"Darra," I replied softly, leaning down to kiss her little head. She bubbled and cooed, then started bouncing in my lap, her little arms waving. "Jhin'Darra Danner... or, it would have been that."

I stopped then, unwilling to go on. It still hurt too much; I tossed my head quickly to remove the beginnings of tears that were threatening, and sniffed a little.

"So you'd like to go to Garos IV, huh?" I finally asked, changing the subject. "That's where I'm from; my dad teaches... umm, that is, he taught at the University of Garos in Ariana.

"I-- I've been gone from there awhile."

Well, technically, yes. The short trip home to sell my property didn't have to be counted as an actual visit, per se. In fact, it was more of a distancing of myself from there than a return home.

I merely shook my head.

"The cliffs there are beautiful, but there are other places to go hide out in. I might be recognized there, fake identity, physical alterations or no."

With that I fell silent, taking another sip of wine, my head finally beginning to buzz lightly in response to the fruity liqueur. I smiled again, and merely took another sip.

--------------------

He came to sit by his two... saviors...

"Anyone else hungry?" He stated, but only to be polite, he planned on finishing the entire crate...

With a mouth full of food, he continued...

"Now, about that ship... I can take a look at it, I'm a mechanic... or was, before I was sent to this planet..."

He then quieted, and went back to the food...

--------------------

Just then Malf came back and sat down. Flac shook his head "i dont know about galen, but you can eat my share for me if ya want..."

with a quick swig he finished off his bottle of wine. Looking over he noticed that galens too was empty, he stood up, grapping to more bottles from his ship, also grapping a bottle of milk, handing galen two of the three, he opened up his second bottle of whine and drank slowly... wondering where they'd end up, and how long this fiery red-head would let him stay by her side...

he looked over, putting two and two together, and came up perfectly with 4... realizing what must be going on, she'd gotten maried to someone, but never gone through with having adoption set up... he would have asked, but something in her eyes told him to back off that subject...

--------------------

I sighed, and let myself slide back until whatever it was I was sitting upright against -- a rock, maybe? -- was only propping up my upper torso and head. The rest of me sprawled in what probably was a most unladylike manner along the ground; at the moment I didn't care.

I just didn't care. I didn't care about the incongruity of this whole scenario -- he had baby bottles aboard his ship? -- I didn't care that I was basically homeless and now seemed to be starting yet another chapter in my life before having scarcely set down the first book.

All I cared about was that it was just so nice to lay there, knowing I was utterly safe here on this rogue planet, surrounded by the homely sounds of Malf's munching, Darra's slurpings, and Flac's guzzlings.

A crooked little smile crossed my face, and I raised my own bottle to him.

"A toast then," I said suddenly, more than a little dizzy. "To--"

I paused, frowning, wondering why there were suddenly two Flacs looking at me; wondering as well if he had enough food aboard that ship of his to feed the two Malfs who were sitting there sharing a crate, no wait, two crates....

Clearing my throat, which suddenly was very dry, I took a sip and then tried again.

"To wherever we end up going, which I hope is very far away...."

My crooked grin slopped over the lip of the bottle, and I took another swig of the wine. I never had realized that wine ever could taste as good as this wine did.

--------------------

He shook his head, finishign his own bottle off, and tossing it aside...

He would have stopped her, but she just seemed like she needed a break... From whatever the universe had dealt her, and he thought she probably deserved it...

Standing up he returned to his ship, looking about at the stacks of boxes and crates, and various things he held in there...

"you always knew some of this stuff would come in handy... Smuggling stuff into tatooine finaly payed off, Eh flac? course it did... Everything you do eventauly turns out worth while..."

he laughed to himself, before walking in and heading to the uper level, taking out some blankets from a small compartment... heading out again he tossed one to malf, and drapped the other accross galen, though she was still awake. He didnt think she would hold on to conciousness much longer...

He then reached down and gently lifted darra from galens hold, while galen certainly did attempt to protest the action, she was in no condition to stop flac...

He wrapped the blanket around darra, smiling as she finished off the bottle with one final suck, falling asleep, and allowing it to fall from her grasp, he removed the bottle from her sleeping grasp, and gently set her back down in galens own hold, making sure that galen wouldnt accidently drop the child in here drunken stupper...

Ok flac... next time... No whine for the Lady... Right.

he then propped himself up against the large crate that malf was finishing off, buttoning up his jacket he let his gaze fall upon galen and the sleeping darra, watching as the half finished bottle fell from galens grasp, he closed his eyes partly, keeping an eye on things...

