A/N: Because, I'm sorry, but that scene with Tech and Omega on the bridge needed to be longer. :)
Chapter 10: Caught
"Omega, I need you on the bridge."
"On my way."
Omega left Wrecker to moon over his new-found joy in the form of a proton torpedo, and hurried to the bridge of the destroyer.
She didn't like the walk.
The long hallways filled with dust and scurrying rodents served as a vivid reminder of her current interior state. She knew she wouldn't feel right again until she'd confessed all to Tech, and - her conscience urged - to Hunter as well, no matter how much she shrank from the idea.
Now was a good time, she thought, to tell Tech of her dishonesty. Hunter, Echo, and Wrecker would all be in the weapons room for quite a while yet. It would be easier to tell everything to Tech when she had the time to think things through before she said anything to him...perhaps...
Omega stepped quietly through the tilted frame of the ship's bridge doorway. She stumbled, barely catching herself on the mess of wires and thick cables that hung limply across the doorframe.
Tech was on his back under the bridge's main consol, obviously fidding with something underneath its surface.
Omega crouched down in front of him, attempting to get a look at what he was working on. No luck. His hands were in the way.
"How's it lookin'?" she asked.
"We're in luck." Tech slid a ways out from his supine position and sat up to hand her a probe. "Whoever scuttled this ship didn't whipe the hardware's data imprint. I'm transferring the files, but I still need to copy the masterdrive. It's under that panel."
Omega tool the proffered tool with a smile and hopped to the panel indicated. She located the proper port, but paused before inserting the probe. The sight outside the viewport had caught her gaze.
A graveyard. Of ships...possibly some people, as well.
She had seen the vast expanse of waste on Bracca when they had arrived yesterday, but the sight hadn't struck her the way it did now in the gathering gloom of dusk.
A strong sense of loneliness crept deep into Omega. She felt its weight with confusion.
"Tech, what was the war like?"
Tech continued his work. "It was a primary mission objective comprised of battles on various fronts."
Omega cast him a glance, then redirected her gaze to the ghostly ruins of long-dead ships.
"But what was it like?"
Tech peeked out at her. "Hm? I just told you."
Omega started the data transfer and shuffled away from the window. She tapped the toe of one boot up along a crack on the floor, and down its length again, self-consciously rubbing her arm.
"I...understand if you don't want to talk about it, Tech. You do that when you don't want to talk about something, by the way."
"Hm?"
"That. You just did it again. You can just tell me no..."
Tech pulled himself to his knees and stood up.
"No, I don't think I could."
"Why not...?" Omega frowned and turned back to the panel, gripped the probe in her hand, and pulled it out of the consol port once the data transfer was complete.
"You are curious," said Tech. "And that means without some answer to your inquiries, you would most likely find another means of aquiring desired information. Some of those methods may prove dangerous."
Omega folded her arms on the consol and rested her chin on them. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about... Tech, I..."
Omega whiped her nose, the telltale signs of oncoming tears making the front of her face feel locked up and pushed.
The abandoned ruins of countless ships sat silent in the dusk as if holding their breath in anticipation of...something that weighed all on Omega.
"Tech..." Another hitching breath. "Tech, I...I lied to Hunter in order to find out what happened to you."
"Oh?"
"Yes." Omega nodded vigorously, her self-disgust and remorse battling against her will as the fight to refrain from bursting into tears warred in her little heart.
"What made you think anything happened to me?" Tech's voice was quiet, soothing. It made Omega want to tell all and then hide her face from his large brown eyes - at least until it had been made definite that he'd forgiven her. If only she could control herself! What he must think of her... If only she could control the physical display of her emotions the way Tech controlled his!
She peeked over her shoulder and saw that he was scrolling through screens of information on his vambrace computer - his method of giving her all the time she needed to collect herself. Omegaheaved a breath.
"Well, you wouldn't tell me about the Vagaari, and I wanted to know why no one would, and then I found out when I talked to Hunter that it was because they hurt people. Like that Kaminoan hurt you. Hunter didn't want me to know what torture was, and..."
"Ah." Tech interrupted.
"...So I lied..." Omega sighed sadly. "I told him you said I could ask him about it..."
Tech hummed distractedly. "Well, technically I did say to ask Hunter, without ever strictly specifying what you were to ask about..."
This only made Omega feel worse. "Don't make excuses for me, Tech! I know I was wrong and - I'm...I'm - s-sorry!"
Omega stuffed her face into her arms.
There was a soft shift of plastoid against metal, but she didn't look up. She could hear Tech working again with his tools.
"There is nothing to be upset about, Omega," he said, voice once again muffled by his position under the consol. "I do not prefer to dwell on what occurred in my past, but it did happen. And it is over. The others would not want you to worry about the degrading acts sentients are capable of. Neither would I. That was our reason for hesitating in divulging information on a race that has torture as a primary part of their cultural ceremonies and celebrations."
Omega swallowed hard and slid to the floor, hunching her shoulders miserably.
"But, Tech...You all...trust me...right?"
"Yes."
"How can you trust me now or want me as part of the team when I...when I...lied??? To Hunter! About you!!!"
