Starport/Story

Starport an MI5 Chronicles story

The last number of weeks had been pretty hectic. MI5 either captured or killed many SMERSH operatives, including CarbonEye and Dr. Noah. There were casualties on both sides. But now that those two dangerous men were no longer a threat, the higher-ups at the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service granted those agents involved some much needed time off.

The "tomboy" agent Shasta Moonreaper decided she needed some fun. Her plans were to travel to Vorzyd V and gamble and drink and maybe relax a little. She would need to make a couple connections on other planets to make the entire trip from Coruscant to the Gambler's World, but it would be worth it. The AA-9 Coruscant freighter, named Starport 15, was scheduled to take passengers from Coruscant to Mandalore, then on to Yavin. From there, Shasta would have to take a different transport over to Vorzyd V.

The freighter was leaving Coruscant's atmosphere and was preparing to make the jump to lightspeed when Shasta settled down in a comfortable seat in one of the lounge areas aboard the passenger transport. A silver-plated protocol droid made it's way around the lounge taking orders from the patrons. When it reached Shasta, the droid said in a masculine programmed voice, "Good day, ma'am. I am TG-19. Can I get you anything?"

Shasta looked up at the droid. "Just bring me some kind of Alderaanian beer."

"Right away, ma'am," the droid said and continued to make it's way through the room.

Shasta looked around at all the people. The place sort of reminded her of a Tatooine cantina, but cleaner. And the seating was more comfortable as well. There were all kinds of beings from all different backgrounds aboard the transport. There was at least a few thousand aboard this vessel, with only a small fraction of them in this very lounge. Shasta just sat back and observed everyone. That was something she did not only in her days as an assassin-for-hire, but also during her short time with MI5. Just observe people. She could learn a lot about someone just by observing them, watching their movements, seeing how they act. That would be a skill that could come in quite handy in her career with MI5.

The Human behind the bar looked somewhat familiar to her. She couldn't quite place him. Shasta just watched the man as he mixed drinks and spoke to the patrons sitting on the bar stools.

Then she noticed a tall, dark-haired man walking toward her with a smile on his face. She could tell already that this guy would try to hit on her. "Here we go," she mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes.

The man sat in the chair across from her and said, "Hi. How are you?" He took a sip of whatever was in the glass he was holding.

"Fine," Shasta responded flatly.

"I'm Vern. I was standing back there and couldn't help but notice--"

"My blond hair and pretty eyes?" Shasta interrupted him. "Sorry, Vern. Not interested. Beat it."

Vern could tell she was somewhat angry. He stood up and walked away.

What was it with men and their hormones? Sure, Shasta knew she was attractive, but it seemed like everybody and their brother would try to make a move. Even before her first mission with MI5, some of her fellow agents tried to hit on her. At first it was flattering, but now it was just getting annoying.

She turned when she heard an astromech droid beep. A tray was attached to the top of it's dome and there were drinks sitting on it. Shasta reached out and grabbed the Alderaanian beer. "Thanks, little guy."

The droid beeped again and rolled off to the next patron. Shasta took a swig of the beer and felt it go all the way down.

She heard a dinging noise come over a loud-speaker embedded somewhere in the ceiling. Then came a male voice: "Hello, everyone. This is Captain Harris. Just wanted to let you know that our trip to Mandalore will take just under three days. For now, we ask that you find a comfortable seat because we'll be making the jump to lightspeed in just a few minutes so you might feel a slight jolt. After that, you're free to roam around the ship. And again we would like to thank you for traveling with us. Enjoy your trip aboard the Starport 15."

Suddenly the patrons in the lounge who were standing quickly found a seat. Shasta knew that that announcement was piped through every room on the transport, so that every passenger knew what was happening.

As the patrons in the lounge began to find seats, a male Gran sat across from Shasta and an older Human male sat to her right. She nodded to both of them, acknowledging their presence. Soon everyone in the lounge was seated and within moments there was a slight jolt.

They were now in hyperspace. The lounge was deep within the large transport, so there were no viewports to see the blue and white swirl as they sailed past the star systems at lightspeed.

"Oh, man," the Human male started. Shasta could see a smile on his face. "I love these transports. Ya know, these Starport series of AA-9's are some of the best freighters ever constructed." He looked around at the walls and ceiling of the room. "This thing is so well put together it's like a fortress floating through space. These are the safest one's to travel in."

