Fame and the Force

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Seeb Nilub was not a happy Sullustan when Turner returned to the ship and requested his assistance loading crates onto a repulsor lift, which Turner also had to borrow from the smuggler.

"This wasn't part of the deal," Nilub complained. "I'm a pilot, not a labor droid."

"I'll pay you double," Turner promised.

"Forty thousand credits?"

"Yes," Turner said. When he considered the value of the gems and the guns, forty thousand was a mere pittance.

So the reluctant Sullustan tagged along with his equipment and they headed back to the ancient warehouse. Again, it took the old woman a very long time to answer the buzzer, and again she warned them about leaving their weapons, which also displeased the wary Sullustan.

"I do not trust this female," Nilub stated. "Or you, as a matter of fact."

"The security will blast you to pieces if you bring a blaster inside," Turner informed him as he put his own weapon on the ground next to the door. "Look. I'm going in without a weapon."

"I have friends," Nilub said, pulling his own blaster out and tossing it down. "If you betray me, they will hunt you down and dismember you, one piece at a time while you scream for mercy."

"I have no intentions of betraying you," Turner replied, pushing the repuslor into the cavernous room. At least, Turner mused, he wouldn't betray Nilub quite yet, while he still required his assistance.

They spent the next two time parts loading up the crates. As they pushed the overburdened, wheezing lifter outside of the warehouse, Turner picked up his blaster and turned to the old woman. "Do you recall that Prince Isolder asked me to reward you for your dedication in protecting his fortune?"

"Yes." The old woman smiled in eager anticipation, but her smile quickly faded as Turner flicked his blaster in her direction and fired. She fell to the ground with a soft thud.

"Was that necessary?" Nilub questioned, not sounding overly concerned.

"Isolder doesn't need anyone to tell him we were ever here, does he?"

Nilub gave a feral grin. "You have no plans to give these gems and guns to the Hapan, do you?"

"Isolder is in prison, and will be for the next twenty years, minimum. He won't need them."

"What happens when he gets out?"

Turner snorted. "He's already quite insane. I doubt he will survive even five years before he's murdered or he kills himself. I'm not worried about it."

"You are my kind of Human. Would you like a partner? Someone that can fly a ship and watch your back?" Nilub asked. "I also have contacts to sell these gems and guns on the black market, for top credits."

Greed was more of a powerful motivator than even the Hapan gun of command, and Turner was pleased he wouldn't have to find out if the device worked on Nilub. "I'd love a partner, but the split is eighty-twenty."

"Seventy-thirty."

"Seventy-five-twenty-five," Turner countered.

"Deal."

_________________

Naboo

Corran rapped his knuckles on the cabin door of his employer. "Evin? You still awake?"

Now that he knew Han's true identity, at first he'd hesitated about which name to call him. Eventually, Corran just decided to continue to call him by the name Evin, since that was what he was used to calling him and he'd never really known Han Solo during his first physical incarnation. Besides, by continuing to use the name Evin it was less likely he'd slip up. Corran was grateful that his employer - and now a confirmed friend - had allowed him to tell Mirax the truth. It would have felt wrong to keep a secret from his wife. Mirax, upon hearing the strange tale, had thought it was funny that law-abiding Corran Horn ended up working for an ex-smuggler, as well as being married to an ex-smuggler. Other than that, she had no opinions on Han Solo, former smuggler-turned-General becoming Evin Daysun, famous singer and actor. In her mind, he was still Evin Daysun, with a bit of extra, interesting history, and she had continued to call her husband's employer by the name Evin.