Chapter 10.

Edited on January 7th, 2015.

The ship was not large by any means, it barely had enough space for its crew, but it was yaim'la(1). It was so refreshing that it stung deep in his chest. Raidre walked ahead, leading him up a flight of stairs, a droid of some sort professed its undying devotion and offered her a meal and a foot massage. Torian stared at it for a while and felt relieved that Raidre just ignored the damn thing. A foot massage? Was that a setting or something? They arrived at the main room, or what they were using as the main room, which in reality was the cock pit. Gault and Mako were there.

"This is Torian. He'll be joining us so get properly introduced."

Mako gave him warm brown eyes, a smile curling her lips and it reached her eyes.

"There's always room for one more in my book. I'm Mako."

The Devaronian was much more in his element, relaxed and unassuming for once. "Gault Rennow." He said simply. "At your service."

Wow, this was… nice.

"Pleasure."

Torian was not used to being given this much attention so his civilities and social talk were rusty as all krif(2). Mako looked around her, her lips pressed together in a thin line.

"It's not much to look at, but it's home."

Torian shrugged. "No complaints."

Raidre had been silent up until then, the awkwardness had been trying to settle in and that was when she decided to speak up.

"Hey, remember what it looked like when we stole it?"

That cracked a genuine smile out of everyone and a giggle out of Mako.

"Got me there." She said, she looked at Torian. "Come on. I'll give you the tour."

Torian followed Mako, half hoping that Raidre would come along, but he found that she stayed behind with Gault instead.

Raidre watched the two younger crew members leave, hoping half-heartedly that they would grow fond of each other. Gault watched her with a knowing look.

"You know, you really ought to learn to relax."

Raidre just gave him a frown, arms crossed over an armor plated chest. She said nothing and Gault sighed.

"Come on, darling, let's have a heart to heart while we chart our way to our next quick credits."

Raidre followed him to the cock pit and sat down at the pilot's chair while Gault sat in the co-pilot's seat. They flipped through job postings on the Holo-net.

"Oh, this could be fun. Rich entrepreneur's daughter abducted by local gang, requesting a rescue, lots of zeros, Raidre."

She shrugged. "Sure, where is it?"

Gault smiled. "Where else?"

Raidre nodded. "You're right, why'd I even ask, Nar Shadaa it is."

Gault put the data pad on the console, he really didn't do anything, he never had to, Raidre was one of those girls who knew how to do just about everything, a compulsive learner.

"So what's eating you up?"

"I thought that was Mako's or now Torian's part of our business arrangement."

Gault snorted. "We both know I live to kid, and your problems are out of Mako's depth most of the time."

Raidre sighed. "Why the sudden interest in my 'étât d'âme'?"

Gault weaved his fingers together to cradle his head as he leaned back as far as he could in the co-pilot's chair. He looked at the stars stretch out until they became invisible as they hit light speed.

"How long have we been working together?"

Raidre frowned as she did the mental math. "I reckon a couple of months?"

"Four months, three weeks and five days."

Raidre's eyebrows shot up. "Why are you keeping count?"

They looked at each other for a moment, Gault gave her a crooked smile. "I keep waiting for you to double-cross me or something, actually."

They both laughed at that, Raidre was already looking more relaxed, she put the ship into auto-pilot as she finished plotting their course. "I'll be honest, that was never a part of the Bounty Hunting gig I got into."

Gault nodded. "I've noticed."

Comfortable silence rested between them. Gault cleared his throat. "Listen, you're a big girl, and it's not my place to tell you what to do, boss. But go easy on yourself. We are all normal people with normal needs."

Raidre smiled, and Gault returned it. "I love how you say that but then Mako's out of her depth with my problems.

Gault paused. "Okay, think I missed something."

Raidre swiveled in her chair to face him. "Be honest, at best Torian is a couple standard years older than she is. You're not seriously telling me not to feel awkward by the age gap?"

Gault flattened his mouth into a straight line as he thought about it. He shrugged. "I'm good at reading people, Raidre. I don't think you need to worry about that. Besides, weren't you telling me that Mando guys are marriage crazy?"

Raidre stiffened. "Yea, like two of them tried to propose to me at my adoption."

Gault chuckled. "So then Torian should be more than capable of taking things serious, right?"

Raidre frowned at him. "Gault, it doesn't take a genius to see the kid is super serious!"

Gault waged a finger at Raidre. "Tut, tut. Be nice now. The 'kid' saved your life more than once when we were at that way station. He can handle the battle, give him a chance and see if the rest is compatible."

Raidre sighed and swiveled back to face the stars. "Fine you're right. WAIT!"

They both froze, Raidre turned to face him and stood from his chair. "Why are you helping him?"

Gault stared at a very suspicious looking Raidre. She had the whole finger pointing thing and all! Gault looked unimpressed, blinking his eyes at her finger before looking up to meet her eyes. He sighed.

"You're gonna make me spill, aren't you?"

"Yep, get it over with."

Gault sighed and looked at the stars. "Raidre, I agreed to be your new best friend, " he said making air quotations with his fingers. "Because I could tell you were a good person. You know, the whole reading people thing?"