He'd learned long ago never to let a drunken person out of his sight...and he didnt mean to let that knowledge go to waste...

--------------------

I heaved a great sigh all of a sudden, the last grip on the farthest thing from logic that I was somehow managing to maintain finally letting go to flee to the horizon and disappear over it. I don't know what I was thinking, something vague about dancing for joy because we were going somewhere but he took my wine and now I'm just gonna lay here on the nice cozy ground here with Darra and take a lil snooze...

Hmmm. Thiz place woudn' be haf bad... Groun's cozy a' leash....

--------------------

He took it and spread it over the sleeping forms of Galen and Darra...

Then walked back toward Flac,"They'll need both, it gets quite nippy..."

Malf sat back against a rock adjacent to the crate Flac was propped up against...

"Don't worry, I'll watch over them... my species hibernates once every month... I'll be up all night..."

--------------------

--------------------

Had it only been 3 hours since Malf had finished off that crate...

His stomach was already in knots, but he couldn't search for food, he had promised to watch over his new friends... and that he shall...

Even the insects started looking appetizing... he looked to his right, the top of the rock at eye level to his sitting form...

A beetle sort of bug was walking slowly across, Malf's eyes not moving off of it...

He'd eaten worse, but luckily for him inspiration struck...

He knelt down, slowly and steadily raising Galen and Darra into his arms as gently as possible...

He carried them into Flac's ship, where he ate yet another crate full of food, then returning them to their position on the ground outside when he was finished... making sure not to wake them, he took his place at the rock...

Eyeing the same bug, he snatched it and gobbled it down...

He wasn't about to skip dessert...

--------------------

He looked over to malf casting a smile on the being that was still watching galen and darra loyaly.

"thanks alot, i appriciate this my rug like friend..." as he spoke his smile grew into that lopsided grin.

"Keep it up furry... Im gonna go find some water and take a bath... Theres gotta be some of the stuff on this forsaken astroid of a planet..."

with that he walked off, unbuttoning his jacket, to return himself to his normal look...

--------------------

Ahh... yes. This is indeed something that is familiar to me, not a common occurrence, one must understand, but familiar enough that I know the very best thing I can do is to just continue lying here, quiet. And whatever I do, keep my eyes closed, that's the key....

That was not to happen, unfortunately. Even as that thought peeped fuzzily into my brain, it was followed by another:

Where in Hell's Seven Circles was I?

There was nothing for it but to open my eyes, and determine this for myself.

So I did.

My head immediately exploded in thousands of spikes of a brilliant and scintillating white, each one acting as a tiny sword that tried to thrust itself into the nearest raw nerve ending before questing around for more. I groaned as I felt yet another one find its mark, and blinked muzzily.

Everything swam about me like veggies in a roiling soup; I groaned again, then forced myself to move and sat up.

It was all I could do to not fall immediately over, but by dint of sheer effort I managed and remained hunched in a tangle of sweaty blanket, swaying slightly.

I felt terrible... until where I was suddenly came to me, and why. Then I felt worse.

I looked around for Darra, my pounding head and churning stomach now threatened as a brief shot of panic boiled up inside me. She wasn't here! Where was she?

Then my vision cleared enough that I could see that big hairy monstrosity sitting nearby, alternating between munching on something from a nearby crate and tickling Darra on her nose. She was sitting in his ample and probably quite snuggly lap, reaching out to his giant finger and gurgling happily.

I opened my mouth to say something, but words refused to come up. They just kept sticking to the insides of the dryest throat I had ever experienced in my life.

Sheesh, what WAS that stuff Flac gave me last night? I now wondered as another memory flashed up from the recesses of my poor head to taunt me. Never, ever again...!

I couldn't take the pull of gravity any longer, much less the pull of the thoughts that were now growing exponentially within me All I could do was groan, and fall back against my lumpy blanket, and hope that the next time I opened my eyes the universe would have returned to normal.

Or at least the closest thing to normal that it could ever be for me, now that I thought about it.

--------------------

"you would NOT believe the trouble it is to find water on this freaken planet! BUT I DID IT!" he then laughed to himself maniacly
And then his laughed turned to a strange bit of teeth chattering nonsense...

his gaze then turned to galen, and with a deep breath he put the cold out of his mind...

"hmmm... She's in need of Flacs mirical morning making tonic..."

He laughed to himself and pulled out a slight vile, tosing it to galen.

