Jamis, after several weeks, finally got to pilot her ship again in the wide open vacuum of outer space. It was like a breath of fresh air for her, and her laughter couldn't help but escape her lungs as she leaned back to her seat's backrest. Although her bliss was short-lived when the thought of a homing beacon possibly—and secretly—installed somewhere on her ship caused the sudden heightening of her senses.
Cunningly, she charted a route that had multiple lay-overs, in the hopes that Kylo or Hux's tracking systems
In the middle of her route, she put the ship on auto-pilot, sent a transmission code to Kylo's Star Destroyer communications and waited for the signal to ping. Patiently, she waited while staring off into space while munching on a small pouch of pallies—a snack from Tatooine—until the control panel rang. She flicked the switch that transferred the message to a compact hologram disc. Jamis made herself comfortable on the lounge couch as she gingerly places the disc on top of the center table—which also happens to be a Dejarik table.
A hologram image of Kylo fizzles out of the disc's screen until it was crisp and clear.
"Hey, Ren," Jamis casually greets into the conversation.
"Jamis? Why bother transmitting a message at this time?" asked Kylo quizzically.
"I have something to ask," there was a brief pause between them so Jamis continued, "What are the odds that you've probably installed a homing beacon hiding in plain sight in my own ship?"
His eyebrows furrowed visibly even through a hologram transmission, "Why would you presume that I have—or have not?"
Jamis sat down, propped her elbows on her knees, leaning forward and closer to Kylo's hologram reflection and comes to answer, "Because you don't trust me as a hunter, given that you've never seen me work as one."
Kylo mentally admits that Jamis has a strong point—not to spite herself, but simply stating the obvious. He never knew of a lightsaber-wielding bounty hunter until she crashed in. But in truth, he never installed a home beacon or any of the sort on Jamis's ship behind her back, but it is not her fault if she feels anxious about being watched over by a bigger party—that is the First Order with Kylo Ren and General Hux.
"You're right: this is my first time knowing of you actually hunting, but rest assured you're not under surveillance."
"Let me just get this out of the way, pretty boy: the moment I find out you're lying—consider this bargain void. I don't care if you send another hunter to chase after me, I will always evade whomever they are, I don't even care if you'll pay me. I won't do as you tell me."
With much thought, Kylo took a deep inhale and released a word that he can never take back from a bounty hunter, "Agreed."
Kylo wondered why he always finds himself within the bear-trap grasp of this bounty hunter, and why he could not slip through despite the many openings; unable to simply put it into words, the forged connection he has with the girl is the strongest factor. He cannot easily let her go. To some extent, Armitage—regardless of his constant spiting of the two—was right from the start: Kylo has gotten soft again over some girl. A joke targeted to a lost, innocent and shy boy hiding within a young man's demeanor.
Kylo's hologram crackled again until it melted into the small screen of the disc. Jamis remained in her seat for a few minutes, carefully rethinking what transpired in their conversation and new agreement barely hours into the contract. Taking in slow, deep breaths to calm herself, she returned to the cockpit—with the thought of a homing beacon stuck to her ship being the least of her problems—and reset the drive back to manual.
Jamis wanted to try her luck in seeing how far the First Order's scanners can go, so she reviewed her route that bounced from system to system, parsecs away from each other, but she did not plan out such a path all for naught—she even included desolate planets that are barely inhabited by humans or other species. The pattern of her trip was a combination of planets with urban locations and planets that solely have dense vegetation. This route was strategically planned by her with the task of gathering more supplies as she noticed that she was running quite short of it since her last trip and replenishing her artillery. Her first stop was Coruscant, with the objective of collecting supplies across the city, she did not last long there as her instinct kept bothering her.
"No, too crowded. Easily spotted." Jamis mumbles to herself an analysis of the planet's environment inability to help Skywalker blend in and remain in hiding.
