[Bank]

“Excuse me, are you Captain Cedric Lon of the Manticore?”

The red haired man whom Rasha had just addressed turned from the cargo palette he had been maneuvering and faced the blue-skinned Twi’lek.

“Yes I am. What can I do for you?”

Rasha, who was going by the name of Lirath and pretending to be a professional dancer, smiled shyly the man.

“I heard you were planning to take your ship through The Passage. Is that true?”

The Passage referred to a very fast but little used navigation route used by some smugglers to transport cargos from Tatooine to planets like Kyralos. It was quite popular –or at least it had been before Vishar -the red-skinned twi’lek pirate who was nicknamed ‘The Demon’ by spacers- had begun to pick off so many of the ships that travelled through it. Now it was becoming distinctly unpopular in spite of the rewards being offered to take it.

“Yeah. Why are you wondering?”

“I have urgent family business to attend to on Kyralos, and I need to get there as quickly as possible, so I was hoping to buy passage on one of the vessels that is going through the passage.”

She held out a collection of credits.

“I can offer you three hundred and fifty credits to take me there. I know it’s not a lot, but if you’re already going through anyway, could you please take me with you?”

Cedric grinned at the twi’lek, who as usual had dressed in a rather revealing outfit, in this case a skimpy gold garment with sandals and a purple sash that was tied around her waist. Her gunbelt, which normally moderated the effect of her garb, was nowhere to be seen.

“Sure, I can take you.”

“Really? Then it’s not too dangerous?”

“No at all. I hired a couple fighter pilots I know to ride escort for me. I don’t think the big bad ‘Demon’ will want to mess with them.”

“That’s a relief,” Rasha lied. She didn’t believe the man, but then, she wouldn’t be paying to get aboard his ship if she did.

The twi’lek looked around them, taking note of the cargo pallets.

“Will you be leaving soon?”

“Yeah. Just as soon as I get this cargo loaded. You’ll be ready by then, right?”

“Of course,” Rasha replied.

For a bounty the size of the one on The Demon, there was no way she was going to miss her chance to collect.

[The Manticore]