Chapter 8
As the Togrutan duo fell from the exit toward the ground, several hundred meters down, Viktor used a few choice words that he would not use under different circumstances but found them appropriate in this case. Via chose to just scream. As they fell, the male Togrutan's survival instincts kicked in, and, with little grace, managed to tip the nose of the speeder bike at a near forty-five degree angle up and apply full power to rear thrusters and lower ion repulsers, giving them just enough lift to avoid a deadly encounter with the ground. Instead, they just landed really hard. Really hard. The impact smashed the rear of the speeder in about half a meter, and caused Via to fall from the vehicle and land on her rear heavily. Viktor managed to remain on as the front end joined the rear in falling to the ground as the entire speeder slid for another few meters, the propulsion systems destroyed and no longer giving the machine lift. Viktor leaped off the speeder as a came to a stop and ran back to help his female companion to her feet.
They had crashed landed on a less populated walkway, but there were still several witnesses, several of which ran away screaming, others who ran forward to help and the rest just continued on ignoring the scene or stood still in shock.
"We should probably get out of here," Via said surveying the scene they had caused.
"You're right, let's go," he replied running off to avoid those who had moved to help them, Via following close behind. They ran for several minutes, just wanting to put distance between them and the sight of the accident, in case the Empire decided to set up a search party for the Togrutan duo that fled. When they stopped, they found themselves on a densely populated street, either on the ground, or only a few levels above, it becomes difficult to tell the closer to ground level one goes.
"Now… what?" Asked Via, gasping to catch her breath.
"Now we get something to eat and call it a day," Viktor answered still slightly winded. "Unless you can track him like you did last time."
"No, I'm not even going to try," the purple striped montral teen said sadly. "We're nowhere near where we last saw him, and besides, his ion signature would be mixed with others from other air-speeders anyway."
They walked into one of the several bars along the street; only catching a few glances, instead of suspicion silence like the last establishment they had visited. They sat an open end of the bar and ordered some food. The two togrutans ate in silence and a dreary mood.
They left after finishing their food, and hailed a speeder cab to take them to the Auburn Spaceport. Once they arrived and paid the driver they made their way to a docked YT-1250 freighter. The circular body with the cockpit and sensor boom centered to the starboard and port side respectively, and a single mandible protruding from the center of the ship. It looked similar to its successor, the YT-1300, only with one mandible as opposed to two, and a larger, side-mounted boom.
The two companions followed around to the starboard entrance and pressed a button of the control panel next to the closed ramp. After waiting a few seconds the ramp lowered to allow them passage. Once in, the ramp closed again behind them, as they made their way to the room just to the left of the entrance. The crew lounge. In one corner was a bench that looped around a dejarik board. In the opposite corner were a control panel and computer with a chair in front of it. Just to the left of the doorway stood a mini-kitchen area, with durasteel cabinets and counters, a stove and oven, an instant-heater, and a coolant storage unit. There was plenty space to move around in the room even with the three areas in the corners.
Viktor and Via went and sat in the booth around the game board and waited in silence. They remained like this for only a few seconds before another being entered the room. He was a human: tall and rather pale-skinned, but well-built with broad shoulders and beefy arm and legs. His face looked somewhat square, with a wide jaw and flat top haircut. His eyes were a dark brown, almost black, and his face had wrinkles that made it look like had was grimacing constantly. He stood around 6'6" tall and ducked when he entered the room, even though he didn't need to with the door ways in this ship being taller than most, but it had become a habit for him to duck when entering through a door.
"Well," his voice came out deep and soft like it always did. "I see y'all're back, and without company. I guess that lead was another dead end?"
"Actually it wasn't," Via exclaimed barely holding in her excitement to be able to tell him of their exciting adventure they went through that day. "We saw him, and we chased him a little too, but he got away in the end," she finished, her voice taking on a little of a depressed tone near the end.
"Is that so?" the older man asked. "You know that means it'll be harder to catch him next time: now that he knows what y'all look like, and that y'all are after him. He might even head off planet."
"Actually, I don't think he will, captain," Viktor spoke up, causing the other two in the room to turn their attention to him. "I don't think he remembers everything."
"Really? How are you so sure?" the "captain" asked the male togrutan.
"He doesn't act like he would if he did. He's unorganized. He didn't have a real plan set up in case something like this happened, he was just making stuff up as he went, at least he would have to have been, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as close to catching as we did." He explained to the other two in his calm voice.
"That is true," Via agreed after thinking about it for a second. "But maybe it's because of the new body of his. I still act differently than I sometime would before… you know… that happened, and I don't think I'll ever be the same as I was back then, maybe he's been effected more than I was."
"I don't think so Via," Viktor said having already thought of that possibility. "Having safety plans is one of his core principals, I don't believe even a new body would be able to remove, or even hinder something like that."
"Hmm, I guess you're right, he probably doesn't remember anything," Via agreed with her fellow togrutan.
"So," the deep voice of their third companion sounded, bringing their attention to his question. "What do you plan to do now?"
"I don't know. We don't know where he lives, or where Courtney is. Charlie's seen us which means we can't go back to where he works. You might have to visit Gunda's Glory and see if Charlie's still on planet, we don't want him leaving and having a major head start. We could check out Courtney's work place, but no guarantee we'll find anything."
"Speaking of Courtney, I've got a tip on her," the captain said, peaking Viktor's interest. "Apparently, she was seen joining an ex rich kid I use to know at his place."
"That's good, we can use that" Viktor said thinking. "Ok, I have a plan…"
A/N. Hello my good people, I have good news and I have bad news. Which would y'all like to hear first? The bad news? Ok.
I am, after this chapter, going to go back and edit and fix and rewrite all of the previous chapters. What do I mean by this? Well during these last several weeks of me not updating I have had time to really think this story through and make BIG plans for where it should go and I have decided that, from how the previous chapters are, a few things need changing in order to set it on the path to the great story I want it to be. So I will be working on fixing that. I have just graduated *small break* YAYYYYYYYYYYY YAAAAAYYYYYYY! HALELUIAH I'M OUT! *small break over*, so I should have more time to work on this. So that's the bad news. No "new" chapters for a little bit. I'm just going to change a few things, like a character's new, and some other stuff. :P
So, on to the good news. Ahem. I'M NOT DEAD! Sorry it took forever for me to update but graduation has been a mountain looming over me for several weeks now and I have not been able to find time nor motivation to write til now so sorry to keep y'all waiting.
That aside. I now have a job at the glorious story where everything is $1.07 so that will take away some time for my writing, but I'm out of school so I should be fine.
Thank you all for reading, hope you will join me again for the edits of previous chapters and chapters to continue, when they get here. Please follow, favorite, and review. I even accept flames!
Disclaimer: *monotone voice* I do not own Star Wars nor am I making any money off of this. I only own my OCs and any adventures they get to experience in the universe of Star Wars. Plz don't sue me *monotone voice ends*.
Good bye now!
-TheGreatNate
(P.S. This chapter is short because there should be more to it, but in order for it to make sense you all would have to read the edited versions of the previous chapters.)
(P.P.S. Y'all are gonna want to read the edited chapters because I completely change one character's name.)
