Background
Zara has had a rough life. Daughter of ex slave and four other brothers and sisters to help raise made Zara grow up faster than most kids on Ord Mantell. She was always scrounging for food, going without, and helping support her family came at great personal cost to her. That had nothing against what she took on as a profession. She was a thief.
On Ord Mantell, thieves get a bad rap and they come in all shapes and sizes. There was good and bad thieves just as there were good and bad people. When she wasn't scouting out marks, she was a runner with dreams of the stars. She was really fast and moved silently as a mouse when she wanted to be. Her whole life could be bottled up to scrounging, salvaging, thieving, and some trading. She would admit, she wasn't that great with the salvaging bit she made up for it with charm and a smile. The smile not coming as naturally is one would think.
Then came the day when her whole situation changed on roll of luck. She was scouting the local starbase which tended to always be a hive of activity. A ship was coming to land, a local transport she concluded. A crowd of people exited as she scouted the local prospects for a good mark. Locals for the most part, but there was a human that stood out. Cleaner clothes, better made for sure, and sense of uncertainty which was perfect. Outsiders tended to lose that sense of weakness pretty quickly. She set out to get close, a tour guide perhaps, and take him for all he had.
It was a great plan and it did succeed better than she could have hope for. What she didn't count on was the pursuit. He was grateful for the help after she snagged him down and answered some local questions. During which there were pouches to be sifted through. She could only get through two before she didnt dare for more but she made enough to feed her family for a month and not on rations. She dropped him off at some police precinct or something. A place she got away from as soon as she could.
The human over the next several weeks popped out over local spots she frequented. Consistently like a roach. It was one night when she found him where she didn't expect, the place where her family lived. She learned from her family that he was polite but blunt with his questions about her. He was offering her a job. After he left, she had a long and hard conversation with her family. Father worked as a mechanic and mother was caregiver. They never asked questions about the goods she came back with cause they didnt want to know. However, both wanted her to pursue the offer if for no other reason to keep her out of trouble. She was 16 when she got the invitation of Caine Solari.
Motivation
Her dream has always been to see distant lands and travel to different planets than this slumhole. Even though that dream hasn't happened yet, she has been practicing with the ships her father repairs for as long as she could walk.