The Force's Balance

By Kassien

Chapter 4: Collecting Resources

I walked down the ramp of the GX 1 Short Hauler, in the arrogant gait of Salek Farndi and sneered at the droid my stolen memories supplied was the personal droid of the arms dealer, Milthanex. It immediately ran a quick body scan, and I waited only a moment glad that magic was so damn useful, when it bowed politely to me as Salek, and offered me to follow him to meet his employer. I am sure the dozen Wookies on board were shocked speechless that my plan worked much better than their initial one of simply storming the spaceport and trying to get as far as they could with only a dozen Wookie warriors against an untold number of security personnel and checkpoints, as I locked up the ship and followed.

The droid brought me through two more check points until I was standing in a relatively large meeting room, my memories supplied as being identical to when Salek was here himself six months prior. I only glanced around briefly to get my bearings and the locations of the four guards in the corners of the room, and the two next to Milthanex himself, who also happened to be in front of the only other door into said room. He was an average height looking being, human-ish with a blue tint to his skin, and a pair of antenna palps coming out of his even darker blue hair. I bowed slightly, but not too much as Salek was an arrogant type and tried copying everything that took place the time previous.

"Salek," greeted a smirking Milthanex, as he returned my little bow with a small nod. "Did you manage to acquire me more of those wonderful Wookie slaves?"

"I did," I responded with an equal smirk on Salek's ugly face, as I looked in Milthanex's eyes to do a subtle Legilimancy scan, "I assume the first group is still working out for you?"

Yes, there are the memories of the first group of Wookie slaves being herded and collared, beaten and forced to work in his weapon division at a nearby facility. It seems two of them revolted at the beginning, and were killed rather graphically in front of the group, forcing the remaining 38 younger Wookies to keep their heads down and follow the new set of rules. It was disgusting to watch the excitement with which this asshole enslaved and hurt others, and I was slowly probing for more information on his security measures to ensure I wouldn't have any problems when I killed him and his guards and started cleaning out his rather large operation here on Terec II.

While rifling through his memories I found you needed to bypass a biological lock on his most protected safe, so he got to remain alive for at least another couple of minutes. The rest of his guards wouldn't be given the same courtesy, as his disgusting memories showed them to be vicious and brutal Gamoreans with no redeeming qualities at all. All this took only seconds in real time, and as he started to ask about the new Wookie slaves I had brought him, I whipped out my wand and sent a pair of dark cutting curses at the two guards next to him, before casting an area wide summoning spell to yank the quickly raised guns from the guards in each corner of the room, bringing them all to my feet before unleashing transfigured spikes into each of them.

It took only seconds and I was left with only Milthanex still alive in the room, and before he could do anything else but stare in open mouthed shock, I was hitting him with the Imperius Curse causing his eyes to glaze over as he came under my control. Quickly giving him the instructions to have all his droids in the hanger and base powered down and all doors opened, I tapped my ear piece and called the bridge of the Short Hauler to inform them the coast was clear and to start searching the property as all droids were powered down, doors were opened, and the only remaining biological security was at the nearby weapons facility ...our next target.

I then had him lead me into his private quarters, where I ignored the usual store rooms full of weapons and treasures he had collected, leaving them for the Wookies that were coming. We continued further into his bedroom, where I had him open the biological lock on his secret stash of treasure, which included most of his money, a single metal prism he valued more than almost anything else he owned, an old Jedi lightsaber, and a pair of very young bed slaves. According to Salek's knowledge, the light purple skinned humanoid looking girl with the long lekku (tentacles really) instead of hair was a Twi'lek, a very sought after bed slave from the planet Ryloth, and the other was surprisingly, a dark haired human girl probably only just a teenager.

They were both barely dressed, and absolutely terrified when the secret chamber was opened, and it wasn't hard to recognize what their lives had become since being slaves to this fucking monster. When they saw me emerge from around their current and soon to be former master, they froze in fear, probably unsure why a new person was here, since Milthanex's memories did not show them ever being seen by others. Not really having unlimited time to deal with prisoners, I simply conjured them each a heated robe while promising not to hurt them and asked them if they were ready to get out of here.

Turns out, they both instantly started freaking out about being killed if they ever left this location, as they were given slave detonation implants that Milthanex controlled, and didn't want to die. I promised them they would be okay, but it didn't seem to be working too well so I simply stunned them both and turned back to Milthanex to find the memories of the implants and how to remove and disable them. A small incision into the back of their necks and two summoned implant bugs later and both girls were free of that curse, and I loaded them into one of my trunks to transport them easier as we still had a lot to clear out of this residence and the nearby weapons facility itself.