"Really," the Gran responded in Basic. "That's good to know. I have some possessions I'm transporting down in the cargo hold that I would rather not lose."

Shasta just listened to them as she took another drink of the beer.

"How do you know so much about them?" the Gran asked.

"I'm the head maintenance guy for these babies back on Coruscant," the Human answered.

The Gran shook his head. "Pardon me. Where are my manners. My name is Pax Eem." He extended a hand to the Human male.

"Wait," the Human said, grasping the Gran's hand. "Pax Eem? The curator of that museum on Mandalore?"

"One and the same," Pax said.

"Oh, I've heard about you," the man said. "My wife is an art lover. Name's Patroni."

Pax turned to Shasta. "And you, Miss?" He reached out his hand again.

"Shasta Moonreaper," she responded, taking his hand and giving him a good, firm grip. She then had to take Patroni's hand as well. She almost felt like getting up and moving to a different spot. She didn't want to get stuck talking to an art lover and a mechanic. But, at least they weren't trying to hit on her. She just sat and watched them.

"So what cargo are we carrying of yours?" Patroni asked Pax. "More stuff for the museum?"

"Indeed," Pax responded. "Paintings and sculptures and things of that sort. They are all new acquisitions for our upcoming Mandalorian Civil War exhibit."

Shasta always thought art was boring. Who would want to just stand there and look at a picture? Questioning whether or not it had a deeper meaning? She remembered being undercover in an art show not too long ago on Alderaan during the hunt for Dr. Noah. She hated that. But at the mention of the Mandalorian Civil War, her ears perked up. Fighting and action and blaster fire she liked.

"That sounds interesting," Patroni said.

"Oh yes," Pax added. "Some of these pieces depict the battles and death and destruction caused by the war. Some gruesome stuff. A good history lesson for Mandalore."

"Gotta be honest with you," Shasta said to Pax, "I don't care much for art, but you've got my interest with this war stuff. I think I'd like to see some of it."

"And I'd love to show some of it to you," Pax responded. "But I highly doubt they'd let us down into the cargo hold."

Patroni said, "A chance to see pieces in an exhibit without having to pay the credits, I'd like to see them too."

Pax and Patroni both laughed.

Turning to Pax, Patroni asked, "Mr. Eem, I take it these pieces you're transporting are probably worth a pretty credit, right?"

At the mention of the cost of the artwork, a thought flashed through Shasta's mind. She glanced over at the man behind the bar once again.

"Oh yes," Pax answered. "As a matter of fact, some of them are worth well over --"

"Does anyone else know you're transporting them besides us?" Shasta interrupted him.

"You mean aboard the ship? Just some of the baggage handlers that load and unload cargo," Pax answered.

Shasta took a sip of beer. "Because I have a feeling someone may be interested in them."

"I beg your pardon?" Pax asked, confused.

Shasta explained, "I work for MI5, so I've had extensive training. And I noticed there's a Human behind the bar that hasn't taken his eyes off us since the jump to lightspeed. Fella looks kinda shady."

Both Patroni and Pax turned to see a middle aged Human male behind the bar. The man turned away quickly and started wiping the bar with a towel.

When they both turned back to look at Shasta, Patroni said, "Ms. Moonreaper, I would never have pegged you to be a spy."

Pax asked, "What do you mean they're interested? Like they want to steal them?"

"Possibly," Shasta said simply. She now knew where she saw the bartender before. It was in the dossier files back at MI5 Headquarters. He was a known thief. He never bothered with robbing peoples houses or businesses. He always went after the bigger targets...such as priceless artwork. But, for the life of her, she couldn't remember his name.

Pax said, "If my artwork is in danger of being stolen, how do we stop that from happening?"

"For starters," Shasta began, "let's go down to the cargo bay, make sure everything's still okay. And Patroni? If you're the mechanic, you probably know these transports inside and out, correct?"

"Of course," Patroni said.

"Then get us to that cargo bay." Shasta stood up. Pax and Patroni followed. As they exited the lounge, Shasta set her glass on the tray attached to the top of an astromech and walked through the door. "And this was supposed to be my vacation."

