Chapter 26
Hello, my friends! Sorry for the day's delay in posting the chapter, but I'm sure most of you will understand as you read on. Remember how I said that my spring break was going to be awesome? Well, that idea hit an iceberg and sunk faster than the Lusitania. Allow me to regale you all with my tale of woe, misery, and the despicable Utah weather.
It began much like I expected - my family was headed to Moab for some good hiking and exploration of the countryside in the beautiful spring weather. Not even four hours before we were going to leave, my sweet little second-grade brother (bless his heart) was going to a birthday party. He is now to be given the designation "Patient Zero". Yes, that's right, my entire family got hit with the worst coughing, sneezing, running nose, and general nastiness brought about by a very special strain of flu delivered via kiddie birthday parties. To make matters worse, a lovely canyon wind decided to blow through the valley, bringing with it (yep, you guessed it) an entire wave of pollen. As a result of the flu/allergies/general lethargy I spent the entire week of my spring break huddled on my couch as I tried not to die.
I am pleased to say that many of you had much better spring breaks than I did. Behold... the docket!
CardiacCane - Not to worry, a late review is as good as any! I think that we all know by now that Rhys isn't the most skilled at expressing her feelings, but it has to come out some time. Glad you liked the chapter!
.2017 - Thanks for the review!
cAROLINE pURDY - That's a little weird, I'm not gonna lie... but, hey, I try not to judge. Thanks for the review, I guess.
Robinbird79 - He he... I liked that line too :) Thanks a bunch!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Star Wars. However, while I was sick I did get to watch a crap-ton of Rebels and Clone Wars episodes. I can only hope that it'll seep into my writing somehow. Genius through osmosis?
Rhys tried to hide her smug smile from her companion as the two Jedi walked away from the Ramordian hospital and towards the landing pads. With her long internment finally over, she was finally free to walk around again without being under the constant, annoying eyes of Quinlan and the doctors. Once the doctor had given her the all-clear, she was out of her room faster than a pouncing Kowakian monkey-lizard. She still had a bit of a headache from her concussion, however, and sported a faint scar along her hairline.
"Oh, my sweet baby!" she cried as soon as she caught sight of the StarRover, running over to inspect its hull for any new dents that had appeared during the time she was gone. Thankfully, she found none.
"I think you like that thing more than you like me…" Quinlan grumbled under his breath as he boarded the Rover.
"That's because I do!" she shouted at his back, following after him when she was certain that her ship was in good shape.
The interior, however, had taken a noticeable decline since she had seen it last. A stray shoe sat casually on the galley table, crumbs were scattered across the floors, and it looked like Quinlan's messy cabin had spilled out into the hall once again. She gingerly stepped over the mess on her way to the cockpit, wrinkling her nose in disgust. The final straw was a rather soggy sandwich sitting on the command console.
"Vos!" she screeched, flinging the sodden mess into his lap, "I left you alone in my ship for four days, and you thought putting your sandwich on the console was a good idea?! The control deck is not a table!"
The Kiffar raised his hands weakly in defense, "There's no view where the other tables are! I need to see something other than these metal walls!"
"You don't need a view to eat, Quinlan!"
"Yes I do! It's for… meditative purposes!"
"Oh please, you don't meditate!" she spat angrily, jabbing at his shoulder, "You never meditate! If you're going to mess up my cockpit, at least clean up after yourself!"
Quinlan rolled his eyes, "You've been back for five minutes, and you're already badgering me like that stuffy old librarian. If I wanted to hear you nag all day, sweetheart, I would've asked you to be my girlfriend." He sauntered out of the cockpit, his irate companion not far behind.
"Well, the joke's on you, Vos, because I wouldn't say yes even if you asked nicely!" By now they had reached Quinlan's room and were picking their way over the mess, "And while we're here, how in the Force did your room get even messier in the last four days? There isn't even any room to sleep!"
The Kiffar cocked an eyebrow jauntily, "We could make room… And besides, what happens in my own room is my business – that's what we agreed, so why do you care?"
"Because it isn't just in your room!"
"Yes, it's in my room!"
"No," she said saccharinely, "Not only is it in your room, but it's spilled out into the hallway again, which makes it my business."
Quinlan stared at her curiously for a moment, "We could be living in perfect harmony if you just relaxed, you uptight harpy."
"No, you would be living in harmony," she countered, "I would be driven to the sweet embrace of the Dark Side to cope with your hellhole of harmony!" She glared at him angrily, her heavy breaths the only sound around them for several minutes. Seeing as there was no way to get him to see reason, Rhys tried another tactic. "Look, I'm tired of being stuck on this planet, and I'm sure you are too, so I'm going to offer you a deal: You clean up the mess outside your room, and I'll forget that this conversation ever happened and plug in the coordinates. Fair enough?"
Quinlan's mouth slowly twisted into a smile. "Deal!" he exclaimed before kicking a pile of trash into his room. Rhys rolled her eyes and went back to the cockpit, trying not to curse at him as she plugged in the coordinates of their next destination.
