We'll probably seeing a little less than a lot of Mara. I think I'm going to also do a subplot or two, one involving Mara and Luke.
Chapter 3: On the Trail
Mos Eisley was the last place Mara wanted to be. She despised desert climates, they were hot and dry, plus dehydration was a real danger and carrying water could just slow her down, on top of that it was all sand, nothing but sand, no trees, no grass, no water, just stones and sand. She hated it here. Her ship touched down in one of the circular landing areas in the middle of Mos Eisley. When she exited the ship she immediately came face to face with a docking hand, draped in bright white robes that stung her eyes from the reflection of the sun and caused her to see black spots every time she blinked.
"Can I help you?" the docking hand asked. His skin was dark from life under the two Tatooinian suns, his coarse hair fell to shoulder length and was tied back in cornrows, a badge bearing a strange insignia was pinned on the right part of his chest , a blaster was holstered to his side and he had the distinct look of a security guard about him because of his muscular form.
He examined Mara and noticed her weapons as well as her sandy colored suit.
"You won't want to be in that here." he said. "This is the desert, you'll be quite hot."
"Whatever," Mara said rudely. "I came here for information."
"I will help you if I can."
"I'm looking for a ship called Raxor's Whip, has it ever docked around these parts?"
"I can't disclose any information about other customers."
Mara rolled her eyes and was about to retort when she spotted a door in the side of the walls that surround her, the exit was near it, on the door a bold red sign read AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY! Just her kind of place.
"That's okay," Mara said nicely. "I have other sources."
The man gave her an odd look.
"You can scram now." She snapped.
The docking hand's eyes rolled like hers had when they first met, with a swish of tight, hanging corn rows the man faded away through the exit door. Mara assumed his shift was over or something. She then strode as inconspicuously as possible to the authorized personnel only door, casually walking by two security guards who were deep in conversation. She reached the door, it didn't budge when she attempted to open it, she hissed a curse and glanced around the docking arena. It seemed only the two security guards were around, pulling out her blaster pistol she shot both in the head, her shots were silenced by the special barrel as they flew out and dug into her enemies. They fell on their backs; she turned on her heel and pulled out a magnetic lock pick. She pressed it where she suspected the lock was on the door and turned it hard to the right.
There was a sharp click followed by the door opening up to reveal a stairwell. She stepped in as it hissed shut behind her, keeping her back to the wall and her blaster out she skulked up the stairs, turning the corner with her weapons pointed out she found herself in a narrow deserted hall as featureless as the desert sand. She ran quietly down it as well as another and soon found herself in a control/information room. Terminals lined one wall, the rest were bare and there were no guards to speak off.
Odd.
Nevertheless Mara ran up to the controls and found the data terminal, she typed in a search for Raz Vena. She waited several moments but the search yielded no results. She growled in frustration and then did another search for Raxor's Whip, Raz's ship. This time she tasted the fruit of her patience and sneakiness, the search yielded one result. A few days ago Raxor's Whip landed in the exact docking area Mara had just vacated, it was apparently registered to a woman named Zara Velia, which Mara assumed was an alias for Raz Vena, Zara had stated her business as coming to collect some sort of shipment for Talon Karrde, so she had come to Tatooine and she was also working with Karrde, both of Mara's leads had been correct, what were the odds of that?
Mara also noticed that the records said Raz's ship departed late last night, so she had been here for a few days, a nice long while to enjoy a couple drinks at the local cantina, that was the best place to start. Mara exited out of the search results and turned the face the barrel of a blaster aimed at her chest, an aggravated looking man was holding it.
"What do you think you're doing here?!" he barked.
"I was checking the security measures this place takes; let me tell you they suck." Mara retorted.
"Echuta!" The man cursed in Huttese. "That's it you're coming with me."
"The hell I am!"
Mara raised her leg and kicked the man in the groin, his hand immediately flew to the point of impact and he lost hold of the blaster, Mara caught it in mid air as the guy let out a grunt and fell to his knees. He looked up as the butt of the blaster crashed into his face. He fell to the floor, unconscious. Mara shook her head and dropped the blaster, then she ran out of there, headed for the local cantina, not only did she need to find Raz but now she needed a drink.
XxX
The cantina was filled with bad, and somewhat cheesy music, a band of aliens with incredibly large heads were blowing through some sort of piping that must have been instruments, the place was filled to the brim with all different types of species, shadowy looking humans flaunting abused female Twi'lek slaves around, to Rodians speaking with other Rodians about their favorite business: bounty hunting, and of course the occasional Toydarinan, and even a jawa here and there. Mara stepped into the cantina, next to the bar where three people sat. One was a rich and dirty looking man who sat next to a disgracefully clad Twi'lek with purple skin, he had his arm around her, forcing her to lean on his grimy shoulder while he gulped down blue liquid from several shot glasses. The other one at the bar was a shady looking guy with long brown hair that went just past his ears, he was clad in white clothing and looked somewhat important, plus he was as inconspicuous as the horny slave owners were in flaunting his credits around, buying the most expensive drinks and food on the menu, throwing them down his esophagus and then asking for more. Mara deduced he was a promising candidate.
She walked up near him and dropped down in the vacant bench to his left. He turned his head slightly, examining her features, perfect. She pretended not to notice and waved a hand at the bar tender, the man noticed the pistol holstered on her shoulder and smiled mischievously. Had Mara not been setting a small plan into action she would have rolled her eyes and backhanded him. The bar tender was currently serving the dirty looking man holding the purple Twi'lek in his grasp. He gestured for her to wait a moment. She rolled her eyes at this and turned to face the man next to her.
