Chapter 14 – Educated Guesses

"You killed him, you schutta!"

"Atton?"

Atton's eyes had become glazed over for a moment and Mical noticed he was paying even less attention to what he was saying than usual, which was saying a lot.

"What? Oh, sorry… the… voices," stammered Atton. "This is getting a bit creepy. I mean I can sometimes tell what she's thinking… and maybe once or twice I've gotten weird thoughts jump into my head… thoughts that weren't mine… but it was never anything like this. Normally she was at least in the vicinity. Is this something that's going to be permanent? Cause I don't know that I want to know what she's thinking all the time." And I certainly don't want her to know what I'm thinking.

"Well, to some extent, it might be. Why, did you hear actual words this time?" Mical looked puzzled. "It may be simply caused by some extreme emotional disturbance. You do have a bond, but I don't think you'll be able to know what the other is thinking at all times. I've never heard of that happening. At the very least, you should be able to shield your thoughts from each other if you really wanted to."

"Well, that's good."

"What did you hear?" enquired Mical.

Atton furrowed his brow. "I don't know… something about someone… Kreia, I think… killing someone else… and Jena was really mad… called her a schutta." Atton chuckled. "About time… Took long enough for her to realize it."

"Focus, Atton!"

"Sorry. That's all I really remember. It's easier to remember the feelings than the words. I can't really remember what I heard the first time either."

"You heard something the first time?"

"Well, yeah, I thought I told you."

"Does it seem like I had knowledge of this before?" snapped Mical.

"Well, no, I guess not… no point in losing it on me, it was nothing. It was just…" Atton frowned.

"What?"

Atton shook his head. All he could remember was the word 'no'. "Never mind. I don't really remember. It was really not that important."

"Very well. I must say, Atton, I do find it most peculiar that the… um…" He blushed. "The… the sudden change in the nature of your relationship with Jena seems to have served as a catalyst for your bond with her. Perhaps it's simply because she's realized that you seem to feel for her as she does for you."

"If it's so peculiar, then why did you immediately assume that's what happened and started accusing me?" demanded Atton.

"Well, it was more of a… theory. An educated guess. You said she had left you the datapad while you were sleeping…"

"And you got it from that?"

Mical smirked. "Well, she hardly visits any of us while we're sleeping… That coupled with what the message said – 'I'm sorry Atton'… it made things a bit obvious – to me, anyway. And, well, your demeanor confirmed my suspicions. I put everything together, and realized that the bond you were feeling was probably caused by that very closeness."

"Wait, wait, wait… are you telling me that you berated me loud enough so anyone can hear because of an educated guess?" cried Atton, suddenly forgetting about the situation at hand.

Mical looked flustered. "Yes… well… perhaps we should save this conversation for later and focus on Jena."

"Right. Jena." Atton glared at Mical. You're lucky I'm crazy about that woman, because you'd have to answer to my lightsaber right now.

"Right," began Mical, addressing the crew gathered in the main hold. "Well, according to Atton's…" He glanced sideways at Atton. "Bond… with Jena, it would appear that she may already be facing Kreia. Which isn't very good for us if we wanted to help her. Likely by the time we made our way down there, the battle would be long over, whether it be won by Jena or…" He stopped and preferred to let the others guess what the other outcome might be, rather than voicing it out. He exhaled deeply. "So it would appear that running out and trying to catch up to her would just be a waste of time. I feel our best bet would be to fix up the ship and try to reach her. That is, of course, assuming Atton can fly the ship without crashing again."

Atton glared at him. "Yeah, well, maybe you could save the rest of your personal digs for when the entire crew is here. I'm sure Mira will be sorry she missed them. Where is she anyway?"

As everyone expressed puzzlement, Mical started getting a similar calculating look as he had earlier.

"What now?" demanded Atton impatiently. "You want to accuse me of sleeping with her too?"

"Not everything revolves around you, Atton, believe it or not. I was just remembering that I thought I saw her slip out and climb up to the outer hull during our… discussion… right after she asked you what was wrong. At the time I didn't think…"

"You didn't think? Oh well, that's a new one," spat Atton sarcastically. "Great. Now we have two women to rescue. What is it with the women on board disappearing without telling anybody? Is Visas still here, at least?"

"I am here," replied Visas smoothly.

"Hey, look at that!" quipped Atton. "It does talk! Well, good. It's nice to see that at least one of you still has some sense. All right. So now what?"

"Now," replied Bao-Dur, "we stick to Mical's plan of fixing the ship and going to save the General. Mira will likely have reached her by then, so we won't have to worry about finding her too. Luckily, the repairs are almost done, as T3 and I have been keeping busy while you and Mical have been… working things out." Then he added under his breath, "I just hope the Mass Shadow Generator doesn't get triggered before we get to them."

"What did you just say? What was that about a Mass Shadow Generator?" asked Atton, paling a little.

Bao-Dur turned to him and reluctantly explained, "As the General ordered me before we arrived, I sent out my remote to prime the Mass Shadow Generator that was once used on Malachor. Upon the General's order, it will be set off. My only concern is not getting to her in time. If, for some reason, Kreia starts to get the better of her, she may decide to trigger it early." Watching the rest of the color drain from Atton's face, he quickly added, "But I can't imagine that happening, as in so doing, the General would endanger us all, and she cares too much for us… some of us in particular," he added looking significantly at Atton, "to doom us in that fashion." He paused and again added under his breath, "Unless, of course, she feels we would have enough time to escape without her."

