Chapter Text
Lorelei pressed gently against her bandaged arm, as soon as it began to sting, she quickly retracted and winced. As much as it hurt, she figured it would fully heal in another day or so. They had already spent two in hyperspace, stopping occasionally, to change routes, all to make sure the Empire wasn’t on their tail. In that time Lorelei had only managed to receive passing smiles and glances from most of the crew, other than that she had stayed in the room they had given her. She decided it was time to stretch her legs, maybe see what Drake was up to at the bridge. She was surprised to see Zed standing in the doorway when it slid away “Oh, sorry.”
“Not a problem, just needed something from my room.” Lorelei laughed slightly at this but was quickly put off by Zed tilting his head a bit in confusion “What’s funny?”
“Nothing, it’s just; you were joking right?”
“Nope, these are usually my quarters.”
“Oh, I guess the crew decided you didn’t need them for now?”
“Nope, I offered them up when we were deciding where you’d stay.” As he spoke Zed scooted awkwardly past the jedi. She also tried not to be knocked over by the strangely shaped robot. While he carried himself properly, Zed was an amalgamation of several different droids. From what Lorelei could recognize he sported the head of a Separatist commando droid, the legs and right arm of a super battle droid, the torso of an imperial security droid, and an arm she didn’t recognize. She tried to look busy as Zed dug through some boxes that he pulled from under the bed. He grabbed some large metal cylinder and left without a word, heading right back for the bridge. Lorelei waited for a moment before heading out of the room. She eyed the door to the bridge but decided she might wait before seeing Zed and Drake, she felt like it would only be awkward now if she didn’t somehow thank the droid for his room. She turned and headed down to the Ventrum’s loading bay. As soon as she reached it there was a large clang followed by a low growl from Kara “Sorry” Bale said sheepishly.
Lorelei finished her trip down to the bay and say Bale scrambling to put some tools back into a small metal container “Everything okay down here?”
Bale looked up and nodded causing Kara to roll her eyes and push herself off the wall she had been leaning against “Bale insisted on helping me check the ship for damage but all he’s doing is causing more.”
“We haven’t actually found any damage yet” Bale muttered lowly.
“Keep dropping my stuff and we will.”
“So why did you offer to help?” From what Lorelei understood Bale was in charge of making sure all the electronics and systems on the Ventrum were working, while Kara made sure the ship was in good physical condition.
“He’s only doing this, so I have to sit with him and start to learn about the ship’s electronics.”
“It’s never a bad idea to broaden your horizons, imagine how much more efficient we can be if we can do one another’s jobs as well as our own?”
“Don’t act like you’ll suddenly want to pull yourself away from your tablets to replacing armor plating.”
Lorelei moved in and began to help Bale with the last of the tools “Well I think both of those sound fun; maybe once you learn some more you’ll find out you both like it more than you thought.” She offered Bale a smile which he returned before getting to his feet with the toolbox. Kara gave a small sigh and took the box “Well then first thing you should learn is how to not drop your equipment.”
Lorelei watched as the two returned to work, moving around he walls looking for breaks and dents, fidgeting with screws and opening panels. After a few minutes she decided that they might be too easy to entertain her company. It still seemed to awkward to head to the bridge, so Lorelei gave a sigh and headed back for her room. As she left the bay and went down the short hall to her room, she couldn’t help but feel weird about everything. She had known hiring a crew, any crew, would mean she’d be a part of a group and a ship that would be completely foreign to her. She had prepared for the possibility that she would be treated like cargo, stuffed into a crate or in some smugglers hold under the floor. She had prepared for the idea that her identity would make someone want more credits or make her convince them not to hand her over to the imperials. Instead she had been given someone else’s room, an iffy, but genuine, handshake from the captain, and free reign to move around the ship. It almost felt like she was welcome, and that made her more uneasy than anything she could imagine. As Lorelei made it to the room the bridge doors opened and Drake stepped through, wiping his eyes. She stooped suddenly but addressed him “Hey.”
“Hey, just needed to stretch my legs and rest my eyes; it’s not good to just stare into hyperspace all day.”
“I can imagine.”
“How are you doing” Drake stretched and cleared his throat “you feel alright?”
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
Drake laughed a little “Because I just watched you lap the ship on the security cameras, only to come back here.”
