Long ago, in a galaxy far away...

[PurpleXVI]

"Not a clue," said Argon, putting on his most earnest face, "In fact, I didn't even know it was open, but I've seen the vents in here, it's not as if I could have reached one of them by myself. Maybe your broken droid clattered into the vent and knocked it open?" He shrugged, "None of my business. Maybe one of the others decided to crawl in there, but I could hardly see why, it's not as if they connect to a secret storeroom full of drugs and Twi'lek prostitutes, is it?"

Argon went to the cockpit and looked around the hangar, trying not to look directly at the vent right away, "Oh yeah, I see the vent you were talking about," he nodded to himself, "Want me to give you a boost so you can have a look in there? It's not as if I'm busy with anything important."

[Kazilan]

Sorkuk peered through the vent to try and spot anyone who might notice him. He then looked down at the floor.

Deciding that he was safer waiting in the vent rather than risking an injury that might leave him crippled and holding the droid, the Bothan remained where he was. He kept his ears tuned to Argon's conversation and his eyes scanning the hangar.

[Caleb808]

"I was born naked and I'm going to die naked! End discrimination against nudists!" Barney says as he kneels down and places both hands behind his head. He provides no resistance to the officers and complies with any order they give that doesn't involve covering himself up.

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

Argon
The security guard listened to Argon explain why they couldn't have reached the vent. He nodded, and rubbed the back of his neck, looking around the cockpit. "No, that's fine," he replied when Argon offered to give him a lift. After a few more minutes of him looking around at things in the cockpit, trying to get a little more information about it before making his decision, he placed a hand on his ear as if he were listening to something. "Welp," he started, "I don't see anything out of line here. If a little cubic droid shows up, give security a message, will you?" He turned around and walked back down the ramp. The two other guards who were standing at the door followed him when he left, leaving Argon and their ship alone in the hanger.

Sorkuk
There was nobody in the hanger who could see him. Through the slotted vent he could see another freighter, this one of a build he couldn't recognize. It was long and narrow, with one end significantly wider than the rest to house the engines. For the moment he and the stolen droid were reasonably safe. Through the wireless link in the datapads he heard the security guard leave. After that, it was quiet.

Barney
As the Trandoshan kneeled, a guard came up and placed a set of force manacles on his wrists. They didn't order him to cover up, though they did form a screen around him to make sure that nobody could see his exposed body. Him, with eight guards surrounding him and one both in front and behind the square, were directed by a new arrival to head to the security office. The one in the back relayed this order to the others, and they moved with Barney to a durasteel door towards the end of the hall, near the lower numbered hangars, and opened it for him. Inside was a table and a chair, and another person waiting for him.

The rest of the guards left the room, leaving Barney and the man alone in the room. He gestured for Barney to sit down. "So, you think it's funny stripping in public places, eh?" he asked. "Last night you looked to be acting rather normal. Why'd you do it?"

[PurpleXVI]

Argon waved goodbye to the guards, waited a minute after they were out of sight to be sure they left, then picked up his datapad and told Sorkuk the coast was clear for the moment.

Searching the ship for something light, yet sturdy, to stand on so he could reach the vent, he decided to empty his prized five-and-a-half-ton collection of Womprat teeth out of a large crate and dragged the now-empty container out into the hangar. Until he saw Sorkuk at the vent, he'd leave the crate under the ship, as though it was going to be loaded soon or had been unloaded as junk.

Once the lazy Bothan showed up, Argon would drag the crate over, stand on it and let Sorkuk pass him the droid for fixing. Examining it, he'd try to find the thing's transponder and break it, making it look as though that was all that was wrong, then get a hold of security. After getting the crate back on board, of course, and hiding Sorkuk somewhere in a back room so there were no questions about how the Bothan had returned without being seen by the guards out in the corridors.

If anyone asked, the droid had dropped out of the vent on it's own. He'd also make a friendly request to have the vent closed again, just so no more droids ended up in the hangar and needed returning.

[Caleb808]

"Last night you looked to be acting rather normal. Why'd you do it?"

Barney evaded the question, answering with one of his own "You were watching me last night?" he asked, now feeling vulnerable. It seemed the locals might have been on to them from the start, though if that was the case then the man made a mistake tipping his hand like that. "Must be working some overtime right now then huh. And on top of that you give me a chance to plead my case instead of just throwing me in to the slammer. The security force is lucky to have a hard worker like you."

Barney leaned in closer to the man, staring in to his eyes and smiling with a quiet confidence, seeing if he would give anything more away.

[Kazilan]

Sorkuk acknowledged Argon's 'all clear' and squirmed his way back to the vent in their hangar. He peered down and looked for his partner, hoping that he had a plan to get the Bothan out of the vent safely.

He would pass the droid out to Argon first before climbing down.

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

Argon, Sorkuk

The droid passed seamlessly between Sorkuk and Argon, and the Bothan was able to slide out of the vent with ease. His fur wasn't even dusty despite crawling around in there for at least half an hour. These were effective cleaners, at least when they weren't being shot by ion pistols and dragged away by vagabonds. Both of them took hold of one side of the droid and carried it up the ramp of their ship into the crew lounge, where the repair supplies had pre-emptively laid out on tables.

Argon located the transponder and broke it with ease, shorting it out with an intense jolt from one of his power packs. Then he set it aside, and the two pilots set about reassembling the droid's insides from the spare parts. Even though they had to make a few of the larger parts from smaller ones, they would work, and could probably avoid detection unless someone was specifically investigating those components.

Once they had everything back in order, broken transponder and all, they set about sealing it up. When it came to the outer shell of cleaners though, Argon was stumped. He tried all sorts of different configurations, but had never seen how they actually worked. Sorkuk pushed him aside and tried his luck, finishing the last stage in only a few seconds. The two of them gave it a hefty bash on one side to make it look like it had fallen out of the vent. Then, on Argon's urging, the Bothan went into the refresher while he called security.

Minutes later, a security officer like the one which was guarding their ship last night arrived to examine it. "Thank you for your concern, sir. We'll have that vent sealed back up in a jiffy, don't worry." He then turned and left, carrying the droid in both arms.

Barney
"Yes, of course we were," he answered. "We have holorecorders to watch all of the corridors, and it's not every day we get a purple Trandoshan here. The guard on call thought it was important enough to make note of to the next shift." He wasn't going to have any more of Barney's flattery or fast talking, though. "I know what you're trying to do, sir. And I don't like it. So tell me, why did you suddenly decide to strip? Are you from some Trandoshan nudist colony? Did you get a sudden hot flash? What?"

[PurpleXVI]

Argon dragged Sorkuk out from whereever he'd decided to hide, and told the Bothan he'd had enough physical work for one day. He also passed his co-pilot whatever he'd need to remote operate the cleaning droid and then went off to sleep for a few hours.

[Caleb808]

"Yes, of course we were," he answered. "We have holorecorders to watch all of the corridors, and it's not every day we get a purple Trandoshan here. The guard on call thought it was important enough to make note of to the next shift."

Barney's smile gives way to a wounded look as he replies, once again turning the questions back around on the officer. "So, you're admitting to racial profiling? You decide to keep tabs on me because a guard left a note about my race and skin color?"

So tell me, why did you suddenly decide to strip? Are you from some Trandoshan nudist colony? Did you get a sudden hot flash? What?"

"Why do you hate Trandoshans? Do you think we're going to steal all your jobs and women or is it something else?" Barney says as he tilts his head and furrows his brow in confusion, as if he was genuinely trying to understand.

[ 04-15-2007, 06:59 AM: Message edited by: Caleb808 ]