Zarabelle Penthurst took her career very seriously. Just a week shy of eighteen she was one of the youngest air traffic controllers at the main commercial spaceport on Thebago, the planet she resided on. Outside of work she was sassy and sarcastic but during work hours she was a very different person.
"This is ship LPT-215 on final approach to Whitefield spaceport. Requesting further instructions." Zarabelle heard a pilot declare over her headset.
Zarabelle looked to the monitor to her left to see where on the radar this ship was and where the safest place for the ship to land would be.
"This is controller Penthurst speaking to ship LPT-215. Are you familiar with Whitefield City spaceport?" Zarabelle asked in a calm and professional voice only ever used by her whilst working.
"Affirmative." The pilot responded.
"Excellent. Runway three is clear and in the most direct path you're travelling. The wind is quite strong, blowing northerly so you will need to adjust your landing to accommodate. I would recommend landing at a slight angle to fight the wind." Zarabelle advised.
She waited a few moments for the pilot's response. Whenever she gave an opinion to a landing pilot she only ever received one of two reactions- gratitude for the tip or annoyance for the unsolicited advice. There was never anything in between.
"Thanks, love. Appreciate it." The pilot thanked her.
Zarabelle watched his aircraft on the radar make the approach to runway three. The pilot then announced his successful landing before making one last comment towards Zarabelle.
"Controller Penthurst, keep up the good work. I would have managed that landing no sweat, but that tip made it a whole lot easier."
Zarabelle went to reply but saw that he had cut off the engine and his communication systems had been shut down. She then felt a presence behind her. After removing her headset and swivelling around her chair to face behind her, she saw who it was.
She came face-to-face with her shift supervisor, Jack, who was cringing awkwardly. Jack was only a few years older than her. They got along well on business related matters but had no relationship outside of work. Zarabelle found Jack was too bland to have as a friend. She found he had no obvious interests, and lacked a personality. This even showed in the way he presented himself each day. High waisted pants with an oversized shirt and his hair always cut in an extremely unflattering short manner.
"Hello Jack. Is everything alright?" Zarabelle asked with concern on her face at her supervisor's strange presence.
He deeply breathed in as he clasped his hands together and brought them to his mouth. He was nervous.
"You're going to hate me." Jack informed Zarabelle.
Zarabelle only raised an eyebrow as a response. In a social situation she would certainly be sending a sarcastic comment Jack's way. She even thought of some in her head as a retort. However it was now work hours and she needed to remain professional.
"We need this month's sorting of the lost property to be completed." Jack began to explain.
"You know that's my most hated task to do…" Zarabelle trailed off.
"I know. But the spaceport manager wants you to do it. There's no more commercial flights coming in today, and only two mining flights from Eryup. You just landed the last scheduled intergalatic flight for the day. There's just not enough work for three air controllers today." Jack tried to reason but he was cringing as he knew there was no way Zarabelle would see eye-to-eye.
Luckily for Jack, he didn't know Zarabelle outside of their job. She wasn't going to speak her mind to Jack. Instead she'd try one last feeble attempt at getting out of a task she didn't want to do.
"Can't I just take the rest of the day off?" Zarabelle suggested before adding one last line of defence "Unpaid, of course."
"Normally I'd say yes. We do need to get the monthly wage budget down. But we really do need to get this lost property sorted for the month so we can start a clean slate for the next period." Jack sadly stated.
Zarabelle only slowly nodded. It was only one afternoon of doing something she didn't want to do. She knew there was no point throwing a tantrum or unleashing negativity towards Jack. The sooner she got to it, the sooner she would be done.
"Okay. Just one last box to sort." Zarabelle smiled to herself as she took a deep breath in.
Sorting through the lost property had taken a lot longer than she anticipated. She was now an hour past her usual finishing time and she had found herself cutting corners, condemning a few things to be thrown out instead of filling out the relevant forms to have items moved on to another department.
However when she opened the box she immediately knew this wouldn't be a thing to throw out.
"The hell is this? A droid?" Zarabelle asked as she carefully picked up the droid out of the box and inspected it carefully.
It was very little which is why it took her a few moments to realise it was actually a droid and not merely a toy or trinket. The droid had a round body with round orange designs and a straight antenna poking out the top of its head.
Zarabelle put the droid onto the table she was working off as she inspected the paper slip in the box.
