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Lily Elliot Ashford
Appearance Notes
Detective Patrick Tomasino
Ms. Ashford’s a good looking young lady... For a Nelvaanian-Shistavanen hybrid, that is. She stands about five foot eight and weighs... Maybe a hundred thirty, hundred thirty-five pounds. She’s got a very slender and curvy frame packed with every flavor of eye candy you could imagine; a narrow waist, wide hips, a firm rear, long and graceful legs, a slender neck, and a… Well, her chest is pretty big, to say the least.
Her fur is somewhat short and is mostly creamy gray in color, with some white accenting her body. There’s white ‘gloves’ and ‘socks’ over her hands and feet, respectively, while white fur covers her throat and part of her face, along with the entire front of her torso. Her hair’s dyed red and constantly spiked, and both her ears have two to three piercing, as does her navel. Probably trying to convey a ‘bad girl’ image. Considering the heavy-duty cargo pants and combat boots she’s always wearing and that tight fitting bodysuit of hers, she’s probably gone completely past ’bad’ girl’ and has fallen into ’crazy anarchist’ in terms of appearance.
She’s usually wearing a loose black tank top over her bodysuit, which helps break up the outline of her torso a bit and gives her a bit of modesty. Over that, she’s almost always wearing a black leather flight jacket, with ‘Freelancer’ embroidered in old-school script along the jacket’s back, across the shoulders, and silver pilot’s certification wings pinned over the left breast pocket, with her name embroidered over the right breast pocket. She’s got a digital wristwatch/communicator combo piece that she wears around her right wrist, and a single dog tag with her name, date of birth, and homeworld stamped on it.
I’ve also noticed that Ashford is always carrying a heavy blaster pistol on her right hip and a multitool on her left, usually in heavy-duty fabric or leather holsters. Aside from those, she’s unarmed.
Detective Patrick Tomasino
Ms. Ashford’s a good looking young lady... For a Nelvaanian-Shistavanen hybrid, that is. She stands about five foot eight and weighs... Maybe a hundred thirty, hundred thirty-five pounds. She’s got a very slender and curvy frame packed with every flavor of eye candy you could imagine; a narrow waist, wide hips, a firm rear, long and graceful legs, a slender neck, and a… Well, her chest is pretty big, to say the least.
Her fur is somewhat short and is mostly creamy gray in color, with some white accenting her body. There’s white ‘gloves’ and ‘socks’ over her hands and feet, respectively, while white fur covers her throat and part of her face, along with the entire front of her torso. Her hair’s dyed red and constantly spiked, and both her ears have two to three piercing, as does her navel. Probably trying to convey a ‘bad girl’ image. Considering the heavy-duty cargo pants and combat boots she’s always wearing and that tight fitting bodysuit of hers, she’s probably gone completely past ’bad’ girl’ and has fallen into ’crazy anarchist’ in terms of appearance.
She’s usually wearing a loose black tank top over her bodysuit, which helps break up the outline of her torso a bit and gives her a bit of modesty. Over that, she’s almost always wearing a black leather flight jacket, with ‘Freelancer’ embroidered in old-school script along the jacket’s back, across the shoulders, and silver pilot’s certification wings pinned over the left breast pocket, with her name embroidered over the right breast pocket. She’s got a digital wristwatch/communicator combo piece that she wears around her right wrist, and a single dog tag with her name, date of birth, and homeworld stamped on it.
I’ve also noticed that Ashford is always carrying a heavy blaster pistol on her right hip and a multitool on her left, usually in heavy-duty fabric or leather holsters. Aside from those, she’s unarmed.
Personality Overview
Jack Hargreave
I’ve spent the better part of a week speaking with Miss Ashford now, and I must say, she’s a remarkably happy young lady. She is very cheerful and friendly, and displays a very healthy range of emotions. She is appropriately saddened by the darker moments of her past, but has not displayed any signs of trauma related to the loss of her foster mother or the temporary loss of her foster sister. She also appears to have no difficulty ‘wearing her heart on her sleeve’, so to speak. She does not bottle up her emotions, rather, she lets them out in one form or another.
On a more general note, she is a very extroverted, non-judgmental woman. She seems to care little about what others think of her, and she, in turn, doesn’t much care about what others do so long as they’re only doing it to themselves. She can be highly energetic and enthusiastic at times, but in other instances she is incredibly apathetic - even lethargic!
She does have some minor trust issues; she tends to be suspicious of new people, but she warms up to them so quickly that I don’t view this as an unhealthy trait. I have noticed that once she does invest trust in someone, she goes one of either two ways: She either trusts them with a few bits and pieces here and there, or she trusts them completely and unconditionally, at which point they can learn everything there is about her. In either instance, if one breaches her trust, they’ll have an extremely difficult time getting it back - if they can get it back at all!
