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After dinner and the briefing of their next heist, she found herself in the cockpit, everyone else seemed to go their separate ways, which was fine for her. Her thoughts were running a mile a minute and she needed space to think. There were questions that needed answering, more planning on their part. Two weeks was a tight window but she thought it was doable. She sat in front of the communication panel, hooking up her datapad to it. Her fingers ran across the keys, sending an encrypted message to her contact on Nar Shaddaa. A smile formed on her face, it had been awhile since she had been to the smuggler's moon but there were from happier times. 

Her hands rubbed over her face, the waiting always seemed the longest. Would her contact still be there, listening? Waiting? They never failed her. Her datapad dinged as she reached out for it before she heard the commotion in the hallway. It sounded like something fell. Leaving her datapad on the panel, she pulled her blastor from its holster and stepped into the hallway.  [color=AE91B8] “What the kark?” [/color] It was only the slightest of looks but she could swear she saw another woman standing with Wrench before the little droid closed off the area. 

Fel was out of his room in a mere moment, even though he had been in his own little world, going over the past (as he often did.) The noise brought him back to the present in a half heartbeat, and he met Aellyn running into the common area from the bridge, likewise seeing Wrench and – something – on the other side of the compartment hatch [i](which was never closed.)[/i]

[color=F7941D]“Wrench! What in the three suns…”[/color] He hammered on the hatch. [i](to Aellyn)[/i] [color=F7941D]“...who the karking frack was that?”[/color] He moved swiftly to the access panel and started running a bypass, but Wrench was too smart for that, having locked out the panel. He shook his head at Aellyn – no shot. [color=F7941D]“WRENCH!”[/color]

Aellyn followed in behind him, her blaster at the ready. [color=AE91B8] “Appeared to be a stowaway because that definitely was not the kid or Jet.” [/color] She stood next to the pilot who seemed a bit frantic as he tried to access the panel. [color=AE91B8] “Bet the droid has a plan, my worry is I think Jet and Zane are on the other side. Can we access comms to engineering?” [/color] She asked. 

Fel had a split second of indignance – [i]*stowaway? On this ship? No way…*[/i] but he swallowed that immediately. It was entirely possible. Hell, he had used some of those cavities for smuggling in the past. If someone was wily enough to get past them (on Abilene?) there was certainly room enough to stow away. 

[color=F7941D]“I can do us one better…”[/color] he sprinted for the cockpit, and activated the ship-wide comms. Wrench couldn’t disable that – it was old-school hard-wired as a standalone system.The question was – what to say. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the pilot sprint off toward the cockpit. She waited for a moment before taking off after him. Holstering the blaster for now, she saw him slide into the comm panel. Kark. She had forgotten her datapad, laying there in the open. She swiped it and quickly shoved it in her pocket. Watching him, she noticed he was going for the ship-wide comms.  [color=AE91B8] “ No. If it's a stowaway, your droid has them locked down. He would do the same to me if I threatened the ship.  They are not going anywhere. Well, unless he dropped the ramp.  I would see if you can only access the comms in other areas. Make sure the others are safe.” [/color] Aellyn also wondered if this was Abliene sending a final message to Fel. The two didn’t seem to get along all that well, in fact Abliene did want him dead. 

Fel had to admit, quickly to himself, that he hadn’t even thought of that. He nodded appreciatively to Aellyn. [color=F7941D]“Great idea.”[/color] In the heat of things, he was going to speak ship-wide, directly to Wrench and this stowaway. In fact, he’d never done anything but ship-wide from this panel. It took him a moment to shut off the areas he didn’t want to speak to, leaving only the Starboard hold active, and dropped the volume by forty percent, to better ensure that only Jet (and the Kid, if he was in there too) could hear what he had to say. 

[color=F7941D]“Jet? You there? What’s your situation? Wrench has locked me out from the common area… I can’t get in there without getting violent. Don’t worry, if you reply – only Aellyn and I will hear.”[/color]

[hr]

Jet had been in the bay for longer than he would have liked, he often forgot what it was like to do work one-handed but, of course, working on his arm meant he had no other choice. A hydrospanner sat clenched between his teeth as he fished through a box of parts switching them in and out as he needed. A new plate here, a piston there. The hinges were in a majority good condition, thankfully, just needed debris cleared from their path. The bay had been quiet until then, just the hum of the lights, the rattle of tools, the soft clink of metal against metal. Steady, predictable. He could’ve had the job done in the next twenty minutes or so, if not for the sudden burst of chaos from the corridor just outside. He was sure the ship wasn’t in [i]that[/i] bad condition that it would be falling apart.

He dropped the spanner onto the workbench and moved over to the door which.. Didn’t open. Strange. He jammed his hand against it and gave it a push, maybe it had got jammed on something but.. No. The mechanism wasn’t even trying. He pressed his ear to the door and picked up the muffled whine of whirls, beeps, and voices raised in confusion. One voice rose above the others - Fels. He stepped back and leaned against the bench behind him, shaking his head softly in amusement. 

It was then that Fel’s voice crackled through the comms,  the signal laced with static and quieter than usual. Jet’s first instinct was that something else had broken again, typical. But the weight in Fel’s tone pushed that thought aside pretty damn quickly.


[color=FF0000]“What’s my situation?”[/color] he muttered, jaw tight. [color=FF0000]“I’m locked in my karking workshop while it sounds like the ship’s turning inside out. What the hell’s going on out there?”[/color] 

[color=F7941D]“Seems we got us a passenger on Abilene. Don’t rightly recall asking for one. Seems they’re havin’ a word with Wrench outside your door. Can’t get in. Tin-Man locked us out, or else the stow did, but I can’t see how. You locked out of your panel?”[/color]

Jet pressed a palm to the door panel and the lights responded. He wasn’t locked in like the others. [color=FF0000]“Panel’s on,”[/color] he said into the comm, voice low and even. [color=FF0000]“I’m going in. Leave the line open.”[/color]

He didn’t wait for confirmation. He keyed the override and the door unlocked with a low hiss, mechanisms whining as they slid apart. Jet stepped just past the frame and stopped there, leaning his shoulder into the edge of the doorway. His eyes moved slowly across the room. Wrench was off to the side and just behind him, the stowaway. Jet took her in with one long, quiet look. [color=FF0000]“You wanna tell me what the hell you’re doing on my ship?”[/color]
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