Chapter 7
Lona walked in the streets of the town in Jovin 3. She had worked hard to find the black market on the planet which would sell her weapons. She and the crew needed blasters. She had heard about an unregistered weapons dealer working from a certain building in town. She went to the door where a big Gamorrean at the door. It was big with green skin and small tusks on either side of its snout.
"Hello. I'd like to purchase some sticks." Lona said.
The Gamorean guard snorted at her.
She said something in another language that she did not understand. She was told it was the password to gain entrance. The Gamorrean reluctantly stepped aside and let her come in. She nervously ran her hand through her purple braided hair as she entered into the dark, steep tunnel like hallway. At the end and bottom of the tunnel she saw a weak yellow light that illuminated a room which had weapons on display on blue rectangular containers. The yellow light radiated from levitating lanterns.
Her hazel eyes fell on the weapons as she decided which of them would be most appropriate to her cause. The room had three people only. It had two Toydorians and an Ithorian, also looking through the weapons.
"They are a marvel, aren't they." An old voice said from behind her.
She looked up to see an Toydorian flying behind her. "Yes, they are. Are you the merchant?" She asked.
"Yes, I am. Watto's the name."
"Tell me," she said walking along the displayed blasters at the blasters with Watto following her. "Are they good quality?"
"Of course they are." Watto said. "This would be a fine weapon for a lady such as yourself." He flew to a small handgun blaster and showed it to her.
Lona made a face at the gun. Obviously, Watto was stereotyping her by offering her the cute weapon. The blaster lacked power and she was not interested. She took the blaster anyway and inspected it. Although she would not buy it, she used the opportunity to inspect its quality. It would be an indication of the quality of the rest of his weapons.
"So? What do you think?" Watto asked.
"It's good but I'm looking for something with... more power." She said handing it back to him. She went on inspecting the rest of the weapons. She saw the standard Stormtrooper blaster and thought of Buck Johnson. She had treated Buck coldly over the past few days after she found out that he had killed Ru' Bik's wife. But now that she was far away from him and can think clearly she questioned her anger. Yes, he killed someone that she had bonded with during her stay at the Rebel compound but was it her place to be angry at him, was it even her place to forgive him for what he had done?
"I see you're eyeing this blaster." Watto said gesturing the blaster. "You know it's the standard blaster for Imperial Stromtroopers."
"Ye I do." She said walking on from the blasters. She saw a handgun blaster that she remembered well. She raised the gun and closed her eye in mock aiming. Smiled to herself, she remembered old times. This was the kind of blaster Zack had carried when she first met him, when the Jedi purge had not begun and he had not fallen on the lightsaber and holocron he currently had. He used this weapon when he was still a taxi driver. Maybe if she brought the blaster for him he would use it and not be so overly reliant on his lightsaber. "I'll take three of these." She said placing the gun down and giving Watto the credits.
"Good choice. Good choice." Watto said before taking the credits and flapping away to get the other two blasters.
She continued to look around. She saw some vibro-blades that she was tempted to buy. Although she was not familiar with using them, she suspected that Zack could teach her. Wielding a vibro-knife could not be all that different from wielding a lightsaber, could it?
Lona looked over the collection of different sized blades blades. Her peripheral vision picked up someone new coming into the room. Lona glanced at the newcomer to asses them. She noted that the newcomer was a human female. The stranger had on a black body suit, brown gloves and boots and a green jacket. Her face was covered with a white niqab, which concealed her head, except for her eyes. Lona began feeling uneasy about the situation. She was relieved when Watto flew in and in his hands was a case that she guessed had her blasters.
"Watto! You scum sucking thief!" The newcomer angrily shouted when she saw Watto flying in.
Lona prepared herself for action. She was in a room full of lethal weapons and there were people who sounded like they would be willing to kill each other. Lona instinctively shifted far away from the woman and Watto.
Watto was surprised to see the newcomer, it was obvious that they knew each other. "5000 credits to anyone who can kill her!" Watto said pointing to the newcomer.
Lona was about to protest. She wanted her weapons before the killing fest began but it was too late as the three other beings began to fire at the mystery woman. Lona jumped for cover as blaster fire littered the air and watched the scene unfold. The mystery woman was reckless but could handle herself well with a blaster. She ran forward and took out one of the Toydorians shooting at her. Lona looked at Watto who had disappeared in a secret tunnel that just opened up at the other end of the room. To her surprise, the crates that had the weapons, closed up and blasted into the tunnel after the weapon dealer.
Another being was downed by the woman as Watto was making his escape. The tunnel was blown shut after the last crate went through, blocking any other access to the tunnel. The explosion made a few boulders fall from the ceiling. The Itorian was crushed under a one of the falling boulders. The mystery woman was able to narrowly dodge a falling bolder by jumping and rolling out of the way. When she got up she was tackled to the wall by Lona.
"You!" Lona said choking the woman against the rocky wall. "You cost me my credits and weapons!"
