AN: I know, I haven't updated this thing in forever and a day. Hopefully someone out there still wants to read it. My interest in the fandom lapsed for several months and my computer went kablooie so here you go. This was actually written several months ago and sat on various jump drives. Uilleand did a wonderful beta for me as always. Comments/constuctive critisms of course are welcome. Yeah its a long one. I just went ahead and loaded the whole chapter in here.

The Vulkar hallway Morii and the others found themselves in was empty and quiet

The Vulkar hallway Morii and the others found themselves in was empty and quiet. Somewhere in the distance they could hear loud techno dance music but the immediate area appeared deserted. The first room they came to was filled with crates and lockers. Mission proceeded to unlock containers and swipe anything that wasn't bolted down. Morii began laughing.

"Mish," she told the girl, "we can't take everything in the base with us!"

"Oh, right," Mission blushed. "Sorry, habit yah know?"

Morii grinned. "Well let's only take credits and anything small that might be useful."

"Gotchya," Mission nodded.

Carth raised an eyebrow at Morii and she gave him an eyebrow of her own. "What, you got a problem with robbing Vulkars now?"

Carth leaned forward to whisper to Morii, "Do you really think you should be encouraging her to steal?" He didn't want Mission to overhear their conversation. Carth had just finally made up with the kid.

Morii restrained a laugh as she whispered back, "Encourage her? She's been stealing for years. I don't need to encourage her. I just don't want to be loaded down with a bunch of unnecessary junk."

Carth sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, I give up."

Morii moved away from Carth and made a happy noise when she found a shut down patrol droid in the corner. She opened the access panel and took a look inside.

Zaalbar came up beside her. "/Its power core is corrupted./"

Morii gave a nod at the Wookiee. "A power pack might work."

Zaalbar gave her a surprised look. "/You can do that?/"

Morii shrugged. "Yeah, it'll be stupid as hell and the charge won't last very long, but it might provide a distraction."

Zaalbar was obviously impressed, "/Still, that kind of rewiring take a lot of skill./"

"Eh," Morii waved the compliment off. "I've got a knack with droids, always have." Morii took one of Mission's spare blaster power packs and proceeded to rewire the droid's core with an occasional suggestion from Zaalbar. After about five minutes, the droid perked up with a whir and charged down the hall.

"Where the hell is it going?" Carth asked as the droid took off.

"Well it's not going to last very long, so I programmed it to um… charge at anything that wasn't us. Like I said… a distraction," as Morii finished explaining, they heard a crashing noise and blaster fire. Carth shot Morii an amused look and she grinned back.

They all leaned against the door to the hallway and listened as the droid let out bleeps interspersed with Huttese and Basic curses from Black Vulkars. From the sounds of things, more and more Vulkars had shown up to deal with the malfunctioning droid. At that point a loud explosion came from the hallway with cries and screams.

Mission shot a shocked look at the rest of them. "What was that?"

Morii chuckled. "The droid exploded."

"You are a one-woman wrecking crew, you know that?" Carth asked her.

"Flattery will get you everywhere, flyboy." Morii gave Carth an evil grin. After a few moments of silence she said, "Let's go."

They opened the door and took in the carnage before them. The room across the hall was open and looked to be the Vulkar version of a small base cantina. It was empty except and all of its former occupants lay dead and smoldering in the hallway, along with scattered pieces of the droid. Morii wrinkled her nose at the smell and debated digging her olfactory blockers back out but decided it wasn't worth the bother. For once she didn't bother searching the corpses for loot. In this case it would have been searching the pieces of the corpses. Ick, she thought at the prospect.

They made their way through the cantina while Carth frowned up at the eardrum shattering music booming through the room. The next door lead to the kitchen and one very surprised cook. Blaster fire took him out before he could do more than charge at them.

Carth stuck his fingers in his ears and yelled, "No wonder he couldn't hear anything!"

"What?" Morii yelled back.

"I said…!" Carth ended up yelling in the silence as Mission wisely shut the door between the cantina and the kitchen. Carth dug a finger to dispel the ringing and continued, "No wonder he didn't hear anything. Force, that crap is loud."

"I like that song," Mission protested. "It's really screamin'."

"You would," Carth retorted. Mission stuck out her tongue in response.

