TAEG'S PAZAAK DEN, USCRU ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT

CORUSCANT, CORE WORLDS

A hand thumped on her back as she stepped into the musty, buzzing atmosphere of the pazaak den. She grinned, and the huge Wookiee bouncer barked at her in an excited manner. The silver plated droid beside him twisted toward her and announced in an electronic, but personable, voice, "Good evening yet again, Kaekoletai! Graalbacc and I are most delighted to see you again."

She laughed and patted the droid's cool metal arm. "Me too. It's been too long. Got any decent tables going?" she asked, moving to the side to let a few other curious patrons into the room.

The Wookiee watched the newcomers warily, sparkling brown eyes narrowed, then growled something with a little nudge to Kae's arm. She glanced over her shoulder as the droid said, "Graalbacc says that there are a few tables worth investigating, though the most exciting and profitable seems to be table eighteen. Taeg himself has been around to investigate it often, making sure nobody has trick cards in their sleeves. Graalbacc," it added as the Wookiee purred again, "recommends playing the other tables first before deciding to try table eighteen. The Human man playing has not lost a game in two hours."

Kae scowled in the direction of table eighteen. "Oh, he's got to be cheating. Nobody wins for that long."

"Guard your purse, Kaekoletai. Taeg has yet to catch him cheating."

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks. Has Lees'anah showed up yet?"

The droid ceased all movement for a long moment as it scanned its memory banks. Something processed with a whir, and it said, "Yes, he arrived about fifteen minutes ago and went straight for the bar."

"Thanks, boys. See you later." She waved to the Wookiee and his droid counterpart, and wound past the excitedly chattering newcomers to reach the bar arching over the far corner of the club. Old metal stools followed the smooth arc of the old, pitted bar, and one was inhabited by a startlingly crimson Lethan Twi'lek. He was hunched over the bar, making idle conversation with the Rodian bartender and owner, Taeg. Kae crept up behind him and pressed her finger into his back. He instantly froze, and Taeg made a gruff noise.

"Don't move or I'll shoot," she joked, and the Twi'lek laughed and spun around on the stool. "Hey, Lee."

"You made it. Didn't think you'd ever get here," he said in slightly accented Basic. She made herself comfortable on the stool beside him and quickly ordered Tarisian ale from Taeg. "Long day?"

"About as long as usual," she replied with a shrug as the ale was set on the counter in front of her. "I got a new job. I'll tell you about it later, though. How were things for you?"

Lee shifted in his seat and gave her a stare that included the raising of the fleshy mound above his eye that served as the Twi'lek eyebrow. "What do you think? Driving people around Galactic City is a shitty job on the best of days, and everyone seemed to be in a special hurry today. It doesn't help that I had a tonne of tourists from the Outer Rim show up and babble on forever about how amazing and wonderful it was to see a rare Lethan Twi'lek," he spat, shaking his head so his lekku twitched. "Hey, guys, I have a genetic mutation that makes my skin red. Get over it."

Kae chuckled. Lee never missed a chance to whine about his job—an air-taxi driver—and that whining was usually accompanied by people who were in awe of his skin tone. "Shit happens sometimes, Lee. Have you hit any tables yet?"

"Nope. Start a fun game?" Even as he spoke, he tugged his deck of pazaak cards from his pocket, and waved them enticingly in front of her.

"Senate rules," Kae agreed, and they stood from the stools and found an empty table tucked into the opposite corner of the smoky room. "At least until someone else comes along. I'm not about to give you any money." She settled into the hard durasteel chair opposite Lee as he began shuffling his cards.

"Drink up," he muttered absently.

"Why?"

"Nar Shaddaa rules, babe," he said, glancing up at her with a smirk.

Kae snorted and pulled out her own deck from the old canvas bag slung over her shoulder. "Senate rules, Lee. No way you're getting me to do that again. Once was more than enough."

Lee laughed and winked one dark green eye at her. "You know what you need, Kae?" he asked, starting the game by flipping his first card.

She arched one eyebrow in an answer and flipped her own card.

"You need a man to get you laid," he said, and sipped at his juri juice. "When was the last time?"

Feeling a hot flush brighten her ghastly pale cheeks, she glowered at the cards on the table and mumbled, "None of your damn business, Lee."

She could feel his keen eyes on her as she forcefully stared at her hand. Finally, she heard the chair shift as he settled back, and the click of a lighter. Looking up, she found Lee hunched over a wooden pipe, the contents glowing and crackling and giving off a faintly purple smoke that only added to the clouded air of the club.

"Spice, Lee? Really? I thought you were done with it."

"It's legal, babe. Just gree. Are we going to play or what?"

Kae sighed and finished up her turn, allowing him to play—and win, hitting twenty right off the bat. Lee grunted victoriously and pulled his cards off the table to shuffle and begin the second round. "You know," he began through a mouthful of pipe and gree, "I'm guessing by the colour on your dead face that the last time was Nar Shaddaa rules back at the house."

