Saga STARCHASER PRELUDE (update 2)

STARCHASER PRELUDE

Cyhen cursed the Rodian for the thousandth time that week.

Almost a week ago, Cyhen had been in the Drunken Ronto cantina when the drug intoxicated Rodian had ruined her jacket. It had been a present from Byak and it had taken all her restraint not to smoke the little creep right there with her blaster. She was sure that there weren?t many people who would miss the lowlife.

Now Cyhen was traversing the trade sector of Terhan looking for a suitable replacement. She avoided the open air market area that sold poor quality or usually stolen goods, not just because of the fact that they were poor quality or stolen but because the place was usually raided by the Archetypes and heavy handed Stormtroopers searching more for Rebels than for the real criminals. Anyone caught up in the raids usually got sent to the mineral mines on the moons of the planets of the outer system. The lucky ones got killed out right.

Equally, she avoided the up-market, trendy district that was frequented by wealthy families belonging to the officers of the Imperial Occupation. Any non-humans seen there other than the Archetypes were rounded up and hauled off to the Detention Centre. The irony was that Uvena III was not a human world; it belonged to Cyhen?s species, the Shistavanens but the natives were treated like third class citizens under the apartheid system put in place by the Empire.

Fortunately for Cyhen there was a place that was a hybrid between the two, but it could hardly be called prolific. Trade had declined over the past twenty years in a slow degenerate process deliberately put into practice by the Empire to control and pacify the Shistavanens. Everything was expensive and it was hard to get hold of even the most basic of supplies unless you were an Archetype or an Imperial. That was why the Imperials came down so hard on the down market. This was what made Cyhen?s occupation has a smuggler so profitable. Fortunately, a few Archetypes were sympathetic to the old ways and turned a blind eye to the operations perpetrated by people like Cyhen and it was that more than anything else that kept the peace in the Uvena System, not the threat of reprisals by the Empire nor their almost complete destruction of the Uvena System?s economy.

Cyhen browsed several shops that retailed in clothes but found no jacket that she liked. As the captain of a sleek space yacht, she wanted something swathe and sophisticated, not gaudy, frumpy or something that a trollop would wear. Those were cheap or unstylish. The first rule that Byak had taught her about being a smuggler was that your appearance was everything. Look like a lowlife, get treated like one. Dress too posh and you end up drawing too much attention to yourself. Find something in between, however and you are above suspicion - at least most of the time.

There was just one shop left that she hadn?t visited. It was up beat enough to be considered the one of the cutting edge of fashion establishments on Uvena III, but not enough to draw the crowds of the extremely rich and elite.

Cyhen entered the shop and walked over to a vacant holoscanner. A small, 3D holographic representation of her appeared above the projector. She used the touch screen to bring up the jacket selection. She scrolled through a number of designs that didn?t look right, discarding them because the fabric was too flimsy or she didn?t like the style or the colour.

At last she came to a long purple jacket that came down to just below her waist. It looked elegant on the 3D projection of her. It was made of a type of velvet fabric and was long enough to conceal a blaster. Cyhen fell in love with it instantly.

Cyhen printed the description, price and reference number from the computer before going over to pay for it.

To cut down on instances of theft, no garments were on display - they were stored in a warehouse that staff only had access to. She was served by a droid. There were a few living beings on the pay roll of the store but the majority of workers were dr

 

Cool post, emimar! I look forward to more.

 

Kannac finished checking the engines and gears of his TaggeCo. Air-2 Swoop. There were nineteen other competitors, a good mix of different species. All had to have the same model to compete in the race and earlier practices to determine pole position had occurred the day before. Kannac was third, having decided to take it easy the day before to get himself more familiar with the sharp twists and turns of the track.

The being in pole position was a Twi?lek called Sae?drin and Kannac had lost to him before on the Alces Chase. The sentient in second was a new kid, a human youth whom had gotten lucky to beat Kannac in the practice runs the day before. After Kannac came a beautiful Bothan going by the name of Dah?rae. He?d raced against Dah?rae before in other races around the galaxy and though there was a little friendly competition between them, there was no animosity like that which had existed between him and some of the other racers. To prove the point, Dah?rae blew him a kiss.

?Good luck, wolfman, you?re gonna need it!?

Kannac had to finish his contemplation of the other racers when the announcer began to go down the names of the entrants. He parked himself on the seat of the Swoop and fingered the controls to bring up the windscreen before placing the goggles that would protect his eyes from the wind-blown dust and sand over his face. He flattened his ears against his skull to prevent the same dust and sand from entering and irritating his ears.

Kannac heated up the engines in preparation of the start of the race. Around him, the other participants were doing the same. The countdown to the start of the race came over the sound system.

Three.

Two.

Kannac got himself ready to blast off.

One.

Go!

Predictably, Sae?drin sped off in front, closely followed by the kid while he and Dah?rae fought for third place. The high walls of the canyon sped by in a blur of yellow, brown and orange. Beneath the Swoops, the engines kicked up spray form the Infinity River. Kannac would have been quickly soaked through to the skin, even penetrating his thick fur if he had not been wearing the protective water-proof suit.

He tried to keep the Swoop in the middle of the canyon as even on the straights, there were still pieces of rock formation that jutted out of the canyon wall and would take the head off anyone getting too close at such high speeds, though the Swoops were nowhere near a match for the much faster pod-racers during the latter years of the Old Republic.

