Ginger Gears

Improving Droids

Back in her quarters she grabbed a cool beer from the fridge and sat down on her bed. She leaned against the wall and opened the can. She stared at the opposite wall. Were she to write a report for Poe about this day, she wouldn't know how to describe what had happened in the lab.

'Hux admitted that he liked to spend his time inventing everyday items because building weapons was too easy'? Or perhaps 'Hux doesn't seem insane'? Every time she thought she had understood the man he disproved her.

She took a big sip. The beer tasted good, she hadn't realised that she had been thirsty.

Her thoughts returned to Hux. A successful general, a skilled engineer who oversaw the WDD – one could think he should boast of his many accomplishments, arrogantly look down on people like her ... get angry when she proved to be smarter than he.

Then why did he look tired and unjoyful? Spend his nights alone in a lab. And he had volunteered a lot of information about him. If she didn't know better she would've thought that he was lonely. But it couldn't be, could it?

Hux was supposed to be an obsessed fanatic, a droid with no human emotion. She emptied the bottle of beer with one last sip and wiped her mouth. It was of course easier if one could picture one's enemies as evil entities without a shred of humanity. But in the end they were all sentient beings.

She got up and threw the bottle in the trash chute. Then she undressed and went into the sonic shower.

Either way she had made progress. She just had to keep helping him with his projects – as talkative as he was he was bound to let something slip about the weapons programmes he was overseeing.

All she needed was time.

"Where were you yesterday?" asked Tarc.

Sarith slowly ate his stew and crooked an eyebrow. "She's sad that she couldn't con you out of your salary at Sabbacc."

Tarc chortled. "Can't blame a girl for trying to make a quid."

Rose pushed her tray with the leftovers of her dinner away. "I was busy – after all the over time I would've been in the mood for Sabbacc anyway."

"Busy you say? Who is the lucky gal or lad?" asked Tarc.

She could feel heat creeping up her cheeks. "It wasn't a date." Stars! Why was she blushing? The thought of her and Hux was so ... she couldn't even think about it.

"Aha! So you were seeing somebody!"

"Contrary to what Tarc here thinks – you don't own us any explanation," said Sarith and side-eyed Tarc.

Knowing Tarc she wouldn't rest until she heard a bit of gossip. Rose exhaled. "Just a guy down in WDD. He was working on some project and I helped him finish it. And no, it wasn't like that – we just worked together for a bit."

Tarc leaned forward. "Was he at least good-looking?"

Rose scoffed. "Nope."

"Ugh, how boring!"

Sarith wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Not everything is about sex and entertainment, you know."

"Hey, I'm not that single-minded!"

They started to bicker and Rose relaxed; Tarc was distracted. Not that she blamed her – gossip was a huge part of their past-time after all.

She glanced at her chronometer. She would wait an hour and then go down to the WDD. She could of course skip an evening ... but what was the point? She might as well show Hux that she was interested in working on other projects with him. Perhaps he would open up a little more today?