Chapter 6
The library was pitifully small with only three shelves of holobooks, and very little other information storage devices. Ever since the Empire went through all libraries and destroying all information on anything the Empire didn't like, all of the libraries were now low on real, unbiased information. Even so, there was still plenty to learn at a library, one just had to keep an open mind and be aware that there's probably more to a subject then there is written down.
Courtney liked going to the library because it reminds her of a library she would go to often before the "first day". Why she would go there, or for what she could never remember, but she could remember the hundreds of shelves of holobooks, the many systems you could sit at and search things up at. There was always more to learn there. 'There's still stuff to learn here.' She reminded herself.
She went over to one of the few systems and sat down at it. On the screen was several search options: by categories, key words, etc. Courtney pressed on the 'categories' selection, causing it to divide into different options: food, species, planets, etc. She pressed on 'species'. It then divided into more options: search by… Species name, characteristics, eating habit, etc. She pressed 'search by characteristics'. A search bar opened up. Pressing the buttons on the holopad, she wrote out 'feline'. It pulled up several hundred species, most being nonsentient. Courtney fixed that by specifying sentient creatures only. Only about 20 species were left. Courtney looked at the overview of each species and found a species that sounded like what she was looking for. She got up and headed to the first shelf, looking for a holobook on the species. She found it and pulled it out. She put her hand on the top of it and it opened to read The History and Lifestyle of the Cathar". Ignoring the ancient history, knowing it was probably inaccurate, she read about this species, the Cathars. They were a feline species, one of the few with manes, and natives of their home planet, Cathar, shared a strange accent. 'One mystery down.' Courtney thought to herself. 'Now I know what species Trijalla is, but how do I know her?' she continued reading, studying, and thinking but couldn't find anything else of use.
She got up to leave, realizing she would be figuring anything else out, and because it was getting late. It was 5:14 and Charlie should be off work and headed home at this time, and if she didn't show up, or contact him soon, he'd be getting worried about her, and he was know to do stupid things to try to protect her. She went to activate her com unit…
〰〰〰14 minutes earlier〰〰〰
Charlie got done with his shift and the next person came to relieve him right on time. He went to the back entrance, left his apron, and went outside and back onto the street where he grabbed a taxi speeder. About five minutes into the ride home he noticed another taxi following his. Charlie possessed the acute sense of when he's actually in danger and when he's not. And he was in some sort of danger, though not life threatening, he sensed.
"Excuse me," he said to the driver who just looked at him through the mirror on the windshield. "Could I change destinations?"
"Sure." He said. "It might cost you more though."
"I can live with that." Charlie said pulling something out of his cargo pocket.
"Where to now?" The driver asked.
Charlie told the driver, and gave the directions to the new place as he pressed a button on the object he had pulled out of his pocket. Instantly it filled up with air to the shape of the top half of a generic, humanoid figure. Charlie leaned down, moved out of the way, then put the decoy back up where he just was, as he moved to the other seat and stayed down.
"So someone's after ya?" The driver asked nonchalantly.
"I believe there is," Charlie replied, calmly. "Not sure why, but I'd rather stay alive to find out rather than dying."
"Oh I could agree," the driver said still chill. "I'll still take you to your destination don't worry, you'll just have to pay me in cash that's all."
"Ok, understandable." Charlie said, while activating his hidden communicator. After about a minute, he got a reply: "Hello?" Courtney's voice came through the mini-speaker in his ear.
"Hey babe," Charlie said, using the keyword to signal a dangerous situation and to talk in code, "where are you at?
"The mall, doing some browsing" Courtney answered. 'She's not still at the mall. Browsing… searching, looking, finding, information gathering… maybe the library, or some cantina eavesdropping.' Charlie thought to himself, trying to decipher Courtney's message.
"That's cool. You're going over to your friend's house right?" Charlie replied, meaning for her to find somewhere to stay that's not their place.
"No, I'm going over to my parent's for dinner, and then I'll head home so I might be a little later than usual," was her response. 'Ok good, she got that.' Charlie thought relieved.
"That's alright. A friend of mine is coming over today anyways," Charlie said, meaning he was headed to a "friend's". "Are you going to see your friend before you head to your parent's?"
"Probably not," she said. 'She'll find someplace safe to stay, that's good,' Charlie said to himself.
"Well I have to go, stay safe."
"Will do," was her response before the line went dead. Several minutes later they got to the destination, a rundown neighborhood in one of the worst part of Coruscant. The other speeder was still following.
"Let me out here." Charlie said.
"Good luck," the driver said as he drove off. Charlie walked down to the end of the street, to a house made out of a cargo ship that could no longer fly. He walked up onto the porch to the front door, knocked, and waited. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the two Togrutas, from the diner earlier, sneaking behind him. 'So, they're the ones following me,' Charlie realized, 'I should've guessed.'
The door opened in front of him as a Mon Calamari step out. He looked down at Charlie studying him. When no recognition showed in his face Charlie spoke up.
"It's me, Charlie," Charlie said.
"Really?" the Mon Calamari said. "You look different. Are you sure you're Charlie?"
"Yes, I'm sure I'm Charlie. And I can prove it, Pete Franks." Charlie said, giving the name the Mon Calamari had used when he and Courtney had first met him a long time ago.
"Well you're either Charlie, or you're his lovely sister. And since you seem very much male, I'll assume you're Charlie. Come in my boy." Pete said stepping aside to reveal a purple female Twi'lek lowering a blaster rifle. Charlie didn't know the Twi'lek, but he knew the procedure: had Pete said things differently, Charlie would have a hole right between his eyes, or right through his heart.
