Urrmkz dumped the sack containing his cargo near a tree. The human was sedated, of course - the torturous paths Urrmkz had followed to reach this place were difficult enough with an unconscious prisoner, and would have been outright impossible with a resisting one. His sensibilities protested carrying a captive in something so obvious as a bag, but a Trandoshan on this rock would draw attention even without a captive.
Still, he'd made it to the spot where his ship had gone down. He could make out a few clumps of Alderaanian foliage here and there - a relic of the process he'd used to cover the ship. He'd always hoped he wouldn't have to use the force-grown flora camouflage, but it had proven to be worth every blaster bolt he'd pumped into that merchant to get it.
He activated his comlink, and waited an agonising few seconds, wondering if the systems were still functional - then, a whine of repulsorlifts, and a disc of earth rose out of the ground, revealing a hatchway beneath it.
Crouching, he undogged the hatch, then retrieved his prisoner. He climbed down into the belly of his ship. The ship had had many names over the parsecs, and Urrmkz never got attached to any of them - it was simply his ship. One day, when he gathered more renown, he might settle on a name - but only then.
Urrmkz made a quick patrol of the ship, checking that the vital components were still intact, and then made his way to the cockpit and began the power-up checklist. Life support, check. Repulsors, check. Ion drives, check. Hyperdrive, check - though a few telltales were still lit, it was functional. Navigation - check. Sensors - check. Weapons -
Just then, the sensor display flickered and died, and the unpleasant smell of frying components filled the cockpit. Urrmkz quickly slapped the sensor shutdown and grabbed his manipulators, cramming them on. He grabbed a powertorque from his toolbox and undid the panel, until he found the damage.
A Sigma-7 power relay had blown. Highly common, easily replaceable. Which is why he'd had to use all of his spares bringing his hyperdrive back from the dead. Urrmkz fiddled with the unit, rerouting power, seeing how much he could shunt away from the relay, but he couldn't drop the load far enough to let him jury-rig a replacement. Eventually, he stopped trying. At worst, he had to sacrifice his scan detectors - and that was no big deal. He hadn't detected any sensor scans beyond simple EM bounce-scans on his way in four years ago, and he didn't intend to stay on this rock any longer than he had to.
He resumed the checklist, finding that the ship had survived its four years of entombment quite well, with no other systems shorting themselves out. He punched the repulsors, and, slowly but surely, his triangular ship dragged itself out of the ground, uprooting trees and ripping bushes free as it climbed into the sky. He engaged the ion drive, and soon was over the ocean.
"What in the blazes do you think you're doing?" The comms board informed him the transmission was coming in on a tightbeam, and Urrmkz recognised the voice.
"Coming to meet you, Mr. Star, what did you think?"
"Land immediately, you idiot! You'll have every sensor on the planet buzzing, the way you're flying!"
"Relax, Star. This planet isn't sophisticated enough to track me - I saw enough of their sensor net on my way in."
"Then you're blind. Your scan detectors are faulty."
"They're offline, actually, but -"
"Then land immediately! You're endangering both of us!"
"I don't take too kindly to being ordered what to do with my ship, Mr. Star."
"I'm heartbroken. I note that you're landing, though, Mr. Lurker."
"I'm not stupid, Mr. Star. Merely angry."
Urrmkz slung the sack over his shoulder and walked down the access ramp. Outside, it was a desert night, surprisingly cold but refreshingly dry. He stood at the bottom of the ramp, scanning for his contact.
There it was. A plume of sand, wafting up in the wake of a speeder bike. In a matter of seconds, the bike was slowing to a stop about ten metres away, it and its rider illuminated by the ship's downlights.
The rider was a Devaronian female, dressed in the leathers of a swoop gang. She climbed off the bike, and approached, ostentatiously keeping her hand hear her blaster. "Lurker Below." It was a statement, not a question. "I thought you'd be... smaller."
"You're not Mr. Star."
"I should think not. You have the cargo?"
"Do you have a name?"
The Devaronian gazed coldly at him, and Urrmkz gazed straight back at her. Finally, she said, "Nova. You have it?"
"You have the credits?"
Wordlessly, the Devaronian produced five duraplast credit slips from one of her many pockets and flapped them slightly.
"You want me to sling it on the bike?"
"Sure."
Urrmkz strode over to the bike and deposited the sack over the trailing edge, then turned around. "One more thing..."
"What?"
"Do you have any spare Sigma-7 power relays? I'm running a bit short."
"One moment." The Devaronian turned away slightly, and muttered something while holding a finger in her ear. She paused, muttered something again, and turned back to Urrmkz. "We have one. It'll cost you five hundred credits."
Urrmkz paused for a moment. Then, there was a flurry of motion, and the two of them stood almost within touching distance, with blasters trained on each other. "It's a seller's market," continued Nova smoothly. "And my employer desires compensation for the crimp you put in his plans by blasting out here like a rancor on heat."
"Five hundred credits' worth?"
"Take it or leave it."
"I could blast you down right now and take his precious cargo with me."
"You wouldn't reach orbit."
Urrmkz continued to stare at Nova. She was still wearing her biking goggles, so she had an edge in the blank-stare stakes. Almost imperceptibly, the Devaronian waved the credit slips. There were five there. And he'd have been willing to go as low as two thousand. And it'd give him his scan detectors back.
He growled, then lowered his blaster. "Five hundred it is. Done."
Nova nodded, and backed away a few metres, keeping her blaster on him. "Very well." She muttered a few words into her comlink, then said, "And now all we do is wait."
And wait they did, for nearly three minutes, until a small carry-droid glided out of the night, carrying a tiny component on its tray. It floated over to Nova, who deposited four of the credit slips onto the tray without taking her blaster off the Trandoshan. The droid then floated over to Urrmkz, who scooped the contents off with his clumsy hands.
"We're done, then," said Nova. "Good night." Carefully, without turning her back on the Trandoshan, she climbed aboard her bike. The carry-droid floated in behind her and magnetically bonded to her seat, and she holstered her blaster. With a final nod, she kicked the bike into motion and disappeared into the night.
Urrmkz watched her go, trying to commit to memory the lines of her face. He wanted to be sure he'd break it if he ever saw it again.
Finally, he went back into his ship. After fixing his sensors, he'd jump out of this benighted system and head back to civilisation. He'd had enough of roughing it.