With the kid apparently content (and also apparently purifying water with the power of her mind?), Haarmon turned more of his attention to the ship. Rags and Rhijans were out scouting and reconnoitering. Perfect.

Which left him and Shard and Jalt.

And void, yeah, the ghost of Jalt's brother.

"Yeah, man, that's some serious business. I hope you're doing okay. And, you know, if we can do anything."

Stupid thing to say. But he couldn't think of anything else.

The kid would probably know just what to say.

"Right now... " Jalt says quietly, "... I have something more important than shutting Dargo down to focus on.  Once the Bantha is back in shape, then it's open season on the Hutt.  And I need to remember that he's the best source for the parts I got to have.  So I have a bit of time to figure something out.  After that he'll just be a greasy stain on his palace floor."

He laughs bitterly.  "Who knows?  Maybe I'll upgrade the Bantha's weapons, then test the new ones on Dargo."

Juragga looked around warily, trying to scout appropriately while still covering Rhijans' back.

"Mmmrrrrph," he wuffed, not seeing anything immediately threatening.

Rhijans nodded, only able to make an educated guess at the Wookiee's meaning.  He keyed his commlink.  "Good spot.  No one should be able to get a read on us from overhead, even fairly close to the ground...the geology's working for us.  And it looks like at least one of our pursuers didn't make it out of the canyon.  We'll take a more careful look...but for now, I think we're alone and pretty well marked from anyone looking for us."

He looked at Juragga.  "Don't step out too far.  Odds are good that Star Destroyer's scanning the surface, trying to find us.  It's a longshot for them, but seeing a body suddenly step into view in this canyon would give them a reason to look closer."

He eased his way along the wall of the cavern Jalt had dropped them in, staying beneath the overhang,  eyes occasionally flicking upward to gauge if the stone had been compromised and might collapse on them...and while he could only see a very limited section of sky, his ears listened carefully for the sound of engines.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:00, Mon 11 Feb 2019.

Jalt smiles and nods as he replies to the call, "Thanks Rhijans, that's a bit of good news at least."

Next he puts out a call on the intercom, "Artoo?  Take a look at the port side power converter.  We were getting a bit of a drop off in the port thrusters on the run here.  See if you can lock the converter down."

In Haarmon's care, the alien child releases the cup, and seems to relax, her eyes growing unfocussed and starting to close...

Waiting for the call to finish, Shard relaxes slightly.  She shoots a bemused glance at Haarmon; it's still hard for her to take in, him standing there, cradling the child.  And looking so much at ease; she would have pegged him for awkward with children, at best.  Like you, Shard?

Yeah, like me.

Moving up next to Jalt, she puts a hand on his shoulder.  "I meant what I said, back there.  Anything you choose about Dargo, I'm in.  I'm betting we all are." There's a small pause.  "Maybe not the colonel," she admits.  "But by this time, I figure we've earned a cursed vacation if necessary, maybe for some personal 'weapon testing'."

She might not be comfortable with children, but her old teacher had trained her well in what he called 'justice' and what Shard just thinks of as killing.

Time passes, as it usually does in most of the more commonly occupied parts of the Universe.  By the chronometer on the Dancing Bantha it's a little less than two hours until R2-O0 lets Jalt know that he's repaired the problem power converter, at least temporarily, as well as a few other issues he noticed while he was doing that.

Jalt pronounces the ship flyable, if not optimally.

Rhijans and Juragga return from a trek up the canyon, keeping as close to the rock wall as possible.  They have visited the wreck of a crashed TIE, presumably one of those that had been pursuing the Bantha.  The fighter is unsalvageable - a crumpled, burned shell.  The pilot is still in the wreck, in pretty much the same condition as his ship.

During their whole trip to investigate the wreck, Rhijans and Juragga saw no sign of Imperial activity in the area.

With the baby all settled in, Haarmon looks up at Shard.

"Have a lot of older sisters. By the time they were throwing nieces and nephews around I was so persona non grata in my family that none of them'd leave me alone with any of 'em. But I guess I picked a little up along the way all the same."

He looks down at the sleeping baby with a small, wistful smile.

"So, uh, you guys know this Taffita Doll person? Any reason why we're bringing the baby to them? I don't want to be all putting on airs and whatever, but I'm confused why anyone outside this dirtball cares much about who runs the Clade and who doesn't."

"Tfalta Dawl... " Kourene says, "She's a Jedi, or claims to be.  She's also one of my intel sources.  I think she used to live here, so the locals probably know her.  Last I saw her, she was at the base."

On their jaunt to the wreck, Juragga looked for anything they could salvage from the TIE to help the Bantha.  Otherwise, he curled a derisive lip at the corpse of the child slaver they'd killed, and returned with Rhijans.

Rhijans led the way back up the ramp and aboard the ship.  "We're looking good out there.  It took a while to hike down the the crashed TIE fighter...but the pilot never got a chance to eject...at the speed they were flying, he only made it a couple of seconds past our hiding spot, here, so if he saw us, he didn't have time to tell anyone.  And there's no sign that anyone's looking for us anywhere in this area...not a guarantee that we're clear, because being down inside the canyon really minimizes what you can see or hear...but we didn't see anything overhead and didn't hear anything that sounded like a ship's engines."  He leaned up against a bulkhead.

