Author's note: set in 1x02.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Mandalorian. No financial gain is made from this. This is for entertainment purposes only.
ESTIMATED WEIGHT:
75? 80? With the full armor was hard to say. Hell, she did not even know what the species was.
AGENT:
She scrolled down quickly in the list of chemicals to find a general anesthetic.
LAST MEAL:
The hell with it.
She shut close the DART (Discriminative Anesthesia Readying Technology) system ungracefully. "Nothing like the old ways", she muttered under her breath as she ran her trembling fingers along the many vials tossed in an unorganized bag. In her panic she could barely read the names printed on them.
She finally chose one, but it slipped from her hand as she tried to load it in her hypodermic rifle. She swore and tried again. She had not much time but she did not work well under this kind of pressure. Her chest ached - she had forgotten to breath.
She took position on top of the rock, letting her abdomen rest on the rough surface, and looking through the telescopic sight she secretly realized how bad of an idea this was, but she ignored the fleeting thought. After all, she had learned to accept already many past mistakes.
She pushed a button and the sizzling of the compressed air in the gun caressed her ear. Five meters down, two bounty hunters fought to death, the only way they knew. Now it was only a matter to shoot the right one. But they were moving too much, too fast, for a precise shot.
So she just pulled the trigger and hoped the needle would find its way around the corners of that Mandalorian armor.
It didn't.
Instead, the dart emptied its contents, the amber liquid, in the Trandoshan, who lowered his guard a second at the unexpected contact. She was amazed at the easiness the needle pierced its slimy scales. In her rush, she had loaded a needle clearly not fit for a humanoid.
The Mandalorian did not waste a moment. Be it for the surprise, be it because the fast-acting agent had already taken hold of the Trandoshan's will, he finished him off with a swift use of a vibro-blade.
The body fell to the floor and in the silence only interrupted by rugged breathing, both Mandalorian and girl went over the current events.
In his side, it was easy. This damned alien had come from nowhere and attacked him. He saw the red blinking light at its belt. He was clearly after the baby.
For her, it was confusing. This Trandoshan had agreed to escort her to this planet for a few credits, so she could carry out her research. But the moment they had arrived to the intended site, he had rushed to assault this stranger in full-armor.
"Thank you," he suddenly spoke, his voice mechanical through the helmet.
She scrambled to a sitting position, feeling vulnerable, and gripped tight the riffle. "I meant to shoot you," she blurted out.
"What?"
"You killed my bodyguard!" Her eyes travelled to the immense beast laying immobile. She threw the riffle aside and ran to it. "And my test subject!"
She pulled a small device from her belt and placed it in the dead Mudhorn. The item opened up, small metallic legs attached to its skin and a yellow light flashed as it extracted genetic material.
"You don't realize what you did, don't you?" she continued, nervous. "Mudhorns reproduction is hard and they only lay one egg per clutch, which reduces their numbers. You killed a perfectly healthy adult that could have still reproduced for, let's say, another good ten years. We might as well say you just killed five of them. Maybe even more, considering survival rates amongst infants are not that- Where are you going?"
"I need to find an egg," he said as he headed into the den.
She ran after him. "Wait, wait! Why do you need an egg? Are you a poacher?"
He turned towards her and she flinched. It did not pass unnoticed the shakiness in her voice, the twitching in her hands - she feared him. But for now, the adrenaline made her follow him inside the muddy hole.
She reached for a pocket inside her backpack and he glanced at it out of the corner of his eye. With a well-trained movement he aimed his blaster at her.
"Wow," she exclaimed, as the packet of cigarettes fell to the ground. Subconsciously, she raised her hands. "What are you doing?"
"Who are you?" he asked, as his eyes searched an indication that the tiny suspicion that she was after him or the baby was well-founded; yet again, she looked too sloppy for a bounty hunter. Although it could be a strategy...
"Balkan Corso. That's-that's my name."
"Why are you here?"
In the darkness of the grotto he could still see her lip trembling. "I am a scientist. I-I am here to collect biological samples. I just..."
"Your friend tried to kill me."
