Star Wars: Return to Trigalis Ch. 04

"Obviously Jedi Ta'tan'ia doesn't know about this," Stormie told him calmly. She wasn't sure how much to tell him about her relationship with Ta'tan'ia, or what she had been doing on Trigalis before she started working with the Jedi. As always though, less was probably best.

Now Cyllir stared at her for several seconds. "Ronko Shavit."

"No, really," Stormie told him. "I am working with Jedi Ta'tan'ia to find out who's sending the blasters, but the Empire would happy to continue the arrangement, as long as it's through the proper channels."

Cyllir stared at her in thought again. "No frakking way," he finally said, shaking his head. "You didn't find out shavit at the detention center, and you won't find out shavit from any of us. And if you do find out on your end, then we'll just get someone else to sell us what we want. There are hundreds of millions of beings all over the galaxy willing to sell blasters to just about anyone with credits."

"Look, the local Security Force has over a hundred Zoloz locked up. The Jedi are on to you, and we'll find out who's selling them to you anyway," Stormie told him. "If you work with me now though, the Zoloz will have all the weapons they can handle. We even have someone at the New Coronet Spaceport to make sure everything gets through."

"Sooner or later the Jedi will get called away to something more important, and you'll go crawling back to the Empire," Cyllir replied. "And even if I did tell you, how do I know you'll really send us anything? What would I do, complain to the Ministry of Commerce?"

"So you want some sort of assurance we'd honor the deal?" Stormie asked him.

Cyllir paused a few seconds before replying. "Speaking hypothetically, yes."

"How about thirty thousand credits?" she suggested.

"How about the Jedi? Ta'tan'ia. We owe her anyway," he countered. "Since you're already betraying her and all."

Stormie considered that a few moments. She knew they had taken down and kept one Jedi, and she had no problem with giving them Ta'tan'ia to close this deal. She was pretty sure she knew what they owed her for too; taking Tahiri from them. Maybe she could even tip off Admiral Daala, who could send a team in to take Ta'tan'ia from them later on.

"That wouldn't work," she finally answered. "The Jedi know she's here. If she doesn't report in like she's supposed to, they'll send more Jedi to investigate, and they might discover you're still getting blasters, and might learn where they're coming from."

"Okay," Cyllir replied after several seconds of thought. "How about you then?"

"What?" Stormie asked in obvious shock.

"You stay with us until we get the first shipment. As our guest," he explained. "Friendly guest," he added with a reassuring smile.

"Considering the last time I was at your little clubhouse, I'm going to have to decline," she responded. "Besides, I don't think our Jedi will let me stay here when she leaves."

Now Cyllir sat silently in thought for several moments. "Okay. We'll take sixty thousand credits."

That was double Stormie's first offer, but not quite as much as she had to work with. She did want to make a deal as quickly as possible though.

"Fifty." That way she wouldn't have to worry about getting anything back from them later on.

"We'll send you our account number," Cyllir said after several seconds. "When we get payment, you'll get our source." He paused a moment, then added, "After we work out a few details."

"Of course," Stormie replied, glancing at the notes from Colonel Drasi. "We can immediately send a replacement shipment of two thousand standard Imperial blaster carbines, with power packs, at a hundred credits each. That price is for this shipment only. In a couple of weeks we can send another two thousand blasters, for one-fifty each. I know you'll be able to easily move these at six or seven-hundred a piece. If you want more, and our man at the spaceport is comfortable handling them, we can double that for subsequent shipments. If you need blaster pistols, or extra power packs, we'd be happy to provide those as well, at equally good rates."

"So you want me to pay you two-hundred-thousand credits for blasters we've already paid for, and give up our source before we actually get the blasters?" he asked her suspiciously.

"We understand your reluctance," Stormie told him sympathetically. "No need to pay until you see the blasters at the spaceport."

"We're gonna have to take a vote before I can definitely agree to this," Cyllir replied after a few moments. "Give me about ten minutes or so."

"Okay," she responded with a nod. "Also, just to be clear, only the first shipment will be Imperial blasters. After that we'll be sending a mix, but all of them will be equivalent quality. If too many Imperial weapons showed up on Trigalis, it might draw suspicion from the wrong people. The Jedi, for example."

"Okay," he said with his own nod. "Anything else?"

"I think that's it," she answered after a brief hesitation.