Morii spotted a pretty young woman huddled in a corner. "Hey!" she said

The woman tried to climb up the wall in terror, "Please don't hurt me! I just serve the food!"

The woman was unarmed and obviously scared to death. "Um, okay," Morii sheathed her sword in an attempt to look non-threatening. The woman attempted to scoot into the wall again. "Hey!" Morii said, "I just want to ask some questions."

"But I don't know anything!" the girl cried. "I'm just a slave!"

Morii sighed at the woman. If she was a slave she knew plenty. Usually slaves knew more about what was going on than their masters. No one paid attention to slaves, and because of that they heard all sorts of stuff.

Carth holstered his blasters and squatted down to the slave's level. "Help us, and we'll help you, miss."

The girl began to relax as Morii watched Carth give the slave that smile that Morii knew from past observation could charm the pants off a female at twenty paces. Lucky for Morii she was immune. Yeah right! her mind snorted. Tell yourself another one! Shut up! Morii shot back.

"Well… okay," the young woman smiled shyly at Carth and looked up at him through veiled lashes. Morii snorted and Mission giggled. The girl shot Morii a fearful look. When the hell had she gotten so scary?

"We're looking for another prisoner, her name's Bastila. Have you seen her?" Carth held out a hand to help the girl up.

The girl simpered as she took Carth's hand and let him help her stand. "The Republic woman?" Carth gave a nod at the slave and she continued, "She's not here. I head Brejik say he doesn't trust his men to behave around her. Are you with the Republic?" she asked Carth with wide eyes.

Morii rolled her eyes at the woman's blatant flirting, "No we're Hutts in disguise." The slave woman cringed into Carth and Morii had an unexplainable urge to yank the girl away from him. Holding her temper Morii continued, "What about the Hidden Bek prototype engine? Do you know where it is?"

"Oh!" the girl said in surprise. "That's the thing the Vulkars stole isn't it?" she looked at Carth instead of Morii when she asked this. Carth gave a nod and she continued, "I don't know but I'll bet it would be somewhere on the lower level in the garage area. That's where the Vulkars keep all their bikes. You need a pass card to get down there, though. They have a group of turrets guarding the elevator."

Carth smiled at the woman. "Thanks, you were very helpful." The slave girl blushed back at him.

Morii decided to ignore them and turned to Mission and Z, "I think we need to find a computer terminal. I might be able to shut down the elevator security from there."

"What about the schutta?" Mission asked softly while Morii grinned back at the remark and Mission's loyalty. The schutta was currently weeping all over Carth while telling him how horrible her current life as a slave was. Carth looked a tad bewildered as he attempted to comfort her while she clung to him.

Morii waggled her eyebrows, "We could find a closet to lock her in until we find the engine." Mission giggled in response.

Unfortunately, Carth didn't really like Morii's suggestion when she mentioned it so they ended up dragging one drooling love slave along with them. At least the girl was smart enough to stay in the back and out of the way when they encountered a patrol of Vulkars and guard droids.

Morii found a terminal connected to the Vulkar network and proceeded to slice her way in. After a couple of lost spikes and a good swift kick to the terminal base Morii managed to break the Vulkars' encryption. She downloaded floor plans, shut down the turrets and just for good measure blew a couple of conduits in the barracks. That'll teach the bastards to attack her for just walking down the street. Even better, the look on her face caused the 'Carth Groupie,' as she had dubbed the slave woman, to shudder when she looked at Morii.

The group backtracked to the elevator. As they entered the lift, Morii frowned at Carth's groupie and dug out an energy shield. "Here," she tossed the shield at the other woman. "I expect it's going to get nasty."

The slave quickly tied the shield around her arm and activated it.

"There's only four charges left," Morii told the girl, "so don't waste it." The slave gave a nod. Morii had a sneaking suspicion that the other woman wasn't nearly as scared and helpless as she was putting on. In fact, Morii figured Carth's groupie was using the act to grope at Carth. The thought made Morii scowl at the woman. The groupie used the scowl as an excuse to attempt to crawl up Carth again, but there was a certain light in her eyes. To Carth's credit he was beginning to look seriously annoyed with his new fan. When Carth shot Morii a scowl as the groupie clutched at him, Morii could help but send an amused look back. That's what he gets for flirting with everything with breasts, Morii thought smugly. If Morii didn't know better, she would think she was jealous.