She scoffed. "He was not my friend. I needed safe passage to this planet and he said he was headed this way. I told him I was gonna pay him some credits if I could tag along. I have no idea why he attacked you." He hesitated, trying to decide if to buy her honesty.
He lowered the weapon, she picked up the cigarettes.
"Look, I just want to get out of this planet and never cross paths with you again," she said as she lighted one up and took a long drag out of it.
"Then why are you following me?" he asked.
"Well... now that we are here. I can pay you well for that egg."
"No."
"I can pay you very well."
"No."
"Come on! You are a bounty hunter! Tell me how much they are paying you for it and I will try to up them."
"The egg is not on sale."
She saw with jealousy how he pried the priced egg from the mud. "You know, with that egg I could sequence the whole Mudhorn DNA. I could hatch it and raise it and later reintroduce it."
He shook his head. "You want to raise a six tones beast?"
"No. Mudhorns do four and half to five tones."
He rolled his eyes under the helmet. "It is not on sale," he repeated. "I need it to get out of this planet."
She re-lighted her cigarette. There was a light breeze as they approached the entrance to the lair. "Speaking about leaving this planet... How much for a ride?"
He turned towards her. "What?"
"That Trandoshan was not only my protection, he was also my ride," she explained.
"I'm not a taxi."
"You killed him..."
He sighed. "I can drop you in Nevarro. But my ship has been spoiled by Jawas." She raised an eyebrow and studied his battered state. "What?" he asked.
"I had another image of Mandalorians..."
"It's been a rough day."
"I can tell," she muttered as she put off her cigarette on the ground and bagged the butt to avoid polluting. She followed after him and the floating crib. She bit her lip. "What there is in the cradle?"
"Nothing." He did not need to look to know she would try to peek inside. "Do not touch it." And despite his bad condition, his tone was still imposing enough.
She tried another tactic. "If the egg is to get back your ship parts, what brought you here in the first place? Arvala-7 is not very touristic. There is not much here apart from desert..." Silence. "Were you here in a bounty mission? Sounds... interesting. You can tell me more." Silence. "You need to protect that cradle? What does it have? A baby?" Silence. "Do you hear me well through your helmet?"
"I do."
"So?"
"I'm just ignoring you."
She scoffed. "You look ready to drop. I bet even I could finish you," she mumbled. But this time he made sign of hearing her well, and she shrugged. "Joking."
They trekked quietly. With nothing better to do, she studied him. The broken armor, the mud covering what should be a shining helmet, the ragged cape, the blaster and the rifle. What a peculiar sight. It was the first Mandalorian she had crossed in her travels and she felt almost the need to document it.
They arrived at the sandcrawler, which seemed ready to depart, and she observed with a heavy heart how the scavengers opened the egg and ate its yolk. "Savages," she whispered to no one. Despite herself, she could not take her eyes from the grotesque scene. She put out her electronic pad and made a new entry for the Mudhorn: 'possible causes of decline, Jawas'.
Then she glanced to her side, and realized they were not alone. The Mandalorian was speaking with an Ugnaught. She approached them.
"You don't come back alone," the unknown man stated.
The Mandalorian glanced at her. "She tagged along."
"Balkan Corso," she extended her hand, which the Ugnaught shook.
"Kuiil. Are you also a bounty hunter?"
She laughed. "Oh no. I am a scientist. Speaking of which, I see you have a blurrg with you. Would you mind answering a few questions and maybe allow me to take some samples? I'm running on a theory that there might be slight mutations on blurrgs across the Galaxy-"
"First we get those pieces back in the hoversled. Come on, you can help," Kuiil interrupted.
She helped to load the pieces, but all the while she still questioned Kuiil about blurrgs and life in Arvala-7. At three people, the sled was precariously loaded in less time than expected.
Corso wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her jacket. A desert planet and hard physical work were not a good match, but it seemed she was the only one affected.
"Come, we are going," the Mandalorian told her as he took place in the hoversled. It could barely fit two people and she shook her head.
"I need to retrieve the rest of my equipment," she said.