Taking another minute to riffle through Milthanex's memories for anything else of importance, I got a few leads on other slavers, arms dealers, and smugglers to follow for later before emptying everything of value in his secret vault and bedroom into another trunk and stunning and binding the bastard Balosar. Dragging him back into the main part of the complex, I met up with the Wookies who seemed to be taking loads of arms and other technology from the residence, with my translator droid standing around in shock. When they saw me dragging in a bound Milthanex, several of them roared in either approval or victory, I wasn't too sure.

"If someone wants to take care of securing this slaver, I can get the rest of the stuff in here," I added, seeing as they still had several more loads worth of gear to pack onto the transport, and only a small group of four Wookies remaining in this area. "Then we can move on to the weapons facility nearby, and rescue your brethren."

That got a very positive roar from the gathered Wookies, as one stepped forward to take control of Milthanex, leaving me free to start shrinking the large pile of gear and loading it all into another trunk. Following the Wookies out, we made sure that every room we encountered had been completely cleaned out, and gathered the few Wookies still getting the rest of the stuff out. After storing all the gear in one of the cargo rooms of our Short Hauler, I led the Wookies down to the far end of the spaceport where the entrance to the weapons facility was.

We encountered several droids that were simply shut down along the way, and I shrunk every one of them we encountered and loaded them inside the same trunk as most of the gear I had already shrunk and confiscated. Using a code stolen from Milthanex's memories, I got our group of ten into the elevator that took us down several levels to the executive level of the weapons facility before telling the eight wookies and one still panicking droid that there would be only two pair of Gamorrean guards we would encounter. The first pair would be at the end of this elevator ride, while the other pair was inside the workroom that contained the 38 Wookie, 2 human, and 3 Sullustan slaves.

All the droids we encountered would be shut down, and I told everyone that I would collect them all if they took care of the guards and rescued the slaves. The Wookies were very pleased to be able to take out some of their aggression on the guards and happily accepted my plan, since I had quickly proven my worth with the ease I got everyone inside and under our control. We would then clean out the arms and everything of any value we found and meet back at the ship to return home.

It went really well once the elevator doors opened, the Wookies rushed out and had the pair of Gamorrean guards torn to literal pieces within moments, before charging through the rest of the facility. I followed slowly behind them, shrinking and collecting all the droids that were part of Milthanex's forces, using my new memories to realize that there were several very valuable and varied types of droids. Within half an hour, all the slaves were being led back towards the Short Hauler, as I and two other Wookies continued piling everything of value into the center of the large storage room.

Having already cleaned out all the other workrooms and other gear we found, this storage room was the motherload so to speak, as it had more weapons both hand held ones as well as those for mounting on spaceships. It took several trunks to fit all the shrunken items, and a whole lot less time than it would have had I not been there. Some of the large ship mounted guns would have been impossible to move without me shrinking them, and the Wookies were very impressed with my abilities and the rewards we were going to be returning with.

None of the working slaves had the implant, but all had collars that acted in the same fashion but were much more temporary and also worth a bit of money too. Once they had all the collars removed, the slaves were brought into the ship to fill up the three cargo rooms, leaving the last one for their prisoner and all the confiscated equipment that I hadn't yet shrunken. I stunned the prisoner another time to ensure he didn't wake up during transport, and shrunk the remaining gear and put it into trunks in case they needed the space during the 30 plus hour trip back to Kashyyyk.

I spent the next several hours with a much happier and friendlier group of Wookies on the bridge, showing me all the things I would need for flying a spaceship of my own. It was a bit of a crash course into aviation, and much of it went over my head but every little bit helped me in my growing knowledge of space travel. The trip back was pretty boring overall, with so many beings filling up all the cargo rooms, I was relegated to staying on the bridge to keep out of the way.

Our return to Kashyyyk was incredibly well received, as after calling ahead with the details of our successful trip, the Wookies were out in force waiting for us with a party and feast. I was asked about my infiltration of Milthanex's complex, everything I found, as well as the spaceship I left their mechanics with when I left for Terec II. I didn't leave anything out as I talked all about everything that happened when we arrived at the arms dealer's place and what I was able to recover.