The shady thief behind the bar watched the three exit the lounge. He then pulled off his apron, tossed it on the bar and headed through a door marked "Employees Only".

- - - - - - - - - -

Shasta, Pax and Patroni took the lift down to the lower levels of the transport and ended up in a long, wide hallway with another lift at the other end. Patroni pointed. "That lift down there will take us to the cargo bay." He headed down the hall, passing numerous doors, with Pax and Shasta following behind him.

As they approached the other end of the hall, an attendant working aboard the transport stopped them. "I'm sorry, folks. This level is for employees only. I'm gonna have to ask you to head back up to the passenger levels."

"You don't understand," Patroni said to him. "I'm Patroni, one of --"

"I know who you are, Mr. Patroni," the attendant said. "But you're on-board as a passenger. I can't allow you access to these levels. I'm sorry."

Pax glanced at Shasta, wondering if she was planning some kind of super-spy move to incapacitate the attendant.

Patroni said, "I'm just checking on something. One of the other attendants said they heard some rattling noise in the cargo bay. Me and my crew," he waved to Shasta and Pax, "were just gonna check it out, make sure everything's in order."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Patroni," the attendant said again. "I can't let you down without orders from the Captain."

Shasta walked over to the attendant and put her hand gently on the side of his face. "Any way I can persuade you to change your mind?"

The attendant felt flush when Shasta placed her hand on his face. He felt her warm hand on his skin. Shasta slowly moved her hand down to his neck and jabbed her thumb into the side of his throat. The attendant collapsed on the floor.

Pax and Patroni watched in surprise.

Shasta dragged the attendant's unconscious body to the corner. "Pressure points," she explained. "He'll be awake and back to normal in no time. But we have to hurry now." Shasta reached into the attendants jacket and pulled out a keycard. She tossed it to Patroni and he slid the card through the reader on the wall, opening the cargo lift door.

As they entered the lift, Pax asked, "So you didn't kill him?"

"Of course not," she responded calmly. "Though I do have a license to kill, that guy was only doing his job and didn't deserve to die." She watched the lift door close. "Like I said, he'll be awake soon."

"Beautiful, smart and deadly," Patroni commented. "The perfect spy."

The lift came to a halt at the cargo bay and the door slid open revealng an incredibly long room full of crates and other large cargo containers. The ceiling was at least 20 feet high, and some crates were stacked almost that height.

"How are we ever gonna find them in here?" Pax asked.

Patroni turned to a holo-screen embedded in the wall next to the lift doors. A comm device was attached to it. "Everything that's loaded in here is logged in and cataloged." He tapped the touch-screen and after a few moments was able to pull up Pax Eem's name. A combination of numbers and letters popped up on the screen. "Bingo. Looks like your stuff's in Rows 5A through 5D."

"Then let's go," Shasta said as she began walking down the long aisle. Pax and Patroni followed her.

Within moments they reached the spot painted on the floor marked 4A and Shasta put out a hand to stop them. Voices could be heard on the next aisle over...in 5A.

Pax whispered to Shasta, "I guess you were right."

Shasta put a finger to her lips, indicating that she wanted them to be quiet. She tip-toed to the edge of the stack of crates and peeked around them. She could see 4 Human men, one of which was the bartender she saw back in the lounge. They had a crate open and one of the men was pulling out something that was packed in foam and wrapped in plastic. Another man tore the plastic and pulled some foam out to reveal what was inside. It was facing the opposite direction so Shasta couldn't see what it was they were looking at.

The bartender said, "That's the one."

Two of the men began to close the crate.

The bartender said to the man holding the package, "Take it to the speeder. You know which one, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, go. We'll meet you there."

As two of them ran off, the bartender and the other remaining Human continued to close the crate.

Shasta crept back down to aisle 4A where Pax and Patroni were waiting. "Looks like they're only after one."

"Which one?" Pax asked.

"I don't know. I couldn't see it. But it looked like it was roughly a meter and a half tall." Turning back to Patroni, she said, "There was a communicator on the panel back by the lift. Can you contact the Captain from there?"

"Yes, but it's a secure comm and requires a code. I don't have the code."

