talking.  Lightsaber?  Jedi?  What the heck did the others do when they were in town?  But she holds back on the questions, to both, and just listens and waits.

Shard doesn't move an inch when the alien comes closer, though her lip curls slightly when the girl gets around to the point; instead, she narrows her eyes and jerks a thumb toward Mark.  "Better answer his question.  I'm not the one under interrogation right now."

Not jedi, not quite.  Some kind of apprentice.  What was the word again?  Padawan?  It has been a long time, with too many binges.

But anger sparks in her eyes when the girl reaches out, and she holds up a hand, the meaning clear: look, but don't touch.  "I'm not a Jedi," Shard hisses through her teeth, the name spat out like a curse.  "But that one back at the port was, and if you can feel things, then so can she and probably better.  Which makes you a beacon if you try anything here.  So don't."

Watching Mark Tfalta's expression turned into a mixture of amusement and confusion as she watched Mark.

"You know what? I like you so I will do that, as soon as you tell me what is it you want to know! Fair enough? Yes? Good!" The big smile returned. "Hrmm. I think you don't want to hear that those trousers went out of fashion like five years ago and that the hairdo, ah, it has yet to be in fashion!"

Her attention switched to Shard and a finger wagged. "Tsk tsk. Shame on you, calling her a Jedi. She is nothing of the kind. A cold, heartless killing machine she is!" A sad shake of the head followed.

"So you do know! You once followed the path? But fear not, I am no more beacon than she is Jedi! Not to her, no no. Nope! But careful with that temper! The Dark Side and all, y'know!" Her tattooed eyebrows wiggled at the last part.

"Back into crate," Mogg says, shaking his head. "We dump with  rest of trash once we break orbit. She not answer questions. We not help. That or she not smart enough to see question when asked. Either way ... no more useless talk.""

Mark thumbed a setting on the Blastech Heavy Blaster. "Good idea. Dump the trash before this get complicated."


EDIT: Spelling Error :)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:02, Fri 14 Jan 2011.

Rhijans snorted again.  "'Before...'?" he called back over his shoulder.  "This has been complicated ever since they told us we had to follow a droid to find our contact."  He shook his head...he couldn't believe he was about to say this, but it needed to be said...

"Regardless of whether she's crazy, or stupid, the Empire put a lot of effort into looking for her.  Anything valuable to the Empire might be even more valuable to someone else...she needs to go back to Command, let them figure out what to do with her."  He fought the urge to spit in disgust...but he didn't want to risk a cleaning charge when he returned the transport.

"A cold, heartless killing machine she is!"

"I fail to see the difference."  Shaking her head, Shard turns away from the lunatic and marches back to the others, ignoring the rest of what the girl has to say.  Some garbage about her following 'the path'.  "I'm all for dumping her - alive - but if Jalt wants her around, fine.  I'm not dealing with her, though."

She sits down on a bench, putting her head against the wall.  "Someone better take her weapon, though, unless you trust her carrying that thing around.  I don't."  Shard closes her eyes, arranging her cloak around herself again.  "Going to be a problem, though, if that woman with the 'troopers is looking for her.  They'll be searching every ship out of the port."

Neary snorts and shakes her head, then sighs.

"I'm with Rhijans, in case anyone's counting votes.  No idea if she's loony, but then I think anyone who believes in 'the farce' is loony so that may not count if you're actually buying into it."

She shakes her head again and sits down where she sat before, looking everyone over in turn.

"Just glad I'm not the one running from the troopers, then running into us.  Not saying we'd trust her, but people, the Empire's the bad guys here, for crying out loud."

"Start giving free rides to everyone who tries to get away from the Empire," Shard notes, "you'll end up with a full hold laced with a couple of Imperial spies.  We can help people, but at the cost of the mission?  Cost of maybe giving away our base?"

Then she shrugs.  "But like you say, we don't have to trust her, and we sure can't dump her in the middle of nowhere, not with the bad air and all.  So it sounds like you just volunteered to be the one taking care of her, so make sure you don't miss that weapon."

