After dropping off shipments of Coaxium and Peach Cider at Tralus IV and the Shame Corner respectively, Kalen got a call from Reece about a ‘tip’ he had received from an old friend.
What kind of ‘old friends’ did a mildly psychotic astromech(Reece) have? Kalen had no idea. But for the past year the boisterous little droid had proven himself to be a valuable member of the team time and again. After checking with Karracca, who reported that the lead sounded legitimate Kalen closed the commlink and ordered the bridge to alter course.
The cozy but comfortable Captains Quarters aboard the GR-75 had been his home for the past week since he had left Aliso. He had promised his pregnant fiance that he would make enough money on this run, that he would be able to spend the next few months at home, but they both knew that ‘Clan Business’ would likely keep him busy for the foreseeable future.
As he strolled past the crew lounge he waved at a few of the Ugnaughts who were busy playing some board game and barely acknowledged his existence. Even though he was the owner and Captain of the ship, the atmosphere aboard was always casual to the point of monotony and boredom.
The Plagueian Jedi had crewed the modified freighter with a mix of; four Ugnaught volunteers from his Peach Cider Brewery business who would serve as deckhands and gunners, and a pair of Twi'lek siblings, Liri and Nuttah Ramdala who he had hired directly from a job board without an interview. As it turned out, they were offering their services as pilot and engineer pair, and that had been exactly what Kalen had needed at the time.
It was a decent crew, the Ugnaughts were quiet, quick and professional when it was time to load and unload cargo, and more than competent as bosuns and gunners when the going got tough. And though the siblings bickered at each other constantly they were certainly competent at their jobs.
As the lift doors opened at the rear of the small elevated bridge module at the rear of the ship, Kalen walked out into the middle of one of those bickering sessions.
“If you throw one more bolt or snippet of wire at me bro, I'm gonna put your head through a bulkhead. Don't test me.” Liri yelled at her brother from the Pilot console on the left. She gave her.a brother a menacing dirty look before turning and smiling sweetly at Kalen, “Evenin’ Cap.”
Nuttah, who was busy installing the control systems for the newly installed hangar at the operations console in the back corner of the room, snipped off the end of a piece of wire and gently tossed it at his sister. The small piece of shiny superconductor wire just missed his sister's shoulder and clattered across her console before harmlessly falling to the floor.
“I'll fracking kill you dude.”
“You should probably listen to your sister Nuttah. I did name her as the First Lieutenant lf the Corra VIII back on Monday.” Kalen interjected cheerfully.
“I'm still not calling her ma'am though Boss, no way. Fire me if you want. And hey, that reminds me, I've been meaning to ask, what.does the ‘eight’ in the ship's name mean? Have you owned seven other medium transports before this one?” Nuttah asked jovially as he reached inside the guts of the open console panel and made some final connections.
“Nah, I name all my ships after my fiance. I guess you could call it a tradition.” Kalen confessed.
“Hmmm, makes sense. Uh, this new hangar door is ready to test out whenever you want, by the way.” Nuttah made some final checks, flicked another random bit of wire scrap toward his sister and then started closing up the console.
The new hangar was little more than the old climate controlled cargo bay with a wide tilt-up durasteel exterior door installed on the side of it. The bay currently housed a Tine Hunter fighter that Kalen had taken to calling “Rogue Two”.
Liri just stewed for several seconds and then wound up and punched her brother hard in the shoulder as he walked by.
“Idiot.” She said as she reached and punched him again as he scampered away.
A few minutes later Liri announced,“We're coming up on the rendezvous coordinates now Cap.”
“Sounds good,” Kalen replied as he flicked open the ship's intercom, “Action stations everyone. We're about to drop out of light speed well off the charted space lanes. Lets be ready. Bridge out.”
Kalen allowed himself a little smile. He kind of enjoyed being the Captain of a ship with a crew that included more than an old Wookie and an ornery droid. He appreciated his close-knit friend group with Karracca, Treel, Zuser, Blackhawk and a few others, but he also appreciated that they all had their own ships nowadays.
“Cutting hyperdrive. Scanning. I'm picking up a ship near an asteroid about 2 AUs away.”
Before Kalen could ask about the identity of the ship, a signal came in from the other ship and the familiar boops and tweedles of Reece began piping through the comms system.
“Hey pal, thanks for coming. Sorry to say it seems like the tip was a bit of a dud. All we've found is this old direlect ship. The thing's ancient, covered in ice and space dust. No lifespan, no power signatures, no cargo by the looks of it either, a bunch of pulls of organic compounds that were probably some water and carbon sacks like you at some point thousands of years ago. She's probably worth ten or twenty thousands credits in scrap metal, its made out of some sort of light-absorbing isotope of Farillium. I dunno, it’s your call of you wanna tow it back to the yard or not.
“Enh, twenty grand is twenty grand. We'll come over and have a look. If she's worth scrapping, I'll split it with ya 50/50. But I want my fuel costs to come right off the top this time.” Kalen replied through the comm. He recalled the last time he had towed something for Reece and got staffed for the tank of gas he used.
“Right, oh, see you soon.” Reece booped and bonked before closing the channel.
As it turned out the asteroid Liri had seen was actually a ship. A ship WAS ancient, to the tune of 25000 years old or more, and was filled with several primitive Sith artifacts and the interior of the ship contained several examples of archaic Sith writing. Kalen and his new crew towed the vessel back to the Plagueian seat of Power on Aliso and prevented it to the Dread Lord himself, for which they were given a modest ‘finders fee’.