The woman pushed Lona away and kicked her, causing Lona to stumble back. Lona grabbed for the other woman's head but was only able to grab her niqab. The woman's black braids were released from their confines and were shorter than Lona's purple braids. The mystery woman was also a human with dark toned skin like Lona's. Their eyes met for a brief moment before the woman kicked Lona again. This time, Lona fell onto her back before the woman ran away, up the tunnel and out of the room. Lona got up and ran after the woman. The door to the exit was closed so she kicked it open and saw the Gamorrean guardsman on the floor with a smoking hole through his head.
So that's how she got in, Lona thought to herself before she scanned the area for the woman in a black outfit. When she saw her getting on a hover-bike she ran after her.
The mystery woman looked back and saw Lona coming after her. She smiled at herself and looked at her blaster which rested in its holster at her side. She could have shot Lona down but she wanted to humiliate her by leaving her in the dust. She stated up her bike and saw Lona desperately dived for it, probably seeing that she might not make it. The mystery woman had started the hoverbike while Lona was in the air and sped off. She looked back and was not surprised when she did not see her former pursuer. She wished that she could have seen Lona's face when she landed on the hard pavement on her face. Well, she would have not technically have seen her face, the woman giggled to herself before focusing on her prey, Watto.
If the woman had looked more closely, she would have seen Lona hanging on her hover-bike with her legs being dragged on the town streets. Lona was able to grab the back of the bike just before it got away. She struggled to pull herself up but was finally able to get her feet on the hover-bike behind the mystery woman who had not noticed her yet. She was careful to keep her balance while walking to the driver. The mystery woman finally saw Lona coming from her peripheral vision while she looked at Wattos transporter which was just ahead, with crates and crates of weapons on the back. She was annoyed that the other woman was still bothering her. She swerved her bike to get her off of it but Lona jumped for her at the last moment and grabbed her neck and squeezed.
Meanwhile, Watto dug in his array of weapons and withdrew a large and cylindrical weapon. Watto shot at the hover-bike with the two fighting woman. A bright twinkling sphere with a smokey tail shot out of Watto's gun towards the target. The sphere exploded into a magnificent and blinding white light. The light disorientated the hoverbike driver long enough for her to head for a wall . She swerved to avoid it, which she did but then lost control of the bike as it spun in the air. The bike did a summersault, throwing both woman off and landed loudly some distance away.
The two woman slowly got up. Miraculously, both only had bruised and torn clothes but were not seriously hurt. The mystery woman had lost her blaster in the crash, otherwise she would have shot Lona dead on the spot.
"You idiot! Why would you do that?" The woman said.
"Well, I lost my blasters and credits. I couldn't get to Watto, so the logical choice was to get you." Lona said, weary of the other woman.
"Makes sense. Look, Watto screwed you and me over. Half of his weapons are suppose to be mine." The woman began. "I'm not in the mood to kill you, so let's make a truce. We'll work together to get Watto and when we catch up to that scum I'll give you your credits back, the weapons you bought and Watto's neck... preferably not connected to the rest of his body."
Lona nodded, slightly horriified with the woman's language.
"So what do I call you? Purple braids?" The woman said as she walked to her damaged hover-bike while pulling her brown glove more snugly over her hand.
"Your one to talk, Black braids." Lona retorted while self-consciously tying her long braids, that had come untangled during the crash, into a shorter bun. "My name is Lona Fargo."
"Fargo huh?" The woman said looking back at Lona. "My name is Solo, Sana Solo."
/
Lona and Sana drove through the town looking for Watto. Sana was driving in front while Lona held on to her from behind.
"Sana, stop!" Lona said over the roaring wind rushing by her ears.
Sana stopped. "What?"
"Look." Lona pointed at a familiar looking crate in the street parallel to the one they were in. Sana drove to the spot and they both got off and inspected the blue box.
Sana opened it and found numerous sized vibro blades in the crates. "I'll take this as a down payment and the rest will be all the other weapons and Watto's life! He'll p[robably try to get off world to escape me. Wouldn't be the first time."
Lona wanted to suggest that she calm down but Sana scared her... a lot. "It looks like he went in the opposite way to where the spaceship port is." Lona said referring the town's nearest spaceship port.
"He probably has some other place where his ship is," Sana said while digging in her green jacket for a holo-disk. She activated her disk and a map of the town and surrounding area rose up from it. "He only has three streets he could have taken to get out of the city."
"There is a forest to the North and a clearing to the South." Lona pointed out when she saw the map.
"Then we go south." Sana said, deactivating the hologram. "Seems like an ideal place to land a ship. Other than the port of course."
"Wait. I'm sure many people have tried to use the clearing area as a spaceship landing area. He'd have to pay whichever gangs control that area to keep his spaceship secret from the authorities and safe from bandits."
"Watto isn't the type to pay for anything. He lies and cheats his way through everything." Sana bitterly said.
"Maybe he wants us to think that his ship would be at the clearing." Lona said.
