CHAPTER SIXTEEN – LET'S GO STEAL THE GALAXY
LUX
"To corrupt Imperials getting thrown away!"
Sixteen spoons clink in midair before diving back into bowls filled with highly decorated sundaes. Desserts aren't usually on our menu, but to celebrate the job's success Mom unearthed a tub of ice cream from a neglected corner of the freezer.
Ezra digs into his sundae with gusto that puts even Tav to shame. "This is great! We never get things like this on the Ghost."
Hera looks half-sheepish for a second. "We don't have much space in the galley."
Ahsoka swoops in to stop any potential awkwardness. "Don't feel bad. Our first ship didn't have a big galley either, and we lived off ration bars."
"First ship?" Hera asks.
"When Kiara and Molly were born, we ran out of space." She explains. "We sold our old freighter to a smuggler. What was his name again?"
"Calrissian," Saw answers. "Lando Calrissian."
…
"Two thousand, final offer." Lando said, jaw firm.
Saw Gerrera stifled a snort "Deal." After a quick credit transfer, he handed over the ship's keys.
"It's all yours, kid." He said, barely able to believe his luck that someone would buy the old rust bucket.
"Does it have a name?" Lando yelled after him.
Saw didn't want to say that the ship had been unofficially christened "Piece of Crap", so he shook his head. "Never got around to it!"
As soon as he was around the corner, Lando's face broke into a grin.
"There's one born every minute!" he whispered, rushing into the vessel's bowels to look again at the incredible hyperdrive engine. "This has to be the fastest ship in the galaxy!"
He patted the vessel's hull. "Never named before? Well, from now on this here is the Millenium Falcon."
…
"We got that piece of crap from a police impound lot." Saw says wryly. "Wouldn't be surprised if it's long gone into spare parts."
"You know what else is long gone?" Steela asks.
Another round of cheering encompasses the table when she shouts "Nightwine!"
"But how?" Ezra asks, chocolate ice cream forming a mustache over his upper lip. "Wasn't he the one finding the girls and helping to take them? Even if Tor and Vikil are gone, he could just find another psycho and do the same thing."
"He could." Hutch concedes. "Which is why we took care of him, too. Think on this for a minute, Ezra. If you were a dirty, scheming scumbag who'd just sold a sixteen-year-old to a sadist, where would you go first?"
…
Konrad Nightwine stood in front of the ATM, staring gleefully at the amount in his account.
Thousands of credits. Millions. True, most of it came from his heftly ISB salary, but when he'd first showed Vikil a photograph of Sabine Wren, the woman had been so pleased that she offered Nightwine a considerable chunk of change right off the bat.
The rebel was a veritable gold mine. And if he can find a few other clients, then he won't have to worry about saving during retirement, or even at all for the rest of his life.
Suddenly, the numbers on the screen change.
They're decreasing.
Nightwine desperately taps all the buttons, but he can only watch as the money drains from his account.
He has dialed half of his bank's comm number when a message lights up the screen of his comlink. The sender is a restricted number, but he opens it anyway.
YOU'VE JUST BEEN CHECKED OUT.
Nightwine's blood boils. Only one person uses that catchphrase: Hutch St. James, the Cashier from Hell.
He clenches his hands into fists. Whatever St. James did with his money, he would find out. He isn't the ISB's top-rated loss prevention agent for nothing – he would use all his connections, all his technology, every resource he had to find his hard-earned riches again.
"Agent Nightwine?"
Nightwine recognizes the voice. "Agent Kallus? Commander Lyst?" he asks, turning to face them. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"The law," Lyst says gleefully. "Konrad Nightwine, you are under arrest for harboring a fugitive from the Empire and illegal use of the slave trade."
…
"Eighty grand of untraceable bribe money from Spencer is just the icing on the cake." Hutch relishes every last word.
I'm not sure whether Ezra's enjoying Hutch's story or the ice cream more. Right now my credits are on the ice cream. For Sabine, however, it's another story. Her sundae turns to soup in its dish while she listens to Hutch, leaning on her elbows to get closer.
