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Star WarsGamer MagazineN 2A Credit For your Thoughtsby Tish Eggleston Pahl & Christ Cassidy###############################################################################The moment her boots landed inside the Black Dust Tavern, Fenig Nabon let out the anxious breath she'd been holding since Sullust. The galaxy might be going supernova all around them, but the legendary smugglers' haven was just as she'd left it.Well, almost. Tonight the air was as thick with unaccustomed tension as it was with smoke. Anxious words were exchanged in dozens of languages around crowded tables. Even with out being able to understand the actual content, Fen had no problem following the tenor of the hushed conversations. Her fellow smugglers were as worried as she was and were bolting like womp rats into the closest holes they could find.The desert planet of Socorro did little to call attention to itself with its inhospitable climate and vast plains of black volcanic ash. This was exactly why it was the preferred destination for so many on the Fringe, Fen included.She sauntered over to the bar and tapped the shoulder of the Bothan sitting on her favorite stool. Fen jerked her head to the right and the Bothan quickly gathered up her drink and slinked away. Pulling herself up on the seat and resting her elbows on the bar, Fen sighed contentedly as she examined the hundreds of oddly shaped and brightly colored bottles lining the wall. Karl Ancher, the tavern's proprietor, claimed to have the most impressive collection of intoxicants in the galaxy."Hey, Nabon," the bartender growled as he lined he up with a shot of Corellia's finest, then poured one for himself. "What do you think you're doing, chasing away the paying customers?""I always settle my tab, Karl!" she protested with mock indignation, and then smiled affectionately at the man who had been one of her adoptive father's best friends.They each lifted their glasses and tapped them together."To Jett," Karl said."To Jett," Fen repeated, her voice a bit hoarse.They sipped their drinks and sat in contemplative silence, as was their custom. For Fen, the absence of the man who had rescued her as a child from a life of poverty and petty crime on the streets of Coronet was still a huge, aching hole. She knew Karl felt a similar loss; he and Jett had been friends for four decades. Karl had even tried to lure his fellow Corellian into "retiring" on Socorro too, but Jett simply hadn't been ready to leave the skies. Maybe if he had he wouldn't have ended up dead on the floor of an Ord Mantell cantina. Maybe if he'd if minded his own business instead of trying to cool flaring tempers. Maybe if she hadn't left him alone. Fen clamped down brutally on that line of thinking. She had learned in her thirty-three years that maybes were a dangerous business. Still, maybe if..."Has it really been two years?" Karl asked sadly, interrupting her thoughts."Two years,four months, six days," Fen replied, staring into the glass cradled in her hands.Karl affectionately brushed away a strand of nut-brown hair that had escaped the tie at the back of Fen's neck."He's looking for you," he said, with a nod in the direction of a man sitting alone at a premium corner table."Thanks." Fed collected her drink and climbed to her feet. She thought about bridging a bottle along, but reconsidered. The only things she needed with this client were sharp wits and a credit line."Don't you dare break orbit without seeing me first, you hear?" Karl called, as he moved toward a pair of Duros waiting impatiently a few stools down."I'm coming, I'm coming! Where's that rusted bardroid of mine?"Fen couldn't fight back a small smile as she watched the graying man work his way down the bar pouring and talking, making sure everyone felt welcome and important. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to business.Her client kicked a chair out with his foot as she approached. She took the invitation and sat, taking in his sharp, dark eyes and the way his arm was slung casually across the back of the empty chair next to him. He met her gaze evenly, saying nothing about how the little delivery he'd hired her for had dropped her right into the middle of the Rebel armada just before they jumped to Endor. He'd known they were massing there. He just had to have known."Can l get you something, Fen?" Talon Karrde asked, finally breaking the silence.She saluted him with her drink."I'm all set, but thanks.""I trust everything went as planned," he said blandly.Fen reached into one of the many pockets on her flightsuit and drew out a datapad. She pushed a couple of keys and then slid it across the table to him. She watched Karrde carefully. Just what would it take to rattle him? Perhaps the three thousand in combat allowance she'd