They all had weapons ready as the elevator opened. This was apparently the main hanger and it was empty except for a patrol droid making lazy circuits on the far end of the room.

Morii turned to the others. "The damn plans I downloaded don't include this level. We need to find another terminal."

Zaalbar gave a low growl, "/Another deactivated droid/" he pointed. Sure enough across the room from them a droid sat slumped over by a hallway.

Morii gave Zaalbar a grin and they all crept toward the off-line droid, careful to not alert the one on the other side of the large room. Morii squatted down next to it and opened an access panel. This droid had its power core and looked to have been shut down for maintenance… jackpot!

Morii could hear Zaalbar whispering to Mission asking if she had any food left in her bag and the groupie was whining something to Carth. Morii was concentrating on reprogramming the droid and she didn't hear the footsteps until it was too late. The sound of a blaster charging caused her too look up. The last thing she saw was a man's face leering down at her before she reeled back from the shot. Morii's whole body began to tingle with pins and needles as her vision faded.

Carth had been attempting to pull the woman Ada off of him when he heard the blaster fire. He saw Morii fall back on the ground, shoved Ada away and pulled both blasters. Zaalbar and Mission were a second behind and the Vulkar's torso jerked with the impact as the shots took him to the ground.

Mission and Zaalbar knelt by Morii, and Carth was a second behind. Mission looked up and said, "I think she's okay it was just a stun shot."

Carth sighed with relief, but now they were down one person. "Let's see if we can find somewhere relatively safe and out of the way." Carth looked down the hall the Vulkar had come from, "It looks like there may be some offices down there, but I doubt they're empty."

"/I have some stims that might negate the stun bolt/" Zaalbar began digging but Carth stopped him.

Carth looked a question at Mission and after she translated he said, "Let's find some place to hole up first. Zaalbar… you mind?" Carth waved a hand at Morii's limp form. Zaalbar chuffed and threw Morii over one shoulder. He gave Carth a nod and lifted his bowcaster in his other hand. Carth returned the gesture and they were off.

They ran into several more Vulkars as the came around the hall corner and ducked as blaster fire started flying. Carth stayed toward the back with Ada crouching behind him. Mission had dug out some grenades and lobbed one down the hall. The Twi'lek let out a triumphant yell when the grenade shattered and two of the Vulkars dropped. Another guard had come up to Zaalbar and the Wookiee dropped the bowcaster and picked the Vulkar female up by the neck with his free hand. With a roar, he threw her into the far wall. The Vulkar slid down and lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. The act startled the rest of the Vulkars, and Carth picked off one who was staring at the unconscious woman in horror. All three of them focused their fire on the last remaining Vulkar and he quickly dropped.

They trotted down the hall and found what looked to be a main office. There was one Vulkar sitting behind the desk that stood in shock when he saw them. "Who the hell…" the man never finished the sentence as Carth took him down with two shots.

"Mission, can you jam that door?" Carth asked as he walked into the room.

"Pffft, no prob… hey, Carth!" Mission was staring at him with wide eyes.

"What?" Carth spun around at Mission's shocked look expecting to find another Vulkar. The room was empty except for the five of them.

Mission pointed at his leg. "You're not limping!"

Carth looked down at his leg. "Well I'll be damned. When did that happen?" Carth hadn't even noticed that he had begun putting all of his weight on his left leg until Mission pointed it out. "Must not have been as bad as it looked," he mused.

Mission knew for a fact that it was as bad, if not worse than it looked, and stared at Carth like he'd suddenly sprouted headtails.

"Mish, the door," Carth interrupted her thoughts and Mission turned to the office door with a nod still stunned by Carth's leg.

Zaalbar laid Morii on the floor and began digging in a pouch tied to his belt. Carth came up next to him and put a hand on Morii's forehead. The gesture reminded him of those three days in the apartment waiting for her to wake up. Zaalbar made a happy noise and pulled out a stim from the pouch. He took it and injected it into Morii's bicep.

"Is she going to be all right?" a soft voice asked from behind. Carth had completely forgotten about Ada until that moment.