I scoop another hunk of ice cream into my mouth and press my hand to my forehead to ward off the gestating brain freeze.
"Lux, are you-?"
"Yes, Soka. I'm fine. I just have a brain freeze." I say and press the pad of my thumb to the roof of my mouth to warm it.
"He gets them bad," Mom says with a smile. "John used to give him ice cream when he was a baby because he would make the funniest faces."
"You don't get one if you go slow." Tav points out, just as his face freezes.
Kiara points and laughs at him. "Ha! That's the pot calling the kettle black!"
Tav glares at her until Ahsoka says their full names very slowly and they go back to their dishes. I understand completely: there's just something about the way a mother says her children's middle names.
The brain freeze abates and I remove my hand from my mouth. "Dear force, that hurts."
Ezra gulps down the last of his sundae. He must have had a few brain freezes along the way but was too distracted to notice.
"So," Zeb asks. "How many credits are we talking?"
"Your cut, or the total?"
"Total."
I rub my chin.
"We have eighty thousand in bribe money from Spencer. Before we get into Nightwine's, we have to consider the deductions. We'll make our usual donation to the Alliance, of course. And then the donation to the people of Tarkintown. Then there's equipment and other expenses. We also covered Livia Blane's hotel expenses because she was so cooperative and the Empire was going to audit her."
"Then there's the fuel for the ship, the button cam, replacing the earbud. Those expenses deduct from the total." Ahsoka draws it out.
"We also had to pay off a few people." I goad.
Ezra's patience is hanging by a thread. "How much?"
"With the bribe money from Spencer and Nightwine's accounts, our total after expenses is…"
Everyone waits with bated breath.
"One million twenty thousand credits."
Hera gasps.
Tav drops his spoon.
"One … one mill-." Kanan sputters.
"One million thousand total." I repeat, relishing each syllable. "You'll get six hundred thousand after the cut. Enough to fuel your ship and put food on the table for a while?"
Hera nods, eyes enormous. "Yes…that'll cover it for a while."
"They always do come through." Tandin smiles, gently placing an arm around Steela. "They started many years ago and haven't stopped yet."
"We couldn't have done half of it without you, Your Highness." Steela replies.
Tandin rolls his eyes. "How many times have I told you not to call me that?"
"Maybe we should start using another name for you. How about Pops?"
"Steela, we've had this conversation. I am not a father -."
Steela looks at the Ghost crew and points to Tandin. "He says as he is surrounded by the horde of people he helped raise."
Hera nudges Kanan, who looks at her with a raised eyebrow. Then she gestures to Zeb, Ezra, and Sabine.
It looks like Tandin, Mr. "I am not a father even though I practically raised half the people on the ship", has some competition.
But two can play at Steela's game. "If what you say is true, then where's my father's day present?"
"It'll be coming in a few months, on Father's Day."
This time, Hera nudges Ezra and Sabine, who look at each other in befuddlement.
"Um, when is that exactly?" Ezra asks.
"It's in three months; for Tav, Kiara, Katooni, and Molly's references too." Ahsoka says.
This time it's our kids' turn to look sheepish.
"That's so kind of you to get me a Father's Day present. What would I do without you two?" I ask.
Luckily for the kids' egos, Hera changes the topic. "When can we expect to see the money?"
Hutch taps a few keys on his computer. "Check your accounts now."
Hera pulls out her comlink, taps it a few times, and smiles at the screen. She tilts it to show Kanan.
"We'd better be going," she says, standing up and brushing her hands on her pilot's suit. "Thank you all for having us."
"And thank you all for your help with the job." Ahsoka says warmly. "We couldn't have done it without you."
Sierra waves to Sabine. "If you ever get tired of being a graffiti artist, you could be a grifter."
"Thanks," Sabine says, "But I think I'll stick to paints."
"After what just happened, I don't blame you a bit." Steels shrugs. "Even Ms. Crazy Grifter here took a vacation after running into Nightwine, if only because she had a broken leg and couldn't walk in heels."