added to her fee would do the trick."Looks good," Karrde said after a couple of moments' examination. "I've already transferred ten thousand into your Corellian account, plus three thousand for the unexpected company."Fen frowned. How did he always seem to anticipate her every move?"Thanks," she said lamely."Nice work, by the way," he continued. "On time and under budget."Fen nodded. She was good at what she did and she knew it. She'd had the best teacher in the galaxy."So...""So?" Karrde echoed."Heard anything interesting lately?"Fen knew better than to get into this type of exchange with Talon Karrde, but curiosity won out over common sense. Rumors were wild and with the media still in an Imperial chokehold, information was at a premium. Karrde would know what was really going down. In this case, it would be worth the price. Besides, she'd probably be able to turn around and sell anything new at three times what it would cost her."Perhaps," Karrde allowed, his face a mask. "You?""Rebels blew another Death Star," she began, adding the first credits to the pot."Why do you suppose the Emperor keeps building the sethings if the Rebels can take them out so easily?" Karrde asked, rubbing his beard."Don't know," Fen replied. "Maybe we should ask him.""Unfortunately, we can't do that." Karrde paused a moment. "As you know, he's dead.""Pity." Fen answered."Vader, too.""A rebel pilot named Skywalker took them both out," Karrde divulged easily."He killed Jabba, too." Fen said."Actually, I understand that technically it wasn't Skywalker," Karrde corrected.Fen filed that tidbit away."Doesn't look like Fett walked away from it either," she revealed, adding to the pot.Karrde met and raised her."I'd not count him out until I saw the armor and the body inside it."Fen nodded, conceding the truth of that."Still, it's been a regular blood bath," she concluded. So far it was a draw, which against Talon Karrde was pretty good. She swirled her drink around in the glass, letting the anticipation build, and then called sabacc."Not bad for a single Jedi."Karrde shrugged.Chuba! Fen swore to herself. She'd hoped to get him on that one. At least she had confirmation now. She'd picked up that little nugget after hacking briefly into the Rebel pilots' chatter during their pre-attack systems check over Sullust. She had thought, hoped actually, that she'd heard wrong. She was still mulling over the ramifications of the rise of the Jedi and what it could mean to the less law abiding citizens of the galaxy when Karrde dropped his own proton bomb."Han Solo is alive."The words hung heavily between them while Fen digested that piece of information. Karrde was paying particularly close attention to her reaction, Fen noted with annoyance. Part of her wanted to snap, that yes, the all-knowing Karrde was right, and what his sources had told him was true. She'd had a brief dalliance with the smuggler-turned-rebel when she'd been too young to know better."How very nice for him," Fen said, faking a disinterested shrug."I would imagine he was pleased with the outcome," Karrde replied flatly and held out his hand.Fen stared at it for a long moment before huffing and reaching into a pocket for a five hundred credit piece. She slapped it wordlessly into his palm, but couldn't bear to watch as it disappeared into his pocket.Fen gave herself a hard mental shake. There'd be time to reflect on Solo later, when Karrde wasn't reading and recording her every reaction for future exploitation."A lot of good people are loose now with Jabba gone," she said, changing course."Yes," Karrde agreed. "It will be some time, I think, before anyone has the resources to pay any attention to us.""And even longer before the Hutts, or at least Jabba's clan, regroup," Fen added.She took another pull on her drink, wondering at the crafty smuggler's career goals.He answered that question with the next neutral, carefully phrased statement."I've decided it's a good time for building."In their parlance, it was equivalent to a job offer."I work alone, Talon.""Jett wouldn't want that, Fen," he said quietly.She felt the familiar lump form in the back of her throat. The sympathy expressed, the regret she knew so many felt with Jett's death, made her sense of loss all the more acute. She interrupted the kindness gruffly."I'm still available for hire, though. And for you, at pre-Collapse-of-the-Empire rates.""You are too generous." Karrde spoke so dryly that he obviously wasn't being complimentary. Was he saying she could have driven a harder bargain with him? Fen shrugged it off. She had her reasons and trying to second guess Talon Karrde was a hyperspace jump to insanity."Consider it my volume discount against your future jo... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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