Off Duty: The New Girl

6

Oyu’baat Tapcaf, Keldabe, Mandalore

Jay fidgeted in her seat as they waited for their drinks. It had already been fifteen minutes with no sign of them, and she was doubting more and more the wisdom of her plan to introduce Vhetin’s new girlfriend (if that was what was even going on between them) to the rest of the group.

Feigning nonchalance, she clasped her hands together and forced a smile. “So… how was the medcenter this week?”

Alix Vachiira was far from the typical native-born Mandalorian woman. She had pale, smooth skin, silky raven-black hair, and kind brown eyes. She was certainly attractive, but seemed to lack the usual rough beauty of a Mandalorian like Janada or Jay’s friend Wad’e Rangir.

She seemed nice enough, but was obviously just as uncomfortable as Jay. She returned a smile of her own that was just as tense and said, “Fine. Work at the medcenter was busy, but mostly calm. Nothing too exciting. It’s strange getting back to the normal routine now that Cin’s been released from our care.”

 “Good… good…” Jay trailed off, tapping her thumbs together and thinking, This was such a bad idea. Where are those damn drinks?

It wasn’t that Vachiira was impolite, but Jay just couldn’t think of anything to say. She really had no connection to the woman besides their respective attachments to Cin. But at least she was trying. Janada, sitting next to Jay, was openly glaring at Vachira and hadn’t so much as spoken a word since she sat down. Her fingers were folded under her chin and her dark brown eyes were fixed on the newcomer to their circle. Vachiira shot her a nervous smile, then looked down at her lap, blushing a little. The Handmaiden, sitting at the end of their table, looked between the two with something akin to passive fascination, but had said nothing since greeting them.

“So…” Brianna eventually began from her seat to Jay’s left. Unlike Jay, she didn’t seem upset at all and actually seemed to be enjoying the discomfort Janada was putting their guest through. “What made you get into nursing, Vachiira?”

“Alix, please,” the raven-haired woman corrected her. “And I started studying nursing because of my aunt. A lot of my clan are battlefield medics or doctors. I wanted to continue the tradition.”

“A noble cause,” the Handmaiden said. “Among my people, medical personnel are highly valuable and highly respected. Combat healers are the most sought-after battlefield units, even among the Imperials who garrison our world.”

“Where are you from?” Vachiira inquired.

“Eshan,” the Handmaiden replied. “Homeworld of the Echani Battlemasters.”

“Ah. I have to admit, I don’t have much experience with Echani.”

“We rarely stoop to fraternization with less impressive species,” the Handmaiden muttered with a scowl at a passing Mandalorian in dark green armor. “Mine, however, is a… special case.”

Vachiira looked like she had regretted asking in the first place now. She nodded and murmured, “Fascinating,” then looked back down at her lap.

“Where are those drinks?” Jay muttered, glancing to the bar. The tender, Aramis, met her gaze and shrugged apologetically. Jay frowned at him, but sighed and turned back to the table. Janada had finally decided to pitch in.

“Do you fight?”

Vachiira looked at the engineer with something very close to fear and stammered, “W-what?”

“Are you a supercommando?”

“N-no.”

Janada narrowed her eyes and simply said, “Huh.”

Vachiira smiled nervously again and fell silent. Jay didn’t blame her; Janada seemed to be going out of her way to be intimidating. Jay didn’t know if she just didn’t like the woman or if she was having fun tormenting the new girl, but whatever the motivation it was working. Vachiira had barely spoken more than a few sentences since arriving at the Oyu’baat and didn’t seem to want to speak any more than necessary.

Jay leaned over to Janada and murmured, “I thought you were the one pushing Cin to hook up with this woman.”

“I was actually kind of teasing,” the Mando woman muttered back. “I didn’t expect the numbskull to actually follow through.”

“Well go easy on her,” Jay murmured.  “Look at her; she’s terrified.”

“Good,” Janada said, narrowing her eyes. “Where are those kriffing drinks?”

Brianna leaned back in her chair and attempted to change the conversation. “So how have things been going for you, Jay? The contract on Cestus went well?”

“All calm,” Jay said, glad to finally get conversation flowing again. “The guy didn’t even put up a fight.”

“Good. Seems like more idiot thugs are arming themselves these days. Contracts like that are getting more and more uncommon.”

The Handmaiden glanced over at Vachiira and said, “What of you? Do you have any experience in the field of bounty hunting?”

“Um… no. I’m not a very combative person.”

The Handmaiden stared at her. “I don’t understand.”

“I just don’t like fighting.”

The Handmaiden blinked and repeated, “I don’t understand.”

“Les here is an Echani,” Jay quickly explained. “Their culture is very competitive. Even more so than the Mandalorians sometimes. Their culture revolves around combat as a means of expression. It’s like communication for them.”

“Wait… you fight people to talk to them?”

The Handmaiden fixed Vachiira with an icy stare. “Among my people, we believe that the only way to truly know another and understand that which drives them is to face them in combat. In battle, all superficial aspects of life are stripped away, leaving us with only our most basic sense of self: mercy, hatred, weakness, strength. All are expressed in their truest, most basic forms. There is no better way to learn the heart of another.”

She cocked her head. “I would like to fight you.”

“Les!”

The Handmaiden glared at Jay. “What? I merely expressed my wish to get to know this newcomer. She is an unknown factor. And I do not like unknown factors. I simply wish to know what it is your Mandalorian partner sees in this woman who does not enjoy combat.”

Jay sighed and rubbed her temples. “Les, some people aren’t as combat-oriented as the Echani. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”

“If that is the case then I will learn her personality quicker than most. She should not put up much of a fight.”

“No! You aren’t going to fight her.”

The Handmaiden scowled. “Very well.”