Year found: 23ABY
Item: Brand New BB-8 unit droid
Owner identified: Yes - New Republic
Notes: BB-8 unit was accidentally freighted to Whitefield instead of it's intended destination. Representatives of the New Republic have been contacted to claim missing item. Have been informed the collection of the unit is not urgent and unit is to remain in lost property until a member of the New Republic claims it.
Zarabelle finished reading the lost property form. She went to put the droid back into its box to put it back into storage but the cold metal table was now bare. She blinked in confusion as she began to search the room frantically for the little droid.
She didn't have to search far. After she went down to the floor to crawl on her knees she saw the droid nervously look on from behind the table's legs.
"H-hey there little guy. Or girl. Are you a masculine or a feminine droid?" Zarabelle asked kindly after a brief stutter.
The droid let out a series of beeps in response.
"Guy huh? Okay. Well my name is Zarabelle." Zarabelle responded.
In order to look less threatening to the skittish droid, she swung her legs around to be sitting cross-legged instead. She also undid her bun to let her golden brunette hair cascade down her shoulders in ringlets to look less strict in her work outfit.
The droid let out a curious noise upon her actions.
"Yep, I can understand you. I took Droidspeak as my chosen language in school. I graduated a year early thanks to a lot of the credits earned taking that language." Zarabelle beamed upon the droid.
The little droid cautiously rolled closer to Zarabelle so that he was only an arms length away. Even though he was slightly closer to the girl, the droid remained silent. He expected Zarabelle to keep talking to ease his nerves.
"It seems like they're waiting for a member of the New Republic to come and get ya. Do you have a specific person in the New Republic you're assigned to?" Zarabelle asked the droid.
The droid kept peering on to Zarabelle. He studied her concerned face. The droid determined that Zarabelle meant him no harm and he could let his guard down a little to her.
Beep beep beeeeeeeeep bip beep beep
"Uh huh." Zarabelle responded to show she was listening.
The droid continued on his explanation to Zarabelle. He was telling her that he, alongside a few brand new droids of a few different units, were organised to be sent to the New Republic as tests. They were intended to be samples to entice the New Republic into giving their droid sales contracts to the manufacturer. Therefore the droid had yet to be assigned to somebody at the New Republic.
It also explained how the droid had been left forgotten in the box for over a year. It was a sample and not an order and had probably fallen through the cracks of bureaucracy and lay forgotten in lost property.
"I see. Well, we can't leave you here for yet another year whilst we wait for the New Republic to sort themselves out for collection of you," Zarabelle mused before clicking her fingers "Wait here! I'm going to speak to my manager and see what our options are."
The droid let out a series of beeps in a weak protest, but Zarabelle promised she'd be back shortly as she jumped out quickly and began to race through the hallways of the administration areas of the spaceport.
She skidded to a halt when she saw Jack speaking to a pretty girl outside the employee break room. It made Zarabelle roll her eyes obnoxiously because she knew who the girl was very well. Roxy Lemolia - she was a spaceship attendant for one of the commercial operators that ran operations through Whitefield Spaceport. She was known as the 'hot girl' of the spaceport. All the men went ga ga over her, and most of the girls couldn't stand her.
Zarabelle was a girl who was still friendly towards Roxy. She felt that Roxy shouldn't have ill feelings thrown her way because of how men reacted towards her. But at the same time Zarabelle did notice that Roxy revelled in the attention a little, and sometimes did use it to her advantage to get men to do her bidding. Therefore they were on a friendly basis, but did not ever speak outside work.
"Hey, Jack?" Zarabelle interjected as she waited two minutes to be acknowledged by either party.
"I'll be with you in a moment. Roxy just needed my help with an incident report that happened on a ship that just landed." Jack quickly responded, holding up a finger to indicate 'just a moment'.
Zarabelle sharply inhaled out of annoyance. She was able to read between the lines very easily. The 'help' Roxy needed was that she needed Jack to do the paperwork for her so she wouldn't have to waste time doing it herself. Normally she wouldn't get involved - if Jack was too much of a schmuck to resist the charms of Roxy's pretty smile then Zarabelle felt that was his issue.
But this was now affecting her work. The droid was also the last item she had to deal with today, and the longer she had to wait for Jack and Roxy, the longer she had to remain at work.
"Whilst I can totally understand why Roxy came to you for your expertise, I just need help on one last item and then I'm done. It'll take two minutes, tops." Zarabelle smiled between both Roxy and Jack as she laid on the charm.
