16.
Din woke before her again the next morning. He left her asleep in the too large bed to check on the Crest; he wanted to make sure she was fueled up and ready to get them off the floating city and into hyperspace as soon as possible.
The last few weeks with Nevrin had been an interesting change in his normal routine but he was anxious to return home. He had never gone so long without at least sending an encrypted ping to the Covert. He knew the Foundlings weren't his responsibility, or at least not his sole responsibility since none of them belonged to his clan of one, but he worried about them all the same. Had the others brought in enough credits to keep them fed? Was there enough Beskar to keep the apprentices safe? He cycled the engines up, checked the hyperspace drive and retrieved Nev's anti-grav case from the lower deck before finally returning to their quarters.
The apartment was bright with the light of the Bespin sun reflecting through the view screen when he returned. The sound of the shower echoed from the immense bathroom. Nev had left him a cup of the overly sweet whipped cream concoction on the bedside table.
The water cut off a few minutes later. Nev walked out rubbing a towel through her silver hair and leaving a trail of wet footprints on the dark tile. "Is the ship ready?" she asked as he slurped down the last of the kaffee and pushed his helmet back over his chin. She caught the briefest glance of dark stubble and she wondered how often he shaved or cut his hair. Or who cut his hair for him? He must do it himself using that tiny hazy mirror in the refresher she thought.
"Yes. We should have more than enough fuel to get home." He replied as she sat on the bed next to him. She twisted the edge of her towel nervously until he placed his gloved hand over hers. "What's wrong, mesh'la?"
She sighed and stopped her fidgeting, "How long will it take to get back to Nevarro?"
"About two days...why?"
"I want to get my things on Levine. I still owe you."
Din stood and walked out of the room towards the heap of clothes Nev had previously sifted through. "I already told you I don't want your junk." He replied tossing clothes into the floating box.
"It's not junk, " she said, dropping her towel and following him. She chose a fresh tunic, pants and more black underwear out of the clothes Din had started unceremoniously packing. "I have Imperial credit, Calamari flan, a few Fosh feathers and Beskar."
Din looked up from another piece of lingerie he had been studying. "How much Beskar?"
She shrugged, shimmying her underwear over her hips. "I don't know...it's broken pieces mostly. But it can all be reforged. There's a few more weapons like that disintegrator, " she nodded at the blaster Din had continued to wear on his hip. "My fathers armor had been in his family for 600 hundred years. It was taken from him before his body was cold. They wanted our armor intact...I thought...maybe I could find even just a small piece of it." She slipped her arms into her shirt, her fingers shaking with an angry fire that had suddenly roared to life.
"Enough, cyar'ika." Din said already feeling her pull away from him. Her stormcloud eyes stared through him and he recognized the look. The darkness in her gaze that he had faced every time he saw his own reflection. The void inside her that she had spent so many years trying to fill with blood and revenge. She just had to get on the Crest. He would show her that he could fill that deep emptiness just as she was doing for him. "You've done enough." His voice was low and firm through the modulator as he stepped towards her, his deft fingers fastening the buttons on her shirt. "We'll take the Beskar back to the Tribe as a...an amends for me being absent for so long."
Nev chewed her bottom lip and looked up into his visor. "You're not going to tell them where you got it…or about me, are you?"
"I will when it's safe. When they can't question my claim-"
"Your claim?" Nev asked. "And if I never give you anything to claim? If I can't give you a child? If they find out...if Paz or Tika or one of the other zealots find about me, if they think you've shown me your face...you'll be like me. Cast out. Darmanda."
"I haven't shown you my face. No one has seen my face since we took our first oath." He argued as she stepped away from him.
Nev shook her head, "And you think they'll believe you? Or me? A dishonored Hutt whore-"
"Nevrin, let's go home." Din implored wrapping his arms around her and leaning down to press his helmet against her forehead. Maker, he wanted to see her eyes, really see them without the digital screen of his visor. "Please, let's go home."
Her shoulders tensed. "I won't make you choose, Din, between me and the Tribe. Between your life and mine."
"I've already chosen, Prudii." He confessed tucking a few strands of damp hair behind her ear.
She let out a deep breath, "Din, I-" Nev pressed her palms against the cold metal on his chest. She suddenly couldn't find the words, her voice disconnected from everything her heart wanted to say. The door chimed, stalling any further conversation. Din touched his helmet to her forehead one last time before turning to the door.
"Mandalorian, " Lobot's mechanized voice echoed through the hatch as Nev pulled on her pants. "Lando Calrissian requests your and Eira Stormjumper's presence this morning."
Din braced his arm against the hatch and glared at the android. "Tell Lando we appreciate his hospitality but Eira and I have pressing business elsewhere."
The implants on Lobot's head buzzed. "I'm sorry sir but you will not be allowed to take off until Ms. Stormjumper joins Baron Administrator Calrissian for cocktails in the Star Lounge."
Din's shoulders tensed, his hand inching towards his blaster. "I'd like to see the Baron Administrator try to stop us." His modulated voice was low and dangerous. He didn't appreciate being threatened by the arrogant fool Lando hiding behind the half-droid. Lobot's implants beeped again, the colored lights on the side of his head blinked in a furious pattern of reds.
