CERTAINTY
by ardavenport
- - - Part 1
"Could you pass me the hydrospanner, please?"
"Um, what size?"
"Oh, ah. . . . the small one, I think."
The young Jedi handed Engineer Topo Klatmin the requested tool. She clicked to it's widest setting, placed the head of it over the release socket of the damaged junction cover and tightened the clamp. The top plate came off right away and she handed it and the hydrospanner to the Jedi.
She pushed aside the coils of wires inside to reveal the scorched transducer box underneath. She smelled the burnt plastoids and insulation, the kind of scent that would filter down into her fur and stay there until her next thorough washing. The air inside the access panel tasted of singed metaloids. The blue fur of her arms looked gray in the shadows. Curling her blunt fingers under the edge of the box, she tugged on it. It didn't budge. Bracing herself against the outside she tried again, but it stubbornly remained fixed in place. She wondered if it might be partially welded in.
"May I?"
Topo looked at her helper, Jedi Apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, his large blue-gray eyes eager. She stepped away and he pushed back the wide sleeves of his white tunic and reached inside. His tight inner sleeves covered his arms which was a relief to her; she did not like seeing too much bare skin.. Hairlessness was a symptom of ill-health. But not in Humans, she reminded herself. With all that naked flesh, she supposed that was why the Humans were so covered with only their heads, necks and hands exposed.
He was young, but only a modestly-sized adult and like most Humans he had skinny arms, more bone than muscle, so there was no reason why he could move the damaged component when she couldn't.
With a loud snap from the back of the compartment, he brought the transducer box out and held it up for her. As she had thought, the blackened metaloid on the base of it had been partially melted in place.
"Thank-you," she said, her tone flattened with surprise at his unexpected strength. Or disappointment at her weakness. "Put it over there with the others."
While he did that, she went back into the compartment and tested the contacts for the transducer. They were singed, but still working. She bent down and collected Professor Trechmin's improvised connection cables and attached them to all the transducer sockets. She sat back and ruffled the fur on the back of her head. There was no way to close the compartment with the mass off wiring hanging out of it, but it didn't have to look pretty. It just had to work long enough to get their ship into orbit. And safely back down to the other side of the planet.
She turned and found Jedi Obi-Wan already holding the testing meter for her, his gray-blue eyes wide in the Human expression of perpetual child-like surprise, accented by the dark thin lines of fur over them. He hardly needed to move his head at all for her to read his meaning. Expression came from the mobile parts of his face; up, down, stretching out, wrinkling up. In contrast, the short gold-tinted brown fur on the top of his head was completely frozen, standing up in place on the tight skin of his skull.
She thanked him and checked all the cables and connections. Twice.
"Well, that's about all we can do with this," Topo finally announced putting the meter aside. She straightened her long yellow body-vest and orange skirt, and went to one of the rear seats of the cabin and sat down. Kenobi slipped easily into the one opposite her. Two of him could have sat next to each other between the armrests. The Jedi had sat in the two rear seats since they invited themselves onto this survey team at the last minute.
"Should we set the flight coordinates for our orbit?" Kenobi asked.
Topo shook her furry hand.
"Captain Chemi's already done that. I'd double-check the course, but not without RT-37 and Trechmin's going to hog that astromech until she's finished. We can't really do anything more until she gets done."
The door to the rear compartment of the ship slid open and Professor Ahrak Trechmin strode in, her bright orange body-vest and yellow-and-brown patterned skirt standing out against her aqua-tinged blue body fur with its even, smooth color over her whole body that she so carefully maintained.
"There." She held out a small but heavy cylinder to Jedi Obi-Wan. "I've squeezed everything I can from that. I need the other one."
He unhappily took the spent power cell, got up and went to the outer hatch. It slid open for him as he took a breather from the rack. He went into the airlock to the outside. The hatch slid closed behind him.
"Did you get everything hooked up?" Trechmin demanded.
"Of course. I wouldn't be sitting here chatting if I hadn't. We're all just waiting on you now," Topo snapped back, but with no real hostility in her voice. She always returned Trechmin's bluntness with her own. Especially when her comrade was being particularly prickly and obnoxious.
"Have you got the course set?"
"The Captain did it. I could check it if you could spare the astromech for a few minutes."
"Can't."
Trechmin grumpily went forward to her seat in front and Topo levered herself up, patted her vest and skirt back in place and went to her own place behind the pilot's chair, the light from the purplish sky and wispy pink clouds coming in from above.
"So, is there enough for a boost into orbit?" Topo asked.