Jack began rubbing his face awkwardly but Zarabelle had her attention on Roxy. Roxy was sending Zarabelle a fake smile to hide her less-than-subtle annoyance. It reminded Zarabelle on why none of the girls at work liked Roxy, but she didn't want to start dramas and decided to ignore the faux pleasantries and get her business with Jack completed as quickly as possible.
"I'll be with you in a mo, Roxy." Jack sighed as he took a few steps away. Zarabelle didn't bother watching Roxy's reaction as she was sure it wasn't a positive one.
"What is it?" Jack asked Zarabelle, finding it hard to not show his clear irritation of being interrupted flirting with Roxy.
In any other situation Zarabelle's playful nature would show. At the very least she would make comments to get under Jack's skin, something along the lines of Roxy either not being as attractive as all the men made her out to be, or something a bit more cruel where she would point out that Jack had no chance with her. Or perhaps she would play a prank on Jack, something along the lines of loudly exclaiming something embarrassing.
But she was at work, and Jack was her supervisor. Zarabelle was a professional and felt she had a bright career ahead of her in air traffic control. She needed to hide her true self and put on a different persona at work. Therefore she would say what she needed to say for work purposes and leave it at that.
"There's a droid I found. It was supposed to be sent to the New Republic but it got lost in transit and ended up here well over a year ago." Zarabelle began to explain.
"Ah yes. Well, we're not allowed to interfere with any official New Republic mail. So I would recommend that you leave it in lost property and organise another reminder notice to be sent to the New Republic for collection," Jack advised Zarabelle quickly "Now, can I go back to Roxy?"
"Wait!" Zarabelle said as she grabbed Jack by his weak chest to prevent him from departing "There have already been three reminder notices sent. They haven't made any efforts to collect the droid. Surely there's something else we can do?"
Jack was silent for a few moments deep in thought. Then he responded with his solution.
"After two reminder notices we are allowed to return unclaimed mail back to the sender. You should just re-package the droid and return it to the sender." Jack responded as he quickly dropped Zarabelle's hands from his chest and attempted to move away from her.
"But-" Zarabelle attempted to protest, however she was swiftly cut off by Jack.
"-no buts, Zarabelle. They're the only two options available. It's just a droid, who cares?" Jack sternly stated before turning his back and returning to Roxy to confirm the end of the conversation.
Zarabelle was highly annoyed but saw no value in protesting as she began the trek back to the lost property cupboard. Her mind was racing on what the most appropriate course of action would be from here.
Professionally the right thing to do was to listen to her manager's advice. If she wanted to advance in her career at Whitefield spaceport it would not be wise to go against her manager's wishes.
But the second she returned to the room and saw the hopeful little droid's face, she knew there was only one 'right' thing to do. And that was to do the opposite of what would be professional.
"So, tell me BB-8. Are BB droids known for being good schemers? Because we need to cock up a really good one." Zarabelle grinned wickedly to the small droid.
"Nearly there. Hope it's not too uncomfortable for you in there." Zarabelle whispered to the large garbage bag she was holding.
Zarabelle had come up with a great plan with the help her new droid friend. The instructions from her shift supervisor were for her to repackage the droid and return it to the sender in its original box.
She had done just that. She had returned the box to the sender complete with a tracking label and signature on delivery instructions. She was able to successfully show this on the paperwork and finish her task of sorting all the lost property. There was one thing she neglected to do, however. She left the droid out of the box and put it into the garbage bag she was now carrying.
It was the perfect disguise to conceal the droid. When she was leaving work it appeared to others she was being helpful by taking out the trash on her way out. She was easily able to sneak BB-8 out of her workplace by hiding him in the bag.
Outside of her work, she looked like a strange girl who carried belongings in a garbage bag. She was currently in the lift of her large residential apartment complex with only one other occupant - a frail looking elderly lady who was shooting Zarabelle both looks of disgust and slight humour. The lady wasn't impressed that the younger girl was talking to a bag of rubbish.
This wasn't lost on Zarabelle who smirked as a plan was formed in her head. She had remained calm, professional and polite throughout her stressful work day. It was now time to let her true, playful self shine through. She would have fun with this judgmental woman.
"I can show you what's in here, if you want. It's fairly gruesome, though." Zarabelle said to the other occupant in the lift, sounding nonchalant as she spoke.
