Rancor
(n.): Rankling resentment or ill will; hatred; malice.

The rivets were a good distraction and a good outlet for her anger. They just didn't want to stay taut and hold the damn ship together, did they? Her wrench loosened and tightened each bolt in turn and her soldering gun ensured that they held together. It was rather mundane work today, but her boss had decided that she should be relegated to the trivial tasks while the loss was still fresh on everyone's mind. Tomorrow she'd be back in the engine room fixing the heavy-duty stuff like she was supposed to.

Suvo had been a good mechanic and an even better partner and friend. She knew that they would be hard pressed to find a partner better suited for her, or who could put up with her for more than a few days. They had tried recently. Three potential partners had come and three had gone, citing that she was too...what was the word they had used? Controlling, that was it. One even filed a formal complaint that took up almost a whole datachip. Not that they could really do anything about it, her record was impeccable. Truth was she rather liked working solo. It gave her time to think; time to sort out her priorities. She needed someone she could trust and so far the only person she had trusted was dead. No one wanted to work with her and that was fine. She didn't need anyone and the sooner her boss realized that, the sooner she could get back to doing her job.

"Voxx!" She heard her sector commander shout over the hiss of her soldering gun. She shut it off and lifted her safety goggles. There he was, standing on the platform below her with someone in tow. She groaned to herself. Another recruit she had to turn away. She replaced her goggles and finished her work on the last rivet. She'd be damned if she were accused of not finishing a job because a new body showed up.

"On my way!" she shouted after the job was done to her satisfaction. She powered the gun down, removed her goggles and helmet and tapped a few buttons on the single-person repulsor platform. The platform moved at her command down to where her sector commander and the new guy were waiting. She grabbed her tool belt and replaced it around her waist as she jumped off the platform and walked the few feet to the two men. A quick look at the other man told her that he was a clone, which surprised her. She had never seen a clone this far down before, nor had she really met one this close up. As far as she knew there were very few of them left. A closer look told her that he had been injured somewhat recently if the scar that ran from his temple along the length of his jaw was any indicator. She turned to her commander, a tall, tawny Bothan, for an explanation.

"Voxx, this is Stormrooper ST four-one-five-five. He's been injured and is in need of a job. I thought you could show him the ropes." She looked back at the trooper, who was leaning a little heavily on his cane and trying not to show it. Her heart constricted unexpectedly. He must have been badly injured. But if that were the case why send him down here? An engineer's job was one of the more dangerous ones on any ship, even for those in the best condition. The trooper looked to be in his late forties or early fifties. That was pushing it on the age limit for engineers, and with an injury that was probably very serious, he shouldn't have even been considered.

"ST four-one-"

"It's Jax, Sir."

"Jax, this is Miraan Voxx, one of our best engineers." The Bothan introduced. Jax held his hand out for her to grasp. His almost-gold eyes searched her face for a moment and then fell back to the dark gray deck plates under their feet. She shook his hand a little reluctantly. She wasn't a huge fan of stormtroopers in the first place, they reminded her of little more than flesh and blood droids. It was unnerving. She turned again to her commander.

"Can I speak with you a moment?" she asked, making it blatantly obvious that the new guy was not welcome. He nodded and leaned against the wall. The Bothan sighed and acquiesced. They moved several yards away from the trooper and she made to start tearing into her boss for springing a new guy on her again, but he held his hand up for her to be quiet.

"Voxx, I know what you're going to say, but this is coming from over my head. He's been assigned here just until the parts for his new prosthesis arrive." He said calmly. She just stared at him for another moment.

"He's missing a limb?" she asked after a moment's stunned silence. "Haskit, how do you expect me to work with him? This job is dangerous enough as it is without me putting my life into the hands of a three-limbed man."

"You haven't even met him yet, Voxx. You don't know what he's capable of."

"I don't have to, all the bucket-heads are the same. They bumble around with their blasters and do what they're told."

