Between Good and Bad

The Siege

"Aria. Aria!"

She jolts awake and answers the comm quickly. "I'm here!"

"I'm about to drop out of hyperspace. The ship can't keep this up much longer."

"Okay, we do it on three." She hits a couple buttons. "One."

"Two."

"Three!"

Both ships drop out of hyperspace, and Aria can see what he means. The Crest barely looks atmo-worthy, much less space, and definitely not in any state for lightspeed.

She docks with it and grabs a box of tools before heading to meet him on the bridge. She doesn't notice the green armor in the hold.

"Put the red wire where the blue wire goes in the board, okay?"

"Oh. My. Maker," she says slowly while looking around. "Where's the kid?"

"In here. But don't let them touch. You see where you took the blue one off? Yes, now put the red one-"

"Mando, let me get him out of there before-" There's a zap and smoke piles out of the compartment. "That happens."

"Are you okay?" The Child coughs and begins to whine.

"Shove over." Aria kneels by the small opening the kid is in. "Hey, pal!"

He lets out a squeal and begins to crawl toward her.

"That's it." She pulls him from the hole.

"It wasn't a great plan, but I don't have the right tools to fix it."

"What are you trying to do?"

"Just switch a couple wires."

"Okay, easy. Take him." She holds the Child out to Mando who takes him, then pulls a small droid and a controller from her kit. "Which wires?"

"The blue and red. I'm pretty sure he's already got them loose."

She puts the droid in the opening and hits a button on the controller, making it spring to life. A screen shows the droid's camera. She controls the droid to the panel and plugs the red wire in the blue slot and the blue in the red.

"Thanks."

"It's no problem." She grabs the droid and puts it in the case.

Neither of them say anything for a moment.

"Are you hungry?" He offers. "I have some broth for the Child."

"It's okay. I have a pretty good store of non-perishables on the ship."

"What kind of ship is it, by the way?"

"It's an old Y-wing from the Clone War. It was in decent enough shape and it was cheap. Plus it had the droid port for Roxi. It was just the two of us so I didn't need anything big. Plus, they're pretty fast. I'm trying to stay off the radar of some undesirables."

"Aria, come on. Some food won't hurt." He stands up, the Child securely in his arms. "I might even let you hold the womp rat."

"Well, how can I say no to that?"

So she follows him down to the hold, sits on a crate, and eagerly takes the baby, who eagerly goes.

Din wants to step back, but he can't look away. He didn't expect that she would look the way she does holding the baby. But he does turn away to heat the broth, turning up his internal helmet speakers so he can listen to her cooing at the baby.

Aria almost feels bad she didn't tell him she was Force-sensitive when the Child could so obviously feel it. But Din is a bit clueless about the Force and Ahsoka would be much better to teach him.