Ginger Gears

Latitude

Rose wiped the sweat running down from her forehead away with the back of her hand. She put the hydro-spanner into her mouth and leaned down on the small rectangle hole in the floor. Behind her she could hear a mouse droid scurrying past her with its tell-tale beeping.

She opened the top-most button of her dark grey First Order uniform. Finally she saw the chips she was looking for. With a few quick movements she had pulled them out of the energy node and replaced them with chips from her pocket.

Suddenly a male voice rang out. "What are you doing, specialist?"

Rose got up; there was a fair-skinned middle-aged captain standing in front of her. His uniform was of course impeccable, even if he was sporting a rather large belly. She was painfully aware of the open button on her uniform and started to fumble to close it.

"I'm repairing the heating system in this hallway, sir."

"A little heat is no excuse to neglect uniform regulations." He eyed her from head to toe. "You're one of these- these civilian workers, aren't you?"

Rose had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. A little heat? 40° C in full uniform isn't just a little heat. "Yes sir."

He lifted his chin. "Name?"

"Rose Phan, sir."

"Carry on, Specialist Phan."

"Yes sir."

The man gave her one last haughty look and strutted away. Damn, another demerit. If she had learned anything in the past month it was that First Order officers loved to find flaws and report them. And despite her best efforts she always seemed go against regulations.

She sighed and knelt down to close the small opening on the floor. When Poe had suggested that she would go undercover in the First Order she had known that it wasn't going to be a heroic job – not like in the holo novels she used to read. But to think that she would be bored ... actually bored and not challenged the slightest by the menial work.

Paige had protested, argued that Rose wasn't exactly spy material. Rose smiled a little when she thought about her sister. She had been right of course. But they didn't need a spy master – they needed someone who knew First Order tech and was able to read blueprints.

They had kept it simple, she had chosen her mother's maiden name as cover and she posed as civilian worker from Hays Minor trying to make a few credits for her family.

She walked towards the turbo lift and did her best to avoid glances from officers.

"Another demerit?" asked Lieutenant Chitundu. "Damn it, Phan. Are you actually trying to get me demoted?"

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant." Rose really was. Chitundu was actually reasonable, ambitious but reasonable.

"I guess that's what happens when you put civilians in military units." She sighed. "At least you're a good worker, Phan."

Rose wasn't sure how to respond and remained silent.

Chitundu scrolled through her pad. "Well, we got another complaint about the climate control on deck 37 – get to it."

"Yes sir." Rose checked her pad – as expected she had forwarded the form with the complaint.

She headed back to the turbo lift and looked over the description of the problem. She was pretty sure that it was another chip failure. She frowned. It was odd how many chips burned out in the last couple of weeks. It was strange ... contrary to the resistance the First Order had top notch gear, state of the art tech and still they burned through chips faster than them.