Zaalbar muttered something and gave Carth a nod. Mission had finished with the door and came up next to them.

"He says, yeah," Mission told Carth while ignoring the slave woman. "Although depending on the intensity of the stun she may be a little out of it."

Morii let out a low moan at this point and cracked an eye. She then stretched, yawned and asked, "Did we find the engine yet?"

Carth snorted. "Oh yeah, and you won the swoop race, got Bastila back and the Republic sent the fleet in and sent the Sith running with their tail between their legs into the next sector."

Morii gave him a beatific smile, "Yay me…" She then frowned and looked at Zaalbar. "Z, you smell like wet Kath." She scolded. Zaalbar growled back at her.

"Told yah you needed a bath," Mission put in. Zaalbar roared at Mission and the girl giggled.

Morii started laughing and began petting Zaalbar's arm. "Fuzzy…" she observed and then descended into giggles. Zaalbar managed to look embarrassed.

Carth ran his hand down his face in aggravation, "How long is she going to be like this?" he asked the Wookiee.

Zaalbar shrugged and tried to move away from Morii's attention. Morii sat up and hugged his arm. Zaalbar looked down at her horrified. Mission was letting out giggles of her own. Zaalbar began frantically digging in his pouch and pulled out another stim.

When Morii saw the stim, she beamed up at Zaalbar. "Weee, more drugs!" She descended into laughter. Zaalbar gave her an exasperated look and injected the stim.

Morii's laughter subsided and she blinked a few times, disoriented. Looking up at the faces staring down at her, Morii waved a hand. "I'm better… I think."

Zaalbar chuffed and gave a meaningful look down to where one of Morii's hands was still latched around his upper arm.

"Oops," Morii blushed. "Um… sorry, Z."

Zaalbar let out a rumbling Wookiee chuckle as Morii let go of his arm.

"Can you fight?" Carth asked as he grabbed Morii under one arm to help her up.

She let Carth help her stand and gave a nod. "Yeah, I think so. I just need a minute or two." She looked over at the terminal situated in the desk. A little unsteady, Morii stumbled a bit as she went over to the console and sat down hard in the chair. She still felt a bit woozy, but it was improving with every second.

Morii began rummaging through the desk drawers until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out the dead Garage Head's security card; slipped it inside the terminal and went to work. After she had unlocked the doors, located the engine and downloaded the bottom level's schematics, Morii started to chuckle.

"I don't think I want to know, but I'm going to ask anyway." Carth had a slight scowl on his face.

Morii gave him an innocent grin and waved Carth over. Zaalbar, Mission and even Ada the groupie came up to the desk and huddled around the terminal.

"I think I just found a way to up my odds for the race," Morii said as she punched up the garage commands. Several of the Vulkar swoop bikes were currently tied in to the base's computer network, getting last minute upgrades downloaded. Morii whistled when she read some of the programs the Vulkars were running. No wonder Gadon was freaking out. They were semi-AI systems that would considerably enhance the bikes' speed and reaction times. Morii had never actually seen a bike with these kinds of upgrades. You usually only saw programs like this on the professional circuit. Taris was part of the underground swoop circuit, like the one Morii had run on Talus. It almost seemed a shame to blow them.

Morii corrupted the codes and set the reactor cores in the bikes to overheat. As the group watched on the security holo alarms went off in the hanger. Morii chuckled when she saw four Vulkars come running into the garage to check their bikes. The Vulkars yanked open access panels but they were too late to do anything. All four swoop bikes exploded simultaneously in a brilliant shower of sparks, killing the Vulkars in the process.

Mission let a whoop of joy as the bikes blew. She then turned to Morii and grinned, "Hey, can you teach me to do that?"

"What blow up swoop bikes?" Morii joked.

"No gizka-brain, that stuff you do with computers."

Morii thought about it. She honestly hoped to leave both Mission and Zaalbar in Lyn's care once they figured out a way off this rock. She felt a little guilty about ditching them, but Lyn would look out for the twosome. Maybe in the meantime… "How about a trade? You give me some security slicing tips, and I'll give you some computer system ones?"

"Deal!" Mission stuck out her hand and Morii gave it a shake.