"What? Okay, you have got to stop muttering the most important parts. You're saying she might stay behind while the planet blows up if she thinks we can make it off alive?"

"That is a possibility, yes," confirmed Bao-Dur regretfully.

Atton's color rushed back up to his face all at once. "Well, if she thinks I'm going to leave her behind just so I can survive, she's crazy," he retorted heatedly. "Come on, Bao-Dur! Let's get moving on fixing this ship. We're getting the General off this planet whether she likes it or not."

Atton fidgeted in his seat. Bao-Dur had gently but decisively told him to stay away while he and T3 finished the repairs, as Atton's frantic state of mind had been hindering their progress. For once, Atton had agreed and made himself scarce. He now found himself back in the cockpit with nothing to do but worry. Playing pazaak was out of the question, and he found himself almost wishing Mical would drop by to irritate him, just so he could use him as an outlet for his frustration. But Mical was otherwise busy. Everyone was otherwise busy – everyone but him. He had never felt so useless in his life… Jena was out there, needing him, and all he could do was sit there and wait… and wait. This is not how it was supposed to happen… I was supposed to be there with her… to fight for her… to put my life on the line for her… to die for her. This is why I became a Jedi, not so I could sit here while Mira's off to rescue her… Why am I so obsessed with this? Maybe Mira is right. Maybe I do have a saving fetish.

Metallic footsteps made him turn around. Bright red eyes greeted him.

"Shouldn't you be off fixing something?" asked Atton sullenly.

"Smug Response: As an assassination droid, I do not have the skills required to 'fix' things." HK emphasized the word as though it was an obscenity.

"Further Clarification: Unless of course, you were speaking metaphorically, and by 'fixing something' you meant 'obliterating meatbags'."

"No, I meant it literally." That thing's going to kill me. It's going to kill me, and there's nobody around to stop it. Where's my lightsaber?

"Reiteration: In that case, I stand by my original statement. I do not 'fix' things."

"Then why are you here? I don't expect you just came by here for a friendly chat or a game of pazaak."

"Condescending Explanation: I wished to express… concern…" The word sounded very foreign coming from HK-47. "Concern about the turn your relationship with my master seems to be taking."

"Oh yeah? And what would you know about that?"

"Mocking Observation: You appear to have forgotten about the security cameras present throughout the ship."

Atton shuddered. The cameras… I'd totally forgotten… and that sick droid was watching us? I don't even want to think about what it's going to do to me now that it's seen me with its precious master…

"Okay, so you saw us. What's your point?" Where is my lightsaber?

"Mocking Statement: I did not sit by and watch, if that thought distresses you."

"Further Clarification: I have no interest in the mating rituals of meatbags, and find them disturbing at best."

"Irritated Reiteration: As I said, I wished to express concern."

"Fine. Then why are you expressing concern?" Atton shook his head incredulously. I can't believe I'm even having this conversation. It was bad enough with Mical. This is turning into the worst post-date parental interrogation ever.

"Explanation: I find that your presence appears to be making my master… soft." Soft? I'm not making her soft… If anything, she's making me soft. I mean, look at me, I'm… getting along with people.

"Extrapolation: All signs seem to be pointing to the fact that she may be risking termination to save you."

"Musing: I find it perplexing that she deems a lowly meatbag such as yourself worthy of such an act."

"Conclusion: I am concerned that your presence may be harmful to my master."

Yup, it's definitely here to kill me.

"Yeah? Well, you might want to keep your concerns to yourself, otherwise I might feel compelled to get Jena to install that pacifist package back in."

"Horrified Statement: You wouldn't dare!"

"Watch me," he said, finally remembering where he had stashed his lightsaber and reaching for it on the off shot that HK would turn violent.

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Bao-Dur. HK-47 hurriedly left the cockpit, his red eyes even redder than usual.

"Repairs are done, Atton. We should be able to go now."

"Good," replied Atton briefly, turning to the control panel.

Bao-Dur stood behind Atton, watching him start up the engines. "We will find her, you know."

"We damn well better," mumbled Atton.

Bao-Dur put his hand on Atton's shoulder. "We will find her," he repeated.

"I hope so… because we have to. I have to. And I especially have to now, because if I don't, I'll have a vengeful assassination droid on my tail. And now you might want to buckle up – I don't know how well this cliff will hold up to the vibrations."

Author's Notes: WOW! The response for Chapter 13 was pretty overwhelming... Thanks for all the reviews! Some of you seem to be under the impression that I'm taking this story in a direction I'm not... Mmmh... Odd. Anyway, I finally finished writing the entire story today (yay!)... There will be a total of 19 chapters. I expect your next question will be why I'm so behind with posting them... That would be because I always want to double check and triple check for any continuity errors between the chapters. I expect I'll find a lot of those in the final chapters, as I tended to always go off on a tangent while I wrote... and sometimes forgot details I had mentioned before. :) Anyway, sorry if this chapter was a little anticlimatic compared to the last one, but I promise the action does pick up in the next chapter, which I'll probably have up over the next couple days. Always happy to hear from you. :)