Now, one last thing: I’ve noted that she’s very flirtatious and has few inhibitions. She’s very much so aware of her own beauty and will not hesitate to use her body to seduce others, to lower their defenses and make them easier to manipulate into giving her what she desires. I suppose in that respect she is a seductress, and her inhibitions -or lack thereof- could prove to be somewhat problematic for her in the future, especially if she establishes any sort of long-term relationship. Were I her psychiatrist, I’d suggest that she learn to rely a little less on her breasts and a little more on her ability to reason, but I’m really not here to offer unsolicited advice - I’m here to analyze and report, nothing more and nothing less.
Jack Hargreave
I’ve spent the better part of a week speaking with Miss Ashford now, and I must say, she’s a remarkably happy young lady. She is very cheerful and friendly, and displays a very healthy range of emotions. She is appropriately saddened by the darker moments of her past, but has not displayed any signs of trauma related to the loss of her foster mother or the temporary loss of her foster sister. She also appears to have no difficulty ‘wearing her heart on her sleeve’, so to speak. She does not bottle up her emotions, rather, she lets them out in one form or another.
On a more general note, she is a very extroverted, non-judgmental woman. She seems to care little about what others think of her, and she, in turn, doesn’t much care about what others do so long as they’re only doing it to themselves. She can be highly energetic and enthusiastic at times, but in other instances she is incredibly apathetic - even lethargic!
She does have some minor trust issues; she tends to be suspicious of new people, but she warms up to them so quickly that I don’t view this as an unhealthy trait. I have noticed that once she does invest trust in someone, she goes one of either two ways: She either trusts them with a few bits and pieces here and there, or she trusts them completely and unconditionally, at which point they can learn everything there is about her. In either instance, if one breaches her trust, they’ll have an extremely difficult time getting it back - if they can get it back at all!
Now, one last thing: I’ve noted that she’s very flirtatious and has few inhibitions. She’s very much so aware of her own beauty and will not hesitate to use her body to seduce others, to lower their defenses and make them easier to manipulate into giving her what she desires. I suppose in that respect she is a seductress, and her inhibitions -or lack thereof- could prove to be somewhat problematic for her in the future, especially if she establishes any sort of long-term relationship. Were I her psychiatrist, I’d suggest that she learn to rely a little less on her breasts and a little more on her ability to reason, but I’m really not here to offer unsolicited advice - I’m here to analyze and report, nothing more and nothing less.
Aldera Police Force Internal Memo
RE: that Ashford bitch
TO: Detective Tomasino
FROM: Detective Wilkes
good gods Pat, what the hell were you thunking when you busted this ellie girl? i spent all damn night innterogatting her while you were searching her ship and all i could get out of her were board sighs and the same ‘can I go now?’ line. i got tire of yelling at a fuzzy brick wall and went to dig up her criminal record; figured a few hoaurs in the slammir might soften up that punck. prblem: she doesn’t have a criminal record, she’s clean as a whistle. not one arrest, knot 1 ticket; nothing! she keeps demanding to hear the charges against her, but i can’t charge her with transporting illicit goods unless YOU FIND THE KRIFFING GOODS, PAT. you couldn’t even give taht judg enough evidance for him to sign a search werrent on her ship! i got nothing’ to charge her with and we’ve already held her for 24 hours; the cheif just came by and told me to let her go. smug mutt is grinning like an idiot and is hading down to collect her ship right now, and there’s nothing we can do to stop her beccause if she really really wanted to, she could probably sue our asses for unlawful detainnment or harassment or some bullshit like that
next time you want me to interrogate one of your suspects, pat, the answer is no. this was just too much horseshit for me to deal with, and i wasted a day trying to put away a girl who could be innocent for all i know
Aldera Police Force Internal Memo
RE: RE: that Ashford bitch
TO: Detective Wilkes
FROM: Detective Tomasino
Tom, your computer has automatic capitalization and spelling correction software. For the love of God, please use it, okay? I know you’re an old duffer, but it’s getting ridiculous.
Anyways, what do you mean you had to let her go? The evidence is RIGHT THERE in her ship! The Tien class gunships are infamous for having hidey-holes to smuggle things in, and I SAW HER in the tavern, handing off a duffel bag to the local smuggling ring! I just needed more time to get my hands on that bag, but no! You just had to let her go!
We HAD her this time! We’ve known that Ashford’s been smuggling to Alderaan for a while now, but you just had to blow it by letting her out! You just know she’ll never turn up here again, so we’ve lost our chance to get her, and without hard evidence the RSF won’t take the case!
Jeeze Wilkes, you really blew it this time. This coulda been the big bust of your career - just think of how much spice must’ve been in that ship! Just THINK! ARGH. I’m gonna go drown my sorrows in a pint or ten. Don’t expect me back until tomorrow.
