(no subject)

[imthepilot]

It's nearly a month standard before Bodhi can get a haul that leads him back to Eadu. There are too many other runs and too much going on. The Empire needs cargo and they need it everywhere.

Bodhi doesn't always get any say where he's sent. Even if it's the one place in the galaxy he least wants to be.

Jedha.

As much as he hates being wet. As much as he hate the load of Kyber in his hold. AS much as he wanted to just lock the doors and sleep, he is looking forward the being back on Eadu.

And he doesn't want to think too much about that.

About the fact Galen might be the only person in the galaxy who is expecting to see him. The only person who would notice if he didn't show up.

He calls ahead to the tower, radioing in his flight path and arrival time.

He has unpacking to do, he can find Galen once the work is done.

Do the job, move forwards.

Don't look back.

Comments

[imthepilot]

Bodhi pauses at that. Price? He had traded it for some undrinkable Mon Calamari brandy his contact refined into something resembling rocket fuel. It hadn't really cost him anything, not anything he wasn't glad to be rid of.

And in an agonizingly short time, he'd started to think of Galen as a friend.

His lips thin, scowling at himself for being so pathetically sad.

"Don't worry about it. Just enjoy it." If it tastes home and that's a good thing for Galen then it was worth the trip.

But then, everything Jedhian tastes bitter to Bodhi right now.

He starts prepping, "I forgot to ask if there's anything you don't eat."

[galen_erso]

"Anything that could be argued to be self aware, anything that has been inside some creature before, or anything that is actually rotten, I would like to pass on," Galen says. "This planet is known for some rather horrid fish specialities which probably fulfil all three of those points, which is why this overly specific caveat."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi can't help but give a soft chuckle that lightness his mood some what. "I think I can get around all of those."

He chops and preps, checking the little oven against the size of his baking dish as he puts together the meal.

"Mon Cala has a dish like that. It can't be exported without special pressure controlled crates or it ferments and explodes."

[galen_erso]

Galen pretends to be shocked. "Oh, I forgot to mention, anything that actually explodes is to be a older as well, if at all possible. At least as far as food is concerned."

[imthepilot]

Thank you, Galen. You actually got Bodhi to smile. That doesn't happen much. Not lately anyway.

"I promise your meal won't talk back, rot, or explode." One tray in the oven, he starts in on making up skewers. "Picked up some Riosan mead. It'll go will with dinner."

He understands that Galen may not want to share the herbal liquor. The enjoyment of some things are personal and best does alone. Especially if they're loaded with memories.

He looks around the room while he waits for his pan to heat up, trying to understand Galen better.

[galen_erso]

Galen and his personal space are all about his work and his research, scientific publication's from all over the Galaxy as well as sources, including materials from some singed Jedi library. However, there are a few personal mementoes as well -- a Jeddhean tapestry in deep jewel hues, depicting the spiritual cosmos of the Force, small statues of leaping, graceful animals with horns, and a child's drawings of the usual things children drew a few years back, before the Empire turned everything upside-down: Jedi with lightsabres, shaggy creatures that might be either Wookies or Ewoks, flying spaceships and shiny sunsets, and groups of stick figures labelled in a childish scrawl. These seem the oldest layer in the room, as if Galen had put them up when he arrived and other things had encroached as time went on.

"Can I get you some tea, at least?" he offers.

[imthepilot]

"Please?" He nods, heating up some oil in the pan.

Bodhi sees the child's things but knows there's not child here. Not in this place. So he doesn't ask. Not unless Galen brings it up.

"I know that icon." He gestures to the tapestry with the end of a dried fruit and meat skewer. "The harmonic whole. I remember seeing it in the temple as a child. You're a follower of the Way?"

[galen_erso]

Galen starts making tea, with actual leaves and herbs from a tin rather than some handy powder.

"I'm not," Galen says. "But the teachings and secrets make sense. If we study those traditions we find hard facts of a Force that actually permeates the universe with energy and a non-linear approach to reality that..."

Beat.

"Sorry."

He pours the boiling water I to the pot.

[imthepilot]

"Don't be." Bodhi sets to skewers to fry, the dried fruit giving off a sweet scent in the oil. "My mother was- is a believer. Like most of the Jeddhean poor. But I was raised by my grandmother." A little half smile turns the corner of his lip as he turns the skewers over, the meat sizzling. "The rarest of Jeddhean wildlife - a pragmatist."

