Kaz Maekon:
ROGUE KNIGHT
ILLGOTTEN GAINS
PART THREE
.Recently, Kaz Maekon met up with his long time friend and son of his former master, Vin Wander. Against Vin's better judgement, Kaz convinced him to help on a supply run with the use of Vin's freighter, Maw Shockwave.All was fairly normal until, when looking for medical supplies from their cargo, they found something they had not expected...
"How can you say you don't believe it?" Vin snapped back. "Did you expect anything less from a couple of lawyers?"
Kaz paused his search. "Hey, I've been living off of jobs from lawyers like these for the past five years! This never happened!"
Vin looks over at him. "Are you sure?"
Kaz was about to fire back a retort but stopped himself. He honestly wasn't sure. He shuddered at the thought that he's been living as a smuggler all this time on his own. He sat down on one of the crates holding his wound.
Vin walked over and sat down next to him. "How's the hand?"
Kaz shrugged. "All right... I could still use a first aid kit though."
"Yeah, I think I have on in my cabin. One sec." Vin got up and left the cargo hold.
* * *
Lights flashed indicating that the game was complete. Ganes floated gently to the ground as the gravity was reset on the court. Magistrate Mayne Coldar applauded as he got up from the bench.
"Good show, Ganes. If I didn't know you better I'd say you cheated." Mayne said with absolutely no resentment at all.
Ganes adjusted his shorts. "Yes, well, better luck next time, your honor."
Mayne started packing away his equipment. "You know, most lawyers let me win this game to help themselves win cases in court."
Ganes smiled. "I would if I actually needed the help... sir." He added the last part out of empty, ritualistic respect which the judge, no doubt, pick up on. Which was intended, of course. The insults always were with Ganes.
Mayne waved him off as he left the court. Ganes disengaged the "attractor-switch" on his racquet before putting it back in his gym bag. He was just about to leave for the showers when Hillgottt burst in trying to squeeze a half-assed jog out of his ample frame.
"Ganes! Ganes!"
Ganes was disgusted at the sight of his legal partners jiggling. "Oh, you fat bastard." He zipped on his exercise jacket. "Don't you melt when you get to close to a health center, or something?"
"Funny Ganes, very funny. Want to hear another joke? Here it goes. These two jedi walk into a lawyers office and leave with three million credits worth of medical supplies... ba-dum bum."
"What!?!"
Hillgottt showed him his infodex. "I did some checking up on that Jiv Marko guy and found nothing. At least not relating to that guy we saw. So I ran his image through the Republic database and guess what, he's a Jedi Knight!" Hillgottt shouted raising his arms.
"Shhhh! Not here. Let's go." Ganes said as he collected his gear and stormed off the court. Hillgottt followed in step.
* * *
"His name is Vin Wander."
"Wander!? As in Wander School Wander?" Ganes asked in surprise.
"The same. He's the instructors son."
"Damn." Ganes spat. "What about that Maekon kid? Didn't you do a background check on him earlier?"
"I did, and to his credit he's had his tracks covered up pretty well. All mention of him was deleted and rewrote thoroughly." Hillgottt said with a bit of respect. "Must've cost him a fortune."
"The little bastard must be hiding from somebody. Maybe there's a reward." He said to himself.
"Still, he can't hide everything. I found his file in the Jedi Core Files. I had a hunch after I uncovered his friend."
Ganes sat back and growled. "I don't suppose there's a chance that they're oblivious to the real cargo, is there?"
"Sure. A chance, but one I'm not betting on!" Hillgottt rebuked while bringing up a file of his console.
"Yes, I suppose not. Pity, really. It stood to make us such a good profit..." He sneered at the thought of it. "Still, no time to waste."
Hillgottt smiled as he hit the "execute" button.
"Good." Ganes said. "Now lets go be seen."
* * *
"I'm sorry, it looks like I haven't got a dermal healer with me. I'm kind of poorly stocked at the moment." Vin said apologetically.
"It's okay. Just another scar to add to the collection. But speaking of poorly stocked medical equipment, what do you want to do about this?" Kaz asked.
