The following events take place 8 ABY.
"GONK! GONK!"
or
"The Little Power Droid That Could!"
EG-6-T6 disengaged from the small passenger shuttle parked in the hangar bay. A little red light mounted next to the power socket lit up indicating that the crafts power cells were full. He retracted a small appendage into his square housing and a panel shut itself with a click that reverberated through the large, nearly empty room.
"Gonk! Gonk!" EG-6-T6 exclaimed, satisfied with himself and the work done.
He cautiously turned around and ambled over to the hangar bay's main entrance, his body slowly bobbing up and down. His systems indicated that a turbolaser on the other side of the Golan II Space Defense SpaceGun needed replenishing of its power cells and EG-6-T6 was more than happy to do it.
Suddenly, an R3-unit cut across EG-6-T6's path and the two almost collided. The astromech beeped loud profanities at the sulking power droid, but he didn't even seem to notice; he just continued his merry stroll towards the large doorway.
The space station's administrator, an aging Alderaanian male, wasn't too fond of droids. As a result of this, droids were only allowed to use specially assigned passageways. These were mostly cold, dim lit corridors near the station's hull and EG-6-T6 hardly ever saw any sentient beings there. But today was an exception. Up ahead a Human and an Aqualish, both dressed in standard issue New Republic technician uniforms, were talking to each other with hushed voices. When EG-6-T6 shuffled in closer he could hear what they were saying.
"You wait on the ship as I set the charges to the stations shield generators." the Human said to the Aqualish, his back turned towards the approaching power droid. "Make sure it's ready for take off. I'll be there at 0758 sharp. This thing requires perfect timing. And I mean perfect timing! Don't mess this up!" The Human poked the Aqualish in the shoulder with his index finger.
"Yeah, yeah..." the Aqualish replied in a raspy voice and pushed the Human's hand away with a furry paw. "Hey! We got company!" He had only just noticed boxed droid coming towards them.
The Human spun around, blaster in hand. When he saw EG-6-T6 he laughed out loud. "Don't mind that, it's just a power droid" He holstered his blaster and turned back towards his Aqualish companion. "Those things don't know a mynock from a Hutt!"
EG-6-T6 computed those words in his electronic brain for several moments and then decided that he found it extremely insulting. "Gonk!" he exclaimed angrily. The pair didn't seem to notice.
"So, get the ship ready and I'll be there 0758 sharp!" the Human continued. "Our ships will come out of Hyperspace 0800 and we need to be clear of the station by then. I'll detonate the charges as soon as I am on board. So starting now..." and he looked at his chronometer, "...we have one hour! Got it?"
"Got it!" the Aqualish mused.
"Alright, let's get to work!"
EG-6-T6 had already passed the pair as the Human came walking up to him. With all his might, the man pushed the bulky droid up against the corridor wall. EG-6-T6 barely held his balance as the Human walked by him, laughing to himself. "Try and stop us, box-boy!" he teased...
EG-6-T6 thought nothing of it and quickly resumed his journey towards his programmed destination as if nothing had happened. The Human disappeared around a corner up ahead and the Aqualish was nowhere to be seen.
Yet a tiny voice in the back of EG-6-T6's electronic mind told him that there was something fishy about those two guys. Slowly, bit by bit, he started to understand the implications of what they had just said. Five minutes had gone by when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and realized what was about to happen. Those men were going to blow up the shield generator! He knew little of shield generators, but he did know that that couldn't be good... He had to stop them! But what was he going to do? He wasn't programmed for such things...
He contemplated that for another two minutes...
Then he realized that he had to tell someone! Someone who did know about such things. He came to the conclusion that it would be best to tell his supervisor about it. Luckily, the droid pool supervisor's small office was just up ahead. EG-6-T6 walked as fast as his short legs could carry him and arrived at the office in just under a minute.
The droid pool supervisor was a Human male in his early twenties. His office was nothing but a simple glass cubicle in one of the droid corridors with a desk and some file cabinets. He sat in a chair, dangerously balancing it on two legs, with his feet on his durasteel desk. He was reading a magazine on swoop racing called 'Throttle Weekly' and didn't even notice the power droid walking in.
"Gonk!"
The young man was surprised by the sudden noise and lost his balance, falling over backwards, chair and all. He landed with a dull thud. "Stang!" he yelled from under his desk. He pulled himself up and wiped the dust from his clothes. Then he eyed the power droid - that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere on the other side of his desk - sharply. "What in Sithspits name are you doing here?"
"Gonk!" EG-6-T6 said again. "Gonk! Gonk! Gonkeesa!"
"Get out of my office and get back to work!" he said angrily and walked around his desk. He started forcefully pushing the droid out of his glass cubicle.
Why doesn't he listen to me? EG-6-T6 thought to himself and repeated what he had said before. "Gonk! Gonk! Gonkeesa!" But the human didn't react. When he had finally pushed the droid clear of the doorway he quickly shut the glass door.
"Now get to work or I'll deactivate you!" His voice sounded muffled through the glass. EG-6-T6 watched him walk back to his desk. He picked up the magazine from the floor, sat down in his chair and continued reading.
