Before you continue reading I'm establishing something really quick. This is still in the context of early season one. No lightsaber for Ezra, no Ahsoka, no Rex, and no knowledge that they are part of the larger Rebellion. I started this before all that happened, and once this chapter arc is over I'll fast forward to that point so we can get up to speed.
Chapter 8
Planet Zeltros, Blue Palm Hotel and Resort
"Alright, time to get going, we've got our first day of work gang," Hera called out from the hallway that divided the second floor's living quarters'.
"Is it really time already?" Ezra yawned, walking out of his own room.
"Yes Ezra it's time. You've got an hour before your shift starts so get ready, your uniform is in your closet," Hera said with the tact of a mother.
She had already gotten ready, and Kanan was just getting out of the shower of the first of the two bathrooms the house had on the premises. It was a nice place, with six bedrooms and three of them sharing a bathroom each and a kitchen and common area at the entrance which opened up onto a slim strand of white sand beach with palm trees and expertly manicured greenery for the other employee housing buildings next door to them. The vast majority of the employees didn't live in the employee housing sections of the resort, as they had their own homes on some adjacent island towns or the city itself. So the crew of the Ghost didn't actually have many neighbors to speak of. There were a few Zeltrons who resided in a few other buildings but they pretty much minded their own business, sticking to their jobs and then relaxing or partying whenever they weren't working. So it was all the better, privacy was always a good thing for those wanted by the Empire.
"Morning Hera," Zeb called out from his room as he walked out in an all-black uniform made up of pants and shirt with the shirt having the Blue Palm logo on it.
"Already up Zeb?" Kanan asked as he walked into the hallway.
"Yep," the Lassat grinned enthusiastically, "Ready to get to work. Being a security guard is just my speed."
"Just don't hurt anyone alright?" Kanan chuckled as Zeb walked down the stairs into the kitchen.
"I know, I know, gotta avoid the attention."
"Sabine, you up?" Hera called out now as Ezra walked into the bathroom to clean up before getting his own uniform on.
"Hera are you serious? Do I have to wear this?" Sabine whined from her closed door.
"Yes you do Sabine, come on your shift starts before any of us."
"Is there some other job I can do? Please?"
"Kanan go ahead and go downstairs," Hera said calmly, "I'll get Sabine ready."
"Good luck, beach-side waitress isn't something that she'll exactly enjoy."
"I know love, but the pay's better and she won't argue with some generous tips. But Sabine's never been the type of girl to strut around in a swim suit."
"I don't even know if she can swim," Kanan noted at the mention of swimming, "I know Ezra can't."
"Of course I can swim," Sabine said out loud from her room, having been listening to Hera and Kanan the whole time and then walked out wearing her uniform, although she had tried hiding her top with a light blue t-shirt with the hotel logo on it, "I was a swim instructor at a summer camp once."
She had that shirt on until she had to take it off once she got to work, but thankfully for Sabine her uniform wasn't nearly as revealing as she'd feared. Her blue top was a bikini top, but she was thankful that it wasn't the least bit skimpy, and her somewhat see-through tropical dress was much better than just her modest bikini bottom. Although it still gave everyone a look at where her body curved and that Sabine was quite a lean athlete.
Sabine had only had one part-time job before joining the Imperial Academy on Mandalore and that was as a cashier, so she knew how to handle money and deal with customers. However, the customers she was used to were the orderly and respectful Mandalorians, not rowdy and drunk tourists in an outfit designed to draw attention. This was not what she exactly had in mind when it came to her temporary job at a resort she'd always wanted to go to.
"Not bad Sabine," Hera said politely.
"All I'll say is that the tips had better be worth it," Sabine grumbled under her breath as she walked past them to get some breakfast.
"You'll keep whatever tips you earn," Hera responded, "And we'll all have to pitch in from our wages to build up a financial reserve for upkeep and maintaining the Ghost."
"Well," Sabine said, hearing that her tips were hers to keep, "That shouldn't be too hard. Waitresses get pretty good tips, or so I've heard," she noted with a bit more pleasantness in her tone.
