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Melshi paced back and forth in front of the door. He could hear Baze and Jyn’s voices arguing, even if he couldn’t make out exactly what. He’d been stalling in front of the door for the last 10 minutes. But he also knew that the closer the clock ticked to 9 am, the closer it got to everything blowing up in his face. Steeling himself with a deep breath, he pulled down the piece of paper that read “Do not disturb!” and walked into Baze’s office.
“Sure, both Verdusco brothers would have been unstoppable, and Mexico would have dominated if they’d both been on the national team,” Jyn allowed. “But, if it came down to just one, and you had to choose, Beto was definitely the more consequential player. Without the accident that ended his career, he’d be considered one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time.”
“You can’t compare them, they played two totally different positions,” Baze argued. “But, if you had to pick one, Tato was the leading striker in the league.”
“Beto blocked Tato’s penalty kick in their last game!”
“It was only a penalty! Chirrut could block a penalty.”
“Hey, uh, guys?” Melshi eventually interrupted. Baze and Jyn both shot him a frustrated glare. “You know how you both love me, say I’m the best assistant ever, deserve to be paid a million a year, and it’s just a shame we can’t afford that, all because I never schedule you for any unnecessary meetings?”
“One of those things is true.”
“Anyway, that last part’s because anytime someone tried to schedule a meeting with either of you, I just scheduled it for May 31st.”
“Why,” came Baze’s stern reply, more so demanding than asking.
“Because I didn’t think May 31st existed! You know, ‘Thirty days have September, April, May, and November.’”
“June,” Jyn insisted. “’April, June, and November.’”
“How many meetings did you schedule for today, then?” Baze asked.
Melshi hesitated. “…Ninety-three.”
Jyn groaned and Baze silently banged his head on the desk.
-
By 9 am, the office was full of community members, shouting at each other and the City Hall employees as they waited for their meetings. None of the citizens had any concern for Cassian, blatantly ignoring him as he tried to shove through their crowd.
“The hell happened here?” he asked once he made it to where Jyn and Baze were arguing over the meeting line-up on a whiteboard.
“Long story short, I’m going to murder Melshi,” Jyn replied in a clipped voice. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to schedule a planning meeting for us to go over details for the Harvest Festival, but Melshi said you didn’t have any availability until-“
“May-fucking-31st,” Baze grumbled, searching the dense list for Cassian’s name, before crossing it off. Baze shoved a clipboard of papers at Cassian. “Make yourself useful and cover some of these. And never schedule a meeting through Melshi again.”
“Okay?” Cassian said quizzically, as he began to skim through the papers.
“No,” Jyn interjected. “We shouldn’t make him-“
“Jyn- can I talk to you for a second?” Not giving her a chance to respond, Baze pulled her a few feet away. “What’s wrong with you? We need all the help we can get. And Andor’s a competent human being!”
“Wow, look at you, gushing praise,” she shot back sarcastically. “And fine, he can work, but do you really want him handling constituent meetings? I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but he can be a bit of an asshole.”
“That’s rich, coming from you.” Baze started to turn. “Andor, do you mind-“
But Cassian was gone, slipping out unnoticed while Baze and Jyn talked.
“Told you,” Jyn replied, before turning back to the list on the whiteboard. But she didn’t feel proud saying it, like she usually did when she got into a disagreement with Baze and ended up proving him wrong. This time, she felt disappointed, even if she couldn’t decide why.
-
Cassian left the Parks office because he was on a mission. And everyone had their own reaction when he asked them to join.
“I love meetings!” Luke exclaimed, clapping. “Ooo, what if we try to wrestle up seven more, make it an even hundred-”
“No.”
-
“They have to what?” Bodhi exclaimed. But he didn’t give Cassian a chance to answer, rambling on in a single breath as he began picking up notepads, pens, and a water bottle, preparing to leave his office. “Actually, I’m not surprised. That’s what we get for putting Jyn, Baze, and Melshi together in a department and expecting them to get work done. Honestly, every day I walk in there and someone’s not dead, I’m shocked. Shocked. You would not believe the shit I’ve had to get them out of over the years, all because they refuse to ask Leia for help. They just expect me to swoop in like some getaway car and pull them out, drop everything I’m doing in my day-”
He continued his rant continued down the length of the hallway.
-
“Absolutely not.”
“Kay.”
“No.”
“Kay.”
“I find it highly improbably that 93 separate people wanted to meet with their department.”
-
Cassian dialed what he thought was Chirrut’s number, but whoever picked up didn’t say hello. All he heard was the sound of running water, as if the phone itself was sitting in a river.
“Good morning…hello? Hello? I’m calling for Chirrut Irmwe, is he there? Hello? This is Cassian Andor, I’m calling to ask if he can come up to Yavin City Hall and help with something? Or, is he at City Hall today? It actually hasn’t been made clear to me if he works here or not. But, assuming he does…tell him he’s needed in the Parks department, as soon as possible. Okay? Uh, thank you. Bye.”
Before he could end the call, the river hung up on him first.
-
Shara sighed as she closed her laptop. “He knows it’s not May. The saying very clearly goes ‘April, March, and November.’”