This included the two young girls that were being held as bed slaves, which really upset the Wookies, who understood why I had trouble trying to get them to leave with the slave implants. After promising that I had removed them from both girls and kept them stunned for easier transport, I was led to their medical bay where they had several medical droids including a pair that dealt almost exclusively with helping former slaves re-adjust to life after slavery. Bringing out the two still stunned girls, I laid them each on a cot and had the droids do a basic blood and vitals checkup before they asked me to revive them as they couldn't get clear vitals readings.

Both girls were immediately bolting up into sitting positions with wide terrified eyes that were instantly glancing everywhere around them trying to understand where they were. The psych droids instantly went to work trying to calm both girls down, insisting that they were safe, and being treated and checked medically for any issues. They explained that their slave implants had already been removed and destroyed, and their former master was locked in a cell not even at the same complex completely unaware of them, and he was awaiting transport to Coruscant for trial and sentencing.

They were asked if they had any questions or medical information they knew of that was relevant, like allergies or conditions they needed to know about. Both girls were very much overwhelmed, and continued their wide eyed study of the medical droids and pair of Wookie guards at the doorway to the medical bay. It wasn't until they saw and recognized me, that they gasped and reacted beyond simple fear, and both began crying and apologizing and thanking me, knowing I was the one who found and obviously rescued them from their previous life as bed slaves to a complete and utter asshole.

"You have nothing to apologize for," I supplied calmly, "please, just get some rest and let these fine doctors make sure everything is okay ...I'll be staying here at this Wookie facility for the foreseeable future and can come check on you periodically if you want."

"Yes, thank you sir," cried the light purple colored Twi'lek, who seemed the more responsive of the pair, while the dark haired human girl just cried with full body shaking sobs as she clutched tightly the hand of the other girl.

I gave soft gentle smiles to the girls, and nods to the droid doctors and Wookie guards before returning to the hall where the rest of the rescued slaves were set up in a temporary room being processed. Giving names, ages, families, and residences as well as getting quick medical check ups and getting small blood samples to make sure everyone was healthy and to get records started on them all to help in finding their families. The Clan Leader, Ganroowarr was watching over everything, and when he saw me he motioned me to follow him back to the council room I was first questioned in as he asked me to clarify a few things I mentioned from the rescue operation.

This led to a further discussion of what my capabilities were, especially shrinking and repairing things which greatly impressed the Wookie Clan Leader as he thought about all the possibilities. Especially when I started to bring out all the shrunken items we recovered and returned them all to their rightful size, and the gathered council just continued to watch in wide eyed shock as more and more weapons were brought out and added to the piles. I think they really started to see how valuable my skills were, when I started bringing out enormous ship mounted photon cannons and repulsor beams that no one person should ever be able to transport while I was holding dozens easily.

Ganroowarr, the Clan Leader commented that I could become the greatest smuggler the galaxy has ever known according to the translation by TC-7H, but also added that according to his infiltration team I was sent with, could also be one hell of a Bounty Hunter too. They were definitely things to think about, having the memories now of two criminals, I already had a pretty good knowledge of many others in the field, and knew that the level of freedom given to Bounty Hunters despite often being looked down upon, was pretty immense. I promised the Wookie Leader that I had no intention of ever going evil, and absolutely abhored slavery of any kind, even though the prospect of roaming the galaxy was very appealing.

I was told that I was now considered a trusted friend of the Wookies, due to my single handedly providing the knowledge and means to successfully rescue 38 of their brethren, as well as the other non-Wookie slaves, while leading the team with no injuries sustained and returning with overwhelming amounts of rewarded treasure. This meant mainly that I was completely free to go and do whatever I wanted in the galaxy with their complete blessing, and also promised to continue with my spaceship flight lessons as long as I wanted them. I was also told that they would help me outfit my new spaceship with my share of the reclaimed arms, which had me relatively confused as I didn't have a spaceship of my own yet.

"They have gone over and inspected the YT-1000 Freighter you repaired and left in their hangar, and everything is fully operational and space worthy," translated TC-7H to my own wide eyed shock. "They will register it in your name, once you name it, and provide any help you need in mounting a significant weapons package from the newly acquired treasures. It does have a working stock Class 3 hyperdrive, with the standard Class 16 backup hyperdrive they have installed. It's not the newest or prettiest ship out there, but is very functional for a one or two person crew with a little help from a couple of droids."

"Th-thank you Ganroowarr," I replied in a state of happy shock, giving the Wookie a grateful bow of my head in appreciation. "In return, I can definitely repair any of your damaged ships and droids."

