The Liberator/Part 33

Day 122 of the Occupation of Milagro

The crowd at Rogeum Spaceport forced Nal and Kadelle to squeeze so close even holding hands would have been awkward had they been so inclined. But Nal wasn't; in the last few weeks she had switched to the blaster holsters without snaps she usually only wore in the Outer Rim, though she had them on stun and struggled against the temptation. In this mess, the first shot would spark the fuel cells and send the whole crowd up into rioting flames.

Kadelle wore her hair up in a tight bun—less likely to snag on something, she had said, but Nal thought her sister really meant it would be harder to grab. Though she swept the crowd again and again with her narrow-eyed gaze, watching for the one idiot who would set things off, Nal kept sneaking glances at her sister and the troubled look she wore. They passed a woman holding up a sign with a rough image of Mali Darakhan's face, slashed through with a bright red line and captioned D ARAKHANQUEROR ; Kadelle swallowed, but had the good sense not to stop and argue about it.

Kadelle was a good person—a better person than Nal herself, Nal would be the first to admit—but sometimes she let her heart get in the way of her head. If Nal had had her way, they would have been off Milagro weeks before. Sure, Darakhan's privateer plan had been creative, and the Chuns had been well paid for their recruitment drive, but after Gasald's forces had swept down with cannon fire and Sith lightsabers on a few unlucky privateers, the initial blitz of piracy had petered out. The Chuns had eked out enough to pay off their creditors and cushion themselves for the future, and Nal was duly grateful, but there was little more profit to be made on Milagro; it was time to go, while they still had the option.

Kadelle was looking at the ground instead of their surroundings; Nal elbowed her.

"Huh? Oh, sorry." She sighed. "I was just thinking about that time I went with Mali to the government center and there was some sort of protest; he just got out by himself and went to talk to them. Now…"

Nal saw where her sister was going. "If he tried that here, he'd have to lightsaber some of them. Probably best he stays locked up in the government castle."

Kadelle glowered, but said nothing. The sisters took the long way around a crowd of protestors demanding more work for local contractors; union representatives were marching under a holo sign that proclaimed R OGEUM S PACEPORT E XPANSION P ROJECT : T HE S TELLAR C LASS I NITIATIVE . Nal enjoyed the amenities of a stellar-class spaceport as much as the next smuggler, but even though she found herself grudgingly on the Lord High Administrator's side of the labor dispute—how a bunch of Milagroans expected to do the work the Republic's imported labor droids could do in a tenth of the time, she couldn't imagine—the project had hardly been the PR bonanza the Republic had hoped. The holo sign was cracked in a couple places, and the prowling Rogeum Spaceport Authority cops showed how eager the government was to catch the next protestor who felt like throwing a bottle or a rock.

While the spaceport expansion had its detractors, Nal couldn't believe the facility was this choked with beings just so they could stand in line for their turn to gripe. She suspected they were in line for something else entirely, and as she and Kadelle finally forced their way into the main, curving corridor that half-circled the spaceport's perimeter, they saw a line of beings clutching luggage and loved ones. The line stretched out of sight both ways, but Nal knew where it was going: the Republic Refugee Service Office, and its daily batch of tickets for the next big liner offworld. RSAP officers patrolled with stun sticks in hand; after the stabbing last week, Nal was surprised they hadn't broken out the security droids. Maybe they're afraid Milagroans will whine about them taking jobs too.

She was pushing her way past two drunk men when she noticed a young girl, not even a teenager, holding her even younger sister's hand and shifting from foot to foot with an anxious expression. She squeezed her legs together and grimaced, but Nal knew she would not sacrifice her place in line.

The sight of the two girls stirred Nal's memory and her stomach turned over; without thinking, she took Kadelle's hand. Kadelle followed her gaze and winced, but then pushed through to the girls' side.

"Hey there, I'm Kadelle," she said. "Need to use the refresher?"

The girl nodded, distrust written all over her face.

"Go ahead, we'll save your place."

We; of course Kadelle found a way to rope Nal in too.

"No, it's…it's okay," the older girl said. "We'll stay."