“I actually think it’s-“ Cassian started, but Shara strode past him before he could finish.
-
Kes couldn’t stop laughing. “They did what? I can’t believe it. Actually, I can believe it. This kinda shit happens to Parks all the time. Did they tell you about the time they forgot to check on the community gardens for a month and found out someone planted weed in all them? And then, it ended up just being literal weeds labeled ‘weed.’”
-
“I’m assuming they didn’t want you to tell me,” Leia said finally, surveying him carefully.
“They don’t know I’m here,” Cassian admitted. “But, they need all the help they can get. And I know the only thing Jyn and I have in common is that we both trust you.”
Leia leveled a steely gaze at her friend. “I think you have more in common than just that.”
-
Back in the Parks department, Jyn was trying to reason with the shouting citizens, as Baze stood in the hallway, trying to get the still arriving visitors to leave, and agree to a meeting another day. They thought having less people in the room might help, but the waiting crowd was only growing louder and louder, demanding someone to speak with.
“Enough already!” Jyn shouted. “We’re going to get to everyone, just be patient with us. It won’t kill you to wait.”
“Yes it will!” one man shouted. “I need someone to help me find my bird!”
“Sir,” Jyn began, trying to channel Leia and come across as diplomatic, “There will be plenty of time-“
“There is no time!” the man shouted back. “He can fly!”
Baze came back in, shoving his way through the crowd. “I couldn’t get anybody to leave. They’re all lining up in the hallway.”
“So it sounds like you could use some help here,” a voice boomed out, silencing the crowd. Jyn and Baze turned to see Chirrut, the source of the voice, coming in through the back door. Followed by Luke, Leia, Bodhi, Kay, Shara, and Kes, making their way to the whiteboard of meetings, muttering to each other as they began to pour over the list. Cassian was the last to enter, hoping to slip in unnoticed after the rest of the group.
But Jyn walked up to Cassian and planted herself in his path. Arms crossed. Eyebrow raised. Waiting for an explanation.
He stared her down too for a moment, before explaining, “I figured we needed back-up.”
“So you brought all of City Hall.”
He shrugged. “It’s a big issue. Requires a big team. What’s the problem with that?”
“No problem, just-“ she stopped herself.
“Just what?”
She didn’t know why he always asked so many questions, why she always found herself answering them. “Just that I’m used to dealing with problems like these myself.”
“Why would you, if there’s others to help?”
They stood staring at each other another moment, a beat longer than strictly necessary, before Kay popped in between them. “Yes, Jyn Erso, I am here to help. But, I do want you to know that I am only here because Cassian made me.”
-
“Listen up, people!” Baze shouted, as the employees gathered in a circle. “I don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t fully care. But you are all staying here until we get through this mess. It’ll be long, but most of these should be relatively painless. Anyone with half a brain cell can get through one of these meetings.”
“Hey hey hey!” Han called out as he walked in. “What’s going on? Heard there was an emergency, anything I can help with?”
“Thanks, Han,” Baze said, “But we’re alright. You can just head back out.” Han shot them a thumbs up before going right back out the door. Baze turned back to the group. “As I was saying. Take a meeting, cross it off the board when you’re done, keep track of your notes to give to Melshi, he’ll sort through everything when we’re done.”
“That seems unfair,” Melshi grumbled, before the rest of the group turned on him
“Unfair?” “You want to talk about unfair?” “You got us in this mess, you can clean it up.”
-
Each of the City Hall employees claimed a conference room or side office off the main Parks bullpen, and got to work, crossing names off the whiteboard and piling notes on Melshi’s desk (with him sarcastically grumbling “Thanks” before sorting each set of notes into one of the loosely organized binders) as they completed each meeting.
Some were relatively straightforward. Requests for park maintenance, suggestions for community programs, questions on the implementation of the climate change mitigation policies.
Others were more difficult.
-
Baze hated meetings like this. If he had it his way, he’d spend every working hour in blissful silence, either napping in his office or out doing maintenance on a park trail. Never in meetings. Force, he hated meetings.
“No,” he said to the citizen sitting across from him. “Absolutely not.”
“What do you mean, no?” the citizen asked indignantly. “My taxes pay for that park, I should have a say in how it gets run.”
“Yes, I agree. However, that is not the same thing as you singlehandedly cutting down all the trees in Amidala Park just because they mess with your allergies. You do understand that’s not the same thing?”
“I didn’t say, ‘mess with.’ They ‘agitate’ my allergies. That’s a fundamentally different thing.”
-
“Good morning,” Bodhi said professionally. “My name’s Bodhi, how can I help you today?”
“Good morning,” the woman replied back, also professionally. “I’m hosting a family reunion in Jakku Park next weekend, and wanted to review the pavilion rental policies.”
Bodhi made a note of it, relieved he lucked out with such a straightforward meeting. “Okay, great. I can try and pull up the pavilion policies, email that to you, and then give you the contact of someone in the Parks office you can reach out to if you have any questions.”
“Oh. Well, why can’t you just tell me and answers my questions now?”
“I would ma’am, if I could, but I don’t work in this department, I’m just helping out today. Really, I work in Public Health.”
