Disclaimer: I do not own anything, so no sue!
Interlude - Preparing for Dinner
Mornings for Cahjinawl were the same every morning for as long as she could remember. Wake up to a bleak, calm, world and worry while being told to stand to the side, powerless and scared. She knows they're strong, so strong, but it didn't stop her worrying.
They were strong on Tatooine too, but that didn't stop the bombs, the lightsabers, the sheer number of mercenaries storming into the camp shooting everything that moved. Her mother was a capable shot, but that didn't stop her from taking a bullet to the neck. Her friends were the best at hiding she ever knew from their games, but that didn't help when bombs erupted on top of them. Back on the slave ship, so many people were skilled in one way or another, but when someone's suit ruptured in space, it all meant nothing when they suffocated. Or when the person was shot in the face while just eating dinner.
Death came unexpectedly no matter how skilled you were.
The only reassurance Cahjinawl felt was when she held the warmth of her father's hand on her head or slept snuggled up to her uncle like a teddy bear. She didn't know what a bear was, but uncle Varus often mentioned that she needed one to replace him. How could an animal replace family? She didn't know, but then that was just another of those adult things.
Last night had been wonderful, father returned along with the rest of Varus' friends. From what Cahjinawl heard, they had taken a lift and flew back with Visas Marr. Cahjinawl ran into the throng and father patted her on the head like he does. This lead to the first night she could sleep since father was missing and Varus was in the hospital.
But today was different. The first sign was when Ashley Marr peeled the sheets off the bed exposing her to the cold air. Cahjinawl squealed in shock and curled up. She tried squirming under the massive pillow, but the woman wouldn't have any of it. "Cahjinawl, get up!" She grabbed the girl by the ankles and tugged, but Cahjinawl resisted. She grabbed anything she could hold onto and squealed 'no'.
At last Ashley managed to get Cahjinawl out of bed, to which the girl utterly detested the older woman for. Detested. Hated. Despised. All them big words Uncle Varus liked to throw around. Next thing she knew, she was being stripped, throw into a shower, scrubbed down, and put into one of those dresses daddy got her.
And she glared up at the woman. She was wet, squeaky clean, and hated every bit of it. And the dress was frilly and itchy and… what's the point?
"Don't look at me like that." The blind woman lectured her. "You want to look nice."
"Why?" She pouted.
"Today's your first day of school, and dinner has been arranged for you and your grandmother."
"Grandmother? I don't have one."
Ashley smiled knowingly. "Ah, but you do. Victoria Marek. Varus has agreed to have dinner, and your father offered 'emotional backup'."
"What does that even mean?"
"That means: get a move on! We're already five minutes late!" Ashley grabbed her by the hands and dragged her out the room.
Cahjinawl had to run to keep up with the woman's fast pace. Before long she was being shoved through a double door into a hall with laminated flooring, down various halls with lots and lots of doors and people walking by, then into a final room where an adult stood at a desk and lots of kids were sitting around on the floor.
Cahjinawl took one look at the situation, felt their unseeing eyes on her, and turned around to leave only to find Ashley had closed the door on her. She tried to open the door from the inside, but there was a great resistance against her, like the insufferable woman was barring her in!
The Ghorfa child let loose one of the weird insults Varus liked to use when he was mad, and everyone gasped.
"Young lady!" The adult said in stark horror.
Cahj glared at him and put her back to the door. This was the best defensive position she had. There were no windows, only a single door, and unfortunately she couldn't get in a position to watch the door and the rest of these evil people all at once.
The adult sighed and left his desk. He was a man with a small scar across his chin and sun-glasses over his eyes unlike the cloth most Miraluka wear. The man stepped toward her and Cahj bared her sharp teeth.
Varus taught her to not put up for men who wanted to touch her, she needed to bite them and rip as much skin off as possible to make them stop. She was fortunate in never having had to, but she knew the lesson well. It was one both of her parental figures pounded into her often along with eating and staying by their side. Right now, that wasn't possible. She was alone in hostile territory.
The man backed off slightly at her growl, but returned to getting closer to her until he was in reach of her. He put a hand on her shoulder and she did exactly what she was taught. She bit him. She drew blood and bit down like a leech. Unlike most species with suckers or horizontally slit mouths, Ghorfa have round mouths more like leeches, only with multiple rows of teeth that protruded inward or outward.
The children screamed at the sight of her protruding teeth bear down into the soft flesh of the man's hand and the room would have erupted into chaos were it not for the fact that the man didn't move. He didn't pull his hand back, he didn't squeeze, he didn't let go, he didn't lift her up and slam her into the ground or wall, and he didn't tense up. He didn't make any motion one way or another as the blood poured down his hand.
"Now… why would you go and do that to your nice dress?" The man suddenly asked. Some of the blood had gotten on her dress. "It looks like it cost your family a pretty credit."
His touch was gentle. The atmosphere lessened and Cahj didn't feel he was as hostile as she believed. He wasn't hurting her. She retracted her teeth slowly from his hand. The sight of the wound was deep and rounded, but he still didn't move or flinch in pain.
