Interval Chapter 3

Tavi wasn't feeling good. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this sick. Rosh – apparently her new employer – and his men had practically carried her to her little apartment. The apartment was in reality more of a small room that may have at one time been used for storing shipments from the loading docks. It was also covered in a layer of grime that looked to have been caked on so long, that it was doubtful any amount of scrubbing could remove it.

None of this had ever bothered Tavi. She'd never spent much time here anyway. It was just a place for her to stash her things and sleep. Still, she had no qualms about leaving the place behind her. She didn't have any good memories from this room, and she would be happy to be rid of it.

"You should pack up anything you care about." Rosh said from behind her. "Ten thousand creds is going to take you a while to work off, and you don't want to leave anything important behind." Tavi rolled her eyes, and moved into the room. Of course she wasn't going to leave anything behind. You risked losing your things if you left them for even a day, let alone the weeks, or even months she could expect to be gone.

Besides, she didn't plan on returning. At least she hoped she wouldn't. Grabbing her father's old ronto skin bag, she began shoving what little she had into it. That amounted to one spare change of clothes, the old datapad she hadn't recorded anything in for years, and the spare blaster she always left there. Finally she moved to her special hiding spot – the space behind one of the long spent glowpanels – and reached a hand in. First she pulled out her mother's necklace which she placed carefully in the pack, then the small stuffed bantha that had been her little sister's.

Finally she grabbed the handful of spice that she hidden there, and made to put it in her sack with her other things.

"I don't think so." Rosh said, frowning.

"What? You don't think I'm going to leave this behind, do you?" She said, annoyed by the look of disapproval that crossed his face.

"You're going to be on my crew, and you need to follow my rules. First rule: Nobody uses spice. Period." Tavi stared at him in disbelief.

"What sort of captain doesn't allow his crew to use spice?" She asked. In the couple of crews she'd worked in, this had never been a rule. Of course those had all been smuggler ships, but she had a feeling that this guy ran a smuggling operation as well. Very few ships came to Nar Shadda that weren't smugglers.

"That would be me." He said, grinning as he relieved her of the spice that had still been clutched in her hand. "We may transport spice from time to time, but I won't have any of my crew using it. You won't work nearly as well with that in your system."

"I have to cut off cold turkey?" She asked, suddenly horrified at the prospect. She'd seen others do it before. She'd certainly seen enough to know what an unpleasant experience it would be. "I'm not going to be getting much work done that way either!"

"In my experience, that's the best way to do it. Helps to encourage staying off of it once you finish." He said, tossing the spice to the Twi'lek he'd brought with him, waiting outside. "Get rid of that for me." Tavi watched her store of spice disappear and groaned. Muttering under her breath, she closed her pack, and swung it over her shoulder.

"Let's just get out of here." She growled, pushing past her new captain. Her gait was uneven, and she felt as though she could topple over at any moment, but she refused the help that the Twi'lek offered her. Her little hovel wasn't far from the docks, she reasoned, so she could certainly make the trip on her own.  She was not about to show any more weakness in front of these people if she could help it.

She almost made it too, until she was forced to bend over and vomit what was left in her stomach onto the shoes of the unfortunate Twi'lek, who had stayed close in the event that she needed help after all. She mumbled something that could have been either an apology or a curse before staggering on.

"Here she is." Rosh said, stopping in front of one of the docked ships, and gesturing to it with a flourish. "The White Rancor, your new home."

Tavi barely had time to take in the site of the ship before she blacked out, but in those few moments she realized she'd have a lot of work ahead of her if she wanted to keep that piece of junk off the ground.

--

"You probably could have found something better smelling than this if you'd gone searching through a dumpster, Captain." Liset said, motioning to the unconscious young woman sprawled on the floor of the Rancor. "And I'm willing to bet the dumpster item would have the same skill level."

"Don't judge her until you give her a chance. After all, you weren't in much better shape when I first dragged you in here." Rosh said, smiling sadly at Tavi's form. Liset sniffed, but did not protest. She was of the opinion that the Captain could find a far better tech than this woman who was obviously suffering from withdrawal. She couldn't understand why the man insisted on finding the most useless wretches to join his crew.