"Alright," Cyllir replied.

A moment later the link was shut down from his end. Stormie turned off her comm, glanced at the cell feed to see Ta'tan'ia still meditating, leaned back in her chair, and waited again. She really wondered what all Broxn had told them before he had died.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

In a Zoloz hideout, several kilometers into the swamps. . .

"So, any questions before we vote on this?" Cyllir asked his Zoloz brothers assembled around the room. "Problems? Comments?"

There was several moments of silence.

"Can we trust her?" Dirc asked.

"We get fifty-thousand, and don't pay until we see the next shipment," Cyllir answered with a shrug.

"Frakk The Empire," Grinder commented. "You can never trust those bastards."

"We trusted the last Imperial," Torch countered. "And this sounds like a way better deal than he offered."

"I just wish I knew for sure why she was at Vik's," Cyllir complained. "He wasn't even part of us, much less knew anything about the blasters." He paused a heartbeat, then added, "The Jedi Twi'lek sneaks into our party, the cops raid the warehouse, and they take Torri. Then barely a day later, an Imperial team shows up and almost kills Vik. We ambush them casing our place, and she claims to be a bounty hunter tracking bounty hunters who we find out later are really Jedi. Then the Twi'lek Jedi shows back up and rescues her. They leave the planet, then show up eight hours later working together, not hiding who they really are anymore, and claiming to have been tracking the weapons all along."

The rest of the Zoloz took a few seconds to consider that information.

"And no one saw any sign of the Imperials until after the Jedi had Torri off-planet," Torch confirmed. "They didn't help rescue her, they didn't help them get to the spaceport, nothing."

Several of the Zoloz nodded their heads in agreement, although all knew it to be true.

"I can see the Jedi rescuing a bounty hunter, and making sure the cops got our blasters," Cyllir said. "But why would the Imps even care about a bounty hunter? And I don't buy the Imp schutta's story. As far as we know, she went straight to Vik's, like twelve hours after Custom Swoops Weekly was released with Torri's flatholo in it."

"Yeah, we should have warned him not to put any of those on the HoloNet," Torch said. "Especially so close to the blasters coming in."

"I wish we could have had more time with that other Imp," Dirc commented regretfully. "I could have made him tell us everything."

"Yeah, Lieutenant Kintra had that fixed, and quick," Cyllir responded. "Made sure he got real dead. Didn't even blink at paying us to do it either."

"Hey, I just thought about something," Torch began slowly. "Why didn't the Jedi schutta try to rescue the other Imp? Almost as soon as she got Kintra out, the Imp chick commed us about killing him. Even when she was threatening to bomb our clubhouse, she had zero interest in getting him away from us. She just wanted him dead. It doesn't add up."

The other Zoloz contemplated that a few moments.

"Yeah, that doesn't make sense," Cyllir agreed. "Luke Skywalker is always talking about Jedi protecting life and shavitt."

"Maybe the Jedi didn't know about the second Imp," Dirc commented.

The Zoloz considered that silently a few seconds.

"Maybe," Cyllir finally admitted. "But how could she not know? There were only three Imperials, and two Jedi, including the one that helped Ta'tan'ia take Torri from us. How could she not know we had captured two of the Imps?"

"You know, Broxn never mentioned them working with any Jedi," Skifter commented after a few more moments of silence. "He said it was just him, the dead Imp—what was his name, Whytte—and Lieutenant Kintra, and that they were here looking for Torri, but he didn't know why."

"Maybe Kintra told the Jedi that Broxn was already dead?" Dirc ventured.

"Whatever happened, does it really affect what's on the table now?" Koda asked. "We don't trust the Imp bitch. None of what's going on makes sense. And we still need to make a shavitt load of credits pretty soon.

Once again, the Zoloz sat in silent thought a couple of seconds.

"Speaking of credits, how are we even going to get the other hundred-and-fifty-grand for these kriffing blasters?" Dirc asked. "We put basically everything we had into the first shipment, the rest is for the lawyer. Unless we don't pay him for awhile?"

"That's my plan," Cyllir confirmed. "I'll talk to him, and tell him we need to delay paying him for about two weeks. He knows we're good for it, all the business we give him."

"We can make a like three-quarters of a million credits on this one shipment," Koda commented. "And that's with us keeping a couple of hundred for ourselves. We'll have plenty for that Bothan."

