Kanti takes the blaster from him and grins gently. "Friends, this is Chee'mobok, in Basic it's just Chee. He says he's a merchant of fineries, and he recently lost a speeder in a pond not far from here."

The blue twi'lek looks at the blaster for a moment and thinks over her next words carefully. "Chee, how many people can your speeder fit? If we were to get it out of the pond, that is." Before he could answer she would turn to face Ofsmor, "How far a trip do you think it is from here to the safest place for Chee to hide? Say, where some of the noble royal guard might be able to protect him?"

Massan tries to understand what the Twi'lek is saying to Kanti, but gives up. Some words were not to dissimilar to Hutteese, but while he found the Twi'lek language pretty enough he had no idea what was being said. When Kanti tells them of the merchant's predicament he scratches his ample belly absentmindedly and looks towards the river. "So let's get that speeder free then," he comments, before Kanti addresses Ofsmor, asking for places to hide. He gives her an exasperated look. "Look, there won't be any safe place in this city and the royal guard is going to have to flee or be destroyed. So they won't be able to protect him. The decent thing to do would be taking him with us."

When the Twi'lek jumps in front of the group Drask isn't sure what to make of the man or the gun he's pointing at him. Luckily Kanti was able to communicate with him, thus making things go much much smoother than had the newcomer fired that weapon at anyone.

"So ...... are we ....'borrowing' his speeder?"

"If we are going to take him with the least we could do is give a working blaster. There will be more Krath."

Massan walks closer to the Naboo officer and whispers: "Did you see how he held it the first time? We should be glad it's out of power or he would have hurt someone. I'm no expert marksman, but giving that guy a loaded blaster would be more dangerous to us than any Krath soldiers."

Kallu sniggers unkindly at Massan. "You, giving lectures on how to hold a blaster? Best stick to repairing speeders, little man."

ooc: funnily enough, charm is not on Kallu's skill list

Massan seems unfazed. "Well, if that's your assessment you'd have to concede that I know how not to hold the blaster, and that's what that guy was doing."

Kallu rolls his eyes at the Klatoonian's response. "Yes, your ignorance makes you an expert. Now shall we get moving? The speeder's probably not going anywhere, but the captain's daughter can't wait forever."

Drask nods in agreement. The bickering was only slowing them down now it seemed. "Let's get moving then. The sooner we drag the speeder out of the river the better." Drask imagined that they would literally have to push or drag the speeder from the river bed and he would likely be one of the ones doing most of the work. The sooner it was done the better he reasoned. So Drask starts walking up the river in the direction where the air speeder should be.

Osfmor waves at the Twi'Lek to come over by him. "Part of my duty is to protect the people of this Planet. I will take care of this man. So let's get going".

Massan follows Drask, staying behind the massive being. It made no sense to aggravate Drask further. He can usually use his special talent to sense the state of people close to him, and Drask was clearly getting annoyed with the situation.

Chee says something again in his gibberish version of Basic, but the way he's gesturing and pointing he probably wants you to follow him. You get the idea he actually has no idea in how to speak the language, and is just guessing.

He leads you down a side street, and you quickly see the pond, with the speeder floating not far off from the shore. It's only partially submerged, and looks to be large enough to fit everybody reasonably well. The intakes are submerged, so getting it going will take some effort.

"That doesn't look bad at all," Massan exclaims when the speeder comes into view. "I'll need to purge the intakes but that won't be too hard." He looks at Kanti. "You had better get out there with me. Once I get it started you'll have to get it out of there in a fairly aggressive manner before it gets flooded again."

The bulky Klatooinian gets to the shore. Thinking about it for a minute he takes off his jacket and the combat webbing he has on underneath, which holds his blaster pistol. He looks at the rest of the people present and ends up looking at Dubi. "Hey short stack, can you hold on to this for me while I go fix that speeder out there? It's brand new, it's a ExStar-T50 Modular, custom grip, all the trimmings. I need to tweak it a bit but it will be very awesome. And I don't want it to get wet." He places his small backpack next to the Chadra-Fan. "Yeah, that too, if you don't mind, lots of delicate stuff in there that doesn't like water."

The overweight Klatooinian looks at Kanti. "Are you coming, hot stuff?"

Had there been one with which to do so, Kanti quirked a brow. Without a word she marched out into the water, past the babbling Twi'lek, part her allies, and out to the speeder.

