CHAPTER 6 -Searching for Justice

The crew departed, but still hadn't heard from the Bith yet. They decided to wait for him at another space station in the Roche asteroid belt. They found one that was a little more respectable, but not crawling with Imperial forces. They settled on one of the smaller ones that seemed to be more popular among the local dock workers. Wazhay left a HoloNet message for Nis and also to Crod to update him on the score for their cargo. They headed to theMeteoric RiseCantina, which held live music from a local amateur jizz band, comprised of off duty dock workers and support staff. They were about as good as could be expected. Within an hour they heard back from the Bith, who survived the storm, and he joined them shortly after landing. They discussed their meeting with the overweight buyer, and how they turned the tables on the pompous merchant, and the profit they received. They heard back from Crod and received payment of five thousand credits for the cargothey sold and the bonus for the job as promised.

The Bith announced that he needed to upgrade his hyperdrive, since it was slowing them down and he was eager to chase down the three remaining people responsible for his sister's death. Wazhay offered him a cut of nine hundred credits, which he promptly declined. "You are generous, but I had no part or risk in this endeavor and did not earn it. I have made enough to get the upgrade from my previous jobs, it will just take some time. There are some good prices and lots of ship technicians to go around and I will get the best deal at Roche station than most systems in the region."

Nis was able to procure a technician and parts to install the new Class 2 hyperdrive in his fighter craft, but it could take two to three days. The crew gathered together to come up with a plan to help Nis find the remaining people onhis list.

The Bith spoke up first, "If I may, captain. I would like to give you the information I have."

"Of course, please do," she responded.

"The three crew members remaining that were part of the mutiny, were Seepa Coo, a female Rodian, Nalker Thelio and Luence Fratar, both humanmen. I have sent out to various acquaintances an offer of credits for information leading to their capture, as well as their pictures. I have received a few leads, but so far, they have come up empty. All three of them had fake ID's and so I have not yet found their actual names, or any factual information about them. I am more of a mercenary than a bounty hunter, so that's about as far as I have gone with this. The others I found were already imprisoned or killed by the Crymorahs, so those wererelatively easy. I got your name, Trest, from one of the imprisoned ones, Hirn Iteve."

Trest wrinkled his nose. "I never like Hirn, he was a total scumbag and had zero morals. I'd wager he had a big part in the murder."

The yellow skinned alien nodded. "I had to pay a slicer to track your ID, and that cost me quite a bit, unfortunately. After this hyperdrive upgrade I am running low on funds. I was hoping you might have some insight, Trest, on any personal details you have on those three."

Trest ran his fingers over his thinly cut hair and let out a breath. "I do remember Seepa mentioning a friend of hers on Filordis, I believe her name was Jayii Ahav. I don't recall anything about Nalker, he was the quiet, brooding type. He was no saint, that's for sure. Lu, I have no idea where he was from. He never mentioned his home world or anybody that he cared about. I do know a couple of his favorite places, though. He loved a high end, expensive brothel on G'wenee and a seedy dive on Toola, the home world of the Whiphid species,called 'The Hunters Spear Cantina." The buzzed cut mercenary remembered the large heavily furred creatures of the planet andtheir notorious aggressiveness. They were as large as Wookiees, with a large, wide snout, jagged teeth and two small tusks protruding up through their bottom jaw. They had narrow, slit like eyes that curved diagonally down toward their snout, along with two slitted nostrils near the tip of their snout. They took offense to off-worlders that insulted them, even in jest, and discretion was not one of his strong suits. There wereonly a handful of species that intimidated him and Whiphids were one of them. So Trest really didn't like Toola because he liked tobusteveryone's chops for fun. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "So, that's really all I remember about them. Perhaps if we find the other two, we can get more info on Nalker."

The Bith's black eyes were solemn, and he stared for several seconds, making Trest wonder what he was thinking. "Thank you for this information. It isn't as much as I'd hoped, but it is more than I had to go on before now. I will contact some of my associates and family members and have them ask around in the locations you specified. What was the name of the brothel?"

