IX. A Dangerous Thing

A tough decision is made with regards to the information…

***Irrica the Hutt has collected the debts of the Redshift Runner crew, and has made a deal: deliver the medical droid 9-1B to Captain Velkar, and their slate is wiped clean. Velkar has upped the ante by threatening the political livelihood of Feenam’ersu’s family to ensure compliance.***

***9-1B’s body is missing, but her mind is the strange voice inside the Redshift Runner; she’s protecting the location of three Rebel bases in the Inner Rim.***

***As the crew decides their next course, time ticks away…***

The crew of the Redshift Runner is still stewing, caught between their survival and their morals. Turning over the Redshift Runner's secret Rebel information might keep them flying free if they're lucky, but it will get a lot of good people killed. They agree that their first step is to try and actually find Tinian and sort out this whole mess on their own. Who knows? They might even be able to make some credits from this yet.

Rigel spends a little time conversing with 9-1B, the droid that was transferred into the Redshift Runner's computer. He does get a destination out of her: the lawless system of Ord Mantell. But she knows this information is an old lead, and she has no particular desire to reunite with Tinian. She's working for Rigel now, and Rigel acknowledges that he has no plans of giving her up. But with danger at every turn, neither is certain how long they can stay in the game at this rate.

At Ord Mantell, using the location the Redshift Runner provided, Rigel reaches out to what he believes to be a simple landing port. However they seem to be very curious as to who he is, how he got their number, and what he's doing piloting the Redshift Runner. When Rigel fails to provide an answer, Rebel X-Wings fly out to intercept. Feena quickly takes over the situation, and at least manages to reach a point where the Rebels agree to let the Redshift Runner land. On the landing pad, two of the Rebel pilots meet them with blasters at the ready. The crew agrees to let the pilots search the ship, since they hardly have anything to hide. The Rebels want to know two things: why the crew is looking for General Tinian, and why they just took a tracker to a Rebel base.

As Melba says, "You gotta believe us, we're just idiots."

Before any peace can be reached, the Good Citizen descends. Melba tries to tell Nuvral to back off, but Nuvral is pretty confident that she has the situation well in hand. When Nuvral announces out loud that the Redshift Runner is on a job from Captain Velkar, the crew is forced to decide between doing what Nuvral says and blasting the Rebels, or turning on her. After some discussion, the crew agrees that things will only continue to get worse if they just do what Nuvral says. With trepidation, they take off and open fire on the Good Citizen.

The three X-Wings and the Redshift bring enough firepower to force Nuvral to flee. Before she can make the jump to hyperspace, a volley from one of the X-Wings lands a solid hit, disabling the Good Citizen. Rigel manages to convince her to surrender for the time being, and with some encouragement from Feena, the Rebels accept. When Nuvral asks to speak to Melba, however, Melba declines. The crew informs the Rebels that Nuvral's presence means the three Inner Rim bases are already compromised. The Rebels thank them for the information, and jump into hyperspace.

Rigel takes some time to talk to Melba about what happened with Nuvral. Recent events led Melba to realize that Nuvral thought very little of her. While the hardcore bounty hunter ideal that Nuvral embodied might exist somewhere within Melba, she wasn't willing to give up the parts of herself that didn't fit with the image. It seems like that's that, but before Rigel can get away, he finds out that self-actualization doesn't come without three eyes full of tears.

The trip back to Ryloth is thankfully without incident. When they meet with Irrica, the crew explains that Nuvral botched any chance of retrieving the droid (not technically a lie). Feena proposes a deal to Irrica: he takes all the credit for retrieving the information, and the crew gets a clean slate from the Hutts and the Empire. Irrica is quite pleased by Feena's apparent self-serving nature, and he agrees. Perhaps it would have been a different story if he'd known the information was obselete, but we'll never know.

Feena invites Rigel and Melba to have dinner with her family. They enjoy a relaxing evening together, reminiscing on the past and ruminating on the future. During dinner, Rigel gets a call - a message has arrived for him aboard the ship. He ducks away to give it a listen. It turns out that word has already gotten to General Tinian that the crew was looking for them. They tell the crew that, thanks to them giving the intel to the Rebels first, the bases were cleared out before any Imperials found them. However, that means the Redshift Runner has no more ways to find Tinian. Whatever else may happen, she's Rigel's now.

After finishing their stay with the Ersus, the crew reunites on their ship. They get another call, this one from Finx's procurer. It seems that Finx has found an offer for the ship plans - an offer of two-hundred thousand credits.

Minus commission.