Stardust ━━ Star Wars

━ 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘅𝗶𝘅

     "Oh, I don't think so," Indira warns, crossing her arms reproachfully. "You'll have to find yourself a new technician if you do that."

     "I wouldn't dream of it," Poe replies, grinning down at her. "I don't want anybody else. I've already got the best."

     Indira feels her cheeks warm at the compliment and bows her head slightly. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

     "It isn't flattery if it's true," he counters, rummaging around in the cockpit of the ship to slip his orange flight suit on over his civvies. He zips the suit up to his neck, tugging on the different straps to adjust it slightly.

     Indira scrunches her nose as she looks up at him. "You know, sometimes you're not half bad," she admits, setting her hands on her hips.

     "Really?" Poe asks, resting his chin in his hand and propping it up on the side of the ship. "Is that so?"

     "Yeah," Indira says, taking a few steps backwards. "Keep it up, Dameron, and I might actually start to like you."

     "Oh, well we can't have that, can we?" He replies sarcastically, pulling his helmet on over his head and snapping the visor down.

     She shrugs her shoulders. "Worse things have happened."

     Poe looks over at her sharply, mouth dropping open slightly. "Wait, what?!"

     She grins and waves at him. "I'll see you around, Commander," she calls, ignoring his question as she turns on her heel to assist some of the other pilots still preparing for takeoff.

     "This conversation isn't over!" Poe shouts, cupping his hands over his mouth and Indira shakes her head, laughing silently to herself. "We're continuing this discussion later!"

     As she works her way through the hangar, Indira finds Kali pulling on her uniform just outside of an X-wing ship. Her eyes widen at the sight of her friend and she calls her name before running over to her and embracing the other girl for the first time since her trip to Yavin Four.

     "Everything went well?" Kali asks when they pull apart and Indira nods in confirmation.

     "Really well," she replies, taking in her friend's appearance. "Are you flying out?"

     Kali beams with pride. "I got a promotion while you were gone," she tells Indira, eyes dancing with excitement. "Captain Kali Kilam reporting for duty — callsign Blue Nine!"

     Indira's mouth drops open. "Kali, that's fantastic!" She exclaims, hugging her again. "I'm so proud of you!"

     "Thank you," Kali says, practically glowing with pride. She shifts the helmet in her grasp before nodding towards her ship. "I've gotta get going, but we'll catch up later, alright?"

     Indira nods quickly. "Of course! Go, go," she instructs her friend, shooing her towards her blue and white painted X-wing. "And Kali?"

     Her friend pauses her ascension of the ship's ladder, stopping halfway between the cockpit and the ground. "Yeah?"

     "Be safe," Indira tells her. "Please."

     Her friend nods seriously. "I will," she promises before shimmying her way up the rest of the ladder and hopping into the cockpit.

     Indira takes a few steps backwards from the ships, waving to her friend as the X-wing squadrons leave the hangar one at a time, making their way into the open skies of D'Qar before disappearing in bright flashes of light as they jump to lightspeed. When she can no longer see any of the remaining starfleet fighters, the technician turns on her heel towards the main Resistance transport. Indira knows that the transportation vehicle will need prepping if the general is going to Takodana too, so she starts running manual checks on the ship's functionality.