Chapter 3.

Joran stepped inside, she didn’t know what she had been expecting, but it certainly was the neat and clean space that greeted her. Ketch flicked on the Plasma lanterns and they hummed to life, with clean yellow light. She took off her breath mask and studied his hideout. all of the interior walls had been taken down, a large set of doors led into a section that must be a garage, a few half assembled droids hung from the ceiling. An old outdated Airspeeder sat on the floor mostly in pieces; blaster pistols and a carbine were in pieces on a work bench. A small galley style kitchen was clean and orderly. a couple of chairs sat in front of a Vid screen it was the only place where any disorder was allowed apparently, empty drink bottles and food containers littered the low table in front of the screen. Ketch watched her study his sanctuary, it was all squared away except for the mess Daken had left after he hid out here for the weekend after his girlfriend had found him with someone else.

“I’m going to bring the speeder in, make yourself at home.” he walked back out, the garage doors swung open when he hit the button beside the door frame. Smog boiled in through the open doors, the odor was chemical and toxic. He eased the bike in quickly and closed the doors.

“Why would you drive that thing? It’s not very stealthy” Joran asked as Ketch jumped off the padded leather seat and closed the door. He paused unloading the Speederbike, and turned to her straightening.”Look at me slim,“ he gestured to his dark green skin, ”do I look like I would, purposefully, drive a red machine. Even one as fine as this.“ he said looking at the bike. Joran chuckled at his outraged sense of style. She sat down on one of the chairs and motioned for him to take the other. Ketch plopped his duffel bag down and sat.

“Well, I guess we should talk about why you ran from that accident.” Joran started.

“Hell, slim. You can probably just pull it right out of my head why don’t you go ahead. It’s not like I could stop you.” Ketch said angrily. Anger and turmoil boiled off of him now, Joran opened her robe fully clearing the way for her lightsaber.

“You really think you’re quick enough to beat a man with a blaster with that thing?” Ketch asked pointing at her belt. She drew the blade with a tug of the force before his hand had even completed its journey to his holster. Her blade hummed to life, its wide glowing gold blade, hummed with energy. Inches from Ketch’s chest.

“Point well taken,” he said relaxing, “Ma’am,” he added.

“Now that we have that squared away why you don’t enlighten me as to why you are being pursued by bounty hunters,” Joran asked switching her lightsaber off and moving it back to its sheath with a brief thought. Ketch snorted out a laugh.

“Here let’s let the Vid tell it, at least they have pictures.” he clicked on the screen and threw the control on the table scattering bottles onto the ground. the screen hummed to life, Ketch’s face immediately flashed onto the screen, Kidnapping, assault, rape, Grand theft, Destruction of property, evading the police, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, leaving the scene of an accident. There was a nice shot of her jumping over the crater from the patrol speeder, but it cut to her helping the Mon Calmari out of their burning vehicle. Then it showed Ketch speeding off. No mention was made of his help at the scene. Someone was editing the news, she looked at Ketch. But he wasn’t even looking at the screen.

“Did you do all those things?” Joran asked. She couldn’t feel the taint of the dark side in him, hardly at all in fact. Not to the extent that those actions would have had on him.

“Well not exactly,” Ketch said looking at her, he took a deep breath and told her everything that had happened.

“That’s everything, except for some poor choices the rest of the charges, minus the desertion one, that one will stick. But the others won’t hold up in court. I just don’t understand why they are coming for me, so hard, so fast.” he hung his head exhausted from his tale.

“It has been a long day why don’t you get some rest,” Joran said. She pushed just a little with the force to make him think it was a good idea. It was like hitting a brick wall, his mind was completely immune to her gently probe. Startled she blinked several times at him, but he didn’t protest anymore and went over to the Airspeeder. He climbed into the cockpit and stretched out on the seats.

“You aren’t going to use the bed?” Joran asked.

“Nah, you take it I’ll just sleep here, you’re welcome to It.” he closed his eyes

“I’ll just meditate for a while, plus I have to check in with my master,” Joran said sitting cross-legged on the floor.

“Suit yourself slim,” he said and rolled over.

Joran meditated for several hours, centering herself in the force. Her senses expanded she could feel everything around her. The steady pulse of Duracrete and Plasteel. The lively thrum of vermin, the bright glow of other beings, smoggers that Ketch had mentioned, most likely. A disturbance in the air made her eyes fly open, she peered around the darkened room. Nothing looked out of place that she could see. Suddenly a red light zipped along the ceiling, Joran crouched ready, using the force she flicked on the lights. Light flooded the room, a small droid darted under the Airspeeder shell.

“What! Are we under attack?” Ketch asked no trace of sleep in his voice he had a blaster in one of his hands.