"If the ship's ready, I'm guessing sometime near sunset is our best bet to move...still enough light that the glow of the engines won't stand out too much."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:24, Tue 19 Feb 2019.

"I don't know that she claimed to be a Jedi," Shard corrects. "Unless that came later," she muses, with a glance to the colonel.  "She always claimed to be an apprentice to me.  Certainly she had the skills to back that up.  Real, serious skills."

With a sigh, the older woman stands and begins to pace.  "But she stowed away on our vehicle while we were working for the colonel.  Not the ship itself - a rental skiff.  That, in itself, wasn't a bad thing, but when discovered, she called us rebels, refused to give any straight answers, beat around the bush, and then didn't understand when the team was hostile." Shard shrugs.  "Not the best way to introduce herself.  Half our team wanted to just get rid of her, the other half wanted to get RID of her, if you get my meaning.  Fortunately, the more sane heads prevailed, and then we ended up in a spot of trouble with Gia Nimadda.  First time, and Dawl was the one who let us in on who she was."

Coming closer, she peers at Haarmon. "Seems you picked up quite a bit; enough for the girl to latch onto you." Her smile is a tad lop-sided, but still real.  "Hidden depths, Haarmon.  I always knew it." A touch on the shoulder takes any possible edge from the words - there isn't any to start, really - and Shard sighs.  "And the baby can actually contact you.  Incredible."

Her gaze flicks to Rhijans.  "Longer the search continues, the further it spreads.  If they haven't found us by now, I'm optimistic."  But realistic; it could still happen.

"But we still need that void-cursed part."

"And we'll be going to get it, soon enough." Jalt says, "I wish Yakusant had more moisture - a bit of cloud cover and maybe some rain would make me feel a lot more comfortable about moving out.  But without that... near sunset sounds good to me."

"In the meantime, I suggest taking a break, just in case things don't go according to plan when we make our move."

Kourene chuckles, "I remember Dawl said she had some trouble getting help from you.  She's a strange one, all right, and I can see how she might rub people up the wrong way.  But I always thought she did that to see if they might make a slip - reveal that they were Imperial agents or something."

"In any case, she has turned out to be useful to us.  She has a lot of contacts, and picks up a fair bit of intel for me."

The Dancing Bantha comes out of the cave into the almost total darkness of the canyon.  Overhead the sky is still fairly bright - Yakusant's blue-white sun still hasn't quite set, but here, in the canyon, there is only shadow.  And the scuttling of night creatures.

Jalt sets a course away from Dargo's palace, a winding course that will provide as much cover as possible, until they reach the main approach vector for transports coming in to the palace.

"We move to here, and then act like regular traffic.  After that we just fly straight to the palace, and try not to draw attention from nosey neighbours.  This time we land inside the palace grounds, at the back of the building, just like a normal transport dropping off a shipment."

Haarmons charge is starting to stir...

Rhijans nodded at Jalt's explanation.  They'd managed some pretty audacious exploits by just acting like they belonged somewhere...there certainly weren't enough of them with the skills and supplies to try a stealth infiltration.  That left them with the bluff...and while Rhijans wasn't a gambler, he knew how effective it could be, especially when the other party was not on guard against it.

"Any idea where we go once we're inside?" he asked.  His tone betrayed no major concern if the answer might be no...it was purely a request for information.

"Whatever her reasons, I'm glad she's working out for you, colonel.  Girl will probably be happy to get her kid back, as well," Shard muses.  Especially if the two are talking to each other, she wryly -- and silently -- considers.  If they can tear the young one away from Haarmon!


Unlike Rhijans, though, she's a ball of tension when they're heading toward the palace.  It's good to get off the ground -- sitting and waiting has never been comfortable -- and Shard likes the idea, but they're heading right back into the maw of the beast.  "We're going to want to move quickly," she quietly states, possibly redundantly as well.  Best to clarify. "I don't know if everyone's favourite bogeywoman is behind this, but if she is -- and given the girl, it's a possibility -- she might be able to find me, Haarmon, or the baby if we hang around here too long."

The idea twists her gut into a knot.

Haarmon frowns and his brow furrows and knots.

"Well, she'll touch Lady Loquacious here over my dead body."

A jolt of fear went through him as he consider that that might be exactly her plan. Not fear for himself (not entirely anyway) but fear of what someone like that might do to his tiny charge.

Fear, and some sadness.

And beneath that, a hot bitter anger.

"So, couple of things," he said to the group, "I need to stay on the ship. No way I'm heading in there with the Duchess of Diapers, here. I'd look so out of place it'd be dangerous even if, you know, whasserface, wasn't out to get her. And there's nothing going on in a Hutt's place I can much help with anyway."

A pause.

"And two. You got any, like, mushy veggies on this tub? Or something I can steam? Or mush up with a fork?"