"Lo, tell the Baron Administrator we'll join him shortly." Nev said standing beside Din and placing her hand on his arm. Din turned his helmet to look down at her, his body rigid under her touch. "Can you just make sure my things get to the Crest? Come on, Mando, we'll take the scenic route to the Star Lounge."
Lobot bowed, stepping aside so Nev and her companion could pass. "What is this about?" Din asked once they were out of earshot of the android.
"I don't know, " Nev sighed. "But if Lando doesn't want us to leave yet, we aren't leaving." She led them through the city, parts of it still under reconstruction after the Empire's occupation; blaster burns were scorched into walls and entire sections of the city closed for rebuilding. They had to take several crowded gravity lifts to the very top level of the domed city as Din refused the droid driven minicabs. A half dozen Cloud City guardsmen were stationed outside the Star Lounge when they arrived. "Don't start shooting unless I signal you." She murmured, nodding at the guards as they passed.
"What's the signal?"
The corners of her lips turned up in a dangerous smile. "You'll know." She answered.
The breathtaking beauty of the room was lost on day time hours. Hundreds of bottles lined the mirrored wall behind the bar in a rainbow display of alcohols and apèrtifs from across the galaxy; a lone droid bartender polished the spotless bar top. The huge view screen at the peak of the ceiling was closed casting the room in gloomy shadows. The dance floor was empty, the huge crystal ball that reflected the star light was dark. The dozens of tables tucked into the recessed niches across the room were empty.
All but one.
Lando noticed the odd pair enter and whistled at them from the shade of his private alcove. The Mandalorian and his heat-sensitive vision zeroed in on the Baron Administrator and he strode forward. His armored footsteps echoing angrily across the silent room. The silver-haired woman at his side had to sprint to keep up with him. She whispered tightly to the man at her side all the while flashing a smile at Lando that never reached her grey eyes. Lando leaned across the table and murmured to someone still hidden in the shadows. "Eira, my lovely little Sachi blossom, thank you for joining us." He said standing and pulling her into a tight embrace.
"Cut the bantha poodoo, Carlissian." Nev peered up at the man through narrowed eyes, "It's not like you gave us much choice, old friend. You wanna tell us why we can't leave and why you've got a squad of Sky Boys waiting outside?"
"Why are two suddenly in such a rush to leave?" a voice from the shadowed alcove asked.
Nev let out an annoyed breath, wrapping her hands around her hips. "And who the hell are you?"
The man sat forward giving her a charming smile, at least Nevrin figured he thought it was charming. His dark, sandy colored hair was disheveled just enough to look windswept and not entirely purposeful. A long scar adorned his chin adding to his rugged, flirty aire. "I'm Han Solo, " he answered, holding his hand out to her, she stared at his hand then at him. He let his hand hang in the air between them for several long seconds before dropping it in defeat. "General Han Solo? Hero of the battle of Endor?" He added when Nev's face remained unimpressed. She looked up at the Mandalorian next to her like the name might be significant to him.
"Is that supposed to mean something to us?" Lando had already warned him about the Bounty Hunter's appearance but hearing the flat, modulated voice sent shivers up Han's spine. Too many bad memories of another man in a T-shaped visor and the burning cold blast of a carbonite freezer.
"No. I guess not." Han replied. "Why don't you two have a seat and we'll discuss that Imperial Data Cube."
"Is that the signal?" Din asked her in Mando'a.
Nev tilted her head considering whether she should let Din disintegrate the men in front of them, "No. Let's see what General Solo has to say. Just make sure you shoot first if this goes any further south." Lando and his friend shared a wary look at their unfamiliar shared language. "I want a Moonflower martini, extra sweet." She said, turning her grey eyes to Lando.
"Anything for you, my lovely."
Nev slid into the booth vacated by Lando, opposite Solo and followed closely by Din. The Mandalorian swept his cape to the side and leaned back in the booth, one hand resting on his thigh plate, the other resting not so subtly on his blaster. Nev fixed the man across from her with her stormcloud stare. The corners of her pink lips curved up in dark amusement. Han's arm shifted almost imperceptibly closer to his own blaster. Maybe he had finally got himself into a situation he would not be able to talk his way out of.
"So, General Solo, exactly how soon after I handed over that cube did Calrissian call the New Republic Calvary?" She glared at Lando as he returned with her ordered cocktail and two glasses of Ebla beer.
Han chuckled, giving her an 'aw-shucks' shrug of his shoulders. The silver haired rancor of a woman did not so much as grin. Han glanced sideways at his old smuggling buddy; even his Princess had never been this cold. "So how did you get your hands on an Imperial Data Cube?" Han asked, taking a long pull from the amber glass of beer.
"I won it in a game of Sabacc." Nev answered.
"Sabacc, huh?" Han leaned back in the booth, glancing at the immobile sentry sitting next to her. "You two wouldn't have perhaps taken any trips to Dodoma recently?"