RE: that Ashford bitch
TO: Detective Tomasino
FROM: Detective Wilkes
good gods Pat, what the hell were you thunking when you busted this ellie girl? i spent all damn night innterogatting her while you were searching her ship and all i could get out of her were board sighs and the same ‘can I go now?’ line. i got tire of yelling at a fuzzy brick wall and went to dig up her criminal record; figured a few hoaurs in the slammir might soften up that punck. prblem: she doesn’t have a criminal record, she’s clean as a whistle. not one arrest, knot 1 ticket; nothing! she keeps demanding to hear the charges against her, but i can’t charge her with transporting illicit goods unless YOU FIND THE KRIFFING GOODS, PAT. you couldn’t even give taht judg enough evidance for him to sign a search werrent on her ship! i got nothing’ to charge her with and we’ve already held her for 24 hours; the cheif just came by and told me to let her go. smug mutt is grinning like an idiot and is hading down to collect her ship right now, and there’s nothing we can do to stop her beccause if she really really wanted to, she could probably sue our asses for unlawful detainnment or harassment or some bullshit like that
next time you want me to interrogate one of your suspects, pat, the answer is no. this was just too much horseshit for me to deal with, and i wasted a day trying to put away a girl who could be innocent for all i know
Aldera Police Force Internal Memo
RE: RE: that Ashford bitch
TO: Detective Wilkes
FROM: Detective Tomasino
Tom, your computer has automatic capitalization and spelling correction software. For the love of God, please use it, okay? I know you’re an old duffer, but it’s getting ridiculous.
Anyways, what do you mean you had to let her go? The evidence is RIGHT THERE in her ship! The Tien class gunships are infamous for having hidey-holes to smuggle things in, and I SAW HER in the tavern, handing off a duffel bag to the local smuggling ring! I just needed more time to get my hands on that bag, but no! You just had to let her go!
We HAD her this time! We’ve known that Ashford’s been smuggling to Alderaan for a while now, but you just had to blow it by letting her out! You just know she’ll never turn up here again, so we’ve lost our chance to get her, and without hard evidence the RSF won’t take the case!
Jeeze Wilkes, you really blew it this time. This coulda been the big bust of your career - just think of how much spice must’ve been in that ship! Just THINK! ARGH. I’m gonna go drown my sorrows in a pint or ten. Don’t expect me back until tomorrow.
Interview #02 Transcripts
Jack Hargreave
Topic: Gen. Background
[I’m Mr. Hargreave. I’m just going to ask you a few questions about your past to get a general overview of things. Before we start, can you state your name for the transcript?]
Lily Ashford. Middle name’s Elliot.
[And what do you like to be called by, Miss Ashford?]
Ellie’s just fine.
[Alright then. Now Ellie, I’d like to ask you some questions about yourself. Is that okay?]
I thought this was just another job performance review, not a pysch examination.
[(She’s still pretty cheerful. Just surprised by the question.) It’s kind of a mix of both. Piloting freighters can get pretty lonely, some people just… (Ellie interrupts.)]
Snap? Yeah, kinda crazy, y’know? I mean, most routes only take a few days to complete. A week at most. Just fly with a co-pilot or some video games or something and you’ll be fine!
[Mhm. Anyways, about those questions… This is a comprehensive exam, so we’re gonna start at your childhood and work our way up. So, starting from the beginning, can you describe your past to me?]
Erf… Well, dad was a banker. Older Nelvaanian who somehow got off his homeworld and wound up in Rep space. Mum was a trophy wife. Half dad’s age, big tits, big ass, no brain. All curves and sex appeal, y’know? A real seductress. I was an accident child. I guess mum freaked out and wanted to get an abortion, but dad wanted me and told her ‘no’. Anyways, growing up wasn’t too bad. Mom and Dad were never there for me, though. Mum didn’t want anything to do with me; to her, I was just the parasite that lived in her tummy for nine months.
(Ellie seems agitated now that she’s thinking about her mother and father. Very strong dislike for her mother, possible pack of respect for her father.)
Dad was leaps and bounds better. He was too busy to be there for me, but he always got home in time to read me a bedtime story. Always gave me a hug when I was sad, was always at my side when I was sick, always played with me and made me smile when I was lonely; for a rich, fancy-pants banker, he really wanted to do right by me. I had a good childhood, but I was kinda pampered. Dad was strict, didn’t want me to have anything I didn’t earn, but he was gone so often that mom would just buy me anything and everything I ever wanted. Her way of keeping me occupied and out of her way.
So I guess my young life was okay, at least until dad passed on. He ended up pushin’ up the daisies when I was eight, and Mom used that as an excuse to send me to daycare every single day of the week. Wasn’t even a ritzy one; she found the cheapest one she could get away with using and sent me there, but I’m not complaining. It was the best thing she ever did to me, ‘cuz I met the Mohatus there.
[(REALLY hates her mom.) The Mohatus? As in, the former Chancellor’s family?]