She stood up from the desk and was pleased to note that her legs had stopped wobbling. "Well," she looked up at Carth, "I found the engine…"

"Lemme guess," Carth gave a rueful smile, "it's heavily guarded."

"Yup," Morii responded and brought up the holo for the room that containing the stolen swoop accelerator.

"Hey!" Mission pointed at the holo. "That's Kandon, Brejik's second in command. He's a real bastard and his schutta girlfriend Chenal is just as bad. Those two aren't going to go down easy."

"Hopefully we still have the element of surprise," Carth put in. "If anybody doesn't have an energy shield equipped, do it now." He turned to Ada, "You'd better stay here. I have a feeling this might get nasty." Carth looked over at Morii as she slapped a shield on her arm. "How far is the room?"

"Just down the hall," Morii raised her brows in emphasis.

Carth gave a nod, "Let's go."

The four of them left Ada behind in the locked office and headed down the hall. The door to the room with the engine was closed and all of them activated their shields. Morii pulled her blade and a grenade, Carth gave a nod seeing they were all as ready as they were going to get and activated the door plate.

Morii tossed the grenade into the room as soon as the doors slid apart. Screams echoed as the room filled with smoke from the explosion and fragments from the grenade-penetrated flesh. She crouched down to make herself a smaller target and hacked her way through the guards. She could hear blaster shots behind her as Carth and the others began firing. Shots were traded from both directions as the Vulkars regrouped and retuned the assault. Morii gritted her teeth when she heard Mission let out a pain-filled cry, but focused on the human in front of her who had just pulled his own blade.

Morii narrowed her focus into the battle; parrying blows from her opponent while ducking the occasional blaster shot aimed her way. When she saw an opening she dropped down onto her left hand and swept out her right leg, knocking the Vulkar's feet out from under him. Morii ignored his look of panic as she brought down her sword to finish him off.

Last-minute instinct warned Morii and she rolled on the floor and another gangster's blow narrowly missed her neck. She came up on one knee as the Trandoshan brought down a heavy vibrosword. Morii swept her blade up and blocked the blow. She grunted with the effort as the reptilian sentient brought all of his considerable weight to bear on her smaller frame. Morii's eyes widened as the Vulkar sword inched closer and closer to her face. She was locked in a battle of strength and was very much outclassed.

Her personal shield picked this moment to crap out on her and Morii figured she had about a second before another Vulkar got in a lucky shot. The Trandoshan bared his sharp teeth as his blade pressed into her throat. Without warning the Trandoshan's head jerked to the right and he fell over with a smoking hole in the side of his skull . Zaalbar ran up and lifted Morii to her feet.

"Nice shot, Z!" she yelled and the Wookiee bared his teeth in a grin. Morii looked around the room and saw all the other Vulkars were dead. Carth was over by Mission who was slumped against a wall. He was whispering something to the girl while he opened a kolto patch as Mission clung to her right arm. Morii and Zaalbar came over and kneeled next to the Twi'lek.

Zaalbar crooned as he stroked the top of Mission's head. Morii gave Carth a nervous look and put a hand on the girl's good shoulder. "How you doing, Mish?"

Mission winced as Carth treated the wound. Tears were making a trail down her face but her voice barely trembled when she answered, "I'm okay… fracking shavit!" she swore as the antiseptic of the kolto hit her wound.

"You've been hanging out with Morii too long," Carth's voice was soft and gentle as he secured the medicinal wrap. He looked up at the other three, "She might need some time in a tank. That shot took a chunk out of her forearm."

Mission tried to laugh. "Geezer, I've been talking like that for years." She made a small noise as Carth injected a med pack.

Morii bit her lip as she watched Mission get patched up. Carth was right; she never should have brought Mission with them. This was all Morii's fault because she had been more concerned with getting past that shield than the ethical dilemma of taking a teenager into a dangerous situation. That did it, she was going to have to either find a way out of this life-debt with Zaalbar or figure out a way to ditch them when she left Taris. Her life had no place for a child in it, even one as tough as Mission.

"She'll be all right won't she?"

"Yeah, she'll be okay," Carth reassured her. " It's just muscle damage and lucky for her she's left handed." He gave Morii a shaken smile. "She's tough. Kept right on firing even after she'd been hit."