"Pink plaster casts tend to ruin disguises." Sierra concedes.
"But really," Steela stands up and turns face to face with Sabine. "Well done. Very, very well done."
Kanan comes up behind her and places a hand on her shoulder. "We're very proud of her."
"She's given everyone reason to." Ahsoka says. "You all have, on separate occasions, and I hope we'll see more of you."
"Me too," Ezra says, staring longingly at the ice cream tubs.
But luckily, Hero knows what's coming. She steps into the galley and returns with a small white takeout box.
"It's a goodbye present," she says, placing the (probably mouthwatering) food into Ezra's unbelieving hands.
THIRD PERSON
The Ghost hasn't even made it into hyperspace before Ezra can't take the temptation anymore and begins to rip open the box.
"What is it?" Zeb asks, hovering over Ezra.
Ezra peels away the napkin at the top of the box and smiles.
"Fried nuna wings!"
He snags a wing just as Zeb reaches his hand into the box to fish out a few more, followed by Kanan's, Hera's, and Sabine's hands.
After everyone's eaten their share, Kanan reaches in the box to check for any remaining crumbs. He pauses, and lifts something out.
"Ezra, do you know anything about this?" He says as he holds up a small bottle of vanilla extract.
Ezra's heart stops beating.
How did she know?
Kanan sees the look on his student's face and asks; "Do I want to know?"
Ezra shakes his head, still staring at the bottle of vanilla.
"Okay then," Kanan says and puts the bottle in his pocket. "I'll put this in the galley in case we need it."
Kanan may have taken Ezra's head shake as an acceptable answer, but Hera doesn't. The minute he leaves the room, the pilot swivels around in her chair.
"All right, Ezra. Explain the vanilla bottle, now."
Ezra gulps, dreading Hera's reaction when she hears about the vanilla fried nuna.
…
On the rebel's freighter, Hero St. James chuckles.
"What did you put in the box?" Katooni asks, wise to her mother's shenanigans.
"Just a little vanilla." Hero replies. "What can I say? I'm Waitress from Hell; of course I delivered the wrong condiments."
Tandin sighs. It's a good thing he loves everyone on this ship to pieces, or they'd drive him crazy.
"So," Ahsoka asks when the conversation lulls. "What does everyone think of retiring?"
The ship falls quiet.
"You can't be serious." Steela breaks the silence. "I haven't even gotten to steal the Amulet of Galia yet."
"I have an entire folder of aliases I haven't tried." Sierra says.
"I didn't just develop a new program for nothing." Hutch announces.
"The Alliance always needs more funding." Mina points out. "And look at Saw's knuckles, they're practically twitching at the thought of not being able to fight stormtroopers."
"We can't retire!" Kiara bursts out. "You have to wait until Tav, Molly, and I are old enough to start our own crew!"
"And besides…" Lux says, smiling at Ahsoka. "I already have another job lined up."
Ahsoka nods. She expected as much from Lux.
"What are we stealing now, O love of my life?"
Lux takes a seat in the pilot's chair.
"Force only knows, Soka." he says. "The force only knows."
A/N: And that, my friends, is the end to "While Others Became Specters"
As always, I have a lot of thank yous to hand out.
Thank you to starwarshobbitfics for all your loyal reviews and friendly discourse.
Thank you to Johnt12345, for being a kind and insightful reviewer.
Thank you to Rose Ravenclaw, for sticking with me even though you know I will leave you all hanging on a cliffhanger.
Thank you to Martian Scout, for helping me to flesh out the story.
And thank you to MusicKeeper, who binge-read the entire series in a week. I couldn't believe my eyes.
I am pleased to announce another upcoming story, tentatively titled Dating In the Dark Times. This one isn't as serious as the others of its ilk, but I will tell you that it involved beaches, art theft, and the ship that just won't float. (So far, it's been a joy to write.)
Until next time,
Lux's Sister