Blood and Money - The Mandalorian

Downtime

(Photo is not mine) 

     "He's right." Mando spoke behind me. I glanced back toward the door as he stood there. "I did take the child from a secure facility."

     "You always seem to be standing there, it's kinda creepy. Stop doing that." I spoke as I got comfortable again. "Make some noise or something." Mando came in further and sat down in the other seat.

     "He's telling the truth though." He spoke looking at me. "They were doing things to him that I didn't agree with and He didn't deserve it."

     "So you rescued him then?" I nodded

     "Yes, and there is a huge bounty, but it's not for me, it's for the kid."

     "Wait, what?" I looked at him this time. "They put a bounty on little Sprocket? Why?"

     "They really want him back. They were trying to extract something from him and they'll kill him to get it, but I'm not about to let that happen. He stays with me and I'll do whatever it takes to protect him."

      "Relax, I'm not going to turn you in for some stupid bounty, I don't care how much it is." I sighed "Just ignore NED, he's a coward. It's not gunna happen."

      "That thought never crossed my mind, I know I can trust you. But it would be better for both of us that once my ship is fixed, we part ways."

      "Yeah, I know." Feeling a bit bummed by that thought, I really enjoyed his company, but he was right, we really weren't part of each others stories, not really. I took a breath. "You don't need my heat and I don't need yours, even though it wouldn't matter to me." I nodded and looked away. "Heat is heat no matter where it comes from or who it belongs too, but you're right."

There was a short silence in between the conversation. I just sat there hearing the music playing softly through the speakers that had been rigged up. I spotted NED's head moving in the slot and thought 'he better not poke his head out, I will snatch that control chip', but it stopped moving as though he could read my mind. Mando broke the silence.

      "When you think about it, It seems we're in the same boat, no matter how we look at it. We're both being hunted by someone who wants something that we took. And no matter what we do, it's not going to stop until we end it."

     "Are you kidding? This is a normal day for us. We do this crap all the time, running, hiding, fighting, argueing. Bad guys are always part of the deal." 

     "But now you have something far worse to worry about, if this man is mixed in with the Empire, then he'll have a Star Destroyer at his disposal." He told me. "That is not a ship you want to tangle with. I would suggest that you steer clear of it as much as you can." I glanced at him and then I reached over and flipped the switch on the control table making the whole thing light up, I then reached down beside me and pressed a few buttons on the 3d hallo imager. Once I put the planet back up, I touched it spinning it around to see if this huge ship that Mando was talking about was anywhere in sight. I pressed on a white spot that had a crosshair attached to it and it enlarged showing a ship that was shaped like a huge triangle with smaller ships flying around it.

     "Is that it?" I asked him. 

     "Yes it is, but that isn't a Star Destroyer, that's a Vigil-class Corvette, its a smaller ship, but still very powerful." He pointed out. "It looks as though he's just sitting there. He might be waiting to see if you leave the planet, not a bad maneuver."

     "That's a pretty good size ship." I replied staring at it. "Well he'll be waiting for a while and I could head back toward the other side of the planet to stay out of his sensor range, there's always ways to get around being seen. So what can you tell me about this thing? what can I expect here?" I brought it in closer to look at more of the detail on it, a lot of things were catching my eye. "What is this?" I pointed to a spot near the back that was sticking up.