Trest searched his memory. "Madame... something. Exa… Yes, that's it. Madame Exarla's Bordello, I believe."

"Let me see." Nis pulled out a datapad and connected to his ship's navicomputer remotely. "Filordis is in the Inner Rim, and it is farther off the Perlemian with a much smaller branch hyperspace lane. But it is more likely that Seepa may visit someone that is much closer to her than some indulgence of Luence. I believe that is where we should investigate first and question this Jayii person. I can send my people to ask around and possibly recruit an informant at the other two locations."

Wazhay responded. "Alright, it sounds like we have a plan for hunting down these crewmembers. Let's get some rest and we'll head out as soon as the hyperdrive upgrade is complete. Unless you have anything else to add Nis?" The Bith gestured with his head indicating he didn't.

The technicians completed upgrading the Isu-Sim SSP05-F Hyperdrive Generator by late the next morning. As soon as they got the call,the pair of ships prepared to navigate to the planet of Filordis. Together the two ships plotted a course and made corrections and updatesas they launched away from the asteroid station. They moved into position and jumped into hyperspace. It was a long journey taking six days of various jumps to reach the target system, most of it along the less travelled hyperspace lane off the Perlemian due to less frequent navigational updates. Thankfully there were no incidents, and they came back to realspace just thirty minutes away from Filordis' orbit. The ship's databank showed that the planet consisted ofharsh rocky terrain, with frequent massive thunderstorms, and huge swings in temperature, even after terraforming it over several years to make it more habitable. It was rich in heavy metals and most cities developed around large mining companies that setup shop there, most notably TaggeCo Mining operations.

Wazhay contacted the Bith in his fighter. "I believe our best chance at finding Jayii Ahav would be to ask the TaggeCo Company to locate her as a person of interest in a murder investigation. Perhaps they will give us her whereabouts. I see the capital city is called Mora."

Nis responded. "I agree captain. I do have a police investigative report from my homeworld naming suspects in the case. That might be enough to convince them to cooperate. I doubt they will care that much about it, at least, not enough to object."

The two ships landed at the capital city and Wazhay, Nis and Ayala went to the TaggeCo headquarters and requested a meeting with the resource office representative.

The three met with the Sentient Species Resource manager of TaggeCo man sitting behind a desk consolewasan obese human, with close-cropped red and grey hair, and a little facial stubble. "I see you are looking for an employee of TaggeCoin relation to a murder charge. She is a person of interest, does that mean she is a suspect?"

The trio agreed to let the ship captain do the talking as she was the smoothest of the crew in social situations and had a charming presence and a pleasant smile that helped others feel at ease. "No, not a suspect. But she is related to a suspect and we need to question her abouther whereabouts. Just routine leg work for the investigation."

The Bith offered his datapad whichshowed her name and info, and also the murder investigation's official papers. "Yes, definitely, wedo support law enforcement, of course. I will transfer the information to your datapad. She works at one of our smaller mining colonies toward the northern pole, Eaniox Outpost."

"Thank you", the Bith and Twi'lek spoke in unison.

They returned to the ship and blasted off toward the northern pole region, landing at a snowy, outdoor landing pad at the edge of the outpost. Theyhad to trek across the outpost to the Tagge Main building. They presented the datapad with the information to the security there and were given access with a company guide. It was a human woman with long, wavy amber colored hair, and dark shaded skin. "I am Inusee Alussian, an administrator here at the facility. I will take you to thethe main building and I have contacted someone to escort Jayii to one of our meeting rooms. I would have to ask you to store your weapons at the security office. We do not allow them in the buildings."

Wazhay took the woman to the side. "Look. We are investigating a serious murder and this subject could likely be involved, we are not sure. If she is, it could be a dangerous situation for everyone. We are trained to handle this type of case, as lead investigator, I assure you we will take every precaution. Our weapons are set to stun, if it comes to that." She took out the weapon, hilt first and showed her the setting on the pistol, then slid it expertly back into her holster.