"Thank you Captain Harry," he responded through translation, making me smile broadly at one of the first titles I was given that I didn't instantly hate. "We will take you up on your offer after seeing how well you restored that old YT-1000 and the three astromech droids we found on board. It would be a huge favor to us."

With that, we all returned to the feast hall where we drank and ate, apparently their taste in food and drink was not too bad once I got over the initial shock of what I was eating as they dealt with enough humans to know what kinds of foods we tolerated. The feast lasted well into the night, and I surprisingly had a great time, as the Wookies were actually really friendly and grateful for everything I had already done for them. I was given a much nicer room this time, and told to make myself at home, and that we would start working on my ship and others tomorrow.

I ended up staying with the Wookies for another month, within which we completed the upgrades to the weapons on my new YT-1000, now named the Marauder. I could now fly it as well as my broom, and had a blast trying different maneuvers and feats not usually seen in a YT-1000. I also tested several magical enhancements on the different elements of the ship to make it more durable, lighter, and removed the fuel source and replaced it with a series of powered ward stones. The weapons too were upgraded with my magic to resist overheating and providing unlimited renewable ammunition that made most of the Wookies who helped me test them, drop their jaws in shock.

I also painted it a nice Gryffindor red and gold, and installed many of the same wards that I had set up around my tent. Primarily aversion and intent based wards that made it almost impossible to enter or even really notice the ship as anything special without being told about it or invited in to it. To most, it would look like a simple YT-1000 Freighter with nothing special about it to warrant even a second look except maybe the paint job, but on the inside I had completely decked it out. The cargo hold was expanded almost 100 times over, with a hidden room inside only accessible by my magic and the three crew bunk rooms were converted as well.

The first one, closest to the cockpit I designated as my own room and simply made it much larger and set up my tent inside as it already had most of the things I needed in one easy to get to and movable place. The second room was converted into a very large and nice guest suite for any other crew or passengers I would have, complete with a small kitchenette and sitting room, nice bedroom, and luxurious bathroom much like the one in my own tent as I really appreciated it and knew others would too. The third and final room was enlarged and divided into two parts, the smaller of which was the heavily protected medical bay, while the large section was a heavily warded workout room for both physical and magical exercise since I would probably be spending a lot of time on this ship, I needed a place to let loose a bit and train.

During this time, I had also helped the Wookies restore over a hundred old rusted and beat up spaceships of various models and designs back to their pristine and brand new look. Fixed thousands of old droids and generally restored anything they brought me, back to its original lustre. I was definitely well liked by all the Wookies after that work, as the financial impact alone would exponentially propel them to limits they had never before experienced as they started to upgrade and remodel their growing spaceport and repair shops. I even encouraged them to upgrade their planet wide security, as many of the memories from Salek and Milthanex mentioned the ease with which Wookies were often captured and enslaved in the past, and their new financial position allowed them to really help in that area as well.

The other big thing to deal with over that month was the pair of young girls, who after spending the better part of a week in the medical bay, were deemed fit enough to leave, although both would go back daily for counseling sessions for the remainder of their time on Kashyyyk. I tried to avoid them as much as possible, despite them often trying to follow and find me throughout the day. They claimed that I was their hero, trustworthy, and the only non Wookie on the spaceport as the reasons for always wanting to be around me, but I didn't really deal with them well. I always felt that they were interested in me in other ways, and I was not about to go there with a pair of maybe 13 year olds at best, and was constantly finding excuses to get away from their very handsy affections.

The Wookies thought it was pretty hilarious, if the amused laughter they had whenever they saw me trying to get rid of my fangirls was anything to go by, but it was much less amusing to me. I had to deal with fangirls and fame in general for most of my adolescent life, and now that I was a virtual unknown in the galaxy I was hoping to keep it that way for as long as possible. Not to mention, that the Twi'lek girl, End'ressi was very ahead of the curve in terms of development and was eager to show her affection. The human girl, Velerxi was a bit more standoffish most of the time, but occasionally would try to cosy up to me when I was distracted.

They were a big reason why I volunteered for a test run at one point for my new Marauder YT-1000. I took a small party containing four Wookies that were helping and teaching me about my spaceship, 3 of my personal astromech droids, TC-7H, and the remaining three Sullustan slaves to their home planet of Sullust to be returned. As Sullust was another Outer Rim planet, and within a two week travel time, it was deemed easiest for me and my new ship to make the delivery. I had to convert my guest suite to accommodate the three Sullustians, and my cargo hold now contained the bunk quarters for the four Wookies to use during the 15 day flight. I had inquired on what cargo we could also transport for trade, since it only made sense to maximize our trip, and we arranged for the selling of 100 astromech droids, 20 KX-series security droids, and 10 of the 2-1D surgical droids to the SoroSuub Corporation based on Sullust.