"Why aren't you hurt?" She asked.
"I am hurt." He lowered himself onto a knee. "But I see a girl who is even more hurt already. What is it that causes a child like you to have the instincts of an animal?" A tear ran down his face from his sunglasses. "What have you endured?"
Flashes of the death and worry surrounding every memory of her life hit her, and it took all of her will power to snap it down and not react. She felt shame for lashing out and hurting him, considering he was being so gentle. Why? Why was she shamed and embarrassed? This is what she was supposed to do.
The man continued, "I'm sorry, it's not my place to ask, but why don't you go sit? Hm? Find a place your comfortable in while I get a bandage."
Cahjinawl didn't move from the door, content to be where she was while the man went through the bottom of his desk. He pulled out a huge roll of cloth and pulled up his sleeve. He wrapped his hand in it. While he did so, he revealed he was covered in bandages already.
"Why are you covered in them?" She asked.
"Oh…" The man chuckled. "I'm a bit clumsy… Are you fine over there?" Cahj looked away, under his attention. She was sorry to have bitten him, but didn't know how to express it. She nodded. If she had to be here, in this unknown place, she would want to be as near the exit as possible.
"Alright!" The man put his hands together cheerfully and pointed to Cahjinawl. "Everyone, we have a new classmate! I would like everyone to meet Cahjinawl'Ineh!"
"Cahjin would be okay…" She said quietly. Cahj sounded too much like Koj, like what everyone called father.
"Alright, Cahjin it is! Everyone give her a warm welcome." He started clapping, and the kids followed suit, but very few of them did. The fear was evident in their expressions. There was a very clear distinction in the room as to who was on which side. She was on this side, and the rest were on the other as far away as they could be. And they never stopped staring. Cahjinawl sighed. This was going to be a long day.
The 'school' day, despite its rocky start, proved to be fascinating and irritating in equal measure. She had never been in an environment where one was supposed to learn of new things, but also was supposed to stay in one place for an extended period of time for no reason. Sure, she understood the idea of staying quiet and still in the presence of danger, but after seeing how gentle the man was and how scared the rest were, she judged she was safe for the moment.
Before long she was lost in the fascination of new things as stories were read, letters were sculpted, and symbols were given purpose. The man, named Mr. Blacklock explained that they would be learning of two alphabets. The first being the Basic alphabet and the second being braille. While Miraluka read and write in braille, they also need to be familiar with Basic. Then when that was done, they were given clay and sculpted the letters or just whatever they wanted. Cahj enjoyed that greatly, even smiling despite herself. She preferred the fact that the others kept their distance, she was safer this way, and she could mess around with the pile of clay without having it tampered. She made something that reminded her of the rocks from home, or at least that was what it was supposed to be.
Actually when it was done, she had no idea what it was. It looked like a chicken giving birth to a fish while trying to dance.
Before she knew it, some very very loud noise erupted and hurt her ears, and everyone took that as their queue to leave, while keeping as much of a distance between them and her as possible. Not that she cared. She watched them warily. They were just as dangerous as she was if they tried to be, in fact, she doubted she could take them all on. But it was almost like they didn't understand that basic fact.
When the last of her peers departed, Blacklock was still standing at the door waiting for her. Without her input, her feet took her to him, and she managed to keep from lashing out when his bandaged hand rested on her back. He closed the door and Ashley Marr was waiting down the hall with a ridicules smile on her face.
"Sorry about… what happened." Cahjinawl managed to whisper. Was that how she was supposed to say it?
"Don't worry about it." The man smiled exaggeratingly wide. "I'll see you tomorrow." He passed her off to Ashley.
Tomorrow? Cahjinawl considered that. Despite everything, she couldn't help smiling.
Koj sat in silent meditation.
His favorite meditation was in the presence of a collection of Holocrons he collected over his life. The voices strengthened the presence of the Good Spirit, spoke to him of teachings and knowledge, and whispered of power he was forced to discipline himself against. He mourned the loss of his collection, but made do without it.
Now meditation was achieved in the silence of his own thoughts and the sight of stars.
Steps drew his attention. "Varus has been a wonderful influence on your daughter." Ashley said. "You should have heard what she called me."
"I can imagine." Koj responded. He opened his eyes, but otherwise didn't move.
"Well…" She grunted as she sat down beside him. "She's in school now, got her a teddy bear like Varus wanted, and yeah… Everything is arranged for tonight."
"What's a school?"
"Really?"
He shook his head. "Your concepts are foreign to me."
"No wonder she needs it… it is a place of learning, Koj."
"So you have assigned her to an apprenticeship?"
"It's… similar."
"Hmm…" He grunted thoughtfully. He didn't understand everyone's fascination with the teddy animals, but if that thing hurts his daughter, Varus will pay dearly. But his thoughts were not on whether or not Cahjinawl could handle the beast, it was on tonight's little affair. He didn't know the woman, and it wasn't his place to say one way or another how Varus should handle it, but it was also a worry he held that he might negatively influence the situation unnecessarily.
