Peragus
I crouched as the door finally opened. There were a couple of bodies. I checked them and picked up a vibrosword from one man's hand. They had been hit with laser fire and crushing impacts, as if someone had taken a bat and beaten them to death. The walls were rock, carved out into the rooms and then sealed. It was obviously a moon or asteroid base. It had that 'add on as needed' feel to it. There was an odd tangy smell in the air that made me nervous. One of the doors was magnetically sealed. The other opened into a connecting hall. The unsealed door opened at a touch, and there were droids in the next room. I hesitated. After all, while there were supposed to be droid problems, that didn't mean-
Yes it did. They spun, and I dived under the laser blasts. I had learned during those hours of practice as a Jedi before the war and the war itself that the best way to fight droids is to put them in line if possible, where one has to shoot through the others. It limits your adversaries and at the same time, if it does try to shoot anyway, it kills it's partner.
They tried to kill me, and I dismantled them. Frankly even without my Jedi powers they weren't very efficient. All that police training suggested that either the programmer was another droid, or someone who didn't really understand Droid programming.
After another brief fight, I reached what appeared to be another access way. It was marked as an emergency exit, but when I reached the door, it was closed.
Suddenly, like a whisper I heard a voice.
This is the exit you need...But it is sealed...Strange...In my vision it was open.
I spun. I was alone. That voice sounded like... "Kreia?" If it was she, there was no reply. I had not felt such a touch in a long time. Not since... No, I was imagining it all. I tried the door. Again it had been magnetically sealed from somewhere else, but was clearly marked as an emergency exit. That was odd. An emergency exit has to be easy to use by definition. When you're running for your life you really don't want to have to call someone and have them open the door. I shrugged, moving on.
I came to a room that had a familiar feel. After a few years of security work, every security office feels the same. I walked over to the command desk, keying the system. No it didn't open the emergency exit.
I checked the logs.
"...This thing on? Oh. This is Security Chief Brenner to all hands. Listen up, and I do mean you Coorta! I am going to say this only once. If I have to say it again, the idiot I speak to will be on the next ship back to Telos with his contract shoved down his throat!
"The next time one of you Juma heads tries to smuggle a blaster or military grade explosive charges onto my base, I will throw you out an airlock and you can damn well float home. You knew they were forbidden when you came and it doesn't mean 'anyone but me'."
"He rubbed his face. A parent dealing with a bunch of six graders. "Why? Because you're supposed to be here mining Peragian fuel. You mine it by heating it until it's a gas, and then pipe it out. But at higher temperatures it is explosive. I thought all of you wastoids knew that! It was some idiot like you that blew the hell out of Peragus II fifteen years ago! That's why we're mining the asteroid fields instead. So get it though your thick skulls that it is our lives you're risking.
"So if I find anything more powerful than a sonic mining charge or mining laser in anyone's hands, lockers or on an invoice, I'll burn you and your contract. Security out."
So we were on Peragus II? No, he'd said asteroid mining. We were on a base.
Suddenly I remembered where I had heard the name before. I had seen an ad for the company that was mining there. It was back when I was still wandering a lot and looking for work. The pay was exorbitant, but the dangers matched it. For a six month contract you were paid enough to live for two or three years. A year contract was enough to relax for maybe 5. But it was dangerous. Under Republic law a mining company had to list statistics on injuries and deaths. There was a 20% chance that you wouldn't leave whole, and a ten percent chance you'd leave in a coffin. The average Insurance companies won't even allow you a policy if you work in Peragian fuel mining.
The company did carry it's own insurance; Safety regs required it. But if the death wasn't an accident, you get nothing. The policy was interesting reading. Nothing mining related that killed you was accepted except for falls; cave ins, getting crushed by a cargo droid when moving supplies and explosive decompression. Improperly set charges didn't count as accidental. Even then they capped at 5,000 credits. Enough to keep a family going for maybe a year.
Of course I was smart enough to read the fine print. Six month straight shifts, payment at the end of contract period. Fines could be levied by the company for infractions, and a serious one got the contract terminated with no remuneration. After six months looking at the same faces every day you had to let off steam, and there was nowhere to do it on the base. Miners tend to blow money like air out of a ruptured airlock when they finally hit civilization again and the owners ran several cantinas and brothels in the systems close to any mining facility. Every centii-cred you blew getting wasted to forget about Peragus would flow right back into their coffers.