All of the droids we were selling were recently repaired ones, functioned perfectly, and would fetch a very good price for the Wookies to continue growing their economy. I had them shrunk in a trunk as the Wookies had taken over the cargo hold for the trip there, but would get them out when we arrived and help make the transfer to their new owners, hoping to in turn get something from the SoroSuub Corporation to return with beyond just money. A little research had informed me that they too made droids and weapons, but also huge bulk cruiser spaceships that were like space travelling aircraft carriers of my old world, and I thought they would be a great addition to the Wookies' growing fleet.

The travel was relatively boring, and with all the guests, there wasn't as much room as I would have liked to have time for myself, but I learned a ton about my spaceship and got a lot of reading and organizing of my library trunk done in the meantime. When we arrived over two weeks later and were taken to the subterranean levels of the planet, we first checked in with the Sullust government on the return of three of its citizens. The former slaves helped explain how they were captured by slavers while on a ship headed towards Terec II, and what they had been doing for Milthanex's operation. Despite being very grateful for their returned citizens, the Sullustians as a whole acted somewhat snobily towards the Wookies and tended to talk down at them, or dismiss them as mindless beasts, something I know they all noticed and I took special note of for the future.

When we met with the Sullustians in charge of the SoroSuub Corporation, it was even worse, as they tried to short the Wookies their payment, and then demanded that several of the droids were not up to par despite them all being in perfect shape. My presence was mostly ignored, for which I was actually grateful as I used the lack of attention on me to easily slip out of the meeting as they were individually testing each droid to peek around. My Invisibility Cloak and Firebolt came in very useful as I made my way into the SoroSuub facility and was able to quickly follow their garbage to the landfill they used for their destroyed bulk cruisers.

They did not have an efficient recycling center, and the broken parts and ships of several dozens of old Quasar Fire-Class Bulk Cruisers were littering the surface of their supposedly inhospitable planet. It didn't bother me at all with my bubble-head charm on, and I quickly got to work casting countless reparo spells until I had six fully outfitted and seemingly brand new Quasar Fire-Class Bulk Cruisers to shrink down and store in a pair of trunks. Apparating back to a nearby room I saw as empty on my way out, I quickly joined back in with the delegation as they were wrapping up the droid checks and finalizing the credit payment to the Wookies through TC-7H, very happy with my profitable little excursion.

The trip back encountered a small problem which could have been a much bigger problem had I not been there to once again save the day (modest, I know). As we were waiting in line near the Rimma Trade Route for our turn, we were grabbed by a tractor beam from a much larger vessel and were seemingly being plucked out of line and up into an opening in what the panicking Wookies said was a heavily modified Gozanti Class Cruiser. It wasn't long after that our visual display showed the captain of that spaceship demanding the immediate shutting down of our spaceship, surrendering and preparing to be boarded.

"Um ...why?" I asked, hoping to know their intentions of whether they were just trying to rob us, or enslave us since that would play a big factor in how aggressively I responded, and also in a bit of confusion as the captain looked like a being I had never seen before.

"WHY?" he shouted as his greenish gray skin seemed to darken in anger, and the pair of head tentacles he had seemed to flow in a non-existent breeze making me search my stolen memories for the name of his species, Nautolan. "WE HAVE YOU CAPTURED!"

"And?" I asked purposely naive, knowing it was pissing the captain off based on his continually darkened skin and flailing head tentacles, as I tried to get a location of the bigger ship's bridge from our vantage point below it unsuccessfully and decided to continue stalling.

"AND WHAT?" he screamed still beyond incensed, as I focused on the image of the bridge behind him, and one spot in particular that I thought I could apparate to now that I had a clear mental image of the bridge, and turned my back on the enraged Nautolan who continued to scream obscenities.

"I'm putting the Marauder on total lockdown, nobody should be able to open it or get inside. Gear up and get ready to take over their ship when I call you ...I'm going to visit our temper tantrum throwing captain," I quickly and quietly spoke to my Wookie crew, knowing they would not like to be left out of any fight, and planned accordingly for when I dismantled this invading ship from the inside. "Just don't open the ship until I give the all clear."