Kannac slowed down as he approached the first turn in the Chase. Before him, the inexperienced kid turned too late and slammed into the canyon wall, becoming a ball of red and orange deeper in colour than the surrounding rocks.

The first and last mistake of many young Swoopers was going too fast when first starting to race: it was much better to lose the first few races and learn the feel of the race and know when to turn, letting it become second nature even if it meant coming last than colliding with the wall on the first turn!

Kannac lost second place to Dah?rae as he made his turn as she was cocky enough to travel slightly faster than he going into the turn. Fortunately, she was only half a Swoop in front of him and he cranked up the speed of his Swoop so that he over took her just as quickly as she had over taken him.

Ahead, the only visible sign of Sae?drin was the spray displaced by his engines. Kannac cursed silently to himself. He could have smacked into the wall!

The straight quickly became a series of tight twists and turns that fortunately caused Sae?drin to slow down. Kannac employed Dah?rae?s earlier trick: speeding up just slightly than he had at the last turn, leaning into the bends as he did so. When they emerged into the next straight, Kannac was almost level with Sae?drin. Unfortunately, Kannac couldn?t employ his advantage as the canyon began to narrow up ahead and sharp, jagged rocks jutted out from the canyon walls, making it impossible for more than one Swoop to pass at a time without its ride

 

Nice job! I'll be watching this one closely!

 

I should have time to work on this today and tomorrow, so there should be a update on Saturday. I can't get online every day as I have to use the libary...

 

That was great! I await more.

 

Byak's arms snaked around Cyhen's body before he bent his head down and kissed her. He looked into her blue eyes and grinned. Cyhen delighted how he made her feel, the gentle and warm touch that turned into a fiery hot passion. Cyhen reached up and stroked the fur of his shirtless back, burying her fingers deep. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, Byak had blood all over his back. She stepped away from him in fear and shock. He fell to the deck of the Starchaser, dead.

***

Cyhen sat bolt up right in bed. Sunlight streamed in through the window of her room. She looked at the chronometer. It was early, but there would be shops open for business and they had no food. She decided to go out and get something for breakfast. She peered in the room Lakah and Kannac shared. The two were curled up together asleep. The image brought back memories of Byak and the pain of his loss.

She hated those dreams she had of him. They always fooled her into thinking that she hadn't lost him and brought back the pain of losing him like it had only happened minutes before. Well those Blood Hawks will soon be getting what they deserved.
Cyhen wasn't really hungry, her appetite stolen from her by the dream, but she guessed that the other two would be starving when they woke up, Kannac in particular. Byak always had been -

The streets this early were quiet, but there were a few people around, those on their way to work if they were lucky enough to have a job, which seemed in short supply these days ever since the Empire had shut the ship building factories down. Unless you worked for the Empire (not likely if you were a Shistavanen or a slave.), been able to procure your own work, being on the other side of the law or rich enough to have been unaffected by the closures, most Shistavanens were unemployed and, to a certain extent, uneducated. The best way it seemed for any government to stay in power was make people work for them (and be grateful for it) or if you couldn't use them keep them poor and/or stupid.

Cyhen entered the small cafe that was only a few blocks away from the Explorer's Rest. It was a clean but barely profitable business. It had survived for years, however, because the owner, a middle aged Shistavanen male and his family were stubborn and determined like the moisture farmers of Tattoine.

"Morning, Cyhen. What'll it be today?" the middle aged female Shistavanen asked.

"Three Bantha beacon sandwiches and dewback ribs to go, Nira."

Cyhen spent time looking at the stack of flyers people had left advertising band nights and other underground entertainments while she waited for her order. In spite of the fact that most were poor under the Imperial Occupation, such things did well just for the fact that people wanted diversions from their troubles.

Mar, Nira's husband entered from the kitchen with her order. "You aren't going to eat all this by yourself, pretty lassie?"

"Get back in the kitchen, you big furball," Nira said.

Cyhen had to smile at their antics while she paid for her order. People like them didn't deserve to suffer the subjugation of the Empire.

***

Cyhen arrived back at the Explorer's Rest to find Lakah and Kannac were already awake.

"We heard you go out, Lupa," Lakah said.

"Went out to get breakfast," Cyhen said.

"Oh great," Kannac grunted, snatching the bag with the dewback ribs away from her.

"Hey, I got those for everyone," Cyhen said, grabbing it back.

Lakah hunted around and found some cheap resin plates that had endured heavy use in their time. She set them down on the table before sliding in next to her lover. Cyhen unwrapped the sandwiches and the ribs, dividing the ribs up equally between them.

Kannac took a big chunk out of his sandwich.

"Kannac, we're going to need the use of your ship," Cyhen said.

Kannac chewed and swallowed his bite. "What would you be needing my ship for?"

"To go to the Corporate Sector," Cyhen replied.

Kannac shook his head in a negative. "I can't go back there. I hav

 

Coolness! Keep up the good work, emimar.

 

Back in business!

 

Because of some trouble getting the old version deleted here, I have posted the new version of Starchaseron the Star Wars Character Cafe boards, so if you want to read it, you can go there, or I might even post it in this thread after I complete Starchaser Prelude.

Anyway, I hope to do some work on this tonight...(getting a feeling of deja vous)

 

I've not gone away yet, just in case anyone was wondering...

I spent all Saturday reading this book on Orcs.

I hope to get sometime writing more of this story tonight and then I'm gonna post it tomorrow.

 

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