I went through the accident reports. Only the last one caught my interest. "...According to a miner the series of sonic charges blew prematurely. He said he was sure a droid had set off the charges, just like the last time. Three men dead, two wounded. The dead were grouped together so close we'll need DNA tests to figure out who was who. The droid was reduced to scrap metal. We can't even find a piece of its memory core large enough to examine.
"I don't know what's going on here! Ever since that damned Jedi showed up it's gone from bad to worse! It's not the fights or Coorta and his gang. It's like... It's like since she arrived something is actively trying to kill us all. If I can't get to the bottom of this, we'll be floating space dust before the next freighter arrives."
I felt for him. I'd been in the same position when I took over as Head of Security on the ship. Everything that goes wrong is your fault, and you get little credit.
But I agreed with him. They weren't accidents. Somehow I knew it was sabotage. I saw a record for Droid Maintenance.
"I don't want to hear that you're working on the problem, I want answers!" Brenner roared.
"Sir, I have never seen anything like this before. It's like their behavioral core programming is undergoing binary decay, but that doesn't happen without an obvious cause, and I can't find one." The Maintenance man sounded young. Probably hired on because it was a chance to be his own boss.
"Oh, so I'm only imagining it all." Brenner's voice dripped with sarcasm. "So the next time some droid tries to link the ventilation system into the fuel lines I can sit back, close my eyes, and smell the flowers, right?
"I need answers, and I need them now! What will happen if they suddenly decide to mine the crew instead of fuel?"
"Sir their ethical programming will-"
"Don't tell me about ethical programming! Harso down on Level 2 said the damn droid seemed to be aiming the laser at him!"
The kid stayed calm. "Sir, these are mining droids, not combat models. The lasers can cut a man up but they won't blow holes in him like a weapon. They don't have the hardware or even the connections for targeting sensors, or enough memory to hold the software for it if they were installed. As they are they can't seriously hurt us unless they catch someone from ambush or gang up and surround them."
"Are you blind as well as stupid? Look at the people in Med bay! The droids have been sabotaging us ever since command told the miners that we weren't selling the Jedi to the Exchange-"
I paused it. Selling me to the Exchange? Of course the Company couldn't allow it. A Republic contract requires that the company obey the Republic's laws, and to sell someone even for a bounty implies slavery, which is illegal.
But why was I of all people worth an Exchange Bounty? Sure they were an organized crime syndicate, but why me? A few years ago they had a massive reshuffle of the power base. They had gutted themselves in a war of their own. Some say a boss on Taris named Davik Kang had started it, but the rumors were vague. They had almost disappeared from the scene. But now they were back and even nastier. I resumed the recording.
"-All right, you're new, but here's the drill. I want a full-scale check done of all programming done on those droids. Line by line if necessary. I want to know how they have been sabotaged and why. Someone is trying to reduce the odds so they can get the Jedi off the station. Find out who it is, and I'll have them in lock down ten minutes later.
"In the meantime I am ordering the security guards to load up on sonic and ion charges. If you had the equipment I'd see about having you run me off some sonic projectors as well. If they come after us we'll need more than mining lasers to disable them!"
I leaned back, looking to my right. The Security chief was laying there, with a surprised look on his face and a neat hole drilled into his head. Whatever they did, it had been too little too late. There was another file, and I keyed it up.
"Security log. Someone tried to lock me out of the administration system. I've had an emergency override switch installed on the console at the communications center in case it happens again. I tied it into the magnetic seal of the holding room door, and if the computer detects any active droids on this level, the holding cell seal will not operate.
"I keep coming back to Coorta and his gang, but none of them are good enough programmers to pull this off. But I am not taking any chances. Not sitting in the middle of this minefield of an asteroid belt. The added bonus is that when I put him in the cells he can't use the droids to rescue him."
So he had still been planning. The late Security Chief Brenner had been nothing if not persistent. I keyed the final entry.
"I have finally traced the computer access that has been sending out spurious messages. I am going to gather my-" An alarm went off. Then a voice cut in.
