Ask Nar Shaddaa [Part 1] An Unlikely Alliance

[Dale Kurt]

DALE KURT​

Dale waiting in the hanger where he was instructed to go to, he had gotten a job offer and from the look of it, it was a nice and easy job, smuggle a bounty hunter onto a planet and then get them out, simple and clean. The only issue was his ship didn't have passenger space, only space for cargo. But whoever sent him the job order already had a ship, and whoever it was was ok with Dale using their ship to do the job. Dale had arrived at the job a little early, or the other person was late, either way, he had been waiting for a while. He leaned against one of the landing feet of the ship. His mask was on and his voice scrambler was active, the eyes of his mask glowed a light orange.

 

[Venara Tabbith]

Venara found herself on the smuggler's moon of Nar Shaddaa to complete some business. She had been dispatched from Bimmisaari to capture an acquisition on Trandosha, but instructed to deliver the Gran fugitive to someone on Nar Shaddaa. The instruction was unusual, brokers normally dealt with acquisitions personally.

When she had arrived, she commed up the code she was given, and she was invited to a nightclub a few kilometers from her landing bay. Venara allowed two alien thugs up her boarding ramp and led them to the cargo hold where she had stored her prisoner. The thugs used a scanner to verify the identity of the prisoner then escorted him back down the ramp. Venara locked down her ship and payed the spaceport fee for hangar space and refueling. She requisitioned a taxi airspeeder to take her to the nightclub, and within a few minutes she was stepping onto a platform adjacent to one of the skyscrapers she had seen from the air.

Venara was met by a twilek on the platform and he led her into the building through a side door. He led her through several corridors until she emerged in a lounge where an assortment of aliens were playing live music for a well dressed audience. The twilek stopped in front of a table with two chairs, one of them occupied by a large four armed alien.

"Damaar, this is the bounty hunter that captured Jin-Zo," the guide introduced her. The Besalisk turned his attention upon Venara, and motioned for her to sit. "That will be all, Bo."

Venara sat with Damaar. He said something in a language she did not understand. He recognized his error when all she did was blink at him. "I said, Jin-Zo owed Grilo the Hutt a lot of money. I thanked you for your efforts in bringing him to justice." Damaar spoke in Basic this time.

"You are welcome," Venara replied. Damaar smiled at the sound of her vocoder. He reached into a bag at his side and pulled out a stack of Hutt credit chits, setting them on the table. Venara pulled out the bounty fob and puck from her own pouch, and placed them on the table. With the exchange now complete, Venara moved to get up from her chair. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Damaar raised a hand. "Wait. I have another job for you, if you are interested." Venara sat back down and nodded her head. "Have you ever been to Corellia? Coronet City is so beautiful this time of year." Damaar smiled as he reminisced. Venara shook her head. "Well, no matter. The business is this: There is a Corellian Security officer that has been harassing our shipping business in Coronet City. I want you to find this man, Jin Bragg, capture him and bring him to a location elsewhere in the city. You will be paid upon delivery. All the specifics are on this." Damaar handed Venara a datastub. She pulled out her datapad and plugged the stub in. She opened the file and read it.

"Is this true, that all weapons are confiscated at the spaceport?" Venara asked.
"I'm afraid so. You will likely have to smuggle in whatever gear you need. Weapon sales in the city are also restricted, so you won't be able to just buy something once you are in either."
"I will accept this job. Consider this man already in your ample clutches," Venara's attempt to reassure Damaar was accompanied with several gestures from Ubeninal meant to invoke emphasis, but she quickly realized that the signs were lost on him.

Venara had commed the code given to her by Damaar for a smuggler. Apparently this Dale Kurt had experience with smuggling weapons and could prove useful in her current assignment. She had asked him to meet her at the docking bay where her ship was docked. She was surprised to find him already leaning against one of the landing spokes when she arrived. He definitely wasn't what she had been expecting. He was tall and thin, and wore a mask with glowing eyelenses. Venara considered for a moment whether he was another of her species, but she had never seen an Ubese grow to that height. She decided to test her theory by signing a greeting to him in Ubeninal. As far as she knew, all Ubese from Uba IV knew the sign language.

