CHAPTER 9 – The Scene of the Crime

After a mostly smooth three-and-a-half-day journey along the Corellian Trade Route and a short jump along the Foless Crossroad hyperlane the ship arrived in orbit of the planet of Tynna. It was a colorful planet with scattered bright blue oceans, and large land masses with a variety of colorations due to the wide range of flora in the equatorial regions. They landed in an open-air bay in Addukai city's undersized spaceport complex. The gently rolling hills surrounding the spaceport were populated with huge shrubs the size of trees and densely packed, with muted colors of blue, green and orange. There is ample light green grass and darker green, brown, and tan fungus covering the ground.

As the ship was being refueled, the crew locked down the hatches and went into the local cantina recommended by the docking agent, a bald olive-skinned human that introduced himself as Mr. Sadrix. They saw the yellow and red glowing holographic sign that read 'Wellspring Cantina' and it was surrounded by a blue watery shaped hologram cascading around the circumference of the sign. It was late in the evening and it was pretty raucous inside with a lively group of scantily clad female performers. There were a couple of Twi'lek and Mirialans and a Zeltron with long dark-purple flowing hair that went down to her knees when it wasn't twirling around her like a cape. Her hair covered much more than her actual clothing. Trest jostled the ship mechanic playfully as he gawked gleefully at the dance troupe. Puhl just rolled his eyes, but he made his fair share of scans in their direction. Wazhay ignored the dancers having been a dancer involuntarily a while ago she could never enjoy that kind of show. A muscular Zeltron man with midnight-blue wavy hair approached their glowing round plastoid table to take their order.

The Twi'lek captain cleared her throat. "The refueling should be completed within the hour, but we'll wait to leave at daybreak. So, enjoy yourselves. I would like to move the ship, if there is a place to land in the area west of here. We will have to make a low flyby to try and detect the metallic structure of the ship. It was a Suwantec TL-1200 transport ship, if I recall correctly, with some upgrades in shields and weaponry. Puhl, you setup a configuration for the sensors to detect metallic contact in the past. We'll need to get that setup again so we can pinpoint the exact location of the ship."

The tech nodded his head in the affirmative. "You got it. I'll stay sober enough to finish it in the morning."

Trest sipped from a coppery mug as he groused, "I hope we find something useful after all this fuel we had to burn to get here. These prisoners are starting to be an expensive lot."

"We do have that mint Trast ZM-14 speeder truck with the mounted E-web repeater. That'll more than cover all the trouble," the captain reasoned. "Unless we want to keep it. We could use something more than the speeder bike to seat all of the crew." She recanted, "well, most of the crew. That E-web takes up a lot of space. But the point is we're not hurting for credits right now. A welcome change to our luck, for sure."

The bearded mercenary scrunched his face into a pout. "So we ain't gonna run out of credits if we don't make some more runs soon. Right?"

The Twi'lek shrugged. "We have enough to last for a several weeks if we keep traveling. But I figure we sell the Suwantec to get more upgrades on our ship and allow us to do the missions we want."

Puhl queried. "Didn't you tell Seepa that you weren't going to steal it."

There was a twinkle in the captain's dark blue irises, as she gave a wry grin. "I said I wouldn't steal the ship. That would imply that we keep it. I never said I wouldn't sell it. Besides the rightful owner is dead and her closest family member is Nis. So, we aren't stealing, technically."

Ayala nursed her blue milk in a plastoid cup as she observed the others. She started to voice her opinion, but quickly swallowed that idea down along with her drink. Her thoughts were those of a Jedi, a technicality for a lie is still a lie, her master had told her. But the Jedi are no more. She kept quiet as she contemplated the gray areas that had become her new life. She would need to meditate on that more. These people are trying to survive on the fringe of the galaxy where laws are made by those in power and are infrequently just or moral.

Trest held his mug up in the air as he proclaimed his agreement at selling the spacecraft. "Here, here. Let's drink!"

Puhl squinted around the room and then faced the captain, "oh, yeah. By the way, where is Nis?"

"He had to get some consumables for his fighter, and some other items in the market. He'll join us later."

The ship's sensor console began to beep rapidly. "I'm detecting a large concentration of durasteel, Mark 2 point 57," Puhl relayed from the display readout.

The Twi'lek captain sat up straighter in her chair. "Ruu, slow your speed and vector to that location."

The ship turned and throttled down the engines.

The ship tech continued relaying information. "Five hundred meters and closing. Two hundred. One hundred."

Ruusyra stood up from her pilot's chair. "There. I see something covered in a large synth-canvas in a clearing of trees, just like Seepa told us. That's got to be it."

"Find a place to set down as close as you can. Keep the engines on standby and run on repulsors."