"Fuel detonation in the mining tunnels. Emergency lock down commencing. All personnel report to quarters and prepare for emergency venting procedures." The same damn ubiquitous computer I had heard in Med bay.
"Wait a damn minute!" He screamed. "I would have felt the explosion! Security officers, belay that last order! Meet me in the office, and gear up! Something is about to happen!"
I could hear him fumbling around, then a door opening. "Grab some-"
There was the blast of laser fire, then silence.
I stood up, and knelt beside him. "You deserved better, Chief Brenner. I'll take it from here."
I walked to the door, and suddenly...
Have you ever felt electricity dance on your skin. Not painful, just, disturbing? I felt that, but it wasn't on my skin it was in my head. Again I heard that ghostly whisper.
Take care... There is much energy beyond the door...yet nothing lives there...
"Kreia?"
She sounded surprised. You can hear me? Better... Reach out... Use not your pallid sight but that within that can see so much more...
I closed my eyes, and suddenly it was there. Three groupings of energy discharges. Constellations of power flickering as the various star-like symbols spoke to each other.
Ah so you can see them... Droids are not alive... but you can feel the energy flow from their systems... Motivators... optical sensors... temperature... everything a man might have but made of metal and only mimicking life...
I opened my eyes, keyed the door, and stepped through. The droids turned, their weapon arms coming up, and I ran, leaping up and over one, landing in the middle crouching, paused as they spun, weapons tracking, and when I felt the systems lock to fire, I leaped again.
Lasers fired, and one of them squealed as the other two sliced it open. I landed behind one of the undamaged ones, and the vibroblade sliced delicately, severing the power core. I bounced up, dodging a laser blast as if I knew it was there, my sword cutting down and the last one collapsed. I went to the damaged one, chopping into the power core, and it went silent.
I was staggering. Something was happening and I wasn't sure what. I knew what it felt like... But that was impossible!
Ah, you feel it...Faint... just a whisper...But it is there...
"I feel like I've come out of sedation." I had collapsed automatically into a meditation seat. "It can't be!"
But it is...It hasn't been so long that you would have forgotten...It is the Force...
"But it feels... different. Like it's far away." I struggled against it. Like a baby trying to stay within the mother. The world was pain and suffering and the Force was like that if you didn't know it.
Do not fight it...coax it...listen to it...Let it return to you...
I knew that if I let go it would enfold me again. That it would nurture me, surround me, be a part of me again. But then I would be something that should not exist. They had stripped me of my abilities a decade ago. I couldn't just pick it up as if it were a pair of pants I had left laying!
Come...You know the path...You walked it years ago...I will guide you in these first stumbling steps...You will need these abilities yet again if you are to survive the coming trials.
I opened my eyes, and it was like I had never seen before. The world had colors I had not seen in years. Textures that I had not touched since then. The smell in the air was automatically defined by my memory as traces of Peragian fuel, and while I didn't know what it was exactly, I knew that it was at a level that was irritating, but not dangerous.
It was like being born again.
I rose to my feet, and I knew without looking where the administration-communication center was. There were five droids there, but I could point to exactly where they were.
I opened the door, and reached out toward the droid that was close enough to be a danger. I shorted out it's memory core, and it collapsed. I wanted to scream in elation. I did it to the next, then the next. A droid tried to come up behind me and I did a graceful pirouette, my sword sheering into the carapace, shattering it.
Finally there were none left. I walked over to the holding cell. Why they had cells here instead of in the security office was simple. As I mentioned earlier, a base like this one started with the admin center and worked outward like an earthworm digging its way through the soil. The tunnel became corridors, and as it expanded, you added other necessary offices. Barracks, Security, Medical, what have you as crew also expanded. But you didn't bother to move things like holding cells. Too wasteful.
The field was up, and I looked around. On the far side of the room there was a series of panels. Probably monitoring stations and communications. I walked over to them. Two were down, but one was still active. No matter. The system was cross-linked so the Administration officer could read his mail from his wife, check the loading, check the fuel flow, and monitor unloading of supplies in the hanger bay. All from one location.
It was locked down, but I felt beneath the edge of the counter, and found the switch. I flipped it, and accessed the system.
