In one of the many hangar bays on the base sat a old Tie Interceptor painted black. It appeared to have seen it's fair share of action as well as being heavily modified. The cockpit seemed to have been lengthened and a pair of small cargo containers had been added to it. Not the most impressive ship to see but it was Xara's home.

The day began as did so many others, waking up in the cockpit of her ship. Not the most comfortable place but it's the only one Xara felt safe in. She grabbed her belt holding her blaster and a battered lightsaber and exited the craft activating the security system on the way out. It was time for another day of work.

Xara began the normal routine of wandering the station looking for trouble. Not trouble to interfere in but trouble she could use to her advantage. She always managed to get something valuable. Anything as simple as a trenchcoat could provide a number of objects or money. And they were easy to get as attention was elsewhere or the person was lying dead on the floor. It also helped carrying a lightsaber. Spectators either guessed you were a blood thirsty Sith or a lawful Jedi and would clear the seen quickly never mentioning ever seeing you to the authorities. Good for a while but time runs out quickly as you are able to be recognized and that time was getting closer.

Xara walked down a crowded corridor lined by shops. She was heading to the opposite side of the station to explore some of the hangars there. You'd be surprised how many unsecured ships are docked on the station that make easy targets for Xara to take advantage of.

Up ahead a crowd had gathered. A fight had broken out and two men were firing blasters at one another. "Opportunity" Xara thought to herself as she made her way through the crowd just as one man fell after being shot directly in the chest. She knelt down looking at the man and managed to get a few objects from his belt without being noticed until one of the crowd saw the lightsaber on her belt. "Jedi! The Jedi can handle this!!" the man yelled. Hearing the word Jedi was enough to make the man who was also involved in the scuffle start running along with the majority of the crowd to start leaving. Xara grabbed the lightsaber and activated it. With it's blue glow she pointed it in the direction of the crowd. "Everyone go about your business, I will handle this." Xara then ran after the man who fled from the seen.

It wasn't long until she caught up with the man who was so awkward he tripped over his own feet when he saw how close she was to him. Xara looked down at him as the man pleeded with her. "I'm sorry, it was an accident!!! I never..." the man kicked his blaster away.

"Shut up!" Xara said pointing the lightsaber down at him then deactivating it. She then grabbed her blaster and pointed it at him.

"I, I thought Jedi didn't carry blasters." The man said in a low voice. A small grin came over Xara's face. "Who said I was a Jedi? Put everything you have in your bag" she said as she now picked up and pointed the man's own blaster at him.

"If you're not a Jedi then who..." Xara fired the man's blaster once she ran out of patience killing him. She then placed his own blaster in his hand and took the bag which was now lying next to the man on the floor. She then began to run down the corrider to flee the scene herself and headed to a quiet storage room she had been to before. Xara removed a ventilation panel, got in, and replaced the panel behind her. This was the safest place to hide and to look through the bag.

"Let's see what we have today" Xara muttered to herself. She put her hand in the bag then stopped. "I've just killed a man without even thinking twice about doing it... again! Have I gotten so used to this way of life now? Enough! I can't dwell on this now."

Looking through the bag she found some currency and some useless objects she threw aside. Then there was some sort of device she did not recognize and just put it in her pocket. Xara then headed down the shaft to another panel she then pushed out and exited from. She then started down another corridor to another crowded area and began to take the long way back to her ship always cautious to see if she was being followed.

"God my hair smells good today."

AJ blinked a bit, and looked at his friend. "What?"

"I mean, just smell it." Vinnie shoved his greased coif into AJ's nose. "It's just... gorgeous!"

"No, really Vinnie, uh," AJ ducked the dark mop coming at him. "I can smell it over here. It's nice."

"I don't think nice is quite the right word," muttered Vinnie. "Fantastic... that now, that is a word worth using. God... it smells so good."

AJ looked at Vinnie again. "Vance, fantastic is not something you use to describe how your own hair smells. If you can smell your own hair, you've used too much goop."

"It's not goop. It's pomade."

"Whatever, hair jell isn't supposed to make a Ronto fall over dead."

"Pomade, AJ, it is pomade. A far superior product, I assure you. And I did not apply it, Crystal did."

