Have I ever told you kids how your Mama ended up Captain of the Skylark? She was pretty young when she joined the crew of the Skylark. She was working as a mechanic in the spaceport of her home planet, trying to make ends meet and living with a bunch of roommates in a cheap little apartment. The Skylark was needing some work, nothing major, but just a few minor replacements, and your Mama was the one tasked to complete the job.
As she was working on it, your Mama happened to notice that there were a couple of additional cables about to go out, so she brought it to the Captain's attention, and of course, he was very grateful she noticed. She fixed it for him, real quick like, and he asked her to go do a more thorough check of the Skylark's systems. As she was running it, he asked her questions about herself and if she liked her job and what she knew and such. When he heard that she didn't have a family thereabouts, he offered her a job on the Skylark as part of the crew. Her job would be to be a mechanic, since their last mechanic had recently left them.
So your Mama said goodbye to her friends and took to the skies. And she LOVED it. Your Mama thrived with the Skylark. Captain Agnir and the rest of the crew were Aqualish, humanoid aliens with bald heads and two massive tusks that go all the way down their chins. But that didn't bother your Mama none. Whenever they landed at a spaceport, it was her job to make sure everything was running smoothly and that the ship was ready to travel and get them out of any tight spots they might encounter. And Captain Agnir was an unaffiliated hauler based in the Mid Rim, but he wasn't shy to make deliveries of a RISKIER nature, you understand.
Now, the crew took good care of your Mama. They enjoyed having a plucky little redhead around, and they soon realized that she had a gift with people. They started taking her with them, having her help with the negotiating and stuff, because people liked her and she was a real smooth talker. But they got into dangerous scrapes occasionally, so they started teaching her how to handle herself. She learned everything she could. She became a crack shot, and she practiced hours in the hold when they were moving from berth to berth.
The first mate of the Skylark started to teach her to fly, and it came to your Mama as natural as breathing. Captain Agnir thought it was great to have another pilot around, just in case, and soon your Mama was taking the controls more often than not. She was living her best life, meeting people and making connections, upgrading and maintaining the Skylark, and occasionally flirting with danger.
It was the danger that got your Mama her first official promotion. It was a delivery deal gone wrong. The Skylark had been transporting something, but it had taken a few extra days because the Republic Navy had put out some extra patrols in the area, so some of the hyperspace lanes were being actively interdicted.
What does that mean?
It means that you couldn't hyperspace there without going through a checkpoint, and Captain Agnir's people didn't want to be caught running toxic nyderfish! So they had to wait until things cleared up a bit, but when they arrived the customer was angry and didn't want to pay them. Your Mama did her best to try to come to an agreement with them, but a fight broke out, and a few of the crew members were shot and the pilot was killed. Captain Agnir got everyone back into the Skylark, and your Mama got them safely away in spite of a couple planetary gunships trying to stop them. To recognize what Your Mama had done for them, the Captain promoted her to official pilot and first mate, since the job was open.
But he was still Captain, though.
Yes, he was still captain. The crew ran together for another couple of years without anything big like that happening again, mostly because Captain Agnir got a lot more cautious about what jobs he took. Finally, he gambled again and took a load with a lot more risk but a very nice payout. It went well, and so he did it again, bigger that time, and that time didn't work out quite as well.
Your Mama's always been lucky, child. Bad luck to get into difficult situations, but good luck to get out of those scrapes with her skin intact. When everything went bad, the client ended up double crossing the crew of the Skylark, trying to steal the ship and kill them all. Well, your mama escaped with the Captain and the money, but he was badly wounded. Nobody else made it, and your Mama fought to keep Captain Agnir alive.
It was touch and go for a while, but he pulled through. However, he didn't want to keep risking his life anymore. Since his crew was dead, all but your Mama, he made her a deal. He took everything, all the profits from the last few jobs, all the money from his former crewmates, and all of your Mama's savings and her cut, and in exchange, he made her the Captain of the Skylark. Your Mama loves that ship, and he was always more in it for the money anyways.
So there she was, all alone but freer than the bird that ship was named for. Your Mama knew she needed credits, and fast, so she took a job, a simple straightforward delivery job, but risky because it was to a planet that was in the middle of a civil war. She went to a nondescript hanger and loaded up a bunch of blaster rifles and took them to a little planet called...Ord Mantell.
Where she met you, Daddy!
Yeah, pumpkin. Where she met me.
That was really good luck.
Yes it was, Sweetheart. Now y'all go to sleep now, you hear? I'll check on y'all in a few minutes. Goodnight loves.