The solitary asteroid visible outside the cockpit was their destination, but it didn't look identifiably the same as where they'd been several days ago; Sareena had been to several asteroid outposts, and giant brown rocks were a blur in her memory.
The eager young voice on the traffic control channel, however, she remembered. "Hey," he said, "weren't you guys just here?"
"Yes," Sareena affirmed, "and our client was so pleased with what we found, they want us to see if there's anything else they're looking for here."
"Really?" he answered with suspicious disbelief.
"Hey, if they want to pay in advance to even look for their long shot, who am I to complain? Maybe we'll even find something."
"Sounds like a nice job...You've been cleared to dock, landing beacon is active. Have a nice visit!"
"Thanks," she said before turning off the comm. He seemed pleasant enough.
Of course, he was also just the guy sitting in a room chatting all day. She looked at Beril in the pilot seat beside her. "I get the feeling they're not used to repeat guests like us," she said, "so keep an eye out for any...surprises."
"Trivial," Beril declared with boredom.
"Alright," Sareena said as she looked back at Rian and Ahsoka. "We'll be landing in a couple minutes, so let's go over the plan one last time: The dealers are unlikely to have detailed records of origin, so we'll need to 'borrow' the station's traffic logs. Beril and Laani will handle the computer network, while—"
"Actually," Beril cut in quickly, "I've been thinking about it, and Laani should go with you; I can slice a system myself, and you might need her mechanical familiarity."
"Whatever," Ahsoka answered noncommittally.
Sareena blinked. "I'm a little worried about a fight breaking out while you're preoccupied."
"Don't worry, I won't be anywhere near the ship."
She sighed. "It's not the ship I'm worried about, Beril."
Beril paused for only a second. "I appreciate that, but—"
"Trade?" Rian asked.
"Whatever," Ahsoka answered in the exact same tone as before.
"...that'll work," Beril agreed.
Sareena darted her eyes between Beril and Ahsoka suspiciously. "Fine," she sighed. "Beril and Rian will handle the computer network. I'll still be checking out the traders, in case they've got helpful information about the salvagers or whoever. But Laani, I don't want anyone seeing you by yourself and hoping to luck into a couple million credits, so we'll both check out the traders."
Ahsoka crossed her arms. "You're really going to leave the ship unoccupied," she said with disapproval, "just to keep an eye on me?" She clearly wasn't thrilled with the idea. Sareena didn't particularly like it either, though she suspected Ahsoka was actually more concerned with the pairing than the vehicle.
But she saw no alternative. She knew Beril's habits, the girl brought this up at the last minute to keep Ahsoka away from her. Ordering Ahsoka to go anyway was going to provoke a volatile battle of wills at best. Rian couldn't guard the ship and Beril at the same time, and his presence would make the traders far too nervous. And having Ahsoka handle the traders on her own would be even riskier than having her stay behind at the ship, as a great many more people would see her in public.
So it was time to find out how well she and Ahsoka worked together, without a thrill between them. "None of us are expendable," Sareena stated emphatically, answering that angle of Ahsoka's statement. "Not Beril, not you, not Rian. I bet there's another light freighter ready to go at the drop of a hat back home, while we can't be replaced. And if that isn't enough, a fight breaking out will draw as much unwelcome attention as Beril slicing right outside the door would. Now, if any of you have a better arrangement in mind, let's hear it."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes, but no one said anything.
"Alright then," Sareena said. "Beril, can you set the ship's security systems to notify us via comlink if there's a break-in attempt or someone loitering in bug-planting range or whatever?"
"Of course I can," she said cheerily.
"Good, that'll give us extra time to react if there's some sort of problem."
"And I assume we won't want Rian too far from the ship?"
Rian scoffed. "Duh."
Sareena continued before Beril had a chance to say anything in response. "If you guys can find a spot to watch the ship without looking like you're watching the ship, all the better. Now, are there any other last-minute alterations I should know about?"
"That depends," Beril said, "on whether those guys with the blasters are waiting for us. That'd be new..."