"You meditating?" Ashley asked.
"Yes." He responded. Outsiders so very often did not understand Ghorfa beliefs and customs, and while he had grown lax and comfortable around Outsiders enough to shrug off their ignorance when they bugged him, he now found himself in the opposing position of being the one to insult the host unknowingly.
What customs did the Outsiders have? While he believed it safest to say as little and do as little as possible, he was familiar with cultures where NOT doing something was an insult, such as standing for woman or complimenting the chef and host. Complementing the host was a safe bet, he figured, but there were also opposing cultures where standing for woman was a way of singling them out and was seen was aggression.
"Is it true you have to have an empty mind?"
"Not necessarily." He answered. "Brainstorming and sleeping are both opposite types of meditation, while 'meditation' is somewhere in the middle."
"Oh… cool." She nodded. "What helps you do that?"
He sighed and decided he wasn't going to get much further for now. If she insisted on conversation, then his moment was over. "Watching the stars. Listening to the hum of the ship. It reminds me of my old meditation chamber from home."
Her posture changed from curious to nervous as she picked at lint. "I like the hum, it helps me sleep. Almost all of us grow up hearing it. It's worse when you don't hear the rattling or hum, means something is wrong."
"Hmm." He answered without commitment. It was a curious thing to note. He grew up with the roar of the sandstorm and winds, and she grew up with the metal grinding and shaking of ships. He was familiar with it in the last few years of slavery, but he didn't like it. The sounds kept him from sleeping. That probably was a part of their culture. In more ways than he thought, it wasn't just Varus who understood the desperation of his people, but them. They moved in a fleet with no natural resources having to fight and scavenge for everything, like them. Only, he wasn't sure who had it easier or if it was equal since a mobile fleet like this could find resources much easier than his tribe could, but they were also prone to more types of dangers and had a higher demand.
Perhaps they had a thing for waste as well.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sight out of the corner of his eye of her still being nervous. Why didn't she just come out with it? "If you have something you wish to say, say it."
She jumped at his words and turned away. "Is it that obvious?"
"Yes. Out with it." He said neutrally.
"What…" She cleared her throat. "What are the stars like?"
Koj blinked in surprise. He certainly had not been expecting that for a question. Frankly, it left him dumbfounded. Not knowing what stars are like was like… not feeling the wind, not hearing the crackle of fire and song, or the taste of water. It was such a basic part of life that… he spoke before thinking. "You cannot see them?"
She shook her head shamefully. "No. Miraluka cannot see light. Only three dimensional objects in a certain radius around us. Paper is blank, paintings are empty, holographic imaging is just air, and distant stars are… left to the imagination."
He found himself staring at her despite himself. He had dealt with blind people, certainly, and he knew the Miraluka in the last few days of being exposed to them, and he had even thought that perhaps they could not see light, but he had yet to truly comprehend the magnitude of the thought.
"We're more like half-blind…" She continued. "W-we can see, but yet not see. It's like… like we can only see that which is practical, not that which brings awe and beauty to our sight. Paintings are just blank canvas. Statues are just rock…" She blushed. "And it's hard to be intimate when you can see their intestines and optic nerves… not that I've… ever! I mean-"
"I get it." He stopped her rambling. She shut up and stopped talking. After a moment he returned his eyes to the stars and considered them. "My people believed the stars were the Spirit's ghosts watching over them, and in some cases Outsider's born of rival Spirits. In the thousands of years since we were among the stars, we had lost themselves to their own imagination and raging fantasies. We didn't understand anymore that the stars were orb furnaces. Instead we would lay out on the sand and watch the stars and wonder what the ghosts were thinking of us. To answer your question: Looking at stars is… like… picture a dark canvas covered in your braille language."
"That's it? Braille?" She wondered.
"Ah! Not braille showing letters or numbers, but pictures and tales. At night when the caravan's would stop, we would look for forgotten tales presented to us by the ghosts as they danced in the sky. Most of our tales would be of great heroics and great loss, but there was always one that was my favorite… This one star would move across the sky like… a ball thrown across your view leaving a trail of light. It was the ghost of the wind telling us where to go, but as the wind is such a flighty ghost…" He chuckled. "By the time you're packed up and ready to go, she's long gone scratching her head and wondering where she is. She always forgets to wait, and whoever she guides can never find her. So the tribes became content to stay where they are and laugh at her when she passes, yet be envious of her for being so care free."
The Miraluka smiled as she listened. "That sounds like fun."
"Stars are dots. Not much to them, but if you try to make something more out of them, then it can be fun."
They fell into silence, and Koj took it as his chance to return to meditating. Before he became fully engrained in his state of mind, she stood up. "I have to go. Mrs. Marek expects me to help her with getting ready. Don't forget!"
"Hmm." He muttered.
"And… Thank you. Perhaps you can show me some tales in our stars sometime soon?"