Vin shrugged. "Off to the authorities, I suppose."
Kaz sighed. "Yeah... I sort of have a problem with that."
"What?!?" Vin asked in surprise.
"Look, it's just that if I step anywhere near a Republic police station, they're going to drag me back to the Council and I'm not going."
"I'll drop you off." Vin responded, not wanting Kaz to get away with any plans that might let Hillgottt and Ganes off the hook.
"They'll still dig up my name. You're ship's a crime scene. My prints are all over it. And now I'll be a wanted man linked in a drug run! No! No way." Kaz leapt up and kicked over a crate, letting the illegal drugs spill out all over the deck.
"Look. I know it seems whacko, but...why not just go back? What do you think will really happen? They're not going to kill you or anything." Vin said, only half telling the truth.
"No, the won't, but they could send me back to the farm, or jail or worse. It's not your father's Jedi Order anymore, Vin."
"Actually, my father is on the council, remember?"
"Then I guess it is your fathers Order, but still; they're not going to let a potential Vader or Palpatine roam free in the backwoods of the Outer Rim. They can't afford it." Kaz said and Vin new he was right.
Vin sat down. "Still, we've got to do something. We..." Vin stopped and held his forehead. There was extreme danger near. Kaz felt it too. He looked around the hold almost expecting an attack from with in.
"What the..." Kaz couldn't shake the feeling and it was getting stronger. "Where's it coming from?"
Vin oncentrated. Being blind, he could sense things much more acutely than others. "It's...it's...it's in the room! It's in the room!"
The two spread out, flipping open the crate lids. Electric blue flashed filled the room as the volitive glitterslim spice came in contact with the light. As Vin was furiously checking the left side of the room, Kaz was suddenly pulled to the right. "It's over here!"
Vin ran to join him as Kaz reached down and opened a crate. Again, a blue flash and spice. "Damn it!" Vin barked.
"Wait!" Moving on instinct, Kaz pushed the spice aside. Underneath the contraband sat a large, angry looking bomb ticking down to zero at a disheartening rate. "Oh, darn."
The both stepped back from the bomb. Kaz turned to his friend. "You can disarm that thing, right?"
Vin glared back at him, wide eyed. "Me!?! You're the mechanical adept here! You disarm it!"
"I've never worked on a bomb! Haven't you!? What did you do all those years as a padawan learner? You didn't learn a damn thing, didn't you?" Kaz snapped back.
"Look, let's just stay clam. All electronics and mechanics work on the same principals. You know about that stuff, you can do it."
Kaz moved his eyes slowly from Vin to the bomb, then back to Vin. "Right." He said with little confidence. "Or we could just dump the cargo hold into space and punch it."
"No!" Vin commanded. "We need the evidence. Now lets disarm this bad boy and get on with it. On three. Ready?"
"Ready"
"One...two..." A bead of sweat rolled down the back of Vin's shaved head. "Three!"
They stepped forward one step. Unfortunately they were still no where near the bomb.
"All right." Kaz said, glad he didn't quite make it. "One more time, one three."
Vin relaxed with a sigh. "Oh, forget it. Come on!" He grabbed Kaz by the sleeve and pulled him toward the bomb.
The device looked simple enough with a short row of buttons and a counter. "All right. This is okay." Kaz said. "I think I saw a police special on this once. Flip the third switch and it's disarmed, right?"
"I don't know. I don't watch the holonet." Vin replied shakily.
"Don't worry. It's the third switch."
"Third from the left or third from the right?"
Kaz sighed. "Why do you always have to complicate things?"
"Left or Right!?!?!" Vin shouted.
Kaz honestly didn't know. Logic would say that it was from the left but it really all depended on what planet the bomb was manufactured on. "Left. I'm certain of it."
Kaz's finger hovered over the button. "What are you sensing on this?"
"I...I'm not sure. It's all sort of a blur right now but I think it's okay." Vin said, much more nervously than Kaz would've thought he'd be in this situation.
"Don't worry, I'm feeling good about this one." Kaz pressed it. Instantly, the counter started rolling down faster. "Man, I need more training!" Kaz started to get up to flee but Vin pushed him back down.