"Gonk!" he tried once more, but the Human didn't react.
What had gone wrong here? EG-6-T6 couldn't figure it out. Why wouldn't he listen to him? This was very important! He thought about his options for about a minute and then decided it would be best to go to the Golan II's administrator. Sure, he didn't like droids but this was too important. He had to know!
The programmed-in map of the space station's interior really came in handy when he tried to find the administrators office. As he progressed, the corridors were slowly becoming better lit and even carpeted. He passed quite a few sentients who seemed surprised to see a power droid this far from the hangar bay or the droid corridors. Yet no-one said anything and they all let him pass. And besides, EG-6-T6 didn't really notice their surprised glances. He was too busy navigating his way across the station.
Then he turned into a small room that he knew was the last room before arriving at the administrator's office. It was a square room with a durasteel door across from the doorway EG-6-T6 was standing in. The room was pleasantly furnished with a comfortable couch, some plants and big wooden desk to the right of the door. At the desk sat an Ithorian - dressed in a chic New Republic uniform - who seemed very busy tending to a small plant. When he noticed the power droid in the doorway he quickly got up and walked towards him.
"What are you doing here?" he said, in his pleasant stereo voice, while walking up to the him.
"Gonk!" EG-6-T6 replied. "Gonk! Gonk!"
"You know little one, you're not allowed to be here. The administrator is going to be very upset if he sees you!" He put his large, brownish hand on top of the power droids square casing. "Come on, I'll bring you back to where you belong."
"Gonk!" EG-6-T6 pushed himself by the Ithorian - who seemed more than a little surprised at the droids persistence - and walked towards the big durasteel door. He had barely taken two steps when the door opened and the administrator appeared in the doorway. He had heard the noise and came to see what was going on.
"What is this? " he boomed in a deep, resonant voice fitting to a person of his size and stature. He sported a well groomed white beard cut just as short as his hair and wore a neatly starched uniform.
The Ithorian quickly answered, his stereo voice quivering slightly, "It's a Veril Line Systems EG-6 series power droid, sir."
"I know what it is..." he said through clenched teeth, "I want to know what it's doing here!"
The tall Ithorian shrunk back a little. "I don't know sir; it only just walked in..."
EG-6-T6 chimed in. "Gonk! Gonk! Gonkeesa!"
"Get...it...out of here!" The administrator was clearly fuming. His face had turned a bright red. The Ithorian quickly complied and gently pushed the droid out of the office.
"Come on little one." he said, soothingly.
"Gonk! Gonk!" EG-6-T6 exclaimed. Why aren't you listening to me? They want to destroy the shield generator!
He could hear the administrator's voice just before the durasteel door closed. "Droids! Why do we insist on keeping them?"
"Don't mind him," the Ithorian said, as he escorted the droid back to the droid corridors, "he had a run in with Separatists Battle Droids when he was a kid."
EG-6-T6 didn't understand what that meant. "Gonk!" he exclaimed again, this time he tried to make it sound more urgent.
"I'm sorry little one; I just don't understand what you're saying!"
Then something slowly started dawning on him. Maybe they just didn't speak Gonkian... Maybe he had to find someone who did and talk to him. But who spoke Gonkian outside of other power droids? It took him the whole trip back to the droid corridors to figure it out. As the Ithorian waved him goodbye he realized that his best chances were trying to find a protocol droid and get him to talk to the administrator.
So, he ambled through the corridors trying to find a protocol droid. Lucky for him, his system had a full list of the most common droid types around, so he could easily recognize a protocol droid if he saw one.
He walked for several minutes, coming across WED Treadwell repair droids, ASP-series droids, other EG-6 power droids, but no protocol droids. Then, just after he saw his twenty-fifth MSE-6 droid (for some reason, his systems had started counting) he almost walked into a white plated 3PO-series protocol droid.
"Watch were you're going!" the droid said angrily and banged his mechanical hand on top op EG-6-T6's metal casing.
"Gonk! Gonk! Gonkeesa!" Somebody is going to blow up the shield generator!
The protocol droid tilted his head and looked at him for a moment. "I have no time to listen to your gibberish fifth-degree droid! I am K-3PO, human cyborg relations, and I have a much more important duty to fulfill. Please, excuse me." The droid brushed aside EG-6-T6 and walked off into the darkness.
"Gonk! Gonk!" EG-6-T6 said in his loudest possible tone of voice, but the protocol droid didn't seem to hear him.
Why wouldn't he listen to him? He knew that this time the person he was talking to could understand him, but now there was another problem: he wouldn't listen to him! Then it occurred to EG-6-T6 to check his internal chronometer. He remembered the pair of sentients mentioning a time.
His internal chronometer registered 0741. He made some quick calculations in his electronic mind. There were only 17 minutes left until the Human would activate the explosives charges he would set to the shield generator. He thought about what to do next. He realized he had little time so he had to come to a solution fast!
It took him under minute to figure out what to do next. He summed up what happened in his mind and realized that no-one could understand him, and those who could understand him wouldn't listen to him! It was suddenly quite clear to EG-6-T6 that he would have to take measures into his own appendages!
