Chapter 2

The following morning I was off work, so I decided to take a little stroll around one of the nature parks on Level 35 (note: Yarg's place is on Level 51). This was unusual behavior for me, normally I would cruise around some of the lower levels on my Hoverboard or check out new books on alien races from the library, but today I was feeling romantic and sentimental, so the Gardens (as I call them) seemed a more appropriate location. I got bored after an hour or so however, and headed back to Level 51 to get my Hoverboard. On the way I bumped into P'larksak, the female Trandoshan who works at Yarg's with the rest of us. She told me Xeemo was down at the library, in case I was interested.

Uh-oh, I thought to myself, the Gundark's out of the bag now!

I thanked her, and meandered down to Level 51, undecided as to whether I should go Hovering all day (like I always do) or meet up with Xeemo.

I chose the latter.

"Lef!" Xeemo cried as I walked in the only door to the semi-dark dilapidated structure that was the best one could do for a library around these levels of the moon. She was in the process of checking out three or four books at the counter to the left of the entrance, and looked up at me when the bell announced my presence. "Hi! I didn't expect to see you here today. Come, have a seat."

She motioned to a low, square table with four crooked chairs around it, one for each side.

"OK," I said. "But shouldn't you finish checkin' out first?"

Xeemo shook her head in annoyance and turned back to the librarian's desk. She and her books joined me not ten seconds later.

"So," Xeemo asked briskly. "What brings you down here?"

"Oh, well, uh, I was… uh, just… lookin' for new books… you know…" I trailed off nervously.

"Oh, sure," her eyes lit up and a small smile played on her trunk. "Me too. There's this new one out about power converters that you might be interested in. It's got some great notes on the new Bilithoid system, but it doesn't have a large amount of text on Y-Wings, I'm sorry to say. The hydraulic differentials are fascinating to anyone who uses smaller appliances regularly, however. Hey, am I boring you?"

Xeemo waved a green hand in front of my face in annoyance.

"What? What?" I looked up into her convex ocular spheres, embarrassedly clasping my hands together under the table.

"You seem tired," she said irritably. "I suppose I should leave you alone now so you can have some time to rest. See you at work."

She stood and exited the library before I had a chance to defend myself. As the door closed, I let my stupid head fall to the table with a thud.

That night I lay awake in bed trying not to think about Xeemo, but I couldn't help myself. I felt like King of the Morons for acting so foolishly in the library that day, and wished that I had some way of contacting her without having to speak with her directly. Remembering that I forgot to ask her number or address on our first date, I kicked myself all over again. When I finally did sleep, it was fitful and I had a nightmare.

I'm walking through a misty marshland, the unstable ground causing me to take my steps carefully and with great effort. I'm searching for something of great importance, but I don't know what it is. The mist is so thick I can barely make out anything save for the silhouettes of trees and brambles, and even then only if they are two feet away, so all in all it was slow-going.

This bright light appears out of nowhere and rushes at me while I'm peering around a tree trunk. I duck and it whizzes over my head silently. I stare after it in bewilderment, until I hear a loud engine roar above me. I quickly glance upward at an Imperial TIE Fighter. Its gun turrets fire upon me and everything goes red.

I wake sweating and shaking anxiously. The dream seemed so real.

Understandably, Xeemo was a bit miffed at me the next morning. She ignored me whenever I was in the same room as her, and she wouldn't speak to or look at me that entire day.

The next day didn't go much better. I waved at her and she nodded in recognition… then went back to what she was doing. Oh well.

Xeemo finally started acting more comfortable around me about a week later. I remember looking around for parts for the aft manifold of this speeder that we had brought in that morning. The thing was totaled, but the guy wanted to fix it anyway, so we accepted his money and got to work. Anyway, I was looking for the piece and just happened to glance over in Xeemo's general direction. What do you know; she was walking towards me with the exact part in hand, almost as if she'd been reading my mind.

"Looking for this, are you?" she held out the part. "Just so happens I have a spare that I might let you borrow, if," she paused for effect, "you will take me out to that place again tonight after our shifts."

