[ic] Tales of the Smoking Blaster I

[Endless Flight]

After Jeaubert shared his background, Jax smiled and put his hand on his new student's shoulder. "You have stepped out into the galaxy and now you shall learn how the Force binds it together. We have much work to do. But first..." He looked at Gen, who was just finishing up his Fizzyglug, and Louw, who was inspecting what the autochef had just whipped up. "...Tell me how you boys found your way aboard that space station. It wasn't just by chance that you arrived."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"It sure as the Emperor's shriveled gonads wasn't by design," Louw grumbled under his breath, as he banged the side of the barely-functional autochef with his fist. It wasn't clear if he had intended his reply to be heard.

"Boss," he called over to Gen, without much reverence in his voice. "Now that you've got some cred on your stick, can we replace this compost accelerator with, say, an autochef?"

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert rolls his eyes at Louw's typical sarcastic response. "We were set on by pirates. We pulled a micro-jump to get enough distance to plot and execute a proper jump, but we had a malfunction. We had to head in to the station to get parts."

[Blue Glowie]

"I suppose you mean to imply 'the Force' had something to do with us finding that station..." Gen said sardonically. "Nah, just a bit of dumb luck. Or misfortune--but that remains to be seen. I mean, there's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."

Gen let the last line sink in for a bit, and then he turned to Louw. "Compost is healthy, Louw. Real brain food type stuff." But once he caught wind of what the dated machine had burped out, the Sullustan let out a sigh. "Alright, so how much does one of those fancy models cost anyway...?"

[Endless Flight]

Jax stood there listening to their story with his arms folded. He smiled as Gen talked about his destiny, but he quickly interjected. "Don't underestimate the Force, my good host." He then rested his hands on his hips and looked at Jeaubert. "Let's begin the lesson, shall we?" The two then moved off toward one end of the lounge, leaving Gen and Louw to debate the purchase of a new autochef.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

*Healthy* Louw thought to himself as Gen was speaking to him, *maybe for a subterranean bottom-dweller.*

Once Gen had asked his question, Louw perked up.

"I'll get right on researching that!" he replied.

He grabbed his slop from the autochef and sat down at the table. As he did so, he rummaged through a stack of cheap single-issue datapads  until he found one that advertized ship upgrades and ship-board appliances. Gen knew it well, as he was constantly being badgered by Louw to invest in this or that upgrade, which both of them knew full-well that the ship's meagre budget could ill afford.

[Blue Glowie]

Gen stood over Louw as he paged through the datapads.

"Whoa, 5000 creds?!" Gen exclaimed. "You gotta be kiddin' me! How about something on the lower end. Yeah, like that one. 300 credits. That's affordable. Aw, but look at the reviews. 1 star. 1 star. 1 star. 'Spurts out nothing but slop. Avoid this appliance at all costs.' See, might as well keep this badboy if we're just gonna replace one slop machine with another."

Feeling satisfied with this line of reasoning, Gen grinned and patted Louw on the shoulders before going off to his quarters for some shuteye.

[Jedi Skyler]

"Absolutely," Jeaubert readily agrees, not wishing to get in the middle of what would surely become yet another heated debate. He moves off with Jax, paying rapt attention to the lesson presented to him.

[Endless Flight]

The Blaster had an uneventful trip through hyperspace to Shibric, which was located in the Kanchen sector. The crew had had some time to rest and do other pursuits. The ship computer emitted the typical aural signal that the ship was about to enter back into realspace at the coordinates the nav computer had plotted.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

When the alarm sounded, Louw casually made it to the nav computer, set the sensor array to do a full calibration on their precise location, as he plotted the course for the next leg to Eriadu.

After he had plotted the route and made sure the nav computer was properly calibrated, he pulled the levers for lightspeed.

Once that was done, he went to the lounge to pick up the Playbeing magazine he had left there, and departed for his cabin.

[Endless Flight]

The leg of the trip to Eriadu took just over four and a half days. Jeaubert learned much about the Force in his first few days under the tutelage of Jax. Louw had plenty of time to pour over some reading material and smoke some fine cigarras. Gen had spent a considerable amount of time napping in his cabin. It was a way to avoid thinking about the money that he owed. The crew gathered together in the bridge as Louw pulled the lever for the ship to enter realspace. It didn't take long for the ship to close in on Eriadu, an important trade destination along the Hydian Way. It was also a major hub for the Empire and the home planet of the late Grand Moff Tarkin and his family. Several Imperial Star Destroyers were drydocked around the planet while TIE Fighters buzzed around orbital stations on security patrols.

The planet itself was a world of rugged landmasses and small seas. It was also known for it's massive urban sprawl and rather unregulated industrial zones. Pollution choked the land, water and air. It was also home to several crime lords...

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert sat at the communications console, his large silvery eyes half closed as he reached out with his fledgling new skills, sensing everything he could around him.

((OOC: Concentration,  then Life Detection))

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw leaned back in his seat, leaving Gen to fly them in.

"So," he said to the captain, not bothering to remain quiet for Jeaubert's sake, "where shall we unload this shipment?"

"I'll just reiterate that I don't think we're going to get a good price here. Eriadu is probably the most anti-non-pinkskin planet on the Outer Rim. We're going to have to cater to the kinky to unload our cargo. I can still swing us around and take us to Anoat if good sense is trickling into your brain about now."

[Blue Glowie]

"Ah, but catering to the kinky is how we get away with charging exorbitant prices, my chain smoking friend," Gen said with a grin. "We'll just have to separate the perverts from the chaff."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Well, in that case let's find us the richest perverts we can find," Louw suggested, "Eriadu City proper should have the most of those."

Louw pulled up a planetary map from the computer and guided Gen toward the cheapest spaceport they could find, which he figured was probably on the city's outskirts.

"Now, we'll have to find a distributor," he remarked as they flew in toward the city, "since we're not going to offload crates of mags on individual buyers. I think we should look toward some of the more risque parts of town, where we'll also have an easier time getting by with my skin, your height, and the boy's ... whatever."