Smuggler's get togethers were always highly amusing and highly
unpredictable. Booster wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
He and Karrde both mainly listened while the other guests talked. But even they would break in with relevant stories and anecdotes during the conversation. Mara Jade was the only one noticeably absent in these proceedings. She followed every word, giving Booster the impression that she was analyzing and filing every scrap, but didn't jump in with any tales of her own.
"So, I had lost my weapon, right and I'm completely surrounded." The memory got to be too much and Aves doubled over before he could continue. "And then this nerf bone from someone's dinner falls out of the sky, hitting Drouba right on the head." The whole table was laughing now. "He collapses and the rest of them are shooting up at the balcony it came from! Patrons were screaming and more things are falling which led to more shooting. In all the confusion, I got away!"
After a few moments, the laughter had died down. Booster decided that, as host, he should try to get everyone involved in the conversation. "Mara, did you meet anyone like that on Varonat?"
She looked faintly surprised that he would send such an obvious probe her way. "There was a man Karrde got mixed up with."
"I don't think I heard that one."
Mara shot a quick look at Karrde, who nodded before she started telling it.
"When Karrde found that he'd be stuck planetside for a few days, he decided to go on safari. He stumbled on a fairly lucrative plot that Gamgalon was desperate to conceal. Knowing Gamgalon, I figured he would not be happy with Karrde being there and-."[i]
"You don't go in much for detail, do you?" Arrun, who was sitting down the table said.
She smiled. "Nope, sorry."
"Well, tell them what happened this afternoon." Karrde requested. "I'm sure Booster would love to hear it."
"Aves is obviously a better storyteller than I am." Mara deftly passed the telling to him.
Aves proceeded to tell of the happenings at the Quiet Night. Booster seemed to contemplate it all for a minute.
"Mara, you said you had never seen him before?" Booster said, finally.
"No. He seemed to get me mixed up with someone else."
"Do you know who?" All Mara did was shake her head.
The dinner continued quite jovially after that little hiccup. Arrun decided that it was his turn to share adventures he'd had at a previous job. Someone else spun off on a conversational tangent and later a litany of abuse suffered at the hands of the Imperials was the topic of dessert.
Everyone had had a good time. To those with alert and only slightly inebriated ears, much information had been gleaned.
In Booster's eyes, however, what he'd learned was not enough.
"So, what do you think?" Booster and Karrde were relaxing in the room after the rest of Booster's guests had left.
"I think someone taught your Mara how to keep her mouth shut."
"You noticed that?" Karrde said.
"I get the feeling she could tell a great story if she wanted, complete with detail and background to support it. I think she could tell it even if it were not strictly true. I felt that there was something about Ani recognizing her that had her unsettled. At the same time, you don't need to worry about her betraying you."
"Really, how so?"
"Well, of course, she waited for your ok to share with us, but that's an old tactic. However, she could have told what the 'fairly lucrative plot' was. The one you 'stumbled upon' that none of us had ever heard of. She didn't even confirm if Gamgalon was from Varonat. So, whatever plan you found could be exploited at a later date."
"Point. Although, the guesswork was laid."
"But what are a ship's navigator, a trader, an engineer, a code slicer and assorted lieutenants going to do with it? With all the stories we've heard and how collectively drunk most of them were, the chances of one of them remembering are-."
"High enough. And I have no doubt that you will remember."
"True."
"Sorry that didn't help you with the whole Ani problem."
"Can you run the name Jade against anything remotely connected with him?"
"Doesn't match."
Booster was surprised. "You checked already? No, you couldn't have. You were already running a check on Mara weren't you?
"Yes. And neither she nor anyone else of that name is connected to any of the runs he'd made under Saalot or any reports of acquaintances he'd made. This is really intriguing; I haven't had such a challenge for a long time."
"Well, if you hear anything, I'd like to know. Please don't blackmail him or something."
"I rarely work that way."
"Yeah well, temptation knocks. If I don't see you in the morning, have a good trip."
