Chapter 9
Planet Zeltros, Blue Palm Hotel and Resort
"Well Captain Syndulla, here you are," the ownerof the resort, a Zeltron by the name Iro Asamih, said proudly to Hera as they walked out onto the loading dock for the barge tour, "Our pride and joy, the Prestige. Think you can handle her?"
"It's…different I'll grant you, but it should be a piece of cake," Hera grinned, walking out to see the huge barge before her.
Hera wasn't the least bit impressed with the craft she was to fly, at least from a performance stand-point. It was a giant luxury sailing barge. It was larger than the ones she was familiar with, the kind used by the Hutts. It was painted a stark white with blue stripes along its long curving lateral structure. Huge diamond shaped 'sails' on angled masts gave the huge wooden deck ample shade. It was actually a bit larger than the Ghost, at least in length, with roughly similar width and height. Long ribbons of red, blue, green, and yellow hung from the rear of the craft where her command station was located with a real old fashioned steering device she noticed.
As she boarded the craft she noted that the wheel was made of wood, with elaborately carved surfaces and a shiny dark veneer. All-in-all, it was a splendid piece of craftsmanship. The command station as a whole had three control stations that she recognized immediately. One in the rear of the raised platform was an engineering station, with all the readouts of the craft's mechanics in bright blue. A second to the right of the wheel was a communications point and also controlled the craft's intercom system which spoke to the passengers. And the third was a sensor station keeping track of anything near or far from the large barge as it went about its business.
"And my bridge crew?" Hera asked, noting the lack of additional crewmen.
"They'll be along shortly. Each is quite experienced and competent in their duties and as are the other eight staff aboard the Nautilus," Iro said confidently, checking his watch, "Well duty calls Hera. Good luck, go ahead and take your time to familiarize yourself with the vessel."
"Thanks Iro, I'll take good care of her."
The Zeltron nodded, and walked off, allowing Hera to take a good look at the Prestige for herself. The first thing she noticed was that it was immaculately clean with every surface shining in the glinting of the rising sun. The main deck was made of a dark wooden floor with a small bar in the center of the barge with one of the masts in the center of the rectangular shaped bar. Holograms were alight across the deck, showing the Blue Palm logo along with images of fantastically beautiful views of the planet. There were several tables, deck chairs, and lounges along the sides for people to be comfortably seated as they watched the passing beauty of the planet on their tour. Hera took a staircase down to the indoor section of the barge, where she was surprised to see a functioning restaurant was right below her command station with several tables along the glass windows that made up the sides of the hull for the most part. Screens along the many structural pillars in the center were going back and forth between similar beautiful landscapes and the Blue Palm logo like the holograms on the main deck. The front of the vessel angled up at the nose like an old sailing vessel, just opposite of the Huttese sailing barges. Hera was pleased to see that her vessel was not skimped out upon during her construction.
"She was specially built for the resort," a new voice said behind Hera as she looked around.
Hera turned to see a lavender skinned Zeltron standing on the stairs wearing a similar blue uniform to hers, except while she had a skirt on he had a pair of shorts.
"The name's Wais, Chief Engineer," the man said as he extended his hand with a genuine smile upon his face.
"Hera," she said back shaking the hand firmly, "I guess I'm the new captain huh?"
"Yeah I know, your name's already on the roster. Glad to meet ya," the guy said, "I think we should get our preflight checks done before the rest of the crew get here."
"Lead on," Hera said with a polite wave as they both went onto the top deck and got to work.
The readouts were all fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Hera was somewhat confused at the absolutely pristine condition of her barge. She was used to the large plethora of problems on the Ghost and maintenance was just something she had come to expect. So to be here now, just waiting without anything really to do, felt wrong to say the least. But this didn't last long, as the time had arrived to get the Prestige warmed up.
Her command crew had arrived, her navigator, a male Zeltron by the name of Lua, and her communications specialist, a female Zeltron named Nees. Each was in a similar uniform to the one she wore, but with a different symbol on their arms denoting their duties. And they knew how to do their duties.
