They moved quietly in the dusk of the twin suns, seeking to draw no attention to themselves. Rey felt good, like she'd finally achieved something on this quest she'd set for herself. She hoped that Luke and Leia would appreciate it all, would somehow see her efforts to honor them, even though they could no longer be here to guide her.
Their little party passed by a midnight blue Zabrak, cleaning his teeth with a dagger. Rey knew his type, the kind of man who looked for ways to look menacing. She would have liked to ignore him, but she could feel his intensity from across the street. He was watching them - no, he was watching Alik.
"Friend of yours?" she asked Alik, under her breath. The gold lightsaber tingled on her hip.
He'd seen the Zabrak too and was actively trying not to pay attention to him. "Probably one of Artess' men," he whispered back. "He's got fingers everywhere."
Though Rey did not know this Artess, she was quite sure she wanted no part of him. "Does he know you're with us?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the Zabrak as they went past him and turned the corner.
The glitter returned to Alik's eye. "Am I with you?"
"As far as your friend needs to know, yes," she replied, ignoring his implication. A slight smile fluttered over him as he turned his face away to look over his shoulder to see if the Zabrak was following them. Despite herself, Rey let herself return the smile behind his back.
Still, she didn't feel comfortable just leaving the Zabrak out there somewhere where her things were. As they neared the hangar, she asked Lump to wait for her and she stepped inside to get her bag. It was heavy with all eight books, but carrying that wright felt quite reassuring.
She hadn't quite reached the doorway again when she heard Lump's roar. She quickened her pace and rounded the doorframe to see the Zabrak, knife in hand, squaring off with the Wookiee.
"Doesn't concern you," the Zabrak hissed at him.
"Lump!" she called out, her blood running cold. Lump simply gave another roar and drew his bowcaster. The Zabrak obviously had no idea what kind of damage such a weapon could do, or else he wouldn't have tried anything. He at least should have had a blaster if he was going to challenge a Wookiee.
The Zabrak raised his hands in a mocking display of surrender. "Tell your friend there that he needs to think about his future," he said.
Only now did Rey look at Alik, who was standing against the wall with Zed. He looked perfectly horrified by the situation, but kept his eyes on the intruder. The Zabrak looked away from Lump and right at Alik. "Consider what you're doing," he said. "Artess isn't going to give up."
She watched Alik take a breath and straighten his back. "He's wasting his time, and yours."
"Heh," the Zabrak scoffed. She wondered if it was time yet to draw her saber, but instead she settled her fingers on the blaster. "You have no idea the kind of profit you can make with Artess' organization."
Rey knew what Alik was going to say before he said it. "I'm not interested in your profit."
"Then you're a fool," the Zabrak said, as he lunged toward Alik, dagger outstretched. Lump pulled the trigger of his bowcaster and Rey could almost see the bolt fly through the air and then sink into the Zabrak's thigh. He gave a roar of pain and surprise and crumpled to the floor. She thought again about when Chewie had shot Ben when Ben killed Han. She'd been glad to see its damage then, but Ben was so much stronger than this Zabrak that he hadn't let it stop him but rather used the pain to fuel his rage. The Zabrak lay on the ground, whimpering.
Who's the fool? Lump asked him, re-holstering the bowcaster. They left him lying there in the dusty street and let Alik lead them to the inn. Alik scurried along ahead of them, obviously disturbed by what had just happened, and Zed struggled mightily to keep up with her master. Rey and Lump followed behind, weapons ready, though Rey was quite sure they were no longer being followed for now.
"They're getting bolder," Alik said, as he let them all into his small room. It was actually better than Rey had assumed it would be, clean and swept up, with both bars and curtains on the windows. Two beds, one in each side of the room, were made up with clean linens. A private refresher room stood ready. She was impressed: except for a brief visit on the Supremacy, it was one of the nicest places she'd ever been.
She bolted the door shut and leaned a chair against it. Then she moved the char and dragged one of the beds in front of it for good measure.
