Kasia rubbed her eyes as she entered the cockpit, having been pulled from her beauty sleep in the guest quarters by the sudden loud and obnoxious alarm. "What the bloody hell is that noise?" she demanded, yawning as she slumped into the copilot seat.
Mando ignored her as he continued to frantically flip switches and push buttons on the control panel, an unusual amount of panic and distress coming off of him. Kasia glanced down at the child in his cradle, but he looked just as confused as her as he stared at Mando.
Finally, Mando deigned to recognize her existence as his hands continued to fly across the control panel. "Losing fuel," was his muttered, nondescript reply. Still, Kasia got the gist.
She opened her mouth to reply just as the engine and alarm both shut off, leaving the ship in utter silence. A moment later, all the monitors powered off as well.
Kasia frowned, "Well I'm certainly no mechanic, but I don't think that bodes well for us."
Suddenly from her side, the child began to giggle. At the sound, Kasia and Din both turned toward the little fellow, a smile curling at the end of Kasia's lips. Well, at least one of us is having a good time.
No one moved for a few minutes, before abruptly Mando rose to his feet and marched to the back of the cockpit.
Kasia raised an eyebrow, "What are yo-" she stopped speaking at the Mandalorian flipped a switch and the power began to flicker back on. She gaped at him as he returned to the pilot seat and hit a couple more buttons, causing the console to power back up. "You couldn't have done that earlier?"
It's the emergency generator. I wanted to make sure we were close enough to that planet, he indicated the yellow spot in the distance that Kasia could barely make it out, before I committed to using the last of our emergency fuel. He paused a moment before begrudgingly admitting, and I wasn't totally sure it was going to work.
She squinted at the speck of a planet for a moment, "So that's where we're headed next?"
"Well, we need to make repairs somewhere. I just hope they have a good mechanic," he replied out loud, shrugging as he flipped another switch.
At his words Kasia snorted, "Yeah. We're gonna need it."
*.*.*
Kasia clutched the copilot seat as Mando made his shaky landing, the Razor Crest's engine sputtering in a way that told even Kasia that the ship likely wouldn't have made it much longer.
"I think I'm going to be sick," she announced, rising from her chair as Mando began to flip buttons on the console to power off the Crest.
So dramatic. Mando paused for a moment, just be quick about it.
Kasia chuckled lightly as she made her way to her designated bedroom. While she wasn't actually as sick as she had let on, she did want to change into some new clothes before they set out into the town to find work.
Din had informed her before landing that because he had decided not to turn her in and collect her bounty, he was short on credits. For a moment, Kasia had thought of suggesting her own money—after all she had built up an impressive number of credits in her time—before she realized that all of her accounts and the money she had would likely be inaccessible on a desert planet like this. Plus, any transactions or withdrawals could easily be traced back to her, and with a bounty on her head she supposed it would be foolish of her to make it that easy for a potential bounty hunter.
So, they were in need of a job—preferably a relatively high paying one if the state of the ship was any indication. And Mando had decided that to make up for the money he had lost by not turning her in, Kasia was to accompany him in collecting bounties until she had helped earn back the money he would otherwise have gotten for her. To her immense satisfaction, he had begrudgingly admitted that her ability to read minds would likely be helpful in weeding out who would be good on their word and those who wouldn't.
After changing, Kasia rejoined Mando in the main hanger of the ship. She raised an eyebrow as she watched him gently place the now sleeping child on his bed and close the door to his and the child's shared room.
"We're not taking him with us?" she asked by way of greeting, striding across the floor towards Mando's impressive collection of weapons. She grinned as she inspected a particularly nice pair of heavy blaster pistols which she had been eyeing these past few days since they had left Sorgan.
"Oddly enough, Tatooine has a relatively high number of bounty hunters that frequent the main population hubs, so it's best to keep him here in case any of the hunters have heard stories about a Mandalorian and a small green alien," Mando explained, turning on his heel and joining her at his artillery cabinet.
At the information, Kasia frowned slightly. She didn't like the idea of leaving the kid by himself but... did they really have a choice? She supposed they didn't—it was too big a risk to bring him. And even if no one recognized the child, he was so damned adorable that he was likely to draw too much attention to the three of them regardless.
A different thought suddenly occurred to Kasia, causing her to tilt her head and glance up at the Mandalorian. "Should I be worried then? About someone knowing about my bounty?"
Mando cut her a sharp glance, his lips curling into a smile under his helmet, "Don't worry. You're not important enough for people to know who you are."
Mouth dropping open in mock hurt, Kasia scowled at Mando, "Touché." She ran a finger along another of Mando's exquisite blasters, humming slightly.
A moment later, seeming to pick up on her silent hint, Din sighed, "Fine. You can choose one—just one—blaster from my collection."
At the words, Kasia beamed up at him. Without a hint of hesitation, she snatched the pair of pistol blasters she had been admiring moments before and wrapped their holster around her waist.