"And the Ghost just sitting in the hangar will allow us to get quite a few credits lining our pockets."
"It's always nice to have some rainy day money," Kanan agreed.
The three of them made their way downstairs, where Chopper was charging, his sleep mode not having yet awoken. But Hera changed that with a flip of the switch. Chopper grumbled lowly as he powered up, and popped his metal "arms" out of his rotating head and let them hang down loosely as he rolled forward, leaning forward with a low groan.
"Come on Chop, we've got work to do today," Hera said with a bit of spring in her voice.
Her declaration only got a low tired grumble in response and then the droid sort of threw a low energy fit and just let himself fall flat on his face in an overly dramatic display. The three crew just shook their heads or grinned as Kanan went and picked Chopper up off of the floor.
"I know it's early but you and Ezra are scheduled to start today on window washing. It should be pretty easy, the machine is mostly automated so you'll just be piloting it and hitting a few buttons for eight hours."
"Eight hours with Chopper?" Sabine asked as she poured a drink for herself and grabbed some toast, "Hera are you sure that's the best idea?"
"As long as Chopper and Ezra behave and remember this is our only option," Hera responded testily, aiming her tone at Chopper, "We should be fine."
Chopper lifted his arms and his voice started chattering away.
"Oh I know Ezra's only half the problem Chop. It takes two forces to cause friction."
Chopper grumbled back something and Kanan was the one to respond this time.
"No Chopper you're sticking with the job you've got."
Chopper groaned, his arms going limp, hanging down from the sides of his rotating head. At the same time Ezra started walking down the stairs, going over the single colored uniform he was wearing. It was simple, being a baby blue uniform made up of a pair of pants with tool pockets and loops for any sort of handy man type of work needed. The shirt was short sleeved with similar but smaller pockets on the arms with the Blue Palm logo on the opposite side of the one with his fake name on his left upper chest. He even had a brand new pair of black boots and some sunglasses for hot sunny conditions he and Chopper were going to be working in.
"Morning everyone," Ezra said confidently, jumping down to the floor and spread his arms in pride, "How do I look?"
"Like the hired help," Sabine chuckled right before she took a drink of her beverage.
"Isn't that what we are?" Ezra grinned, examining Sabine's own uniform.
"Hey, eyes up kid," Sabine grumbled through a mouthful of toast.
"You look like you're gonna get pretty hot up there," Hera said, straightening out Ezra's uniform, making certain everything was in its right spot, "You read over those user manuals to the window washer unit didn't you?"
"Yes mom," Ezra replied with a roll of his eyes.
"Well at the moment that's what I feel like I am," Hera replied.
"So does that make Kanan the dad?" Sabine grinned, slyly looking over at Kanan who about dropped the cup of caf he was pouring for himself.
"Wha-how do you figure that?" Kanan stuttered as Hera uncomfortably coughed.
"Just…taking notice of a few things," Sabine calmly noted as she placed her cup into the sink, "I might not have much of a love life but I…"
"You're gonna be late Sabine," Hera interrupted the young Mandalorian quickly and ushered her out.
"Oh no bagged lunch mom?" Sabine laughed, holding it in as best she could.
"March," Kanan ordered.
"Yes, dad."
At that moment Chopper began humming a tune that the entire crew recognized. If it had its lyrics to it, it would have gone something like: "Kanan and Hera sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."
Blue Palm Hotel and Resort, Window Washer Platform
If Ezra's platform hadn't had a small little command cupola or he'd be dying. The temperature was a balmy one hundred and five and clear blue skies and he'd been up here for several hours already and he was tired. He'd had a full hour's worth of training on the large platform device from the lead maintenance supervisor and then he was off.