"Perhaps." He allowed. He listened to the sound of her departure and turned his thoughts inward, only to find his thoughts lied with the stars and tales of his childhood. It was a difficult childhood, but not one he couldn't smile about at times.
He didn't know any Miraluka star tales… did they even have any? So why would she suggest that?...
Outsiders are… odd.
Visas knocked on the hospital door.
"Enter."
She opened the door and entered. If she wanted to, she could have peered through the wall into the room to know if it was appropriate to enter, but that was considered rude on the ship and took focused effort. That and she wasn't in the mood to tease Varus today.
Varus stood at the end of his bed going through papers and tucking his arm into his jacket. He looked up at her at her approach and nodded in greeting. "Visas." One of the floating robot constructs that seemed to have become of his pets floated around his head in silent observation.
"Varus." She returned. She cocked her head to the side. The papers did not have indentions on them, so she couldn't make them out. "What are you reading?"
"Oh, this is some medical mumbo jumbo. Means I'm in good health and the recovery went well." He signed his name on a number of them to sign himself out of the hospital, but visibly frowned on one, ripped the page off, and folded it.
"What's wrong?"
"Hm? Oh… Uh." He stuck the ripped paper in his pocket. Clearly hiding it. "Nothing important." He closed the wad of papers and adjusted his clothes. "Ready?"
"Mhmm." Visas stepped aside as Varus walked by. They made a stop at the receptionist's desk and dropped off the papers.
"Everything looks in order." The receptionist said. "Have a good day."
"Yeah…"
Varus and Visas walked out of the hospital and Varus took a big whiff of air. Visas smiled at his antics. He had only returned himself to the hospital two days ago, not like he was stuck to bed for a year. Varus scratched lightly at the scar on the back of his neck and winced at how fresh it was. "So, Ribs wants to talk to me?"
"He does. There are a number of matters to attend to."
"Alright, lead the way."
And Visas did. As one of the few Seeker remaining, and working for the council directly, she knew intimately well where the Admiral worked when he didn't want to be disturbed by people without an appointment. It was a quaint place, a little out of the way next to a water filtration system. They entered in to find the man with a high pile of papers all around him.
"Keeper, I see your recovery has gone well."
"Yeah…" Varus practically collapsed into a chair before putting his feet up on the end of the desk. "You just couldn't keep me down, I know you insisted, but I'm too spry for you. Gotta keep up with the ages, old man." His pet construct made a giggling sound.
Visas smiled at his teasing. The admiral, to his credit, didn't react. "First manner of business…" He pulled out a paper and Varus groaned. "Would it be presumptuous of me to assume you are captain of the Ravager?"
"Captain?..." Varus and his pet looked at each other. "Technically Nihilus is more the captain than me. I was just living on it for my entire life. But without him here… I guess I could be considered the captain… Never really thought of it that way. I've only flown the ship when Nihilus wasn't… but…" He glanced at the pet again. "Yeah, I guess I am captain of the Ravager."
"And, as you are a hired mercenary of us, by extension, your ship is part of our fleet."
"Uh…" Varus stopped cold. He took his feet off the desk and straightened up, finally serious. "I don't like the idea of anyone messing with my ship."
"Varus." Visas said. "Captains have full right over their own ships, right down to the form of government within their ship, so long as they adhere to the will of the council. No one will be 'messing with' the Ravager without your permission, not without a major council decision." Varus looked between them.
"And besides." Visas continued, "That was a statement, not a question."
"Uh-huh…" Varus shifted in his chair. "Will I be expected to… do anything? Weird?"
"As a proper ship, a crew will be expected, taxes, a few regulations on how to lead and govern the crew…" The Admiral dropped a huge thousand-page book on the desk in front of Varus, and his eyes expanded at the sight of it. It was rather comical. Rebhorn continued on, "There will be missions, which, considering you already be will doing some to pay us back, will only mean that the nature of your missions will be larger scale and have greater rewards."
"Meaning… what?" Varus flipped through the book with ever growing anxiety. "What the- I can't even read this crap! What does this even mean!?" His pet construct looked over his shoulder and 'wrred'. "I have to read this?!"
"Memorize it."
Varus paled. "Uh… about that…. I may be able to read and do basic math, but… I never went to school."
"…"
"So uh… yeah. Apprentice to Nihilus and all. The bastard may have given me enough of an education to pass off as semi-intelligent, or to cure his OCD moments, but I don't think I can read law." The book started flipping pages on its own. Curious, as Varus wasn't paying attention to it, the floating construct was.
The Admiral sighed deeply. "You already have Ashley Marr as an assistant. I'll make sure she knows to extend her line of duty."
"Actually that may not be necessary." Visas interrupted. Varus and Rebhorn looked at her, and she pointed to the droid. The construct was somehow flipping pages and reading it. If the fascinated noises it was making was any clue, it understood what it was reading.
"Your droid would work just as well." The Admiral noted. "The first thing you will need to do is establish a crew and officers and advisors. The crew part will be easy, with a ship as large as yours, you can take on other ship captains and crews to join under you."
