The Sabersmith

Chapter 4: The Droid

The next day, I advised General Hux of who was to be my replacement as team leader. Shiloh was the perfect fit for the job, and she'd been working with this same crew for years. The only person on the team who had a problem with my decision was Maddox. Shiloh told me that he was furious. I expected it. This was one of the reasons that he wasn't chosen to be the new leader; his temper was outrageous when he didn't get what he wanted, not to mention he was really condescending when he ever put in charge of someone else. He let any small amount of power get to his head.

I brought BB-9E with me. Well, not exactly my idea entirely; Nine wanted to come with me. I'd grown rather close with our BB unit and loved the idea. The team could easily get a new one, and besides, I figured Nine would be of great help to the Knights and Kylo Ren. He would also be able to help me while I was working on some of the larger weapon systems.

When I arrived back at the Night Buzzard that evening, the Knights looked like they were already inside. Vicrul jogged out, casual attire, which was nothing I'd ever seen on the Knights of Ren before, and grabbed my bag from my arm. His muscles strained through the tight sleeves of his shirt, and I found myself staring for longer than I should have.

"Hey, you pack for rain? There's gonna be a lot of it." His voice caught me off guard.

I chuckled, "Yeah, I did. Thanks."

Ushar came up to me immediately as I entered and hugged me. I wasn't exactly prepared for it, but I awkwardly returned the hug. Before he could say anything—

"Hey, hey, no," a voice said, stirring me from my thoughts.

I turned my head. I didn't recognize his face, but he was... oddly striking. Eye-catching features and blue eyes. I didn't want to be attracted to him, especially not knowing who it was. It could be Kuruk for all I knew. "What 'no?'" I asked back with an attitude.

"That droid can't be in here," he growled and took a step towards me.

"The kriff it can't," I scoffed. "This is BB-9E, and he comes with me. Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot bring?"

The titan of a man stalked up to me and quickly drew a hand around my throat. "I'm your pilot. And I say what belongs on my ship." Kuruk dropped me down, but not only that: he practically tossed me to the ground by my throat. "Get it out."

I choked and coughed, placing a hand on my chest to catch my breath. Ushar quickly came to my aide, of course with his hero-routine as if I was in dire distress, and helped me stand.

When I looked up, Nine was poking him with a variety of tools. Kuruk was smacking them away, up until Nine hit him with the shock prod. I covered my mouth and bit my lip to stifle my laughter, but Ushar was cracking up loudly beside me, and Vicrul started egging on Nine to keep going.

"Fine, fine! Kriffing droid. It can stay. Just keep it away from me. And the furniture. It's almost impossible to get oil out of potolli-weave fabric. We've paid for this ship to look nice." He turned to Vicrul with a stare that could kill. "If it fucks up my ship, I'll make her clean it on her hands and knees." And he made his way towards the cockpit.

As the day continued, it wasn't as tense—or hysterical—as that moment.

Ushar certainly didn't make my job easy today while I was trying to get the ship's weapons set up. He came up to me with two blasters, which had broken triggers and sights that weren't set correctly, and this large warclub, which I didn't have a clue how to fix. I adjusted the sights and reset the triggers on the blasters rather easily, but I told him he'd have to give me the warclub once we were in route to Eadu so that I could take a closer look and fix whatever was wrong with it. I suspected that Ushar was doing this on purpose to try to get my attention. I couldn't be mad about it though. As annoying as it was, he was kind of adorable.