The Eclipse
Delni slowly opened her eyes, only to immediately and painfully regret that choice. She ended up staring straight up at one of the lights, then quickly pulled her hands up over her eyes to shield them from it. “Ahhhrg.” She groaned.
With her eyes still closed, she sat up on the edge of the bed and took her time in getting her bearings. She took the time to simply breathe, and think back on what she had been doing before. She remembered drinking quite clearly, if it was not obvious enough. Then, she remembered going, or being carried, rather, to her room. Then, her sister left on a job, something that came up rather suddenly. Recalling the details, she slowly turned her head and reached out beside her to grab the medicine that she remembered her sister setting out for her. Except, it was not there. She just ended up grabbing at the air, and after opening her eyes just slightly, she realized that she was not where she thought she had been.
Anxiety grew within her as more memories came to mind. She recalled making a call to Elias, then… “Oh, wait! Did I…” In a near panic, she looked around the room, ignoring the pain of doing so, but found that she was alone. She also did not see any...evidence that she had gone through with anything. “Thank the Force.” She muttered with a long sigh.
Elias hadn’t rested in the ways he probably should have during the course of the hyperspace voyage, as he’d slept just before Besh had dropped this blasted job on him. Instead, he had been working on ways to get them out of the Hutt’s hair before it realized that the smuggler who’d set his slaves free and never delivered them was going to be paying a visit. It was a risk that he had been trying to avoid, and of course it would be Koren who lands him there otherwise. Sighing, he was in the cockpit when the console beeped at him. Taking a seat in the pilot’s chair, he drops them out of hyperspace and sets the
Eclipse into a holding pattern while he went to grab a couple of special grenades from the stash in his room.
Hitting the button, he finds Delni, the Togruta from the bar, sitting on his bed looking around with a relieved look on her face. Elias, on the other hand, could only groan as what they had arranged to meet up for raced back to him.
“Of COURSE, this would happen when it’s too late to turn back!” This was, of course, shouted loud enough that Sol would be able to hear the lament.
Since she had been given enough time to recall the position she had put herself in, Delni was not as alarmed as she might have been when the door opened. She jumped slightly at the sound, then slowly managed to look up at Elias while holding her hand up just above her eyes to block out some of the light. Her first thoughts as to what had likely happened was that he had found her passed out on his bed and just decided to wait around until she woke up. It would have been a terribly embarrassing situation, naturally, but it was one she would have taken a thousand times over compared to reality.
“Huh...what, wait? ‘Turn back’? Aren’t we...what the hell do you mean?” She asked, her voice quickly growing in volume.
Sol lifted his head up from the groan he heard, having just sat down after finding himself looking through the ship. His warrior instincts honed to a razor’s edge, he snapped to as soon as the noise was heard and carefully, dangerously marched out of the guest quarters with his gun held by hip fire, walking with his feet almost separate from his upper body by the way he moved.
...Only for him to lower his gun in a deadpan “...” when he saw the Togruta from the bar atop the younger Mando’s bed.
“Do you bring your girls on jobs all of the time?” Sol’id asked, cutting through the tension of the moment. He seemed annoyed at the prospect of an unexpected guest, particularly if his fellow Mando had done it deliberately.
Elias realized that as his guest, who he’d not actually intended to do anything with while she was drunk, was fully unaware that he was on a job for Koren and could only barely stand the annoyance in Sol’s voice and he realized quite immediately that he was not going to have a good day. So he started with Delni.
”Look, after we got done talking, I was on my way here when Koren’s droid, Besh I think, stopped me and gave me a job from the man himself. Soon as he said it was from Koren himself, I sorta, well,” he glanced from his fellow Mandalorian to Delni,
”forgot about you. So, Sol’id, I didn’t do this on purpose. And Delni, well….you’re going to have to hang out here until I finish the job.”Delni did not maintain as much calm as Elias. In fact, there was very little about her that was even approaching being calm at the moment. “What? Oh no. Oh, no no no. That, uh, that can’t be right. I can’t...be somewhere else. You…” She began, her eyes narrowing squarely onto Elias. “You invited me here. You invited me, then you just...left? What!? You...karking, lying, manipulating, no good...son of a mynock! How do you just...leave? With me! You basically just kidnapped me! I have to get back to Paradise. I can’t just go off on some crazy dangerous job with some guy that would apparently forget his own head if it wasn’t attached!”
