SEE ME, SEE YOU: Series Two

C H A P T E R S I X T E E N

REINA'S POV

There was a Mythrol sitting behind a desk in Greef's office, and when we entered, specifically Din, a cloud of panic extinguished from his pores. I covered my mouth and hid my face behind the Mandalorian to cover my laughing.

"I believe you two have met?" the magistrate said drily.

"I'm surprised to see you here." Din huffed.

"Right back at ya..." the nervous Mythrol gulped.

What did you do to him?" I muttered through my snicker.

"He's a former bounty." Din nudged me playfully, like it was some inside joke. My cheeks burned at the sudden affection. I side-eyed Cara, and she smirked back. "Alright, time to talk business."

"We're only here for repairs." Din said.

"Which will take awhile," Greef noted. "which means you'll have some free time on your hands, right? And we could really use your help."

"What do you want us to do?" I asked. Greef answered my question with pushing a button and activating a line-vector display in front of them, a holographic map of the planet. "In this entire area where we are now is the green zone. But over here,"—he indicated a distant region of the map—"is the problem."

"It's an old Imperial base." Greef explained and described it simply enough, using the schematic to illustrate. The heavily fortified base was perched at the top of the lava canyon. I could spot the turrents above and the massive bay door that opened into the canyon. "It's been here since the Imperial expansion. Got a skeleton crew, but for some reason it hasn't been abandoned."

"There's a lot of heavy weaponry in that place that the black market would love to dismantle and make bank with it." Cara added.

"And you want, what, to mop up the last of the Imperial force before they do?" Din guessed. I could tell he wasn't fully on board with, once again, taking on a side quest.

"Mando," the magistrate said, "I just want them off my planet."

I watched Din study the hologram, the base and its fortifications. I imagined the challenges and risks of what they were proposing. It would be dangerous, for sure, and there was no way around it. At this point, however, I supposed Din was thinking, just like I was, that our participation in the mission was no longer in doubt. At least, the child wouldn't be involved and was safe in town. We locked eyes, or I guessed we did, and Din sighed in defeat.

"Alright, we're in."

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The landscape was barren, seemingly empty of all life. In my vision, the terrain looked dark-gray mixed with obsidian. The Mythrol was behind the controls of the speeder, looking utterly miserable about being dragged along on the mission. Cara was riding shotgun with me, Din, Greef squeezed in the back. We speedily threaded our way through the weavy canyon. As we approached the facility looming high above the surface, Cara summed up the plan. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the rush of wind. "The whole place is powered by a reactor. We sneak in, overload it, and get the hell out of there."

"We need to be fast." Din said. "Keep the speeder running."

"How close do you want me to drop you off?" the Mythrol asked, looking even more troubled.

"How about the front door?" Greef suggested, though it surely didn't sound like there were other options. The Mythrol seemed to be thinking the same thing. "That's a little close for a civilian, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't say anything more about it if I were you." I said over his shoulder, and he sighed in agreement. He pulled the speeder closer, finally bringing it to a halt near the hardened security hatch. We all leapt out. This time, I gently pushed aside Din's offered hand. He froze in confusion before he followed me join the others.

The door was a flat, square plate of imposing-looking metal tucked beneath the looming shadow of the base's launchpad, about a hundred meters overhead. Din attempted to hack into the security access panel, but it was no use. It was completely melted, most likely due to the lava's heatwave. I watched Din glance up at the overhanging hangar.

"Hold tight." he said, and then activated his jetpack, blasting straight up the canyon wall, leaving us to just stand there.

"So," Greef crossed his arms impatiently and striking up small talk. "You and Mando seem to be very comfortable with each other, huh, Beckett? Instead of answering, my cheeks burned as my mouth twisted in embarrassment.

Above our heads, there were a scream, then followed by a stormtrooper's body crashing to the ground right in front of me. A moment later, the front door slid opened, revealing an elevator. We all filed in, including the Mythrol, who was reluctant at first until Cara reminded him of the lava tide.

When the elevator door opened on the top floor of the base, the first thing we all saw were even more bodies of stormtroopers strewn about. Din stood in middle of the scene waiting for us.

"Empty base, huh?" he scoffed, like it was a joke. I looked out at the view from the launchpad, which entailed the sheer face of the cliff on either side and the mountains that surrounded them. As I gazed over the landscape, a feeling of...something, shocked my system. My body seemed to turn my head back into the hangar, like a magnet was attracting my mind, warning me of something, perhaps quite dangerous...

"Come on," Greef hurried us. "The reactor should be set in the heat shaft. If we drain the cooling lines, this whole base will blow up in the matter of minutes."

"Let's get this over with." I said, suddenly hesitant about this whole mission, not just the base. Of course, Din noticed, and as we all raced inside and down the hallways with caution until we reached the main shuttle bay where Cara and Greef tried to locate the heat shaft, he pulled me aside.

"You've gone pale, like you just saw a ghost." he said, concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I lied. "It's just, this place gives me the creeps."

"Why? It's just a base."

"It's...complicated to explain."

"Is it, your powers?"

Oh, that's right. I had forgotten I told him about that. I nodded slowly with a frown. "This place, it feels...eery, I guess. Like, it holds a dark secret and I shouldn't pursue what that secret is. And yet, I also feel drawn to something here that also feels dangerous." I cursed under my breath. "I sound ridiculous."

"Whatever it is," Din said, touching my arm in reassurance. "I'll make sure you stay safe."

"I know where the heat shaft is." Cara emerged from the bay with Greef at her heels. "Let's go."

Din gave my arm one more pat and all five of us began our trip to cause an explosion.