Chapter 9: New Friends?

"You bet," Ragnar replied. He was an early riser and had been up more than an hour. He had seen the mechanic/owner up and in the area and was eager to speak with him.

Ragnar hopped out of his ship extending a hand in greeting. "Figured introductions were in order since we missed that part the other day. Name's Ragnar. Heckler let me stay here till you and I could chat. I want to be upfront about things... I'm my own man, "resistance" or "imperial" mean little to me as long as folks let me live my own life. I'm game to follow a certain amount of "law and order" when a fellow can earn a decent wage legally but fail to see anyone making that a reality. That said, you and I are in sort of a unique position. A handful of pilots "missing" is one thing but there's the other problem of these craft."

"Now I'm hoping you won't judge me for doing so or suggesting what I plan to, but I've already scrubbed them of all serial numbers and triple wiped the flight recorders. They might as well be defunct models sold at auction as far as most people will assume them to be. And I just so happen to know a semi-legitimate dealer we could trust to offload these. What do you think?"