“Aw, come on, Dina!” Jyot said as he backed up even closer to the cliff’s edge. “A grenade? That’s not your style. Can’t we talk about this?”

“Time for talking’s over, lover.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve dishonoured me. Now, jump or get blown to smithereens.” She flashed a quick smile. “Your choice.”

Jyot took a cautious step back. The ground wasn’t as solid as before. He could feel it shifting under his feet. “Grenades are messy,” he warned. “You’ll get all sorts of blood and icky stuff on your parka. And on those lovely purple gloves of yours.”

“Mauve,” she corrected him, and Jyot swore he heard Zip utter a droidy little ‘I-told-you-so’ sort of s******ing snort. "They're not purple. They're mauve."

Then Jyot started to grin. He had spotted Jhamrok coming towards him. “Ok, mauve. You’ll get all sorts of….” He paused suddenly as a loose rock fell over the edge, clattering against the hardened rocks as it bounced to the bottom. “…erm, lots of icky, gooey stuff on your mauve gloves if you use that grenade. Not to mention all over the nice kitty behind you.”

Dina’s brow raised. “Kitty?”

He growled loudly right behind the woman, hoping to startle her enough to scare her off. In case for the worst case scenario, Jhamrok had his claws out and was more than ready to rip the hand holding the grenade off the rest of the torso in order to get rid of the only bargaining chip the woman had anymore.

“A nice kitty that won’t kill you, but wants to play with your toy,” Jyot said, and he nodded for Jhamrok to go ahead and grab hold of Dina, and her grenade, in any way he saw fit.

Just then, a speeder roared towards them, and it jammed to a stop just behind Jyot.

Ellie’s green catlike eyes flashed at the mechanic. "Get in."

No one had to tell Jyot twice. He lunged for Zip, grabbed the hovering droid, and then dived into the back of the speeder.

“Damn it, Jyot! You promised you’d come alone!” Dina screeched at him as she fruitlessly struggled against Jhamrok’s hold.

“Yeah? Well…I lied!” He hunkered down as far as he could in the backseat of the speeder, trying to make himself as small of a target as possible. There was no doubt in his mind that Dina was not only unbalanced enough to kill him, but also smart enough and rich enough to hire snipers if she failed to complete the job herself.

“Ship! Ship! Ship! Get back to the ship!” Jyot shouted to Latch and Ellie, just as Jhamrok wrenched the grenade from Dina’s hand, tossed it over the cliff, and leapt into the back of speeder with feline agility, grace and speed.

((OOC: FFWM12--As he's skidding down the side of the hill, can we pick up Kadis in the speeder on the way out?))

((Is it just me or does anyone else get an odd Catalina-vibe off of Dana? :p))

The struggle for the grenade was barely dramatic. Initially the element of surprise gave him an advantage to tie the woman down and after that it was a matter of pure strength, an area where the Cathar easily overpowered the frail woman on. Once his paws were on the grenade, the hunter threw the grenade over the cliffside and tossed Dana aside with some nasty clawmarks as a reminder of their meeting.

As Jhamrok landed on the back of the speeder, he grunted and sat upright before placing a slightly bloodstained claw on the cheek of Jyot, making sure the human could see the blood on his claws for increased intimidation value.
"Kitty? Kitty?! I'd have your head for that" the proud Cathar growled into Jyot's ear with narrowed eyes at the apparent insolence of the other being. By now Jhamork had seen and heard all the mockery of his species capable for a human, or any other species', brain to figure out, yet he somehow managed to find the terms 'Furball' and 'Kitty' the most insulting for his species and his hunter status within their culture.

"Kitty? Kitty?! I'd have your head for that!" Jhamrok was threatening Jyot.

"Hey, little miss spoiled psycho brat back there wouldn't have understood what a Cathar was!" Jyot snapped back at Jhamrok. "I needed something that would grab her attention, so chill out fur..." It only took a second for Jyot to realise he was about to make a serious vocabulary mistake. "...galaxy's sake!"

The stand off between Jyot and Dina had only lasted mere seconds, with Jhamrok defusing the situation by wrenching the grenade out of the crazed woman's hands and then leaping into the speeder. Latch had kept his shotgun up and trained at her during the whole exchange, but now that Jyot was getting away, she got angry.

The two bodyguards came up behind her. "Kill them!" she shouted, pointing at the speeder.