"Yes but his only two options are the ship port, where he'd have to pay high prices to keep his ship secret from the authorities and the clearing. I think he's at the clearing but we'll take the middle road to the outskirt of the city that way we can spot him no matter where he goes, north or south."
Lona could not argue, so she nodded and helped Sana load the crate with the vibro blades to her bike before they drove off.
"We'll be able to catch up to that rat, since his transport is weighed down by all those weapons." Sana said.
Lona agreed as she scanned the area for Watto. "So, you're a weapons dealer." Lona said trying to make conversation.
"Weapons dealer, smuggler, occasional bounty hunter and all around criminal." San said casually. "And you? You don't look like the type who would be buying weapons on the black market."
"Why's that?"
"Well let's see: you're pretty, you speak with a soft sweet voice, you have a low IQ. You look like the type that would marry some old fart for his money and live the rest of your life as a trophy wife." Sana said before giggling. "But I guess it makes sense that you'd be buying a weapon on the black market. Are you planning to kill your granpa husband, Lona?" She said with mirth in her voice.
Lona was annoyed by the woman's comments. "I'm a Rebel." Lona proudly said, expecting to shock and awe Sana.
Instead of being in awe Sana laughed. "Wow, you have a lower IQ than I originally thought. I don't understand why anyone would do something as stupid as being a Rebel."
Lona kept quiet but was fuming on the inside.
"Do you regret it? Being a Rebel, I mean. I would."
"No. I regret nothing." Lona said.
"No one regrets nothing. That's just a lie."
"So I guess that means you have regrets."
Sana kept quiet for a moment. "Of course. I do. We all have things that we've done that we can't change, no matter how much we want to, no matter how much we apologise. But that doesn't mean anything. Some delusional people think that the ability to regret is a sign that someone is good, others think that it is a sign of weakness. I think that's a load of crap. If you want to judge a woman, judge her by what she does now and her intentions not by what she's feeling sorry for. Tears can be faked, action cannot." Sana said while her bike gained more speed.
Lona thought about what Sana had said. She did not agree with everything she had said but it did make her think that maybe she and Zack had judged Buck too harshly for his past crimes.
/
They drove on the town's main street. All the town's roads stemmed or crossed this road, increasing the chances that they would run into Watto's transport. Lona was the first to spot the larger transport with crates at the back. Sana turned into a street and emerged on the other side and besides Watto's transport.
Watto was shocked to see Sana alive and it seems that she had a freind. He narrowed his eyes as he recognised the girl from somewhere. He searched for a weapon that would permanently take care of the two women.
Sana swerved closer to the transport. She suddenly grabbed Lona's hands off her hips and placed them on the bike handles. "Keep her steady." She said before getting up.
"What! Sana, no...!" But it was too late for Lona's protests. Sana had stood up on the bike with Lona's arms on either side of her legs.
"Get me closer! I need to jump on!" Sana said.
Lona reluctantly agreed and drove closer. To her surprise, Watto appeared and began shooting at them with a blaster. Lona swerved the bike away to doge the two blaster shots.
Because of the sudden swerve, Sana almost lost her balance. "Hey! Keep her steady!"
"If I keep her steady, he'll have an easier target!" Lona complained.
"No excuses. Now get me closer!" She said before taking out her own blaster and shooting back at Watto who had to take cover.
Lona did a good job of steadily and quickly bringing the hover bike closer to the transporter and when they were close enough Sana jumped to it. She grabbed the edge and had to pull herself onto the it. She lifted herself up to find a blaster pointed to her face by Watto. She quickly swatted the gun and it misfired. She got onto her feet and kicked the gun away from Watto. Now unarmed, Watto tried to fly away but was shot down by a shot to the back from Sana. She turned the creature around so he could face her and placed the barrel of her blaster under its chin.
"Sana, please don't kill me." Watto said spitting out blood. "You can have the weapons and the credits just... spare me."
"I would but I promised someone your head." Sana said before pulling the trigger...
/
Sana kept true to her word. She gave Sana her blasters and the credits she would have paid for them. Lona used some of the credits to buy Sana's badly damaged hover-bike from her to use as her personal transport. Sana said she would go to the clearing to get Watto's ship. They said their farewells and Sana disappeared into the city with her newly acquired possessions.
Lona was left alone and she wondered where Watto was going. She doubted that he was heading for the clearing, meaning his ship may have been somewhere else. She used the bike to drive into the forest located on the outskirts of the town. She saw a narrow path that would have been big enough for Watto's transport. She drove through the path, surrounded by beautiful trees with pink leaves and purple flowers. Her hover-bike eventually broke down and now she had to decide whether to take the long walk back to the town or go forward to see what she could find. She decided on the latter and took her blasters and walked on. The pink forest ended and opened up to green rolling hills and on top of one of those hills was a small ship. She smiled at herself because before her was Watto's ship. And since he was dead, it meant that the ship was up for anyone to take, that someone would not be Sana but her. She got in an flew away. She had just added another ship to her and her crews cause.
