A Day at the Races

or

Swooping is Bad

Consu grabbed Carth by the arm as soon as he and Zaalbar walked into the Hidden Beks hideout. "You will not believe what these demented nerf-brains want me to do."

"Right now, I don't care," Carth said as he shrugged her hand off his arm and pointed towards the showers. "I am going to have a shower, a decent meal, and then at least eight hours of sleep."

"But," Consu said as she trailed after him. "They want me to fly in that Swoop Race!"

"You? Why you?" Carth said as he stopped walking. "I'm a pilot! I'd love nothing better than testing that swoop accelerator out on a real track."

"I don't know!" Consu said. "The Beks are being completely unreasonable: 'Carth can't fly, they'll recognize him'. 'The Vulkars will never let a hotshot Republic pilot in the race.' 'Do you want the Vulkars to have two Republic officers in custody?'

"Crap, that does make sense," Carth said and then frowned. "I could try a disguise but they usually do a DNA scan on racers to avoid ringers. The Beks are right, I'd never get through security. Can't one of the Beks do it? If it's about money I can get the Republic to pay them a reward for Bastila's return once this blockade is broken."

She waved a hand in dismissal. "The Beks are all afraid of this prototype swoop thing. It could fizzle out and blow up on the track. I've got news for them, I don't wanna get blown up either."

A small crowd of Beks had gathered around Carth and Consu as she griped about the race. Eventually Gadon came over to join them. The crowd parted to let him through and he stood before Carth with an irritated look on his face. "Back from the Undercity, I smell."

Carth pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, it was fun. I did not need to come back to this. I thought when we found that prototype swoop engine accelerator for you that would be it. You Beks use it to win the race and Bastila gets rescued."

"I already went over this with her," Gadon said, pointing at Consu who gave a little shrug.

"Go over it again," Carth said. "I don't see the problem, that swoop accelerator was yours, you were going to use it to win the race, Brejik stole it for his Vulkars, we stole it back, and now you can use it in the race as planned."

Consu nudged him. "The Beks would rather see me go out in a big spectacular explosion than one of them."

"That pretty much sums it up," Gadon said with a nod. "It seems to me that if you people really want your officer back you'll take a chance on using the prototype accelerator. It's not a big risk."

"Excuse me," Carth said. "Isn't control of the Lower City hinging on who wins this race?"

"My people have a chance of winning on their own," Gadon said. "The swoop engine accelerator will guarantee a win for you. So, I'm betting you guys want to rescue Bastila more than we want to run the Lower City."

"Well, you lose that bet," Consu said. "We'll see who wins Bastila, and then rescue her from them."

"No we won't, that's far too risky," Carth said. "Look, Consu, I can make it an order if I have to."

"You can't order me to commit suicide."

"There's only a very small chance of it being suicide," Gadon said as he held up his hand with his thumb and forefinger millimetres apart. "Besides, think about it, you've been damn lucky the Sith haven't sniffed out your Bastila yet; I guess none of their intelligence types are into the Races. Do you want to wager all the Sith watching the Race Broadcast miss seeing her on display?"

She snapped her fingers. "I bet Mission would love to race!"

"No," Carth said at the same time as Gadon did.

"Zaalbar?"

Carth and Gadon looked at each other. Gadon shook his head. "I've seen Zaalbar ride, it's not pretty."

"Fine," she said and then turned and stomped away "I better have one hell of a recommendation put in my file for this one, boss!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Carth paced the floor, keeping one eye on the holoscreen the Beks were all crowded around, and another eye on the rowdy Beks. They were having a grand time; you'd never know the future of the Hidden Beks was riding on the outcome of the race. Not to mention the future of the galaxy, but Carth was the only one here who knew how important Bastila was. The snacks and drinks had been brought out over an hour before the Broadcast started and half of the Beks were blitzed already. He scowled when the announcers panned lovingly over the prizes on display. Was there really a reason to angle the camera on that part of Bastila? He took his mini-viewer and replayed the shot again, cursing when he zoomed in on the Bastila's neck.

"Problem?" Mission asked, standing on tip-toes and peeking at his viewer.

"Yeah, looks like they've put a neural disruptor on Bastila," Carth said.

"Why would they do that?" Mission said. "Does she have mental powers? Wait, is she a Jedi? She is, isn't she? Ooh, I'll bet she's the one the Sith have been tearing the planet apart looking for. Does Gadon know?"

Carth looked up a roomful of Beks, most of them were watching the Broadcast, but more than a few of them were watching him and Mission. "He does now."

"Everybody shut up, Jedi or not it doesn't matter anymore," Gadon said. "The first heat's starting."

"Yeah!" Mission said after Consu finished her first swoop run and pumped her fist in the air. "That's a winning time, that is."

A few minutes later there was a collective groan from the Beks as a Vulkar beat Consu's time.

"Well, that was a winning time," Mission said. "Dratted Vulkar, I'll bet he cheated, somehow."

Carth looked over at Mission. "Er, actually it's Consu who's cheating."

"He's cheating more!" Mission said. "She's just going to have to beat his furry ass on her next heat."

Just then Carth's comm pinged. "Hey, boss," Consu said.

Carth went off to the side to talk to her. Gadon followed him.

"I thought racers weren't allowed to use comms," Carth said.

"Yeah, well, we are once we're done racing."

"She's not done," Gadon said. "You gonna let the Vulkars win the race? This is your only chance to rescue your friend."

"Let one of your remaining riders take that deathtrap out," Consu said. "I've already signed out of the race."

"No, no, no, no," Carth moaned.

"Articulate as ever, boss. Look, that prototype is just not safe. I swear I could feel that thing just begging to give out through every stretch of the track. I was lucky enough to finish one run, I am not tempting fate again."