I agreed, and wondered at Xeemo's sudden change in attitude towards me. She smiled, handed me the part and walked back to her station. I stood for a moment bewildered, then went back to work myself.

We met in front of the place around 8 that night. Xeemo had obviously cleaned up beforehand. She wore a nice jumpsuit, no stains or rips or anything, and styled her spiky hair a different way. I washed my face and wore my cleanest jump, so it wasn't all that great looking. I was a little embarrassed.

"Well," Xeemo spoke up. "Guess we better go get a table!" She grabbed my hand and dragged me into the diner, rushing to the nearest visible booth that was vacant.

We both ordered the same things we had the first time, and laughed about it after we realized it. We made small talk for a while, until Xeemo's face turned suddenly sober.

"Now Lef," she stared at me with great seriousness reflected in her lucid orbs. " I have to ask… and you must be honest… do you find me… attractive?"

"Eh!" I was a little surprised by the question. "Of course! Why wouldn't I? You're… beautiful!"

She nodded thoughtfully then said, "So… you mean… you would like to date me?"

I hesitated for a second. "Yes… if it's what you want… I know I'm not the most handsome guy at the garage… but if you… that is…"

"Oh, shut up," Xeemo grabbed my face and started kissing me. Just then our food arrived and we came apart bashfully. The waitress smiled and walked off.

"That was annoying," Xeemo said, straightening her hair. "Some people have no manners. So… does this mean… we're going out?"

"I suppose… yes, yes you and I are officially a couple."

"Oh, Lef!" she squeezed my hand with both of hers from across the table. "I'm so excited!"

"Me too, but don't let your Mynock get cold," I pointed to her dish with my fork.

Xeemo looked at it, and then set to eating it as fast as possible.

That night we talked and walked down dark streets (well, they weren't that dark, I mean let's face it, there are thousands of lights. It's a city-planet, for goodness sakes!) long into the wee hours of the morning.

"…and then she stripped the bulkhead on the starboard side of the cruiser!"

Xeemo finished her joke, and we both busted out laughing and crying and carrying on in the middle of some mostly-deserted walkway. Once we had both managed to calm down (after several attempts foiled by looking at each other and then going right back to chuckling), I turned to Xeemo.

"Xeemo," I said, "do you really think…"

"What, Lef?"

"Well…" I fidgeted nervously. "Do you think we… really make a good couple? I don't know that much about you, you don't know me… are we really meant for each other?"

She looked down in thought. "Well," she began, "we're having fun, aren't we?"

I nodded.

"And we do have very similar interests… why not? What would make a better couple than a pilot and an engineer?"

"You mean you really think I have the ability to become a good pilot some day?" I asked with hope bounding in my heart.

"Lef," she looked at me. "I think you have the stuff to be a top pilot some day."

I kept smiling for the next minute as we walked along holding hands that cool night.

"LEF!"

It was Yarg. His booming voice shook me out of my reverie of the night before and the special moments with Xeemo.

"Lef, I need you to handle this customer NOW!"

Sighing, I dragged my unwilling body over to where Yarg and a new client were standing, just in front of the main door of the garage.

"Ms. Peenk here needs a complete transmission overhaul on her XS-class luxury liner. Since transmission seems to be your field of expertise, I figured you could take the job. You aren't busy, are you?"

I opened my mouth to argue, but Yarg interrupted.

"Fantastic! Now I want you to get to know Ms. Peenk while I have her ship moved into the bay. You kids play nice now!"

"Oh, thank you for taking my ship in at such short notice!" The female Twi'lek gushed. "This really is bad timing for me, you see I was just starting up a cruise enterprise when my transmission…"

I tuned the rest out while studying her body (I admit I'm a bit of a pervert at times). She had very light blue skin, and wore tight-fitting clothes that revealed a good amount of her generous bust and accentuated her curves and trim physique. Her makeup was applied expertly, and she seemed almost to pose while she spoke in that feathery voice. I felt myself harden in my dirty workpants, and prayed she wouldn't notice the bulge.

"…So that's why I need this to be done with great haste, but not lacking efficiency. You think you can do that, little boy?"

"Unh… yeah, you bet, sure thing ma'am!"