He slightly tilted his head. "Why you didn't say that before?"
She shook her hand. "It's okay. I have a speeder not far from where we met. I will load it and meet you back."
"I will come with you. You will get lost."
She smiled. "No, here," she pushed a little tracker in his hand. No, not a tracker. Some kind of chip, barely bigger than a grain of rice. "It is a PIT, a Passive Integrated Transponder. It is what we use to track animals down for studies." She showed him her pad. "See. This little blip it's the chip. I will be able to find you. Just don't lose it, please."
He analyzed the little object.
"If you want, I can implant it into you," she chuckled.
He placed it carefully in one of his pouches. "Just be careful, okay?"
She nodded. "See you later!"
She did not wait to see them leave. She trekked back fast, knowing that travelling would be easier while there was light. But before heading to the ship in which she had arrived, she took a little detour and traced her steps back to the Mudhorn cave. The beast was becoming feast for scavenging animals, mainly birds. Any other time, she would have stopped to study them, to observe their interesting behaviour, but this time, she barely glanced at them.
She found the body of the Trandoshan that had promised to accompany her still lying on the ground, a fine layer of dust already covering his shape. She did not appreciate the proximity of the corpse, but as a biologist, she was no stranger to death. The plastic gloves snapped as she protected her hands and she searched carefully the body. The vibro-blade wound to the neck was deep and blood had stained the clothes. She found some coin in his pockets, but she let it. No, she was looking for something else. The blaster laid to his right. Not interesting. A little chain around his neck. Vain. A ticket for a free meal in a faraway planet. Useless.
Toc.
No, she needed something else.
Toc toc.
A clue.
Toc toc toc. Beep.
Beep?
She looked up.
A few meters away, a small carrion bird played with tracking fob, after being left out of the dinner by the other bigger animals.
"Give me that," she muttered as she tried to reach for it. But the bird just flew further away and mocked her.
She re-tried. To similar results.
"Change of method, then," she sighed as she took from her pocket a shiny coin. "You want an exchange, buddy?"
The bird tilted its head. She threw the coin up and the bird caught it in the air. She slid towards the fob and caught it in one hand. It was a simple tracking device. She tested it. It seemed to beep in a single direction. It pointed to something.
Uncaring about the ruckus of the birds and the dead bounty hunter, she pulled out her pad, some connection cables and a little mechanical kit. With precision, she unassembled the fob. Then, she connected it to her pad and clapped when it started to receive data. She applied it to a map and lighted a cigarette. There it was the dot that pointed to the Mandalorian and next to it, a new dot.
"Next to it," she whispered. The Trandoshan was not after the Mandalorian, but after the thing in the cradle. Interesting...
Then, she put everything back in her backpack and walked to the bounty hunter's ship. It was anything but fancy and she had to keep her head low to not hit it. She gathered her research equipment and loaded it in the speeder. This last one was way fancier than the ship, and she could see where the Trandoshan's money had gone to.
She sat in the speeder and sighed. Nothing about this trip to Arvala-7 had gone as she expected. She opened her pad once more to check the DNA collection from the Mudhorn. A mean 43%. The little window with the tracking program blinked and she opened it. An internal error. Great. She looked up. She still had some hours of light, but the Mandalorian was now further away from where she last left him. She entered a few commands to patch up the error. It would pop up again, that was sure. A problem to solve another day.
Then she looked again at the dot she had to ride towards to, but her eyes trailed to the other dot. The cradle dot. The asset these ruthless men were after. What could they hide in a crib? The dot traveled slower than the Mandalorian chip. Too much. The signal was weak. Why the lag? Feeling like she needed a longer break before to head back, Corso tried a new coded order. A new black window opened. That bounty hunter fob was receiving a signal from the crib, but it was a few minutes lagged. She kept on writing code, tried a few tricks.
"Bingo." She raised an eyebrow. "What is this?"
She had mapped the connections attached to the crib. Dozens of dots appeared in her screen. She closed the pad and pocketed it. She revved the speeder. She did not like to drive, but she had no qualms with a little speed. She took a deep breath and darted off as the Sun settled down over the dunes.
