Disclaimer: I own none of this. I'm just playing with George Lucas' & Bioware's lovely toys. So please, don't sue me.

Authors Note: This short scene is one that I cut from my current ongoing story From the Ashes. While it didn't fit quite right, I thought that it was good enough to stand alone as a short vignette and someday this may actually turn into a full fledged story. Anyway, feedback is greatly appreciated. What you liked/didn't like or what you thought worked/didn't work is especially helpful. Enjoy!

Finally a big thanks to Lord Valentai for the beta!

Common Ground

Chapter 1 – A Chance Encounter

In the fading autumn twilight, Carth pulled his new bright red speeder up before the large rambling brick house. He'd just won the speeder from another pilot in his squadron the night before in a game of Pazaak; the guy had been so bad, Carth didn't even have to cheat to win.

He stepped out of the speeder, straightened his dress uniform and sighed. Carth was not really looking forward to tonight, and was still unsure how he'd been roped into this in the first place. The semi-annual officer's gala was something he had planned on skipping, it didn't sound like his kind of thing, but he, and his two best friends Jordo and Dustil had met these really pretty girls and they had wanted to go.

But he couldn't complain; being stationed on Corellia was a young pilot's dream. Between the local's obsession with ships and the University with all of its pretty young co-eds nearby, he couldn't imagine anywhere better to be stationed. He'd been stationed at Corellia for a month already and it had been the most fun that he'd had in his life. Carth was happy that his squadron was scheduled to stay for at least another six months.

Pretty women, fast ships. What's not to like?

The house that she shared with several other university students was a large older brick building that rambled underneath the large kenalpa trees. It was typical of the houses in the student quarter, and the evidence of the students who lived on the street were everywhere, from the loud blaring music coming from the house across the street to the group of Mon Calamari youths lounging on the front porch of the house next door.

Leaves, which were strewn about the unkempt yard, crunched under Carth's feet as he walked up to the front door. He pushed the call button and waited. After standing on the front step for several minutes and feeling fairly conspicuous in his dress uniform, Carth tried again but still there was no answer. He was about to leave when he heard a voice coming from the backyard area. Wondering if that was where his missing date was, he followed the driveway around the rear of the house, when he realized that the talking was coming from a large garage. The large bay doors were wide open and a distinctly feminine voice floated from the back of the garage. His curiosity was piqued and Carth decided to investigate.

"Adjusting the internal modulator by point zero four degrees appears to have a stabilizing effect on the Girlon drivers," the voice said, from behind a large engine suspended from grav hooks mounted in the garage ceiling. After a few seconds of inspection he realized that it was a Mark 12 starfighter engine, very similar to the one in his own sublight fighter, a Z-27, except that this one had clearly been modified.

Gorgeous!

Intrigued, Carth moved around the engine and further into the fluorescent lit garage which looked like it was well used. The smell of engine grease and dust was a familiar one, his parent's garage, where he had tinkered for hours with his speeder smelled the same. Here the tools were arranged in tidy rows on the long work benches, instead of being haphazardly left around.

At the back of the garage, he finally found the owner of the voice speaking to a round spidery shaped diagnostic droid.

"Unfortunately, the adjustment creates a marginal decrease in engine efficiency," she said while studying a large holoscreen on the wall above the bench which displayed a bunch of numbers and equations. "Will try adjusting internal modulator by point zero three degrees."

Without acknowledging his presence, she returned her attention to the engine. She and the droid worked in tandem and the droid hovered over her shoulder, the long arms adjusting something that Carth couldn't see but was presumably the internal modulator.

"Excuse me," he said, but before he could ask her if she knew where his date was, she held up one small hand to silence him, without turning away from the engine.

The droid finished its adjustments and spoke in a string of high pitched beeps and squawks, that he couldn't follow but apparently she could, since she nodded and said "Start it up."

He tried again. "Um, I'm looking for-"

He was cut off by the sound of the engine starting, the high pitched whine filling the garage. The diagnostic droid hovered around the engine taking readings. She remained intent on the engine still ignoring him and he watched as a smile spread across her pretty face. She turned back to the holoscreen and watched the data stream across it. Her smile widened.

As she studied the data on the screen, Carth studied her. She had pretty delicate features and long blonde hair that was pulled into a sloppy braid. Her grey, utilitarian jumpsuit was smudged with grease and clung to her curvy figure. She reminded him of a snuggly unkempt kitten, the effect was damn cute.

Still smiling, Kitten, as he now thought of her, powered the engine down and returned to the holoscreen once again, losing herself in the long string of equations that fluttered across the screen. After another minute when he realized that she wasn't going to acknowledge him, he interrupted her again.