Each of them warmed up their systems, calling out that their systems were in the green. And then Hera ordered them to start up their main repulsorlift drives. The humming of the powerful devices caused a buzz to travel through the ship. Hera felt it through her feet and then felt it stop every bit as quickly. The drive was working perfectly. Her crew was arriving, and was were her first passengers.
They all looked ready to go on quite a trip. A trip to see the beauty of the Zeltros, and overall they wanted to do it absolute comfort and relaxation. As if Hera would let them.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Nees called out on the intercom, "We're about to depart for our voyage to see the wonders of our wonderful planet. Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times."
Hera smiled as she pushed the throttle forward, sending the Prestige forward out of its berth. The craft's inertial dampeners and artificial gravity systems made certain the higher than normal acceleration of the barge wasn't felt by anyone. But they didn't really know at all what they were in for, while Hera did.
Kanan was already pretty pleased today. The hotel had an influx of new guests with some high end of speeders that needed parking and a lot of people needed their speeders retrieved and bags needed to be moved. And Kanan was a people person and in good shape, so the tips had come flowing in. The guests who'd frequented the Blue Palm were usually of the upper echelon of society, and treated with respect and rapid service handed out tips with some great charity. During a lull between the storms Kanan had counted up his earnings and saw he had well over a hundred credits from three hours of work.
But it was exhausting, that was for certain, and the heat of the noon sun didn't help him out. So he'd clocked out for his scheduled break and was sitting in the employee lounge area on the side of the main building where he knew Ezra and Chopper were assigned to washing the massive skyscraper's windows. He was seated by himself in the employee lounge with a bottle of water and was relaxing, enjoying the view of the gardens just outside the lounge.
He wasn't hungry, having eaten a sandwich back at the condo and a plate of fruits provided at the buffet for the employees to curb their hunger and keep up the energy needed to perform their duties. He saw now he was one of the very few humans in the lounge. There were a few, mainly women easily intermingling with the Zeltron staff, who made up the vast majority of the staff at the Blue Palm. He on the other hand was by himself, waiting for Zeb, Ezra, and Sabine who were due for their own lunch breaks and see how things were going with them. As he waited a news feed was on the Holonet screens in the lounge playing some classic Imperial propaganda. Then he saw something that made him listen in carefully.
An Imperial reporter, just a talking head really, was reporting a new attack that had taken place on an Imperial supply convoy near the Zeltron system. And any attacks that hurt the Empire he was looking to know more.
"So far Imperial authorities have been unable to track down this mysterious rogue band of terrorists that attacked a small supply convoy to Imperial forces in the Outer Rim," the man said calmly, reading off the information flawlessly.
Good, Kanan thought to himself, the more Rebels still out there the better.
"However Imperial forces did get a very detailed picture of the attacking vessel," the man said, an image of a small, sleek ship appearing on the screen, "If any citizens happen upon this vessel, a Gonzati class Cruiser stolen from the Empire's base on Kashyyyk, then they are to immediately contact Imperial authorities. Under no circumstances are citizens to attempt to apprehend these barbarians themselves as they are extremely dangerous."
Kanan examined the vessel he was confronted with. Overall it looked a lot like the Imperial freighters that they were used to dealing with by now. But it definitely seemed to have gone through quite a renovation. There seemed to be a row of what Kanan was intrigued to see were AG-2G Quad Laser Turrets on both wings, two above and two under each wing, bringing the total to eight. A pair of larger wing mounted laser cannons were mounted fixed forward while the craft had retained its original two turrets. The engines seemed to have gotten beefed up from what he saw, as the old imperial Freighter turned Rebel gunship was far faster than any he had ever seen. In fact everything about this ship seemed to be better, even the paintjob, a linear pair of red stripes went right down the flanks of the vessel with a black skull behind the cockpit.
"Good to see the Empire's gonna be busy with someone besides us," Zeb chuckled as he surprised Kanan by sitting down next to him with a plate of food.