"Yes," Trechmin admitted, rudely not turning her head back to answer, her eyes on the displays at the co-pilot's controls. The ship's main computer had been stepped down to stand-by mode to preserve the forward batteries. "And a little more, too. But it's ridiculous that we're stuck here scavenging for power."
Topo grunted. "Sargent Maedae said the ship was sabotaged. We're just lucky that Captain Chemi was able to land. And that those Jedi came with us."
Trechmin's head fur flattened. "Chemi is an experienced fighter. This wasn't his first crash. But it IS just luck that those Jedi got on our ship; no matter what Jedi Qui-Gon says about disturbances in his cosmic hoo-haw," she sneered. "There's no mystical 'Force' out there telling them where to go help people. When we get back we'll probably find that the Samaks got to half the ships anyway, just to keep us from confirming that they haven't disarmed"
"Well, we'd be stuck for a long time waiting for someone to walk in and get us. Those Samaks wouldn't let in another ship; the rescuers would have to come over half the planet by ground-speeder. And those emergency rations taste like wood pulp; it would have been a long wait without those Jedi and their power cells."
"Oh, those Samaks are worse than the Jedi with their clan honor and sacred lands. This rock isn't any more special than a lot of other places in this galaxy that have much sweeter atmospheres." She shook a heavy furry fist. "It's our indulging them in their primitive superstitions that brought us here. If they want to prove they've disarmed, they should just do it without all this ceremony."
"Well, I'm just here to do my duty. And I thought you were, too. I had no idea that you cared so much about the politics."
Finally turning to her, Trechmin's mouth tightened shut so much it practically disappeared in the aqua-blue of her face-fur before she spoke.
"I don't care about anyone of it. I was asked to lend my expertise and I came. I did not come to weld together random ship parts so we could just limp back to where we started from." She got up from her seat and pointed. "Look at that mess back there."
Topo looked at the rear panel with all the cables hanging from it; more thick cables snaked on the floor to other improvised outlets.
"You don't think it will work?"
"Of course it will work!" she snapped. When her head fur flattened it covered the aqua tint underneath. Blue was Trechmin's color of discontent. "I designed it. But I don't like being stuck here improvising with spare parts. We both came here to do a job and there's little chance of that. This whole trip has been a complete waste of my time."
The outer door hissed open and Jedi Obi-Wan returned. He solemnly walked up to the senior Engineer and handed her the power cell from Jedi Qui-Gon's lightsaber. Trechmin snatched it from his hand and stomped back to the door of the rear compartment. Jedi Obi-Wan watched her go, though Topo thought he was watching the cylinder she took away with her.
His shoulders relaxing, Jedi Obi-Wan sat down and, his expression sad, he held up the drained power cell of his own lilghtsaber. He reached for the weapon on his belt.
"It's not going to work," Topo told him. "Trechmin would have sucked every photo of energy from it for the engines."
He held up the now-useless lightsaber.
"I have to put it somewhere. And I'm used to carrying it here."
Topo nodded back. He had a point. He quickly clicked open the lightsaber handgrip, slid in the power cell and closed it up again.
"I suppose you would have to have some technical training to put one of those together," the Engineer commented by way of conversation. He looked at her with his wide-open eyes, the white edges visible on either side of the large blue-gray centers. "I've heard that Jedi are supposed to build there own."
"Yes, we do. And, yes, Jedi are trained in all basic technology. But neither of us have anywhere near your skill. And neither of us could do anything like what Dr. Trechmin has."
"You mean completely redesign the power systems to the engines to run on the batteries long enough for a boost back to the Gathering Point in time to report the sabotage so they can send another inspection team before the Samak's deadline runs out?"
Jedi Obi-Wan grinned. Their species had that expression in common.
"Yes, that," he agreed.
Topo sat back in her seat. "I couldn't have done it either. I'm a good Engineer, but Trechmin is the creative one."
"Creative? Trechmin?" he asked with a rising tone of surprise.
"With machines and engines at least," she explained. "She's fantastic. She can turn a cleaning droid into a nexus processor with a hydrospanner and spare bits of wire. I suppose that makes up a little bit for her complete lack of social skills."
"Well," Jedi Obi-Wan replied a little shyly, tilting his head, "I did not want to be rude and say anything."
"Why not? That doesn't stop Trechmin. She understands bluntness. Subtleties like manners fly right past her. Especially when she's out of the lair of her own lab. Being outside of her comfort zone really brings out her hostility.
"But," Topo pushed up out of her chair, "genius will not be hurried. It will take her awhile to transduce all the energy from your boss's power cell into the ship's batteries. Let's see if Chemi's got anything good in the ship's computers. I think we have enough power to spare for some entertainment while we wait."
