The Winds Shape

Chapter 16 : The Celebrities

I own not those situations I borrow from Disney Properties, Lucas, Mechalich or Thomas Benjamin DeMayo. This is a dramatization from my mind on a character created from the meld of table gaming and so on. Special thanks to ideas Drew Karpyshyn and Tim Lebbon fermented. Special thanks to Morihei Ushiba who formed Petre with his wisdom. Like any mind construct this is an exercise and my own work building on other ideas from the past.

This is a Zeison Sha story, set in what is known as the Star Wars EU.

Serenno

2.8 BBA

"I'd prefer not." Kua Wan said "I know I will serve for you honorably as long as you pay but when the job is over, I do not want a mountain of evidence left behind."

"Granted!" shouted a slightly irritated Adrianna, tossing her blond locks and activating a door "Then go shower up so Leo and I can choose our bodyguards."

"Can we not choose who we serve?" Jahn voiced gravely.

"Are you paying?" Adrianna asked angrily.

"No, but I would work cheaper." Jahn said casually.

"Then accept what we choose." She barked as the Mystrals hissed "fool" to him.

Jahn shrugged and led the way toward the open door as Leo noticed he had not turned off his suit yet as he approached the darkened corridor exit. He noticed the lad shrugged the "pouch" he had pulled his jar from to his left hip and before he reached he tossed four small items that exploded in the hall as he blocked others with his spear.

Adrianna snarled as the hall cameras went dark but when she put it on replay it seems three little jars exploded on each surface coating them with a foaming glue before they lost camera coverage and a bang sounded as if another blaster fouling had occurred, probably the turret weapon in there.

The two looked up from the monitor as Kua Wan turned to them.

"Thanks to the rimmer, we obviously have avoided your gun trap." He said pointing at the glued turret gun parts littering the hall.

"I need Ambria barnacles, Felucia dycillin and Onderon beast oil to mix up some more as I am down now 25% of the stuff." Jahn called in a cheerful gravelly voice. The Mystrals looked at him with respect and Kua Wan just shook his head.

"What?" Jahn said in his airy whisper "I am a guy who went on many expeditions gathering stuff, you work with xenochemists, that becomes part of your skill set."

"Explosives work better." Kua Wan said.

"Explosives!" they heard Jahn's airy whisper and chuckle.

Adrianna Dooku was about to let her fury go, at loosing her "favorite", of being challenged by her new bodyguards….

Leo was pleased as punch though and laid a calming hand on her "Don't" he whispered before speaking like a senator "I see you are resourceful, serious and will provide protection to the point of overruling us when we make a situation untenable. You have" he began to recount "been tested on piloting, trap and hazard avoidance, poison recognition, speeders and finally combat and dedication." He turned to Adrianna looking her in the eye "You'll do." With that Jahn shut down his staff and thus his suit.

"Where did you get that suit?" Karolly D'ulin asked before Jahn chuckled.

"Its an old updated Echani design we tripped across in some data." He said in his airy whisper.

"What is with your voice?" Karolly asked.

"Birth defect." Jahn said flatly activating the vibration node on his neck "I need the money for the operation. Xenochemist security just does not pay well." He finished in his whisper ending the discussion as they walked down the glued hall.

"You were calm against the gundark." Karolly added.

"Animals are predictable, Black Sun? not so much." He hinted using the vibro module so Leo could hear him finishing filling out all the checkmarks on his resume for the mercenary as they entered.

Leo cleared his throat as he stood, Adrianna waited, still fuming a bit. He began taking the information in his surveillance equipment had picked up.

His fingers flew across the datapad he held looking up "Jedidiah Smoak" finding a Pantoran male, 17 years of age, right size, right backstory as he worked for Kelen Biolabs in the past on "away teams" since he was 8 with his parents. He was autistic so he tended to keep "covered" as people misinterpreted his expressions. He first started work being a simple gofer, working his way into team security and lab assistant when his parents were killed on Vendaxa. No pictures, but even all the locations worked he mentioned checked out albeit it was not an exhaustive list. Biotech people rarely gave out all the information of where they went as that was worth money. Skills seemed to include him being a medic, chemist (but of course working with scientists), a bit of a creative gadget guy, serviceable pilot and a record of 0 deaths to his charges.

The two Mystrals had a long and distinguished careers over the last 10 years. They were infiltration and piloting experts. Unlike in the arena, he wanted them split so they could not gang up on either of them and sent that message to Adrianna's datapad.

Kua Wan, a simple bounty hunter with a few kills on his resume, home world and other details unknown.

"So… choose one guy and one girl, I do not want the Mystrals together." Leo texted with the complete resumes of all their finalists.

"I'll take the asshole so I can watch him die." She texted back.

"Which one is that?" Leo had fun.

"The one with the glowing personality."

"Ok before we let you shower and gather your gear is there anything else we should know?"

"I have two droids." Jahn volunteered "Specially recycled from Akiva from JAK industries. They are kitted with extra sensors and both have advanced hyperdrive calculation software starship piloting as well as bio scanners, minor medical capabilities and have minor weaponry."

"Kidding right? And you cannot afford a voice box?" Karolly asked sarcastically.

"Ever sang for food? Better bio sensors make finding the correct and safe flora possible as well as avenues of escape during ackley migrations when personal data might be low. And they come with fully integrated comlinks" he touched his ear coverings "and slicer capability." He looked at Adrianna with a grin and tapped his ear phone before adding "They were my mom's."

"Fair enough, well Jedidiah, will you consider splitting the droids?"

"Yes," he answered immediately "it will give you more flexibility, I recommend Star, my protocol model for yourself Sir."

"Thank you, you do not mind if we sweep their memories for malware?"

"I would recommend that regardless of where they came from, sweep my ship as well." Jahn responded.

"Well clean up and get ready, you and Karolly have "Dooku Duty", Kua, Dunc, you are my crew. Submit your droids to the Countessa's household here in the palace. Dismissed and see you in the morning."

Jahn went straight to his ship, gathered the droids and a trio of memory sticks then slept well that night, for both hours, after he lit 13 candles for those who died in the tests.