A few days later, Silijar went back inside the Padmé's Knight. Ani was there waiting for her. He seemed fine.
"Hi. How are you?" He said, happy to see her.
"I'm more worried about you at the moment."
"I decided to take your advice. I'm gonna go tie off loose ends."
"How long are you going to be gone?"
"Maybe three, four weeks. I thought I'd fly around for a while, see some things."
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." Ani said it so well and so convincingly, he could only sense the slightest doubt coming from Silijar.
"You're coming back right?"
"Sure, no problem."
She gave him a long, questioning, skeptical look.
"Seriously, this is too good a job to just leave for no good reason."
She knew that. "Ok. Even if you do leave, you can always come back. Tell Booster before you go, he'll be less annoyed that way."
"That's something I want to avoid. How did that guy make out?"
"Mr. Enviro-randomizer? Yeah, not only did he pay double your fees and expenses, but Booster got a hefty inconvenience charge out of him."
"Oooh. That had to hurt."
"Hey, he was lucky. You saw how mad Booster was." Silijar smiled. "You do seem better."
Ani sensed the relief roll off of her in a wave and he wished he was as sure. "I'll say goodbye before I leave. Do you mind rounding up some galley supplies for me? I got everything else I'll need and I want to leave right after seeing Booster."
"Sure. I think he's in a meeting right now. Come on, I'll check which level." Silijar led Ani to her office. Upon taking her seat, she was able to find that Booster was meeting a client in one of the the tapcafés on Diamond level. "He's on Diamond at the moment. A shipping concern is arranging for storage room and a space to sell their goods in. Just hang around until he's done. He'll probably come over to you."
"Thanks. There hasn't been anything major you guys needed me to repair has there?"
"We've been fine. Don't worry. Get going." Silijar gave him a reassuring smile before turning to help the new guy Kilr'aren was escorting in.
Ani didn't often go up to Diamond level. He found its usual patrons to be arrogant and snobby. And even if they weren't, there was little there he could afford.
He found Booster on the main casino floor of one of the most popular tapcafés Diamond level had to offer; which, loosely translated from the original Sullustian, was called Nil Odds; the irony of which was not lost on most of the people who lost their credits on the games there.
Booster was seated at one of the small tables scattered around the perimeter between the bar and the pit that served as a gambling floor, talking with a person he assumed was a client. Ani made sure Booster saw him before heading over to the bar and ordering a giinger ale.
"Ani, how's it going! I come here all the time, but I haven't run into you." Curious, Ani turned and saw Jain seated at a table not too far from the edge of the pit.
Smiling at seeing an old acquaintance, Ani got up and joined him. Jain shook his hand vigorously. "Good to see you!" Ani said. "How's it going back on Ord Mantell?"
"Pretty good, you know, the Republic moved in and kicked the Imps out; the Mon Calamari are already making life difficult, but pretty much same old thing."
Ani's smile changed to a mock-serious grin. "You know the Mon Calamari have always been friendly to the Ships and Services guild, especially with the shipping shortages on."
"Yeah, yeah! I hear ya." Jain brushed him off with a smile of his own. "Listen, when are you coming back? Ogin got himself picked up and it was all Saalot could do to get the ship out of impound. 'Sides, I like knowing who to bet on at the trade races."
"Actually I was thinking about stopping by the Ships and Services conference on Sullust this year. I registered independently a few months back. I told Saalot I'd see her at one."
"Well, that sounds good. She'd be happy to see ya. So, how've you been?"
"Good. Booster's let me repair things around here a couple of times, made enough to get by."
"Ah, so he's making money off you. That sounds like Booster. With that retrofit you did on your ship, I wouldn't be surprised if he asked you to open up a repair shop in one of his spare hangars."
"Well! That's an idea! How about it Ani?" Booster had come up behind them while they were talking.
"You know, I wouldn't mind doing that for a bit. But not now." Ani turned to Booster with a more serious expression on his face. "I was hoping I could talk to you, sir."