"That's no joke," Kanan chuckled, redirecting his attention as the story changed to something else entirely on the Holonet and Kanan lost interest, "Seen Sabine?"
"She was right behind me getting some grub," Zeb responded to him through a mouthful of food.
"I am now here with some grub," the voice of said Mandalorian responded before Kanan could respond to Zeb.
Sabine was still wearing her uniform, but without the t-shirt that she'd had over her modest blue bikini top. It wasn't as bad as Sabine had made it out to be that morning, but one was able to see that Sabine certainly wasn't late to puberty with her body's development. Her flat and toned belly, like the rest of her skin, had a visible sheen of sunscreen and sweat from a hard day's work on it. Her legs had a layer of speckled sand up to her shins from going all over the place in her rounds delivering drinks and food to customers at high speeds. She also had a pair of sunglasses propped up on her head, a necessity when working on the beach.
"You look pretty good Sabine," Kanan said, nodding to her as she sat down.
"Apparently I must," she huffed, "Probably had every male on that beach checking me out today."
"Well did it translate into tips?" Zeb asked.
"Yeah I've had some. Most of them were written into the checks so I won't really know how many I got until the end of the day," she shrugged, "What about you guys?"
"Security guards don't get tips," Zeb responded, "But my rate is better than yours."
"What about you Kanan?"
"A little over a hundred credits. It's been a really busy day here," he replied with some smugness to his voice.
"No fair," Zeb laughed, punching Kanan in the arm, "I don't have what you've got."
He was of course referring to Kanan's connection to the Force and was disciplined enough to not say it outright.
"Not to mention you probably wouldn't fit into most of the speeders I was in today," he replied, "I tell you, half of the speeders I drove today probably cost more than the Ghost does."
"I wouldn't doubt it," Sabine piped up, "Some of these people are very loose with spending their credits."
"What do you expect from the filthy rich?" Zeb grumbled.
"Speaking of filthy where's our window cleaners? How've they been doing?" Sabine asked, looking to Kanan expectantly.
"They haven't come down yet. I'd imagine it should be soon, their platform has to refill its tanks at least two or three times a day," Kanan grumbled as a shadow passed over the window and he turned to see the bright yellow object in question hover on down.
A team of pit droids immediately got to work on it, giving it a once over as they connected long hoses to it within its landing pad. They could all see Ezra hop over the railings, and shook his head like a dog and a shower of water went everywhere as he whipped his arms around and kicked with his legs. They all saw his face was not a happy one as he walked towards the door and then figured out why. Ezra was soaking wet.
"Oh I so knew this was going to happen," Zeb laughed, pounding on the table as his day was brightened.
"Who didn't?" Sabine said calmly herself, "That is Chopper and Ezra out there."
"True enough," Kanan said as Ezra opened the door, water dripping from all over the floor.
Ezra seemed to be a little bit distracted, as he hadn't exactly known where they were supposed to meet or if he was the first on here.
"Ezra, over here," he called out to his Padawan.
Ezra looked over, and caught eye of Sabine in her uniform for the first time. Kanan noted Ezra's eyes going wide as he saw all the exposed skin. He'd only seen Sabine show that much skin after she'd taken a blaster bolt to the back of her shoulder and was getting it patched up in the common room by Hera and Kanan. It was a mistake, to have walked in on them at the time, but Sabine's head was in the clouds thanks to the painkillers she'd been injected with at the time. After all, healing, even with their tech, was a painful process and the lack of a visible scar didn't underlie how much pain she'd gone through to get to that point. If there was one thing Sabine didn't like was anything permanent, especially on her person.
"Wow, Sabine," Ezra said, flirt written all through his voice, stance, and intent, "You're lookin' good."
"So they tell me," Sabine responded, noticing Ezra's eyes wandering over her. So with a roll of her eyes she growled at him, "Kid, eyes up. Got it?"
