“All right, let’s try this again. Okay, did you… Do you have the wire?” Din Djarin turns around in his chair and walks over to the vent I was kneeled at. I shook my head at him.
“This was an awful idea.” I contort, crossing my arms. An alarm began to beep.
“No. Nothing.”
“Hey…Oh.” He cleared his throat. “Okay. Did you get the wire out? The red wire?” He looked through the vent where The Child was in, trying to help with repairs.
“Huh?” The green bean looks over at us, showing us a blue wire.
“No, no, no. No, the red one. Show me the red wire. The red one.”
The child cooed, and took a moment, but finally held up the red colored wire, and I smiled. This was entertaining.
“Yes, good. Now, you’re going to plug that red wire where the blue wire goes in the board. Put the red wire where the blue wire goes in the board, okay? But don’t let them touch.” He was getting a bit annoyed, “You see where you took the blue one off? Yes, now put the red one…”
The Child began to put the blue wire back, and I stifled a giggle, which was put off by Mando.
“No, don’t put the blue one back. Put the red one where the blue one was. And put the blue one where the red one was. But be careful. They’re oppositely charged, so keep them away from each other. Make sure you hold them apart from… No, hold them apart.”
And of course, The Child pushed them together.
“Oh! Uh-uh…” Smoke flew out, making me cough and Mando sigh.
“Oh… Are you okay?” I ask softly. The Child began to cough.
“Well, it was worth a shot.” Mando sighed again. “There’s no way we’re making it to Corvus in this shape. I think we need to visit some friends for repairs. So, how’d you like to go back to Nevarro?”
I smile widely. “Cara and Greef?” In which he nodded.
THE MANDALORIAN
Chapter 12
THE SIEGE
“Looks like someone could use some repairs.” Greef Karga says with a grin as the broke down Razor Crest landed and we walked out.
Mando grunted as he dropped from the ramp, and I hopped off, looking at Cara Dune for a second. “How’s my credit around here?”
“I think something could be arranged. Isn’t that right, Marshal?”
“I’m sure we can work somethin’ out.” Cara smiles, who seemingly was the town’s Marshal.
“I’ll get my best people on it. Hey, fellas! Let’s fix this man’s ship! I want it as good as new.” Greef orders a group of Alien workers. “And you, come here, little one! Has Mando been taking good care of you, huh? Have you been takin’ good care o’ him?” He picked up the Child. “Yeah? Yeah! He said “yeah!” Oh, yeah. (CHUCKLING) Yes. Come on. Yeah. Yeah, look at you.”
“Looks like you two have been busy.” Din says.
“I myself have been steeped in clerical work. Marshal Dune here is to be thanked for cleaning up the town. Your ship’s not lookin’ too good.”
“We had a run-in with the New Republic.” I say.
“It’s nice seeing you again, Justine. They should leave the Outer Rim alone. If the Empire couldn’t settle it, what makes them think they can? Here we are.”
I’m surprised to see this place is still standing.” I say in awe.
“Wait till you see inside.” Cara grins.
“Who can name one of the five major trade routes in the galaxy? Anyone? How about the Corellian Run?” A female droid says, teaching a school.
“The Hydian Way?” A boy answers, with his hand raised.
“Yes, the Hydian Way. That is correct.”
“A school?” Me and Din say at the same time.
“Things have changed a lot around here.”
“We’ll leave the little one here so we can talk business.” Greef said, starting to turn away.
“Wait. Wherever I go, he goes.” His voice cracked a bit. I smiled.
“Mando, please. Where we’re going, you don’t wanna take a child. Trust me. He’ll be fine here. You have my word.”
“There’s no registration on the ship, but I’m pretty sure it belongs…” A blue man was saying.
“I believe you two have met.” Greef says, and the man had a panic attack.
“ I’m surprised to see you here.” Din said, and I could feel his smirk.
“Right back at ya.” The man squirmed.
“Mythrol here’s taken care of my books since he was a pollywog. But then he disappeared one day after a bit of “creative accounting.”” Greef explained.
“Magistrate Karga was generous enough to let me work off my debt. Thank you, by the way.” The man, Mythrol, says.
“Three hundred and fifty years, but who’s counting?”
Din shrugs, “Well, if he runs off on you again, let me know.”
Mythrol laughed nervously and I glared, “Let me assure you, I do not wanna spend any more time in carbonite. Still can’t see outta my left eye.”
“Can we talk business?” Cara crossed her arms and I looked at her.
“ I’m only here for repairs.” Din said nonchalantly, and I rolled my eyes.
“Which’ll take a while. Which means you’ll have free time on your hands, right? And we could really use your help.”
“Help how?”
Cara pulled up a map. “This is Nevarro. We’re here. This entire area’s a green zone. Completely safe. But over on this side is the problem.”
“It’s an old Imperial base.”
“It’s where all those troops came from when we defeated Moff Gideon. This base has been here since the Imperial expansion. It’s got a skeleton crew, but for some reason, it hasn’t been abandoned.”
“There’s a lot o’ heavy weaponry in that place the black market would love to dismantle and get their hands on.” Greef says.
Din sighed, “And you wanna mop up the last of the Imperial force before they do.”
“Mando, I just want them off my planet. If we could take out that one last base, Nevarro would be completely safe. We could be a trade anchor for the entire sector.”
“And the planet would finally be free.” I say, looking up to Din.
“What are we looking at?”
“The whole base is powered by a reactor.”
“We sneak in, overload the reactor, and get the hell outta there.”
“Let’s be fast. And keep the speeder running.” Din orders, looking at me and I nod in agreement.
