Welcome to another part of our home: the Story Archive. Some people must have far too much time on their hands to spend it with writing down the stories of our adventures. The story-teller in this case is one Mara L. Jade, and we have been searching for her for a while now - her stories might be entertaining, but she knows alltogether too much about us, and seems to take delight in letting us look bad. So if you ever hear of her, tell us immediately.

Nevertheless, one of the stories she has written about us we have chosen to publish here. We want to show our goodwill, and leave it up to you if you want to believe her lies or not.

Maybe - just maybe - we might strike a deal with her one day. She might be interested - against a heavy fee, of course - to publish her work here, so at least we could keep an eye on her that way. So watch out for new stories to come in the future.

Double trouble

There was a tiny squeak, followed by a muffled howl. The cargo bay stood empty of its usual clutter, just a few folded crates stacked up in a corner. On the row of seats opposite the engineering console two sleeping forms were huddled together under a blanket. On the table before them, a game of "Holobeasties" was still in progress, unattended. A brown and swarthy miniature rancor had just stomped down onto a greyish shaggy bantha, which had expired with all the dramatic sound-effects that "Holobeasties 7.9" had promised.
Chewbacca stuck his head around the doorframe and eyed the scene before him. He had been playing against those dreadful girls earlier on, and had taken great care to make himself understood when he told them that they should turn the damn thing off before going to sleep. And all for nothing. Han wouldn't be happy about it, when he'd want to use the tactical display option of the table tomorrow and find all his power low on it. Damn women!
He walked across to switch it off. As he leaned over the table to reach the switch at the other side, he noticed something peculiar about the way the two women were lying there: they didn't make a move. Not a single movement , not one rise or fall of the breast as they breathed, nothing. He should have been able to see something like that, shouldn't he? Or was this some kind of genetic mutilation of their species? Chewbacca knew they were humans from the planet of Kiffex, in the Southern Sector, but that didn't really mean much - humans seemed altogether strange sometimes. Some could do feats others could not, like being able to feel the "Life-force", as Wookiees called it.
Still, this was suspicious. Those women had a dangerous air about them, and anything out of the ordinary should be treated with care. Should he check on them? He decided that it was better to be safe than sorry. He put his hand on one of the women's shoulders, and shook it. The air-inflated life-size doll slumped down from the seat, and came to rest at his feet. Chewie shoved away the rest of the blankets covering the other form, and discovered another doll under it. "Rrrrraawrr!" he cursed in his own language, and then went to search for the missing women. This was no good news.

Something was moving around in the ship. Or rather, someone. It isn't Chewie, Han thought, so it must be one of those damned twins. Chewie wouldn't make any noise - he knew the way to open the secret smuggler's compartment in the ship's corridor without making any of this din. Han cursed himself for ever taking in those two women as passengers. He had been warned about them before - many times, in fact - and he sure wasn't keeping any of his more valuable possessions lying around too loosely, but it seemed nothing could stop those two.
He wondered how they had known about the compartments and where to find them. They must have pulled a number on Shug Ninx on Nar Shadda - Shug was the only one who knew about those compartments. Ah well, he really couldn't blame Shug for falling for them - they certainly had their charms. Certainly, he hadn't minded being the centre of their attention during this trip, and the occasional glimpse of a bit more naked flesh wasn't unwelcome - he wasn't going to deny that. But they had another thing coming if they thought their little games would work on him.
And they were mad to think that they wouldn't get caught at what they were doing right now. Still, he had to admire them - to have gotten past the watchful eye of Chewbacca they must have used some real good ploy. He would see.

They were young, they were beautiful, they were skilled at their work, and they were extremely dangerous. They had a reputation for being extremely clever and cunning con-artists who would scam anyone who got in their way. And although that reputation went ahead of them wherever they went to, they never got caught.
Because no one knew that there were two of them. Senni and Brea were identical twins, but that fact was very little known. The reputation they had was the one of their combined character, Bresenni; slipping in and out of that one character they had won the hearts and wallets of many people who fell for that beautiful creature - who never once suspected that while the one was being wooed, the other was robbing the safe. Only a few people in the galaxy knew that they were twins - present company included.
They would have preferred to hide that fact from Solo, but that hadn't been possible. The ship was far too small to carry on their single-identity game, and anyway, they had to leave Nar Shadda in an awful hurry. That damned Moff Argon had sent his spies out after them, and they had been forced to abandon their carefully planned scheme to con some renegade Imperial General out of his carefully hidden credits. It would have been a really lucrative haul, and they would have been able to live on that money for a year at least.
Instead they had to abandon their own ship, the Sorry Sight, at the spaceport, where something that looked suspiciously like a whole batallion of stormtroopers in civilian clothing had waiting to ambush them. The whole thing would have been funny if they wouldn't have been in such a tight situation - why did those Imperials never realize that if they sent out their troops undercover, they should at least take care to arm them with something else than those Imperial standard army blasters that gave them away immediately?
So they had remembered Shug Ninx and his tall tales about that Solo character, and hoped that the guy was on-planet right then. Solo was the favorite pilot of the Desilijic Hutt Clan, and usually ferrying spice around the galaxy for them - but from what they had heard from Shug, he wasn't opposed to the occasional passenger side-trip. Especially not, if it was for a lot of credits. That's what they had promised him. And that's what he would get.
Of course, not in any way that he would appreciate - he certainly wouldn't like being paid with money out of his own pocket, but with any luck he wouldn't realize that until later.
Anyway, he didn't seem to be the cautious type of person, which was a bit surprising considering that any creature in any sort of employment with the Hutts had to be quite cunning and devious, and certainly very cautious. But the only thing that was watchful around the ship was that blasted Wookiee companion of his, who had been lurking around them ever since they came on board. But by the silence they perceived around the ship, even the Wookiee had fallen for the simplest of all tricks and gone to rest.
Time to concentrate on the task at hand: opening that compartment. Shug had been quite talkative about it, in an effort to ingratiate himself even more with them, boasting of all the wonderful things he had done to the Falcon. And they really were grateful now.

