Chapter Three: Jungle Landing
TW: Burn Injury
The first two weeks of your employment were… rough. No one told you how bone-chillingly quiet hyperspace was. Well… they did but when they told you they vastly undersold it. The hums of the engines, and the gentle beeps and clicks from various system checks, was all that separated you from insanity for your first 24 hours of travel. Which had been long enough for you to figure out the issue with the ship's calibration system. Its problem ended up being a combination of loose wires, a minor virus, and an out-of-date star map. It took you about an hour to get it in a decent position. After that, it was getting to work on the rest of the ship's issues. There had been a couple of things you ignored or simply didn't notice while the ship was in the shop. Mostly because when you first worked on her the only objective was to make the thing safe enough to fly. But you were now working as the ship's engineer and co-pilot, so it became a different story. The YT was a pre-empire classic and beauty. The lack of care that you saw when you did your second, more in-depth, walk-through filled you with frustration before flipping on itself and turning into that same childlike glee you got when you first saw the YT. So you wrote down all the various ways that you could improve the ship over your stay and started your work with excitement.
That not only kept you busy but provided you some distance from your mysterious and nameless employer. The Mandalorian didn't address you or the fixed system after his rest, or really at all during those first few weeks. Which you weren't thrilled about but were okay with.
Mando wasn't paying you to give you praise or to chit-chat, he was paying you to keep his ship from exploding unexpectedly. If that was all he wanted in terms of a relationship with you, then you would respect that. Even though "nice work" would have been appreciated.
It was easy to move around him though. He worked like clockwork and after your third day, you had pinpointed his schedule. While he piloted, you worked on replacing faulty wiring, while he did weapons maintenance, you took inventory, and when he rested you sat in the pilot's seat either double-checking your course or watching pinpoints of stars streak across the windshield as you moved faster than the speed of light.
The man was so reserved, so quiet, he often felt like another part of the ship. Blended into the gentle wurrs and hums of the engines, boots stepping in time with the beeps of the automatic system checks. You had resorted to playing music to fill the silences as you worked. An earphone in one ear and a sonic screwdriver in your hand accompanied you always and became your life raft when you would forget how your voice sounded.
When he called out your name on the overhead speaker after six days without speaking to each other, it scared you so bad that you jumped and burnt your thumb on the welding rod you had been working with.
"We're exiting hyperspace in five minutes. I need you upfront." he spoke, his modulated voice echoing throughout the ship. You cursed and brought the injured finger to your mouth before hightailing it to the cockpit, taking the earphone out once you managed to get up to your employer.
"Here." you said to him as you sat down in the adjacent seat. He nodded and you began co-piloting as the two of you began your descent in speed.
"…What happened to your hand?" Mando asked, surprising you that he noticed. You looked down at your thumb quickly before shrugging it off.
"I burnt it while welding a panel back onto the wall." you explained while you focused on raising the shields, already starting to forget the stinging pain in your left thumb.
That was until you felt a glove touch your wrist and turn your palm out. The action made you tense up and look back at the Mandalorian with wide eyes.
"You should wrap that…" he muttered, visor fixated on your thumb. You looked back down at your hand and actually took a look at your burnt appendage. It was a bit gruesome, the thumb was red and a nasty open wound seared the half of your finger that pointed towards you.
"Shit…" you cursed as you took your hand back and looked at it closer. The pain slowly started to radiate throughout your hand, beating in tune with your heart. Mando returned his attention back to piloting, the ship having safely exited hyperspace.
"There's a first aid kit in the common area. You can patch up while I land." he said, without thinking you went to go take Mando's advice but once you stood up it hit you that you hadn't told him the results of your inventory checks.
"There's not much there." you told him with a grimace, holding your hand above your heart as the pain turned hot. The Mandalorian looked at you as you sat back down.
"I've been doing daily inventory checks and we're extremely low on a lot of necessities and staples.", you tried to ignore the deep pain in your hand as well as the Mandalorians' gaze as you began to assist in the landing.
"It wasn't too bad when we were passing the Belderone Sector but it's quickly dwindled in the past week. I wanted to see if we could restock when we landed.", Mando's helmet turned back to the ever-approaching dark green planet.
"We'll be landing near a city soon, you can restock there.", you nodded your head recognizing the end of the conversation.
Now there were many things at that moment that should have been on your mind. What the resupply budget was, what the credit conversion on the planet would be, or more pressingly the open wound on your hand. However, your mind lingered back to the Mandalorian's sudden grip on your wrist. It was just so he could see your burn, to bring attention to the not so minor injury, but the memory of it prompted a question. When was the last time you'd been touched? You thought about Peli's heartfelt goodbye hug, nearly two and a half weeks prior, and then nothing came to mind.
You and Mando had gone out of each other's way to not take up the other's space. Sleeping and working when the other wasn't, occupying different rooms when the both of you were awake, there hadn't even been an opportunity to accidentally bump into each other. Through the pain, you remembered the ghost of his touch and a slight shiver went up your spine, but before you could analyze it you felt the YT enter the atmosphere of Felucia and your attention was once again on piloting.
After landing you quickly washed your hand and patched your thumb with the remaining bandages in the ship's first aid kit. You decided against using a bacta patch. There had only been two left and while your hand would hurt for a couple of days because of it, it felt like the more logical approach. By the time you were done, you could hear the boarding ramp being lowered, with the Mandalorian patiently waiting for you at its entrance. Grabbing your datapad and a satchel to hold it in you walked over to meet him.