[galen_erso]

"Still, the tradition has a point, and I would like to respect it, not just the outcomes we respectlessly carry away," Galen says. "It's so arrogant to think people on far-away, long-ago planets were in any way backwards or unenlightened, just because the models they used to explain the world differed from ours. Mine."

[imthepilot]

"My grandmother use to say that any planet settled by religious types was likely to have a few strange traditions. But most of them have a reason behind them."

"Like the tradition of sharing food. In Jedha, if a stranger comes to your door during a meal, the Way dictates that you pile his plate high before you ask his name." He serves up the skewers and gestures towards the table. "There's very little native to Jedha that's edible. Almost everything has to be imported or farmed. And water is an even scarcer commodity."

He gestures for Galen to help himself - the dark gamey meat matching well with the warm, sweet dried fruit. "So for the sake of sustaining the community - what you have, you share."

[galen_erso]

Galen helps himself, appreciatively breathing in the steam from the food. "This smells delicious," he says. "And yes, it makes sense. What comes around, goes around. Everybody is connected by the resources they share, just as all beings are connected through the universal energy of the Force. It sounds very mystic, but is actually sound science."

[imthepilot]

"The same with children. Group marriages are common because the early settlement was small. The larger the family group, the more diverse gene-pool. A pregnant woman is held as a sacred vessel of the Force. Once born, the child is reared by whole community."

He shrugs bitterly. "At least that's the way it's meant to work. In the slums of Jedha that translates to is roving packs of half starved children no-one takes responsibility for. Child mortality is as high in Jedha today as it was 500 years ago but for very different reasons."

[galen_erso]

"Neglect," Galen says. "Exploitation. Breakdown of traditions."

Beat.

"Bordering on wilful destruction out of ignorance and spite. You were proably lucky in your grandmother. In bad times, grandmothers are often the backbone of humanity and civilisation."

[imthepilot]

"She was the exception to a great many rules. And the only reason more that half my siblings survived to adulthood."

He gets up tidying away the entrees and getting the main dish out of the oven. "She taught me to read using outdated republic service manuals and her own cookbooks. She was a mechanic in the war."

He brings over the dish - a poultry and vegetable pie with a light wine sauce. Homely and simple but filling. And with plenty of left overs to keep the scientist fed after Bodhi was gone. "And she knew how to cook for as many strangers as might show up."

[galen_erso]

"She raised you very well, and quite obviously was an excellent teacher," Galen says. "What so your siblings do now?"

Said casually, as one would have asked in peacetime.

[imthepilot]

"When my grandmother got sun-blight, we started making plans. I took a job with the Imperial base. We scrapped enough together to get my sisters off-planet. They take care of rich people's children on Gendius V. It's not easy but they're getting an education. And they won't be forced to have children of their own before they're ready."

He stabs at a piece of pie. "As for my older brothers, I don't know." He puts the fork down. "I suspect they have become bandits."

[galen_erso]

Galen nods. "Nothing else left to do on a world that is being eaten away from under the feet of its inhabitants except resist or plunder their oppressors?" he says, sadly.

One person's bandit being another person's freedom fighter, as always.

[imthepilot]

He lowers his eyes in something resembling a nod. "I was diverted to pick up the kyber. There had been an attack on the shipment. I saw some of the prisoners the storm troopers capture. They were friends of my brothers." He closes his eyes, trying to keep his voice level.

"For all I know, the blood on that crate was my brothers'."

[galen_erso]

"Oh, Bodhi, I am so sorry," Galen says, reaching out to touch the pilot's elbow as if in support. "Where is that crate now?"

[imthepilot]

The touch makes Bodhi shudder, a little surprised by the human warmth of it. It feels like a long time since anyone touched him.

"On its was to the refinery, I suppose." He hates himself for the fact he's shaking. "I had to hose blood off the deck plates. The smell of it."

[galen_erso]

Galen keeps his steadying hand on Bodhi's elbow. "Would you like quarters inside for tonight, and help with scrubbing your deck tomorrow!"

[imthepilot]

"Thank you. Yes." He's hosed the worst of it out already. Eadu being abundant with water. But the scrubbing will wait. Somewhere away from the ship to sleep will help.

He covers Galen's hand with his own, feeling the deeply human warmth of it.

[galen_erso]

There is a table full of food between them, so all Galen can do is put his other hand on Bodhi's yet again.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi keeps his eyes low, soaking in this moment of comfort. He knows he's shaking and hates it. Hates the weakness of it. The cowardly desire to just break and weep.

All the things he had come here to distract himself from doing. "Will you- can I use your fresher?" He needs to pull himself together. He hates that he's broken down like this.