The Mandalorian

Chapter 12: The Siege

At first Estella found the irritation that Din had for the shabby repairs amusing, but now the mass array of ropes and netting was starting to irk her too. Together they had removed as much as they could without damaging the ship further and were repairing as much as possible while they slowly drifted through space. 

They had tried all sorts to get the thrusters working at full speed, Estella was attempting to redirect power towards the thrusters but so far it was proving impossible and everything else they had tried had failed.

Din had stopped and was looking at the kid, thinking whatever idea had popped into his head over. Suddenly he walked over to the kid and muttered something about having him go inside the walls of the ship and change over some wires.

"It's not gonna work." Estella called over in a musical tone. Her eyes never left the control panel as she fiddled about with the wiring underneath. He glanced in her direction, watching her sit on the floor with a frown of concentration on her face as she untangled the mess of wires that she desperately was trying to organise and fix. Din looked back at the kid in his arms.

"Of course it's gonna work, isn't that right kid?" But the child let out an unsure squeak and looked over to the small area that he was expected to climb through. Din explained it one more time to him, being sure to not confuse him too much and only tell him bit by bit what was expected from him. "Go on, you've got this. Like I said just crawl over to that panel." He was kneeling down, peering through the gap and pointing to the panel in question. The little one looked up at Din before a little look of determination crossed his face and he pulled himself from Din's arms and into the walls. 

The kid clumsily crawled through, careful not to catch any wires on himself before coming to a halt before where he was needed. His big eyes looked over the confusing wiring and he looked back at his Mandalorian, the determination now becoming unsure. "Good, right now grab that blue wire and pull it out." 

"Can he even see colours the same way we can?" Estella called out over her shoulder and Din hesitated. Neither of them knew but when the kid grabbed hold of the blue one and yanked it a little. Din was satisfied enough to think that he could. 

"Good job! Now find the red wire and pull out that one, then put the red one where the blue one was." He didn't give the kid a chance to protest and his little squeaks of concern were lost. Din walked back to the cockpit and sat in his chair, nudging Estella with his legs as he did so. She gave out a feigned huff of annoyance as she shoved his legs away from her back.

"This is why we aren't getting anything done." Shaking her head she directed her attention back on the wiring, ignoring the smirk that he undoubtedly had hidden under his helm. He leaned over her, flicking switches and pushing buttons, readying the redirection of power. He sighed, suddenly not so confident. 

"All right, let's try this again." Looking above him he flicked yet another switch before turning back to where the kid was in the walls. "Okay, did you... Do you have the wire?" His question was met by an unsure squawk that echoed throughout the ship. Joining the symphony of unsure, the ship now let out the beeping of an alarm, telling them that the redirection of power had failed and the kid had not put the red wire in place. Din shut off the alarm and nudged Estella again when she let out a small laugh. "No. Nothing." 

"I did say..." She allowed her eyes to be pulled from the wires before her and looked up at the Mandalorian that sat in the pilot seat behind her. It wasn't that she didn't believe in the little one, it was more the fact that he was a kid with confusing instructions thrust upon him. Din gave her another affectionate nudge before turning to the child once more. 

"Hey... oh." Realising that the child would need more guidance he stood back up, walking over to where the kid was and knelt down to look inside. The child had pulled out the blue wire and was holding the red one in his other hand. "Okay. Did you get the wire out? The red wire?" The little one held up the blue one, a little squeak of "Huh?" Echoed through the walls.