Chapter 36: Downtime
The next day, Calak and the others focused on relaxing, at least somewhat. They did need credits though. Good thing Calak had spotted the swoop racer opening. It would still be work, but at least it was a different kind of work that didn't involve getting shot at or otherwise
attacked. And he had enjoyed the racing on Taris so it would be a nice change from their normal routine.
Bastila and Juhani stayed on the ship for meditation, Bastila feeling she could find more peace within herself now that she'd reconciled with her mother whom she hoped to reunite with after the war. Mission and Zalbaar decided to go to the local cantina to play pazaak, T3 remained on the ship to make sure it was functioning correctly. Lastly, Carth, Canderous and HK-47 headed out into the dessert to go hunting on their own.
"We need to keep our skills sharp," Canderous had said. "Can't rely on you Jedi to save our skins all the time."
"Yeah," Carth agreed. "I also need to not fall for traps like that."
Calak nodded. They all needed to sharpen their skills, and they might not always be in a large group. At least the Tusken Raiders shouldn't be a problem now. The soldier, warrior, and hunter droid all headed out with their blasters armed.
"Be careful out there," he told them.
Carth nodded while the two more trigger happy members of this newly formed trio were not so agreeable.
"I make no promises," Canderous said.
"Statement: There is a fine line between being careful and being cowardly. I wish to spill some blood today!" HK stated.
Calak narrowed his eyes. "As your master I forbid you from killing any human or alien unless attacked first."
"Dismayed Resignation: Very well Master. How I wish you were more inclined toward cruelty."
Calak sighed. If only he knew someone that could reprogram that personality. But the Ithorian mechanic had had no such luck. The programming must have been made by someone very skilled, whom Calak could only envy.
All of them went about their own business. Mission and Zalbaar followed Calak briefly before heading to the cantina. He continued on to the Swoop Registration which was near the cantina that he and Bastila had met Helena. Heading inside he was told to speak with Motta the Hutt. Calak hadn't seen a Hutt since Taris when he was doing the Dueling Ring and Bounty Hutting for Ajurr and Zax. He immediately spotted the overgrown slug sitting lazily in the corner and headed over.
"Yes?" the Hutt asked in his native language.
"I saw you had a sign for a job as a Swoop Racer?" Calak asked.
"Yes, if you have a Swoop Bike," the Hutt said.
"I do," Calak told him. "And I have some experience."
"That's good, except I don't care!" the Hutt dismissed. "You have a bike and can race to earn me some more credits. That's all I care about."
Greedy slime balls the lot of this species it seemed.
"Well fine as long as I can get paid for it," Calak said.
"Oh, you'll be getting paid. But not with credits," Motta said. "You'll get Racing Bonds. Little slips of paper that are pretty valuable, one hundred credits each. But that's only if you manage to break records!"
He then gestured to the board above them. It showed three names, a Twi'lek Zoriis, Ithorian Yuka, and Rodian Garm, all highlighted in green with a bunch of red highlighted names below.
"For each of those three people whose time you manage to beat, I will give you a number of racing bonds," Motta said. "A mere ten if you manage to beat Yuka's. Then thirty if you beat Garms's. And finally eighty if you manage to beat the Champion Zoriis's time. That would be a total of one hundred and twenty racing bonds which would give you… twelve thousand credits!"
Calak couldn't help himself from grinning at the thought of that. That number of credits would make up for he'd lost by buying HK-47. Though he had a feeling there was a catch.
"But you have to pay a hundred credits every time you go out onto the track," Motta said. "If you don't break any of the records, you don't get any bonds. The time to beat this round is twenty-three point ninety seconds."
So, they had to play to win. Calak's Swoop bike on the Ebon Hawk was retrieved and brought to the track by a hover transport. Calak was then put on another transport into the track where he climbed into his swoop bike. He'd already gotten a basic rundown on Taris, so he was able to start up the bike no problem. Well, maybe a little.
He did press a wrong button or two, which caused him to get delayed when setting off. But once he quickly corrected that, he was off. The swoop bike sped down the track. Calak saw booster platforms like the ones and Taris, passing the first one before he could realize what it was. He saw another and swerved to get to it. The booster propelled him forward and he grinned at the feeling of immense speed. He continued down the track, seeing several boosters along the way. He got some of them, though others evaded him. That was okay, this was only the first round. He could use it to learn the track and memorize it.