He'd just had to hit the button to start and another one to move the platform from window to window. Chopper would go out and do a system's check and make sure everything was alright mechanically from time to time, spending the rest of the hours sleeping or annoying Ezra. Because he would have to go out onto the yellow repulsorlift platform's large and very hot deck to dry off or check for dirty spots that the platform's large water and soap nozzles had missed. Thankfully, it didn't miss much, then again, the machine normally didn't need a sentient operator. For that, Ezra had the hotel's owner to thank, seeing as he was actually sympathetic to their cause.
"How much longer do you think we'll be up here Chopper?" Ezra asked as he looked out towards the clean turquoise blue sea from his current height at over a hundred floors up.
Chopper grumbled something at him as he tinkered around at his connection with the machine's main computer in the back of the closet sized, and air conditioned, command cupola.
"Four more hours…" Ezra sighed, "And we've done what? Three hundred windows?"
Chopper responded with a chirp and then a laugh at Ezra.
"Yeah, only another few thousand to go."
Their platform was currently hovering its way around in a circle. On this side of the building Ezra caught sight of something that got his attention. A small island way off in the distance with identical sandy beaches and palm forests was as clear a beacon as any of the Empire's presence here. A large communications dish sat above a sheer cliff on the left side of the island, overlooking a small group of gray boxy buildings with a tall landing pad with a shuttle on it sitting above the forest of palms.
"Hey Chop, hand me that scanner, will ya?" Ezra said, swiveling in his chair to face the island. But he only got a frustrated grumble from Chopper in response, "Fine, I'll get it myself."
Ezra got up from his chair as the water jets on their metal caged framework began jetting out soapy water on the slightly curved window they stopped at. He snatched the cheap binoculars from a small shelf where he also had his commlink and his lunch and a water bottle in the onboard refrigerator. He then walked out of the cupola into the heat of the day.
The platform was a fifteen meters long and ten meters wide rectangle with several large cylinder-like tanks of water and soap on the right hand side of the yellow painted platform. The control cupola was situated in the front of the craft on the right hand side. It was higher than the main deck, with a thin catwalk built over the tanks, pumps, power cells, and repulsorlift engines. In the middle of the main deck was a manual control panel for the water jets and drying fans in case one spot needed another more thorough cleaning. Hanging above all of this was a framework of metal rails and hanging hoses that didn't give them very much shade at all. But being up here was easy work, and no one saw him and he could look out and do some beach watching. Or, as the case was now, he could spy on the Imperials.
He looked out over the water, and got a real good look at "Imperial Island" as it was known around here. He saw three watchtowers along the beach with one or two Stormtroopers in them, nonchalantly leaning against the walls as they conversed with one another. He saw a group of Imperial technicians were busy working on their shuttle with little hurry or worry in their body language. He could also see a single Stormtrooper up on the roof of the large communications building, walking slowly along the railing on top of the large structure. He couldn't see into the base itself but it seemed pretty quiet, not much moving around.
"Hmm…" he mused, not quite knowing what to make of this. The Imperials he'd been used to were usually always on the alert, never relaxing whenever they were out and about. But here in the Mid-Rim these Imperials were quite chilled out.
But his thoughts were interrupted by a jet of water slamming into him from above. He was shocked at the cold of it and immediately stumbled around as the water followed him until he slipped and fell onto the deck and the water ceased its assault. He then gasped and then looked over at the cupola and saw Chopper laughing at him, bouncing up and down at his well-timed prank before he slammed the door shut and locked it behind him.
"Chopper!"
Hope the wait was worth it gang, I've been trying to get back to this one but I've been having some trouble with getting this one going. But I just sat down last night and cranked out this whole thing aside from the last scene there. I hope you guys liked it, this is uncharted territory for me but I think I had a pretty good first try at this so we'll keep this thread up.
I also just had an idea. I'll be taking idea suggestions for some kind of little mini-plots for this little stay on Zeltros for the crew. Nothing big or dangerous, just fun. I would prefer it if you were logged in when you suggest those ideas so I can contact you with my thoughts on it and work them out if I like them but be warned I might not be able to actually use some ideas.
Next Chapter Preview: Hera takes the helm as a tour guide, and Zeb…well Zeb's got issues with entitled pretty boys.