With that I simply closed my eyes and apparated to the spot I had seen in the other ship's bridge, directly three meters behind the still fuming Nautolan captain who had no chance to dodge the overpowered stunner I sent into his unprotected back. Before anyone else on the bridge could even react, I threw out a wide range summoning charm that pulled weapons of all kinds from the over a dozen other beings inside the ship's bridge and quickly followed it up with multiple rope binding charms until all activity in the bridge came to an abrupt stop. I then turned and waived to my shocked crew through the monitor and approached the Nautolan captain that I also bound before reviving him and instantly delving into his unprotected mind before he regained his bearings.

I mainly focused on the immediate concerns of the Gozanti Class Cruiser's primary controls, and how to wrestle control of the entire ship and droids to me, and then looked for any security concerns we would have to face in sweeping through said ship. It seemed that Captain Addo, the Nautolan in charge of this vessel was a pirate and slaver, who had little in the way of defenses mostly relying on the overall size and weapon superiority of his Gozanti Cruiser to steal smaller transport ships. He primarily sold off all the captured beings and goods to a Dug slaver on Malastare, and had been making a good living for the past few years doing so.

Leaving his mind for the moment and stunning him again, I went to the main console and imputed the commands for all non-essential droids to shut down, to open all interior doors and ground all escape pods. I then turned to the monitor and told the Wookies to come aboard, letting them know of the two separate platoons of Nautolan and Anselmi guards they would find and where they were currently on the ship. I set the ship to autopilot and to remain in location, before making my own way towards the closest groups of guards to assist my Wookie buddies and ensure none of them were seriously injured in an outnumbered fight against a dozen armed guards.

It took half an hour to do a full sweep of the entire large Gozanti Class Cruiser, although half that time was spent dealing with the two separate security teams which the Wookies were very happy about. Only one Wookie, my main trainer Kenroo, received a grazing blaster bolt to his shoulder after I just managed to tackle him out of the way of what would have been a kill shot to his unprotected back. Luckily he was going to be okay, though they were all rather worked up after the fight. I had them see if they could get the ship running with only the five of us and the still essential droids that never stopped working during the ship's takeover, while I levitated all the stunned and captured crew to the prisoner pens we had left alone for now.

When I came into the prisoner pens levitating over two dozen bound captives, many of the current prisoners recognized as the ships former crew, there were many joyful shouts and cries of "Jedi" from several of them. I brought the crew and dumped them in one of the larger empty cells, and then separately brought Captain Addo to his very own high security cell and secured them all before turning and looking over the ten or so prisoners remaining. There was a pair of Rodians, one older Nautolan who was severely beaten, and a group of four humans all dressed in the same militaristic style standing protectively over a man and woman not much older looking than me that had a small probably three year old child between them.

"You are not a Jedi," came the accusing voice of one of the military men as the group of them all huddled further around the small family.

"No," I replied calmly. "My name is Captain Harry, I just had the pleasure of trying to be captured alongside you all, and didn't take too kindly to it."

"Wait ...what?" came the now confused voice of the same military man, as he looked at me in slight confusion while the pair of Rodians in the next cage over started laughing.

"You must be a force sensitive?" came the amused voice of the taller of the two Rodians.

"Something like that," I replied easily, not wanting to upset or antagonize any of the prisoners since they had already been through quite a bit based on Addo's memories. "Nevertheless ...I have taken over this ship ...and you all can be returned to your rightful property once we get everything back online. I believe there are three confiscated spaceships in the loading bay that belong to all of you, we should have no trouble making sure you get home safely. Other than our Nautolan over there, is anyone else hurt or in need of medical attention?"

"Just some cuts and bruises," replied the military man who remained his groups' spokesperson, still very wary of me, as the Rodians shook their heads.

"We can get those easily taken care of," I added after waving my wand and instantly opening all three of the cages, causing the humans to jump in shock. "Here, let me take care of our injured friend first, and then we can get any other cuts looked at."

The older Nautolan, I knew to be an elder of their home planet Glee Anselm from Addo's memories, was in pretty bad shape physically with several broken bones, and even one of his head tentacles cut off and left with a very infected untreated wound at it's severed end. I asked if the tentacle was destroyed when it was so viciously cut off, and he wheezed out that it was thrown in the trash when he was first captured and tortured over a week ago. Hoping that it was still "in the trash" and not incinerated I tried summoning it with the Elder Wand and only had to wait a second before it came barreling out of a nearby bin to come towards us and settle on the ground.

