Kaaza Tosca - Scene 4
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Kaaza walks into the Darkknell spaceport in a huff, her heels clicking on the tile with each step. She winds her way through the throngs of people, an annoyed look unfaltering on her face. Normally, her job was easy. Pick up the drop, put it with her podracer, and go. But today, her routine didn't work out. Now she has to rely on Sol's planning to get her to Takodana while carrying contraband on her. Thankfully, Sol has never led her astray before. He's meticulous, and Kaaza's always liked that about him.
Her large, dusty satchel bag, packed for the two days required, contrasts greatly against the sleek black dress she didn't make time to change out of. The small black box inside, surprisingly dense, pulls on her shoulder, adding to her discomfort.
She approaches the ticketing counter. "Kaaza Tosca, flight to Takodana," she says gruffly.
The attendant's eyes flash at her in recognition of just who is standing in front of him, though he keeps his composure. "Your flight's not scheduled to leave for another two hours, Ms. Tosca."
"I'm ready now," she replies simply.
To her surprise, the desk attendant nods and taps a few buttons on his screen. After a few seconds, she notices a confirmation message appear. "Your flight leaves shortly, Ms. Tosca," the man corrects himself with a smile, earning one in return from the twi'lek. Being a celebrity has its perks. "Please, come this way," the man says. He presses another button on the data pad and the light over his counter dims, signaling that it's closed.
Kaaza holds her breath. Step 1 is done. But the weight of the black box pulls on her physically and mentally. She only releases her breath when the man directs her through a back door, past the security checkpoint. He walks hastily, slowing down when he notices Kaaza's heels prevent her from keeping up. Though she frequented the Hutts' nicer establishments frequently, she was never expected to walk for long periods of time.
Down a long hallway and through another door, the two exit out onto one extremity of the main departure floor. The attendant raises a hand toward a small ship to their right with a single pilot standing by an open door and an R2 droid sitting at the top of the ship. The attendant bows and retreats back through the door, leaving Kaaza alone to approach the ship.
"Afternoon," the man says, bowing his head slightly. "I won't bother you with formalities. If you've moved your trip to Takodana forward, I assume you're in a rush." He begins walking up the small ramp into the ship.
"I am," Kaaza says with a smile, feeling at peace once more. Sol's never led her astray before.
"It'll take a little less than a day to get there. You'll miss practice," the pilot continues once they're on the ship, obviously realizing who he's flying. "But you'll be there to race," he finishes curtly. "Cockpit's through here," he says pointing to a large door at the front of the ship. "Buzz me on the intercom if you need me. Rest of the ship's yours." Without waiting any longer, he bows once more and pulls the door closed. Momentarily, the ship's engines roar to life and the ramp raises, shutting Kaaza inside the ship.
As the ship lifts off the floor and gets into the queue for takeoff, she drops her satchel to the ground, immediately kicking off the heels and stripping out of the dress. Digging through the bag, she replaces her clothes with the normal boots and leathers she's more accustomed to, and heads off in search of some food.
The flight is uneventful, thankfully, and after sleeping, Kaaza can feel the ship land in the spaceport at Takodana. She quickly throws what few belongings she unpacked, including her dress and heels, into the satchel bag as the ramp begins to descend, allowing the bright artificial light from the hangar to enter the dimmer ship. Kaaza exits before the ramp can fully descend, hopping down a foot to the floor. Before she even has a chance to get nervous once more, another attendant approaches the ship.
"Ms. Tosca, this way please," she says, taking Kaaza through another set of doors and hallways, avoiding customs. Rather than enter into the main lobby, they walk through another door to the local hangar, and once more, Kaaza is ushered toward another ship.
A jovial, portly man is standing at this ship, waving across the floor even when they were still a hundred feet away. "Takodana Podracing Circuit!" he yells excitedly, as if announcing it so everyone, though it's obvious Kaaza's the sole passenger once more. "Your one way ticket to Takodana Podracing Circuit." Kaaza smiles at him as she steps up the ramp, and the pilot excitedly claps her on the back. "All passengers accounted for," he shouts happily, giving the attendant a thumbs up before she turns to return to her duties.
Once again wasting no time, the pilot locks himself in the cockpit. However, unlike the one for the hyperspace trip, this local ship has windows, allowing Kaaza to watch the buildings fly past her as they travel up through, and then outside of, the city.
Whichever strings Sol had pulled were worth it. The shuttle driver took her directly into the circuit, landing down just outside the garages. Thankfully, her hyperspace pilot was right. There's a few hours, just enough time for her to get situated, before qualifying start, though she's missed all the practice sessions.
As she steps off the shuttle, this time thanking the pilot because his jovial antics put her in a good mood, her pit crew is waiting, looking at her expectantly.
"The pod ready?" she asks bruskly as a greeting.
"It's ready," her chief mechanic, Aldo, responds with a smile. "Glad you could make it," he says as Kaaza walks past him and he turns to follow her.
Once they enter the doors into the garage, out of any line of sight of spectators, Kaaza reaches into her satchel and pulls out the dense black box. "All that nonsense for this," she says with a smirk. "Careful, it's heavy," she says before tossing it to the mechanic. "Make sure that gets where it belongs. I've got to focus on racing today."
Aldo peels away from the group as Kaaza goes to make sure she's still registered for the race, despite missing practice, and to give her racer one last inspection herself.
Having not set a lap time during the practice sessions, Kaaza is last to leave on her qualifying lap. Thankfully, practice isn't mandatory.