"Disarm it!" He barked in a commanding voice.
Kaz looked back at the counter as it clicked closer to zero. "There's no time!" He shouted, true enough.
Calmly, Vin knelt now and looked at his friend. "Then make the time."
Kaz looked at the dark glasses covering Vin's eyes confused. Suddenly he understood. Turning back to the bomb, he took a calming breath and concentrated. Through the Force he visualized the inner workings of the deadly device finding the connections to the detonator and the switches. They were booby trapped. Kaz was sure of it but the counter was not. Kaz's mind drifted over to the timer connections and projected upon it one simple thought which barely emerged from his lips.
"Slow."
Vin watched as the counter rolled from it's rapid pace to a normal one, once again ticking in time with the seconds. As Kaz continued his meditation the counter slowed more and more until it was crawling through the numbers.
"Can you shut it down?" Vin asked softly, careful not to break his friend's concentration.
"I'm not sure..." Kaz responded in a whisper. He continued searching the bombs circuits but every line he ran into led to danger. He could feel it. "I might be able to do something, but I can't promise success."
"What?" Vin asked hoping the solution would brighten his day.
"I think I can cut all the wires at once. This should prevent any of the traps from activating." Kaz's voice was an unsure one which Vin picked up on. "But if I miss any or I'm too slow this thing will go off."
Vin thought for a moment as he watched the timer tick down slowly but steadily. Finally, he decided. "We'll eject the cargo and get to a safer distance. If it works we can come back for it."
"Sounds good." Kaz said as he slowly got up, careful not to break his control of the timer. The two left for the cockpit.
Leaping into the copilots seat, Kaz searched the control panel for the cargo bay doors release lever. Vin climbed into the pilots seat and brought the ship out of hyperspace. The starlines opened back up into cold space. "Ready." He said.
With a calming breath, Kaz pulled the lever opening the loading doors to hyperspace. The hundreds of crates flew out of the ship along with the ticking bomb. Kaz watched the cargo mass reader until it clocked down to zero. "We're clear. Move."
Vin pulled back sharply on the thrust controls and the Maw Shockwave blasted away. Kaz concentrated, focusing on the device. "This is far enough." he said as Vin brought the ship back to a stop.
With the Force as his guide Kaz found each if the wires and tugged them tightly. He took a deep breath and counted to three. With a great force he clutched the wires with his mind snapping them from each if there connectors. Kaz braced himself for an explosion but none came. Slowly, he forced his eyes to open.
Vin smiled. "Hey, not bad."
"Thanks." Kaz's smile was replaced with shock as he reached over and yanked back on the throttle controls intently sending the Maw Shockwave into deep space.
Vin fell back into his seat. "Wha!?!"
The shockwave of the blast flew out at incredible speed. Despite it's head start, the small freighter could not completely outrun the blast. The powerful wave hit like an asteroid sending the Maw Shockwave spinning out of control into the depths of space.
The ship was rattling all around the two friends as small explosions rocked the rear decks near the engine room. Kaz turned to Vin who was wrestling with the controls. "Enjoying your vacation?" Vin sneered at him as the ship rocked away.
* * *
Hillgottt paused his stumbling briefly to hike up his pants which were slowly dropping the entire night. Looking downward he saw a shiny object laying on the floor partially camouflaged by the unique swirly gold and silver pattern of the buildings extremely expensive floor paneling. Bending down to get a closer look, an activity which took a great amount of effort for the rounded man, he smiled as he picked the object up.
"Hey, Ganes. Look, five credits!" Hillgottt boasted of his find proudly while pocketing the loose cash.
The wolfman looked back with a smirk. "Yous made me turn my whole head jusht fer five loushy credishts?" He asked, slurring practically every word on his way to the end of the sentence.
"We may need it after that cargo we lost today." Hillgottt walked to the wall behind the reception counter and hit a button on a small panel. The wall opened up into an adequate little wet bar as a bartending droid lowered from above.
