FTL Chapter 13

Blu senses Nar Uned approaching and feels sudden relief. She has not been formally trained to use the **** in quite this way, and she wasn’t completely certain that it would work. Some tricks with the **** have come to her easily. Others, she struggles with.

She’s surprised by Nar Uned’s relatively lazy disguise. She hasn’t changed her features at all, or if she has, the changes are minimal. This will not fool the scanning of advanced seeker droids.

But the blue skin works for her. The red eyes, Blu isn’t so sure about. The biggest change would be her costume: a sexy dress instead of conservative business clothes. Blu certainly approves of that.

She gets ready to make her move, but her subtle call through the **** works too well. Nar Uned joins her at the bar. Blu didn’t expect things to go quite this smoothly. She just needed to find out what Nar Uned’s new look was, but Nar Uned seems to want to save Blu some trouble.

It takes a little bit of effort not to smile. Nar Uned is an attractive, confident woman. But it’s clear that she is not accustomed to this setting. Talking to strangers in bars does not come easily to her.

“Hi,” Blu says, glancing at her as she takes the next seat.

“Hello,” Nar Uned replies as the bartender approaches. “Can I buy you a drink?”

“Sure,” Blu replies, suddenly curious. Not about what’s going to happen; she knows exactly what’s going to happen. But she has to wonder what this now-retired, on-the-run arms dealer will do in this situation.

“Are you sure you’re in the right bar?” Nar Uned asks with a look around at all the Neimoidians.

“These guys don’t get drunk and try to feel me up,” Blu confides.

“Do you want to be alone?”

Blu turns to look at Nar Uned very directly. Nar Uned appears nervous, perhaps sweating about whether her disguise will hold.

“No,” Blu says, leaving the **** out of it and tapping into skills that she honed long before she met Laki. She doesn’t need the ****. Just confidence. “I don’t. What’s your name?”

“Gruska.”

A fake name, of course. She needs to practice that a bit if she wants it to sound natural, but Blu isn’t here to coach her on hiding. She’s here to get what she needs.

“I’m Blu.” Blu smiles. “I used to be a bounty hunter. What do you do?”

“I drink wine and see the galaxy, I guess,” Nar Uned replies with a little laugh. It’s genuine, but it has bite. Blu watches her take a big drink of her wine. She could almost forget that this woman just had her bodyguard killed in order to fake her ****.

A second goes by. Blu holds eye contact, which Nar Uned shies away from.

“You said what you used to do,” Nar Uned says, almost shyly. “What do you do now?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Blu smiles at her over the rim of her glass. “I talk to beautiful women in bars.”