"Then you shouldn't have a problem." He replied smoothly. She grimaced and crossed her arms over her chest. "Look, Miraan, this isn't me talking. These re-assignment orders came from the very top." He said, trying to sound pragmatic. "I know that loosing Suvo was hard on you, it's been hard for all of us, but with the investigation still pending I'm relegating you to routine maintenance and I'm assigning Jax as your partner. And, no, I will not back out of that decision, not this time." He concluded to the look of astonishment on her face. She started to splutter out a protest but he turned his back to her and walked back down the platform and said something to Jax, giving him a pat on the shoulder. She could not believe this. She was being relegated to the maintenance circuit and partnered with an old, three-limbed clone stormtrooper. She raked her hands through her short hair and released an exhale that desperately wanted to be a scream of frustration.

After a few moments of remaining in this position, she turned back down the platform and strode towards the trooper. She collected her toolbox, helmet and gloves from the repulsorlift and paused in front of Jax and looked him once over. She hummed to herself and then looked back up at him, he did his best not to look at her.

"Well," she said, clicking her tongue behind her teeth thoughtfully. "First, you're going to need some proper clothes." His expression was confused.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"We need to get you an engineering uniform." She replied, starting down the platform towards the next corridor. "Unless of course you enjoy being electrocuted on a regular basis. Come on, I think we have some extra in the repository." She said without turning around and she heard the dull 'shift-clunk' of his awkward gait following her.

This was not what he had been expecting. He had not expected the re-assignment orders to be directly approved by Lord Vader, he had not expected to be placed in the engineering sector, and he had certainly not expected being assigned to partner with a grumpy woman. He had seen the judgment in her expression as she appraised him and the sour look that washed over her when she realized he was incomplete. He realized he wasn't wanted and that was fine by him. He was only here as long as it took to order the needed parts. He didn't need to like it he just had to follow orders, just like always.

"Jax?" he looked up at his fellow clone, Brek, who was peering at him across the mess table with a concerned expression. His food was halfway to his mouth and he paused, taking a minute to replace the slice of nerf. "You alright, Lieutenant? You were a little phased there." He nodded simply in response. He just wanted to get back to his meal.

"Are the grease suckers treating you alright?" Gael, another of his brothers, asked placing a disdainful emphasis on the rude nickname for the engineers.

"Yeah, fine." He replied. It wasn't a lie, but it might have been too generous a description for the handful of curt sentences Voxx had said to him, most of which were instructional. Once he'd been outfitted in the engineering regs, he'd been dismissed and told to report to the lower decks the next morning. "I'm starting officially tomorrow." He added really to get them off his back.

"Who did you say they assigned you to?" Jax pushed aside the annoyance that accompanied Brek's question and instead focused on the question itself.

"Miraan Voxx." He said, cutting his nerf into smaller bites. There was a silent pause followed by a quiet rash of muttering.

"I've heard of her."

"Wasn't she the one who-"

"I heard she made a Besalisk cry."

"What was that about her first partner?" He wanted to tune all of this out. He was having enough problems without hearing all the bad rumors about his new partner. But somehow he couldn't help but listen in on the conversation that was brewing about the woman.

"Well he died just a couple weeks ago wasn't it?"

"Under mysterious circumstances is what I heard."

"I heard she's under investigation. They're thinking she's suspicious."

"They think she killed her last partner?" Jax asked, almost choking himself on a piece of his nerf. He couldn't help himself. A cold pit of dread had begun to form in the pit of his stomach. Had they known this when they'd assigned him to her partnership?

"No one's said anything yet, but that's the word."

"And I'm certain this is the word of someone reliable?" Came a voice unfamiliar to every trooper present save Jax. He turned and saw Miraan Voxx standing at the other end of the table with a tray in her hand. Her steel-gray eyes bore into Gael, who had been the last to speak. "Someone you'd trust with your life, I assume?" Her tone was icy and Jax had to look away.

"What do you want, gremlin?" Brek demanded. She turned her glare on him.

"Peace throughout the galaxy, trooper, what do you want?" she snarled. She didn't even look at Jax before storming out of the mess with her food. He turned his attention back to his food and took no further part in the conversation for the rest of the meal.