Slinging his bag on his bed, Alan started to pack.  He was looking forward to getting some rest.  It had been so long since he had that he couldn't even remember when that was.  He picked up his blaster and pondered on whether to wear it or to sling it into his bag.  Just at that moment, his droid entered and noticed what was about to happen.

"Surely you won't need your weapon" she said.

Alan looked at her and simply replied "well" as his mind raced for a reasonable explanation as to why he was taking it.

"The planet is a peaceful resort, there has never been any violence on it and you are going for some rest and not for target practice" she said.

Alan looked at her, his mind still trying to come up with some plausible reason for taking the weapon, in the end he conceded.  "You're right" he replied as he put the weapon back.  Why had he thought about taking his weapon anyway?  This was supposed to be a time for relaxing.  Having finished his packing he slung his back over his shoulder and started to head out of his apartment.

"Have a safe trip" said Betty as the doors slid open.  Alan looked back, smiled and nodded as he exited.  "Oh I thought he'd never leave" she said as she headed off to have a relaxing oil bath.

Alan walked down the corridors and entered the hangar bay.  He looked at his two ships docked and pondered on which one to take.  He decided on his freighter as he could just imagine what his droid would say if he piloted a heavily armed imperial gunboat to the planet.  He was about to head over to his ship when one of the personnel on duty stopped him.

"Hello Sir" the officer said, "going for a little trip?"

"Yes" replied Alan "I'm heading off to Karvane for a little rest".

"Wow" commented the officer "how did you manage to get there, that's quite an exclusive resort".

Alan smiled and replied "well I think my droid got a persuasion chip installed lately".

The officer laughed and wished Alan a safe trip.  Alan thanked the man and boarded his ship, his mind pondered slightly on what the officer said about it being such an exclusive resort but he decided to pay it no heed.

He fired up the engines and requested permission to depart.  He was quickly granted the permission and he lifted the ship off the ground and slowly out of the hangar doors and into space.  Once out, he programmed into the ships navigation computer the destination point and took the ship into hyperspace.  The stars around him streaked and the ship lurched deep into hyperspace.

"Well" said Alan to no-one "Planet Karvane here I come".

Alan guided the ship down towards the solitary land mass.  His descent was slow as he wanted to see the layout of the land.  The island seemed relatively small and Alan noted that along  the edge was miles of beautiful golden sand.  The hotel was situated directly in the centre of the island and seemed to stretch upwards quite some distance.  Alan wondered to himself just how many floors there was.  He soon noticed the landing lights that were illuminated for him to land.  The freighter came in slowly and landed gently.  The ramp lowered and Alan strode out with his baggage.

"Ah, welcome, welcome" said an over eager man as he hastened over to Alan before Alan had a chance to step off the ramp.  "My name is Sivian and if there is anything you need, then you just let me know".

Alan smiled and replied "thank you Sivian, right now I just want to check in and get settled".

"Of course, of course" said Sivian.  He pointed to the hotel looming before them and said "just go in and you will see the main desk, they will be able to get you all set up".

"Thank you" replied Alan as he walked slowly towards the hotel.  When he was out from beneath his ship, he was suddenly struck with the sun's rays.  He basked in its warmth and thought to himself that he was going to really enjoy himself.

The doors of the hotel slid open and Alan walked in and up to the desk.

The man at the desk seen Alan approach and before Alan could even say one word he quickly said "Hello, you must be Alan, we've heard so much about you, now we've got you set up in room number seven, it has an excellent view".

"Thank you" said Alan, slightly surprised that the man knew exactly who he was but he figured that they would have been notified from his landing.  He took the room keys from the man and headed down to room number seven.  He found it easily and unlocking the door, he stepped inside.  His eyes gazed in wonderment at the sheer luxury of the room.  Alan could never remember seeing such splendour before in his entire life.  He put his bag down and went over to the bed that looked like it had never before been slept in.  He lay back down on it and sighed in joy.  This is going to be a good vacation he thought.

He lay there on the bed, relaxing when suddenly his ears heard something.  It sounded like a small tapping noise.  "What the hell" he muttered to himself as he got up and started to try and locate the source.  He headed towards the bathroom where the noise seemed to be emanating.  True enough he found that the last person in hadn't turned one of the taps off properly.  He turned the tap but nothing happened.  It seemed to be completely turned off, yet the tap was still dripping and getting on Alan's nerve.  "That's it" he said as he grabbed his bag and marched back to the hotel desk.