First I checked for other droids. There were two up in the fuel transfer monitor tunnel. I ran up there, dispatched them and returned. I looked at the cells from the camera monitor. A young man was in one of them, sitting against the wall. Maybe he had some answers.
I deactivated the holding cell field, walking back to it.
Again that touch of thought...
Beyond this door, someone still lives...Be careful...His thoughts are difficult to read...
I must have hesitated, because the next thought was amused.
Fear not...He may prove useful to us...
Peragus
Atton Rand
There isn't anything as boring as being locked up. I don't care how bored you may think you are. Try being locked in an electromagnetic cell with nothing to do but watch the shimmering of the field.
I had stopped shouting for the security guards about five or six hours ago. It was irritating that they hadn't responded. But about the time I stopped, it became unnerving. I rubbed my arms as if were cold. Something had gone seriously wrong. I just knew it.
There was a hum, and the main security field went down freeing the door. It opened. I opened my mouth to shout at whoever it was. As big as Brenner was, I was willing to rip a strip off him.
But it wasn't a guard. It was this cute little thing about a meter six tall, with reddish blond hair pulled back in a bun, wide green eyes...
And not a lot on.
I suddenly wanted to thank the gods, the Force, hell anyone that made women that looked like that!
She looked at me, and suddenly she smiled. I knew she could almost read my thoughts, and I discovered that my mouth was still open. I shut it with a click.
When in doubt, attack. "Unless the miner's dress code has changed, you aren't working here."
"And how did you miss all the fun?" She asked. I caught a glint in her eyes. She had done this before. Oh I don't mean running around in little or nothing. I meant asking questions and expecting answers.
Maybe she was a guard, but hey, if Brenner had trotted her in first, I would have told them everything I knew about everything in the Universe. I would have...
Slow down Atton Ithought. If she's security, you are so screwed. If she's not, maybe we can get out of here.
"And what did you to do end up in there?"
"Long story. Short answer is I was carrying something I shouldn't have been. There's some weird regulations here, and I got caught in them."
She nodded. "And where is here?"
I looked at her. She didn't know where she was? "You mean this isn't on your list of tour spots? I'm shocked. This little slice of heaven is the Peragus mining facility. Suppliers of the only shipping grade fuel in this neck of the Galaxy. Peragian fuel isn't top quality mind. Too many impurities in the matrix. Plays havoc with a ship's engines, but it gets the job done, and keeps engine maintenance in work. Great stuff as long as you don't mind toxic crap in your atmospheres and having most of the miners get blown into bite sized chunks mining it."
She cocked her head. "I heard that on the Security Chief's log. That it is volatile at high temperatures."
"Yep. That's what caused the asteroid belt we're in right now. As long as someone isn't stupid, firing a blaster, or a proton torpedo or using main engines too close to a fuel bearing rock, it's perfectly safe. But they thought that way back before the Peragus mining disaster. That took out a chunk of Peragus II."
"Peragus II?"
"Hey how did you miss it? How many planets have you seen that look like a halo fruit someone had taken a bite out of? The damn fools were minting money with the fuel, and decided to put in a core tap. Someone didn't worry enough about safety, and when they did a core tap for a power generator, they cut right through a pocket of gas." I put out my hand as two fists. "Gas meet magma." I brought them together.
"The blast blew the entire facility, the town they had started around it, and a good chunk of the planet into space. Something like half a million dead in a second. The debris created this asteroid field, and since it's safer to mine frozen gas, they don't go down to the surface any more. Of course nothing lived down there afterward.
"That's why they don't allow blasters. One stray shot when some miner is flying on Juma juice could send us all to hell in a heartbeat."
"I will make a note of it." She slid that fine rump onto the desk, sitting across from me, watching me with that same damn smile. Maybe I needed to spend some time with women, not running around the galaxy like a neutron in a fission pile. "The facility appears deserted. Any idea what happened?"
"You mean before or after the Jedi showed up? Before is a short story, and after even shorter. I was with a crew delivering crystals for the mining laser. You do know that a mining laser uses ruby rods?" She nodded. "Well I was carrying the manifest down to admin when an alarm goes off. You know how it is; you hear an alarm, and if you know what it means, you do what you're supposed to do. If you don't, you stay where you are until someone tells you.