Annoyance crept into his voice as he said, "Look, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for Renie."

She looked up at him with a startled expression, as though she had forgotten that he was there. Carth saw a flash of exasperation in her deep blue eyes before a vaguely distracted look crossed her face, as though she were still thinking about her equations in the back of her mind.

"Renie's probably in the house," she said, her tone of voice conveying that it should be perfectly obvious to anyone who wasn't an idiot.

"I tried the front door. No one answered. I didn't want to just barge in."

"Oh."

Kitten looked at him like she didn't know what to do with him. He tried giving her a friendly smile, women usually ate that up, but she didn't appear to be affected at all. Carth got the impression that she wasn't really looking at him. After a few seconds of indecision she finally said, "Let me see if I can find her."

She pulled a grease rag out of her back pocket, wiped her hands and headed into the house. Carth followed, noticing how short she was. They entered through a back door into a kitchen area. She headed up the stairs as Renie herself came bouncing down them, almost colliding with Kitten.

"Carth!" Renie said, before giving him a full kiss on the lips. He was slightly taken aback by her exuberance. Not that he didn't enjoy kissing a good looking girl, but he just wasn't expecting that enthusiastic of a greeting, especially considering that he'd met her only two days ago. She pulled him into a hug and practically plastered her body into his. His eyes were still wide with shock and so he caught the eye roll and the irritated face that Kitten made behind Renie. Their eyes met and she flushed, embarrassed at being caught while he struggled not to laugh. He saw Kitten's lips twitch in amusement.

Renie disentangled himself from him. "I see you've met Morgana." From the way she said Kitten's name, it was obvious, even to Carth that the two women weren't exactly friends.

"Um, yeah." He looked down at Renie and noticed that she was dressed in a simple tunic and skirt. Either he was horribly overdressed or….

"I'm sorry I'm late," she said, this won another eye roll from Morgana, "I haven't had time to change yet. You don't mind waiting, do you?"

"Uh, no."

"Good. I'm sure Morgana won't mind keeping you company as I get ready."

Morgana apparently did mind because she looked highly annoyed. "Well actually, I'm in the middle of-"

"Don't be silly, Carth won't bother you out there, besides he's a pilot and you're an engineering student. I'm sure you'd love to see her engine and you'll both have lots to talk about." With that decided for them, Renie flounced up the stairs, leaving Carth and Morgana looking at each other in uncomfortable silence.

"Look, you don't have to entertain me," he said when he saw how irritated and exasperated she was. He was disappointed, he really would have liked to check the engine out closer, not to mention the girl, but he wasn't about to force his company on her. "It's okay, really."

She sighed, and looked up the stairs, "It's not you, I- " Apparently her manners kicked in because she said, "I'm sorry, I've been awfully rude, would you like something to drink?"

"Sure, what do you have?"

After considering all of their various options, they both decided on Corellian Spiced Ale. Once that was accomplished she seemed to be at a loss as to what to do.

He decided to try again. "If you don't mind, I would really like to take a look at the engine. I'll stay out of your way while you work."

Morgana looked at him as though she didn't quite believe him, but she nodded and he followed her back out to the garage. "I wonder how long she'll take."

She chuckled softly. "You must be new."

"What makes you say that?"

"If you'd been dating for a while, you wouldn't have bothered to come on time. She'll keep you waiting for at least an hour."

Carth was less than pleased; he knew that their friends were waiting for them. "Great. Does she usually expect you to entertain her dates while she gets ready?"

"Renie has a thing for pilots." Carth was surprised by the contempt in her voice. He wondered if the attitude was toward Renie, pilots in general or both. "She seems to think that they must be interested in engines."

"Heh. That shows you how much she knows. Most of the guys in my squadron are only interested in flying as fast as possible. They treat the techs like dirt." Carth himself thought that mistreating the person who kept their fighters maintained was pretty stupid. "I doubt they'd even know what kind of engine this is."

Her eyes narrowed as she considered him carefully. "What kind is it?"

"Mark 12."

Morgana looked at him with a newfound appreciation, as if she were seeing him for the first time. He was happy to see that she actually looked impressed. She started asking him a series of questions about it, most of which he knew the answers to. When he was finished, she was beaming and Carth wondered why he'd ever thought she was only pretty.

They got into a discussion about the merits of the Mark 12 over the previous model the Mark 8, and Carth realized that he was truly enjoying himself. She showed him her modifications, he could only follow some of the science, but he didn't care because she practically glowed as she spoke, she clearly loved what she did.

