Interlude: Return to the City of Vice

Four months earlier…

Qiv Brellan breathed a quiet sigh of relief as the ship rumbled beneath him as it took off and departed Vaiken Station. After five months, he could finally add "ex-Sith Acolyte" to his short list of accolades and titles, though he'd still be watching over his shoulder for a long time to come.

If there was one good thing about the Sith academy, it was the assumption that if someone disappeared, it was probably because someone else killed them. And the people in charge usually didn't bother looking too hard for dead men.

After that Sith Lord nearly caught him out on Korriban, things had more or less gone more smoothly until the ship arrived at Vaiken. He'd gotten out of the crate as planned and had made to find another ship. Except none of the Imperial transports were heading for Nar Shaddaa.

That had prompted a scramble to find alternate transport, all the while avoiding Imperial personnel. Fortunately, no one was on the look out for escaped fugitives, so he had an easier time with the latter than he would have on Korriban.

While he restricted his use of the Force for most of it, the Nautolan did have to Mind Trick his way past a few guards, but it was worth it in the end.

Eventually, he was forced to make his way to the section of the station assigned to the various mercenaries that occasionally answered the Empire's job offers. From there, he had been able to move around a little more easily as non-humans that weren't slaves were more common, if still looked down upon.

After that, he took his time and waited, quietly collecting a small stash of credits with both traditional pickpocketing methods and a few Force tricks. He'd need the cash once he hit Nar Shaddaa. Qiv would have nabbed a blaster if he could, but most of the mercenaries only carried heavy weapons.

While he did this, he had soon narrowed in on a pair of bounty hunters that he recognized from Nal Hutta, a male and female pair of humans whose names he couldn't quite remember. While they wouldn't remember him, he'd seen them a lot around the Hutt's garage bragging about some job or another.

They also had an old KDY D5-Mantis Patrol Craft, which they'd "acquired" from a target during a job gone really, really well.

Qiv remembered that because they had really liked to brag about it. So unless their luck had taken a serious downturn since he'd last seen them, they would still have it.

As luck would have it, they did.

The hangar set aside for mercenaries was a lot less heavily guarded than the military ones, so it was easy to get access to it. Getting onto the ship itself was equally simple.

It was hard to lock out someone that could talk to the ship's computer with a touch and order it to open up. After that, it was just a matter of time until the bounty hunters came back.

When they ensconced themselves in the cockpit, he eased himself out of the supply closet he'd hidden himself in, grateful they hadn't done a check of the ship before liftoff.

From the exterior, the D-5 Mantis appeared to be a large ship, but the interior was mostly open space, with a door to a refresher, supply closet/cargo hold, and a small medbay. The cockpit was up a short flight of stairs and nestled inside a small hallway filled to the gills with sensor equipment.

As the ship jumped to hyperspace, he heard one of the bounty hunters, the woman, get up and say, "I'll be back. Gotta hit the 'fresher."

Qiv's eyes darted around for a place to hide, but nothing immediately popped out. Instead, he quietly positioned himself under the small "balcony" that held up the navigation console, back flat against the wall. Soon, he heard armored boots thumping against the deck plating as one of the hunters exited the small cockpit.

A few dozen thoughts raced through Qiv's mind as he planned out what he would do at lightning speed. He'd had nearly an hour to think about how he was going to handle this, though not the particulars. Now that it was actually happening, the pieces snapped into place before the bounty hunter reached the first step.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The hunter's armored boots and greaves, painted a mottled gray and green, came into view, their owner humming a tune under her breath.

Qiv wasn't armed, but he raised his right hand as though he were holding a pistol.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Now, he could see her belt, where a pair of blaster pistols hung in plain view.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Qiv waited until her head was in view. While she was wearing most of her armor, her helmet was missing. Good, that would make things easier.

They were only a few meters apart and she was just turning to face him.

One of her pistols shook for a split-second before flying across the distance and slapping into his palm, finger now in the trigger guard and pressing on the trigger itself.

Qiv was far from the best gunslinger in the galaxy, but even he wouldn't have difficulty with a target at this range, especially with some "assistance."