"Okay," Shasta continued. "Then I'm gonna need you to get up to the cockpit and warn the Captain of what's happening. Tell him to drop out of hyperspace and land on the nearest planet. We'll turn these guys over to the authorities before continuing with the trip."

"Gotcha. I can do that," Patroni nodded. He spun around and hurried back to the lift.

"Pax," Shasta said, "since it's your stuff they're after, I want you to head back up to the lounge and stay where there's a lot of people. I don't want you getting kidnapped or killed or anything."

Pax swallowed hard. "Killed?" he repeated with a shaky voice.

"Yeah. I'd rather--" Shasta was cut off when someone's arms wrapped around her throat from behind.

Pax froze.

Shasta grasped at the man's arms. He sure was strong. The man was pulling at her hard enough that she could feel the heels of her feet begin to lift off the floor. She couldn't breathe. She started wheezing as she tried to suck in as much air as possible.

"Leave her alone!" Pax yelled as he began grabbing at the man's arms, attempting to free the MI5 agent. With his right arm secured around Shasta's throat, he backhanded the Gran with his left. Pax dropped to the floor, holding his face.

Gasping for air, Shasta swung her arms back and elbowed the man in the ribs hard. The man let up a bit but still had a good grip on her. She swung again, elbowing his ribcage. That did it. The man released his grip on her as he started to double over.

Shasta quickly spun around and threw a punch into the man's face. He stumbled but kept his balance. Shasta then grabbed the man by the collar of his jacket and rammed his head into a wooden crate. The wood splinted and the man laid in a pile of soft packing material, unconscious.

Shasta took a moment to catch her breath. She then turned to Pax.

"My word," Pax exclaimed.

Shasta reached out a hand to help him up. "You okay?"

"Yes, yes, my dear," he said, getting to his feet. "Are you okay?"

"Never better." Shasta looked back at the unconscious man. She reached down and grabbed his feet. With a strong pull, she yanked his body out of the packing materials and flipped him over.

"That's what I thought," she commented.

"Do you know him?" Pax asked.

"Yeah. His name is Saprykin. He's a known criminal that hangs around with a big time thief named Riker."

That was the bartender's name. Riker. She knew he was a criminal but couldn't remember his name until know. Riker must have disguised himself and his buddies so they could board the Starport unnoticed.

"Get up to the lounge like I told you," Shasta ordered. "I'm going after Riker."

Pax nodded.

"Go!" she repeated, more forceful this time.

Pax scurried off toward the lift.

Shasta headed the other direction. Riker mentioned a speeder when he was talking to his goons. He must mean one of the speeders on-board. She knew there was another level to this transport where people could store their speeders while they traveled for use in their next destination. Sort of like a parking garage. She had to get down there and find those guys.

- - - - - - - - - -

Outside the cockpit doors, a female attendant was standing in front of Patroni, blocking his path.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said to him. "But you know the rules. I can't let you--"

"Yeah, I know, I know," he said, annoyed. "Just stand aside, sister. We've got a big problem aboard this ship and we've gotta land, now."

The attendant knew Patroni was a maintenance guy. If she followed the policies and didn't let him through...would something terrible happen? What did Patroni know that no one else knew? Not wanting to take the chance of something going terribly wrong, she finally agreed. She slid her keycard and the door opened.

"Captain?" she said as she entered the small control room. "Mr. Patroni said he needed to speak to you."

Captain Harris turned in his seat to see Patroni. "Hey, old friend! I heard you were traveling on this ship. What's the problem?"

After a quick hand-shake, Patroni said, "There's an MI5 agent aboard and she's chasing down some criminal in the cargo hold."

The crew members in the room looked around at each other.

Harris questioned, "A criminal?"

Patroni nodded. "Yeah, and the MI5 agent told me to tell you that we have to take this thing outta hyperspace and set her down on the first planet we come across."

Harris hesitated. It seemed like kind of an outlandish story. But Patroni had been his friend for quite a long time, and he trusted him. Patroni wasn't the type to play tricks. He certainly wouldn't play some practical joke that would disrupt thousands of beings on this voyage.

Harris nodded. "Alright." He turned to his crew. "Let's drop this thing out of hyperspace."

Patroni smiled. He did it. He helped MI5. His family would never believe him.

