Nutrepa's private quarters were exactly as Poe expected. Inviting, low light from the bejeweled lamps dotted around the suite of rooms bloomed on the dark purple walls and unfurled over the bedspread, a single piece of sun-gold fur that glimmered wherever the brightest illumination touched it.
Don't think every dollar I've ever earned would pay for even half that thing.
He followed Jess inside, stepping in her footsteps. An old habit, for the rare times they'd had to ditch out of their X-wings on some unfamiliar planet. You never knew what you'd find out there. Carnivorous grass? Yep. It had managed to get through Jess's boot soles before they'd realized what was happening and burnered the kriff out of there. Air made out of some shit you couldn't even recognize, let alone breathe? He and Jess had passed their only oxygen mask, snatched from her wrecked ship, back and forth till someone had thought to come rescue them. All the while, glittering glimpses of beasts a hell of a lot bigger than them could be seen in the forest, and only sticking close and keeping calm had kept them from being something's dinner.
A waft of perfume brushed over his face, like the caress of a summertime zephyr on a pleasure planet. Nutrepa turned, her skirt swirling. Her long hair almost seemed outlined by back lighting, as if she had a camera crew following her everywhere, a team of artists always stepping in to adjust her outfit and powder her face.
"So. Bacta." She started, offering them both seats. Poe settled into the plush cushion.
WIsh I had this kind of seat in my bird.
Nutrepa chose the chair from her vanity, a massive, glossy white table with a huge mirror attached. Perfume bottles sat haphazardly on one end, flowers, faeries and ribbons in blown glass peeking up from the collection; looked like Nutrepa might have been kind of a slob, without hired help to clean up for her. A polished-wood jewelry box sat half open on the other side, spilling gems and jewels like a Hutt's cache.
"You must understand how difficult this request is," Nutrepa continued, leaning back and crossing her dainty ankles. Well, dainty for a Zabrak, anyhow. "There is a shortage of medical supplies, and this is the penultimate medical supply."
Jess leaned in. Poe knew that look, a look that said I want to eat this woman like I'm starving and she's the biggest damn cupcake I've ever seen.
"Look," Jess said, "I know how hard it is to get. But you don't come to Dandoran if all you need is some engine-room hootch and a dancing girl or two. You can get that anywhere."
"I suppose so," Nutrepa said, pushing the veil of her hair back over her slim shoulder. Her expression was tough to read, and not just because she happened to be something other than human. What could have made her nervous enough to hesitate like this?
"Come on, girl. Don't dick me around." Jess said, though her tone stayed on the friendly side of things.
"I know you'd probably have to take a risk to help us," Poe interjected. "I get that. But...it's for a friend. We'll keep you out of it as much as possible. If we get captured or something, these lips stay sealed."
He had the training to back that up. Only time he'd ever blabbed, Kylo Ren had to rip it out of him with Dark side bullshit. That, in any planet on any world, was cheating.
That jerk off wouldn't know a fair fight if it bit him in the ass.
Nutrepa didn't answer at first.
"All right." She said. "I do have a lead. A contact. This information must never be spoken in the light of day." Another pause. Poe felt as if he'd been bewitched, his whole body a taut cable. "She is a Nightsister. Or, she was, at one time."
