章 64: Boys Night In
I don't own star wars.
"And that's another win to Short-round…" I mumbled dryly as Caradoc tossed his cards angrily onto the table.
"The Jawa is cheating…" he growled suspiciously. His hands gripping the table, "That's the third round!"
"Aw come on! I'm just lucky!" he shrieked desperately trying to placate Caradoc while also trying to hide behind the chair, and failing, "It's not my fault I got a killer Sabacc face!" Caradoc roared his 'disappointment', making it echo around the kitchen and the ship by proxy
"Hey come on! your echo!!" I shouted as the wookiee dropped back down to his reinforced chair, "We aren't even betting real credits man!" I replied, gesturing to the nuts and bolts from Short-rounds scrap we were using to gamble.
"It's the principle!" Caradoc roared back at me, crossing his arms angrily across his chest as he glared at Short-round.
"Well, I can honestly say I didn't expect to play Sabaac with a jawa, and a wookiee…" Urai said absently as he shuffled the cards. "But as this is a 'guy's night' Aiden… why exactly is she still here?" he asked, gesturing to Xalbaia as she lay her head in her hand, leaning on the table looking very bored.
Xalbaia actually didn't want to risk leaving the ship just in case somebody recognized her. And being a 'sexy and exotic' Falleen somebody was bound to notice and point it out. So as we were having a 'guys night' the girls decided to have a 'girls night' of drinking and partying at Torga's expense apparently, at one of his cantinas, leaving her behind… Not that she wanted to go of course or anything silly like that.
"Oh she's… anti-social." I said flatly, she glared and snorted at me. But I promptly ignored her and distracted myself with the always affectionate Onara as I scratched her back with my foot. She was sleeping contentedly under the table and I felt, like Milky, I needed to pet her at least once a day.
"Uh huh…" Urai mumbled absently. I'm sure he knew exactly why Xalbaia couldn't leave but was politely, and good-naturedly, ignoring it.
"Just deal the damn cards Ulnai." Xalbaia grumbled, and probably on purpose getting his name wrong." Glaring pointedly at me as Urai dealt our hands.
"So… Urai. Anything new going on?" I asked, raising as I viewed my hand and placing my cards face down on the table as I looked at my fellow players. Caradoc had a good hand. Urai seemed unsure. Xalbaia seemed dismissive and she just folded and of course, I couldn't even see Short-round's face so who knows with him.
"Not really. Torga had my sister take out some pirates. We hired a new band for the Mos Eisley Cantina, and a few new dancers. Actual ones." He added, they weren't slaves but actual dancers. "And there has been rumors of raiders out in the dune sea but I'll handle that when I get to it…" he frowned at his hand. "So other than the wookiee, what's new with you?"
"My grandfather died…" I said flatly, the table went oddly quiet, but I shook my head, "Sorry. That was tactless… But I changed my name: Aiden Firemane."
Urai watched my face for a moment, either to read what cards I had or to watch my mood but he nodded understandingly as he closed his hand and held it under the table. "Sorry to hear about your grandfather."
Caradoc sniffed, he did that a lot. I was starting to wonder if it was because he was sad or because of a character tic… still though. "Thanks, Urai." Urai opened his mouth as if to say, 'how'd he die' but I imagine from the look on my face that he probably didn't want to know.
"Raiders in the dune sea?" Short-round suddenly asked. He stared pointedly at Urai who merely shrugged at the question.
"Yeah, it's a common thing as you know. Scavengers raiding caravans, transports, and isolated moisture farms." He said and trading a few cards from the deck scowled, and folded. "Damn. Well it's not Torga's business unless someone pays him, so I didn't really look into it."
"Where in the dune sea? Where are they known to prowl?" he asked, sounding surprisingly curious.
"I didn't look into it… but rumors suggest somewhere in the westmost area of it. Before you reach the wastes." Short-round slapped his cards onto the table suddenly.
"I fold." He said bluntly before quickly walking away from the table, "I got to call someone real quick, play on." He moved quickly from the kitchen and headed towards the workshop.
"What was that about?" Mumbled Xalbaia, not really that interested but felt she needed to ask.
"No idea." I replied, "…But you heard him. What do you two got?" I grinned knowingly at them but Caradoc showed his hand and I frowned as he scrapped up his 'winnings' with a smug look on his wookiee face as he laughed.
We got through another game, Urai won this time, when Short-round returned chattering animatedly into a com as he spoke in his native jawa tongue that I couldn't translate. He was doing it so loudly that it got all of our attention and we stared at him as he paced back and forth. Suddenly he stopped talking and went rigid… said a few brief words and hung up. Staring blankly at the wall.
