Zam looked up from reading a general-use zine, almost reluctant to stop reading about the escapades of Heina the Twi-lek princess and her secret lover. She grabbed up her bag from it's position on the floor between her feet, stood up to leave, and then hesitated to consider "stealing" the zine.
Eh, stop it Zam! It's just a stupid story! Remember, you used to hate romances! She thought to herself and forced her body to start moving with the flow of passengers. They were all eager to get off Coruscant - which made it more difficult trying to maneuver through their tightly-packed bodies and luggage. Zam wasn't an exception to that rule - and she was pushing and shoving just like all the rest of them.
A Gotal in a hurry slammed into her. "Oh, I'm sorry ma'am. I need to get through!"He nearly slammed her in the face with his bag.
She glared at him. "Does it look to you like we're on different flights?! I need to get through too!" and she squeezed through the throng, muttering "Jerk."
"Um... I'm sorry folks, looks like there's only enough room for 5 more passengers! There's been a... mixup, and you can get a different ship heading out at the information centers. Thanks for waiting." Came the voice of the copilot, it looked like.
Zam cursed. "Oh no! Is it always my luck to either be late, in danger, or fail?" she asked herself sarcastically and shrugged as the crowd gave a new meaning to the words "hurrying up" before giving her own frantic best to get to be one of the lucky passengers.
"Ow!"
"What?"
"My hand!
"You mean foot, don't you?"
"No idiot I walk on my hands!"
"Sorry honey..."
"Move it!"
"WAAHHHH!"
"Oof!"
"AA, my credit notes!"
"GRRRR!"
Such were the sounds all around, and as if they weren't alarming enough, everybody seemed to jolt everyone else around.
Zam ducked the arms of some fat alien and slid on her knees pulling her bag behind her to try to get ahead.
"OOO!" she said involuntarily as something banged into her head, making it smart. She stood up quickly with a hand to her skull and shoved forward, not caring who or what it was.
She could barely see through the crowd the hatch to the ship, and knew that within a moment, she'd have no hope for leaving. Darn, I paid for this ticket with the last of my savings, and I am NOT going to waste them!
She turned her body sideways and lunged recklessly forward with a grunt, knocking everybody out of her way and coming within a foot of the captain and pilot.
Victory! she thought as she ignored all the "Hey!"s around her and slapped her ticket into the captain's waiting hand.
He quickly ran it through a machine and nodded to her. "You're cleared to board!" he then sent the pilot in and shouted, "I'M SORRY FOLKS! No more passengers!" and urged Zam up the ramp.
She grinned happily and was about to follow eagerly, when a sight caught her attention.
She put her hand up to the side of the ramp and looked closer at the Insect-like creature huddled at the base of the ramp, clutching the edge of it with thin, shaking fingers.
It was a totally different species than herself, but somehow... Zam was uncharacteristically touched. What could be so wrong for it to lose hope?
Curious and intrigued, she stepped forward and looked down at it. "What's wrong with you?" she asked it.
The insect looked up with a blank stare. "Nothing."
Zam was too curious. "What! Come on, why're you hanging on to the ship?"
After a moment, it let go of the ramp. "I was hoping, that on a ship with a name such as First Angel, I could go back to Corellia and see my children. They... So much for names."
Zam stood there, absorbing the intense feelings of despair and pain that were emanating from the creature. No one should be like this...
"Here." she offered her hand, hardly thinking. "You get on that ship and go to Corellia."
It took her hand, surprised, and allowed Zam to pull it up. "Why...?"
Zam sighed. "Just head on in there before I change my mind!"
Then she lightly pushed the insect forward into the ship.
It turned and looked at her. "You must be the angel." it said before the hatch closed.
Zam backed off and stared after the ship until it blasted off, thinking.
After it was gone, she realized what she'd done and banged her head against her hand. "GRRRAAAAAA! What were you THINKING! You just gave up your last hope! Oh... mph." she put her hands on her hips and shook her head at herself. "Why can't I ever do anything right?!"
After a while, she sighed and hoisted her bag up over her shoulder. Angel, huh... Well, if she was an angel, it was involuntary for sure. Especially if it did nothing for her. "Guess I've gotta find a way to get more money now..." she whispered to herself.
Her stomach grumbled. Yeah, yeah, and maybe some cheap food.