When she gets the call to prepare, she pulls her firesuit on and straps her lekku into the helmet before hopping in her pod. She hits the ignition switch and the repulsor engines come to life with a high pitched moan. When the pod reaches stasis, her crew pulls the blocks from underneath the cockpit and each engine and Kaaza carefully drives it out of the garage and down pit lane to await the go-ahead.
At Takodana, the pit lane is established before the front stretch of the circuit, so drivers are given very clear instructions that there is not a warmup lap. The first time she crosses the start/finish line would start her timed lap.
Kaaza sees the light turn green, giving her the clear signal. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before pulling forward. Once she was far enough away from pit lane, she slams her throttle bars forward, the engines hollering, and the G-forces pushing her back into her seat.
Flying past the front grandstands, she starts her timed lap. Takodana had always been a favorite track of hers to race at. Leaving the main part of the circuit, the races take a quick jaunt through the forested landscapes before the circuit goes through the ancient remains of a Jedi temple, the architecture and statues protected from the racers by a forcefield. With several sharp turns before exiting the temple, it is equal parts beautiful and scary to drive through, and always makes Kaaza feel alive.
One more short jaunt back through the forest, with sporadic stands placed throughout, and she'd approach the front stretch again. It certainly isn't the fastest lap she's ever taken here, but it is serviceable for her needs. All that remains is a sweeping right turn into a quick left-right chicane, and she'd come up toward pit lane again.
No, not a left-right, a right-left.
But it's too late. Already at the fast speed she can manage with a dedicated line for the incorrect turn, Kaaza slams on the brakes and tries to correct, though she's going much too fast.
Missing the turn entirely, Kaaza does her best to steer away from the grandstand on her left, but her racer hurtles toward the wall. Built of a sturdy, yet lightweight material, the bottom wall of the grandstand does its intended job: it absorbs the impact from the racer. The huge dense engine digs into the wall before the material finally catches it, wrenching her left engine away as the right one still careens forward, turning her entire pod precariously to the left as physics does its job.
With a horrible cacophany of sounds, the left engine is pulled so far away from its partner that the power coupling between the two cuts out, silencing the pod. Now lifeless, her engines and cockpit continue the spin without additional propulsion. She can hear, and feel, the emergency repulsors activate and deactivate meticulously to keep her entire pod racer upright, preventing it from tumbling end over end, though it does little to actually ease the impact as her engines and cockpit slam into the ground.
Slamming her fist down on the side of her cockpit, she swears to herself. As her ears cease ringing, she can hear the crowd above her roaring at the collision that occurred just in front of them.
"A rare misstep from Kaaza Tosca," the announcer's voice rings out from the speakers in the stands. "She'll have to settle with starting from the back of the pack tomorrow."
"She missed both practice sessions, so I can't say I'm surprised," the co-announcer responds. "It just goes to show the fans at home that no matter how good you are at something, mistakes can and will happen."
"Right you are. Now we just need to see if she can get that racer of hers running again."
Still only seconds after the accident happened, the emergency crew shuttles arrive at her wrecked pod. A medical personnel is the first person to approach her, but Kaaza's impatience gets the better of her.
"I'm fine," she yells, much harsher than she intended to. "Just move the damn engine!"
Not showing any signs of being offended, the medical officer gives her a thumbs up and waves over another vehicle heading back to the ambulance.
A much larger ship approaches the front of her vehicle and gently drives into her left engine, slowly pushing it along the ground with a groan.
Kaaza looks over her shoulder toward the wall and sees the repair crew with a large hose already spraying more building material into the gash she left in the wall. Rolling her eyes, she looks back toward her engines. If she can complete the lap, one way or another, she'll just start at the back of the field like normal. If she fails to complete the lap, she'd be given a 30 second time penalty at the start, a much harder feat to overcome.
Her gaze intensifies as she measures the distance between the engines herself, a skill she's picked up over the years racing. She flicks her ignition switch at the first possible moment she can, and hopes. It takes a few tries, but she sees the coupling beam spark to life, immediately powering her engines. She waves furiously at the large ship, and it starts pulling away as her racer creaks and groans, lifting the engines and cockpit out of the ruts they dug themselves into.
Kaaza waits, drumming her fingers on the handles, making sure she's giving the track crew the required clearance before moving, another action that would get her a penalty if she fails.
She pushes one throttle, righting the direction of her racer, then both to accelerate forward back to race pace and blasts through the final turn, past the start finish line. What could have been a 90 second lap turned into nearly a 4 minute lap, but a completed one nonetheless.
Without a warmup lap, and with the pit lane at the end of the track, Kaaza takes her cooldown at a leisurely pace, clearing her mind.
As she pulls back into the pits, she can already see the reporters crowding her garage. She pulls the racer into her spot and waits for the crew to bring over the blocks before killing the power. She takes off her helmet, freeing her lekku from their bindings. They droop down her head with little verticality from disappointment.
"Kaaza, Kaaza!" the reporters shout out. "Are you alright after that crash?"
"Are you still confident in the race tomorrow?"
"Why did you miss practices the last two days?"
The questions come at her non-stop, and she chooses to only answer vaguely. Finding the nearest camera and microphone, she gives media-friendly answers, a smile on her face, though her lekku tell a different story. "Sometimes life just gets in the way. I had to make the difficult decision to miss practice, and I paid the price. It'll make tomorrow an uphill battle, but I'm going to give it my all like I always do."
Walking away from the cameras, she steps back into the garage and pulls the door closed, waving at the reporters one final time. Once the door is shut, she tosses her helmet aside, the smile disappearing from her face. "All this for a fucking box," she hisses.
