Chapter 47

Recovery

Ahsoka was squished against the right side of the pilot's chair. It wasn't comfortable, but she didn't have time to leave the Whipclaw in dock long enough for Xho to finish his work on the console, so to keep from stabbing herself on the spiky bits of his exoskeleton while he lay under the console, she had to squeeze against the right side of the chair.

While Xho hastily worked to bypass or disable any parts of the holocom transceiver that might allow the Imperial Inquisition to track the Whipclaw or its new owner, Ahsoka was looking at another screen on the console. The screen she was slowly skimming down was a list of all of the pirate attacks believed to be related to Jedi activity.

In every instance, there was a theft. It didn't seem to have a particular pattern. But a computer program set up by the Inquisition had flagged it as suspected Jedi activity.

And when comparing the items that had been taken by the recent pirate activity in the Kalamith sector, Ahsoka started to recognize exactly what pattern the computer had flagged.

In fact, if she hadn't been more private about acquiring some of the same parts, this computer program very well might have flagged her. A ship heading towards an arid section of Tandun III had several moisture vaporators stolen. The vaporators were worth a lot on some worlds, but what the computer had flagged were the dimetris circuits that were used in the cooling chamber. Industrial strength durasteel exhaust manifolds had been a small part of another cargo heading towards Toprawa. Heavy-draw power cells were part of another cargo.

A shipment of military-grade ion turrets was highjacked, and that had made news. But what the computer program had flagged were the magnetic stabilizing rings that focused the ion beams. It was all there in the cracks, amidst the hordes of other things that had been stolen.

If someone had been coordinating this pirate activity, they had enough parts to build a dozen lightsabers. All that was missing were lightsaber crystals.

Could there be another source? Ilum was an option, of course, but with the Jedi archives either destroyed or in the hands of the Empire, no Jedi on the run would have access to its coordinates. Ahsoka had gotten lucky and found her crystals near the old Jedi Enclave on Dantooine.

It was also possible that the gems would be the next target. Ahsoka pulled up another list, this one of current registered ships passing through the Kalamith sector. When she narrowed the search down to ships registered as carrying gemstones, the list was still too long to fit on the screen.

Even in the Outer Rim, an entire sector is a big, busy place.

The escape pod was small, only large enough for two. Through the porthole, past the two Weequay pirates, Captain Kartilla could see Markra and Torkol, the other two crew members of the Spicy Squid, sitting dejectedly in the matching pod on the opposite side of the corridor.

"I am so sorry," he said to his navigator, Jorella. "This is all my fault. The pirates are here because of me."

Jorella sighed and put a hand on the Captain's shoulder. "We know, Captain. We've been looking the other way for a while... but we know about the hidden shipments."

"You do? I mean... how?"

"Captain, the crew has been talking for a while. We've been trying to find a way to confront you about your... problems."

Captain Kartilla hung his triangular shaped head in shame. "I am so sorry that you got caught up in all of this. One thing just led to another. I drink too much, then I gamble, then I owe money to the Krakana gang..."

"Yes, we know. After this run we were going to confront you and try to deal with the problem. I think we'd all rather take a pay cut for a few months than be involved in the kind of smuggling they do. Especially now that the Republic Navy has stopped fighting the Separatists and has become the Imperial Navy. We don't know how much they're going to crack down on smugglers."

"But if we show up to the rendezvous point with just a cargo of seafood and no pearls... they're going to feed me to a real krakana." A bit of ink dribbled from the captain's mouth. They both knew that it was a natural nervous reaction for Quarren. In ancient times, fear was usually caused by predators. And a squirt of ink could hide a Quarren from predators.

But the only predators here were standing outside the locked door, keeping the crew in the escape pods.

"If we survive this, Captain, we're in it together."

"I don't deserve a crew this loyal. My weakness has betrayed you all."

One of her eyes swiveled to look at him, while the other was pointed at the pirates outside the window. "Maybe not, but we're still crew. We work together. I think the first ground rule will have to be... no more salt wine. Not on the ship, not on leave."

"I am ashamed at what I have done."

"Then it's probably a good thing you don't remember what you said to me the last time you had a little too much salt wine." Kartilla wasn't sure, but he thought there was a bit of a smile on her face.

"I didn't... oh my. Was it about my ink sac?"

"Yes. I didn't know that was possible."

"It's not that strange, honestly! Most Quarren males enjoy it. They just... don't like to talk about it with non-Quarren."

She laughed, "Either way... you're my captain, and it was... inappropriate. To say the least."

"I am so sorry. I appreciate you as a valuable crew member. It won't happen again, I promise."

"The entire cargo hold stinks of fish!" Hondo Ohnaka held a hand up over his mouth and nose. "Find our pearls, and find them quickly Waylander! I don't want to spend a minute more than I have to in this ship."

"What, no sage advice from your dear mother on how to deal with the smell?" The dark haired man paused and pointed to a stack of crates, seemingly at random. "Third one down. There's a false compartment in the bottom."

Two of the pirates wrestled the heavy, smelly crates aside and poured out the aquatic contents of the third one down. After some poking and prodding, one of them found a release catch, and the bottom opened to reveal several clear bags of scintillating spherical pearls.

"Mother of... you were telling the truth. That is beautiful. It looks like... credits."

The man sneered at Hondo. "What, did you think this was just some bizarre, elaborate prank to make you smell like fish for a few days?"

"You never know!" Hondo declared. "There are some truly sick people in this galaxy. And some of them may be annoyed at me for petty reasons."

The Human rolled his eyes and pointed out two more crates. Then he took a fourth down from its place himself, and dug around inside. After discarding several pounds of mollusks, he pulled out a clear bag with a single large black pearl inside. "This one is my payment. You can keep the rest, pirate."

"My pleasure, Waylander."

"Ahsoka, I think I've got something," Nat said from the copilot's chair next to her. "Distress signal near Pho Ph'eah. Pirate attack."

Ahsoka glanced at his monitor, then looked back at hers. "It looks like that ship is only registered as carrying a cargo of... seafood, mostly. No gemstones or electronics."

"So why would the pirates attack them and leave them stranded? It's not like the pirates can go to a grocery store and sell a bunch of seafood."

"Hmm. It's as good a lead as any right now, I guess. Set a course."