"Wonderful. Well, I really must be going now," she breathed. "Take good care of my baby!"

She walked out swinging her hips. I stood watching her go until she was no longer visible, then hurried over to the bay where her vessel was parked. I immediately dropped my previous duties and set to work overhauling the transmission.

Xeemo and I kept up relations pretty good since that last excursion to the diner. We went and saw various concerts, movies, and plays together (the last of which I had to practically drag her to by her antennae). It was during one of these that she asked me how I felt about the Empire.

"Xeem," as she had let me call her as a term of affection, "You know I hate the whole stinkin' mess. We have to struggle to survive while some snarkin' fat cats sit up there with their spice and all the credits they want… man, I get angry just thinkin' about it. Why?"
"Wouldn't it make you feel a lot better if you could get back at them some way, I mean before you join the Rebellion and all."

I nodded and Xeem smiled slyly.

"Well it just so happens that I found out about some dirt on that slutty little Twi'lek whose cruiser you're working on in Bay 3. Turns out her chief customers are District Governors for this part of Nar Shaddaa. I figure a little sabotage might be in order. You willing to give it a go?"

I hesitated for a second then nodded.

"Great, I'll give you the mechanism tomorrow. Call me if you have any second thoughts or ideas."

I thought about it half that night, in fact, I had some serious trouble sleeping. First of all was the issue of the sabotage itself; I wasn't really sure how I felt about that. Secondly, I kind of liked that Twi'lek, but that could have just been my hormones talking. And lastly, what kind of mechanism was Xeemo planning on using? And how trustworthy was this "dirt"? Eventually I found sleep, but the questions still buzzed in my head the next morning.

Xeemo was waiting for me at the main door that day. She handed me the device (which was about 1/3 of a meter square), and I pocketed it in my baggy work pants. We walked side by side into the hangar, and then split off toward our separate stations, but not before Xeem could slip me a small note of instructions.

The gizmo was in fact merely an electronic-disruptor, and not a bomb, as I had feared. Relieved that it would only cripple the ship and not totally destroy it, I judged that it would be all right to plant on the ship. It only took me a couple hours to install and hide the device, and immediately I contacted Ms. Peenk as Xeem's instructions suggested.

We saw her off the next day and Xeem asked if I had done the work. I told her I did, and she nodded seriously. The ship was crippled just before making the jump to hyperspace, allowing the Galactic Police Force to round up the criminals and bring them to justice. I felt a little guilty then, and still do now, but I realize it was a step in the right direction, a step toward me fulfilling my ultimate destiny.

By summer of the next year I had finally saved up enough to buy that old Y off of an even older Yarg. When I told him my plans for leaving to find the Rebel Alliance, I could've sworn I saw a tear in his eye. Might've been my imagination too, of course.

As I packed that night, ready to set out first thing in the morning, I realized something that made my smack my head and call myself a moron; I didn't have a snarking droid! How was I supposed to make hyperspace calculations in a Y-Wing without an astromech droid? Stars, I was impetuous. I resolved to ask around the shop the next day (particularly with Xeem, arguably the local expert on mechanical men).

"Leaving to join the Alliance, huh?" Xeemo glared and put a hand on her hip. "Just gonna leave me here like a sack of Gundark droppings, eh? Well I won't stand for it!" By this point she had grown more hostile and began poking me in the chest while scowling. "Here's the deal, hotshot. You don't think I want off this crummy junk pile of a world? Well, think again! I'm going to be a mechanic out there, you here? I'm going to be somebody! I'll let you have old' R4-D3 over there if, and I do mean if, you let me come with you on your little odyssey. Whaddya say, lover boy?"

What could I say? I agreed, and the next thing I knew the three of us (yes, I'm including R4) were somewhere out in hyperspace. The cabin was a little cramped, but we made the most of it. Xeemo even thought to bring extra provisions, something that had not occurred to me prior to our departure. Another thing that I wasn't thinking about was exactly which planet we would visit. Xeem had an answer for that too, of course. She said, "Why don't you try Tatooine? I hear there's a small Rebel outpost there." So naturally that's where we were headed.