Chapter 6:
They barely escaped the crumbling butcher shop before it too became part of the void. Just some more rubble in a sea of broken buildings. Luckily, they found the speeder fairly quickly and so Ves hurried back upwards to find a doctor for Serrad. For all its faults, level 4097 did have a fairly decent collection of medical droids at its clinic. Surgery took hours, but they eventually managed to stabilize Serrad.
Serrad hung suspended in a Bacta tank. His wounds were grievous, but closing quickly. His legs were another matter entirely. The breathing mask was equipped with a microphone and so the two of them could converse: "The doctors say you'll recover, you'll need prosthetics though." He responded in a gentle tone: "I owe you, Ves." He was sincere, Ves felt it: "You don't owe me." She leaned her hand against the glass. She looked down, not wanting him to see the tears in her eyes: "This is all my fault." He put his hand against the glass, right on hers: "It's not your fault." Ves was now sobbing more heavily: "I lied. I lied and got you into this mess. Without me, maybe the heist would have worked. Without me, you'd still be whole." He responded: "We all knew the risks. You did the best you could, same as the rest of us. And you saved me, even risking your own life for me." Ves looked up, he continued: "Now go find the bastard who screwed us and make him pay."
A medical droid entered the room: "Here are the prosthetics options you requested." Ves answered immediately: "He'll take the best." The droid responded in the same mechanical cadence: "Understood. This will add another 85,000 to your total. Are you sure you wish to proceed?" Ves and Serrad looked at each other briefly, then she said confidently: "Don't worry, I'll get you the money."
She decided that going back to her apartment would be as good a place to start as any. She'd somehow need to find out what happened to Jukko and Hokzam and how to reconnect with them. Documentation was fairly poor on the lower levels, so it was unlikely that there'd be an ambush waiting for her. Still she shouldn't stay down here for too long.
The walk back to her home was a stressful one. She absolutely could not afford to be stopped and searched by one of the police droids, so she walked as quickly as possible. It seemed like she was about to be stopped, but luckily the droid went for someone behind her. She breathed a huge sigh of relief and kept going, her heart pounding.
The door of her apartment looked the same as always. No sign of forced entry but that alone was no guarantee. She decided to risk it and opened the door. She found her small one room apartment the same as it had always been. It was just barely large enough to fit a bed and a bathroom. The light flickered the same way it always had and rust still infected every corner of every wall. There were no windows and it smelled as awful as the rest of the sublevel. In her current situation, it might as well have been paradise.
She hooked up the mobile rig Hokzam had given her and checked the news. He had been captured, nothing on Jukko however. The senate had started a committee looking into the heist and especially the conduct of the police sergeant who led the response. The leader of the committee, some junior politician from Naboo called Sheev Palpatine, furiously accused the sergeant of gross misconduct and incompetence. He put special emphasis on the innocent lives lost due to the police's botched response. It seemed that the republic's concern for their citizens scaled directly with their net worth.
She then checked her mail for any messages Jukko might have left her. There was one from her former boss, letting her know she'd been fired for failing to show up for almost a week. She recovered quickly from the bad news. She locked the rig, there was no further information to be gleaned from it. Lying on her bed, she noticed just how tired she was. The excitement of the past few days had taken a toll on her. Part of her still yearned for the quiet misery that was her previous life. Sure, it was an awful existence by any measure, but at least it didn't include being shot in the face or butchered. She was about to doze off when she heard a loud knocking on the door.
Fear filled her immediately. They must have found her! She pulled her blaster and cautiously opened the door. Jukko was standing on the other side and before Ves had a chance to react she was already embracing her. "I thought you were dead. What happened to you two?"
Ves quickly caught Jukko up on everything that happened. She looked shocked for a moment, then considered and finally spoke: "So our nice and pretty bank has some real ugly clients. That confirms some of my suspicions, but we'll have to spring Hokzam to make sure."
Ves answered: "Well he's in supermax, so how are we gonna do that?"
Jukko smiled and pulled out a bundle of clothes, holding up a small silk band with special pride. Ves looked confused: "I don't think now's the time for that." Jukko was taken aback: "What? No silly, you'll just dress up as a Jedi and walk him straight on out of there."
Ves looked even more confused. Jukko continued: "The Jedi can transfer any prisoner directly into their custody, no questions asked. All you'll have to do is say some cryptic nonsense about how 'the force led you to him' or whatever and you'll be golden." Ves was entirely aghast: "Have you completely lost it?" She tried to reassure her: "It'll be easy. No one questions a Jedi." This did little to assuage Ves' doubts: "If it's so easy, why don't you do it?" She responded simply: "I can't act." Ves fired back: "I'm no actress either." Jukko countered: "Well, you're not Shyrack either."
Ves despaired: "You got me there." She put her face in her hands. Under different circumstances, this might have been quite funny. Jukko comforted her, cradling Ves' head with her soft fingers she said: "You'll make it, I'm sure." Ves smiled grimly, then asked: "Why? Why did you take me with you?" She dodged the question: "Let's get some rest, we're gonna have a big day tomorrow."