KETCH VANTIL

K-e-Tch Van-till

Ketch ducked into the narrow alley between two buildings and held his breath, Campus police darted past blaster pistols drawn.

“I hope those fucking things are set to stun.” He mumbled to himself. Quickly he cinched his belt tighter; Marra had barely gotten him his clothes out of the wreck before the Patrol speeders had shown up. He chuckled quietly, she was decadent, even for a spiker. She had wiggled her hips at him, and they had skipped out of the facility meet and great for all of the new cadets, groundlings, pathetically hopeful males and females of nearly all the intelligent species throughout the galaxy. As wing leader, he had been forced to attend.

“We should get out of here.” She’d said.

“But the shuttle doesn’t pick me up for another three hours.” He’d said drinking his Tei’lek cocktail. The stims in it had his head zinging, helping drown out the annoying buzz of all the new cadets.

“That’s alright, I have Daddy’s Card.” She’d said. His eyes glinted in the light reflecting off the electrum access card to the Dean’s brand new XJ-2 Airspeeder.

She giggled and led him out to the Airspeeder, parked like a prize lawn ornament on the perfectly manicured greens. It gleamed, red as blood, in the splashes of light from the party inside. Mara giggled and keyed open the canopy and climbed in hiking up her black party dress, it climbed dangerously up her thigh. She turned and the light glinted off the gold rings she had placed on the base of her horns, they where polished brightly for the night, and they poked up through her dark hair like the points of a crown. She winked and threw him the access card. Ketch snatched it out of the air. He looked over his shoulder behind him the party continued on. He shrugged and jumped in. Mara hadn’t bothered to pull her skirt back down; she licked her lips as he started the engine. With a whine, the twin turbojet engines kicked to life. They were originally designed to function in groups of 50 aboard the gigantic bank-courier repulsor trucks of Aargau. The engines direct pressurized air through a series of thrust ducts that propel the craft at incredible speeds. The speeder also features a state-of-the-art sound system and a hyper-accurate tracking device.

Ketch gunned the throttle and with a roar, they shot into the sky. The windows to the ballroom blew out. Shrieks and yells followed them as the shot into the sky. The trip quickly degraded as Marra’s dress caught the wind. He gasped as she wiggled closer to him, and out of her dress. Behind them the dress blew away in the wind, leaving her in only her silk nighty. They certainly didn’t have anyone like her back on Ryloth. After a few laps of the campus, she succeeded in distracting him enough that he missed a turn, and crashed into the pond in front of the dorms. With a crash they bounced off the surface of the water, and through the second-floor window of the athletic hall, landing on the schools only flight simulator.

“Well, that was definitely how to finish with a bang,” Ketch thought. A patrol speeder flew low and slow overhead. He ducked into a doorway and stood perfectly still. It passed by searching for him no doubt. Lights where on all over campus, and word must have spread like wildfire. He only had a few minutes before Marra started talking about who she had been with when they crashed, he needed to get back to his room and get his things. As he was no doubt expelled with his record. His scholarship from the Narglatch AirTech Company was definitely gone. Plus he was already on probation for taking money and bets, on which the groundlings dropping out after the G-force simulator.

Ketch ran across the lawn and barged through the eager groundlings standing around watching the Patrol speeders zoom around. He was totally out of regs; he didn’t even bother to button his dress jacket. Running, he made it to his room without anyone stopping him. Ketch started stuffing all of his things into his bag.

“The Dean would most likely press charges,“ he thought, ”kidnapping, rape, theft, destruction of property, reckless operation, avoiding arrest,“ the list went on and on.

“Well, I’m sure as hell not sticking around for them to stick me in a cell for the rest of my life. I would have made a terrible officer anyway.” sighing he went to his bed and lifted the mattress, working the secret latch quickly he grabbed his grandfathers .48 Enforcer and slid it into the holster he had strapped to his waste the antique gun fit snugly in the small of his back.

With a bang his door flew open; he jerked the huge slug thrower from its holster and crouched behind the desk. He stared over the sights at his terrified roommate, Daken stood frozen at the sight of the Gun pointed at him.

“Close the damn door!” Ketch snapped putting his gun away with the smooth grace of practice. Daken jumped and slammed the door closed the cheap Durasteel boomed, making Ketch wince at the sound.

“I heard about you and Marra, she’s saying you forced her into the Speeder and threw her dress out,” Daken said. Ketch snorted and slung his pack over his shoulder. He left all of his uniforms piled on the bed. But he grabbed his black leather flight jacket, with its Wing leader patch still shiny and new.

“Doesn’t surprise me, well I got to get out of here before they find me. Good luck Daken, hope you get a better roommate next time.” He strode to the door.

“Wait,” Daken said, Ketch hesitated and glanced back over his shoulder. Daken tossed him a Credit chip and a key card.

“I can’t take this!” Ketch said dumbfound, the key is to Daken’s prized 77-Z speeder Bike. Daken spent every free credit on his bike. There wasn’t a single stock piece left on the thing. Daken punched himself in the face hard enough to split his lip. Ketch stood there in shock, dumbfounded he watched Daken slug himself in the eye.

“Ow, well that hurt more than I thought it would.” Daken plopped down on the bed and punched himself in the temple.

“Stop that! What the hell are you doing?” Ketch said.

“Well when they show up to find you, I’ll tell them you knocked me out and stole my bike. Now get your ass out of here, and don’t scratch my bike. I owe you at least this much from cards, and getting me through astrophysics.”

“I don’t know what to say... thank you.” Ketch shook Daken’s hand and went to the door, thinking better of it; he went to the window and climbed out.

“Don’t worry; you know how much I’m going to score from with this story? Get a move on they’ll be here any second. And my Blasters in the side bag.” Daken held his battered face and lay down on the floor. Ketch waved and hopped down from their second-floor window.

“Not a bad guy, for a Cerean” Ketch thought. He ran over to the covered speeder bike and started it up, quietly as possible he made his way out of the parking garage and off into the night.

“I would have made a terrible officer anyway,” Ketch muttered, he didn’t look back.