Chapter 1 - 2

“Almost,” Kat called back. “Be patient, okay? We’ll just be a sec.”

“Hey, Kat, have you seen the –“ Mish was cut off by a loud crashing sound.

Claire winced. "I wonder how they manage to be top Private Investigators?" she wondered aloud.

Ten minutes later, Kat and Mish re-emerged. Mish was resplendent in brown cargo trousers and a green polo neck jumper, and Kat was wearing dark blue jeans and a black jumper.

"And it took you that long, because...?" Claire asked.

Mish shrugged.

“So where are we going, anyway?” Claire asked Kat and Mish, figuring that even if they took forever to get dressed, they were still more experienced at this than she was.

“Well, since you don’t have any ideas as to where he’d be, I thought we’d go see Corran,” Kat said. “You know, last one to see him and all that.”

“Umm… Corran Horn?” Claire inquired.

“Yeah, do you know him?” Mish asked.

"Matter of fact," Claire continued, matter-of-factly, "I almost killed him once."

Kat and Mish exchanged a glance. Kat shrugged, and Mish said, “Umm… why?”

Claire shrugged again. "I don't like him much? . . . It was all Ran's idea."

"We're dealing with a family of psychotic mass-murderers here," Mish muttered.

"Besides," Claire continued, "I never meant to almost kill him! It just kinda ... happened."

“Is this going to hinder our investigation, do you think? I mean, will he remember you and refuse to help us? ‘Cause if we don’t get any information from him, all we can really do is cruise the spaceways and hope we run across Ran somewhere,” Kat explained.

"Oh, no, I'm sure it'll be fine," Claire said quickly.

“Okay… how about this. Kat and I go to question Corran, and you stay here for a bit,” Mish suggested.

"Okay, if you think that's the best idea." Claire moved into the lounge area and took the last Lomin Ale out of the fridge. Mish's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing. Claire then put on Live or Die and made herself comfortable in front of the holoplayer.

"I'm gonna kill her," Mish muttered.

“At least she didn’t find your stash of FaceFilms,” Kat comforted her, looking at Tetran Cowall on the screen of the holoplayer.

"Whaaa?" Mish started. "Oh." She realised something of great importance. Face Loran did not star in Live or Die. She realised she'd been watching too many James Bond movies.

Kat smirked. Mish always mixed up Live or Die and Win or Die.

Mish glowered silently, and stormed out of the ship. Half-way down the ramp, she asked, "Are we going to find Corran then?"

“Yeah, just a sec.” Kat took a second to put on her brand-new Nine West leather shoes and walked after Mish. She would have run, but the heels were a little taller than she was used to, making her tower over Mish, who didn’t look too happy.

Mish looked down at her Doc Martens with green-and-black laces and smiled. Kat might have cool shoes, but she was falling over the heels, and nothing could beat a pair of DMs.

“Anyway, can we get going now?” Kat asked, getting bored or watching Mish grin down at her (admittedly cool) shoes.

Mish looked up. “Oh, right. So if Claire’s in the ship, how are we getting there?”

Kat put her fingers in her mouth and gave a loud whistle. "TAXI!!!!!!"

Mish shook her head. "It never works like it does in the movies, does it?"

...The previous two lines being copyright Mish 2000 and blatently nicked from 'A Suitable Alternative?', Mish's stageplay...

Kat smiled as a ship pulled up next to them and the ramp extended.

"DamnitKatrin!"

Ton leaned back behind the large desk in his Private-Investigator-type office. Darillian, who was pacing the confines of the small room, asked, “So what do you do while Mish and Kat are gone?”

“The same things that I do when they’re here. Well, besides making out with Kat, of course,” Ton replied.

"I should hope so," Darillian said. "What exactly do you do when they're here, though?"

“Umm…” Ton reflected for a moment. “Not a whole hell of a lot,” he admitted. “I mean, I’m just getting used to this new office, you know? So there’s not much to do… any ideas as to how we can kill the next few days?”

"We could trail the girls, I guess." Darillian's green eyes gleamed in a most evil fashion.

“We don’t have a ship,” Phanan pointed out.

"You could do your job for once and be a doctor?"

Phanan mused, "Nah."

"Uh..."

"...Um."

There was a long pause as the two uninspired men tried to think of something to do. It was very hard, especially as the Authors lose creativity all too often. Finally Phanan muttered, “I can’t believe they wouldn’t let us go with them.”

“I know!” Darillian agreed. “They’ll be sorry they didn’t let us come…”

“Did you have something in mind?” Phanan asked.

“Not really. Why, do you?”

Phanan shrugged. “Well, we could go look for Ran ourselves. I mean, it’s not like we have anything to do here.”

“That’s true. But we don’t have a ship, you said it yourself,” Darillian pointed out.

“I can get us one. I’m a Superior Intellect, after all.”

“Then why didn’t you say so before?”

“I didn’t think of it before.”

“You just didn’t want to go with my idea!” Darillian accused.

Ton sighed. “Is it going to be like this all the time that the girls aren’t around?”

“Yeah, probably,” Darillian responded. “So are we going to go get a ship, then?”

"Yeah. Any ideas how we go about doing it?"

"You're the Superior Intellect, you tell me."

After much bickering (far too much to be written down), Phanan and Darillian ended up at Truthful Toryl’s Used Ship Lot, which had conveniently relocated from the Corellian system.

"What're we looking for then?" Darillian asked Ton as they entered the office.

“Well, I was thinking about a ship,” Ton replied. “Preferably one that works.”

The guy behind the office counter leaned over and started speaking, waving his hands about in what Darillian thought was an amusing fashion, "We have thousands of cheap, working ships. How about a nice Corel...."

Darillian stopped listening, figuring Ton would do all the work, and stared at the wall instead.

Ton, who wasn’t really listening either, cut the guy off. “We’ll take it. Charge it to Tetran Cowall.”

As Phanan and Darillian left the office, Zurel asked, “Can you do that?”

Phanan shrugged. “I did it, didn’t I?”

"Don't you need some ID or something?" Darillian pressed, as the guy led them to a REALNiCE (c) ship.

“Apparently not.” They stopped in front of the ship. “So this is ours?” Phanan asked the guy.

"Oh yes. For only a small price--"

Darillian 'pffft'ed.

"-- this ship can be yours. Delux, latest, state-of-the-art-technology..." He continued to drone on.

"Wonder if it has an Infinite Improbablity Drive," Phanan said under his breath.

“Huh?” the guy asked.

“Never mind. We’ll take it. In fact, can we take it right now? We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

"Oh, oh, oh." The man seemed to be having a heart attack.

"Look, we're just taking it," Ton said, grabbing the keys etc from Truthful Toryl and entering the REALNiCE ship.

"Nice," Darillian noted. "Real nice."