"alright Brown eyes, take a swig of that, and all your problems will be solved..." he laughed to himself before muttering "course ital give you a whole new set of problems to think about... Tastes horrible and i mean HORRIBLE, and that taste dont leave for a good day and a half. On top of that, well, you might experience a bit of a light headed feeling for the first few hours, but ital get rid of your head ach..."

he laughed to himself and walked away, cause after all, he'd been there many a time before... many many times before... he laughed again. "yes flac, your a vet... Thank god you dont react like THAT to alchohal anymore...That stuffs almost not worth it..."

He then went into his ship for a moment, looking about he picked up a comb and pulled his hair back.

Exiting again he looked around and flashed his grin.

"Who's ready for a trip to tattooine? I know i am!"

he then looked at malf and shook his head in feigned disgust. "you just had to eat my last crate of food didnt you? Oh well... I guess we need to pick up some supplies when we get to tattooin, or maybe somewhere on the way..."

he then looked to his ship and nodded. "the way i see it, sense your so paranoid about your ship and all, We can fix tammy up another to fly a few miles, park your ship out in the middle of nowhere, and fly in on tamerak... That way no one will wonder where we came from, and eyes wont be drawn to some strange ship..." he grined and turned around "ya see brown eyes? I told you tammy was a special ship... no one EVER supsects anything from the guy that 'cant afford' to fix his ship up"

--------------------

"Tatooine?? aare you sure we need to go to that planet... why not the lovely Naboo, it's quite nice this time of year..."

Malf now held Darra up,"...young ones love Naboo's wildlife..."

He then quieted, hopping he didn't give away his fear of returining to Tatooine...

--------------------

At length Malf quieted, and apparently Flac was waiting for my input, so with another shuddering groan I forced myself upright once again. It took a couple tries, but I was finally able to bring that vile vial up to my mouth and down its contents in one fell swig.

He wasn't kidding about the taste; I think a dewback wallow would taste better. I shuddered and spit the suddenly excess saliva my mouth was forming, thankful at least for its production that I could swallow the rest of it and moisten my parched throat.

"I-- I don't really care where we go," I finally croaked, licking my lips distastefully and remaining upright only by sheer will. "I just need to be somewhere that's not overly populated, somewhere where Darra and I will be safe...."

I groaned again, and lay back down, lacing my hands together and putting them on my stomach to keep it from erupting from my body altogether. In this manner I waited to see if anyone would finally come up with a destination for us. Hopefully this would take some time; I was in no shape to drive.

And that's as sure as there's Treasure on Roon.

[ 10-27-2002 04:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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His mind slowly turned back to the last time he'd visited the gungans... what had they said when he left? "yousa nevas commin backin heres again, Ifas yousa bein doing thats, yousa gonna be feeling biggin crunchens..."

He nodded his head. "yep, naboo it is..."

Lets just make sure you bring them LOTS AND LOTS of supplies... What did they like? hmmm...they liked it when outlanders didnt come in... Welp, sux for them, cause flac is staying over!

--------------------

"Well, good... It's settled then, I'm so glad you choose what's best for the child..."

He now rose, showing Flac little Darra...

Flac resisted a bit, but finally accepted her...

Malf started to walked away,"...because... that's really the only reason not to travel to Tatooine..." trailing off a bit at the end...

He didn't get two feet, before spinning around on his knees.. eye level to Flac...

"ALRIGHT... I can't take it anymore... I confess... It isn't the only reason..."

Malf slowly got to his feet, realizing he had blown his cover... all the while, wondering what questions might come his way...

--------------------

he just cast a bewildered glance on malf, before shaking his head. "Listin Rug-man... You dont have to speak if you dont wanna. you dont need to tell ol' flac anything more then what you feel he should know..." he cast a little grin on galen as if to say "when you gonna open up like him?"

"that does seem to be the popular choice now aday's" he said turning his glance back to malf. "but if it'al help ya sleep at night big feller, im all ears..."

He then turned his gaze back to darra, and began moving her about through the air, making little sound affects and muttering something about the plain flying fast, to which she simply giggled and laughed, kicking joyusly as flac put her through loops and spins, before finaly just holding her and smiling. "You got spunk kid... You got spunk... You and me are gonna get along just fine" he then turned back to malf and cast that funny grin of his on the hairy being. "Alright, hows about we get going now, and you can start telling on the way to naboo?"

He then turned to galen, who was finaly on her feet, shaking the remanders of a hang over away he smiled "You ready brown eyes? cause i think your daughter wants an adventure, and i tell you, I certainly aim to please"

--------------------

"I mean to do just that... once in flight, finally getting off this rock of a planet... now, what seems to be the problem with that ship of yours?"