Zaalbar continued to croon and Morii realized he was singing some sort of lullaby to Mission. Mission picked it up as well because she snorted, "Knock it off, Big Z. I'm not a baby."

"/No, you are a stupid, stupid cub! You make me crazy, you know that?/" Zaalbar continued to sing to her after his rebuke.

Mission snorted in response but leaned into Zaalbar. "Did we get the engine?" she asked Morii.

Morii got up and walked to the table in the far corner where the engine had been on the holo monitor. Her blood froze when she realized the table was empty.

"/Well, well, well/" a male voice came from the room's door. "/Looking for this?/" Kandon stood in the door way with his girlfriend Chenal and two other Vulkars. Kandon had the swoop engine tucked under his left arm, and three of the four gangsters had blasters pointed at Carth, Mission and Zaalbar. Kandon's weapon was trained on Morii

Kandon bared his teeth at Morii. "/We didn't go through all the trouble of stealing the engine just to lose it to a couple of mercs./" His voice was smug as he indicated Morii and Carth with a nod. "/So how much is Gadon paying you two? I'll bet you're thinking right now that it's not nearly enough/" Kandon laughed at his own joke and the other three Vulkars joined. "/Drop the knife!/" he ordered Morii while he waved his blaster in a threatening manner at her.

Morii felt her stomach knot in fear and dropped her sword.

Kandon smiled again. "/Smart human/" he observed. "/Hands up and come join your friends. The rest of you drop your weapons!"/

Morii lifted her hands to shoulder level while Carth and Zaalbar disarmed. Carth had moved himself between Mission and the blasters pointed at them while Zaalbar still had the Twi'lek cradled in his hairy arms. As Morii moved over toward the others, Kandon grabbed her by the braid in her hair and yanked her down to the floor. Carth jerked slightly at the action but stayed put and caught Morii as she fell. Kandon laughed at the glare Carth sent him.

"/Now, I have a business proposal for the two of you./" Kandon gave them a nasty smile. "/If you're smart, you'll take it./"

"What kind of proposal?" Morii asked as she glared back. Keep him talking… keep him talking…

"/I'm offering you a job with the Black Vulkars…/" Kandon began.

While Kandon started to tell them what he wanted them to do, Carth dropped his eyes to Morii's right boot. Shavit! She had forgotten all about her holdout blaster as she almost never used it. Morii gave a sideways look back at Carth and made the smallest nod she could in response. At the same time, she felt a smooth object press into the back of her wrist. Morii opened her palm and felt small, nimble fingers place a grenade in her hand.

"/So how about it?/" Kandon finished. "/We double your pay and you take care of Gadon for us?/"

Morii appeared to think about it. "Well there's one other thing I want…" she began

"/What's that?/" Kandon smirked at what he thought was her greed.

Morii narrowed her eyes as she looked up. A small, twisted smile crossed her face. "I want you to die." Morii flipped the grenade trigger, shot out her right arm and the grenade rolled into the middle of the four Vulkars. She dove onto Mission and Zaalbar and felt Carth's heavy frame land on top of her.

The explosion rocked the room as pain-filled cries came from the Vulkars. Carth reached in Morii's boot and dug the blaster out. He sat up and sent one shot at Chenal, who was the only gang member still standing. She fell with a gasp as Kandon scrambled around the floor to where his blaster lay. Carth sent another shot and Kandon fell backwards, dead.

The sat for a moment reeling and then Morii looked at Carth. "That was way too close," she said with wide eyes.

Carth nodded in agreement. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Don't forget about your girlfriend," Morii grinned at him.

Carth gave her a scathing look at the reference to Ada and Morii sent back a sweet smile.

They made a sling for Mission's right arm, picked up Carth's new appendage, Ada, and headed back up the elevator with one prototype swoop engine. The base was curiously empty as they crept through the halls. Still, they reached the front entrance to the Lower Cities and surprised the two guards on duty outside. After they took care of the guards, Morii and the others made their way to the Hidden Bek base.

The first person they ran into was Lyn, who scolded them all while clucking over Mission's arm. The Beks had a med facility in the base, which was probably a requirement in such a dangerous organization. Carth watched Morii's friend scold her for scaring her to death with the note. Morii was surprisingly silent throughout the lecture.