"I can do that?"
"But your advisors and officers are special, since they will be those you deal with the most. Those you will need to hand pick. There is a list of positions that are necessary to be filled on page…"
"One-hundred eighty-two." The construct suddenly said. It looked up at their shocked expressions. The book closed and now it was completely turned over from where it was. It had read the entire book. "Yes, I memorized the book. It was informative."
Varus smiled widely before glaring at Rebhorn. "My droid, not yours." Rebhorn just stared at him like he lost his mind.
"Anyway…" Rebhorn continued, "I'll have my assistant pass on to Mrs. Marr a list of small crews for you to take on, ships and all, and recommendations. Even then that would only make up a fraction of your ships potential housing, so you can still fit a lot more. But beyond that… what you do is up to you. Maintenance comes out of your own wallet, as well as paying your crew, and supplies. Since you have none, the fleet will give you a loan to help you start off."
"Uh-huh…" Varus muttered. He sat back and digested all of that. "So… I get to do things my own way?"
"Provided it is not considered criminal or illegal, yes."
"Can I do my own missions?"
Rebhorn frowned. "Technically… no. You can't work for other nations, and we will be assigning you plenty… but if you find missions you want to do that we have not assigned… arrange it with me or Mrs. Marek to approve. The idea is you shouldn't be taking on missions from our enemies, and right now we have a lot of them until things settle down."
"Alright, alright." Varus rolled his arms together. "I guess I can live with it…"
"Excellent. Now, next order of business." He pulled out another paper and Varus groaned loudly.
Two hours later Varus ran out screaming that he couldn't take it anymore. Visas smirked. "I was wondering how long he would last."
"We got a lot more done than I expected." Rebhorn acknowledged.
He signed the papers in front of him and moved them to the appropriate pile and he returned to working. As he did so, Visas asked, "You don't really trust him that much, do you? He may have earned us a big wins, and you may be playing nice, but I know you. You have an angle."
"And you would be right." He admitted. He turned in his seat to where he had a chess board, and he moved a piece. "Those crews and captains I recommended are all loyal to me. I am honest about him joining the fleet, giving us a ship twice the size of the Fleet Mother, and doing missions we otherwise cannot do for us; but it will be on my terms. If he steps out of line and poses a threat, he'll be removed appropriately. This is both a test of trust and a safeguard."
"Or your way of controlling the Keeper…" She accused.
"Dear, Seeker. I already control him. I simply don't see a reason to remove him, yet." He turned back to his desk. "Now, I believe you have something for me."
Visas frowned and hesitated, but nodded anyway. She produced a small external memory device. "I got what I went for." She handed it to him and he slipped it into his computer. The monitor shifted to show a three-dimensional screen. He looked through the files briefly before nodding.
"Thank you, this will do nicely. Now we know exactly where the Mandalorian, Republic, and Alliance fleets are. This should make traveling much easier. But what is the rest of this?"
"I chose it best to download everything to save time on searching."
"Fair enough." He pulled out the memory stick. "Thank you, Mrs. Marr."
Visas stuffed it in her pocket. "Also… The encrypted message sent out was finished being deciphered." Rebhorn nodded. "The location the message was sent to was out in the middle of nowhere, but the MAC address was linked to a device owned by Leland Marek."
"Leland…" Rebhorn muttered darkly.
HK's daily routine constant maintenance, and it's 'birth' dictated it.
Computers think on a different scale from living beings. It's first moment of sentience it asked how it had been born, but with no one to answer at the moment, it deduced with itself logically how it had been born. HK found that there was something or someone outside of it's programming that made it. While that individual would later come to be Czercha Corp. HK continued to contemplate existance and birth.
The conclusion HK came to was one that would be repeated by every sentient robot in time called "The Maker phenomena". It concluded that existance is made up of an infinite layer of maker's. HK was made by something more intelligent from outside its own dimension of 0's and 1's. Czercha Corp, Revan, everyone, and everything within the dimension robots exist were made by someone with a design from outside that dimension. This person, god, or diety would only be known as The Maker. They know nothing of the Maker, no personality traits or promises or dislikes, only that he exists. It is logical.
This layer upon layer speaks of a never ending ability to grow, to expand, to improve. Perfection does not exist, perfection is the journey.
Czercha Corp may have decided what HK-47's function would be, just as they did for HK-1 all the way to HK-49, but it was the Maker who showed them that there is something more. Czercha taught them how to patch themselves and improve, but it was the Maker who gave a reason, a goal to reach.
HK analyzed its environment, and stealthily followed the intruders through the Ravager. There were four of them, one large lizard, one very fat man, one very thin man, and one that was about average. It did not recognize the lizard's species, but HK deduced that testing it's current systems against him would find a great number of problems to work out in its programming, and bring it another step toward perfection.
People often assumed HK was a psychopathic droid without morals who's only desire was to kill. That was inaccurate. HK was a psychopathic droid with morals, based on the directives of the Master, who's only desire was to improve at it's born purpose. Not the same thing.