Malf quieted, and waited... ready to do whatever it took to leave this planet of irony... so many precious metals, nothing to spend it on...

[ 10-29-2002 12:52 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Malf ]

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He shrugged. "shoulnt take much to fix it... I know exactly what it needs, i just dont have the tools... Come on in here and give ol Tammy's engines a good kick... That'll fix 'er up REAL nice..."

He grin from ear to ear and led the way... Funny thing is, he wasnt joking a bit about the kicking.

--------------------

He emerged from the Vessel, covered in grease, and told Flac they could depart whenever he was ready...

Malf didn't care when they left, just as long as he was on the passenger list...

--------------------

I was feeling better.

Better enough, for that matter, that I was able to sit up and take a look around. The motion made my head spin a bit, but it was akin to the almost pleasant muzziness one gets in a high-fevered state; thank the fates that the bubbling cauldron that had been my stomach and the triphammer that had been somewhere behind my eyes had utterly disappeared.

I placed a hand to steady myself, then in one smooth movement threw off the blanket I had been entangled in and got hesitantly to my feet. I blinked then, and let out a breath which expanded into a sigh of relief when I realized everything seemed to be functioning again.

Wow. Flac didn't need to smuggle; this stuff could make him a fortune. But then again, what was that he had said about wanting to smuggle; something about enjoying the wilder side of life?

I couldn't stop the slight frown that came over me at that. I mean, he really didn't seem to be my type, nor the type I would normally hang with. I might have a hot streak in me, but I had also inherited dad's logical frame of mind.

Which suddenly kicked into gear.

My eyes widened, the frown disappearing.

Yeah, maybe it would be good to hang with Flac and this overgrown fuzz-bucket for a bit. Certainly these guys were the very last ones anyone would expect to find me with. Which in turn would give me time to decide just what I was planning on doing, and where I was planning on going, and with or toward whom, for the rest of my life...

...which at the moment really wasn't set completely in stone.

Now I moved over to where Flac was standing talking to Malf. He held Darra in his arms in with disconcerting ease; I gulped as a sudden flash of a daddy holding her came into my head, two of them in fact, her biological one and then--

I jerked myself away from that train of thought. I wasn't ready yet. So I just moved up quietly to Flac and Malf and came to a stop, shifting my feet as bit as I reached out to relieve Flac of my daughter's slight burden.

"Thanks Flac," I said with another rare and genuine smile. Then noticing the grease which smeared Malf's abundant tresses I went on, "I see your ship looks to be space-worthy again. So if you just want to tell me where it is we've decided to go, I'll just go get in my ship and follow along...."

After I find where in Hell's Seven Circles that gold is, the statement finished silently as I eyed Malf, focusing upon the glittering bits still showing themselves amidst the by-products of what was probably quite intensive labor on his part.

[ 10-30-2002 01:40 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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His smile slowly vanished, as he caught Galen giving him the strangest look he'd ever seen...

"Do I have something in my face??" He asked...

Embarrassed, he quickly checked for loose food in his facial hair...

--------------------

He nodded slowly before addressing her, "We're gonna pay the gungans a visit... That should be remot enough to keep you and your daughter hidden for quite some time. Im ready to leave if you-"

Suddenly he froze, his eyes darting to his ship for a moment...

He rose a finger wagling it in front of malf and galens faces for a moment before running off, into the underside hatch, muttering the words "hold on a sec" as he did so...

Within the ship now, he looked about and shook his head as he noted a few of the marked boxes... A few were labeled 110, a greater amount were labeled 111.

He shook his head... No way was he gonna not deliver these contents... This job was just to important... He couldnt skip it.

he exited the ship shaking his head. "Malf, i know you dont wanna go to tattooine, but i have some extremly important... ah... Bussiness to..umm... Attend to... Ya, thats it..." he looked about, in almost a nervous manor. "but if you wanna hide in the ship while i do it, that would work, or maybe galen will let you crash with her in the atmosphere... but i CAN NOT miss this transaction..."

He nodded to himself and turned about to eye his ship, muttering to himself "i need to pick up another crate or two of food too..."

he nodded again, turning back to the other two. "ya, and i might need to stop somewhere and pick up some more crates of food..." his eyes darted "i umm... Dont like to ah... Go unprepared... Ya. Thats it..."

as if time were of some great importance, he hopped onto the hatch to enter tamerak, and cast his smile about them "well, lets get going... Galen." he said, and nodded to her, before giving her the frequency of his ship comm, which he had repaired while malf had worked on his engine.

