4 BBY; Isabella is 9
Isabella reluctantly switched the sim off and moved back a seat. Mada took over the pilot seat and readied the ship for exit from hyperspace. Isabella surreptitiously took the opportunity to make sure her pockets were full. It wasn't that she didn't trust Mada, but...she had the feeling that one of these days, Mada was going to send her off on an errand and use the opportunity to take off and leave her. She needed to be prepared in case that happened.
It seemed especially likely on this trip. Gelgelar was well off of their usual routes, a dismal swamp planet where people who had nowhere to go stayed. They didn't have any decent cargo for the place, and there was nothing to pick up here except shvash gas and vohis mold. Isabella couldn't shake the feeling that this was where Mada would abandon her. There was no other reason why she'd come to this place.
They landed, the gear splashing into the puddles that covered the platform on Docking Bay 7. Isabella looked out the window at the rain and clouds. "Yay?" she said.
Mada laughed. "Sorry. I need to go meet someone. I'll give you a list of provisions to pick up, and we'll be ready to take off this evening. No reason to hang around this pile of muck. Deal?"
Isabella nodded. "Deal."
Mada pulled a water-repellant poncho on over her shipboard jumpsuit as Isabella did the same. Isabella started toward the local markets, but looked over at Mada heading into town from the docks. Looking around, Isabella followed as surreptitiously as she could.
A small house stood alone to one side of the muddy street, surrounded by dripping green trees. Mada walked up to it and knocked on the door as Isabella slipped closer through the trees.
She heard a voice speaking a language she didn't understand, then the door irised open. A Rodian stood there, antennas sagging with age. The Rodian threw his arms wide open and said, in a thick accent, "Mada!"
"Drido, you old pirate," Mada said, hugging him. "How're you doing?"
"Good, good. Come on in out of the wet." He beckoned her inside, then closed the door. Isabella slipped up to the window, hoping to hear the conversation.
"...I mean, I couldn't just leave her there," Mada said. "The Stormtroopers had just killed her dog, they'd have killed her too."
"Of course not. No more than I could have left you. Bet you never thought you'd become a mother."
"Not at all. Especially not to a human. I never was the maternal type. That's why I came to talk to you. She's driving me up the bulkhead."
Isabella heard an odd buzzing sound that she realized must be the Rodian laughing.
"I'm serious. She's always there, sticking her nose in everything, asking me about everything. You ever tried to haggle with somebody asking why you offered that amount?"
"Yep. You did that."
"Even when she isn't asking me questions, she's always watching me. And then she leaves the ship, and she has to carry, like, half the contents of her locker in her pockets. I guess they're good luck charms or something. I swear, there are days when I just want to toss her out the airlock. I'm sure you felt the same way towards me?"
"I never thought about spacing you," Drido said. "Taking off without you...occasionally."
"Why didn't you?" Mada asked.
"You were more useful than you were trouble. Why are you keeping this girl around?"
"She's a better pilot than I am, Drido. Not by a little bit, either."
"So you're letting her fly?"
"Not yet. She's barely nine!"
"Okay, is that young for a human?"
"Yes. She's still a few years from adolescence."
"Okay. So you're keeping her around because she's a pilot, but you aren't letting her fly?"
A long silence followed, until Mada said, softly, "She's the only family I've got, except for you."
"I assume you want my advice, because there's no reason you would have come here otherwise. Too damp for you furry things."
"What do I do with her?"
"If she's as good as you say, let her pilot. She'll figure out that you need her soon enough. And so will you. And when she figures out you aren't going to leave her behind, maybe she won't feel the need to carry everything with her."
"Is that...of course it is." Mada sighed deeply. "I'll think about it."
"While you think about it, maybe I'll stop by the ship. See the old Peregrine again, and meet my foster granddaughter."
Isabella decided this was a good time to head out. She rushed back to the markets, bought the supplies Mada had asked for, and hurried back to the ship to dry off. She'd just gotten things put away when the ramp lowered.
"Sunchaser? Really?" Drido was saying as he walked up the ramp.
"Well, Eternal Peregrine was too pretentious. Might as well slap on a transponder that says, 'Pirate bait'," Mada said.
Drido sighed. "It's all the Millennium Falcon's fault. They ripped off my ship's name, and now everybody's using that style."
"Hey, Mada. Who's your friend?" Isabella asked as they entered the main cargo bay.
"Isabella, this is Drido, who owned this ship before me. Drido, this is Isabella," Mada said.
"Hmph," the Rodian said, looking her over. "Little bitty thing, isn't she?"
"I'm still growing," Isabella said. "And it means I can slip in to work on the conduits more easily."
Drido knelt down in front of her, bringing his bulbous eyes to her eye level. "It's nice to meet you, Isabella. Mada's been telling me good things about you."
They were outbound from Gelgelar with a load of vohis mold. Isabella was practicing on the sim when the warning light came on, indicating they would be coming out of hyperspace soon.
Mada came in to the cockpit and buckled herself in to the seat to Isabella's left. "You want to take her out of hyperspace?" she asked.
Isabella grinned widely and nodded her head.
"Okay. Ship is yours. Ding her up, and I'm taking it out of your pay."
"I don't get any pay," Isabella said.
"You do, I've just been holding it for you. Currently about 2,000 credits."
Isabella turned and looked at her. "Really?"
"Yep. We'll see about putting it where you can get it when we get to Kidron."
The light flashed to indicate transition time, and Isabella pushed the hyperspace lever forward. The stars stopped moving around the ship, and the beacon for Kidron control lit up their communications.
"Nicely done," Mada said. "So, how long were you outside Drido's window?"
"What?" Isabella said, twitching but not taking her eyes off the space around them.
"He spotted your footprints. What did you hear?"
"Were you seriously considering spacing me?"
"No, not really. And leaving you behind really never occurred to me."
"Promise?"
"Yes, I promise. Does this mean you'll be willing to leave the ship without your pockets bulging like a bantha's saddlebags?"
Isabella took a deep breath and nodded her head.