 

[Dale Kurt]

Dale saw another figure approaching, he wasn't expecting a women, or someone this short, but bounty hunters came in all shapes and sizes. The women was also wearing a mask over her mouth, but it seemed more breathing then for hiding one's identity. As she got closer she made a sign with her hands, Dale had no idea what she was doing, behind his mask was a look of pure confusion, "What? Is that some kinda greeting?" Dale walked over to the girl, "Whatever, Im Dale, and im assuming you're my passenger for today?" Dale held out his hand to shake, "You've got a nice ship here, iv never gotten to fly a 3-Z freighter before"

 

[Venara Tabbith]

Venara was ambivalent about her discovery. Had Dale Kurt been an Ubese, she would have had to worry about what clan he belonged to, and whether his clan was an enemy of hers. Of course, she also would have been able to use the same life support settings as him, and been able to sleep without her mask on, as well as been able to speak her native tongue for once. Oh well, it was probably better that he was-whatever he was.

"I am Venara Tabbith." Venara pulled her glove more snugly before she shook Dale's hand. Venara had even more evidence against her theory. Ubese did not shake hands. She looked up at her ship. "It serves its purpose," she admitted.

Venara entered the code to lower the boarding ramp and invited Dale inside. The ship recycled air, releasing streams of stale air through the vents. "You will have to adjust the life support settings. Unless you want a breath mask too?" She climbed the boarding ramp of her ship and went inside.

 

[Dale Kurt]

Dale was a little off-put by the girl's refusal to shake his hand, he used his hand to scratch the back of his head, "Rude" He muttered to himself, he followed Venara unto the ship. She told him to adjust the life support system or get a breath mask, "Im gonna be camped out on the ship till you finish the job so I can get you back here, so ill just adjust the life support." He quickly adjusted the life support of the ship to match his own ship, and then got into the cockpit of the ship, it was a bit like his own ship, nothing glaring, he could manage. He turned around to look at Venara with his glowing orange eyes, "You ready kid?"

 

[Venara Tabbith]

Venara closed the door behind Dale, sealing the bulkhead, then followed Dale to the cockpit. He seemed to be fairly comfortable with the controls. Venara sat in the copilot seat. "I had a few questions, for you, Mr. Kurt. First, how exactly are you going to get me into Coronet city with my weapons? Damaar said you had experience in this sort of thing." Venara glanced away for a moment, wondering if Dale even knew who she was talking about. After all, Damaar had given her the code to call, and hadn't actually introduced them or anything.

"Do you know Damaar? He is a big, four-armed alien, works for Grilo the Hutt?" At least, Venara thought he worked for Grilo the Hutt. He hadn't actually said who he worked for. Venara found the Hutt Cartel organization confusing. Were the Hutts to be considered a single entity, or as independent crime bosses with their own dealings that were connected by business contracts and family ties? Maybe it would be easier just to think of them as a clan, and leave it at that.

Venara shook off her musings and focused on Dale again. His mask remained expressionless, and with the voice scrambler, it was difficult to get any inflection from his speech. This was something that Venara was used to, but she couldn't help but be curious of what he was trying to hide. Maybe he wasn't using his real name either. Maybe Venara had made a mistake in using her real name? She decided to keep her guard up for the time being.

 

[Dale Kurt]

Dale fired up the engines of the ship, readying the ship and himself for take-off, as he was doing such, his passenger asked him a few questions, nothing new for the smuggler, most of the people he transported always had the same question, how? And he had generally the same answer, "We stay off the Corellian Run, flying next to it instead, and then once we get close enough, ill fly us just outta bounds of the major city, in forest probably. This ship should slip right underneath them, and if they come to check on the ship, ill just say it crashed. After all" Dale looked over to the girl, "All the illegal cargo will be off the ship" Dale looked back to the ship's controls, "As for Damaar, iv never heard of his name."

 

[Venara Tabbith]

Venara listened to Dale's explanation. Staying off the major star route didn't make sense, since they couldn't be tracked through hyperspace nor detected until they entered the system. "How will you avoid scanners once we near Corellia? I thought the CorSec would notice us as soon as we enter their space," Venara had little knowledge of how planetary defenses worked, but it made sense if there were sensor arrays that would detect incoming objects or ships. "I do not have a speeder, so I will have to hoof it to the city, I guess."

"Wait, are you going to crash my ship?!" Venara realized the possible implication of his words. Dale had said he was going to take her back to Nar Shadaa when she was done on Corellia, but no one was going to believe the ship crashed with the landing spokes deployed and no trench dug out behind it. Dale had started to prep the ship for departure and wasn't looking at her, so Venara stood from the copilot's seat, hoping he would address her question without having to draw her blaster.