Tech slithered out from underneath the consol and sat upright, facing Omega, his large eyes gazing piercingly into her own.
"You feel like a traitor," he said quietly.
Omega squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath, forcfully holding back the sobs.
"Your penitent state is quite sufficient, Omega. It was a mistake. You have not lost our trust."
"Maybe not yours!" Omega blurted out. "But what about Hunter? He might not trust me anymore..."
Tech cleared his throat delicately and removed his helmet.
"Omega?"
Omega gulped, encouraged to look up at him despite her miserable state at his soft tone...
"Hunter will forgive you."
"How do you know?"
Tech held her gaze, steady and calm. "Because once, a long time ago, I made a mistake similar to the one you have recently committed. Only mine was much worse. I revealed my error to Hunter, and he forgave me. He will do the same for you."
Omega took a shaky breath. "I hope I can do it without crying," she said, huffing a laugh. Tech's characteristic flit of a smile tugged at his lips.
"It is perfectly normal for regret and other such similar emotions to trigger responses like that."
"Maybe because I'm just a kid," Omega sighed. "But I want to be brave like you! I know you said you feel things, too, but you don't really show them. Can you help me be like that?"
Tech blinked at her and cocked his head. He pressed his lips together, eyebrows twitching minutely.
"It is common knowledge that sentient beings possess a wide variety of definite and distinct personalities. The differences between your characteristics and tendencies, and mine are quite disimilar. Some variants are formed by circumstances and our responses to them. Our choices or inability to choose, if you will. It does not follow that one being who possesses admirable qualities in one or more fields should be imitated in everything."
Omega frowned. She understood the basic ideas behind Tech's words, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense.
"What's so bad about trying to be better?" she said.
Tech pushed his goggles onto his forhead and rubbed his eyebrows before resituating the device firmly over the bridge of his nose.
"What I am attempting to explain to you, Omega, is that the varying qualities or characteristics amongst individuals do not necessarily make them better or worse. It is how those tendencies are used that forms one into who they are."
"Huh? You mean if I cry for a good reason, that would make me better? And if I cried for a bad reason, that would make me worse?"
"'Weaker' is the term I would use," Tech stated. He shook his head, looking mildly uncomfortable. Omega swallowed her next questions as Tech bent to gather his tools.
"Let's complete our tasks and report to Hunter and the others."
Omega stood and shuffled her feet. "Hunter...okay...Tech?"
"Hm?"
"Can you come with me when I go tell Hunter that I was bad? I don't want to talk to him alone."
"I think you'll find," said Tech, packing away his tools and gadgets with his typical short, precise movements, "that your unavoidable dialogue will be much easier to engage in and manage without a third party whose presence is not necessary, nor particularly wanted by those present."
"So you forgive me?" Omega hopped after Tech as the man headed for the exit.
Tech tilted his head over one shoulder and cast her a squinting sort of glance from underneath his helmet.
"Of course," he quipped. "I thought it was obvious."
Omega grinned and made to follow him out, but paused as a faint beeping noise caught her attention. There was a red light blinking on the main consol.
"Tech...? Why is that blinking?"
Tech leaned back into the bridge room. "That is the proximity alert. It is most likely broken."
"I don't think so," Omega said.
Tech looked down at her just as three ships zoomed overhead and began to land a short ways from the cruiser.
Omega gulped.She could hear Tech huff through his nose at the same time.
Tech whipped his comm device to face level and pressed the button.
"Hunter...? We've got company..."
Pa-ROOMmm...!!!!
Hunter dropped like a stone. Omega stared, the realization of what had occurred smoking slowly into her brain like the whisps of curling gray that rose fizzing from Hunter's unmoving chest.
"Hunter!!!" Omega dashed to the fallen man's side, voice loud and panicked. "Hunter!"
She shook him frantically and pulled away to aim a laser arrow at the approaching alien. The bounty hunter's droid swooped in and snatched the weapon from Omega's hands as the bounty hunter came to a lazy halt and adjusted his gun.
"Sorry, little lady," the man drawled.
Omega turned her head away and held her arms over her face in a vain attempt to block the shot she knew was coming. She heard the shot...and felt nothing. Instantly an echoing shot sounded and she felt her whole body go numb.
Omega collapsed alongside Hunter, dimly aware that someone was shouting her name. Wrecker...?
Then Hunter's name rattled through her aching head and small metal hands seized her and lifted her away from the ground and Hunter. She tried to struggle, but the effects of the stun blast had crippled her to the point of immobility - it was a miracle she was still conscious.
She felt each jolt of every step - someone was carrying her like a sack of potatoes. Omega raised her head, vision foggy. Someone was running after her...
She tried in vain to reach out as her captor passed through the frame of a ship's doorway with her in tow. Omega strained her shaking muscles, desperate to stop her capture and get back to Hunter and the others.
The world tipped. She felt herself lowered to the floor, then pounding footsteps raced away, presumably towards.the cockpit.
Machinery whirred and the hatch began to close. Omega could only watch in detached sorrow and fear as the panel continued to slide shut...
And Tech came bursting through the door...