Opening Doors
The night moved in from the south west and darkness felt over the city slowly. The shadows of buildings stretched slowly over the other buildings, leaving under it a dark, black area where it wasn't safe anymore between dawn and dusk. The night was nothing more then the playground of thugs, scum and other low life gangsters and thieves.
The cantina wasn't crowded anymore. Besides a small group of people playing cards, there was latterly nobody who could interfere them, besides the droids who were hovering around, cleaning the tables and taking orders from the small group of people. Also the gameshark, a droid made for card games, had now just one destination and that was above the table of the group of 5.
The group consisted out of a human female, a Zabrak male, a female T'wilek, a male Kubaz and a female Lorrdian. They found each other in a quiet corner across the bar, so they could monitor their cards and order a drink without To much problem. They were just starting a new round of sabacc.
"Where there is a will, there is a way!" smiled the Kubaz. He had a thick accent while he spoke; probably the guy had learned speaking Basic at an older age, so he never could get that accent away. So it was there, but none of the people on the table had problems with understanding the Kubaz.
The TDL-501 model stopped in front of the table and placed down their drinks. This older model, restyled and brought back into the industry by some unknown company, looked like one of the old serving bots before the Clone Wars, but it seemed to hook up here in town pretty fast, since every bar now these days had one or two of these models.
"One Coruscant Cooler, one Bantha Blaster, two Vasarian Brandies and a Johrian Whiskey!" sounded the monotone female voice from the droid, "Seventeen credits, folks!"
The Kubaz, apparently in a good mood, waved with his arm. "Put it on my tab, Teedle!"
"Your tab?" the droid replied, "Your tab is higher then a skyhook already!" The droid made a static pop after every sentence, sounding almost like a wad of dreamgun cracking.
The Kabuz turned to the droid and cocked his head: "I beg your pardon?"
Teedle jerked a durasteel thumb to the bar. "I cant float you anymore from Alver. So you either pay up, or bring a repulsor next time and start doing dishes to clean away your high bill!"
The Zabrak looked up and saw the other patrons of the table, seeing everybody had as much trouble holding their laughs as he was. He gestured then to the droid. "He is covered for tonight!"
"You got it!" responded the droid and scooted away.
The table now started laughing and the T'wilek couldn't help to say her opinion about it. "You shouldn't gamble all your credits away, Unkar. You might get in trouble some day for it!" She laughted gently and Zabrak looked at her, observing her lekku's and smile, which were stunning in his eyes.
"Well," responded Unkar, "as long as I still have creds from my previous job, I am fine!"
The Lorrdian pointed to the gameshark. "Are we gonna play or what?" Her hand moved over to the gameshark droid and tapped it's side. "Deal"
The droid shuffled the cards in a blur of motion and turned to the human female, slapped the cards on the table. "Cut" it said towards her, it's electronic voice raspy. The female cut the cards and the droid dealt two rounds. "Bespin Standard," it announced, "First hand. Place your bets, gentlesirs!"
"Hey, said the T'wilek agited, "Clean your photoreceptor and try again."
"Your pardon, madam" the gameshark said crisply, "Bets, please, gentlebeings!"
"Not much improvement there." the T'wilek grumbled and she looked into her cards, while the Kubaz laughed.
"You don't see them often those days, droids with a sense of humor!"
The human female smiled gently at the Kubaz while she raised and called for a card. "Please?"
"The thing is," responded Zabrak to the remark of Unkar, "most droids lack the software programming of timing. Although they all think in binairy, and everything is based on zero's and ones, they cannot respond with the remarks we don't expect. That's why mostly only protocol droids are programmed with jokes, and other droids don't even have that program!"
The Lorrdian looked up from her cards. "You seem to know allot, you studied droid programming?"
The man laughed: "No, there was a few weeks ago on the Holonet a documentary about the behaviour of droids; they made a good point that unpredictable behaviour is unscriptable and therefore not be able to make!"
The human female nodded, "I seen that one!"
"So what is it that you do then for profession, if your not working with droids" asked the T'wilek. She threw a credit chip on the table, "I call!"
"Well, first of all. In my profession I work allot with droids, and I do have a droid at my disposal with a sense of humor, but that's besides the point right now, I assume." He smiled for a second or so while looking each of his opponents on the table. "Me, I am … how do you define it … a person who cleans up problems for my boss!"
"Bounty Hunter?"
"No, not really…", he smirked "I am not interested in that job. I am more a person who makes sure people tend to do what they are supposed to do. A bounty hunter is a final resort, I think I am more the first solution. I come by and we just have a chat why you don't pay. I don't even use violence. Some people tend to forget, others just have problems, and I see if I can work it out!"
"So you don't work for the underworld? The Kubaz replied
"Some clients from me do work in the underworld, but they know my approach is not a violent one. Mostly that works with people who don't want to pay!"
"Is it always about the money?" The Lorrdian aked
"Ninety percent, yes. Else other material value, and I raise too!" he replied as he placed the fifty credit chip on the table. "I think you are bluffing, Lekku girl!"
The rest of the table followed his example and raised the bets to fifty credits.
