Noventa - A Star Wars Story

[Expecting]

Kor sat outside the bar after business had wrapped up for the evening. He had just finished mopping the floors and grabbed a bottle of something dark and cheap that he bought from the bar.

The big man sits on a box outside the door sipping from the bottle and staring up into the sky. He had a far away look on his face as he sat and looked up, his mind obviously focused elsewhere but exactly on what was anyone's guess.

The door swung open and out came Quinn, who still looked a bit too young to be up and about this late. But she'd never been the sort who could easily be told what to do, something Kor would've figured out pretty early on. Whatever had brought her out to the Rim wasn't something he'd have quite figured out yet; she hadn't in any case volunteered the secrets of her past; but it wasn't as if the kind of life they led involved things like bedtimes or proper adulting anyhow.

"Can I have some?" She asked after noticing him sitting there with a bottle in his hand.

Kor looked down and saw the small girl there and raised an eyebrow at her. "Isn't it past your bedtime Quinn?" He said in his usual gruff manner but he extended the bottle out to her as he asked the question. 16 was young but he had been drinking by her age, no reason to be a hypocrite and tell her she can't drink.

The pair had been travelling together for some time now and while Kor didn't know everything about Quinn's past she likewise didn't know much about his, she knew he used to be a trooper but that's about it. That's how they worked though, pasts don't matter until they matter, Kor had saved her neck a number of times when that silver tongue of hers didn't get her out of trouble and Quinn has done the same for Kor when he found himself in a situation he couldn't fight his way out of.

He looked back to the sky and stared for a moment "so what do you make of this place? It's been a few months since we came here."

Rather than retort to the first question, she took the bottle and took a drink. It was strong stuff, but she managed to avoid coughing. There was the brief contemplation of a second drink, but instead she gave it back.

"Not too bad. Could be a good place to hang out for a while longer."

Kor noddded as he took the bottle back taking a deep swig. he was quiet for a moment as he looked at the sky and then back to the small girl next to him. The two of them had been through a lot over their time together. "Yeah, it seems like a nice place to start over, far enough out that it feels like we might be able to leave our pasts behind." he took his knuckles and rapped them on the wooden box twice. He wasn't an overly superstitious man but it wasn't wise to tempt fate.

"Maybe," she said.

She was entirely unconvinced that it'd last much longer. Sooner or later, trouble would find her again, and she'd have to move on out once more. With or without the old man.

"Fewer people around means it's easier to stick out, though."

Kor nodded "sure, but also means less bounty hunters typically." He shrugged his big shoulders slowly and took another swig "maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part." Kor was used to moving around since he left the service but it would be nice to be able to cool off in one place for a while.

"I met a bounty hunter just a couple of hours ago, actually."

She kicked a rock, watching it go flying down the road.

"Apparently Cal has him do jobs for him every now and then."

Kor's brow furrowed for a minute "we'll need to keep an eye out on him if he works for Cal. Cal and I have an understanding but I can garuntee that understanding will extend to everyone he associates with." He had told Quinn about his bounty and Cal too for that matter but he hadn't mentioned what it was for and neither party seemed overly keen to pry.

"Said he was looking for old war criminals," she said, adding some possibly relevant data.

Kor leaned his head back against the wall with a soft thud "Kriff." He said harshly before taking a long pull from the bottle. "Well in that case do me a favor and keep an extra eye out for him please. I don't want to have to kill one of Cal's friends. He's been good to us so far."

"What's the big deal? You were just a trooper, right? Not some general or anything."

Kor sighed again. Past didn't matter until it mattered, and well, right now it seemed like it was starting to matter. He sat up and looked at Quinn his eyes serious "I was a officer, not a general you're right, I was a noncommisioned officer. Seargent First Class, and Quinn during my time there I did things, things I'm not proud of and things I have to live with." He sighed heavily "that's where my bounty comes from, it's a bounty for war crimes, rebs have had it on me for years but it only really started mattering once I left the empire and became vulnerable. It was a dumb or cocky bounty hunter that went after imperial officers."

"Sergeant's a pretty low rank though, isn't it? You were just following orders."

War crimes sounded bad. Like, real bad. Like, bad in a way she didn't want to know about, because it would probably mean re-evaluating this whole thing and how she saw him.

"And you're better now."

"You're right, I was just following orders. Doesn't make what I did right." The big man turned his attention back to the night sky "you're also right that it was in a different life but the past cones back sometimes. Hopefully it won't be an issue but, just letting you know in case it becomes one."

She knew a thing or two about the past coming back at times... but she wasn't quite ready to talk about her own past. Not yet, anyway.

"He looked like the loner type," she said, looking up at the stars as well, "dangerous, but not too dangerous. But he's probably not even after you. And anyway..."

There was a slight pause for dramatic; or comedic; effect...

"...I'll protect you."

She got a rare chuckle out of the man a low gravelly sound emerging from his throat and he grinned. Kor took one massive hand and ruffled Quinn's hair with it "and I'll look out for you kid." As he said that he produced a fat cigar from his pocket and cut the tip off with a vibro knife on his belt before lighting it and taking a puff. The Orange embers on the end flared to life in the dark night, a large fist was extended towards Quinn "just you and me, right kid?"

"Uhuh..." She didn't really like lying to the guy, so she kept her answer non-commital. Never knew when they might have to part ways, after all.

"Cal seems alright too, though."

Kor wasn't a fool, this was the Rim. You were allies as long as that was the best option. He liked the kid and she had saved his bacon a couple of times but he wasn't foolish enough to think she would always be there.

"Yeah Cal seems like good people. Haven't known his long enough to know how good, might just be a brave face but he says so long as we work with him and don't cause trouble he'll back us up."

"What about the rest of the people around him though? What do you think?"

Like that creepy holodroid, or whatever it was. That thing had a mind of its own for sure.