"There," Ratnena said crawling out from underneath the helm station on the renamed corvette Sweet Sunset, "with the help of a couple droids even the Vong could fly this without too much trouble."
"Yuuzhan Vong," she heard Tahiri say from her spot at the weapons control. Tahiri wasn't working on anything; she was just observing the activities of the other Wraiths. Tahiri may be a good Jedi, warrior, and get in and out of trouble with easy that was spooky but she couldn't fix a light bulb without crashing every system on the ship. Ratnena and Little Brother had tried to teach her but even they have given up. Therefore, while most of the Wraiths worked on Sweet Sunset Tahiri would stand extra shifts or reroute the scanners to the ship so she could help doing such things a getting supplies or parts for the others.
"That was pretty quick work," Commander Loran said walking over to the helm control and looking over the displays.
"The droids helped a lot," Ratnena, said looking over at Little Brother working with Major Tainer at the engineering control, "we're still having problems with engineering and damage control but they should be easier now that the rest of the ship is ready."
"Since we are only carrying 4 X-wings at one time, that will leave enough crew and droids to pretty much handle any problems that will come up." Kell said from under the control panel. "Still, I wouldn't want to get into a prolong battle in this tub."
"Well the whole idea is to use it as a support vessel not attack the main Vong …" Face looked over at Tahiri and corrected himself before she could, "Yuuzhan Vong, sorry, fleet by ourselves. How much longer do you think?"
"Another month, maybe two," Kell said jerking back for an electric shock, Little Brother let loose a small 'chuckle'.
"Not bad really, sir, after all we have only had her for a month."
"True but …"
An alert came across the weapons board; Tahiri reacted in a swift and competent manner that they all have come to expect from her. Using both sensors and the 'Force' she quickly identified the ship heading to their base.
"It is the Sweat Sunrise, I read two life forms both human." She closed her eyes and reached out, "confirm it is Boom-Boom and Road Kill." She had a strange smile on her face. Ratnena gave her a questioning look; Tahiri just gave her a small smile and shake of her head. Ratnena knew she would tell her later; Face seemed to miss the whole scene.
"Good let's go and see what they have dug up."
Ratnena held back long enough to walk out with Tahiri, letting Face and Kell pull ahead of them.
"What?" Ratnena asked in a near whisper.
"What do you mean what?" Tahiri said with an innocent smile on her face.
"You know what, that smile you are wearing," Ratnena said slugging her in the shoulder.
"Nothing," Tahiri said, "it just Road Kill seems to be happy for some reason. I can't read her or the rest as easily as I can read you. But she just seems to be happier that is all."
"Happy or you know happy."
"Uh," Tahiri said looking confused then started blushing, "can't you think about anything else."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Yes sir," Stacy said to Face as she wrapped up her briefing on the intelligence run her and Fred had just completed. They had flown out to Fondor shipyards on a cargo run and had used a program to access and download intelligence data from their satellite system.
"Isn't Mr. Fusty also on our Peace Brigade list?" Face asked leaning back in his chair.
"Yes, it seems that he is using his company to play both ends of the middle," Stacy said bring up the man's bio on the screen. "Mr. J. Fusty, 67 standards years old, president and CEO of 'Universal Navigation Systems', one of the top 10 navigation computer programmer companies found in the galaxy today. He has a contract to supply Fondor and Kuat shipyards with updated navigational programs. For the past two weeks he has been making visits at various Senators' home planets, at both ship yards and at Ruun."
"Ruun, now why did he stop there?" Major Piggy asked.
"GA Intelligence states that the passenger liner he is traveling on, the very expensive Hollow Nebula was on a routine stop there. He never left the ship but this man," she click on the next sequences and a 50 year old Radian profile pop up on the briefing screen, "this Kohl Vu-try, a known Peace Brigade member, was seen boarding the ship while they were in port. GA Intelligence lost track of him on the ship until he was seen leaving before they pulled out again. The liner was only in port for 4 hours since they still are having some computer problems and Mr. Fusty had room service delivered, the only time he had it up until then, during that time; normally Mr. Fusty likes to dine with the other passengers so he can brag and show off to them, be the center of attention."