He held out the comm at arm length and stared at is as though he could will the last couple of minutes to have not happened. "Is is too late to put me in the race?"

"It's too late for all us," Gadon said. "Damn you Republics for screwing this up."

"Us?" Carth said. "Con's right, one of your boys could still take that bike out."

"Not after your girl's been whining about how dangerous it is."

His comm crackled. "Look boss, it's not over yet ..."

"You'll get back in the race?" Carth asked.

"Hmm, no. I wasn't kidding about the deathtrap thing. I think I can get close enough to your girlfriend to place a tracker on her. Be ready to move once this thing's over."

Carth winced when the comm went silent. "Like there's any chance the Vulkars won't sweep Bastila for bugs."

"You could get lucky, the Vulkars are downright stupid sometimes. I, on the other hand, am well and truly screwed unless one of my racers pulls off a miracle."

The Beks were talking among themselves. "Gadon!' one of the called out. "Did that Republic schutta really quit on us?"

Gadon's scowl was answer enough. As one the Beks turned to glare at Carth. He put up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I'm more upset than you guys."

One of the Beks threw an empty bottle at Carth. He ducked and it shattered against the wall behind him.

"None of that," Gadon said. "Beks are above petty acts of revenge. Besides, what were we thinking putting our trust in outsiders?"

"Hey!" Carth said. "It's not our fault your prototype was a piece of junk!"

Gadon sighed. "Now is not the time to throw blame around. Just be prepared for the Vulkars to win this one."

"Even that Bastila agrees with us. Check out the corner cam - see? She is looking royally pissed off."

"What?" Carth said. He elbowed his way through the crowed to get a better view of the screen. Consu was walking away from Bastila's cage, and Bastila did look angry. "She shouldn't even be aware of anything ... whoa. Tell me she didn't just out herself as a Jedi on a live broadcast."

Mission squealed from somewhere behind Carth. "She just blew the door off her cage with her mind! This is so cool. Zaalbar? Where are you Zaalbar? Get over here, you don't want to miss seeing how a Jedi fights."

"Oooh," a Bek said. "A knee right to the nuts. Jedi fight pretty much like any of us would."

"Where's Consu?" Carth asked as he stared at the screen and watched Bastila snatch a vibroblade from one of her capturers and brace herself to fight off half a dozen other Vulkars.

"She ran off with the rest of the herd," one of the Beks said. "Guess there's a reason the Republic's losing the war."

'We are not losing," Carth said.

"She didn't run off," Mission said. She put a hand on Carth's shoulder and pointed with the other. "See? She went across the tracks and up into the rafters. Must have brought her holdout blaster through security. It's hard to tell but I think that Vulkar on the left just went down to one of her shots."

"Damn, they've spotted her," Carth said as two of the Vulkars peeled off Bastila and headed towards Consu.

"Nice shooting!" Mission said as first one Vulkar than the other went down.

"Frak me, Brejik's got the Jedi on the defensive," a Bek said. "He must be hopped up on half a dozen stims."

"Or she's not much of a Jedi."

"Bastila's doing damn well for someone who's been a prisoner for over two weeks," Carth said. "They probably kept her half starved and drugged up the whole time."

"Not to mention that neural inhibitor," Mission added. "Ouch, bet that one hurt. Count one more Vulkar out of the fight."

"And there goes the last one except for Brejik."

Bastila stumbled and fell back as Brejik advanced on her. He raised his vibroblade and grinned. "Get up Jedi! Nail that Hutt-kisser to the floor!" the Beks yelled in encouragement.

"This isn't a sporting ring," Carth said and then turned away from the screen.

"Hah! Got him," Mission said as cheers erupted in the audience. "You can look now, Carth. Consu hit Brejik in the shoulder and that gave Bastila the opening to take out Brejik."

"Oh, good," Carth said.

"Turn up the sound, I want to hear what the Republics are saying."

"... rescued myself," Bastila's voice boomed out. "You were just going to leave me to rot!"

"Someone's not happy," Mission said.

"Oh look, it's Carth's other half," Consu said as she knelt by the bodies. "Duty, duty, duty, die for the Republic, pfft."

Carth covered his face with one hand. "She's looting the bodies. On a live broadcast."

A Bek shrugged. "Everyone does it."

"Leave the dead alone," Bastila said. "We have to ..." she stopped and looked directly at the camera and then waved a hand. The screen went blank.

"Alright, the show's over," Gadon said. He stood up and whistled to get everyone's attention. "Time to start Operation Scatter."

"Aaah, why worry? With Brejik dead the Vulkars won't have the nerve to come after us," a Bek said.

Gadon stared him down. "No, but the Sith will. You want to wait around for them to come asking questions about that Jedi? Speaking of which; it sure would have been nice if someone had mentioned Bastila was a Jedi."

"Let it go, Gadon," Zaerdra said as she came up beside Gadon. "We did stick them with that unstable swoop engine accelerator." She put her hands on her hips and bellowed. "Drinks down and brains on, people, it's time to move."

The Beks scrambled as they rushed around loading boxes on to a couple of lifters and leaving the hideout in groups of three or four.

"Wow," said Carth when he looked around an almost deserted building a scant twenty minutes later. "They can really move. Aren't you going with them Mission? Zaalbar?"

Mission looked up from the couch where she was munching on some left-over snacks. "Nah, Zaalbar's stuck with you and I'm staying with him. Besides, it's kind of fun hanging out with you guys."

"You should ..." Carth said. She should what? Go live with a hunted gang? Or try living on the streets alone? What if the Sith find us? What if the Sith find Mission alone, or the Exchange does, or some Vulkar out for blood. Fine, she stays here. "Alright, you can stay. But there will be rules, young lady."

Mission narrowed her eyes. "You're kidding."

"Feet off the table, kid."

She laughed. "Yeah, right."