"Rifle Two, now!" Latch yelled into his comlink before pumping his shotgun and sending a blast directed towards Dina. The report of his shot melded with the sound of Arelyn's sniper rifle as both bodyguards tumbled forward, their backs smoking with holes. Dina herself was thrown backwards, Latch's shell having taken her full in the stomach. Latch allowed himself a wry chuckle as they sped away.

Hunkering down next to his friend, he said, "I've always wanted to shoot that crazy wench. Thanks for giving me the chance."

Jyot's eyes went as wide as saucers. "You killed her! " His voice was panicked. "Oh, Holy Black-biled Sithspit, Latch! Please tell me you didn't just kill the daughter of one of the richest, and most corrupt diamond mine owners in the Quadrant! He'll have our guts for garters! He'll put a bounty so high on us that Hutts would fight over the subcontracts! Oh, crap, Latch! What have you done!"

Latch couldn't help laughing. "Easy, Span, easy," he said, soothingly. He pulled the breech of his shotgun open and extracted a shell. Twisting the metal base off, he pulled Jyot's open hand toward him and poured the contents of the shell out onto it. "Rock salt," he said, matter-of-factly. "Ain't gonna kill her, but she's gonna have a hell of a stomachache for a while." Latch grinned, only as a Corellian who'd just skimmed the odds could. "Besides, you just left the daughter of one of the richest and most corrupt diamond mine owners in the Quadrant hanging out in the breeze again. What makes you think he won't be coming after us anyway? I figured I might as well have some fun with it."

"Latch, you kriffin’ son of a slimy chuff-sucking gravel maggot!” Jyot sunk down nearly to the floor, his face regaining some of the color it had lost. "Her dad will post a bounty, sure, but just for me. Not for all of you as well. And, to be honest, it won't be that high. But if you had killed her...." He punched his smiling friend's shoulder, hard but not enough to bruise. "Kriffin nerfherder."

"You're welcome," Latch retorted, still grinning.

"Will the both of you shut up?" Ellie muttered, uncertain if they would have been able to hear her over the wind that their speed was creating. Even with the neck of her jacket turned up and her hood pulled over her head, the chilly air bit against the exposed skin of her face with every slight increase in speed. Between the annoyance of the cold - which she hated more than anything in the world, for the record - and the way that her nerves were still strung on high from the small encounter, she was feeling rather...irritable.

Spotting the slipping, sliding, and tumbling form of Kadis careening down a nearby hill, Ellie slowed the speeder to a hover just in front of his path. After checking behind her for any signs of possible trouble following, she nodded to the mercenary. "Jump in," she said, "We have one more seat open." And, while Kadis was clambering in, she turned to the dissheveled mechanic, pushing the edge of her hood back to see him more clearly. "Please, for the love of spice, tell me that you got the information we're looking for."

((Thanks for keeping Arelyn involved, Rogue Nine. :)))

Fitting the barrel into its bracket, Arelyn finished packing up her rifle and snapped the case shut, then swung it over her shoulder and turned to leave. The exchange between Jyot and Dina had been dicey, as everyone had been predicting, but no one was seriously hurt...well, except for Dina's hired goons who had smoking blaster holes in various parts of their anatomy. The Scimitar's mechanic had requested his ex-fiancйe remain unscathed, but he had said nothing about her bodyguards. Truth be told, Arelyn would have rather not taken out the two that had come along with Dina so as not to create a scene, but they got perilously close to her crewmates and she wasn't about to risk their lives for subtlety's sake.

Pulling the fur-lined hood over her raven black hair, Arelyn descended from the building she had used as her vantage point. It was about a klick away from the meeting place, well within the range she was confident with her sniping ability. She had also chosen the distance because it was likely that Dina's snipers would also have picked it and sure enough, she had been right. Three snipers in various perches had been systematically eliminated by the Mistryl. Arelyn had even taken the last one's vantage point, sneaking up behind him and breaking his neck. All in all, a good day. She could only hope that Jyot had gotten what they came here for.

Quickly hotwiring a swoop bike in an alleyway, Arelyn headed back to the Scimitar.

Kadis tumbled to the ground as the speeder stopped in front of him. "Thanks for the pickup." He jerked himself upright and crawled in. "So, I take it your sweet-talk didn't fly. Ellie, remind the Captain when we get back to the Scimitar that I'm a pilot. Next time, I'm sticking with the Scimitar instead of coming out onto the next frigid bunghole of the Galaxy..."

He cut his own string of complaints off.

