Metanoia | The Mandalorian ON HOLD

Chapter 31

Juno sat on the ground, leaning against Din's legs as he stood behind her, while the child stood next to her, watching as the droids cooked the dragon meat, cooing excitedly. They were all tired from the long day in the desert as they waited for Pli and the contact.

"Hey, don't overcook it, Treadwell. I like it medium rare! I'm not some Rodian, for crying out loud." Exclaimed Peli as she walked outside, joining the small family. She exhaled before speaking again. "All right, here's the deal. A Mandalorian covert is close. It's in this sector, one system trailing."

"Are they the ones that left Nevarro?" Asked Din.

"Don't know. All I know is that the contact will lead you to them." She replied.

"How much will it cost me?" He asked.

"Well, that's the great news. It's free. Aside from a finder's fee, of course." Answered Peli.

"What's the not-great news?" Asked Din suspiciously and Juno rolled her eyes at him. Unfortunately for her, Din noticed it and flicked her slightly on her head at which she looked up and glared at him.

"Nothing. It's all great." Replied Peli.

"Okay." He replied and turned to his kids.

"However, there is one small skank in the scud pie." Said Peli.

"Which is?" He asked.

"The contact wants passage to the system." She explained.

"Do you vouch for them?" He asked.

"On my life." She answered.

"Fine." He said.

"And..." Started Peli again. "No hyperdrive."

"You want me to travel sublight? Deal's off." He said.

"It's one sector over." She argued.

"Moving fast is the only thing keeping us safe." He explained and Juno looked up at him with a frown as she took the child in her arms before he got too close to the fire.

"These are mitigating circumstances." Said Peli.

"What do you mean 'mitigating'?" He asked before a frog woman walked in with a container filled with eggs on her back and Juno stood up, moving closer to Din as she looked at the woman with curiosity. As she approached them, Din moved closer to Peli so that she wouldn't hear them as he spoke. "I'm not a taxi service."

"I know, I know, I hear you. But I can vouch for her." Said Peli as the woman reached them and stood next to her.

"What's the cargo?" He asked and Peli spoke to the woman in her language before she replied.

"It's her spawn. She needs her eggs fertilized by the equinox or her line will end. If you jump into hyperspace, they'll die. She said her husband has settled on the estuary moon of Trask in the system of the gas giant Kol Iben." Explained Peli.

"She said all that?" Asked Juno, frowning with doubt.

"I paraphrased." She replied. Din looked at the kids as he considered his options. He would be risking their safety if he agreed but he needed to find other of his people. As he looked at Juno, he knew right away that she wanted to help the lady, because that's just who she was. A girl with a good heart. So he just sighed and asked Peli.

"Is she sure there are Mandalorians there?" She turned to the frog lady again and they spoke for a few seconds.

"She said her husband has seen them." She translated. They spoke for a moment longer before the woman headed to Din's ship.

Juno smiled at the Mandalorian before she turned and noticed the droids cutting some of the cooked meat. She sat back down next to the child and grabbed some, eating before they would leave the planet, the child cooing as he did the same while Din and Peli continued talking.

"Do you know the husband?" He asked.

"No. I met her ten minutes before you walked in." She replied nonchalantly.

"I thought you said you vouched for her on your life." He said annoyed. A droid carrying a plate with the meat approached them and Peli took some of it.

"What can I say, I'm an excellent judge of character." She said and bit into the meat.

Din sighed and looked down, shaking his head at the woman. Seeing this made Juno chuckle as she ate. Din quickly looked at her and the child as they watched him with big smiles on their faces.

"Finish eating. We have to go." He told them and a few moments later, they said their goodbyes to Peli and found themselves seated in the Razor Crest, flying off the planet. Juno sat in her seat, the frog lady was in the other seat while the child stayed down in the ship as Din piloted.

"Now, I'm gonna ask you to stay strapped in whenever you're seated. Traveling sublight is a bit dicey these days. Whether it's pirates or warlords, someone either ends up with a nice chunk of change or your ship." Explained Din before the lady spoke. "I don't speak whatever language that is. You speak Huttese?" He asked but got no reply, so he tried talking in that language. When he got no response, he sighed and turned back to the controls, but not before he noticed Juno starting to fall asleep. "So, I'm gonna hit the rack. I've set the nav for our course. It's gonna take a while. I recommend you get some rest."

When he stood up, he scooped Juno in his arms. She looked at him confused and half asleep but closed her eyes as he shifted her so he could go down the ladder. He managed to get down and open the door to the bunk and gently laid the girl in her makeshift bed. After the time they spent traveling together, Din managed to make a bed for her next to his and separated them by a curtain so she could have at least some privacy. When she was drifting off and he closed the curtain, he noticed that the child was not there. He turned and saw the child leaning over the opened container with the eggs, bringing one to his mouth.

"No, no, no!" He exclaimed as he rushed to him, but the child slurped the egg before he could reach him. Din quickly closed the lid on the container and grabbed the child. "That is not food. Don't do that again." He scolded him and the child burped. "Nap time."

He walked back to the bunk and set the child into his hammock before laying in his bed, closing the door and falling asleep rather quickly.

~

It was a few hours later when they woke up to a loud beeping. Juno groaned and covered her ears as Din quickly got up and opened the door. "What is that?" She grumbled tiredly.

"Stay here. I'm going to deal with it." He told her as he climbed up to the cockpit. She sighed and turned to her side, closing her eyes again.

She was slowly falling asleep again when the ship started shaking and jolting in different directions. She quickly grabbed onto something and held on tight. Once the shaking stopped, she relaxed and noticed the child near the container so she got up and went to him.

"Come on. Leave them. Let's go up and see what that was about." She barely finished the phrase when the ship shook again, as if it was free falling. This time she had nothing to hold on as she fell on the ground and quickly grabbed the child, keeping him close as she curled up and shut her eyes. When the ship landed, the only thing she felt was a sharp pain in her head before everything went black.