Chapter Three

She was used to getting up early in the morning, she was even used to running on very little sleep. What she wasn't used to was how quiet and monotonous her new job was. In the early morning light the dew on the flowers and trees shimmered but there was a stillness all around that nearly unsettled her. She was accustomed to being around lots of people or when she was alone there was usually the mechanical hum of an engine of one sort or another.

She sighed and shook her self. She was getting too distracted and would never finish her assignment if she kept letting her thoughts wander. Her expression determined, she attacked the weeds in the flowerbed.

She made good progress for a few hours and the stillness lifted as birds and insects woke up all around. She had hit a rhythm which made the work easier.

Not that this work would ever be described as hard. She frowned to herself—she was still looking for a different job right now. But she would stick with this one until she found something else. It had been hard enough to find this park services position; it had taken her a month. Given that this was Theed and that there never seemed to be a shortage of jobs it was surprising. Of course, her expression changed to a scowl, the problem wasn't that there weren't any job openings but that most businesses, despite proclaiming to be open-minded and willing to accept any qualified applicant, were reluctant to hire her, even though she had her education certificate and her emancipation papers, because she was only sixteen.

When the private businesses had turned her away she had decided to take a government job. Surely a planet with a fourteen year old queen would accept someone her age into a job? But no, the government only seemed interested in hiring people her age if they had been educated through the youth legislature system. She had never thought she'd be rejected for a job because she had been educated at the Royal Academy of Alderaan rather than on her home planet of Naboo.

She realized that she had slowed in her work and so she pushed her reminiscing aside to finish her assigned flower beds before she returned to the park services headquarters and joined one of her fellow employees in checking the fence that separated the Royal Forest of Naboo from the flat lands to the north.

Sometimes she wished she were still in school, that she had never made the trip back to Naboo…. She missed her family and would have given anything for her brother to be around, but she had learned many years ago that dreaming of what couldn't be only brought disappointment. They were gone and all she could do was make a life here and now.

Reapplying herself to the beds with vigor, she concentrated only on what her hands were doing.

Hours later, with the sun now high over head, she loaded her tools into the basket on the back of her park service speeder bike and hopped on to fly back to headquarters. Despite how boring the other aspects of the job were, she did enjoy the fifteen or twenty minutes of flying she did to get to and from her assigned areas. Strangely enough, she had never been a huge fan of flying before—that had been left to other members of her family—but, while she would probably never be as good a pilot as her father, she finally understood some of his fascination with flying.

She turned to the right and took her usual shortcut down the slope that formed part of the western edge of the waterfall. At the base of the slope was an area of barren ground that led to the rock garden. She enjoyed weaving around the rock formations on her way to the blue stone bridge that was only a short distance from the park services building.

The slope started out gentle but as it got closer to the waterfall it became more steep and rocky. Most days she kept away from the waterfall and took the gentler hill. Today she was feeling a little more daring so she took the steeper path with her speeder. It wasn't until she had already started down the slope that she saw people below at the base of the waterfall and in the rock garden.

Stang! she thought to herself. She had been warned not go her usual path back to the park services building today. Something about security training. But she had forgotten in the intervening hours. She cut the steering sharply to the left to turn and go back up the slope before anyone noticed her.

That's when she heard the familiar whine of a robot drone. She groaned and looked around to see a droid coming at her from the direction of the falls, with a blaster aimed at her. She ducked instinctively and floored her accelerator. The speeder lurched and she fishtailed before she got the bike back under control and headed up the hill again.

I hope this training exercise is using only stun blasts, She thought as she crested the top of the hill. She could still hear the droid behind her but she didn't look this time as she urged her bike away from the area.

She turned to avoid a copse of trees and winced as she saw a blast impact against a trunk. But it didn't leave a burn mark so she knew at least that the blaster was set to stun. Taking a chance she dodged into the trees and slowed down enough to maneuver. She hoped that droid would not be able to react as fast as she could in the confines of the woods.

She dodged between the trees until she felt she was well enough away from the waterfall and couldn't hear the droid anymore. Slowing to a stop she halted and looked carefully around her. She could barely hear the waterfall now and there didn't seem to be anyone or anything else around her. Satisfied that she had gotten away from the drone she started her motor up again and turned north. There was a service path not too far from here that would take her the long way around back to headquarters.

It was only when she cleared the trees that she realized that she had turned the wrong way and ended up on the south edge of the trees only a hundred meters or so from where she had entered them.

Her eyes widened as she caught sight of the drones down the slope. There were still people at the base of the falls but they all seemed to be gathered together now. Perhaps the exercise was over now. She considered her options. She could turn around and go back through the woods, but she was already late and taking the service path would be a good half hour. Or she could take the western slope and cut through the trees on the far side and cross the river on her speeder. But going that way was risking being seen.

She sighed, she needed to get back to the park station as soon as possible because she still had to join another ranger in checking the fence. Her partner was probably waiting impatiently even now.

She decided to take the western slope. Easing down the hill, she kept an eye out for the people near the waterfall.

She was half way down when she heard the whine of the drone once again. She looked up startled—it hadn't come from the area near the waterfall, it had come from the north, the trees she had just come from. She growled in frustration, this was probably the same droid that had followed her before.

