Driving Mrs. Meorrrei

"Well, if it's skilled pilots you need," Iyar had managed to polish off the last of the food and now used his spoon as an unsophisticated means of emphasizing his gestures, pointing and twirling it with his words. "then really it's the skilled ones you should have, my Lady."

He cast his best smile, the kind reserved for only special occasions and this, well of course this was a special occasion.

"After all, with your little Cirrsseeto" (No way Iyar was ever going to let that opportunity pass by now that he managed to get a hold of himself) "keeping watch on the convoy, I'm sure the Fleet could let me and Jamo here have the prestigious honor of escorting you. It's really the least we could do for the kin of one of our own."

He finished off the small speech by tumbling the spoon end over end across the back of his hand until it landed back into the bowl with a small clink.

"Aint that right, Joker?"

Cirr dipped his head down a bit, gingerly massaging at the bridge of his nose as he muttered.

"Suurra kenta'ai."

He raised his eyes in time to catch that glint in his mother's eye that was as constant as any star in the sky. The glint that said she had all of the variables accounted for, and this was a win for her.

Worse, there was nothing he could actually say to her to dissuade her from doing it. He kind of wish he bothered to learn tail signs from Alleeha when she had a tutor, because he absolutely needed a way to say don't you realize I hate these assholes!?!

As it stood, he just ate methodically, doing his best to ignore the grievances and to pretend they weren't really pissing him off.

Oh.

That was adorable.

For a moment, Taataani put aside the unsubtle agonies her son writhed in. He would be fine.

No, her attention was fixed to the Zeltron who thought he was so clever playing a game he clearly had no idea of the rules. Maybe that's why dalliances with forrda were her - what did Rai'faani call it? - little pink weakness. Like banthas to slaughter. Her full lips turned upward a little bit at the prospect of conquest, and she carefully returned to an expression of polite gratitude. No sense in dropping pretense yet, after all. The Zeltron and his Human pilot ringleader both had more or less the same fool notion in mind.

Double the pleasure. Double the fun.

"Well, jI have no doubt jin both of jyourr sskjillss jin brrjingjing me home ssafeljy. And wjith jyou both frrjiendss of Cirrsseeto, jI'll make ssurre jyou arre apprroprrjiateljy rrewarrded. jI have trrade conssularr codess jyou can usse to grrant prrjiorrjitjy passsage thrrough the Clussterr, too, jif jyou'll be needjing them."

Who was she kidding? She was still humoring the bit of daydreaming. And the best part of rented mules is that if you bought the insurance up front, who cared about the damages.

She caught Cirr's eyes. He saw it all playing out in her expression, and she simply returned a knowing look.

Jamo tossed a nod at Iyar. The fact that he had no idea where the Carshoulis Cluster was located was, at this point, largely irrelevant.

“You have a ship of your own? We've got long-range two-man snubs that could make it at a push, but it'd be a cosy ride.”

She smiled politely.

"No, but thjiss jiss a bjig sshjip, no? jI ssaw plentjy of sshuttless gojing jin. How about one of thosse?"

She leaned back, teasing the tuft of her tail as it rested in her lap.

"Ssomethjing wjith rroom."

"I'm sure we can work something out." Iyar offered.

"After all, it's not like they make use of those shuttles a ton anyway. Seems that those that show up don't really leave... and with me and Jamo as pilots they'd get it back just as good as the day it left."

A slow grin spread across his lips as if the more the thought occurred to him, the more it all seemed to make perfect sense.

"And with the two of us flying we should be able to get you home pretty quickly too. Safe and sound as it were."

Cirr stood up, having the stomach for none of this.

"Alrrjight then. jI thjink jI'll go box thjis up and have jit jin my quarrterrs. Goodbye motherr. jI'll call. Don't...uh..."

Well, too late for warnings probably. He glanced at Jamo and Iyar and shook his head.

"...whateverr."

Jamo watched Cirr go with a smile that bordered on rueful. The game lost some of its fun without the big felines participation.

“Well,” he slapped both palms down on the table, pushing himself to his feet. “How about you get your things together and meet us on the forward hangar deck in an hour? That should give us plenty of time to arrange and prepare the shuttle for you.”

She rose as well, looking from Jamo to Iyar and back again. The corners of her mouth turned up into a knowing smile.

"One hourr, then. jI look forrwarrd to bejing esscorrted bjy ssuch excellent..."

Her words trailed off, mind busy at work on something absolutely sordid. She took in a deep breath through her nose, settling for devouring their combined scents as an apertif to something more filling later.

"...pjilotss."

She didn't linger, at risk of the temptation of acting on her intentions prematurely. Instead, she returned to her quarters as instructed, and prepared her things. She was sure those two would need the time to gloat about their good fortune, as much good as that would do them. She'd make their acquaintance on the hangar deck promptly.

Iyar watched Madame Meorrrei leave, shaking his head just slightly before he pushed back away from the table.

"This has got to be the best worst idea ever."


