Chapter Text
Every ship in the galaxy has some kind of history, stories of planets and aliens found in travels across the galaxy. Some of those stories are of heroic actions taken by the crew, others quite boring, and the rare few have hidden secrets. Aaliji’s ship was, as far as she knew, one of the boring ones. The man who had taken her in as an orphan was a perfectly normal older twi’lek named Mal’eka that ran mostly normal shipping jobs. Now and then they’d transport something less than legal or they’d slip past planet security to deliver something off record to a client, but never anything like slaves or drugs. Weapons, sure. The galaxy had been at war for a long while and most planets had needed supplies to fuel the war effort. Being a smuggler, or resource acquisitions specialist as he called it, was good business so long as you kept to your contracts and stayed clear of politics.
Their jobs didn’t pay much since they rarely took the more dangerous ones but this helped Aaliji grow up learning how to scrimp, save, and sometimes swindle to get what was needed. He taught her how to maintain the Starjumper and her blasters, how to work with what materials are available, and how to survive on her own.
When he passed away from old age only a few years ago she inherited the ship and his contacts. His business went to her as natural as anything in the galaxy and even with Mal’eka gone it was like nothing had changed. Her life continued on business as usual for a year as Aaliji worked toward building her own reputation and contact list with Mal’eka’s contracts expiring.
In her efforts to become her own person and not just Mal’eka’s co-pilot she ended running several errands across the galaxy that were more active than his previous jobs. Aaliji worked directly with some clients to procure the items she needed to deliver, sometimes having to infiltrate someplace just to fight her way back out again.
These jobs were much more fun, though more dangerous, and she enjoyed the adrenaline rush. Along with the excitement she also started to run into a certain jedi more often. At first she tried to avoid Lymond but on Tatooine they had to work together as her job was directly related to his mission. They made a good team and complemented each other’s skills with Aaliji offering the additional benefit of having more underworld contacts then he would have access to.
Lymond was everything Aaliji wasn’t. Tall. Responsible. Honorable. Respected. She had always been short for a zabrak, her brown skin unmarked by the usual familial tattoos though Mal’eka had helped her get at least the adolescent and adulthood markings for her race. Even the small horns on her head were short, barely peeking out of her white hair. Lymond, on the other hand, was tall and muscular for a human, his left eye covered by a metal plate with a few cybernetics that were normally hidden behind the faceless helmet he wore. An intimidating sight, the Jedi was the complete opposite of the smuggler and yet they worked quite well together.
Every time their paths crossed after Tatooine it seemed he was expecting her, a plate set aside for her in the cantina or a chair pulled up across from him. It became a game to see if she could find him or his ship first on every planet she went to before he found her. Some of the time he would even have something she could help with and working together was interesting.
Most experiences with Force Users end up with Aaliji on the losing side, regardless of what she was doing. Assumptions would be made, she would be attacked, and every time she had to escape. Working with Lymond meant she was suddenly winning more fights and coming out unharmed, the force users either focusing on him or negotiating. Her jobs were less dangerous as well since not too many petty criminals wanted to mess with someone like Lymond. She made sure that anytime she got information about Sith movement, Imperial business, or shady deals the Jedi might want to interrupt she passed that along to her new friend as a show of good faith and appreciation for all his help.
Their companionship was weird, but comfortable. Aaliji had very few people she could trust after her mentor’s passing and even fewer she would consider talking to casually. Most of them wanted something out of her or wanted her in on shady deals. A small few were still owed money by her mentor and those debts now fell to her to fulfill. The biggest worry was the one or two that tried to rope her into the darker deals, which she was trying to avoid so as not to be on Lymond’s suspect list. Aaliji watched how he dealt with imperial spies, smugglers, and saboteurs and much preferred to be on his good side.
The more she worked with him the more Aaliji realized she enjoyed his company even though he was overly serious. Small moments of comfortable casualness happened now and then with Lymond opening up and showing more of his personality. She felt closer to him during these moments, comforted by his company. When she found out that Jedi rarely made attachments, or had relationships, she decided their friendship would just be professional, nothing more. Maintaining that professionalism was harder though as he proved to be a kind person regardless of how intimidating he looked to others. His sense of humor and willingness to help her only made it harder to hide her attraction before finally she had to admit to herself that she had fallen for the Jedi.
In an effort to be someone worth keeping around she started to change her ways, be more selective of her jobs, and close contracts with criminal organizations as she went along. This didn’t go over too well with some of the long-standing business partners she had inherited from her mentor and a good number of them demanded credits or final favors. A lot of the favors were just credits, taking one last quick job for free, or some other small harmless act.
The worst contract she had was the last to close, belonging to a crime lord out of Rishi that she often ran cargo for and that her mentor had signed a contract with. Unknown to Aaliji, the contract was an effort to pay off a debt he had built up with the crime lord to cover ship repairs. As she was informed of the contract’s nature she understood now why they rarely got paid doing these jobs but Mal’eka prioritized them over other better paying jobs. The crime lord invited her to his estate to discuss the contract in person which definitely sounded like a trap but her options were limited.
When Aaliji arrived on Rishi she was informed of the remaining debt amount, the expectation that it be paid before she could end it, and that the contract could not be closed until the crime lord had his money. It took convincing and some unrefined pleading, but eventually Aaliji agreed to run one last major job for him. The job she was given was to take a large crate to Ossus where an imperial ship would meet her in the planet’s orbit. There was a time limit on the job and a strong implication that she would be meeting with a Sith.