"Well, it's been nice talking to ya Ani. I'll see you around. Goodday, Sir." With a nod to Booster, Jain took his drink and headed down to the Sabbacc tables.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Booster sat down in Jain's seat and the waiter brought him a Corellian brandy.
"Well, I was wondering if I could head out for a while. There's a lot of loose ends I really should tie off."
"The Ships and Services conference isn't till next next month." Booster was on a fishing expedition.
"It's not just Saalot, I have other things that I've been putting off. I just didn't want to look at them, you know?"
"I think I can understand that. Well, when were you thinking of leaving?"
"Today, actually. For Simarill. It's this, small rock out on the fringes."
"I've never heard of it." Booster thought for a minute. "Well, I hate to lose you even for a little while. You know you're always welcome on the Venture, right? That idea your friend had was a good one, I wouldn't mind setting up something similar to that."
"That would be fun, sir. I should be back after the conference."
"Take your time; see your family, friends, have fun, whatever you have to do. There's nothing that said you had to stay this whole time, everyone generally comes and goes here."
"Thank you, sir." With a grateful smile, Ani drained his glass and left for the Knight.
Booster waited until Ani had left before placing a call to his chief of communications. "Veracint, hi. Arrange a holonet call to Karrde please."
"Will later this afternoon be all right?"
"Sure. Thanks."
Booster stayed in the Nil Odds, glad handing those sentiments who were winning large amounts of money and handling minor disputes as they arose.
Later, in his office, the receiver chimed an incoming call. It was Karrde.
"Listen, have you ever heard of a planet or an asteroid base named Simarill?"
"Not offhand, why?"
"Ani's on his way there to tie off loose ends."
"You want me to follow him?" Karrde asked, surprised.
"No. Just find out about him."
"You do know that I will charge you for this information."
"Only if you find anything. I'm not sure you will at this point."
----------------------- [i] For official story, see Star Wars Tales from the Empire story First Contact by Timothy Zahn.
He and Karrde both mainly listened while the other guests talked. But even they would break in with relevant stories and anecdotes during the conversation. Mara Jade was the only one noticeably absent in these proceedings. She followed every word, giving Booster the impression that she was analyzing and filing every scrap, but didn't jump in with any tales of her own.
"So, I had lost my weapon, right and I'm completely surrounded." The memory got to be too much and Aves doubled over before he could continue. "And then this nerf bone from someone's dinner falls out of the sky, hitting Drouba right on the head." The whole table was laughing now. "He collapses and the rest of them are shooting up at the balcony it came from! Patrons were screaming and more things are falling which led to more shooting. In all the confusion, I got away!"
After a few moments, the laughter had died down. Booster decided that, as host, he should try to get everyone involved in the conversation. "Mara, did you meet anyone like that on Varonat?"
She looked faintly surprised that he would send such an obvious probe her way. "There was a man Karrde got mixed up with."
"I don't think I heard that one."
Mara shot a quick look at Karrde, who nodded before she started telling it.
"When Karrde found that he'd be stuck planetside for a few days, he decided to go on safari. He stumbled on a fairly lucrative plot that Gamgalon was desperate to conceal. Knowing Gamgalon, I figured he would not be happy with Karrde being there and-."[i]
"You don't go in much for detail, do you?" Arrun, who was sitting down the table said.
She smiled. "Nope, sorry."
"Well, tell them what happened this afternoon." Karrde requested. "I'm sure Booster would love to hear it."
"Aves is obviously a better storyteller than I am." Mara deftly passed the telling to him.
Aves proceeded to tell of the happenings at the Quiet Night. Booster seemed to contemplate it all for a minute.
"Mara, you said you had never seen him before?" Booster said, finally.
"No. He seemed to get me mixed up with someone else."
"Do you know who?" All Mara did was shake her head.
