The spaceport greeted Rick with a ring of siege around "The Case" and a tension ringing in the Force, ready to explode. At the raised ramp, someone in uniform was cursing on the comlink.
At the appearance of the speeder, a call was heard from the navigator.
"Some bastard lied that our ship is full of spice," judging by his voice, Nick was barely holding back. "I said I wouldn't let anyone on board without the captain."
"I'll twist that bastard's tongue off," sighing, the captain put the destroyer in the glove compartment and closed it, then proceeded to a "polite" landing, opposite his ship. "Did Veymi manage to get back?"
"No," a restrained growl was heard in his voice. "Officer January brought the girls, I didn't let them in either, let him keep an eye on them until everything calms down here..."
Judging by his voice, Nick would have preferred Officer January to... go for a walk. Into outer space.
The guy shook his head. When the machine landed carefully, there was a cordon between him and the ship, but under certain circumstances, it wouldn't have stopped him. The blaster still had twenty-two charges left, and a few power cells were stashed in his pockets.
"Softer, Nick, softer still," the guy said with a languid smile, "I'm going to build a negotiator, dismiss the alert."
He got out of the machine, innocently removed his hand from the blaster's grip, and walked towards the crowd.
"Captain Monroe?" a man with sharp features moved towards him. "We received a signal that there is a large shipment of contraband drugs on your ship."
"You're immediately accusing your customs and security service of official misconduct," the captain shook his head, "a good start."
"The source claimed that the cargo arrived after the inspection," the customs officer objected. "Under the guise of a shipment of medications."
"A lousy source, he hurried," sighing, the guy said, "I didn't receive any medications, but I'm expecting a shipment. Who are all these people?"
"The inspection team," the customs officer replied.
"In that case, you can inspect the cargo as soon as it arrives," Jenaro appeared nearby unnoticed. The customs officer jumped, but met the gaze of the security officer's ID and remained silent, clearly choking back a curse.
"I asked the port security service to check the surveillance camera footage," Jenaro put away his ID. "If even a jar of luma was brought on board, it was recorded. I'm surprised you didn't do it yourself."
The customs officer grumbled something.
"Captain Monroe, the signal must be checked," Jenaro turned his head to Rick. "All your purchases will be inspected. I count on your cooperation."
Rick frowned, imagining what would happen if the inspection team's hands reached everything they were bringing him:
"An inspection of this kind... discredits suppliers of both food products and medical supplies. Besides, the inspection could damage some items in my orders. And for now, I see a gathering of strangers around my private property. Except for you," he shifted his gaze to the security officer who had approached, then again stared at the man leading the cordon, "where is your identification?"
The customs officer turned back the lapel of his tunic, displaying his name tag.
"This is the first time I've heard of a scanner harming cargo," he stated with an inscrutable face. "Inspection team, await the arrival of the cargo. Capture team, you are free."
The guy sighed, but considered it inappropriate to tell the customs officer that he knew several dozen ways to trick a scanner.
"Go ahead, I don't mind," he turned to the security officer. "There's a wounded man in the car. He agreed to a deal. He needs medical attention."
"Alone?" Jenaro clarified.
"The second one tried to shoot me," the guy said in an even tone, "the stunned one shot faster than me."
The security officer raised an eyebrow.
"What did you promise him, Captain Monroe?"
"A second chance," the captain scratched his beard, his current interest being the absence of the girl rather than the prisoner, "deals with criminals for information are a common practice in the galaxy. Considering there are no documents - he is the only lead to the client. I only promised medical attention. And if necessary - I'll pay for it."
Jenaro nodded and brought the comlink to his lips. A minute later, a medical service speeder departed from the spaceport and rushed towards the ship from which the armed group of the failed capture was departing.
The captain himself, meanwhile, called the navigator:
"Nick, supervise the loading, I need to find Veymi," he turned to the customs officer, "any illegal entry onto the ship will be severely suppressed. Explain this to your people. If illegal substances are found in the shipments, neither I nor my team have anything to do with it. We only ordered permitted products, we have lists of ordered items and payment receipts, where it is very clear what exactly we paid for. And now, please excuse me, I have a missing crew member."
"A young, beautiful Twi'lek?" the customs officer clarified. "She was seen in the company of a compatriot. Then in the company of one of your passengers. Where she is now..."
"We'll check the recordings," Jenaro decided. "Captain Monroe, will you look for the missing person yourself, or should I help you?"
"It's better to help," after a moment's thought, Rick made his verdict, "in the worst case, the legality of actions will matter."
"Then follow me. We'll start with the recordings."
The security officer headed for a light bike.
Riding on the back of the bike behind the driver was unusual for Rick and didn't bring him much joy, but he followed the security officer without question; it was his job.
They reached the service entrance quickly. Jenaro drove easily and confidently, but judging by the tension emanating from him, he was also used to carrying not ruffled smugglers on his back.