Nev cocked her head, silver hair falling against the painted metal of the Mandalorian's armor. "Dodoma….Dodoma…Do-do-ma...hmmm," she rolled the name around her tongue before sipping her martini. "I dunno; Mando here's the pilot. I'm just his mechanic." Lando smirked and shook his head; he had warned Han they would have an easier time drilling to the frozen core of Hoth then getting Eira Stormjumper to cooperate. "We ever been to Dodoma, Mando?" she asked looking up at him.
"No." That dangerous, emotionless, modulated voice again. He didn't move, not even a twitch in his shoulders or helmet when he spoke. The dark T-shaped visor impervious to everyone's gaze. He could have been a part of the booth if it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest.
General Solo breathed out a skeptic "hmmfp" as he took another swallow of beer, "Isn't that interesting? Someone attacked an Imperial base on Dodoma not two weeks ago, blew it the hell up but not before broadcasting a datadump to a Republic fleet."
"That is interesting." Eira agreed.
"Look, kid, the New Republic doesn't have time to deal with vigilantes. We've got rules, laws, we're trying to set an example…" Even as he said it, Han hated the words. He sounded like one of the stuffy politicians that surrounded his wife. The woman across from him smiled over the rim of her bright purple drink.
"Eira, my dear, you told me the cube had information on an Imperial...someone you were looking for." Lando chimed in.
"I'm not looking for anyone anymore." Nev answered. "Call off Lobot and the Sky Boys and let us leave, Lando."
"Moff Seraphine, " Han said quietly, setting his half empty glass of beer down. A muscle in her jaw clenched, her fingers tightened around the delicate martini glass at the mention of the Moff. "The New Republic's been looking for her since the fall. You know who she is?"
"She's a Moff of the former Galactic Empire."
Lando laughed and clapped Han on the back before speaking up. "Seraphine was one of the Emperor's best fundraisers. She had a network of smugglers, bounty hunters and mercenaries running a dark trade on weapons, armor, slaves, spice, you name it. She helped funnel dark money across the galaxy into Palpatine's coffers….rumor has it she's still raising money for the Empire."
"This isn't some random target. She's way to high up on the food chain for a two-bit bucket-brained bounty hunter and a shukking Spice smuggler." Han jeered.
She felt Din put his hand on her knee and squeeze. "I need to know." She told him in Mando'a. Din sighed a deep, low hiss that escaped his helmet."Did you find her chain code? Her location?"
"Yeah, we did." Han answered. "Got a fleet of X-Wings readying for a jump to hyperspace on my order."
"Where is she?" Nev asked quietly.
It was Han's turn to smile. "Tell us why you want her."
"Why does it matter to you?"
He shrugged one shoulder, "Call it curiosity or maybe I got a thing for lost causes...What did you two think you were gonna do? Lead a full scale assault on a Moff. That Razor Crest couldn't shoot a hole through a Sass worm."
"She owes me blood." Nev replied.
Han leaned forward, arms folded flat on the table, blaster forgotten. This was what he missed about the vast freedom of roaming the galaxy. He might have medals, an official bureaucratic title and a wife that lead the dreams and hopes of billions. But just below the surface he was still a shukking Spice smuggler that enjoyed causing trouble a helluva a lot more than sitting on panels discussing hyperspace trade rights on Yavin 3. "What did she take from you?"
Her eyes were dark thunderstorms, angry greys and obsidian flecks swirling around her pitch black pupils. "She took everything from me." She answered quietly. Han nodded and sat back in the booth. She whispered something else under her breath, something that was too low for Han or Lando to hear even if they understood what language she was speaking. " Mando'ad draar digu." A Mandalorian never forgets. Din knew the words were for him, he heard and understood them clearly through his audio amplification. She couldn't walk away, not now, not when she was so close to finally finding some sort of retribution for the life stolen from her.
He turned his head to look down at the woman next to him. "Tell us where she is." Nev looked up at the sound of his modulated voice. She smiled, sad and beautiful and just for him.
"Canto Borealis." Han answered. "She turned one of Palpatine's vacation yachts into a high stakes casino. Rumor has it Imperial officers are flocking to it...this could be a big win for the New Republic, dragging all those Imps in front of the Alderannian tribunals."
"The Princess is going to be really disappointed to find out Moff Seraphine didn't make it out of the strike." Lando's bright hazelnut eyes and crisp smile full of pearly white teeth conflicted with the lament in his voice.
"I'll worry about Leia, " Han replied looking to his friend. "You think that ship of yours can make the jump to Canto Borealis in a few hours? That's all I'm going to be able to delay the strike team." He asked turning his attention back to the two-bit bucket- brained Bounty Hunter and the shukking Spice smuggler.
Mando nodded, "She'll make it." Nev cocked a silver eyebrow but remained silent.
"I'll notify Green leader we got an unregistered ship in bound to join the fight...and I expect you to join the fight." Han pointed a stern finger at them. The two nodded in unison. "Take this puck. It's got all the Moff's info and your clearances for Green leader." He held the data puck out to Nev. When she reached out he dropped it in her pale palm and wrapped her fingers around it. "From now on leave the Imps to the New Republic. Unless you wanna enlist."
She smiled at him, "I'll keep that in mind."