Smuggling can be like diving into a can of worms....
our heroes prepare for lift-off with their rather ungrateful passenger.
She was-- pink.
It was not a pink that Jaxxon cared for much; it was muddy enough to remind him of raw meat. And she was scrawny, the way Bib was scrawny, the kind of Twi'lek build where the forhead protruded more than the rest of the face. She painted her tiny mouth vividly, to detract from her tiny, sly eyes. At least their pink matched the rest of her. To make the most of her coloring she'd gotten plenty of black shoulder tattoos. Her dress was carefully monochrome; not many colors could avoid clashing with a pink like that.
So the bulk at her middle was swathed in dust-gray spider-silk, and there were black netting inserts in the trouser legs. The halter she wore nearly spilled her breasts out; evidently she hadn't had much bosom before conceiving. And with her arrived the fifty crates, plus ten more pieces of her personal items. She unwrapped the stole of cream-colored fleece she'd worn against the morning chill and folded it in front of her, waiting.
Bib hadn't come himself; of course since Jaxxon had blown off helping him load the flitter for Jabba's last night, it was probably just tit for tat. And his partner Kim-Quin had already left to attend to his end of things.
Why was it always so easy to remember every little thing that hunky humanoid did? Was it the Jedi mind tricks? The way he'd stalked, in those high leather boots he favored, out through the cargo bay, after categorically declaring, "Your caf sucks, Bun." Not heated enough to be insulting, not waiting for Jaxxon's witty rejoinder-- he'd had it all ready to go!-- so he was left to admire the shoulders under the black locks down his back, the lean waist and the tight monkey butt on their way out. Gods, maybe the caf sucks but so will I-- not all that witty, in retrospect.
Anyway, Jaxxon liked space caf. It was dehydrated and reconstituted into complete anonymity, with all the medicinal properties unaffected. No surprises. Smuggling had enough of those. If Kim-Quin showed up with raw caf, along with the rest of the life support, he'd have to process the stuff himself. It was his department, anyway.
Anyway-- here he was, by himself, facing this haughty piece of trash and her boxes. She could set curds with that expression. He could see why Bib would only want to do her tied up. But he had to give her credit for not being intimidated by his size. She only came up to his middle set of nipples, with her lekku up.
He started with the biggest chest. "Open it," he ordered, swiveling his ears toward her.
"That's private, Lepi."
"You meant to say 'Captain', right? Nothing gets on this ship without me inspecting it. Open."
She keyed it open with no further argument. It was only about testing his limits, he figured. Surely she knew things would get inspected. He had his gloves off, and was letting his psychometry tell him all about them.
Most of this was not actually hers, but Bib's. More "gratuities", to keep out of Jabba's sight. Jaxxon wished he knew more about art, or culture or something, to better assess the values of these curios and nick-nacks.
Then there were her nauseating toiletries, including a bottle of slick that really, really had some memories attached-- he dropped it fast and shook out his fingers, looking over at the little Twi'lek. She was ignoring him though, studying her black-enameled nails.
By the time he got to the fifth case, it was reassuring to come across something that screamed "Pol Secura." Who was evidently a blue, more aristocratic sneak than Bib, that he knew from school. The item was a sort of raggedy doll, with stubs on its head meant to be lekku. It spoke of bullying averted, and youthful blackmail. The thing had fang-holes all over it, like an infant comfort item. It would definitely mean something to this Pol.
He held it up to Kyara. "Is this the token for Clan Secura?"
She looked at him as if he were an idiot. "No, it is something for our child!" Okay, let her cling to her deception. Bib meant them to present something else in public, a more appropriate possession for traders; this was the real token.
"So where is it? Bib said you had something."
He tossed the toy back into the case of garments and put the whole thing on the grav-sled, while she fumbled with her waist-pouch.
She came up with a typical Ryloth house medallion, the kind folks like Bib would have dozens of. Of course he couldn't read the Twi'lek, but when she dangled it in front of him, he snagged it on a claw and got a sense of it. House of blue sneaks, all right. Had their own big network of caverns, right in the midst of the temperate band. He couldn't tell much more, from a simple trade token, except that Bib had plenty more.
When he moved to put the thing in his pocket, Kyara wouldn't let go of the chain. So he snagged her fleshy pink hand, as well. May as well get a read on her now. She flinched.
"Bib said not to let you touch me!"
"Bantha crap... and give me the needler." Yeah, Bib had filled her head with all kinds of poodoo, about the ferocious Jaxxon. Hutch! she had shivs strapped to each ankle, too... "I see it all in your head, Bib-licker. I'll take the knives, too."
Really, this was hardly an insult; after all, he was in the Bib-licking club himself...
Trembling, she detached the tiny needler taped just above her mons. His chuckling at his own joke she seemed to find just as terrifying as the green Jaxxon-monster from Bib's stories. For a split second he nearly felt sorry for her. It passed.
Once he had both knives as well, he added, "You have another Secura token; I'll take charge of that for you. And don't worry about the big bad Lepi, baby. I hate pink. I'd worry more about your female colleagues who'll be joining us, if I were you. You haven't done them many favors."
