[ic] Tales of the Smoking Blaster's Ships Lounge

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw sat in the Smoking Blaster's crew lounge. He poured himself another glass of Deltron Spice Wine - a strong, spicy wine favored in some of the galaxy's seedier cantinas - as he flipped through an old copy of PlayBeing.

The Smoking Blaster was on one of its longer hauls down the Hydian Way. The ship's navigator was satisfied that the course he had plugged into the astrogational computer would shave off a few hours by taking a slight bypass at the Itani Nebula that only grizzled astrogators like himself knew about.

He leaned back, putting his feet up on the table, as he gazed at the Wroonian centerfold along with an article about interpreting their tattoos and what those meant for their courtship practices. Louw took a drag of his cigarra and felt content.

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert Gylson entered the lounge of the Smoking Blaster, his attention only half on where he was walking. The rest of his focus was on the bracer covering his left forearm; at the moment he had the retracting cover open and was furiously typing as fast as his six-fingered hand would allow. As was usual, Jeaubert was writing some new slicing program or other. Without missing a beat, and without looking up from what he was doing, he deftly slid into a seat at the table. Only then did he look up, and only long enough to pour himself a glass of the spice wine. Noticing what the ship's navigator was perusing, Jeaubert said, "You really oughtta stop looking at that stuff. You're gonna go blind..."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Kid, if this was going to make me blind, I'd 've been hard o' seeing for a more than your lifetime by now," he said, not looking up from the mag.

"Leave an old man his vices, if you please."

[Jedi Skyler]

Smiling beneath his vocalizer, Jeaubert replied, "You sure you'd know what to do with one of those if she got hold of you? I read in a medical joirnal on the Holonet about some new enhan er stim that's only supposed to have ten negative side effects, rather than the usual thirty." Unable to stifle a laugh, he adds, "I'm sure I could fake a scrip for you and have some waiting at the next port by the time we have the cargo offloaded..."

Jeaubert enjoyed such banter with his shipmates. It helped break tensions sometimes, and helped develop a decent working rapport between them. And out here in space, you needed to be able to trust your crew...

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw looked up at Jeaubert from the mag at his suggestion.

"If I feel like I'm going to get lucky, I'll give you the heads up," he said, grinning, his cigarra clenched in his teeth.

He nodded his head at Jeaubert's bracer. "What you concocting?" the Duros inquired.

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert let out a hearty laugh at the reply. "Heads up, eh? No pun intended, I'm sure..."

When questioned about his current project, the Anomid practically beamed. "This is gonna be HUGE. I have been working on it since about a week after signing on." He taps the bracer. "This set of programming will, when complete, allow direct-access control over the ship from my bracer. I'll be able to open the boarding and cargo ramps, start preflight warmups...even effect limited maneuvering-just like a beckon call for a slaved ship." He leans in, voice going softer, more conspiratorial. "You remember that cargo we picked up out in Elrood sector, bound for Nal Hutta? Remember how that was a competitive listing, and we had to practically beat that Weequay crew off with a vibroaxe? Well, this right here will allow us to be quicker when we are dirtside. And who knows? If we ever find ourselves in need of a, um...quick escape, we can arrive at the spaceport with the engines already warmed and the weapons already primed. Not that they're anything great...we could sure use some upgrades. Some better turrets...maybe even a couple of those GroundBuzzer belly cannons. But I will be able to access all those systems from here when I am done."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw sat up, interested. While he was not quite the computer wiz-kid that Jeaubert was, he knew his way around some code.

"'like' a slaved ship?" he asked. "What are you using, if not the ship's slave circuit?"

When the young Anomid had responded, Louw looked at him. "I trust you're going to put a top-notch encrypt on that. I'd hate for us to be making that get-away only to find the 'Blaster' nicked from under us by some ship thieves with a good slicer."

"I ask, because you know Captain Short-stack is going to want to be sure of that."

[Blue Glowie]

"Captain Short-stack, huh?" Gen let out an awkward laugh. He was still a bit uneasy around the cantankerous Duros. "And what should I be calling you...? Lt. Stickyhands?"

"Hey, wait a minute. Did you lift that from the cargo hold?" Gen said, referring to the vintage copy of PlayBeing in Louw's grasp. They were hauling--among a plethora of other things--nine crates of out-of-print, illegal-in-twelve-systems back issues to a buyer somewhere in the Corporate Sector. "Louw, you've got to be kidding me. We're trying to run a legitimate business here. You can't borrow the cargo."