"I left the women under guard," the security officer said, heading for the doors. "Who else from the crew is missing? A very angry colleague from your ship mentioned a certain fluffy scamp..."
"Bus, a Kushiban, he won't get lost," the guy said, following the security officer, "by the way, what will happen to the car? The one that survived?"
"It will be returned to the owner," Jenaro walked swiftly down the corridor. "This car is rented."
"Reasonable," Rick agreed immediately. It's one thing to take a trophy, and quite another when that trophy doesn't belong to the enemy. "You, by the way, never introduced yourself."
"Jenaro," the officer dropped, opening the door to the operator's room.
"Sir, no results..." the duty officer turned to the newcomers.
Jenaro waved his hand.
"Send this to customs and let them check if they want. Find me the Twi'lek... Captain Monroe, what was the girl wearing?"
Rick put his left hand on the bracelet that Veymi had and had given to the captain, recalling the details of her clothing, then listed all this to the operator, clarifying that the Twi'lek was a Lethan.
"One moment..." the operator entered the search parameters. After a couple of minutes, Rick saw an image of Veymi on the screen. "Her?"
Nodding, Rick began to carefully study the recording.
"Where is she?"
Instead of an answer, the operator pressed a key, and the image came to life.
Veymi was walking through the shopping arcade, looking at the shop windows, when a Twi'lek approached her. Rick recognized the manager who had offered the Lethan to show her the planet.
A short, but very lively conversation took place, in which the lekku actively participated. The manager insisted, Veymi politely refused, and finally reluctantly gave in.
The Twi'lek led her somewhere towards the technical exit. A few seconds later, a familiar figure slipped after them - Les walked in the same direction with the most independent air.
The guy frowned, watching what was happening, then spoke again:
"Is there more?"
The operator switched to external cameras, found the relevant segment of time.
The manager was leading the girl to a car in the parking lot for supplier transport vehicles. Veymi looked concerned, but not alarmed. Unlike Les, who appeared after them.
Hiding behind the cars, he overtook the tail-headed pair, and when they passed in the shadow of the trailer, he appeared from behind, delivering a single precise blow to the base of the lekku. The manager collapsed as if struck down, Rayno disappeared into the shadows.
"This guy sees in the dark like a cat," the operator commented. Jenaro remained silent, sending a request from the deck.
Veymi was frightened. She tried to bring her compatriot to his senses, and when she failed, she returned to the hall.
"Better than a cat," the captain mused, "where is the girl now?"
The operator switched back.
The Lethan ran up to the duty officer, gesturing wildly and pointing to the exit. The duty officer nodded and called someone on the radio, patting the girl on the shoulder reassuringly.
"Yes, there was a call from this post," Jenaro said. "A Twi'lek, in shock, still unconscious, but not in danger of life. It seems we just witnessed an attempted kidnapping, Captain Monroe."
Veymi, meanwhile, looked around helplessly until Les, the same one, approached her. The conversation was not audible, but the girl knew him. And without objection, she followed him.
Towards the service building.
The guy said a few phrases in Huttese, then looked thoughtfully at Les. Normally, he could find him in the Force without a problem. The only question was concentration.
"What's in the building?"
"Staff rooms," Jenaro replied. "The service communication center. Your passengers were accommodated there. Show his room," this was addressed to the operator. He typed in a command, and the monitor obediently showed the room where Rayno was accommodated.
Les sat on the floor. Opposite him sat Veymi.
And both were enthusiastically playing sabacc under Bus's watchful eye.
Interfering in personal lives now brought the guy immense joy.
"Is there communication in the rooms?"
"Of course," the operator clicked the intercom button, handing Rick the microphone on a thin wire.
Leaning into the microphone, the captain said reproachfully, "Veymi, what did I tell you when I let you go to the spaceport?" - but his voice indicated that the captain was holding himself back very strongly.
The Twi'lek raised her head, her large round eyes scanned the room, stopping at the source of the sound.
"Rick!" the girl jumped up, ran to the communication device. "I didn't have time to buy a comlink..."
"Uh-huh, and I managed to get three holes in my speeder after we parted," the guy agreed, "sit there and don't go anywhere. First Mate, keep an eye on these wild heads. I'll be there as soon as I'm free."
The Kushiban shook his ear and turned green. Veymi nodded convulsively, apparently imagining some terrible battle. Rayno, who had appeared behind her, placed his hands on the girl's shoulders.
"Everything is fine, everyone is alive," Rick heard before the operator disconnected the call.
"Your First Mate is cute," the communications officer stated, rolling up the external microphone.
"Alright, it's quiet here, but I'd be grateful if you kept an eye on them," the guy finally said. He didn't clarify who was mistaken for the First Mate. "We need to unload the provisions and medications as soon as possible. By the way, this Twi'lek is a manager of one of the companies I arranged food supply with. Mostly frozen."
"He was going to take her away," Jenaro stood up. "And if it weren't for this boy, he would have taken her. He convinced her that something was wrong with the cargo and asked her to go with him to sort out the formalities without attracting your attention. I can read lips a little..."