"We'll sleep in shifts," Rey said. "It will be fine." She thought of the refresher, knowing she hadn't had a bath since they left Kasyyyk. She had gotten used to the feeling of being clean and she missed it.
"Shifts," Alik repeated. "And what good am I going to be when it's my turn? I'm hardly going to shoot someone."
She couldn't help but smile just a little bit. "How have you survived this long?" Lump lay down over the bed by the door and closed his eyes; he took up the entire thing and his feet dangled over the edge, but he didn't seem to mind. She drew the blaster from her hip, careful not to disturb the lightsaber, and handed it to him. He took it, reluctantly, and held it like it might bite him. "Point it at the bad guy and pull the trigger," she said, nodding at it in his hands. "Set it to stun if it makes you feel better."
She moved past him toward the refresher. "You have first watch."
With the door shut behind her, she finally slipped the poncho over her head, folded it, and laid it on the floor. She unclipped the excessive number lightsabers from her hip and laid them on the fabric of the poncho, each beside the others in neat, reverent lines. She rolled the fabric of the poncho around the sabers, concealing them, before stripping off her own clothes, dusting them down, and turning on the sonic refresher.
She washed quickly and incompletely, aware that a man she really didn't know was just outside the door with a blaster she'd handed him herself, and pulled on the trousers and top Malla had made for her. The trousers were of a thick fabric worn soft by many years of use, once a very dark brown, almost black. They reached from her ankles to her waist, and closed with a drawstring of rough-spun twine. The top was the color of the sand outside, fitted close to her body and with full, loose sleeves. It closed with a wrap around the front over her breast, secured with tiny strings that she tied into bows. It was Malla's best work, the last of the three garments she'd made for her. She plaited her hair down her back and tied the end with one of the soft orange ribbons from Malla.
At last, Rey picked up the bundle containing her lightsabers with one hand and her clothing with the other and stepped out of the refresher. Alik was seated on the edge of the second bed, her blaster over his knees. He was watching the door behind the sleeping Lump with glassy eyes, which he turned to her as she emerged. In the bare light of the hotel room, they seemed darker than they were. She realized, a little belatedly, that Alik was not dealing as well with the circumstances as she had assumed.
With a little sigh, Rey hung up her clothes on a hook on the wall to air out and she laid the bundle beside her bag, careful to avoid letting the sabers touch each other and make noise, alerting Alik to their presence; he didn't need any more reason to be upset.
Then she sat down beside him and took the blaster out of his hands. "Don't really like those things," he said, softly.
She nodded. "I can tell."
"I think," he said, "I think we've had very different upbringings."
She didn't answer that but set the blaster beside her, away from him. "Tell me about where you grew up."
"Naboo?" he said, surprised. His eyes cleared a bit at the word and he seemed grateful for the distraction. "It's a beautiful place. I think you'd like it."
Rey smiled. Despite her many adventures, she'd really seen very little of the galaxy. She ventured, slowly, "Do you have a family?"
He nodded. The color was returning to his face. "My mother is the regional governor. Actually, she's had a very illustrious career. Top of her class at the Imperial Academy -"
"Imperial Academy?" Rey felt a little bit of horror creep into her tone, even as she tried to listen attentively.
"It was a different time, you know," he said. "The Empire controlled everything, and Naboo was the Emperor's homeworld. It had a special place of honor among systems; it meant something to come from there. It was something to be proud of, at first." Rey's stomach twisted within her. Naboo was technically her own ancestral homeworld, and she felt no pride about it at all. "After the Empire fell, she stayed with it and became the New Republic governor. She works directly with the Queen sometimes," he said, speaking more quickly as he recovered himself.
"Do you have a father?"
"She's not interested in the power," he offered. Rey didn't respond to that. He sighed. "My dad's a teacher; my brother is too. Drake."
"But you're an art merchant."
"Art is very important on Naboo," he said again. "And … I wanted to get out. See the galaxy."
"You wanted an adventure," Rey said, very quietly. Alik nodded. "It's not as good as you think."