When she arrived at the Razor Crest, repairs had already started. Mando saw her stroll through the ramp with a decided gait. "Did you get everyt- Ey!"
Corso walked to the crib and looked inside. She gasped.
"I told you not to touch that," Mando said, readjusting the blanket over the infant.
"What are you going to do with it?" she asked, agitated.
He stared at her. Was she shaking off anger or fear? "It doesn't concern you," he spoke calmly.
"It does. I don't want to be a part of whatever this is. You know there are dozens of other bounty hunters after it?" She placed the Trandoshan fob on a near surface. It did not blink red anymore now void of its chip.
"I know," he said over the loud clanking of metal. Kuiil was busy working on the engines.
"What happens to him? Is he drugged?" She moved to measure its vitals with a portable scanner. She tried to understand the readings, but it was a feat. She did know nothing about this species' parameters.
"Is he ok?" the Mandalorian suddenly asked.
She frowned at the screen. "It seems he's just sleeping. But I cannot be sure."
Clank clank.
She sighed. "You are going to deliver it to Imperials, right?" she lowered her voice.
"How... Why do you think that?"
"I tracked back the crib signal and searched for receptor fobs. You said you would drop me in Nevarro. The only static signal in Nevarro comes from a place I know well." She produced a wallet from her satchel and threw him a coin. Imperial credits.
"You work for them?"
"No," she corrected. "They help me to finance my research."
"What is the difference?" he said, throwing back the coin.
"I don't follow orders from them. They are just like a... a sponsor."
"What do they get from you?"
"I share my data."
He hit hard on a metal piece over their heads to fit it right back in its socket. "Care to elaborate? What is your research?"
"I'm creating a genetic library of all living things. I started mainly with fauna, but the plan is to expand it to flora and other organisms too," she explained.
"Does it include people?"
"For now, only non-sentient beings - although I don't like that designation - with incapability of speech. So no, not 'people'."
He chuckled. "Good to know. Here," he placed the tiny chip she had used to find them - the PIT - in her hands.
He turned to head back to re-assembling his ship, when she spoke again, "You know, if you want, I could take the child. Try to find its parents, its planet, or something."
But he ignored her.
Despite her lack of knowledge on ships, she tried to be of help and did everything Kuiil instructed her. It was mainly menial tasks, such as screw back this metal piece, or find a piece that looks like it can fit here. Conversation was easy with him and he taught her a lot of things about blurrgs that she added to her pad once he let her take a small break. However, this pause put her out of action, as exhaustion took over and she fell asleep.
A hand shook her softly, with a gentleness she thought the Mandalorian incapable off. "We are leaving," he said.
She rubbed her eyes. The Sun was indeed up again. "I am sorry, I fell asleep."
But he had already moved away. A blanket had been draped over her, and she folded it sloppily. She said her goodbyes to Kuiil and thanked him again for sharing his stories. He wished her well in her travels. She marveled at the current state of the Razor Crest. Nobody would have imagined that a few hours ago it was junk. Then she wandered along its insides, finding little compartments, storage units, a bed, etc.
"We are going to take off," Mando warned her from the cockpit.
She sat down and waited for the dreaded moment. She did not appreciate flying. And takeoff and landing in particular. She closed her eyes and started a cigarette.
What a situation, she could not stop thinking about that little green baby. She had been in Nevarro; nothing good to do there... Not a place for such a small thing...
She let the smoke from her puff draw sinuous shapes in front of her. Through it, the lights of the ship shone with a halo. It was hypnotizing. Some of them blinked, some not. They had all colors; white, blue, yellow, red, orange...
She took another drag.
Then, brusquely, following on an impulse, she dug into her satchel and grabbed at another light. The tracking chip she had given the Mandalorian, the PIT. Without a clear idea why, she pulled out her screwdriver kit and took out a small panel of the ship, placed carefully the chip inside, so it would mingle with the other lights, and closed it back.
Yes, the world was full of bad ideas, but she could pride herself on having dangerous ones.