Next thing I know Chief Brenner and three of his bigger goons were there screaming at me. I'd had a bad day, and I lost it. I called him a few names, he called me a few. I punched him, and…" I motioned to the cell.
"Then I hear this Jedi shows up, and you know what that means. Where you have one Jedi, soon you have the entire weight of the Republic climbing up your ion engine exhaust. We kinda like not having them here to bug us on the Rim.
"But the story gets better. There was a bounty put on live Jedi out of Nar Shaddaa. She's unconscious and if they move fast, they can make a fortune. Some of the miners get it into those Ferro-Crete things they use as skulls that they can sell her off to the Exchange.
"Brenner maybe a lot of things, but greedy isn't one of them. His men refuse to let them make the call, and the Admin officer agreed. That put both sides at each other's throats. The Security officers are at the miners, the miners are beating guards. You can see what a happy mix she made just by existing.
"So I spend all of this time locked up in there. Then there's this big alarm, and nothing but silence. I'm sitting here, thinking about how I need a bit of diversion, and like the answer to a maiden's prayer, you show up."
The smile had disappeared during that spiel, but I hadn't noticed. The eyes were cool, almost cold. "A bounty on live Jedi." She repeated. "Out of Nar Shaddaa. Why?"
"I have no idea. All I know is the Exchange put out the word. More than you'll make here on a fifty year contract if they're alive. Nothing if they're dead. I don't know. Maybe some bigwig wants to get even with them. Maybe as rare as Jedi are, they want to start a zoo. Not many left."
"There were still over eight thousand just ten years ago! How could there not be many left?"
I shrugged. "Those that didn't bite it in the Jedi Civil War either threw away their lightsabers, or just turned them off and hid them. There hasn't been a Jedi Council for almost three years now."
"The Jedi Civil war." She said as if she had never heard the term. "I stopped keeping serious track after Malachor V."
"Boy have you been out of touch. Revan and her merry band of Maniacs charged off to save us. Then there was quiet, then suddenly they were back, this time attacking us. The Jedi were split. Some thought Revan had the right idea, others thought not. They fought it out, and we normal people got caught in the crossfire. Something like 90 percent of the Jedi died." I looked at her face. She was shocked. "Where the hell have you been?"
"I've been... out of touch."
I looked at her. "Wait a minute. You're the Jedi."
She looked at me, and the sad smile tugged at my heart. Cool your jets. She's a Jedi and they can be pure poison. Not to mention celibate!
"The last I had heard was Revan destroyed something called the Star Forge." She said.
"Yeah. After getting it running and giving the Sith thousands of ships and droids to fight for them."
"But she was redeemed." I could hear a slight note of pleading in her voice.
"Big deal. From what I've heard she and that war council of hers were bad news until they died. She was pretty quick at wiping out anyone that got on her bad side."
"War council."
"Yep the Bitch and her four hell hounds. Malak Vitoris Sanso and Devos. The four riders of doom."
"They died?"
"Well they're sure about three of them. Sanso was killed at Malachor V. Vitoris fought Malak and Revan according to records and was killed on Korriban. Malak tried to wax Revan but she survived and was supposed to have been instrumental in taking out Malak and the Star Forge. Not a lot known about that from all accounts. Still classified as secret even if it was years ago.
"Devos? No one knows for sure. She went missing after Malachor V." I shrugged. "Maybe she's the one running the Sith now. Better I never find out. A dark Jedi is bad enough, but those female ones are so nasty that it's better that you space yourself and save the pain for someone else. I think it's the celibacy rule. I know if I have a shot of Juma followed by hot monkey sex, cuddling and death sticks, I'm more likely to be calm." He look had grown cool again. "Uh, no offense meant."
"None taken." She looked even sadder now. "Just a few more questions if you don't mind-"
"Hey, it's not like being interrogated by a half naked woman isn't one of my favorite fantasies, but..." It suddenly struck me.
No one around. The Jedi running loose. "The miners can't all be gone!"
"All I have run into so far have been droids. And a dozen or so bodies."
