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“I have somewhere to be,” Cody announced as he answered the vid com. He gave Rex his most unimpressed look and hoped it would work for once.
“I don’t care, I blame you for this mess,” Rex announced. He made a show of looking around. “Where’s your partner?”
“If you mean the general,” Cody said carefully, all too aware of the vod’e in the corridor listening in around him, “he’s busy. Did you mean that for him?”
“For both of you,” Rex replied flatly. “This is all your fault.”
“What is?” Cody asked as he turned to walk to his office. He should have just gone there to take the com. “And why did you mark this as urgent?”
“Because I need your help,” Rex ground out.
Cody’s eyebrows went up in surprise. His vod, who had the ‘I can do it myself’ attitude two seconds after decanting, wanted his help? “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”
“No,” Rex answered shortly. He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Didn’t you just ask me for help?” Cody asked as he entered his office. He debated sending a message to Kenobi. It would be a shame for him to miss this, since Rex had said he was part of the problem, but he didn’t want to interrupt the Jedi’s training.
“I can call Wolffe,” Rex threatened. He scowled when Cody just snorted. After a long moment he sighed and rubbed his face. “Look, I need to know about the stowaways.”
“Stowaways?” Cody asked. It took a moment for it to click, then it was his turn to scowl. “I’ve told you, we weren’t responsible for that. You’ll have to talk to Buzz.”
“I don’t need to know how to sneak them on board,” Rex cried. There was a strange sound, half growl and half yip, from somewhere behind him. “Believe me, that part has already been covered.”
“That doesn’t sound like a Tooka,” Cody commented dryly. He sent a quick message to Wooley and checked to see that the whole thing was recording while Rex looked somewhere off screen.
“It isn’t a Tooka,” Rex gritted out. “Hey, put that down.” He moved out of sight.
A message came through Cody’s pad from Wooley. Kenobi was already running some of the men through katas. Kriff, Cody would miss it again. At this rate he was going to fall behind.
“Ow.” Rex yelped, or maybe it was whatever creature he had snuck on board.
“I don’t feel sorry for you,” Cody announced to the empty screen. “You got yourself into this mess.”
“I did not,” Rex hissed. He lunged back into view. “I had nothing to do with this. This is all Echo and Fives’ doing. And maybe Kix. And probably Jesse.”
“Right,” Cody said dryly. “You know it’s not a good sign when you don’t even have all of the details.”
“I was a little preoccupied,” Rex snapped defensively. “You would be, too, if you had to deal with these little menaces.”
“As you say,” Cody replied, just to hear Rex hiss again. “Still entirely your problem.”
“I wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for some of those brats of yours, bragging to Domino squad about their ‘therapy animals’.” He even did air quotes.
“Buzz can send you articles about the effectiveness of therapy animals,” Cody informed him. “He even has an article that lists which species are the most effective as therapy animals.”
“You mean that’s actually a thing?” Rex demanded, eyes wide. Then his eyes narrowed again. “Wait, there are lists?”
“Of species that are good as therapy animals,” Cody agreed. “And species that are not.”
“I can tell you one that isn’t,” Rex said grimly. He snarled at something beyond the view screen. “If either one of you moves one more time, you’re both getting thrown in a crate.”
“I’ll have Buzz send you the list,” Cody informed him. “He might also have information for whatever species you brought on board.”
“I did not bring them on board,” Rex gritted out through clenched teeth. “And it isn’t going to be an issue for much longer, because the first place we stop they’re staying at.”
“What are they, anyway?” Cody asked curiously. He hadn’t actually seen their Tookas much, but there hadn’t been any further problems that had made it to his attention.
“If they don’t stop tearing up my stuff, they’re going to be dead,” Rex growled.
“They’re in your quarters?” Cody demanded, surprised. “Why?”
“Because this is my personal hell,” Rex snapped. A chime sounded and Rex turned to pick up a data pad. His voice was professional again as he said, “Commander Tano.”