Harris turned on the intercom again. "Hello, folks. This is your Captain speaking. There's been a maintenance issue brought to our attention. It's nothing serious so you don't have to worry. We will only be delayed a few hours then get right back to the trip. We will need to drop out of hyperspace and make a quick pit stop. So you may feel a slight jolt as we make the change from lightspeed. We apologize greatly for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding."

- - - - - - - - - -

Down in the speeder garage, the lowest and largest cargo area aboard the transport, Riker and his two remaining henchmen were positioning the piece of artwork in the back of a civilian version of the Seraph-class urban landspeeder when Harris' announcement came booming over the loudspeaker.

"Good, we're landing," one of the henchmen said. "That'll give us a chance to get outta here before we're caught."

"Or," the other man stated, "they could be on to us. They might wanna turn us in."

Riker hesitated. He ran through both scenarios in his mind. They hadn't planned on taking the package until the voyages first official stop. The fact that someone recognized him pushed their timetable forward quite a bit. It couldn't possibly be a coincidence that they were landing immediately after they were discovered in the upper cargo bay.

They felt the ship jolt a little as it dropped out of hyperspace. Riker swore. "We've gotta get outta here, now."

- - - - - - - - - -

As Shasta exited the lift, she felt the drop out of hyperspace. Excellent. Now all she had to do was stop these three remaining thieves.

As she made her way through the parked speeders and personal transports, she kept her eyes and ears open for any signs of--

Shasta dove to the floor when a blaster bolt came whizzing past her head. As more blaster fire was heard, she dropped down and laid on her stomach so she could roll underneath one of the speeders. Now in cover, she continued forward, staying in the prone position and crawling underneath all the speeders as she went, almost as if she was in a military training exercise.

As she moved onward, she could hear the mens voices. One of the henchmen said, "I don't see her."

"Well, find her," Riker ordered. "And kill her. Don't screw this up. You wanna end up like Saprykin?"

Shasta rolled out from underneath one of the landspeeders and cautiously took a peek in the direction from which the voices had come. She could see Riker standing in a speeder roughly 50 yards away. And one of the henchmen was walking away from him, looking around, searching for her. But where was the third guy?

Shasta quietly moved around to the back of the landspeeder next to her and, keeping her head low, moved from speeder to speeder until she was close to the henchman. Thankfully the guy was too stupid to bend down to take a look under all the speeders. Otherwise, he would know exactly where she was hiding because he would see her feet.

As the dumb henchman slowly moved down the side of one of the speeders, blaster aimed in front of him, Shasta popped up from behind one of the engines and yanked him from behind, pulling him over the engine and down to the floor. Shasta punched the guy in the face then hit a pressure point in his throat, rendering him unconscious like she did with the attendant back in the corridor.

Riker spun around and pointed the blaster when he heard his henchman hit the floor hard. He wondered what happened to that idiot. Riker's eyes moved back and forth across the cargo hold but couldn't see him.

Hidden from Riker's line of sight, Shasta picked up the blaster the idiot henchman was carrying. Now she, too, had a weapon. She was supposed to be on vacation, so she wasn't carrying a weapon of any kind, until now. She had trained long hours with many different kinds of blasters back in her assassin-for-hire days, so she was one of the best marksmen, or markswomen, MI5 had in their employ. Riker should be scared. - - - - - - - - - -

Up on the control deck, Captain Harris began to maneuver the massive transport toward a tan-colored planet. Patroni could see it out the viewport growing larger and larger as they got closer. He pointed. "Where are we landing?"

Harris said simply, "Brentaal IV."

- - - - - - - - - -

"Riker!"

The thief spun around when he heard his name. He pointed his blaster at Shasta, while Shasta pointed her blaster back at him. Riker was still standing in the landspeeder with Shasta standing on the durasteel floor of the cargo bay alongside the speeder.

"Who the hell are you?" Riker asked. "You took out two of my men."

"MI5," Shasta answered. "Now put the weapon down and you won't get hurt."

"MI5?" Riker repeated. "I thought they just went around chasing underground criminals and blowing up innocent people calling it collateral damage."

