(A/N Okay, I have several problems that I'm just gonna point out now...

I don't describe my characters-which is a big issue, because they are very clear in my mind and then I bring up a detail and it seems like I just pulled it out of the sky. *heavy sigh*

Second, I am addicted to making alien OCs. I mean, there are so many cool alien races in Star Wars and yet we are constantly bombarded with humans. Anyway, yeah-ALIENS! lol

I hope you enjoy!)

Dev was waiting for them in the alley as expected. He seemed skittish to Din, but that could easily be a product of being an alien in an imperial academy for an extended period of time. Teena hadn't told him that the boy was a Miralan. It was a wonder they accepted him at the academy to begin with.

"Are you okay?" he asked as a greeting. His eyes kept shifting to Din, proving Teena correct, Dev did not trust him.

"I'm fine, Dev. Let's get this done," she said with steel in her voice.

"Right. I've got-"

"Not here. Let's get back to the ship," she interrupted him.

"I'm not sure I have that kind of time."

"Then we better hurry."

"You're trying to kidnap me, aren't you?"

She sighed, caught in her trap and not bothering with a lie.

"There was a series of incidents a few weeks back, off planet. They've been getting a bit crazy. I won't lie, now is probably a good time to get out."

She sighed again, but this time out of obvious relief as her body and posture relaxed. She gestured for Dev to follow her and Din brought up the back.

"So, who's he?" Dev asked in a near whisper, glancing back at Din.

"Ship, then talk."

"Yeah, yeah. Bossy as ever buir." [mother]

Din started at the term, once again stumped by their use of Mando'a, but even more confused at the familial term.

"You've never been good at listening to me. Did you actually learn how while away?"

"The only thing I learned there was that I never want to listen to orders again."

She laughed with the boy while Din smiled silently at their exchange. He was an intruder in this moment, but it was refreshing to see such light interactions in the dark galaxy he knew.

Before long they were climbing aboard the ship and making their way to the holo.

"Mando, can you get us into orbit?" Teena asked. He tensed. She had never allowed him to pilot before, so there had to be a reason she was asking him to leave now. It could be the data transfer. Sure, they had accepted a select few vulnerable moments with one another, but they didn't exactly trust each other yet. Her look was pleading, and that was what made up his mind to just go do the job he was given. It wouldn't take long and he could collect his information soon enough.

.

"So, you took a job for a Mando?" Dev asked, incredulous.

"Yes. Calm down. He's been a decent guest so far, surprisingly enough. But right now I need you to bring up the prison data," she said as she opened her own datapad to pull up what information she had on the mandalorian armorer. A map of the prison came up and she accessed the records, plugging in to cross-reference the information to her datapad. "There." Several images flickered to life to identify prisoner 654638. The first was much like the one Din had provided her, in a horned mandalorian helmet and furred armor. The second two showed her maskless and profile.

She quickly deleted the two intrusive ones and highlighted the cell she was in. Dev gave her a funny look, but she let the relief roll off her as Din walked back in. Nala's information was still displayed, but Din didn't see her face.

"What have you got?" his modulated voice couldn't hide his anxiety.

"A location. Dev? Do your thing."

Dev had a smile slowly grow on his face and then animatedly started pointing to the different sections of the map.

"Okay, so our girl," he leaned over to look at her information, "Nala, is hanging out here," he pointed to a cell on the second to lowest floor, "which doesn't look like a problem in this blueprint, but this," he pointed to the third to highest level, "is actually ground level. Most of the facility is underground. The detainees are assessed on threat level and the more dangerous they are the deeper they go."

Din hummed his understanding and Dev, once again, eyed him suspiciously before continuing.

"Where would her affects be?" Teena asked to get them back on track.

"Here." He highlighted a room on the same floor. "They used to repurpose prisoner affects, but there was an incident a while ago when someone got arrested on purpose with a hidden bomb in their gear. Imps have been keeping contraband locked down since then."

"Alright. Entry?" she kept him rolling.

"Here is your best bet," he highlighted a large ventilation shaft that dropped all the way to the lowest floor. "The system hasn't been updated in ages, so I have a few tricks to remotely disable some cell security. Any large information stream will be stopped though, so it'd have to be small."

"Well, we only need to disable the one," Din offered.

"You have guards here, here, here, and here," Dev highlighted several zones, "who will lock down the whole facility and decorate a new room just for you if they notice you."

"So what do you suggest?" he asked, annoyed.

"We take down the cells on the bottom floor. The Imps will flood the floor to restore order. That is when we exit the shaft and manually disable Nala's cell. We grab her gear on the way back and they'll never know we were there."

"We?" Teena asked with a raised brow. He blushed. "And that won't work. We need a secondary distraction to cover our escape." Teena spun the map to get a better look at the shaft and scan for any useful assets.

"Well, if we get a decent hacker on site," he began with a crooked smile, "she can set up here," he highlighted a ground floor terminal, "and tap into the security for the whole building."

Teena shared his wide smile. "Now, where would we ever find such a good hacker?"

She was already plugging in the nav point when Din followed her to the cockpit asking what they had in mind.

"Someone who grew up with Dev on the ship," she answered as the ship took to hyperspace. "You'll meet her in 15 hours. Let's iron this plan out before we pitch it to her though."

.

The kid was nice enough once he got over his suspicious streak. He had a line of questions a mile long and Din did his best to answer them. Teena intervened every now and then, but he was largely on his own.

He had to explain his every weapon when Dev followed him to the cargo hold as he was disarming.

He explained his faction of Mandalorians when Dev followed him to the galley.

He didn't know how to address the kid's innuendos when they'd joined Teena in the cockpit.

"So, are you at least treating her like a lady?"

Din was pretty sure he was choking as he wrapped his head around that question.

"Psh. Never kiss and tell Dev," Teena replied, barely missing a beat and bouncing her shoulder into the boy.

He took a breath to follow up with something, but she beat him to it again.

"No, he's just a job. I always encourage you to grow as a person, so is it so terrible for me to grow as well? He's Mandalorian, get over it. He's a guest and should be treated as such."

Dev had the good sense to blush at her scorn and left them alone in the cockpit.

"Thank you."

"I should be apologizing," she replied. "Has he been being that intrusive the whole time?"

"He's been fine. Just curious."

"You're used to that?" she asked as she spun her chair to face him.

"Grogu couldn't speak yet. He was curious about everything, but couldn't actually ask the questions. Apparently he understood everything. He could communicate with one of his kind that we met."