"Uh… Short-round? Are you in?" I asked hesitantly as I began shuffling the cards. Slowly he turned towards me. As if realizing I was there, then he was suddenly talking quickly, still in rapid jawa pacing back and forth.
"Short-round take a breath!" I shouted, unable to take the constant chittering. "I don't understand you!"
"BossIgotaproblemandyougottohelpmeIdon'tknowwhattodohe'sprobablyindeeptrouble…"
"Spaces!" I shouted, getting up from the table and shaking him back and forth out of his panic "Put spaces between your words!"
"…Boss I got a problem and you got to help me, I don't know what to do. He's probably in deep trouble…" he took a deep breath, "…Those raiders hit my family's crawler near our village. They easily fended them off, but my wife said my youngest is missing… he's been gone for two days."
Two days… that's not so great. But he was a jawa I imagine they were used to the desert. "Okay…" I said hesitantly, thinking about what to do. "Okay well… lets…" I looked at the others, "…Uh… boys night pause?"
Urai sighed, "Sure why not." He got up, "Do you have an idea where he might be?" he asked Short-round.
"Well…" Short-round seemed to be thinking, "…The crawler didn't go far… he was last seen before the attack in that old rattletrap of a ship we used to fly around in…"
"Wait that's what happened to the old Rebel?!" I asked glaring at him, "I thought the republic took it for scrap."
"Well they were…" he shrugged, "But then I figure if we really were just going to use it for scrap I'd have it shipped to the family… my youngest apparently has taken a liking to fixing it up at out village. And he went missing when the raiders attacked…"
"Could he still be in the ship?" I asked as we headed to the cockpit while Caradoc cleaned up the table in the kitchen.
"His tools are still there, and they searched through all the vents." He said nervously, "…My wife thinks the raiders might have captured him."
"Well then let's go find them." I said, "If we take the ship we'll probably find them a heck of a lot quicker." I said, tossing him absently into the pilot's seat. "Well head out now and get a view from the sky."
Urai followed us and got a good look around the cockpit, apparently impressed. "Hey Aiden, do you have an armory on this ship?"
"Yeah right by the workshop past my room help yourself." I replied simply.
"Thanks, I didn't expect hunting down raiders, so I didn't bring all my weapons." He said easily, heading back into the ship.
Soon we had taken off and sped off through the air over the dune sea. At first it was sand, and more sand as far as the eye could see. But soon however we caught sight of a crawl parked near a large red cliff of rocks, right next to a collection of small houses surrounded by a large wall made of old ship parts. A few blaster burns littered the wall, obviously from the most recent attack. Just inside the wall was my old ship, looking rather impressive actually, not like a falling apart junker at all.
"Hey, there's the Rebel." I pointed, "So I take it this is your village?"
He nodded, "Yeah… but we don't have time for now for a proper visit." He brought up the com again, soon a rather feminine voice answered in Jawa before they began chattering animatedly again, after a moment I saw several small figures waving up at us. I waved back but I guess they couldn't see me. Suddenly the ship jerked as he sped towards the east. "The wife says they ran off eastward…"
"Okay but can you narrow that down?" I asked hesitantly as I scrambled back into the chair, I had fallen out from the sudden jerk.
"Bedlem." Short-round said suddenly and a strange screen on his wrist that I've never noticed before flicked to life. It spoke in a distinct jawa language.
"I wondered what you did with him!" I said pleasantly surprised as Short-round spoke to the A.I.
"Bedlem find-" he spoke in his jawa tongue, "Immediately. He should still have the ankle bracelet I gave him. Search for the signal it gives off."
"You put a tracker on your kid?" I asked indignantly but he glared at me.
"I've put a tracker on everyone since you got kidnaped boss. It just seemed practical to know where all my offspring are. The problem is that it doesn't have a big range, couldn't get it to stretch to far."
"So where's mine?" I asked, legitimately curious.
"In your suppressors since unlike your clothes you never take them off now." He noted practically, "Keep your eyes open for anything weird boss." Feeling a little out of place taking orders from Short-round I quickly decided that it was his kid after all.
Suddenly the Bedlem A.I. spoke in jawa and Short-round stared at it before turning violently to the north. "Stop doing those sharp turns!" Xalbaia shrieked from somewhere inside the ship.
"I got a lock on my boy!" he said, speeding up as Caradoc scrambled to the door frame, holding his war axe at the ready.
"You fly like a sick Kinyak!" Caradoc snarled, "No wonder Aiden prefers Yura!"
