Ean Van Tassel came into the Pilgrim's common room as he woke up. The second day of its repairs and his scorched skin had already completely grown back. Not a scar remained from his experiences at the Watcher's dreadnought.
Londo and Zeryn seemed at the end of their breakfast. Zeryn now used the body of a very dark-skinned human with rich curly hair who everyone thought was the station manager for the repair docks they were in, who had just got back from vacation.
"… then tell me this, Londo," Zeryn said "remember when we were at the top of the dreadnought's hull facing against the arachnid droids?"
"Zeryn, I believe we can both agree none of us will ever forget that."
"Oh, yeah. So, when you asked for my ion grenades, and threw them up, and the droids were surrounded by lightning… what happened back then? How did you know that was going to happen?"
"Oh!" Londo smiled "That was a Providence-class dreadnought, right? These ships used something called normalized-hull-polarization to strengthen their hull against impacts. This means their hulls are ionizeable. When you threw me the ion grenades, I switched their charge and threw them up as you threw yours down. You polarized the hull with negative charge, and I polarized whatever was above them with positive charge. But what was above them? The cruiser shields. So for a brief instant, all of the energy of the cruiser's shields connected with the ship's hull. I short-circuited the shields and the hull. No droid could ever survive that."
"Wow…" Ean said. "Remind me to never go walking outside the hull of a capital ship."
"That," Londo said, pointing his glass at Ean "is always a sound advice. Believe me!"
Ean sat down on a sofa, ordering via radio a breakfast of his own, when Zeryn asked.
"Ean, ever since we found you fighting the Watcher droid you have been doing a lot of new stuff. It seems you suddenly know how to use your whole body. How did you learn all that?"
Ean half smiled as he answered.
"Well, I remember everything I thought and did when I was merged with Ardos Camarr, and one thing I did back then was I meditated a lot on my systems and my components, so I got to know myself pretty well. When I unmerged with him, the knowledge of all that remained with me."
"So you mean to say have all of Ardos Camarr's knowledge?" Londo asked.
"Oh, no, nothing like that. I only remembered what I thought and did, but most of Ardos' knowledge is still locked away in his holocron. If I had spent some time and recalled everything Ardos ever learned while we were merged, I would likely have all of his knowledge, but, seriously, that would have taken a lot of time. A lot."
The door to another of the crew quarters opened up and a fourth person entered the room, a red-haired woman with a sleepy face and muscled body, wearing one of Londo's t-shirt, a small underwear and nothing else. Narla seemed oblivious to the silence that descended as she came into the common room and prepared herself a hot coffee.
She sat down on a sofa across Londo and Zeryn. Only after her first sip did she stared back at Londo and said.
"What?"
Londo looked down and sighed a tired, worn-out sigh.
"We did went through some stuff, didn't we, Narla Hal?"
Narla raised her eyebrows in an expression of someone who knows there's more to it. Londo went on.
"I guess what I am trying to say is…"
As he paused longer than Narla's patience would allow, she said.
"That I tried to kill you guys a few times, then I saved your lives a few times, then you saved my life a few times, and now we all don't really know how we stand on that whole killing-saving balance."
"That was… aptly put" The Pilgrim said through the intercom.
"Take my cue, Londo Zaani. Just say nothing."
Londo stared right at her.
"I do feel I must say something, though."
Narla rolled her eyes.
"Must you?"
"I guess…" Londo inhaled deeply before moving on "whatever you did before meeting us, after all that happened, Zeryn and I agree you earned… and you need… this." Londo put the holocron of Ardos Camarr on the table.
Zeryn sat up, eyes just a little wider than before, as she slowly took the holocron. She closed her eyes and seemed once again to be controlling herself as she said.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it." Zeryn said.
Zeryn clutched at the holocron as if it were her second heart. Ean vaguely scratched at his own chest.
"I suppose right now you are fighting the urge to just toss me out of the ship and forget I ever exist, are you not?"
Zeryn looked down, Londo opened his mouth, but it was Pilgrim who first answered.
"I would like to remind you, Narla, that I am right here, and I alone get to decide who comes and who goes into my rooms. If you are here, it's because I alone want you as guest."
"Why, Pilgrim…" Londo said. "You could at least give me the illusion of control, couldn't you?"
"I guess I could, Londo. My debt of gratitude to you is greater than can ever be repaid, but I am also beyond caring what organics think. It's a new day in the galaxy, Londo Zaani, a day where replica droids can feel the force, sentient planets control our every move and mad scientists interface technology with religion. Who am I? I am just a sentient ship, but I am my own self from now on."
Zeryn raised her eyebrows. "I'll drink to that" she said.
Londo reclined in his sofa, turning at Ean almost like he wanted to shift the conversation to another topic.
"I guess the great question now, Ean, is what are you planning to do from now on?"
What, indeed? He could disappear, like Londo did from the corporations that still hunted him. He could maybe go to the galactic capital of Hosnian Prime and blow the whistle on what has been done to him, and the existence of the Watcher. But what, among all options, would be the best?
"Well, I don't think the Watcher is ever going to stop hunting me, Londo…" Ean started, saying it as he also thought it over "I don't know if he can truly predict our every move, if he can see what we will do in advance or not… but one way or another, I am both his best option at using the Force, and the greatest threat to his existence. He will have to come after me. So the question really is… what am I going to do about him?"
"Yes," Narla said, as she turned to Ean "what?"
"I will fight back, that's what I will do." Even as he said it, he knew he just had to do it "I am not going to wait for him to find me, I will take the fight to him… But I cannot do it myself, right now. I found out, the worse way, that I was built with certain contingencies that allow the Watcher to take complete control of my body. I have to find my other makers, doctor Revennus Khran and the woman who calls herself my mother, the Corsair, and somehow get them to remove those contingencies from me. So… That's what I will do, Londo. I will look for my mother."
Ean got up, staring at each one in the room in turn.
"Am I going to do it alone?"
Narla was up before anyone else.
"Are you kidding? Going against a droid army commanded by a sentient planet? That's what I call a fight! What a way to put to practice everything master Camarr will teach me! Oh, I'll help you out, Ean Van Tassel."
Ean didn't expect Narla's help, of all things, but she was powerful, he had to concede her that.
"Well, I can't let you go along with Narla without someone to keep an eye on her, Ean" Londo said. "She is a person who needs constant supervision, you know? So I will go along as well."
"Yes, Ean." The Pilgrim said. "We droids have to stick together, you know. I am sure you would like the sleekest ship in the galaxy helping you out as well."
Ean turned at Zeryn.
"What about you, Zeryn Dassul?"
Zeryn got up with a half-smile.
"Well… we do need cash, you know. You guys are a magnet for trouble, and where there's trouble, there's opportunity, so I think I will stick around and, who knows, maybe I will even make a few credits along the way."
Everyone stole a glance at one another.
"Is this a hugging time?" Narla asked. "Because if it's a hugging time then I guess I'll go meditate in my room."
Ean could not contain his smile. Who knows what dangers he would plunge into, but unlike when he first woke up in Nar Shaddaa, this time, he wasn't alone. He had found people who stood by him, out of bonds forged in ancient jedi temples, in the plasma bolts of the fight against droid armies and in the heat of reentry. He may never know peace such as when he first woke up, but he earned something else. He earned himself. He earned friends, and maybe, just maybe, that was just the next best thing.
The End of
The Aberrant Son.