The woman looked a little pale and nodded. "Alright, if you think it is safe and use proper precautions, then it should be okay. I hope that nothing goes wrong, that sounds scary, maybe I should have the common area evacuated."

The Twi'lek shook her head. "No, that could tip her off and send her running or worse, take keep calm and take us to the meeting point. You can leave us in the room while we ask her a few questions, for your safety, of course."

The woman nodded and led them to the common area and into one of the conference rooms, then went to the other side of the common area. The Rodian woman sat in dingy, dirt-stained overalls and a breath mask on top of her head. She had teal shaded scaly skin. Her small trumpet likeantennae twisted toward the crowd entering. "Hey, what's this all about? What's the deal with the firepower? I'm just a miner, I ain't done nothin' wrong. Who are you people?"

The Bith moved forward toward the Rodian. Ayala moved just behind the Bith and this time Wazhay didn't hold her back. She trusted Ayala to keep the Bith from going too far. Nis pulled out his datapad and waved it at her. "What is your relationship with Seepa Coo?"

Rayii stared back at the Bith, defiant. "I don't know who you are talking about. You have the wrong person. You are wasting my time. I got paid work to do."

The Bith pointed a finger menacingly at the Rodian. "Liar! You'd better start telling me the truth, or you will be in serious trouble. Eyewitnesses have seen you with Ms. Coo, on several occasions. I'm in no mood for games, this is personal as well as lawful. You'd better hope my personal side doesn't take over."

The Rodian was taken aback by the outburst and took a closer look at the others. These were not security personnel or anything of the sort. "I'm going to call security, I have rights."

Ayala answered in an authoritative voice before the agitated Bith could speak, "We were escorted with permission from TaggeCo security for this investigation. I suggest you comply."

Trest made a show of cracking his knuckles and flashed a silent snarl.

She sat back and hung her head. "Alright, alright. Yeah, I know her. Sure, we were best friends okay. Grew up in the same neighborhood went to primary school and main school together, until we dropped out. But I haven't seen her in a while, so I don't know why you are here, trying to intimidate me."

Wazhay joined in, after giving a nod to the incognito Jedi, "Look, we are not here to frighten you, but we need to get the truth. When was the last time you actually saw her?"

She folded her hands under her armpits, and answered flatly, "I haven't seen her for at least a year or so. She is running all over the galaxy with her smuggler friends, I assume."

Ayala chimed in. "You arenot telling us the truth. I am an expert in tone and body language, and it is best to be honest."

Wazhay's normally pleasant voice became harsh. "If you continue to try and deceive us, you can be charged with accessory to murder. You are hiding information, so you are aiding a wanted murder don't..."

The Jedi whispered to the captain, noticing the miner was hovering her hand near her pocket. The Force revealed her thoughts, she wanted to try and call her friend on a comm. She deduced what was in her pocket, a comm-link. "She is wanting to use something, by the size of it, I would guess it's a comm device in her pocket."

The Twi'lek abruptly drew a CR-2 heavy blaster pistol from her holster. "Put your hands on the table. What is in your pocket? Ayala, search her."

The Rodian complied. So did Ayala. She removed her stun baton and held it to the reptilian humanoid's ribs with her off hand as she searched the woman's pockets. "One twitch and I'll activate the discharge." The former Republic general pulled out a comm, a few credit chips, and a couple of snack wrappers that were partially full. She tossed the latter two on the table but kept comm-link and looked it over. "This is a short-range model. She was itching to use it, probably to warn Seepa. Which means she is close, perhaps at the outpost."

The Rodian woman screeched. "No. Stop, leave her alone! She couldn't have done those things, she's no murderer!"

She started to get up, but Ayala held the baton with the button activated, close to Jayii's ear lobe so that she could hear the hum of the high voltage. She promptly sat back down and put her hands back on the table.

