Star Trek - Captain's Table

Star Trek - Captain's Table :: Ten Forward :: Star Wars Alliances :: Outer Rim

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Topic: Outer Rim (Read 231 times)

Candy

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What we do in life echoes in eternity.

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Outer Rim
« Thread Started on Jun 8, 2009, 10:37pm »

Nicayla is sitting in her favorite tavern in the space port Umgul enjoying a glass of Polanis Ale and listening to the music of the band playing on the small stage.

"You look unhappy," a voice over Nicayla's shoulder says. Then Nicayla is being hugged from behind and a kiss is placed on her cheek. Recognizing the perfume, Nicayla smiles and turns to face Salla Zend, the owner of this establishment. "You're lonely. I can fix that, you know," Salla says quietly.

Nicayla chuckles and shakes her head. "Why do you insist that I'm lonely, Aunt Sal?" She asks calling the woman by the name many of Salla's favorite patrons called her.

Salla moves to the seat across the table from Nicayla and sits down. She takes a home made pipe out of the pouch that hangs from her belt and proceeds to light it.....taking a long drag of the substance in the pipe's bowl. "Why do you insist that you're not?" Salla asks as she blows smoke toward the ceiling.

"Because I'm not," Nicayla answers. "I like my life just the way it is. No one but myself to answer to...no one but myself to blame when I screw up....no one to have to compromise with....and no one to argue with so I'm always right. Just me and the Blazer," she says and sits back in her seat, taking a drink of her ale. "Perfect," she adds with a satisfied smile.

Salla shakes her head. "You remind me of another pilot I knew a long time ago," she says and takes another drag of her pipe. "Confirmed bachelor....vowed never to get himself involved in any type or permanent relationship."

Nicayla looks at Salla curiously and says, "yeah? You mean you weren't able to fix him up either?"

"Didn't have to," Salla smirks. "He ended up falling head over heals in love with a lady he rescued and got married. Settled down and had a family."

"Well don't put any credits on that ever happening to me," Nicayla says emphatically and takes another drink of her ale. She points to the lead singer of the band. "New singer I see," she says changing the subject.

Salla blows several smoke rings toward the ceiling and nods. "Hired her a week ago. Seems to be working out OK," she says.

"Business seems to be booming," Nicayla observes.

Salla nods and takes another drag of her pipe. "It goes in spurts," she says. She blows a couple more smoke rings toward the ceiling then leans across the table in order to speak without being over heard. "I heard about your trouble on Kerilt, Nikki" she says quietly as she chews on the end of her pipe and watches Nicayla's face.

Nicayla shrugs nonchalantly. "Nothing major," she says with indifference.

"For being nothing major it managed to attract the attention of the Imperial Trade Commission," Salla says.

Nicayla raises an eyebrow. "Yeah?" She says. This was the first she has heard anything about that and the incident was over a month ago. "Tell me more."

"All I know is that I've heard that the ITC has been asking questions around a few space ports," Salla says.

"What kind of questions?" Nicayla asks giving Salla her full attention.

"Questions about you, Nikki," Salla says. She glances around quickly then looks back at Nicayla. "Someone ratted you out. Someone you ticked off."

Nicayla sits back and rolls her eyes. "Wonderful," she says with a sigh.

"Just thought you should know," Salla says and sits back in her seat. She puffs on her pipe for a few minutes then says, "high stakes dice game in the back room if you're interested."

Nicayla shakes her head. She leans across the table and places her hand affectionately on Salla's forearm. "Because of what you just told me I think I'd better take a rain check, Aunt Sal," she says, smiling and gets to her feet. She picks up the robe that has been draped over the back of the chair next to her and drapes it across her arm.

Salla takes hold of Nicayla's hand and looks up at her...a motherly look in her eyes. "Watch yourself out there, Nikki," she says softly. "And the next time I see you I will have someone to introduce you to," she adds with a wink.

Nicayla chuckles and shakes her head. "You don't give up, do you, Aunt Sal?" She says still chuckling.

"Not when I know I'm right," Salla says with a smirk.

Nicayla slips her hand out from under Salla's and says, "see ya." She turns and heads out of the tavern.