Leaning over the co-pilot's seat, Trechmin activated the non-ship function screens and began tapping through the options.
"It's mostly local stuff. . . . . . music. . . . . holos. . . . . a few games I've never heard of. Let's see what this sounds like."
The cabin filled with instrumental music, a blatting brassy melody with a clanging rhythm. It was good but Topo hastily dialed down the volume. Obviously Captain Chemi liked it loud when he had the ship to himself. She peered at Jedi Obi-Wan but he seemed to be wincing, his head lowered, his shoulders up.
She clicked to the next selection. A singer, who sounded like she was at the bottom of a well, cooed a love song. It was a pleasant tune even if it was over-produced but Jedi Obi-Wan did not respond to it.
The next selection had a good beat and a chorus of vocals. Chemi had good taste. Jedi Obi-Wan's expression was neutral at best, but at least he didn't look like he was in pain. Topo straightened, swinging her body from side to side.
"Come on, let's dance."
Jedi Obi-Wan recoiled, his wide eyes gone even wider.
Annoyed, she dropped her arms to her sides.
"Oh, don't tell me that Jedi don't dance."
"Well, . . . . yes. . . I mean, they do, they-they can, but I don't think this is a good time or place."
"What else are we going to do? Trechmin's going to be awhile draining that power cell and we've done everything we can in here," she complained irritably, which just seemed to make him more guilty-looking.
Then Topo remembered that Humans, especially males, were always in season. She turned the music down.
"You do know that our species are completely incompatible for sex? I mean physically. Completely incompatible," she tried to reassure him with a waving hand gesture. He practically jumped back.
"Oh yes! Of course! But. . . . " His head turned toward the airlock hatch like it was his last hope. She had to admit that it could look bad if Jedi Qui-Gon walked in on them dancing. She had no knowledge of how strict Human were about dancing; perhaps he was supposed to ask permission from his boss.
"Well, you can go out there with the others. Defend the ship against any Samak renegades who might have figured out where we crashed this thing."
Jedi Obi-Wan looked a bit calmer, but he did not move toward the exit.
"My Master wanted me to stay in here with you and Trechmin. Perhaps we should help her?" he suggested, gesturing toward the rear of the ship.
"Don't," she warned, holding up her hands. "Trechmin's got everything set up back there, exactly the way she likes it. You saw. And she does not like people coming in to 'help'. Why don't you go and protect the ship with Sargent Maedae and the others?"
The blue-gray centers of Jedi Obi-Wan's eyes flicked toward the airlock again with no head motion at all.
"Master Qui-Gon thought I should stay here with you two," he repeated.
"Like we need protecting?" Topo scowled back.
"I'll just go back and check and see if she needs anything."
Before Topo could find another objection he darted back to the rear door and disappeared. She stared after him. Then she leaned back toward the forward controls and turned the music back up.
Bouncing to the beat behind the forward seats, she looked out the forward viewport. The big flat rocks and boulders under the feathery green and purple foliage on this part of the Samak's sacred world were mostly metallic orange, streaked with deep red and grays. She did not know why; geology was not her specialty. But it was interesting and she decided to look up the environment mappings later. One of Maedae's officers, Dechim, strolled by under the nose of the ship, his head and body constantly turning side-to-side, eyes watchfully scanning the terrain, his blue fur pricked up, his hand loosely resting on his blaster, the holster strapped over his body vest and skirt.
Topo tuned away from the outside and shuffled down the rows of seats to the small open space by the airlock hatch.
The song ended and something slower started up. She went forward to click to something more dance-able and then returned to the back of the main cabin again. She did not hear any yelling coming from the rear, but the ship seemed well sound-proofed.
She supposed that if she were a complete work-a-holic like Trechmin that she would be reviewing the plans of the site they were supposed to be inspecting for the treaty verification. But there seemed little chance that they would get to that. They would be lucky to make it back to the Gathering Point in time. She doubted that the treaty would be completed, but that was not her job to worry about.
She was happy to volunteer her technical expertise for the cause, verifying the terms of the disarmament treaty. But between the stomach turning terror of the emergency landing, the frantic repairs and the improvised fuel replacement, this trip had been far too exciting.
Topo thought about her students. At the moment she really did not care what they might have destroyed in the lab during her absence. Even thoughts of the classes of slow-thinking first-years made her yearn for this whole mis-adventure to be over.
At the end of the third song the rear door opened.
"OUT!"
Jedi Obi-Wan practically flew out. A silver tool came sailing over his head before the door slid closed. It clattered down under the seats.
- - - End Part 1