The Final Straw

1993/1998 short story by Mark Newbold

Two years after Episode IV - A New Hope

Jan wasn’t laughing. Kee-livinees knew that he’d gone too far this time - way too far. Luckily for him he didn’t feel the blaster shot drill its way through his heart, and didn’t hear it ricochet off the wall behind him. His last collective memory was of Jan Lomona holding a smouldering blaster in his large hand. Dust flew as he slammed into the ground, his final breath lingering like the echo of his death shot. Jan surveyed his still corpse, kicked it onto its back and checked Kee-livinees pockets. For his troubles Jan pulled out a cash card, a few credits and an identity card. Nothing of any significance here, thought Jan and the body was left alone.

Turning, Jan began to pick his way out of the temple ruins he’d tracked Kee-livinees down to, out of the monolithic front entrance over ancient rubble and remains to his waiting starship the Berone Sunrise. Blue tinged sunlight shone down upon the landscape of the planet Marner giving a reassuring tone to the ground and hills. Jan had travelled, seen most of the known galaxy, or at least the worlds worth landing upon, and Marner was merely another dot on his galactic travel map. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Kee had chose to land here he doubted very much whether he would have ever visited the place. Lomona shook his head, brushed the grey dirt from his jacket and entered the Sunrise. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

“Aurran, I’m back.” Jan called as he entered the vessel. Sounds could be heard from the kitchen area below as Jan slung off his jacket and threw it onto the chair. He could hear a mixer emanate its sound around the small preparation room. What could Aurran be cooking tonight? He stepped down the ladder to check - and could hardly believe his eyes at the sight he saw.

“Larna?” Jan grinned in stunned disbelief. The beautiful brunette before him could be none other than Larna, one of his oldest smuggling friends and colleagues.

“I thought I saw the Sunrise coming in.” Said Larna as she dropped the last of the vegetables into the mixer and turned around to face Jan, smiling and embracing him. “Aurran remembered me, luckily enough. Where the hell did you get to Jan?”

“You know me, I used to get around a lot. I still do.” Jan stopped in mid sentence. Should he say what he was going to next or not? What the hell. “I missed you a lot too.” There, he’d said it. No point holding those old feelings back any longer. I mean, be honest with yourself Lomona. It’s been a long mission, and you’ve wanted to see her for over five years. Larna smiled again and looked up at Jan.

“Have you got taller again? I can’t believe you could get any bigger.”

“You’d be surprised. I meet bigger people than me every day.”

“Really? What line of work are you in these days? Same as before?”

Jan took Larna by the hand and led her up and out of the food area.

“Yep. Still smuggling for Glann, Jabba, myself. I even help out the Rebellion every now and then.”

Larna appeared surprised as she stopped walking and turned towards Jan, moving closer to him as he himself stopped. Jan noted the subtle change in atmosphere and took her by the shoulders. Don’t blow it now, he admonished himself. You wanted this woman more than anything five years ago.

“It can be a lonely job.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Jan. I’ve been somewhat lonely too. I was married until recently. I lost my husband in a Landspeeder accident.” Larna lowered her eyes. “I just couldn’t stay on Zelon anymore, so I left my job at the Capreecik Inn on Chancai a year ago and came back home. I’ve been looking for someone ever since.”

Taking a deep breath Jan touched Larnas chin, raising her face towards his own.

“Don’t worry. You’ve found me.”

Tenderly Jan’s lips met hers and the night began.

“Here, you’ll probably need this.”

Jan threw Larna a dressing gown as she slid out from beneath the sheets. Wrapping it around herself she tiptoed across the cold metal floor and into the kitchen to prepare some breakfast. Jan lay back in his bed and relaxed. Usually it was him cooking the morning meals, even though he had his droid Aurran aboard. It made a pleasant change to have it cooked for him - plus the obvious advantages of waitress service.

“Jan?”

“Yep?”

“Is this Frans’ robe?”

Jan grimaced to himself and leaned back onto the bed.

“Yep.” Here we go, he thought. The lecture.

“I thought so.” Larna laughed an amused laugh. “Tell me what really happened last night.” Larnas voice echoed from the kitchen.

“I’d have thought that was obvious.” Laughed Jan, relieved. A moment later Larna poked her head around the door.