The dinner continued quite jovially after that little hiccup. Arrun decided that it was his turn to share adventures he'd had at a previous job. Someone else spun off on a conversational tangent and later a litany of abuse suffered at the hands of the Imperials was the topic of dessert.
Everyone had had a good time. To those with alert and only slightly inebriated ears, much information had been gleaned.
In Booster's eyes, however, what he'd learned was not enough.
"So, what do you think?" Booster and Karrde were relaxing in the room after the rest of Booster's guests had left.
"I think someone taught your Mara how to keep her mouth shut."
"You noticed that?" Karrde said.
"I get the feeling she could tell a great story if she wanted, complete with detail and background to support it. I think she could tell it even if it were not strictly true. I felt that there was something about Ani recognizing her that had her unsettled. At the same time, you don't need to worry about her betraying you."
"Really, how so?"
"Well, of course, she waited for your ok to share with us, but that's an old tactic. However, she could have told what the 'fairly lucrative plot' was. The one you 'stumbled upon' that none of us had ever heard of. She didn't even confirm if Gamgalon was from Varonat. So, whatever plan you found could be exploited at a later date."
"Point. Although, the guesswork was laid."
"But what are a ship's navigator, a trader, an engineer, a code slicer and assorted lieutenants going to do with it? With all the stories we've heard and how collectively drunk most of them were, the chances of one of them remembering are-."
"High enough. And I have no doubt that you will remember."
"True."
"Sorry that didn't help you with the whole Ani problem."
"Can you run the name Jade against anything remotely connected with him?"
"Doesn't match."
Booster was surprised. "You checked already? No, you couldn't have. You were already running a check on Mara weren't you?
"Yes. And neither she nor anyone else of that name is connected to any of the runs he'd made under Saalot or any reports of acquaintances he'd made. This is really intriguing; I haven't had such a challenge for a long time."
"Well, if you hear anything, I'd like to know. Please don't blackmail him or something."
"I rarely work that way."
"Yeah well, temptation knocks. If I don't see you in the morning, have a good trip."
A few days later, Silijar went back inside the Padmé's Knight. Ani was there waiting for her. He seemed fine.
"Hi. How are you?" He said, happy to see her.
"I'm more worried about you at the moment."
"I decided to take your advice. I'm gonna go tie off loose ends."
"How long are you going to be gone?"
"Maybe three, four weeks. I thought I'd fly around for a while, see some things."
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." Ani said it so well and so convincingly, he could only sense the slightest doubt coming from Silijar.
"You're coming back right?"
"Sure, no problem."
She gave him a long, questioning, skeptical look.
"Seriously, this is too good a job to just leave for no good reason."
She knew that. "Ok. Even if you do leave, you can always come back. Tell Booster before you go, he'll be less annoyed that way."
"That's something I want to avoid. How did that guy make out?"
"Mr. Enviro-randomizer? Yeah, not only did he pay double your fees and expenses, but Booster got a hefty inconvenience charge out of him."
"Oooh. That had to hurt."
"Hey, he was lucky. You saw how mad Booster was." Silijar smiled. "You do seem better."
Ani sensed the relief roll off of her in a wave and he wished he was as sure. "I'll say goodbye before I leave. Do you mind rounding up some galley supplies for me? I got everything else I'll need and I want to leave right after seeing Booster."
"Sure. I think he's in a meeting right now. Come on, I'll check which level." Silijar led Ani to her office. Upon taking her seat, she was able to find that Booster was meeting a client in one of the the tapcafés on Diamond level. "He's on Diamond at the moment. A shipping concern is arranging for storage room and a space to sell their goods in. Just hang around until he's done. He'll probably come over to you."
"Thanks. There hasn't been anything major you guys needed me to repair has there?"
"We've been fine. Don't worry. Get going." Silijar gave him a reassuring smile before turning to help the new guy Kilr'aren was escorting in.
Ani didn't often go up to Diamond level. He found its usual patrons to be arrogant and snobby. And even if they weren't, there was little there he could afford.
