Mission:

Tell me to head back to the ship, did she? I didn't care what Rian's problem was, Big Z was family. Let them go into the Shadowlands without me; I couldn't just let Zaalbar rot.

I bit my lip. Big Z would be angry. He'd be mad that I was disobeying Rian, he'd be mad that I was going out on a foreign planet by myself and he'd be more than a little peeved about what I was about to do.

That Mandalorian dirt bag was smoking by the workbench. I couldn't be worried if I was angry. I tapped him on his arm.

"What do you want?" he barked.

I couldn't back down. "What kind of weapons do you have?"

"Most of my blasters are as tall as you. Why?"

"I want a couple blades," I said. "And a blaster. Nothing too fancy, but quiet. Can you do that?"

"Did Vega send you as her little slave girl?" Canderous asked.

"No." I scowled. "This is for me."

The Mandalorian grinned. "I'll see what I can do."

Bastard.

He replaced the hilt on a vibroblade to accommodate my smaller hand and gave me what looked like one of Carth's blasters. As I tested out the feel of the blade in my hands, he eyed me critically.

"You're missing something," he said.

"What?" I snorted. "An enemy to skewer?"

Canderous flicked his cigarra to the ground and crushed it with his boot. "No, you're too obvious," he replied. "There's no way you're going to outclass anyone on this planet in size. So you need an extra edge."

"It's called skill," I growled. "I have it."

"You and a third of the Republic army," Canderous said. "Stop being stupid."

"What's my edge, then?"

He took a moment to consider the situation before he spoke. "That blaster only gives off low grade sonic damage. An annoyance to you or me, but I'm sure it'd piss off a Wookiee or Cathar. So that blade's going to be your main weapon."

"And?"

Canderous bent down and pulled a large serrated knife from his boot. "Take this," he said. "Hide it in your boot, up your sleeve, in your cleavage, I don't care. Just somewhere it's not clearly visible, but easily accessible to you."

"Okay." I took the knife into my hands. It was large enough that I ran the risk of lobbing a breast off if I pulled it out of my cleavage wrong.

Canderous took a moment to give a demonstration. By the time I told him that Rian was expecting him down by the Czerka headquarters, I was confident in what angle I would use when gutting the average humanoid from throat to groin. Zaalbar was going to be so mad.

When Bastila stormed onto the Ebon Hawk, it looked like a garnant had crawled up her butt and decided to breed. Canderous took one look at her and left the ship.

"I'll be in my room, meditating," she said. "Maybe I can calm Rian that way."

I won't give names, but it sounded to me like somebody had just lost her mind. Whatever. That just meant that Bastila wouldn't be there to try and stop me.

I gathered my weapons and stealth generator. I took a second to practice slipping the knife in and out of my cleavage until I was convinced that I wouldn't kill myself while trying to use it. The only thing left to do was to track down Teethree and see if he'd want to keep me company.

The little droid was in the cargo hold. He seemed happy to see me, but he immediately turned down my suggestion.

"Why not?" I demanded.

As Teethree tooted, a small child shuffled out from behind a grain canister.

"You and Canderous have a daughter?" I raised an eyebrow. "I'll admit, Teethree, that's not exactly what I'd call a conventional relationship."

The astromech gurgled as the girl squealed and batted at him.

"Don't get me wrong," I said. "If you and the Mandalorian make each other happy, who am I to tell you that you two make a hideously deranged couple? I'll support you one hundred percent."

I slipped out of the cargo hold as fast as possible. Barf. I snickered at the thought of what would happen when Bastila found out about the little girl and her adoptive parents.

Bastila had locked herself away in one of the crew's cabins, so I had a clear path to the exit ramp. I flicked on my stealth generator immediately; Czerka could suck on a thermal detonator if they thought they were going to hassle me.

Down the ramp, past the slavers and through the gate. The kinrath seemed to sense that something was there, but they couldn't see me. I decided not to give myself away and held off on shooting the buggers.

So this was Big Z's home planet, was it? It looked much better than Ryloth. Not that I had actually ever been on Ryloth, but all the holo-vids I'd seen of the Twi'leki home world made it look so dreary. Maybe if Rian could fix everything, find her star thing, get Zaalbar to make up with all his Wookiee friends, maybe track down my brother, when everything was done Big Z and I could build a summer home here. A nice little breezy place in the trees and we'd play good music and eat greasy food.

At the gates to the Wookiee village, all the guards looked really peeved. As I watched them closely for a moment, it dawned on me that they could probably smell me. I should have thought of that. Maybe I could have pulled one of Zaalbar's belts out of the Ebon Hawk and rubbed myself with it.

As it was, I certainly didn't smell like l'eau de Wookiee. I smelled like Mission Vao. A potentially screwed Mission Vao.

I got angry. Or I panicked, I haven't quite decided. But I pulled out the sonic blaster and started shooting the gate guards. If they hadn't noticed me before, then there was no doubt anymore.

The big fur balls crumpled into heaps as they clawed at their ears. One point to Mission Vao, zero for the Wookiees.

I hopped over their hulking forms and into their village. Last I knew, Zaalbar was in the Chieftain's hut. I could remember roughly where it was, but you'd think the Wookiees would label their buildings or something.

"Hang in there, buddy." I flicked the stealth generator back on.

All I had to do was find the hut filled with humans. For a Chieftain, Chuundar must have felt really confident with his position to be flanked by Czerka slavers constantly.

I think what made me so angry was that Chuundar was Zaalbar's brother. Family was supposed to stick together, be there for one another. I mean, that's how it was with Griff and me.

Somehow, I knew I'd find my brother. Maybe it was because I finally had access to a ship, but the galaxy was only so big. Besides, knowing Griff, he'd be on a planet where there was easy money like Nar Shadaa or Corellia. One jingle of my purse and he'd find me in no time.

Griff would wait, Big Z was now. I hurried down the rickety walkways and headed towards the centermost hut. Inside, Big Z was sitting in a corner, his fingers laced together. I saw his nose twitch and his face sour. Yep, I'd be in trouble with him as soon as I got him out of there.

A couple slavers stalked around the hut like they were important. Armed, disabling their weapons was my top priority. The sonic blaster would be pretty worthless on humans, so I turned on the power cell to my vibroblade.

I caught one man along the blaster at his hips before my stealth generator gave way from all my movement. One down, one to go. Zaalbar was screaming mad. He started to roar as I hopped over to the next Czerka man.

Those animals had put a chain around Big Z's neck. Concentrate. The slaver had a huge vibrosword and I had to duck to avoid his swooping blow. I sprang back up and aimed for his armpit. He parried and I jumped away, putting some distance between us. I'd rescue Zaalbar and then everything would be okay.

"Well, aren't you a pretty specimen?" He was trying to bait me.

"Schutta." I swung for his groin. I missed, but it certainly killed the grin on his face.

"Feisty too." He moved slowly, cautiously.

"/Behind you/" Zaalbar?

I spun around in time to feel something stab into my shoulder. The slaver with the injured hip gave a quick chuckle from his spot on the floor. You'd think with a stun setting on blasters, slavers wouldn't have a need for drugged blow darts anymore. Crap.

I tried one final lunge at my attacker, but I don't think I hit him. If my vision hadn't been so blurry, I would have been certain. Zaalbar was screaming, but I couldn't see him. I think I scuffed my knees on the ground.

No, no, no! This wasn't happening. No way. Things like that happened to unprepared idiots and little kids. Babies.

It didn't matter. I just wanted Zaalbar safe. I had been worried about how angry my little rescue mission would make him, but he didn't sound mad. Fear was in his voice and I think I liked that even less.