Sareena shot a look at the viewscreen. Just behind the open landing pad, there were two uniformed men with blaster rifles, flanking another uniformed man with his hands crossed behind his back.
"It certainly looks like a customs inspection," she said. This was officially a colony of some neighboring planet, after all.
"Unless we're acting suspicious all of a sudden," Beril noted, "we're set to land in about thirty seconds."
That didn't leave much time for dilly-dallying. "Rian?"
"Doubt it's an ambush," he answered the implied question, "they'd be easy prey if we had any 'aftermarket' shipboard weapons. Who walks into that? You and I meet them at the bottom of the ramp, we'll play it by ear. And maybe upside their heads."
"I'll have our escape ready if it gets ugly," Beril declared.
"Don't worry about me," Ahsoka said casually.
Fortunately there was nothing to argue about, with the time she didn't have to argue. "Alright, let's go."
Rian followed behind Sareena as she walked down the loading ramp at a deliberate pace, as the trio of human officers approached the bottom of the same ramp. She was the registered captain with the accredited license, after all; dealing with officials would be her job. Even better, he looked bigger when compared to her, even before considering the height the angled ramp gave him; and the three men had noticed, judging by their nervous looks.
"Can we help you gentlemen?" Sareena asked earnestly.
"We're here to inspect the freighter," the middle man answered, easing his face into a neutral expression. Rian noted that the man, who he presumed was the lead officer since he wasn't carrying a rifle like his buddies, was only slightly taller than Sareena. That meant he was quite short; Sareena was in fact noticeably taller than average for a woman, but still within the normal range and nowhere near tall enough to offset the male/female average height difference. His build didn't suggest significant musculature either, so he wouldn't pose a primary threat if a fight broke out.
"Well that should be easy, since we're not carrying any cargo," she answered.
"Not the cargo," he declared as his guards reflexively squeezed the grips of their rifles, "the freighter."
"Is something wrong with the ship's registration?" she asked after a brief, and presumably calculated, pause.
"No. Now I'll have to ask you to step aside."
Rian plotted quickly. Both of the blaster rifles were facing off to the side, away from Sareena and himself. Presumably to avoid provoking him, which was wise; the three were close enough that he could overpower them before the two guards could take aim.
"I...think I need to know why first," Sareena countered with just a hint of irritation. Surely she already knew their uniforms weren't Imperial, and the local authorities had more legal restrictions to uphold.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss it," he replied matter-of-factly.
Rian scoffed. "Yeah, I bet you're not at liberty to discuss the absence of a scanning crew for a ship inspection either," he said sarcastically, slowly straightening his posture to add a few more centimeters to his height.
"No," he replied sourly, "I'm not."
Rian was ready to disarm them, but Sareena interrupted before things could escalate. "Look," she said firmly, before lowering her voice. "You're about two people short for a customs inspection anyway, so why don't you tell me what's really going on here, hmm?" She then did something with her hand, though he couldn't tell what; the subtle movement of her shoulder was all he could see.
He didn't have to wonder for long, as he did see the officer take an object from her. A credit chip, specifically. "Customs has flagged numerous ships docking here for inspections," he whispered, "including yours, and we don't have the resources to fully examine each and every one."
"So you're rushing inspections that look thorough instead of prompting Imperial Customs to place a garrison here to support agents of their own. Examine our empty cargo bay, if that's what you're after; we don't want to waste your time any more than we want to waste ours."
Before they had a chance to object or agree, Sareena walked calmly around them, to the right. When she was directly to the side of the men, she quickly thrust her right hand a short distance from her hip, with her fingers and thumb spread apart but slightly curled. She just as suddenly relaxed, but the meaning of the gesture, hidden from the officers by the rest of her body, was obvious: the near man was going to discover how quickly she could draw and fire a hidden blaster if there was any trouble.
She then turned to face the three of them. "Come along," she said, "You won't need to worry about our pilot." That hint was equally obvious: They didn't need to know about Laani in advance. Or preferably, at all.