Yep! I met Samanya and Kamua there. We became fast friends - kinda helped that we were the only kids with fur in the entire day care, hehe. Anyway, they felt more like family to me than the family I had left, and their mother, Naiya, was amazingly kind to me. I guess her husband, Jamall, had worked with my dad to get Mohatu Shipping running and so they knew my father pretty well. Naiya offered to let me stay at the Mohatu place for the entire summer, and my Mom, being the asshat that she is, accepted.
I spent an entire summer with the Mohatus. It was the best summer of my entire childhood! By the end of it, I was callin’ Jamall ‘Uncle’ and Naiya ‘Auntie,’ and I was a tomboy like Samanya! Sam and I were best of friends, and me and Kammy were really close because I could relate to his shyness better than Sam could.
[(Sounds admiring of the Mohatus.) And what happened at the end of the summer?]
Weeelll… I had to go ‘home’. Not that the Ashford Mansion is home to me, mind you. It’s just… Empty now. Dad was the one who made that place home, but with him gone, I’ve got nothing there. When the school year rolled in, I… Well, erm, I uh… I may have run away.
[To where?]
I just ran to the starport. I called mum and told her that she never wanted me, and I didn’t want her either. She didn’t care.
(She laughs and shakes her head.)
When I went home, she’d locked the doors and wouldn’t let me back in. Said that I’d ’made my choice’. I was only eight! Uncle Jamall found out what’d happened an hour later when he called to see if mum was okay with me staying at the Mohatu place for a weekend; he stormed over, madder than I’ve ever seen any man. It turned out that my dad had trusted Jamall a lot more than I’d thought - see, my mom had a bunch of wild affairs over the years with various men and women, most involving drugs; dad had always ignored it because he cared more about me than her. But he didn’t totally ignore it; he’d gathered a ton of evidence and put it in a packet that he gave Jamall, in case I ever needed out from under Mum’s thumb. Jamall laid it all out on Child Protective Services and showed proof that she’d locked me out of the house and refused to let me back in, and with a little manuvering and pressure from him and his wife, CPS decided to take custody of me away from Mum. Not that she cared, mind you.
Now, here’s where things get sweet: Dad’d made Jamall my godfather. I went right from Mum’s custody into the Mohatu family’s!
[You sound like that was the best thing that ever happened to you]
It was! The Mohatu family is just… They’re the best friends I could’ve ever asked for. Naiya and Jamall raised me like their own, and Sam and Kamua were always right there with me. I grew to mirror Sam in a lot of ways - We liked the same music, we liked the same food, the same clothing, same hobbies, and we both idolized her dad. It’s kinda funny - we were the girls in the group, yet we were the closest to Jamall. Kamua hung around Naiya a lot more, but it fit him. He was soft, gentle. It’s not a bad thing, not at all, it’s just that his personality and Jamall’s doesn’t… Mesh, if that makes any sense.
[Makes perfect sense, Elliot. So what were things like as you grew older? When you hit the teen years?]
Oh gods! (She grins and laughs.) Sam and I became such horrible troublemakers at school, and we were polar opposites when it came to schoolwork. Sam worked her butt off; girl could pull an ‘A’ out of every class. I skated by with ‘C’s and ‘B’s. I did barely enough homework to survive a class, she turned in every assignment right on time. I was lazy, she was a workaholic. Jamall tried to get me to work harder at school, but I just never could. School was boring to me, and I knew everything that was being taught. I’m something of an autodidact; I love learning, so I taught myself a lot of elementary and high school level subjects. Uncle Jamall said I was “one of the most brilliant girls he’d ever known, but also the laziest.”
Anyways, once he figured out that I knew everything and was just too bored to put effort into proving it, he backed off and put me to work. I was a ‘Sensor Recalibration Specialist’ for Mohatu Shipping, meaning that I got to spend five to ten hours a day resetting and reprogramming the sensor arrays and analysis computers for the company’s fleet of Tien class gunships. The time I’d spent skipping class I spent working. It was nice - got to line my pockets with a bit of spending money, which came in handy when, err…
[When what?]
When I started to, y’know, develop. Physically.
[(Slight blushing on Ellie’s cheeks… I think. Hard to tell with all that fur.)]
Uncle Jamall didn’t let me date until I was fifteen and had taken Auntie Naiya up on some martial arts lessons, but when I did I had a blast! I didn’t date seriously, though; gods no! Maybe one or two dates here and there, with a couple cuties from my school, and I was always home by midnight with no exceptions.
[So he was strict?]
I wouldn’t call it strict. He was very relaxed; he let me date who I wanted within reason, let me go where I wanted, all those things, but he laid out some pretty clear ground rules about sex and anything that broke the law, and I respected those rules… And abused the hell outta all the loopholes in his rules!
[Heh. Alright, now… Sorry if this dredges up any unpleasant memories, but… What about when you were sixteen?]
…Do I have to answer? (She’s very quiet. Smile’s totally gone.)
[Not if you don’t want to, Ellie. But I’m here to listen if you want to talk about it.]