A quick calculation using the distance he had to travel to get to the shield generator and his average speed as parameters told him that he could be able to get to where he had to go in about thirteen minutes. So: off he went! He walked as fast as he could. Luckily, he didn't have to travel through corridors were droids weren't allowed, so no-one could slow him down. He reached the shield generator in twelve and a half minutes and he was quite satisfied with himself.
The shield generator was located near the middle of the Golan II Space Defense SpaceGun in a very large room spanning several floors. It looked like half a metal ball with several rings floating over it at a fixed equal distance from one another. Beams of pure energy shot from one ring to another in an erratic, random pattern. Sentient beings hardly ever set foot in this room and so it was basically droids domain. But right now it was empty. Except for the tiny figure of a Human male in a New Republic technicians uniform...
EG-6-T6 saw that it was the same man he had seen earlier that day. This time he carried a backpack from which he continued to take small, round objects that he attached to the bottom of the shield generator one by one.
"Gonk!" Only after he said this he realized that it might have been better to sneak up on the Human. But it was too late now, he had seen him. The man turned around and looked at EG-6-T6 for several moments. He started walking towards the power droid and when he was just 20 meters away his eyes suddenly went wide with surprise.
"By the Force, you're the same power droid I saw before!" Then his surprise gave way to laughter. "Have you come to stop me boxy?"
"Gonk!" EG-6-T6 tried to make it sound as confident as he possibly could.
"Well, that's not gonna happen!" In one smooth move the Human pulled his blaster from its holster and fired a shot at the power droid. It impacted in the top right corner on the front of EG-6-T6's casing, just above his photoreceptor. Sparks flew everywhere and he almost lost his balance. The Human quickly fired another shot and it hit the droids right leg. The leg malfunctioned instantly and EG-6-T6 fell over. He made a metallic clank as he hit the floor.
The Human smiled and holstered his blaster. "Try and stop me now, box-boy!" He turned his back towards EG-6-T6 and continued attaching the charges to the shield generator.
"Gonk..." EG-6-T6 electronic voice sounded thin, lifeless. His self-preservation programming kicked in and started shutting down vital systems to save power. But EG-6-T6 fought it with all his might. He had to stop the Human from destroying the shield generator and he knew he wouldn't be able to do that if he were shut down. Sparks shot out of his malfunctioning leg as he tried to move it. It wouldn't budge. He tried it again and this time there was some slight movement.
"Hey, what are you doing there?" a new voice suddenly yelled. From where EG-6-T6 had fallen down he could see a young Mon Calamari male had entered the room through the same door he had used. He wore a military uniform and had a blaster attached to his hip.
Then, from the corner of his eye, EG-6-T6 saw the Human pull his blaster from its holster. The droids power cells started to give out and everything seemed to move in slow motion. The Human fired and it was almost like he saw the bolt of red light traveling through the air really slowly. The Mon Calamari reached for his blaster as well, but EG-6-T6 knew in that moment that it would be in vain.
He realized almost instantly that he could save the Mon Calamari if he could somehow stop the blaster bolt by blocking its path. But he had to make this decision quickly; faster than he had ever made a decision in his existence. His self-preservation programming dictated that he could not unnecessarily risk shortening his lifespan. If he somehow stopped the bolt with his own body he would be doing just that. But on the other hand, if he didn't intervene, he would be gone for sure. The Mon Calamari would be killed, the Human would detonate the charges and he would be destroyed instantly.
Then he realized something else. Didn't another part of his programming dictate that he could not harm sentient beings? If he wouldn't stop the blaster bolt, he would harm the Mon Calamari indirectly. And that would be against his programming as well, wouldn't it?
He had to make a decision now...
And he came to a decision faster than he had had ever done! With his last bit of emergency power he created an overload in the right side of his body. An explosion threw EG-6-T6's body up in the air, at the exact right time to collide with blaster bolt. It made his way through his outer shell and another explosion, this time brought on by the blaster bolt, tore right through his innards. His body fell back to the floor and produced a hollow metallic thud.
The last thing EG-6-T6's failing photoreceptor registered was the Human being hit by a stun bolt and falling to the floor. EG-6-T6 felt rather satisfied with himself and his decision until his systems finally gave up and everything went black...
*****
At exactly 0800 that same day, a small fleet of pirate ships dropped out of hyperspace near the Golan II Space Defender SpaceGun. The pirates quickly discovered that the station's powerful shield was still on-line. They were dealt with quickly by New Republic forces and five minutes later the battle was over.
The Aqualish pirate was arrested only minutes later as he tried to pilot his ship out of one of the space station's hangar bays without permission from flight control. Both he and the Human were imprisoned on Coruscant.
The administrators Ithorian secretary realized that the little heroic power droid that saved the Mon Calamari was in fact the same power droid that had come to the administrator's office that day and that it had tried to warn them about what was going to happen. He managed to convince the administrator, who was quite impressed with the droids heroics, to order the station's technicians to take out the droids reasonably intact electronic brain from its destroyed shell and place it in a new body with one modification: a vocabulator with the ability to speak basic.