“So you’re a doctor, then?” the woman asked, suddenly straightening up and rolling up her sleeve.
“I’m a nurse-“
“Same thing. Can you check out this mole I have on my elbow? It has this weird green border around it, I don’t know if that’s something I should be concerned about.”
-
“The young adults meditation class at the rec center may have been canceled,” Chirrut announced dramatically to the group of twentysomethings assembled around him in the courtyard, “But we won’t let that stop us! Allow me to be your teacher. Now, everyone get in a circle and join hands. Take a deep breath, and then, with me, let us all release a primal yell representative of our current state of being. One, two-“
Seven loud exclamations of “AGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” echoed off the courtyard’s walls.
-
The young man he was sitting across from looked concerned at the sound of the screams from Chirrut’s class, but Kes was unphased. He leaned further back in his chair, and continued. “And I know it’s all just in my mindset and how I approach things, but still, I just can’t shake this feeling that I’m just a background character in someone else’s story. And if I’m not the main character, then who am I? What is my purpose? What’s anyone’s purpose, really?”
-
“Now, proper fire starting procedures are the key to preventing forest fires, as you all know,” Kay explained to the elementary school’s scout troop assembled before him. “Some have a much higher likelihood than others of causing a mass fire catastrophe.”
“Like a lighter?” one kid called out.
“Comparatively safe, as the flame is controlled. Only a 6% chance of causing a wildfire.”
“What about matches?”
“More unruly, and if not properly put out, have a 23% chance of starting a wildfire.”
The kids were now fully entranced by this game, calling out fire-starting methods to hear Kay’s percentages.
“Rubbing two sticks together?”
“0.02% chance of starting any kind of flame.”
“Open flame camp stove?”
“3% if properly handled, 54% if knocked over.”
“GASOLINE?”
“Are you trying to commit arson?”
-
“Now, when you scheduled this meeting,” Leia said with her signature, charismatic grin, “I’m sure you didn’t imagine that it’d actually end up being with the mayor, did you?”
“No, I did not,” the woman said, clearly unimpressed.
But Leia pressed on. “Of course, I am here to help with anything you want addressed by the Parks Department. But once that’s taken care of, if there’s anything else for the city you’d like to discuss, just let me know.”
“No thanks,” the woman said tightly.
“No, I insist. It’s very important to me that I be visible to citizens and their concerns-“
“No, really,” the woman cut her off. “That’s not necessary. And I’d rather not meet now, I’d prefer to just wait for a Parks employee to become available.”
“I assure you, I can handle any issue the Parks Department could, likely even more efficiently-“
“Typical fucking Organa,” the woman grumbled, not fully to herself.
Leia’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
The woman boldly stared back. “You heard me.”
-
“The ponies at the petting zoo are gay!” the grandmotherly-looking citizen shouted at Luke.
“Ma’am, I’ve only been in this town for a little over a month, and even I know they’re not ponies, they’re miniature horses. And so what if they’re gay?” The woman’s eyes were wide, and she looked a little flabbergasted as Luke repeated, “What’s so wrong with the horse being gay?”
-
“You and I need to talk,” Kay said without preamble, the second he was able to catch Cassian in between meetings.
“I already told you,” Cassian replied, without looking up from where he had taken it upon himself to reorganize Melshi’s haphazard stack of binders, “I don’t know who took the last of your chlorophyll protein powder, but it wasn’t me.”
“That’s not- actually, I do need to figure that out. I’m going to have to drive to the health store in Endor to replace it.” Kay stole the binder stack from Cassian, forcing his friend to look at him. “I’m worried about you. You can’t do this again.”
“Do what?”
“Do what you do in every town we go to. This ‘emotionless hardass’ bit is just a front-” and he might be emotionless, but he wasn’t totally expressionless, so Cassian made a face at that, even as Kay continued on, “-because you get too emotionally invested in these places. You try to fix them, and we just get turned away thanklessly at the end.”
“I’m just trying to do my job,” Cassian said, as he tried to make a grab for the binders.
Kay held them further away, but kept a serious face even as he and Cassian briefly jostled for them. “You’re doing too much.”
Cassian tried to fake left to get around Kay. “Am not.”
But Kay saw it coming, and just held the binders as high as he could. “Are too.”
It was just out of reach for Cassian, but he didn’t want to admit defeat, so he tried to jump for them, even as Kay tried to elbow him away. They fought for a few moments, stopping only when they heard someone clearing their throat. They turned to see Baze watching them, but the older man ended up simply walking past without a word.
“Cassian,” Kay tried again, “This isn’t Ferrix. You’re trying to run from your past, and you have the misguided notion that if you fix enough of a town’s problems they’ll welcome you in and it’ll be a home. That’s never what happens. Please, just treat this one like a job, nothing more.”
He took advantage of Kay standing still to swipe the binders back. “It is just a job.”
But Kay wasn’t convinced. “I just don’t want to see you hurt again.”
-
Shara wasn’t even able to fully get out a greeting before her concerned citizen cut her off.
“Good mor-“
“I want to know why I can’t land my plane at Otoh Gunga!”
“Otoh Gunga?” Shara asked slowly, unsure of the man’s request. “The public pool?”