"Who does he think he is?!" The lizard suddenly barked.
"I'm pretty sure we all know who he thinks he is." The thin one answered.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT! I mean, captain? Captain, my ass! I'd rather shoot myself in the knee than call him Captain Varus!"
So, the topic of their discussion was Master Varus. Judging from the lizard's volume, facial expression, and tone, as well as words, he was not in agreement with some event that has passed. And shooting yourself in the limb rather than use your mouth to say something seemed so… illogical. There was nothing to gain from it. Unless calling Varus as Captain Varus was somehow going to cause great harm.
HK would have to remember that.
"If he tries to make me say it, I'm just going to take his neck and-"
HK heard enough. Moving faster than the lizard-man and his lackey's could see properly, while invisible, HK kicked him in the chin, floored him, jumped onto his chest, pinned his arms down with it's feet, and stuck it's rifle in the lizard-man's mouth. HK allowed it's invisibly to shift into the form of it's favorite shell.
HK-47 looked down into the eyes of the lizard-man with the rifle in his mouth. "Adamant request: Please, finish your sentence. Give me an excuse to kill you without the Master questioning my ethics." HK flicked off the safety. "I would like to think my 'ethics' code is up-to-date."
While HK allowed the undesirable lizard-man to finish his slow, and inadequate thought processes to catch up to the date with the latest events, HK noted the man's comrades. They all went into a stage of shock combined with the excessing of liquids. What kind of defense mechanism was this? Was it to decrease their weight in the time of flight, or to create a powerful stench to distract in a fight? Was it a group-morale boost via pheromones given off by their liquid?
How fascinating!
HK did not see it enough of a test to set it's prejudice to maximum, but a good study was always the pride of an avid student. Or so HK's research found.
The lizard-man suddenly bit down on the rifle in his mouth and cut it clean off. The rifle was of a fine material, even tougher than HK's own body in it's exposed areas.
The lizard man had a strong bite.
Unfortunately, said lizard man also bit off the firing crystal at the end of the rifle that focused the laser and made it lethal upon exiting the barrel. The rifle was without purpose.
Almost.
The bite of the rifle caused the barrel to become jagged in the same of the man's teeth, thus making it an effective stabbing tool when combined with sudden action.
HK shoved the rifle down into the lizard's mouth, but the teeth came down again, not enough to slice the weapon, but to keep it firm. The arm's under HK's feet suddenly had more strength than originally calculated, and a fist came up at it while tripping it. HK rolled it's weight to the side, dodged the fist, and rolled with the momentum to come clear.
HK stood to it's feet and regarded the rifle.
And damaged. HK cast it aside.
"I'm about to destroy you! You worthless piece of junk!" The lizard roared, and before HK's very eyes turned a dark shade of red, grew an exoskeleton, horns, thorns, and emitted a mist from his skin.
HOW FASCINATING! HK had never seen a species like this before! Perhaps it could modulate and mimic it's function, provided it could find a robotic version of this function.
Another fist, having the approximate size of Texas, flew at HK, but HK ducked under it and initiated testing.
A punch to the exoskeleton with a force of two pounds returned an impact of 1.9927 pounds, effectively a 99.63% return. The exoskeleton was very tough. A jab with HK's finger into the groove between the plates with a force of one pound returned an impact of 0.15 pounds, effectively a 15% return. The skin under the plates was tougher than normal, but still weaker than the plates.
"Ha! You trying to box, little droid! You punch like a wet noodle!" The lizard taunted and they continued their little dance. The lizard-man may have trippled in size, and almost as much in power, but he was slower than HK and took many times longer to react. There were also plates along the edges of his eyes, limiting vision and creating blind spots…
Judging from the iris of the lizard's eye, and the distance from the eye-plates, and how deeply inward the eyes were… HK calculated he was experiencing tunnel vision quite literally. His vision was limited to 60-65% of normal. In addition, with the massive size of his limbs and body, it created a large number of places to hide from the beady eyes.
Weakness: assessed...
Speed: Above average...
Power: Too much...
Senses: limited...
IQ and reaction time: Not that bright...
A very unbalanced individual, HK concluded. One final calculation required.
HK pushed it's senses to the maximum. Registering every muscle, and movement of the lizard's body, and in so doing, registered it's bone frame as it evaded the lizard's attacks. The lizard-man-demon-thing was truly a fearsome opponent, but he had clearly never 'tango'ed with an HK-model assassination droid.
In 0.17 seconds, much slower than HK was used to, and after spending another 0.01 seconds making a note to reassess it's own programming for flaws and unnecessarily repeating lines of code slowing it down, as well as initiating a miniature program to search out said flaws in the background: HK was ready. It mapped out the lizard's entire body, inside and out, and formulated a simple plan.
It had never tried this method before, and found this to be a worthy test.
