Scenes from the 'Fresher
"Eh?" Vashti asked, her eyes fluttering open momentarily, "you know something about Mira we don't?"
"Possibly," Canderous replied, "I seem to recall a little redheaded child who hauled ammunition and demolitions for us during the war. She had a remarkable ability for stirring up trouble wherever she went." Canderous leaned back in his chair, remembering. He lifted his glass of juma and drank. "She was just a kid, around 10 I think?" he raised an eyebrow at Mira who nodded with the realization that it was her turn to be embarrassed.
He grinned, "She worked hard and was one of the more talented recruits we'd gotten. When we weren't fighting though, she tended to run a little wild. She was a favorite of the men in her troop and they let her do pretty much as she pleased. There were the normal childish pranks, gizka in a few soldier's bunks, as well as some mysteriously missing provisions. She had a talent for pazaak, and was regularly hustling the new recruits out of their credits.
"I think what I remember the most is when she was caught in the men's 'fresher."
Mira groaned and dropped her face into her palm.
Canderous smirked, "I'll take that as a confirmation that it was, in fact, you at our camp."
Mira nodded again, "Yep, that was me. Guess this goes to show you can never really escape your past. Just when you think everyone's forgotten, someone else shows up and drags it all out again."
Mical grinned, feeling a little better at last, "so what were you doing in the men's fresher, Mira?"
All eyes focused on her as her ears began to match her hair. "I was just a kid," she said, "I was curious."
"There was more to it than that, as I remember," Canderous smirked again. "Apparently some holos started showing up around the camp. They contained images of some of the men in some rather interesting situations." He raised his glass again, drinking deliberately, enjoying the dramatic pause he was creating. "They started out fairly innocent at first. A few holos of men making fools of themselves after drinking too much. An occasional nose picker or someone scratching inappropriately. These holos would turn up in the mess hall, in the commons area or other places where they would be stumbled upon. No one knew who was doing it, and it was mostly just an amusing diversion between battles."
"Then it got more explicit. A couple in a passionate embrace, men saying things about other troops that they'd not have said if they'd known there was a holo-recorder running. There was this one conversation she recorded of an officer describing a sexual exploit with one of the female troops to another officer. That was when the shit hit the fan. The officer wanted to know who was responsible. The more he carried on about it, the more he made a fool of himself, but we did start paying more attention to our surroundings.
"She was finally caught when someone heard something above him while in the 'fresher cleaning up. As I heard the story, she jumped up and started running through the rafters above the deck, but she didn't make it far before he climbed up into the ceiling in front of her and hauled her out of there."
"I was so scared he'd catch me I forgot to ditch the holo-recorder," Mira confessed with a chuckle. "They put me on weapons duty, cleaning and repairing the rifles to keep me busy and they confiscated all my recordings and my recorder. I'd only distributed a small portion of them. Just when someone made me mad, or I thought it was particularly funny or harmless. Most of them I had kept for insurance, in case I needed a good blackmail scam for any reason later on."
Canderous chuckled, "The holo-recordings she didn't release became the officer's entertainment for many weeks afterwards. She should have gotten a job with HoloNet with her unerring eye for a good story."
"So Mira," Vashti questioned, "did you ever get yourself another holo-recorder?"
A slow smile crept over Mira's face as she raised her eyes and looked at each of her companions at the table.
"Did you know," she asked slowly as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small holovid disk and projector. She thumbed the holovid on as she finished her question, "that Atton sings in the shower?"
A half sized image of Atton sprang to life over Mira's palm and sure enough, he was in the Hawk's 'fresher singing a popular Alderaanian romantic ballad. Atton's eyes fogged over with horror as he tried to grab the projector away from Mira. Vashti's weight slowed him down momentarily, and pushing her to the floor he slid across the table just in time for Mira to jump up and return the holovid to her pocket.
"Well, I think I'm going to hit the fresher! Good night!" Mira exclaimed as she scrambled across the common hall and locked herself in the women's 'fresher. Atton chased after her, and pounded on the 'fresher door. "You'll have to come out sometime Mira!" He yelled through the door, "And when you do, I'll be waiting for you!"
"Well," Canderous grinned, "I think that just ended our pazaak game, anyone know who won?"
"Mira," they all replied together laughing.
One by one they drained their glasses of juma said good night and made their way to their bunks. Vashti moved to the small sofa and pulled her legs up into her chest, smiling into her glass as Atton wandered back into the common area. He was scratching the back of his head in the cute awkward way he had when he didn't know quite what to say.
Vashti grinned at him, "So which was more embarrassing," she asked, "the part where you were naked or the part where you were singing a love song?" He chuckled with embarrassment as he sat down beside her. "The song you were singing is one of my favorites, you know." She flicked her gaze up at him.
He grinned and wrapped his arm around her waist again, pulling her up against him. She sighed contentedly and laid her head against his chest closing her eyes. They sat there like that for a moment, relishing the quiet moment. She smiled sleepily as he began to sing softly.
When Mira finally crept out of the 'fresher she found them there curled up together asleep on the sofa. She pulled her holo-recorder out of her pocket and flipped it on. This was a moment she just couldn't pass up.