Her only answer was the suggestion of a hiss.
He let her sit on the big case on the grav-sled, while he continued his investigations. There was nothing much of interest to him and his partner, except a carton of stim-sticks she'd been sneaking past Bib's restrictions on her diet. Jaxxon thought of taking them, to prevent cruelty to the unborn, but decided against it. Bib deserved a retarded heir.
Finally he was done, and straightened, shook out his legs, and hopped the stiffness out. Kyara watched, as if he were part of a menagerie she were visiting. "May I go?"
"No, you may not."
"Even to the fresher?"
"Hold it till the ladies get here." He knew foetuses pressed down on bladders, but he was not about to let Kyara roam around Rabbit's Foot without a guard.
She was lucky. Lana was here, wearing an actual shirt since she wasn't going to "work", with a first load of luggage. "Jaxxon, my mistress says--" then her eyes traveled over Kyara, and she abruptly shut her peachy lips tight.
"Lana, my dear, you know the layout of Foot. Take Kyara to the fresher and then back out here, would you?" Being a bright girl, she just nodded, then towed away the other Twi'lek by the elbow. The bags she dropped clanked as they hit the ground. Tools of the trade, he supposed.
He sighed. Now for the fifty assorted crates of skimmed spice. Handling it was a drag; every step of its making made beings miserable somewhere.
Lana had put Kyara back on her box, and he'd been through about ten crates, both packaged and raw chunks, and found two tracking devices, when Meena arrived. Her sunny yellow lekku scurried behind her head in a hurry when she saw Kyara perched on the load. "What is she doing here?" she asked Jaxxon in a low voice.
"Getting shipped to Ryloth. Didn't I mention it?" He gave Meena a reassuring pat on the back. Since he was still working without gloves, he got a big dose of Meena's past history with Kyara. Petty crap at Jabba's mostly, but also some major pilferage of items Meena had owned before she'd had a name, was still a mind-wiped newcomer, who knew no better than to trust a sister. His eyes widened at some of it. He added a shoulder squeeze, to get her to look at him.
"Can you handle this cargo?"
She gave him a crooked grin at last, and took a deep breath. "I guess she's no worse than spice."
Jaxxon chuckled. He knew Meena would keep that pink gal under constant surveillance, for free. He left her to it.
Around crate thirty-seven or thirty-eight, Kim-Quin showed up, with a grav-sled full of basic procarb and other canteen items. Beside him were his Aayla, plus Rena, Lenara, and Lana. Lana had spread the word on their passenger, so they were simply ignoring her. Aayla and her boss began loading the fuel rods he hadn't gotten to yet, as well as their sled-load. Mistress Olan and her niece dropped their bags atop the clanky ones, and approached.
"Welcome, Lady Olan," he said, with a toothy grin. Lenara twitched an orange nostril at that, then got right to her point.
"She's going to Ryloth? Supposedly to Bib's clan?"
"That's the plan, yes."
"Idiot. Bib has no clan. They kicked him out. That is why he is called Fortuna, a concocted name."
"Really; why did they do that?"
"He stole from his own clan, that's why. And as anyone can tell who takes one look at him, his blood is not pure."
"Geez, you're not all that happy with your own clan, either, my lady." Jaxxon squinted down at her, annoyed at the rebukes, but still grateful. "What you did was different?"
"Of course it was! I merely killed my own brother, which actually benefited the clan by ridding it of bad traits. If I had something to say to my clan, they would listen. If I had pure-blood offspring, they would be welcome." They wouldn't listen very hard, thought Jaxxon; you're still an earless female. But she probably had a screwy Twi'lek point.
"Well, thanks for pointing that out. That means Bib wants Clan Secura to take charge of her. She's got tokens; gave us some, too."
"Bah." Lenara was not appeased. Her lekku twitched at the ends restlessly. Then her caramel eyes became less acid, and more syrup. "I am worried for you, my Bunny. Promise you will listen to me about this."
"Whatever you say, my wise lady. Er-- am I supposed to slap your face for calling me that?"
She chuckled at their private joke, and Lana's confusion. "Perhaps later." And they left, to join Meena and Rena in their scrutiny of the passenger.
Rena had no luggage. A raw spot on her neck showed where the slave chip had been removed. She wore her clothing from yesterday, but it had been freshened.
Her eyes met Jaxxon's briefly, with a hopeful smile. He nodded back. Now they only needed Oni and Niala to arrive, and to deal with one more problem...
His partner was walking past. "Hey, Kim." The Kiffar came over immediately, dark eyes inscrutable as usual.
"What the kriff am I going to do with all these tracking devices from the cargo?" He indicated a row of little cylinders and boxes and lozenges, lined up on the edge of the pallet. "Some are Bib's; about forty percent. Some got past Bib. I think there's six different kinds, all together, and I'm not done inspecting, either."