AJ arched an eyebrow at Vinnie. The man looked back, his dark eyes looking particularily spry today. Come to think of it, AJ had noticed that Vinnie was a bit on the lively side, even. A woman? Correction -- a woman that meant something to Vinnie? Rather than taking the obvious bait, AJ just reached for his drink and took a sip.

"Pomade, schomade. Notice how there's no one sitting near us?"

"The café is empty AJ," Vinnie said, dryly.

"My point exactly. C'mon, we should go. You see McReedy this morning?"

Vinnie opened his mouth and then rethought. AJ could tell that he was thinking, and he knew he was thinking of how he could shoehorn another mention of Crystal into answering about his mornings work without admitting to not working at some point in the morning.

"Uh, yeah," he finally muttered.

"I'm off to the B hangars. You get the McReedy thing done, alright?"

Vinnie nodded, and then took a deep sniff. "I mean, it's like soaking my head in a jar of wonderful. Honestly!"

AJ rolled his eyes. He threw a few credit chips down on the table and left, leaving Vinnie to wallow in his own scent. AJ hadn't wanted to admit it, but Vinnie's Pomade did smell pretty good, if a bit brutal in its overpowering attack on ones nose. He'd have to hunt up this 'Crystal' character later. In the mean time, there was a new visitor to stop in on and question.

Pulling out his notepad, he checked his notes. Then he reviewed the video the Dicks had put together. Seeing as this was a lower-level offence it got shoveled in its entirety to The Department. Damn dicks didn't seem to want to get dirty these days. It was probably the budget cutbacks. AJ did have to admit though; they could put a mean composite video together. The newcomer quite obviously was not familiar with the Astoria, or its policies. She also didn't know anything about methods of transportation, as she had just taken up to walking. Where, AJ didn't know. But she didn't know about the shifters, as she had walked by almost a half-dozen before she had become involved in the brawl.

The lightsabre was what had caught AJ's eye. Not many Jedi came out here, but Lightsabre's... they weren't common, but he had seen a few.

After reviewing the video he had a few more clues into the suspect's character and methods, but not much. New, didn't know much about the station, kind of despirate for money, and most definitely not one of the fabled force users. Jedi didn't use blasters, and they didn't involve themselves in low-level disputes. Kind of like the dicks.

Three shifter movements later and AJ was at the B docks. He would spend a bit of time walking the area, checking logs and whatnot before he approached the uglier-than-hell TiE. Damn, that thing didn't look space worthy.

Xara had made her way back to the hangar and quickly dodged into the shadows as she noticed a stranger snooping about.

"I knew that Jedi thing would get around sooner or later. Now I have someone eying my ship."

Several things came to her mind. Does she take a shot at the stranger and make a run from the station? Does she trigger the destruct on her ship taking the man with it? Does she simply waite for him to leave? Perhaps the cool nature of this person realizes she's watching him right now and knows that any of these are already possible but somehow assumes there's no danger.

Xara reaches down and grasps her blaster and points it in the man's direction then lowers it. She places the blaster back in the holster.

"Don't take any chances now," Xara thinks to herself. Whoever this stranger is obviously is more experienced and should not be crossed.

"Let's just see what this guy is up to and if there is any threat."

It seemed like forever. Xara had watched the man while he roamed around and checked logs and she was getting uneasy. He was heading right for her ship now.

"Better not touch anything" she thought to herself.

Xara's beat up ship was the only thing she feared losing the most. It's the only thing that could get her out of this place and Xara was starting to think she needed to leave really soon.

Finally the stranger had left.

"Time to go!!" Xara said to herself as she ran towards her ship.

Xara powered up her ship and programmed the hyperdrive to engage once she cleared the hangar. This way it would be too quick for a tractor beam to lock on and she had done this maneuver before. She also had the sytem preprogrammed to change course multiple times to avoid being tracked.

The Tie Interceptor cleared the hangar and just as planned the hyperdrive activated.

Xara's heading was decided. She had grown tired of the unending nightmares that have been with her since she left her homeworld years before and now she wanted the answers. Xara was heading back to Coruscant.