"Well, it'll be probably be closer to about half-a-million," Cyllir countered. "Even though this is all us, we're still gonna share some of the wealth with our brothers from Trallis II, and the other chapters here."

The Zoloz nodded their heads in agreement as they contemplated what they could do with half-a-million credits, and a couple of hundred blaster carbines.

"The schutta's right about one thing though," Dirc began. "After the warehouse shootout, it's going to be a while before the cops leave us alone."

"Five hundred thousand credits buys a lot of eyes looking the other way," Torch countered.

"So as it stands, who knows if or when we'll be able to get another shipment from our source. Lieutenant Kintra sends us one, and we don't have to touch it until we feel comfortable," Cyllir explained. "We don't have to trust her very far for that, whatever else shavit she's up to."

"I don't feel right doing this without Quinn," Dirc complained.

"I know, brother," Cyllir told him. "Everyone of us knows the Zoloz come first though. He's trying to take as much of the weight as he can for the club. If it wasn't for that kriffing Jedi, we would have been at the warehouse with him and everyone else. Quinn will understand."

The Zoloz nodded their heads in agreement.

"One more thing," Torch began. "The schutta said they had someone at the New Coronet spaceport to make sure everything gets through. If he can get blasters through for the Empire, then he can get other stuff through for us. That could sure come in useful down the road."

"If she's not lying about that too," Dirc countered.

"Well, the worse that will happen is we get fifty-thousand credits in exchange for an Imperial name," Cyllir said, trying to spin it back positive. "Hopefully we get a regular supply of blasters at great prices, maybe we get other stuff too."

"It's not like the Imp is a Zoloz or anything," Koda said. "Hell, he's not even a friend. We just made one deal with him, and look how that turned out."

That seemed like as good of point as any in favor. Cyllir paused several seconds, then asked, "Anything else?"

"So we're going to give him up to the Imps and Jedi?" Dirc responded.

Cyllir had been gauging everyone's reactions during the entire conversation, first with the Imp, and then with just his brothers. He was confident he had the votes. Jahn, Cris, Bey, and Little J had died at the warehouse shootout. Nine more members of the New Coronet chapter of the Zoloz had been arrested in the aftermath.

That would leave them short of muscle for an operation this big, but between the other New Coronet chapters, and all their brothers that pretty much lived out in the swamp—where they were currently hiding out as well—they could take care of that. It also helped that Torch had taken out a bunch of those frakking Blood Riders, especially Ringo. Without him leading them, they shouldn't be much of a problem in the future.

For a situation like this, the club could vote without their brothers that were locked up. The remaining ten members accepted the Imperial schutta's deal by a vote of seven-to-three. Only Dirc, Grinder, and Lonn dissented. Cyllir activated the comm, to tell the Imperial schutta the news. He was also going to ask her about Torri. He'd really love to get her back.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Stormie glanced up from watching Ta'tan'ia, and accepted the comm call. It was Cyllir.

"We've decided to accept the deal," he told her.

"Great," she replied with relief. "Just send me your account number, and I'll send you your credits."

Cyllir nodded his head towards someone just out of his holofield.

"However, I don't want you to tell me who your source is just yet," she told him. "I want you to tell Ta'tan'ia." She thought another few seconds, then changed that. "As a matter of fact, can you get a message to Quinn?"

"Possibly," Cyllir answered cautiously.

"Can you to get him to tell Ta'tan'ia who the source is?" she asked as the account number appeared on her screen. "That way, Ta'tan'ia will sense my surprise as I hear it, and won't suspect we're working together."

"I can see that," Cyllir agreed. "Give me a few hours. I'll let you know when we're ready."

"Okay," Stormie replied as she sent him the fifty thousand credits.

"Hey, I got a question," Cyllir said. "Why did you and the Jedi go through all that trouble to take Torri—Terri Rapuung from us? She was just a bounty hunter."

It took Stormie a moment to understand that he was talking about Tahiri Veila. She also realized that he thought she had been working with the Jedi the whole time, and... Does he not know who Torri really is? She wondered.

"I wasn't involved with that," she told him with a dismissive shrug. "I came here tracking the blasters. I don't know why the Jedi wanted her. I didn't even find out they had taken her until after they already had her off planet."