“Yes,” he replied, as if that was obvious. “It’s a seaplane, and yet when I went to ask the staff there about landing procedures, they told me there were none! And that I couldn’t land my plane! It’s ridiculous, procedures need to be in place and the ground staff need to be trained.”
“Sir,” Shara started, reminding herself to try and be sympathetic, “You can’t land a seaplane at the Otoh Gunga Community Pool because it is a pool. And not a very big one. And there’s no ‘ground staff’ to train because the only employees there are the teenagers we hired as lifeguards.”
“How hard do you think it would be for one of them to get their air traffic control certification?”
“Again, sir, these kids are fifteen.”
-
Jyn used her next break in between meetings to refill her mug of coffee, cursing when she realized yet again that Kes used the last of her caramel creamer without replacing it.
Baze walked out as she kicked the mini-fridge. “My thoughts exactly,” he grumbled as he crossed another name off the list.
“Rough meeting?” Jyn asked as she committed to a black coffee instead.
“Every day I wonder why I stayed here instead of becoming an anarchist with Saw.”
“Yeah sure, go join him. Just one problem, no one has any clue where he is.”
“Remaining a cog in the bureaucratic machine it is, then,” he said drily, toasting his tea to Jyn’s coffee. Turning his attention back to the board, he counted names while observing, “At least we’re making progress. Good on you for getting the others to come over here.”
“That wasn’t me.”
Baze looked at her, confused. “Melshi, then?”
They looked to the hallway, where Melshi was supposed to be checking in citizens for their meetings, but had abandoned that job to instead flirt with someone in the line. “You know, I know the owner, we could skip the line and get past the bouncer without even having to show ID.”
The young woman wasn’t buying it. “This isn’t a club. I’m here because an alligator ate my cat.”
“No,” Jyn replied to Baze, “I don’t think he’d even think of that.” She gestured to the glass-lined conference room across from them. “Cassian did it.”
“Huh,” was all Baze said, as they watched the consultant, clearly arguing something passionately with the citizen across from them, even if they couldn’t make out the words.
-
“This is a crime and coverup unlike any this town has seen!” the citizen was insisting, each word emphasized with a banging fist on the table. “And the fact that this government won’t do anything about it shows just how far up it goes!”
“It’s just a missing copy of Yahtzee at the community center,” Cassian attempted to reason.
“Just Yahtzee???” the citizen yelled, indignant.
-
“I just don’t know what his angle is,” Jyn admitted. “I’ve been trying to figure out all day what’s in this for him, but haven’t been able to come up with anything.”
“Has it occurred to you that maybe he’s helping because he wants to?”
“That’s impossible. This is the town killer, remember? Tried to fire me, tried to cancel the kids’ concert, tried to shut down all our programs.”
“Tried, but didn’t. Didn’t fire you, hired Yoda to come back, helps us plan the Harvest Festival. Leia hired him to help the town, and he’s clearly doing that.”
“But he said-“
“I don’t care what he said. Look at his actions instead.”
They both looked back at the conference room. The citizen was now waving their arms wildly as Cassian flipped quickly through a folder of papers, deep in negotiation.
-
“It says here the community center has a library of over one hundred board games, two dozen decks of cards, and a weekly RPG tabletop club. That’s more than most city recreation programs offer, so just because it’s short one game-”
“IT’S YAHTZEE OR I’M TAKING THIS STRAIGHT TO THE TOP. I’VE ALREADY WRITTEN MULTIPLE EMAILS TO THE GOVERNOR.”
“…and has he answered any of those, yet?”
“HE WILL.”
-
“I just don’t want to be seen as a charity case,” Jyn admitted to Baze. “He can help us all he wants, but doing things like this, outside the scope of his job, it just feels like pity.”
“Little sister,” Baze began, “I’m sure you remember that I grew up in a monastery?”
“Yes, but I’ve told you, every time you or Chirrut tell this story, you waste too much time in the boring, spiritual build-up. You need to start closer to getting caught in a secret relationship, running away in the middle of the night, traveling the world for years as nomads. That’s the good stuff.”
“In the monastery,” he continued, ignoring her, “One of my jobs was to sweep the courtyard every morning. But we had a very large tree and leaves were always falling, so by the time I finished one side, the other would just be a mess again. Day after day, for weeks, I just swept that courtyard in vain, ashamed of being unable to complete this one simple task. Eventually, one of the senior monks joined me, said he’d help because it was important for him to see the courtyard clean too. But because I was ashamed of needing help from an elder, I would hide the extra rake, and try to turn him away when he came to join me. It didn’t work. He’d just help by picking up the leaves with his hands. Because I tried to prevent him from helping me fully, the chore then took twice as long with help as it would have if I just worked alone.”
-
“Fine, fine!” Cassian shouted, exasperated, as he turned his laptop around. “Look, this is my personal account- I’m ordering Yahtzee, right now, I’m paying for expedited shipping too. And the second it gets here I’ll take the game to the community center myself. Happy?”
-
“The moral of the story,” Baze concluded, “Is that there’s always going to be too many leaves to sweep up alone. So swallow your pride and let the others who are tired of the leaves pitch in.”
