4 BBY

The planet was vastly different from Tatooine in every way except the main inhabitants. It was tropical, with lush blues and greens. There were mountains, valleys, and swamps. No deserts. Rishi was everything Kaleena could have hoped for when it came to getting away from Tatooine. To be fair, that criteria had one thing, to go anywhere other than the dustball. The smuggler she met in Mos Eisley was glad to have her aboard his ship with a fee of three thousand credits and a helping hand to unload whatever he was bringing to Rishi. She didn't ask.

Kaleena spent a few days exploring Sky Ridge Island, but she mostly dwelled around South Ridge Beach. The water was soothing. Just looking at it was a nice change to sand-filled winds. The sand on the beach felt different than Tatooine sand. The sand covering almost every inch of Tatooine was coarse and rough, while the beach sand on Rishi was soft and cool. Regardless, it got everywhere.

A restless spirit, Kaleena quickly grew bored on the beautiful planet. One of the reasons she left home, was because she lacked excitment. She was now on a planet covered in pirates and gunrunners and was bored.

She took the time one day to walk through one of the many markets and actually pay attention to what people were saying and doing. Most of them were uninteresting. But she saw one at the end of the line struggling to carry a crate. Kaleena rushed over and helped the Weequay male set the crate on top of another.

"Ah, thank you!" the Weequay praised. "I was afraid I'd drop it, but I guess not!" Kaleena immediately regretted getting involved. The man seemed overly friendly and excitable, much more than Kaleena was used to on Tatooine. "You seem too young to be on Rishi." She didn't reply, just looked at him as he analyzed her. "A runaway, of course." Kaleena was taken aback and took a step away. "Oh, no, no, don't worry. I know a runaway when I see one. I was one myself, once upon a time." The lively alien waved his hands around and put them on his waist. "Tell me, tell me, what is your name?"

Kaleena resisted the urge to groan and sigh. "Cat," she said quickly. It was the first thing she could thing of.

The aliena pirate laughed loudly. She didn't understand what was so funny. "I know you're lying, but it's alright. Maybe you can help me out. I am Hondo Ohnaka." He gestured to himself and bowed. Kaleena immediately knew he had an incredibly high opinion of himself.

But she didn't see the harm in hearing him out. "I'm listening." Kaleena folded her arms over her chest.

The pirate Hondo wrapped his arm over her shoulder, pulling her closer and making them face the rest of the market. "Listen, I love kids. Kids are great. I love charity. I love helping, so here's my offer. You help me out with a job, I take you wherever you want to go. I hear Takodana is beautiful this time of year. And you there's no shortage of work there."

"Illegal work," Kaleena pointed out. She'd heard pilots on Tatooine talk about Takodana. It was a hub of mercenaries and smugglers. They also liked to talk about Nal Hutta, Nar Shada, Rishi, Kessel, Corellia, and Florrum.

"Work is work, but sometimes it's fun!" Hondo clapped her on her shoulder, still looking out at all the markets. "I guarantee that no one on this strip will give you a better offer."

The young girl paused a moment. "I don't know, the Zabrak down there was paying more than enough to get me off planet, plus some."

Hondo scoffed. "The Zabrak? I've never met a trustworthy Zabrak. I was attacked by brothers once! Nasty business. I barely escaped with my life." He's dramatic, that's for sure. "Some of my friends weren't so lucky." She also didn't like the way he said "friends." Associates or employees may have been a better term. "Now, come on, what you do say? Will you join me for an adventure?"

"What's the job?" she asked.

Hondo smiled. "I knew you'd come around. Do you know how to fight?"

Kaleena looked at the pirate dead on. "I beg your pardon?"

He simply smiled wider. "Help me get these crates on my ship."

The distance to the ship wasn't far. Kaleena and Hondo had no issues getting the crates onboard once they were on an anti-gravity platform. Once stored, Kaleena followed Hondo to the bridge, finding a male Devaronian sitting in the pilots seat and guard droids standing in the corner. "About time," the Devaronian said as he turned in his chair. "I was wondering-" He cut himself off as he saw the girl. "Who is this? We had a deal. Fifty-fifty. At no point did I say I was going to run an orphanage."

"Vizago, it's all right," Hondo reassured. "She's going to help us and we're going to drop her off somewhere. No credits involved." It's not like she needed the credits. She had over fifty-thousand lining every nook and crevice of her backpack, jacket, pants, boots, and belt harness. If you could hide something there, there was probably credits. "Cat, Vizago. Vizago, Cat."

The Devaronian grunted but started up the ship anyway. Kaleena quickly realized that Hondo was lying about it being his ship. She also couldn't think of a reason as to why it would have mattered. Until about an hour or two into the trip. Kaleena was keeping to herself, meditating while Hondo talked. He was talking to her and Vizago, but neither were listening, so he was mostly reminiscing a story to himself. Then everything happened so fast. Hondo attacked Vizago as the Devaronian got up from his chair.

For a moment, Kaleena was stunned into not moving. This is not what she expected. She was under the impression it was just a smuggling run or something along those lines, not Hondo committing mutiny. But as the droid guards closed in to attack Hondo, she realized she couldn't sit and do nothing. She got herself into this mess. She had to stick it out until she was done with Hondo. Vizago would probably throw her out the airlock.

Kaleena stood from her seat and kicked the closest droid with all her might as Hondo struggled with Vizago and the ship came out of hyperspace. It stumbled backwards, crashing into the second one long enough for the girl to separate the Devaronian from the Weequay. Hondo stood with pride next to the young girl, but Kaleena couldn't see what he was happy about. The droids weren't disabled in the slightest and Vizago was just pissed. Then Hondo held up a controller. The controller to disable the droids. Vizago saw his predicament and hurried towards the dashboard of the ship, pressing as many buttons as he could before the droids grabbed Vizago and brought him to a cell in the ship's brig.

The young Jedi could hardly fathom what she had become a part of. She sat, stunned and unsure of how to proceed. She just helped someone hijack a ship. Someone she didn't even know. A few minutes later, Hondo joined Kaleena on the bridge again, putting the controller on his belt. "Aha!" he exclaimed upon seeing her. "I knew you were special! Fantastic. All in good time. I'll get you to the planet of your choice soon." Kaleena didn't reply. "Oh, your first is always difficult. Is it right? Is it wrong? Who cares?" She looked up from the floor to the Weequay. "The galaxy isn't sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions to survive. Come, come, we must get this ship working again."

She rolled her eyes at the flamboyant Weequay, but got up anyway. Hondo and Vizago slamming into the controls hadn't helped the ship in the slightest. While letting the Force guide her when rewiring the control panel, Kaleena realized Vizago had turned on a distress signal. She quickly turned it off but secretly hoped someone had received it.

Her prayers were answered, but not by who she would have thought. As a ship docked, Kaleena could feel only one lifeform, a young lifeform.