38
A Young Girl’s War Between the Stars
38
Serenno, 39 BBY/961 GSC.
The Serenno sun beat down on the open-air docking bay and turned the sheet-metal floor into a low-grade griddle that shimmered with heat haze. The air stank faintly of scorched durasteel, engine lubricant, and ozone discharge from the nearby traffic lanes. Work droids wheeled past in sluggish routines, and somewhere back, repulsor-lifts thrummed as they carried starships between levels.
“Alright, it’s done, boss!” chirped the mechanic walking beside me, earning a side eye from me.
The mechanic, Cindy, looked like the kind of woman you’d find on a pin-up poster lounging half-naked on a swoop bike: a busty blonde in oil-smudged booty shorts and mustard-yellow leather jacket crop top, topped off with a much abused and faded red cap. Neither hid the long strings of the salmon pink bikini she wore underneath. The weather was indeed hot, but showing this much skin was too much. Her entire slim midrift was showing for Force’s sake!