She got a better look at him now, his eyes matched his brown hair and he was slightly meaty, though he would probably excuse it as being large boned, his clothes did indeed look somewhat expensive and he wore a badge that bore the same insignia the docking hand she had met had on his badge. Mara suspected she may be looking right at the administration of the docking facility. He smiled at her, she smiled back, at least this guy wasn't as bad looking as the scum sucking hobos she usually had to try this technique with.
"Can I buy you that drink?" he asked.
"If you insist." Mara replied, flipping her hair behind her shoulders. The bar tender walked up to them and Mara made her order, the man next to her paid for it.
"Thanks," Mara replied taking a sip of the blue concoction. After the guy made his remark they got into some small talk and ordered more drinks, Mara made sure hers was low in alcohols content and slipped the bar tender fifty credits to make the man's more concentrated. After a couple of rounds she broke the small talk.
"So, are you the administrator of the docking bays around here."
"Yup," the man replied. "I am."
"Maybe you can help me then," Mara said in a mischievous tone.
"Maybe I can…" he agreed. "But I need to know you're name first, you haven't told me yet."
Mara inwardly scowled, realizing the guy wasn't as barking mad drunk as she would have liked, maybe with the aid of the Force this idea would still work.
"Mara." Mara said.
"Rorxan." The guy said.
"Well Rorxan, lets get back to my problem."
"Yeah, tell me what's wrong."
"I'm looking for information."
Rorxan quirked his eyebrows.
"I need information on a woman named Zara Velia, she might go as Raz Vena, or a man named Talon Karrde."
"I don't know anything about them." Rorxan replied, trying to shrug it off. Mara could tell he was obviously a horrible liar.
"That's alright," she said. "Hey, why don't you come back to my motel room."
Rorxan immediately agreed and she led him out of the cantina, she had another idea.
XxX
Rorxan didn't seem to care as Mara led him out of the cantina and then immediately in the back alley behind it, away from the prying public eyes. A dilemma was now evident, interrogate him right here or take him back to her ship…. She didn't think this was such a good place, especially since she had no tools of interrogation to rely on. Rorxan seemed slightly confused when she shoved him to the ground, he flipped his long brown hair out of his face and looked up at her quizzically, she responded by smashing the tips of her index and middle finger into the side of his neck, smashing the vessel down that carried blood to his brain, from the temporary lack of fuel for his mind Rorxan fainted, he would be out for some time hopefully. Now what?
Mara looked to her right and spotted a dumpster, from it she pulled a large piece of rough fabric which she assumed was a carpet that had been discarded. She spread it across the ground and dropped Rorxan neatly to one side of it, then she rolled him up tightly, now she could disguise him as just a carpet, slinging the roll over her shoulder she walked out onto the street, trying not to grunt because of Rorxan's weight. Nobody paid her much attention, she stopped the first droid pulled cab she saw.
"How may I be of service sir?" the droid asked, Mara wanted to rip its head off, these droids were horribly programmed.
"Can you take me to docking bay V 47?"
"Of course sir, it will be my pleasure to take you to docking bay D 47." The droid stated incorrectly. Mara grunted in exasperation, and for the fact that Rorxan was getting heavier by the second.
"No! Idiot, I said docking bay V 47!" Mara snapped.
"I am sorry sir. It will be my pleasure to take you to docking bay V 47."
"Good, now how much is this gonna cost me?"
"V 47 is approximately seven miles away. That will be…"
"V 47 is half a mile away! I walked here myself!"
"Oh, it seems I have computed wrong!"
Mara rolled her eyes and groaned in irritation.
"I am terribly sorry sir," the droid apologized. "docking bay V 48 is half a mile away, that will be twelve hundred imperial credits."
"Twelve hundred! That is ridiculous, I'll only pay twelve, that's it! Take it or leave it dumb ass, but either way I'm going to use this cab to get to V 47!"
"Oh I am terribly sorry sir! It will only be twelve credits."
"Fine!" Mara hissed reaching into her pocket and pulling out six credits, maybe the droid was malfunctioning enough…. She handed them to it.
"That will be six more credits sir."
Mara considered pulling her blaster out instead. But she handed the droid six credits and boarded the cab with her carpet, finally they set off at a notoriously slow pace to docking bay V 47.
XxX
Finally she entered the docking area to see the beautiful sight of her ship, Rorxan still wrapped in the carpet was slung over her shoulder. Her eyes switched from her ship to view the not-so-nice sight of the dark guard with the shoulder length ebony cornrows. Mara dropped the carpet to the ground and the hand raised an eyebrow when it grunted.
"Can I help you?" Mara snapped rudely.
"As a matter of fact you can." the hand replied. "We found a security guard dead just a while after you landed here, we would like to know what you know about it."
Busted. Mara thought fast a drew the blaster, the docking hand drew his own, suddenly she found a pistol aimed at her head and the hand found a pistol aimed at a place he would not want shot. It was a stalemate, or was it?
Mara's foot flew up and kicked the blaster out of the man's hand, it flew into the air and to the right where it landed in the sand. The hand's eyes shot from his weapon to her, and then with a grunt Mara delivered a roundhouse kick to his face, she turned just in time to see five security guards running towards her. She chuckled and it a blur of motion her dead lightsaber unclipped itself from its place on her belt and ignited. It flew through the air and decapitated the five men before deactivating and clipping itself back onto her belt, letting go of the Force Mara grunted and picked up Rorxan, she ran up the boarding rail of her ship and to the cockpit dropping Rorxan on the floor. Quickly she closed the boarding ramp and lifted up, finally she was off Tatooine, the horrible planet.