“There’s some kind of droid moving around in here,” Joran said standing up slowly.

“That’s just K2tec, he was charging when we got in.” he jumped out of the Canopy, “KayToo, get out here and greet our guest.”

From under the Airspeeder, emerged the strangest looking droid Joran had ever seen, it looked like some kind of giant insect. Two bright visual sensors lifted out of the head on stocks and then retracted quickly so they sat back in their sockets. One of the glowing eyes was blue the other was green. Two sets of wings, like a dragonfly, fluttered on its long segmented back. It lifted into the air, exposing its six legs, each leg had two wheels on it. The wheels were flipped up like retractable claws on a cat.

“Good Evening Ma’am. I am sorry for startling you.” the little droids voice was startling, deep and cultured he spoke like a noble. “May I be of some assistance?” Another set of arms popped out of the section in the front with the wings, and the tiny droid dipped its head in a bow. It’s newest set of appendages were tipped with tiny, five-fingered hands.

“Um, no I’m fine thank you. What kind of droid is he?” Joran asked peering closely at the hovering droid.

“Well I put him together out of spare parts, he’s an Astro droid mostly, and he gives me a hand repairing stuff. But his AI and other circuitry are mostly recycled navicomputer. His audio components I got from a couple of the local smogger kids.” Ketch said as K2tec landed on his shoulder.

Joran was assaulted with a strong image from Ketch, he was standing out front in the thick smog, and a pair of filthy children covered in patched together rags where offering him a bundle of wires. He pulled a pair of new breath masks and another set of filters out of a box and gave them to the children along with a credit stick. The taller one tried to give the credits back, but ketch put them back in his filthy fist and closed the boy's hand over it. Babbling excitedly the smaller child, a girl most likely hugged him and they sped off.

“The rest were military parts they were throwing out at the academy.” Ketch finished.

“You are a good man Ketch,” Joran said, and Ketch looked at her surprised.

“What do you mean?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Those children that got you the parts for K2tec, you didn’t need to give them as much as you did,” Joran said placing her hand on his arm.

“How did you know about the kids?” Ketch asked, and Joran gave him a pointed look. “Oh right the force, yeah; well enough people exploit the smoggers. Figure if I have the means, there’s no reason for me to do it too.” he shrugged her hand off, gently, and walked back to the speeder.

“Might as well get some other stuff done since your finally up KayToo.” K2tec flitted over and settled down inside with him. After a few minutes of tinkering, they emerged with a pile of twisted metal.

“Figures the magnetic coil is warped, I’ll have to fabricate another one.” he walked over to the wall off tools, pushing a wrench that was hanging on a hook. The wrench slid to the side and a service elevator emerged from the floor. Ketch stood on the Durasteel platform. “Would you like to come?” he asked one hand hovering over the controls for the lift.

“Sure,” Joran said. She had sensed the empty space beneath them but not the cleverly concealed elevator. Once she was standing on the platform Ketch lowered it. Swiftly they plunged into darkness. The shaft of light from above was sealed off as soon as their heads were below the floor level.

“KayToo, get the lights,” Ketch said. The tiny Astro droid zipped off into the darkness and the lights flickered on after few seconds. Joran was shocked at the size of the place. Dust covered engines littered the floor, a few half burnt-out star fighters were suspended from the ceiling with chains, like the dried out husks of insects in an old spider web. Machines and tools beyond her imagination lined the walls; wracks of every spare part imaginable broke the huge workshop into aisles.

“Wow, why didn’t you sell any of this stuff off?” Joran asked as they made their way over to some complicated looking machine.

“First, you never know what you’re going to need. Second, the doors leading out of this place are buried under a few hundred feet of rubble and most of its too big to fit out the service elevator.” Ketch said placing the broken coil on the machine. The machine hummed to life at the touch of a button, and scanned the broken part. Across the aisle, another machine clicked on, and whirred to life. Leaving the twisted coil Ketch went to the other machine. After a few minutes the machine turned off, and a shiny new coil emerged on a conveyer belt. Ketch grabbed it, and they headed back towards the elevator. They passed several large laser turrets that had been neatly disassembled. Joran stopped to study them.

“Did you take these apart?” She asked ketch.

“Yeah, I wanted to know how the Frei Tek, Inc Laser systems where put together.” Ketch guided Joran onto the lift gently, with a hand on her elbow. “I’ve had some success with scaling the lasers down some. But we still have a long way to go, huh KayToo?” Ketch said a slight note of embarrassment in his voice.

“Indubitably sir, indubitably,” K2tec answered in a brisk chipper voice. They went back up; K2tec turned the lights off to the huge warehouse below and zipped up just before the hidden door slid shut.