Shasta knew he was referring to the numerous disastrous and unfortunate incidents on Naboo not too long ago. It was all over the HoloNet. A battle ended up leaving a crater in the middle of Theed and Otoh Gunga in shambles. The media had a field day with that...as did the Chancellor. But that was before she joined the organization. She had nothing to do with those events. She read the files regarding that mission. MI5 had successfully protected the Queen of Naboo and apprehended the criminals responsible for the attempted assassination. They also freed many of the Gungans who had been taken prisoner and used as slaves by those same criminals. So a lot of good did come out of it.

Shasta's thoughts were cut short when an alarm sounded. Along with the wailing alarms, red lights flashed around the large cargo bay doors only a few speeders away.

The alarms, the lights... The bay doors were about to open! That must be where the last henchman was, some control panel that opened the doors.

Over the alarms, Shasta yelled, "You're opening the doors? Are you crazy? We'll both be sucked out into space!"

- - - - - - - - - -

On the control deck, Captain Harris saw an emergency light flash on his vid-screen.

Patroni saw it too. "What's that mean?"

"Someone's opening the bay doors on the lower cargo hold," Harris reported.

"We're not in the planet's atmosphere yet," Patroni commented.

"No, we're not." Harris accelerated the speed of the transport, trying to reach the atmosphere. "I hope your MI5 friend knows what she's doing."

"Me too," Patroni said.

- - - - - - - - - -

Shasta ducked from Riker's blaster fire. She scrambled to take cover behind a large red landspeeder. Riker, still firing his blaster, took his seat in the Seraph-class urban landspeeder with the stolen artwork stashed safely in the back seat.

Just as Shasta broke cover to fire at Riker, blaster bolts came from behind her. She again ducked preventing her from firing at Riker.

"Let's go! Let's go!" the one remaining henchman yelled as he leaped into Riker's speeder. Riker started it up.

Shasta again stood up to shoot at them when the large cargo doors slowly began to open. Air suddenly began to swirl around her. She could feel the vacuum of space pulling at her. She wrapped her arms around the red speeder she was using for cover. As the doors opened a little wider, she felt her body being lifted into the air. She held on to that speeder for dear life.

Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. Shasta's feet fell back to the durasteel floor. The air was still sweeping about the cargo bay, but it wasn't pulling her out the door. They must have finally entered the atmosphere. The pressure was returning to normal.

She released the red speeder and knelt on the floor for a moment to get her bearings and catch her breath. Then she realized her blaster was gone. In the excitement, it must have slipped from her grasp.

She quickly glanced around the cargo bay. The speeders were no longer aligned. They were staggered, meaning they all moved slightly when space was yanking at them. She then realized...Riker was gone. The Seraph-class urban landspeeder he was in was gone too.

Standing up, Shasta rushed for the doors. Taking a glance out the large opening, she noticed they were flying low across the barren, dry land on the planet. Off to the left, she could see one lone landspeeder moving fast, kicking up dust as it drove further and further away from the Starport 15 passenger transport.

"Damn!" Shasta exclaimed.

The MI5 operative spun around looking for a fast landspeeder so she could catch up to them. She finally spotted a speeder bike a few rows back. "Gotcha," she said to herself as she rushed toward it.

- - - - - - - - - -

In Riker's speeder, his henchman, Tev Aloo, was cheering. "We made it! Hahaaa!"

"Sit down, you idiot," Riker ordered. "We're not through this yet."

"What're you talkin' about? We escaped from the transport." Tev turned to look at the massive passenger transport sailing farther away from them. He squinted when he saw something fall out of the open cargo bay doors. Was that...a speeder bike? "Who is this chick?"

"She's MI5," Riker answered.

"MI5?! I don't wanna get mixed up with MI5," Tev complained.

- - - - - - - - - -

Shasta maneuvered the bike in the air as best she could to land on a slanted part of the barren ground and soften her landing. She did so, but managed to bang up the back end of the bike. Luckily it was still in good enough condition to run.

She couldn't believe she just pulled off that stunt and lived to tell about it. But she figured it suited MI5 well.

Shasta pumped up the accelerator on the 74-Y speeder bike as she zoomed across the desert-like landscape in pursuit of the criminals.

- - - - - - - - - -

"How're we gonna lose her?" Tev asked.

"Will you shut up!" Riker yelled at him. "I'm trying to think!"

The speeder was coming up on a rocky patch of land. Riker could see a small canyon up ahead. Depending on what the inside of the canyon looked like, he may be able to ditch the speeder and hideout somewhere. It was worth a shot and probably the only chance he had at this point.