"Can of worms, eh?" grinned the spy-master. He picked up one that was blinking the same green as a tiny holo. Garindan-- they didn't seem to realize a blinking light in a load of glit would be suspicious. Bib probably left it there on purpose.
"This one, and Bib's, I think we can just leave. He wants to know his heir gets there. After Ryloth we can jettison his. Let me get a feel of the other kinds. Is there a style that's typical of Jabba?"
"Naw, lucky for Bib, none of these are from Jabba. I found two from Gardulla, though, the sweetheart."
"Keeping track of a fellow Hutt's business?"
"I suppose. Two kinds of Bothan ones, and a Dug one of Bothan manufacture, and a Sluissi one, and a creepy one I think might be Black Sun. Some green humanoid lizard guy with a pony-tail of hair on top."
"Falleen, you mean?"
"Yeah, them. This spice is from all over, once it leaves Kessel; Bib seems to get a lot of Jabba's spice for him, too."
"Hmmm. I never heard of a Black Sun -Falleen connection, though. Let me help you with the last few crates, while I think on whom we want following us, and whom we do not."
"Help yourself, man."
So both the psychometrics plunged their hands into the remaining spice, redolent of the misery of the convict slaves of Kessel, feeling for more middlemen's spy devices. The Kiffar came across one more from Bib; he certainly was a thorough sneak. Maybe he routinely added trackers to every new "gratuity" he liberated from his boss.
The Lepi found in his final crate another design of tracker, making a total of seven. This one was Corporate humanoid; they were big users of spice. Would those slimeballs really be tracking something so far from their own sector? No matter what, he didn't want them following him to Coachelle. He ground it under his boot. Damn Corporates.
At the crunching sound, Quin-Kim looked up sharply. "Don't do that before you tell me what it is!" He came over to scrutinize the debris.
"Sorry, it was Corporate Sector and those guys get on my last nerve. Oh, there's another one...Falleen again."
"No real harm done... what the--?" The Jedi had the Falleen-style tracker on his gauntleted palm, and a shocked look. Jaxxon could have no idea of the waves of darkness rolling off the thing, even though he'd encountered it first. This was Sith-tainted.
He didn't explain, just brought the device over to the tidy row of other trackers, to compare it with Jaxxon's suspected Black Sun plant. They were identical in design, but not in Force signature. The plain Falleen one had been with its load longest, about a standard year. The Dark Side tainted one was only a few months old. It must have come into Jabba's, and Bib his flunky's, hands very recently. And the Corporate Sector bug had been in the same crate...
"This is bad, Jaxxon. I've got to keep these two for my boss to report on, or maybe figure out. Falleen travelers plus Darkness plus Black Sun-- why did you call it Black Sun, anyway?"
"Well, man, it just screams Capital Planet to this Lepi. I mean the first one does, not the second one." So Quin-Kim picked them both up again. The one without the Dark Side aura did indeed originate from Coruscant. So what were either of them doing in a load on the Outer Rim? Spice usually made its way toward the center, on its way to market.
"Was this first one found with raw or with packaged product?"
"Packaged." Maybe it was part of a special batch that was side-tracked by Bib and his ilk, away from its intended target. Poisoned, or something else disguised as spice.
"Show me the crate, partner." Jaxxon nudged it out of its stack, and the Kiffar put his hands into it. Yes, the miasma of Kessel misery was a lot more dilute. This crate had not been processed on one of the Hutt moons, but on Coruscant itself. And it was about one-quarter strength, if he could accurately gauge the diminishing signature of the spice upon his senses.
"Yes, this one has been heavily diluted, but just with inert fillers. Someone is making inferior spice and getting a Falleen to palm it off on susceptible types with a glamour. Then the buyer unloads it on a third party for cheap, and Bib gets the tailings."
"Charming," chuckled Jaxxon.
"But that last crate--" he went back to that load, which was of sticks-- it felt more miserable than standard. And the beings making the sticks simply didn't know their own location. That was sinister in itself, implying the worst forms of coercion.
"I'm going to have to let my boss figure it out. We have to let Bib's devices think we only went to Ryloth. It means a side trip for me, once I know where my boss actually is out here; he may not be where Aayla left him. Go ahead and smash the Bothan and Sluissi ones. They'll think Jabba did it." And he abruptly stalked away.
That was a good way to put it, partner, a can of worms... All the spice misery was giving him a headache. Time for lunch, maybe. Oh there at last were Oni and Niala, Oni with her gitara slung over her shoulder. Right , he had to look over the ladies' luggage, yet. And somebody, him or Kim, should double-check that Rena's chip had really been removed, or Bib had just pretended and was going to report her stolen. He rubbed his velvety jaw, eyes closed.
Meena was tugging on his sleeve. "Hey, Jaxxon, I took my last paycheck from Porkins in the form of steak rolls. Want one?" Silly question.
"You angel!" And he kissed her, right between the lekku. She giggled, and handed him a nice big one.
Some of the steak was rare in the middle. Reminds me of Kyara, he thought, and bit down.
http://movies.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=544199104&chapter=11
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