Wazhay interceded, hoping to lower the temperature of the encounter. "Look. I can understand that, she is merely a suspect who was known to be at the scene of the murder. We would like to get her perspective and find out the person or persons actually responsible."

The Rodian woman sat heavily in her chair. "I know that she couldn't have done what you said. She would defend herself or a crewmate, but murder. I don't believe it. She said perhaps agents of the Crymorah might come after her. How do I know you aren't from their syndicate?"

The Bith moved forward swiftly pointing a finger in the woman's face. His voice began to raise to a crescendo. "Because the woman that was pushed out of the airlock into the void… was… my… sister!". He saw that Trestcame forward to keep him from doing something brash, and he stepped back slightly. He brought up the datapad and showed her the contents. "I have an open investigation into her death. Why would I care about the Crymorah. I've never even heard of them before today."

The Rodian held up her hands, "Okay, okay. We can go and find her. She is staying with me right now, laying low from the Crymorah, since the failed raid on their warehouse. We can go there and clear this up." She waved her hand in the direction of the Bith. "He needs to let her say her peace."

The Twi'lek responded. "We have been exercising plenty of restraint. I can promise you we will give her a chance to give her side of the story. But we'll keep your comm-link, just to be sure. We already have your address from the TaggeCo management office, so we will head there now. Let's go." The captain put her hand behind the shoulder of the Rodian and directed her out of the meeting room. Trest and Ayala flanked Jayii as Wazhay moved ahead of the group, with Ruu, Puhl and Nis following to the rear.

They traversed back to the ship, through streets lined with piles of plowed snow. As they left TaggeCo mining compound, Trest inquired, "so what do we do with our Rodian friend?"

The captain glanced back at the Jayii, and then to Trest. "For now, she will be locked in our airlock. Puhl, make sure nothing can be accessed from there and make sure all doors are locked out from the internal controls. I'm going to connect to the HoloNet relays and find us a map of the area. We'll search for a good place to set downout of sight of the building where she resides, but close enough for support."

The crew and accomplice arrived at the spaceport and boarded the ship, and then headed tothe crew lounge.

Wazhay turned around and stopped in front of Jayii. She waved a hand toward the semi-circular brown synth-plast cushioned bench aroundthe circular plastoid, white and blue checkered table. The Rodian woman sat down, Trest and Ayala again moved to opposite sides of the table, trapping the woman in the middle. " The blue-skinned woman shifted her gaze to the Sullustan pilot. "Ruu, spin up the engines and prepare to take-off."

The Twi'lek stood at the open end of the table and stared down at Rodian miner. "Now. Give us information on this location. It appears to be a housing complex with multiple floors, based on the address. Is there any badge or code for the building? Keep in mind the harder you make this, the more dangerous it will be for your friend. If we can get her and question her without her trying to run, the risk of your friend getting hurt will be dramatically reduced."

The Rodian nodded, though she seemed to be distant in her thoughts. "Fair enough. It is tied to my work ID card to enter the building. The housing is owned by TaggeCo."

"Very well. Your cooperation is appreciated, and we will note that in our report. Now we will lock you in the airlock and keep an eye on you, as a precaution."

Jayii seemed to want to protest but sighed and acquiesced. There was little choice. Ayala and Trest took her to the airlock, Puhl had already made his wayto the system console and locked out all internal controls there and installed a concealed cam to monitor their detainee.

The rest gathered together. "Alright. Now we can talk freely. First off, Trest, how likely do you think she is telling the truth about her character. Is she honorable or not?"

The Bith's interest peeked at the question, and he turned to observe Trest.

