Chapter 3

As the shuttle came in for landing at the space port, Renos had already made his preparations to leave his former cover behind. The shuttle landed, and Renos put his mechanical hand on the pirate's shoulder.

"Well, this is goodbye. I can't say it's been fun knowing you guys, but today's your lucky day. Come with me."

Renos roughly pulled the pirate out of the pilot's seat and led him outside. Once there, he pushed a button on a detonator he had rigged up on the journey, and the shuttle exploded. The pirate jumped at the noise and turned to see the wreckage of the shuttle.

"Wha- why would you do that?" the pirate exclaimed, incredulous

"You must understand, I can't let you tell your friends about me. So, because this is your lucky day, you get to quit being a pirate and live a normal life. Talk to one of the shipwrights, there should be a job hauling cargo on one of the freighters. If you breathe a word about me to anyone, I will come back for you, and this time, I won't be so polite as to lead you off the ship before I push the button. Understood?"

The pirate scowled at Renos, "Understood, you jackal."

Renos' face was an impassive mask, "Good. Now get going. We both have places we'd rather be than here, it might look suspicious wouldn't you say?"

Renos let the pirate go and disappeared into the crowd that had gathered to stare at the wreckage. The pirate tried to follow his movements, but Renos was long gone.

"Hi, I saw the sign outside. You're looking for employees? I'm your man." Renos stood inside a small tech trader and repair store on Rishi. He hadn't been able to make it back to Coruscant because of the war; this was as close as he could get to the core systems. Although Rishi was known for being a haven for otherwise illegal activity, it was a good hiding spot for someone not wanting to be found.

The store owner, a large lasat sat behind the counter with his feet propped up. He straightened and looked Renos up and down. He noted his dextrous fingers and athletic physique, as well as the prosthetic left hand.

"Got yourself into some trouble eh?" the lasat gestured to Renos' hand

"Yeah, sort of. An industrial accident. They wouldn't pay me for the damages, so I quit, but now I need a job."

The lasat laughed, "So you act before you think eh?" the lasat brushed his striped fur and set his eyes at Renos'. Renos didn't flinch or look away. After a few uncomfortable seconds, the lasat leaned back in his chair and made a grunting noise.

"Why not. I could use an extra pair of hands, be they flesh or metal. I'm Kellon Oressos. Call me Kel." Kel held out a hand. Renos took it and shook it. As he drew near, the lasat's odour was made prominent. Renos fought the urge to gag; he had smelled worse things, but this was still unpleasant.

"So who are you?"

Renos briefly considered making a new identity, but it was easier to just use the current one.

"Jarren Lob. Pleased to be working with you Kel."

"Hah! We'll see about that. I got some crates out back that I need you to bring in. bring 'em in round front and put 'em in the storage room for me would you? I would help but my back's not what it used to be." The lasat stretched and put his feet back on the counter. "This was almost too easy." Renos thought to himself. He nodded to Kel and walked briskly out to the rear of the store. There, he found a pile of crates stacked high, containing a wide variety of parts.

"I spoke too soon. Still, beats a pirate cell I guess."

He checked to make sure no one else was around, then carefully raised his hands and reached out towards the topmost crates. Using his Force-powered telekinesis, he brought them down one by one. The crates were old and didn't have built-in repulsorlifts, so he had to manually lug them back and forth in and out of the store. The whole process took an hour to complete, and when he was done, he walked over to the counter to talk to Kel.

"Finished. All the crates are in the storeroom. Nothing broken."

"Good! You work quickly, but still take enough time to get the job done well. I like that. Come, you can help me take inventory, never know when those damned traders will short-change you."

Kel got up and headed over to the storage room, picking up a data pad on his way. Renos followed him and noticed a T3 model droid by a charging port.

"Is that droid yours?" asked Renos

"Nah, belongs to a customer, says the power cell's not charging properly. I've changed it, checked the connections, I can't figure out what's wrong with the damned thing. Karabast! She's due tomorrow to pick it up! I still haven't figured out what wrong with it!."

Renos turned and looked at Kel sideways with a smile, "Karabast?"

Kel scowled at his own forgetfulness, "It's an old lasat term. Don't think too much of it."

"No, I like it. Fits the mouth nicely."

Kel's scowl lifted a little

"Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night."

The two entered the storage room and began to take inventory. After they were finished, it was nearly dark. Kel offered Renos a place to stay in the upper floor of the store, and Renos accepted, for the price of extra hours to pay rent.

Renos was about to head off to sleep, since Kel had already done so, but heard a quiet electronic beeping sound from downstairs. He wandered down and saw that the T3 droid had finished its charging cycle and had begun to wander around. A restraining bolt was affixed to its front.

"Hey there little guy," Renos cooed to the droid, which turned at noticing him. It made an inquisitive series of beeps and whistles

"I hear your power cell's giving you trouble, mind if I have a look?"

The droid seemed hesitant for a second, but made an affirmative noise. Renos walked over and opened the droid's rear access panel.

"What's your malfunction…"

He peaked around inside. Kel had already replaced the power cell with a fresh one, so that should have eliminated the problem, but if it was still there… Renos put his hand on the droids and closed his eyes. Focusing his thoughts and channelling his mechu-deru ability, he felt for that cause of the problem. He had worked on droids before, with and without mechu-deru, so he already had the innate understanding it granted the user. After a few seconds of scanning the droid in its entirety, Renos found the source of the problem: a cable had been improperly spliced and was leaching power away from the power cell at a much higher rate than normal. Renos smiled and retrieved a fusion cutter and proceeded to repair the droid. In a few minutes, the job was done and Renos sent the droid back to the charging port.

"You shut down for the night; that should have fixed it, so you should be fine by tomorrow morning.