Ketch placed the newly fabricated coil on an empty table and studied it quietly. Sighing he went over to another work bench and slid a chair over. Absently he started stripping his weapons off, and placing them on a clean cloth, Joran watched transfixed as he assembled his personal arsenal on the work bench.

“What are those weapons? I meant to ask you earlier, but we were busy.” Joran said.

“Oh, well this,” He said pointing, to the blaster he had taken out of his thigh holster, “Is an S-5 heavy blaster pistol, made by Theed Arms Company. I picked one up because, well honestly, they fire green blaster bolts,” Joran laughed at his sense of style. He continued once she stopped chuckling, “Unlike most hands held blaster that shoot red. Plus it has an attached grapple launcher, and a liquid-cable dispenser, making it an effective ascension tool if need be.“ he placed the heavy blaster back down. Its gleaming green grained wood handle glinted in the bright overhead light, twin scopes made the weapon appear very accurate.

“This baby,” he pulled a smaller hand held blaster out of a hip holster and laid it down above the S-5, and took out the power cell. “This is a DH17, manufactured by the Alliance Underground Engineers, it’s a standard issue blaster for the Navy, and it was issued to me when I made it to senior year at the academy.” He patted the black scuffed and obviously well-used blaster fondly.

From the small of his back he pulled out a fearsome looking slug thrower. The barrel was huge; with a flick of his finger he removed the magazine, and ejected an unfired slug from the barrel. “My grandfather gave me this when I got into the academy. He said ”Here, surprise those Tech heads at the academy with this. They never prepare for the simple things anymore.“ he’d send me slugs, for my birthday every year.” Ketch smiled fondly at the weapon. “It’s a .48 Enforcer made by the Morelllian Weapons Conglomerate, it only holds eight shots and the rounds are damn hard to come by. But nothing surprises a foe more, than when your heavy metal slug passes right through their fancy energy shield.” Ketch smiled, the slugthrower was primitive looking and blocky compared to the blasters, with a lot more moving parts. The top slide was black Durasteel and the rest was gleaming Chromium, with black rubber grips.

“Next we have a few assorted knives, just in case.” from his wrists sheaths, he let a dagger slide down into each of his palms. He spun the blades smoothly between his fingers and grabbed them by their hilts; he placed them carefully on the table as well. Reaching behind his shoulder he pulled his braid around and slipped a Vibro blade from it. The blade was a good 11 inches long, without the handle! Joran marveled that he had been able to conceal it at all. From the nape of his neck, he produced three small black throwing knives. “A good blade never runs out of energy, and it doesn’t need to be reloaded,” Ketch said as Joran bent to study the primitive blades closely.

“Last for my blasters, is my trusty 434 ”death hammer“ manufactured by Merr-Sonn Munitions, Inc” he took the death hammer out from under his left arm, where he kept it strapped snugly to his side. It had been mostly hidden by his thick leather flight jacket. This blaster must be his favorite. Joran thought. It was electrum plated, with thin silver swirls of Chromium lines all over the barrel and stock. The handle and grip were made of what looked like some kind of green crystal.

“Is that one your favorite?” Joran asked running a finger over the smooth gently faceted crystal grip.

“Not really. It’s a bit flashy for my taste. A Rodian bounty hunter paid me with it.” Ketch said. Joran quirked an eyebrow questioningly. Ketch smirked and continued.

“After I helped him out of a tight spot. That’s Rubat Crystal, from one of the moons of Ithor a Mid Rim planet, I think he said ” Ketch said. Looking at the arrayed weapons he waited for Joran to stop inspecting them.

“Are you any good with these different weapons?” she asked studying the blades closely. She glanced over at Ketch he looked slightly offended that she would ask.

“Of course, no sense carrying something you can’t use, and use well.”

“But why do you carry so many?” Joran asked running her hand over her lightsaber fondly.

“Well in some circles of...um, less civilized company. The more weapons you have the greater warrior you are, and they are more likely take you seriously... I dislike not being taken seriously.” Ketch answered in a monotone. After a few seconds, she leaned back and studied him.

“Well, slim, what do you think? Want to add something besides that laser sword of yours. All though I must admit. I have never heard of an energy sword with such a wide blade. That thing must be nearly 50 centimeters across when you activate it. I thought they were supposed to be thin and elegant? That thing looks more like an ancient shields sword.” Ketch said lifting her cloak to expose her lightsaber.

“What’s a shield sword?” Joran asked tugging her robe out of his fingers and sat down interested to learn something new. “And don’t call me slim.” She said. Ketch laughed and explained his comment.

