Rasha sighed in frustration as another transport deal fell through on her.

Dammit Lajar, did you really think it would be easy to hitch a ride to Tatooine for one hundred credits?

Striding out of the spaceport cantina she'd been canvassing, the blue-skinned twi'lek continued to fume at her mentor for dumping her off the way he had. It was understandable that he'd made a change of plans when he got a hot tip on a bounty in a nearby system, but he could have delayed her departure 'til after he was done following up on it, or at least left her with a decent transportation budget to complete the journey herself! She couldn't even seem to squeeze into a spare berth on a freighter for this much. Well, actually, she could, but she didn't trust the one guy who had agreed to the amount enough to get on his ship. She had the feeling that if she did he'd try to sell her to slavers or something.

Making her way briskly towards the next cantina, Rasha's eyes fell upon an orange-skinned twi'lek in a black jumpsuit and armour vest that was walking in the opposite direction. He looked familiar somehow...

"Rashavar'til?" the figure asked, using the twi'lek pronunciation of her names. "What are you doing here?"

Rasha blinked for a moment, then her face lit up.

"Nodaral'sha!" she exclaimed with pleasure, finally recognising one of Lajar's friends in the trade. "I could ask the same of you!"

Nodar shrugged.

"My family lives here, and I'm home to visit. But what about you? I didn't think you wanted to come back here."

Rasha shook her head.

"I don't. Lajar's sending me off on my own, and thanks to his getting a hot tip while taking me to Tatooine, he decided to drop me off here and have me hire someone to take me the rest of the way... for one hundred credits."

Nodar's mouth dropped open.

"One hundred credits? Are you serious?"

"Dead serious. I'm seriously thinking of dipping into my accommodations budget to pay my way off this rock. Otherwise I'll probably just end up spending it all here anyway because I won't be able to get off."

"Hmmm..."

Nodar paused as if considering.

"Well, I've actually got reason to go to Tatooine myself. I might be able to give you a ride."

Rasha's eyes widened.

"Really?"

Nodar nodded.

"Yes. There's a really good technician there called Javros who I wanted to have do some work on the Huntress for me. I've been holding off on having him do it because he charges so damn much, but..."

"You think you could get a better deal if I'm there with you?" Rasha asked sweetly.

Nodar chuckled.

"Yeah."

He paused.

"Does that sound fair to you? I'll give you a ride to Tatooine, and in exchange you'll help me get a good deal on my modifications?"

Rasha nodded.

"Sure. Just don't expect me to hold back if you decide to do some work while you're getting your ship repaired and we both end up going after the same bounty. Because I'm not going to hold back."

Nodar grinned.

"I wouldn't expect you to."

"Then we have a deal."

And that was how Rasha secured her passage to Tatooine.

[The Gate of the Palace]