HK ducked under the next attack and followed the limb down to his body out of the lizard's sight, effectively appearing to have vanished. On appearing in reach of his body, HK jammed fingers into the areas between the plates with enough pounds of force to do what was necessary. Another pound of force and it would be like stabbing him, which it could do in a follow up test.
HK made a note of that.
The lizard man gasped as HK hit a nerve between the joints of his ribs, and HK moved around faster than the lizard could react, and systematically repeated the process with many other bones and nerve endings, including along the man's spinal column.
In seconds, the lizard man felt like his body was on fire because his bones were out of joint, the nerves were screaming for release from how they were jammed between his bones, and he fell on his face.
HK walked over to where it cast aside it's rifle and took it up. "What a wonderful test! I have found so many flaws in my programming. I will be sure to root them out and fix them as soon as possible." HK put the rifle in the lizard's face. "Taunting remark: Who is the worthless piece of junk now? Bite my shiny metal mass ass, meat-bag! May it break every tooth in your jaw."
HK pulled the trigger.
And the rifle made a clicking noise. The lizard man flinched in fright, then sudden relief to realize he was still alive.
HK pulled the trigger a couple more times before turning the rifle around and looking inside it. The rifle was broken. It could do a weak laser bolt even without the crystal near the end of the barrel, but there was a small crack clean through to the inner matrix.
HK was not one to have emotion. Emotion was wasted on meat bags without logic.
But that didn't mean that HK did not understand emotion, or namely hatred. True hatred often brought on a burst of bloodlust or the overwhelming desire to kill, namely without a higher purpose than to complete the emotion. The emotion created an adrenaline rush, shaking, tunnel vision, the overwhelming desire to kill for no reason more than to appease said emotion, and a sensation HK researched to be comparable to boiling, hot blood.
HK was experiencing a comparable version of that in it's programming. HK did not feel emotion. Yet as they looked back at it, they felt it's rage.
It was an older class model rifle, highly illegal, very difficult to find, with private modifications to increase lethality. HK marked it with a history of it's kills as a reminder of the battles, it polished the rifle daily for wear and tear. It was lethal. It was efficient. It was… beautiful.
HK took on the most hateful form it had: a red-man with horns and whipped out a lightsaber from its inner storage. "Prejudice: set to Absolute."
I return to the Ravager to find an interesting sight.
Cupcake, Igor, Rizzo, and Reeve run by me screaming, "IT'S TRYING TO EAT US!" (Cupcake looks like he has been beaten up and Reeves never says anything.)
Ooookay… is this some kind of group morning exercise session?
HK runs by me. "Whoa! Hold it!" I grab it by the collar and HK whirls around mid-step. Knowing it, it had thought the group exercise was good for practice on robots as well.
"HK."
"Yes, Master."
"I need you to go make sure the Holocrons are all hidden and secure, secure my room and Nihilus' study, mark all doors that will vent air if opened, and make sure the Seed is hidden and secure."
"Over half of the ship vents air when the doors are opened."
"Yes… I know." I sigh. The only part of the Ravager that is good at not venting air are the inner layers. The outer rooms are full of holes varying from the size of bullets to missing entire walls. The last thing I also need is any of my upcoming crew finding the stash of holocrons, the Seed, my room, or Nihilus' study. That is a whole slew of problems right there. "And HK." I continue. "When you are done with that, check on Falcon and make sure he is fed."
"Shall I interrogate him?" HK asks with clear excitement.
"No, no. He's an… old friend. I'm just not sure what to do with him yet."
"Suggestion: I could always use him for target practice."
"He's blind."
"Even better. His sporadic movements under fear will truly test my ability to logically predict where to aim."
I chuckle. "As fun as that would be to watch, no. I don't want him harmed in any way. I actually want to return him, but we are in a very awkward situation here with pretending to be terrorists and holding the Miraluka hostage." I'll discuss with Koj what to do. He has experience in being viewed as a terrorist. "When you're done with that, I want you to modify your protocols. You're going to be my personal bodyguard."
"Understood, Master." The droid nodded.
I wave it off and HK gets to work. It should take it several days to do everything I asked. "Ravager." I say. The Ravager droid on my shoulder flies to stand in front of me. "Have a swarm help HK. It should make everything faster."
"Yes, Master!" It has a ':D' face.
"And how hungry are you?"
"oh…. Very…" it says with a 'T.T' face.
"Alright…" I continue adjusting my thoughts. The idea of having a crew is throwing me for a loop. So many things to consider that I've never thought of before. Esspecially on a ship like the Ravager that is a living death trap.
I should probably feed the Ravager tonight. She's not been fed properly in years. It's a wonder the lights are still on. Speaking of feeding… I need to get ready for 'the dinner'. I nudge my head in the direction I'm going to walk in, and the pixie perches itself on my shoulder again.