"Is he conscious now?" the guy's lips tightened into a thin line. "I'd like to sort out these... formalities with him."
"Not yet," Jenaro glanced at the deck. "But the doctors promise to bring him out of shock soon. A very interesting blow, to the nerve cluster. You have to know well where to hit..."
"Les Rayno raises a lot of questions for me," the captain glanced at the screen, where the room of a subspecies of human unknown to him was displayed, "but he... So far, he only brings pleasant surprises. I haven't assessed his skill level, but he is clearly higher than most of the crew I picked up. Even though he was a passenger."
"He doesn't look like he can afford to travel on a cruise ship," Jenaro cast a fleeting glance at the screen, signaled to turn off the image. "Your crew is found, it remains to deal with the problems that arose with the cargo. Do you still need my help?"
"I hope not," Rick looked at the security officer and asked another question: "What will happen to the prisoner?"
"It will depend on the prisoner," Jenaro hesitated slightly. "Sher Lonely. Did you sign a contract with her?"
"I have a contract with all crew members," Rick looked at the door, "is something wrong with the girl?"
"I'm interested in the possibility of re-signing the contract," the extreme frankness left no doubt about the security officer's sincerity. "With the payment of the penalty at my expense."
"I'm afraid you won't have enough health to pay the penalty, Jenaro," the captain said, shaking his head, "Sher is my navigator's fiancée. And he watches over his fiancée tirelessly, and she reciprocates his feelings. And he is a hot-tempered man."
The blue eyes momentarily became as cold as during the security officer's first meeting with Rick. Then Jenaro nodded, taking note of what he heard, and called security.
"Escort Captain Monroe to the medical bay."
"If you have any more questions, you know how to contact me and where to find me," Jenaro's emotions due to the loss of the opportunity to acquire a promising employee were understandable, and Rick wasn't particularly worried about it. He'll get angry and calm down, the captain doesn't care about that.
In the medical bay, one of the three couches was occupied. The medical droid warned Captain Monroe that the patient had only just woken up and was still weak, asking him not to overexert him and to call if there was the slightest hint of a worsening condition. After that, it rolled aside so as not to interfere.
Rick approached the Twi'lek, looking threateningly into his eyes, smiled, and tilted his head slightly, waiting for a reaction from the green-skinned one.
The manager tried to tuck his lekku, move them behind his back, but couldn't and fell silent, looking at the man with wide orange eyes.
"Captain Monroe? Glad to see you in good health..."
"I doubt your sincerity," the guy said thoughtfully, shifting his gaze to the instrument readings, "will you confess yourself, or will we move on to plan B?"
The instruments showed that the patient's heart rate was starting to accelerate.
"What should I confess about?" the Twi'lek tried to move away.
"Well, you see," the guy smiled again, and the smile was again artificial, he really wanted to strangle the humanoid, "problems with the cargo, because of which my referent needs to be taken somewhere..."
"Oh... But it's such a trifle that it didn't even make sense to bother you!" the alien hurried. "The warehouse was short of a small batch of frozen goods, we supplemented it with other goods to the required amount, everything is very high quality, you just needed to sign that the customer doesn't object, we are being checked, you understand, and your referent can handle such matters herself..."
The guy sighed, looked at the Twi'lek reproachfully, dived into the Force, studying the intricacies of the emotions that were engulfing him.
The Twi'lek wasn't exactly lying - he was omitting a lot. There was indeed a problem with the order, but it wasn't so serious that it couldn't be resolved with a simple phone call. But he wasn't going to return Veymi - and he was very upset that such a successful plan had failed.
"I want you to tell me why you needed my girl," the commanding voice reinforced the order through the Force, and on top of that, another mental command, "you want to help yourself, don't you?"
"I didn't want her to get hurt," the alien blurted out. "You're all going to stay here anyway, they said so, I thought: why leave her there if I can take her to a safe place..."
The words flowed out of him in a stream.
"Who said?" Rick maintained the state necessary for the alien's verbal flow, trying simultaneously to keep him conscious and calm.
"People... Aliens... I don't know..." he twitched his tentacles, an indefinite gesture equivalent to a helpless shrug. "They said they would pay if I transported an assault group with the cargo. They wouldn't have spared her either."
"You transported them?!" the guy exclaimed, taking the blaster off safety right in the holster.
"They promised to pay," the Twi'lek repeated.
"Yes or no?! Quickly!" he wasn't shouting, he was out of breath, speaking through clenched teeth, exhaling, and his body was like a spring compressed to its limit. His right hand had long been on the blaster's grip, while his left was clenched into a fist so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His heart began to beat at a frantic rhythm.
"I agreed," the lekku moved again. "The cargo will arrive soon... Or it has already arrived... Now you will all be killed, and her too."
Rick was no longer listening to what the Twi'lek was saying, he rushed out of the compartment, dialing Nick's number on the go.