"Alright, give me the short version. Are we going to have to blast off this rock fast as hells, do we have the information, and how many Imperial blockade ships should I be expecting after we break the atmosphere?"

"Yes. Yes. And, I don't know," Jyot answered the pilot's questions in as short of version as he could muster. "But hopefully no Imp ships at all if we get our butts in gear quick enough and get off this rock before Dina can get a hold of her 'daddy.'"

He patted Zip, which he was nearly sitting on to keep the droid from flying out of the speeder that Ellie was driving at a breakneck pace. "All the information we need is in right here in Zip. Apparently, Dina's daddy isn't too fond of the Sisters. They stole from him and he wants their blood."

"Yours, too," Latch joked.

Jyot shot his friend a nasty look. "Like I was saying, before Dina tried to kill me, she did mention that we should head for the Hapes Cluster. Terephon, I think she said. One of the Sisters is supposed to hang out in a tavern there. Dunno which one, though it'll probably be on the data disc."

He paused a beat, then let out a wistful sigh. "Hope it's the Corellian brunette, Lara. She's gorgeous." Another pause and the corners of his mouth curled up into a slow boyish grin. "Or I suppose it could be the blonde, Kes’ne. I mean, she's Hapan. Makes sense that she'd be hiding out in familiar territory, right? Then again, maybe it's the redhead, Jewel...."

Noting that everyone else was firmly strapped into the vehicle except for Jyot - who was too busy trying to keep the droid safely in the speeder - she slammed hard on the brakes for just a moment. Just long enough to dislodge the fantasizing mechanic from his seat, and send him sprawling across the floor of the speeder.

Stunned for a second, Jyot blinked then slowly rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "Ow?" he said, giving Ellie an incredulous look. "Thought you said you could fly or drive anything?"

"I can," she said, looking at him over her shoulder with a cheery smirk on her face. "Just not when I have neanderthals drooling all over the upholstery in my backseat."

Jyot frowned slightly. As nonchalantly as he could, he rubbed a finger over his lips, then cautiously examined it. He frowned again. "Who's drooling?"

Latch laughed heartily. "Honey, you better get used to Jyot fast, because there ain't no changing him. Nothing in the galaxy could do that. Not Darth Vader and the dark side of the Force, not the nuclear devastation of an exploding sun. What you see is what you get."

With a quick roll of his eyes at Ellie and Latch, Jyot shook his head with disbelief. "Where's the love, I ask you? Where. Is. The. Love."

Within minutes, the speeder had pulled up in front of the landing bay where the Scimitar was berthed.

"Ah, home, sweet home!" Jyot said cheerily. Tentatively, he stood up in the speeder. Cautiously he looked around, and when satisfied that no one was aiming any lethal weapons in his direction, he hopped out. "Let's move, peeps." He glanced over his shoulder at Jhamrock. "And... peeps of… feline ancestry," he added, not trying to be offensive to the Cathar, but to be all-inclusive.

“Cap?!” he called out as he boarded the ship. “We’re ba-aack!”

"Then again, Darth Vadar and the dark-side-of-the-Whatever haven't really done much for the galaxy, either." she muttered to herself before flashing a smirk at Latch. "All he needs is a good bit of training. Hand him over to me, and I guarantee he'll be housetrained within the week."

As Jyot stood up, Ellie had the strong temptation to hit the throttle and send them rocketing again, just so she could see Jyot go flying off the back of the speeder. But, as her common sense caught up with her daydreams, she patiently awaited the crew's departure. Allowing the speeder to hover just outside the ship hangar, she waited for everyone to unload before pulling away to deposit the stolen vehicle in some random dark alley, where the authorities could find it - but only after giving the crew enough time to blast straight clear of this rock.

Jhamrok grunted as he watched Jyot clamber off from the speeder. He'd have trouble with this guy, he just knew it. The Cathar jumped out of the speeder before following Jyot into the Scimitar. Frankly the juvenile attitude of the man to everything got on his nerve, but that might just be the Cathar culture in him despising the weakness usually coming with such attitude, which prevailed amongst the species' cubs.

The Cathar and Jyot parted ways again after reaching inside the ship, as Jhamrok was more interested in having some kind of clothing on him, since humans and other species often frowned upon or were just uncomfortable with having beings naked around them, despite any natural cover for the "dangly bits" as one human once put it quite aptly to Jhamrok during a hunt. The man pulled on some pants and put on the heavy duty boots before strapping the hunting vest of his on and heading for the common room again. The armor of the rather large being was hung on the wall of the storage compartment for now when he didn't need it.