Rian simply took two steps to the left, keeping the group in striking distance; they could go past him on their own. "Think you could buy some load lifter droids with our fee this time?" he asked. Maybe they'd prefer to think his job was hauling crates instead of pounding heads.
"I'm sure I could," she responded noncommittally, as the officers warily made their way up the ramp.
Sareena cautiously moved up the ramp well behind them, stopping at Rian's side. When the officers were out of view, she sighed.
"Great," she added sarcastically under her breath.
"This isn't suspicious at all," he said with the same sarcasm.
"Certainly more attention than I'd like."
As if on cue, there was a sensation of motion at the edge of Rian's peripheral vision; he turned his head in that direction. The landing area was quite sparsely populated, but it wasn't empty; three technicians were busy on other ships, all of them too far away to overhear. All he saw at the point his vision had indicated was a vacant corridor entry. There was no way to tell if someone had been watching or not; much less if they were watching the ship, the inspectors, or the two of them.
Not that it would make that much difference now, any possible observer was already gone. "And more than I think we know about. That could change things."
Sareena exhaled sharply. "We better get inside before they think they need free run of the ship."
The customs people, fitting Ahsoka's expectations, didn't find it worth their time to actually search beyond the empty cargo bay. If they had, they could possibly have found the concealed compartments with Rian's military-grade gear, Beril's hidden supplies, or Ahsoka herself. Not that she would have a problem using the Force to "convince" them they didn't need to search for anything they'd get killed over, but no action meant no possibility of a trail leading back to her.
As it was, they had left of their own accord, leaving no short-term problem but unpleasant long-term implications.
"I don't like surprises," Sareena was fuming as she walked circles in the freighter's cargo bay. "Especially not a second time in a row," she added, glancing at Ahsoka.
"Local customs probably didn't like the surprise either," Beril guessed. "It's not like Imperial Customs is known for its transparency, they likely mentioned it when we started docking and not a moment sooner."
"I suppose," Sareena said, "but he said numerous ships that frequent here. What are the odds that they aren't looking specifically for us?"
"Slim," Rian declared, "but if they recognized us they'd have locked us down already, not given us advance warning. And this is the same ship we took here before."
"They could be trying to backtrack the engine to find us," Ahsoka suggested, "same way we're trying to backtrack the engine to find the ship it came out of."
Sareena stopped pacing. "But how would they even know—"
"The bounty," Beril cut in. "You know, the one on a Jedi that didn't mention the fact, with a big enough price tag to guarantee a capture attempt?"
Ahsoka's heart sank. Was the Emperor truly after her as Vader had claimed, or was Vader trying to beat him to it? His determination certainly hadn't waned over the years, any more than her own. "So you think the whole thing's a ploy to provoke a spectacle?"
"It worked, didn't it?" Beril countered. "Besides, they wouldn't have to pay unless one of them actually managed to capture a Jedi alive."
"Assuming that claiming the bounty wasn't a ruse for an execution," Rian commented.
"Great," Ahsoka commented with all the sarcasm she could muster, "now the Empire's after me because some thugs can't tell Togruta apart."
Sareena took a deep breath. "If they aren't following the engine itself, we should be safe once we get out of here. But if they're after you...or more accurately, who they think you are...OK, change of plans: We're not going to check out the traders if Beril and Rian find enough to follow up on. Laani and I will stay onboard...in the cockpit, so we'll be ready in case the Empire is just slow on the draw and we need to take off while Beril is coming up here."
Rian turned his head slightly to look directly at Sareena. "Too early to think they aren't after the engine, isn't it?"
"Well, if they're after both then the point still stands, we'll just have more hassles after we leave."
"Wouldn't make an immediate difference," Ahsoka agreed. She wanted to protest the part of the plan where she was stuck in close proximity to Sareena, but she couldn't see a way to do it without undercutting her earlier statement of wanting to stay inside the ship. And the thought that her own pettiness could be turned against her was more of a concern than anything that might jeopardize the mission or inconvenience her personally.
