ABOARD THE ERRANT VENTURE, 40 YEARS ABE:

The Errant Venture's hangerbays were foundationally no different from those of any other Star Destroyer-the aging ship had, after all, begun life as a vessel in the Imperial Navy-but the mismatched collection of ships, and even more mismatched collection of beings who flew on and maintained them, could not have looked less Imperial if they had been assembled for that purpose deliberately. Like Riesel, all of Booster's crew wore bright red jumpsuits or uniforms to match the ship's exterior and mark them as his staff, but like Riesel they had all made personal modifications of varying degrees that would never have been allowed upon a military vessel. Gloves, capes, belts, tunics, scarves, head-coverings, jewelry...anything that a sentient being could think to wear, they were wearing. (One petite Bothan even had a pair of gauzy decorative wings strapped to her back for no apparent reason other than that she liked the aesthetic.) And that was to say nothing of the guests aboard.

They ranged from grimy down-on-their-luck smugglers and freelancers and grifters to high-rolling gamblers and wealthy members of the galactic elite. Leia Organa-Solo was the only high-ranking New Republic politician onboard right now, but that was only because they had all been recently gathered on Coruscant for the disastrous peace treaty and none of the rest of them had made it off-planet with the same haste. The lack of high-ranking Imperials could be ascribed to the same reason; while Booster didn't much like the Empire (he had spent several years of his life in an Imperial prison, after all, and he was the sort of man who held his grudges close) he wasn't shy about taking their money-or double-charging them based on a combination of galactic exchange-rates and principle.

The sight of an Imperial shuttle tucked amidst all the merchant vessels and pleasure yachts and junkers that frequented the Errant Venture's hangers was not, thus, an unprecedented one-but it was still a sight that brought Finn Ghanti to a dead stop mid-stride.

"That's our ship!" he exclaimed in equal parts shock and outrage. Stella and Bail, walking ahead of him, paused and turned around. Finn pointed a shaking hand at the waiting shuttle. "That's the ship we defected in!" he explained. "We bartered it to Terrick when we got here! He said he was going to sell it, and the proceeds from that were what was paying our expenses!"

Stella snorted, shook her head, and started towards the ship again. Bail, looking faintly amused, waited while the distraught ex-stormtrooper worked-through his outrage.

"I bet the armor and uniforms he offered to provide are ours, too! That sneaky, no-good, deceitful, Hutt-licking-!"

Bail's amusement spilled-over his mien of Jedi calm and he grinned crookedly, looking a great deal more like his father than anyone dressed in Jedi robes ever should. "From a certain point of view, that's exactly the deal Booster made," he said mildly. "It's just that the 'someone' he 'sold' it to was himself."

"I expect he switched out the transponder core already," Stella called back to them over her shoulder as she mounted the ramp. "I'd say 'assume' but it's never good to assume with Booster. I'll double-check it before we leave, make sure it's something neutral so the Empire won't be surprised by the 'miraculous' return of their commandeered vessel. But this is good." She paused at the hatch to pat the side of the ship. "A genuine Imperial shuttle-and a recent one, to boot-will be much easier to slip past their security screen than a fabricated or pre-Remnant one." She rubbed her hands together cheerfully, brown eyes dancing, and walked onboard. A faint sound of happy whistling carried out through the hatch to where Finn still stood gaping.

"Look at it this way," Bail said with a shrug, "at least you know your armor's going to fit. Imagine how much worse sneaking back to the Empire would be if there was chafing, too?" He clapped Finn on the shoulder (the ex-stormtrooper flinched at being touched by a Jedi, but only a little; he was too busy nursing his wounded feelings over Booster's duplicity to remember how much he feared Bail right now) and followed Stella up the ramp.

Finn shook his head, shoulders slumping in defeat. "I've heard better pep-talks from Mit," he observed, eyeing the familiar shuttle with distaste.

Bail paused at the top of the ramp and glanced over his shoulder. "I can't help it," he said brightly. "Sometimes I've just got too much of my father in me to keep my tongue in check." He smirked impishly and disappeared through the hatch.

Finn grimaced and shuddered. "Better than your mother," he muttered, more to himself than to Bail, and trudged up the ramp after the Jedi-then paused, frowning, to glance back over his shoulder. There was thankfully no sign of the petite, terrifying Alderaanian princess-or her husband-but Finn grimaced anyway. "I think," he added dubiously, and finally stepped aboard.


Notes: I want to sincerely thank everybody who assisted with the survey about the Jedi Cameo last chapter! I've actually since thought of a scene in the second movie that I like for that character even more, so that issue is now resolved - but that leaves us with one unused Potential Cameo Spot yet in this story! If you have a favorite Jedi (or even just a favorite species, etc) you would like to suggest for the role, from either new canon or old, please don't be shy!