When Amir opened his eyes, Jay's hand was in front of his face.
"Pierre told me to come get you for dinner," Jay said.
"Mm." Amir replied groggily. Mels had specially cleared out a small storage room to serve as Amir's bedroom. He'd been living there since he was six.
Amir pulled on his work vest and overalls and stepped outside. Beyond his small room stretched a vast warehouse. Sain, dressed the same, his thick blue arms exposed, wiped sweat off one of his antennae and gave Amir a hearty slap on the shoulder.
"Looking good. At least you've built some muscle these last two years," Sain laughed. "Come on, let's eat. Pierre made food. You've been out cold for a while—you should fill up."
"Thanks, Sain." Amir ruffled his own messy hair and noticed BD-4 fiddling with something on Sain's workbench.
He turned and headed outside.
By the workshop's main table, a meal of fresh fruit, beast milk, and roasted meat awaited.
"Sleeping beauty's finally up," Pierre said, still working on a small electronic device.
"Thanks, Pierre." Amir devoured the meal and immediately dove into repairing the warehouse's backlog of equipment. It was already the afternoon of the next day, and by the time he'd finished all the work, dusk was falling. Jay had run off who knows where again.
"Business is still booming, huh?" Amir remarked. It had always been like this. Pierre and Sain were the go-to mechanics for people in the area.
"Haha, we're lucky folks keep coming to us," Pierre said with a smile.
"Don't overwork yourselves. Sain's got the stamina—make him do the heavy lifting," Amir joked.
Suddenly, the alloy door slid open.
"Hello there, Pierre. And Amir—you're really here. You didn't respond to my message this morning. Veronica said you were probably sleeping, so I decided to come in person. Hope I'm not intruding." A hunchbacked Quarren entered—it was none other than Sainir, the mission's shady client.
"Of course, you're welcome. What brings you here?" Amir stifled a yawn and stepped forward. He always had a bad feeling about the squid-head—something sleazy in the way he talked. But since he was already here, he might as well hear him out.
"I actually knew two days ago that you were dropping out of the academy. That's why I gave the job to Veronica," Sainir said, entering with a box in his right hand.
"Sorry, Pierre. I didn't expect Jay to be involved too. Thank the stars nothing bad happened," Sainir added.
"No worries. If Amir was with them, I wasn't concerned," Pierre replied, packing up the day's finished repairs and heading into the storage room. "You two chat. I won't interrupt."
Amir glanced at the box in Sainir's hand and involuntarily shivered. Boxes made him uneasy now—he couldn't help thinking any of them might blow up.
"So, was the firework show meant to welcome me home?" Amir said dryly.
"You're the best bounty hunter I know, Amir."
"Hold it. I'm not a bounty hunter. If I had my way, I'd spend every day in this workshop tinkering with machines," Amir quickly retorted. "But the kids can't sit still. They're always chasing credits and fame."
"I understand, Amir." Sainir flashed his usual ingratiating smile. "It's all for the safety of friends. I once had a friend who gave his life to protect me. I'll always be grateful."
"So what are you here for this time? Repairs?" Amir glanced again at the box.
"There's a job. Only you can do it." Sainir set the box on the workbench.
"Stop. Like I said, I'm not a bounty hunter. You get that, right?" Amir waved his hands defensively.
"I do," Sainir grinned. "But people change."
He flipped the latch on the box.
"I won't change, Sainir. No matter what you off—" Amir trailed off mid-sentence as the box opened, and he swallowed hard.
"With this kind of pay, you could hire an entire mercenary squad," he said, eyeing the contents. "I'm not taking a suicide mission."
"Hehe, it's nothing major. You heard about Fronis dying, right?" Sainir hunched over even further as he spoke.
Amir cut him off. "Wait—Fronis is dead? Who could pull that off?" Then the answer hit him. "The Empire..."
"Heh. That's right. They raided his hideout—cleaned the place out. Everything's gone... except this ship, which I managed to 'secure' ahead of time," Sainir smirked. "It's custom-made, top performance. If you do this job for me, it's yours."
Inside the box was a datapad displaying the ship's specs and design, along with a remote to unlock it.
"You 'secured' it early, huh? Maybe I should congratulate you on becoming the new boss around here," Amir probed.
"Oh no, no need for that. Let's just focus on the job," Sainir replied, his squid-face stretching into what might've been a smile, if it weren't so grotesque.
"No thanks. Find someone else. I've got work to do." Amir made to show him out. Sainir clearly wasn't just some client—he was involved in Fronis's death, and the Empire's raid, and that explosion. Sending Amir into that mess—why?
Until those questions were answered, Amir wasn't interested in being a pawn. He didn't want to walk blindly into a vortex. And offering a custom starship? That meant the job was extremely dangerous.
"I've always trusted your abilities, Amir. Just like at the Chaos Bar. I knew you'd be the one to find the real prize. BD—BD-4, right? That droid shouldn't have been there. But he insisted on going."
"You threatening me?" Amir's tone sharpened. He was on alert now. Sainir knew about BD—how?
A thought struck Amir. "You're with the Rebellion, aren't you?!"
"The Rebellion? Careful throwing labels around, my former Imperial soldier," Sainir said, emphasizing "former." "I'm just someone who happened to take an interest in a certain droid and his companion."
"So you just let that guy go die with a bomb?" Amir sat down, arms crossed, scrutinizing Sainir. Weak? Cowardly? Obsequious? Hmph—just a mask.
"His death was... the best outcome, wasn't it?" Sainir still smiled, but now the groveling tone had vanished. Amir saw something else—confidence, even arrogance, in his eyes.
"I guess I do have to hear the job now," Amir muttered, reaching forward and closing the box.
Sainir's twisted smile widened hideously.