Thursday 5 July 2007

The Bounty Hunter Chapter 2

Chapter 2


Shiba Black arrived at docking bay 77 at the appointed time. The ship docked there was the strangest she had ever seen and she couldn't recall the name of the ship's type, though she was sure that Chan would have, considering his experience of star ships. She was still none the wiser even after piloting it to the medical facility that had saved Flik’s life. To her surprise, a small laser cannon descended from a concealed panel and swivelled around to face her.

It was at that moment that the Shistavanen bounty hunter, Flik Sivrak, appeared at the top of the ramp and descended slowly. He glanced at the fearful posture of the human woman and then at the laser cannon pointing towards her. He muttered a Shistavanen obscenity under his breath before whipping out the comlink from the pocket of his jacket; Shiba had noticed he had changed into since their last meeting.

"Lobo, stow the cannon. I told you we were having visitors," he spoke into it.

The cannon swivelled round slightly as if it was an eye, regarding him.

"Lobo," the Shistavanen warned in a low voice with a dangerous undertone.

The cannon immediately disappeared back into its hidden panel.

"You must excuse Lobo. He thinks this kind of thing is amusing."

It took Shiba a moment to recover from her shock. Was he doing this deliberately just to spook her?

"Yes, I'm sure," Shiba said, trying to sound like it hadn't scared her one bit, but failing miserably. "I accept your apology."

"Welcome to the Forgotten Warrior, doctor," Flik said. "Now, if you will follow me."

Shiba adjusted the bag on her shoulder and stared sceptically at the wolfman’s back as they walked up the ramp. She wondered if the wolfman suffered from a personality disorder of some kind. She wasn’t an expert on mental disorders but she had worked as an intern in a mental hospital during her studies on Alderaan and so learned to recognise some of the signs that he had been exhibiting.

But then, you had to be a little crazy to be a bounty hunter, didn’t you?

Now that’s a scary thought! A psychotic wolfman bounty hunter, at least twenty times stronger than a man, expert in the art of killing and with deadly weapons at his disposal – who’s the insane one?

“So, where’s Lobo?” Shiba asked, thinking that Lobo was a person.

“This is Lobo,” Flik indicated the ship.

“I thought you said the name of the ship was the Forgotten Warrior?”

“I did. Lobo is the ship’s computer, a semi-sentient artificial intelligence.”

“You mean like a droid?”

“Yes. The Forgotten Warrior is a modified Shistavanen scout ship. There aren’t that many left now, thanks to the Empire. The few that do exist belong to smugglers, bounty hunters, mercenaries, maybe a Rebel or two, but mine is the only one with an AI.”

“It is true, I am a rare specimen,” a self-important electronic sounding voice issued from concealed speakers. Shiba took this to be Lobo.

“So why aren’t there anymore, why is this the only one?”

“The AIs proved to be expensive to produce. Lobo is the prototype and they also found flaws within the AI’s personality matrix. The kind of thing you saw just now.”

“He has also proved to be less efficient than a normal computer, but he has been useful on occasion,” Flik continued. “Now, how about the mission, before Lobo develops a superiority complex.”

“That’s strange,” Shiba said, frowning.

“What is?” Flik asked her.

“Lobo. Has he been here all the time? He never said anything to me when I was taking you to the medical facility. I wasn’t even aware there was anything like him on board.”

Now it was the wolfman’s turn to frown. “Lobo, have you been letting people pilot you unchallenged?” he asked the AI.

“It was only on that one occasion, I assure you. You were badly injured and it seemed like the best chance you had for survival. Mistress Shiba didn’t look like the kind of person who would steal the ship and you did tell me that I was supposed to keep my existence a secret unless the ship was seriously threatened.”

“Mistress Shiba now, is it? Darn AI,” Flik muttered. “I don’t know why I put up with it.”

“You put up with me because I am the most advanced AI ever produced.”

“I put up with you because you came with the ship and I’ve yet to figure out how to wipe you without turning it into scrap metal.”

Shiba had to suppress a smile.

“Ah, Mistress Shiba, don’t mind him, he’s just a mardy bum.”

“Shut up, Lobo.”

By the time they had finished their conversation, they had reached a small lounge area of the ship with a table in the middle of which contained a small console and a holoprojector. On three sides of the table were couches set into the ship’s bulkhead.

Flik rummaged around in the bulkhead cupboards and came out with a set of unappetising looking ration meals and drinks. Though they had all the nutritional content needed, they were deficient on taste and palatability.

“You’d best get this down you – in this business you eat when ever you can even if you aren’t hungry,” Flik said, passing a tray and a drink’s canister to her.