"Hello" said a young woman who was now at the desk.  Alan wondered where the man that had greeted him had gone to but he wasn't overly bothered.

"Umm hi" replied Alan. "I've just checked in and am in room number seven, but there is a tap which is dripping and won't turn off".

The woman went to her terminal, tapped in several buttons and then said "I'm very sorry to hear that, we can change you to room number nine instead, it has just as nice a view as room number seven".

"Thanks" replied Alan as he handed her the keys and got the keys for room number nine.  He entered the room and immediately listened for any noises.  Satisfied that there was none he lay back on the bed to relax and unwind.

Onboard the shuttle orbiting Karvane, the robed figure simply said "it's time".

Upon his utterance of the words, the pilot plotted in a course and the shuttle started descending

Through the pilot's headphones a message was coming through which said "unknown shuttle, please identify yourself and your business".  Upon hearing that, the pilot pressed a few buttons and the message stopped, replaced with static".

The hotel doors slid open and in burst several heavily armed men.  The man at the front desk paled dramatically and gasped, the woman beside him screamed.  One of the men pointed a blaster directly at the man's face and asked "the guy that just landed, where is he?"

The man looked at the gun, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and stammered "h...he's in r...room s...seven".  The woman glanced up at him but kept quiet.

Laying on his bed, Alan was enjoying the peace and quiet until he heard someone screaming.  "What the hell" he said as he went to the door and peeked out.  His eyes widened as he watched several armed men kicking in the door to room seven.  Alan rushed to his bag and then cursed when he realised that he hadn't packed his weapon.  Damn it thought Alan what the hell am I going to do.

Alan didn’t like having to leave the dead man as he knew that he might have got some useful information from what he was carrying.  The footsteps on the stairs told Alan that he didn’t have the time.  He moved further up the stairs quickly and decided he needed to get into hiding before the others caught up with him.

Arriving at the top of a flight of stairs, Alan decided not to go any further up but instead to enter this level and hopefully find an unlocked room.  His head was swimming as blood seeped out of the wound and caused his vision to blur.  Alan wiped the blood from his eyes as he stumbled down the corridor.

He couldn’t believe his good fortune when he noticed that several of the rooms on this level were open for cleaning.  He stumbled into the nearest room and went straight to the bathroom.  He proceeded to wash the wound and grabbed a towel, pressing down on it, hoping to stem the flow of blood.

Holding the towel to his head, Alan proceeded to look around the unoccupied room and came across the mini bar.  Not having any credits on him, he smashed the mini bar open and grabbed a small bottle of corellian whiskey.  Opening it he took a swig from it, hoping it settled him down.  Removing the towel, he splashed the whiskey against the wound, hoping it would be sufficient to sterilise it.  He forced himself not to cry out as the whiskey caused the wound to burn insufferably.

Who are those guys and why are they after me pondered Alan.  He moved to the window and looked out at the landing bay.  There he spotted his freighter.  If only he could get to it, he could get away from here.

Alan knew that he couldn’t stay here for much longer as they would surely start a search of the entire hotel.  They are certainly persistent thought Alan as he wished he knew who it was that was after him and why.

Suddenly Alan could hear voices.  He knew that they were hot on his trail and he wondered how they had found him so quickly.  He glanced down at the floor and spotted small traces of blood and he knew that his wound had led them directly to him.

Gripping his blaster, he knew that the only way out of this was to fight, but he also didn’t want to get too much attention to this level as he knew that he couldn’t take on everyone that were here after him.  Alan listened at the doorway to try to ascertain how many there were on this level.  He could distinctly make out two voices.

“I tell you, I saw someone get off this level, it has to be him” said someone.

“Look, blood” called out another, “we should let him know and get reinforcements”.

“Are you insane” shouted the first voice, “he is only one man and if we bring him in ourselves then maybe he will give us an extra bonus”.

“I like the sound of that, let’s go get him”.

Alan could hear them approaching the room he was in.  He breathed deeply as he hid in the bathroom, waiting for them.  It felt like an eternity before they entered the room.  Alan’s heart was racing, he didn’t know whether they wanted him dead or alive and Alan didn’t want to find out.  He knew he had to take them out, but quietly.

Alan could sense them searching the room and knew it was only a matter of time before they looked in the bathroom.  The door started to creak as Alan watched it opening slowly.  Here we go thought Alan as he prepared to launch himself against the oncoming men.

OOC:

An old story that never got finished.  I've decided to see about finishing this one off.