Summary: Aayla and Izuku arrive on Essless, sell their stolen ship, and get themselves a new one!

Chapter 5: Esseles

... ...

Their arrival on Esseles had, to their relief, been even more anti-climactic than on Gargon. Unlike the shadow port, the spaceports of Esseles all had newbie-friendly guide beacons and flight-plan assisting central control systems. Between the navigation aids and the fact that Aayla had been given several days to continue relearning to fly, the higher-traffic world ultimately proved significantly easier to land on than the relatively low-traffic world of Gargon had been.

They'd chosen to land near the port that serviced the pod races, both because Aayla's slave status wouldn't stand out as much there, and because the underworld contacts their information listed were all on that part of the planet anyway. The proximity to those contacts had proven handy, as it had taken less than a day to arrange the sale of their shuttle. Better yet, they'd even managed to avoid getting screwed too badly by judicious use of Izuku's Quirk. Normally, he wasn't one to overuse his ability to tap into the surface thoughts of another person, but the shady ship dealer had given off vibes that made him do so without regret.

He was glad he had, at the end of the day, since the ship dealer had tried to cheat them. Then tried to lowball them even when it became clear he couldn't cheat them completely. The shuttle they'd been flying around in turned out to actually be an extremely well-regarded luxury model, a Corellian-built TZ-14 that had been extremely well-modified with stronger shields and a faster hyperdrive. Despite needing to go through the shadier dealer to help hide any trail, Izuku's ability to read the human man's surface thoughts had netted them a more-than-decent haul of credits. Just under 65,000 in point of fact. From what he could tell, they probably could have gotten closer to 75,000 if they'd gone through a more legitimate dealer. But what they managed to squeeze out of the man was more than reasonable, given that the shady merchant would act as a cutout, making it hard for anyone to follow their trail from the ship sale. Given that they still had no idea how important the dead man had been, that was worth the reduced payout, no question.

Moving their few personal items to a hotel hadn't taken long, though after doing so and getting some food, they'd crashed for the local night. This morning, however, after tracking down a decent breakfast, it was time for the next step. Specifically, hunting up a completely legal ship. Which is why the two of them stood in front of a used ship lot, Aayla looking suspiciously at it.

"Are you sure this is where you're…whatever mystery force thingy…is saying we should go for a ship?"

Izuku tried not to look too skeptical himself. Sure, so far whatever had been helping him along hadn't steered him wrong. But, then, he had no evidence at all it was guiding him towards optimal solutions either. So far, he'd mostly listened to its advice as he had very little frame of reference for this galaxy and the places he'd been guided towards made objective sense. But…this dealer looked a little questionable. Not shady, at least not in the same way the dealer they'd sold the shuttle too had been. But, more like…well, half of the ships they could see looked like scrap or salvage. The only reason Izuku wasn't turning right around was that the other half actually looked like they were in good condition. Not 'new' by any means. But like they'd been well-repaired.

"I mean…it doesn't hurt to look? Some of the ships seem to have been repaired or rebuilt. Maybe the owner specializes in refurbished ships or something?"

Aayla made a skeptical noise, but shrugged and went along with him as he headed inside…

... ...

It had turned out that Izuku was right. The owner, a female Cathar named Anash, had greeted them enthusiastically. Something about them, possibly the implication of the collar around the gorgeous Aayla's neck and what it said about Izuku's potential wealth, had caused the woman to brush her trio of employees off and guide them around the shipyard herself. Such was her enthusiasm for every ship she showed off, describing what rough shape they'd been in on arrival and the myriad of things she'd done to them to make them 'awesome,' that Izuku was reminded rather painfully of Mei Hatsume. Hatsume, oddball that she'd been, had been one of Izuku's very few friends at UA, and the reminder of her flooded Izuku with a bit of heartache. He might not have left much behind by landing in a new galaxy. But not much wasn't nothing.

Still, as much as the reminder hurt a bit, it also left him with a positive impression of the excited Anash. The Cathar was clearly just as passionate about these ships as Mei had been about her 'babies,' and Izuku was very much aware how that was likely to affect their quality. Even Aayla had begun to look a lot less skeptical as the mechanic talked in excruciating detail about how awesome each ship was. Not in the manner of a saleswoman, but with the air of a proud gearhead that had made something cool that she wanted to show off. His companion had even eyed him a couple of times, gesturing that maybe the current ship they were being shown was the one. He'd mentally marked each one of those ships as possibilities…even as something pulled at him from deeper into the yard. More willing to listen to that nudging now, since Anash's entire outlook had sold him on this place having been a far better choice than it looked, he eventually pointed to the ship he could feel the mental nudge pulling him towards.

