Nar Shaddaa
"What do you mean, 'she's been captured'?" Atton asked testily.
"What do you think it means, blockhead?" Mira demanded. "We don't really have time for this. If we don't get your pretty girlfriend back, she'll either be killed or used as decoration, and I'll have been cheated out of my bounty."
Atton's mouth formed a tight line, but he didn't say anything against Mira's reasoning. If it helped them rescue Jess, he wouldn't complain. "Fine. How do we find her?"
"I assume she's on Goto's yacht." she said. "But that thing never stays in the same spot. There's no way to board it without invitation unless you're one of Vogga's freighters."
"What? Why does that matter?" he asked.
"I don't know, Vogga must have pissed him off. Anyway, Goto captures the slug's cargo ships and they don't come back, and don't reach their destination. No one knows how he's doing it, but he manages to get every one."
"Then we need to look like one of Vogga's ships." he concluded.
"Good luck." she snorted. "You'd need an ID signature for that. And the only place to get one is in Vogga's droid warehouse, so unless you've got a droid to sell, you're not getting anything."
Atton's eyes lit up a tiny bit. "Would that droid have to come back?"
"Well, yeah, if you're gonna get the ID signature. But after that, you can send it back in, I guess." she said uncertainly.
"Good enough, come on."
. . .
Goto's Yacht
"We are going to die!" Mira hissed as they hid from a couple droids.
"Quit whining." Atton panted, equally worn out. They both had numerous wounds from droid blasters and were at the breaking point. They wouldn't last much longer, and Atton knew that, but if pretending helped them to keep moving, he would do it.
"We don't even know where she is." Mira said.
"On the bridge, obviously." he said. "That's where I'd keep her." At a look from the bounty hunter, he added. "Well – if I was Goto – I mean – 'cause I wouldn't normally-"
"Just shut up." she said.
Atton peered around the corner, then leaned against the wall. "You know what, let's just skip this room." he said. "Just cut straight through to the bridge."
"If it gets us out of here faster, I won't complain." she said, pushing off from the wall and following him.
The tension they felt mounted with every room they entered, one of which had droids they had to shoot down. The fear of not knowing if and how many were beyond each door was almost terrifying.
Finally, they reached the bridge, after Mira had to disable about thirty mines to get through the hall. "Ready?" Atton asked, hand poised over the button. "There could be anything in the next room."
"Well, if we die, it's not like I can say, 'I change my mind'." she answered dryly. "Go on."
He hit the button, and the first thing they saw were the ten droids grouped about thirty feet away. So they started shoot, to get a head start. Two went down, but the rest kept coming and grouped around them. Mira was sure she was going to die, but she kept fighting anyway. There were too many, they'd never make it-
Suddenly, a huge electrical explosion occurred, taking out the rest of the droids left standing. She looked over at Atton, since he had obviously been the one to do it. "How did you do that?"
"I-I didn't even know I did." he answered.
"Well, doesn't matter. Come on, your princess is right up there." she said, hefting her gun and pointing at the doors behind the control panel. They ran to the one on the right, and Atton hesitated before opening it. What would he find behind the door? Would he see Jess in that dancer's outfit, forced to entertain Goto? Or would she be in a cage? Or maybe lying broken on the floor, this time beyond any hope of repair? Were they already too late? Screwing up his courage, he hit the button, not stopping to think about it.
Inside, Jess sat on the floor, arm resting on her bent knee. She looked at them and gave a small smile. "Took you long enough." she said, accepting Atton's proffered hand and standing. Then, she seemed to remember she was angry with him, and pulled her hand back as though scalded. "Come on. I have the codes to shut down the droids. We should be able to get through safely."
Mira raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't have turned them off before?"
"There's no terminal in here." Jess answered. "Anyway, we don't have time to argue. You guys look dead on your feet, so we should get back to the Ebon Hawk as soon as possible."
. . .
Ebon Hawk
"Hello, General." Bao Dur said when Jess wandered into the garage. "Glad to see you back in one piece. There was a scary moment when we thought you weren't coming back."
"I'm alright now, thanks." she said with a smile. "You know I always come back."
"That you do, General." he answered.
She left the garage and almost immediately encountered T3. "Oh, hey, buddy. I've been meaning to ask, how did you get that ID signature for the ship? I can't imagine they just gave it to you."
He emitted several beeping noises, and she looked taken aback. "What? They did? What did you say?" More beeps. "You just asked for it? You just strolled in and-" He cut her off, and she raised an eyebrow. "He sold you? I... I don't know how to take that." T3 beeped in an explanatory fashion, and she shrugged. "Well, if you're okay with it, I guess..."
He rolled away so he could get back to work, and she continued wandering the ship. She really wanted to find Atton, but she didn't know what to say. After a while, she'd found she couldn't really stay mad at him. Perhaps it was leftover from her Jedi training. Or maybe she just liked him too much. And he had come to her rescue, right? So maybe he liked her, too. But what about all that Jedi talk? She decided she would go to the cockpit, to ask him his motives for rescuing her.
"Hey, Atton?" she said, leaning against the door frame of the dark room.
"Yeah, beautiful?" he asked, not even turning to look at her.
"Uh... thanks for rescuing me."
"Don't mention it."
She waited a moment. "Er – don't you wanna talk about it?"
He looked back at her and shrugged. "What's to talk about? You were captured, we got you back, and here we are."
"Yeah, but you almost died trying to rescue me."
"Sure. I mean, who else was gonna lead us to save the galaxy? Sure as hell wouldn't have been me or Mira. And definitely not that old witch you've got in the back."
Jess couldn't help but snort, but his words still bothered her. "So... that was it? You had to get me back because no one else could lead the mission?"
"Well, not just that." he said, and she lifted her head a little. "The thought of being cheated out of a bounty had Mira mad as a Wookie. "
Her heart sank. "Oh... okay. I'll just... go see what GO-TO's up to, then. Hopefully he's not destroying the place."
"We need a cage or something for him." Atton agreed.
"Or I could just lock him in a room with my HK." she said. "I don't know if I told you, but T3 gave me the rest of the parts to rebuild him."
"Is that why I heard the word 'meatbag' being tossed around earlier." he mused.
She couldn't bring herself to smile. It was like he truly didn't care about her. For someone who couldn't help but care about the people around her, it was a new experience. "I'll just go check on them, then."
"Okay, see ya, Princess." he said.
She lingered for a moment longer, then turned to leave.
"Hey, Jess?"
"Yeah?"
He looked back at her. "Maybe later we can play a game of Pazaak."
"You know I'm terrible at that game."
"Republic Senate rules, then." he said. "Maybe I can teach you a thing or two."
She gave a small smile. "After dinner. I'll bring you some food, then we can play."
"I'll be waiting."
No, he didn't truly care. But it was fun to act like he did.
. . .
That thing with the droids exploding? It sounds hard to believe, but true story, man. I kid you not, I was playing as Mira, and all of a sudden, when I though I was about to die, they just randomly exploded. All of them. At the same time. I figured Atton somehow managed to do something right, but I couldn't really ask him about it, so it remains a mystery.
This will probably be the last chapter until I can start playing again, because this is where I stopped. I share the x-box with two siblings, so forgive me. The next chapter will probably involve the making of her new, temporary lightsaber.
