"I dare you to check my personal records and then see how you feel about asking a question like that," Emma chuckled. "Now come on, before we waste any more potential vaping time in useless conversation!"
"Now you're talking."
Kin stood up and headed to his turret.
Emma went to her turret as well and called out, "Pick any sim... I don't care which one. I've run through them all."
"No, I insist, you're the lady, and new on the crew. You choose."
Emma chuckled and selected a sim. "The most kills in five minutes without getting shot down," she announced. "Go for it!"
Kin grinned and began the simulation. It was the ship getting swarmed by fighters. He fired quickly, in five minutes he'd downed 94 ships.
"Your turn" he announced.
Emma started the same simulation. When four minutes had passed, Emma stood up slowly, looking a little puzzled.
"Kin, had you ever heard that there was a limit to simulated attackers?" she asked. "I was only in there for four minutes... 110 ships, I think."
"Wow....you, erm.........broke the sim." He sighed. "Ah well, I guess you beat me."
"Broke it?" Emma exclaimed. "Great... now what're we gonna do for fun?"
"Well." Said Kin, still trying to restart it. "It's not working....." He gave Emma a grin. "Scuzzy's gonna kill you."
"Better let him know it's not working," Emma sighed. She pulled out her comlink. "Scuzzy? Something happened to the simulator and it's not working."
When he was sure the comlink speaker was off, Kin spoke.
"'Something happened'. I guess it sounds better than 'I broke the simulator'."
"Well the ship does enough falling apart on its own," Emma grinned. "Maybe this way, he'll not be mad at either of us... and demand newer technology."
"Well we could do with better explosions, instead of the ships just disappearing. "
"So you agree that my 'understatement' was for the best?" Emma grinned.
Emma chuckled. "So with nothing better to do, let's get to know one another better, shall we? Your name's Kin Drolma. Where are you from?"
"Coruscant born, Corellia raised," Emma answered. "Tatooine, huh? What did you find to do when you were a kid?"
"Mostly dares. Heading out to Tusken Raider territory, things like that."
"Ever steal a ship on a dare?" Emma grinned.
"Scuzy is busy, and good job guys, your screwed now! You cant do the sim, but ill fix it when i find a guy, oo look i found something, gotta go guys ill talk to you later"
John looked down, ooo looks like i got us a pilot, just got to find him
"Jacen i found a wallet of a guy who passed al the requirements for a pilot, just gotta find this guy"
He spotted the figure over by the gates, "Hey you! Your wallet! Youforgot your wallet!"
"As part of the bet or because it was too big to handle?"
"Couldn't handle it? Nah. We took off, these guys started chasing us in these fighters. So we head into a canyon, flying through when this HUGE Krayt Dragon just appears out of nowhere, bites the left wing off the ship. So we head up, out of the canyon, the dragon chases after us, and the other two ships chasing us crash into it, killing it. So where'd you get that scar?"
Emma's right hand absentmindedly traced the scar. "A fight," she answered evasively. "You got lucky those two ships crashed into and killed that Dragon... I've seen HoloNet specials where hunters get killed going after them."
"Must've been some fight." Said Kin. "And yes, we were very lucky. Scared the crap out of us when we saw it."
Emma nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I bet it did." She grinned. "I stole a ship once. Damn big thing too... big enough it should've been crewed by thirty, not one." With a little chuckle, she continued. "I almost had it, too. But like I say, it should've been crewed by thirty." She shrugged. "Crashed it. Barely got out alive."
"If it's the type I'm thinking off it's amazing you got it off the ground at all." He gestured at the turrets. "So how'd you learn to shoot?"
"My uncle was a fighter pilot," Emma answered. "He taught me what he knew... before he got shot down."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Said Kin. "He must've been a great one."
Emma nodded slowly. "And he was good at what he did... which is why I suspected sabotage. As it turned out, I was right."
After buying the medical supplies, Niomi headed into the cantina. The place was jam packed. She scanned the room. There were aliens of all sorts, some she'd never seen before. After several minutes she spotted Jacen. She made her way through the crowd and came up behind him. She put her head over his sholder and said "So captain. Found us a job?"
"At first, evidence pointed to Hawk," Emma answered. "You know, the assassin. But I found out that some guy named Ganrich Kast framed her. Apparently, he'd lost a series of bets against my uncle and when Hawk started showing up, he figured it was his chance to get even."
Kin nodded. "So why'd you join the crew?"
"Got bored of sitting around doing nothing," Emma answered. "What about you?"
"Well, the ship landed on Tatooine. Back then it was a nice ship, at least by Tatooine standards. So partly on a dare, partly for money, I was supposed to sneak in and grab a....a crash stabilizer from the engine. Huge heavy thing. So I sneak in, past the crew, grab the part and I'm walking out when I hear. "
He did a perfect imitation of Scuzzy's voice "'Freeze and hands in the air, kid.' So, I'm thinking I got caught by an officer or something, I freeze. And he says" Again the imitation. "'Didn't you hear what I said, boy?' and I answered. 'Yes sir, but if I drop this thing you've got me on destruction of property too.' So I found out they were looking for another gunner, and they were slightly impressed that I'd managed to get to the engine and out before they noticed me, so I got in."
He paused. "I used to shoot womp rats with a turret on a ship in my uncle's farm, so I was already pretty good."
"Ever considered audio acting?" Emma laughed. "That was a perfect imitation of Scuzzy!"
"Not a lot of opportunities for that on Tatooine. Except for imitating Hutt crimelords.....which is hazardous to one's health."
Emma laughed. "I can well imagine... offer a Hutt entertainment and then imitate his voice... end up being a snack to his favorite pet, yes?"
"Judging by their size, probably ending up being his snack." He grinned. "So did you ever meet Hawk?"
Emma had to think quickly. She'd have to phrase this carefully... "Once or twice."
She smacked herself internally. Where the hell had that come from? Once or twice? Stupid answer.
Curious, Kin pressed for more info. "When?"
"Uh..." Emma murmured. Think fast, think fast... "Well the first time was when I was looking into my uncle's death. I confronted her when the evidence pointed to her. She pointed me in the right direction." She shrugged. "You could call me stupid but lucky for trying something like that."
"I would, but that basically describes my entire life: stupid, but lucky."
"What kind of ship do you think I stole and crashed?" Emma asked after a short silence.
"Heavy frieghter, probably Corellian. "
"You'd be right," Emma grinned. "Almost had it out of the atmosphere when I lost control of it."
"What were you planning to do with it?"