JUST ANOTHER STAR IN THE SKY
Disclaimer: none of the recognizable characters, places or dialogue is mine. This is purely for entertainment purposes.
A/N: This story will follow the adventures of Captain Liling and everyone's favourite farm boy. Some spoilers; 82% canon; Reviews greatly appreciated.
To any new reader: WELCOME! For some reason, you have decided to click on my little story, and just the thought of that makes me :) –not that I can call this story 'little' anymore, what with the all those chapters piling up, haha…
Anyhow, I hope you stick around for the ride. Enjoy~
PS: as for you, my dear recurring readers, well…you could just alert and you won't miss any updates, or have to detour by chapter 1 again! Lol. Save for when you WANT to, of course! ;)
1
She wanted to kick someone. Mostly herself, for being so stupid! What kind of self-respecting smugglers got their ship stolen right from under their noses? When she got her hands on that filthy scum, she'd give him a proper introduction to her blaster pistol. That is, assuming she even managed to catch up with him… The bastard had obviously known enough to deactivate her tracking system; she would need to install a better one…although, it's not like you have another ship ready to pursue him in, in any case… Ugh, could this metal box go any slower? The longer it took, the slimmer the chances of getting the Starla back seemed… Okay, enough with the self-pity. She needed to focus. One step at a time; she would get through this. Skavak would learn that one did not just mess with Captain Liling and get away with it.
"Captain?"
"What?" she replied more sharply than she had intended. Usually, being addressed by her -self-given- rank was music to her ears, but right now, it just served as a reminder of her predicament. Like adding insult to injury.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you, you just seemed… Is everything alright?" The mix of concern and uncertainty in his voice was evident.
She took a deep breath to calm herself and turned to look at the man next to her. "Listen Riggs, it's been a long day and there's still a lot we need to do. So, why don't you get some rest in the meantime?" With that, Liling got up, as much to avoid the mercenary as to stretch her legs.
Corso watched her walk away. He knew that she had a lot on her mind, and missing the Esseles meant that they had to take the smaller and slower shuttle, which hadn't helped improve her mood. He thought about their situation and sighed. His life had just started to regain a bit of normalcy after, after…has it really been five years already? Viidu had taken him in and given him a job when he had nowhere else to go. Sure, what they did wasn't exactly what he had in mind when growing up, but Viidu had been a good man; always gave people a second chance when no one else would have. He fidgeted absently at the ammunition belt the Captain had given him.
"Viidu would have wanted you to have it," she had told him. The man had been like a second father to him. Him, and the others; it had felt almost like a family. And then, just like that, they were all gone!
In just a few hours, his whole world had been turned upside down once again. Sometimes, you should just trust your gut instinct. When Viidu had hired Skavak a few months ago, he had felt uneasy about the man without being able to really explain why. But he had pushed the feeling aside and tried to be friendly; and look how that turned out! Oh, Skavak would pay…The scum had even managed to get Syreena to betray them! Still, he hadn't been able to just stand there and watch the Captain kill her, even after what she'd done. If there was just one thing he could be grateful for, it was that Syreena had bought two passes. He didn't think the Captain would have waited for him to get his own. She would have just gone ahead, most likely. A stubborn woman she was, and she'd stop at nothing to get her ship back. He'd only known her for a short while, but that, he knew for sure. Not many people would run straight into a separatist stronghold in the middle of a volcano.
.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw the dark-haired woman sit back down in her seat next to his. She reclined as far as the chair would allow and closed her eyes, clearly not in the mood for any talking. His eyes had been inexplicably drawn to her ever since she came out of her starship. Sure, she was…nice to look at. But it had been the way she carried herself, confident, yet not imposing. He had never doubted about her flying abilities, but she looked so young, and with her small built, he had to admit that he had been a little…worried about how she would fare in a fight. He had wanted to accompany her on her deadly delivery/suicide mission, but when he couldn't, he had offered her Flashy for luck. Yet, she had quickly proved him wrong and showed him that she was just as capable with blasters as…
He was startled when she spoke, eyes still closed. "I know I'm good looking, but it's kind of hard to relax when being stared at, you know?" She looked right at him then, and he felt his face heat up, realising he'd been caught. However, her tone was teasing and he was glad that she seemed to have gone back to her normal self. He couldn't think of a reply, but she didn't seem to expect one and closed her eyes again. This time, the silence between them was companionable. I probably should try to get some shuteye as well…