A red bolt of super-heated plasma lanced across the hold before boring a hole into the hunter's exposed head. Bits of skull, burning hair, and roasted meat exploded outwards as the blood and fluids inside vaporized in an instant, splattering the nearby wall with what was left.

"Jade?!" The other hunter bellowed, followed by the sound of him hurridly unlatching his restraints, "The hell's going on back there?!"

Oh right, that was her name. Qiv hadn't bothered to remember it before. He supposed it didn't matter anyways and quickly discarded the thought.

Black eyes flicked up to the balcony above and did a few quick mental calculations before coming to the conclusion that the angle wouldn't be good for another easy shot. A different method then.

Concentrating for a moment, the Nautolan stepped out and turned around in time to face the other hunter, free hand extended. Before the latter could process what had happened, finger-like impressions appeared on his neck. The human's eyes bulged and his hands clawed desperately at his throat, dropping the blaster he had drawn.

Qiv was glad there wasn't a third hunter. It was taking most of his concentration just to maintain the grip. Moving stuff with his mind was harder than it looked.

'Just another reason to be terrified of Aldrex.' He reminded himself, 'This is frakking easy for him.'

Eventually, the hunter stopped struggling, his eyes lolling back into his head as he fell unconscious. Qiv let him go with a gasp of breath, allowing the body to hit the floor with a loud clatter of armor. Without hesitation, he quickly ran up the stairs, knelt down, and snapped the hunter's neck manually. No point keeping him alive, after all.

Once that was done, he stripped the bodies of anything usable before shoving them in the medbay and sealing the room. At the very least, it'd keep the smell of rotting bodies from reaching the rest of the ship. He'd see about dumping the bodies as soon as he could, but that would have to wait until after the ship exited hyperspace.

Afterwards, he made his way up to the cockpit. To his delight, he found that the pair had been heading for Hutt Space anyways, though the course they had plotted was to Saleucami. That wasn't a problem and it would be easy to adjust the course at the first stop to head for Nar Shaddaa instead.

...

Nearly half a day and several long jumps later, the D-5 Mantis, which Qiv had since dubbed the Jailbird, exited hyperspace in orbit of the Smuggler's Moon. Instead of immediately descending to the planet, he switched on the comms and dialed a contact number.

In a moment, another male Nautolan answered. Like Qiv, he was tall and lanky, with a similarly thin face. He had green skin as opposed to Qiv's blue, but it was difficult to see given the blue tint of the projector.

"The hell? How did someone ge-" He stopped mid-question and gaped, "…Shavit. Cuz, that you? I heard you got bagged months ago!"

"You heard right, Rowe," Qiv answered vaguely, leaning back into the pilot's seat. He wasn't about to go into the full story over an unsecured comm. If there was one thing the Sith Academy had taught, it was paranoia, "Managed to wriggle out though. How's business?"

"Eh, same as usual. No more trouble than normal," Rowe shrugged, still obviously shocked, "Lotta drunks day in and day out. All the while, I get an eyeful of Karagga's huge shiny aurodium ass all day."

"Hutts are all ass," Qiv finished the old joke. He was actually thinking of making that into some kind of code phrase now, "Any idea if any of my stuff is still around?"

His cousin shook his head, causing his head tendrils to roll over his shoulders, "Nah, everything got sold off a couple days after you got ghosted. Sorry about your bike, by the way."

"Damn it," Qiv cursed out loud, honestly hurt.

That swoop bike had cost more credits than he'd like to admit. He'd been thinking of racing it for some extra money before he'd been grabbed. Hearing it was gone pissed him off.

Just one more thing to be mad about. Speaking of…

Taking the controls in hand again, Qiv pushed the Jailbird into Nar Shaddaa's atmosphere, "Hey cuz, you still living at the same place? 'Cause we've got a lot to talk about. I'll hit planetside and meet you in … half an hour."

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Oh, apparently, the abundance of those interludes in this fanfic managed to annoy quite a few people. Well, fear not, my dear readers, for I shall graciously attempt to decrease their presence, just a tiny bit, to ensure your utmost satisfaction. 🙂🤝🏻

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