When she was finished with her supplies shopping, she returned to her ship and made way for Baraan-Fa, a planet known for The Bazaar, a point of interest for buyers and merchants alike, ruffians are not out of the demographic. Ruling it out from the list of the possible planets her target may be hiding—the same conclusion with the former: too crowded. Jamis typed the coordinates of the planet and pulled the clutch lever. Once she had gained enough momentum for the ship to prepare itself for a jump, she flicked all the switches and buttons to charge the jump to hyperspace; the stars that dotted the black vacuum of space all at once turned into thin streaks of light, then, almost instantaneously, the Stellar Wind is traversing through a tube of blue gaseous matter—hyperspace. As the ship zooms through the hypnotic tunnel of gas, she checks the radar and then stands up from her seat; she sits down in front of the communications panel of the ship to send a transmission while she nears the planet. The transmission reflected successful in the screen, she leaned back to her seat and smirked while rubbing her chin.
Jamis managed to dock her ship in a landing bay, her reputation was quite welcome in the place though not always smiled upon. Feeling just chipper, she found herself in a bar. Everything was tinted with the hues of yellow, brown, and green—an unsightly color palette—fortunately, it did not smell as unpleasant as the place appears to be. She sees herself to the bartender and orders a drink, the burly bartender—a greasy-looking Neimoidan—grunts as a response to Jamis's order and waits without drawing much attention.
Suddenly, a male Chiss—accompanied by two friends of different species, a Zabrak and a Togruta—approaches her by shoving himself next to her, invading the remaining millimeter of her personal space—which greatly irritated her at an instant but she bit her tongue getting into a fight.
"It's my first time seeing you around here," the Chiss went on, smiling in a perverse manner despite Jamis's evident disinterest radiating and looming around her.
"I've been around a lot of places," she responds without looking.
"Can I get you a drink then?" Chiss continued.
In the nick of time, the Neimoidian bartender lets out a raspy "Hey" at Jamis, sliding her glass towards her and immediately takes a sip as her answer. Embarrassed, the Chiss thought of another way to her pick her up.
"You lost, kitten? I can help you find your friends, if they're around here,"
Jamis stayed quiet, savoring her liquor while completely ignoring the semi-drunk Chiss until he does the unspeakable: he unwelcomingly wraps his arm around her shoulder. Jamis's eyes widened, her fingers' grip on the glass stiffened, and her neck slowly craned to find a set of blue fingers clutching her shoulder. Her free hand reached for the hand that is holding her, dropped the glass from the other and grappled the Chiss down to the floor, pinning him with the contradicting pressure of his arm at its socket, with clenched teeth, she warned him.
"Don't. Touch me." She hissed.
The patrons of the bar were alarmed with the sounds of glass breaking and the hard thud of a body on the floor, the Chiss's friends too became alert, with their friend suddenly pinned to the ground in a matter of seconds. Chiss, still playing it cool, managed to raise his arm to his friends, signaling them that everything will be fine. A great majority of the Chiss population are known for their overconfidence, if not their cunning.
"Whoa now, don't wanna get messy right here, do we?"
"Which is why I pinned you down, unless you do wanna get messy with your brains on the floor."
The bartender, possibly used to the sight of a pre-skirmish scene, exerted the effort of only warning the two to keep it down or take their problem somewhere else.
"Hey, hey, hey now," a familiar voice rang around the crowd, Jamis recognizes it but she did not let her guard down in pinning the Chiss, appearing from the crowd was a purple Twi'lek female and a young, male Zabrak.
The Twi'lek, smiling brightly despite the current scene, nonchalantly commented, "That's a new move ya got there."
"Fira? Ourgus?" said Jamis in a greatly surprised tone.
"Well, got yourself in quite a jam, huh?" Fira commented, not minding the state Jamis is in.
"Gimme some slack, it's been a while since I thought of going out," Jamis coolly replied.
The young Zabrak, Ourgus, looked down at Jamis's feet and saw her victim, he rolled he eyes and chuckled, "Giazu, I reckon it's your first time meeting her, yeah?"
"Yeah, no shit, Ourgus!"
"Giazu, this is Jamis, you probably know her by name as the—"
"The lightsaber-wielder?!"
