Chapter 2: The Hangar:

All the way to the hangars he kept his hopes up, but arriving there Bao-Dur realized that his fears had come true. She went straight for the very hangar that kept the dreaded Basilisk war droid. Nabriah walked right up to the Basilisk caressing its hull with one hand and eyeing it lovingly. "They are so beautiful," she whispered. "And their capacity in battle is fearsome, devastating..." He watched her as she walked around it, touching it and admiring it almost as if she was in love with the craft. As he watched he felt a sting of jealousy. This was really stupid, how could you be jealous of a spacecraft? Was it the way she caressed the hull or the way she looked at it; do I in fact want her to look upon me that way? He swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to sound normal.

"I've done all the repairs on her..."

"I know," she answered softly "I was watching you."

But he'd been all alone except for the remote; the other techs weren't skilled enough to deal with a basilisk or didn't want to touch it with a ten foot Echani staff due to its Mandalorian origin. Suddenly it dawned on him... she'd been using stealth of course...

"Yes," she said, almost as if she'd been reading his mind."I was there, invisible to you, watching and enjoying seeing your skilled hands at work. Mending this broken beauty, restoring her and even upgrading her."

"Why did you do this?" he asked with mixed feelings.

"I wanted to know who you were and if I could trust you." Still, she was absorbed by the basilisk.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" He couldn't stand it any longer, he was mad at her for paying more attention to that craft when he had all these strange feelings messing around with him. He felt like he would explode. She turned around when she heard the anger in his voice, looking surprised at him.

"Sorry, I got carried away... that was very rude of me, I apologize," she bowed slightly before him. "Didn't mean any disrespect." Now she really looked unhappy about it.

"Why were you spying on me?" It came out a lot harsher than he meant it and he regretted the choice of words the very minute he spoke them.

Nabriah looked him straight in the eyes

"As I said I wanted to know who you were and if I could trust you on a mission like the one we're going to set out upon."

"You could have skipped the stealth...and just tried to talk to me…"

Her face turned into a stiff mask and her eyes seemed to gaze into some distant place. "It's not easy to be a female among men you know; most men either reject the thought of females contributing to the war effort and some just can't keep their equipment in place... Others put on a show and… well there's a lot of reasons why I did what I did. I wanted to see how you were as a person unaffected by my female presence, now I know it wouldn't have mattered at all, but then I didn't want to risk it."

I'm not affected by her female presence? Am I that good at hiding my true emotions? She certainly seemed unaware at least. "I'm sorry..." he said."I've never thought about how it is to be on the receiving end of men's behaviour."

The smile returned to her face and the defensive stance she had taken during the conversation was replaced by a much more relaxed one. She drew her breath. "Ok. Can we consider this subject as finished then?" Expectantly she looked at him from under her bangs.

"Yes... let's get to the task at hand." He turned his attention to the Basilisk. "Do you know how to fly one of these?"

"Yes, I've flown this one actually. I'm the one responsible for the condition she was in before you put her back together." The way she said it was both challenging and teasing, as if Nabriah wanted to test what his reaction to this would be. Bao-Dur looked back at her, shaking his head with a smirk on his face.

"You really need to practice some landing techniques then." He had to take a quick jump backwards to avoid the punch she threw at him. "Whoa! Bit edgy are we?" he panted "I was only kidding!" Looking at her he realized she'd been doing the same, only a bit more physical.

"Well, actually the landing part didn't go too well last time, but that might have been due to all the Zabrak crafts trying to blow me to pieces while doing it," she responded with a wide grin. "So you'll have to blame your own guys for all the hours you had to spend on this beauty. I was only trying to deliver the information I had received and the only way off the Mandalorian ship was to nick one of their war droids," Nabriah sighed. "But it sure didn't feel good to see how messed up she was... Though you can't see it now after you've been at her." The look she gave him struck him right in his heart, it was full of admiration and true appreciation; although he knew it was his tech skills and not him these feelings were directed to, it still made him glow inside.

The remote had been pretty silent but now it started chirping and whirring like a maniac. Bao-Dur laid his eyes on it "What's the matter?"

"Beep beep bop!"

"Oh, I completely forgot that, good that you reminded me of it!" Nabriah looked puzzled from the remote to Bao-Dur and back again.

"What are you talking about?"

Bao-Dur turned to her. "He reminded me that there were some computer problems we didn't get around to finishing last time we worked on her. And I've barely had time to sleep lately, so I haven't gotten around doing it and then I completely forgot about it."

The guilty look on his face was more than Nabriah could take. "Perhaps I can be of some help; I'm not too bad with computers you know." The alluring smile and her glittering eyes told him that she probably was way better than she wanted to admit.

"Ok, let's go inside and see what we can do about it then."

They boarded the Basilisk. The cockpit, being designed for a crew of two, was pretty cramped and sitting there forced Bao-Dur and Nabriah to be very close physically. It was impossible to move without touching one another and even the remote felt huge in these surroundings. Nabriah suddenly regretted she'd offered to help him. This was going to be tough, being so close to him, perhaps or even touching him... Bao-Dur wasn't aware of the fact that he had the very same effect on Nabriah as she had on him. There was some kind of electricity between them, but both were unsure of the other and tried to hide behind their respective assignments. Bao-Dur activated the navicomputer; while looking at the lines that popped up on the screen he added: "The navi comp seems to suffer from some kind of malfunction during start up, so we'll have to go through all the software and see if the problem lies there, ok?" He glanced at her from the side. Nabriah leaned over to see the error message that appeared on screen; this brought her to almost end up in Bao-Dur's lap, causing them both to stop breathing for a very short moment. Trying to repress her body's reaction and wondering if she'd just imagined that he'd reacted the same way, she stared hard at the screen. Bao-Dur felt as if he'd forgotten all about computers when she leaned over him like that... he could hardly breathe when she was so close. Somehow he managed to pull himself together and focus on the screen.