About a month after I turned sixteen, I ended up sick. Absurdly sick. I was bedridden, and Sam was wanting to go on a cruise for her sixteenth birthday. I was gonna go with her, so she offered to wait until I was feeling better, but I told her not to wait, to go without me. She caved and went, and… Slavers jumped the cruise liner. She was taken, and it…
(She just stopped to clear her throat. Ellie’s eyes look a bit misty; she’s upset.)
They just took her. We didn’t see her again for four years. Sam was the world to me - she was my best friend, my tutor, my partner in crime, my sister, my… She just, she was so much to me. Losing her hurt worse than anything I ever knew. We searched for her, gods we searched so hard. I don’t even want to think about all the credits Jamall spent trying to find her. It was no use, though; she was gone.
It hit us all hard, and things only got worse. Kamua snapped and ran off to the Jedi Order, and not long after that his mom wound up with cancer. Naiya, she… Died. Losing Sam had been incredibly hard on Jamall, but losing Naiya broke him. He was never the same after that. He was in politics, and he buried himself in it. I think he wanted to deal with someone else’s problems, not cope with all the grief he felt.
[What did you do?]
Huh?
[To cope. What’d you do to cope?]
Oh. Oh! Right, sorry. Well, I… Went to school a few months after Kam ran to the Jedi. I’d been planning it for a long time, and Auntie Naiya had worked it out with the Coruscant Institute of Technology. I finished up my last two years of high school at the local Community College and got all of my basic coursework out of the way, then went to CorTech and got a proper education. Had a Master’s in Starship Design and Mechanical Engineering by the time I was twenty.
I came home to Balmorra after that and got a job with the family company. Jamall was the Senator of Balmorra then, so running the company was in the hands of a few of his most trusted pilots. They made me a pilot too; Uncle J had trained me to fly with the best of ‘em, so they stuck me in the cockpit of a Tien, put a cargo in the hold, and sent me out on day one.
[So you coped by carrying on as planned?]
Pretty much. I couldn’t curl into a ball and cry for a year, or run around searching for Sam in a galaxy as big as ours. School was the only thing open to me. Gave me a future and all that. Now that I’m a pilot, I have steady income and all the hours I want to work. Nice thing about flying for Mohatu Shipping is you only really work two or three hours a day, five hours if you’re unloading or taking on cargo. It doesn’t exactly take any effort to take off, push ‘autopilot’, and then crawl into the crew lounge and play video games and watch movies for hours and hours on end. Pretty cush job in all honestly, right up until you need to perform maintenance or repair damage. Then it kinda has a lot of hard work involved.
[I bet. So, what are you doing now that you’ve been working for Mohatu Shipping for the last… Six years, right?]
Yup, six years! I’m still workin’ for Mohatu Shipping, but I’m pseudo-independent now. Fly my own ship, fly my own schedule, but my cargo and routes are given to me through Uncle Jamall’s company. I’m glad that Jamall’s running it again, now that he’s out of his Coma.
[He’s been out of his coma for three years now, correct?]
Yep. He was pretty out of it, physically and mentally, for the first few months but he’s a tough man. I honestly dunno why he was in politics - he’s not built for it. Look at the guy! Big thick arms, strong hands, broad shoulders; he’s built for work, not for cushy desk jobs.
[What’re your plans for the future? Anything you’d like to see, or do, or learn?]
Nothin’ really comes to mind, to be honest. I’m happy right where I am. I’ve got a family, I’ve got a good job and a ship; I’m set! I mean, sure, things are pretty heated around the galaxy, but I figure if I keep my head down and stick to my own business I won’t run the risk of pissing off the Rep or the Hutts. That's as good a plan as any, right?
[Mhm. Alright, thank you Ellie. That's all I needed to know.]
Jack Hargreave
Topic: Gen. Background
[I’m Mr. Hargreave. I’m just going to ask you a few questions about your past to get a general overview of things. Before we start, can you state your name for the transcript?]
Lily Ashford. Middle name’s Elliot.
[And what do you like to be called by, Miss Ashford?]
Ellie’s just fine.
[Alright then. Now Ellie, I’d like to ask you some questions about yourself. Is that okay?]
I thought this was just another job performance review, not a pysch examination.
[(She’s still pretty cheerful. Just surprised by the question.) It’s kind of a mix of both. Piloting freighters can get pretty lonely, some people just… (Ellie interrupts.)]
Snap? Yeah, kinda crazy, y’know? I mean, most routes only take a few days to complete. A week at most. Just fly with a co-pilot or some video games or something and you’ll be fine!
[Mhm. Anyways, about those questions… This is a comprehensive exam, so we’re gonna start at your childhood and work our way up. So, starting from the beginning, can you describe your past to me?]
Erf… Well, dad was a banker. Older Nelvaanian who somehow got off his homeworld and wound up in Rep space. Mum was a trophy wife. Half dad’s age, big tits, big ass, no brain. All curves and sex appeal, y’know? A real seductress. I was an accident child. I guess mum freaked out and wanted to get an abortion, but dad wanted me and told her ‘no’. Anyways, growing up wasn’t too bad. Mom and Dad were never there for me, though. Mum didn’t want anything to do with me; to her, I was just the parasite that lived in her tummy for nine months.
