Smuggler Archive

Making Contact

“They aren’t coming, Dusty.” It was the voice of my step brother, Monio.

“They’ll be here soon,” I said easily. Monio took another few sips of his drink and nervously checked the charge on his blaster. There’d been a time when I didn’t think Monio ever got nervous, but given recent events, I could certainly understand the way he was acting now. I was about to say something to that effect when he spoke up again.

“I don’t like waiting like this, it feels like a setup.”

“Would you relax? Everything’s going to be fine.”

“You sure?”

I sighed. Maybe Monio had a point; our contacts were more than a little late and the last time something similar had happened it’d ended with my ship needing massive repairs and Monio on his way to the spice mines of Kessel. But still, at the time it’d been me who got the feeling we were being setup and Monio who insisted everything was alright. I had been right then, and somehow I knew I was right now.

“I’m sure. My other contacts say that they’re trustworthy. Besides, they’re only a day late.”

“That’s still a day I could’ve been using to follow up leads on one of my contracts.”

“Don’t worry, if the trail gets cold I’ll just slice the database again and get more data.”

“What if someone else takes them out before I get to them?”

Dusty shrugged with a grin, “We could always bluff and say it was you.”

“That’s only going to work so many times,” Monio said somewhat stiffly… still, he couldn’t help but grin back. I had helped him cheat a bounty hunter working for the Imperials out of a sizable amount of credits recently, discrediting the hunter in the process by altering starport records to show that the bounty hunter had been no where near the planet on which the mark had met his end. Monio took a certain pride in his work, but neither of us was beneath using any means necessary to complicate the lives of anyone working for the Imperials. And the fact that this particular bounty hunter had similarly cheated Monio by sniping a mark Monio was trying to take in alive had certainly been an extra incentive.

“So what are we going to be hauling this time?” Monio asked.

“I honestly don’t have a clue. All they said was that it’s important that the cargo stay out of Imperial hands and they’re willing to double my usual transit fee.”

“You find out yet if this is an Alliance job or not?”

“From what I can tell, the contacts are loosely affiliated with, but not official members of the Alliance.”

“Like we were,” Monio said with a smile and sigh.

“Yeah, like we were,” I grinned back at him. For a long while we had refused to formally enlist with the Rebel forces. We’d been worried about having to give up our freedom to come and go as they pleased and, though we wouldn’t have admitted it, were a little worried about the focus the Imperials were placing on eliminating the Alliance. In the end however, we’d decided to join as covert operatives, a decision that placed us in greater contact with the Rebels, allowing us to have a bigger impact in the fight against the Empire while still allowing us to lead somewhat normal lives... although “normal” wasn’t a term many people would use to describe the activities of a smuggler and a bounty hunter.

Right in the middle of my reverie, my stomach decided to remind me that I’d skipped breakfast that morning. After mentally reviewing the food stored on my ship at the moment, I decided that ordering something from one of Coronet’s cafes would be my best bet. “Hey, why don’t you go pick up some food while I,” I’d started to say when a flick of movement on the holocam monitors caught my eye. Monio saw what I was looking at and muttered, “Some timing, we’ve been waiting in this docking bay for two days and when they finally show up, they interrupt your lunch plans.”

“Yeah, those two match the holos I was given… but what the hell is that on the repulsorlift dolly?”

“Looks like a sculpture.”

“What in deep space would the Alliance want us to smuggle a sculpture for? It’s gotta be cover for something else… it’s not thick enough to be hollowed out and holding something inside… maybe it’s the material it’s made out of that we’re smuggling.”

“I don’t know… That theory works with spice and stuff like that, but when’s the last time the Alliance wanted us to run spice for them.”

“Your right, and I can’t think of anything other than spice that there’s a reason to smuggle in that particular form…” Suddenly an idea hit me, “The sculpture is probably exactly what it looks like, it’s just there for show in case anyone is watching us too closely.”

“One way to find out,” Monio said readying is blaster.

“Right, I’ll let them in, you get ready to cover me if something goes wrong.”

As we walked to the ramp, I adjusted my blasters in their holsters and checked the charges. Just because I wasn’t expecting trouble didn’t mean I shouldn’t be ready for it. When I’d reached the ramp, I glanced over my shoulder to see that Monio was ready behind me. Smiling, I lowered the ramp and stepped out onto it.

“Selvetine Dala, I presume?” one of my contacts, the female one, offered. It was the prearranged statement that signified that everything was well on their end.

“No, Mr. Dala could not make it. I work for him however, my name is Finis Cartonia. We’re a little behind schedule so if we could proceed to the loading, I’d appreciate it greatly.” Saying that the fictional Mr. Dala “could not make it” was the countersign that signified that everything was well on our end. Finis Cartonia was the name I’d landed on Corellia using and was just one of several false identities I maintained.

“Sure Mr. Cartonia. Oh, here’s the information your employer requested that we include.”

As her partner pushed the dolly up the ramp and into the ship, the woman stopped in front of me on the ramp and handed me a datapad. Guessing that this was what I was really supposed to be moving, I activated it and tried scanning the message it contained. I didn’t understand a word of it; and given that cheap protocol droids know fewer languages than I do, that meant that the message was encrypted. This datapad was what the mission was all about after all.

“I’m sure he’ll find it very enlightening,” I said pleasantly but neutrally.

“I’m sure he will.”

Monio and the second contact were already at the top of the ramp again, so I thanked the woman and made my way back up the ramp. I waited for them to make it safely out of the docking bay before I closed the ramp.

I didn’t even have to ask before Monio was giving me answers, “It’s in the lounge area. I had the scanners active when we brought it aboard, you were right, it’s just a sculpture.”

“I know, she gave me an encrypted datapad.”

“Ahh… how long before you start trying to crack it?” Monio asked with a grin.

“I’m not going to crack the encryption… I’m going to deliver it to the contact on Naboo, just like we’re being paid to.”

“You’re going to crack the encryption.”

“No, I’m not… I’m going to make a copy though. I’m only going to bother cracking it if we don’t find out what it is when we deliver it.”
Monio smiled. “Shall I warm up the engines?”

“Not yet, we still haven’t had lunch.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks, I plan on writing the next installment within a couple of days.

it was short, but it made for a great base.

keep it up

Thanks for the feedback everybody... unfortunately it'll still be a few days before I can write the next chapter since I have to work on a presentation for my technical writing class.

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CorellianCowboy wrote:
Thanks for the feedback everybody... unfortunately it'll still be a few days before I can write the next chapter since I have to work on a presentation for my technical writing class.

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Okay, I finally got around to reading it, and I liked it. You certainly deserve kudos for writing something to amuse us. I'll happily wait for the next installment (after all, we're pretty used to waiting around here).