“Hey, Rex, I’ve got some of the meat Kix ordered for me.” Ahsoka’s voice was tinny through the double com lines. “Can you let me in?”
“Negative,” Rex replied grimly. “They got out of containment.”
“Aw, man, I thought for sure that crate was big enough,” Ahsoka said. “Did they jump it?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t watching,” Rex answered sourly. “Right now, they’re corralled on my bunk. If I let you in, they might make a run for it.”
“Well, I’ve got food,” Ahsoka offered. “Maybe that will distract them?”
“Yes, because I want to let the vicious little monsters attack you for food,” Rex retorted. Cody watched him flush and duck his head. “Sorry, Commander.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ahsoka said with a little laugh. “And they’re not that vicious.”
“You haven’t seen what they did to my bunk,” Rex replied grimly. “They were trying to eat their way through my foot locker.”
Whatever it was, they must have some strong teeth. Or no sense of what they could chew on. Those footlockers were supposed to be solid durasteel.
“Do you have any meat in there?” Ahsoka asked dubiously.
“No,” Rex said flatly. Not that it should have mattered.
“We should get someone else to bring the meat in,” Ahsoka decided. Clearly Torrent hadn’t killed all of her self-preservation instincts. Cody would have to think of a way to encourage that.
“Send in Fives,” Rex told her. “I blame him for this mess.”
“Gotcha,” Ahsoka replied cheerfully. “We’ll be back soon.”
“I guess you don’t need my help, after all,” Cody announced as he sat back in his chair. “You seem to have a handle on it.”
“Oh no, don’t you dare disconnect,” Rex said seriously. “You can’t leave me alone with them.”
“Are they really that bad?” Cody asked, bemused.
“Hold on,” Rex said. The view moved at a dizzing speed before it came to an abrupt halt. Two large, round creatures with tiny legs and long, thin tails were on what remained of Rex’s bunk.
“What are those pink things hanging out of their mouths?” Cody asked warily.
“Their tongues,” Rex answered. “I think. Or they got blood on the sheets. I’m not getting close enough to check.”
“They don’t look very fierce,” Cody said doubtfully.
“Just give it a minute,” Rex replied darkly.
They waited in silence for five minutes as the two creatures rolled about, shaking their heads lazily. Chunks of white were pushed up into little hills all around them.
“Any minute now,” Rex announced. “They’ll turn vicious again.”
“Right,” Cody agreed solemnly. He managed to keep his expression blank, even though Rex wasn’t watching.
Twin door chimes rang. Cody got up to let Kenobi in. His skin was flushed and slightly sweaty. The vod’e in attendance must have convinced him to give them a demonstration of more advanced techniques again. Wooley would have a recording of it he could barter for sweets later.
Cody held his finger to his lips and gestured for Kenobi to follow him. He settled into his seat before he thought about it. When he went to rise, Kenobi’s hand landed on his shoulder with a brief squeeze. The Jedi leaned over his shoulder to peer into the view screen.
“Are those blarth pups?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” Cody replied softly. He tried not to breathe in the man’s scent, something herbal and fresh. “Rex hasn’t gotten that far in his explanation.”
“Well, it looks like they’ve reached the teething stage,” Obi-Wan said, amused. “I feel sorry for the owner of that bunk.”
“He’ll find somewhere else to sleep until he can get a replacement,” Cody assured him.
“I thought you didn’t want me anywhere near here,” Fives said loudly enough he could be clearly heard.
“I don’t, but this is your fault,” Rex retorted. “So get them fed and back into that crate.”
“What did they do to that bunk?” Fives demanded. On screen the blarth pups continued to roll around in the mess they’d created, getting bits of white stuck on their bodies. “Are those teeth marks in that footlocker?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Rex growled.
“You want me to go near them when they did that?” Fives cried. “No way.”
“Now, Fives,” Rex barked.
