Stath
"She's coming around, Sir."
Stath threw a glance over his shoulder back towards the cargo space of his Tyriss 424. The droid was right; the woman they'd found out past Suul was slowly waking up. She hobbled up into view of the window and collapsed to her knees. She flailed softly in an attempt to surmise her location. Finding solid ground, the woman closed her eyes and drifted off. Stath put a hand to the metal cylinder at his belt; it had been the only thing of value on the woman's person when they found her. He had heard stories of the contraption in less than reputable dives in the Outer Rim, but nothing in his travels had ever proven them to be more than myth.
"A lightsaber."
The droid seated next to the pilot gave an inquisitive turn of his head. "Pardon, Sir?"
"Just talking to myself." Stath focused his attention on the dash. They weren't out of this yet. He must have traveled this route a hundred times out of Suul, but Stath had never seen debris like this. It was too large and dispersed to be a collision. Larger bits of ship floated noiselessly on all sides- definitely not a stellar incident. Pirates made their homes out in the Outer Rim, sure, but nothing so big as to make a junk nebula like this.
It was clear to Stath that this was the result of a skirmish, or even a small battle. Nothing had been reported on any frequency, domestic, trade, or otherwise. Must have been quick, Stath thought, and the winner made out pretty squarely.
"Should we notify anyone about the debris, Sir?"
Stath reclined in his chair. "No need to cause a fuss, Opher," Stath said. "If Suul picked this little party up – and they should have – then Tul will know about it and that's good enough for me."
He checked the scanners again. There was a lot of junk out here, most of it salvageable, but not the commodities he was in the market for. The girl though, the Jedi, she was interesting; they'd found her in a ruptured escape pod when the navicomputer yanked them out of hyperspace for course correct. Incredibly, she was still alive. Stath had seen spacers take plenty of beatings in his days trawling the hyperlanes, but cold vacuum was enough to clam up even the heartiest braggart in Mos Eisley. They towed the pod and recovered the woman, and damn it all if she didn't look like she'd only had a drink too many. This girl was something else. This girl was special.
"We'll give the area one more once-over then put the word out on all the usual channels. Maybe Anchon and his boys will send us a nice finder's fee."
The droid began programming the next loop. "Yes, Sir."
"Take us around, Opher. I'm going to check on our guest. Bring up the lights in the hold."
"As you wish, Sir."
The woman reacted to the lights. Instinctively she threw up a hand to shield her eyes and in her confusion, hit herself square in the forehead. Stath chuckled. He gave a mocking knock on the door to the cargo hold.
"Rise and shine, beautiful."
The woman pinched her eyes together and gave them a vigorous massage with the back of her hand. Blinking slowly, she came to consciousness and stared deep into Stath.
"Where am I?" Her voice belied her concern, and in a situation like this with an unknown and possibly magical sentient, Stath would use everything to his advantage.
"Well, you're safe, for one," he said giving her his best host's grin. "We pulled you out of a pretty gnarly wreck. If we hadn't have shown up, you'd be space meat by now.
The woman seemed to wrack her mind. Stath began to feel a cool chill, like a slow faucet's drip in the back of his mind. He shuddered, but did not let it faze him. Out on the Rim, spacers told stories of powerful sentients who could read minds and move whole starships with a single thought.
"You're on board my ship, the Piso Dodger, but you already knew that didn't you?"
The woman began to regain her composure. She managed to sit up with practiced grace and crossed her legs. "You're not particularly difficult to read."
"Then how about I get your name since you already know mine."
"Surik. Meetra Surik, Jedi Knight." Her voice was firm and sure, uncharacteristic to Stath of a broad just pulled from space.
Stath scratched his head. The boys back home would never believe him. "Jedi, huh? Explains this doohickey of yours. He took the lightsaber from his belt and tossed it lightly into the air. Surik's eyes widened. She reached out instinctively and the lightsaber flew towards the door, bouncing harmlessly off. Stath bent over to pick it up with a smile on his face.
"Give that back."
Stath shook his head, laughing to himself. "What? This? You want it?"
