Buckets: A Star Wars Story

9. Pilot

Initially, I think we were all more than a little mad that we were going to have to literally go out of our way to get a ship. Even Inraas seemed to understand that this was a bit of a low-blow, and as we all sat there disgruntled on the return shuttle, he had sighed, "Look, I understand that this situation is less than ideal, to put it mildly. However, allow me to give you the good news."

"How," Aurek began, extending a knife hand to the Chiss, "is any of this good?"

"The ship, once you obtain it, will be yours. I will admit that it's an older model Raider-class corvette that will likely need repairs and such, but..."

"Wait," Besh held up a hand and leaned forward. I could practically see him salivating behind his bucket, "we get to keep it?"

The older Raider-class corvettes were also Corellian. My palms were sweating at the idea of getting my hands on her chassis, probing her hyperdrive algorithms, and exploring every inch of her magnificent turrets- wait... Creepy. Sorry. It's the Corellian thing again.

They were meant to be quick, agile, and packed enough of a punch to be dangerous on their own. Even if she was an older model, she was still a nice ship. Plus, I knew Corellian systems like the back of my hand. Days of hotwiring speeders for spare change were finally coming in handy for something other than helping Aurek hijack a speeder. One of our speeders. It didn't matter if it was a speeder or a shuttle, the guts were mostly the same. I was going to make her purr like a nexu and sail as smooth as glass.

"Yes. The ship was technically decommissioned just prior to the theft. Anyone who retrieves it has fair rights to it, but Director Dorne gave you explicit clearance to it officially, so you'll have access to the nearby fleets. He's not leaving you completely high and dry."

"I'm more familiar with Kuati systems, but I think I could get her working with a bit of elbow grease. What say you, Dorn? Can we handle her together?" Besh asked, turning his bucket to me as he spoke.

I scoffed, "As if I'd ever let a Kuati snob near a beautiful Corellian dream! I'll handle her maintenance with tender love and care while you four manage to not get us shot. Maybe -" and here I leaned forward and held up my thumb and index finger a mere hair's-breadth apart, "maybe - if you pray to some higher power at night and eat your vegetables, I might let you touch her."

The entire time that conversation was going on, I could see Inraas out of the corner of my eye looking about seventeen different flavors of concerned, but he decided it was best not to say anything. Thesh was watching me like I had seven eyes, and Aurek was giggling where he sat beside Osk, who was staring at the wall and trying to completely avoid the confrontation of the ages occurring on the other side of him.

"You have a rather... interesting group here, Lieutenant Ahuff..."

"Yes. I know, Agent," Thesh sounded like we aged him another four years as Besh began to argue how Santhe Shipyards in Coronet City were subpar when compared to any Kuat Drive Yards facility, a heated argument which lasted the entire ride to the Whirlwind to deposit Inraas. Believe me, everyone knows that Santhe is obviously better. Besh is just stupid.

The plan of attack was to return to farm hell- I mean, Lothal - and reclaim this lost corvette. After this, we were going to enter the fleet's range and receive instructions from the Whirlwind, which was to function essentially as home-base in the event of things going south, which knowing our luck most likely was where our luck would go. Needless to say, Aurek was very unhappy with this development. Inraas would be keeping in constant contact with us throughout the duration of our travels and serve as our primary liaison between Director Dorne, the Death Troopers under his command, and us. All trackers on the ship reported that it was still there not too far from that base we uncovered. Inraas was hoping that it meant that Venn also hadn't gotten off the planet, but frankly, I was hoping they had just stashed the corvette there for later. Fighting a guy who had evaded DTs for a chunk of his career was far from the most appealing prospect. Even going after Jedi was making me uneasy, but you gotta do what the brass says or you wind up jettisoned out of an airlock somewhere.