Besides this, the captain seemed to have far more faith in the woman than she warranted. All he knew about her was what had learned from some man in a cantina. For once it would have been nice if Rosh could just hire someone after a job interview, like a normal person, rather than pulling the nearest vagabond he though could use a hand off of the street.

The fact that she would never have gotten her own job if he didn't follow such a policy only served to further her irritation with her newest crewmate. It would take weeks for the new tech to fully recover from cutting the spice, and in the meantime Liset planned on staying as far away from her as possible.

"Whatever you say, Captain, but I'm still doubtful that we can count on our ship running properly with her in charge of maintenance."  Before Rosh could reply, Tavi groaned, her eyes fluttering.

--

Tavi's first thought as she regained conciseness was how badly she needed spice. Her body screamed for just a small amount to tide her over. Her next thought was on exactly why that wasn't possible, and she groaned. Debt, she though, is something I will never find myself in again. With that silent vow, she forced her eyes open letting in the light from the glowpanels that hung above her. Next the faces of the two people standing over her came into focus.

"Welcome back, Miss Nodock." Said the Captain, beaming down at her in his usual irritating way. Tavi suspected he was mocking her somehow when he smiled like that. Besides, he had no cause to be so cheerful when she was feeling so miserable. Feeling not at all better now that she was awake, she wished simply for a bed to collapse in for the rest of the day.

"Which way to the dorms?" She asked, sitting up.

"You'll be shown around later. For now, we need to get you cleaned up. Liset, please hose off our new crew member." He said to the blonde, hard-faced woman next to him. Wordlessly, she grabbed Tavi's arm and hauled her to her feet, before leading her away from the loading ramp where she had woken, and through the ship.

"Let go!" Tavi protested, tugging vainly at her arm. The blonde woman, Liset, did not answer. Instead she pulled her through what Tavi thought must have been the entire ship, before stopping inside what appeared to be a refresher. "What are we doing here?" Tavi asked, scowling at Liset.

"The captain said to hose you off, and I don't blame him. You smell as if you haven't bathed for weeks." Liset said, her voice cold. Tavi was fuming over this comment when it occurred to her that being hosed off could be unpleasant. With that thought, Liset locked the 'fresher door and shoved her under a stream of icy water. Tavi yelped as the spray of water hit her.

"I'd have made you take off your clothes first, but they appear to be in need of a bath just as much as you are." Liset said, lounging against the wall. "Now scrub your hair. It looks as if you've gotten some vomit in it." She said, her tone implying that Tavi had done so on purpose. She wanted to strangle the woman, but instead she scrubbed at her hair as instructed, attacking it with all of her frustration. After what was likely only a few minutes, but felt much longer, the water shut off.

Tavi stepped out of the refresher, completely soaked and dripping water on the floor. She stood shivering while Liset rummaged through her bag that she had dropped before her forced shower. She took a moment to be thankful that it had escaped the drowning her current clothes had taken. After an entirely too long period of time, Liset turned from the bag and tossed the spare set of clothing Tavi had packed at her. She was positive that the woman had examined all of her personal items, and she fought not to grind her teeth.

"Get dressed. You can take a longer shower later. And trust me, a second one is necessary." Liset said, before exiting the refresher. Tavi waited until the door had slid shut before lobbing one soaked boot after the woman with all of her might. It thunked against the metal door loudly, and she hoped that Liset had heard it.

Grumbling to herself, she peeled off her now very wet, very cold clothing, and exchanged it for the dry pair. Now fully clothed again, she glanced at her reflection in a mirror that hung on the wall. Her face appeared gaunt, and there were large, dark circle under her eyes. Her black hair hung in a damp, tangled mess around her face. She knew that she ought to be concerned with her sickly appearance, but she simply wasn't. She noticed a comb sitting nearby, but felt no reason to bother with it.

She didn't care how she looked at the moment, her headache was back, and worse than before, and she harbored some small hope that her untidy hair would irritate the captain and his ice queen of a crew member. She ignored the small voice in her head that said this was petty and foolish, and left the refresher, her wet clothing piled in a heap in one corner.

It was time to examine this new ship, and see what she had to work with. And perhaps she could find a place to sleep for a while too.