“Couldn’t you have just used a leaf blower?” Jyn asked. He shot her an angry look. “I get it, it’s a metaphor, but still, a leaf blower-”
“No.”
“But-“
“No but’s. Give Andor a rake. Let him help with the damn leaves.”
-
The woman was crying as Luke tried to comfort her. “You’re right,” she said through sniffles. “I blew it way out of portion. My granddaughter was just asking all these questions once we saw the horses at the zoo, and I see the signs that she’s different than I was at the age and I’m just scared about how the world will treat her if she grows up and is gay. But hearing your own experiences about being out does make me feel better.”
“I’m glad I could help, but you only feared it because it was unknown. All I did was illuminate it for you. Let me tell you something the new yoga teacher I’ve just started seeing told me: fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. And that’s a dark path you don’t want to go down.”
The grandmother blew her nose. “There’s so much I need to learn, if I’m going to truly support my granddaughter. Your yoga teacher seems wise, maybe I should go to a class too.”
Luke’s face broke out into another broad grin. “Have you heard of Yoda?”
The grandmother was not smiling now. “The little green creep?”
-
“I assure you, Mr. Vanth,” Kay said as he escorted the grizzled man out the office door, “City Hall takes the concerns of you and your neighbors very seriously. Someone will investigate your street’s raccoon invasion promptly.”
The man tipped his hat in thanks before leaving, and Kay turned to find his next meeting before discovering the hallway was blocked by a small group of third graders in scout uniforms. “Mr. Tuesso!” a chorus rang out.
“Uh, hello, children,” Kay began, unsure of what to make of the four kids appearing genuinely excited to see them. That was interesting data. His past experiences with young life forms tended to elicit opposite reactions. His theory was that they feared his height. “I believe our only meeting today has concluded, so to what do I owe this pleasure?”
“We have decided,” one self-assured girl proclaimed, “To form our own troop, and hold elections for a new leader, and you won, Troop Leader Tuesso!”
Kay looked up and down the hall, noted the lack of more qualified adults, and then glanced out a window to confirm that, yes, the van that had originally brought the children to City Hall was no longer parked out front. “Your chaperone forgot you four, didn’t they?”
-
Shara was growing more frustrated with the man sitting across from her. “No, we are not usurping the intended use of a public, community facility just for one guy with an airplane.”
The man grew more petulant. “ ‘Just one guy?’ I don’t know who you are, but I am not to just be ignored. My father is an executive vice president at the Empire-“ (Shara rolled her eyes) “-and I will not be disrespected by a bureaucrat on a power trip.”
“Oh I’m the one on a power trip? Listen here, ‘sir’- a trust fund baby with a toy plane doesn’t get to dictate how we run this city.”
“This isn’t a toy! I’m a trained professional! Flying isn’t just something anyone off the street could do.”
“You’re right, not anyone off the street could do it- because not anyone off the street has the obscene amount of wealth to get a pilot’s license then buy their own plane. It’s just your privilege that put you in this position.”
“Like you’d be able to do what I can do.”
“I bet I could. I’m confident I could. I know I could fly better than you or any of your trust fund buddies.”
-
“And...release that breath. Return to center,” Chirrut said, as the class turned back to him. “That sequence is meant to calm you, to practice the awareness needed to open your third eye.”
“Is your third eye open?” one of the students asked in an awed hush.
“Oh yes, all the way. It’s the other two that give me problems.”
-
“I come from a long line of public servants,” Leia shot back indignantly. “The Organa family has served this town and this state for generations-“
“See, exactly that,” the woman cut her off. “’Served.’ Acting like its some great sacrifice for you to take your pity on us. Just lording over us, treating Yavin like your own kingdom. When’s the last time an Organa even ran opposed? Is this a democracy, or a monarchy?”
“No one else has wanted to run. But you know who shows up and has run, and served- worked- in public office? Me. The Organas work for this town because we are the ones who decided to step up and do so.”
“And you really expect the rest of us to believe that your family’s years in office have been perfect? That someone else couldn’t offer something better? That the Organas don’t have any skeletons in their closets?”
It was a good thing Leia was a good liar, because she looked the woman straight in the eye and insisted, “I have nothing to hide.”
“I still don’t trust an Organa,” the woman sneered, before getting up and leaving, the office door slamming shut behind her.
Leia thought about following to smugly ask the woman how she would feel about a politician who wasn’t an Organa. But Leia stopped herself, looked at the situation strategically. Strategically, there was no benefit to revealing she was adopted just to try and appease one voter.
Yet, she wondered for not the first time what the public would think.
-
Cassian had always been particularly aware of his surroundings, so it was extremely rare for someone to be able to sneak up on him. Without having to glance up from the filing cabinet he was looking through, he knew someone was approaching from just the sound of footsteps. These were clunky, though, the sound of combat boots hitting the office floor. And the only person he could imagine arguing that Doc Martens counted as office-appropriate footwear was-
“What are you looking for?” Jyn asked.
He kept flipping through files as he talked. “A citizen said she’s looking for a map of all the polluted water sources in town. But I’m not seeing it.”
“We don’t keep those here in the Parks office. Pollution sites get filed separately.” She leaned in close to whisper spookily, “On the fourth floor.”