After putting down most of his gear, Massan wades into the cold water after the Twi'lek pilot. "Ohh, that's cold. So cold," he mumbles, hoping he won't have to go in too deep. Although he can swim, he is far from confident in the water. Especially when there could be all sorts of critters in there. Naboo was teeming with all sorts of wildlife and he had no interest in meeting any of it in the river.

Watching Massan tread into the river with her, and gripe at the cold, Kanti kept herself occupied by studying the speeder, wondering idly how well this might work. She'd seen worse come back from the dead, so if her new mechanic friend was anything to write home about this might just do the trick.

Still, though... "How difficult do you think this will be to fix?"

Dubi held the pistol that had been foisted upon him and couldn't work out how anyone could use such a flimsy gun, where was the kick? Where was the firepower come from? No wonder none of the bigger companions were much use when it came to shooting. Oh well, it doesn't matter too much, he thought. They'll get the speeder out and then he could go somewhere else for his next adventure. Seeing this was likely to take some time Dubi decided to check out the backpack. There was probably food in there.

Dubi is sorely dissapointed to find only a few empty candy wrappers and crumbs of protein bars eaten a long time ago in Massan's backpack. In there he does find rather illegal slicing gear though.

Massan and Kanti don't take long to get the speeder operational. "Lucky thing that this doesn't require any specialized tools," Massan says in a low tone. "Try it now. No, again, but more slowly." The machine chokes again. "Not quite so slow, just aim somewhere in between and we should be fine. Hold on, I just need to clear this again before you try," Massan says, bending over to clear out the engine again. Most other mechanics would indeed require specialized tools to get the engine clear, despite what Massan maintains, but ever since he was a little boy he has been able to fix most things using no tools other than his mind. He does his best to keep Kanti busy on the other side of the speeder, as he is used to hiding his special talents, and hopes she doesn't know enough about airspeeder engines to question his authority when it comes to the tools needed, or not needed, to get the speeder operational.

"Now Kanti, try it now, slow but firm. You know. Casual-like," Massan says, bent over the engine. The speeder's engine purrs for a moment and then comes back to life, the repulsors pushing the machine off the bottom off the river. "Quick, get it on dry land or it will choke again," Massan exclaims, but Kanti clearly knows her business well and has already steered the speeder expertly onto dry land. "Excellent," Massan beams, clearly happy with finally making some progress. He grabs his gear from Dubi, stroking gently over the handle of his beloved pistol. "We make a good team, Kanti. You fly, I make sure it continues flying. I like it."

Osfmor was keeping a lookout for Krath, wild animals or anything that could be a threat. He exchanged a few awkward glances with the Twi'lek they had rescued.

Drask grins broadly as the speeder comes to life. Progress!!!!

For an advanced piece of technological brilliance, this thing was truly a clunker. It sounded like a tug boat, and moved like a box droid, but it would hopefully be faster than walking.

Kanti frowned as it came to life and climbed out of the water and back onto mostly dry land, but she seemed to be frowning a lot today. It had dawned on her that the speeder truck they found was certainly lacking the finesse, speed, and handling she had hoped for when potentially outrunning the Krath. She reached into her bag and took out a metal canister which was filled with a bright blue liquid and set it on her lap.

"Alright, everybody pile in," she muttered quietly. With a shake of her head she managed to bring her cocky grin back to her face.

"Yes, Massan, we can make a good team here. All of us seem to be capable enough so far. Speaking of which," she eyed the Zabrak and the Chadra Fan carefully, "Which of you two wants to sit up front with me in case we need forward fire power?"

Osfmor was a bit surprised that the speeder would still operate. Now let's see if it will last. He started to get in the speeder and got a whiff of the damp and musty smell caused by the river water. I hope nothing made this their home.

Kallukorus gestures to the Chandra-Fan's rifle. "Take the Chandra-Fan. They'll be better support from the cockpit. I do my best work up-close and personal." The Zabrak grins unsettlingly

"Okay... I'll do it"

Dubi wasn't too sure he shared the faith that his companion did about him being better support but it meant that he was considered useful in some way which was always a plus in his book. He wasn't sure who was actually supposed to be in charge with everyone bickering and giving orders but at least it gave him something to do.

Drask climbed into the speeder. "How long will it take us to reach the downed ship anyway?"