Mandalorian Revived

Chapter 20

"Hey R5," I call over my shoulder from the cockpit. I'm powering up the ship to leave Kalevala while the Mandalorian tends to some issues with Grogu in the refresher, but the ship doesn't sound so good. "Did you run that scan on the ship before we left Mandalore?"

It even feels strange to say it aloud. The little astromech lets out a pointed beep and I glance at the screen on my console to see the translation. I roll my eyes. "What do you mean it looked fine when you checked it over? This thing sounds like an old podracer!"

R5 lets out a series of beeps and I wave him off. Useless droid.

I manage to pull the ship off the ground and back into the atmosphere, but it still sounds pretty beat up. The U-wing squeals when I bring it into open space and send us into hyperspace. I lean back into my seat.

I don't know where to go next.

I start flipping through the planets on my console to see if anything will catch my eye. There's Coruscant, if I wanted to see what's become of the Empire's old capital, or some other core-world planets with contacts of mine I could reach out to. They'd all be Imperial, though. Who knows if any of them are still around? I move further out in the galaxy to some of the mid-rim and outer-rim planets. Naboo looks nice. It's filled with plants and water by the description, and it looks pretty peaceful. I used to want to go to a nice planet like that when I was an apprentice in the Inquisitorius. I never made it there though.

Just as I'm about to calculate what a jump to Naboo would look like from our current position in hyperspace, the console goes dark.

Everything in the ship goes dark and we fall violently from hyperspace.

"R5!" I groan and spin around in my seat. And of course, now that I need the droid's help, he's shut off too.

With a grunt, I hear the Mandalorian pull open the refresher door. It squeals against the automated track that would normally open it. "What happened?"

"We lost power," I answer into the darkness. Here in open space, there's no light at all. "Turns out that droid of mine isn't so good after all."

A crackly sigh through the modulator is the only response.

Grogu squeals into the darkness and I don't bother suppressing the slight smile on my face. They can't see it anyway. "At least someone thinks this is exciting."

The Mandalorian climbs carefully up into the cockpit. "I stocked your ship with a few emergency lanterns not long ago. They should be down here somewhere..." I listen as he digs around in a small compartment below the console.

After a few moments, a click sounds and suddenly we're bathed in a soft, dim light. He clicks on a second lantern, leaving one in the cockpit while he sets the other on the long bench in the main hangar.

I scoot down onto the cockpit floor and sit on the edge, letting my legs dangle over the space in the main hangar below. Grogu waddles over to sit beside me on the edge and I give him a little wave. He mimics the movement.

"This should get us enough light to get around." The Mandalorian pulls open one of the side panels on the ship and scans the controls. "Other than that, we're pretty much dead in space."

"I could've told you that."

He spares me a glance before sitting down on the bench. He hauls R5's heavy body over to him and starts to look the droid over. "I'll see if he has any kind of emergency power reserves."

I press my palms into the floor and lean back on my arms, frowning at the Mandalorian. He has to keep his face pretty close to the droid and dull lantern to see anything. "You know, you might see better if you didn't have the helmet in the way. I don't think we have an immediate threat right now if you want to take it off."