Chapter 12: Ceasefire (2/2)

Stent took him to the part of the ship that had been given over to the Chiss. Once again, Parck had to suppress a smirk when he saw the changes the renegade warriors made to their designated area of space.

They had painted Chiss affiliation symbols on the walls, replacing Imperial emblems with colorful banners, and had set the thermostat several degrees lower than the other areas of the ship. Niriz put on a particularly grumpy face when he first heard about it, muttering a long string of Huttese curses, a conduct completely unbecoming of a fine Core World gentleman.

Parck did his best to ignore the curious glances in his direction, going as far as muttering a good day in Cheunh to the few warriors who openly stared at the weird human who had entered the Chiss den.

Parck bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud at how the Chiss jerked in shock, both at being caught staring as well as at the casually delivered Cheunh greeting. At first he feared he might have mispronounced it but Stent assured him that he could at least say good day correctly.

The Chiss warriors had never seen it coming.

Once they arrived at the hangar, Stent gave him a brief lecture on the clawcraft's operation system. It was rather awkward since Parck didn't know the technical terms in Cheunh and Stent couldn't express himself in Basic.

Thus Parck stuck flimsies to the most important buttons and attached a note in Basic whenever he couldn't read an ideogram.

He strapped himself in, assuming a position of the navigator in the two-person heavy fighter, giving Stent full command of the vessel. While the model was designed for two people, the renegade warriors flew alone, loading the empty seat with extra ammunition and supplies. Those who flew in pairs were the unlucky ones who had lost their fighters in a dogfight.

"Ready for liftoff?" Stent asked over the Chiss version of a comm link.

Instinctively, Parck tilted his head to the side at the sound. Wearing a headphone directly in the outer ear felt unnatural. The Galactic Empire didn't use such strange technology.

"Punch it."

The Chiss let out a loud snort.

[As you wish.]

"Son of a Hutt!" Parck cursed as he was slammed backwards at the sudden acceleration.

[You asked for it!] The Chiss replied with such open amusement Parck had never heard in Thrawn's voice.

"Clawcraft pilot, this is Admonitor's flight control. Do you require assistance?" Lieutenant Gernzy's alarmed voice tuned into the comm frequency as they shot out of the hangar bay at a speed which suggested the pilot had lost control.

"Lieutenant Lai Gernzy, this is Stent." The pale blue wonder replied in accented Basic. "Talk away."

"I see." Came in a resigned reply. "Never mind, sir. Enjoy your flight."

Parck barked a laugh. "You do this often?"

[Only when Lieutenant Lai Gernzy is on duty.]

"Poor guy." Parck felt pity for the young officer. "He's just doing his job. What did he do to you?"

"His Cheunh very sucks at it." Stent tried to explain. Given the nature of his job, Lieutenant Gernzy also decided to start studying Cheunh. His pronunciation must have been as bad as Parck's.

"You cannot say: 'His Cheunh very sucks at it.'" Parck explained patiently as the clawcraft made a swoop around the Admonitor 's superstructure. "It's supposed to be: 'He really sucks at Cheunh.'"

[Thank you.] Stent's voice held a trace of genuine gratitude. [I will be sure to tell him. Verbatim. After all, he was the one who kindly informed me that my Basic 'sucks'.]

Just in case, Parck added: "You know that there is no 's' in the second person singular form, right?"

[Yes.] The Chiss affirmed. [But sometimes I forget.] Then he switched to Basic. "You really suck at Cheunh, Commander Voss Parck."

Parck rolled his eyes. "Yes, that's grammatically correct."

The Chiss made an abrupt U-turn, sending the clawcraft into a spiral.

"Nice maneuvers, mister," Parck commented dryly. "Although unless you want me to vomit all over your clawcraft, I suggest you stop right there."

The Chiss took his words literally, hitting the reverse thrusters so hard that it threw Parck forward, only the seat strappings preventing him from banging his head against the controls.

"Oh, for kriff's sake!" Parck exclaimed. "You really want me to puke in the cockpit, don't you?"

[I do not!] The Chiss defended himself. [I did what you asked!]

"Just … give me a minute, okay?" Parck took a series of deep breaths, trying to suppress the wave of nausea. He stared dead ahead, his eyes focused at the brightly colored stars scattered in the emptiness of space.

[Do you still feel unwell?] The Chiss asked after more than a full minute had passed.

"I'm alright, Stent." Parck assured him. It was time to head back.

[Excellent. I wish to demonstrate the clawcraft's maneuverability in the atmosphere.] The pale blue wonder announced, turning the heavy fighter upside down, and sped out towards an uninhabited gas giant.

TO BE CONTINUED

Next: The Eye of the Storm

Parck: (×﹏×) FML...

MissKitsune08 *pouts* The chapter was written before the barfing Baby Yoda episode! Now it looks like a cheap copy :-/ ... Moreover, in later chapters there will be mentions of Alderaan(ians). Filoni must have hacked into my Drafts folder, that's the only possible explanation.