Shiba accepted them without comment – that’s exactly the same philosophy she’d had to adhere to has a doctor as patients usually picked the most unsociable times to be sick.

Flik sat down on the couch across from her and ripped open the seal of his tray and drink respectively. He called up the holoprojector that nestled in the centre of the table.

“Lobo, bring up the files on the Vork Sarnad murder.”

Lobo did bring up a file, only not the one Flik wanted. The Shistavanen’s face creased in a frown. “Lobo –“ he warned. After about a moment or tow, Lobo brought up the correct file. It showed a Bothan male, which through her experience, Shiba guessed to be around twenty-five to thirty years old.

“There is some history behind this one and it will take some time to explain. It all starts around the time of the birth of the Empire, on the planet of Naboo, Palpatine’s homeworld. There are two species that make up the majority of Naboo’s population, the native Gungans and humans, who have settled there. Though distrustful of each other and living apart, for the Gungans are an amphibious species and have their cities underwater, they have, for the most part, lived in peace with each other. That was until the death of Senator Amidala at the beginning of the Empire.

“No one knows for sure who started the troubles. Some say that it was the remnants of the Separatists or that it was the Gungans themselves. Personally, I think that Palpatine himself may have ordered it.

“A group of genetic purists, mostly humans, who wanted to rid the planet of aliens, caused the human population to rise up against the Gungans and any other exotic race on the planet. Palpatine sent troopers to Naboo to install what he termed as peace. The Gungan cities were destroyed and the Gungan themselves, along with other exotics were rounded up and forced to live in townships away from the human populations. After a while, human criminals and the jobless were also forced into them, and anyone who objected to the regime.

“Among the criminals, there included were the purists. Even the Empire, though discriminating against exotics as they are, didn’t agree with their methods. Vork Sarnad became the leader of the resistance against the purists around six months ago. He was murdered by a member of the purists and it is our task to find out who that being was and take him out, for the Empire’s investigation into the incident failed to find the assassin and the resistance contacted me in the hope that I could bring them the justice that should have been done. I would have answered their call sooner, accept that I’ve been indisposed.”

They finished what was left of the meal in silence.

***


"So, what are these for?" Shiba asked, picking up a device that looked like it attached to the wrist. After the briefing, the wolfman had taken her to the cargo hold to go through some basic weapons with her. Upon first entering the cargo bay, she’d noticed a large swoop, similar to a speederbike near the doors, and along one wall were a row of cages that Shiba suspected the wolfman used for hauling prisoners.

He’d walked over to the opposite wall and placed his hand on a sensor that Shiba took to be a DNA reading device and part of what looked to be the bulkhead descended to reveal a host of weapons, some high tech and others which looked like they wouldn’t have been out of place in a slaughter house.

"Those, are wrist rockets and you need to know what you're doing with them so that you don't accidentally blow your arm off," Flik replied. "This is much better for a beginner." He tossed her a small hand pistol. Shiba caught it clumsily and shot him a look.

"I thought you said I had to be careful with these?" she indicated the wrist rockets.

"You do, for aiming them, but that thing’s not loaded. I never keep any weapon of that type loaded when I store it. You never know when someone will try to break in here, especially the bounty hunter you are supposed to be working with. Some, like the Wookiee Chenlambec who brought you here hold honour in the hunt over everything else and wouldn't consider double crossing you if he hadn't been betrayed first. The majority, however, wouldn't think twice about it - the less people they have to split the bounty between, the more they get. But these are usually dumb, anyway, apart from Boba Fett," he gave Shiba a look of scrutiny. "It remains to be seen which category you fall into."

"So the pistol doesn't even have a power pack in it," Shiba guessed.

The wolfman nodded his fur-covered head in affirmation.

"Besides, the wrist rockets take a lot of skill to aim properly."

Shiba absorbed this. It was true, she was unqualified to use most of these weapons in here, what with Alderaan having a ban on weapons. It had been a useless gesture of security, however, when the Death Star turned the planet to dust.

He caught her look of uncertainty. "Don't worry, if you have the knowledge to save life, you also have the knowledge to take it, if need be, doctor."

That is not a very comforting thought.

"My personal preference is the Ryyk blade over there, given to me by Chenlambec after we went on a hunt together. It never runs out of ammo, you can hardly ever miss with it; it is a weapon of honour. But you can't always trust on the guy who's shooting at you to have the same sense of honour, so you too must have surprises in reserve," he handed her a brace of vibroblades.

"There's a but, coming here, I think."