"What about that ship?"

Anash looked surprised, steps stuttering from where she'd been leading them to what she called a YT-1100. Her eyes followed his finger, locking onto the ship he was pointing at. It wasn't particularly special looking, though its slightly smoother lines did seem slightly out of place among the freighters that made up most of Anash's stock. It also looked to be in better shape than many of the surrounding ships, despite cracking and faded paint.

"The Dilettante? She's a pretty recent acquisition that I haven't done much with yet. To be honest, I only bought her because she was going for a song. Far below the value of a GX-1 in such good condition. Honestly, if not for that I'd have left her alone, since whoever modified her before did such a good job that the only things I could do with her for resale are all suuupppeerr boring."

Aayla, who seemed far more bemused by the Cather's mechanically-obsessed enthusiasm that Izuku, broke in at that.

"Why boring? You seem to enjoy working on…everything, really."

Anash sighed. Looking almost betrayed as she stared at the GX-1.

"The GX-1's are pleasure craft. Insanely well-designed ones that can be converted into cargo haulers pretty well…but cargo haulers are a dime a dozen on Esseles. The best thing I could do with her is restore her original features, stuff like a holo-theater and other amenities. But, frankly, whoever modified her made her so much more practical. Or, well…utilitarian, I guess. Her being practical would be a bit debatable for most people, since they ripped several of the fancy bits out for workshops, rather than cargo room." Anash brightened a bit as she went on, "Actually, the work area they replaced the holo-theater with was super interesting! It took me quite a bit of poking around on the holonet to figure out what it was for. It's some sort of archelogy workroom! Maybe that last owner was a treasure hunter?"

That little spark of enthusiasm faded, the Cathar looking at the ship forlornly. It took a gentle nudge to the elbow by Aayla to get her speaking again, Anash jerking in place as if touched by a live wire. She looked a bit abashed as she picked up the thread of the conversation again.

"Sorry, sorry. Lost in thought. It just…is seems wrong to refit a ship that was clearly someone's baby. The modifications were good. Are good, actually. I barely needed to fix anything! But, its setup is way too specialized. It's why it was going for a song, I think. No one wanted to put in the effort to either fix it back up to its original design or convert it fully into a cargo hauler. Given how much time it would take, and how common cargo haulers are around the planet, I'll almost have to refit it back to a pleasure craft to make it worthwhile. I just haven't had the heart to do it."

Yeah, the tugging feeling towards the ship was even stronger now, though Izuku wasn't at all sure that wasn't just his and Anash's emotions influencing things. Still, even Aayla was looking at it with a confused, considering expression, tugging at one lekku in a way he'd noticed she only did when thinking hard. Smiling at Anash, he tried to be casual as he expressed his interest.

"Well, why don't you show her to us? We came to you in the first place, rather than some shiny dealer, because we were looking for something a bit more utilitarian than our last ship. Yet, there were admittedly some nice features to the TZ series shuttle we had before. If this ship was originally a pleasure craft, maybe it's a nice middle ground? Some luxury features in the cabins still, but with more practical everything else?"

Anash lit up at the idea.

"Oh! Yeah! It does still have really nice cabins. In fact, the Captain's cabin was even upgraded a bit! Come on, I'll show you!"

With that, Anash was off, Izuku and Aayla trailing a few steps behind. Curious at what was causing the confusion he felt in their link, Izuku took the chance of that small separation.

"What is it?"

Aayla blinked, then seemed to shake herself. She looked from the ship to him, then back, a puzzled expression on her face.

"I…I think I'm feeling what you described? A pull towards that ship? But, at the same time, the pulls feels…familiar. Not like I know the ship, but like I know the feeling of the pull?"

Huh. Another hint about Aayla's lost memories, maybe? He filed it away, but wasn't about to push when they were in public like this. She had, after all, collapsed the last time she'd gotten too deep into that feeling. Reaching out tentatively to pat her shoulder in reassurance, he went with a hopefully neutral statement.

"Well, maybe if we end up with it, something aboard will trigger a memory? Just, hopefully less violent than last time…"

Aayla shuddered and nodded firmly, then sped up her steps to catch up with Anash. Following after her, Izuku grimaced as he reminded himself they really needed to find a safe-but-subtle place to get Aayla medically checked over. He just wasn't sure how to do that without having to answer certain questions. Maybe some sort of droid clinic? Shaking the thought off, he moved to catch up to the other two.

... ...