“What’s the deal with the fourth floor?”
“For one thing, it’s definitely haunted. And it’s also where we stick the most depressing offices. Divorce, death records, the DMV. And maps of over polluted cesspools.” She seemed to be weighing a decision in her head, before saying, “Follow me. I’ll take you up there, show you where it is.”
-
“-so I can assure you, the water quality treatment plant has this well under control,” Kay finished. “Do you have any other questions?”
“Just one,” the woman said. “What’s with the kids?”
Kay looked to his small ‘troop,’ sitting at the table with a stack of paper and markers between them. “These are my colleagues.”
“Okay well one of them is drawing a sea turtle, and two are playing tick-tack-toe.”
“Yes, but the fourth has been our notetaker for this meeting.”
The little boy closest to Kay held up his pad of paper for everyone to see. All it had on it was “Hydroponics?” in shaky cursive.
“Good job,” Kay said. “You did spell it correctly.”
-
“Okay, see this?” Bodhi explained to the small group of onlookers, “This is an uneven border. If your mole’s edges look like this, it’s a sign something more concerning could be happening.” To the man whose elbow mole he was examining, he said, “So you should probably go to a doctor’s office.”
“Isn’t that what this is?”
“No, this is the City Hall courtyard.”
“Who do you think I am, someone who has insurance?”
-
“I just feel like my life is missing something,” Kes continued. “I enjoy my job, but mainly just because it lets me work with all my friends. I feel like I’m a part of something, working for the City, but I do want to be a part of something more. You know what I think my dream job really is? Stay-at-home dad. I’d be a good one. But the money would be tight, and my wife and I are in no place to be having a kid. Still, that’s what I dream about, not public works.” He cleared his throat. “But, enough about me. What was your question again?”
The man sat there, stunned, still processing Kes and his life story. “Uh…I’m just here to pick up t-shirts for the Ultimate Frisbee league?”
“What? Yavin has an Ultimate league?” Kes asked excitedly. “Of course I’ll join! When’s practice?”
-
The elevator dinged as the doors slid slowly open. The long hallway stretched before them under sickly green lights, as a fire alarm sensor flashed without beeping.
“Pollution maps are at the end of the hall,” Jyn said in a hushed whisper. Cassian tried to knock off a cobweb that had stuck to his shoes. “We should be safe in there, but we still need to get in and out as quickly as possible. Got it?”
“Why would we-“ Cassian started to say, but then Jyn shouted, “GO!” and without thinking he followed, sprinting alongside her down the hall.
Jyn locked the door behind them once they were in the filing room, before barking out orders with brisk efficiency. “It’ll either be filed under ‘pollution’ or ‘water source,’ so you start with the P’s and I’ll look at the W’s. Shout as soon as you find it then we’ll evacuate the premise.”
Cassian opened the P drawer and began quickly looking through. Jyn knew she didn’t have much time until he found them- because of course he would find them, she knew exactly where the files were. Filed under ‘Pollution’ and in the fifth folder from the back. But she’d had an idea while running down the hall, and needed a moment to set it into motion.
She pulled out her phone and texted Han: Fine, you can help.
-
“Well, we finished that about as painlessly as we could,” Baze said, observing the list of fully crossed out names. “What’s everyone’s status?”
Melshi counted it out on his fingers as he rattled off the names. “Jyn and Cassian are on the fourth floor tracking down some files, so, the ghost’s probably killed them by now. Kes says his day was, ‘oddly therapeutic,’ don’t know what he meant by that. Kay adopted some lost third graders. Leia wants to launch a focus group and totally rehaul her public image. Shara wants to go to flight school now? Luke says he ‘scored a win for the gay agenda.’ Bodhi diagnosed two cases of melanoma. Chirrut helped a group achieve enlightenment. And I quit.”
Baze stopped nodding along at that last sentence. “You what?”
“I quit. I’m not going to work for the Parks Department anymore. It’s too hard, too much work, and today was the worst day ever.”
“Melshi, no offense, but what else could you even do?”
“Wow, so little faith in me. I’ll have you know, I texted Lando and he already told me I could have his old job at Lady Footlocker.”
“So you’re going to turn down a steady paycheck to sell shoes in a mall. When just yesterday you argued with Leia that malls were dead?”
“And I’m right, they’re horrible and ugly and I’m just bidding my time at one until I can open my Metaverse storefront that rents tuxedo NFTs to babies-”
“I understood some of those words.”
“-but Baze, it’s what I need to do. I’m an entrepreneur, an innovator. Not a paper pusher. I thought this gig was great because I found a way around being your secretary, but it blew up in my face and today was hell. I spend all day making sure I don’t have to waste time being a secretary, but today I actually had to spend all day being a secretary. And I wanted to die!”
“Have you thought that if you want to be an innovator so bad, you could start with the job you already have? Spend a couple of hours of your day doing that, instead of just avoiding work?”
Melshi didn’t buy it. “But don’t you sit around avoiding work all day?”
“It may look like it, but I spend all day making sure Jyn doesn’t launch a coup. And that’s a full-time job.” Baze moved to stand closer to Melshi, and put his hand on his shoulder. “Kid, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, even if you refuse it. You’re young, but if you don’t make something of yourself and go after your goals, you’re going to look up one day when you’re as old as me-”
“Gross.”