"Annalists," Commander Loran asked studying the printouts she had passed out earlier.
"Mr. Fusty met with Mr. Vu-try in his cabin where he received or gave him something; I would say he was given something since Mr. Vu-try was not observed carrying anything away. What ever it was he will pas off the package to one of the Senators when he makes his finial stop at Denon in 3 weeks."
"That is a large leap wouldn't you say?"
"No sir, we know from our own sources that he is selling his soul to the highest bidder, probable figuring he'll be long dead before one side or the other wins and comes to collect. He made this trip rather suddenly but he had already secured all the different senators he would need to see at the end. The fact he is taking a very public transport instead of one of his more secured company ships also send off bells in my head."
"We know that the other are suspicious but they don't have enough to snatch him or someone above them thinks he is doing enough good to leave in place." Fred said jumping in to help her, he is such a sweet guy she thought as he laid out the plan they came up with. "We were thinking of having Prankster and Peacekeeper catches the liner somewhere; distract him in some way and go thought his cabin. Preferably let Prankster do that part since she has the 'forget-me-not' memory and she can get pass any security without alerting anyone."
"True the Vong would probably just crash the system and send us all to a fiery death."
"Why Peacekeeper?" Commander Loran asked, ignoring the squabbling that started between the two blonds.
"Well sir, she can wear one of her skins for additional cover. We could set them up as a 'husband and wife' team, newlyweds or something …"
"I knew I should've stolen only female skins."
"Ah but you look so cute as a boy."
"Shut up Rat or I make you wear it this time."
"Now girls calm down," Commander Loren said hiding his grin, "but again why Peacekeeper?"
"Well sir," Stacy said feeling a bit uneasy unsure how those two would react to this news, "um it seems that Fusty has a thing for young blond girls and we were thinking even if he doesn't have anything in his room, they could both pump him for information."
"I take it back I'll wear the skins," Ratnena said with a disgusted look.
"It would be better for you to do the actual recon Prankster," Stacy said, "You would have a easier time getting him to like you since …"
"I don't want some old fossil groping me …"
"My, my how do you walk around with that huge head of yours?" Peacekeeper said with a mocking grin on her face.
"I am being serious Tahiri you don't know what it is like …"
Stacy had a hard time sympathizing with Ratnena on this subject. Ratnena could be a high price model or a holo-star like Face had been without much work, she was that beautiful. She could climb out of bed in the morning and looks better then most women do after doing their make up and hair for hours. In addition, when she did actually take the time, well she could destroy the self-esteem of any woman. Even sitting there sucking on one of her sweet sticks, wearing a duty jumpsuit stained with lubricants and burn marks, her face and hair smeared with dirt; made Stacy doubt her own abilities to attract a male. Stacy had developed a liking to Fred in the past few months. If she hadn't known that Fred was not interested in Ratnena, mostly because she scared the - out of him, she would lose a lot of sleep. She was grateful to be able to try to get Boom-boom's affection without having to worrying about the Miss. Universe getting the way and snagging him before she could.
"Where would you have them met the liner." Kell asked trying to talk over the two arguing girls.
"Bastine and they have to be there within next couple days or Devaron in 4 days."
"We should do Bastine," Elassar said, "It will be safer for them."
"I can get the droids to check out Sweet Sunrise and we should be ready to fly in 2 hours."
