Nico's Gambit

The Gambit

Between trying to look as casual as possible walking back through the Justicar's guardpost near the taxi pad, waiting for the taxi and the frustratingly slow driving of the taxi droid, Odette's patience was at an end. Swearing under her breath, they exited the Senate Tower's taxi terminal and looked across to the spaceport. It would take them forever even to run all the way across the plaza just to get to the entrance. That didn't include it would take to find the docking bay itself and for all they knew it could be the one in the very back stuffed in a corner somewhere. She turned to start to complain when a most beautiful sight presented itself right in front of her.

It was bright red with gold racing stripes, an upgraded suspensor and a delicately embossed leather seat. And it was quietly singing Odette's name. She couldn't resist its siren's call. She walked over and pulled a kit out of of Miel's bag, took a quick look around and started messing with the starter.

Corso came over to stand right behind her. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

"I think I know," Nico said smirking as he pulled his own kit out and worked on the hyperbike next to Odette's.

A beautifully loud roar erupted from the suspensor. A cheesy grin spread over Odette's face as threw a leg over the leather saddle, seating herself behind the handle bars. "Get on," she yelled at Corso. Corso hesitated for a moment, giving a somewhat panicked look to Nico.

"Don't wait up for me," Nico said. "Just go."

The second Corso swung his own leg over and settled in behind her, she punched the speeder bike into high gear and raced out of the taxi terminal. Corso's hands tightened reflexively around her waist as she zoomed and swerved to miss pedestrians to get to the spaceport.

The adrenaline rushed through her veins as the speeder zoomed through the crowds and the feeling of Corso's nervous breath tickled her neck, sending sparkly shivers down her spine. The heat from his arms was so distracting that she had to remind herself more than once to not lean back into him or pay attention to where she was going. They very nearly took out a family of Ortolans because she was getting too comfortable.

Unlike Odette, Corso had enough presence of mind to keep an eye on the directions and sooner than she liked, they were standing in front of the large doors of a docking bay.

"Docking bay 87. This is it," Corso said as dismounted the bike. As expected, it was locked. He took the codeslicer out of the bag and started working. Odette inspected the bike while Corso worked. This was a premium speeder. All the upgrades, high quality materials and a chasse that shone red like the Tatooine double suns. Once they got The Gambit back, this baby was coming with her.

Nico pulled up on his clunk-mobile at almost the same time that Corso got the door sliced. Odette dismounted and before they walked through to the bay, she petted and stroked the bike. "I'll be right back, baby," she said softly.

"I thought I was coming with you guys," Corso said, turning around. His face went beet red when he saw her stroking the bike.

"You are, baby," Odette said, patting him on the chest and giving him the eye as she swept past him.

A bulbous-headed alien stood in front of another set of bay doors, transferring from foot to foot as if the floor was hot.

"Hey, you," he said, in a not-so-convincing demand. "In case you hadn't noticed, the door was locked for a reason. This is a private docking bay."

Odette marched up to the humanoid and pointed her blaster right between his eyes.

"Three words," she said slowly and deeply. "Where's. My. Ship?"

"Skavak said I might have some troublemakers show up," the alien said looking up at her blaster. "That's why he paid for extra security. Boys, they're here."

A few rangy humanoids stepped out of corners with their blasters pointed at Odette. Before anyone could fire, Odette kicked the leader in between the legs hoping that's where he kept his family jewels and retreated behind a potted tree.

The three thugs went down as expected but the leader nearly wing-clipped Odette before Corso returned the favor.

"Wait!" Odette yelled. "Don't kill him yet. I want to talk to him first."

She marched up to the humanoid cradling his arm. He held up his version of a hand.

"Fine. All right. You're tough. Don't hurt me, please," he said. "I'm just a starship salesman."

"For the last time—where's my starship?"

The alien pushed the button on a device he'd dropped next to his blaster and the doors to the docking bay opened. There in pristine condition was The Gambit. Odette let out a slow sigh of relief.

"You," she said, nudging the salesman with her foot. "Why would Skavak need you? He's already got one of the best ships in the galaxy—why would he want to buy something from you?"

"He was shopping for upgrades," the salesman said. "No one in their right mind would sell a sweet ride like yours. Listen, your ship is immaculate. I made sure. The cargo's still on board. I even had it detailed from top to bottom. No harm done right?"

Odette eyes narrowed into slits.

"Not so fast," Corso said. "I think the Captain deserves something for all the trouble you put her through."

"Hey, no problem," he said. "I could give you a nice ship upgrade and charge it to Skavak's account. Interested?"

Odette gave Corso a smirk and paused only long enough to make the salesman sweat a little before saying, "As long as Skavak's paying, I'm buying. What are my options?"

"I've got the finest ship upgrades on Coruscant or my name's not Fabizan," he said, struggling to get to his feet. "I'll get you my latest and greatest and in no time flat. Nothing like having friends with money, eh?"

Fabizan straggled over to make a commlink call. In a faster time than Odette thought possible, several dozen workers showed up with a cargolift full of stuff and got to work on The Gambit.

Fabizan came up to them. "Am I fast or what? Now, everything's installed, I made sure all the cargo, including the special stuff is still accounted for and waiting in your hold. You're going to let Fabizan scoot now, right? I got business very, very far away from here."

Odette looked down her nose at the salesman. "I suppose we're done."

"May it give you many fine years of service. If you have any problems, contact the manufacturer. I'm out of here. Thanks for not killing me."

As soon as Fabizan was out of sight, Odette rushed up to the entrance ramp and started to touch her ship and give it soft little kisses like a mother would a child.

"Momma's home, baby," she said tenderly. "Was that big, stupid man mean to you? We need to make sure you're all right and then we can get out of here."

She slowly inspected every inch of her ship, sliding her hands across it's paneling and bulkheads.

Corso and Nico followed behind her. Nico's smirk widened as they got deeper in.

"Does she always act like this with her ships?" Corso asked, awed.

"Only for this one," Nico said. "This has been her home, her mother and her savior. She'd take a blaster bolt for it if need be, I reckon."

When Odette reached the cargo hold, she stopped. She turned suddenly, hip jutted out and hands on her hips.

There standing at the inventory terminal was a brown-haired woman. She turned around, looked surprised for a moment then smirked at Odette.

"Interesting," she said.