“Couple of thousand years ago, on some planet or other, the Humans there where primitive a lost colony. They had reverted back to archaic tech to survive. For some reason in their culture the larger your sword the stronger you were. Which makes a kind of sense, can’t swing a huge sword around if you’re weak. One of the nobles designed a sword that was wide enough to double as a shield, since shields where considered a sign of fear or weakness. The theory was sound and soon enough everyone used it. Blades where typically 50 centimeters some as wide as 80 cm. You turned it broadside and it would cover a far bit of your body with no trouble.” Ketch said as he carefully picked up one of his wrist knives and started to sharpen it with a wet stone.

“Well,” Joran squirmed when Ketch looked up sharply at her hesitation. She smiled embarrassed slightly.

“At the academy, we have to design our own lightsaber and build it with either a crystal we get on our own or from our master. I was slightly clumsy and dropped my crystal.” Ketch smirked at her.

“Good to know you grew out of that,” Ketch said. Joran blushed slightly and continued.

“So the tiny fractures diffuse the energy when I activate it, making it arc out like you noticed, so the blade is wider than most, just as effective, but wider,” Joran said a tad defensively.

“Why didn’t you get a different crystal later?” Ketch asked. Joran started to answer but paused and thought about it. She had never considered replacing the damaged crystal, which would have made sense, she supposed others might have.

“Well, I never really considered it, I damaged it so it was my fault. After a while, it simply reminded me that little things can have larger consequences than expected.” Joran said thoughtfully.

“What about you? What about the small blaster in your boot? And the other one in your jacket? Or that odd bit off heavy wire sewn into all of your cuffs.” Joran asked studying Ketch intently. Ketch stiffened, but relaxed quickly, he brought out the other two blasters.

“You caught me, don’t miss much do you? Gran-dad always said, ”What’s the point of carrying a hold out blaster if everyone knows you have one?“ sorry, old habits die hard I guess.” he held up the smaller of the two blasters, it looked more like some kind of handheld comms device then a weapon.

“Merr-Sonn model J1 palm blaster, I modified it to pass casual inspection. I keep it in my pocket, only has the energy for around 10 shots. The other one,” he held up the blaster from his boot. It was just a miniature version of a regular blaster pistol, at least that’s what it looked like to Joran’s untrained eye.

“This one is just a stock Blast Tech DL-22, also a Merr-Sonn weapon. It’s to let anyone who search me, think they found my hold out blaster.” ketch said

“As for the wire in my cloths, you never know when you’ll need it, and it makes a handy garrote.” ketch didn’t smile at all after pulling out all of his weapons.

“Well, I must say, I am impressed despite myself. You must be quite the marksmen.” Joran said smiling at Ketch

“Top of my class,” he stated blandly tapping an intricate badge on the left breast of his jacket. It was a small badge, round with crosshairs trained on a gold blaster pistol, the word “marksmen” was embroidered along the top edge in basic.

“Well I better let you get some sleep,” Joran said as she settled back down to finish her meditation. Ketch grunted and tucked the slug thrower back into its holster, and slipped the rest of the weapons back into their respective places with the ease of practice. Yawning he climbed back into his “bed”.

Suddenly a knock on the door banged out, Ketch climbed out of the Airspeeder with a groan.

“What now?” he said tiredly. Drew his S-5, carefully he let one of his wrist knives slide into his hand. He held the long knife under the blaster, a very tactical position Joran noted. Ketch made his way to the door and peered at a display next to the door, the screen showed him a short smogger in ragged clothes and bright red goggles peering around covertly. It carried a large box of what looked like food.

“Who is it?” Joran asked sliding to stand next to the door beside Ketch.

“One of my delivery boys. Stay out of sight.” Ketch warned and slid the door open, he blocked the view of most of the garage with his body.

“Snell, glad you made it with my order from last week!” Ketch said sounding deadly serious. He put the blaster away but kept the knife out, tapping the point steadily against his thigh, the smogger winced and handed over the box.

“Sorry boss, hey I heard you had some trouble above the soup?” Snell said through his breath mask. His voice was barely discernible as male came through the old battered speakers.

“Yeah? You hear too much Snell, that’s a dangerous trait to have in your business.” ketch said grabbing the box.

“Right sorry boss.” Snell said turning to slink back into the gray mist.

“Snell, tell Knives I want to see him,” Ketch said slamming the door.

“Knives?” Joran asked quirking an eyebrow.

“A friend...one we can trust,” Ketch said setting the box of supplies down on an uncluttered counter. “Now maybe I can finally get some sleep.” Ketch nearly stumbled back into the speeder to collapse into the reclined seat. Joran smiled and climbed into the clean well-made bed that Ketch had offered her earlier.