Tangled Threads of Tatooine: Hutts and Captains

Jabba was having a good day, not only was this one of the rare occasions where several prominent Hutt figures had gathered together, but on such an auspicious day he was being handed control of the Hutt concerns on Tatooine. Now the planet itself was not one that produced a lot of value, in fact for many living under the gaze of the twin suns in the dry dusty heat was very costly in terms of precious water, the real value of the system was it's location, location, location. The twin suns were located at a veritable crossroads of hyperspace lanes, in fact if it was not so harsh a place to live it might have had the chance to have been a hub of economy such as Taris in previous times. Even disregarding the harsh climate Jabba was pleased, as not only did important figures of Hutt space come out to celebrate the first Boonta eve of his administration, but the highlight event of the celebrations, the pod race, was a resounding success with the cheering crowds still raving over the action packed replays being shown all over the planet and even transmitted over Hutt space and even on the Holonet for pod racing enthusiasts across the galaxy.

As with any big betting opportunity in Hutt space there were various fiddley disputes and judgements to make, those considered too small to be brought up risked confiscation by the Hutt for wasting time, a good way of making sure frivolous matters were weeded out just leaving more important matters to deal with. Most were straight forward and dealt with quickly, though one that did stand out was a local scrap merchant that bet everything on the racer most favoured going into the race, and who almost did win, only crashing just barely short of the finish line. Normally it would be a quick seizing of the merchants assets and parceling them out amoung the various bookies owed, except the merchant offered up a prize of much higher value, a ship with a cloak. This caused the bookies petitioning to start trying to get the entire ship for themselves as such a ship would be very valuable for any smuggling operations, the impending fight was cut off however by a particular figure next in line to petition for the wisdom and justice from the Hutts.

The figure was an oddity, as aside from aside from a few things, it could almost have been described as dashing, except for a few flaws that made it look pompous instead. The polished but worn looking leather boots matched well enough with the rich red pants of very high quality fabric that was originally from Naboo, the fabric quality and origin matched that of the forest green shirt, but the leather vest that was over the shirt was even more worn then the boots were. On top of the head was the most eye catching part though of a massive, over the top, spectacularly glitzy, almost shining HAT, the fact that it was a pale Gammorian under the cloths and hat, even a well groomed and clean one, made the sight seem a bit surreal.

The Gammorian turned out to be a Captain of band of a ship filled with other Gammorians, save for a Correlian pilot, that due to an unexpected delay and rush of last minute betters could not bet on his original choice for the race and was forced to choose between the only two choices left when he had reached the betting windows, both had stalled on startup, and between the four engine setup and the sleek shiny low profile rig he had chosen the latter. In his rush to get the bet in before even those choices dried up, he had mashed the buttons down a bit too hard and added a few too many zeros to the bet of the shiny pod winning first place, the highest payout option, and only realized his mistake after being handed his ticket and the betting windows closing.

Now this Gammorian was not exactly like others of his ilk, for he was an albino Gammorian and had cunning ambition, justified pride, and a touch of self realized hubris. This meant that he ruled his crew with a firm steady hand, a keen eye, and the realization that most of the galaxy looked down on others of his species, and that he would have to project an image of himself to distance him from the one others of his kind had made. Knowing this and the fact that he would have to present himself in front of the Hutts against the bookies the took his hasty though lucky bet, he went out and tried to get the best outfit he could at short notice, for he would make them remember Captain Aphab one way or another.

Captain Aphab felt this was his lucky day, as not only had he managed to land a huge payout on an off the cuff bet, but managed to get a spot on the local top Hutts hearing schedule to be able to get his monies worth, and even better he had found a surprisingly well stocked tailor with very fine cloth and bobs and bits that could make him and outfit guaranteed to get him noticed. Then when he was in line all the bookies were already there arguing the case ahead of his and looking to be on the verge of tearing each other apart, but what was really lucky was what they were arguing about, a cloaking ship. Aphab bombastically introduced himself in a manner that cut though the squabble and made them focused on him, then apologizing to the Hutt for breaking protocol he offered a solution of him taking the ship. This caused the bookies to yell even louder until he brought out his betting slip and grinned at the shocked looks on their faces.

Jabba was impressed with the newcomer that stopped the bickering of the bookies and shut them down so hard they stopped speaking at all. He gave a booming chuckle and gestured for the colourfully dressed Gammorian to present his plan, the plan was simple yet elegant in how it wrapped up two petitions at once, the Captain would get the ship, the bookies would not go after the merchant, and the bookies would not tear into each other arguing. The plan was a good one as multiple different problems seemed to solve themselves with almost no real effort, this was a good lesson to learn for the new Hutt leader to learn, and one he took to heart faster then almost any other Hutt in the last few hundred years, and this would shape his reign for many years to come.

Captain Aphab chuckled to himself as he left the Hutt Palace with the merchant to get his ship, and once he got a look at the sleek dangerous looking ship he mentioned that it was too bad he could not get his hands on that pod from the race because it must have been made from solid luck. He heard the merchant chuckle to the smug flyer and bragged that he had won that particular pod in a side bet, the Gammorian was still feeling lucky so he made a bet with the merchant and with a toss of the chance cube the ownership of the pod landed in the Captains hands. Captain Aphab gathered his crew to the hangar holding the cloaking ship, except for his pilot who stayed with the large cargo ship as it was still loaded with cargo waiting to be offloaded on the dusty world, yes Aphab felt lucky... right up to the point that one of the Gammorians guarding the doors was flung across the docking bay, and a sinister figure to step though the now unguarded door.

"Hey, you can't do that, they follow my lead, and only I am allowed to beat them." The Captain put actions to his words as he tried to kick the face of whoever it was under the hooded cloak.

It was at that point Captain Aphab felt that his luck that day had run out as the hooded figure caught his boot with one hand and turned yellow seemingly glowing eyes on the Captain before starting to use the Gammorian as a living flail to batter his crew into unconsciousness.

Jabba was still in a good mood as he finished the last of the days petitions, when two different messengers came and told similar yet separate potential problems, the first was of reports of a Jedi that had been snooping around earlier, but was reported that after fighting someone with a red energy sword leave on a ship that had already departed the system. The other messenger showed the security footage of the docking bay that used to have the cloaking ship and the vicious beat down delivered by the sinister figure with the red energy sword. Jabba felt a slight bit of panic, until he remembered the lesson that sometimes a problem could solve a different problem, and as such decided to direct the first after the second, and he had the perfect person to send the message though visiting his planet at that very moment that was probably getting board just sitting around doing nothing. Jabba chuckled to himself, at the thought, using problems to solve problems indeed, that would be far to useful to forget any time soon.