(Ellie seems agitated now that she’s thinking about her mother and father. Very strong dislike for her mother, possible pack of respect for her father.)
Dad was leaps and bounds better. He was too busy to be there for me, but he always got home in time to read me a bedtime story. Always gave me a hug when I was sad, was always at my side when I was sick, always played with me and made me smile when I was lonely; for a rich, fancy-pants banker, he really wanted to do right by me. I had a good childhood, but I was kinda pampered. Dad was strict, didn’t want me to have anything I didn’t earn, but he was gone so often that mom would just buy me anything and everything I ever wanted. Her way of keeping me occupied and out of her way.
So I guess my young life was okay, at least until dad passed on. He ended up pushin’ up the daisies when I was eight, and Mom used that as an excuse to send me to daycare every single day of the week. Wasn’t even a ritzy one; she found the cheapest one she could get away with using and sent me there, but I’m not complaining. It was the best thing she ever did to me, ‘cuz I met the Mohatus there.
[(REALLY hates her mom.) The Mohatus? As in, the former Chancellor’s family?]
Yep! I met Samanya and Kamua there. We became fast friends - kinda helped that we were the only kids with fur in the entire day care, hehe. Anyway, they felt more like family to me than the family I had left, and their mother, Naiya, was amazingly kind to me. I guess her husband, Jamall, had worked with my dad to get Mohatu Shipping running and so they knew my father pretty well. Naiya offered to let me stay at the Mohatu place for the entire summer, and my Mom, being the asshat that she is, accepted.
I spent an entire summer with the Mohatus. It was the best summer of my entire childhood! By the end of it, I was callin’ Jamall ‘Uncle’ and Naiya ‘Auntie,’ and I was a tomboy like Samanya! Sam and I were best of friends, and me and Kammy were really close because I could relate to his shyness better than Sam could.
[(Sounds admiring of the Mohatus.) And what happened at the end of the summer?]
Weeelll… I had to go ‘home’. Not that the Ashford Mansion is home to me, mind you. It’s just… Empty now. Dad was the one who made that place home, but with him gone, I’ve got nothing there. When the school year rolled in, I… Well, erm, I uh… I may have run away.
[To where?]
I just ran to the starport. I called mum and told her that she never wanted me, and I didn’t want her either. She didn’t care.
(She laughs and shakes her head.)
When I went home, she’d locked the doors and wouldn’t let me back in. Said that I’d ’made my choice’. I was only eight! Uncle Jamall found out what’d happened an hour later when he called to see if mum was okay with me staying at the Mohatu place for a weekend; he stormed over, madder than I’ve ever seen any man. It turned out that my dad had trusted Jamall a lot more than I’d thought - see, my mom had a bunch of wild affairs over the years with various men and women, most involving drugs; dad had always ignored it because he cared more about me than her. But he didn’t totally ignore it; he’d gathered a ton of evidence and put it in a packet that he gave Jamall, in case I ever needed out from under Mum’s thumb. Jamall laid it all out on Child Protective Services and showed proof that she’d locked me out of the house and refused to let me back in, and with a little manuvering and pressure from him and his wife, CPS decided to take custody of me away from Mum. Not that she cared, mind you.
Now, here’s where things get sweet: Dad’d made Jamall my godfather. I went right from Mum’s custody into the Mohatu family’s!
[You sound like that was the best thing that ever happened to you]
It was! The Mohatu family is just… They’re the best friends I could’ve ever asked for. Naiya and Jamall raised me like their own, and Sam and Kamua were always right there with me. I grew to mirror Sam in a lot of ways - We liked the same music, we liked the same food, the same clothing, same hobbies, and we both idolized her dad. It’s kinda funny - we were the girls in the group, yet we were the closest to Jamall. Kamua hung around Naiya a lot more, but it fit him. He was soft, gentle. It’s not a bad thing, not at all, it’s just that his personality and Jamall’s doesn’t… Mesh, if that makes any sense.
[Makes perfect sense, Elliot. So what were things like as you grew older? When you hit the teen years?]
Oh gods! (She grins and laughs.) Sam and I became such horrible troublemakers at school, and we were polar opposites when it came to schoolwork. Sam worked her butt off; girl could pull an ‘A’ out of every class. I skated by with ‘C’s and ‘B’s. I did barely enough homework to survive a class, she turned in every assignment right on time. I was lazy, she was a workaholic. Jamall tried to get me to work harder at school, but I just never could. School was boring to me, and I knew everything that was being taught. I’m something of an autodidact; I love learning, so I taught myself a lot of elementary and high school level subjects. Uncle Jamall said I was “one of the most brilliant girls he’d ever known, but also the laziest.”