The first and forth sentences of that were true. The second and third weren't. Cyllir had to know that too... unless Broxn had kept Tahiri's real identity a secret. If he had, then Cyllir would only know they had been looking for their bounty-hunter-turned-swoop-bike-slut, not who she really was.

Stormie wondered if there was anyway to find out exactly what Broxn had told them.

Probably not, she quickly decided. Cyllir didn't seem like the type to give up any information like that, and with Ta'tan'ia around, she couldn't very well go find and interrogate any of the particular Zoloz who would know what Broxn had said. Then she wondered if she should go ahead and tell Cyllir she had been looking for their swoop-biker-slut too, and had been there when Vik was shot. She decided not to do that either. No need to upset him until her mission was complete, and she was safely off this bug-infested rock.

Stormie also realized that if Cyllir knew who Tahiri really was, he would know why the Jedi had taken her, and why her team had been looking for her. Maybe Broxn hadn't given that up. Her opinion of him went up... slightly. She definitely wasn't about to tell Cyllir that their swoop-bike-slut was really a notorious former-Jedi-turned-scumbag-murder. The deal had been made. Her mission was almost complete. At least this mission. She still wished she could have gotten that schutta to start with.

"Since you're not really working with the Jedi anymore, any idea where they took her?" Cyllir asked her. "I mean, even after we told her who she really was, and what happened, she wanted to stay with us."

"No idea," she replied. "Like I said, I didn't even know anything about that till after it was done."

Stormie would really love to know where Tahiri was herself. If he knew who she really was, then he would be at least a little worried about her taking retribution for what they had done to her, she reasoned.

"Okay then," He responded after a couple of seconds.

"Oh, before you go, once things are going smoothly, we might need you to move some weapons or other minor items for us, on occasion. We'd be happy to pay a small courtesy fee for this, of course," Stormie told him, turning her attention back to why they were talking in the first place.

"What sort of items?" he asked warily.

"I'm not exactly sure," she answered apologetically. "We'll be in contact about it when the time comes though. I just wanted to give you a heads up."

"We should be able to help you with something like that," he replied. "But I can't make any guarantees."

"I understand," Stormie said. "Just send me a message when you've spoken with Quinn."

"No problem," he responded with a nod.

Stormie shut down the link and glanced at the feed from the cell. Ta'tan'ia was still meditating. Now she just had to keep her occupied until Cyllir contacted her, and then get her to go back and interrogate Quinn again. Maybe she could cuff her to the cell bunk again or something...

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

A couple of hours later, when they arrived at the New Coronet Detention Center there was a different officer on duty at the front desk. They turned over their blasters, but she also wanted them to surrender their comlinks, just like before. Once again Sergeant Bakuu appeared, and told the officer that he would take care of them. He escorted them to an interrogation room, and had Quinn brought up.

"By the way Sergeant Bakuu, did you tell the Zoloz we were interrogating Quinn and the others this morning?" Ta'tan'ia asked him casually, using the Force to get him to answer truthfully.

"Yeah," he answered quickly. A split-second later his eyes went wide in shock.

"Relax," Ta'tan'ia told him, using the Force again to back up the command as she set her hand on his shoulder. She could sense Stormie's surprise as well. "Who did you tell?"

"Cyllir," he replied after a moment's hesitation.

"Do you have his comm code?" Ta'tan'ia asked him.

"It's in my comlink in my locker," he answered, still obviously in shock.

"You should go to your superiors and resign immediately," Ta'tan'ia instructed him, using the Force once again. "You don't want to be a Police Officer anymore. And once you've done that, you'll make sure both Lieutenant Kintra and I get Cyllir's comm code. Then clean out your locker, and leave the Detention Center."

"O—Okay," Sergeant Bakuu answered, turning to walk away.

"Oh, and one more thing," Ta'tan'ia called after him. "Do not mention any of this to Cyllir, or any of the Zoloz."

"I—I won't," he responded with a hesitant shake of his head.

"BY THE EMPEROR!" Stormie exclaimed once he was out of earshot. "Is he really going to quit?"

"Yes," Ta'tan'ia replied confidently. "I was just going to find out if he was corrupt, but..." she trailed off with a flick of her lekku, and shrug of her shoulders.

"Does he have our comm codes?" Stormie asked suddenly. "To give us Cyllir's?"