Collab between @EliteCommander and @NightmareIndParadise
Staff Hangar
Boqo was lost in thought when the saurian alien came towards him and asked if he was the right guy. He knew Koren didn't do half work when hiring people, but they (he couldn't see if they were a male or female) were huge! Nonetheless, he looked up to the new hired muscle. "Pleasure to meet you. The ship is ready to go so we can leave whenever you are ready."
Sirka's eyes scanned across the ship as the Mirialan spoke. Like most vessels, it did not seem particularly designed for someone of her size, but she could manage. If it was like most ships designed by Human-sized species, it would just be cramped in places. "Well, I'm here and I'm armed, so there's nothing more I need."
Ducking down to get through the entrance to the ship, Sirka stepped inside the airlock, in which she took up most of the space. "I've got the basics on the job, but the droid didn't tell me everything. So, what do you think I need to know? About how much traveling are we expecting?" She asked.
Boqo chuckled. "Knowing Koren, you got told everything you need to know and nothing more. Sorry if we are leaving you a bit in the dark, but like he usually says: 'It's for the best interest of all parties involved.'" He said, following his new bodyguard into the ship. Directly right of the entrance was a small lift he pointed at. "That is the way to the cockpit. It might be a bit tight, but the cockpit itself is much bigger. As for the traveling time, the ship has a warp-engine so it will not take too long."
"Yeah, I'm not interested in learning your company secrets or anything." Sirka replied, though she had to stop once they reached the lift, as they definitely could not both fit on it at the same time. At least, not if he wanted to avoid some awkward contact. She allowed him to go up first, then followed suit once the lift was back down. As expected, the chairs would be far from comfortable for her, so Sirka just pulled off her heavy repeater and its attached power pack and set it down in a passenger seat in her place. The backpack she wore was bulky enough that removing it allowed her to at least lay down on the floor reasonably comfortably. "There are some things I think I should probably know, though. Like, if there's anyone specific I shouldn't shoot, or should shoot. Should I be going non-lethal, or just kill anyone attacking us? Any special instructions like that."
Boqo, who was setting up final configurations before take-off, looked back at the bodyguard. "Let's see... Don't shoot unless they shoot first, and if you can use non-lethal actions while outnumbered that would be preferred but we won't cut it on you if you go lethal on any hostiles. Also, it's more of a 'keep us alive' than a 'kill them' mission on your side, so try not to make too much of a mess. Talking about a mess, sorry about the chairs, they didn't make them for non-humanoids back in the day they made these." With that out of the way, Boqo opened a commlink with
Paradise's control tower. "This is Boqo to Central, requesting permission for take-off." It didn't take long for a robotic voice to answer and give them clearance.
As the
Rapier started its engines, the Star Courier started hovering, unfolding its wings and made its way out of the staff hangar. The ship aligned with its preset coordinates, then jumped out of the sector. "We have now entered lightspeed." Boqo notified the bodyguard.
Rapier
Hyperspace
Sirka gave an amused huff in response to Boqo's comment. "Believe me, I'm used to it." She remarked, eyeing the chairs behind her. "Anyways, guess we've got some time. Don't know exactly what we're getting into, but I'll follow your lead when we get there. If we get into trouble, you can hide behind me. Literally. I can take a hit."
As was habit for her, Sirka flicked out her nose-tongued briefly to take in the environment around her, which she had done a few times since she entered the ship. She started to pay attention to something that she had noticed before when they boarded. It was a particular scent, faint, and which seemed to come up from the lower floor. "Say...we are meant to be alone on this ship, right? I feel like I smell...someone. It's faint, but fresh."
Boqo was worried at first, thinking someone might have smuggled themselves on board. Then he just laughed a bit. "Oh, I know what you smell. Don't worry, it's the 'package' we are delivering. Although the reason he smells 'faint' is because he isn't an actual passenger anymore. Got to say, you must have a very strong sense if you could smell that all the way from the cargo bay." He was acting like it was his usual business, which in some way it was, but in another way he was feeling bad about having a dead body in his ship. On the other side, he knew Koren didn't kill anyone without a good reason, leave alone letting them be delivered to someone like this.
It did not take much for Sirka to figure out Boqo's meaning. At the very least, she appreciated the honesty. She was not going to bother to ask
why their package was a dead body, as it was likely not her business. It was not as bad as transporting a living slave, at least. "Hmm, starting to make sense why you need muscle, I guess. One of those kinds of jobs. But yeah, I've got a useful sense of smell. Great for tracking, among other things."
Sirka flicked out her tongues once more, this time focusing more closely on Boqo himself. He had a professional exterior, but his body betrayed some of the emotions within. "You're Mirialan, right? So you're feeling a bit of...what is that? A bit of regret about something. Not too much, it's conflicted, but it's there. And I didn't smell it until we started talking about the body, 'till you started thinking about it. So...you either aren't sure that you like that he died, or you just don't know if you like transporting it?" She reasoned. She did not have any real intention with where she was going with the conversation, except to show off her capabilities. If she ended up smelling trouble on their job, she wanted her partner to feel like he could trust her nose.
Boqo was not amused at this at first. "Wait, you can smell emotions? Even though useful, I don't really like it when people do stuff like that without asking me." He then looked a bit sad though. "But you are right. It's that I don't like killing, no mather who they are. I know in this galaxy it's sometimes either kill or be killed, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So when I get a body to transport that I don't know of who they were, I just have to trust Koren that he had a good reason for it. It makes it a bit better that I know Koren good enough that he usually does, but still..."
They hit a sensitive part of Boqo there, the only way they could hit an even more sensitive part was if they- No, he wasn't going to think of that. That bodyguard could smell emotions, maybe they could even read minds or something. Bringing up THAT would not be a fun thing to do on this job. Still he started to become a little sad inside just thinking about it this short.
"Sorry, but there's nothing much I can do about it. It would be sort of like me asking you to turn off just part of your eyesight. If I can smell
anything, then I can smell
everything." Sirka explained. "People, organic species, we're all just meat, hormones, and chemicals mixed in water and wrapped up in a sack of flesh. Emotions aren't as much of a mystery of the mind as they are a chemical reaction. Pretty much any species I've met is always exuding something; usually something I can smell. As long as it's something I am reasonably familiar with, then I can link it to an emotion. Useful, definitely, but sometimes a bit of a curse. Like when someone pays you a compliment, does something nice, but you
know they're lying. Or when someone's nice and polite to you in public, but you can just smell that they're a speciesist piece of bantha dung that resents the very fact that they have to look at you. But, you don't want to start anything, so you just have to go on like it's nothing."
Sirka let out a soft sigh. She could smell the sadness, and a bit of worry within Boqo. However, despite his fears, Sirka could not read his mind, so she did not know the exact source of that sadness. He alluded to the fact that he did not particularly like killing people, so she figured it was related. "But yeah, I get you. We do what we have to do to survive. The galaxy's not a nice place, so sometimes, you've got to punch back when it hits you. I fight because it's what I'm good at, and it's what supports me and my family."
The word 'family' was another small trigger for Boqo's sadness, but he let it slip. "I guess that's why I do this 'transporting' job. The Golden Exchange is my family, it supports them and I'm good at it." He almost missed the notifying light that they almost reached their destination. "Anyway, it looks like we are almost there. Dropping out of lightspeed in three, two, one..." On que, the
Rapier dropped out of hyperspace, having reached her destination.
Member
twannyman