"Sorry," Ezra stumbled out barely, he was honestly lost for words right now. His crush on Sabine had made this sight almost impossible to miss for his hormonally raging mind.
"I see you and Chopper were having some…fun today," Kanan noted, carefully changing the subject.
"Remind me to bring an umbrella tomorrow. Something tells me this won't be the last time he'll try drowning me."
"Well you've got until four kid, then you're off for the day and presto, over a hundred credits in the bag. And all you had to do was hit a few buttons and not get in trouble."
"Speaking of trouble," Zeb grumbled, seeing a rather odd sight before the Ghost crew.
A pair of human boys probably in their high teens or early twenties wearing the average tourist's wears of swim trunks and unbuttoned tropical shirts came sauntering in. From their spot the four of them could smell the alcohol just expanding from the two individuals. None of the other employees tried to stop them as the duo came inside. And one of them saw Sabine out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh no," Sabine grumbled under her breath, trying to hide her face.
"What?" Ezra asked.
"These two are from one of the cabanas I'd had to wait on today," she whispered, "They've been hitting on me all day."
"Oh have some secret admirers have we?" Kanan chuckled.
"Not so secret, and not so smart ones. They're my best tippers, but they're rich pretty boys. I doubt anyone has ever said no to them in their lives," Sabine responded back as both came on over.
"Hey there Sabine," the first kid piped up, swaying on his feet slightly, "Heard you were on break, we missed you."
"Did you now?" Sabine said with a very forced smile, "Well I'm back on in a half hour. I'm sure one of my co-workers will get you whatever you need."
"Well," the second said with a cocky grin, "She's not you. We wanted you to come with us to a party, just us. Nobody else."
The smile on his face and the way in which he just undressed her with his drunken eyes was enough to get Ezra's blood boiling. But Zeb beat him to the punch.
"You gentlemen are in an employee's only spot I believe," Zeb started calmly, standing up and towered over them, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you two to leave this area."
"Listen freak," the first one said, drunkenly putting his finger on Zeb's chest before flashing a card in his face, "Do you know who I am?"
"Ilek Junto," Zeb responded, "A VIP Access Member from what your card says."
"That's right," the kid responded before he did the next worse he could possibly do, he pushed Zeb as if he were some servant, and then he leaned down and traced a finger right along Sabine's chin, "Now why don't you buzz off? Now Sabine, how's about you wait on us…I don't know, at my penthouse suite?"
"Do not touch me," Sabine snapped, swatting away the hand with absolute disdain before a massive hand grabbed onto the pretty boy's shirt and ripped him off of his feet.
"Oh you've done it now," Kanan chuckled as Zeb walked towards the door.
"Now let me let you two in on a little secret," Zeb grinned eagerly, knowing that the time for being polite had passed very quickly, "Security guards don't care who anyone is. When you're asked to leave you leave. You resist, or worse, you put your hands on our girls…"
Zeb had both of them in hand by now, and walked out of the door as another pair of security guards came over, responding to the call that some of the other employees had made. What they were confronted with was the new guy doing his job, and enjoying it as he walked to the stone wall above a pool for guests.
"Now, why don't you two go ahead and stay out!" Zeb roared as he launched them over the wall and let them fall right into the pool, clothes and all.
Both guards saw Zeb, who cringed to see a manager also standing there. But he was surprised and extremely relieved to see him give Zeb a smile and "good job" nod to him as he went right back to his business. The other employees in the lounge gave Zeb a few hearty claps and cheers upon his reentry as he sat back down.
"Thanks Zeb," Sabine gratefully sighed, "But I could've handled them."
"Where's the fun in that?"
Now that's how to deal with spoiled pretty boys, wouldn't you say? Well, I'm getting tired, and I'm looking forward to some turkey and football, tomorrow. But I'm a Cowboys fan so…yeah my hopes are not very high for my team. But oh well. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you thought, good or bad, I want to hear it all.
Next Chapter Preview: Their time on Zeltros goes on, but as does the Rebellion.