Just a Job 2000 short story by Andrew Dick Four years after Episode IV – A New Hope        "Final call for all passengers travelling aboard the Cardooine Moon. Would all passengers for the Cardooine Moon please embark now at gate sixteen. This craft is about to depart." Stragglers thought Mina Barton. Always stragglers. She resumed viewing the complimentary programs on the seat's holo-viewer, only to find they had the same entertainment value as always. None. Seated in Empress Class aboard the Cardooine Moon, Mina Barton looked every bit the successful businesswoman. Which, she reasoned, was what she was. After all, it was her job that had paid for the designer-label suit, and the thousand-credit earrings she wore in her lobes. Admittedly, it was a different line of work from most folks, but that's all it was; a line of work. Something to pay the bills with. She was interrupted from her reverie by a veteran steward in a white tunic who enquired politely if she wished any refreshments. The beautiful, dark-haired businesswoman gave him her most dazzling smile and assured him she was fine, thank you. It quite made the old boy's day. Smiling inwardly, Mina glanced forward and saw a young Twi’lek couple whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears, and for a moment wished Riralus was here. Her husband was no longer the wild young man she'd fallen in love with nine years before, but she did love her Riri very much, and he loved her. Loved her, even knowing what she did, what she was going to do. Determining not to dwell on it anymore, Mina kicked off her shoes - exclusive to Querdu's - and began reading the trashy novel-card she's bought in the spaceport shop. The Cardooine Moon lifted off and began its inexorable rise to the stars.   The cottage was right at the periphery of the large estate. Satisfied that no one was about, Mina closed the door, hefted the suitcase onto the bed, and sat down heavily in an armchair. Lugging the case around was the worst bit of the job, she decided. 'Her little bag of tricks', Riralus had called it, laughing. The mammoth piece of luggage was almost as big as she was. It was probably Riralus' sense of humour that had first got her interested, she thought. She'd been working in a bar on Vagran when she first met him, and he'd come in with a bunch of other students and tried to chat her up. Oh certainly he was very attractive, with his long dark hair giving him an even more piratical charm, and he was persuasive, and funny, but there was more to it than that. He could have had any girl he wanted - and before he'd met Mina, he was certainly a rake - but he'd fallen in love with her. Fallen in love with my breasts more like, she thought to herself. Still, they'd been married for eight happy years. The only slight regret was that they'd never had any children. Rising, Mina undressed to her underwear and opened the case. She selected a t-shirt and leggings, put them on, and then turned her attention to the rest. The boots went on first, then the leg armour, followed by the back-plate, breastplate, and the arms. As she moved to put on the helmet, she caught a glimpse of herself in the dressing-table mirror. With the make-up scrubbed off, jet-black styling gel applied liberally to her brown hair, and brown contact lenses to mask the green eyes, she looked completely different from the previous day. Then again, she mused, state-of-the-art midnight blue battle armour looks completely different from a cream Siso Berran suit, too. She snapped the helmet into place. Then, after strapping two powerful blaster pistols to her thighs, she picked up the blaster carbine from the case and opened the door. It was well after midnight, and few lights burned in the mansion. The clouds ensured there was no moonlight either, but that wasn't a problem. Mina turned up the gain on the helmet's image intensifier visor and made her way to the house. The first guard was tired and sloppy, and didn't hear her coming. He was still facing away from her when she brought her left forearm down hard on his neck. He jerked, and then slumped limply forward. Mina hurriedly rolled him into the rose bushes, then moved on. As she approached the terrace at the side of the house, the second guard must have heard something - a scrape of boot on stone, whatever - because he brought his rifle up and fired just wide of her. Knowing the element of surprise was gone, she brought the carbine up and fired. The hail of laser fire sent the guard crashing to the stone floor of the terrace, dead. Others would soon come to see what had happened, so she ran to the rear of the building, forced a window, and climbed in. Sure enough, another armed man ran past the room she was in, towards the terrace. She stepped into the hallway, shot him in the back of the head, and headed for the stairs. There was no way to do the next bit subtly, so she charged up the stairs, firing as she went. Another guard, just reaching the top of the staircase, took two shots in the neck and went down. Mina was breathing heavily as another guard appeared in a doorway and fired, clipping her left shoulder. Her return fire emptied the carbine and took a chunk out of the wall the guard was sheltering behind. He stepped out to take another shot, but the assassin was faster. The pistol attached to her right thigh was now in her hand, and she shot him twice in the chest. Taking advantage of a brief interlude of calm, Mina drew the second pistol and went looking for her main target. The confused shouts of other guards echoed across the lower floor as she moved along the corridors of the upper level. Not the greatest security team I’ve ever seen, she reflected. As she stepped through the doorway, it was the armour that saved her. Mina barely had time to register the face of her target framed in the opposite doorway before he fired. The blast from the sawn-off rifle hit her in the chest, and sent her flying into the wall behind her. The jolt was agonising, but the wall checked her momentum and gave her something to steady herself with. Raising both pistols, she filled the doorway with blaster fire. Curls of smoke rose from the doorframe where two of her shots had missed, but most had found their mark. For a brief second she glanced down at what was left of her target, and decided that he’d deserved it. Krous Elor IV didn’t need the money. He’d been greedy though, and so his construction firm had cut back on safety checks to increase the profit margin, at his command. And one of the apartment blocks they’d built had collapsed, killing sixty-two residents. The officials had cleared Elor and his company, but one of the victims had a rich relative with a vengeful streak, and so the construction magnate had paid the ultimate price. Although the breastplate was smouldering where she’d been shot, Mina was grateful to realise that she was completely unharmed beneath it. She heard the clump of feet as some of the other guards figured out what was going on, and decided she wanted to go home.   Two days later, newly arrived home, Mina Barton contemplated retiring. She’d even noticed earlier that the lower portion of the back-plate, designed to protect her tailbone, was fitting a little more snugly these days. Still, what do you expect for a 31-year-old? There was, she decided, no other career path she could really have taken. She’d been conscripted at eighteen into the army of her homeworld, Tulunn. They weren’t fussy about gender, they were more concerned with holding off the Imperials. Then, when the Imperials invaded, the Tulunese Army had been disbanded, and she’d fled. She’d taken a variety of menial jobs before ending up in a bar on Vagran. With no money, an incomplete education and a husband who was still at university, she had put her army training to use, and had been doing so ever since. Mina climbed the stair to the bedroom where Riralus was asleep. He hadn’t heard her arrive home. She gave a soft, regretful sigh as she saw the bottle of pills on the table at his side of the bed. Pills that he would have to take every day for the rest of his life, because of his excessive abuse of alcohol and hallucinogenic during his student days. Excesses that had taken away his ability to father children. She undressed and climbed into bed. Riralus stirred, and Mina leaned over and kissed him on the bald patch on top of his head. He waved her away irritably. She knew how much losing his hair annoyed him. Poor baby. Maybe I’ll buy you a hair transplant with the fee for this job.    “Good trip?” He murmured.    “It was just a job, honey.” She replied. “Just a job.” She cuddled up to him, and fell asleep.