The StarRover emerged from hyperspace directly in front of a barren-looking world. The scanners weren't picking up life, which was both good and bad, meaning that there wouldn't be any dangerous beings trying to kill them, but they wouldn't find their missing Sith Lord here. There was, however, a massive Dark Side presence coming from the surface of the planet that warranted investigation.
"There's an electrical signal coming from there," Quinlan said, pulling up a holographic projection of the planet and pointing to the indicated point, "It might give us some clues." Rhys nodded in agreement and brought the Rover into a gentle descent. The atmosphere was thin, but breathable. As they drew closer to the large rock formations that jutted out from the rocky landscape, Rhys spied a metallic glint among the reddish rocks.
"That's not a natural formation… whatever it is. We should land there." Quinlan nodded silently and readied the landing gear. As soon as she set the StarRover on the ground, Rhys turned to the other Jedi. "No matter what happens, don't attack anything unless it attacks you first. I sense that whatever is here could give us clues." The Kiffar nodded his assent before following her down the lowered ramp.
Rhys suppressed her displeasure as the oily-smelling air hit her nose. She then realized why the oxygen content in the air was so low – the gases emanating from the rocks and vents to the planet's core filled the atmosphere with their noxious fumes. As the two Jedi picked their way over the rocky landscape, Rhys was surprised to see various droid and ship parts scattered over the open plain. The trail of droid parts seemed to pile up near the closest large rock, forming some sort of makeshift shelter.
Quinlan picked up a cylindrical severed head that was missing several of its many optic sensors. "Know what kind of droid these are?" he asked, tossing it to her for a closer look.
"Assassin droids," she scowled, her mouth twisting in disgust. She'd had several run-ins with various types of assassin droids in the past – they were definitely not her favorite thing in the galaxy. "The question is who they were hunting… or better yet, who sent them?" She turned the head over in her hands as she searched for the main processer. When she found it, she scowled in frustration - it had been completely melted, almost to the point of being unrecognizable. She dropped the head back on the ground, noticing that all of the other droids had also had their processers melted. With a huff of annoyance, Rhys turned her attention to the mix of metal and rock ahead of her.
The small, hut-like shelter amidst the rock was entirely composed of droid components, burnt ship parts, small rocks, and an ingenious mixture of crushed pebbles and the oily substance secreted by the venting shafts of gas. Rhys felt a small warning through the Force as Quinlan approached the doorway, his scanner beginning to beep louder. She stopped him with a raised hand.
"Not yet," she whispered, "Something's in there."
"Maybe one of those assassin droids survived…" Quinlan mused out loud, craning his neck to peer into the darkened hut.
"I guess we'll see… I don't sense any danger," she trailed off before calling out, "Come out, now! We won't hurt you!" Only silence greeted her words.
Quinlan rolled his eyes. "Whatever's in there isn't going to just come out, you know. Assassin droids aren't exactly known for their higher reasoning."
"I know that," she huffed in annoyance, calling one of her lightsabers to her hand, "I was giving it a chance to respond!"
"Yeah, whatever," he said, igniting his green blade as he readied himself for a fight.
Rhys decided to try one more time. "Come out, or we're coming in!" Several heartbeats passed before a few short beeps came from the depths of the shelter. Rhys recognized the binary language commonly used by astro droids and relaxed her tense posture slightly. "It's just a droid, Quinlan."
"Yeah, an assassin droid," he huffed, still on the defensive, "Who knows what evil things that bucket of bolts is programmed to do?"
Rhys rolled her eyes and clipped her lightsaber back onto her belt. "Well, I'm going to check it out," she said defiantly, turning on her small hand-held light and carefully creeping into the darkened interior. The inside was just as jagged and rough as the outside construction seemed to be. She spied a make-shift bed constructed out the remains of a ship's cabin, pushed haphazardly into the wall amongst a large pile of charred droid bodies. The scavenged remains of a control console was set on the other side of the hut with multiple wires and parts sticking out of it. Finally, she shone her light on the farthest corner of the wreckage, illuminating a familiar-looking domed shape.
"It's just an astromech, Quinlan!" she called out in relief, "Must have been left behind!"
The astromech in question flashed its lights excitedly, rocking back and forth. Rhys dug it out from the pile of dismembered droids surrounding it, careful not to cut herself on the jagged edges that could only have been caused by a lightsaber. The droid began to beep very quickly, waving its small arm attachments in the air.
"Apparently, his ship was stolen and then crashed here," Rhys translated as Quinlan entered, ducking his head to fit through the low opening, "He says that the thief was being chased by the assassin droids." Quinlan snorted in disbelief.
"Does he have any holograms of the thief?" he asked sarcastically, leaning against a large piece of metal, "Because that would really help us."