"How may I serve you, Mister Hillgottt?" It asked in a serene voice especially programmed for making people want to talk to them. Chatty drunks were always good for the information business which Hillgottt was a proud part of.
"One Shistavanen Sobermaker." He asked while looking over at his swaying partner who seemed to be flirting with one of the taller potted plants they kept in the lobby. "Make it a double." He added as the droid quickly added the proper ingredients and shook it to taste.
Grabbing the finished drink from the bar, Hillgottt gave it to Ganes. "No, no, no... Couldn't poshibly have another...little...drinky-poo." Ganes mumbled as he closed his eyes.
Hillgottt sighed. "What's the matter? Little sissy wolfwoman can't hold his drink!?!" He said defiantly, trying to bait his friend into taking it.
At that dare Ganes snapped up. "I can drink anything yoush got!" he said, snatching the glass from his partners hand and chugging it down. Hillgottt grimaced at the thought of the taste as he stood back.
The effects of a Shistavanen Sobermaker are indeed unique. Ganes briefly felt as though his brain was transported off planet to a nudist colony and quickly returned to him with postage due. And although no one could adequately explain exactly what this statement meant, it was the most frequent reported description given on a multitude of surveys from the Republic Drug and Toxins Directorate. The important thing is that it worked as Ganes twitched a couple times and snapped to attention completely sober.
Relaxing a bit, he let out a satisfied purr. "Now that's a good drink."
Hilgottt patted him on the back and walked him in the direction of one of the lifts. "Get to bed now. We have to be in court tomorrow morning."
"The Chordus case? Do you have those background checks done on the judge's wife?" He asked, showing no trace of his previous inebriation.
"There in my office. You were right. She did buy their children on the black market." Hillgottt stated matter-of-factly.
Ganes rubbed his paws together. "Looked like we're winning another one tomorrow." He said, smiling a big fangy grin. "Send them to my room, I want to go over them tonight.
Hillgottt let out another exasperated sigh. "All right, but then it's off to bed." he ordered in a motherly tone.
They each got into a separate lift and left.
* * *
The curious thing was that even though Hillgottt had been in his office for a good five seconds, there was still no light to be had.
"Lights." He ordered with no reaction. "Droid, I said lights, now!"
Snap-hiss...
The room was bathed in shimmering soft violet as Kaz, sitting atop a file cabinet, activated his lightsaber and held the beam a short inch from the fat man's nose. Hillgottt froze in terror. As a lawyer he's faced thugs, smugglers and murderers and has stared down the barrels of his share of blasters in his time, but he's never witnessed a lightsaber from this close. He would've wagered that no person has seen a saber blade this closely, at least nobody still alive.
He let his eyes slowly shift to the right to view his attacker. "Kaz! Hey buddy... good to see you!" He stuttered pulling off a forced smile.
"Uh huh.... You looked surprised. What? Didn't have any faith that we'd deliver your cargo?"
"Oh no! No, we know you could do it!" he said as beads of sweat ran down his forehead. His body temperature increased by leaps and bounds despite the fact that the glowing blade emitted no heat. "It's just that we thought you'd stay the night. No rush getting back home, you know. We even had a room reserved for you. Already paid for."
Kaz leapt down from his perch careful not to loose his blade from it's comfortable position under Hillgottt's nose. He smiled as a bead of sweat dripped from it onto Kaz's blade causing the slightest hiss of evaporation as it hit. "Well... what a generous host you are."
"Well... we try to be good to our employees, Kaz. It's one of the reasons we're so successful."
"Ah, and the other reason must be all the illegal drugs, right?"
Hillgottt winced. He figured Kaz knew, of course, but the tet-au-tet they had going was a good stall. "Now, Kaz... I can explain that."
"And the bomb." Kaz asked feigning interest in his "explanation."
"Uh, well...the bomb was...um... Well, the whole thing was a sting actually. Yeah, the people you were selling to are wanted by Republic Forces and we're working with them. Why? I do hope it didn't explode or anything." Hillgottt flashed Kaz his most sincere look which Kaz noted as a pathetic attempt.
