Kir briefly wished she hadn't initiated the X'honnar with Harrison if only for the relief from the inner turmoil of his emotions. Part of her felt like she was spying on thoughts he wouldn't have allowed her to be privy to had it not been for the bond between them, and the other part simply wanted relief from the reminder of his actions that threatened to dredge up memories she was doing her best to ignore. She'd have to teach Harrison how to keep his thoughts private now that they shared such a bond. Turning away from the scrapper, the angle also kept her obscured just on the edge of Harrison's periphery unless he consciously turned to look at her. From the outside, it simply looked like she was watching the door, watching her enforcer's back, but for her it was a chance to remove herself from the situation in a way. Kir breathed with the slow, even pace of perfect calm as she shut out the parts of her mind that threatened to run wild. They needed to get off the station first. She could break down later, but for the moment their survival hinged on both of them keeping it together. So, she made herself a stranger in her own body. Her fingers felt foreign to her, the pattern of her breathing was no longer in her control, and even the clarity of her vision felt almost fuzzy at the edges like she was looking at the world through a dirty window. Her mind was hushed, and memory no longer threatened to undo her. X'hondrian's had a word for such a mental state, though it wasn't considered a healthy one. Unfortunately, sometimes one was forced to make an impossible choice between survival and a healthy mind.

Harrison's voice cut through the haze, reminding her she'd asked him a question only a moment ago. Her grip on time had slipped, too. 

[i]"I'll see what I can find out."[/i] Kir blocked out the exchange between the scrapper and Harrison behind her, and instead focused her mind outward, brushing over any mind that was open enough for her to probe without much effort.

If the scrapper noticed what she was doing, he didn't comment on it openly. He'd led them to a cashier's counter and was quickly punching in the ship's information into a terminal to calculate the worth by weight. He paused, raising his head slightly at the question of a buyer for rare valuables, clicking thoughtfully. 

"If it's shiny, Dello's Collectibles on deck sixteen - he's got an eye for rare artefacts. Anything else - pre-imperial books, textiles, the like - Kestor hoards those like they're gold. Last I checked, he was running a black market stand a few decks down," he shared before turning his attention briefly back to his screen. A few more thoughtful noises and he added, "If you want imperial credits, best I can do is four-thousand."

Kir, having tuned back in to the conversation after scraping what she needed from passersby outside, scoffed incredulously but said nothing out loud. [i]"Not even enough to buy half a ship fifty years ago. Take the money. We weren't planning to buy a ship anyway"[/i]

"Not enough for anything in the shipyards here," the insectoid confirmed what she'd just shared privately to Harrison. His voice took on an unsettling edge as he added, "But I'm sure money is no object for a fine enforcer such as yourself. Of course, if you allowed me to inspect the ship, I could perhaps offer more."

Kir rounded again, bristling with the irritable moodiness of her disjointed mind and body as she read the thoughts spilling out of him, "You're a vile, greedy little creature. You're only looking for a reason to give us less." 

And right there in the open was the reason why X'hondrians were so coveted by the powerful. A person's words might say one thing, but an X'hondrian had the power to see right through to the core of their mind. Few were trained to shield their minds with any degree of efficacy, and even fewer still were wholly immune. 

The insectoid raised his appendages defensively and stammered a reply, "No, no, of course not! I would never cheat an enforcer!"

"Ah, a liar [i]and[/i] a cheat," Kir pressed.

"Tell you what-" he started, quickly dipping to unlock a door beneath the counter and removing imperial credits, stacking the small metal bars on the counter, "I'll double my offer. Eight-thousand imperial credits. Consider it gesture of good faith!"

"A wise choice," Kir stated as she stepped back, tucking herself behind Harrison's elbow again to let him take the credits and stash them for later. Eight thousand still wouldn't get them a ship, but it wasn't a bad place to start. At the very least it was more money than they had when they landed, and that was a win in itself. Once they sold her old slave bands, they'd be well enough off to get everything on their shopping list before setting off on the first leg of their crusade. 

Once they exited the scrapper's shopfront into the passageway of the station, Kir looked up at Harrison with an impressed smile. She still didn't dare speak out loud for fear of someone hearing them break character, but their ability to speak telepathically was more than enough for her to share her thoughts.

[i]"You were great back there, you know. Think you can handle Dello's on your own? That seems right up your alley, Indiana Jones. Best as I can tell, most people around here will avoid you. The empire still hasn't reached quite this far, and most people on this station are either refugees or criminals. Either way, they'd rather stay off the empire's radar. Your biggest threat is the scummy dealers trying to jerk you around, but I'm always with you if you need me. While you're selling to Dello, I can take care of the shopping and start scoping out potential ships we can commandeer."[/i]