“-and realize you’re in the exact same spot you always were.”
Melshi went back to his desk and sat down with a sigh. Someone had reorganized the pile of binders on his desk, but still they took up most of the space. He began stacking them higher so he could get to his computer, grumbling about paper-based systems. But then, as he looked back and forth between the stacks of paper and his idling computer screen, an idea began to form in his head.
-
“Sorry about the wait,” Cassian said to the woman once he and Jyn were back on the first floor. “But here’s the paperwork you requested, a map of all identified pollution sites and water sources unfit for consumption.”
“Oh this is perfect, thank you!” the woman said cheerfully as she began to walk away. “I’m going to go fill up my ex-boyfriend’s Brita filter with these.”
“What?” Cassian started to call after her. “You can’t-“
“We can’t stop her,” Jyn said as she tried to herd Cassian away. They were now the last ones left in Parks, the office’s eerie silence in stark contrast to the loud chaos of the day.
“Well, we might have just been an accessory to murder, but that makes 93. So we’re done, right?” Cassian asked as he collapsed into the seat on the other side of Jyn’s desk.
“Actually, it was 94 meetings. We have one more.” She tried to keep her voice light and even.
He groaned. “Who is it?”
Mustering all her confidence so it sounded like a statement, and not a question, Jyn replied, “Me and you.” And with a thunk, dropped on her desk the six pack of beer. For all his faults, Han could come through for rapid delivery service when you needed him. It was a miracle his old pickup even started, much less was able to drive to City Hall in the time it took Jyn to text him then almost immediately go back downstairs.
Cassian furrowed his brow, looking between her and the cans. “Is that alcohol, Erso?”
“Stunning observation, Andor. And before you say anything, I checked the employee handbook, it says nothing about drinking at work being against the rules.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t explicitly say it’s allowed either.”
“No, but you need to lighten up.” She handed him a can, and breathed a sigh of relief when he took it. She opened one for herself too, and they sat there a moment, drinking in surprisingly comfortable silence.
“So what’s the purpose of this meeting?” Cassian asked. “Should I have prepared anything? I never got an agenda. Even though by your standards, an ‘agenda’ is just a couple of lines scribbled on a sticky note.” She thought he was serious for a moment, opened her mouth to argue back that if your agenda was long enough to be a script for a meeting, you didn’t really need a meeting in the first place- but he was looking at her with just the smallest corner of his mouth turned up. On most people, it probably wouldn’t even register as a facial expression. But in the few weeks Jyn had known and studied Cassian Andor (not that she’d been studying him, not that she cared, he just was a hard puzzle to crack and she liked a challenge, that’s all) she’d come to recognize that small movement as a smile.
“Funny,” she allowed. “But, no agenda besides: talk.”
“That doesn’t sound threatening at all.”
“I’d be much more direct if you were actually getting threatened.”
“You’re going to put polluted water in my Brita filter?”
“If only I knew where all the pollution sites in Yavin were.”
“I’d tell you I know a guy, but I think he’s about to go to prison for the last time he helped someone commit a murder by water proxy.”
“What a shame he got arrested, because today was the day I decided to be nice.” Cassian looked at her, eyebrows raised, which she had cataloged as another of his micro-expressions, this one of shock. “Look, I know we didn’t get off on the right foot, and maybe a little of that is my fault.”
“A little?” Another small smile.
“50-50 on fault.”
“That’s fair.”
“The Harvest Festival is a big, long-term project. We need to be able to work together well. And, if you haven’t noticed, most of the people around here are my friends. If we’re going to work together, I figured I should try.”
“I thought I was a menace to this town? A threat to you, your friends, and ‘all hope in the galaxy?’”
“I can still change my mind.” Another sip, and Jyn grew more serious. “I don’t trust people easily, that’s why I was so threatened by you, and Kay, and even Luke. Today though, you really stepped up and helped the town when we needed you. You were there for the people. And that’s what matters. It’s the people here who make Yavin special. It’s a town full of Bodhis, Leias, Hans, Sharas…Keseses?”
“Kes-i?” Cassian tried. “Also, Bazes? Doesn’t roll off the tongue either.”
“Completely agree. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, it’s all about the people. And you stepped up and helped the people today. Which means I need to give you a chance.”
Cassian nodded solemnly. “I won’t waste it.”
They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments again, before Cassian asked. “What’s your favorite color?”
“What?”
“Isn’t that something friends know about each other?”
“Yeah, when they’re five.” He just drank, waiting for an answer. “Fine, green. Specifically dark green. Like trees in a forest. Yours?”
“Don’t give me any shit about it. Brown.”
"Brown? Cassian Andor, you cannot tell me your favorite color in the entire universe is brown, and expect me not to give you any shit for it."
“What? It’s warm, it’s homey, and it can be light brown like sand at the beach, or dark brown…like a tree. No different than you saying green ‘like a forest.’”
“I’ll give you that for now, but we’re going to get you a new favorite color. Okay, what about favorite season?”
“Winter, makes me think of home. You?”
