It was quickly getting dark by the time the two men arrived in front of the house they were looking for, the home of Brin’s contact who should be able to get Elis a new ID. Brin had gotten out of a few pinches with this hard-assed Duros. Thinking back on their last job almost made him laugh out loud. During the particularly heated heist, their escape hadn’t exactly gone as planned and they had found that the door leading to their way out was sealed off. She had opted to blow up the entire wall instead of the security lock, just in case. She was a real piece of work. The smartest business associate Brin had ever worked with combined with a fierce fondness for explosives. Elis coughed next to him, a hand on his throat as if it would help him better dislodge the sand he’d accidentally inhaled earlier after a forceful gust of wind. Brin sighed. This was the last thing he would do for him. After this, Elis was on his own. Brin knocked on the door.
   The knock went unanswered. After another moment of silence, Brin knocked again. The door opened to reveal a humanoid alien with blue-grey skin, large red eyes and a thin, noseless face decorated by a discrete dark blue tattoo.
   “Well, well, look who’s come and graced me with his presence,” the Duros greeted, with slightly more aggression in her voice that Brin had expected.
   “Vee,” Brin started, extending his arms out wide.
   Vee leaned against the doorframe, dismissing the gesture.
   “What do you want?” she asked flatly.
   “Not in the mood for a hug, alright I get you,” Brin offered, lowering his arms and trying to think back to what he may have done to get such a cold welcome. “How have you been? How’s business?” Brin tried again.
   “None of yours,” Vee contested.
   “A friend of yours, you said?” Elis whispered to Brin looking down at the ground as though avoiding all eye contact would somehow save him from the tense situation.
   “Friend? Do say, is that what he told you?” Vee asked Elis who had clearly not whispered quietly enough, acknowledging him for the first time.
   “Well, a contact, or rather a good contact is what he may have said, actually,” Elis rectified, grasping for words.
   Brin groaned, placing a hand on his hip, wondering yet again why he was doing this.
   Vee let out a loud, hearty laugh. “Oh my dear boy, you have so much to learn.” Looking Elis up and down, an eyebrow raised, she turned back to Brin. “Where did you find this one?”
   “Right, yes,” Brin said with a forceful laugh, “we have much to discuss, so how about you let us in and we can have a nice chat.”
   Vee looked from Brin to Elis and to the darkening sky. “Fine,” she said sharply stepping back to let the two men enter the house.
   As Brin made his way in, again thinking hard to try and figure out what he could have done to get on the Duros’ bad side, Vee extended her hand with a familiar playful side smile. That Vee had always enjoyed a good taunt, Brin should have known. He took her hand in both of his, giving her a firm shake and an acknowledging smile in return. She then turned to Elis, also offering to shake his hand, to which he obliged, hesitantly.
   “The name’s Tivee Orren, but you can call me Vee. Come on in,” she offered in a friendly tone in sharp contrast to her earlier greeting.
   Once inside, it was clear to Brin that Vee’s explosive habits hadn’t eased over time. The entire back wall was a demonstration of proton grenades, concussion grenades, anti-personnel mines, baradium charges, and even a couple of Boomers, the smallest grenade launchers on the market, to name only a few of the pieces on display.
   “It looks like you’ve been doing mighty well for yourself on this forsaken rock,” Brin observed as he made his way through the large living area adorned by lavish velvet turquoise armchairs and elm wood furniture to further examine the explosives collection.
   Vee went into the kitchen and returned with a small bowl of what she described as red pepper mezze and some bread, placing the platter on the long oval table in the centre of the room and inviting the two men to help themselves. She sat down in one of the armchairs. It had thick armrests and a sophisticated buttoned back that she sunk into comfortably. Elis walked over to the table to sit on one of the adjoining wooden chairs, keeping his hands to himself.
   “So, what do you want?” Vee asked again.