"Two hundred and fifty credits in the pot!" the gameshark said, "Please shift hands, ladies!"
Everyone stared at the hovering droid. "Sweet Sookie," said the female human, shaking her head. "Whoever dumped this one in here saw him coming!"
The Kubaz smiled as he raised again, when he checked his cards. "All in!" With that said, he dropped the nine hundred and forty two credits he earned today on the table, and flashed an evil grin to his opponents. "Who dares!"
"Not me," replied the T'wilek and she folded her hand. The human female and the Lorrdian followed her example, while the Zabrak stared at his cards.
"I think you are bluffing!" he then said and dropped the exact same amount on the table.
"Show hands!" the gameshark announced and focussed on the Kubaz.
Unkar smiled broadly as he was holding a Commander of coins, a Mistress of sabers and an Endurance of staves. He put the hand in the interference field of the droid and his cards lit up on the table. "Anyone closer?" he grinned to the human male across him and moved his hands to the pot.
"Not so fast, my friend!" the man said and he laid his hands on the table, which got Unkar stunned. On the table in front of the human lay an Idiot, a three of staves and a two of sabers; the idiots array. The one hand that beat all the other hands, even pure Sabacc.
"There is no way!" the Kubaz said, while the Zabrak just shrugged and collected his credits from the table.
"You know, my Kubaz friend, gambling is not a sport where you always win!"
The female human stood up and moved to the ladies room, as the Zabrak spoke to his opponent. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, even if you are good at Sabacc!" He leaned back in his chair and smiled to the group. The T'wilek and the Lorrdian looked astonished to the Kubaz, who was just sitting there, totally stunned.
At that moment, a droid walked into the cantina and looked around. Only the TDL-501 model and the five players of Sabacc where in the cantina right now. He moved to the bar and hailed Teedle. It was quiet for a second while the droid made a gesture with his hand, then the TDL model cocked it's head to the group. Then the droid moved to the group and stopped next to the human male, who had his back towards the entrance.
The droid leaned in to the male and said, in a quiet, but still easy to understand for the others: "Sir, your transport has arrived!"
The Zabrak smiled and moved the credits into his pocket. "I am sorry, my friends, it seems that my droid friend over here, says my ride has arrived!"
The Kubaz, still stunned by his defeat, looked to the human and shook his head. "Please stay, I want a rematch!"
The Zabrak smiled. "I don't think so. Besides, where would you get the money from, you just lost every single credit you have on you!" His face grew a bit darker and his smile disappeared. "Time to get to work!"
The Kubaz nodded and looked sad, as he reached in his pocket, to see if he didn't had any credits left. He seem to feel something in his jacket and looked down, trying to see what it was. It seemed to be just a simple lighter to fire up one of his death sticks. He mumbled then a bit unhandy: "Well maybe another time?"
As he looked up he stared into the front of a blaster, aimed at him. "No, we won't!" and with those words, darkness claimed Unkar the Kubaz, just as he realized his associates where already killed by the droid, painless and silent.
"You lied to them, Laz?" The droid said to the human male.
"What, wouldn't it be suspicious when I would have said that I was a hunting for them?"
The droids shook his head and responded: "So how much credits did we earn with these three senseless kills?"
Lazarus put the blaster away while he looked to the three dead bodies. "More then enough, I think we can go now to the sorcerer of Tund and buy you a brain and heart!" he smiled and turned to the droid.
"A joke that must make me feel good!" the droid replied. It wasn't a question.
"Well, I-Nine, that's what your microphone should pick up as a joke, but I know you are not that good in it!" Lazarus smiled at him.
The ladies room went open again and the female stepped out, looking at the 3 dead corpses, and wanted to scream, but before she could, she felt already on the floor, eyes wide open and unable to breath.
"Nice shot, I-Nine!" Lazarus complimented the droid as it checked it's extended arm part, from where the dart had ejected to the female.
"She is pretty though!" replied the droid, knowing the taste of Lazarus in the way of females.
"Just at the wrong time and place, I-Nine!" the Zabrak replied to his droid. "Maybe, in other circumstances we would have been together for a drink," he shrugged, "just as the T'wilek!" He looked a bit sad. "To bad our man didn't want any witnesses!" He looked to the droid.
The droid cocked it's head again :" Since when are you interested in the species from Ryll? I thought you went only for blondes with a human look"
"Yeah well, I try to expand my experience!" he grinned to the droid. Then he turned to the bar, where the TDL droid was. It hadn't moved since it talked to I-Nine. Lazarus frowned and the droid seemed the need to explain. "A simple malfunctioning. I overloaded it's circuits easily!"
Lazarus nodded, picked up his backpack he had placed next to the chair where he had played cards in and walked then, together with the droid, towards the exit of the cantina, leaving at bar a credit chip of 500, for the drinks he had paid and to clean up the interior.
"You know, master Laz, I never understand why you do that!"
"Do what?"
"Leaving credits for them to fix up the place!"
Lazarus smiled and stared to the front of him, opening the door and left the cantina behind him. "Irony!" he mumbled then. "It's what I do!"