Raidre crossed her arms but nodded. Gault went on. "All that to say. I can tell he's your type and vice versa. I've been here long enough to see you don't indulge much. So I'm here to be the devil's advocate and push you to indulge."

Raidre stared at him wide-eyed for a moment in silence. "You're evil. You're trying to get me to corrupt this young, pure Mando boy."

Gault laughed. "Honey, men, no matter where they come from, are not 'pure'."

Raidre rolled her eyes. "Okay, weirded out now." She crossed her arms. "We're done with heart to heartin-ing."

Gault laughed. "Just don't over think it."

Raidre nodded. "I'll remember that."

"Please do."

Gault walked out, yawning. "Well, time for my beauty nap!"

"Pfff." Raidre laughed. "Like your red, Devaronian shebs(3) needs it."

Gault laughed. "Now, now. If we didn't have at least one good-looking charming person in our crew, how ever would we conduct respectable business?"

Raidre laughed out loud at that. "Yea, right. I guess that's why we don't."

"Nah, nah, nah, nah, NAH! I can't hear you!"

Raidre laughed to herself as Gault left her to her thoughts. Of course, he was right, what ailed her was entirely out of Mako's depth. What had she been thinking allowing him to join? Not that he was not welcome, but this would make things so much more difficult than it had to be. How old would she be this year? Twenty-eight, wow, where had all that time gone? Should she start inspecting her face for wrinkles? Should she just give up and give into decrepitude? She laughed, she would die with a blaster in both hands and a missile ready to shoot. The days when the thought of being a good little house wife with lots of little children were passed her, soon the whole idea of children would be null and void actually. She wondered how she felt about that.

Conflicted, but then that was life. She wanted to have kids someday, always had, there was fear mixed with that want, but it had never seemed the right time or with the right partner. Children were not a challenge she was willing to brave alone. And now the sands of time were slipping away a single grain at a time, the grains were still adding up. She watched the clouds of stars glide by in her visors, none of it mattered. She may die on their next job and then who would take care of any child of hers? She could never burden Mako like that and Gault would laugh at her for even thinking of it. What other family did she have? The answer was a sad one, but she had no one else. She had abandoned that life that had her blood-relatives in it, she had even abandoned a rich fiancé. No, she could count on no one but herself and Mako. Maybe now she would learn to trust Torian, maybe not. As for Gault, well, he was only as trust-worthy as his percentage of a job's pay.

She sighed to herself, why was she even thinking of this? That is when Mako brought Torian back to the cock pit.

"And that concludes our tour of the D-5 Mantis, she's pretty neat, huh?"

Oh yea, that's why she was thinking of all this dumb stuff. Raidre kept her eyes ahead of her.

"Hey, what's up?"

Raidre sighed to herself in silence, oh Mako. She turned to face them, Mako looked curious while Torian looked like he was ready to eat her, wow.

"Just headed back to Nar Shadaa for a little job."

Mako frowned. "But we made so much with the last job?"

Both Torian and Raidre looked at her as if to ask: So? The smaller girl held her hands up in a show of non-aggression.

"Okay, forget I asked."

Raidre smiled, to soften her expression. "We keep moving, or we get soft. If we want to be ready for the next Black List job, we better not get lazy. But if you want to go enjoy a bit of time, please do. I know I have been working you hard."

Mako frowned at her. "As if I could just go off to a spa while you're working, maybe even in danger!"

"I got her six."

Both girls glanced at Torian, he just shrugged. "We all need some R&R, go ahead, I'll make sure she comes back whole."

Mako giggled. "Is that right? You clearly haven't worked with her all that much yet."

Torian frowned. "Meaning?"

Raidre let her head sink into a gloved hand, shaking it from side to side. "Mako, please?"

Mako glanced at Raidre and then ignored her plea. "She's terrible, never learned how to take care of herself. Sure, she's super woman when it comes to helping someone else, but she'll forget to feed herself if I don't remind her!"

Raidre groaned and turned around in her chair. "Tuning you out now."

Mako stuck her tongue out at Raidre's back. "It's true and you know it!"

Raidre gave Mako a very impolite hand-gesture which just made the younger girl laugh out loud. Torian watched with utter pleasure, everyone seemed to really dote on each other, to take care of each other.

"What else?"

Raidre spun around aghast. "Don't encourage her!"

Mako laughed some more, making some snorting sounds now. "Humm… What other embarrassing things should I mention?"

Raidre's face got red. "Okay, enough, find something better to do."

"Aw." Mako sighed. "But we were having so much fun, weren't we, Torian?"

Torian nodded. "Sure was."

Raidre looked at him like she had never seen him before. "Are you kidding me?"

Torian shrugged. "Nope."

"Argh." Raidre just sunk back in her chair and did not look their way. "Okay, Mako. What do you want?"

Mako's face lit up as she clapped her little hands together. "We should go have a huge dinner together to celebrate Torian's joining us?"

Raidre just gestured a hand, open palmed in the air, as if she was just saying: of course, she sighed. "What else?"