Sol’id did not know just how to take this. He solved most of his problems through intimidation and killing, but…
“I should have taken the Hammer.” He sighed, referring to his own ship still upon the waystation at Koren’s. He stood at the center of the doorway, shouldering his gun but not moving as the two continued.
Elias growled in slight anger at the insult.
”Woman, have you ever dealt with Koren himself after he’s found some reason to be pissed off at you? And then he gives you a job with the money to hire extra help and has his droid tell you that it’s a hint and that he’s not happy wit you? No? Then shut the hell up. I forgot about this because I wasn’t about to piss off one of the most dangerous non-Hutts in ALL of Hutt space!” He took a deep breath before continuing, trying to keep his suddenly rising temper in check. This was not the first impression he wanted to give Sol’id.
”Look, I apologize for unintentionally kidnapping you, wasn’t the plan when I invited you to my ship. In all honesty, I was going to keep you out of trouble while your sister was gone, since I’ve had my fair share of drunken escapades while under the influence of Mandalorian Ale. All I’m asking you to do is once we touch down on Circumtore, you stay low and out of sight. Then we’ll make the drop at Near Pando and go back. Then we can forget this escapade and call it a day. I’ll even give you some of the credits as an apology.”Delni had already been fuming, and Elias’ shouting response certainly did not help matters. She shouted right back at him, sometimes over him. “Have I dealt with Koren? No, but I can also say I’ve never
accidentally kidnapped someone! Because I’ll say, that takes a pretty special kind of stupid, and...ahhrg.” She interrupted herself, bringing her hands up to her temple. The shouting was definitely not doing wonders for her headage. “Blazes, my head…”
The interruption was enough for Delni to give Elias a chance to speak more calmly. She wanted to blame Elias for this completely. However, while there was no way she was going to admit it out loud she was still beating herself up for her own stupidity in getting herself in this mess in the first place. Passing out drunk in a strange man’s ship was not her best move, she had to admit. She pulled her head down, keeping her hands pressed against her forehead. This was not where she wanted to be: stuck who-knew-how-many light years away from Paradise, away from her sister, in a tiny nightgown. In fact, looking down at herself, she was just starting to realize that the garment was a bit more revealing than she was comfortable with at the moment. It was not meant to be taken in public, in any case.
The powerful Mandalorian vet at the back watched the exchange between them, and the new relative calm. He regarded Elias for a moment, and thought he had never been in this situation, he’d been in plenty of situations where the unexpected became reality. Wordlessly, he reached into his utility belt where most of his equipment was housed, and he pulled out one of his smaller stimpaks. Unknown to most, they weren’t just healers, but also pain medication. He wouldn’t use them as such, but if it defused the situation further so they could get back to the job...
Sol’id Fist stepped forward, walking past Elias for a moment, and holding his hand out to Delni with the stimpak in it. “It’s a small enough dose for it to help your head.” He explained. If she accepted it, her dainty hand would look utterly small compared to his large hand. He looked to Elias after, and continued. “I’ll be out near the exit bay. Meet me when you’re ready.”
Without another word, he marched out of the room and into the hallway, the only sign of him getting further away were the booted steps that seemed to diminish with every one.
Delni did not have any particular reason to be angry at the larger Mandalorian. Though, she certainly had every reason to be afraid of him. He was heavily armed, heavily armored, and she had no idea who he was. She was already experiencing the consequences of trusting one stranger, but on the other hand, he did not seem the type to resort to tricking someone. If he had the mind to hurt her somehow, she had a feeling that she would see it coming. Hesitantly, she took the stimpack in her hand, but did not yet make any move to use it.
Elias sighed as Sol spoke and nodded.
”Yeah, right. I’ll be there soon, ship just needs to be given landing vectors.” After he left, silence ruled in the room as Elias walked over to a wall panel that wasn’t readily apparent and retrieved a couple of cryoban grenades along with a couple Ion ones. Couldn’t hurt to be prepared. Turning to the Togruta, he kept his eyes firmly on hers, not wanting to make the situation seem worse.
”Look, I know I screwed up. If this were anything but a screw up, I wouldn’t blame you for feeding me to your sister later. But this was an accident and I promise to make it up to you somehow. Fair?”Delni finally responded with something besides anger, even if it was just a sarcastic laugh. “You act like I’d even be able to stop my sister after
this.” She commented, following with a long breath. “Look, I guess...this isn’t
completely your fault. Mostly your fault, definitely, but I shouldn’t have passed out here. I shouldn’t have drunkenly decided to try and go sleep with some guy I barely know. Now...I just don’t even know anymore.”