"So anyway," Sareena continued. "While you're in there, Beril, see what you can find out about the ships in the other inspections we just heard about; I'd like to avoid relying on nice-sounding guesses."
"Piece of cake," Beril answered dismissively. "You know...it's going to look really suspicious if we haven't even looked for anything here to haul off, especially after you told the one guy we're here specifically to look for something."
"True...well, one step at a time; we'll figure the rest out after you and Rian get back. Speaking of, it's been long enough for customs to get back to their duties, so I don't think there's any need to wait longer. You already grabbed the encrypted comlinks, right?"
"Yep."
"Let us know if things turn bad...and only if they turn bad, we'll do the same. Don't want to risk someone asking why we're encrypting our comms."
"Sheesh, Sareena, don't you have a treatment for acute paranoia? This isn't exactly an Imperial installation, here."
Sareena exhaled slowly. "Look. The whole bounty-ploy plot we're assuming? Means nothing without some way for them to actually deal with a Jedi. And if the search is ongoing right here..." She looked at Ahsoka, and pointedly asked, "Do you want to deal with the frustrations of whatever the Empire values at two million credits?"
So she was asking if Ahsoka wanted to deal with her own frustrations. Cute, though not cute enough for her to answer the oblique question. "I'd rather face an army of battle droids. All they'd do is kill me; the Empire would want to be completely sure who I was before killing me. And they don't ask nicely."
Rian scoffed. "There's an understatement..."
"So the sooner we get this done," Sareena continued undaunted, "The sooner we can get out of this mess. Let's get a move-on."
Beril and Rian walked down the ramp together, while Sareena headed up to the front of the ship. Ahsoka paused, wondering if Beril had a point about Sareena's degree of caution. She closed her eyes and reached out with the Force, attempting to ferret out any sense of danger; but it felt as though she was the biggest threat in the vicinity, herself.
"Come along, Laani," Sareena commanded down a corridor.
She growled softly, before jogging towards the cockpit herself. She didn't need the assistance of the Force to beat Sareena to the door.
"Do you enjoy bossing us around, by any chance?" Ahsoka asked sarcastically.
"No," Sareena answered flatly, "I don't."
The imperfectly disguised sadness in her voice, and the way she actively avoided eye contact as she walked past, defused Ahsoka's immediate irritation. There was something there she didn't have time to figure out. "Why do both of us need to be up here, then?" she asked neutrally. "There isn't even a copilot console."
Sareena took a long, deep breath; and stood with her back against one of the side walls. "I know you flew fighters during the Clone Wars, you have more defensive piloting experience than I have. And you're a highly competent engineer, that's officially why you're here in the first place. But, while I'm sure you could almost pull it off, you can't actually be in both parts of the ship at the same time."
"So you're the backup backup pilot."
"Yes. If both the talented pilots are unavailable, it falls to me."
"What about Rian?"
"Rian, the career foot soldier? I'm sure he could handle flying casually, but it'd be more of a flying casualty scenario."
Now that the chances of an internal conflict seemed nil, Ahsoka turned her attention towards the chances of an external conflict; she could deal with Sareena later. "Speaking of avoiding casualties...I doubt Beril deactivated the outside cams before she left."
"Seems unlikely," Sareena agreed as she turned around, and worked some controls on the wall beside her. "And sure enough," she said as a set of screens came to life, "there they are."
The screen showed Beril walking with dominant body language, as though she owned the place; and Rian keeping up with her, the movement of his feet awkwardly slow to avoid outpacing Beril's much shorter legs. It'd have been comical, if it hadn't made her think of how it must have looked to the Jedi Masters when she tried to lead Anakin around all those years ago. She took a deep breath, and shoved the memories away.
"Problem?" Sareena inquired curiously.
Must have been a deeper breath than she thought. "Nothing in particular," she responded. "Let's hope it stays that way."
"I hear that."