Promises and Deals | The Mandalorian

.026

"Democracy?" Alora asks, pursing her lips as they walk up to the old tavern. "Huh, it's a wonder this place is still standing."

Spreading her arms, Cara backs into the building. "Wait till you see inside."

With a small pout, Alora walks in to hear a droid speaking about trade routes. Her eyes widen at the rows of children seated before the teaching droid; though none seem engaged, it's a wonder that a place that was so destroyed just a little bit ago now houses students.

"A school?" Mando asks.

"Things have changed a lot around here," Cara says.

Greef nods. "We're gonna leave the little one here so we can talk business."

Alora takes a step forward, saying, "I'm not leaving him."

Mando nods. "Where he goes, we go."

"Please," Greef says. "Where we're going, you don't want to take a child, trust me."

Alora watches as Greef situates the child in a spare seat. Discomfort mixes in her gut as the Child looks back at her with those big, wide eyes that always stare deep into her being. She bites her lip hard enough to taste iron.

"Don't worry," Cara says, placing a hand on Alora's shoulder. "He'll be fine. You have my word."

"I'm not worried."

Mando snorts. "Right."

"Hey, you're worried too." Alora pouts, crossing her arms. "But, I'm not leaving him, ok? The furthest I've gone was the last time we were on this planet, and I did not leave him willingly. I'm not leaving town."

As Greef returns, he sighs. "You might change your mind when you hear our business."

Well, now Alora needs to go with them. She can't miss this.

It's a short walk to Greef's office where they walk in to find a blue creature sitting at a desk, saying, "There's no registration on the ship, but I'm pretty sure it belongs to—" When he sees Mando, the creature's eyes widen and his body goes tense.

"I believe you two have met," Greef says, a small smile on his lips.

The creature lets out a puff of smoke from its gills.

"I'm surprised to see you here," Mando says in greeting.

"Right back at you."

"Mythrol here has been taking care of my books since he was a pollywog," Greef places his hands on his hips. "Then, he disappeared one day after a bit of creative accounting."

"Magistrate Karga was generous enough to let me work off my debt. Thank you, by the way."

"Three hundred-fifty years, but who's counting."

Alora scoffs as she crosses her arms and leans over to Cara. "Men."

"I know, right?" Cara's eyes twinkle.

"If he runs off on you again, let me know," Mando says.

Mythrol holds up his hand. "Let me assure you, I do not wanna spend any more time in carbonite. Still can't see outta my left eye."

Letting out a low whistle, Alora glances at Mando. "Carbonite, huh?" He glances at her. "Didn't think to tell me?"

"Did you need to know?"

"Was it not important?"

Cara steps between them, asking, "Can we talk business, you two? Enough with the squabbling."

Alora sticks her tongue out playfully. "We're here for repairs. Nothing more."

"Which'll take a while," Greef adds, motioning to Cara's desk for them all to walk over. "Which means you two'll have a lot of time on your hands, right?" For a second, one small, insignificant second, Alora's mind replays those few nights on the ship as her gaze drops to the blindfold. There is one way to spend some free time—it requires a bed, a noise-canceling room, and some liquor. "We could really use your help."

Well, that spoiled the image.

Cara definitely catches her blush before she is able to shake it away. "Help how?" She asks.

Turning on a projector, Cara says, "This is Nevarro. We're here. This entire area's the green zone. Completely safe. But over on this side is the problem." The projection zooms in.

Alora leans forward, pressing her palms to the desk as Greef explains, "It's an old Imperial base."

"It's where all those troops came from when we defeated Moff Gideon. This base has been here since the Imperial expansion. It's got a skeleton crew, but for some reason, it hasn't been abandoned."

"There's a lot of heavy weaponry in that place the black market would love to dismantle and get their hands on." Greef watches them closely, though Alora's gaze does not waver from the projection.

Something doesn't feel right.

"You want to mop up the last of the Imperial force before they do," Mando concludes.

"Mando, I just want them off my planet. If we could take out that one, last base, Nevarro would be completely safe. We could be a trade anchor for the entire sector."

"And the planet would finally be free," Cara adds, searching Alora's face for a reaction.

Instead of giving her one, Alora covers her mouth with her hand, her eyes darting over the projection. "I'm not leaving," she says after a moment. "Imps or not, the kid won't leave my sight. No exceptions."

Mando clicks his tongue as he pulls her just outside to office so none of the others can hear, their voices covered by the busy streets. "What do you mean?" He asks, annoyance clear in his tone. "You never turn down the opportunity to beat up some stormtroopers."

"I do now." She crosses her arms as she glances around. "I have a bad feeling about this, ok? I don't care if you go or not as long as you come back."

"Ok, so what's your feeling?"

With a sigh, she bites her tongue. "Cara says there's a skeleton crew. If it hasn't been abandoned yet, why are they still there? They would've abandoned it a long time ago."

He straightens up. "You think something else is going on."

"I think there's something off about that station, and I'm not going to leave the Child here alone to figure that out." She meets his gaze head-on and somehow finds the courage to take a step closer to him. "I made a promise to keep him safe. I'm not leaving him now."

Mando stares at her for a long time before she takes a deep breath and looks down at his feet. "Fine," he says as he fishes out a device. "Take this and stay in contact."

She takes the communicator with a nod. "Don't worry about me," Alora says. "If anything happens, I'll fly the Razor Crest over to you."

As she walks away, a smile graces her lips when Mando yells, "Don't fly my ship!"

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If anyone's interested, I think I've decided that when this book ends, I'll publish a prequel book that goes through both the prequels and the originals. Literally a book with six movies... I actually just finished the first part and it'll be long....

Hope you enjoyed!

-L