"Ok, Peacekeeper and Prankster go pack, get Junk Pile to help you pick out stuff that would help you blends in. Sparks and Piggy, rig them up some recorders and comm-links while Road Kill and I will work on some cover ids for them."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Getting thru the Boarding screening process was not very complicated nor was getting pass the very bored security guards at immigrations. Tahiri, wearing one of the skins, was able to slip through without even using her powers, which was good the less she used it the better she felt it was. Master Skywalker and Horn had both stressed that over use of the Force could lead to more problems with the Dark Side then under using the Force. The Force was best use for guiding one not to muscle one's way through life. Besides, with her duel heritage and her unusual up bringing she had more then enough skill at fighting to get her through most situations without relaying on the Force. Moreover, if she need to, she could use her brain to think her way out of problems but she was not that good at lying or poo-dooing, as Rat would say, her way out of problems. It was something she needed to work on badly.
"Oh honey just look at that ship, oh it is so beautiful and charming," Rat said loudly enough for most of the other passengers to hear her on the shuttle that was taking them to the Hollow Nebula which was in orbit around Bastine. Rat was wearing conservative traveling clothes that both Squeaky and Face said would help her blend in with the crowd from Bastine. That and her acting like a new married woman who was taking a once in a lifetime trip into space help immensely at reducing the suspicion at immigration and allowed both of them to pass through without a very detail scan. A scan that would reveled to a blind man that her 'husband' was really a woman who was wearing Yuuzhan Vong skin and was carrying an amphistaff around her waist. Either one of those facts would have spelled the end of the trip no matter how charming Rat was being or how beautiful she looked.
Tahiri for her part was playing the man, something that was amusing Rat to no end, and doing the strong but silent husband that was trying hard to make his 'wife' happy. The mechanical voice amp snuggled against her throat would make her voice sound more masculine but everyone felt the less she used it the better it would be. Tahiri had left Bangor back at the base, much to Bangor's disappointment; she instead brought one of the amphistaff that would knock out their victims instead of killing them.
"Oh honey, I am the luckiest girl in the universe," Rat said wrapping her arms around Tahiri's neck. Tahiri resisted the urge to backhand her up side her head. While most people around her were sloppy with their feeling, this sloppiness made it somewhat easier to understand what they were thinking but it also meant that she could block them out. Rat, unfortunately, was not so easy because she knew her so well and she always felt things so strongly that it was getting harder and harder to block her out. Right now, she was practically screaming her amusement at Tahiri's discomfort at being the 'boy'. "When we get to our cabin …"
Several of the nearby travelers caught that end of conversation; they all were grinning in amusement too. One guy even said what a lucky man he was going to be in a not so quiet voice. Ratnena just snuggled closer to her 'man' and wore this simple smile on her face but Tahiri got the impression that she was laughing so hard inside she was near tears. The things I have to do for the good of the mission.
Once they did get to their cabin, Rat went into the refresher to get ready for the dinner where they hoped to find Fusty or at the bar and casino later in the evening. They had a week to get all the information and get off this tub to meet up with the rest. Face was going to pick them up on Teyr, in the liner's orbital station while the other was on planet doing recon work.
The plan was for Tahiri and Rat to take turns talking to him, for one thing, to see what they could get out of him and to learn enough about his habit to know when it would be safe to send Ratnena in his room without being caught.
"Well how do I look?" Rat said from the refresher doorway; she was wearing a red shimmering dress that exposed her right shoulder and had two slits going up each leg allowing her some movement even thought the dress clung to her like a second skin. Her hair highlighted with a silver accent that sat well with her blond hair and she had removed her hair lock. All in all Tahiri was quite impressed, when she told Rat that, her jaw dropped to the floor. "You, you think I actually look good. You who couldn't tell fashion from a hydro-spanner think I look good?"
"I know what a hydro-spanner is," Tahiri said crossing her arms defensively. "It is that thingy that you use to do … that thingy."
"Wait, stop you are getting too technical for me." Rat said with a confused look on her face while Tahiri gave her a mock glare as she used the Force to roll her skin back up over her face. "Now back up a bit, what is a thingy again?"
