Zoraida Cordova - A Crash of Fate

As Damar led him deeper into the back of the barn, he tried to get a sense of what they were planning. Izzy said that Ana Tolla didn’t give her crew all the details. He knew others, like the Botsini crew, who operated in a similar way. The captain gave everyone a specific job; that way if one person screwed up, he would know who. Jules always thought that could only be productive if there were backups.

Why was he thinking about their crew? He needed to find a way to get Belen out. They weren’t keeping her in the storage barn.

He took in the sight of Ana Tolla, dressed in head-to-toe black with a blaster rifle slung across her chest. There was a nervous-looking Ketzalian flying back and forth on thick purple wings. She had a humanoid head with lizard features and waxy feathers for hair. The only other time he’d seen the species was when some were on-world trading loralora birds for golden lichen. Against the door was the muscle, a Zygerrian with a gray feline face and yellow eyes. He made a guttural sound when he looked at Jules. Last was a Twi’lek with pale coral lekku that faded into multiple colors. One arm, heavily modified with tattoos, was in a sling, and the left side of his face was covered in blue bruises.

“They should have been here by now,” the husky Zygerrian said. When he crossed his arms over his broad chest, his muscles looked like boulders.

“They were right behind us!” Damar shouted.

Ana Tolla stepped close to Jules. Bile rose in his throat. He wasn’t used to steeping in anger this way. He hated it.

“I can see why she spent all day with you,” Ana Tolla said, looking him up and down. “Someone get him clothes.”

Jules scoffed. “I’m guessing you didn’t bring me all the way out here to dress me up. Where’s Belen?”

“I would worry more about where Izal Garsea is,” Ana Tolla said.

“You heard your sleemo over there,” Jules said. “They left before us.”

The Ketzalian flitted over with a pair of loose green pants. Jules held up his cuffed wrists. “Do you mind?”

The Zygerrian growled his disapproval.

“Don’t worry, Oksan,” Ana Tolla said. “He’ll do as we say or his darling sister won’t make it out of where we’re keeping her. Izal, on the other hand. She’s a survivor. I imagine she’s half way to abandoning you.”

Jules forced himself to stand his ground. Ana was wrong about Izzy. The certainty of that helped him focus on his sister. He could almost feel the freedom of his hands when Ana Tolla waved the key in front of his eyes.

“Try something,” Ana Tolla said. “I like a challenge.”

“You came to the wrong planet,” Jules told her.

Ana Tolla looked down her nose at him and smiled with red-painted lips. “Tell me why that is.”

“No one has crossed Oga Garra and lived.”

“Not yet.” Ana Tolla’s smile was arrogant. “Are you ready to get to work?”

He shrugged and summoned everything he’d learned from Izzy that day. Lying was a skill. “I’m just a simple farm boy. What am I supposed to do?”

She traced a finger along his jaw. Her eyes were an eerie pale blue. “I need you to do exactly as I say.”

“You!” Volt abandoned the game table and marched out to the open area of the landing pad like a rancor ready for dinner. “How dare you show your face here. After what you and Rakab did to me! I’ll feed you to my tooka when I’m done with you.”

“Please, just hear me out!” Izzy shouted. She held her hands up to show she was unarmed.

He slowed when he noticed Delta beside her. His eyes cut from the speeder and back to them. Though Volt’s answer simmered, he was visibly thrown off by the sight of the young women together. Delta examined her short, oddly clean nails. Izzy knew that just because they had a temporary truce didn’t mean that Delta would protect her from Volt.

“I’m sorry about what we did,” Izzy said.

“Do you even know what you did?” Volt’s expression was crazed, his eyes wide as he ran his palms across his veiny skull. “I almost lost another finger! Bina is furious with me. I had to buy a one-month supply of the milk dokmas drink. Do you know how many batches of Volt’s Special Juice I’m going to have to sell on the side to pay for that?”

As Volt’s pitch rose and his yelling increased, her resolve began to wither. Less than a day in the Outpost and she had caused such a mess.

She thought of Jules in shackles. The moment he’d told her to leave. It would be the easy thing to do. Hadn’t she run every time before? Floating around space was often an easier option than facing reality. After her parents had died, she’d run. The thing about running was that sooner or later there was nowhere left to go.

“How many batches of your rusty venom would you have to sell?” she asked. “I’ll cover it.”

He looked from Izzy to Delta. “Wait. What’s the catch?”

“How many?” she repeated.

“Ten at one hundred spira each.”

“A thousand spira?”

“Never underestimate how much milk a dokma will drink,” he said with a smirk. “Plus there were the other messes—”

Her laugh was near hysterical. She was down to the dregs of her money. “I have half of that. The rest I can get from Dok once this is over. But first I need to buy a fyrnock from you.”

Volt put his hands on his hips and regarded her with suspicion. “Again, why are you doing this, off-worlder ?”

“Because Jules is in trouble and I don’t have any weapons.”

Volt’s expression went blank. He turned around and went back into the card game room.

“Wait!” Izzy looked back at Delta, who simply shrugged. “I thought we had a deal!”

Before she could despair, Volt marched back out to the landing pad, and this time he carried a rifle blaster. It was New Republic issue, probably dropped off the back of a freighter. She raised her hands.

“Wait a minute, let’s talk about this—”

But he wasn’t aiming at her. He was waiting for her to give instructions.

“What about the fyrnock?”

Volt harrumphed. “You think I’m going to bring it out of its cage? It took me one hour and six rats to get it back in there in the first place. Besides, who’s going to drink after work with me if some lunatics kill Rakab? Nope. I’m coming with you.”

For the first time since being held up with her own gun by her own ex, Izzy smiled. “Let’s go get our boy.”

Ana Tolla released him from his cuffs. They fell to the floor with a sharp plink .

“That’s not a good idea,” the Twi’lek said. “What if he attacks you?”

Ana Tolla raised an eyebrow. Jules couldn’t tell if she was skeptical of Jules’s strength or annoyed that someone had spoken out of turn. “Then his sister dies, Safwan.”

He followed the crew captain out of the storage barn, where they passed an open crate full of what looked like white bricks. The floodlights had been turned off so as not to set off any sensors. He could see the Ketzalian flying high up on the outside wall, where anyone without wings would need a ladder or lift to reach. The rest of the lights across the field went off. Dread pooled in his gut when he saw the silver cargo freighter with an open ramp in front of the silo. Ana climbed aboard.

The lights in the ceiling made her red hair look like a flash of fire. He wasn’t afraid of fire, but something about the situation, about her, made him remember that night. Jules and Belen running away from their collapsing home. He’d stood there waiting for his father to come out of the neighbors’ house. He’d never been that afraid in his whole life. But then his da had walked through the flames with Tap in his arms, and for a brief moment, everything was as it always had been.