Nephill
Faction Moderator 
Mando Mod
[SKB:NephillKilner]
Posts: 159
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Post by Nephill on Mar 25, 2013 2:51:43 GMT -5
Natalia nodded slowly, wiping a bit at her eyes as she seemed to flourish a bit now, rejuvenated - at least for the moment. It all made sense to her - she did have an uncomfortably intimate understanding of Hutts and their egos. She knew it hardly made economical sense to capture her again - years as a free woman would render most of her docile slave training useless, and she wouldn't be trusted to be a subservient servant in any Hutt's harem. This was just a point of pride, and even obligation for the Hutts.
"No...I'm sorry, but I wouldn't know where to start. I mean, we could look it up," she said helplessly, shrugging. She cursed herself for being complacent enough as to not look into this sort of thing already. She had allowed herself to believe she could live a normal life - an almost fatal mistake.
"Don't they put bounties on the net somewhere? And how do you think we can get them off my back? I don't really have money...only my ship. That's still on Tatooine, by the way. I have to pick her up," she said, a bit of quiet indignation at that last part. It was clear she harbored affection for her ship.
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Post by Solaris on Mar 25, 2013 18:26:48 GMT -5
"That is being a good place to be starting," Dred said with a nod. "As for your ship . . . eeugh. I am thinking that sending you out to be recovering her is being risky. Riskier than I am liking. I am having friends, they can be recovering your ship for you." Dred stood up, frowning thoughtfully. "We will be putting in near Adriana in about half an hour. They are being good people - you can trust them." He smiled, thinking of the matronly Izmari Koloban and her husband, Ryborn. "I met them when I was bringing their child back from the Xelric Draw - they would sooner die than betray me or my friends."
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Nephill
Faction Moderator
Mando Mod
[SKB:NephillKilner]
Posts: 159
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Post by Nephill on Mar 26, 2013 3:20:09 GMT -5
Natalia nodded. She trusted him - and she wouldn't retract that trust now, and likely not ever. She was invested into this Dred. And who he trusted, she would trust. And if that trust turned out to be misplaced...well, she doubted she would be alive long enough to enjoy the consequences.
"Okay," was all she said simply, voice delicate.
"I'm looking forward to meeting them," she added on whimsically, after a moment. It was strange, really. To be confronted with the possibility of making new...friends.
What a strange, and so very foreign concept.
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Post by Solaris on Mar 26, 2013 19:23:42 GMT -5
Dred chuckled. "You are, of course, having the run of the ship until we get there - if you are wanting to take a shower or get something to be eating, you are more than welcome to."
Dred patted her reassuringly on the shoulder as he walked past her to start putting away the tools. Her show of vulnerability was quite endearing, he had to admit. It occurred to him that she was only letting him see that side of her because she trusted him - and that she wasn't trying to manipulate him. Having grown up a slave, everything she cared about taken from her and having neither family nor friends . . . Dred could understand what was going on in her mind. Natalia was slowly coming to terms with the fact that her old life was over, that she was now in the world where she could trust and love as she chose.
Especially once Dred ensured that the Hutts would never again take an interest in reclaiming her. He knew that if they did reclaim her, their torturers could break her mind and destroy her free will, an idea abhorrent to him even in the abstract . . . and with that beautiful woman, so strong and so vulnerable, sitting there on his ship, Dred knew he simply could not allow that to happen.
"I, however, will be catching some shut-eye in the cockpit. Tracking you down before the bounty hunters could be escaping with you was not being a quick or easy job." He smiled wryly at the understatement. Maybe someday he would tell her of the hard, desperate race against time - but not any time soon. "Do not be hesitating to ask me if you are needing help finding anything on the ship - or if you are just wanting to be talking."
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Nephill
Faction Moderator
Mando Mod
[SKB:NephillKilner]
Posts: 159
|
Post by Nephill on Mar 29, 2013 16:18:26 GMT -5
"Okay," she said softly, nodding. All of the thoughts that had been running through Dred's mind were too-intimately known facts to her.
As he turned away to take his nap, she wandered about a bit, exploring until she found what she sought.
Once the layout of the ship was known to her, she quietly slipped into a shower and washed her tired and dirty body clean. She hated to put on the same clothes, but she had little choice. Besides - she didn't want to appear too clean.
That done, she made her way to the cockpit, naturally assuming that's where Dred would return. It was a show of faith on her part that she didn't rummage about to gain information on her new "protector" - she had done that in the past, after all. Her long, brown hair still drying, she nervously tapped her thigh and waited for Dred to return as she watched the vortex of Hyperspace around them.
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Post by Solaris on Mar 30, 2013 20:02:02 GMT -5
"Howdy," Dred said amiably as he woke up in the pilot's chair to a beautiful woman impatiently waiting on him. His nose told him she'd cleaned up some, but hadn't changed out her clothes. He wasn't about to call attention to that; Dred's sense of smell, like his sight and hearing, was much sharper than most Humans', but he'd yet to meet the woman who appreciated being told her clothes smelled of blaster gas, burnt flesh, fear, and dust. "There's a trading post on the Koloban station. I am thinking you will be able to purchase what you are needing there. Clothes, weapons, food, and the like." He shrugged. "I am not being in the habit of keeping my ship stocked for any but my own tastes."As he spoke, the ship dropped out of hyperspace near an old space station, a kilometer-wide wheel of interconnected habitation modules with a central hub of a hive-like structure designed for docking ships. Dred reached over and took the controls, guiding them in without so much as an introduction. He glanced at Natalia as they passed through a containment field and settled in a rundown hangar bay. "My ship's transponder code is being known to them," he explained while a pair of customs officials walked up to the ship. "Come, let us be meeting them." Dred stood up and casually placed a hand on the small of Natalia's back to walk out of the ship with her. Realizing what he just did, Dred quickly pulled his hand back and hooked his thumbs on his pistol-belt. Next post, when they get out of the ship, they'll be discovering that it's not customs officials but a Hutt's thugs - just in case Natalia has some kind of precog abilities.
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