"I think there's a completely different reasoning for that." Urai noted holding Caradoc's bowcaster, "Hey can I try this? I've always wanted to fire one."
"It kicks like a rancor but if you feel confident, don't kill yourself." The big wookiee sniffed indignantly, "Have you found our enemies?"
"Short-round says he has a…" suddenly the whole ship shook as something hit from beneath us. "What the hell!?"
"We're taking blaster fire!" Short-round shouted immediately pulling up as we were struck again but this time at a glance. I looked out the window. There was some sort of sailing barge, and several mounted turrets were trying to hit us. "Urai Starboard turret!" I roared, quickly running to the port and climbing into it.
"Got it!" scrambling into the starboard turret…
The entire barge shook as Urai and I fired down on them as Short-round took evasive maneuvers. "Don't blow the damn thing!" Short-round shouted back at us as he backflipped over blaster fire. "Take out the damn guns! My boy's on that ship!"
Right. Honestly forgot. "Urai take the gun on the stern!" I shouted, firing at the stem gun."
Urai laughed manically, as he ripped full auto on the poor soul manning that gun, blasting it to smithereens as I took out my target. "Okay boys!" I shouted, heading towards the hold as Urai and Caradoc joined me, and I opened the ramp. "Short-round get us low!" I shouted, pulling out my rifle. Short-round did an expert fly by as we leaped and rolled onto the deck of the barge, firing devastatingly into their ranks as they scrambled to hold us back.
One poor weequay shrieked in terror as Caradoc charged down on him and his friends, battering and cutting them apart as Urai sent a gran dozens of feet into the air of the ship with Caradoc's bowcaster. But upon losing his footing trying to fire it he quickly shouldered the weapon and drew out a pair of pistols, taking down raiders with expert precision. Hardly wasting a shot… until he took a bolt to the shoulder and stained the pauldron then he wasted several into the dead man who did it.
Full auto for me however was the way to go. Three were down before they knew what hit them, then I pulled my imperial pistol and took out the helmsman as he tried to pick me off from behind. However in the chaos I didn't notice a very angry weequay coming up behind me… luckily to my surprise a much angrier Onara was much more competent. Snarling as she clamped her powerful jaws onto my offender. Ignoring his muffled screams, I quickly rejoined Caradoc and Urai clearing the deck
"We need to get inside!" Urai shouted, joining me as Caradoc hurled a duros screaming over the side of the ship. "But it's a kill zone that way…" he gestured to the stairs that led deeper into the ship.
I scratched my head in thought, but Caradoc provided a solution. Taking his bowcaster from Urai he picked up a particularly large dead weequay, easily holding him in front of himself like a human shield, roaring an untranslatable wookiee battle cry as he descended. And after telling Onara to be a good girl and stay, Urai and I were following close behind…
The body quivered as it took several blaster bolts from defenders in the barge, Caradoc sent several bowcaster rounds into the masses only managing to damage the defenders' cover, but it made them duck down temporarily taking them out. But soon the dead weequay shield was sent hurtling into the crowd as he ripped a bolted-down table from the floor and tilted it over to use it for cover for Urai and I.
Like a mobile shield we moved forward, Caradoc lifting the heavy metal table as we took potshots at the defenders taking out several until finally a few got desperate and went for the windows. Anything to get away from us. They broke, fleeing in terror as they ran…
We mowed them down, Caradoc hurling our shield at a cluster of them pinning the painfully to the walls. And Urai and I fired unrelentingly into them… soon the smell of death and blaster smoke was prominent as we stood. Caradoc kicked a dead man out the window in annoyance as he turned to us. "Where is the Jawa's offspring?" he asked concerned.
"He must be deeper into the ship." Urai noted logically, "Come on, I'm sure we can find him…"
And passing the 'treasure' room filled with all kinds of junk as well as valuables, we did. The little guy was barely up to my knees, but he was scrambling animatedly along the bowls of the barge, actually repairing and improving the thing. "Uh… can anyone actually pronounce his name?" I asked to nobody in particular.
The kid started chatting in rapid jawa so I had no idea what he was saying. So, having enough of that, I promptly grabbed him and with unexpected effort on my part I managed to drag the shrieking cretin up onto the deck. "Short-round!" I shouted lifting the kid up, "Tell him to stop!" I yelled as he scratched and kicked and… bit? Did he have teeth!?"
Short-round landed the Rebel II off the side of the barge and scrambled onto the deck with a patient Xalbaia. The tiny Short-round seeing his dad chattered happily and scrambled out of my hands to embrace him. Still chittering and pointing into the ship he dragged his father on. I scratched my head, still very much confused at what the fuck the little guy was saying… I don't even think he understood that he was in danger.