In the night air she slings the robe over her shoulders and pulls the hood up over her head so that it almost covers her face then she hurries for the bay where the Blazer is docked. As she approaches the door to the docking bay she sees the Dock Master talking to an Imperial Storm Trooper and they are standing between her and the bay door. She immediately slinks back into the shadows and flattens herself against the wall of the building she is standing next to. She watches the two for several minutes and decides that they are not going to be moving anytime soon so she raises her hand to her temple and visualizes a large metal object falling against the far side of the Dock Master's office then gives a slight wave in that direction. Both the Dock Master and the Storm Trooper look in that direction. They move slowly towards the sound. When they have their backs turned to the bay door, Nicayla hurries, silently, for the docking bay door, staying in the shadows. She enters the docking bay and sprints across the bay to the Blazer, opens the door and runs inside, closing it behind her. She runs to the cockpit, jumps into the pilot's seat, flips a few switches and starts the Blazer's engines. She releases the docking clamps and her ship lifts off the ground and out of the docking bay. Once she is clear she accelerates to full throttle and the Blazer disappears into the night sky. As soon as she is out of the planet's atmosphere she makes the jump to hyperspace. Then she sets the co ordinance of her destination, engages the auto pilot and sits back, watching the stars speed by. An hour later she leaves the cockpit and lays on her bunk which is situated in an alcove behind the cockpit. She stares at the ceiling until she drifts off to sleep.

Nicayla is suddenly awakened when she is thrown out of her bunk to the floor. "Ow! What the....," she groans. She jumps to her feet and runs to the cockpit. As she slips into the pilot's seat she looks out the front window and notices that the stars are no longer streaming by as they did in hyper space. She quickly checks the settings on the console then presses a button and says, "computer....run diagnostics."

The computer responds a few seconds later with, "Diagnostics show the hyper drive motivator has been damaged and the power coupling on the negative axis has been polarized."

"How the hell did that happen?" Nicayla asks herself aloud but she already has a sneaking suspicion that somebody messed with the Blazer while she was in Salla Zend's tavern. Someone who wanted to slow her down. The reason becomes all too clear when her sensor alarm goes off indicating another ship approaching from behind. She makes a few adjustments to the sensor settings and sees that she is being pursued by an Galactic Empire Cruiser. "Damn!" She exclaims.

Seeing that the cruiser is far enough behind her still to be out of firing range she takes the Blazer off of autopilot and accelerates. She focuses her midrange scanners to what is ahead of her and mentally crosses her fingers. Dumping her cargo and allowing herself to be boarded is not an option in her mind. She is carrying several canisters of ionite, an arsenal of weapons and medical supplies. She is to rendezvous with a pilot on Cerea. The other pilot belonged to a small group of rebel fighters who still held out against the Galactic Empire and any faction like it. Because they wanted their base kept secret Nicayla would transfer her cargo to his ship and receive her payment. Then the other pilot would take the supplies the rest of the way to their final destination. And although Nicayla didn't align herself with any one particular faction....she definitely had no love for the Galactic Empire and she knows how important her cargo is to the people receiving it...mainly because of the high price they were more than willing to pay her....and she would not entertain the idea of dumping it. She is...if anything...true to her word. If she said she would get her cargo to its destination...then you could make bank that she would. Besides....if what Salla had told her was true....cargo or not...allowing herself to be boarded would probably end up with her being taken into custody anyway.

On the inside of the glass of her windshield her scanners project an image of what appears to be a comet. Accelerating to full throttle she heads for the comet. Her intentions are to fly through the comet's ion tail so that some of the ion particles would get on the hull of her ship knowing that they would interfere with the Imperial ship's sensors at least for a little while. This would, hopefully, buy her some time to find some place to set down and hide.

Once through the comet's tail she sees a set of moons orbiting a planet and she heads for them. She weaves in and out and around the moons...leaving her own trail of ion particles that had dusted the Blazer. Then she begins to go through her maps of the region to find someplace to hide. The only planet close enough that is inhabitable is Bakura. She checks the distance of the cruiser (wishing it was further back than it is) and heads for Bakura.

Nicayla slows the Blazer to orbiting speed and begins to orbit the planet as she looks for a good hiding place.

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A friend will stop you from overreacting. A BEST friend will walk beside you singing, "Someone's gonna get it!"