Noventa - A Star Wars Story

Hin shrugged as the cacophony of the rain hitting the awning above them intensified for a moment then subsided, probably driven from the wind that kicked up. "Depends on who comes here. Hard to believe many well-to-do types will trek this far. The Outer Rim has never been the nicest place. A good place to disappear is more like it."

"Now that the war's over, Noventa may start growing again," she suggests. "More farmers, more tradespeople... more doctors. The whole planet won't be Providencetown, certainly."

Hin hung his head. That was the kind of altruism he just didn't have inside him anymore. "I guess that's right. Guess good doctors are in short supply. I think here we've just got some sawbones who patch up people out of their homes for some credits. A good place to go when things get too rough."

"I don't know," she admits, her tone reflective as she looks out at the rain. "I'm useful here. I help people with something they need. That seems more important."

"Are you happy here?" There seemed to be more to the question. Something in the twi'lek's demeanor, something youthful and innocent, hopeful, but deeply sorrowful.

His eyes drifted up and down the lane of the bazaar, thoughts thinking to the two grifters, smugglers, hired killers, whatever. Curiosity welled within him, and a part of him wished they had followed. He quickly disabused himself of that thought knowing it could have possibly gotten one or both of them killed. And how could someone be happy here, if that was a very real possibility every day.

"Happy?" Yara looks a bit blank for a moment. "I expect it depends on the person."

A silent nod was Hin's reply, with a certain sober understanding, though then again it might have just been the rain that gave the young twi'lek that look.

"Do you think people here are happy?" He said as something of a non sequitur.

"It's funny." Yara follow's Hin's gaze up to the pitted hulk of the old Providence. "Set out to run the underworld, but when there isn't really any other government over you, in the end you just re-create the same oligarchy that rules by law on any number of other worlds. Not much of a line between an aristocrat and a crime boss, as it turns out."

Hin gave a shrug, "Up to you, but some stuff you won't find any cheaper anywhere else on Noventa. Lots of trade goes on off the streets. Yeah, a lot you don't want to get mixed up in, but sometimes, you just need to know the right palms to grease to get what you need."

Through the rain, Hin looked towards the megalithic carcass of the Providence Class ship that made up upper Providencetown, "They have supplies. More than they need....they just keep it to themselves as a bargaining chip. You just have to convince them its better to sell than to keep. It's all a game to them."

There was a tinge of bitterness to his voice.

"Is that so?" Yara asks curiously. "It's good to know... though when you manage a health-care facility there is a certain expectation of respectability to keep up. Even on Noventa." She shakes her head slightly. "Well, sometimes on Noventa."

"Oh, is that all you need? You should stop by the bar," Hin's lekku unfurled and slid down his back then with one returning to about his shoulders.

"The boss can hook you up, easy. Just ask. Now, don't get me wrong the stuff might have fallen out of a cargo bay or two, it it's safe."

"There aren't exactly a lot of salvage dealers uptown," the doctor explains, her smile going wry. "I heard some scrapped medical gear might be coming on to the market and, well, on a backwater like this it really is never a bad idea to have back-up parts on hand." She shrugs. "I may have to try again another day."

"Room enough to hide, I hope," he muttered quietly under his breath, the sound almost entirely swallowed up by the rain. There was a definite melancholy to the young twi'lek, though it might have just been his complexion. Either way, he seemed only half present.

"I don't pry, but you never said what you were doing in low town. Would have figured you could afford uptown."

"I can't argue with that," Yara says, clearly amused. "Even the weather here is half-decent... most of the time." She glances again down the street, where the mystery men have more or less vanished and the salvage dealers she was hoping to find today are still nowhere in evidence. "Well, I do have some connections offplanet, depending what your plans happen to be when you're ready to move on."

She smiles at him slightly. "The galaxy is changing. There's room nearly everywhere, these days."

"I don't think anyone would want to be here forever," his voice wasn't sad or judgmental. It was matter-of-fact.

He looked at his mud speckled boots, "But there are worse places in the galaxy."

"But you want to leave?" The doctor's green eyes become shadowed with a hint of concern.

"I wouldn't really know," Hin admitted finally turning his attention back to the good doctor. "I hitched a ride from off-world and got offloaded in P-town. No money, meant no leaving. I've been here ever since."

"Slumming?" Her lips twitch with amusement. "You may have too high an opinion of me. Or of the capital, for that matter." Shaking her head slightly, she adds, "Noventa City is a bit optimistic. It's a frontier-world town with a few hundred thousand people and a dead factory at its heart. A little more lawful than here, but hardly a paradise of order."

The twi'lek shook his head, mildly embarrassed, "Nevermind. Forget I said anything. It's really not important."

He continued to look in the direction the one man had gone, "Still, don't get too many of you capital types slumming it here in downtown P-town."

"You may be right. More to the point, anyone I tried to follow would see me coming from three klicks away, I'm sure." Yara shakes her head, suppressing frustration. Perhaps I'll ask Cal, next time I see him. He hears things.

"Sometimes I do," she says, turning to look at Hin more fully. She raises an eyebrow a little, but the smile at the corners of her mouth is touched with warmth. "If it isn't practical for someone to come in to the clinic, or if I happen to be in the neighborhood."