Slumping over on one of the softer seats in the common room, Jhamrok purred quietly to himself while stretching his muscles with loud pops and groans coming from around his body. His muscles always got a bit stiff after being exposed to quite extreme colds and he now just enjoyed the warm recycled air of the Scimitar due to the lack of a better option.

Alec and Raelyn arrived at the ship some time ago and could only really wait until Jyot arrives with whatever he got from Dana before she attempted to permanently end the destiny he may have. First off the captain decided to sort out what pre-flights he could without the pilot, from the scene he had witnessed involving the ex-fiancé they would need a quick getaway.

“Cap?! We’re ba-aack!”

Alec slid down the ladder onto the catwalk from the common room and looked over the banister, he shook his head and smiled at his mechanic. “So are we going to meet an ex-girlfriend of yours that doesn’t want to kill you or at the very least castrate you?”

Stowing the stolen swoop bike in an alley off to the side of the docking bay, Arelyn made her way through the hangar doors and towards the Scimitar, just in time to see Ellie speeding away, ostensibly to do the same thing with her ill-begotten transportation. The spunky pilot had proven her worth with her skills, though Arelyn did wonder how long she could hold out against their mechanic's wiles.

She boarded the ship just as Alec was coming down the upper catwalk railings. “So are we going to meet an ex-girlfriend of yours that doesn’t want to kill you or at the very least castrate you?” he called out to Jyot.

Arelyn stalked up behind the blonde Corellian. "Given his track record, I don't think such a woman exists, Captain."

Jyot raised an eyebrow at Alec, then turned slowly to face Aerlyn behind him. "Hey! Let me tell you that there are plenty of ex-girlfriends of mine out there who would be thrilled if I showed up today on their doorste...." Seeing her look of utter disbelief, he paused, then let out a quick sigh. "Ok, maybe not plenty," he admitted, "but dozens. Dozens of my former girlfriends who would be thrilled if...."

He paused again, noting, out of the corner of his eye, that Alec now was also giving him an incredulous look.

"O-kay...." Jyot mentally counted, ticking off on his fingers as he went. "Ten. There are ten, that I can think of just off the top of my head, mind," he injected adamantly, "that would be thrilled to have me show up on their doorstep right now." He raised his chin with a mixture of pride and defiance as he spoke. "None of you, with the exception of Latch maybe, have been introduced to any of them yet, that's all."

He looked around for Zip. Spotting the droid hovering in the common room, he headed for it. "Besides, for all her latent psychotic weirdness, Dina did give us some information on where to start looking for our 'Sisters'--The Hapes Cluster. So, my suggestion would be to have IceMan get us off this rock and head in that general direction. Zip? Let's have a look at what's on that data disc."

Zip didn't respond to Jyot, but merely continued to hover just near the dining table.

"Erm, Zip?" Jyot frowned slightly. "The data disc, please?"

"Undesignated bounty Jyot Tyrell," Zip said, "please be more specific with your query parameters."

"More specific?" Jyot snorted. "The data disc that Dina gave you."

"Undesignated bounty Jyot Tyrell, please be more specific with your query parameters," Zip repeated.

"O-kaay...." Jyot scratched the top of his head. Zip wasn't normally this difficult to deal with, but the droid had been acting a bit flaky today. "The data disc with the information on our bounties that Dina gave to you right before she tried to kill me."

"Undesignated bounty Jyot Tyrell...." Zip paused, as if calculating something. "Dina who?"

Jyot rolled his eyes upward. "OK, who the hell's been messing with my droid?!"

"Mmm," Raelyn murmured, raising a hand over her head and then pointing a finger to her brother. "He did."

Colin glanced at her finger, determined that he was the accused in this situation and blinked. "Wah... uh... but, if you think about it, it's Zip's fault. He did try to get in my bag, after all."

"Jyot, remember I told you Cole zapped Zip?" Raelyn said. "I think we're seeing the result of said zapping..."

"But it's never had this effect on anything before now," Colin objected. He scowled at Zip. "Damn droid..."

Jhamrok sat by himself, relaxing his muscles while watching the scene unfold around Zip. A light chuckling noise began to emit from him at the point when Colin started to scowl the droid for going nuts after he zapped it. It was something the Cathar could expect from a human, but it was still rather humorous to the large feline critter. The beast stood up, slowly and calmly walking over to Colin and slightly leaning forwards to his ear.