He watched her face grow stern. Her brow furrowed and her eyes darkened. "Give that back, you had no right—"
"Listen, lady, I don't know who you are, where you come from, or why in hell you were floating in a bunch of space junk, but I do know that I saved your life." He pressed his face up to the glass of the hold. "Let's not be making any demands."
The Jedi exhaled, collecting herself. Stath hoped something had gotten through to her, if it hadn't, well, it would be a long ride to Tul Trigona. "You're right," she said. "I apologize for my outburst. I don't suppose I've ever been spaced before; everything's a little fuzzy. Thank you for rescuing me."
Finally, some courtesy. "You're welcome. Now that you're not at my throat, you mind telling me why I found you left for dead in the middle of space?"
"You could start," she said curtly, "by telling me where we are."
Stath sighed; he'd never been one to take human cargo – they asked too many questions for his tastes. This woman wasn't some farmwife on her way from a raided colony, she was an exception. Might as well make an exception.
"Where are we, Opher; how're we doing?"
"Just fine sir," the droid said. "Thank you for asking. Presently we are point one-two light years from Suul Trigona."
Surik put a hand to her head and sat in thought. "Suul Trigona."
"Anything coming back yet? You were out floating in a breached pod. There's a lot of junk floating around here. Looks like some kind of battle. Know anything about that?"
She nodded. "Yes, yes. There was a battle. Battle. Mandalorians. Massacre. We never stood a chance."
Just the mere mention of Mandalorians put Stath on edge. He'd lost more than enough acquaintances to those raiders. There was talk in the spaceports about a war with the Republics. Some smugglers thought war was good for business, not Stath. He thought war put people on edge.
"Mandalorians. You're Republic then?" Stath could see concern grow in her eyes. She tried to mask it, but a life time of dealing with unsavory people had gifted Stath with a penchant for reading faces.
"Yes, we were sent out to the border of Trigonas space to keep watch on the system."
"Well it looks like you found something."
The concern continued to bloom, and, to her credit, the Jedi was doing her best to mask it, but Stath had already latched on. It made him feel cold. Something ill was lurking at the edge of his mind.
On a hunch, he called out to his copilot. "Opher, gimme a long beam scan of the area."
"What are we looking for, Sir?" the droid chimed as it began the scan.
"I don't know – anything. Something big."
"Yes, Sir."
The woman locked eyes with Stath. In his mind, he could hear the screeching of a massive ship coming full stop from hyperspace. He began to perspire.
"You feel it too?" Surik asked.
Before he could respond, the entire ship lurched to the side and an alarm began to blare. Flung from his feet, Stath crashed into a pile of crates. In a daze, he could hear Opher's incessant chatter processed at computer speeds, too quick for his muddy brain. The ship rocked a second time and Stath stumbled to his feet.
"What was that?" Surik asked, quickly burying her panic.
Stath rushed to the cockpit. The dash was on fire with lights and warning. "Proximity alarm! Something just came out of hyperspace."
"Something big, Sir." Opher added.
"Something big, yeah, damnit, make it something huge."
The ship was truly massive. Scanners pegged it safely at three-quarters of a kilometer, and it was barreling through the junk field right towards them. Stath scrambled with the controls in an attempt to avoid the monstrous, insect like ship. It began firing indiscriminately at the floating wreckage setting even more warnings and alarms off.
"Friends of yours, sweetheart?" Stath barked. A chunk of bulkhead erupted into shrapnel that pinged harmlessly of the Piso Runner's shields.
"Sir, I do not think the vessel knows that we're here," Opher said.
"How do you figure?" Stath said, his stomach in his throat as he put his ship in a rapid nose dive away from the debris field.
The droid stared blankly as it calculated and extrapolated. "We are not dead yet, sir."
"Small comfort." He could hear the cargo knocking about in the back. He imagined the Jedi was having a rough trip, but it was the least of his worries at the moment. He leveled the ship and took a moment to digest the situation. "How long until we're clear of the debris field so we can make the jump to hyperspace?"
"Minutes, sir."
"Get us ready; I'm not sticking around for that ship to find us."
"Understood, sir. Do you have a destination in mind?"
He rubbed his temples. "Anywhere but here."