Senni was about to squeeze the flat end of the multi-tool she was holding between the narrow slit in the plating, when Brea poked her into the side. She looked up at her twin with a quizzical eye. Brea only held her finger to her mouth, indicating to stop any noise for a moment, and Senni paused in mid-movement, holding in her breath.
But there was not a sound to be heard. She shook her head, annoyed, and returned her attention once more to the plating. While Shug had told them of the compartment itself, he hadn't been very exact as to where it was located, and this spot was the fourth or fifth one they had tried out so far.But this one was the right spot, and she wasn't going to be driven off by some insignificant thing. Her twin just shrugged, but wondered if the tiny squishing noise she had heard was simply the hum of the ship's engines, or if there was something else.
Somewhere in the corridor to her left there was a noise again, as if a space-rat was scurrying along the walls of the ship, and this time even Senni heard it. She wrote it off as exactly that, and shook her head at her sister. But when she returned to her work, she was even more careful to make as little noise as possible. Brea looked around nervously.
Finally, the rift between the plating widened, and she was able to grab it and pull one sheet of it up. The twins looked at each other, and grinned. This one was going to be worth it. Together, they removed the trap door and looked down onto their treasure.

"Good morning, Ladies! I hope you had pleasant dreams?" Han asked, with all the seriousness he could muster. Chewie, who followed him into the cargo bay, wasn't quite so successful at remaining straight-faced - but then, who would see the difference between a grinning Wookiee and an angry one if they didn't know Wookiees that well?
The twins on the bench behind the hologames table didn't blink an eye. They looked tired and exhausted, and had been roused from their dreams, however pleasant, far too early. Nervously they stared at the grumbling Wookie with the angry expression, and wondered if he had any suspicions.
Yawning and stretching her arms, Senni replied. "Sure, pleasant dreams - very pleasant dreams!" She grinned happily, thinking of the amount of glitterstim vials they had taken from that compartment last night, and along with a whole cache of credits, had lugged all around the ship's corridors and then packed it away with the rest of their own belongings. It had been hard work, risky and hard, but the result was well worth it - they would be able to sell off that spice to their contact on Oseon for a high price, and live like royalty in the luxurious hotels there for a while, whilst checking out their next "prey".
Now they only had to get there , without Solo finding out about the stolen credits and spice. But that should be comparatively easy: they would just parade around before Solo's eyes a couple of times wearing only the skimpiest clothes and smiling winningly, and he would melt like butter in their hands. Easy.
"Would you like some help with your work now, or will you manage on your own?" Solo asked.
"Ah…what?" Senni asked, confused. What work was he talking of?
"We thought we would make your journey a bit more interesting for you. How would you like to earn some of that money you're paying me back? 'Figured you wouldn't want to pay all that much."
Senni looked at her sister. Brea shrugged. Why not? That way they would actually keep some of the credits they had stolen, and that was even better. And there was nothing to say against doing a little work. "Sure."
And Senni asked, "What sort of work is it?"
Han Solo smirked. "Oh, there are a couple of crates full of valuables over there in the corner among your things, and we thought we'd tidy up a bit and put them safely away to ……… something wrong?"
Senni had paled perceptibly, and gasped as he mentioned the crates. Brea just sighed. "How in space did you know? And what are you going to do with us now?"
Chewie uttered a loud laugh that started the twins trembling with fright. Han grinned even wider. "I should report you to the Desilijic Clan, really, and they'd feed you to some beast or other as punishment for stealing what is theirs, but I think I have a better idea. I might have some use for your talents to play a little game with a friend of mine, Lando Calrissian." Chewie grinned. "And as for how I knew: I laid a little trap for you. While you were busy carrying off all that spice, the color-crawlers I had hidden in the compartment went to work on you, and now all I have to do is look at you to see the evidence." He laughed.
Brea looked at Senni. Senni looked at Brea. The color-crawlers that had gone to work in their hair had coloured it bright green. And they had never noticed before. What fools!

TO BE CONTINUED