Fives was suddenly shoved into view. He had two pieces of meat in his hand. As he edged closer to the bed both pups looked up. With a little cry he threw the meat at the bunk and backed out of sight. The blarth pups fell on the meat, making weird yip-growl sounds as they shook them and tried to get their little legs up to claw at them.
“See, I told you they were vicious,” Rex cried triumphantly.
“Or maybe they’re just hungry,” Cody replied dryly.
“Marshall Commander Cody?” Fives asked hesitantly.
“Arc Trooper Fives,” Cody replied. He regretted the loss of Kenobi’s hand on his shoulder immediately. “Would you like to explain to me why there are two blarth pups on the Resolute?”
“Is that what they’re called?” Ahsoka asked from off screen. “That’s a weird name.”
“Well, you see sir,” Fives began as he edged into view. “Echo and I, well we were talking to Crys the other day, you know when we worked on that mission. Not the last one, or the one before that I think, but maybe the one before that? Anyway, we were talking and he said that the Negotiator had therapy animals. And we were like, what’s that? So then we looked it up, not right then because we were busy. I think it was a siege, maybe? So yeah, Echo and I looked it up when we got a chance, or well, I talked to some of the guys who know about looking stuff up. And that senator that the general likes, Senator Amidala, she walked by while we were looking at these and said that Senator Binks had one at one time. So we figured they must be perfect, right? I mean, if a senator had one and all, how could they not be?”
Cody managed to keep a straight face through sheer force of will. Behind him he heard the softest little sound of amusement. Pressure on the back of the chair let him know that Kenobi had settled against it briefly. Hopefully Fives was too busy with his recitation to notice he had the general listening.
“Very easily,” Rex growled. “Look, I’ll have them write up a report for you, but right now we need to get these little menaces back into the crate and ready for transport.”
“Do you know how much trouble we had to go through to get them?” Fives demanded.
“I had nothing to do with any of this,” Echo called. “I want that on the record.”
“I don’t think it’s as bad as you’re all making it out to be,” Ahsoka said, exasperated.
“You want to keep them in your room?” Rex retorted. “Be my guest. In fact, you can have my mattress. I’ll take yours.”
“Don’t do it,” Fives said seriously. “You missed the part where they were trying to tear up everything. Look at his footlocker.”
“Are those teeth marks?” Echo and Ahsoka demanded together.
“What’s going on in here?” Skywalker demanded.
Kenobi reached over his shoulder and turned off the com. His arm rested on Cody’s shoulder, so he didn’t really need the soft little sound to know that his Jedi was laughing. He discreetly reached up with his left wrist, anyway, in hopes of catching both the sight and the sound on video.
“It started with Rex,” Cody announced when Kenobi pulled away, shoving aside the disappointment. “I have the whole thing recorded.”
“I’d like to watch it sometime,” Kenobi said softly. He moved to lean against the side of the desk so he could face Cody. “I can see why you missed practice.”
“Sorry about that.” Cody looked over Kenobi’s shoulder. “I realize that when I say …”
“At ease, Cody,” Kenobi said gently. “I didn’t mean it as a rebuke. It’s your free time, you can use it however you want.”
“Sometimes,” Cody muttered. He shrugged at Kenobi’s inquiring look. “It was funny, but not what I wanted to do.”
Kenobi hummed thoughtfully and stroked his beard. He curled his hand in front of his mouth and said quietly, “there’s still a little time before late rotation.”
Cody considered the offer. There would likely still be a vod or two in the training room and their presence would draw more, but it would still be a mostly private lesson. It would add fuel to the gossip going around, especially with Rex’s comment earlier, but looking at Kenobi, waiting patiently for an answer, he found he didn’t care about that.
“I’d like that, sir,” Cody replied quietly.
“It’s after hours, Cody,” Kenobi said with a smile. “Surely you can use my last name, at least.”
“Maybe one day, sir.” Cody quirked his lips slightly as he stood. “But not this day.” He savored the sound of Kenobi’s chuckles as they made their way out of the room.