"Well that was fun." Urai said with a satisfied grin, "Don't get me wrong Aiden, I like Sabaac as much as the next Mandalorian but there's nothing quite like the satisfaction of a job well done."
"I don't suppose these raiders have anything of worth?" Xalbaia asked casually while climbing onto the deck, glaring at the bloody-jowled Onara as she panted happily next to her. "Like perhaps some loot that was pilfered?"
"Yeah they got a whole room full of stuff. Urai mind going to watch my ship? I don't want any scavengers getting ideas."
"Yeah, I got it covered." Urai replied, "I can report to Torga while I'm at it.
Caradoc, Xalbaia and I quickly separated the junk from the treasure as Short-round continued to chatter animated to his son… it was on our third return trip when finally, Short-round slapped his boy on the head. Then the chattering abruptly stopped and the yelling began… it might have been in whatever language they were speaking in but yelling was universal. Finally… after the yelling had stopped, tiny Short-round hugged Short-round… who patted his hooded head, took his hand, and quietly led him off the barge.
"So…" I said, as we began taking off. "…What should we actually do with that thing?" I asked looking at the barge.
"Oh, I got that covered." Short-round replied, turning the ship slowly as he pushed a button. The barge erupted in fire as a massive explosion destroyed it, then promptly Short-round headed back to his village.
"That was a thing of beauty Short-round" I said with a awed-filled chuckle as the fires of the barge lit up the dark tattooine night, fist bumping Short-round absently. Tiny Short-round began chattering again on the floor next to his father, "What did he say?"
"He's wondering why you keep calling me that."
"Well tell him it's because I can't pronounce your actual name. It's a nickname." I said.
Short-round seemed to explain it when Tiny Short-round ran towards me and grabbed my hand, tugging and yanking at it chattering away. "And now?" I asked lazily, easily fending him off.
"He wants you to give him one." He said with a sigh, "Honestly… the kid spends all his days in that rattletrap ship you gave us-"
"I'm pretty sure you technically stole that, I think it's still actually mine."
"-and he thinks he's some damn adventurer!" he grumbled ignoring my claims and steadily flying southwest.
Of course his rant actually gave me an idea, "…Rattletrap." I said in a moment of odd clarity, eyeing the kid who looked at me with bright orange eyes. "Rattletrap." I said clearer, poking him playfully in the belly as he giggled, "That's your nickname." Short-round rolled his bright eyes exasperatedly but it seemed to satisfy the kid, and Rattletrap is much more dignifying than 'tiny Short-round."
We soon landed and gave Short-round some alone time with his family, we went back into the ship and play some more Sabaac… Everyone won a round but me…
Soon Short-round returned with tall, possible female jawa. He held out his hand to me and said something, she approached me, and strangely wrapped her arms around my legs in a hug. "My wife says thanks…" Short-round provided, "And its nice to finally meet you…"
We exchanged familiarities as best we could with Short-round translating before finally we decided we needed to get back. The girls might even be waiting at the hanger for the ship, so we said our farewells and off we went… we landed back in the hanger none the wiser as Urai took his 'share' of the raider plunder and made his way to the ramp.
"I admit I had more fun than I expected. I hope we can do it again soon." He noted giving me a fist bump, bro style.
"Sabaac or the killing raiders thing?" I asked, not entirely sure what he meant.
"I'm open-minded Aiden surprise me. Maybe next time we hunt a Krayt dragon." He said, waving me off and descending the ramp off into the Mos Eisley night.
"I do like that Idea." Caradoc noted, counting his 'winnings' from the card games. "A Krayt dragon would be a fine trophy."
I was about to close the ramp when a collection of exhausted-looking girls walked up the ramp, wearing a collection of new clothes. They looked good but, you know they always did. Baleen was carrying a snoring Scarlet on her back, and Milky and Yura looked like they came out of a wrong end of a scrap. "You… you girls look tired." I noted flatly, helping Yura and Milky keep their footing as I led them to their rooms.
"We partied… too hard." Milky whimpered tiredly, "So much dancing… too much fighting."
"You girls got in a fight?" I asked while tucking her in bed but she was too far gone and quickly off to sleep as I helped Yura join her in slumber in her own bed. Locking up the ship for the night, everyone snug and warm in their beds… I lied down in my own as Onara, leaped up onto my sheets and promptly dropped down. Snoring audibly. I glared at her, but finally, I just decided to leave her. "Don't get used to that…" I grumbled, deciding to ask the girls about their night later after I fixed them their respective hangover cures.
End of Chapter
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