"If I knew you be like this I would have never gotten married to you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"My husband and I both work for an independent shipper but we own our freighter," Ratnena said digging into her salad, "it is a shame that he is feeling unwell tonight, I'm sure he would be interested in hearing more."
For the past three days, with Ratnena's charm and Tahiri knowledge of smuggling she had picked up from her 'adopted family', they had been able to turn a not so chance meeting with Mr. Fusty into a mother load of information. Fusty had been subtlety-dropping hints through the meal about Tahiri and her joining a group of friends who also did some independent shipping work for associates of his. In other words, do you want to work for the Peace Brigade? Now she really wished Tahiri had not chosen to do her recon of his cabin area. Tahiri would be better at probing for more information then she would, since she wasn't completely sure, he wasn't just trying to impress her and talking a lot of B.S. For the past 3 days, if her 'husband' wasn't with her, he would squeeze her knee or touching her arm or the small of her back; it took all her will power not to slam his face into one of the waste disposal units. She hated when men act like this, bunch of monkey-lizard brain that couldn't tie their shoes and chew their food at the same time.
"Well I think you and your husband would enjoy the benefits that my associates can provide, better security for the various pirate groups flying around." Fusty said laying his hand on her knee and rubbing it again.
"Pirates have been very annoying, that is true," she said gently removing his hand for the 5th time that hour, "but how can they provide better security? Even the Galactic Alliance has a difficult in controlling the space lanes."
"They have security procedures that are second to none," he said reaching over and putting his arm around her shoulder, "after all this company only lost 12% of freight during the war."
"And how big of a cut do we have to pay for this 'extra' security?" Ratnena swore that when they bring down the Peace Brigade she was going to personally rewire his jail cell in her own 'special' way. "I can't believe that as independent shipper they would just provide it for free."
"No fee is taken out of your profits."
"Come on, I didn't just get off Tatooine. Security that good doesn't come from goodness of anyone's heart." Ratnena said shifting her position to get his hands off her body. Some men never get the point unless you stab it deep in them.
"I would love to discuss it more with you, my beautiful friend, and in greater detail. Perhaps we should retire to my cabin." He said with a grin that made her skin crawl.
"Oh I don't get offers like that very often," she said with a smile and rubbing his face with her left hand, I get Charm Boy to cut it off later or dunk it in molten lead, that is the only way to get it cleaned again, "but my husband is here. The last time he caught me," she lowered her eyes for a moment as if to think of the proper phrase, "discussing business arrangements with a man, who wasn't nearly as charming or hansom as you are, why they found that man on Tatooine and Bastine and Kuat." She pointed to different parts of her body as to show what was found where. "That was before we got married, I would hate to see what he would do to you now that we are married. It would be a shame to lose out on a deal such as the one you are discussing because he couldn't control himself."
Instead of getting angry, he just smiled in a knowing way.
"Oh that my dear sweet jewel I can sympathies with him, why if you were my wife I wouldn't be able to stand the idea of any man even glancing at you let alone talk to you. Why a rare rose such as yourself needs to be protected from the many evils that a man can do," takes one to know one don't it you fossil Ratnena though as she plastered a stupid smile on her face and listen to him talk. "But I would hate to say too much around so many ears, I sure you understand."
"Oh I do, but my husband really should be the one you need to talk to, he is the man and all you know." Ratnena said easily, her orders were very clear on one point of this operation. She was not to accompany him to his cabin for any reason. Kell wanted to links between her and the break in, if he ever discovers it, to be nonexistent. They will need to use this identity again in the future and getting her picked up on a warrant or something like that at the wrong time would be bad. In addition, she didn't want to be alone with this freak, Tahiri, Kell and the rest were counting on her to do her part. If she went back with him, she wasn't so sure she wouldn't do something that could destroy all the work they have done so far. "Let me tell my husband and tomorrow you and he could discuss it."