Lyn, ever the loyal friend, saw Ada clinging to Carth and promptly took charge of the slave woman. As the Twi'lek moved the girl off Carth, she shot Morii a smile and a wink over her shoulder. Morii returned it with a frown. It's not like she and Carth were dating or anything.

After they got Mission settled in the med facility, Carth and Morii left her, with Zaalbar for company, and headed to find Gadon Thek

As they entered Gadon's office, he looked up in shock. Evidentially he hadn't expected them to make it back. His face morphed into delight when Morii produced the engine.

"Okay, Gadon, I lived up to my end of the deal…" Morii scowled at the Hidden Bek leader while he practically drooled on the engine.

"Don't worry," Gadon looked up at her, "I'm a man of my word. The race is in three days. I'll get my mechanics to work on installing this on my best bike right away, and you still have a few days to practice."

Morii gave a relieved sigh. "I haven't been on a bike since Talus, and I need all the practice I can get. I'd like to ask about the engine's projected performance though."

"Well, I'm no mechanic, but come with me and you can meet the guys that will be installing this baby." Gadon gave the engine a pat and Morii followed him out of the office. Carth declined to go with and headed back for the med bay.

Carth winced as he headed back. While his armor had taken the brunt of the shrapnel from the frag grenade he could feel a few pieces digging into his shoulders and upper arms. He needed to get the pieces removed before they began to fester.

As Carth entered the medical room, he saw Mission in a chair chatting up the medic with her right arm submerged in a kolto bath. Carth walked to the medic and told him about his injury.

Morii spent several hours talking with the Bek mechanics about the engine's performance and specifications. The way the two mechanics talked, they made it sound like a spaceship ion drive. Morii hoped she could handle it. They assured her that it probably wouldn't blow during the race… but Gadon had been looming over the whole conversation so she wasn't sure how honest the mechanics were being. The thought of crawling on a bike with the engine installed made her stomach do flip flops.

Morii was also aware that there was no way she had blown all of the Vulkars' bikes at the base, so if she was going to have a shot at getting Bastila, she needed the engine. After viewing some of the programs the Vulkars had been putting into their bikes, she wasn't sure if even the prototype would be enough.

Mission came bounding into the room with a heavily wrapped arm, followed by Carth and Zaalbar. Except for Mission they looked as beat as Morii was.

"Lyn's?" she asked.

"Force, yes," Carth sank into a chair in the room. "I could sleep for a week."

They gathered up their things, left the base with Lyn and headed to the Twi'lek woman's apartment building. When they arrived, Lyn shooed them all into the living room and started cooking a meal for them. Morii's stomach growled and her mouth watered as she realized she hadn't eaten since they'd left the Under City very early that morning.

Carth had taken the first turn in the shower, and Mission had roped Zaalbar into a game of pazaak on the living room floor. Morii moved over to the kitchen and watched Lyn cook, while periodically snagging bits of food before they went into the meal.

"/So/" Lyn began in a casual tone, "/Tell me about this Carth guy./"

Morii scowled up from the table to Lyn by the stove. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Lyn laughed, "/Oh I get it, you're playing stupid. You may be able to fool others with that, but I know better./"

Morii stole one of Lyn's cigarras off of the table and lit it. Morii was only a casual smoker, but figured after the day she'd had she could use one. "What's there to tell?" she gave a half shrug. "He's a pilot for the Republic. We ended up in an escape pod together. He saved my life and I guess I felt grateful, so I'm helping him out."

"/What about the fact that you're checking out his ass ever chance you get?/" Lyn picked up a large spoon and stirred the pot on the stove.

Morii sputtered and began to choke on the smoke she just inhaled. "I do not!" she protested after coughing up a lung.

Lyn grinned, "/You do too. Can't say I blame you. I've even sneaked a peek a time or two, just don't tell Cerren./" Lyn shot Morii a wicked smile.

Morii laughed at the look. "Well no, I'm not sleeping with him if that's what you're asking."

"/You like him./" Lyn gave the pot a small smile.

"He's okay," Morii replied in a casual tone. "He's kind of moody, and he did accuse me at one point of being a traitor and single-handedly blowing up our ship." She scowled and put out her cigarra at the memory.

