Karrde looked over the bridge of his ship. The crew of the Wild Karrde did their jobs with their customary efficiency and skills, but something was off. He looked down at Mara and Aves, manning the pilot and co-pilot stations respectivly, Aves with his omnipresent cup of caf on the shared console between the two stations. Mara had apparently banned the drink from her side of the forward stations, and Aves was apparently trying to push her buttons by keeping it just barely on his side.
Karrde shook his head. When would the people ever learn not to push Mara too far? All they had to do was look at Skywalker to see what happened when that happened. Karrde barely supressed the grin that quirked his lips at the antics Mara and the farmboy displayed whenever they were in close proximity to each other.
"Close proximity" as defined as "within comm range of any ship they're currently on", Karrde thought and had to repress another grin when he considered just how much fun he was going to have in the next few minutes, if their contact arrived on schedule.
Dankin's voice interruped his thoughts. "Ship
coming out of hyperspace, on the port side. Uhh... it looks like
a New Republic frighter."
"Relax, that's our contact," Karrde assured the other man, closely
watching Mara out of the corner of his eye. She'd suddenly sat
up in chair at the description of the other ship. Then she started
rocking back and forth in her.
"Anybody but Skywalker. Please, anybody but Skywalker," she softly mumbled, as if asking some higher power. Then her face locked into a grimace when the familiar Tatooine farmboy's voice came over the comm system.
"Hello there, Wild Karrde! This is- what's that?" Skywalker broke off as the sound of Mara softly hammering her head against her console was loud enough for the communications microphone to pick up and transmit. And Karrde, a man who prided himself on being able to control his facial expressions, was reduced to covering his mouth with his hand to hide the grin he couldn't supress. He glanced around and saw the other members of the bridge crew not even bothering to hide their own grins.
Struggling to bring himself under control, Karrde finally answered the other man. "Nothing at all, Skywalker. In fact, why don't you come over so we can talk in person?" he asked with sadisitc glee. Mara sat stiff as a board in her chair, considering that not only would she have to be withing comm range of the man, but on the same ship? And she probably knew that Karrde would ask her to attend the meeting, given that she was second-in-command of the whole organization. Yep, she knew it already, judging by the glare she threw over her shoulder at him. He only inclined his head, reminding her of the propor duties of a host. Mara grimaced again and leaned her head against her screen.
Aves just couldn't resist stirring the waters, since he leaned across the center console and said, "Just think of it as a chance to see your favourite hero, Mara."
Mara didn't even look up as she reached over and smacked Aves upside the head.