The buzzed-cut mercenary tapped the side of his jaw with his index finger. "Well, being a smuggler and all, I guess I'd have to say she's a rough one overall. She acted as a decent crewmate. But those that were prisoners, or guards or anyone else in her way outside of her mates, she was a menace. She had little patience and seemed to enjoy taking down people hard. She definitely has a mean streak in her. I wouldn't be surprisedsince she decided to mutiny, then she could have done something like that. I've seen her torture an innocent merchant just to get some minor information out of him. So, yeah. Honor is not her forte. She is skilled with her projectile weapons. She has a mean 8-guage scatter gun and slugthrower pistol, so we need to be very careful. "

"Very well, that's good information. But still, we'll go with stun weapons, unless she gets armed quickly. Then we will escalate as needed. Keep your vibroknife handy, Trest. Ruu and Puhl will stay on the ship and monitor the detainee. The four of us will head to the housing unit as soon as we land. I'm going to go the cockpit with Ruu and find us a strategic place to set down. The rest of youneed to get prepped to go incognito. We won't have very far to go based on the size of this outpost.

TheCrescent Dancerset down by a small, ruddy creek between two large rock outcroppings. They could see the housing complex in the distance about a kilometer away. It looked like it was the only one in the outpost, so it was easy to spot. It was also the tallest structure in the area, standing twenty stories tall, and was made of a reinforced brownish-red duracrete similar in color to the majority of rocks on this dusty world. A massive lighting storm was coming in from the opposite direction. Already they could see flashes of very bright lighting rolling toward the outpost. But it appeared to be hours away, at least.

Wazhay stood up stiffly, straightened and puffed her chest out. She made her voice deeper than normal. "Alright Ruu, you have the bridge." She relaxed and laughed. "I saw that on a Naval space Holo-drama, always wanted to say that line."

This time it was Trest that rolled his eyes. "You're in a good mood today."

She shrugged. "We've had a run of good luck lately. Gotta enjoy it while we can."

The four crew members donned non-descript grey cloaks to cover up their weapons and armor and took a circuitous route to the city, to avoid heading directly toward their objective. It wouldhave made someone there wonder why a ship would land on the ground on the border of the outpost and head straight for a housing complex consisting of miners, and other laborers, which couldill afford a decent land speeder, let alone a space freighter.

As they approached the main thoroughfare passing through the residential section of the outpost, Wazhay gave some directions. "Keeps your head down so we appear like the downtrodden. Blend in with the people. Don't draw attention. Don't make eye contact." They did as she said and approached the main entrance to the housing complex. The Twi'lek used Jayii's TaggeCo ID card andthe group was able to access the building. They took the turbolift up to the 5th floor. As they headed upward, Waz turned to the other three. "I have an idea. Trest, she knows you, so we will stay to the side and you announce yourself. Let her know you are on the run from a bounty hunter who is hunting the old crew of Elalora. She lets you in we will push in behind you. If she doesn't, we'll do it the messy way..."

The lift slid door opened, and the crew moved to the door listed in the TaggeCo report they were sent. The captain signaled the othersto stay away from the door cam as Trest approached. The other three readied their weapons on either side of the door, up against the wall.

The human mercenary pushed the comm button on the door panel.

Acontralto female Rodian voice came through the tiny speaker on the door. "Yeah, who is it?"

"Seepa. It's me Trest."

"What are you doing way out here in theShebend of nowhere?" The voice held astonishment.

"I got some news, it's important or I wouldn't have travelled all thefrakking wayout here."

"Alright. Keep your chaps on, I'm coming."

The door slid open and Trest took a step forward, just so she couldn't step out and see the others. "It's been a while, Seepa. I'll get right down to it, there is someone after Elalora's crew. He is hunting the crew because he believes we murdered El."

The Rodian woman was not troubled at all. "Yeah, so what. She wasn't worth a bounty over, who cares. Why would someone look for her?"

"She had a brother, he's the one hunting them. He knows she was spaced, must've heard it from one of our old guys shouldn't have put her out of the airlock."

"We were sick of her rules, and limitations. She had to go. Easiest way to avoid problems, just send her out into space. I'll keep an eye out for trouble..."