"Nice work, West" he whispered with a light, somewhat distorted purr afterwards before the furry hand left the man's shoulder and the Cathar moved on.

Jhamrok, used to machinery and droids malfunctioning and usually getting them back to working conditions by brutal force, stopped by Zip before looking at the droid with a slightly twisted but humorous grin on his face. It could be foreseen what Jhamrok would do, and zip wouldn't like it any bit either.

"You try hitting it yet?" the Cathar asked before his large open palm hit the droid from the side quite strongly. Strongly enough that Zip moved a few meters before managing to rebalance and stop. At that point Jhamrok raised an eyebrow at the droid that started up it's defensive programming and thus using a quite nasty shock to try and pacify the 'hostile' cat. The Cathar let out quite a yeowl when the electric shock pierced him throughout the large body. The shock was strong enough that Jhamro ktook a step back from the droid and got actually ready to run from the levitating hunk o' junk while grabbing the spot on his left arm where the droid had zapped him.

'Colin' froze as his mind registered the full meaning of Jhamrok's sarcastic comment. He glanced sharply at 'Raelyn', who seemed to be fully oblivious to their blown identities. She smiled cheerfully at him as he attempted to direct her attention to the Cathar, who had just received a powerful shock from Zip. Rae winced sympathetically and shook her head.

"Electric shocks... hate 'em, but Cole can help you with that... take the sting out," she offered, wondering briefly at what that 'treatment' session would be like if Jhamrok and Colin were the only ones in the room. Blanching slightly at the thought of being alone in a room with the much stronger Cathar, Colin still nodded in agreement.

"Sure," he offered weakly. "Infirmary." He stood and made his way out, hoping the Cathar would decide not to take Raelyn's offer of treatment on his behalf... better to postpone an inevitable confrontation until Colin knew exactly what he was up against.

"Hapes? HAPES!?"

Kadis' eyes got big as plates. He slapped his face. "Oh, for the love of...Hapes. One of the few regions of space that openly is not part of the Empire, and just so happens to be incredibly xenophobic? Meaning, you know, 'us'? Unless one of us crawled out of that region of space. Unlikely."

He groaned.

"I suppose this means we get to do something suicidal again. Alright, give me the coordinates, I'll plot a course. You know, as soon as Zip feels ready to give it up."

Jhamrok glanced at Raelyn and then at Colin before brushing the shock wound again. Eh, what the heck. It would heal faster if he went now to the infirmary instead of holding on to his over the top pride that meant nothing to anyone but himself. It was a trait prominent in all Cathar, or at least those he knew. In his species anything could be done that would not humiliate or otherwise undermine the pride set upon a Cathar since birth. But he really did hate the stinging in a wound after a shock too. Making a hard decision he walked to Raelyn, looked her over to determine if this were a ploy and hen finally set foot after the other to follow Colin.

As he entered the infirmary he had stopped scratching the wound and eventually even sat down, but before letting the doc do anything he had a few chosen words.
"Don't your try anything funny either, West. I'm not quite so easily blanked than a droid. Even if you would manage to estimate the needed drugs to bring me down correctly on the first attempt, I assure you I have still some trick up me sleeve afterwards," Jhramrok said, growling at Colin before finally turning in the seat so he had a clear view to the wound.

Aidan West snorted and keyed the door shut. "Blanking sentient beings is Kate's job. If I tried with what I've got on hand, you'd be completely unable to put a logical thought together... and if you came back from this meeting like that, I'd have a hell of a problem on my hands." He shook his head. "At any rate, I'm a doctor with a casual interest in technology. Wiping the minds of intelligent people is not a hobby of mine, and it goes against everything I swore to do as a doctor."

He plucked a device from a shelf on his right and prodded Jhamrok's arm with it. "If Kate considered you a threat, you'd have been dealt with, made to forget us. As she did not, I can only assume she confronted you on the matter and you came to an... understanding between you."

Withdrawing the device, he looked up into the Cathar's face. "But that doesn't mean I have to trust you." Returning his gadget to its place, he concluded, "Don't stress that arm much for the next hour and you'll be fine. If you are ever injured during your time with this crew, you can expect my full abilities as a doctor at your service. Beyond that, stay out of my life."

He keyed the door open and stalked out, leaving Jhamrok to do as he wished.

