Dorn: A Star Wars Story

34. Socialites

"You sure none of us should come with you?" Nyra asked as I finished packing my bag of necessities, including my old trusty blaster - the same one Sevens had given me after I beat him in sabacc all those years ago. Never could replace it. The thing was too good to.

"I'll have Sevens."

"Not reassuring, Dorn."

"Contrary to popular belief, Sevens if more competent than he lets on," I shot Nyra a smile as she returned it with a fond shake of her head and pushed herself up off of the wall of my office, walking over to take a seat on my desk. "Besides, Hamal needs to know that I'm not trying to intimidate him. Last thing I want is him thinking Khomo can't be trusted."

"I get it. Doesn't mean that I have to like it," Nyra paused and watched as Peek tottered over to me and bumped against my leg. "You are taking our number one teammate, right?"

"Of course," I patted Peek's chassis affectionately. "I never go on dangerous undercover ops without this little guy."

"Someone's gotta keep you alive," Nyra reached out and did the same before she crossed her legs and watched me for a moment before she cracked a small grin, "just don't drink too many fancy cocktails and decide that you're never coming back."

"And miss out on the bad rations and terrible caf?" I grinned back, "Fat chance."

Sevens and I departed on one of his transports a few hours later with Peek, and I was a little surprised to see that he had any civilian clothes on tap at all. I tried to grab something nicer, but sitting beside him in his crisp black clothes, the red wrap draped over his shoulders like I had seen his father in when he was making civilian appearances... Well, it was hard to imagine him as anything other than the son of a signature politician and a Grand Moff.

"I can't say I missed this," He muttered as the shuttle began entering into Canto Bight airspace and Peek began to take care of our landing procedures. "These parties and fancy-dress events are suffocating."

"Figured you'd have missed all this," I sat back in my seat and looked out of the transport windows. "At least there's a beach."

"I miss the luxury aspects, but not the social parts. Never cared for the rich crowds. None of them actually ever cared about what my father ever said. Kinda made me angry," I turned back to see him watching me. "You look good out of uniform. It's a new look for you. I have nice clothes for the casino and a droid that can tailor them to match once we get to the guest house, so don't fret about that."

We touched down on the landing pad and stepped out into the salty air of Canto Bight. The entire city beyond the villa pad where we had touched down seemed to shimmer with lights, and it reminded me a lot of the districts on Corellia where the shipbuilder families would live. Never got to go there, security always stopped you when you started to leave the industrial sectors. Sevens was looking around when a protocol droid hurried up

"Ah, young Master Kaine! Welcome back!" The droid bowed before turning to me and Peek, who was waiting patiently by my side. "And who might this be."

"Effo, this is Ithan Ruana. He is my guest," Sevens gestured to me.

"Is he one that your father should or should not know about?"

"Effo!"

"I just want to be sure that I make appropriate accommodations..."

Sevens cleared his throat loudly and gave Effo a look that prompted the droid to give almost a shrug before beckoning for a speeder. I smirked and turned to Sevens. "Bring people back here often?"

"When I was younger and stupider," Sevens replied begrudgingly as the speeder pulled up and we stepped up inside of it. I hefted Peek up with me and soon we were off down the roads. I had never seen homes that nice in all of my life, but many of them showed absolutely no signs of life inside of them at all. I figured that must have been because rich people could have more than one house. Hell, having one was a foreign concept to me.