The Artist and the Jedi - Sabezra Oneshots

Flight Lessons

Set during season one.

Summary – After bragging that he would obviously be the best pilot in the crew when he learnt how to fly, Hera reluctantly sends Sabine and Chopper out to teach him in the Phantom...

"Remember what I said, I don't want a single scratch on that ship. Understand? Not a single scratch" Hera's voice rang over the intercom. The Phantom was already in flight, with Sabine taking it gently into the isolated wildlands of Lothal. Hopefully there would be very little air traffic in the endless grassy plains, and few obstacles as well.
"Don't worry Hera, both Chop and I are right here. Everything will be fine" the Mandalorian replied, having heard the same concerns from Hera about a thousand times now. She heard the Twi-Lek sigh over the comms before ultimately giving in.
"Alright...well you kids have fun. And come back safe, I don't want you gone for more than a few hours" Hera responded, the reluctance clear in her tone of voice.
"You got it 'mom'" Sabine answered before deactivating the comms with a shake of her head. She smiled to herself, the Ghost crew was something of a family, and Hera was definitely the mother of the group, worrying about every little thing. The Mandalorian continued to carefully guide the ship past the many mountain spires that encompassed Lothal's vast landscape. Truthfully, she was surprised that Hera had agreed to this, she knew how much Hera cared about her ship, and her 'kids' as well of course. Perhaps Ezra's childish boasting about being the 'best pilot in the galaxy' despite not knowing the first thing about flying had gotten to her.
"Are we nearly there?" Ezra asked impatiently from the passenger hold. Sabine rolled her eyes and didn't bother gracing him with an answer. The padawan sat there and sighed loudly, tapping his feet against the floor in boredom. He was eager to learn, and honestly needed the distraction from all of Kanan's Jedi training. Doing something normal like learning to fly would be a nice break, and a chance to spend some quality time with his favourite Mandalorian. Today, his plan was to excel at piloting almost straight away and impress Sabine in that sense. He'd learn to fly, which he'd been meaning to do for a while now anyway, and he'd get to woo Sabine at the same time. This plan had no downside...

Twenty minutes of impatience and boredom later, Sabine finally pulled down on the flight sticks, causing the Phantom to descend down into a small clearing in the centre of endless fields of grass. The ship landed with a small bump, and Sabine powered down the thrusters, taking a deep breath as she mentally prepared herself.
"Alright kid, we're here. Ready to get started" she called back, causing Ezra to swiftly walk up to the cockpit, an excited smile on his face. This was him trying to play it cool, it wasn't working.
"Yep...show me the sky" he said, inwardly cringing at his own awkward lines. Sabine chuckled a little, remaining sat in the pilot's seat.
"Okay then. So the first thing you want to do is learn the pedals, down by my feet. See them? It's very simple, the one on the right controls acceleration and the one on the left is the brake. You got that?" she explained in a thorough manner, causing Ezra to nod his head in understanding.
"Left for stopping, right for moving. Got it" he confirmed with a confident smile.
"See this pillar thing here? This controls the thrusters, or rather which thrusters you want to activate. If you push it to the left you activate lateral thrusters, and to the right is vertical thrusters. Pulling it back towards you will make the ship reverse, and keeping it in the standard forwards position will just keep you moving forwards. That's a bit more complicated, you still following, kid?" Sabine questioned, quickly taking a breath. She felt like she'd been talking for a straight minute, and the confused look on Ezra's face confirmed her suspicions. Or so she thought.
"So...you'd normally have it in the forward position, right? Cause...normally you'd be moving forwards; not left, right, up or down" Ezra asked, causing Sabine to widen her eyes in surprise. She nodded her head with an impressed smile.
"Yeah, that's right. Not bad, most people don't understand that first time" she commented, causing him to grin. So far, so good. His plan was fool proof, but was it Ezra proof?
"So what's next?" he asked confidently. This flying business was a piece of cake.
"For a beginner, not much more. You just need to know that it's this button here, the red one on the dashboard, which fires up the thrusters. It's very important that you have it set to forward thrusters before you do this though, or else you shoot off backwards, or down. I think you're ready, strap in" Sabine stated, standing up out of the pilot's seat and gesturing for the padawan to take her place. Being a rookie, he was told to strap in for safety, though he'd never seen Hera wearing a seat belt so he wasn't going to once this little session was over and done with. With a nod from Sabine, Ezra took a breath and pressed the red button, causing the thrusters to burst into life. This would have been a good start, if Ezra hadn't accidentally set the thrusters into reverse. As it was, he had, and the Phantom quickly shot backwards at high speed. They zoomed in reverse for several seconds, hovering mere inches above the grass as Ezra panicked and forgot everything he'd just been told. Realising that he wasn't going to figure this out for himself, Sabine swiftly reached over and deactivated the thrusters with the press of a button, causing them both to breathe a sigh of relief. Several silent seconds passed, and Chopper began laughing hysterically in the back, mocking Ezra mercilessly for his failure. The padawan clenched his fist, getting ready to unscrew every bolt in that rust bucket, but Sabine placed a supportive hand on his shoulder before he could and smiled sympathetically.
"Hey, practice makes perfect. You think Hera just clambered into a cockpit and suddenly became the pilot she is now? Try again" she said, causing the boy to nod with determination in his eyes. And try again he did...