Tinuviel Undomiel: lol sorry I had a lot of homework that day, you know how hs is xP but here you go, the next chapter. I made it extra long...I think lol.
A/N: Anyway, Hope this chapter's good though, had to replay the beginning and record the convo. Lol, took me a long time. Please R&R!
Chapter 8: The Scoundrel and Droid (Pt. 2)
I opened the door, and the first thing I saw was a guy locked up inside the force cage. "Probably just another idiot that tried to do something stupid." I thought.
"Nice outfit." He commented, "What you miners changed regulation uniform while I've been in here?"
"Who are you?" I asked, hoping to get some answers.
"Atton," the man replied, "Atton Rand...Excuse me if I don't shake hands. The field only causes mild electrical burns."
I rolled my eyes.
Quite the comedian he is, but he is the only one that's here...might as well get some answers…
"Why are you in here?" I asked.
"Security claimed that I violated some trumped up regulation or another, take it up with them if you want, but they stopped listening to me shortly before they stopped feeding me…"
"Now that's criminal." he added.
"Hmm..." I thought.
"So he was here before everyone disappeared…wonder if he-" I was snapped out of my thoughts by another one of Atton's lovely remarks.
Have I mentioned that he's starting to annoy me?
"Are you going to set me free yet? As much as I love this conversation," He said, stressing the love with his usual sarcastic tone, "This isn't exactly a way to get us off this place...at least, not how I pictured it..."
"Not yet, first I need some questions answered." I replied, giving him an annoyed look.
He just shrugged it off.
"Fine...I'll answer your questions..." He said out loud, then muttered "Bantha breath" in a low voice.
I ignored him.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"You mean you didn't come here on PURPOSE? I'm shocked...I really am." He said, the sarcasm not going unnoticed.
"This slice of paradise is Peragus mining facility." He continued, "The only supplier of shipping grade engine fuel on this corner of the galaxy."
"The Peragus fuelers play havoc on engines...but it gets the job done...As long as you don't mind the toxic byproducts, and trying to mine it without blowing yourself up."
"Blow yourself up?" I asked.
"Yeah, this whole asteroid belt is one giant mining field." He said, "One proton torpedo...Even a stray blaster shot can make an explosion that would make the one that shattered Peragas II look like a kid's pop detonator."
"Peragas II?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.
"Yeah, you know the planet with the exposed core you saw flying in?" He asked
I nodded.
"That hole was caused by the first mining station that tried to siphon the fuel off the planet." Atton explained. "Blew a whole chunk out of the planet and sent it drifting out here in a bunch of fuel filled asteroids." He sighed. "So the miners drill the asteroids now, not the planet's surface...that's why they don't allow blasters here."
"Why not? Wouldn't the miners be trained in handling blasters?" I asked.
"Boy, your not that bright are you?" He asked.
Looking away, I muttered under my breath, "look whose talking..."
"What?" He asked, as if challenging me to repeat what I had just said.
"Nothing..." I said, smiling innocently at him. "So explain, how come the blasters are banned?"
He smirked. "Easy, banta brains, you can't trust a miner jumped up on juma juice not to fire one stray shot that will turn the entire colony into a thermal detonator...it's common sense…"
"For some people..." He finished off, still smirking.
"So that would explain why there was a station here in the middle of nowhere." I said, ignoring his little insult. I didn't want to start a "battle of wits" with him right now, especially when we needed to get out of here.
"Yeah, exactly." He replied.
"What happened here?" I asked, curious as to where everyone went. Like Atton said, this is the only supplier of fuel, and where there's fuel, there are miners mining the fuel...so what happened to them?
"You mean, before or after that Jedi showed up?" He asked with a shrug.
"Jedi?" I ask.
"Either way, it's a real short story..." He started. "You see, this Jedi shows up, and you know what that means, where there's one Jedi, the Republic will soon be crawling up your ion engine in no time."
"Uh huh..." I answered, urging him to continue.
"Ok, ok, listen, so the story gets better...you see, some of the miners got it into their idiotic skulls that since the Jedi's unconscious, they can collect the bounty the exchange has got on Jedi..."he looks at me, expecting me to comment, but I stay silent.
He continues, "Well, what passes for the law here didn't like that idea, so the two groups start fighting..."
"Fighting?" I ask.
"Yeah, fighting, and then there was a big explosion, and THEN I was sitting here for a long time waiting for some half-naked miner to show up and ask a bunch of questions." He said, giving me an annoyed look.
"Again with the sarcasm..." I thought, as I rolled my eyes, making it clear to Atton that he wasn't really being helpful.
He just ignored it.
"So there's a bounty on Jedi?" I asked. Maybe that would explain what happened to me...but then again, I'm not a Jedi...at least, not anymore.
"Don't know much about it...Maybe the exchange wants them as a trophy, or somebody's got something against Jedi, waiting to collect..." He said. "Not many Jedi left, wouldn't surprise me if the bounty's pretty high..."
"Not many are left?" I asked.
I had only been gone for four years...how much could have changed during that time?
"Yeah, the ones that weren't killed in the Jedi civil war ended up switching off their lightsabers a long time ago...Of course, I wasn't there so I don't know why there was a Jedi civil war to begin with..." He explained. "But word is these days, there isn't even a Jedi council anymore...but who knows...Anyways, I-"
"It's simple," I said, cutting him off, it was my turn to give him some information, whether he wanted it or not.
"Revan, Malak, and the other Jedi that fought in the Mandalorian wars, they turned against the Jedi and had a war that almost laid waste to the galaxy...Well anyway, like all
Sith, Revan and Malak turned on each other, after turning on the Jedi and their teachings." I said with ease, quoting the many lessons I had spent memorizing and studying...Master Onasi was tough.