It was clear from the start that Anash didn't have as much attachment to the Dilettante as she did to the ships she'd put a lot of personal effort into. Yet, that didn't seem to stop her from knowing everything there was to know about the GX-1, mechanically at least. Izuku had to admit he was mostly lost on all the details, even if he'd done his best to read up on ships some in the time since they'd left Gargon.

Still, several features of the ship sounded like good things. Such as the fact that both its deflector shields and armament had been upgraded. Instead of the single, civilian-grade turbolaser the model normally came with, whoever had owned it previously had installed a pair of military-grade Quad Lasers in dorsal and ventral turrets. Not to mention a concussion missile launcher forward. It was, according to Anash, about the heaviest armament that a civilian craft of this size could possess without special licensing. The shields were even nicer, and the power plant had undergone some minor upgrades to allow it to handle both of the other upgrades. The Class 2 hyperdrive wasn't anything special, slower than the one in the TZ-14 they'd sold, but the real-space engines had undergone an overhaul under Anash that meant it would actually be a fair bit faster in real space than the shuttle had been.

Likewise, many of the luxuries that the TZ-14 had possessed were present on the GX-1 as well. An extremely well-appointed Captain's cabin, some decently large crew and passenger cabins, and a big enough water reservoir for actual water showers to be possible. Some of the entertainment spaces, such as a well-appointed lounge and an excellent galley, also remained from the original fittings. The conversion of the holo-theater and zero-g relaxation chambers into workshops didn't bother them, even if they didn't exactly have an immediate use for them either. Likewise, the removal of two of the crew quarters in favor of some additional storage wasn't a deal breaker. There were only two of them currently, after all. And the Captain and Co-pilot quarters were both spacious enough they'd be unlikely to care about the other crew quarters, unless they picked up more people at some point. Even then, two of the four crew quarters remained, so it was hardly likely to be an issue. The ship even had a decently equipped med bay, though it lacked a medical droid at the moment. Fixing that could be a good start on getting Aayla looked over, which was certainly not a detail Izuku overlooked.

By the time Anash was done walking them through the ship, Izuku had barely needed to glance at Aayla to know she approved. If anything, this was actually something of an upgrade on the shuttle they'd been using. Less blatantly luxurious and a little slower, but with a heck of a low more elbow room, separate quarters, and slightly better armed. All that was left now was to figure out if they could get it for a price that wouldn't break them. Trying not to show exactly how certain he was that he wanted this ship, Izuku addressed Anash.

"Well, there's certainly a few oddities too it. But nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little bit of time. I think we could do both you and ourselves a favor, if the price is right. You won't have to modify a ship you find boring and this is an excellent starting point for us. Not perfect, of course, and some of your other ships could do just as well…"

He apparently failed his deception check, as Anash grinned at him.

"No, you want this ship. You have a terrible sabacc face. Thankfully for you, I genuinely don't want to work on it, and I think it will have a better home with you than it would if I turned it back into a pleasure yacht for some spoiled rich kid. I said I got this ship for a song, and I did. I barely paid 25,000 at auction for it and put another 5,000 into bringing it up to my standards for resale. Give me 40,000 and it's yours today, fully fueled. I'll even stock the missile launcher for you, which would normally be a pain for a civilian."

Izuku blanked for just a moment. Was that last bit actually a problem? Skimming the surface of Anash's mind seemed to indicate that she was telling the truth. But that might only be true on a world like Esseles, which was relatively law abiding. Still, that surface skim also said she thought it was a good deal she was offering. Enough profit for her, but far less than the ship would actually be worth if she resold it after refit. It would also leave them a solid 25,000 from the sale of the TZ-14, possibly less depending on how taxes worked here. And they hadn't sold off their ill-gotten gains from his little venture in vigilantism yet. They certainly had the money…

He looked over at Aayla, saw her nod firmly, seeming to sense his own conclusion. With her endorsement, there was just one more thing to ask about, given that they'd be getting the ship cheaper than he'd actually feared.

"Well now, that sounds like an excellent deal to me…but tell me, do you happen to sell pilot droids as well? Aayla and I might be qualified, but having to constantly handling the flying ourselves is a bit of an annoyance, and there's one or two other things we might need as well."

Anash grinned and launched into a sales pitch…

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A/N: Yes, the GX-1 is an existing ship, from one of the numerous Tabletop games that have been made for Star Wars. I actually slightly modified a floorplan from the Stock Ships sourcebook to show the interior of the Wandering Fate. There is a lower deck that basically makes up its cargo hold, as well.