Chapter 2
3 months later. Outer rim
"There ya go, kiddo. Fresh bunch of supplies for your hairy friends, and hey! Don't touch it! It is supposed to get to the shipyards in the next forty hours!"
The large green Twi'lek tried to scold the young Jedi, but without much hope in his voice. He knew that, once she got her hands of whatever tech she considered useful for her colony, she would first take it, and then try to understand how it works, in case it ever needed fixed. Not that she was very good at it. Then again, who could blame her? His freighter was the only ship that came here, and even that was only thanks to the SSRP. The Sentient Species Relocation Program was a propaganda ploy for the Republic, securing low tech species' survival by spreading them across the galaxy. He even heard that another Talz group was on Hoth. Hoth of all places!
"Where should the compressor go, again?"
"Ow for the love of…" He saw his adopted daughter coming out of the ship's ramp and swallowed the curse. "Erri, can you open the manual first for once ?, Here let me show you, it goes like..." Sal looked at the damaged piece of metal that used to be a compressor intake port.
"It used to go here, look, Ya can't just force elements to fit using blunt force, Zabraki. Just put your pretty red head to it."
"Hey I'm trying! Not my fault that those things are as complicated as your excuses to your wife why you gained another pound, or a dozen! And i want one of those Decon units, this one was obviously damaged in transport "
"Look, I'm not gonna tell you how to talk to your fluffy friends there, but, don't teach me, how to scam the SSRP. As for my belly, you are lucky that it covers a soft spot for ya."
He pointed to a group of Talz standing in fearful, respectful distance from the space ship.
"It is a soft spot. Please, Sal, we really could use one of those on the Northern Fields, and besides, the faster QZie will be self sustained, the sooner you will have me out of your Lekku"
"I can't wait for that, kiddo, but to be frank, i love what you did with the place in such a short time. Your master has a reason to be proud, despite the amount of cargo losses i have to report to SSRP. I`m adding everything to you tab."
"Of course you are. I promise to pay you back as soon as my yearly Jedi bonus kicks in. Ya know that big crate of credits I don`t have."
"Daddy, Can i play with Erri, before we go? Last time she promised promised to show me how to ride a speeder. You did, Erri, right? You promised!" A young black haired girl, not older than ten prevented the friendly chat to escalate to something harsher. Credits do that to people.
"Of course Ny`ma. But only if you promise you will not reprogram any more droids. They are doing important work. And only if your dad says yes."
"But it danced so funny! Don't be like that! We will have fun!"
Erri rolled her eyes, and raised an eyebrow asking Sal, knowing from experience not try to argue with the young girl. After all for some reason she always had her way. Somehow.
"I'm a stupid old man, with a soft spot for girls who cause more trouble than they are worth. Sure. Go play you two. And it`s the last unit i'm giving to you!"
Zabraki gave the green Twi'lek a hug,hiding her face in his shoulder for a second, before taking the dark haired girl's hand.
"Seventeen. Sal, seventeen"
"What?!"
"That's the amount of "lasts" we are at now."
"Very funny, Horny. You are still paying for all of those! And it's coming from your babysitting pay!"
Erri got caught by surprise and looked at Sal with puzzled look at her face
"What pay?"
"Exactly" Said Sal with a triumphant grin