Another series of cleaning and disinfecting spells on both the severed tentacle and the base still attached to the wide eyed head of the older Nautolan, and I was directing the severed tentacle to return to its rightful place before casting a very powerful mending charm and watching as it slowly knitted itself back together. Digging in my mokeskin pouch for my potions trunk, I found and pulled out a pain reliever, a small dose of skelegro, and a nerve regenerator potion as well as a tub of bruise paste. For the next several minutes I reset each of the four broken bones the Nautolan had, and had him drink all three potions to speed up his recovery before turning to the now wide eyed audience and asking who had cuts that needed healing.

They were all much more receptive to me after my miraculous healing of the older Nautolan, and several cuts were quickly cleaned and sealed, while the bruise paste made its rounds working wonderfully to their continued shock. They knew I wasn't a Jedi, and assumed I was just a force sensitive being, but they had no explanation for my healing methods, the likes of which none of them had ever seen or heard of. Telling them that I was a wizard from an unknown planet didn't really explain much, but they were all at least much more cooperative from that point forward.

The Rodians were very pleased when we all returned to the loading dock within the larger Gozanti Class Cruiser, and their small ship was still there in one piece, only tethered down. I called up the Wookies, and asked them to release the tether from the bridge, as it was one of the few smart failsafes Addo used to prevent any escapes. They said they were going to run several flight checks on their small ship and would call the bridge to be let out the outside bay doors when they were ready to leave, after thanking me several times over for all the help.

The rest of us continued on to the bridge, as it was apparent the Naboo shuttle was incapable of flight as several parts of it were lying all over the dock, and they wanted to contact their home planet, and we needed to make similar arrangements for the Nautolan elder whose entire crew was killed, and he was unable to pilot his ship back to his home world alone. The Wookies had been able to get the Gozanti under our full control by the time we arrived, but said it would take a crew of at least one dozen to successfully pilot it back to Kashyyyk, even with the help of all the onboard droids, but we could stay afloat as it was for now. I asked the Wookies to open com channels for both the Naboo group and the Nautolan, while we waited for them to make their own arrangements.

The Nautolan elders were quite surprised to be seeing Claddon Effri when they answered the com call, and for the next several minutes we all had to witness them asking several questions about how he escaped from Captain Addo's grasp as they had been in negotiations with the traitor to release his hostages for the last several days. Learning that Claddon was the only remaining Nautolan from the original group of eight put a little damper on the quasi reunion, but as he was the only politically important hostage, they were still very pleased overall with his survival. They promised to be on route in under an hour, and here to dock and pick him up within two days as they were not too far from the Rimma Trade Route.

The Naboo com call went much quicker, but was apparently no less important to the ruling family of Naboo's current King Tapalo, of which our guests were first cousins. We were promised they would be here within a single day, as the Naboo royal fleet would come to personally pick them up and escort them all home. After those arrangements were made, I brought Claddon to the medical bay and after double checking that all the droids were truly under our control, had the medical droids monitor him for the night to ensure he was healing properly. I then took the Naboo family and guards to a pair of adjoining rooms I knew from Addo's memories, and waved my wand around a bit to clean them completely before leaving them to rest for the evening, after searching through my food trunk and finding a very hearty beef stew and loaves of bread to leave them with for dinner.

I spent most of the rest of that night with the Wookies, searching through the large cruiser and storing away any valuables, and cataloguing everything that was there, including ensuring every droid we encountered was now under our control. At some point we were back in the loading bay, and I waved my wand a few times repairing both the Naboo light cruiser and the Nautolan's CR-90 Corvette before letting the Wookies go through both ships and ensure they were truly working properly. Setting the shields at full, and adding an alert ward to the large Gozanti Class Cruiser that would let me know if there were any problems, I too retired for a few hours of shut eye, knowing the next few days would be relatively busy with the extra guests here, and those coming to pick them all up.

Everyone was pretty surprised to see both spaceships looking brand new and deemed fully operational when they all were up and about the following day, though with escorts coming for the Nabooian party later that day, they were going to wait on the Royal Fleet's arrival. The Nautolan's CR-90 Corvette needed a full crew to operate, and with only Claddon remaining, it was going to have to stay where it was until they arrived hopefully the next day. I set up a dining table on the bridge, as everyone seemed to congregate there in order to be reachable by com, and it made sense to keep everyone together on the large ship so nobody got lost.

