"Someone who reliably acts in their own best interests is trustworthy, in a a way – they're much more predictable than most criminals...well, so long as you're as good as him at knowing what's best for him"

"Yes, he's going to be suspicious. Anybody who'd approach a ruthless criminal mastermind for experimental security tech is somebody you want to watch. We could be idiots, in which case he doesn't want to associate with us, or we could be a threat, in which case he wants us eliminated, or we're simply good, in which case he wants us to work for him, or one of several more possibilities."

"The biggest question is what can we do for him. I don't know that we've got enough credits to make us worth his time."

"And I can't offer to pay him in magic because that's a secret. Are there other sorts of things would he be interested in bartering for, in general?" 

"What do you mean pay him in magic?"

Well, Jisa explains, when some of her friends back home were traveling and ran out of money, one of them was a mage like her and could do helpful magical services for people that were hard to do otherwise, and trade that directly for their campsite and such.

Ahsoka marvels at Jisa's world's use of Force magic for infrastructure projects. She replies that as low as they thought their numbers of mages were, per-capita Force users in the Galaxy were much, much lower– too low to make any part of their construction workforce. Besides, technology could do most things better.

"More likely than not, we're going to have to help him with a job, hopefully, a relatively benign one. Or, on the lucky chance he's got such tech in hand, we could, ah, take it." Ahsoka did not have any qualms about stealing from Cade Bane.
"Pack your things, we're going to Nar Shaddaa."

"I don't exactly have a lot of my possessions with me," Jisa points out. "Er, what am I going to need? If we have to do a job for him, do I need - weapons, other gear...?" 

"Oh, it's just an expression! DD will grab you a bag for the spare clothes we gave you."

"Weapons...could be needed. Probably today's not the day for you to learn how to fire a blaster, but maybe you're decent with a blade or staff if your training was any good." Ahsoka winks, teasingly. "We could train briefly, while Tel prepares the ship."

"I've trained with a sword since I was seven. And a bit with daggers. I'm - decent. Not amazing or anything, at least not without my intelligent magic sword to help me cheat." 

"Alright then, let's ready our things, and if there's much time, we'll see what you can do before we leave. Come back to the cargo hold when you're ready."

"All right!" 

Jisa gets the travel bag from DD and then heads to the cargo hold as specified. 

Ahsoka hands Jisa a metal staff.

"Your task is to hit me." She steps back, arms by her sides, palms facing outwards.

Jisa squints at the weapon. She's trained a little with a wooden staff but not much, her teacher thought it was an unusually useless weapon. "With any part of it? I haven't seen this exact weapon before, am I supposed to hold at the end like a sword, or in the middle?" She really wishes she had Need for this. 

"Oh, hmm. I misunderstood what you knew. I'm guessing you want something like a vibroblade, which we don't have, but could definitely get on Nar Shaddaa."

Ahsoka walks over to a crate. "I have these small blades, if you prefer. They've got much less reach though. It's a staff, you whack people with it, it does the trick!"

"Does your world not use just normal swords at all?" Jisa peers at the small blades. "Those are small. I've trained with a staff but a lot less than with blades. Can give it a go, though." 

"Jedi use lightsabers, everyone else uses blasters, pretty much, with some exceptions for sport hunters, bounty hunters, ceremonial guards– oh, and those looking to bully and intimidate. For most people, being able to attack at a distance is more valuable than anything else."

"A long time ago, I read, when personal shields were in use, many people used swords, some even capable of withstanding lightsaber blades, but that was even before the Republic, thousands of years ago."

"I guess that makes sense. In my world only mages can do that, and a sword isn't that much good against a mage, but there aren't enough mages for it to change everyone's fighting style - but if you could just build a blaster, like a sword, that's really different." 

Tel hits the button on the ship's commlink hard. "Guys, we need to go. Now. Mining probes are back with their mining parents."

"- What does that...?" Jisa feels like she should be able to parse it but has to think through 'mining parents' a couple of times before it makes sense. "Oh, are people going to find us here who shouldn't find us here - um, I can do an illusion to hide us, maybe?" 

The hideout shakes VIOLENTLY.

Lazer fire can be heard raining down outside.

"They know someone is here and they want us gone, more likely, they want us dead so no one else knows they're here. They're gonna bring the place down! Get to the ship!!"

Jisa snatches up her travel-bag. Staff still in hand, she runs. 

- how big across is the ship, she gauges if she can actually cover all of it with an illusion. 

A blast roars right above them and a giant section of ceiling crashes down. Ahsoka springs out of the way, aided by some Force speed, but the insides of the base are now exposed. This moon doesn't have an atmosphere. As she's sucked up by the vacuum, Ahsoka manages to wedge her foot between some broken struts preventing her from being completely carried away, but the air is forced out of her and she fades to unconsciousness within moments.

Jisa shrieks and grabs onto the nearest intact strut, with a cord of force rather than her hand, yanking herself within reach. 

- Ahsoka - Jisa can't even see her but her mage-sight can pick up on the other girl's life-force. Which is not currently in great shape. 

No. Vanyel would know what to do instantly, she thinks. Focus focus focus. 

A loose (kind of sloppy) force-net first, to wrap around Ahsoka and at least keep her from slipping any further, then deal with the part where they're about to lose all their goddamned air. Raising and holding a barrier wide enough to block most of the now-absent ceiling makes her vision dim around the edges, but she can hold it. For a little while. The storm of escaping air slows to a loud hiss through the gaps she hasn't fully covered. 

Including the gap where Ahsoka's ankle is. With another burst of effort, Jisa yanks her through - and then has to pull on her messy force-net again to catch her, with the torrent no longer sucking her away. 

She manages to get Ahsoka down to the floor of the cargo bay in a semi-controlled landing, grabs her, and sprints for the ship, the shimmering mage-barrier straining behind her. 

Tel's voice comes out of Ahsoka's wrist commlink:

"Finally you guys are on board! We gotta get outta here, this is gonna be hot. Ahsoka, you're gonna have to get two or three nasties of our tail while I position us for the jump."