Kae's mouth screwed into a grimace and she rubbed her face. "Shut up, Lee. It's embarrassing enough living with you and knowing what happened without you bringing it up every day. I was drunk, you abused my addiction, and there you go. Get over it."

"So I'm right?"

"Yeah."

His jaw dropped and the pipe nearly tumbled from his lips. "Really? No way. Kae Luka, we gotta fix that. You're hot, for a dead chick—"

"Not dead," she mumbled.

"—and you can totally get laid. I'm sure you could find some dashing pazaak player tonight to bring home. I could help."

"No thanks. In case you haven't noticed, all the men who come here are filthy scoundrels."

Lee gave her puppy dog eyes that had a ninety-eight percent chance of making her melt and give into his every whim. "Babe, don't hurt my feelings. You and me come here almost every day. Just because you're a cop doesn't mean you have to be all high and mighty. Break off this whole 'huzzah monogamy' thing and just jump somebody for the sake of jumping somebody." His eyes glittered in the dim, smoky light of the den, and the tips of his lekku quivered almost excitedly. Kae recognized the signs of gree kicking in. His high was starting.

"Next round?" she said, hoping to change the subject.

Lee shook his head. "Gotta piss. I'll be back in a couple minutes. We can start up again after." He took a final puff from his pipe, handed it off to her, and wandered across the room to find the bathrooms.

Kae sighed and gave the pipe a narrow glare. Despite gree being one of the few legal spices, she still didn't like it. And now that she was supposed to hunt down some rogue smuggling ring in the Uscru District, she really didn't approve of her friend's use of the drug. But what could she do? Lee had been using gree much longer than the two had known each other—and that was coming on eight years now.

She stood, pushing back her chair with a slight squeak, and pushed through the growing crowd to reach the bar. "Another one, Taeg," she said, setting her empty glass on the countertop.

The old Rodian nodded and refilled her ale. "Glad to see you back, Luka," he said with an odd inflection. "Things are always a little nicer when you're here to keep 'em in order. All the regulars know you're a cop."

Kae leaned her elbows on the edge of the bar, still loosely clutching Lee's pipe in one hand. She opened her mouth, ready to ask if he had any problems with spice in his den—she hadn't got a chance to read the datapad yet, and didn't know which Uscru businesses were having the trouble—but remembered at the last second that Taeg really didn't care if people used or dealt spice on his property, so long as they did it with discretion. To her chagrin, she had to arrest a few of the regulars on several occasions due to illegal spice use.

"So Graalbacc and S0-B3-GE3 told me that somebody's been winning straight all night," she mentioned conversationally.

"Oh, sure. Newcomer. Says he's from Corellia. He told me his name, but I don't remember it. Thought of you as soon as he came in and Graalbacc pointed him out," Taeg said, filling a mug and handing it over to the server droid beside him. "If you're up for a challenge, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to play with you. Apparently S0 told him all about you when he showed up earlier. Damn droid needs a spring cleaning already."

Kae chuckled and sipped at her ale. "Why in the hell would S0 mention me?"

"You're an oddity, Luka. We don't get many Nagai around here. At all. Not to mention one who's also a detective for the CSF and a good pazaak player. He's also interested in Lee," Taeg added, scratching behind one antenna. "You two are the strangest pair on Coruscant."

"Doubtful. Maybe I'll check him out, see if he's worth my time."

"And money. He isn't going to play you senate, that's for sure."

Just as she pulled back from the counter, pulling out a few credits and sliding them over to Taeg, the Rodian added, "Oh, he's got a droid with him too, Luka. Don't piss it off, got it?"

She blinked, startled, and glanced over at table eighteen. A large crowd was surrounding it; she couldn't even see the players. "Why?"

"Hunter-Killer model, straight off the factory line on Telos, from what I'm hearing," Taeg said with a sage nod. "Never seen one like it before. I don't recommend doing anything to get either of them angry."

Kae sent him a smile, more to comfort herself than him. "I'm a cop, Taeg, and I know that you and Graalbacc have my back. I'm sure I'll be all right." With that, she moved away from the bar and wandered curiously over to table eighteen. A few in the crowd moved to let her through, but most didn't want to lose their spots to see the action, waiting their turn to play the Corellian stranger. Murmuring slight apologies for accidentally elbowing the random array of aliens, Kae finally reached the edge of the throng and spotted the pazaak table.