Holding up the stimpack, she stared at it for a few moments before finally pressing the end of it against her arm. “This had better not be more drugs.” She muttered before injecting its contents. There was no point in refusing; if they wanted to do something to her, she doubted she would be able to stop them. That fact alone made her feel almost sick to her stomach.
After a moment, she glanced to the bed and noticed her datapad near its edge. The stimpack was quite quick to act, so she was starting to feel well enough to be able to look at something bright. “At least I have this. Maybe I can message my sister, let her know what is going on. Though I have no idea where she is, or if she is in any position to get the message. So am I really going to be just sitting here in this ship waiting on you for hours?” She asked.
Elias was still securing his grenades when she asked and he shrugged.
”Unless you feel like pretending to be part of a smuggler’s crew. One of my old crew members was a Togruta and when she moved on from smuggling, she left all her old clothes behind. Haven’t had a crew since, so I haven’t cleaned out her dresser. Although...I’m not sure anything she had is much more modest than what you’re wearing now.”Delni tilted her head slightly to the side. “A Togruta? Well that’s...convenient. Anything about my size would do, of course, but still. My sister has always said I’m a lucky one, I guess.” She replied. “I mean...I’m not going to be going out on your job with you. I, uh, I don’t know how to fight. I can’t shoot. Well, my sister says I can shoot pretty well for someone with no real training, but still. I’ve never been in a fight; I can’t go out being a smuggler. Still, I would like to at least get dressed. It would be so nice to have a shirt, some pants, and, um...underwear.” She said with a rather bashful expression.
Nodding his understanding, Elias leads her to the dresser the clothes were in and heads back out, pausing in the doorway.
”Being part of the crew, you wouldn’t have to talk. All the same, I’d stay on the ship.” Closing the door behind himself, Elias heads to the cockpit and sets course on the provided landing vectors. Now if they could just get this done without having to shoot anyone, the day might go just a little bit better…”[/color]
Delni spent some time in the room, perhaps more than Elias might have expected. Still, she did eventually emerge, and by her stomping feet, she still was not quite happy, not to mention still barefoot. She marched up behind him in the cockpit and leaned onto the back of the co-pilot’s chair with a distinctly frustrated sigh. “Was she a smuggler, or a stripper?” She remarked. “Somehow even smaller than me. Shoes didn’t fit. I think she put holes in this vest on purpose, and these shorts are barely longer than my nightgown.”
Delni pushed off of the chair and looked back down at her datapad. “Whatever. It’s not that bad; I’m just...frustrated. Look, um, Elias. I know neither of us wanted this, so let’s just get it over with so we can go home. I don’t like the idea of being stuck here in the ship with no idea what’s going on, but I will stay here. Can I contact you on that number you gave me if something goes wrong here? Is there anything I can do from here to make this go faster, or at least giving myself a better chance to get back home alive? I’m pretty good with computers, if that helps.”
Elias chuckles at the way she opens the conversation and gives her a genuine smile, which is somehow more charming than his charming smile.
”She enjoyed being a visual distraction when the situation called for it. And by she enjoyed it, I mean she called dibs on the spot whenever plans were laid out. She actually went on to become a professional dancer, so there is that.”As she continued speaking, Elias ran through things in his head before nodding to himself at the mention of being good with computers, the timing being good as the ship touched down.
”There’s a couple of auto turrets that need activated and I’m going to want you monitoring the guards on their frequencies. That keeps you in the ship and in direct contact with me. Don’t worry though, I won’t be going too far anyways.”“I...think I can do that, actually. Yeah. As long as your ship has all the right equipment, of course. I remember trying to listen in on conversations like that back on Nar Shaddaa. You know...for fun.” Delni replied. She was actually surprised that there was something meaningful she could actually do, and it would at least beat sitting around with no idea what was happening. “Yeah, just, uh, show me to the terminal, show me what I need, and I’ll do what I can.”
It helped that Delni had come to him in the cockpit, and after a few minutes, she was shown how to do what he had asked of her, and he was walking down the loading ramp with Sol in tow.
”I’ll do the talking, get us out of here as quick as I can. Shouldn’t take too long.”
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