Part 1: Deliverance

Avox walks into the cockpit area, leaving the turret after Ada's all-clear, just in time to get the gist of the conversation. "Jack speaks well. For once. But one more thing: Professionalism is just about everything in this job. There are times when we risk that professionalism and check our cargo, but only for a good reason, and not against Chusk. He is too dangerous, and could easily blacklist us, or worse. Our first priority should always be "keep ourselves breathing.", crossing the bastard is not helpful to that end. Besides..." He says crossing his arms.

"...we have no reason to believe its slaves anymore than anything else. It could be dust, weapons, or naked pictures of officials for all I care. Lets just deliver the cargo and move on. I'd hate to see you go over a principle like that Savi, but that is the nature of this life." He pauses for a moment then says, "I will say this too. Sticking to principles like that wont just get you off this ship, but it'll get you killed. One way or another."

Ada shakes her head. "I hate sayin' it Savi, but I got to. We need to get paid for this job. Only way to keep the Chaser movin' right now. You've been of use to us and I thank you for it, and I would hate to see you go. I think my reputation makes it clear slavery isn't OK by me. I doubt Chusk would risk upsetting a business contact just to save a few credits, but..."

"Doc, I wouldn't mind you trying to look at the crates some, so long as you don't disturb them any."

"Understand," Savi begins with sincerity, "I appreciate what everyone is saying. I'm not naive to the realities of this life. I used slaves as an example because that's a trigger for me. We didn't know they were slaves when we brought them on so if they turn out to be then I'll be pissed at our employer, not anyone else. Slaves aren't the issue."

Savi prides himself on his words and they seem to be failing him which is bringing out a bit of stress, so he breathes again for a moment. "My issue is with not taking at least minimal precaution to ensure we don't have a bomb, just for example, in the damn hold. I'm not saying we have to have complete confirmation about the contents, but at least make our contacts lie to us. Then if the lie turns out to damage us, we earn a reputation by paying that damage back ten fold. Eventually people won't screw with taking chances by crossing us."

"If this run were a deal breaker for me I wouldn't have come this far. I'm happy to see it through. I just think we need to take at least some minimal precautions in the future. If someone wants us to transport unnamed cargo, then the rates go up. Way up. Otherwise, tell us what we are hauling so we don't do something stupid and avoidable with it."

Savi scans the cockpit and crew trying to read their faces to see if at least the slightest concession of a point is visible.

Doc nods at Ada and picks up his med kit "Ok, I'll give the crates a quick once over to make sure there's nothing else in there that's going to bite us in the rear" Turning to the rest "Just to be clear I have very few objections to shipping whatever we need to keep flying but I agree that sticking our heads in the proverbial Sarlac pit and hoping it doesn't take a big old bite is a bit dim. Our ignorance only helps anyone working against us"

He turns to head to the cargo are and pauses for a moment before turning slightly back to the others "It also occurs to me that Chusk could be the one behind the attempted ambush. Wouldn't put it past him to try and engineer the situation to place us firmly in his pocket with no way out"

With that he leaves and heads to take a look at the cargo.

Doc gets down to the cargo hold with his medpac and takes a look over the crates. "Right, let's see what the patient has to tell me" he mutters to himself

Doc heads over to the ships intercom "The scans a bust, the crates are too heavily armoured to get a read on the contents at all....the odd thing is they're labelled as medical supplies, or at least that's what the corp logo would indicate, and this kind of crate is overkill for that. There's something about them I can't quite put my finger on...." he trails off still eyeing the crates maybe we should open them after all he thinks to himself for a moment before shaking the thought off

"E chu ta..." Adaahsha whispers under her breath. To the crew she continues, "OK...so what do we make of that? Is the logo a fake? Maybe a ruse to try and keep people from looking to close? Any thoughts on what to do?"

"We don't have to make anything of that," Jack interrupts, "We don't need to know what the contents are. What happens when we find out what's inside? If it's something we don't like, we're not exactly in a position to just return it to Chusk and say, 'no thanks.'" Jack sighs, "Doing something like that is bad for business. And if Avox is right, and Chuck has contact with other potential employers, that can turn around and bite us hard."