Lyn raised her eyebrows, "/Somehow I think you're exaggerating./"

"Maybe," Morii leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms in front of her. She really didn't want to have this conversation. She knew where it was heading.

"/You do know that every guy isn't Therano?/" Lyn asked softly.

"I know that!" Morii reached for another cigarra, but at the last second grabbed a vegetable slice off of the table instead. "I don't think that Carth is anything like Therano," she grumbled as she chewed her food.

Lyn sighed, "/So what's the problem? He likes you, too. I can tell. You can't keep yourself shut down like this, Morii. It's time to open up again./" Lyn held up a hand before Morii could protest. "/What about Mission?/" she asked softly. "/That girl thinks the galaxy of you, and Zaalbar actually went so far as to swear a life-debt to you… and if I know you, you're planning on ditching them the first chance you get./"

Morii refused to look and Lyn. She realized with disgust that she was sulking. "Look at my life, Lyn. I can't take them along for the ride. What the hell am I going to do with a Wookiee tag-a-long? And Mission? Force, I can't give the girl anything remotely resembling normal. At least you'd have a better chance of that than me. Not the mention the fracking bounty…"

Lyn put a lid on the pot and sat down across from Morii. Lyn stared at Morii for a minute before she sighed. "/You could at least tell them. Don't just sneak out in the middle of the night, Morii. They all deserve better than that./"

"And they deserve better than me," Morii grumbled and felt Lyn put a hand on hers.

"/Don't sell yourself short, sweetie. As for Carth…/"

"We're friends," Morii told her. "That's all. And that's all it's going to be."

Carth wandered into the living room, pulling down his shirt. "All finished. Who's next?"

"Me," Morii proclaimed. She moved off to the fresher and heard Lyn sigh behind her.

Brejik scowled at what remained of his second in command. Turning to an enforcer he shouted, "Where are the blasted security tapes?"

"Slicers are trying to access the system but there's a lot of corrupted data," The enforcer narrowed his dark eyes. "Someone broke into the system and screwed a lot of it up."

"I want to know who did this!" The pitch of Brejik's voice had started to rise, which meant he was close to losing it. "I want them dead! Nobody messes with me and lives! Get me that slicer now!"

The enforcer, Blyndag, turned and headed down to the garage office with a small smile. He had been a minor player in the Black Vulkars until Brejik had taken leadership. Now he was one of Brejik's top men. The old Vulkar leader Trand had never appreciated Blyndag, said he was too impulsive. With Brejik, the Vulkars had power and respect. Brejik had been smart enough to take the gifts Davik Kang had sent, where Trand had thrown them back in the Exchange leader's face. Brejik had big plans for the Lower Cities. Once the Beks were out of the way and Brejik had all of the smaller gangs under his thumb, they would move in on Davik. Davik thought his gifts bought Brejik's loyalty, but Brejik only took them to make the Vulkars strong… strong enough to rule this section of the Lower Cities. Fantasies of power and wealth accompanied Blyndag as he went to fetch the slicer.

Blyndag entered the office and found the slicer tapping away at the dead garage head's desk. "Brejik wants to see you," he jerked a thumb back out the hall. "You'd better have something for him." The enforcer gave the slicer a nasty smile.

"/To the pit with you, Blyn/" the female Rodian shot back. "/As a matter of fact I do have something for Brejik, so shut your hole and wipe that smirk off your face./" The slicer stood up and headed out of the office without waiting to see if Blyndag followed. She knew he would… being the stupid, rabid Kath he was.

Brejik's head jerked up as Blyndag and the slicer entered the room. "Well?" Brejik demanded.

"/Let me punch it up./" The Rodian headed to the terminal in the back of the room and entered some sequences. After a moment, holos of different scenes began playing in the center of the room. Brejik recognized the aliens as some Bek hangers-on,'s but the humans weren't part of the rival gang.

After the last scene of the woman throwing the grenade into Kandon and his group finished its play-through, Brejik turned to Blyndag. "I want to know who the man and the woman are. I don't care how many credits it takes, or how many people you have to kill, I want their names! And then… I want them dead!" Brejik spat. "You succeed, Blyn, and you get Kandon's old job." Brejik spun and walked out of the room.