A/n: Vuffi Raa. The creepy droid...*shudder* I can't stand droids, but I needed another sidekick for the Tatooince sequence, and he(it...) was the only one I could think of that would be appropriate. He's from the Lando Calrissian Adventures.
Also, I did not make up the Oseon. That was a major system in...oh, guess what book? The Lando Calrissian Adventures...God, I'm obsessed! Anyways, the Antari system I made up, and is the home of that super expensive private school Li and Kae went to.
The landscape was beautiful, but Li-Sen was too annoyed to enjoy it. She paid no heed to the sprawling green hills in the distance, to the blue lake sparkling in the light of the setting triple suns. Beyond the hills, the beauty of the majestic red mountains was lost on her.
Li-Sen was seeing red, however. So angry was she that she
didn't notice when the hatch to the Millennium Falcon opened and its captain
entered.
They had been one system away from their destination, the Oseon, when it happened. The engine had hiccupped and a light near Li-Sen had flashed red. An alarm blared, but Li-Sen didn't wake. She was exhausted from the problem with the creatures on Naího. Doxie was asleep as well, snoring in her lap. Lando was left to check the light on his own.
"Damn!" The fuel was running low, they'd have to stop. He checked the targeting computer. Antari System was the closest. He'd stop there to refuel and on the way to the Oseon before Li-Sen even woke up!
All it would take was one simple stop!
Well, he had thought it would take one simple stop.
He was wrong.
Lando had taken one look at the fuel prices. It had only taken one look to tell him he didn't have enough. And he wasn't about to ask Li-Sen for money.
For one, he was too much of a gentleman. No gentleman would ask the girl he was helping for money, not even if she was as well endowed with it as Li-Sen was. Nor was he willing to risk her wrath at his stupidity in not checking the fuel gauge until it was too late. He couldn't stand traveling with angry woman. And women like Li-Sen, in Lando's experience, didn't just get angry. They got enraged. They fumed and wouldn't listen to reason and, in fact, refused to speak to Lando at all, unless it was something less than civil.
More on the positive side, however, Lando could easily get money enough to refuel the ship playing sabacc. After all, he was a gambler. And one with amazing luck, at that.
So, he decided to leave a note for Li-Sen and go off to get the
money he needed.
It didn't take him long to find a healthy game. One thing he liked about the Antari-it, like the Oseon, was the rich man's playground. Here was where all the people like Li-Sen, the children of million and billionaires, senators, governors and rulers, came to play. Lando grinned. Children like that were notoriously bad at games of chance. He smiled faintly. Li-Sen was a perfect example of that.
He didn't intend to stay in the game long, just long enough to get money to cover refueling and any other emergencies they might have between there and their final destination on Oseon 4127.
However, his ambition forbid him from stopping when there were such large stakes. It took the beep of a transmission on his wrist comlink to make him realize what he was doing again.
Lando excused himself from the game, stuffing his winnings into one of the compartments on his cummerbund, and left in a hurry, ducking into an alley off the street outside to listen to the message.
"Millennium Falcon to captain." It was Li-Sen, as he had suspected. "Get your sorry butt back here at once, Calrissian, and explain yourself!"
He sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you, Li," he spoke into the comlink. "I'll be back soon as I can. At the moment, there are more pressing things that deserve my attention. Over."
"Like what?! Why are we even here to begin with?!"
Lando shook his head. "Let me get back to you on that, Li.
I'm kind of busy at the moment. Over and out." He switched
off the comlink. Boy, he'd be in for it when he got back.
"And then, I woke up to find us here," Li-Sen paused. "It was…unnerving to say the least."
Lando stopped outside the doorway to the cockpit. Is she talking to herself? No, she couldn't be. He shook his head. She was probably just complaining to Doxie. He walked into the cockpit…and promptly stopped dead in his tracks from surprise.
"V-Vuffi Raa?" he whispered in disbelief.
"Hello, Lando!" answered the little robot seated in the co-pilot's chair, previously talking to Li-Sen. It waved one of its five chromium-plated tentacles.
"How did you…"
"Get here, Master?" the 'droid prompted. "Well, as you know, I continued to explore the galaxy after our parting three years ago," he began. "And-"
"Don't call me Master!" Lando broke in.
Vuffi Raa gave the five-armed, mechanical equivalent of a shrug. "Old habits die hard, Lando. I happened to be on this planet when I heard what I thought was your voice coming from an alleyway. When I saw it was, indeed, you, I thought I'd go back to the ship to surprise you when you returned."
Li-Sen nodded to confirm this and shifted in her seat. "Very interesting machine, Captain."
"Yeah, we had fun together." Lando grinned and tapped the red, faceted "eye" in the center of Vuffi Raa's five-sided torso. "Didn't we, old can-opener?"
The robot's optical sensor twinkled, as if he was smiling. "We certainly did, Lando."
"Er…Lando," Li-Sen spoke up finally. "Don't you think we'd better get going?"
"Oh, right." Lando shooed her out of the pilot's seat-which she wasn't too happy about-and sat down, then turned to Vuffi Raa. "We're heading towards the Oseon. Care to join us?"
"I'd like that," the 'droid replied. "Thank you."
"Don't worry about it, old automaton. We didn't have near enough adventures together, if you ask me." Lando began the sequence to take off, with Vuffi Raa's help.
"I thought you were going to settle down and be responsible."
Lando snorted. "That attempt was short-lived."
"I can imagine."