A Life Without Meaning

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕟𝕤𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣 (𝕀𝕀)

The two climbed back into the Crest, moving to gather their supplies. When they reached the top of the ramp, the Mandalorians' well trained eyes instantly realized that there was something amiss. Running across the hull, Ellia watched as he stopped in front of an open, empty safe room.

The child was nowhere to be seen. Only the blanket he had been wrapped in remained behind.

The Mandalorian immediately turned to storm back down the ramp.

"Hey!" he shouted gruffly.

There was a brief commotion, followed by muffled shouts of "I'm awake! I'm awake!"

Ellia ran down the ramp after the Mandalorian, who was now standing intimidatingly over a pit droid.

"Where is he?" the masked-man barked. But the droid simply folded up in fear.

"Quiet! Oh..." the mechanic's voice cooed as she walked out of her office. In her hands, the small woman was carrying the now crying, green child. Ellia let out a small sigh of relief. She sushed the child a few more times before turning and glaring up at the Mandalorian. "You woke it up! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get it to sleep?"

"Give him to me" the Mandalorian ordered dangerously. Ellia found herself grabbing his arm out of instinct, afraid he would just as quickly turn and blast the woman to bits.

"Not so fast!" the mechanic yelled again, "You can't just leave a child all alone like that. You know...you've got an awful lot to learn about raising a young one."

The Mandalorian fell silent, and Ellia let her hand fall from his arm as the child looked back up at the curly-haired woman with a sweet smile.

"Anyway. I started the repair on the fuel leak." she said, pressing a few buttons on the data machine that was rolled out to the bottom of the ramp. It didn't seem to cooperate at first, and the woman resorted to punching the side a few times with her free hand. Meanwhile, the Mandalorian disappeared into the ship for a second, grabbing his go-bag. "I had a couple setbacks I wanna talk to you about. You know I didn't use any droids as requested, so it took me a lot longer than I expected. But I figured you were good for the money since you have an extra mouth to feed."

As if knowing that they were talking about him, the child cooed.

"Thank you" the Mandalorian said suddenly. He then glanced over at where Ellia stood by his side, before turning and heading towards the far exit of the hangar. She immediately moved to follow, obeying his silent order.

"Oh!" the mechanic shouted in surprise as she followed the two out. "I guess I was right. You got a job, didn't you? You know it's costing me a lot of money to keep these droids even powered up."

Stepping out of the doorway, they were greeted by the sight of Toro, gesturing to the two speeder bikes he was standing in between.

"Hey, Mando. Whaddya think?" he asked snarkily "Not too shabby, huh?"

Ellia's eyes narrowed as she watched the younger man's gaze fall across her form. Meanwhile the Mandalorian had ignored him completely, dropping his bag on the back of one of the speeders before walking around it skeptically.

"Whaddya expect?" Toro mumbled, "This ain't Corellia" he then glanced over oddly at where the mechanic and the child stood before finally walking over to his speeder and sliding on.

Ellia barely had time to take a step forward, when the young hunters sickly voice sounded once more,

"Hey sweetheart" he called out. Ellia felt the skin below her collar burn. "Wanna ride with me?" he asked.