Author's Note:

So I realized as I was going back and watching SWTOR vidjas on Youtube to refresh my memory that Risha is actually younger than my smuggler. I hadn't had my relationship with her developed far enough to have unlocked that conversation in my game yet, so I was going with my own headcanon and thinking she was slightly older than Ray. Turns out she's 21, whereas Raya is 26 in this story. Changing it to canon doesn't really affect anything in my story, and I really hate straying from canon when I don't have to, so I'll be going back to earlier chapters and editing them to make Risha's age accurate. Nothing else will change, however.

As always, I thank you endlessly for your continued support for this story, and for all of you writers, go check out ZenWriter. Seriously. It's a godsend. I've been spitting out chapters like nobody's business since I downloaded it, and the best part is: it's free.

Download it here: www . beenokle . com [slash] zenwriter . html

Or, you could just do a Google search for it. It's the very first result.

Enjoy!

- BB

Questionable Cargo
Chapter Eleven: In Which a Bad Situation Gets Even Worse

It was quiet. Unnervingly so. As the Dace Legacy pulled out of hyperspace, Raya couldn't help feeling cold at the lack of stars, the unending void that was The Long Shadow, even though she knew the sensation was all in her head. She stood, allowing Corso to take the controls as the ship approached the derelict vessel at the coordinates given to her by Nok Drayen. She rubbed her arms to ward off the chill that spread over them, and her brow creased at the feeling of dread that settled like a dead weight in her stomach. Taking a breath and letting it out slowly, she put a hand on Corso's shoulder and felt him cover it with his own, sensing her unease and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Corso pulled the ship into dock, while Raya called Bowdaar and C2-N2 onto the bridge.

"Stay alert, you two." She said, looking between the droid and the wookiee, her arms crossed over her chest, "We're sitting outside of a black hole, and I'm not sure what's gonna happen in there, so we might have to leave in a hurry. Risha's not here right now, so I'll need you guys to keep the hyperdrive prepped and the ship ready for action."

Bowdaar nodded silently while C2 erupted into a chorus of, "Yes Master. Right away, Master. It shall be done, Master..." as she walked away with a roll of her eyes.

They left the ship and boarded the larger vessel and she took a bolstering breath, stopping in front of the docking bay doors when the floor suddenly rumbled beneath them, shaking the duo on their feet as they struggled to find balance. They stared at each other for a moment once the shaking subsided, and she threw one last look back at her beloved ship before a computerized voice spoke over the vessel's loudspeaker, "WARNING: HULL INTEGRITY FAILING. THIS VESSEL IS ENTERING THE SINGULARITY'S EVENT HORIZON."

"I'm thinkin' we should make this quick, Captain." Corso muttered.

Raya groaned, reaching up to massage her temples with her thumb and forefinger, "Why can't things be easy, just once?"

"VESSEL DISINTEGRATION IMMINENT. ALL CREW ADVISED TO ABANDON SHIP."

She let out a sigh, "Let's find our treasure and get the hell out of here."

The ship was eerily silent. Too quiet for Raya's tastes, and aside from the occasional tremors of the ship entering the event horizon, there wasn't a soul to be seen alive. Bodies littered the halls-skeletons, really-but no way to tell for certain how they had died. That now-familiar chill spread over her spine once again as they picked their way to the vault. Something terrible had happened here.

Eventually, they came upon a cluster of bodies caught at a choke point that led into a large hallway. She stepped through, but had to stop short at the sight of the escape pods built solidly into the outer wall. Not a single pod had been launched. Her brow creasing, she turned back to look at the bodies at the doorway again before shaking her head, "Whatever happened here, it happened fast. They never even made it to the escape pods."

Not that it would have done them any good. Not like they could go anywhere out here.

"I got a bad feeling about this, Captain." Corso murmured beside her before a particularly large tremor shook the foundation beneath them.

"C'mon," she beckoned, motioning with her head for him to follow her, pushing down the bile creeping up her throat, "We have to hurry."

They didn't have to go much further to find their destination. The reliquary was right where Nok had said it would be, but they hadn't anticipated that the droid guarding it would take the time to chat. Well... sort of.

"Biological entities identified." The droid said upon their approach, "Beginning mandatory royal edict playback..."

The holoprojector in front of them flickered for a moment before the image of a much younger-looking Nok Drayen appeared before them. The extravagant clothing he wore pegged him as more than just a crime-lord. Much, much more, and Raya was not at all surprised by what the recording had to say.

Well, okay. Maybe a little surprised.

"I, King Arak Drayen the Third, find my throne under attack. Traitors aim to take away what rightfully belongs to me." The holographic image explained, his expression twisting in barely-concealed contempt, "The wealth of Dubrillion will not fall into the hands of my enemies. Instead, I will remove it from their reach.

"My Royal Executioner droid will sabotage this vessel's hyperdrive and exterminate you, the crew, to ensure there is no rescue."

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Corso exclaimed.

"You served me well in life. In death, you will serve me better." The holographic Nok continued, "Goodbye, my subjects."