“You can fight me,” Janada said. “I haven’t had a good knock-down drag-out in ages.”

“I offer more than a simple fistfight. An Echani fights to express herself, to show to her opponent and the world exactly what she is capable of. All my considerable skill will be poured into combat.”

Janada shrugged. “Sounds like fun. You wanna say… ten minutes? Out behind the tapcaf?”

The Handmaiden bowed her head. “I look forward to it.”

Jay buried her face in her hands. “Te manda save me.”

Brianna seemed to be watching the proceedings with amusement, leaning back and slinging an arm over the back of her chair. “Five credits on the Echani.”

Jay was about to bring the conversation to a halt when Vachiira surprised them all by saying, “Ten on Miss Bralor.”

It was a safe assumption that everyone present stared at her in open shock. She glanced between them, then smiled that same nervous smile. “What?”

“I thought you said you don’t like combat?”

“I don’t,” she replied. “But it’s plain to see that Miss Bralor has higher chances of winning.”

The Handmaiden narrowed her pale blue eyes and pursed her lips. “And why exactly is that?”

Vachiira hesitated. “Well… just look at her face.”

“Is that an insult?”

“Not at all. But you have several scars across your face, centered on the lips and the bridge of your nose, and your nose itself is slightly crooked; evidence that it has been broken on several occasions. The set of your jaw is slightly off-center as well – suggesting it was fractured at one point – and your right ear shows evidence of early cartilage separation and deformation. If left untreated this will result in what is known as Boxer’s Ear. All of these are wounds commonly associated with fistfighting and brawling.”

She looked at the Handmaiden. “You, however, Miss… is it Miss Handmaiden?”

The Handmaiden was still glaring at her. “Handmaiden alone will do.”

“All right. Handmaiden here has fair skin, largely unmarked by scars or blemishes, a straight and refined nose, and normal ear structure. There isn’t much evidence that she has seen many fistfights.”

“Or perhaps,” the Echani hissed, “I simply am skilled enough to not be struck during combat.”

“That’s a possibility,” Vachiira said. “But I bet on Miss Bralor because even if you are both equally skilled, Bralor shows greater signs of being able to withstand punishment rather than simply dole it out. She can obviously stay standing even if outmatched in a technical sense.”

Janada stared at the nurse, then slapped her palms against the tabletop and said, “You know what? I’m starting to like you. I’m gonna buy you an extra round.”

She glanced over her shoulder and pointedly raised her voice. “Provided the first round ever gets here!”

She turned back to the others with a growl. “So, Vachiira, how exactly do you manage to be a native-born Mandalorian and not like fighting?”

The woman traced at a carving on the tabletop, looking embarrassed. “I just never really found combat to be that exciting. It never appealed to me. My father taught me how to fight like every other Mandalorian, but I never took it any farther than that.”

She shrugged. “I prefer to save lives, not end them. So I trained with combat medics growing up and eventually took a position at the medcenter. It pays well and I enjoy my work.”

“And you get to schmooze with the patients, apparently.”

Vachiira blushed. “Cin is… a special case.”

“What…” Jay hesitated. She knew Cin didn’t like people prying into his personal life. But her curiosity was getting the better of her, so she said, “What made you two hook up anyway? No offense, but you don’t really seem like his type.”

“What is his type?”

“Me,” Brianna said bluntly. When Janada glared at her, she shrugged and said, “What? It’s true.”

“You dumped him.”

“Yeah. That doesn’t change the fact that we were dating for almost five bloody years.”

“And you dumped him!”

Brianna tipped back in her chair, setting her boots up on the edge of the table and folding her arms. “Still doesn’t change anything.”

Vachiira was looking at Brianna with undisguised fascination. Jay couldn’t blame her; Brianna was the only one at the table who had known Vhetin from the beginning. She knew him better than anyone Jay had ever met, including his own sister.

“And what about you, Miss Bellan? If you’re more his type, how did you two get together?”

“The accent,” Janada muttered. “It had to be the accent. He couldn’t resist the fancy-pants Coruscant sound.”

Jay nudged the woman in the ribs.

Brianna frowned. “It’s… a long story. Suffice to say he was in a very bad place and I did my best to help him. We got close, then we just got… closer.”

“See, that’s the way it happened!” Vachiira insisted. “I was assigned to help him to his meals after he completed his radiotherapy and before I knew it, it was a date.”

“Would that we all managed to hook up that easily,” Janada said, resting her forearms at the table. “I had to threaten Verdo at knifepoint before he decided to go out with me.”

Jay burst out laughing. “Somehow I’m not even surprised. Why Verdo puts up with your shit is beyond me.”

“Look at me! I’m, like, one of the best-looking fems in Keldabe!”

“Yeah,” Brianna chuckled. “Oil stains and all.”

“Ah, those just add character.” The engineer looked over to see one of the Oyu’baat’s new refurbished serving droids whirring over to their table, carrying a tray of drinks. She let out a short curse and sighed, “Finally. Is Aramis paying you by the hour or something?”

The droid cocked its mechanical head and droned, “I do not understand. Droids are not paid to operate. Please, enjoy your beverages.”

It passed them their drinks, then zipped off to serve other customers. Janada passed each of them their drinks (save the Handmaiden, who had ordered a tall glass of ice water much earlier) then stared at Vachiira again. “So, I take it you’re planning to stick around with Cin?”

She blushed. “That’s the plan. For now at least.”

“Well… I guess you aren’t as bad as I thought. At least not yet.”

“Thanks. What a glowing endorsement.”

“Trust me,” Brianna said, sitting forward and raising her glass, “that’s the closest to a compliment you’re going to get out of her.”

Janada snorted, then raised her glass in toast. “All right. Glasses up, everyone. To the new girl.”

“To the new girl,” they all murmured, tapping their glasses together.