Star Wars - Credit Denied - Unpublished Read Free

back to her companion. “What am I supposed to do? We don’t have time to find someone else, and even if we did, how do we know they wouldn’t be worse?”
    Nopul looked back to the mercenaries, and then regarded Rendra. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
    She wasn’t sure whether he was just giving her a hard time or was genuinely concerned. Either way, she had no choice. GalactiCore wanted its money—it didn’t care if she was having staff difficulties. She decided to steer the conversation in a different direction. “Did you slice out those Ships and Services codes?”
    If Nopul noticed her tactic, he didn’t show it. “You doubt my abilities? Well, perhaps I should link up with someone who—” “Did you?”
    “Of course I did. Stars, you’re testy. I’m just trying to lighten the mood.”
    Rendra started a rebuke, and then realized that she was the one who was in ill humor. Sometimes Nopul displayed more wisdom than she thought he possessed. Being constantly on edge wasn’t going to help her complete this mission, especially given her current stack of problems. Another of her father’s axiom’s began to play in her mind, but she silenced it as soon as she realized its source. Thanks, Dad, but I’ll handle this on my own .
    “Uh,” she began, trying to recall where the conversation had left off. “So, what’s our status?”
    They turned down a narrower corridor toward the outer edge of the complex, farthest from the rest of the station. Starving for credits definitely had its disadvantages.
    “Well, I swapped our BoSS registry numbers with a trading vessel called the Runaround . The Zoda still has the same transponder code—I just changed the information in BoSS’s computer banks to reflect the new ship information. It’s a lot harder to detect a forged file than a forged transponder.”
    “The Runaround . Sounds appropriate.” She looked at Nopul, and they both broke into laughter, finally relieving several hours’ worth of pent-up tension.
    As they took the next corner into an even narrower hallway, Rendra suddenly came to a halt. Nopul stopped a couple of steps ahead, and the aliens just managed to avoid slamming into both of them.
    The Nikto muttered something behind her. Rendra had picked up enough of his language to know he was wondering what was going on. She turned and put a finger to her lips to silence him and the Dresselian, and then motioned for the three of them to stay put while she checked things out.
    Halfway down the corridor she stopped at the hatch to bay 919-A, where she had docked her ship. She checked the control panel on the wall and found there had been one access since she’d left.
    She turned to issue Nopul and the aliens instructions when the bay door suddenly slid upward, revealing the wicked muzzle of a blaster carbine pointed at her chest.
    “Maex. What a coincidence. I was just looking for you.” The Nimbanel spoke in his native tongue, but she understood every word—she’d had more than enough experience with Hutts and their Nimbanese underlings than she cared to recall.
    She tried to hide the fact that she had been in the midst of signing to someone outside of the Nimbanel’s view, but in doing so she had sacrificed her chance to quick-draw her blaster.
    “Please, come in,” the Nimbanel said with his mouth and insisted with his weapon. “You know, GalactiCore isn’t very happy with you at the moment. You seem to have missed…” he glanced at the datapad in his other hand, “three payments.”
    As soon as she stepped inside, the bay door slid shut behind her, locking with a hollow thud.
    “Uh,” she said, cycling through every con and outright lie she could think of. Unfortunately, nothing useful came immediately to her mind, leaving her with the weak, honest approach. “Look, I don’t have the money right now. But I just took on a job that will make me enough to pay back all of those payments, plus two more.”
    A hollow whine sounded