Redemtion

The Mantis

-dream flashback-

'Please don't leave me.' 

Your own eleven year old voice echoed in your unconscious mind as you slept restlessly.

'I am always with you.'

-dream flashback end-

You awoke with a sad sigh. It had been five years, yet still, the memory haunted you.

You rolled out of your stiff bed and dressed in your work clothes, a grey jumpsuit covered in grease and dirt. You did your hair so it would be out of the way while you worked. You grabbed an over-ripe jondel fruit from your counter for breakfast before leaving your small housing unit. 

The morning air was cold and the smell of the city was revolting, a mixture of burnt rubber and plastic as well as other garbage, and meat packing factories.

Your work was several blocks away, but you didn't have nearly enough creds for an airspeeder. You hardly had enough to provide yourself with food, let alone shelter. So walking was your only option. You hated Corellia.

You arived at work and checked in. 

"You're late." Your boss grumbled.

"Sorry." You apologized as you walked towards your station.

"You're lucky I don't dock you pay for your tardiness." He scoffed with his arms crossed infront of his chest. 

"Not like you pay me much anyway." You muttered under your breath, grabbing your tools and moving to the trader's ship you'd been working on repairing for the past couple of days. 

It was almost finished. It just needed a few wire replacements and some system recalibrations. Hopefully when you finished, your boss would let you off early.

You spent a little over an hour working on the finishing touches, even giving the ship a nice polishing off.

Just as you finished, another ship landed in one of the docking sites. Your boss went over to greet the owner. 

You couldn't see anything wrong with the ship from the exterior, but perhaps there could be some mechanical or control issues. You hoped your boss would choose one of your other coworkers and just let you go home. 

"Hey Y/n! Get over here!" He called to you. You rolled your eyes, grabbing a cloth, using it to wipe the grease off your hands as you walked over to the new client.

"This guy's got a problem with his hyperdrive." Your boss informed you. Despite your annoyance of having to work, you decided it should be a quick fix.

"I'll check it out. See what I can do." You smiled at a short man with four arms and a grumpy looking face, who you presumed was the owner. 

"Thanks. Follow me." He grumbled. You followed him into his ship and saw two other people standing around a holo-table looking at a map of something. "Welcome aboard the Mantis."

One was a woman, the other a boy. He looked to be about your age. His hair was his most striking feature, a bright reddish-orange colour. He locked eyes with you momentarily. You felt a strange feeling of familiarity, something you hadn't felt in a long time. 

You looked away and followed the man into the cockpit.

"Alright, so what seems to be the problem?" You asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Just uh, have a look, tell me what you find. I'm gonna go talk to the crew." The man said.

"Alright. Sounds good." You nodded, beginning to examine the controls.