"Oh, you've done some research. Good work!" Ourgus sarcastically replies.
"Thought it was a lost kitten, figured I'd help out the poor thing."
"Well, this kitten don't need much help from you or your friends," Fira chuckled.
Fira nodded at Jamis, wordlessly telling her to let the poor Chiss go, Jamis released him reluctantly, the blue humanoid sprung back to his feet, retreating to his friends and walking to a reasonably safe distance. When the Chiss and his company was out of sight, Jamis leaped towards Fira and Ourgus for a hug, laughing and relishing a reunion.
"Aye, Jamis, ya still bite, dontcha?" Fira sighed and then wrapping her arm around her, before proceeding to a seat, she tossed a small pouch of credits to the bartender, "Hey, on me!"
They lounged in a booth at the far corner of the bar where they were all snuggled up close to each other to talk. Fira and Ourgus were obviously excited for the surprise show-up of their friend.
"You cheeky thing, you didn't tell us that you were stopping by here!" Fira exclaimed happily before chugging down her drink.
"I actually sent a transmission to your ship, figuring that one of your droids ought to pick it up for you. I didn't realize you'd be hanging around in here." Jamis explained.
"Ahh, you didn't think I'd idle about in my ship if there were tons to do here in Cato Neimoida!"
Fira was beginning to smell strongly of booze, so Ourgus, being the only sober one aside from Jamis, decided to take the conversation elsewhere.
"So, Jamis, why'd you think of coming back here? Are you really back for commission?"
"I… I actually have a contract."
"Really? From whom?"
Jamis paused and thought of the safest answer she can come up with, "Can't say… but it's more of a retrieval mission."
"A bit docile than what you usually do, huh?" said Ourgus before taking a light sip of his own drink. "Who you findin'?"
Jamis looked at the young Zabrak straight in the eye, he immediately sensed that this mission is truly far different from Jamis's usual line of work.
"I'm out to find the old Master."
Fira's tipsy state suddenly turned down to a sober mood, Ourgus remained quiet, and Jamis nervously took a sip of her drink.
"I need to find him."
The other bounty hunters sipped their drink in the midst of the awkward silence, unsure whether to take Jamis's objective seriously or lightly. They are the privileged few—perhaps, the only few—who knew about Jamis's past for she does not disclose it recklessly to anybody.
"I have intel, but it don't depend on it wholly," Fira initiated.
The low, dull light in Jamis's eyes seem to have sparkled but she tried her best not to let it go overboard. She shifted in her seat and listened attentively to Fira's intel, with every morsel, Jamis absorbed it and took a long mental list of notes on what she needed to remember.
"Jamis," Fira said in a firm tone, "You know what to do?"
Jamis confirmed Fira with a nod. For old time's sake, they enjoyed another round of drinks; and then they were already asking Jamis when she will come back—that is something she is unsure of. Vaguely, yet honestly, she tells them soon and then she returns to the docking bay where she had anchored the ship. She immediately ignited the engine of the ship while recounting her inventory from her short-lived trip and then ran to the cockpit to exit the bay and later the planet itself. Keeping in mind what her friends have told her, she focused on the objective at hand and charted her course, but before her fingers would even touch the panel, a thought stopped her dead on her tracks.
"No, I don't need any map…" she thought, reluctantly at first, but suddenly a splash of confidence came to her, "I know where to go!"
She pulled the switches, expertly turned the necessary knobs to their desired points and put her ship to full throttle, then out she was in the vast blackness of space with a newfound confidence and a lingering anxiety.
Oh my God, look at this huge backlog! I didn't want it to become a normal thing but I haven't been able to really sit down and write, let alone finish a chapter in a week like I used to, ever since I got a job. Plus, I have my attention glued to my Playstation since I have been playing Kingdom Hearts 3 (and other games before its release). I guess this is one of the disadvantages of adulting, I used to have the time in the world. My job's been draining too, given that I have to the deal with the people I face and the management with their slightly incompetent planning and... well... management.
But I'll try to keep reeling in some chapters for y'all! Biggest sorry for the long wait. T_T