Jorun Na'ak

The marble sized yellow orange sun was well on its way to its highest position in the sky as the crew of the Hermes were stripped of their weapons, tied up, and put on the back of the small crafts to be taken to the base of the Boettian pirates. The riders flew closely over the dead trees until they cleared the forest and then proceeded close to the ground for a few miles until they reached a small settlement located in a valley. The valley was obscured by the large shadow of the mountain that they crashed into. From its depths, the black fumes of their crashed ship must have looked like a beacon, alerting the pirates of intruders to their unfortunate planet.

"Where are you taking us?" Alita said to no response. "We are non combatant personnel on a peaceful mission."

"Why would you need blasters on a peaceful mission?" one of her captors said in flawless galactic basic. "Did you think that the peace would shoot back?"

The others laughed at his comment. The creature who spoke was different from the rest. He wasn't frog like. He looked more like a man with deformed skin and bright yellow eyes with no pupils. He had a rough voice that seemed to scratch his throat whenever he spoke. He wore a black fedora and a long black trench coat that flapped in the breeze as he went.

"Are you taking us to see Jorun Nak?" Link asked. "He is expecting me."

"I don't believe that he is," the eloquent captor said. "In fact, I don't think you know him at all."

"And how do you know this?" Linked asked.

"Because I have never seen you before," Jorun Na'ak the eloquent captor said.

The others laughed again.

The settlement was made out of partially destroyed military bunkers. The walls were charred and had missing pieces that were ineptly plugged with sheets of plastic. Nothing grew on the ground which was dry and covered with ash but somehow still squished like mud when trodden upon. The crew was taken to the biggest structure in the middle. It must have been a great military fortification once judging by the thickness of its walls and the numerous artillery guns that had fallen into disrepair along its walls but it was now a haven for these undesirable men.

Several creatures stopped their conversation to observe the newcomers, some drank from large containers while spilling some of its contents, and females of different species danced to their entertainment. The crew was taken to a jail cell in the abandoned military fortification. The room was dark and had to be lit by portable standing stage lights. The ground was damp and full of ash.

The unconscious figures of Taisen and Colonel Lyn were laid on the wooden beds in the cell as one of the pirates took Taisen's long slender blade. He eyed it lustfully nut when he tried to unsheath it, it wouldn't give. He tried to bang it against the wall and shrieked in pain as he let the blade drop to the ground.

"Ahh! Son of a bantha! That kriffin thing cut me," he said as the blue blood oozed from his hand.

"Go clean that up," Jorun said. "Swords that are in their sheaths don't suddenly cut people."

"I swear! It did!" The minion protested.

"Enough. Put it with the other junk," Jorun said.

The minion picked it up reluctantly and set it gently on a wooden crate near the door. Jorun walked up to the cell and began to speak.

"Cyborg. What brings the crew of a science ship to a pirate haven?" He said. "Should I be expecting Star Fleet cruisers any moment from now?"

"There was something on our ship," Link said. "I don't know what it was but it was dangerous."

"That's what blasters are for are they not?" Jorun said as he studied the cyborg with his glowing yellow eyes. "How did you end up here?"

"It feeds off radiation from our core reactor," Link said. "We dropped out of hyperspace and powered down to starve it but that's when it attacked."

"How did you make it out alive then?" Jorun asked with a disbelieving smirk.

"Only the Marrakech knows how to kill it or even wound it," Link said. "His blade seems to have special properties."

"See Jo! I told you that thing cut me," the injured man said as he carefully massaged his hand.

"Shut up and radio the salvage crew and ask if they found anything on the ship," Jorun said to his minion. "What I still don't get is why you were pretending to know me. What good would that have done?"

Link raised his right hand and stuck out three fingers, signaling the number three, before using the same three fingers to scratch the part of his chest above his heart. Jorun's eyes widened with surprise before regaining his composure.

"Jo! No word from the salvage crews, no one is responding to my hails," the injured minion said.

Jorun looked him in the eyes for a moment before turning once more to the cyborg.

"What's the likely hood of us defeating whatever that thing is?" Jorun asked.

"You'd have more chance convincing with a Krell to part with his credit," Link said.

Jorun turned to his minion. "Open the cell and help the Quinian load all of them into the Lady Luck, I'll join you in a second."

"Don't tell me you believe a word that he's saying," the minion protested.

Jorun stared him down as he shrunk and took a step back. "Alright, I'll do as you asl and keep my mouth flap shut."

"Don't forget to bring the blade."