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voice.
    “It is in a couple of pieces,” started Reen.
    “More than a dozen major ones,” added Eddey. “Not counting the—”
    “A
few
pieces,” corrected Reen, staring daggers at the Bothan. “Just a few pieces. Back on a landing pad on Keyorin.
If
,” she added quickly, cutting off Eddey Be’ray, “they haven’t sold it off for scrap to pay for the berthing fee.” The Bothan merely smiled and folded his furred hands in front of himself.
    “Ah,” said Mander. “So you are stranded here. But someone with the coordinates for the Indrexu Spiral …”
    “… and the ability to check them out …,” Reen put in.
    “… would be able to write their own ticket,” finished Mander. “Sounds fair enough. Yes, I think an experienced pilot would be helpful. If I get the coordinates and they check out, you can have them as well. The Jedi don’t have much in the way of material belongings, so consider it Toro’s bequest.”
    “He’s giving in too easily,” said the Bothan. “There has to be a catch.”
    “There is,” said Mander. “The catch is the people who have the coordinates, the ones who kept Toro jumping through hoops for weeks.”
    “So my brother was negotiating with tough customers,” said Reen. “How bad can they be?”
    Mander said, “Toro was negotiating with the Hutts.”
    Now it was the previously calm Bothan’s turn to react, his eyes wide and his fur raised from the crown of his head back along his spine. “You can’t be serious?” he managed.
    “Completely,” said Mander. “I know that the Bothans and the Hutts have bad blood, so if you want to back out at this point, I would understand.”
    Eddey opened his mouth to reply, but Reen beat him to the punch. “Bad blood isn’t the problem. Bothans and Hutts are natural competitors. The problem is that you can’t trust
any
Hutts. Period.”
    “I believe the one we are dealing with can be trusted,” said Mander.
    Reen stifled a laugh and said, “The only people who tolerate the Hutts are those who have to work for them, and even then they work very hard to keep them at an arm’s length. Every single Hutt is a criminal and a thief. Their entire civilization is built upon the powerful stealing from the weak. They survived the destruction of their original homeworld, Varl, and proceeded to steal another one from a less powerful species. Now Nal Hutta is a haven for the crime lords, and its moon, Nar Shaddaa, is rife with corruption.”
    “Granted,” said Mander. “But the Old Republic dealt with the Hutts when they had to, and in this case the benefits were considered worth it. And if all Hutts are untrustworthy, that means you can depend on what they will do.”
    “They are predictable,” said the Eddey Be’ray. “That is a far cry from dependable.”
    “You’re making a mistake dealing with them in the first place,” said Reen. “If you want my professional opinion.”
    “And in your long experience,” said Mander, “you’ve never dealt with Hutts?”
    “That’s the point,” countered Reen. “I
have
. And it is a job best done through middlebeings and fixers with strong stomachs and weak morals. It is not a question of
if
a Hutt will betray you, but
when
.”
    “So you’re saying no, then?” Mander asked with a sigh.
    Eddey made to say something, but Reen overrode him again. “I’m
saying
that you had best be careful. They’re not like most of the other sentients you encounter out here on the Rim. Their brains don’t even work the same way as everyone else’s,” she said. “And they’re resistant to your Jedi mind tricks,”
    “I have reliable information to that effect,” said Mander. “I believe that it is one reason they are willing to deal with the Order. They feel we are at a disadvantage in negotiations, both with our limited ability to affect them and our tendency to deal with people fairly.”
    “In other words,
you’re
predictable,” muttered Eddey.
    Reen ignored him. “They