Nabriah scrutinized the lines and burst out: "Oh! I think I know what the problem is,"she blushed looking Bao-Dur straight in his eyes. "Uh... I... sliced it... when I borrowed it... and... Well... it might... be the programme I used that is causing this malfunction..." Her voice faded with every word, so when she came to the finish Bao-Dur could hardly hear what she was saying. He raised en eyebrow while watching her squirm under his look.

"And..?" he asked, "is there a way of reversing or removing that?"

Nabriah leaned back in her seat, and dried some sweat off her forehead. "Yes, I've got the programme in my quarters; I'll go get it immediately." She started to get up but didn't think of the remote, she rose so quickly that she bumped into him and fell over Bao-Dur in the process. "Ouch!" she yelled out in pain while trying to get out of his lap, which wasn't so easy considering the limited space in the cockpit. So she ended up pawing all over Bao-Dur trying to get up, blushing heavily during the whole mess. Bao-Dur tried to be helpful and gave her a hand but they were entangled in each other and the equipment of the craft. So all efforts on both sides just forced them into more physical contact, until he finally managed to get a decent grip around her waist and could haul her back into her seat. Bao-Dur took a deep breath and looked at her out of the corner of his eye afraid of his own reaction: his pulse was beating fast, blood flowing into places where it shouldn't be...

Nabriah didn't dare to look him in the eyes, equally scared and upset. Silence fell; this time is wasn't a calm reassuring one, but an electrical charge just waiting to go off...

Neither of them dared speak a word. Silently Nabriah climbed out, Bao-Dur watching her every move, while the remote was beeping crossly about Bao-Dur neglecting that it also had gotten a blow in the process. He sighed as she left the Basilisk, wondering how this whole mission would work if he kept losing control over his emotions all the time? He had to restrain himself from showing the growing attraction he felt for her, he waited for his body to calm down before he too got out of the craft. He certainly didn't need her to notice what the close encounter of theirs had resulted in...

The hangar was empty; Nabriah had probably rushed off to get that programme of hers so they could fix the navi computer. That was just as well, now he got some time to collect himself and focus on the remaining repairs. He glanced at the remote: "Did that hit mess something up?"

"Beep! Biip!"

He laughed "Ok, no harm done then?" It was only mad at him for paying more attention to Nabriah than itself. "Didn't know you were the jealous kind of droid, uh?" he added. "Might as well have a look at you anyway while we're waiting around for Nabriah to return." Bao-Dur went to the workbench and the remote followed him willingly. "I'll just shut you down while I work on you, ok?"

"Beep!" He focused completely on the remote, the work absorbed him, the sense of time was lost to him while working and he felt at peace with himself as always. The troubles, the war all those things ceased to exist in his consciousness for as long as he was working.

"I'm back…" The soft voice startled him; he'd completely forgotten Nabriah. Bao-Dur raised his head and saw her standing there waving a holo disc at him.

"Found it so now we can complete repairing the computer programme." She watched him carefully "You want to do it yourself or..." the words were left hanging in the air as if she didn't know how to continue.

Bao-Dur suspected she was embarrassed over what had happened earlier in the cockpit. Perhaps she fears the close physical contact the environment forces upon us? Well, I can understand her; she probably finds a Zabrak pretty unattractive, being human...

"Since you know the programme and I don't, I'd really need your help. No use if I make things worse, uh?" He gave her an inquiring look. She nodded in reply.

"Ok." was all she said and started to board the Basilisk again, hoping she'd be able to keep out of too much close contact with Bao-Dur while working.

Soon they sat in the cockpit hunched over the screen, the holodisc uploaded and Nabriah directing Bao-Dur which parts of it to run in order to restore the navi computer. This time both kept a physical and mental distance, well aware of each other's presence and the effect it had had on them. Neither of them realizing that the other had felt the same way...

It didn't take long to finish and when the screen announced that the navi computer was ready, Bao-Dur's face lit up with a broad grin as he turned to Nabriah. "Childs play!" he exclaimed with his soft kind of voice. Nabriah couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Mission accomplished," she returned.

"What now then?" he asked while getting off the Basilisk. Nabriah was stretching out her arms and legs, which had become numb from the cockpit session.

"How about some physical training? Or perhaps you need to get some sleep?" She gave him a searching look, as if to check his condition. Bao-Dur shook his head

"Nah, I'll manage." She won't be that tough to take out in combat, he thought to himself. She is a lot smaller than I and not as muscled as I am. I'll win on sheer strength, he smiled to himself.

"What's that smile on your face about?"

"Oh, nothing particular, just something that came to mind," he answered still smiling, quite enjoying the future prospect of physical contact with Nabriah under legal forms. And defeating her wouldn't hurt either; somehow that manly need to prove him as the stronger of the two wormed its way into his mind. He just hoped he wouldn't hurt her, so he'd probably hold back just to make sure of that.

Nabriah was amused watching Bao-Dur's smiling face; Oh I'm almost certain I know what he is thinking... I've seen it before, my small size and the fact I'm a female always makes them think they'll defeat me. They trusted only too much in their own strength and by the look of Bao-Dur, Zabrak males weren't that different from human males... "Well, to the mat then."