(Star Wars d6) #42 - The Finger and the Droids

  The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn. His climbing skills are suspect, but his grenade skills make up for it.  Edging a dangerous lifestyle of drugs, booze, and loose women
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful, and that anxiety gives him skin issues.

Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently rescued by the crew.  Offering his services in order to get off this barely existing hunk of mud.  His warning shots are dead center mass kill shots. 

Free of the Law

After a successful recovery of Thingviller's Translucent Trapper 

At the Imperial Zoological Symposium and Exposition. 

The crew of the Pretio are cleared of any wrongdoing,

And are free to wander Alderaan.

 

The crew has many plans for the planet, 

But first is a meeting with a mysterious man

Known only as.... The Finger....

The morning after the great Translucent Trapper incident, Ne'vets wandered down to the hotel lobby for the free galactic breakfast... and much fanfare.  Holo-vids of the crews actions reached the news feed, and all of their faces were now famous... at least for the next 15 minutes.

Checking access of the business suite, the front desk clerk handed him an envelope left at the desk.  Inside was a small thank you note from Kafla, and an additional 5,000 credits for the crew. 

Grabbing complementary yellowberry muffins, Ne'vets spied the now-famous video being broadcasted on Good Morning Alderaan.  

Everybody but the Wookie decided to rent a speeder and visit the city.  With some extra credits in hand, there was a new desire from everyone to buy some droids.  

The taxi speeder's first stop was Droids'RS.  

Ne'vets had limited concerns, "I'm fine with getting a medical droid to work the bacta tank, if the droid cleaned out said bacta tank."

Tarrie was confused, "Do we have a bacta tank?"

"No, but I am definitely not cleaning one out."

They quickly picked out a brand new 2-1B Medical Droid, designated P3PP3R. 

"How about a labor droid?" Duk'k inquired.

"Why would we need that?"

"It takes care of all those menial tasks, and they can clean the refresher and carry cargo."

"The medical droid has two arms.  He can carry something, or hold a brush in case Evus stops at Space Chipotle again."

Tarrie stayed on topic, "What about an astromech droid to help fly the ship. It'll keep Frokazza from fat-fingering the jump coordinates."

"That's fine, but don't look at the R2's on the end caps, there's always something wrong with them."

Grabbing a shiny new green unit, the crew was happy with the oddly designated R2-H8(r)

Ne'vets decided it was better to stroll the streets of Alderaan with their two new droids.  The spent their time testing the medical droid "What's wrong with that person? How 'bout that person?" and inquiring about the droid's knowledge of Frokazza's skin woes.

"I am familiar with all 47 Wookie skin conditions."

They arrived at a spirits bar called Two Fingers for their brunch meeting with Lav "The Finger" Devlin. 

Frokazza and Duk'k remembered The Finger from their booth conversation at the convention.  They had anticipated him being far creepier, at least diving into some corner of entomology that no professional wants to go down.  

While his convention appearance seemed fair, the man sitting at the table inside bar made up for it in spades.  

Walking over to him, Duk'k whispered to Ne'vets, "Is only the top of his head dripping with sweat?"  

"Let's hear him out, he's the only possible lead that isn't just data-pushing."

"Ne'vet Aharo, in the flesh, I presume," The Finger said in an easier creepier tone.  

After a far more professional series of introductions, they got down to brass tacks. 

Devlin was an archeologist who was impressed that Ne'vets trusted his crew with the critical presentation matters.  "You've got a bigger set than a Tayvarean Tree-Bat.  Most of my hired help either wants to destroy things or steal them, yours is on the up and up."

The Finger dove into a the Zell, an ancient race from tens of thousands of years ago.  Imperial teaching teachings say the Zell exterminated a race called the Taung before finding the early civilization that would be known as Coruscant and all of humanity.  The problem was, hyperspace drives were already in production even back then, so it was accepted that the Taung probably just left en masse.  More impressive is that he believed that the Taung settled on Mandalore.

"I did in the underhive of Coruscant, technically digging in sub-levels that are technically above the surface of the planet.  But I also dig in the deserts and and bio-domes on Mandalore.  Most of the work is on the up-and-up, but folks like you can handle your own, and already have the equipment to speed the process.  If you're on either planet and make a few credits, you're welcome to look me up."

Tarrie just stared into the shininess of his new droids, but at the first mention of Mandalore, he woke up.

"Mandalore.  There's some rockin' musical festivals there recently.  It would be a great trip!"

Trading some more info, the crew left for a few stops for med packs, Frokazza's Wookie skin cream, and other supplies.  By then, they were ready to go anywhere but Alderaan.

After a long, but unremarkable trip home, the Pretio arrived back in Takodana,   Parking the ship, they were met by their two hired hands, Rumo and Poonk. 

"She's here...."

Sitting on the large wrap-around porch on the main buildings was a small being.  They got up from their chair, 

"Ne'vets Aharo, we haven't met.  I'm Maz Kanata.  You're in a good deal of trouble."

Next: #43 - Bioxin Azure