I got a lot of compliments on the meals I provided, and many asked if I had ever been a professional chef as the flavors were well appreciated by the humans on board. It was somewhat amusing to me, that my time at the Dursley's at least provided me with some life skills, and cooking really wasn't too bad when you at least got to eat what you made. By evening time, though who could really tell in the darkness of space, we were sent a com call that the Naboo Fleet had arrived and were sending a small delegation to our landing dock to meet and collect their citizens before returning to Naboo.

"We, the people of Naboo, on behalf of our King Tapalo offer our greatest thanks to you, Captain Harry of the Marauder," came the oily voice of the King's consular and ambassador of this mission, one Sheev Palpatine as he spoke to the assembled group.

I was instantly suspicious of this young ambassador probably in his early twenties, but seemingly starting to prematurely age, and not in a good way. His presence just screamed corrupt politician, but even more than that, I felt revolted just to be standing near him and couldn't wait until he took the Naboo contingent back to their home planet. My mage senses also could feel him in a way that I had not felt anyone else to this point, though to be fair, had only really been around Wookies and the occasional rescued slave so had no real reference for the feeling, almost as if he had his own type of magic though it felt much darker than my own.

"You must allow us to celebrate your good deeds," he continued in that annoyingly oily politician voice of his, "and schedule a parade in your honor for the safe return of our King's loyal cousins."

"That won't be necessary ...good sir," I replied sweetly, just hoping to stroke his ego enough that he was appeased and got the fuck away from me, and hoped some flowery language would do the trick. "I have other stops and business that this situation has already kept me from for too long."

"Oh, what kind of business?" came the creepy question from the ugly feeling young ambassador.

"Nun'ya," I answered back with a straight face, not being able to resist the pun and feeling somewhat satisfied when a moment later the foul man growled almost inaudibly in the back of his throat and narrowed his eyes at me trying to be more menacing before we were thankfully saved by the King's cousin, Rivunne Tapalo who was ready to go.

A round of farewells to the young family, who left with the politician and his arriving party on board the Naboo Royal Cruiser, and then another to the four man security crew that would be piloting the Light Cruiser back home to Naboo alongside them. With them gone, the creepy feel of the malevolent ambassador left with them, and the Wookies and I all agreed that the man was trouble and we wanted nothing to do with him. I said goodnight to Claddon who had come to watch the Naboo group off and offered him one of the suites we had cleaned out, now that he was given a clean bill of health from the medical droids.

The next day we repeated the same thing, as the Nautolan ambassador arrived on another CR-90 Corvette with a small team of pilots, guards, and politicians to welcome back Claddon and thank us for our efforts in freeing him. In a show of good faith and instead of trying to claim their bounties myself, I also turned over all the captured crew of the Gozanti Class Cruiser to them to be brought home for trial and justice, a move they greatly appreciated. They promised me and my companions would always be welcome on their planet, Glee Anselm, though they didn't know if we would enjoy it much as they primarily lived under water.

We were quick to thank them for their generosity, and offered trade with Kashyyyk if they had any droid or spaceship needs and I also added that I may be getting into the delivery and transportation business in the future if they needed anything. Claddon himself was also very thankful for everything we did, and added his own offers to me if I ever needed anything he could help with. When they left, with the prisoners all piled into one Corvette, and the politicians in the other, we were finally free of everyone and ready to return to Kashyyyk with our new enormous Gozanti Class Cruiser.

It was impossible to shrink something that you were currently inside of, and especially difficult to do while floating in space, but I managed it eventually with a little magical help. We returned to the Marauder and left the loading bay of the Gozanti to hover next to the over twenty times larger ship, where I then vanished a view port window with my Holly wand while holding a modified bubble head charm in place with the Elder wand. With the Holly wand I then shrunk the Gozanti and summoned it to me before it floated off among the stars, getting it just in time to replace the view port window and collapse to the ground beyond exhausted. The amount of magic required to hold multiple spells at once, and shrink something so insanely large took more out of me than I thought it would, and hoped that it didn't become a habit in the future.

Luckily, the Wookies were able to pilot the Marauder while I was out of it for the next two days with magical exhaustion, and when I was able to get back to semi-normal, found we had made good progress on our return. The rest of the trip back was spent reading and studying, both magical and spaceship related things to better prepare myself for life as a ship captain as this trip alone had shown me just a small portion of the many different things out there waiting to be explored. Our return to Kashyyyk was met with great relief for most of us, as none of the five of us were accustomed to long space travel and it was said it took some time getting used to.