"I demand you upgrade the ship's defenses and offenses and use some of our hard earned Black List money to get us a decent electronic warfare pod."

Raidre's hand hung in the air, shaking slightly. "Mako, do you have any idea how much that stuff costs?"

Mako just nodded, arms crossed. "Yea, sure, I see how much or lives are worth to our fearless and may I add heartless leader."

Raidre just let her hand fall and turned back to her consoles. Mako gave her a look over before dragging Torian away. He looked at Mako.

"Think you over did it." He said once they were out of ear shot.

Mako just shook her head. "Naw, she's a big softy, she'll come around. She has been in one of her moods lately though."

"Moods?"

Mako nodded at Torian's laconic inquiry. "Yea, she gets these downs sometimes, real quiet and thoughtful, she's been like that since she got back. It'll pass though, don't let it bug you. She just has to digest stuff. She's a great Bounty Hunter, but she doesn't like to kill her bounties unless she has to, or their scum."

Mako chattered on, but Torian couldn't help zoning out. Was she on stims or something? Or were all aruetisii(4) this chatty? He took a deep breath as he braved it. Mako stopped suddenly.

"Hey, where did you want to bunk?"

Torian felt unease, his guts told him a land-mine was ahead, so he stayed quiet and weighed his answer. "I guess any vacant room will do."

Mako turned to him, her eyes now appraising him, a smile forming on her lips. "But then you'll be lonely."

Umm… what?! Torian swallowed. "Not really."

Mako fluttered long dark lashes at him, brown eyes like liquid gold, no one could claim she was not a looker. "Well, if you ever need company, my rooms this one." She said pointing to the door right ahead. "You're welcome to my bunk whenever you like."

Torian reminded himself to breath. What was it with these girls? Did killing his father make him an instant turn on? What kind of a galaxy did he live in where patricide was sexy?! He nodded slowly trying to remain composed.

"Sure, thanks."

Torian promptly got the haran(5) out of there.

Mako watched him leave, satisfied with confirming that Torian was completely into Raidre. She laughed as he scurried away like he had band of Trandoshans(6) running after him.

He took the first room that looked vacant and closed the door. He leaned against it as if he held it shut physically he could keep what had happened out of his mind. He let his head fall and sighed.

What was up with these women? Oh sure, now that he has killed the traitor, let's all jump him! He turned around and leaned his back on the door, letting himself slide down until he was sitting against the door. Pff, yea, sure, Corridan thought he would get used to all this new found attention, but in the meantime it was very unsettling. He sighed and decided he would focus on other stuff. She had allowed him to join her company, and everyone had received his addition with positivity and that was cause for joy. Torian looked around the room he had chosen in his haste. It was more spacious than any room he had been allowed before. Mind you, most times with clan Ordo, if they needed to move they just set up some sleeping pallets on the ground and all shared a cargo hold. The privacy of his own room was already a luxury he had never been privy to.

They may have thought the D-5 Mantis was a sturdy piece of junk, but Torian thought it was a real hardy piece of work actually. But Mako was right, it was in dire need of repairs and some key upgrades. On the flip side, Raidre was right, Mako's demands would cost them everything they likely earned with Jicoln's bounty if not more, especially that electronic warfare pod, those things were rare to begin with. Torian stood and began to settle his few belongings in a vast amount of space. It took him all of five minutes to place his second change of kute(7) in the drawers beneath his bunk, he owned very little clothing. His gear, his weapons and his armor were laid on a ledge along the wall of his bed, and that was it. In all fairness, it still looked barren at best. He sighed as he tested the bunk, checking the mattress for any signs of disease or mites or anything else untoward.

Clean, everything was clean. The place may not be have been luxurious, but everything was clean and stocked. Torian laid down on his bunk, fingers laced behind his neck as he glanced at the ceiling. Deep in thought and trying hard to relax but not finding it possible.

NOTES:

1. Warm, lived in, pertaining to a house or a home, which for Mando'ade could be almost anything.

2 .Fuck, literally.

3 .Backside, rear end of a building.

4 .Outsiders, foreigners, non-Mandalorians.

5 .Hell, literally means destruction and or cosmic annihilation.

6 .Trandoshans, or T'doshok in Dosh, were large, bipedal reptilian humanoids from the planet of Trandosha (or Dosha). They had sensitive eyes that could see into the infrared range and the ability to regenerate lost limbs—albeit slowly—and were anatomically built heavier and stronger than most humanoids, including Humans. They would also periodically shed their skin. Unlike some other reptilian humanoids, such as the Barabels and the Ssi-ruuk, Trandoshans had no tails. The Trandoshans were a warlike species who allied early with the Empire, taking Wookiees as slaves. A notable Trandoshan was Bossk, who was a longtime enemy of Han Solo, Chewbacca the Wookiee, and Boba Fett, as well as the infamous slaver Pekt. As a species, they were renowned across the galaxy for great strength. This is evidenced by several members of other species boasting physical prowess and power by having defeated a Trandoshan, either in battle or in a contest of strength.

7 .Under wear, bodysuit, something worn under armor.