All eyes were on Luna. Sweat beaded down her forehead.
'Gentle beings,' said Face, standing beside her, 'welcome to the first day of your new lives as pirates.'
Face gave her a not so gentle nudge. She very stiffly bowed. When she looked up, she caught Cora's eye. Cora whistled. Luna's face burned.
'I've sent each of you dossiers on your new identities, which you'll find on your datapds,' continued Face. 'Learn them. Outside of this ship, we are not to use real names. On missions we will use our callsigns. If we go planetside, we are who and what our dossiers say we are. If any of us are captured, we must stick to our new identities.' he became stern as he said the next few words. 'The First Order does not look kindly on pirates, but a pirate may just be sent to some prison colony. Spies will be shot.'
An uneasy silence settled over large round table in the front salon. It was finally broken by Ro'vena saying, 'Okay, everyone! Time for some dress up!' in a cheerful tone, and at once the spell was broken. 'As you can see with our lovely volunteer-'
'I was ordered,' interrupted Luna.
'Our lovely volunteer,' continued Ro'vena, is sporting a new look. Gone are the hideously drab New Republic flight suits. Now we have,' she paused, looking Luna up and down. 'Sunflower yellow?'
Luna blushed again, her dark brown skin turning puce. 'It was the only thing that fit.' she said, which was a lie. When she was told to pick out new clothes, she had immediately picked the bright yellow bomber jacket. Not because it fit - it was actually a bit too small for her - but because she had once seen a photo of a young Luke Skywalker wearing a yellow jacket after an award ceremony. She lifted a hand to run through her hair, forgetting that she had also shaved one side of her hair off. She flinched, unused to the spiky sensation. It was weird, but with the rest of her hair still reaching down to the middle of her back, without that one side there, her balance seemed strangely off. She realised she was fiddling with her fingers and she put her hands behind her back, trying to project a calm, professional demeanour. She looked at Cora again, and her smile put her at ease.
'Now, then,' said Face, and Luna breathed a sigh of relief because it meant she would no longer be the sole focus of everyone's attention. 'It's not just my second in command getting a makeover. Ka'iulani has also volunteered for this demonstration-'
'Face, I am going to murder you,' said Ka'iulani, stepping into the salon, every step an exclamation in anger.
'Ah,' said Face, backing away slowly, and Luna could understand why. The tall woman whose flightsuit was personally designed so that it could pass as haute couture, was now dressed in rags, put together pieces of mismatched clothes. She looked terrifying. Ka'iulani marched over to Face.
'Sacrifices must be made,' Face spoke soothingly, waved his hands in what was apparently an attempt at a calming gesture. To his credit, he had stopped trying to back away and was standing his ground. This only meant that there was now barely an inch between them, and the inch was occupied by an aggressively pointed finger.
'I am a princess,' she growled. 'I do not wear second-hand rags from some sweaty pirate.'
'If I remember correctly,' said Face, 'wasn't your grandmother a pirate?'
Everyone gasped. The salon was so quiet you could hear Ka'iulani vibrate with rage.
'Welp,' said Ro'vena, 'it was nice knowing you, Face.'
'Sleep with one eye open,' she growled, then stalked off to a spare seat at the table. She slammed her feet onto the table, crossed her arms in a way that seemed to convey that she was imagining wrapping her arms around Face's neck in an altogether more fatal embrace.
'Anyhoo!' said Ro'vena brightly, 'The purpose of this exercise is so that you look as little as the career professionals that you are and more like a band of individuals, unproffesional pirates, and - Vix, why are you shirtless?'
Vix Horne, the buff Devaronian, stepped into the salon, wearing tight white trousers, black boots, and nothing else. He leaned against the bulkhead. 'I'm just giving the people what they want.' he winked at her, then settled into a chair at the front, legs spread wide, arms behind his head. For some reason, he was facing the rest of the Nexus, rather than Face and Ro'vena. 'Go ahead and look,' he said. 'You know you want to.' Behind him, Face buried his face in his hands.
Luna stepped forward. 'The point of this exercise,' she said, swallowing hard, 'is, as Ro'vena said, to become a person again. We're taught in the military to become part of a team, something bigger than just one person.' she paused. 'And that's still true. This is a big job, and the only way we're going to pull it off is by doing this together.'
'That's right,' said Face, stepping forward. 'Very well said, Luna. We're all in this together, but you all are extremely talented individuals, and when I made this squadron, it was to also embrace the uniqueness that every one of us brings to the table, because it's our differences that make us stronger, together. And it's with those two qualities combined that I hope to bring devastation to the First Order.' he paused, then grinned. 'And who's to say we can't look good doing it?'
'I already did,' snarled Ka'iulani.
'I for one am glad I can show off my talents,' said Vix, flexing one pec, then the other. He winked at Tarrik, who blushed and looked away.
Face's hand covered his face again. 'Go,' he said, 'go get changed. And then we can start bringing the fight to the First Order.'
'How?' said a little voice, and Face looked around in confusion.
'Who said that?' he asked. Slowly, Zatt stood up. She was barely taller standing than some of the others were sitting.
'I was wondering,' she said tremulously, 'what exactly is our mission? You haven't really told us anything.'
Face nodded. 'That's true,' he said. 'That partly for security reasons. If one of us is captured, we can't give up what we don't know. But I will say this: I mean to go into First Order space and cause a ruckus. Attack everything we see, stir up their nests, destroy what we can.'
'Boom?' Kay perked up.
'Boom,' agreed Face.
'But won't the First Order just send a large force against us?' asked Cora. 'Try to wipe us out?'
A slow, mischievous grin spread across Face's visage. 'I'm counting on it.'