No other option was available to her, no room to wiggle free, so she accepted the job. Crates were loaded into her hold that were large enough to each hold a speeder, or perhaps livestock? She could see the vents and observation ports but the container itself was locked down tight.
Leaving Rishi behind, Aaliji felt a weight on her shoulders as though Mal’eka’s spirit was judging her, disappointed in her decision to leave all he had built behind. That she was closing his hard-earned contracts, abandoning the life he had secured for her all because she had developed feelings for a force user only added to the weight she carried. Mal’eka would have been furious with her. How many times had he told her that Jedi and Sith were trouble?
But here she was, sitting in his pilot seat navigating his ship toward Ossus to drop off one last shipment before rushing off to meet with a Jedi.
Hyperspace travel is definitely faster than just flying between planets but it could still take days, sometimes weeks, to get between points. And in hyperspace there’s not much to do except wait and so Aaliji spent the first day of travel finishing some small maintenance on her ship. Tweeting along beside her, Quirky was marginally helpful as she replaced some of the old wiring with new. Twitchy had his own task and the annoyed beeping from the refresher told her that it wasn’t going well.
“Listen, I know that light has been a pain in the ass but I’m telling you! There’s a short in the wiring! Why else would it just shut off mid-pee!” Her head popped up out of the hatch she was in, words being shouted down toward the grumpy astromech droid. More beeping, much angrier sounding, was his only reply.
“I know YOU don’t pee but I do! And it’s not something I like to do in the damn dark! Just check that power relay in the wall. I replaced it years ago and might have done it wrong maybe?” A reply of low-volume bleeps and trills made her smile. “Thank you Twitchy.”
Taking the offered tool from Quirky, Aaliji looked up at the extremely old astromech and patted the front panel. She was in a hatch and too short to reach the dented dome for the usual ‘head pats’ the droid liked. “Don’t listen to him, I’m not playing favorites. Now. Ready for an order?”
Rocking back and forth excitedly, the droid’s cracked visual sensor brightened as she pointed to a wall panel leaning against the wall behind the droid. “Re-attach that wall panel to the exposed components.” watching the droid, she could hear the steady hum of his failing processors before an affirmative chirp announced that the order was received.
Shaking her head a little, strands of her pale gray hair falling free of the clip from the motion. Careful with the old adornment she removed the old hairclip, which Mal’eka said she was found with, and brushed the short wiry hair back into place. “One of these days I should get my hair trimmed… It’s getting too long again.” A sigh escaped as she watched Quirky argue with the wall panel, her thoughts shifting away from helping the droid and instead wondering if Lymond preferred long or short hair…
Shaking her head again as if to dislodge the distracting thoughts, she disappeared back into the hatch to resume the repairs. Focusing on this and then several more tasks, the day was spent doing busy work and droid-wrangling.
The next day was expected to be the same but as Aaliji lifted a floor panel to get into the maintenance hatch she found a bit of treasure! At some point, no telling how many years ago, Mal’eka had stashed away several bottles of very fine Corellian whiskey and a few other bottles she didn’t recognize. “Ooooh so THIS is where he hid his drinks! No wonder I never found it before!” The box of bottles clinked as she carried them into the galley, a wide smile on her grease-smudged face. “Thank you Father!”
Chuckling while she climbed onto the counters to reach the cups, Aaliji cursed for the millionth time that the ship was built for much taller people. Seated next to the food processor, feet kicking, she cracked open the first bottle to fill a glass. “One of these days I’m going to invest in ladders. Mal’eka might have been tall but nooooooo, I had to be the runt of the litter!” Heaving a sigh, she sipped at the spiced liquid enjoying the burn as it slid down her throat. “Oh that’s good though. Make it up for being short and all the years of Mal’eka teasing me about not reaching the cabinets.”
Another glass and then a third was finished, Aaliji abandoning her seat on the countertop to instead lounging on the couches. TeeNine, the protocol droid she had acquired from jawas, sat across from her in a game of djarik. Having now emptied five glasses of the fine whiskey Aaliji was losing the game and talking to the droid about her feelings for Lymond. They had been on her mind more and more lately and she wanted to tell him about how she was on a final job before freeing herself from the underworld.
TeeNine, only able to speak in huttese, asked the one question she had been trying to not think about. “Captain… What ARE we transporting? The crates clearly hold living organisms.”
Picking up the empty bottle, frowning at the lack of alcohol, Aaliji looked at the protocol droid for a moment. “You think so? Or is that what your scanners show? We weren’t told about needing to feed or water anything in there…” Setting aside the empty glass she stood and wavered on her feet a little.
“Scanners confirm the container holds at least six life forms, smaller than yourself, and very little movement.” TeeNine watched as his captain staggered from the lounge to the hold. “Captain. The rules advise against looking at the shipment.”
Waving off the concern as she leaned on the doorframe into the hold, Aaliji made her way over to the first crate and tapped the display. Frowning at the encryption she abandoned that and started walking around the container until she found an observation port. Jimmying it loose, she slid it aside to look within and was shocked to find that not only was she transporting living creatures… but living children. A steady blink from each of their necks confirmed slave collars were in place, their clothes plain but each bearing the imperial emblem on the back.
Closing the observation port she slid down the wall to sit, staring at the container in quiet shock. “I … But we don’t … We’ve never shipped slaves.” The shuffling steps of TeeNine brought the bronze droid into view and she looked up at him. “TeeNine… It’s slaves. Children Slaves.”