Unfortunately he hit some of the wooden posts that served as obstacles on the track. It didn't badly damage his swoop which was made of metal. But it did slow him down. Still, he made it to the end within a total of-
"Twenty-Eight Seconds!" the track master said when Calak stepped out of his swoop and onto the transport going back to the swoop base. "Nasty little crash. Might have won if you'd avoided that, and gotten a few more boosters. You have to return to Motta now. Can't do a redo without paying first."
That greedy Hutt. Calak thought. "Ah well, what's a few hundred credits if I manage to win more?"
He couldn't be reckless though. If he couldn't get it in the next four tries at least, he'd have to quit. Didn't want to waste all his credits if he was no good at this. But he was good at it, or at least he was when he had an advantage on Taris. Though this didn't seem any slower.
Fortunately, when he arrived back at the base, he saw the score board and he was now just five seconds away from the third-place runner.
"And what do you call that?" Motta asked.
"Getting close despite not being on the track more then a few times before," Calak said.
Motta looked at him and then laughed. "Got some confidence I see! Well, if you want to try again pay up!"
"Fine," Calak said drawing another hundred credits for the racing fee. "We'll see who's laughing this time!"
Calak was again transported to the swoop ring in a five-minute speeder ride. He could understand why not many people had signed up for this. His Swoop bike took off just in time this time. He was surprised it moved so fast. This didn't seem any slower than the time he used the swoop bike with the prototype accelerator when he was riding for the Beks. How could that be possible? Calak then remembered that the accelerator had been in the possession of the Vulkar's before he'd stolen it back. Had they sold its plans to Davak who had made a prototype of his own and had it installed in his own swoop bike? That seemed to make sense.
Calak returned his focus to the track, going over as many boosters as he could. He also had to avoid the wooden post obstacles. He piloted the swoop bike, having an extra second warning thanks to his affinity with the force.
He made it to the end once again, having avoided the obstacles this time, but failed to get every booster on the track. Still, it was better than before. He climbed into the transport and in another few minutes the speeder arrived back at Anchorhead. Another short walk and he was back in the cantina. He looked at the scoreboard and saw his name had risen up to... third place!
The spectators in the swoop track base cheered.
"Congratulations newcomer," Motta said in Huttese. "You have passed the first tier and earned a set of racing bonds."
He handed Calak a stack of blue papers that could be transferred to money.
Calak smiled. "Thank you."
Motta then looked at him. "You looking for easy work I take it?"
"Somewhat," Calak admitted. "I did some hunting for Czerka just a couple days ago and helped get rid of the Sand People."
As he recalled that, Calak suddenly remembered he had another possible opportunity for payment. He'd saved Griff in the Tusken Enclave, but also those Jawas as well. They'd mentioned their leader would compensate him for that. If Calak recalled correctly Iziz was the Jawa's name.
"Now I'm just trying to do something else real quick," Calak finished
speaking to Motta.
"Well, I have another little job that could earn you a little something," Motta said. "One of your fellow racers has some real potential. Young and daring, sort of like you. But you are a Jedi so I don't think you're interested in going pro?"
Calak shook his head. "Maybe if I weren't a Jedi. Swoop racing makes a good
past time though."
Motta nodded. "If you do me a little favor and convince another of my racers Nico to sign up for going pro I'll give you a nice little bonus right now of five hundred credits."
That seemed like a good deal but-
"Why won't he sign?" Calak asked.
"Something about me taking a 'hefty' amount of the profits. He wouldn't even have the chance without my help so I think it's only fair I get eighty percent of his earnings!" Motta said.
Calak frowned. "You should give him a better deal. It's not fair for anyone to have to pay more than half of their earnings, investor or not."
Motta frowned. "If it weren't for me, he would never have a shot at going pro and becoming famous!"
"Give him a better deal or I'll..." Calak had to restrain himself from threatening to hurt the Hutt. "Tell everyone on Tatooine you're a cheat."
"You wouldn't dare!" Motta objected.
"I will," Calak said. "You make your racers pay to race rather than let them go out for free. I bet others don't. That's no way to treat a partner, no one would want to work with you then."