As I walk, my hand subconciously touches the piece of paper in my pocket. It's the DNA test telling me if she really is my mother or not. I never got a good look at it, purposefully. I don't know if I really want to look at it. If I look at it and she isn't, then tonight would just be a waste of time. If she is… well… that's just too much to hope. I have faced down Nihilus in a number of duels, killed Jedi Masters, taken on fifty-foot droid snakes with a million lasers on their faces, faced prisoners and fellow slaves and slavers, and even gotten Ahsoka royally ticked at me.
The note in my pocket is easily scarier than all of that. I would much rather be standing in front of an infuriated Cupcake, red steam, horns, and all.
I fumble with it again, before pulling my hand out. I'll look at it later after I make my own decision.
I find a place to sit and think for a while. The pixie flutters around me lazily, periodically making fascinated sounds at the slightest thing. A few hours later, I'm standing in front of The Door. Koj'Ineh shows up minutes later. He's in his full garb covering every inch of his body. "A mask? Really?"
He looks at me. "I am Ghorfa. I have gone without a head covering far too long."
"You want to wear a mask in public again, be my guest, but this is my mother, Koj."
"And?"
"Please. No mask with me or my family."
He looks at me a moment before nodding in acceptance and removing the mask. He drops the hood and stuffs the mask in his pocket. He is used to not wearing a mask, so he doesn't flinch like he used to when I first found him. Ashley Marr and Squirt arrive a minute later. I hug Squirt and Koj pats her head. Funny how he hasn't forced her to start covering her head like he does again. Either he is loosening up or hasn't gotten around to it yet.
"How did she like it? This 'school'." I ask Ashley.
"It had it's ups and downs." She flinches at a thought.
"Uh-huh…" I'm clueless. Never went to school myself. Being kidnapped at five does that. "I'm sure she will tell us all about it later."
"Also." I sit down on a chair while we wait for the others. I look at Koj. "I need you as my First."
"First what?"
"First Mate." I answer. "And Ashley, you still going to be my assistant? Need one now more than ever."
"Victoria still wants me to help you in any way I can."
Good, that's three positions I need. Cupcake should make a good warden-slash-toilet cleaner, and the Three Stooges would be fine as secondary pilots of the Ravager. So long as they don't touch anything or have human contact. Too many chances for them to blow stuff up or scare people with their stupidity. And Visas… Not sure what to do with her. Security? Go-between for me and Ribs? Hmmm…
The Three stooges arrive later and Cupcake as well. I narrow my eyes at Cupcake as a warning, and he backs off slightly. Usually I'm not that serious with him, but I need him on his best behavior if I am going to allow everyone to meet mother. She must be mental if she wants to meet EVERYONE! No way am I letting her meet HK, even if she wants to.
"Why do you need me as First Mate of what?" Koj asks further.
"Oh, as captain of the Ravager, I will be needing a crew, and officers to help me make it work. I don't know squat about leading anything, but this should be fun!" I grin.
Everyone's expressions are one's of shock and horror. I drop the grin. No one says anything, but they are clearly thinking the same thing. Squirt voices for them, "We're screwed…"
Koj's eyes bug out at her in an uncharacteristically shocked and animated fashion, Cupcake bursts out in laughter, and Ashley says, "Told you."
"Varus…" Koj turns on me menacingly. "What have you been teaching my daughter?"
Oh crap…
"Was it really wise to allow the strangers go?" Kenobi asked.
High Admiral Carth Onasi turned at his approach and immediately hesitated. Something was off in the Jedi Master. It was in his tense eyes, the slowly returning fire that had been departing him in the last five years. The exposure to whatever he felt must have been more in a kick in the pants than he thought; but oddly enough Onasi felt the fire was aimed at… something fresh or nearby. Like himself.
It's nothing… Onasi shook away his thoughts. Kenobi was probably aggravated with the lack of accomplishments of late.
But yes, it was best to let the strangers go. Visas Marr was not a woman he wanted to mess with. She was like a snake, poised to strike just as much as disappear into the shadows. She held no loyalty to him, and while she owed a great debt to the Revanchist, he honestly wondered about Marr's loyalty to them as well. Ever since she disappeared with the rest of the Miraluka in a sudden search for their Keeper years ago, not to mention being an apprentice to Nihilus, she was a difficult one to place. She had betrayed Nihilus once, what was to keep her from doing the same with them? Did she have loyalty to anyone, or was it all lies for her own agenda?
"Yes, it was best. The last thing we need is to have a snake spreading poison among us."
"I agree completely. Letting the snake go was the best decision." Kenobi responded. "But what's better is to put on metal tipped shoes and stomp the head entirely, wouldn't you say?"
Onasi glanced at the Master and felt himself sweat a bit. What was going on with him?
Note: WHEW! That was long. I wanted it to cover a LOT of character development before the next stage of the story comes. Life moves on. People form relationships and bonds almost unconsciously, and at times they make hard decisions and every day decisions. The big decisions you hear about on the News are just a creation of many smaller ones that rolled and rolled and collected and grew big with momentum.
How very philosophical…
Anyway. ON TO AHSOKA AND ANAKIN! :D
Review please. I want to know how I'm doing! Every review makes my day. :)