With that, the holo winked out of view, and they were left standing there in front of a rather large and menacing-looking droid who was probably about to kill them.

"Royal edict playback complete." The droid said, "Initiating execution protocols."

Her eyes widening, she held up her hands in what she hoped was a placating gesture, "Oh, hang on there, metalocalypse! We're not the crew! We're, uh... tourists."

"Really, Captain?" She could feel Corso's unimpressed stare boring a hole into the back of her head, but she didn't reply.

"Understood." The droid responded, "Secondary objective: Protect treasury vessel from unauthorized access."

Corso lifted a frustrated hand to his head, rubbing his temples, "I knew this conversation was gonna end badly."

"Was worth a shot." Raya mused, shrugging as the droid took a couple of steps forward and she and Corso drew their weapons.

"Executing now."

Corso fired up his shield and took the brunt of the droid's blaster fire long enough for Raya to dash back to the entrance and take cover behind the wall. He joined her on the other side a few moments later before his shield ran out while she tossed out one of her sticky grenades, detonating it the second it made contact with the droid's chassis. A part of its armour blew off with the impact to reveal its inner workings, and she retreated back behind the wall again, charging her blasters.

She leaned out to place her shot, but a bolt from the droid's blaster slammed into the wall beside her, uncomfortably close to her head, and she jerked back into cover again, swearing bitterly. "Corso!" She called across to her partner, "Draw its fire for a sec, but keep your distance!"

"Sure thing, Captain!" He fired up his shield and, stepping out into the open, he shouted at the droid to get its attention.

Leaning out of cover in the reprieve, she fired her charged blasters into the hole within the droid's armour, watching as a huge explosion of sparks shot out of the droid's chassis as she stepped out to survey the damage, catching her breath.

"Exec-executing..." the droid stammered as she took a couple of steps toward the droid. Its movements jerked and stuttered for a moment, the circuits shorting, but the weapon did not lower in its hands, "Executing... repair protocols."

Her eyes widened, and she sprinted up to the droid, angry now, "Oh no you don't!"

Pulling a thermal grenade from her belt and flipping the switch, she stuffed it into the hole in the droid's chest, ducking away and grabbing Corso's hand to pull him back into cover with her. An explosion lit up the vault, sending debris firing past them and clattering into the hall.

Suddenly, it was quiet again, the only sounds within the chamber their laboured breathing as Corso looked over at her, "You okay, Captain?"

"Fine," she assured him, but then she noticed the burn searing clean through his armour near his right shoulder and her hands flew to his chest, pulling at the clasps of his chestplate, "Corso, you're hit!"

He hissed out a breath through his teeth at her touch, pushing her hands away as another tremor shook the ship, "No time, Captain. I'll be fine 'til we get back to the Legacy."

She stared at him for a moment, but knew he was right, so she pulled away and stooped before the vault, inputting the code that Nok had given her, grumbling to herself, "This better work."

With a soft click, a small door within the vault slid open, revealing a lockbox about one foot square. She lifted an eyebrow at it before shoving the box into her pack. This was supposed to be worth an untold fortune? She found it hard to believe, but didn't have time to dwell on it as Corso's voice spoke from behind her, "Uh... Captain?"

She pushed herself back to a standing position, turning back to the sounds of metallic footfalls in the hallway behind her, and a veritable army of lesser droids with weapons trained on the pair, while another large quake took hold of the ship, very nearly shaking them from their feet. The tremors were getting closer together, which could not have been a good sign. Groaning, Raya drew her blasters again and slid into cover as a hail of blaster fire descended upon them.

"Must've been activated with the executioner droid." Corso mused.

"Oh, well this is just fantastic." She grumbled.

"We don't have time for this!"

"Try telling them that!"

Luckily, the droids had been just as thrown off balance by the quake as they had, and many of them had lost their balance altogether, so she pulled another thermal grenade and tossed it into the fray, watching many of the droids explode with it.

Short on time, she cut a hole through the mob with her blasters and pushed forward, "We gotta keep moving!"

By some miracle, they managed to make their way to the hangar bay without any more injuries, though she could see by the pain etched into Corso's brow that his shoulder was causing him no shortage of discomfort.

Pushing their way into the hangar, she saw the Legacy, still safely docked and ready to take off, and she gestured to her ship, turning back to the controls beside the docking bay door, firing at any battle droids that got too close, "Get to the ship! I'll get this door shut!"

She didn't allow herself to relax until the door slid shut with a heavy metallic clang. At which point, she let her shoulders slump with a sigh of relief, whirling back to approach her ship, "Now let's get the hell outta here before this whole place comes apart."

Of course, she was stopped by a blaster pointed at her head, held by none other than the slimy womp rat himself, Skavak.

Corso took a protective step in front of her, but she pushed past him in barely-concealed rage, glaring at the man who had stolen her ship months ago and caused her no shortage of distress.

"Hey, Captain!" The thief said, standing before the entrance to her only escape from a vessel that was falling apart that just so happened to be the ship that he'd stolen merely months ago. There was no way she was letting it fall into his hands again, "Bet you're surprised to see me."

Surprised didn't even begin to cover it.