Motta would have probably bit his lip if Hutts had teeth. He thought for
a moment and then sighed. "Very well I can't have my reputation tarnished. I have many partnerships I need. Go on, tell Nico I'll only take half of his earnings in return for investing in him."
Calak nodded. He then looked up at the board and saw Nico's picture as a green skinned Twi'lek. Looking around, he saw him and approached.
"Hello Nico," he greeted.
"Oh hi," the Twi'lek said glumly. "Nice work beating my time. You here to gloat?"
"No," Calak said with a shake of his head. "I talked to Motta about
you."
"Oh, I bet he did. That Hutt is trying to get everyone to soften me up?" Nico asked.
"Actually, I managed to convince him to give you a better deal. Now he'll only be taking half of your earnings."
"Half?" Nico repeated in disbelief. "Is this a joke?"
"Nope go ask him yourself," Calak said.
Nico did.
"It's true Nico," Motta confirmed begrudgingly.
Nico's mouth fell open and he turned to Calak. "I don't know how I can ever repay you. What was your name?"
"Calak Star," Calak told him.
"Well, you sure move fast Calak Star. Already third place in just your second race?" Nico said. "I think you'll be a star here in no time."
With that prototype accelerator apparently on Davak's Swoop Bike, that could very well be the case.
Calak did another few runs. It cost him a few credits but thanks to the advanced part that apparently had not been developed on Tattooine yet-
"We have a new Swoop Racing Champion!" Motta declared when Calak broke the record of 22.52 seconds on Tattooine. "Calak Star!"
He then handed Calak a large amount of racing bonds. Calak had already gotten a total of forty after winning the second tier. Now he had the whole pure of one hundred and twenty bonds to get twelve thousand credits.
"That's the last one I'll be giving you I hope," Motta said begrudgingly. "Having to print those costs me a lot of money."
Hutts and their greed, Calak thought.
"Well, I think that's enough for today," Calak said. "I don't think I'll be coming back for a race. Sorry."
"Oh good, in that case be on your way Champion for a Day!" Motta said happily.
Calak had gotten what he needed from this greedy slug at least. He asked some Jawas about the one know as Iziz and found the Jawa by the gate going into the desert.
"Thank you for your assistance in freeing my tribesman," the Jawa leader said. "You have proven a friend to the Jawas, and as such we offer you a discount on any items you buy from our tradesmen."
Calak smiled. "Thank you. I'll have to keep that in mind."
He then took his racing bonds to Czerka Corportation and was able to turn them in for credits at the currency exchange. He received twelve thousand credits in return.
"You are certainly an expensive Hunter," Greeta said as she brought the credits out.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to give that to me out of the kindness of your heart?" Griff asked.
Calak was all for helping people, but since Griff had abandoned Mission he didn't deserve an easy way out.
"Sorry no. You need to earn it honestly," Calak told him.
Griff nodded with a hint of sadness. "Well thought I'd try."
Calak made his back to the Ebon Hawk and found the others were all there. "Well, with these credits we're once more in good shape."
"Yeah," Carth agreed. "Well, we heading to Kashykk now?"
"No," Calak said. "First we have to go back to Dantooine. Sasha might have a family there."
Their stowaway was back in the Cargo Hold.
"Well lets hope we don't take too long that my brother might be in danger," Mission said.
"We have two standard weeks Mission," Bastila said. "We'll be fine."
"Fire up the engines," Calak ordered.
"On it," Carth said heading to the cockpit.
The engines soon lit up and the Ebon Hawk took off to go back to Dantooine briefly. In the meantime, Calak looked at his crewmates, thinking there was probably something he needed to ask about them. Canderous in particular. The trip back seemed like as good a time as any to get to know more about the Mandalorian, he'd come to know much about the others. Though now that he thought about it, there had to be more to Carth's story then just having his planet destroyed. And he hadn't learned much about Juhani yet.
Author's Notes: Well, fallen a bit behind on the socialization aspect in some cases I think. So I think that will be the focus of the next chapter. Focus on Canderous and Juhani especially I think. Maybe some of Bastila as well. Also I just realized I titled chapter 31 Race and Reunions but there wasn't really a race. So that will have to change.