“Not that you idiot, I mean before you got back to the Sunrise. When Aurran let me in I could hear a lot of noise coming from the old ruins. Nobody has been in there for years, I was getting worried.”

Jan pulled back the sheets and began to dress himself.

“You should know by now, you don’t have to worry about me. I can take care of myself. Hey, I’m the living proof!” Clothed Jan walked into the kitchen and slid his arms around her waist. “Look, you really don’t want to know what happened. Honestly, it’s not nice.”

Larna turned around to face Jan. God, I’m in so much trouble if Frans ever finds out about this. I could be looking at another love-triangle.

“It can’t be that bad Jan. I mean I know you work for some pretty ruthless people, that’s a pitfall of the job you chose, but you can tell me.” She kissed Jan softly. “You can tell me anything.”

Jan conceded and led her to the cockpit.

“Okay gorgeous, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. It started when….”

…. I felt hell of a lot younger, although it wasn’t really that long ago. Funny what a few years can do to a man. Glann was employing me most of the time and I was running the Trac-Tran Transit Company. Well, it happened not long after you left the company. I was still searching for trusty and reliable employees and having no luck. It had been a real trying day and I was desperate for someone to do a run to Alderaan on the night. My final applicant came into the office on Toovin IV and introduced himself. His name was Kee-livinees and he seemed reliable enough on first sight. His story was that he’d been in the smuggling trade on his homeworld of Priggy and was desperate to expand and see more of the galaxy. We struck it off there and then and he was hired. He arrived in his ship, the Krynekks Progress and blasted off to Alderaan with a hold full of Hemdraa flowers, you know the ones for decorations at funerals. Two days later he was back with the cash plus some extra he’d made for himself. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that what he made himself was his own to keep so I pocketed it. Well, to cut a long story short within eight months he became one of my very best employees. He’d go to the pick-up, make his own cash, which I let him keep after a while, and report back within the week. He even got married and settled down with a lovely wife. Business was booming and Glann and Jabbas operation were ever ready to offer the TTTC jobs. It was a reliable and profitable operation. Until Tessa became ill.

Tessa was Kee-livinees wife, and boy did he love her. They’d been married for almost six months when she came down with this disease. She was one of the most honest, genuine and kind people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I can’t remember what the disease was called but it was a rapid wasting disease and she lived for just two weeks. Well, Kee was crushed. I gave him as much time off as he needed to arrange stuff but he refused flat. I didn’t want to upset the guy anymore so I let him carry on with the job. I wish to hell that I hadn’t. His standards plummeted and the cash dried up. I could sympathise with him, I could see that his heart just wasn’t in it any more. Anyway, things went from bad to worse and he became unbearable, a liability to the company. I was forced to make one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make. Sack him for being crushed by Tessa’s death or let things carry on. I told him to buck his ideas up or leave. He left. Believe me, I felt really bad about the whole thing. Anyway, a year or so passed and the business recovered. I didn’t see Kee for those months, me and Frans took some time away from the lanes. Then I received some bad news. Laarton, you remember Laarton, well he was on a vacation with his family. They were on their way home when a squad of six pirate vessels attacked them on the edge of the Ruuthorne System and took everything they could. Laarton was injured when they blasted their way aboard and I went to visit him in the Med-centre. I tell you, he looked like death warmed over. I asked him if he knew who it was who’d done it, which pirate group. Laarton’s been around, seen a lot. And he’s got a good memory. He knew the ship, the voice and the style. It was Kee, and Laarton reckoned Kee knew who he was attacking all along. Well, sitting there watching Laarton struggling for breath and words and seeing his wife and kids crying their hearts out I swore I’d get even with Kee if I ever caught up with him. I mean, I sympathise with his situation, but knowingly shooting down a friend? You need all the friends you can get in this line of work you don’t blow them away. Laarton died soon after, and after the funeral I actively searched for Kee. But I never found him, not even a good lead. Not until three days ago.”

Larna leaned forward.

“What happened?”

Jan sighed.

“Three years. It’s too long to hold a vendetta. To be honest I’d pretty much resolved the whole situation within myself. And then I saw him. Do you remember a guy called Latti Tellex?”

“Of course I do. This isn’t deep space you know.”

Jan smiled.