"Hurry up, man," Tev said. "She's gainin' on us."

Out of anger, Riker turned and back-handed Tev, slamming him across the face. Tev didn't expect it and jerked his head back, forcing his body to slam against the edge of the speeder. "If you don't shut up, I'm gonna throw you out of this speeder!" Riker yelled at him, pointing a finger right in Tev's face.

Riker was so focused on Tev that he didn't see the large rocks protruding out of the ground. The speeder slid right over one of them, slicing the underside of the speeder and rocking it to the side. As the speeder tipped sideways, Tev lost his balance and fell out. He slammed on to the rocky ground hard, landing on his arm. He heard something snap and then felt sudden pain.

The speeder just kept going. Riker left Tev there and continued onward toward the canyon.

As Tev was rolling around on the ground in pain, Shasta's speeder bike approached. She could see Tev's blaster laying in the dirt next to him. She eased up on the throttle and tipped the bike slightly to the right. Reaching out with her right hand, she managed to grab the blaster as she whizzed past the injured Tev.

Now she had a weapon again.

Up ahead, she saw Riker's speeder move into the canyon. That was her chance. She moved the speeder bike to the edge of the canyon and drove it up along the ridge.

Riker was frantically looking for openings in the canyon walls. But he didn't see any.

A few dozen meters above, Shasta aimed the blaster down toward Riker's speeder. She had a difficult time keeping the blaster steady at the speed she was traveling. She finally fired off a few rounds and one of them hit an engine on the back of the landspeeder. The back-end exploded, causing the speeder to careen out of control and slam into an outcropping.

Riker and the artwork, which was thankfully still wrapped in the soft packing material, were thrown from the speeder as it flipped over and skidded to a stop.

Riker was in some serious pain. His head was spinning and he couldn't see straight. He just laid there for a few moments to let his vision focus again. He tried to stand but when he moved his legs he yelled out in pain. He glanced over to see his left leg bent the other direction. It was obviously broken.

"Frak! Frak! Frak!" he yelled out.

Only a few meters ahead of him, he saw his blaster. And beyond that, the package.

Using only his arms, he tried to pull himself closer to the blaster. But when he went to reach for it, it was kicked away. Riker looked up from the boot to see a female figure silhouetted against the blinding sun.

Shasta looked down at him and pointed her blaster. "If you had just surrendered when I asked you to, you'd still be able to walk." She paused. "Remember, when I said you won't get hurt?"

- - - - - - - - - -

After the Starport 15 landed safely at a spaceport in Cormond, Brentaal IV's capital, the local security and law enforcement took Saprykin and the other henchman, named Garren Obrim, into custody. They also swept the transport for any other suspicious persons, but found none.

Inventory was then taken of all the cargo and only one of Pax Eem's possessions was missing: a stone statue of the Mandalorian figure Jaster Mereel. The piece was simply titled Mereel.

A short time later, Shasta Moonreaper arrived with Riker and Tev, as well as the package, strapped to the speeder bike. The officers reached for their weapons. "Relax, boys. I'm MI5. I've got two more goons for you," she said, approaching the officers. "Jace Riker and Tev Aloo."

Pax came running over. "Oh! Thank you, Miss Moonreaper!" He saw the officers unstrapping the artwork from the bike. "Be careful with that! That's a priceless work of art, sculpted by Dono Tello himself! It was his last piece before he died." Shasta watched Pax scamper off, trying to protect his art.

Thankfully, the sculpture was still in one piece and undamaged. The packing material protected the fall from the exploding speeder. Shasta didn't mention that part to Pax. She and Patroni both got a chance to see the stone sculpture later before it was repacked.

All four criminals were arrested and Shasta thanked Pax, Patroni and Harris personally for their help. "If MI5 ever needs my help, don't hesitate to contact me," Patroni said, excited about helping MI5.

"I may take you up on that someday," Shasta replied with a smile. She was happy she had some new friends.

After a lengthy delay on Brentaal IV, the voyage continued and Shasta sent her report to MI5. She then continued on with her much, much needed vacation. After this little incident, she could only imagine what she may accidentally encounter on the Gambler's World.

The End