   “I have to tell you, Vee, you haven’t lost your impeccable taste,” Brin said, putting down an incendiary micro-rocket and turning towards their host. “Look, Elis here wants to start a new life, you know how it is in the big cities, everything becomes a hassle, right, we’ve all been there,” Brin explained as he approached the table, going for a taste of the dish. “And he thought he’d start fresh somewhere far away from all the unnecessary complications, closer to nature,” he concluded, enjoying the strong pepper and tomato blend with its pleasantly bitter finish.
   Elis shuffled in his chair.
   “So, this guy is in some sort of trouble and needs a new piece of identification,” Vee clarified.
   “Exactly,” Brin confirmed, putting another spoonful of the extremely tasty appetizer onto a slice of bread. “You could always understand me better than I understand myself.”
   Vee gave a canny sideway glance at Brin as he chewed on a new serving and turned her head to face Elis. “A new ID’s no trouble, but it’s going to cost you.”
   “I have credits,” Elis affirmed.
   “Not credits. A job,” Vee said, looking back at Brin. “Something here on Jakku. I’ve been searching for a team but I didn’t want anyone too close to home. It entangles things.”
   “What kind of job?” Brin asked, already intrigued.
   “Infiltration and mischief,” Vee replied casually.
   Brin could see Elis shake his head from the corner of his eye. Brin, on the other hand, was eager to get something between him and his recent Coruscant endeavour.
   “Mischief, huh? That’s worth more than just an ID,” Brin asserted. “And from what I gather, a certain mineral operation has been booming on Jakku these past years. I should congratulate you.”
   Vee smirked. “Still keeping informed, I see.” After a pause, she added, “Fine, you’ll get your share, if it goes well.”
   Brin nodded in approval. “What’s the plan?”
   “Hold on,” Elis interjected with a slight cough, “I didn’t agree to anything like whatever this mischief might be referring to.”
   “Oh trust me, you’ll be far away from any danger,” Brin said condescendingly, patting Elis’ shoulder as he passed him to go sit down on the armchair across from Vee.
   Elis frowned. He reached forward to grab a piece of bread and take his turn at a taste of the dish.
   As Brin had briefly introduced, Vee told them about the mineral mining operations she had established on Jakku. As a vast desert planet that had gone unexploited for millennia, Jakku was incredibly abundant in numerous minerals, particularly in lommite, the main component of transparisteel. The sturdy and yet transparent material was widely used in making windows for anything from buildings to starships. As an unpopular planet of residence, Vee hadn’t seen much competition to her business so far, before the Scarlet Eclipse started poking their nose around the place several months ago.
   As a newly formed crime cartel, the Scarlet Eclipse were testing the waters in all sorts of areas, and Vee didn’t want the mining on Jakku to become top of their target list. They had already looted two of her storehouses and raided several outgoing shipments. It wouldn’t do much to attack the local group, as more would be sent. Dealing the cartel a hard enough blow should, however, deter them from circling back in this part of the galaxy, at least for a while. Every few weeks, one of the main Scarlet Eclipse cruisers came on patrol to check-in on local activity, and according to the records Vee was keeping, the next one was scheduled for a visit in two days’ time. The plan was to mount a double assault, a direct attack that she would be leading with her people on the ground against the local members, and a sabotage infiltration operation on the cruiser that Brin would handle.
   “That’s quite the job,” Brin commented, leaning forward to place his elbows on his legs and interlacing his fingers. Each piece of information was sinking in as he mentally mapped out the different steps he would need to take in preparation.
   Vee nodded in agreement. “Just like the good old days. Although I like to think that I’ve matured as a strategist,” she affirmed with a satisfied nod.
   Elis was sitting back arms crossed, having finished the appetizer.
   “Will I be getting any of your people?” Brin asked.
   “Not enough to spare, or I wouldn’t need the extra hand,” Vee pointed out.
   “What ship do you have for me?” Brin continued.
   Vee looked at him with a quizzical expression. “What do you mean what ship? I only have transport vessels that wouldn’t do any good for an infiltration. You came with a ship, didn’t you?”
   Brin froze. “Well, it’s kind of a long story. Let’s just say that I may have some convincing to do. Any way I can get an advance on my share?”
   “Not a chance,” Vee readily clarified.
 

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