Out of the darkness, as slow as death itself, Narla stirred from hibernation like crawling from a tomb of stones and rocks. Stones and rocks, falling over her, blocking everything. She had to get away.
Narla jumped out of her bed, panting, eyes wide open as she took in the whiteness and cleanliness of what could only be a medical facility. Two droids floated around as they checked holodisplays that pictured the interior of a female body. Likely her own.
She ran her hands through her face as she… she ran her hands. Both of them, even though her arm… no, she wasn't dreaming, her arm had really been cut off. Yet here it was, flexing and tensing like ever before.
What has happened to… she had been saved. Someone saved her. Who, though? She surely hadn't make a lot of friends lately. In fact, she couldn't remember a single person who would have a reason to save her.
As if in cue, he came in the room. The armored Gen'Dai with wild eyes and a twitching exosqueleton. Doctor Revennus Khran.
"Why indeed, heh?" He said.
Narla frowned, but before she could say anything, the good doctor went on, as he would, since he likely adored the sound of his own voice.
"Oh, fear not, I am not reading your mind… much, It's just that the expression of puzzlement in you was so… oh… priceless… I couldn't help but miss this chance."
Narla jumped out of her bed. No dizziness, no weariness, not even hungry. She had really been well cared for.
"How long was I out?" She said, because if the doctor thought she would thank him, he had another thing coming. Even if she could not help but feel that sinking coldness that plagued her whenever she felt she owed someone.
"All and all, about twenty hours. It was a lengthy operation, and you did have lots and lots of bruises, but I think I did manage to heal them all. You know, I missed the operating table. There's something just visceral when you cut open someone and put their bones back together. Oh yes. I liked that."
"Well, am I glad to have indulged you. Now where's my lightsaber?"
Khran pointed to a desk by her side.
"First drawer. I also took the liberty of realigning your power decouplers and running a resync of the photon stabilizers. How long has it been you did proper maintenance on your saber, woman?"
Narla rushed to the drawer as soon as Khran mentioned he touched her saber. Not only it was there, it also ignited more smoothly than it ever had in decades. The light lost that constant flicker and the blade was steadier than she could remember. Heck, he even polished it.
"Right…" She said "So maybe I won't kill you just now."
"Dear pigeons, woman, can you ever talk to someone without threatening them? That's not a very diplomatic stance, you know?"
Narla waved her – off – lightsaber at him.
"I have all diplomacy I need right here."
"Oh, yes, and how did that turn out for you? Left for dead on a crumbled temple, alone, in a forgotten corner of the galaxy."
Narla swallowed hard. Had he hit her that close to the mark, that she would not strike him down after that insult? Then again, this was likely another of his telepresence droids, and not the real Khran.
"Alright, Khran, I will ask you what you want me to. Why did you do it? Why did you reattach my arm and saved my life?"
Khran picked up a white chair and sat down before her. The slightest flicker in his thighs told her that this was, indeed, another holo-projection of the real doctor.
"First, I should tell you I have not reattached your arm. There was just too much rubble around to look for it. Instead, I gave you a new one, a droid arm."
That… could not be true. Her arm felt… exactly as it did before. No pain, no itching, no marks at all. It even had hair.
"But… the weight, the sensation… this is an artificial arm?"
Khran looked decidedly smug as he answered.
"Amazing, is it not? I am just that good. I do have, you know, a thousand years of practice."
She had to concede that. She just… had to. He really did an amazing job.
"Now" he went on "as to the why… We do have aligning interests at this particular moment, and I would very much like to let loose a force-user like you, a blunt weapon to further my goals."
"Aligning interests? I think not, dear doctor."
"Oh, but we do. You are crazy for the holocron of Ardos Camarr, are you not? Well, I want Ean Van Tassel, or at least, his body, and right now, these two things are one and the same. You see, Ean is a droid, and he have just merged his synthetic brain with the holocron of Ardos Camarr. So, find one and you will find the other."
Narla blinked. Ean is… what?
"Wait a minute. Rollback on what you just said. Ean is a droid? Well… no… that's just… not true!"
"Oh, come now. A force-user like yourself, and you were after him for a while, you must surely have extended your senses to him, you must have felt he is a mechanical being!"
"Well, that's the thing, I have but… That's not what I sensed at all."
Khran almost jumped up from his chair.
"You have? Really? Oh, that is so interesting! Pray, tell! What have you sensed? Share, please!"
She would not have, if only to spite him, but she could not help herself as she recalled that moment in Dalgoral's docks.
"I sensed… It was as if… he was dead. Like he was a reanimated corpse. There was nothing mechanical in there. It's as if his body was being sustained artificially, like he was a biological droid."
Khran's eyes went wide.
"Indeed? Indeed! Wow… have I actually bridged the mechanical and the biological? That is so, so interesting. Oh, the tests I would do with him… But not now. Now we both need him, my dear ex-jedi, and you will get him for me."
"Will I? Are you sure of that?"
"Oh, yes, I am!" His smile was enough to have her cut his head off, but… he did save her.
"And why is that?"
"Because I will give you a ship, set you free and tell you to go and be happy. You see, that's all I want from you, my dearest. I want you to…" Khran pointed at her "be yourself! Go and find Ardos Camarr. Right now, he is not a standing holocron anymore. He is a walking and talking artificial being. Imagine how much he could teach you in his current state, heh? Yes, you will do just that, you will go to him, you will beg him to be your master, and when he accept, you will become his guardian. His defendant. That is my final goal. I want him to have a bodyguard. Especially a bodyguard so amoral and unburdened by… the right thing… as you are!"
Narla smirked.
"Even if I protect him from you?"
Khran paced the room and scoffed at her.
"Oh, please. I am no danger to him. But… the Watcher is! You know, the owner of all those droid ships you so gallantly destroyed right before you hammered into my cruiser. As we speak, the Watcher is gaining on us, closing in on Ardos Camarr. He needs protecting, dearest Narla. He needs you."
"What does this Watcher want with Ean… I mean, with Ardos?"
"To get him, open him up, study him. You see, I made a terrible breakthrough with Ardos' body. I have created an equipment that can interface with holocron technologies, and the Watcher simply must have him!"
"But why? What does he get out of it?"
Khran stopped pacing and spoke in a rushed tone, like trying to dismiss the question.
"Well, power, what else could he get out of it? Whatever, woman. The thing is that the Watcher is closing in on him, he needs protecting, and you can protect him."
Narla remained unconvinced.
"You have a cruiser. You could easily…" Then it was her turn to grin knowingly "You don't know where he is. You don't know it and you need me to track him down!"
Khran straightened his back and raised his chin.
"Well, there is that. But I don't really care about his location right now. All I care is knowing he is well and functioning. So, what say you?"
What would she say, indeed? How could she actually respond to that? The half-crazed Gen'Dai doctor just brought her back from death. He fixed her up, fixed her lightsaber, and offered to give her a ship, and what does he ask in return? In practice, nothing. He is giving her life away for free, and that, more than anything, unnerved her to her bone. She owed this man, and if there was one thing she learned in her decades of life, it's that nothing comes for free. Khran would collect on this kindness. He definitely would, and all Narla could do was prepare herself to pay him back, with interest, when that day arrived.
"Well…" She said "I think you mentioned a ship, did you?"