“Well, me and Latti were sent off to Turners World on a job for Glann. It was an easy mark, just shift some crates of old Duarga wine on planet while Latti took care of some business for Glann. It was a cool thou between us, and we were dealing on the same planet. Anyway, it’s only nine hours from Amagad so we arrived, docked and began unloading without any hold-ups. I wasn’t in any rush and I knew Latti would be a while staking out some local bar, so I holed up for the night at the Marcarr Hotel. It was a really cool night so I changed and took a stroll along the main high street, just to see whether or not I’d missed much by not visiting Turners world more often. I hadn’t missed much, plenty of ladies hung around the street corners, plenty of muggings down side-alleys. I slipped into a bar and took a corner. My drink came and I knocked it down. They were a bunch of really ugly looking creeps. Typical bar, the attendance was low but the volume was high. One of the drinkers looked familiar, so I sidled over to join him for a drink. It was my old buddy Torn, looking worse for the drink. We began to talk, it must have been two, maybe three years since we’d last spoke. We talked about the old days, about what the two of us had been up to. I ordered some drinks, he ordered some more, then we moved onto a club and a hot Bindian Sluyy and ended crashing out under the shade of a Landspeeder. Well, morning came and he finally told me the big news - Kee was here on Marner. Doing trade with the locals near the old Matuubii ruins. I asked Torn how he knew all this. Apparently he’s some kind of agent now. I thanked Torn for the info and began my trip here. The trip was only eight hours in hyper so I had a short time to prepare myself for action, tune myself in mentally. By the time I arrived here I was hungry for a fight.

Last night the sun stayed up late and it was pretty clear. I’d put the Sunrise down not far from the temple entrance for safety reasons. I hit the local bars and tapcafes, trying to scam up some information. The barkeep of the tavern directed me to a full table. I recognised the guy immediately - it was F’loornn, one of Glanns head-honchos. This made things a bit better. F’loornn was a past associate who fell into working for Cipple and made it big-time. Not knowing my reasons F’loornn told me exactly where Kee was. He was in the ruins, ending a vendetta himself. I told him I owed him a big favour and took an air-cab back to the ruins. When the temple was within sight I paid the driver and hotfooted it into the bush.

It must have taken me ten minutes to reach the entrance and the dark was not inviting. Still, I entered and ran. That wasn’t the smartest thing I ever did. Standing twenty metres ahead of me was Kee. He turned from the man he was beating to face me. He recognised me immediately, but then who wouldn’t? A man set to kill you is a hard man to forget. The guy he was beating was almost finished so he let him drop to the floor, breathing but as still as a corpse. Kee stepped nearer, about ten meters away and then stopped. He began to mouth of the usual crap - how long it had been, how I’d done well to find him, how well I’d been doing. I was in no mood for this and I told him so. Kee stopped talking. He knew my intentions. I moved for my gun and so did he, clearing his holster before I did and blasting away to the left of my head. My shot was steadier and blew the blaster clean out of his hand. Kee started to laugh nervously, but not for long. I drilled the shot through his heart and he slammed to the deck. And that was it….

“That’s what I was doing last night. That’s what I didn’t want to tell you.”

Larna smiled sadly and laced up her boots in silence. There didn’t seem to be anything else to say on the subject. Tying the laces tight she turned to her old friend.

“I’ve got to go. It’s been great seeing you.”

Jan frowned.

“What’s the rush? I thought, if you’ve got the time, we could…. You know….”

Larna raised her eyebrows in amusement and grinned.

“I’d love to but Chesco’s due back from Zelon soon and I want to be home before he arrives.”

Jan paused for a second.

“Chesco? Hold on. You said that your husband died recently.”

Larna leaned across the bed and placed a firm, meaningful kiss on Jans surprised lips.

“I won’t tell Frans if you don’t.”

Lomona laughed hard.

“Smugglers honour.”

With that thought Jan warmed up the Berone Sunrise and blasted off towards the stars to continue his travels.

The Final Straw

1993/1998 short story by Mark Newbold

Two years after Episode IV – A New Hope

Histories - Set some time after the events in A Day in the Life, this short story sees the eventual fate of Larna, the barmaid from A Day in the Life. It also sees the conclusion of a bitter episode in Jan’s life - the execution of Kee-livinees, the only man Lomona actively hunted down and faced off against.

Cast of Characters

Jan Lomona

Larna

Kee-livinees

Torn