When the conversation turned to speeder engines, he told her about his new acquisition.

She grinned. "Well, bring it back here so I can take a look at it."

He did, and they spent the next forty five minutes hunched over the engine. He was momentarily alarmed when she started pulling parts off and began modifying it.

"Wait!" he protested, as she pulled a bunch of wires out and tossed them aside. "Don't we need that?"

She laughed, and her eyes filled with humor. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. So, are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help?"

He gave her a wry look, pulled off his wool dress jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Together they pulled out the governor and reconfigured the drive matrix.

"There. You should be able to push the speeder to twice the speed you could before."

"Thanks."

They were standing next to each other, shoulders almost touching. Carth looked down at her and felt the slow, hot pull of attraction. He cleared his throat and she looked up at him and he forgot to breathe. From the wide eyed look on her face, so did she.

To his embarrassment, all he could manage was "Uh…"

She blinked and moved back and the moment was broken.

Smooth Carth, real smooth.

Belatedly, his mind raced with all of the things that he could have said to her. You're pretty, no, you're beautiful. We should go out some time. Have dinner with me.

Damn it, I'm such an idiot.

He looked over at Morgana who was busy putting her tools away and saw that she had turned a really cute shade of pink.

He had just gathered up his nerve to try again when Renie's voice cut across his thoughts, "Carth, are you ready?" She stood just outside the bay doors, and her pretty was face scrunched up in irritation. He couldn't help but notice that she looked good in her slinky black dress, but she spoiled it by talking. "What did you do to your shirt?"

Carth looked down at his shirt and frowned. He didn't see what the big deal was, there was only a little bit of grease on his sleeve, although his hands were dirty. "Sorry," he said reflexively, although he really didn't mean it.

"Nevermind. Just clean up." She looked around at the garage and wrinkled her nose like it offended her. "Meet me around front when you're ready."

Renie sauntered back to the house.

Morgana handed him a grease rag and nodded towards the back of the garage. "There's a sink back there."

"Thanks."

He washed his hands in the sonic sink and she lowered the hood of the speeder. Carth grabbed his dress jacket and shrugged it on.

"Well," he said, unsure of how to proceed.

Morgana gave him a slight smile. "Have a good time. Let me know how she runs." She turned back to her workbench.

Carth walked over to her, "Wait." His palms started to sweat, but he managed to get it out this time. "Have dinner with me."

She looked like he'd shocked the hell out of her. It wasn't very encouraging.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't go out with pilots." He was thrown for a loop, while he wasn't the smoothest guy, he'd never been turned down before. Ever. Usually girls were impressed by the fact that he was a pilot. Even stranger, by the expression on her face he could tell that she was serious; she was sorry.

He was indignant. "Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, pilots are unintelligent, arrogant, cocky jerks."

Wounded, he said, "You think I'm a stupid arrogant jerk?"

"Oh no! Not you!" She quickly reassured him.

"Then what's the problem?"

She considered. "I…you're dating my roommate."

"We're not dating, I just met her a couple of days ago. It's not like she's my girlfriend or anything." He raked a hand through his hair. "Look, if I could get out of this thing tonight, I would." He meant it, he would have much rather stayed in the garage with her. "But it would be really inconsiderate of me to back out now. Besides, it's not like you're friends with her."

"True, but I'm really busy, I have to finish this project by the end of the month."

He wasn't sure why he was being so persistent, but he knew that he really wanted to go out with her.

"You have to eat don't you?"

"Well, yes."

"Then having dinner shouldn't be a problem."

"But I'm kind of seeing someone."

He was exasperated now. "He's fourth on your list of excuses, he can't be that important, can he?"

She just stared at him.

"Listen sister, if you don't like me, just say so." Carth was worried that this was actually the case.

"No, I do!"

"Then why won't you have dinner with me?"

"It's just that, well, I just don't have room in my life for this kind of distraction right now. I'm close to graduating and I have tons of work to do. You just don't fit into my plans."

It was the wrong thing for her to say if she wanted to discourage him, it was like waving a red flag in front of a ronto. That statement made him more determined than ever to convince her.

Carth smiled, and this time he could tell that it worked, because she blushed and stared. "It's just dinner. I think you can manage to fit dinner into your plans."

"I…guess…"

"Good. I'll pick you up at eight, Kitten." Before she could come up with another excuse to say no, he jumped into the speeder and guided it out of the garage, still grinning.

He could feel her watching him as he drove away, and he heard the irritation and disbelief in her voice. "Did you just call me Kitten?"