Rampant ideas in my head, materialize.
Questionable Cargo
a Star Wars fanfic by R.J. Davis
He gazed emotionlessly at the datapad. It had been almost three hours since the shipment was to arrive and Renath was getting impatient. His ship, a heavily modified YT-3000 Transport ship, hung in a high orbit above Corellia. He twidled his fingers and sighed, "Is this really worth the wait? I'm sick of this planet." Renath was born and raised on Corellia and he had learned to loathe it. It's purple-orange hued skies and bland goldenrod grasslands were almost an annoyance to his eyes, and on top of that it was riddled in intersystem travellers both friendly and not; a seedy place to reside at the least.
He peered out the cockpit window, giving Corellia one last glimpse before turning to head to the rear storage compartment. Renath stood at a staunch 6 foot tall, his physique showed his precise care for his fitness. Reddish oak hair accentuate his gentle but firmly defined face and his hazel eyes have a sparkly glint to them that gives him a composed visage, an example of complacent genteel not found in others in his line of work.
Renath was a smuggler. As much as he sometimes wished he were instead a ticket collector at a starport or terminal maintenance man, Renath had taken up this profession because of only one factor; money. Renath owed a large sum of credits to Jabba the Hutt after losing a bet on a space race between himself and Jabba's top-notch pilot Sabur G'ralt. Renath had a lot of faith in his rickety ship he dubbed "Slicer"; an ironic name because soon after losing the bet, Renath was slicing bank terminals and credit sticks to repay his debt.
As he reached the hatch to the storage compartment Renath heard a transmission come in from the cockpit. "Red Star, this is Blue Dwarf. The Cargo is ready for transfer." He left the compartment door alone, pacing back to his cockpit. Sitting down he tapped the ComSystem transmit button "Blue Dwarf, this is Red Star, have you brought the constellations?" Renath nearly giggled after transmitting the message. He was inclined to talking in innuendo since this system was well-known to be patrolled by Imperial patrols scanning for contraband and illegal transactions. "The constellations are being wired. Dropping cargo." The com speaker buzzed, and Renath heard a mechanical release outside of the ship as his contact loosed the cargo Renath had been waiting on for the past few hours.
Before Renath had a chance to send another transmission ,the contact ship had bolted out of there. This made Renath suspicious and he quickly checked his radar for Imperial bogies or possibly pirates. All he could dectect were a few civillian transports and a nearby construction platform. Renath scratched his head "Wonder why they were in such a hurry..." He pulled his credit stick from his pant pocket, seeing the contact had indeed wired him his 'constellations'. A hefty 3,000 credits to ship some unspoken cargo to the Yavin system for a client of his contact. It was uncommon for a simple delivery to payoff that much and it was more than likely dangerous or hot cargo, but Renath desperately needed the funds.
Punching in a few commands into the cockpit console, he tractored in his cargo, storing it in the rear storage compartment. Suddenly he heard a metallic crash from the back of the ship. Then it hit Renath... he had never cleaned the compartment out as he was planning to do when his contact arrived. Slapping his forehead, Renath slowly got up and walked towards the hatch of the storage compartment. He had several containers of reactive gasses stored there to sell at a miner's outpost here in the Corellian system. Fearing something had happened to the gas, he slipped on a mask that would filter out harmful threats in the air he breathed. He began to slowly open the hatch and when it was unlocked, he peered inside. The visor of the mask was tinted green, blocking some of his sight in the dark room and he could make nothing out. Grabbing a glow rod from a nearby emergency supply box he turned it on and shined it towards the deep void of darkness inside the room.
What Renath saw both shocked and terrified him. There were the reactive gas containers sitting safely on the floor, so he was relieved to see that. However the shipment he had just recived was cracked over the containers and he could see steam billowing from the cargo. Whatever that cargo was, it was being either refridgerated or cryogenically frozen. A faint blue hue of light shed from the crack in the large rectangular crate that grabbed Renath's attention and pulled him into the room. He removed his mask from his face, drawing a deep breath from the air. Looking over the shipment his eyes became small scrubbers, examining every facet of detail about the box. The outside looked like any other shipping crate he had ever seen in his life as a smuggler, but something was odd about it. This sytle of crate would never be used to ship refridgerated cargo. Also, why had it broken so easily?
Renath placed a hand on the box and quickly pulled it back. The box was colder than the emperor's heart and it nearly frostburnt his hand. He went back out into the hallway to grab a pair of all-purpose gloves out of the emergency box and slid them over his hands. Walking back into the room he heard a slight thump come from the box. This startled Renath at first, but he figured i was probably the internal system malfunctioning from the impact. Using the gloves, he began to pry the crate open at the large crack that ringed the center of the crate and he could tell why it had broken. The temperature of the metal encasing of the crate was so low that it became very brittle. At least that made sense to him, but now he was even more curious as to what the cargo was.
His fingers worked their way into the gape of the box and he began lifting the cracked panel of crate away. He chucked the metal fragment to the side and turned to look down, nearly yelling in bewilderment.
In front of him lay a twi'lek, cryogenically stored. He quickly discerned it was a female, and couldnt be any older than 18 to 20 years. Her feet were wiggling and she began to stir in the icy box. Renath felt a pit in his chest.
He was shipping a person.
I'm thinking about maybe continuing my story as I go on in future posts, how fun will that be!? All constructive criticism is welcomed, I just sort of wrote as I went along and I personally like it. :)
Update, 8:37 PM: I just spent a pleasant 6 hours cleaning my room. My blood aches (but my eye no longer does from looking at my room).