Two men were seated across from each other at the table, cards set neatly in front of them. One was a regular, a Gran she recognized from her visits but whose name she could never remember, and the other was the stranger from Corellia. He was thin, with light peachy skin and freckles spattered over his nose. His hair jutted up messily and was a beautiful dark auburn that caught lighter bronze and deep brown in the dim light of the den. His eyes, though lowered on his cards, were sparkling blue, and a thin smirk pulled at his lips. He was dressed simply, but she could see a holster and blaster pistol strapped to his hip. But her eyes froze and her breath hitched in her throat when she saw the stark black tattoo on the side of his neck, just below and behind his left ear. A long, cracked skull with jagged teeth and two huge tusks; the stranger may have been from Corellia, but he was a Mandalorian.

Standing behind him, head pivoting and sunset orange photoreceptors glowing, was a tall grey droid, one of the infamous Hunter-Killer series manufactured by G0-T0 on Telos IV.

Kae shuddered at the sight of it, then returned her sights on the pazaak table.

The stranger was leaning back in his chair, totally at ease with the world as he finished up his turn. He had nineteen; one more point, and he would win. "I'll stand," he said, with a soft Corellian accent.

Kae nudged the man beside her and whispered, "Round?"

"Three," he replied, just as quietly. "He won the last two."

The Gran was practically sweating bullets as he set all three eyes on his hand. He was at eighteen. Kae shook her head; another move, and he could either take the game or lose it. And judging by the pile of credits between them, he was going to lose a lot. His side of the bet was empty, but the Corellian had amassed a huge pile from his games, sitting tauntingly just in front of the Hunter-Killer droid.

Finally, after a tense few minutes, the Gran flipped his final card and the bated breath of the crowd release in a collective sigh. It was a three.

The Corellian laughed and pulled the credits over to his side as the Gran dejectedly pulled his deck together. "Good luck next time, man," he said with a wink as he began neatly stacking the credits. "Anybody else want to have a shot?"

A few people glanced to their buddies, but nobody stepped forward right away. The man surveyed the crowd, tapping his fingers on the table, until his warm gaze fell on Kae.

Her heart stopped.

"You must be the Nagai that's so known around here," he remarked, his face lighting into a grin. "I've heard you're a legend. Want to play?"

Against all better judgement, Kae moved stiffly forward and took the newly vacated seat. "Kaekoletai Luka," she said, setting Lee's pipe and her glass on the edge of the table. "Resident Nagai."

"Lan Renner, resident nobody," he said with a smile, and held out his hand. Kae gave it a narrow glance before setting her skinny, bony hand in his firm grip. "Twenty credit ante, added blinds per round, winner takes all?"

"Sure." Kae pulled out her deck and quickly shuffled it as he did the same. Once the cards were dealt, they both pushed twenty credits into the centre of the table.

"You go," he offered.

As Kae drew her hand and flipped her first card from the table deck, the Corellian absently mentioned, "Bit of a spice connoisseur, are you?" Kae glanced up at him, startled, and saw that he was gesturing to the pipe beside her.

"Oh. That's my friend's. I'm only holding it for him," she said, and looked down at the table. Her first number was a four. Useless for now and there was no point wasting valuable hand cards so early in the game. "End."

Renner laughed and pulled his first card from the table deck. A nine. "End. Sure, sure. Everyone says that they're just holding it for a friend. What is it?"

"Gree." She began her next turn: her total became ten with a six added to the table. Halfway there. "End."

Another flip. His total became thirteen. He played a minus two card from his hand. Eleven.

"End. So what do you go by?"

"Kae. Nobody can pronounce Kaekoletai." She turned an eight from the table hand, and took a moment to stare at her hand. Three cards in; she could easy stand and if she lost, no matter; they still had two more rounds to go. But if she kept playing, it was a definite loss. "Stand."

He grunted softly and flipped over a six, and his total became seventeen. "Know a lot of other Nagai with crazy names?"

"Sure. My parents and my brother all have long names."

"On Nagi?"

"I was born on Coruscant," she corrected blandly, watching with tense stillness as he finished his turn with another card from the table. Evidently he didn't have a two or a three card in his hand to make a tie or win the game, and was forced to go with luck of the draw.

"Oh, fucking hell," he said solidly as he turned his last card. A ten. A bloody unlucky ten, making his total twenty-seven and a painful loss.

Applause and cheers rose up from the crowd, and Kae grinned, pulling her cards together as Renner shook his head. "First loss since you got here?" she asked, shuffling her hand into the table deck.

"Incredibly, yeah. Lucky work there, girl. Two more rounds, though. I can still scrape up a win. Blind bet, winner takes half." He added twenty more credits to the pot, and Kae put in ten. "So what's your brother's name, then? I think I might've met another Nagai a few days ago, just by the looks of things."

Kae began the second round with an eight. "End. His name's Krantenoktor. Everyone calls him Tory for short."

"Hm. Could've been him. Always thought Nagai were legends, actually." He turned a six. "End. I'd never met one before until this week. How'd you guys all end up here from Nagi?"

"Long history, don't want to explain it," she said, and flipped over a two. "End."

