CHAPTER SEVEN – HOW TO HACK THE UNHACKABLE

STEELA

"Hold still."

Kira doesn't move a muscle as Hero traces a brush across her eyelid, leaving a smoky grey shadow behind.

"You wear that color well," I say, unscrewing the cap of my lipstick.

Kira blinks, clearly unused to makeup. "Thank you."

"Your hair is going to be gorgeous too." Hero says, deftly removing the curlers from Kira's blonde tresses. "Your outfit is perfect, now all you need are shoes."

"These," Sierra hands her a pair of low heels. "High enough for fashion, low enough to run in. As for me," She brandishes her "best friends", the black pumps.

I roll my eyes and apply the lipstick. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"You don't actually have to do anything!" Hero protests.

"It's the principle of things." I answer, sliding the fake wedding ring onto my finger. "You're sure you have this con under control?"

"I'm positive." Sierra smirks. "Are you ready to be the -."

I point my comb at her threateningly.

"I dare you to say it, Sierra."

…

"Tamara Ellis." I introduce myself. "I have an audience with the King."

The guards check their holo-records and page me into the throne room. Atai bristles on the throne.

"Mrs. Ellis," he greets, waving a Twi'lek serving girl away. "It's a pleasure to see you. Where's your husband?"

"He's inspecting a potential acquisition. Togruta." I fib. "I've always been the one who works with powerful men."

Atai sits up straighter.

"I should suit you well then."

My stomach flips as if I've drank the punch again. "You already have."

He steps off the throne and all the servants fall to their floor. Per Ahsoka's instructions I bow as well until Atai bids me rise.

The twinkle in his eye is too familiar.

"When will he expect you to return with a price estimate?"

"Not for a long while. He's very thorough with his inspections."

Atai closes the distance between us.

"I am the one who's truly thorough with treating my buyers."

I smile. "You've given me no reason to believe otherwise."

"Zygerria has a reputation of excellent customer service to uphold. Come, I have a business chamber readied. But before we go -."

With one deft motion, Atai grabs my left hand and plucks the wedding ring from my finger.

If it had really been my wedding ring I would have slugged him, in character or not. But it isn't – it's a cheap piece Katooni got as a gag gift. And Tamara Ellis, slaver scum and cheating spouse, wouldn't mind a bit.

Instead, I paste on a tickled expression while Atai slips the ring into his pocket.

"Come," he orders, and I take his arm as we walk away.

…

When Atai's back is turned, I take a moment to whisper into my comm.

"Lux, why isn't Sierra doing this?"

"Atai already showed an interest in you. It's best to capitalize on it while we can," Lux explains. "Anyway, Sierra has and will have her hands full over here."

"Really? How?"

If he responds I don't realize, because Atai's turned back from barking orders at a slave. The young girl practically runs from the room and returns promptly with two champagne flutes on a tray.

I gingerly take one and Atai snatches his, sending a terrifying glare to the serving girl, who cowers behind the tray.

"Skug," he growls and the muscles in his arm flex to telegraph a blow.

I clear my throat to take his attention off the girl. "You know how to train slaves, your Highness."

"Your husband has quite a reputation as well, Mrs…"

"Tamara, please." Atai nods and I sip the champagne, trying my best to imitate Sierra's sip-association trick. As I am not a grifter, I'm not sure how well it goes.

"Very well, Tamara." He sits, half his champagne already downed. "What questions do you have about my business?"

"First names are always the hook," Sierra advised back on the ship. "They make the mark think he's more powerful than you. And if you get him asking questions and using your first name, then you're absolutely golden. Just make sure to keep the conversation on a subject that he's interested in or makes his feel comfortable."

I glance around the room. A portrait of the King hangs in a prominent position on the wall, along with a few other holos. I'm willing to bet that Atai's favorite subject is himself.

"Actually, I'm more interested in something else. I know a thing or two about power, and it's not an easy thing to hold on to." I curl myself around the arm of the chair a little bit. "Tell me, how have you managed to hold the throne through the Clone War, the return of Miraj Scintel, and the rise of the Empire?"

When Atai hears the question I make sure to take a good, long sip of the champagne.

SIERRA

When Lux said I had my hands full, he wasn't kidding.

So far I have played an annoying secretary dropping off data cards to the guard station ("These really need to get up here; it's urgent." I announced as my friends slipped straight past them), an engineer who needed to run a maintenance check deeper in the building and lost her keys, and a representative from HR telling a group of guards in our wing that they needed to do their rounds on the other side of the building early.

When I finished with the last one, Hero nodded at me. "I think we made the right choice sending Steela after Atai."

"Is that a swipe?"

"When do I ever take a swipe at you, Sierra?"

Oh, there are lots of times. "Whatever. It sounds like Steela has the situation under control."

