In Command (#1 Post-Order 66 Series)

In Command - Part 1

Yanking the datapad from its pouch on her hip she began scrolling through the news feeds, searching for anything noteworthy that she could feed back to the captain. Halfway through an article about the new job postings that were allegedly coming due to the Empire's increased presence on Lothal and its need for resources, she felt a warm buzzing sensation on the back of her neck. She slowly turned to see the captain standing in the doorway. He'd thrown a waist-length cloak around his shoulders and had hidden his blonde hair underneath a wide brimmed hat. She spluttered again in surprise, choking on her caf and ripping off her earphones. "Would you STOP doing that? Just make some noise or something when you're moving around for Maker's sake." She noted his smirk as he leaned into the room, not daring to try and place a boot among the mess. "How do you even function in here? I've seen cleaner bantha pens."

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Did you actually need something, or are you just here to criticize how I do things?"

His smirk faded as he straightened, eyebrows furrowing again. "I'm heading out. Do you need me to grab anything?"

"I'm almost out of sugar again."

"Can't imagine why."

"Would you just pick some up on the way home please? And we could use some more noodles."

"All you eat is noodles."

"They're easy."

"Fine. Noodles and sugar it is." He turned to leave. "Find something useful for us to go on today."

Her attention already back on her datapad, she waved a hand at him absently. "Yeah, yeah."

Suddenly remembering, he turned back. "It would also be nice if I had a speeder bike that was useable to get around on."

She looked up at him. "You have one."

"It's in pieces outside."

"I put it mostly back together. You're welcome for the improvements I made, by the way. Your fluid lines were super worn out and caked with sludge."

"I walked by it this morning, and the brake compressor cables are still dangling loose on the side. Those seem important."

She sighed. "Yeah ok, I'll get to it today. Any other technical upgrades you require while you're out?" she asked mockingly.

"Yeah, a working comm would be nice."

Turning in her chair, she dug under a pile in one corner of the desk, pulling out a scratched up comm and tossing it to him. "That should work."

He stared at the item in his hand with obvious concern. "Where did you even get this?"

"One of our neighbors threw it out the other day. Couldn't believe it. All it needed was some wiring replaced. It should work. Go on, power it up."

Rex clicked on the commlink, and she held her wrist comm up to her lips and whispered "Go get me some sugar for my caf, Lon." Rex didn't hide his exasperation as he tucked the comm into his belt and turned on his heel to leave. "Stop going outside and picking through people's trash."

"Told you it works!" she called after him. A few moments later, she heard the front door hiss shut and turned her chair to watch out the window as he strode away from the dwelling, losing sight of him as he turned the corner and disappeared behind the outer wall.

Shrugging back into her seat, she pulled one of her feet up onto the chair cushion and rested her head on her knee as she continued scrolling through the comm channels, making notes about which Imperial officer was saying what. Over the last few weeks, she'd been able to identify a good chunk of the command infrastructure that the Empire had put in place on Lothal. She had mapped out command hierarchy and who was responsible for what tasks, but even with all of that information, she still hadn't managed to impress the captain or even satisfy him in the slightest. She wasn't sure exactly what was gnawing at him or why he took such issue with her, but she wasn't overly concerned with it.

No one had explicitly told her he was a clone,but it had been apparent to her from the start, and once he'd introduced himselfas Rex, she knew exactly who he was, but had never let on. He had made somereferences to the war during their always brief interactions, and so sheassumed he was fine with her knowing that he was a clone, but had never pushedthe conversation further. The darkness that would leak across his face when thewar came up and he became lost in the memories made it abundantly clear to herthat it was not a topic he liked to revisit. She'd noted the light scarring onthe right side of his head before his hair had grown long enough to cover itand had heard rumors that some clones had removed their inhibitor chips, but again,it was not a topic she wished to broach, for both of their sakes. Order 66 andthe end of the war had come as a shock to everyone, and it wasn't something shewanted to discuss either. She had heard him yelling himself awake sometimes atnight while she was upstairs tinkering and had always opted to pretend she didn'thear. She assumed he'd done the same when she woke up screaming. The war wasover, but the nightmares persisted which was why she often chosen caf and her workover unconsciousness. At least awake, she had some control.