"Charlie, this is Sierra, she's taking care of me in my old age." He said introducing the Twi'lek. "Sierra, this is Charlie, I've known him since he was a little boy."
"Nice to meet you." Sierra said with a slight hint of an accent Charlie couldn't quite place.
"And to you," Charlie replied, then whispering to Pete, "What should I call you?"
"You can call me by my name," Pete said, "or call me Pete, I'll respond to either."
"Thank you, Telkonar." Charlie said
"So what you here for?" Telkonar asked.
"I need to borrow your speeder," Charlie said, "and I need to use your passageways."
"What kind of trouble are you in this time?" Telkonar asked.
"I'm not sure." Charlie said honestly. "This pair of Togrutas is following me and knows who I am. What they want or why, I have no idea."
"Well, my good speeder is being worked on, so all I have to offer is my old one, which is… well, you know how it is." Telkonar said.
"It'll have to do; I've just got to get home with it, without being tracked." Charlie said.
"Well, you know what, you can have it. It's yours." Telkonar said. "I was about to junk it anyway, so if you don't crash it, you can keep it, and if you do crash it, it's still your." He said laughing at his joke.
"And the tunnels?" Charlie asked.
"You've memorized most of the passages, so feel free, just don't reveal them." He said. "You need a blaster?"
"I've got one at the diner, and one at the apartment, but not one on me." Charlie said.
"Sierra, go get one of the blasters for our guest please." Telkonar said, Sierra then went up some spiral stairs to a second floor. "Follow me I'll take you to the speeder." Telkonar said heading to the back.
They entered a cargo area that was reestablished as a garage. There were several tables with random tools and parts of all kinds strung everywhere, including on the floor. There was space enough for three normal sized speeders, maybe five or six of the small, fast speeders, but there was only one parked at the time. It was a Kishh'tih model airspeeder, bulky and block looking, but capable of carrying four people: one pilot and three passengers. It was a mismatch of several different color metals: ranging from a dulled grayish-silver color to a vibrant orange, though there wasn't any sign of rust, which was a good thing.
"Here she is," Telkonar said gesturing to it.
"Thank you Telkonar," Charlie said.
"Don't mention it," he said, "seriously though, don't mention it to anyone, I'm getting old and people might think I expect to die soon I so I'm giving all my stuff away." He finished playfully. But Charlie understood his meaning; he really was reaching his last days, being almost 90 years old. Sierra came down carrying a belt with two blaster pistols in two holsters on it, and a short barreled caliber, plus extra rounds for each, as well as her blaster rifle she had earlier, and a second, short-barreled rifle.
"Thank you Sierra," Telkonar said grabbing the short barreled rifle, Suerea then handed the belt and caliber to Charlie and kept her rifle.
"I'm guessing you're expecting my followers to be a problem?" Charlie asked not worried for the duo.
"Hopefully not, but it normally hurts not being prepared." Telkonar said.
"That's true," Charlie said getting in the speeder. "You sure this thing still works?" he asked skeptically, looking at the dust and decaying seats.
"Of course it does," Telkonar said getting the keys from a toolbox on one of the counters, "most of the time." He finished tossing the keys to Charlie who caught them, still with a skeptical look.
"Have you done any repairs since last time it broke?" Charlie asked
"Of course, repaired it myself," Telkonar replied proudly.
"Uh-huh… I feel so much better know you repaired it," Charlie said doubtfully, putting the keys in place and pressing the button to start it up. After trying twice and hearing a sound like durasteel in a blender, the speeder came to life. Charlie did a quick check on the repulsor and engine; the engine being a very new, ion model. "You weren't about to get rid of this speeder anytime so were you?" Charlie asked Telkonar.
"Nonsense, the thing never works. It's far too much work to reinstall a brand new engine, find the correct exhaust tubes for this model, and replace almost all of the repulsors. Only a madman would go through the trouble," he replied smiling.
"Lucky for me, you are a madman," Charlie said smiling back.
"Now get out and stop bring trouble to my door," Telkonar said, replacing his smile with a scowl.
"Of course," Charlie said still smiling. Telkonar pressed a button on one of the million different consoles, a few seconds later a section of the floor in front of the speeder fell down like a ramp.
"You know," Telkonar said catching Charlie's attention before he left, "I never did name that blasted thing, how 'bout you do the honors?"
Charlie looked down at his new speeder. "People don't normally name their speeders you know." Telkonar just shrugged. "Mischief" Charlie yelled back as the newly named Mischief sped forward down the ramp into the underground tunnels under Telkonar's house.
"Interesting choice, don't you think?" Telkonar asked turning toward Sierra.
She just shrugged and said: "I would've named it Trouble" heading back into the main living area, readying for a possible attack.
Hey guys and girls who have read this far. First, y'all must be weird to have read this far so congratulation, you're cool.
Anyway, once again thank you for reading this far, feel free to leave a review, follow, or favorite the story if you like, it's all appreciated, even if the review is to tell me that my writing sucks, I'll live, and it will add to my review count.
Another note: I have caught up to what I had written down before posting the prologue and school is still going on, and I'm still in school, and I'm trying to get a job, so all of that will equal less time to write. So expect chapters to be rather spaced out after this; between two to three weeks intervals, at the least one week intervals.
So yeah, sorry if this A/N is a bit weird or isn't how I usually do things; I got four hours of sleep last night, five hours the night before and maybe sixish the night before that, so I'm a little sleep deprived. (It was worth it though; was playing D&D last night til 6;30 a.m. Totally worth it)
That's all for today folks, bye!
-TheGreatNate