He found Booster on the main casino floor of one of the most popular tapcafés Diamond level had to offer; which, loosely translated from the original Sullustian, was called Nil Odds; the irony of which was not lost on most of the people who lost their credits on the games there.
Booster was seated at one of the small tables scattered around the perimeter between the bar and the pit that served as a gambling floor, talking with a person he assumed was a client. Ani made sure Booster saw him before heading over to the bar and ordering a giinger ale.
"Ani, how's it going! I come here all the time, but I haven't run into you." Curious, Ani turned and saw Jain seated at a table not too far from the edge of the pit.
Smiling at seeing an old acquaintance, Ani got up and joined him. Jain shook his hand vigorously. "Good to see you!" Ani said. "How's it going back on Ord Mantell?"
"Pretty good, you know, the Republic moved in and kicked the Imps out; the Mon Calamari are already making life difficult, but pretty much same old thing."
Ani's smile changed to a mock-serious grin. "You know the Mon Calamari have always been friendly to the Ships and Services guild, especially with the shipping shortages on."
"Yeah, yeah! I hear ya." Jain brushed him off with a smile of his own. "Listen, when are you coming back? Ogin got himself picked up and it was all Saalot could do to get the ship out of impound. 'Sides, I like knowing who to bet on at the trade races."
"Actually I was thinking about stopping by the Ships and Services conference on Sullust this year. I registered independently a few months back. I told Saalot I'd see her at one."
"Well, that sounds good. She'd be happy to see ya. So, how've you been?"
"Good. Booster's let me repair things around here a couple of times, made enough to get by."
"Ah, so he's making money off you. That sounds like Booster. With that retrofit you did on your ship, I wouldn't be surprised if he asked you to open up a repair shop in one of his spare hangars."
"Well! That's an idea! How about it Ani?" Booster had come up behind them while they were talking.
"You know, I wouldn't mind doing that for a bit. But not now." Ani turned to Booster with a more serious expression on his face. "I was hoping I could talk to you, sir."
"Well, it's been nice talking to ya Ani. I'll see you around. Goodday, Sir." With a nod to Booster, Jain took his drink and headed down to the Sabbacc tables.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Booster sat down in Jain's seat and the waiter brought him a Corellian brandy.
"Well, I was wondering if I could head out for a while. There's a lot of loose ends I really should tie off."
"The Ships and Services conference isn't till next next month." Booster was on a fishing expedition.
"It's not just Saalot, I have other things that I've been putting off. I just didn't want to look at them, you know?"
"I think I can understand that. Well, when were you thinking of leaving?"
"Today, actually. For Simarill. It's this, small rock out on the fringes."
"I've never heard of it." Booster thought for a minute. "Well, I hate to lose you even for a little while. You know you're always welcome on the Venture, right? That idea your friend had was a good one, I wouldn't mind setting up something similar to that."
"That would be fun, sir. I should be back after the conference."
"Take your time; see your family, friends, have fun, whatever you have to do. There's nothing that said you had to stay this whole time, everyone generally comes and goes here."
"Thank you, sir." With a grateful smile, Ani drained his glass and left for the Knight.
Booster waited until Ani had left before placing a call to his chief of communications. "Veracint, hi. Arrange a holonet call to Karrde please."
"Will later this afternoon be all right?"
"Sure. Thanks."
Booster stayed in the Nil Odds, glad handing those sentiments who were winning large amounts of money and handling minor disputes as they arose.
Later, in his office, the receiver chimed an incoming call. It was Karrde.
"Listen, have you ever heard of a planet or an asteroid base named Simarill?"
"Not offhand, why?"
"Ani's on his way there to tie off loose ends."
"You want me to follow him?" Karrde asked, surprised.
"No. Just find out about him."
"You do know that I will charge you for this information."
"Only if you find anything. I'm not sure you will at this point."
----------------------- [i] For official story, see Star Wars Tales from the Empire story First Contact by Timothy Zahn.