"All right, all right, that's fair." He drew a one, then played a plus six card from his hand, making his total thirteen. "End."

They remained silent for the duration of the round. To the disappointment of the crowd, Renner hit twenty while Kae was still trying to climb up from a pitiful fifteen, and they added their final blinds to the pot. At one hundred credits, it was a sizable bet to win. As the hands were dealt, Kae tried to keep the anxiety from showing on her face. She wanted to beat this Corellian or Mandalorian stranger, to show him that not everybody at Taeg's was a poor pazaak player.

He started the final round with a three, and as he contemplated his hand, Kae asked, "Mandalorian?"

"Hm? Oh. Yeah, I am."

"You know tensions are a little thick still."

"Sure. But I didn't fight in the Mandalorian Wars. I didn't try to take over the galaxy. They're my people, and I'm proud of it. It's not like I'm trying to topple the Republic just by staying on Coruscant for a while." Renner shrugged and brushed a hand through his scruffy ginger hair. "End. My father and most of my family fought though. Bit of an awkward thing there, seeing as it's barely been seven years since it ended."

Kae's first card was a ten. "End."

Renner flipped a six. "Nine. What a showstopper. End."

Kae quickly tossed her next table card beside her first, and she paused as the crowd began shrieking with delight. "Ten?" she said breathlessly.

Renner laughed and shook his head. "What a fluke. Good game, Luka. Only person who's managed to beat me all night. You really earned these credits." He tucked his cards away and gestured to the pile of credits on his side of the table. "Count them up, HK, would you?"

Kae jerked, surprised, but realized he had to be addressing the droid that stood so menacingly beside him. The thing's head swivelled toward him, orange photoreceptors alight, and said in a mechanical voice, identifiably male and rather emotional compared to most droids, "Query: Were you not counting when you received the credits, Master?"

"Sure, but you know how I am." Renner stood and stretched, his joints cracking, as the droid grudgingly began shifting through the meticulously stacked credits. "Hey, as a reward, you'll get an oil bath at the hotel."

Kae watched with a curious frown as the droid separated the stacks an equal distance apart and its photoreceptors flickered spasmodically. "Satisfied comment: That would be most agreeable, Master. Summary: You have two thousand three hundred twenty-four Republic credits, as you surmised."

"Great." Renner dragged the heap into a sack he picked up from the floor, and handed it to the droid, which took it without question. "To the bar." He trudged away, with the droid following at his heels.

Kae remained beside pazaak table eighteen until the crowd dispersed and someone elbowed her in the back.

"Sick handiwork, babe," Lee's familiar Twi'lek voice spoke up from behind her. She turned and he snatched his burnt-out gree pipe from her hand. "How much?"

"A hundred creds. Were you in the bathroom the whole time?" she asked, quickly finishing off her ale and setting the empty glass on the bar.

"No way. I saw the whole game. You were the first one to beat him all night. Way to solidify your place in Taeg's Pazaak Den history. Play me?"

"Nah. Want to just go home?" she asked hopefully as she tucked away the new credits. "I'm exhausted from patrolling all day, and I could use a real stiff drink, not Taeg's watered-down Tarisian ale."

Lee grinned, showing off pearly white teeth behind his crimson lips. "Ooh, drinking at home with Kae-Kae? Best night ever. Let's go."

As she followed him toward the entrance of the den, she asked, "Are you able to drive, or do you want me to?"

"I'll be fine. Not intoxicated at all, babe. See you later, boys," he said, giving S0 and Graalbacc a mockingly elegant bow as he strolled past them. "Until sometime next week, I imagine."

Graalbacc made a happy woofing sound, and S0 said, "Farewell, Lees'anah, Kaekoletai."

"Bye, boys." Kae waved to them as she followed Lee through the short tunnel entrance and they arrived into the cool, bustling atmosphere of Coruscant at night. Kae inhaled deeply, taking a moment to enjoy the acrid mixture of pollutions from the factories in the industrial districts and the vehicles, and the reek of spice and other drugs that littered the true ground of Coruscant in the Uscru Entertainment District. It was the only time she ever set foot on the surface of the planet; only to visit her favourite haunt and on the rare surface patrol for the CSF.

Her soft-soled boots crunched over the broken glass and filth on the ground as she trotted faithfully behind Lee to where he parked his speeder. It was a dusty old thing, rent with rust and dents from his high-speed adventures with equally brainless buddies—one of whom was Kae's twin brother, Tory—but it managed to get him from Point A to Point B, which, as he said, was really the only quality he looked for in a vehicle that wasn't for work.

Kae climbed into the passenger side of the scarlet speeder and buckled in as Lee got it started. They lifted from the ground with the uncomfortable, rocking motion that came with hovercrafts, but Lee expertly swung it around and smoothed it out, and they sped off toward their apartment.