An hour and 15 gropes later Ratnena finally made it back to her cabin. The whole way back she keep thinking very loudly that Mr. Octopus man was following her, he want to make sure that her 'husband' was feeling better and to see if he could talk about the deal to him. It would kind of blow things if he walked in and found out that he was really a she, especially when she was a rather famous Jedi.
"You know he may not be in the mood to talk business, I mean it is our honeymoon and he is already upset that he got sick during it."
"Oh I understand I just want to let him know that I will be available tomorrow to speak with him. After all my dear, this is your future we are talking about."
"Yes," Ratnena said trying hard to keep her smile on while feeling her stomach drop to around where her feet were. When they got to their cabin, she used the code-key, so much can go wrong in the next thirty seconds and we are trapped in hyperspace for at least another 13 hours. When the door opened she saw that the room was pitch dark, oh great she still out running around!
"My love is that you?" The heavily disguised voice of Tahiri came from the darkness; it had the right mixed of sleepiness and confusion one would expect from someone just waking up.
"Yes dear," a relieved Ratnena said waving on the lights, her 'husband' blinked and sat up in bed. Ratnena thought it was funny that even in disguised, Tahiri modesty streak still shown thru. She had on a regular nightshirt but the covers were pulled up to her chin. "Mr. Fusty was wondered how you were feeling?"
"Terrible, getting a space sick on your honeymoon when you are an experience spacer like me. I am never going to live this down."
"Maybe it was something you eat dear," Ratnena said sitting on the bed and played out the concern wife bit.
"That is true; I guess with as much as you eat anything is possible." Fusty said from the doorway, not entering and with his hands behind his back, "I do hope you feel better in the morning, there is a business deal I would like to offer to you."
"What kind of business deal?"
"Your lovely and charming wife will give you the details later I am sure. But come find me after the morning meal and I will answer any questions you have." He gave a bow to Ratnena, "madam it was all my pleasure." With that, he stepped out of the doorway, allowing the doors to close.
Ratnena grabbed a small portable 'sniff' while Tahiri used hand singles to let her know that the hallways was clear and the room was clear of organic recorders.
"We are so in," she screamed as she tackled Tahiri in the bed.
"You are insane you know that," Tahiri said smiling as she sat back up and let her skin roll off her.
"Where are your pants young lady," Ratnena said with a smirk, Tahiri was only wearing a top.
"I was in the refresher when you called, and next time you don't have to yell so much I heard you down the in the restaurant," Tahiri got up from the bed and placed her skin in one of the chairs. When she sat back down on the bed, she gave Ratnena a frank stare. "Why did you bring him back here anyways?"
"He wanted to see you," Ratnena then went on about the deal of a lifetime he was selling her on during dinner, "I guess he wanted to make sure you were here and not out spying on him or something."
"Well he was suspicious but not overly suspicious if you know what I mean," Tahiri said, "If you are right then we could use this to get some idea of how the Peace Brigade is working these days. I hear him out then get a hold of Poster Boy before we commit."
"You are such a Vong," Ratnena said with a smirk, "how did the room check out?"
"I felt something about the size of a qahsa, which one of the data pads that Explosion Boy gave you should allow you access to it. Just copy everything in it."
"Right, I'll hit it tomorrow while you two manly men discuss big important things," Ratnena said rolling off the one bed in their cabin. "But right now I need to scrub lots of scum off me."
"That could take hours, you are pretty scummy already. Just don't forget to be dressed when you come to bed."
"But it is our honeymoon," Ratnena said sitting down next to Tahiri with a look of sorrow and disappointment on her face but knowing full well what she was actually sending out for Tahiri to read. "I wanted it to be special."
"Which god did I annoy to get stuck with you," Tahiri said with a mocking shake of her head and look of disgust on her face, her eyes although were radiating amusement.
"Don't you know I am a gift from the gods?"
"Gag gift maybe."
"Well I never," Ratnena said acting insulted and stomping her way over to the refresher, "you keep this up and you will be hearing from my lawyer."