The Slave 1 arrived at Dantooine smoothly, despite how damaged it was. The change in the feel of the ship's engines woke Boba Fett where he sat, asleep, with his head leaning against the wall of the ship. He was startled at finding himself asleep, the blaster he had been cleaning still in his hands. Fett cursed himself in Huttese as he made his way to the cockpit.
The dull brown planet was directly ahead of him. He brought the Slave 1 in carefully, not wanting to risk further damage. He made for the nearest spaceport, a small one with a few places to buy spare parts. He carried most of what he would need on the Slave 1 itself, but there were a few parts he would have to buy.
"Identify yourself." Planetary security appeared to have picked him up.
"This is Boba Fett piloting the Slave 1."
"What's your business here?"
"I need spare parts. My ship's been damaged."
"You may land in docking bay 32." The com-link clicked off, the bored official inquiring after the next ship arriving to the backwater planet.
Syntas appeared behind him, yawning as he settled the ship into the tiny docking bay. Fett was acutely aware of her hand resting on the pilot's seat next to his shoulder. He resolutely made himself concentrate on shutting down the Slave 1 in order to ignore it.
"Do you need help with the ship? I've got some training as a mechanic." Syntas offered as he stood.
Fett hesitated then nodded, "I'm going into the city to buy a few parts we'll need; start the compressive diagnostics while I'm gone." He started toward the hatch. "And don't shut down any of the defenses while I'm gone!"
"I'm not a child! I know better than that!" She yelled after him. "I know what I'm doing." Syntas grumbled under her breath as she told the Slave 1's computer to begin diagnostics.
Dantooine was so non-descript it was difficult to find anything at all to describe it. Its streets were dry and dusty, but nothing like a desert. It had pale, dirty looking plants and few animals. Even its inhabitants were bland, all with tan skin and most were human.
Fett walked into the nearest shop and handed its sleepy looking owner a list of parts. The man scratched his head for a moment before rummaging around in the bins behind him. After nearly an hour of poking around his shop he came up with the items Fett had requested. Fett paid the man what he asked for the parts. He disliked leaving Syntas alone on the ship for too long, especially since he was sure Cradossk would find some way to follow them. Trandoshans were notorious for holding grudges.
When he made it back to the small docking bay he was relieved to find the Slave 1 still there and in the condition he had left it. He programmed in his passwords and opened the hatch. Syntas was sitting in the pilot's seat arguing with the ship's computer. Her dark eyes looked up, meeting his face squarely.
"I'm glad your back. You can try and talk to this piece of junk you call a computer. I'm going to go back and start work on the shields, the power circuits are fried back there. Do you have some tools somewhere?"
"Third locker in the hold." His eyes followed her, but he turned away. He knew better than this. He remembered one of the first lessons his father had taught him.
"Friends are expensive, Boba. They'll only get you hurt." He also remembered the look of pain that had crossed his father's face. It was the day after Jango had told him Zam was dead. Jango had driven the lesson home with his own death. Boba had promised himself he would never again allow himself to be hurt that way.
Fett forced his thoughts back to computer. After a great deal of careful instructions he found the circuit in the thrusters that was giving off faulty readings. Fett exited the computer and headed down to assist Syntas in putting the Slave 1 back together.
Six hours later, they put the tools back in the third locker. Both were covered in engine fluid and sweaty from crawling along the Slave 1's outer hull patching holes burned into it. Fett carefully put away the extra spare parts as Syntas flopped onto the bench exhausted.
"Do we have time to rest?" Even her eyes were tired, without their usual fire.
Fett shook his head, "It's time for you to give the coordinates."
Syntas stood. "Open up your navigating program and I'll enter them."
Author's Note:
*~*~*~*~*~*
We're getting close now everyone! Just want to take a poll, how much of the romance bit should I show? Do you want me to actually write in a bit more of the actual fulfillment of it or just hint at it? The rating just can't go over PG-13 though. So, tell me what you think!
Ryko Sill: Very sorry about the whole agony thing. I'm trying really I am! It's just I get buried under homework every now and then and it takes a little while to dig my way out! As for you're fic, you deserve the reviews you get, it's very well written!
Infamous One: *takes a bow* Thank you! I know what you mean about the romance being tough, writing these last couple chapters and the ones that are coming up I had to stop now and then and rewrite those parts over again a whole bunch of times. I'm glad you think I've been successful.
yaeb : I'm glad you like my writing. Good luck with LOTR, I'll be updating that one in the next couple days.
wltdnfaded: Thank you! I really like your fics, so that's quite a compliment, I'll need to frame it or something… It wouldn't be any fun for Boba Fett to be completely without emotions, and it wouldn't make him seem real. But of course, can't let him get out of character either…
Chiichobi: Hey, so far so good? I look forward to seeing what you think in the poll. Also, I looked up your bio, and saw you liked LOTR, have you checked out "Gathering Darkness"? It's a challenge fic I'm writing for Roseblade22, it's on hold, but it'll be back soon.