Now she was stuck. No matter what se did next she would be noticed by the security training team and most likely lose her job if the trainer was feeling vindictive or was particularly high place.

Well, she wasn't going to let a droid get the best of her if there was no way out of being noticed now. She turned east towards the waterfall.

It was only a matter of moments before she was noticed. She covered the ground quickly and they could evidently hear the sound of her motor over the engine and she could still hear the droid behind her.

It didn't seem to be shooting at her though. That was a little strange. Well, perhaps all the weapons had been deactivated when the exercise ended.

A serious looking dark skinned man motioned at her to stop as he walked towards her, hand on a blaster that, no doubt, was not set on stun. With her motor off she could hear the droid behind her more clearly. Just as the man approached her she heard the droid's weapon charge. She looked around behind her and yelped, diving off her bike, as a blast came towards her. It hit the rear fender of her bike.

If that had done any damage it would probably come from her pay. The man stopped short and his eyes widened as he saw the drone was still active. He shouted for her to stay down as he drew his blaster and shot at the thing.

She stayed down but watched with a sinking feeling as the man's shot glanced off one arm of the droid, sending it spinning towards her. She scrambled to her feet and dodged away from the droid.

It hesitated for a second, seeming unsure which of them it should target, but then flew towards the man. He backed up a few steps and shot again, this time taking out the droid's repulsolift.

Well, at least it can't fly anymore. Even if it has gone insane. She mused to herself.

The droid sank dropped to the ground powered down. The man, satisfied that it was not going to attack anymore, turned to stare at her now. She felt herself blush as she stood from her crouched position.

The man had lowered his blaster but hadn't reholstered it. He scrutinized her carefully before he asked, "Who are you, and why are you here?"

"I'm sorry sir, my name is Aldé Tonderra. I forgot we were told to stay out of this area today."

He nodded that he had heard but held out one hand, "Can I see your identification please?"

She nodded quickly and dug a hand into her pants pocket. It was just her luck that today she wasn't wearing the park services uniform. They weren't required to wear it every day though it was mandated on days when there were park tours. She handed him her ID and stood uncertainly as he examined it.

"Well, please remember next time to stay out of an area when there is a training exercise going on."

"Yes, sir" She said quickly. Maybe she wasn't going to lose her job today. That is if her supervisor didn't have a fit over the speeder being returned late.

He turned away from her, replacing his blaster at his waist and walked back towards the training group. She straddled her bike again and was about to start it up when she heard the movement near her feet. She looked around and saw, to her astonishment, that the droid seemed to have powered up somehow.

"Sir!" she yelled jumping off the bike. He spun back around as she aimed a kick at the blaster the droid was raising.

Unfortunately, the weapon was welded to its hand. The shot went wild though. She quickly circled around the droid warily as the man hurried back over with his own weapon once again in his hand. The droid was aiming again (though it seemed to be having some trouble with its hand-eye coordination) and the man wasn't close enough to hit the droid as it was behind her bike tire. Looking around as she moved she spotted a large rock, about the size of a joobafruit. Hefting it in one hand, she tossed it at the head of the droid. The rock left a large dent between the droid's eyes and which seemed to further damage its ability to aim.

The man was close enough by then that he shot the droid. With a screech of metal the drone's weapon erupted into flames. Both Alde and the man stared in astonishment at it before Aldé came to her senses as a park service employee and started stomping on the weapon to put them out.

When the flames were out and the droid looked well and truly dead this time she looked at the man. He was regarding the droid with a very suspicious look. He turned his head to look back at the crowd of people who were now seated on the rocks lining the edge of the waterfall watching them.

"Second one today." He muttered to himself. Then he looked once again at Aldé. "Sorry, miss, about this droid. I don't know what the malfunction is. It isn't the only one today that didn't respond to the remote deactivation. I apologize that it tried to harm you."

She gave a little shrug, "It would only sting a little anyway."

He had been about to leave her again but her statement brought him up short. "How do you know it was set to low power stun?"

She blinked and stammered a little, not because she was unsure of the answer but because he seemed to find it curious that she knew, "I—it hit one of the trees when it chased me earlier." She gestured to the forest past the top of the hill, "It didn't leave any burn marks so it was obviously set to stun, and the blaster," she gestured now to the twisted crisp remains, "looks like a modified SoroSuub ELG-3A. The barrel is too small to have a larger focusing ring so it can't be high powered."

The man was looking at her with raised eyebrows now. Finally he spoke saying, "Miss Tonderra, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me while we make a report about this rogue droid. If it chased you into the woods and found you again when you came out, someone has seriously messed with its programming.

Aldé gave an internal sigh as she nodded. Placing a hand on her speeder she looked at the man with an eyebrow raised, asking if she should ride it or not.

He answered with a shake of his head. "If you don't mind, one of the trainees injured her ankle and won't be able to walk back. We were going to have to call park services to get her transported anyway. Is it left or right accelerator?"

"Right."

He grinned now, the expression making him look much more agreeable. "Perfect. Rabé can fly herself back to the park entrance."

Aldé smiled as well now. If her bike was being co-opted by the security training team, her supervisor couldn't complain.