This is a little thing that I wrote for my daily 750 words several years ago, and is quite raw. “I’ve been writing a little bit lately about my Old Republic characters. It also just so happened that I recently realized that I could sell my old materials that I’d been hoarding and make a lot of credits. So this is also based on that.”
—
“You know, my lord, the cargo hold is getting awful full.”
Karone nodded in Pierce’s general direction, hoping that he would take the hint and move along.
“With all that gear, an our new passenger, maybe we ought to think about moving some of it. Moving it out of the ship, even.”
She sighed, set the datapad down on her desk and swung the chair around to face him. Pierce was standing in the doorway of her quarters, the width of his body taking up the entire frame. His arms were crossed, his head cocked. This was the problem with Pierce’s “slight inclination towards subordination” as Quinn would say – the man was going to say what he needed, whether she was inclined to hear it.
“Yes, I understand. I will take that under advisement.”
The pat phrase she used when someone needed to be acknowledged, but she did not have the desire to broach the topic further.
“She has a lot of raw materials.” Quinn’s voice echoed from somewhere down the corridor.
Karone jumped to her feet and shoved Pierce out of the way.
“What in the world are you doing?” she muttered as she stomped her way towards the cargo hold.
The first thing she saw was that all of her carefully packed crates had been torn open, and goods were strewn everywhere.
She wheeled around and jammed a finger at Pierce’s armor.
“The cargo hold would look a lot less full if you hadn’t torn it apart!”
He held up his hands defensively, and a low rumble of laughter shook his chest.
“Wasn’t my fault, my lord. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
A blue head popped out from behind one stack of crates, and Vette held up a bolt of Lashaa silk.
“It was all me. I remember when this cargo hold was completely empty.” She shook the bolt of silk free and the yards tumbled to the floor.
“I don’t even remember when we got this, do you?”
Karone shook her head.
“What are you doing in there? We have more important things to do than tear apart this junk.”
“Actually, my lord,” Quinn started to say. Karone jumped. She hadn’t seen him behind the mountain of artifact fragments. He glanced up in recognition of her surprise, and his lips twitched subtly. He then cleared his throat and looked back to the datapad in his hands. “Have you seen what some of this is going for on the GTN?”
“When on earth would I have had time to do that?” she asked, reaching out for the datapad. Quinn stepped around the artifact fragments and over a smaller pile of cloth, barely dodging a bolt of silk that landed at his feet.
She looked at the list Quinn had typed up, along with the corresponding credit estimates.
“For this?” she shook her head, bewildered.
“Yes, my lord. If I might offer a suggestion, we are going to pass by the fleet anyway. It might be a worthwhile investment of your time to unload these and see what you can get for them.”
She nodded and handed the datapad back to her captain. Darth Baras wasn’t exactly tight with the credits that her paid her for her work, but it would probably be wise to diversify her income a little. It wasn’t exactly rare for a Sith master to decide that his apprentice had out grown their use – or worse yet, gotten too powerful – and dispose of them. She could use a little insurance against that time, when, not if, it arrived.
“That is a good plan, Quinn.” She kicked a fragment as it rolled to the doorway. “I trust that you will see that all of these are re-sorted and ready to go by the time we dock?”
“I will do my best, my lord.”
“THIS ONE!” Vette shrieked from the back of the hold. A bolt of bronze colored silk waved over top of the piles of fabrics and minerals as Vette came crashing through. Quinn winced.
“My lord!” she exclaimed with a grin, “May I keep this one?”
“I don’t see any harm in that.”
Vette pulled the bolt of fabric close to her chest and squeezed.
“Thank you! Thank you! Have I told you yet that you are the nicest Sith Lord a girl could have?”
Karone laughed softly, then turned and nudged Pierce out of her way.
“Take what you want, within reason. But unless someone is bleeding, leave me to my work!”