Then Gen's eyes drifted to the open PlayBeing now featuring a Gammorrean in nothing but some well-placed body paint, and his Sullustan jowls dropped. "Wow. Look at the tusks on her. Helloooo, Gorka." Gen slid up a chair and scooched uncomfortably close to Louw. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep looking for a little while."

"Oh and no," the Sullustan said, oblivious to the actual conversation the Duros and Anomid were having moments before. "We're not going to be transporting any slaves on this ship. I like to think we have some shred of a moral compass."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Before you say no to slaves, check out the advertisements at the back of the mag. There's a section for pleasure Squibs. That'd be about the right... well, you know..."

"Anyway," Louw said, changing the subject from the pilfered PlayBeing, "Younguns here is working on a bit of rigging that might give us the edge on a getaway. You might find it interesting."

[Jedi Skyler]

"It is LIKE a slaved ship, because there is no vehicle control rig. I can use the systems in place-and add upgrades as I go, to allow for more electrical output and encryption protocols, and BAM! Remote access.

"And if you question the level of my ability with encryption again, I will program your 'fresher to go from 'flush' to 'spray' every time you sit down..." he adds with a raised eyebrow.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw grinned and blew Cigarra smoke in the young man's direction as he turned his attention back to the mag, rotating it to get a better look at the voluptuous centerfold.

He nudged the captain, pointing toward the byline text.

"Looks like Gorka here was the Miss Galov Sector for three years running."

...

"Oh, it looks like she ate the competition."

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert ignores the smoke, his face safely behind his vocalizer mask. He begins inputting code again as he is struck by inspiration. "And of course, when we we get some spare datapads, I can rig em up to be the equivalent of a holdout blaster..."

[Blue Glowie]

"Ate it, threw it back up, and ate it again," Gen mumbled to Louw, unsure of what exactly he meant once the words had left his mouth. It was easy to get excited on these long hyperspace trips. Now that's a woman...

Gen cleared his throat and took a sip from a can of flat Fizzyglug, which had been sitting on the table since yesterday. "Anyway, uh... what's this about a rigging? You know we're always looking for an edge. But this girl here," he said, knocking on the wall paneling with a fist. "She's an untamed beast. A finnicky creature. Too many mods and I'm afraid what might happen. I mean, I don't exactly want to spend the rest of my life paying off a 75 meter long paper weight. So be careful."

[Jedi Skyler]

"Yes, Captain," Jeaubert replies, his emphasis on the word 'Captain' showing his disdain for the notion he would be anything BUT careful. "I am well aware of the heavily modded nature of this ship. That is why I fear I am going to end up being an expert starship repair mechanic before my tenure with you is finished. I would recommend you have qualified mechanics go over your mods to make them less...prone to disaster. I will do what I can as I work on my own software. And you must keep in mind that the vast majority of MY modifications are simply software, rather than hardware mods like you put in. Mine will be much less prone to malfunction."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw regarded the captain and the younger crewmate. They had not been together for a long while yet - just a few trips of modest success - and they were still learning one anothers' buttons.

To the older Duros, Jeaubert seemed to be very thin-skinned when it came to his slicer craft. It was natural for a young skillful man to put himself forward to jealously protect what modest status he had already achieved.

*Oh, just you wait, youngun'* Louw thought, *The Force'll bring you a good kick in the teeth before long. Then you'll learn what a bitch life can be.*

Louw was not a particularly religious man, but he'd heard stories of the Force and the Jedi from when he was younger. His private musings on that thing that supposedly bound all life together was that it was cyclical. *What goes around comes around,* he believed. *The Force will go your way one day and smack you in the ass the next. It's all just a matter of time.* He felt that the Jedi had ridden so high when he was young that their downfall and complete extermination had almost been inevitable.

Himself, he figured the less he trusted in things - good luck, bad luck, or indifferent fortune - the better off he'd be. Life was going to come, however it was going to come, no matter what. Jeaubert's touchy dignity would be worn smoother with adversity, and the spacer's life promised plenty of that.

He took a drag off his Cigarra and listened to the young man explain his idea to the Captain.

*Yup, some day that confidence in his software is going to really bite,* he thought. *I'd better keep an eye on that and get the Captain to let me double-check his work before we put our asses on the line.*