Zoraida Cordova - A Crash of Fate

Dok’s voice was tinged with anger. Jules tried to imagine what it must feel like for someone like Dok to suddenly be powerless. Stuck, with nowhere to go. How many felt that way and didn’t have the power and freedom the Ithorian had. When he was finished, Jules translated.

“One of his former assistants came to confront him,” Jules said. “In the name of the First Order.”

“For what?” Izzy asked.

“For contributing to the corruption of Batuu. He was convinced that killing Dok would somehow put an end to it. He was going to shoot him but lost his nerve. Dok fought back, but Calin caught him off guard. He shoved Dok in there and took off.”

“Did you know him?” Izzy asked.

Jules shook his head. “Not well. You saw him though, when we got stuck in the street blockade. You have to get your assassin droid fixed, Dok.”

Dok let out a surprising laugh and agreed with Jules.

“I took care of everything while you were gone,” Tap assured his boss, holding his hand against his chest. “Didn’t I, Jules?”

But Dok was rattling off more instructions. Jules paused and turned to Izzy. Her dark hair was wind-tossed around her face, her bright eyes looking expectant as she waited for him to speak. Once again, he didn’t want to say the words. This time, it was because it meant their day was drawing to a close. So far, he didn’t see a reason for her to want to stay longer. He hadn’t given her the dazzling tour of the Outpost he’d promised.

“Dok apologizes for keeping you. It was unexpected, and he conducts better business than this. He has your payment.”

“Unexpected is one way of putting it,” she said, and her smile devastated him. She took off her pack and removed the briefcase. “But at least it got to its destination.”

“He says the parcel was procured for a client. That if you’re in a hurry to leave you can go. You did your part.”

Dok kept speaking, oblivious that Jules was trying to gather enough courage to say good-bye to Izzy once again. There were things he wanted to tell her. Maybe the reason he couldn’t was because the day’s events kept getting in the way, sending them running from one end of the Outpost to the other to save their skins.

Then he turned to Dok, not sure he’d heard him correctly. “You want me to take this?”

Dok hated repeating himself, and Jules cursed himself internally.

“Right, no,” Jules said. “I’m your guy, Dok.”

“Wait,” Izzy said. “Respectfully, Dok-Ondar, if the job isn’t finished, I will get it done. I’m not leaving until then.”

Jules was too relieved to smile. “He said, suit yourself.”

Why hadn’t she taken the opportunity to leave? She had excellent reasons to go. Salju would have finished with the Meridian by then. The parcel was at Dok’s. Delta Jeet might be looking for her still. Then there was her word to Ana Tolla that they’d stay out of each other’s way. She’d just discovered a truth about her mother’s past she wasn’t certain how to deal with. She hadn’t rested or had time to think. But she had found one reason to stay, even if it was for just a little while longer. She wasn’t ready to say good-bye to Jules.

The added bonus was that she might make a good impression on Dok-Ondar in case she found herself coming back to Batuu.…He looked exactly as he had the one time she saw him as a girl, and she wondered what an Ithorian’s life span was. For a moment, she wanted to ask him if he’d also known her mother. But she closed herself to that possibility. There was no time for the complicated feelings that would bring. What good would it do? She couldn’t talk to her dead parents about it.

Back in the front of the shop, Dok retrieved a datapad. It was an old model that had been modified from other parts. Everything could be used again on Batuu. Izzy and Jules flanked him to look. Dok had also marked that place on his canvas map. He tapped coordinates on the glowing screen and warbled more information.

“The drop is here at suns-set?” Jules translated, as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “There’s nothing there. Not even farms. There’s only a bunch of rocks.”

Dok scoffed a reply.

“I know rocks are not nothing. I mean, why can’t they come to the Outpost?”

Izzy shrugged. “Maybe they don’t have a transport or their speeder is stalled. You know what that’s like.”

He balked at her teasing, and Dok chortled but didn’t speak again.

As they prepared to leave, Izzy considered where they were going. A suns-set drop-off for some hermit living in a cave somewhere on the outskirts of Batuu? Her gut told her there was more to Dok’s client. There had to be. She no longer knew the typical machinations of life at Black Spire, but as she went over the day’s events, there was one major difference from when she was a child, and that was the presence of the First Order. Why recruit on a planet that was only a refueling stop for most and a place to hide for others? Though clearly the assistant Calin and others had been taken in. Still, she couldn’t help thinking that perhaps the real reason the First Order was on Batuu was because the Resistance was, too.

Who was she that she should even care? An orphan. The daughter of a bounty hunter, apparently. Someone trying to get by. You don’t have a name .

She thought of Cookie’s bitter anger when he’d been serving them. Of Oga’s hurry to sniff out what might threaten her control over her small kingdom. Of the apprentice who had shaken with hate disguised as purpose. That thought led to another.

What was her purpose? Right then, it was to finish the delivery. And spend a bit more time with Jules. She watched him pull on his red canvas jacket and finger-comb his dark curls.

“You know I never ask you for favors, Dok,” Jules said, “but can you put in a call to Delta and sort things out?”

Izzy crossed her arms and watched Jules try to unravel himself from that one. She’d known Dok for about an hour and could already tell what the answer would be. Dok held up one of his long fingers, his brown skin peppered with dark sunspots, gesticulating his protest.

“Yes, I know it’s a problem we made,” Jules said. “Yes, I know I shouldn’t have set Bina’s creatures loose. Yes, that is my tunic Izzy is wearing.”

“I was undercover,” Izzy blurted out, but she felt her face grow hot. The Ithorian made a wheezy sound. Was that a laugh?

“I just mean that as long as Delta might be on the warpath, we can’t stick around the Outpost. Unless you want us camping out here until the meet.”

“You could wear masks,” Tap suggested, going back to polishing metal ornaments. Dok gave a dismissive wave of his hands before making his way back up to his desk.

She was about to suggest that they could try to get back to her ship to have a conversation that wouldn’t be interrupted by her seeing her old crew or riots or pets on the loose. But Jules snapped his fingers, a curious smile on his face.

“I have an idea.”

She wasn’t sure how, but she suspected what he would say.

“Home.”

She knew exactly where he meant. Was she allowed to call it home still? She could conjure the image of her old house right away, even though she hadn’t seen it in so long. If she was going to revisit it with anyone, she wanted it to be Jules. Besides, no one would look for them there.

When she stepped out the door, she almost wished she was standing in front of Delta Jeet or a furious Volt instead of the person she found standing there.

“Hello, starflower,” Damar said.

There was a time when she’d thought her life would shape up differently. Perhaps if her parents hadn’t been killed, or if she’d been the kind of girl who worried about her studies enough to stay enrolled in the academy. That girl wanted to explore ancient ruins like her father had before he became a farmer. But she was gone. Replaced with—well—whoever Izzy Garsea was becoming after a series of bad choices and worse luck.