The natural sunlight shining in from the outside stung your eyes, and the reflective armor of your employer did nothing to alleviate your sudden irritation. Blinking and rubbing your eyes as you adjusted to the light you walked next to your companion, the two of you stepping into the hot and humid air of Felucia.
"Maker, you are shiny." you muttered once your eyes were adjusted and you were finally able to see the lush jungle forestation around you. The Mandalorian beside you tilted his helmet in your direction and for a moment you imagined an eyebrow raised, before a swirling feeling of embarrassment lifted in your chest and you looked away from his visor.
"Sorry, that was uncalled for." you apologized, feeling small under his gaze before producing your datapad.
"I uh…" you struggled to turn it on, the lack of use from your thumb making it take a couple of seconds longer than usual, before pulling up your inventory checklist.
"I've written down everything we need and the quantities. It shouldn't be incredibly expensive as long as we're smart with our spending." you told him ready to show him the necessities you would be spending the credits on, but once you looked up from the device Mando had already produced a small pouch from somewhere on his body. You remember him taking out three or four coins before handing you the entire pouch.
"Oh, thanks.", you didn't even have to look inside. The weight in your hands would have been enough to buy what you needed twice over.
"I can walk with you to the city, but once we get there we'll have to go our separate ways." he told you before you could even say something about the ridiculous amount of credits he had handed you. You just shook your head and pocketed the money, you would give back what you didn't spend later.
"Yeah I figured as much." you said with a sigh, closing the inventory list and placing the device in your satchel.
"How long do you think you'll be gone?" you asked as the two of you began your walk, the hatch closing behind you with a press of a button on Mando's gauntlet.
"Few days. Can't say for certain.", you nodded your head at the response while stepping over vegetation and fallen branches, Mando leading the way. Pushing through the forest you fully took in the Felucian scenery. The last planet you stopped on Mando was lucky and found the bail jumper within the day. By the time you had finished your work in the engine room he was back shoving the quarry into the carbon freezer, and you were setting in the coordinates to the next planet. This had been truly the first time you had stepped on foreign soil. In your awe at the sprawling blue flowers that covered the dirt and mushrooms taller than any building you had ever seen, you'd almost forgotten to respond to the Mandalorian guiding you through the jungle.
"Gotcha, a few days makes sense. It'll probably be a bit difficult to find a drug smuggler here." you said, pointing your eyes down to watch your footing. The Mandalorian in front of you stopped and when you raised your head he was looking at you.
"How'd you know it was a drug smuggler?" he asked, you shrugged your shoulders and continued walking.
"I did some research about Felucia after you gave me the coordinates." you explained.
"Felucia exports a lot of raw Nysillin but has been branching out with other herbs and medicinal plants. A few years ago a variant of the Nysillin flower, the Caisidorpha flower, was discovered by botanists exploring the area and its extracts became popular in recreational use. It was briefly used and studied by the NCC but due to the side effects of the variant, it's been outlawed by the New Republic.", you turned back to him once you realized you had started walking but didn't know where you were going, having gotten lost in your infodump about the planet.
"After that, I just put it together in my head that you were going after a smuggler. Was I right?", Mando was hard to read, the beskar armor having been designed that way, but the way his head tilted to the side you thought that he may have been impressed.
"You got all that from your datapad?" he commented as he pushed past you and continued forward. You gladly stepped behind him, grateful to have someone who knew where they were going.
"Yup. Would you believe that thing taught me how to read?" you told him, only half-joking as you ducked under a leaf that was half your size.
The hike continued in silence for another five minutes, and during that time you had begun to build up a sweat. You had thought you'd known heat back then, but the dry and coarse heat of your home planet couldn't have prepared you for Felucia. The heat on Felucia was thick and wet, it stuck to your skin and felt heavy in your lungs. It had an organic taste to it that lingered on your tongue but would quickly become forgotten if you didn't bring attention to it. On Tatooine heat was an enemy, something actively trying to take your life away at every turn. On Felucia, heat was life.
Rounding another incredibly large oblong mushroom tree the Mandalorian suddenly stopped and looked back at you before motioning with his head towards something you couldn't quite see past him.
"We're here.", you stepped around him and saw a valley nestled between two mountains. The buildings were all dome-like and made of metal, nysillian gardens as far as the eye could see. It seemed that every residential home had a plot of land dedicated to growing the flower. There were no marketplaces or trade centers that you could immediately see, but instead four large buildings off in the distance similarly structured to the residential homes. It wasn't much of a city, but it was a place you could restock.
"So are we splitting up here?" you asked, turning to look at the Mandalorian who only gave you a head nod in return. In response, you pulled back out your datapad and began searching for the communications function.
"Okay, this place seems fairly peaceful so I don't think I'll have any problems here but in case shit hits the fan and you wanna tell me something, here's my communication code.", the two of you quickly exchanged contacts and started to head off before a thought came to mind and you stopped him.
"Also-" you interjected before he left.
"While I'm here I could do some more research about the Caisidorpha flower or see if anyone in the village has seen anything suspicious." you told him, almost immediately regretting saying it. He was a bounty hunting Mandalorian for maker's sake, that was probably what he was going to do anyway. As you contemplated deleting his com-code from your datapad he nodded his helmet at you.
"That would be incredibly helpful, thank you." he responded. Before you could wonder if what he said was genuine or not, he tapped something into his gauntlet and the jetpack on his back lit in flames before sending him up into the sky and leaving you alone at the entrance to the valley.
"See ya." you sighed as you watched him vanish. You looked forward towards the village, data-pad in hand, and walked down.