"I said jus-"
"Oh hush now, they come in a set. Just be glad I didn't try to steal your disintegration rifle," she grinned, sliding the blasters into the now assembled holster at her waist. "Let's go," Kasia walked past him towards the doors, and a moment later a grumbling Mando followed.
As Kasia made her way down the Razor Crest's ramp, a quiet chattering noise drew her attention, and she smiled, "Aww look, DUM-series droids. They're so ador-"
She was cut off suddenly as a large blast suddenly filled the maintenance bay, and she whirled to see Mando staring at the droids, his blaster hefted.
Oh right. He has the weird thing with droids.
She gave him a seething glare for a moment before a shouted, "Hey!" from across the bay drew her attention. She turned to see a middle-aged human woman storming towards the two of them, anger written across her face. "Hey!"
Kasia kept her eyes pinned on the woman as she continued to approach, Mando coming to her side. "Was that really necessarily?" she muttered under her breath.
He didn't even spare her a look as he replied. Yes.
She refrained from rolling her eyes as she turned her attention back to the angry woman in front of them. "You damage one of my droids, you'll pay for it," the woman promised, glowering at Mando.
"Great, another thing for us to pay with money we don't have. Good job Mando," Kasia mumbled sarcastically.
As soon as we're done here, we're flying straight to Reldve. I can't take much more of this, Mando said to her silently, an obvious joking seriousness in his words. She had to bite her lip to keep from smiling.
"Just keep them away from my ship," Mando told the woman, pointing threateningly at the poor pit droids.
The woman surveyed the beat-up Razor Crest for a moment, "Yeah? You think that's a good idea, do ya?" she asked sarcastically.
Kasia couldn't help it as the corners of her lips twitched upwards in amusement. Oh, I like her.
"Let's look at your ship," the woman went on, strolling past Mando and Kasia casually. Not waiting for an answer, she walked up to the side of the Razor Crest and began to pound on the metal and squint at it. Honestly, Kasia was impressed that the ship didn't fall apart from the force of the hit. "Oof! Look at that," she brought out some kind of a gadget and held it up to the Crest's side, "Ugh, you got a lot of carbon scorin' building up top. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were in a shootout."
Yeah, well, about that...
Mando cast Kasia a warning glance, as if daring her to make some snide comment. She merely flashed him a cryptic smile.
The woman kept making small side comments to herself regarding the disrepair of the vessel, and Kasia was honestly enjoying ever minute of listening to it and watching Mando squirm.
She grinned up at Mando as the woman ended her inspection, exclaiming, "Look at this! This is a mess!"
You are enjoying this way too much, Mando told her, and she nodded emphatically.
You bet your ass I am.
"How did you even land?" the woman asked incredulously as she finally turned back towards Kasia and Mando. "That's gonna set you back."
At the words, Kasia's mood soured and the smile dropped from her lips. Right, money.
She grabbed the small pouch of credits that she and Mando had had collectively on the ship and held them out towards the woman. "We've got 500 Imperial Credits."
The woman stared at the pouch for a moment before plucking it from Kasia's hand. "That's all you got?" she glanced down at the money for a moment before turning to look at the DUM-series droids behind her. "Well, what do you guys think?"
Kasia's heart sank as the droids began to shake their heads and reply in what she took to be a negative tone.
Maybe I should have let Mando shoot the little buggers after all, she thought, glaring at the droids.
The woman turned back towards them and glanced up at their ship, "That should at least cover the hanger," she informed them.
"We'll get you your money," Mando promised lowly, and a chill snaked down Kasia's spine at the words and menacing stance. She had spent so much time with Mando that she often forgot that to most people who encountered him, he was pretty damn scary.
Of course, speaking as someone who had seen him try to teach the kid how to kick a Limmie ball and then put a band-aid on the child after he fell and scrapped his hand, Kasia knew she would likely never be able to see him as anything close to a dangerous, fear-inciting Mandalorian ever again.
"Hmm. I've heard that before," the mechanic replied dryly, and Kasia smiled slightly.
"Don't worry, we really will get you the money," she promised.
The woman nodded once before Mando piped up, "Just remember-"
"Yeah, no droids," the mechanic interrupted, putting her hands up in annoyance, "I heard ya. You don't have to say it twice."
Without another word, Mando turned and began to make his way out of the maintenance hangar. Kasia winked at the woman before turning on her heel and following him.
"So off to Cantina, then?" she asked, falling into step with him.
He nodded, "Off to Cantina."
*.*.*
It's snowing at my house! I love snow.
Also did you guys see that Pedro was cast in The Last of Us along with Bella Ramsey?! I've never even played the game but Pedro Pascal once again playing a begrudging single-parent in a sci-fi tv show? Oberyn Martell and Lyanna Mormont the two leads? Sign me tf up.