Her sister tugged her hand. "But Breesa, I gotta go—"

"Just hold it, Chemi!"

"I promise, you can trust us," Kadelle said. "We don't need tickets, we have our own ship."

"You do?" Breesa asked, and her eyes narrowed in thought. She tugged out a silver necklace from under her shirt. "Can you take us? I'll give you this."

Nal knew Kadelle's heartsick look too well, and she struck at once. "We're not taking passengers right now," she said. "We'll hold your spot for your refresher trip, but that's it. You going or not?"

Breesa clenched her jaw; Nal could see her warring between hurt and anger. Then she tugged Chemi away. "Yes. Thank you.  Come on, Chemi, fast."

They left with the awkward jog-waddle of beings who should have been in the refresher an hour ago. The moment they were out of sight, before Nal could so much as lean on the wall and give Kadelle a dirty look, the man behind them said, "Fifty credits if you just keep walking."

Was the competition for spots that bad, Nal wondered, or had the kids just done something to annoy him? Kadelle said, "We said we'd hold their spot."

"Fifty credits and…and here, I got this spare comlink. Needs a charge, but it'll work fine."

"No."

The man stepped closer, shaking the comlink in Kadelle's face. "Look, if you—"

"If you say one more word to us," Nal threatened, brushing her coat back to clear her blaster, "the next thing you'll be saying is, ' My knees, my knees, why did you blow off my knees?! ' "

The man scowled and squinted at Nal, but she glared right back, and after a second he turned and shuffled back a pace, muttering. Nobody spoke to the Chuns after that until Breesa and Chemi returned.

"Thanks," Breesa said, wearing a look of great conflict.

"You're welcome. Let's go, Kadelle."

"You can have me," Breesa shouted at their backs, and they both turned. "If you get us out of here. You can…you can sell me.  Just get Chemi somewhere and—"

Nal crossed the meters between them, grabbed Breesa by the collar, and slammed her against the wall. Chemi kicked her in the shin, but Nal ignored it as she snarled, "You don't make that deal, you understand me? Not with us, not with anyone.  Not ever.  Got it?"

Breesa's terrified eyes filled her face; she managed a nod and an incoherent squeak before Kadelle pulled her sister back. "Easy, Nal."

Kadelle looked down at Breesa. "You'll be okay, both of you. Look at us—we made it.  But whatever you do, don't lose each other."

The girls nodded, and Nal swallowed the lump in her throat. "Good luck."

Past the main concourse, individual docking bays were beset by beings from small children to wizened oldsters, all with the same plan as Breesa to buy a personal trip offworld, but offering everything from bottles of beer and bland wall art up to enough credits to almost buy a smaller ship if the would-be passenger had been better at haggling. Nal and Kadelle ignored them all; the diversion of Breesa and Chemi aside, they had long since decided that the Rogue's Gambit was not to be a passenger vessel.

"A thousand credits, ladies—"

"—used to be a mechanic, I can fix anything that's wrong with—"

"Oh yeah, it's real. And for passage to the Colonies, it's aaaaaall yours."

"My son's sick, if you'd just consider—"

As the Chuns shook off the beggars, they passed a man in a charcoal robe saying, "Reject the lies of the Republic! You've seen for yourselves how little this new government cares!  Open your eyes to the truth!"

He was preaching to the line in general, though only one or two beings seemed to be paying him any attention. Farther on Nal saw a Twi'lek and a Weequay speaking in low tones; they melted out of sight when an RSAP patrol came by, and Nal wondered what kajidic they worked for. The RSAP officers had worked exclusively in pairs since the murder months ago, and they had gotten nervier with their inspections. Nal suspected that, if the Snows of Carlac and her crew were stupid enough to return, there would be one hell of a firefight.

She and Kadelle shouldered their way through to the docking bay, and Kadelle entered the code on the Rogue's Gambit while Nal stood guard, coat tucked behind her cross draw holster to keep it clear. When they ascended the boarding ramp, D-T0X met them at once.

"I'm relieved it's you," the droid said. "The other flesh sacks have been growing increasingly troublesome."