Lorelei’s eyes shot to the floor but immediately snapped back up to Drake. He seemed tired, maybe hyperspace travel was more draining then he led on “I’m fine, just a little bored.”
“Well if you’ve got nothing going on, you owe me a chat.”
Now it was Lorelei’s turn to laugh “Well you did promise me one.”
Both entered Lorelei’s room. She watched as he pulled two boxes from one of the walls and placed them opposite each other. Drake motioned for her to sit and went to the other end of the room. Lorelei took the invitation and continued to watch him as he moved, revealing a section of the wall that was full of drinks and glasses, it was hard to believe she didn’t find that. She had done a small sweep of the entire room, looking for listening devices or anything that was out of place. Drake poured two hefty glasses of clear liquid and sat on the other box. Lorelei took the drink immediately but hesitated to sip it “So what poison is this?”
“Uhm, water; I was thirsty” he said, taking a few gulps.
Lorelei gave a sniff to confirm then a small sip, it was just some cold water. She took a few more sips to compose herself, the water was surprisingly refreshing; it reminded her of the rich stuff the villagers on Tuntura would bring her. She resisted the urge of taking another sip and placed her drink down gently “So, what exactly did we need to talk about?”
“Well for starters I’d like to know who you are.”
“I’m Lorelei, I was a jedi before…before the Empire.”
“No” Lorelei was surprised by his reaction. When she looked up, he was mid sip, eyes closed. Drake then placed the drink back down and looked up at her, with that same serious aura he had given off after they narrowly escaped Simino. Drake motioned towards her “Try again.”
She thought for a moment, she wasn’t sure what he was looking for exactly. Maybe he wanted her to be more detailed? “I was a jedi padawan, fresh out of the temple. I didn’t have a master yet, but I was being sent out to battlefields as a sort of final test.”
“Which battlefields?”
“I saw Christophsis briefly, Pasaana for a short mission with a jedi knight meeting some Republic ally” before she could continue Drake threw up his palm to stop her.
“If you want this talk to end at some point, I’m going to need you to stop lying to me.”
“Lying?” Lorelei couldn’t help but giggle a little, even with his expression she couldn’t take Drake seriously right now “What makes you think I’m lying?”
“You say you’re a jedi.”
“I am a jedi.”
“Then why did you kill those Stormtroopers without a second thought?”
“Because they were going to kill me.”
“So you’re just okay with killing anyone who could do the same to you?”
“Of course not, anyone could try and kill me; I was defending myself” Lorelei paused to sip her water again “just like you were.”
“I thought the jedi were peacekeepers, you could have run.”
“I’ve been running for a long time, I got sick of it; and the jedi are gone.”
“Except for you right?”
“There could be more out there.”
“Do you care?”
“No, I don’t actually, do you?”
Drake broke his deadpan expression with a smirk. He couldn’t tell if he was making the woman genuinely upset or if she was just starting to mock him. “So why does a jedi have a sith lightsaber?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” There was another paused as Lorelei took a drink and Drake watched the woman closely “I killed the owner and stole it.”
“You don’t sound to broken up about it.”
“Well I’m not ashamed, but I’m not happy either.”
“Because she was trying to kill you.”
“Are you starting to notice the pattern yet?”
Drake scooted back on his makeshift seat and studied the woman top to bottom again. Each time he looked at her he was amazed at how someone so young could also come off as old and tired. The thing his eyes always lingered on were the scars that littered her face; each seemed like they had healed well enough but there was sill the discoloration. Her most prominent ones were on her cheek, above her eye and across the middle of her nose; with smaller ones sticking out on her lip and neck. Clearing his throat and returning to the conversation Drake got up “Did you want some more water?”
“I know where it is now, I can help myself.”
He nodded and placed everything back where he had gotten in from, Lorelei watching the entire time. Before he left, he turned back to see her pushing her own box back “I just need to know that I can trust you.”
Lorelei was surprise at this and turned to see him in the doorway, tapping his fingers against it “Like I said before, these guys are my family; I don’t want to see them get hurt.”
“I wouldn’t dream of hurting them Drake.”
He gave the door one more tap “Just cause you dream of something doesn’t make it real.” After that he left, and the door slid closed. Lorelei stood there for a little before getting herself another drink; her walk around the Ventrum hadn’t resulted in much, at least, it hadn’t resulted in what she had expected. At least now she knew where she could get a drink of water.