"How often do you travel the galaxy? It seems to me you're used to spending more time with droids than people." Kash annoyed me by watching me work from behind.

"I've had incredibly little contact with organics lately. I'm trying to gather enough resources for one of my experiments," I was busy assembling a small robotic brain and talking to the Twi'lek behind me.

"Is the way to get those resources to keep repairing droids? Do you even sleep at night?"

"My species doesn't need it, physically speaking. We need mental rest, which can be much more difficult than the physical component of sleep."

"I've always wanted to ask about your species. Where do you come from?"

"I'd rather not talk about that," I stopped welding and looked at the wall.

Kash was also standing silently behind me.

"Well, okay? But we'll be landing soon, so you'd better come out of your state of apathy."

There was silence again.

"Alex-"

"Got it! Okay..."

I exhaled slowly, stood up and turned to my friend.

"Everyone needs some time."

***

Cantonica was a corporate tycoon's paradise. As long as you had the credits, almost every door on the map and in the sector was open to you.

For our delivery, we were given a short window to load the goods onto our 3 transport ships. It was a small spaceport, far away from anything important on the planet. In general, I thought I had enough problems as it was, but there was something that bothered me a lot. I stood leaning against the wall of the spaceport with my arms crossed in front of me.

"Why are you frowning like that? Is something wrong?" Kash approached me after confirming the receipt of all the crates. Actually, there were 203 of them, but in general they did not exceed my transport limit.

"There's not enough bureaucracy. It's as if we'd never been here before. According to the records, a random ship came here."

"I'm no expert, but it seems to me that the whole outer ring works like this. The fewer records, the easier it is, no?" Kash looked at me in surprise.

"Well, I've gotten a little used to the lack of records in the outer ring. But even here, for gray flights, they do the necessary arrival documentation. In this case, we look like a smuggling ship that never landed. Do you know anything about this particular delivery?"

"No, I have no such information."

Listening to her heartbeat, I could tell she was nervous. This could be a big problem.

***

The cargo droids had just finished loading the last of the crates into the ships when I saw movement at the entrance to our mini-spaceport. Several organics ran into our open-air hangar and began firing blasters at us.

I quickly ran for cover. Despite my worst fears, Kash returned fire. Luckily, all the ships had full droid crews, so the bandits returned fire with turbolaser defense systems. I began returning fire with my little blaster. Despite its poor quality, it was quite effective at close range. I hit one organic in the arm and another in the head. By this time, more and more enemies were running into the hall.

Most of these Raiders were only firing at the Sunfire because its hull covered the other cargo ships. The gangways of the ships were lowered perpendicular to the line of fire, making it impossible to get inside and damage the interior. While we were exchanging fire, another dozen enemies entered the room. One of them was holding what looked like a rocket launcher.

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OH NO.

BOOM!

Looking in the direction of the explosion, I noticed that one of the walls of the building was missing. Looks like luck is on my side today. I put the communicator to my mouth.

"Cover us. We're retreating."

My robot spider ran out of [Sunfire] and started firing at the enemy organics. It didn't reduce the number of shots fired in our direction much, but it definitely reduced the accuracy of the shots. Good news, the robot spider's shield withstood the enemy fire.

"Retreat!" I shouted to Kash as I bent down and ran towards the [Sunfire]. I ran inside and started returning fire while hiding behind the ship's hull, waiting for Kash to get inside as well.

When Kash was inside and I was about to stop firing, a pain shot through my arm and I dropped my blaster. Damn, I've been shot!

"Argh, let's get out of here, now!"

The ship began to bend noticeably, taking harmless blaster shots at itself. The ramp began to rise, sealing off the ship's storage room.

"Huh, it's a good thing we... ARGH!" When I grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up to eye level, Kash was scared.

"What do you know about it? Try to tell me a lie and I'll throw you out of this airlock back to Cantonica!"

"Kriff! It's my boss's delivery order, I suspect it's an attack by enemies of my boss! I don't know anything else!" She desperately tried to get out of my healthy hand by hitting it with her own.

"What's in the boxes?"

"I don't know! Maybe weapons!"

I carefully put her back on the ground, holding her neck in my left hand.

"Who's your boss?"

"Reys. He is the head of the [Two Suns] pirate group and my master." She raised her hand and pulled the collar of her sweatshirt away from her neck. Shit. I saw a slave collar around her neck. She continued speaking, only more calmly.

"This collar is nothing. It keeps my family in slavery until I pay my debt. This mission was supposed to bring me enough credits to pay off my debt and buy my family back."

We looked at each other in silence, studying each other's expressions. She was sure of what she was saying.

I let go of her neck. She began to rub it where I had grabbed it, without taking her eyes off it.

"Okay. I believe you. What were you going to do by freeing your family?" I continued without changing my slightly angry expression.

She continued to stare at me, then exhaled, relaxed her face with a few blinks, and said.

"I hope to get away from Tatooine and Hutt space. Maybe become a pilot in the Core or Mid Rim. Hell, I'm ready to go anywhere."

"I... apologize for my impulsive decision, but I thought it was a trap. I don't trust people I don't know well. I am willing to complete our contract. After that, you will be free to decide your own fate."

"Sounds good to me."

I exhaled.

"Okay, time to relax, let's go get something to eat or something."

Kash looked at me strangely.

"You trust me that much?"

"I don't know, but your story sounds logical and we've been working together for about 5 years now. I believe you."

And besides, I didn't notice her lack of confidence in her story, nor did I believe she would attack me on a ship full of droids. But I chose not to express those thoughts.