Carth:
One sniff from the aloof guard and we were allowed entry into the Bek base. Rian strolled ahead of me while I struggled with the weight of the accelerator.
Gadon Thek was in his usual spot behind a desk tinkering with some new swoop bike gears. His bodyguard, Zaerdra was hovering over him protectively. As she caught sight of us, her mouth became set in a frown.
Gadon looked up from his work and scanned the area with his white bionic eyes. He offered us a smile and ushered us forward with a hand.
"I was beginning to wonder if you would make it." The gang leader smiled. "The race is tomorrow and my mechanics need time to install the prototype into the swoop engine of our bike."
The gang leader whistled and two Hidden Beks ran over to him. A few quick words from Gadon and they hurried over to me and relieved me of the accelerator.
"Okay, I lived up to my end of the deal." Rian planted both of her hands on the desk and brought her face inches away from Gadon so that despite the man's damaged vision he would have no trouble seeing her. "Now you better come through."
Gadon laughed. "Don't worry." he assured her. "I'm a man of my word. I promised you could ride in the swoop race under the Hidden Bek banner and I'm still going to let you do that."
The blind man smiled coyly. "I'm even going to go one better." He paused long enough for the sound of Rian's grinding teeth to be heard. "I'm going to let you ride the swoop bike with the prototype accelerator installed in it. Without it, you won't stand a chance."
"Gadon! You can't be serious!" Zaerdra exploded. Her lekku twitched in an agitated fashion until received a stern glare from Rian. Zaerdra settled her head-tails stiffly against her shoulders and continued. "We need one of our best riders on that bike! We can't let some rookie take the prototype engine into the race!"
Rian seemed to consider Zaerdra's furious stare before speaking. "Why are you doing this, Gadon?" she asked.
"I have to be honest with you—there's a reason why I'm letting you take the prototype engine." Gadon said. He shuffled beneath his desk until he produced a datapad. "The accelerator isn't stable; there's a good chance it could explode during the race. I can't ask one of my own riders to take the risk—they'll be running unmodified swoops in the race."
Gadon handed the datapad to Rian. She looked it over slowly before nodding.
"Sounds like you've got all your bases covered." she said wryly.
Gadon chuckled. "You don't get to be the leader of a swoop gang if you don't know how to work all the angles." he replied.
"I still think that I should be the one to ride the swoop bike." I interjected.
Zaerdra's frosty visage fell on me while Gadon simply raised an eyebrow. I swallowed hard, but pressed on.
"I'm a pilot, I've controlled bigger crafts than a swoop bike—what does she know about flying anything?"
Any agreement that would have come out of Rian was decimated by my final persuasive sentence. The withering look she gave me made me wish I had just gnawed my tongue off instead.
Gadon shook his head. "That's like comparing alcoari and cloudberries." he explained. "You're speaking of two completely different machines with completely different qualifications. Your friend here has the look of a rider about her. Trust me."
I would shoot the next person who demanded that I trust them. I glanced at Rian.
"I can do this." she said quietly.
I groaned.
"You can stay here tonight." Gadon offered. "Just try to relax and in the morning we'll take you to the swoop track."
Gadon whistled again and another Hidden Bek appeared out of the woodwork. We were shown to a room that fortunately had two beds and told the location of the kitchen in case we got hungry.
When the Bek left, Rian circled the room slowly, inspecting it. She finally stopped at one of the beds and tested it out with a hand before sitting on it.
"It's about as good as the one in the apartment." her tone was conversational.
"I wouldn't know." I muttered. I dropped down onto my own mattress.
Rian frowned. "Hey, I offered to share. It's not my fault you didn't take me up on it."
"Would you accept an invitation from a kinrath into its web?" I replied. I began working on the laces of my boots to avoid looking at the color gathering in her cheeks.
"It doesn't matter anyway." she said. "I'll win you your little Jedi savior dame tomorrow and then you two can go on your merry ways and I can go on mine."
"What?" I tore one boot off. I looked up at her but her face was solid, resolved.
"I mean it, Carth." Rian insisted. "I'm no hero. Once we get Bastila, my work's done."
"Just like that?" I snorted. "What will you do afterwards?"
"I figured I would stay here on Taris." She sighed. "Start up smuggling again, maybe head to Corellia." Her nose crinkled. "Don't look at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like I've got the Iridian plague or something." Rian pulled her knees into her chest. "I've made up my mind. I'm staying on Taris. You can go off and do your Republic thing and find somebody else to look at strangely when you think they're not paying attention."
"I haven't been looking at you strangely…" I began.
"Oh you haven't?" she interrupted. "I would have assumed that I sprouted an extra limb from the way you've been staring at me since we killed that rancor in the sewers."
"I wasn't staring." I argued.
"Was it gawking then?" she demanded. "Ogling?"
"You nearly got yourself killed!" I bellowed.
Rian's onslaught stopped. Her jaw hung loose for a moment before she composed herself. She cleared her throat consciously before returning her hard gaze on me.
"Don't you realize how important you are?" I persisted. I wrenched the second boot from my foot and tossed it on the floor. "You are the one with the indebted Wookiee, not me. Mission got you past the Vulkar force field, not me. You are the one who is going to rescue Bastila tomorrow, not me. But you still think it's perfectly logical to jump in front of a rancor. Do you understand now?"
"You don't want your tool broken." she whispered. Rian rolled onto her side and started to play with her blankets.
"It's not that." I groaned. I don't even know why I bothered telling her anything. She always managed to twist my words. I should have just admitted to being an idiot and move on from there.
"I thought you were going to die back there." I said. "If Zaalbar didn't get there in time—"
"But he did." Rian cut in curtly.
"I couldn't." I continued. "You were too far away. I couldn't reach you in time to save you. If it wasn't for Zaalbar I don't know what would have happened."
Rian sighed. "You should probably try to get to sleep. It's going to be a big day tomorrow."
"Yeah. You're right." I flicked the light off. "Are you sure you don't want me to race in your place?"
"I'll be fine." she assured me. "I've got a few tricks that should help me out tomorrow."
"Somehow, that doesn't sound comforting." I smirked.
Rian laughed softly. "Good night."