"You can't always rely on physical weapons, doctor. They can break; they can run out of ammo, they can be made useless by electronic fields. For this reason alone, you must always have a weapon in reserve when you don't have one. Have you ever heard of Teras Kasi?"

"I've heard it mentioned a few times, but I've never actually practised it," Shiba replied.

Flik's muzzle creased in an amused grin. "Then, perhaps, doctor, it is time you did."

“Don’t you need to be Force sensitive to be able to do that?” Shiba asked.

The look on the wolfman’s face suggested that he was hiding something from her. “To become a master of it, yes. But you don’t need the Force to learn the basic moves,” with a note of caution in his voice, he added, “The Empire doesn’t take kindly to talk of the Force. You have no knowledge of its existence for your own safety.”

Shiba nodded. “I know talk of it is dangerous.”

The wolfman’s muzzle creased in a snarl. “Then don’t mention it again.”

He took her through a series basic postures in Teras Kasi. When she didn’t get a posture quite right, he methodically put her right with a patience Shiba didn’t know he possessed. Shiba had been tense at first, especially when he went into her personal space to guide her limbs into the right position. His touch, though, wasn’t too intimate and she soon relaxed into it. He made her go through the postures a number of times until she completed them without assistance.

“Good. We’ll go through them together one more time and then we’ll do some basic self-defence with the postures as a guide,” he said.

Shiba nodded. During the practice session, she had noticed a change come over the wolfman and for the first time she saw him as a man, not as an alien bounty hunter. This realisation frightened her a little because she never knew these feelings towards him existed. She also noticed a curious shyness about him that he’d never displayed before.

“Are you going to do this, or are you just going to stand there?” he asked, his voice cutting through her thoughts.

“Yes, I’m sorry,” Shiba said, “I was just thinking, that’s all.”

“Well don’t. Such distractions can get you killed,” he said, brusquely.

As they went through the postures one last time, Shiba couldn’t help but steal a glance at him from time to time. She realised that this brutish act he employed was just that; an act. Once they’d passed through the postures, he was calm again.

“Now we’ll spend some time on self-defence,” he said, stripping off the t-shirt he’d been wearing. She noted that the scar on his chest where he’d been injured was still visible, even though the dark brown fur that ran down from under his chin to his belly had started to grow back. Taking his cue, Shiba took off her long-sleeved tunic to reveal the sleeveless top that she wore underneath. She was starting to get quite hot.

Shiba employed the postures that Flik had just taught her as they alternated roles between attacker and defender. She spent more time on the deck at first than she did in succeeding in blocking and countering his moves. In spite of this, she was still enjoying the training, as the same mood that had come over them before settled on them again. Even when she was sore and bruised, he still insisted on her practicing until she made him hit the deck.

“Finally,” Shiba said, wiping the sweat off her forehead, looking down at him.

“That’s good,” he said, panting. “You’ve made progress faster than I thought you would. I think it’s time we called it a day.”

“I think you’re right,” Shiba said, turning her back to retrieve her tunic. Before she knew what was happening, Shiba found herself on the floor with him. As she turned around to glare at him, Flik let out a hearty roar of genuine laughter, which got her laughing too.

“Just one more thing to learn today, doctor,” he said, “Never turn your back on an enemy, even if he looks defeated!”

Shiba leaned forward and kissed him, which took them both by surprise. To cover her shock, and to make him think it was deliberate, Shiba said, “And you, bounty hunter, should be aware that there are more ways to conquer your enemy than by fighting alone.”

8 comments:

Flik Sivrak said...

I decided to post a day early, as I'm busy tomorrow...

Unknown said...

But then, you had to be a little crazy to be a bounty hunter, didn’t you?

Oh yeah, this is sooooo true!

Then again people say that about jedi Knights too. LOL!

Skywalker said...

You won't be ofended if I sneeze while I here, will you? Anyone with fur makes me sneeze.

*sheepish grin*

Phobia said...

Very true DJK.. very true I've heard the cracks about Jedi.. some of them are funny others just downright stupid.

Flik Sivrak said...

Is that about Shiba thinking I was nuts? She's probably right...
I blame Vader, and that AI I've been landed with doesn't help.

Skywalker, sneeze all you want as long as you don't spary snot everywhere.

I think Skywalker show's just how crazy Jedi can go, but at least I've not blown up any planets... yet!

Nepharia said...

Good story so far. Looking forward to future posts.

Darth Vader said...

Interesting indeed.

Flik Sivrak said...

Thanks for the possitive comments.

I will be updating this Friday.