"Oh trash talk! Bad boys! Almost sounded like you believed yourself there too!" said Tfalta and smiled at Jihon and Mark in turn.

"Command, yes. Take me to your leader!" she said, still smiling. "Yes, the Empire doesn't like me, I've been naughty, sabotaging for them. Even made an automated harvester make a house call at the Governor of Vonin's mansion. Redecorating. He wasn't overcome with gratitude, though."

She gives a firm shake of the head and her gaze turned to Shard. "Biiiig difference! She kills for pleasure, although she enjoys almost killing even more, so she's nothing like you lot at all! Padawan gone bad before even getting trained properly, now on the Dark side. Bad seed!"

A hand went down to pat the metallic cylinder, without actually gripping it. "I'll keep it, thanks! Beside, she's looking in the city back there, not the one you are going to! If you want I can of course make it on my own from here! But it is the force, not farce!"

"Fine, I can watch her.  I gotta just say, though, if I'd run into you guys when I was running from the Imperial army, well, I guess I'd been dead now," Neary says with a sullen tone and shakes her head yet again.  She throws her hands up and half growls, "C'mon, you guys seriously think they stage this whole hunt for our sake so we'd take a spy in, rather than capturing us?  Very flattering, but I don't think we're that much of a nuisance to them, not yet."

"I'm Neary.  As far as I'm concerned you can keep your trinket, just don't try any funny stuff, or I'll show you a heartless killing machine," she says to Tfalta and pulls out her concealed blaster.  "Can we get moving now or are we going to wait for the troopers to add things up and come looking for us?" she asks impatiently.  Sitting around was not her idea of a good time, unless she was about to blow something up.

The comm panel chooses that moment to crackle, and Reldan's voice issues from it, "Uh, guys, I'm on my way back to you right now!"  From outside the transport the sound of a swoop motor is growing louder.  Perhaps a little too loud?

In the gloom of the forest, a rider appears on the road, some distance ahead.  Moving fast and sweeping from one side of the highway to the other and back again as blaster fire strikes the road and the surrounding foliage.

"I've got a swoop gang close on my tail, maybe six or seven of them, and I don't think they were planning on admiring my ride."

"The difference between you - and anyone else halfways sane - and her," Shard acidly explains to Narf, "is that we would have gotten straight talk from you, and you'd probably understand our reasons for asking for your weapon until we could verify things.  We have a person who snuck onto our ride, who may have brought down imperial eyes on us during a mission, and who is asking us one heck of a favour.  A little cooperation, straightforwardness, and seriousness might have gone a long way toward smoothing things over.  Instead?  Clowning and a refusal to turn over her weapon."

The co-pilot should understand that much - she is, after all, a professional.

"Well, that's on your head," she mutters, the anger fading from her tone.  "She's all yours."

Moments later, they have a new problem to deal with.

"Great.  Maybe our guest can jump out and leap from swoop to swoop, cutting them to pieces."  Shard affixes her breathmask.  "Don't forget to give her a mask before she chokes to death."

I should be so lucky...

The whip-thin woman makes her way forward to the pilot compartment, where she reaches a hand out to Rhijans.  "Blaster.  Unless you want me driving."  Her teeth flash in a smile.  "Promise I'll give it back, and if we ever find one, I'll never need to bug you again."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:54, Mon 17 Jan 2011.

Neary grins and says, "You weren't there when I first met up with those who claim to oppose the Empire.  Yeah, my head, and I'll stake it on her being on our side," she rounds of and waves a hand dismissively.

"Great, old friends dropping by," she sighs as the news comes about the swoop gang making a reappearance.

Rhijans pulled out the heavy blaster and handed it over to Shard.  "Next time, someone else gets to drive...we don't have time to change drivers, I think, and if anyone's watching us, a mysterious stop in the middle of nowhere's gonna attract attention that we don't want."