“Okay let’s get this show on the road.” Tanis ordered as he watched the Doctor and Jhramrok go to the infirmary. “Kadis take Zip to the bridge and get the Co’ords out of him, take off as soon as Elle returns.”

Alec looked at the rest of the people in the cargo bay and smiled at them. “Unless people want to continue ridiculing Spanner I’m sure we all have work to be getting on with or at least look like we’re getting on with. Jyot i need to speak to you before we get to Hapes, so when you got a free moment.”

"Right, boss. Jyot, you might want to get your tools ready. Zip isn't going to enjoy this."

Kadis shot his arm out and grabbed the droid, orienting it's dart-launcher well away from his face. "Come on, then." The small droid attempted to fight with it's repulsors, but it wasn't going the droid's way. Kadis tucked it under his arm and headed for the cockpit.

"Unhand me!"

Kadis thumped the droid against a bulkhead as the door to the cockpit opened. He reached down beside the door and picked up a small holdout blaster. "I've had about enough of you." He pumped a stun bolt into the droid, dropping it to the deck.

Whistling a jaunty Brentaal tune to himself, he opened up an interface on the main console and plugged the little droid into the navicomp. After a few moments of searching it's memory banks, it pulled up a set of coordinates off the datacard the droid was storing. Good enough.

He settled back and put his feet up, started up the local broadcasts.

A horrible discord of alien shrieks and loud thumping noises bombarded him. He switched the channel, rubbing his ears. Damn Verpine music. He switched it to something a little less hellish and chaotic and punched up the ship's sensors, keeping his eye open for an Imperial warship coming around the planet.

((Joint post with Quist))

After stowing his gear in his quarters, Latch headed to the galley for something to drink. Ducking into the kitchen area, he spotted Arelyn sitting at the table, sipping at a steaming mug. "Pretty good shooting out there," he commented as he pulled open the refridgerator to peek inside.

"Thanks," Arelyn replied. She knew she could count on her fellow gunner to be the first to compliment her abilities. "The shots were easy."

Latch poked his head out from behind the door. "You made them look easy. Jyot thank you properly yet?"

Arelyn took a sip from her mug. "Nope. Probably still trying to count how many of his ex-girlfriends really don't want him dead or seriously maimed."

Latch snickered at her comment as he approached the table, glass of nerfmilk in hand and sat across from her. "Jyot's a free spirit, what can I say. Been like that ever since I've known him. He's a good guy, just absolutely terrible with committment."

"'Free spirit', huh?" Arelyn echoed. "Is that what they're calling it now? And I'm sure he's a good person, he just needs to make sure that he keeps his libido in check or it'll get him killed one of these days."

Another chuckle from the raven-haired Corellian. "Boy, the stories I could tell you, Arelyn."

Arelyn downed the last of her drink, then stood up. "Love to hear them, but perhaps some other time. It's been a long day and I need a shower." Setting her empty mug on the counter, she waved at Latch, then rounded the corner out into the corridor and disappeared from view.

Latch shook his head as he watched her go. She wasn't the newest member of their crew anymore, but he only knew her slightly better than their latest additions. Still, she was a pleasant enough conversationalist, at least when you didn't piss her off. He chuckled as he remembered her thin-lipped diatribe to Kadis on the ice planet. Latch wasn't a Jyot Tyrell, but he'd had his fair share of female companions in his time, so he couldn't help wondering if there was a spark between himself and Arelyn. He tried to follow a policy of not dating his co-workers, but there were always exceptions.

Still musing to himself, he stood up and moved to the counter, then stopped. Leaning against the far bulkhead was a long, black case, one which he immediately recognized as Arelyn's rifle case. She'd probably forgotten it in her haste to shower. Setting his glass on the counter, Latch bent over to heft the case strap onto his shoulder. As he turned to face the door, he misjudged the length of the case and his turn caused it to swing right into Arelyn's mug. Hearing the clink of hard plasteel against ceramic, Latch whirled in time to catch the mug with his outstretched hand, then stopped moving.

"What in space...?" he muttered to himself quietly as he observed the mug, which was not in the clutches of his fingers, but was hovering in mid-air mere centimeters away from them. Blinking a few times, he moved his hand forward slowly until he gripped the mug firmly in his hand, then brought it up and set it in the sink. Holding his outstretched hand in front of his face, Latch frowned. "Well, this is something new..."

Alec continued to smile himself as he headed back to his room, he knew the crew would probably just hang around the ship while they travelled to Hapes but being the Captain his work was never done. As he walked through his door he turned and pushed the door close button on the panel by the side of it.