"Oh, no thank you. I don't need to know." The woman responded in an attempt to sound polite, however Zarabelle could see a hint of fear in her body language.
At this moment BB-8 let out a series of curious, happy beeps. His cameras were unable to see past the thick plastic of the bag. Therefore the droid was unaware of the full extent of Zarabelle's prank on the unsuspecting elderly lady.
Zarabelle knew she had to think quick to re-adjust her gameplay. She had to make an excuse to purport that the cute little beeps were not actually cute little beeps. She opened the bag and pretended to peer in, sending the droid a wink before she closed the bag hastily to stop the droid from poking its head out to have a peek.
"I honestly have no idea why it made that noise. Who thought something that is no longer moving could make such an odd noise." Zarabelle said to the elderly woman, feigning a very over the top surprised looking face.
The elderly woman attempted to smile but it only came out as a grimace in her intimidation. Zarabelle watched as the woman quickly hit the button for floor thirty five (conveniently the next floor the lift was due to hit) and scamper out. Considering the woman pressed floor seventy two to begin with, it was clear the poor woman was so frightened of Zarabelle's mystery bag she had departed the lift early.
The stop and start of the lift had piqued BB-8's interest as he forced his head out of the garbage bag to look around.
"Oh I suppose you can come out now, no one from work would see us." Zarabelle stated to the little droid as she put the bag on the floor and the droid whizzed out happily.
Nothing more was said between the two as moments later the lift dinged on floor forty eight - their destination. Zarabelle exited the lift and BB-8 loyally followed behind her.
The apartment complex was like most buildings in Whitefield. It was very neat and tidy, and had been built to tower into the sky. But like the other buildings in the surroundings it lacked any cultural significance or influence. It was a large skyscraper designed to house a large number of people - it looked like all the other plain architecture dotted around Whitefield. It served its purpose to accommodate some of the population, it clearly wasn't there for any decoration.
Zarabelle walked through the hallways until she arrived at her front door. She dug through her pants pocket, sticking her tongue out of her mouth in concentration which made BB-8 beep in happy amusement. After a bit of fishing around the lint and empty gum wrappers in her pocket she managed to locate her keycard and quickly swiped it to allow the door to slide open.
"Welcome to my humble abode, BB-8. I don't ever bring men home, so you should feel privileged." Zarabelle joked loudly as she pressed a button to close the shutter door behind her.
BB-8 beeped a polite 'thank you' as he was taking her statement seriously. She didn't have time to inform the droid she was merely joking as the droid wandered through the apartment curiously.
Like the common areas of the apartment complex, Zarabelle's apartment was kept fairly plain. The carpet was dark which contrasted against the white walls. However the inside of her apartment was the opposite of the immaculate facade outside.
Zarabelle was a normal teenager and thus she kept her room a little messy. The apartment was tiny and contained just one room. A small and cluttered kitchen was next to the front door, with a small shower and sink tucked away through a sliding door. The room contained a bed hard up against the far wall, which had made room for a small tent in front of a modest television. The tent was placed where a couch would normally sit (as Zarabelle always bragged to others 'a tent is much more fun than a couch') and added to the apartment looking a little chaotic amongst the unmade bed and clothes strewn on the floor.
Do you live with anyone else? BB-8 beeped to Zarabelle.
"Nope. It'd be a bit cramped with someone else living here, aye." Zarabelle responded with an amused smirk.
BB-8 did not respond but kept peering up at the girl, so she decided to elaborate.
"I finished school last year, and moved out of my mum's joint the second I could. I can't stand the woman. Therefore it's quite small as it is all I could afford on my own, but it's fine for just me." Zarabelle explained.
Is there enough room for me? BB-8 nervously beeped.
Zarabelle smiled wildly at the droid's question. She thought it was utterly adorable coming from such a small, sweet thing. She couldn't help herself as she quickly sat on the floor to come face-to-face with him.
"Of course there is! That's why we schemed for you to escape the spaceport with me, rather than go back to the factory. You can stay here for as long as it takes to find you a worthy new companion from the New Republic." Zarabelle beamed.
The droid began to whizz around excitedly around his new home. He couldn't believe his luck. This morning he had powered up inside a box he had been stuck in for over a year, and tonight he was now inside a warm apartment with a nice girl whom had won over his trust. BB-8 was now excited for what the future would bring him.