"How troublesome?" Kadelle asked.

"I have had to chastise four different beings attempting to gain entry, and an additional three attempting to take parts off the exterior."

"Non-lethally chastising?"

"Those were your instructions."

D-T0X sounded grumpy, and Nal sympathized. "We won't be staying much longer."

Kadelle leaned against one bulkhead, arms crossed. "You thinking of doing another run for electronics? We could probably get an edge on the market for cybernetics here."

"If things get any tenser around here, there won't be enough smugglers to supply that market." Nal glowered across the corridor. "Things are going down fast here, Kadelle. I want to run some different markets for a while."

"Things'll calm down when they get AFM in hand."

"The paradigm I've observed from worlds in similar circumstances suggests that will not be any time soon," D-T0X contributed.

"Besides, you know Gasald has the pirates spooked."

Kadelle smiled to herself. "Privateers."

Nal rolled her eyes. "Pirates, privateers, officially-sanctioned shipping murderers…whatever you wanna call 'em, Gasald's put the fear of the dark side in them. The bantha's drying up fast; I think we've milked her for about all she's worth."

"Yeah, I know…I just…"

Nal pushed off the wall and stepped up to her sister. "You set up a privateer pilot program and gave Darakhan every back way and secret route we have in this quadrant; what more do you think you're gonna do here to help? Look at me, Kadelle," she added when her sister stared at a wall. "You've already gone way above and beyond. We're pirates and smugglers, Sis; we're not the ones who make the difference in things like this."

Kadelle sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right.  It's just—"

Screams from outside cut her off; both sisters skipped down the ramp to see people racing past the door of their docking bay. A handful had flooded in, pressing themselves against the interior walls; Nal fingered one of her blasters and called, "What happened?"

"Raid on the line!" one of them yelled back. "RSAP and Constabulary, looking for contraband!"

"Morons," Nal spat. "They're getting scanned going into the Republic ships anyway."

"Maybe they're afraid people are using the line to get stuff to freighters like ours," Kadelle suggested.

"Another reason we shouldn't stay." Mali Darakhan might've looked the other way about D-T0X, and nudged the Republic into ignoring the assassin droid too, but Milagro's own were a whole different story. And D-T0X was just one of many things on the Rogue's Gambit that would keep the Chuns on Milagro longer than they wanted to stay.

"We're not booking passengers," Kadelle said, and Nal turned back to see a few of the refugees from the raid heading their way.

"I can pay!" one woman offered.

Kadelle laid a hand on her holstered blaster. "No means no. Try a different bay."

A few hesitated, but others kept advancing, their pleas running over one another. Blasterfire out in the corridor drew more screams, and then one man charged the Gambit's ramp. Nal drew her front gun and shot the man down with a stun ring before her back gun had even cleared its holster. "Time to go."

Kadelle went first up the ramp to get the ship live while Nal retreated, firing into the crowd. Most of them got the message and ran for it, but a few took Nal's fire personally for some reason and massed at the bottom of the ramp. She had just put the last one down and kicked her off the ramp when a man came up from behind the support strut, hefted himself onto the ramp, and caught Nal from the side. Her face erupted in a flash of pain as the punch collided with her jaw; her vision blacked momentarily and she slammed into the opposite strut.

A blaster bolt cracked much too close. Shaking her ringing head to clear her vision, Nal saw the man sliding down the ramp with a smoking hole in his chest. Nal looked and saw Kadelle at the top of the ramp wearing an expression of surprise.

"Forgot to switch to stun?" Nal asked as she rubbed her jaw with her palm.

Kadelle grimaced and nodded. Nal slid her guns back into their holsters and yelled, "DETOX! We good to go?!"

"Two minutes!" came the reply.

Her own bellow made her head ache, and Nal sat on the floor as Kadelle kicked the stunned bodies and the dead man off the ramp and sealed it. She offered a hand, and Nal allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

"Gonna have quite a bruise," Kadelle sympathized.

"A last, fond memory," Nal growled. "Hop up on the guns in case anybody in orbit's feeling frisky. We're done with Milagro."