Nis seethed at the words about his sister, and Wazhay knew the Bith would be hot. She nodded her head and pointed repeatedly toward the room, indicating 'go, go, go'. The Bith, Twi'lek and Ayala charged in behind Trest and pushedaround him to get to the Rodian. Ayalamoved with amazing speedand went left where Seepa had stepped back. She called out, "put your hands up, and go to your knees, now."

The Rodian ignored the directive and started to reach for something behind her back.

Ayala's stun baton was already in hand and gripped the activation button as sheengaged the Rodian connected with a diagonal downward swing, connectingher across the top of her collar bone, sending blue electrostatic arcs from the baton against the edge of where hergreen scaly skin met the shirt collar. Seepa rolled with the attack and out of reach as she pulled out a slugthrower pistol she had holstered behind her back. Ayala started to press her, but she saw how quickly the gun came out and the fact that she couldn't block anything with the baton as she would with the lightsaber. She opted instead to dive for cover behind the living room couch. She just hoped that her teammates acted quickly.

The Rodian yelled out as she took aim at Trest, "You traitor!" she fired several projectile rounds at the merc, as he ran to the side, one of them grazed Trest's hip, cutting through his thick trousers, but not actually doing any physical damage.

Trest responded as he pulled his rifle up quickly and returned fire, "you betrayed and murdered your captain! Give it up, you have no chance."Unfortunately, hisrushed attack caused his aim to be off andthe blue energy shotstrailed behind heras she moved toward the kitchen area.

The Bith and Wazhay took aim as the Rodian moved. Seepaspotted the weapons being trained on her and she jumped up and over the cheap, grey stone kitchen counter and landed hard on the grimy tile floor. The bolts of stun energy hit just below her against the synth-wood counter base.

The reptiloid smuggler got up and sprinted for the bedroom off to the side opposite of theCresent Dancercrewmembers. Trest clutched the forearm grip and steadied the long barrel of his repeating blaster, this time working ahead of his target and moving back. The salvo of bright sizzling energy struck the woman in the lower back and rear as she tumbled into the bedroom. Wazhay and Nis tried to get to cover, but the Rodian stuck the barrel of her scatter gun out and fired hundreds of metal pellets with an ear piercing, reverberating pop. Several hit the Twi'lek and Bith at high velocity before they could leap behind the couch.

Ayala pulled out a stun grenade and hit the activator switch, as Seepa pumped her scattergun to load in more was the first time actually throwing one of these stunners but charging the Rodian with that scattergun was suicide. The former Jedi lobbed it toward the open bedroom doorway. The grenade hit in front of the door and rolled inside half a meter and then flashed with a high-pitched concussion wave. Somethingcrashed to the floor. Ayala rushed in and found the Rodian slumped awkwardly and unconscious. She scooped up the Rodian's two projectile weapons as she yelled back. "She's knocked out cold. Waz, Nis, are you okay?"

They both were bleeding from pellets that hit Wazhay'slekkuand forehead. Nis had one big cut just above his left eye where he was holding his sleeve over the wound to staunch the bleeding. "We'll live," the captain answered. "Nice throw with the stun grenade, by the way." The Twi'lek turned to face Trest. "You and Ayala search for something to bind our prisoner."

Nis spoke up abruptly. "There is no need."

Waz shook her head. "We will not allow a defenseless person be hurt or killed."

The Bith stared at her with his round lips pursed tightly and brought out a pair of binders and held it out on his fingers.

"Apologies Nis. My mistake," the Twi'lek said sheepishly, realizing he was only going to secure the Rodian woman.

The groupboundSeepa's wrists with the binder cuffs. Afterwards Nis brought out an emergency medkit and they treated the wounds on the two injured from the scatter gun, and the Rodian was also treated so her wounds didn't worsen. They returned to the ship with their prisoner and let Jayii go free. They informed her that Seepa Coo would have a trial on Clak'dor once they delivered her to the investigative authorities and set a date of judgement. The Rodian miner protested with a slew of angry words in her language, but eventually conceded and went on her way back to town.