Calamity || The Mandalorian

twenty-three

Din watched Kasia smile as she kicked the Limmie ball to the child, making sure that her pass was soft enough that it wouldn't accidentally squish the 16-inch baby. Giggling, the kid stopped the ball with his hands before pushing it towards where Mando stood.

His shoulders slumped as he gave an exaggerated longsuffering sigh, Din stopped the ball before passing it back to Kasia.

Remind me why you made me put the ship on autopilot to do this? he asked silently, narrowing his eyes at Kasia under his helmet. Still, though he didn't want to admit it to himself, he knew that this was a lot more fun than sitting in a cockpit, watching the stars zoom by.

"Oh hush, you know you love it," Kasia waved a hand, her eyes pinned on the babbling child.

Din rolled his eyes, "Right."

Kasia was just opening her mouth—likely to make some snide comment or other—when suddenly the ship's proxy alarms began to sound, alerting them to a nearby ship.

Not pausing to glance at either Kasia or the child, Mando took off towards the cockpit; if the last few days had been any indication, the approaching ship almost certainly belonged to a bounty hunter with either Kas or the kid's bounty puck. Frankly, between the two, it was likely the latter—Kasia was not nearly as important as she thought she was. Though to be fair, there had been one bounty hunter they had encountered that was after her—a fact which Din had heard repeated numerous times over the last few days.

Honestly, at times Din forgot that Kas was actually his bounty—that she wasn't merely a member of the crew. He told himself that he still intended to turn her over to Jwelk Shat when enough time had passed that they would be able to show their faces in Reldve but... he didn't know.

Shut up and focus, Din, he barked at himself internally, sliding into the pilot seat and switching steering to manual. Behind him, he sensed Kasia slip into the cockpit, falling silently into the copilot seat with the child in her lap.

Grasping the controls, Din veered the ship to the left just as lasers began to pour from their attacker, the blasts which would have otherwise destroyed the ship barely missing.

"So, do you think they're after the child or after me?" Kasia casually pondered aloud, trading an inquisitive glance with the kid in her lap.

Does that really matter right now? Mando asked her silently, avoiding the urge to turn and give her his infamous 'are you being serious right now Kasia, you're such an idiot' look.

He could almost imagine Kasia leaning back in her seat and pouting as her next words came, "Well it matters to me," she muttered.

Reigning in a chuckle, Mando flipped a switch to initiate two-way communication with the bounty hunter. The attacker continued to fire relentlessly at the back of the Razor Crest as he barked over the communication line, "Hand over the child, Mando!"

Swerving to avoid another hit, Mando remarked casually over his shoulder, "Guess that answers your question."

Slumping down in her seat, Kasia crossed her arms, sulking slightly, "No one is ever after me."

Din scoffed, "Shouldn't that be a goo-"

He was cut off abruptly as one of the bounty hunter's lasers landed a hit on one of the Razor Crest's engines, causing sparks to fly everywhere. Behind him, Mando heard Kasia hiss in a breath as a shower of sparks rained down on her and the child, and he resisted the urge to turn around.

"If you do, I might let you live," the bounty hunter went on, arrogance lining his words.

Moments later, despite Din's evasive maneuvers the hunter landed another direct hit on their aircraft.