Push or Puddle
Speculation on the crimson captain
Roz’lin was fond of her sanctuary, the bay that now moored a crimson ship. She took care to not be followed whenever she visited. Not knowing when the sleek owner would return she slipped beneath a grate, entered a maintenance tunnel, dropped down a few decks and slithered through a conduit corridor before finding her way to a more populated area. Pausing at a vent cover that would gain her access to a more standard part of the station, she waited patiently for an older couple to vacate the vicinity before she rejoined the rest of the humans.
“Hurry up, you daft woman. If I had any teeth, they’d be floatin.”
Peering between slats of a vent, Roz narrowed her eyes onto an old man pulling a cart with one hand and the other on his belt. Behind the cart was his female counterpart who was aiding in maneuvering things with both arms. One of the wheels on the cart was locked and another was in terrible need of some grease, as it was on the verge of a similar fate. Shhhk accompanied by a squeak and the cart moved a foot. Pause. Shhk. sqk. Another foot was achieved.
“Ah, you're fibbing. You wouldn’t look so much like a raisin if that were true.”, she retorted. Shhk. sqk.
Roz snorted. Not wanting to give herself away she slapped her hand over her mouth puffing up her cheeks, widening her eyes as she suppressed further her laughter.
“Was that you spoilin y’self? Push harder!”
“I ain’t not spoiled, y’er ears must be ringing again.”
“Play coy if you want, but our noses will tell us the truth soon enough.”
SHHK. Sq.
“Bah, just a few more doors ‘round the corner,” the old woman shoved a corner of the cart; both to adjust course and change its velocity of the cart just enough to smack her adversary in the rear.
Feeling confident she would not be noticed, Roz slipped out of the vent she was hiding in. Brushed off any excess dust she may have picked up and Roz took a course perpendicular to the corridor the old couple turned down.
As she passed the intersection of corridor she heard the old woman jeering on: “Bet that fancy man with all those gadgets strapped to himself wouldn’t forget his combo.”
“Shut your muffin, the likes of he would not like you talkin about he.”
Roz paused briefly to hear the last of the conversation, were they talking about the captain of that ship?
“Your worrying is as lost as your teeth. He be imperial, I recognized the uniform. They admirable.”
“You’re really daft, old woman. He probably salvaged that stuff from abandoned carts like this one.”
The old man kicked the cart to get it through the portal, slammed it into the control panel just inside their home causing the door to close leaving the couple standing outside.
“Now you’ve done it. You might as well make a puddle here, ya don’t have the capacity to remember that code again before ya do.”
Snorting again, Roz clapped her mouth.
Lifting an ear and an nostril in the direction of the old woman and consequently Roz, “Better than what you're holding back fer sure”, sneered the old man back.
With a suppressed giggle, Roz continued down the corridor outside of earshot of the couple.