"If it gets out of hand, we'll know about it." Ahsoka says. "Kira, lead the way. The container's not far ahead.

While Kira and Ahsoka take point, I fall back to close ranks with Lux.

"Is it just me, or are you picking up on something with Kira?" I whisper.

Lux nods. "It's not you. Her posture is more relaxed, her hands twitch toward the wall, and she anticipates turns and corners. Kira's been here before."

"But why?"

"I don't know. Stay sharp, Ahsoka may have been her friend but she was still an Imperial cadet, and in the past but Jedi have fallen. Remember Barriss?"

A bad taste fills my mouth. "You don't have to remind me. I'll keep an eye out."

"Hutch, where's the container?" Saw asks.

"You have another three intersections and then it's the third one on the left, number 6756. You should be able to tell it apart by the door." Hutch says. "But you're all just wasting your time. I cannot get that thing open!"

"We don't need you to." Saw says and ducks down a different hallway, away from the group.

"You can't cut a hold – Atai will know we're here, and then Steela would be toast!"

"We're not going to cut the door down," Ahsoka says. "We're going to unlock the door."

"Oh, yeah." Hutch scoffs. "I'm very interested to hear this. How do you guys plan on hacking the unhackable lock?"

"It's not that hard. We just need Saw."

"Saw? What the heck is Saw going to do about anything?"

Just then, Saw comes down the hallway, hauling an unconscious guard behind him. He leans him against the wall next to the lock and Ahsoka forcibly pries his eye open.

The lock flashes green.

"And that's how you open a biometric lock." He says victoriously.

Hutch mutes his comm, probably cutting off a paragraph of muttered swear words.

Lux grabs the container door and swings it open. "All right you guys, we're going to grab whatever's in here and get back to the ship. I'll -."

My eyes widen "Lux,"

Lux ignores me. "I'll comm Steela to proceed with the plan and by the time this is done, we'll have a fat paycheck."

"Lux." Ahsoka says, more urgently.

This time, whether due to Ahsoka's influence as his wife or repetition, Lux follows her gaze to the inside of the container.

A group of ten Zeltron children huddle in the corner, too scared to move. They're young, five years old at the most.

"Hello," Ahsoka coos.

A small pink-colored boy in the front speaks up. "Jawadda yan-yan?"

I look at Kira. "Do you speak Zeltron?"

Kira shakes her head. "Do you? There are a fair number of Zeltrons on Onderon."

"Yeah, but they all speak Basic or Onderonian." I cry both to Kira and to our rotten linguistic luck.

"Okay, okay." Hero says. She points out the door and announces. "Freedom this way!"

The kids stare at her, confused.

Ahsoka takes a blaster pistol from her utility belt and levitates it with the Force. "Me Jedi!"

This time the kids scream and cower even farther in the corner.

Lux steps up and tries to make a funny face at them. "Hi, guys. I'm a friend!"

A few of them giggle at his face, but when he offers his hand none go with him.

My turn. I walk as close to the children as I dare, sit down, and give them my biggest smile. "Hi, guys. I'm Sierra."

The children don't know what I'm saying, so they just give me a blank look.

I point to my chest and repeat my name. The little boy in the front gets the memo, points to his chest, and says something I'm assuming is his name. I mentally nickname him Pinky.

"Do you guys want to go have some fun?" I ask and hold out my hand, hoping the name exchange will extend a bridge of trust between me and Pinky. And indeed, Pinky reaches out a tiny hand but a purple girl next to him shouts something and he pulls back.

I look over my shoulder. "What are we going to do, physically drag them onto the ship?"

"We can't do that." Ahsoka says. "There aren't enough of us, and they'll make such a racket the guards will hear for sure. Then we'll all be in the container."

Kira steps up. "Ahsoka, may I try something?"

I scramble back to my feet. "Be my guest, Kira."

Kira steps in front of us, looks directly at the kids, and says "Hoth's?"

"HOTH'S!"

The reaction in immediate: the children practically run each other down running to the front of the container and swarming around Kira.

"H-how?" Hero chokes.

Kira smiles at the kids. "Zeltron children enjoy ice cream just as much as any others. My master used to use ice cream as a bribe for his old padawan."

"But they don't speak Basic." Hero protests.

"Brand names don't translate." Kira explains. "Now all we have to do is produce Hoth's brand ice cream when we get on the ship."

"I have some in the freezer." Hero claps her hands. "That's right kids, Hoth's! Right this way!"

A/N: A big nod goes out to "The Stork Job" for the ice cream thing. Just wait until Mina hears about this one. Atai had better invest in some high-quality body armor to protect himself from the wrath of BonScary.

Thank you to starwarshobbitfics, McAwesome (sounds like you had a crazy day, my friend), Rose Ravenclaw, MusicKeeper, and Johnt12345 for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!

Until next time,

Lux's Sister