"We, it did actually, Mr. Hillgottt. Bumped us around pretty good. Took all your stuff with it to, I'm afraid." Kaz said, pacing around the room while keeping the white hot tip of his cold blade on target with the skill of a surgeon. While Kaz was pacing, Hillgottt slipped a hand slowly from his side into a pocket, grasping his emergency signaler and activating it.
"Well Kaz, we are...uh...very sorry about that. Must have been some sort of malfunction. Can't trust these bomb makers anymore, can you? Those sweatshop workers only make a few credits a month. You can't expect good quality control." He rambled in an almost jovial manner as he continued to stall.
"Shut up." Kaz said back.
With that, the office doors flung open as Ganes, accompanied by two armed guards, rushed in brandishing blasters. Kaz looked over unalarmed as the clocked figure of Vin rushed them from a shadowed corner of the office, igniting his deep green blade and slicing off all three barrels with childlike ease. The guards were confused as Ganes sneered, extremely miffed. Pulling back his right hand, claws extended, Ganes swiped at Vin, trying to rip his throat out. A move Vin dodged with surprising agility.
Ganes overshot his target and fell forward. Vin helped him along with a boot to the head sending him across the room to Kaz who threw him to the corner. With a burst of the Force, Vin launched the guards out of the office and into the lift as he shut and locked the door to the office.
Turning around calmly, Vin pulled back the hood of his robe. "Now, to business."
Kaz leaped up onto the desk. Squatting down, he pointed his saber to cover Ganes as Vin took Hillgottt. "Yes, to business. You two have been bad boys and none too bright. Trafficking illegal cargo and using jedi knights to do it, tsk tsk."
Ganes looked to the side with a muffled laugh. "We what? I assume you have sufficient evidence to back that accusation up."
"Actually, we just got a recorded admission from your boy here." Kaz said gesturing to Hillgottt as Vin tapped his dark glasses indicating they were holo-recording specs.
Ganes laughed aloud this time. "Hillgottt is drunk, and besides, recordable evidence is not admissible in this sector without a court order. Have you got one?"
Kaz didn't respond.
"I thought not. And do you have this illegal cargo in question? Do you have any spice or slaves?"
Vin's eyes widened and Kaz gave Ganes a cold, angered look. One that, although he would not admit it, gave Ganes an unrelenting shudder through his fur.
"Slaves?" Kaz said, hoping he heard wrong. "There were slave in that cargo."
Vin closed his eyes, remembering the tremendous explosion that rocked the ship and disintegrated all the cargo. He also recalled other similar events.
Kaz leaped down, grabbed Ganes by the collar and flung him across the office. Ganes landed hard but had little time for recovery for when he opened his eyes he saw the soft violet blade of Kaz's lightsaber whipping straight downward at him. The Wolfman braced himself for pain but none came.
Vin, seeing his friend break control, reached out with the Force, snapping Kaz's weapon from his grasp and into his own. Kaz snapped around to his friend with fire in his young eyes but Vin remained calm. He sent calming thoughts to Kaz until he felt that he had finally gained control of his feelings. This interchange between the two seemed to last only seconds but to the two crooked lawyers it was several minutes of piercing silence.
Vin slowly turned to Ganes and glared at him intently. "You're probably right... We have no hard evidence and a court may not believe two jedi so young, one of whom isn't quite on this side of good intentions..." He intentionally directed the last statement as Kaz, who was still trying to grapple his rage. "But your dealings are no longer unknown." Vin threw his hood back over his head. "And you won't last long and we'll be here."
With another hard stare, Vin shut down his saber. Kaz was more reluctant to do so but as Vin turned to leave, he followed suit. The lawyers were left on the floor in silence and it was several minutes before either of them broke it again.
* * *
Vin took in a lungfull of the not totally unpleasant air of Mava Plaza. "Where to now?" He asked Kaz whom he sensed was still having trouble dealing with the events in the office building.
"Back to your ship. There was a lot of big talk in that office, but I have a feeling those two could easily have us wake up dead tomorrow if they wanted. Best get offworld. Not give them the opportunity."
"Good plan, let's go." Vin replied.
* * *
THE END
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