Anyways, once he figured out that I knew everything and was just too bored to put effort into proving it, he backed off and put me to work. I was a ‘Sensor Recalibration Specialist’ for Mohatu Shipping, meaning that I got to spend five to ten hours a day resetting and reprogramming the sensor arrays and analysis computers for the company’s fleet of Tien class gunships. The time I’d spent skipping class I spent working. It was nice - got to line my pockets with a bit of spending money, which came in handy when, err…
[When what?]
When I started to, y’know, develop. Physically.
[(Slight blushing on Ellie’s cheeks… I think. Hard to tell with all that fur.)]
Uncle Jamall didn’t let me date until I was fifteen and had taken Auntie Naiya up on some martial arts lessons, but when I did I had a blast! I didn’t date seriously, though; gods no! Maybe one or two dates here and there, with a couple cuties from my school, and I was always home by midnight with no exceptions.
[So he was strict?]
I wouldn’t call it strict. He was very relaxed; he let me date who I wanted within reason, let me go where I wanted, all those things, but he laid out some pretty clear ground rules about sex and anything that broke the law, and I respected those rules… And abused the hell outta all the loopholes in his rules!
[Heh. Alright, now… Sorry if this dredges up any unpleasant memories, but… What about when you were sixteen?]
…Do I have to answer? (She’s very quiet. Smile’s totally gone.)
[Not if you don’t want to, Ellie. But I’m here to listen if you want to talk about it.]
About a month after I turned sixteen, I ended up sick. Absurdly sick. I was bedridden, and Sam was wanting to go on a cruise for her sixteenth birthday. I was gonna go with her, so she offered to wait until I was feeling better, but I told her not to wait, to go without me. She caved and went, and… Slavers jumped the cruise liner. She was taken, and it…
(She just stopped to clear her throat. Ellie’s eyes look a bit misty; she’s upset.)
They just took her. We didn’t see her again for four years. Sam was the world to me - she was my best friend, my tutor, my partner in crime, my sister, my… She just, she was so much to me. Losing her hurt worse than anything I ever knew. We searched for her, gods we searched so hard. I don’t even want to think about all the credits Jamall spent trying to find her. It was no use, though; she was gone.
It hit us all hard, and things only got worse. Kamua snapped and ran off to the Jedi Order, and not long after that his mom wound up with cancer. Naiya, she… Died. Losing Sam had been incredibly hard on Jamall, but losing Naiya broke him. He was never the same after that. He was in politics, and he buried himself in it. I think he wanted to deal with someone else’s problems, not cope with all the grief he felt.
[What did you do?]
Huh?
[To cope. What’d you do to cope?]
Oh. Oh! Right, sorry. Well, I… Went to school a few months after Kam ran to the Jedi. I’d been planning it for a long time, and Auntie Naiya had worked it out with the Coruscant Institute of Technology. I finished up my last two years of high school at the local Community College and got all of my basic coursework out of the way, then went to CorTech and got a proper education. Had a Master’s in Starship Design and Mechanical Engineering by the time I was twenty.
I came home to Balmorra after that and got a job with the family company. Jamall was the Senator of Balmorra then, so running the company was in the hands of a few of his most trusted pilots. They made me a pilot too; Uncle J had trained me to fly with the best of ‘em, so they stuck me in the cockpit of a Tien, put a cargo in the hold, and sent me out on day one.
[So you coped by carrying on as planned?]
Pretty much. I couldn’t curl into a ball and cry for a year, or run around searching for Sam in a galaxy as big as ours. School was the only thing open to me. Gave me a future and all that. Now that I’m a pilot, I have steady income and all the hours I want to work. Nice thing about flying for Mohatu Shipping is you only really work two or three hours a day, five hours if you’re unloading or taking on cargo. It doesn’t exactly take any effort to take off, push ‘autopilot’, and then crawl into the crew lounge and play video games and watch movies for hours and hours on end. Pretty cush job in all honestly, right up until you need to perform maintenance or repair damage. Then it kinda has a lot of hard work involved.
[I bet. So, what are you doing now that you’ve been working for Mohatu Shipping for the last… Six years, right?]
Yup, six years! I’m still workin’ for Mohatu Shipping, but I’m pseudo-independent now. Fly my own ship, fly my own schedule, but my cargo and routes are given to me through Uncle Jamall’s company. I’m glad that Jamall’s running it again, now that he’s out of his Coma.
[He’s been out of his coma for three years now, correct?]
Yep. He was pretty out of it, physically and mentally, for the first few months but he’s a tough man. I honestly dunno why he was in politics - he’s not built for it. Look at the guy! Big thick arms, strong hands, broad shoulders; he’s built for work, not for cushy desk jobs.
[What’re your plans for the future? Anything you’d like to see, or do, or learn?]