He called back over his shoulder.  "I hope you can fight with a blaster, because there's still aerial surveillance, at least, if they don't have someone in orbit eyeballing this section of the planet.  I'd rather have a few blaster scores on the transport than have someone waving a lightsaber around."  That was about all he'd ever learned about Jedi in his time out in the galaxy, and it was really more than he'd ever wanted to know about them.  "I'm willing to gamble on you being more than just some random crazy person, but if you wind up compromising our mission and drawing attention to us now that we're almost out, I'll shoot you myself.  Without a second thought."  It was a statement of fact, no threat in his voice.  He might have been just as easily talking about discarding a faulty power cell for his weapon.

"Goodie," Shard mutters, taking the weapon. "Teach me how, I'll be happy to drive one of these.  I'd lay copper to gold you're a better shot than me."  She pauses.  "Funny thought.  I'm half-inclined to radio those Tie Bombers flying around and tell them we're being attacked by bandits.  See if our tax dollars are doing any good."  She grimaces.  "Only thing is maybe they'd want us to talk with someone afterward, and we have our guest to consider."

Moving back the rear, she checks to make certain everyone has their breather on.  No sense in opening a window until then.  The sudden shift in Rhijans opinion from defending their visitor to warning her against giving them away (on pain of death) makes her smile and shake her head.  Professional, that one.  Perhaps a little too professional.

I guess I'm not, in the end.  I've got to keep them all alive, even the annoying one.

Mark waved to the door. "Alright. Out!" The man with the blaster apparently decided. "Out, or I'll blast you since you're not tell me why we should harbor a jedi."

Mark motioned for Shisskurr to open the access hatch. "Now git going."

Rhijans barked back over his shoulder.  "Hey, until I'm convinced she's doing us wrong, I'm not dumping anybody in the middle of nowhere at 120 kilometers an hour.  Especially not when we've got a swoop gang closing on us.  You throw her out now, you better go out right behind her, unless you want trouble with me."  Again, the tone was extremely matter-of-fact.  Rhijans didn't know if he could take Jacobs, or not...but he did have his own twisted sense of ethics and he wasn't going to let someone else compromise them unchallenged.

"If she can hold a blaster, she can make herself useful.  We'll toss her later, if we still feel like it!"  He wasn't tremendously worried about the swoop gang, unless they managed to disable the transport.  They were thugs, and most thugs buckled when faced with determined resistance.

They had, however, had their egos bruised earlier today, and that changed the equation.  They only had one swoop to back up the transport, but a couple of extra blasters from the transport...if they were in good hands...could make a lot of difference.

"Alright, Jedi. Looks like you have an angel watching over you." Mark holstered the blaster. "We'll have the discussion later.

---

Mark walked to Rhijan. "So what's the situation?" He looked over his shoulder and checked on the jedi before he continued talking to Rhijan in a lower voice.  "And how many swoops this time?"

Rhijans shook his head.  "Don't know how many, Jalt didn't say and I suspect he probably didn't get a full count.  How many probably depends on whether they realize we're the ones that fought them off earlier today or they think we're just another transport coming through.  Gang egos are pretty fragile, if they think we did them wrong, they'll want to try and take out their frustrations.  May want to do it, anyway.  Or, they may see us and recall that they did absolutely nothing effective against us, and lost several swoops, and decide they're better off conserving their strength to punish a weaker target."  He shrugged.

"Until we see their reaction to us, there's no way of being sure what the response will be.  I think we'll have a lot less trouble if we go in, guns blazing, especially if we can ground three or four of 'em right off the bat.  Gangs get demoralized pretty quickly, in my experience, if they suffer heavy losses right away."

He said nothing in acknowledgment of Jacobs' comment to the Jedi.  Didn't need to, really...there were more important issues to deal with.

"You'd better get us in closer quickly," Shard shouts, peering out the window, heavy blaster pistol in hand.  "Or Jalt's going to be in serious trouble!"

One man against a group - bad odds for the man, good odds for the group.  Better to defend as a unit.

"Pass out the spare blasters," she mutters, again checking to see if everyone has their breath-mask on.