He jumped when he turned back to face the inside of his room as the Jedi appeared before him. “Will you stop doing that!” He shouted so loudly that anyone outside his room could probably hear him.

“How’d you like me to do it?” She asked rhetorically. “Have a theme play before I appear?”

“It would help.” Alec replied quickly realising how stupid he sounded. “Look if you’re going to rattle around in my head, be courteous.” He sighed deeply and walked over to the chair and slumped himself into it. “What do you want this time or have you just came to spook me?”

“I feel a disturbance in the Force. Someone on this ship is strong in the Force.” Son’ti informed.

“Really.” He said deadpan. “A ship with a Cathar on board has Force sensitive. Wow.”

“Don’t mock me Tanis.” She said. “I’m perfectly aware of the Cathar, but another on the ship has power they’ve only just discovered.”

Alec thought for a moment. “Jyot, it would explain how he gets all those women with a face like that.” He joked.

“Trust me Alec.” The incorporeal Jedi stated. “There is more to one of your crew than meets the eye.”

She really shouldn't have done it. She knew it was a stupid move - simply stealing the speeder in the first place could have gotten them in a lot of trouble. But hell, no one would be able to pin her as the one to have done it if she managed to ditch it quietly, without anyone getting a really good look at her. But...the temptation had just been too strong. It'd been a long time since she'd had a few extra credits stowed in her pocket, seeing as she'd been stranded on that ice planet for quite some time without much work. And that had been a nice speeder; expensive, with a lot of expensive parts that were easily removed, since she'd already dismantled the dash.

Tossing the extra credits down on a corner of her still-closed footlocker, she mused over her moves just a few moments ago as she pushed the hood of her jacket down and slid the goggles off her eyes, allowing them to rest in her spiky orange hair as she reached for the zipper of her jacket. Sliding it down, she slipped the extra layer of clothing from her shoulders with a sigh. She hated having to dress with silly things like thick jackets like that - they were bulky and annoying, often getting in her way. Thus, as she hung it from the hood on a corner of her bunk, she could feel nothing but relief to have it off.

She had been careful enough when she went to pawn off the parts. She'd had her hood up and her goggles on - and since she wouldn't be staying long, it was probably a common enough sight to see. No one would think that particular detail suspicious on a cold planet like this, right? But even with the extra precautions to hide her face...well, there was always the chance that someone might have recognized some detail of her, and followed her back to the ship. Then they could be in trouble...and it was for that reason that she hoped they jetted out of here as fast as they could.

After stowing her goggles away, she flexed her slowly-thawing fingers, trying to gain the feeling back into them as she buried them once more in her leather work gloves. Meaning to find something to entertain her - most likely something having to do with a mechanical aspect - she paused as she passed through the dorm door, her stomach growling conspicuously. Well...some warm caffa to heat up her hands didn't sound too bad...and she was certain that there would be something to snack on back in the galley.

Of course, all thought was forgotten as she came upon Latch in the middle of one of the corridors. She froze instantly, her eyes wide as she saw the cup...floating in midair. She looked from the mug to the gunner, and back to the mug again. "That's not normal." she said - understatement of the year.

Latch had just set the mug down back in the sink when he looked up to see Ellie standing in the doorway, staring right at him.

"That's not normal."

He quickly though about what the best course of action would be; either to deny that anything had happened or to admit and agree with her. He decided to try humor, since it usually defused even the most awkward of situations. "What, you've never seen my repulsorlift mug before? It's super handy, especially on a ship that tumbles as much as ours."

"Bloody droid."

He thumped the inactive droid casually. A series of lights ran across it, then it sputtered, made a noise like a man who had inhaled several thousand death sticks too many, and lifted, albeit slowly and haltingly.

"System reset...Diagnostics report overload from hand-grade stun blaster. Bounty #9731457764: Kadis Venarm, what have you done to me?"

"Well, if I'd been thinking clearly, I would have wiped your memory core. And maybe replaced all your speech programming with Verpine music, left you in Jyot's bunk."

"This is not amusing."

"Don't know who you've been joking around with. Thanks for the coordinates." He punched the comm. "Captain, I pulled the coordinates off Zip. Got the location within the Hapes Cluster. Takeoff, boss?"