“There it is, right there. You see it?”
“How close you want me to drop you off?” Mythrol asks, driving.
“How ’bout the front door?”
“It’s a little close for a civilian, don’t you think?”
“I got two choices for ya. You take us in and I knock a hundred years off your debt.”
“Or?”
“Or I leave ya out here in the lava flats to walk home with whatever’s left in your humidity vest.”
“It’s not much of a choice, is it?” After driving for a minute more, he parked, “All right. We can’t go any further than this.”
“Let’s go.”
“Controls are useless. They’re melted.” Din says after pressing a few buttons.
“Well, it’s probably not rated for lava.” Greef shrugged.
Cara spat, “Imperial trash.”
I shook my head, “There’s gotta be another way…”
“All right, I’m headed back. Hit me up on the comm, we could set up a rendezvous time.” Mythrol said, starting to back up.
“You park your gills right there until I say otherwise.” Greef barked.
“I’m startin’ to dehydrate, boss.”
“Okay, how does 30 more years off your debt sound?”
“Can you at least be quick about it?”
“You wanna be quick? Grab the flange cutter and help us out.”
He groaned and hopped out, bringing the flange cutter, “Okay, fine. I don’t like leaving my speeder like this, just so you know.”
“Come on, hurry it up.”
“ All right, I’m coming.”
“Hurry up.”
“Hold tight.” Din picks me up and jets off upward with his jetpack.
I helped with the mini fight. There was a small squad of troopers up there, and one was hanging towards the edge of the base a bit. My feet hopped up, pushed off at point blank on his chest, while hands went to the cool cement, making me do a backbend and onto a standing position. The stormtrooper screamed as he fell off, and the elevator opened with our help, allowing the others up.
“Empty base, huh?” I snap.
“The reactor should be set in the heat shaft. If we drain the cooling lines, this whole base will go up in a matter of minutes.” Greef says, leading us down a hall.
Mythrol points at a vehicle, “Look. It’s a mint Trexler Marauder. We can get a lot for this on the black market.”
“And it’s gonna get vaporized like the rest of this base. Now, let’s go.” I say, following Greef and pulling my blaster out.
“Such a waste.”
“Shuttle bay, this is command. Shuttle bay, the security feed just went down. Can you check your relay hub? Shuttle bay? Shuttle bay, this is…” An imperial officer says. I kick him in the face, my leg shooting upward in a straight line. When he stumbled, Cara put him in a headlock, killing him.
“ I found the heat shaft. Let’s go. The access corridor should be right past this junction.” Din started leading us. “There, Mythrol, slice that door.” he points once we reached our destination.
Once we were in, there was the reactor. A long large cylinder channel to a lava pool. Shame if someone fell in. My eyes widen at the sight, the heat making my hair frizzy.
“Whoa!” Mythrol shouts.
Greef scoffs, “Yeah, “whoa” is right. That’s it. Get on the reactor controls, drain the coolant lines. We’ll watch the doors.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you!”
“I’m afraid o’ heights. And heat. And lava.”
“How ’bout if I put ya back in carbonite? Get over there!”
“There’s no guard rail on this.”
“Come on!”
I watch in frustration as Mythrol started messing with the controls, and I paced, constantly checking the doorway with my blaster in hand. Din finally pulled me to his side, and I took a deep breath.
“All right, she’s gonna blow. Let’s go! Let’s get outta here!” Greef shouts as we ran.
“How long do we have?” Cara asks.
“Ten minutes at the most.”
A stormtrooper saw us as we entered a room, “5-3-8-7 and 5-3-8-9, follow me. Call in reinforcements!”
A scientist started shooting the consoles, “Hurry up, purge the drives. Destroy it!”
“What the…?” I ask as I look around the room.
“I thought you said this was a forward operating base.” Din got angry.
Greef immediately defended himself, “I thought it was.”
Cara shook her head, “No, this isn’t a military operation. This is a lab. We need to get into the system and figure out what’s going on.”
“What about the reactor-”Mythrol asked.
“Do it! Do it.”
“I don’t like this.” Din looked to me and I shook my head.
A small scientist from a holo appeared. An old message, “Replicated the results of the subsequent trials, which also resulted in catastrophic failure. There were promising effects for an entire fortnight, but then, sadly, the body rejected the blood. I highly doubt we’ll find a donor with a higher M-count, though. I recommend that we suspend all experimentation. I fear that the volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the transfusion. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our initial supply of blood. The Child is small, and I was only able to harvest a limited amount without killing him. If these experiments are to continue as requested, we would again require access to the donor. I will not disappoint you again, Moff Gideon.”
“ This must be an old transmission. Moff Gideon is dead.” Din said quickly, his hand on my back.
“No. This recording’s three days old.” Mythrol looked at us.
If Gideon’s alive then…”
A stormtrooper spotted us, “Over there!” I quickly shot him.
“We need to get the kid.” I say, looking to Din, in which he nodded.
“Jet back, you’re faster that way. We’ll head to the speeder and meet you in town.” Cara said.
Together, we ran down the hallway, and off to the reactor. I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck and he took off after we shot a few troopers. My hair blew in my face as we sped to Nevarro.
When we landed at the school, I ran in and grabbed the kid, “Hey buddy! Let’s go. Sorry class.” I headed out, looking at the macaroons the Child was holding. “Made friends? Or did you take those?” He burped in response.
Thanks to Din’s great flying, we managed to save the day once again from several TIES. As our trio, we waved goodbye to Cara, Greef and Mythrol, as we headed out to our new destination.
“Thanks Din.” she smiles.
“No thank you. You helped.”
“Anytime.”