The Crescent Dancer came to a rest as the landing struts extended below them. The cargo ramp lowered methodically as they touched down. Trest, Wazhay, Puhl, Ayala and Nis all debarked and headed into the small forest. They traversed the thick foliage between the trees and made their way to the very large object in the clearing.

Trest saw the bottom part of the ship under the canvas. "There she is! We got it."

"Let's hope so. We still don't know for sure if the access codes she gave is a trap. Puhl. Get that hatch access panel open and make sure there aren't any surprises."

The ship tech pulled a bag from his backpack, and picked out some small tools. He pried open the small panel, revealing the wiring behind the code entry pad. After several minutes he concluded, "I don't see any extra wiring that would indicate a thicker wire for a trigger mechanism. It looks like a standard keypad configuration. We should be perfectly fine. Entering the code now." There was a loud hiss as the hatch vented, and then slid open.

"Alright. Puhl and I will look for a cam monitoring program on the computer or on another console that was added more recently than the other consoles. Ayala, Trest and Nis. Go to the cargo hatch and see if you can find a hidden cam outside or inside the airlock."

Everyone headed to their assignments and commenced the search for clues regarding the possible cam system being employed. It took over an hour before the Twi'lek spotted something underneath the auxiliary power distribution panel. She pressed on the button and a screen swiveled down. "Ze vawbwe dun," she said in Twi'lek. "I found it. I think."

Puhl swiveled in the console chair and spied her find. "Great. Is it requiring a passcode?"

"Yes. Unfortunately."

"I might be able to slice it."

The captain bit on her bottom lip as she thought. She held up her hand. "Wait." The blue-skinned humanoid pulled out her comm and called Nis. "We found something in the cockpit. Might be the cam recording system we're looking for. It's asking for a passcode. Since it's your sister, perhaps you might be able to guess the right one."

The Bith's voice was as excited as she's ever heard from him. "Praise the Great Harmony. I'm on my way."

It took a bunch of tries, but he finally was able to decipher the correct passcode on the cam recording device. Several of the group gathered around to watch the vids, and they found a hidden cam view from the across the main airlock hatch on the day in question. Seepa, Nalker and Luence were present along with a few others that have already been captured or killed after the failed raid on Bestine IV. Puhl transferred the vid recordings to his datapad to keep as evidence.

Nis let out a deep breath, as the confirmation of his suspicions have now been confirmed. Trest was innocent, along with the pilot and technician. "Perhaps, captain. We can send an encrypted holonet transmission to my home world along with the criminal report I made. The tribunal can then organize a hearing and summons against the accused named on the vid."

Wazhay turned to face the Bith. "That would be the proper action… But… are you sure there will be a fair and just sentencing. None of those people were the leader who took over as captain, were they Trest?"

The mercenary scanned through the vid himself. "No. I don't see Sowix Jilar present there. But I know he gave the order to have her killed, I heard him. He left the dirty work to the others. But he was captured by the Crymorah. What does it matter?"

"It matters because their sentencing will be lighter since they were following orders from their leader. Nis. It is up to you how you want to proceed. Do you want justice from your home world or do you want to see them punished on your own? I leave the choice up to you."

Nis lowered his head and heaved another long sigh. "You ask hard questions, captain. Which would serve justice more? I have to have some faith in Clak'dor's government to follow through with fairness. You all have done far more than was necessary to help me on my search for the people who executed my sister. I will plead with you to help me find the last of the accused, and then I'll find a way to get all the prisoners back to Clak'dor. I was meaning to ask you, Wazhay. Since that was Elalora's ship, I would like to sell it, giving you and your crew half of the sale price. I will also sell my starfighter so I can purchase another to be able to use it to transport prisoners. Perhaps a bounty hunter style ship."

The Twi'lek put a slender blue hand on the side of his shoulder. "You are right we have done more than enough for you."

Nis raised his eye ridge at the statement, but her expression was encouraging, so he refrained from interrupting.

"The other option is you join our crew. We sell Elalora's ship and split the profits among the crew, including you. You can sell your starfighter and keep those credits for yourself. Then we will track down and bring all of your sister's murderers to account. You are a good fighter, and a person of honor. That's rare these days, especially in our line of work."

The Bith scanned the faces of everyone there, and they seemed to be in agreement with their captain. "I have seen you in battle and in many other situations. I don't think I could find a better crew to serve with. I accept your terms. My captain."

Wazhay gave a wide grin and patted both of his outer shoulders. "Welcome to the crew, Mr. Gaffi. Now let's go get our last target. But first, we need to get this ship sold before someone comes back for it or steals it."

The others gave the Bith pats on the back or shook hands to congratulate him for joining up. They checked through the ship one last time and then trekked back to the Crescent Dancer.