--------------------

Along the way I took it upon myself to whip out a portable sensing device, which soon had me directed to a cave a bit out of the way but easily accessible otherwise. There in the dark interior I stumbled upon what had to be a hoard accumulated over, oh I'd say a period of about three years....

I hope Malf doesn't mind, I thought to myself as I cast my eyes about this place that he so obviously had made into his dwelling. At last I found what I was looking for: crammed in the far recesses of the cave was a crudely fashioned bag made of some kind of animal's skin. It was laced together with the dried tendons of whatever critter had provided the hide; wrinkling my nose, I shook it out and inspected it. As it looked sturdy enough, I turned back to the hoard, and soon had the bag brimming.

And the pile hadn't even been dented. Sheesh. Not that's better than Roon's Treasure!

I'm going to have to memorize the vector this rock is on, I thought to myself as I exited the cave, groaning beneath the weight of the gold I had pilfered. This is going to be worth a repeat visit one day....

With that I hoisted Darra upon my hip, tightened my grasp on the bag, and made an uneventful return to my ship. Flipping off the light-bending device, I soon boarded her, stowed the gold in a storage compartment, stowed Darra in her usual place, and sat down in mine. My hands reached out and played a symphony on the nav-board's exotically alien sigils, and I was soon rewarded by the quiet whuffles as Jester IV woke up and shook herself, eagerly ready for departure.

I tapped the comm.

"Tamerak, this is Jester IV. I am departing Potato Rock in five, and shall meet you in Naboo orbit... unless you have anything else in mind."

--------------------

He nodded his head, tapping the ship into space, and soon after blasting off into hyperspace...

Sometime later

the ship made a small stop at a little space station, flac entered and nodded in recognition to the man he met.

"i need two more crates of food...'

Reaching into a pocket he pulled out a handfull of cash and slapped it down on the counter "and i need it loaded up FAST im runing late as it is..."

the man nodded and soon the crates had been loaded.

In hyperspace once more flac looked at malf "sorry dude, you cant touch that food... it serves a higher cause..." he smiled a bit "but if you get hungry, i think i got a few protien bars in the coboards...if you can eat that stuff..."

he shudder to himself... as he turned his gaze back into the view screen, nodding off slightly as the beauty of hyperspace filled his eyes.

A long time after

Flac was awakened by an obnactious beeping that indicated he had reached his destination, and with a slight flip of a switch, tamerak reverted into realspace...

Looking down at a little clock on the navboard he smiled... night time, he wouldnt be noticed...

as he approuched the planet he kicked his ships engines into "quiet" mode, lowering there light output, and noise, but cutting his speed in half...

he put tammy down right in the middle of the slums where slaves lived, and smiled to himself... Time to unload...

he looked at malf "hey, You had best stay here, i dont know what trouble your in yet, but i dont want you to get into anything because of me..."

he nodded and went down into the lower portion of the ship, opening up the back hatch, and, with indeed a lot of trouble, he managed to unload the crates, which were soon carried off by a few contacts, which he had alerted of his pressence before landing...

He smiled as a few kids came up and sorounded him, picking one up in his grasp. "how ya doin kid?"

he kid smiled at him "I knew you wouldnt be to late uncle flac... You always get here on time"

He smiled gently, rufflign the kids hair "i got you guy's lots of new toy's, and some new blankets... be sure not to be seen with 'em, You know my mato... If they dont know ya have it, they cant take it away." he grin to the kid and set him down, pulling a little doll out of his pocket he handed it to a little girl that looked at him tentively.

"hey there... I told you i would get her fixed up for you... No worries right?"

he smiled and accepted a brief hug from her...

one of the older kids then approuched him, the kid nodded to him briefly before extending a hand "We appriciate this visit, as always, Flac... Thanks a lot... times are hard, to much is happening in the universe..."

Flac nodded solemly, "dont worry, you can count on me... I gave my word a long time ago that no kids would be forced to go through what i did... No one needs to turn to the life i did..."

Flac nodded before turning away "i got some other bussiness to attend to now... Top secret you know... And remember, You aint never scene the smuggler known as flac... You got that kid? not ever."

with his costumary line said, he turned away and entered his ship, Nodded to malf, the blasted off into hyperspace once more...

Sometime later

The ship exited hyperspace in the naboo system, and flac reactivated the comm channel, wondering if tamerak could even send messages to galens ship... worth a shot.

"Alright Brown eyes... My bussiness is done with... You ready to get down to the gungans?"

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