For a long moment, the ceiling didn’t speak back. Aelyn wondered if she’d simply imagined the stream of curses. Perhaps she had hit her head in the explosion. Perhaps all the damn sand was fouling her brain like so many circuits—except, no, the ceiling was finally talking back. Admittedly, what the ceiling (or rather, the sentient in it), was saying was all sorts of strange, but Aelyn felt at least a little reassured that she wasn’t going entirely mad.

The grate swung open. Aelyn made a sound of surprise, stumbling back and wobbled dangerously. It was a true stroke of luck that she didn’t fall. Right—standing on a cluttered workbench in heels was officially a Bad Idea. She had barely scrambled off her bench when a very [i]red[/i] Twi’lek dropped from the grate and landed on her workshop floor. 

“Oh, [i]wow[/i].”

Aelyn Krael had been all over the galaxy in her life, from Coruscant to Bastion to Nar Shaddaa, whether aboard an Imperial Destroyer or a Raider’s frigate. Both lives had surrounded her with a huge variety of sentients; she was no stranger to Twi’lek. She’d studied alongside several back on the [i]Acheron[/i] and Orn’aris had been her first real friend among the Raiders. But Aelyn was sure, in twenty six years of life, she would have remembered seeing a [i]red[/i] Twi’lek. In her opinion, there were far too few red sentients—every other species seemed to be varying shades of brown or blue or green. Which were all fine, she supposed, but it did make finding non-clashing clothes a pain. 
	
Aelyn realized rather belatedly that she was staring. 

“I’m sorry, what?” She blinked hard. Her day had become very strange indeed. She’d never had a Twi’lek jump out of her ceiling before. Her brain finally processed the woman’s question, and the mention of work made her jump. In her excitement, she’d forgotten all about her patient! “Ah! 2-BB! Are you okay? I’m so sorry, um, Remy!” Remy bobbed over her shoulder, beeping and chirring excitedly. “Put in a requisition order from IA for a new bioinjector. Put a rush on it. Yes, I’ll cover the fee, just get it here ASAP! Oh, 2-BB…”

“I feel nothing,” the droid reminded her blandly. Aelyn stamped her foot, exhaling sharply through her nose.

“Kark! I know! Just… ugh!” She threw up her hands in defeat, whirling back on the Twi’lek. Aelyn wanted nothing more than to slice the poor droid here and now and unlock its autonomy. Few people liked having unshackled droids, however, and she knew from experience that the stunt was a fast ticket to getting a bounty stuck on her head. Aelyn took a deep breath. Everything was out of sorts. Her hydrospanner! She snatched it from the floor, and then hurriedly began trying to clean up. Remy dwoo'ed morosely.

“Right, okay. Hi. Sorry, I'm a bit scattered today-- what did you need?”