“Spring. I like all the rain, and the new beginnings.”
-
It was much later than Cassian thought when he walked to the room he was sharing with Luke and Kay at the motel. He didn’t turn the lights on, expecting his friends to both be asleep, but all of a sudden a lamp flicked on, and there was Luke, sitting on the middle of the three beds, waiting for him. Kay, in the furthest bed, was laid out like a corpse, sleeping mask and noise-canceling headphones on. When he was like this, completely oblivious to the world, they said he was shut down like a machine.
“Somebody’s home late,” Luke said in an accusing voice. “Tell me you weren’t at work.”
“I was… at work. But I wasn’t working, so don’t give me a hard time. What about you? You look like you just got in.”
“I wasn’t anywhere near work because I was on a date. With Bodhi. Which wasn’t crashed this time by any nosy interlopers, even if Bodhi swore he kept seeing Jyn outside the restaurant.”
“She couldn’t have been, I was with her all night.” Cassian thought it was an innocuous enough thing to say, but suddenly questioned himself when he looked and saw a massive grin break out across Luke’s face. “What?”
“You were with Jyn?”
“No, don’t say it like that, we were just talking-“
“And you didn’t murder each other. And you just walked in smiling.”
“I am not smiling.”
“No you totally were. Oh my god, how crazy is this? We’re into siblings at the same time.”
“I’m not-“
“Cassian!” Luke jumped up suddenly now. “You know this means if everything goes well, you and I could be brothers! We’d be family! One of us just needs to adopt Kay and then we’re set!”
“We are not- no. Calm down. Bodhi’s great, and I’m glad it’s going well, but you just met him-”
“It is going really well,” Luke said proudly.
“And I am not into Jyn. We were just talking. Figured we’d be working together a lot, and hanging out a lot because of you and Bodhi, so it’d be good if we worked at being friends. That’s it.”
“Keep telling yourself that, brother-in-law,” Luke teased, and Cassian just threw up his hands in frustrated resignation.
But that night, as he lay in his bed, listening to Luke’s gentle breathing and Kay’s robotic snoring, he found he couldn’t fall asleep because he was thinking of Jyn. She was…difficult, that was for sure. But tonight was just proof of what he’d been thinking of her the past couple of weeks (not that he had been thinking of her), that she was a person with a lot of layers. It was a challenge to get her to reveal those layers of herself. And he had always been drawn to challenges.
-
Melshi jumped up as soon as he heard Cassian enter the office. “Good morning sir, and welcome to the Department of Parks and Recreation. I am Melshi, lead office innovator. How may I assist you today?”
As ridiculous as it felt, Cassian stuck to the script he’d been emailed earlier, especially as now he could see Jyn and Baze coming over to watch them, likely curious as to why Melshi was trying to work. “Thank you, Mr. Melshi. What a warm welcome. My name is Cassian Andor. I registered through your scheduling site for a 10 am meeting with Deputy Director Jyn Erso. I am here to check in for that meeting.”
“Thank you for digitally reserving your meeting spot in advance, sir!” Melshi continued in a loud, overly formal tone, contrasting with Cassian’s stilted one. “If you would just show me your QR code, I will scan it and get you-“
“What’s going on?” Baze finally gave in and asked.
Melshi grinned. “I’m so glad you asked, boss man.” Turning his computer screen to face them, Melshi, with all the flourish of a showman, began to explain. “I have digitized our entire meeting request process. No more calling on the phone, tracking meetings on paper, and risking accidentally scheduling 93 meetings for the exact same day.”
“We’re calling that an accident now?” Jyn quipped.
“Now, when you schedule a meeting, it’s through a digital calendar, synced to each of our email accounts and and a main calendar for the whole office. Anyone wanting a meeting reserves a time slot, then is sent a QR code. I scan that QR code when they come in, and then organize any needed follow-up through the email they used to register. And our first beta tester is Mr. Cassian Andor himself, wone standing meeting with Deputy Director Erso every Thursday morning at 10 am, until the completion of the Harvest Festival.”
“Impressive,” Jyn said. “But do you have any way of checking who is trying to schedule meetings with us?”
“Way ahead of you. I still screen each meeting request. And Jyn, you’ll pleased to know that I’ve already blocked four attempts by Krennic and the Chamber of Commerce to schedule a meeting with you.”
“Well done,” Jyn said to Melshi, not even saracastically, as she showed Cassian into her office.
“Don’t think you ‘mentored’ me into doing this,” Melshi said, turning to face Baze. “This was entirely my idea and my work.”
“Wouldn’t dream of trying to take any credit from you,” Baze responded. But he did say, “I’m proud of you, kid.”
Melshi immediately started to tear up. “Baze. That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
-
Over in Jyn’s office, Cassian said, “I do have something for you, before we get started,” and set a brown paper bag on her desk.
Jyn pulled a bottle from the bag. “The creamer I like?”
“And I’m told Kes always steals. Melshi said it’s a good currency for peace offerings. But consider this me paying you back for the other night’s beers.”
Jyn grinned broadly. “You know what, Andor? You can stop by here for a meeting whenever you want.”
At that, Cassian gave her a small smile in return.