"Let's just forget about it," said Sain.
"Yeah, you're right," Amir agreed.
The spaceship was so old that almost none of its parts were usable.
The two began to clean up the pile of scrap metal.
"What's this?" Sain's mood darkened as he pointed to what looked like a storage compartment. The cylindrical box was broken.
Amir was exhausted, too. After an hour of fruitless work, this was an additional blow to his mental and physical strength. He moved over and opened the storage compartment's lid. In that instant, Amir perked up and quickly took out its contents.
It was a silver-white cylindrical object with two curved devices at the top, simple friction-increasing patterns in the middle, a circular base, and a square controller that protruded from the side.
"A lightsaber! Sain! A lightsaber!" Amir shouted to Sain, who was stunned and forgot to respond.
Ten minutes later, the two of them gathered around the table and stared at the gray rod in front of them.
"Is this really a lightsaber?" Sain asked.
"It should be, but where's the switch? Where is it?" Amir stared intently, muttering to himself. The lightsaber he had always dreamed of seeing in movies from his previous life was finally in front of him, yet he couldn't find the switch. He pressed every part of the hilt, but there was no switch.
"Gentlemen, it's time to eat. Who's going to call Jax back?" Pierre appeared at the door.
The two, at an impasse, looked at each other. Amir snatched the lightsaber and ran toward the door. "I'll play with it for a few days."
"Hey!" Sain, who hadn't reacted yet, shouted in confusion.
There was no night on the planet. It relied entirely on control devices surrounding it to regulate brightness, cycling through night and day according to the standard cycle.
Now, the lights began to dim and Coruscant entered dusk. The neon lights around them became even more vivid.
As he walked along a familiar path and searched one place after another, he finally saw a group of delinquents in an alley. Jax Meyers was right there among them.
"Jax!" Amir called out, approaching the group.
"Amir!" Upon seeing Amir, the three of them all looked at him with joyful expressions.
"Long time no see! Your green hair looks good, Lango. Green hair suits you. Did Veronica change her arm model again?" Amir greeted them familiarly.
He had always hung out with this group before going to military school. Though they all looked fierce, they were all younger than him. The oldest, Veronica, was only 15—a year younger than him—and she was a redheaded human girl.
"Amir, you're on break?"
"Perfect, we've got a new job." Lango was a Farlin with a reptilian appearance that resembled a standing lizard with scales covering his wrists. He could freely control his skin color, but he preferred green, so he usually appeared green.
"All right, future big shots of Coruscant, let's discuss this important matter after we've finished eating."
Amir didn't pay much attention. They had been doing such jobs for two years.
They helped others build a crowd and showed off their strength. It posed no danger to them, and they earned some pocket money. He often accompanied them.
"It's a job from Senir. Two thousand credit points each once it's done," Veronica said, her arms crossed over her chest. Her red hair contrasted with her relatively cold voice.
Lango, who had remained calm, also lit up.
Two thousand credit points wasn't a small sum. For them, the lowly children, it could sustain them comfortably for a year.
But Senir? During school breaks, they had worked with him a few times. Though each mission had ended without incident, Amir had always felt that something was off about those tasks.
Amir turned his head to look at the other three, who were already eager to act. Taking on risky jobs meant they could eat at a nice restaurant after each successful mission instead of relying on cheap nutritional supplements.
They rarely failed because Amir and Veronica decided whether to accept a mission. They rejected anything too dangerous, so the missions were always completed without incident.
However, desire can be suppressed but not completely erased. With such huge profits on the table, people will always take risks.
"So, if I don't come back, you're just going to go ahead and do it?" Amir asked with a smile.
Veronica nodded silently.
"Meet me at the usual spot later. We'll discuss this mission together tonight." Amir sensed that something was off, and his instincts urged him to refuse the mission. However, seeing the determined looks on the faces of the three people in front of him, he couldn't bring himself to say no. He decided to find out more first.
After the two left, they returned home and slowly enjoyed the dinner Pierre had prepared: steaming hot coconut tea and golden-brown grilled nun chicken.
Amir, accustomed to Earth's chicken, had initially refused to eat this because it looked ugly, but...
"It's so delicious!" Amir exclaimed as he took a big bite.
At the dinner table, they listened to Sain boast endlessly about the strange and outdated items he had picked up during his trip. He treated them like treasures. However, only Amir listened with interest. Pierre had heard it all before, and Jax's mind was elsewhere.
Finally, after Jax's constant urging, the two finished dinner and rode off on Amir's modified "Coke can" motorcycle.
"This motorcycle wasn't designed for two people," Amir said with a smile as he looked back at Jax, who was complaining about the cramped space.
"Once this job is done, I'm definitely buying an XP-30 land speeder," Jax declared. He was unaware that his daydreaming only strengthened Amir's resolve to refuse the job.
The red motorcycle weaved through the residential streets of Coruscant with ease. Amir had always been an excellent driver, whether on land or in the air.
He had assembled this motorcycle entirely by himself, and it was absolutely thrilling to drive. Jax, however, was already accustomed to it and wasn't the least bit worried. He shifted his position from time to time, sticking his head out the side to feel the wind and looking just like a husky.
Finally, the motorcycle stopped beside a building. Amir and Jax skillfully climbed onto the roof from the side. It was no longer the dark, dingy basement, but rather a ground-level house they had discovered years ago that was uninhabited. The rooftop had since become their "meeting room."
Two figures were already waiting on the balcony.
"Let's get down to business. What's the mission?" Amir asked bluntly.
"We just got back, and you want to discuss the mission right away?" Veronica said coldly, her eyes drifting to the side.
Lango's green skin turned almost purple, but he wisely kept quiet. Only Jax jumped onto his usual spot and swung his legs.
"Haha," Amir laughed. He walked over to Veronica, leaned against the railing beside her, and said, "After two years, we've achieved nothing. But this time, I brought some new parts that will add new functions to your arm."
"Hmph," Veronica said, curling her lips slightly. "I thought you were here to arrest us."
Seeing the tension ease slightly, Lango quickly interjected, "Why don't we talk about the mission? Once this one is done, we can all go to the Ice Eye Bar for a proper celebration."
"Right! What kind of job did Senir give us this time? Let's hope it's not another big deal over a few fruits like last time." Amir jumped in eagerly.
Veronica placed a hologram device on the table in front of her, and a human projection appeared before the group.
"Our target is the item in this person's possession."