Not even aware he was doing it, he stood up and started rocking back and forth on his hips. Babies loved it.

"Tub?  Tub?"  Jalt looks horrified, as he reaches out to stroke the nearest bulkhead, "There there Baby, don't listen to the nasty man whose life you just saved, even though you're hurting real bad."  It isn't altogether clear if he's serious or not.

And then he gestures towards a corner of the rec lounge.  "Should be able to find something in the galley nook.  Green storage lockers have rations."

Rhijan's question brings a broad grin.  "Where is easy.  Dargo's workshops and supply stores open directly onto the landing area.  Ships needing repairs can even request to land close by."

"And here we are... touching down in about one minute... "

Jalt calls what passes for traffic control at Dargo's palace and, minutes later, the Dancing Bantha settles onto the cracked and burned ferrocrete of a marked landing area behind the structure.  Two other ships are already on the ground there, and Jalt eyes them from the cockpit.

"I don't recognise the YT-1300, but the Z-10 is the Far Tracker.  We should stay away from that one, and its pilot.  Ship looks like it's taken a beating.  I guess Krev went after a bounty that fought back."

Rh8jans made a mental note of that,  and looked over the other freighter for and signs of serious weapons...odds were extremely high that it was a smuggling ship, and therefore almost certainly armed...but there was a difference between armed to discouraged pirates, and armed to hunt down other ships...

"You lead the way...I'm just the hired help on this one," he answered aloud.  He had no idea where they needed to go, or what they were looking for...but he could help carry stuff...or lay down suppressing fire.

Having hunted up some of what might optimistically be called 'baby food' for Haarmon, Shard offers it up to the young man. "I think," she notes with a raised eyebrow, "you're bonding with her." A wry smile quirks her lips.  "Being able to chat probably helps.  Let's try to avoid becoming dead bodies, period, though I understand the sentiment."

Then she readies herself for the foray off the ship.  "If you're sticking around with the baby, I'll go with Rhijans this time."  A glance toward the bounty hunter.  "Unless you'd rather we work it differently?"  It's up to him, in the end.  He knows the area better than her, and probably the sort of people they might encounter.

Rhijans shrugged, nodding to Jalt.  "He's the expert on the locals.  I'm just along to make sure he makes it back.  I'm pretty sure between the Colonel, Juragga, and Haarmon, nobody's sneaking aboard...our other guest might even help, considering a trained Imperial tech that's now MIA and likely presumed dead would probably bring a nice stack of credits on the slave market, if Dargo's people took the ship."

His lips pulled tight over his teeth in an expression that could have been a grin.  "We could always let You-Why give them whatever greeting he felt was appropriate to anyone trying to sneak aboard.  I suspect that might be even worse than anything Dargo might try."

"Set them to running," Shard wryly agrees. "All right; let me grab my stuff."  'Stuff' turns out to be her heavy cloak, blaster pistol, and...not really anything more, for the murder-stick already hangs at her belt.  "I'm good to go.  Jalt, we're in your hands; tell me what to do, here, and I'll do it."

Back to Haarmon for a moment. "I'm guessing you and her might find a way to contact us without the radio if anything goes wrong," Shard muses.  "Well, keep safe."  A pat to a high, furry shoulder follows. "You too, Juragga."

As it turns out, things aren't too difficult.  A large blast door stands open in the face of the building, not toofar from the Bantha.  The space inside is dimly lit, apart from sporadic flashes where somebody is running a welder somewhere in the gloom.  The air is redolent with the scents of lubricant and solvents, and with the tang of hot metal.

Storage racks reach from floor to ceiling in one section of the room, where a number of people (of several species) are unpacking cartons from shipping containers and stacking them ready for transfer to the racks.  A one armed human is scanning the cartons with a code reader.

Jalt murmurs, "That's Barse, Dargo's storeman.  Nobody touch anything, he can be very possessive of the stuff in here, and there's a guard room somewhere over that way."  He gestures in the direction of the racks.  "If he shouts for help, the place will be swarming with armed thugs in seconds, and we'll be held responsible for any damage."

Barse turns, and calls out in a voice that sounds like rocks scraping together, "Jalt!  Long time, no see.  I was sorry to hear about your brother... you here to settle up his tab?"

"No." Jalt attempts to keep his voice even, "Dargo promised me some parts.  Got a list right here."  He holds a datapad out to Barse, who looks at it as if it were some kind of especially noxious vermin.

"Leave it on the bench.  I'll go through it when I get time."

Diplomacy wasn't something Rhijans generally had much use for...but he decided to give it a shot.  "Sooner we get what we need, sooner we can finish our run and square accounts.  We can wait..."  Barse definitely sounded like the type that hated carrying unpaid credit on the books, so the thought of facilitating the payoff of an overdue billing amount would hopefully be enough to shift his priorities.

And Rhijans, while not particularly concerned about being honest with a crime boss' lackey, got a certain perverse amusement out of the fact that his statement was technically true...the sooner they were under way, the sooner Dargo would get payback...