Her responding laugh was uncertain and shaky - forced, as if she wasn't certain how else to react. "Right...repulsorlift mug." she muttered, nodding her head as if it made perfect sense - which, obviously, it didn't. "I'm..um...gonna go." she said, turning around and retracing her steps. She had no idea what freaky kind of voodoo was going on back there, but it had made her lose her appetite. She went to go find some machinery to work on, or a blaster to upgrade. Something concrete that she actually understood.

Time to get off this frigid rock.

He activated primary powerup sequence, bringing the fusion core of the Scimitar online. The quiet hum of power filled the cockpit as the monitors flickered, switching off batteries to main power.

"Transport Scimitar, requesting authorization to depart."

"Roger that, Scimitar. Remit Spaceport fees."

Kadis glared at the comm. "Right..."

He pulled up the Receipt. Seven hundred credits for a four hour stay at the Spaceport with nothing but a refuel? "Officer, I think you put an extra digit on here."

"No, I'm afraid not."

He gritted his teeth. He punched in the account code, feeling like his spirit had just been crushed. That would be the last time he ever came to this hellhole. "Transmitting."

"Alright, Scimitar. Standby, we've got a lot of traffic."

Kadis glanced at the sensor display, beginning to lose his temper. The display was clear except for a single freighter, well out of this lane, coming in at a snail's pace. Kadis punched another switch on the power board, activating the dorsal laser cannon. He grinned, imagining the officer's face as the cannon swiveled into the active position.

"Scimitar you are clear to proceed have a nice day goodbye." He grinned wider, feeling a small satisfaction at the panic in the custom's officers voice. Two clinks ran through the hull of the ship as the docking clamps disengaged. He punched the main thrusters, rattling the spaceport as a stream of blue-white plasma burst from Scimitar's engine ports.

In retrospect, I should probably consider NOT breaking several dozen traffic laws.

Fortunately, there wasn't any customs frigates coming around the horizon, but it was better not to take risks. The navicomputer had been plotting a course. Two jumps, Hapes was fairly close as stellar distances go.

"Alright...first jump takes us to...oh, boy, the Bilbringi system, scenic shipyards of the Imperial Fleet...and then we jump to the outer edge of the Hapes Consortium and try to navigate this Transitory Mist crap. Good times."

He activated the hyperdrive, sending the Scimitar into the depths of Hyperspace.

The journey to Hapes had been uneventful so far, which was perfectly fine with Latch because he had more than enough on his mind at the moment. His life was becoming...for the lack of a better term, weird. First there was that whole encounter with the Jedi woman... he surmised that that was what started it all. Then there were his feelings of uneasiness during the mission, leading him to be unfocused, which was not like him at all. And now there was the thing that had happened in the galley...

Latch grunted and attempted to sink further into his seat in the turret. Ellie had seen it and neither of them were really sure what to think of it, Latch especially. She had not come to bother him about it and he was thankful for that, because he hadn't a clue as to how he'd done something so... weird. It ticked him off a bit, as he wasn't used to not being in control and not understanding what was happening to his own body.

"Ugh," he muttered as he unfurled himself from his seat and stood up. The streaking lines of hyperspace swirled outside his viewport, splashing incandescent light into the turret. They had been traveling for a while and it had given Latch a lot of time to think about what to do next. He knew what he should do, but he wasn't sure if he could do it. Sighing deeply, he clenched his fist into a ball, then relaxed it slowly. Concentrating on a hydrospanner on a shelf not more than a meter away, he held out his hand to it. Nothing happened.

Frowning, Latch tried to concentrate. Why could he stop a mug from falling, but not be able to pick up a simple hydrospanner? Gathering his thoughts together, he leaned forward a little, his outstretched hand still a good distance away from the spanner. After a few moments, the metal tool began to shake slightly. Focusing himself again, Latch lifted his hand slightly and was rewarded with the hydrospanner rising from the shelf to come level with his hand.

"This is too weird," he sighed exasperatedly as he brought his hand back, sending the tool clattering back onto the shelf. He could move things by a simple gesture; this was not normal. This was definitely above normal. This was definitely something that... only a Jedi should be able to do. Latch shook that thought quickly out of his head. "You're not a Jedi, you're not a Jedi," he repeated to himself quietly.

He was confused and didn't know what to make of what had just happened. He just knew that it did and usually it ended up badly. Sighing again, Latch whirled around out of his seat and stalked into the corridor, orienting himself towards the Engineering room. If anyone knew how to fix things, it was Jyot. He just hoped his oldest friend would be supportive of him.