Chapter 8
Fix
It had been twenty minutes since Tanner let the padawan loose in his ship. He sat next to the door to the engine room, waiting. There were droids down there with her, but there was no noise. She had said there would be no problem fixing the power cell. She had said it would take six minutes. He was becoming angry. He decided he would wait for two more minutes, and then go fetch her. Suddenly, a burst of steam came from the engine room, blasting Tanner in the face. Coughing, he swatted the air in front of him, trying to clear the steam. He heard laughter from below, and a red blob popped up from the smoke, laughing hysterically. "You got steam in your face! Ha!"
Tanner glared in the direction of the girl, lightning sparking from his hands. Nick was climbing out of the engine room hatch, laughing. She took the goggles over her eyes and moved them up to her forehead. Her hair was in a ponytail, but her bangs were pushed back by her goggles. She continued to laugh as she pulled herself up out of the hatch onto the deck. The droids around him began to make a strange noise. He turned, and saw one of them trying to contain his laughter. He used the force to vaporize the droid in question. He then turned to the droid to the right of the pile of ashes. "What are you laughing about?"
The room went silent, even the padawan. She sat upright on the floor, staring at the sith. "What was that for?" she asked, quietly.
"I haven't blown anything up today and he was the one to laugh."
"I was laughing to. Gunna vaporize me too Tanny-boy?"
"First off-don't call me that. Second – I am charged with bringing you back to my master alive and in one piece. Vaporizing you defeats that purpose."
"Well Tanny-boy you wouldn't be getting anywhere without me fixing your ship. I think a thank you is in order here."
"Well maybe if you would tell me why the engine exploded in a cloud of steam."
"The power cell did need changing, as expected, but if you had gone into light speed the whole ship would've blown up. I used parts from a broken droid to repair it. The cloud of steam was your engines way of letting out some pressure. You know – the pressure that would have killed us all. Now where is that thank you?" she tilted her head expectantly toward the sith.
He sighed. "Thank… you…" the words came out forced and strained, "for not being useless."
She smiled. "I'll take it. Now, where's the cafeteria around this joint? I'm starved."
"You want food? Go back to your box. We'll serve it up like a five star meal."
"Five star meal of death no thanks. I'd rather stay out of the box. It's boring in there."
"Let me rephrase that. Get. Back. In. The. Box."
"How about let's not and say we did."
"Hows about I pick you up with the force and make you. You know, the force. That thing you can't use."
"Alright look sithy. You said I get out of the box if I fixed your ship. The ship is fixed, I stay out of the box."
"I never said you get to stay out of the box."
She glared at him. "And even if I did, I'm evil. Remember?"
"Fine. Put me back in the box. But good luck figuring out how to start the ship."
"You know how to grate on my nerves you know that."
"It's called a talent. Something you sith," she spat the word, "will never have."
"I have talent. See, I can make you dance."
He hit her with a blast of force lightning. Her muscles twitched, but she didn't dance like he expected, instead, he felt himself being shoved back by the force, sending him flying into the nearest wall. When he looked up, Nick was standing with an outstretched arm, looking amazed. "I… I just…"
He sighed. "Nothings ever easy for the bad guy." He looked at the girl. She was still staring at her hand like it was foreign to her. "Ah fuck it." He mumbled. Tanner used the force to grab a wrench off the floor, and hit Nick over the head with it.
"Mental note, that is step one."
00000
Nick woke up on the cold floor. She looked around her and realized she was in the box again. "GOD DAMMIT!" she exclaimed.
Nick sat up, examining the room. There were no signs of any droids, but she did hear some faint yelling. She listened closely to hear, "God fucking dammit the windshield is clean!"
Nick didn't realize what was going on at first, then began to laugh hysterically. She hadn't laughed that hard since she and Lex had taken Master Vaal's remote for his radio and changed the station randomly for the next two weeks. She began to roll on the floor she was laughing so hard. It had been so easy to switch the wiring from the starter to the windshield wiper controls, she never thought it would have worked this well.
Suddenly, the doors flew from their closed position and hit the ray shield around Nick. She stopped laughing for a moment, only to see Tanner's angry vein in his forehead almost jumping out of his skin. She blinked, and began to laugh even harder than before.
"Tell me how to start the fucking ship."
She couldn't respond to his threatening tone, because she was still laughing.
"Let me rephrase that." He said, pulling out a remote. "Tell me how to start the ship or else."
Still chuckling, Nick said, "What are you going to do, put a droid in here with me? They're so scary!"
Tanner grinned evilly, and flipped a switch. The ray shield then began to close in on Nick, rapidly. She thought he was bluffing, but when the shield started to singe off her arm hair she gave in. "ALRIGHT ALRIGHT I'LL TELL YOU! JUST MAKE THE BOX BIG AGAIN!"
He turned off the shield, looked the frightened padawan in the eye and said, "Go." She walked out of the room, growing more defiant as she walked, but she still went to fix the problem.
Hey! Sorry it's been so long! School and stuff... ya know. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember, no flaming... blah blah blah. TTFN! ~Alyss