Buckets: A Star Wars Story

8. Sergeant

We were recalled to the fleet to await reassignment. Our work with Siqsa went surprisingly well in terms of accolades. Apparently, he mentioned me by designation due to the whole nav chart comparison that found Venn's old base to begin with, and if our next mission went well, Thesh would be getting at least some of his rank back. Things were, for a time, looking up, it seemed. Lothal was awful. I hated it, and getting off was what initially seemed to be a blessing. I remember Thesh distinctly throwing his stuff into the shuttle and muttering, "I cannot wait to get off this miserable planet." This was a man who never complained, and even he was ready to stop getting assaulted by snipers when he walked outside to take a breath.

Seriously. That was a problem. We lost four officers and the stars know how many troopers just because they were all "I'm gonna go out to have a smoke". It was lunacy.

We had been assigned temporary quarters aboard the ISD Whirlwind, a star destroyer that was moving out of the area in not too long. The shuttle ride up to the Whirlwind was a trip and a half because Aurek was constantly tapping the heel of his boot against the floor. It was one of his most obvious nervous ticks, and I didn't need to see past his bucket to know he was stressed.

"What's up with you?"

"Of all the ships in this fleet, we had to get assigned to the Whirlwind, didn't we?" Aurek mumbled the words as he leaned forward, arms on his knees. He glanced at me before motioning me in close. As I leaned over, he lifted his bucket and whispered, "It's my father's ship."

Now, I had gathered that Aurek and his father weren't on the best of terms. He barely spoke about him and when he did, it wasn't with fondness. The most I had ever gotten out of him about it was that he was an Admiral and a bit of a tactical genius. The Empire didn't lack for talent, that was for sure. I also gathered that his father was the reason that he was in the military to begin with. See, the family in the Empire's society went a little like this: if your parents were Moffs, you were going to be a Moff, too. If they were admirals, you were going to be one, too. If you weren't following them exactly, you were a pilot, an officer, something with prestige. You didn't just wind up in the Stormtrooper Corps. How he got here in the weeds with a father whose word was better than a coaxium bribe was beyond me.

Okay, maybe not better than a coaxium bribe, but damn near close.

"Don't mention it to anyone. No one," Aurek held up a finger threateningly at me before he straightened back up and crossed his arms. "That is the last thing I want to be dealing with."

"What are you two ladies going on about?" Osk asked from across the shuttle, and Thesh finally looked up from his datapads with an uncharacteristic smile on his face.

He'd been doing that with his face more.

Smiling, that is.

It was creepy.

Aurek paused for a moment before he leaned forward again, placing both hands on his knees and saying, deadpan and serious, "Plotting to kill Thesh on a mission and make it look like an accident. Then I can get a field promotion and lead the group as an officer."

The entire shuttle went quiet for a moment and Thesh's face settled into one of utter exasperation while I could see Osk's shoulders shaking from holding back what I could only assume was an embarrassing guffaw. "Make Dorn the leader. He's smarter," Besh's remark was met with a chorus of agreement from the rest of the group.

The rest of the ride up was lighthearted. Thesh was beaming, Besh and Osk were pestering Aurek, and I would occasionally interject with a comment while I kept Peek from sliding across the shuttle. I figured that the whole this-ISD-is-owned-by-my-dad thing would just be a friendly little reminder that I should just fling Aurek into a locker and casually block the door every time the admiral walked by, but, as it turned out, it wasn't nearly going to be that easy.