He looked at me as if I was crazy.
I ignored it and continued.
"After ruling the Sith for years, Revan was finally brought down by the Jedi...Oddly enough, he was redeemed. He helped save the Republic. He went to stop Malak to save the Republic, and pay him back for trying to kill him in the first place..." I finished explaining. That was all I knew about the war, Revan and Malak, of course there was another Jedi...I forgot her name, but she also played a great part in the war...She was the one that saved Revan, but I doubted that Atton needed to know about that.
"Anything else?" I asked, smirking at him.
Atton stared at me dumbfounded, mouth open.
"How could you possibly-"
He exclaimed. "Hey wait a minute...Your...Your that Jedi! The Jedi that those miners were talking about..."
"My name's Kyros…" I replied, not denying nor confirming what he had just said. Because truth was, even I wasn't so sure anymore…
"Where is everybody?" He asked.
I gave him an annoyed look. "I thought I already told you...there's no one here."
"But...the miners, they can't be ALL gone...but, if they are..." Atton said, a look of confusion crossing his face.
He smiled, quite pathetically might I add. "Look, hey let me out and I can help you..."
I had every intention of letting him out in the first place, but I decided to let him sweat a little. "You can help me?" I asked.
"I can! I've gotten out of trouble countless times." He said, trying his best to persuade me.
"Hmm..." I said, I could begin to see the nervousness on the wisecracking scoundrel's face.
I smirked.
"Ok then, what's your plan?" I asked him.
He eagerly explained. "This facility isn't a military installation, which means we may have a chance...If you shut down the self security field, I can reroute the emergency systems so we can get to the hangers, grab a ship, and we can fly out of here."
His plan sounded good enough for me, I headed over to turn off the switch, but I had one last question still buzzing around in my mind...
"Do you know anything about what caused the miner's death?" I asked him, hoping he would know.
"No, SHOULD I?" He asked, instantly switching to defensive mode. "Maybe you should ask one of those miners who were thinking of selling you to the exchange, maybe they wanted to drug you up for transport...ever think about THAT?" He asked, his tone clearly mad and annoyed.
"Guess I asked the wrong question..." I thought.
I tried to calm him down. "Ok, look, sorry I didn't mean anything by that, I was just wondering if you knew anything...that's all." I said.
"Look, you better watch yourself...I don't like being accused of something I didn't do." He said, "When I kill someone, trust me, you'll know...got it?"
"Is that a threat?" I asked him, in my most menacing tone.
I was getting annoyed.
He looked at me for a minute; A blank expression on his face.
"No...no, I just-" He sighed.
"Look, are you done interrogating me here? or are we going to work together to get out of this mess?" He asked.
"Alright then...Let's go." I said as I turned off the switch and heard the hum of the force cage come to a halt.
Atton stepped out. "Great, now down to business, let's get down to the command counsel." He said, running out of the room and towards the communications blister.
I followed suit and headed out the door and after him…
"Alright Here we are, now this counsel is set up on automatic hail, you may have heard it when we came in. The asteroid drift charts are constantly being updated, so it sends out a transmission to incoming vessels so they don't get crushed into space dust." He said, looking up at me. "You got all that?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Ok then, anyway the hail warns them to keep their distance until the orbital drift charts are transmitted, and then provides docking instructions to incoming ships, usually freighters." He said. "Thing is, you bounce that same transmission back to the comp here, and suddenly you've got access to the communications system from the inside…" Atton paused for a moment, concentrating on re-wiring and hacking into the computer system.
A few minutes later, and Atton is finally done. "Pure pazzak, the counsel's ours!" He exclaimed with a huge grin on his face.
"Finally," I thought, "We were finally going to get off this force-forsaken place."
"Ok, now all we need to do is reactivate the turbo lifts, cancel the emergency lockdown…and…" He started to explain, but stopped right in his tracks…"Hey!"
I didn't like the sound of that…
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"The system's been severed from the main hub." He explained, with a weary look on his face. "After it was locked down from remote…You can't even re-route the systems, it's been cut clean…"
"I take it that that's not standard procedure?" I asked.
"No," He said, "Someone's tried to lock down this whole level tight, to leave us here…trapped."
"There's got to be another way to get off…" I said, hoping that I was right.
"I doubt it." He replied. "All we have is communications back, for all the good trying to shout into a vacuum will do us." He said glumly.
I had enough. I was going to find a way out of here…no matter what.
"I'm going to try it." I said, pointing to the communications blister.
"Go ahead, you can try…" Atton said, "If the miners were trying to trap you up here, and probably kill you, why not call them up for a chat?" He asked sarcastically.
I glared at him.
"I don't think a friendly call is going to wake them up…" He said.
"Fine, whatever. I still have to try." I said, walking towards the counsel.
"Be my guest, there's nothing else we can do…the comm's all yours…" He said, stepping aside…
Atton watched as the Jedi…Kyros was it? Attempt to communicate with the miners. After a couple of tries, he had finally gotten a response…
In the end, their very survival had come to rely on the wheels of a T3-M4 protocol droid. "Damn we're doomed…" Atton thought as he heard Kyros give his final command to the droid and closed the communicator.
"And now we wait…" Kyros said as he turned around and sat down on the floor.
Atton looked at him.
"Why do I get the feeling this is going to take a while?" He asked.
Kyros just ignored him…
A/N: Done!! See, this was long…at least the longest I've ever written. lol
Once again, don't forget to R&R :)