Just a bit before 1 hour later


It felt strange to be standing in the hangar bay, not readying to board his X-Wing with the rest of rogue squadron. Iyar eyed the shuttle with distaste. It was everything his fighter wasn't - chunky looking, big, and probably slow. It was almost enough to call the whole thing off, an he may have, if Jamo hadn't been there to share a few laughs and point out a few female mechanics to him as they lay under the various craft, fixing things, wedging themselves into compromising positions, bending over...

It was a way to kill time at least.

A pair of technicians struggled to push a trolley full of equipment past Jamo and Iyar. As they huffed and puffed their way by, one glanced up sharply from beneath his sweat-damp brow.

“You two got nothing more important to do than stand around gawking, Joker?”

“That's Captain Joker to you, specialist – and we have something very important to do this afternoon actually. Me and the Lieutenant here got ourselves a diplomat to ferry about.”

The technician grunted and rolled his eyes away from the pair of pilots. “Light work for you fly-boys as usual. I'd like to see you do some heavy lifting for a change.”

A smirk tugged at Jamo's lips as he glanced at Iyar.

"jI thjink thesse two have thejirr handss qujite full, actualljy."

Taataani, now dressed for travel, arrived in the hangar bay, along with a midshipman she had somehow convinced to handle the baggage. She paused, expressing some mild look of disdain at the shuttle they'd be using for transit. Not exactly a luxury charter, now was it? Still, better than Captain Henning's accoutrements.

She waited expectantly for her entourage to accomodate her, appearing as appropriately aloof as she cared to be. Her tail swayed a bit, betraying a little self-satisfaction in her selfish good fortune.

Arms crossed behind his back, Jamo stood at attention as Taataani approached with a vaguely puzzled looking midshipman trailing behind her, baggage in tow. Jamo gave the cadet a nod, a signal that he could board the shuttle and stow away whatever it was Madame Meorrrei had deemed necessary for her trip to Carshoulis.

“After you, ma'am.”

As they filed into the shuttle, Jamo followed behind Taataani, gaze lingering for a moment on the swaying of her tail and hips.

“Our departure window is locked in. Just enough time for you to get comfortable, and then we'll be on our way.”

The brief moment of Jamo talking gave Iyar enough time to shuffle past, give Joker a childish elbow, and triumphantly drop into the pilot's seat. A long flight was ahead of them, most of it would be handled by the ship's computers once they hit hyperspace but there was no way Iyar wasn't going to let the Captain have first dibs on handling the shuttle.

At least he'd managed to stake the claim without the two of them getting into some sort of childish shoving and slapping match over the controls.

He practically beamed as Joker shot him a look. "You really should let the lowly Lieutenant handle this boring part. Why don't you entertain our guest?"

Taataani took her seat, noting with distaste that once again she would be flying below her minimum expected threshold for creature comforts. The bucket seats were cushioned at least - barely so. She smooshed in, finding with relief that there was a lever at the side to allow at least some degree of declination, of which she took full advantage. Now reclined to a civilized angle, she kicked off her shoes, letting them fall where may.

She gave the human an expecting glance when the Zeltron mentioned that he would be taking point on the entertainment duties. Retrieving a cigar from her purse, the Rrou'fai went to work shearing the tip with a few claw flicks, running her tongue slightly along her upper lip.

There was absolutely nothing exciting about a shuttle lift-off, Iyar was right about that. After you'd spent a career doing barrel rolls in starfighters, it was difficult to drum up any enthusiasm about flying anything else. Still, Jamo gave his selfless co-pilot a look. Iyar knew what he was doing and what he was doing wasn't just 'being helpful'.

Turning back to their passenger, Jamo smiled - the look brightening as he spotted the cigar in her hands.

“Mind if I join you?”

Taataani looked up at Jamo from beyond the periphery of her sparking cigar, drawing in mouthfuls of air to encourage the flame to catch as her head wreathed in purple smoke.

"Mjind?"

She examined him curiously as she pulled the end of her cigar from her lips, holding it aside for the moment. Tendrils of purple curled up her clefted lip, and were drawn through her nose, to be expelled in a quick burst. A look of impatience graced her features as she leaned back in her seat.

"Ljieutenant Jakatta, jyou'rre bejing needlessljy poljite. jI djidn't assk forr jyou forr jyourr ssocjial grracess."

She eyed him up and down, smartly fitted in his Alliance pilot's attire. The novelty of the uniform had already worn thin.

"Off wjith that." She gestured casually with her cigar.

If Iyar had been drinking anything he may have spit it out all over the console of the shuttle. So, it was probably a really good thing he wasn't. Not that he should have been surprised, but devious thoughts and shared glances full of innuendo between buddies and a rather forward Cizerack Matriarch was another thing entirely.

He almost felt bad for Joker. Almost.

Instead, just as the shuttle cleared the ship and entered free space he quickly cast an over-the-shoulder smile and a thumbs up in Jamo's direction. Gods he was incorrigible some days.