"But that's assuming it's something we don't like. If he's just being protective about his cargo, and has it mislabeled for our own protection---and his---then we're only setting ourselves up for failure." Jack looks at Ada and gestures with his explanation, "If he looks you in the eye when we see him again to get paid and asks if you took a peek, do you feel confident you can stay straight-faced and lie? Do you think we all could? Crime bosses tend to not get where they are without being able to spot a liar."

"We should do the work, get paid, and move on."

"I agree with Jack." Savi chimes in much to Jack's surprise.

"The damage is done. It's too late to be smart with this run. We've already put ourselves in a weak and dangerous position. Tampering with the shipment only weakens it further." Savi nods toward Jack and continues, "We hit atmo as soon as possible and get this deal done. We'll be resolved to be smarter moving forward."

With a sly wink he slips in, "And for the record, you don't have me on board because of my devastating good looks. I could look him in the eye and tell him his mother is a Hutt and he'd believe it."

"Fair enough, beggars can't be choosers after all. I agree we shouldn't be cracking the things open but it would have been nice to have a bit more info as to what we're walking into"

Avox remains steely and aloof the majority of the exchange, but nods at the conclusion Jack and Savi come to. "I agree. We can establish something of a secrecy policy on future runs. Charging more for discretion is a good idea. Lets turn them in. How close are we?" He asks Ada.

"We've 'been smart' the whole time, Savi," Jack says, getting to his feet. He raises a hand to touch the low ceiling as he steadies himself. "'Playing it safe' and 'charging extra' sure sound great when we talk about it here, but it's more complicated than that. There's a price to it. Insisting that we know what's in the hold can become irritating to dangerous folk, and charging extra results in us getting passed up for jobs." Despite Savi agreeing with him, Jack looks irritated, "Yes, Chusk could be duping us. Maybe he's got some really sensitive material in our hold that can get us into some serious trouble. Maybe he knew we'd be attacked when we came out of hyperspace and neglected to tell us. Maybe he doesn't plan on paying us when we get back."

"These are possibilities on every job. The fact of the matter is that we're mutts, kicked around whenever someone thinks they can get away with it because they know we don't have an alternative. If we act like we're the bosses---demanding certain terms and the like---then we don't get jobs or we get shot at. If we demand more pay then we don't get jobs or we get shot at when they don't want to pay up the extra price. As mutts, we don't have a lot of options in that regard." Jack grins, and continues with a reassuring tone, "But that's okay. We can be smart mutts, too. We're not going to assume anything about the crate's contents, we're going to go to our meetings armed, and we're going to keep our eyes open for things that look suspicious or give us cause for concern. Not everyone is out there to screw us over, and we can't alienate them by always behaving like they are. But, yes, that's dangerous." Jack frowns, growing frustrated that he can't seem to get his point across as well as he'd like, "To the ones that do want to kick us, we can't be the ones that fire the first shot, so to speak. It'll burn us for other jobs if we do.

"But we can be armed and we can be ready to fire back. I'm not worried about the contents of the crate because Chusk hasn't given me cause to worry yet. But I'll be ready when and if he does." Jack sucks on his teeth in thought for a moment and then takes a deep breath, "Look, I realize I'm not the only one on board, but that's my thoughts on it. This isn't some deal-breaker for me, and I'm not abandoning ship if you don't agree with me---frankly because I can't afford to---but we don't live for any one job. We need to think about the big picture. We need to think about every job when we take action, and not just one."

Jack then rubs his eyes again, gesturing to Ada, "Please tell me we're close."

Avon waits until they are fully docked before overseeing the movement of cargo from the ship's bay. " Watch those crates damn you! They're worth more to me than your damn life!" He says aggressively to a particularly clumsy worker who slips when carrying one off the ship.

"I'll put the call in to our contact and get the details for the exchange. Hopefully we won't be waiting to long."

And Ada does that...using whatever communications info was given for contacting Sariss.

Jack comes out of the ship fully dressed in his white shirt and jacket; trousers and boots; blasters holstered at either hip. As he's tugging his jacket sleeve up to his wrist he comments, "I'm going to head to the Raging Rancor and check it out. I've got my comlink. Feel free to come along," He adds, leaving an open invitation.

With that, Jack will head off into the settlement in search of the cantina.

Doc shrugs "It'll be a weight off my mind to get this job done but someone should keep an eye on things here." he says as he gathers up a few items and takes up position to keep an eye on the cargo.