fandomtownies | Syndulla Scrap, Friday

Entry tags:

Syndulla Scrap, Friday

Hera was in the junkyard today...mostly commiserating with Chopper, who had apparently been turned into some sort of brainless mechanical monster for Halloween. If the discussion of that and her lekku being snakes somehow led to the two of them tossing spare scraps in the air and playing target practice...well, could anyone blame them?

Actually, Hera didn't much care if they could.

The junkyard was open, but watch the blaster fire and stun blasts!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Breq definitely hadn't forgot her talk with Hera. This seemed like a good day to visit the junkyard.

As she approached, she heard the sound of firearms, and she quickly turned cautious. It might just be practice, or it might be a fight, and if it turned out to be the latter she was prepared to activate her armour. She stopped at the entrance, looking to get an idea of what was happening.

Chopper's sensors picked up the person at the edge, and he warbled a warning. Hera turned, lowered her blaster, and waved. "Hi, Breq; how are you?"

"Hello," she said, taking a few steps forward. "I hope I'm not interrupting something."

She glanced at Chopper.

"Nah, we're just blowing off steam," Hera said. "Breq, this is Chopper." She turned to him. "Chopper, be nice to Breq; she's far from home, too."

"Hello, Chopper," Breq greeted, unsure whether this meant that the robot was an AI, or if it was just the way Hera talked to it.

"I just wanted to stop by," she continued, not adding 'and look at your spaceship'.

Chopper beeped and whirred at Breq. "He says hello," Hera translated. "And I'm glad you did. Want me to show you around this place, or just head straight for the ship?"

Hera had her priorities, too, and the Ghost was always one of them.

It was good that they shared the same priorities.

"The ship," Breq replied. "I'm curious to see it."

"Right over here, then." Hera holstered her blaster and headed toward the landing pads. "A few folks park their ships here," she explained. "There aren't a lot of suitable places on the island, apparently."

She led the way back to hers and gestured at it proudly. "This is the Ghost. She was originally a light freighter, but I've given her more than a few upgrades over the years." She patted the side of the ship. "She's got a lot more stealth and firepower than standard, plus a few other surprises."

It was a small ship, compared to what she herself had been, and even compared to the Radchaai Swords and Mercies. Breq suspected it didn't have an AI, and in that respect was more of a thing, but Hera didn't seem to think of it quite as such. Breq found that she liked that.

She approached the Ghost. "What kind of surprises?"

"Adjustable transponder, baffled engines...she's really good at running silent and invisible."

Hera shrugged. "Things are in a bad place back home. I end up running a lot of places I'm not technically supposed to be. It helps to be invisible."

"Invisible? Yes, I can see how that must be useful. Do you travel in gate space? Something in between ordinary space that lets you go between systems? Or du you have another way of doing that?"

Breq reached out to touch the ship.

"Hyperspace for us," Hera said. "Yeah, she's good at that, too."

She smiled; she liked when people were respectful of the Ghost, and she could see Breq was good ship people.

"What do you use her for?" Breq asked, changing the pronoun to the one Hera used for the ship. "You mentioned traveling to dangerous places."

"These days mostly smuggling and intelligence-gathering," Hera said. And a lot of the time, the Ghost is home."

She keyed in her sequence on the panel and the ramp dropped down. "Want to come aboard?"

As usual, no emotions displayed on Breq's face or through her body language, but she was eager to see more of the Ghost.

"Yes," she said, simply.

Hera led the way up. "Chopper," she asked, "go do a systems check?"

Chopper wheeled up and toward the cockpit, grumbling about the ship's computer.

"Be nice," Hera said sternly.

To Breq, she smiled and nodded down the corridor. "Crew's quarters are over there, along with a galley and lounge. Cargo holds in both corners. Would you like to see anything specific, or just wander and ask questions?"

"I'm happy for you to show me what you think is important," Breq replied, her gaze following Chopper.

"What does Chopper do?"

"Mostly annoy the ship's computer," Hera said fondly.

"He's a good navigator and occasional gunner," she said more seriously. "And he helps me keep everything in good shape. He's been crew on the Ghost for as long as I've had her, and my friend before that."

She led the way toward the crew's quarters. "Do you have droids where you come from?"

"In some places, although not where I'm from," she said. "Our bigger ships are run by AIs and can run and maintain themselves."

She followed Hera. "Do you have a crew?"

"That sounds handy," Hera said. "We mostly crew and maintain them ourselves, but a lot of ships, especially fighters, have a dedicated astromech slot - the droid helps calculate things on the fly faster than the pilot can."

She stopped in the lounge, which was just a few bench seats, a regular table and a holotable currently set up for dejarik. "I have Chopper, and now Kanan. That's all I really need for most things."

She pointed. "Galley's there. Quarters all head off this corridor, two bunks to a room. They're mostly storage now."

The Ghost was very different from what she had been, of course, with thousands of ancillaries and over a hundred officers she had had. Knowing this ship could fly through space like she once had though, that was... both comforting and painful. As was seeing the way Hera cared about her ship.

"You love her, don't you?"

"I told you," Hera said, "she's home." She smiled around at the ship. "I take care of her, and she's always been there for me. I don't know a good pilot that's not attached to their ship. You take care of each other."

"Some people would see a ship merely as equipment," Breq said. She knew that from experience. "But you're right, many do care about them." She knew that from experience too.

"Would you show me the cockpit?" She was curious how the ship worked.

Hera snorted. "I said a good pilot. A good pilot knows how to treat their ship."

She got the feeling Breq understood. It was hard to read her, but she was certainly treating the Ghost with respect.

"This way." Hera headed for the cockpit and greeted Chopper who was in there griping at the ship's computer. "Everything good, Chop?"

Chopper grumbled but agreed as Hera slipped past to sit in the pilot's seat. She smiled back at Breq. "Copilot sits there." She pointed to her right. "It fits guests, too, though."

Breq did understand, and she agreed. She had had good captains and bad captains, and while she couldn't dislike any of them, she had definitely had favourites. She could see herself liking Hera quite a lot, had she still been a ship.

She slipped into the copilot's seat. "Does she have the technology to partially pilot herself?" Breq wasn't used to referring to a ship as 'she'. It was unexpected.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject