𝖁𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎 !
IX. DISASTER

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ALL KERA SEEMED TO recognise once she regained consciousness was that she was cold. In reality, there wasn't a time she could remember being so cold or maybe it was that she'd been on Tatooine for so many cycles in the blistering and burning heat that Kera had truly forgotten what it was to truly feel the weather.

     Kera finally peeled her eyes open and she recognised the cockpit and that K-3SO was standing so startlingly close to her, it was ridiculous.

       "You're awake!" The reprogrammed Imperial droid cheered, throwing its long sliver arms up in celebration. Kera blinked twice, gaining a semblance of what exactly had occurred.

     "Y-Yes," Kera struggled to whisper, folding her arms across her chest in an attempt to keep herself warm. No matter how hard Kera tried, she wouldn't stop shivering and her teeth kept chattering together. The Frog Lady was glued to her chair, looking distressed and impatient. It was then when Kera flicked her gaze towards the pilot seat, she realised he was missing.

       "W-Where's the M-Mandalorian?"

     K-3SO was very quick with his response. "Down in the hull! Finding the Frog Lady's eggs! And getting blankets!"

       "Why a-are you s-so e-enthusiastic?" Kera mumbled standing from her seat. She'd have to get moving. She'd have to venture down to the hull of the Razor Crest to find her leather rucksack and apply layers in order to keep warm and stay alive.

     "The tin can said so."

     Kera snorted, it seemed too silly to hear such a thing. "Why-y?"

     K-3SO seemed a little too sombre, sad in his recount of the previous events which Kera really wished she could have seen. "I said we were doomed. I was told be to be more enthusiastic. I took the tin can's advice."

     "Ha. That's. . . likely," Kera mumbled, her voice flaring with sarcasm, her cold fingers tucking her lengthy raven tresses behind her ears. "Uh, I'll go down, and er, help the M-Mandalorian."

Kera disappeared from the cockpit, climbing down the ladder and onto the floor of the hull. Whirling on her feet and narrowing her eyes at the mess that laid before her, Kera managed to eye her rucksack. Kera trampled before it fixing it upright, her fingers nimbly drawing the knotted ties undone.

The contents in her rucksack where simple things, necessary items. Then again if Kera really considered it, whatever she had brought with her were mostly things Kera couldn't bare to leave behind. After all, Kera Verr had always been very sentimental.

Reaching to the bottom of the bag, Kera pulled out an oversized leather jacket. It had once belonged to Han Solo, one of Kera's closest friends ── Kera was only supposed to borrow it but unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to give it back. But the good thing was, it made her feel less alone, that a part of him was with her. It made Kera feel less of a disaster and runaway. It allowed her to relive those happier days when she was just a girl who was a little more put together and a little more whole.

Kera had met Han Solo and his Wookie companion Chewbacca on Takodana when she was nineteen. He was a couple of years older than her and way too charming and handsome for his own good. Han had provided Kera with freedom and the ability to chase her dream of seeing the galaxy. Even if it was just for one cycle, such a little time travelling upon the Millenium Falcon before she would return home to Maz Kanata on Takodana ── Kera would always love Han and Chewbacca for it. They were a piece of her family.

Someone had made the effort to very loudly clear their throat and then declare, "I got you a blanket."

Kera had looked over her shoulder to see the Mandalorian, in one arm nestled the child and the other held a selection of grey wooly blankets. It was stupid but she felt her heart warm a little and her features soften just for a moment and a subtle blush dance across her cheeks ── it kept reeling in her mind over and over that it was such a silly thing to react too. No one had done such a kind, simple gesture for Kera (even if they were entitled too due to their deal) in so long.

   "Thank you," Kera mumbled and she had done her best to really mean them, not to be rude or sarcastic like she was most of the time she was.

Recognising that she couldn't just gawk at the Mandalorian forever because things would quickly get awkward, Kera hurriedly retied the ties to her rucksack, clambered to her feet and pulled on the leather jacket and zipped it up. Kera hoped she'd warm up soon yet that massive chunk that had been taken out of the Razor Crest didn't seem to help in any way.

Kera buried her freezing hands in the pockets of the leather jacket, hoping it would warm them. It dawned upon Kera that she had left her fingerless gloves on Tatooine and she'd needed them now more than ever.

The Mandalorian settled the child upon a storage crate, then took a step towards Kera and held out a blanket towards her, "Here. It will keep you warm. Stay here with the kid. I'll get the others."

     Kera took the blanket with a curt nod and a slight smile, fisting the material beneath her fingertips. The Mandalorian was gone, disappearing up the leader from the hull and into the cockpit. Kera dragged a storage crate next to the child's and settled upon it, drawing the blanket off her shoulders. Yet the child had already attempted to clamber onto Kera's lap.

      "Oh, kiddo. Are you cold?" Kera murmured, removing the blanket from her shoulders and placing it over the child. The child seemed to drown in the blanket as it was far too big for him and bubbly laugher echoed from Kera's lips at the child's helpless reaction. It was a rare sound to be heard from Kera Verr and the child seemed to have this ability to draw it out. The child's ears perked at the sound of Kera's laughter and the child too smiled a little toothy grin.

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KERA VERR WAS NOT hungry. Perhaps it was shock from the events that had transpired but in reality, Kera knew it wasn't. She'd been on all sorts of chases and had many close calls over the years and even to her surprise, she was still in one piece. Maybe it was her guilty conscience? It had been over a day and a half, maybe a little longer since they'd left Tatooine. That meant that the Mandalorian hadn't eaten since then.

    Maybe it was that eating and knowing that the Mandalorian wasn't made her feel selfish. The Mandalorian had been up and about, securing the chunk that had been taken out of the hull with scraps of fabric to lessen the cold air and examining his ship to have an idea of how much damage had been done. Whilst Kera just sat there, wedged comfortably between the child and K-3SO.

    The adrenaline pumping through her veins had already faded and Kera was already starting to feel sluggish and drained, in other words, tired. She had to eat. Kera glanced up, she saw the Frog Lady had already devoured her ration and the child had eaten most of his. Of course, it wasn't the most appealing sort of food but it was food.

   Be grateful, her mind echoed over and over ── which enabled Kera to devour the majority of her portion. The child looked down from its eaten portion, holding the little sliver tray in its grasp and let out a little whine, only to have Kera empty what remained of her portion for the child. Yet, the child really seemed intrigued by the large canister which contained the Frog Lady's eggs, it made Kera knot her eyebrows together.

The child didn't want to eat them, did he?

   The Mandalorian returned just as quick as he left and Kera noticed from his body language that he seemed exhausted and defeated. She sympathised with him because truthfully it had been a really rough day and his ship was in utter shambles. And they were stuck on a really, really freezing cold planet.

   "If you hadn't noticed were in a tight spot," The Mandalorian declared, spinning on his heel to examine the mess and disaster of the Razor Crest from the inside. "The main power drive is not responding, and the hull has lost its integrity. I suspect the temperature will drop significantly when night falls."

  It seemed that Kera shifted from feeling compassion and sympathy for the Mandalorian to agitation and frustration. Kera gritted her teeth together, did the tin can honestly think she was an idiot or did he just find enjoy stating utter mere fact and common sense?

The Mandalorian lowered a blanket to the floor of the hull against the wall yet he continued to inform the group of what his plans were, "I'll have a better idea of our prospects at that time."  

   "This is a disaster!" K-3SO exclaimed, throwing its gangly thin metal arms upwards towards the ceiling.

   Kera tried her best to ensure her droid that this 'disaster' wasn't really all that much of a disaster. "It isn't that much of a disaster, Kaythree. We've been through and lived through much, much worse."

     The Frog Lady let out a series of distressed croaks, her fingers motioning to some sort of temperature dial on her large clear circular canister which held her spawn. Kera turned towards the Mandalorian and it was a possibility that he didn't understand the Frog Lady as much as she did.

     "I'm sorry, lady. I don't speak Frog," The Mandalorian says before his arms crossing his arms over his Beskar chest plate and stretches out his booted feet before him. "Whatever it is, it can wait until morning. I recommend you get some sleep."

     Kera's glimmering brown eyes trail upon the child as it settles itself beside the Mandalorian before she shifts her gaze towards the Frog Lady. It seemed that the Frog Lady was trying to communicate with her but Kera couldn't understand a word.

    Kera's expression morphs into one of shame and sorrow and she tries to smile but it fails miserably. "I'm sorry but I don't understand your spoken tongue ma'am. I wish I could but I can't. I think we should follow the Mandalorian's advice. We all need to rest and look after yourself. You have time. You'll get your spawn to your husband soon, I promise. You just gotta be patient."

    The distress on the Frog Lady's features does not fade and Kera continues to babble away, trying to provide an ounce of comfort. "Personally, I-I don't like sleeping much in strange, unfamiliar places. . . So I, um, can watch your eggs with Kaythree while you rest if you like."

    The Frog Lady's large beady eyes blink twice, her attention shifting from Kera but to the bug-eyed protocol droid lodged away with the Mandalorian's discarded items and then to the shiny green toolbox next to Kera's feet. Kera follows the Frog Lady's gaze, unable to deny her confusion and stares at the parts of the discarded bug-eyed protocol droid and smiles once it all clicks into place, "We're both thinking the same thing aren't we, ma'am?"

    By the time Kera gathers her red toolbox, prepared to yank the parts of the droid off the wall, the Frog Lady has already started tweaking with wires with her fingers. Kera settles to her knees beside the Frog Lady and the droid mounted to the wall.

    Kera turned to her droid, with a screwdriver and a wrench in either of her hands. "Wanna help us, Kaythree?"

      "No," K-3SO sulks like a child. "I'm powering down. It's so boring. I'll just stand there. You won't let me touch anything." Kera rolls her eyes as her droid powers down, K-3SO could be so moody sometimes it was utterly ludicrous.

    Kera and the Frog Lady worked quickly, rewiring circuits and the processing unit in order to bypass the droid's security protocols and accessing its vocabulator. Once it was completed, Kera pressed the vocabulator to the Frog Lady's padded fingers and smiled reassuringly. "Now, we can all understand you."

   The Frog Lady reached out, a hand grasping Kera's wrist for a moment before letting go. Thank you, The Frog Lady seemed to say with her eyes.

   The Frog Lady didn't hesitate, speaking into the vocabulator and the robotic voice echoing throughout the hull, "Wake up Mandalorian."

   Instantaneously the Mandalorian awoke from his sleep, abruptly drawing his blaster on instinct and pointing it towards the Frog Lady. Kera was just as quick, for she too had pulled out her own blaster from her holster and then automatically lowered it. The Mandalorian was not a threat and he should not be treated as such. He was an ally.

     "This cannot wait until morning," The Frog Lady continued speaking into the metal vocabulator. "Do not be alarmed. I was assisted by your partner and together bypassed the droid's security protocols and accessed its vocabulator."

      "What are the hell are you two doing?" The Mandalorian lowered his blaster and tucked it away into his holster before pointing a delirious gloved finger at the Frog Lady and Kera. "That droid is a killer."

     Kera rolled her eyes but her voice was brittle and colder than the Mandalorian had ever heard it, "So was Kaythree and I reprogrammed him. Stop being so prejudiced about droids and listen to what the lady has to say she deserves that much."

     The Frog Lady placed a hand over the canister containing her spawn and spoke, "These are the last brood of my life cycle. My husband has risked his life to carve out an existence for us on the only planet hospitable for our species. We fought too hard and suffered too much to resign ourselves to the extinction of our family line. I must demand you hold true to the deal you agreed to."

      Kera could see the helplessness and powerless etched upon the Frog Lady's face. It tore at her heart to see such a horrible thing. Kera could put it into context in a way, she had always dreamed of being a mother one day and that possibility of having that taken away from you must have been one of the worst feelings to ever exist.

      The Mandalorian seemed to struggle to find the right words, to administer such a blow to the Frog Lady, "Look, lady, the deal is off. We're lucky if we get off this frozen tomb with our lives."

     "I thought honouring one's word was a part of the Mandalorian code. . . I guess those are just stories for children."

       For a moment, Kera felt lost in the middle. She could see both perspectives. She could understand the Frog Lady's desperation with every ounce of her being yet Kera couldn't help but feel that the Mandalorian was being mistreated because of his creed.

      Kera observes how the Mandalorian turned to the child for a moment and sighs deeply, reconsidering if the deal was what was important. The Mandalorian turns back to the Frog Lady and Kera and stands, collecting his toolbox, his modulated voice curt and gruff, "This was not apart of the deal."

     The Mandalorian leaves, lifting the scrap of fabric that was sewn over the chunk that had been taken out of the hull and out vanishes into the wintry land fabricated with hardened ice surfaces and fluttering snow dancing in the gentle wind.

     Kera too picks up her toolbox with a gentle sigh, her exhaust weighing heavy against her shoulders, with an effort she turns to the Frog Lady who swaddles the large canister full of her eggs and then to the towering reprogrammed Imperial droid with flaring white optics. "I'll be back soon. Kaythree and I were gonna help the Mandalorian."

     With Kaythree in tow, Kera lifts the fabric and steps together with her droid, they step out into the cavern. It's cold. So much colder than in the hull. A shiver runs down her spine at the temperature. Lifting her chin, Kera flutters her eyes closed feeling the fluttering snowdrift decade downwards from that wretched hole the Razor Crest crashed through and fleetingly caress against her cheeks and the exposed pastel toffee skin of her neck.

     For a moment Kera could feel it ── the thrum of energy around her, beckoning towards her, calling to her, familiar and tucked in away in golden memories, a fugacious whisper tender and warm. Keirah.

     It was impossible. Kera she knew that voice, she knows that voice. Obi-Wan. Kera tries to reach him, call to him. Nothing. It vanishes as soon as it comes. Kera could feel the Force just for a splinter of a moment and then it vanishes down a slope as Kera would discard and conceal her abilities.

    Survive, Kera thinks, providing herself with comfort, it's what you have to do.

     By the time Kera peels her eyes open, Kaythree is already wandering, probably accessing the damage and the Mandalorian is already working on repairs a little way away.   

    Kera's boots slush against the snow and she walks only to stop once she reaches him, observing the Mandalorian over his shoulder for a moment. "We'll have to rewire those by hand."

   "Yeah." The Mandalorian agrees. "Wanna help?"

   Kera arches an eyebrow at the Mandalorian, longing to be sarcastic but for an answer, she lifts up her battered lime green toolbox.

      "Good." 

    Kera snorts then she speaks, lowering to the floor and lifting the latch to her green toolbox and rummages through it, "Honestly sometimes you really baffle me. Did you think I was just gonna come out here and frolic about in the snow, then proceed to make snow angels? Do nothing? I'm not that sort of person."

    Kera flicks her gaze the Mandalorian as she talks, passing up the electrical tape and wire cutters, yet the Mandalorian only collects the tape, "I woulda killed the krayt dragon myself, that is, if I had a jet pack. . . And an amban pulse rifle too."

     The Mandalorian seemed to struggle with the tape for a moment, before he answered Kera, "Maybe. . ."

     "This is the most you've willingly talked to me, well, sort of," Kera acknowledges with a little smile and something in her gaze softens when the Mandalorian turns to meet her gaze.

     "Yeah," The Mandalorian quips, an impishness to his tone, abruptly turning his gaze back to the more important matter at hand which was fixing his ship and getting off this frozen ice planet. "Don't get used to it."

      Yet, Kera was still looking at him with a strange look in her eyes, dancing with a rare vulnerability. "That was a good thing, you did back there for the lady," Kera murmurs. "Mandalorian or not."

     The Mandalorian shrugged. And silence cuts through the air like a blade.

They worked together, for a few minutes in quietude before Kera spoke again. "Are you okay with me calling you Mando? Or do you have a name? A nickname? I think it's been rude of me not to ask."

"Mando is fine."

Kera couldn't help but feel confused. Was Mando short for Mandalorian? Or was it that Mando was unwilling to share his name with her? Then again, Kera never informed him of her true name or even exactly who she was. Keirah Dorwin. Daughter of Feyn Aporilè Dorwin, ex-Queen and Senator of Naboo and possibly the secret adopted daughter of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Kera nods, rhythmically tossing the screwdriver in her hand up and down, hip pressed against the side of the Razor Crest. "Lovely. You can call me Kera."