The droid bleeped something rude before answering. "He thinks that his memory was wiped after the other ship came and left him here, but he might be able to pull up a partial image from when his ship was first stolen," she interpreted. The droid gave out a triumphant whistle when he managed to project a small blue image in front of him. Rhys sucked in a breath – it was definitely the back of a red, tattooed, Zabrak head, clearly taken from the vantage point of the droid behind the cockpit. Not much else was visible, however, making their last possible lead go dead cold.
"So what are we going to do with the droid?" Quinlan asked, glowering at the projected image, "For all we know he could have been Maul's droid… maybe we could get some information from his rusty circuits." The droid beeped in alarm and hurled angry binary curses at the Kiffar.
"It wouldn't help, Quinlan," Rhys said, calming the frightened droid, "And neither are you at the moment – go touch some things outside to see if you can find anything else." The Jedi rolled his eyes in annoyance, but complied. When he was gone, Rhys turned back to the droid. "What's your name, little guy?" The droid gave his designation in a series of beeps.
"N0-B33, huh? Well, you're a long way from home, little guy… I didn't think the old N0's were used for anything other than navi-guides on freighters." The droid beeped indignantly, and Rhys raised her hands in surrender. "All right, all right, I'm sorry," she apologized, holding back a laugh – she was really beginning to like this feisty little droid. "Well, I don't want to leave you here on this stinking rock, so I guess you can come back to Coruscant with us… at least until we find your old owner. I can imagine he's missing you quite a bit." N0-B33 let out a mournful whistle, his lights dimming slightly.
"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that," Rhys responded comfortingly, "If it's any consolation, the Zabrak that killed him is dead… we've been tracking him for a while." That seemed to cheer up the little droid considerably, his lights returning to their normal brightness as he squeaked out another line. "He called you Nobby?" she asked with a smile growing on her face, "Well, that settles it, Nobby – you're coming with us!" Nobby gave an excited squeal and rotated his domed head as he followed his new Master out of the abandoned hut.
Quinlan was less than pleased with their new companion when Rhys told him about Nobby. Granted, he was already in a bad mood with the frustration of losing Maul's trail. He had found absolutely nothing but visions of Maul cutting down countless assassin droids with his double-bladed lightsaber. That paired with the new arrival who seemed content to insult him at every turn put him on a stubborn offensive.
Rhys, on the other hand, was absolutely delighted to have an astromech around. True, Nobby was fairly old, but she planned on adding some modifications and repairs to his battered exterior. The little droid would be next to invaluable on missions – it was always a help to have another pilot, mechanic, and set of eyes around when she and her padawan couldn't be there. She could've always gotten one of the standard Temple droids, but she liked Nobby's spunk – that and he provided her with a brand-new list of creative insults. Yes, he might be a little grumpy because of his rusted circuits, but she would bring him into her weird, varied form of family that she kept close to her heart.
Tam had just barely returned to the apartment when his Master called him on his commlink. He fumbled around with his new robes for a moment – Master Vena Kaa had insisted that he get new robes, on account of his rapidly growing frame – and finally pulled out his comm unit, projecting a miniaturized form of his Master. Yesterday she'd called to let him know that the trail had gone cold, but now she seemed to be considerably happier than she'd been when he'd last spoken to her.
"We just entered hyperspace," she reported, "It won't be long until we reach Coruscant, so I'm giving you a fair bit of warning to fix anything Anakin has broken." Her eyes twinkled with mirth as the padawan gulped. Anakin, as careful as he tried to be, couldn't completely keep from breaking something. As far as he knew – and already fixed – Anakin had only broken the showerhead, a lamp-bulb, and set off the security system twice.
"What's there to fix?" he laughed nervously. His Master gave a wry smile and looked over her shoulder.
She turned back to him, clearly trying to hide a smile. "I actually have something for you, Tam… a little present, if you will." To the padawan's great surprise, a small, rusty astromech rolled into view. "Isn't he wonderful?" she cooed, patting the domed head affectionately and straightening the droid's bent antennae, "His name is Nobby, and he wants to stay with us!"
Both boy and droid stared at each other through the hologram as if daring the other to make a move. Tam resisted a groan – once again, his Master was adopting yet another thing that she expected him to care for. Come to think of it, so did Qui-Gon when Obi-Wan was much younger. Both Jedi were very in tune with the Living Force, and formed attachments easily.
"Sounds… great, Master," he managed to stutter. His Master, lost in her excitement, didn't pick up the strained tones in her padawan's voice, "Can't wait for you to get back."
A loud crash sounded on her end and she swiftly whirled around to face the source of the noise. "Quinlan!" she shouted before turning back to her padawan. "Excuse me, I have to… deal with something," she scowled, "Come on, Nobby." The droid beeped out a rather insulting phrase concerning Quinlan's mother and a Gungan at which Rhys smiled. "We'll be home soon."
With that, the connection dissolved, leaving Tam with a feeling of exhaustion. What had his Master gotten herself into this time?
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