Nothin’ really comes to mind, to be honest. I’m happy right where I am. I’ve got a family, I’ve got a good job and a ship; I’m set! I mean, sure, things are pretty heated around the galaxy, but I figure if I keep my head down and stick to my own business I won’t run the risk of pissing off the Rep or the Hutts. That's as good a plan as any, right?
[Mhm. Alright, thank you Ellie. That's all I needed to know.]
-Ranger Armories M5 Assault Blaster
The M5 admirably balances ammo capacity, range, accuracy, and firepower, all in a lightweight package that fits very well into Ellie’s hands. With a special twenty-five shot power cell, a range of 40 meters, an integrated laser sight and rangefinder, holographic ammo and range displays, and enough stopping power to drop an unarmored human in his tracks within two shots, the little M5 is a rugged little gun that’ll handle everything Ellie throws at it without breaking or malfunctioning.
-CAR70 Personal Defense Weapon
The CAR70 is a compact assault weapon designed for use by armored vehicle and starship crews. Capable of being stowed in tight spaces for long periods of time with next to no maintenance, this little gun is as tough as it gets. A very simple gas-operated weapon, it fires a fairly potent 8x30MM carbine round from a 40-round magazine. The round is roughly as powerful as any revolver round but boasts superior ballistics, giving it far better range. This weapon has an effective range of 150 meters and a rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute and a two-round burst firing mode. A simple illuminated gunsight with 1-3x magnification is built into the carrying handle. This weapon can defeat most pistol-proof body armor, but is hopelessly ineffective against any sort of armor that offers so much as a scrap of protection against assault rifles.
-Multitool
A palm-sized multitool combining various types of screwdrivers, a small crescent wrench, pliers and wire cutter, a tanto-bladed knife and a saw, this little gizmo is always at Ellie’s side.
-Micro Tool Kit
Not much bigger than the average paperback book, this tool kit holds both self-adhering and fusible repair patches that can be used to patch up holes in objects, mend clothing, or adhere items together. It contains a ratchet and various sockets, including a one-size-fits-all ‘Omni socket’, a set of hex keys, a handful of whisper-quiet shaped charges for cutting locks, rope, some tape, and a fusion cutter.
-Bodysuit
The black-bordered red bodysuit Ellie is always wearing is actually a bit of impromptu armor. Made of cutting edge ‘SilkWeave’, a brand of extremely soft and snug-fitting armorweave that mimics spandex in many ways, the bodysuit is moderately resistant to slashing weapons and low-powered handguns, blasters, and, to a very limited degree, shrapnel and shotgun pellets. It covers very little of her body, however, and is generally only useful in keeping her torso safe from all the little nicks and scratches that she earns while working on her ship.
The M5 admirably balances ammo capacity, range, accuracy, and firepower, all in a lightweight package that fits very well into Ellie’s hands. With a special twenty-five shot power cell, a range of 40 meters, an integrated laser sight and rangefinder, holographic ammo and range displays, and enough stopping power to drop an unarmored human in his tracks within two shots, the little M5 is a rugged little gun that’ll handle everything Ellie throws at it without breaking or malfunctioning.
-CAR70 Personal Defense Weapon
The CAR70 is a compact assault weapon designed for use by armored vehicle and starship crews. Capable of being stowed in tight spaces for long periods of time with next to no maintenance, this little gun is as tough as it gets. A very simple gas-operated weapon, it fires a fairly potent 8x30MM carbine round from a 40-round magazine. The round is roughly as powerful as any revolver round but boasts superior ballistics, giving it far better range. This weapon has an effective range of 150 meters and a rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute and a two-round burst firing mode. A simple illuminated gunsight with 1-3x magnification is built into the carrying handle. This weapon can defeat most pistol-proof body armor, but is hopelessly ineffective against any sort of armor that offers so much as a scrap of protection against assault rifles.
-Multitool
A palm-sized multitool combining various types of screwdrivers, a small crescent wrench, pliers and wire cutter, a tanto-bladed knife and a saw, this little gizmo is always at Ellie’s side.
-Micro Tool Kit
Not much bigger than the average paperback book, this tool kit holds both self-adhering and fusible repair patches that can be used to patch up holes in objects, mend clothing, or adhere items together. It contains a ratchet and various sockets, including a one-size-fits-all ‘Omni socket’, a set of hex keys, a handful of whisper-quiet shaped charges for cutting locks, rope, some tape, and a fusion cutter.
-Bodysuit
The black-bordered red bodysuit Ellie is always wearing is actually a bit of impromptu armor. Made of cutting edge ‘SilkWeave’, a brand of extremely soft and snug-fitting armorweave that mimics spandex in many ways, the bodysuit is moderately resistant to slashing weapons and low-powered handguns, blasters, and, to a very limited degree, shrapnel and shotgun pellets. It covers very little of her body, however, and is generally only useful in keeping her torso safe from all the little nicks and scratches that she earns while working on her ship.
COMING SOON
For now, enjoy a mint. And an awesome picture of her ship.
For now, enjoy a mint. And an awesome picture of her ship.