"Then we're deep in the recycling run off and have to get out of here!" I stepped forward until I could feel the restriction field like electricity on my skin. "Let me out of here and I can help you. Really! I've gotten out of more trouble that you can imagine. You might say it's a specialty of mine."
"Tell me what your plan is and we can go from there."
"Fine. This is a mining colony, not a military facility. That means we have a chance. Shut down the field, and I can reroute the systems to give us access to the landing bay. From there it's a hop skip and jump to the hanger, and we can jump on the first ship we come to, and beat it out of here faster than you can say Ithorian Neck Brace."
She looked at me. Then she stood up. "I'll have to trust you. If we can work together, we can get out of here."
"Great."
"Since we'll be working together, how about a name?"
"Oh, sorry. Rand, Atton Rand. And you?"
She shut off the security field, and took my outstretched hand. "Marai." Her grin grew feral. "Marai Devos."
Peragus
Marai
I wished I had a holovid system right then. The look on his face when I gave my name was priceless.
"Uh, now we had better... You know...Get to the command console."
"Right." I walked to the door then looked back. He was staring and not at my face. "Down boy." I purred. "We have work to do."
"Oh...Right." He walked up until he was beside me, and we went to the com console. He slid into the chair as if he had been using it all day. "The system is set for automatic hail. You probably heard it on the way in. No one in his right mind tries to approach without notifying us. They need the drift charts."
"The what?"
"Asteroid drift charts." He waved toward the clearsteel panels. In the distance I could see hundreds, thousands of drifting asteroids. "It hasn't been long enough for the asteroids to form a ring. Everything is in constant motion, and the main sensor array is designed to spot, analyze the drift, and report it constantly. Anything larger than a human body is too dangerous to approach if it's got a pocket of gas. If you use maneuvering thrusters coming in, you might heat one up and set it off.
"Plus there are some pretty big puppies out there. Ones that would plow right through a Frigate and out the other side without slowing down. So any ship approaching hears the hail. They send an acknowledgment and the system automatically updates the drift chart so they can maneuver." He bent over the console.
"Thing is, the system is too user friendly. If you bounce a signal off an asteroid right, it comes back as a ship approaching, and it sends... All right, I'm in. Now all we have to do is cancel the emergency lock down, unlock the turbo lift and... Crap."
I censored my first thought at his expletive. "What's wrong?"
This system is severed from the main hub access. It wasn't part of the accident either. Once it was set for remote access, someone cut it off with a laser."
"Sabotage."
"That's my guess. Cutting access without blowing the console, that is definitely enemy action." He hadn't noticed that he'd fallen into military parlance.
"Is there anything we can do from here?"
"What? All we have in communications."
"Can we contact the miners? They headed for the dormitory." I pointed out.
"Let me see, we have what fifty to a hundred miners over there that think of you as their ticket to the good life. What is wrong with this picture?" He shook his head. "I don't think polite conversation is going to do the job."
I nodded. "Maybe there is someone else running around alive."
He slid back, waving at the console be my guest. "If you can find anyone who doesn't want to kill us, who can help, let me know."
I took the seat. I contacted the dorm first, but there was silence from there. The system said we were connected. I tapped another, and checked the hanger bay. "This is the com center. Do you hear me?"
There was a sound. A whirring with whistling and clicks. After ten years of hearing it I knew that noise, and what it meant.
"Identify yourself." I ordered. There was a long series of sounds. "All right T3. Do a full diagnostic and report."
"You understand that?"
"A misspent youth." I commented. Droid speak is just like any language. You just have to learn how to pay attention.
The answer came back. "Fine. Here's the situation. We're stuck on the administration level. All turbo lifts are locked down from somewhere else, and access has been cut here. Can you unlock them?" A long series of whistling and click with even a foghorn grunt in there. "All right then. Can you find us another way off the admin deck?"
The series was longer, convoluted, and for a droid almost obscene. I sighed. "T3, if you don't do this, we will be trapped." There was a resigned whistle.
"All right. Feed back all information to this console so we can keep track of your progress." Another weary whistle.
We watched. The little droid went into the hanger control center. System damaged. It needed parts to repair the console, and it didn't have them. It went down into the mine and fuel center itself. There were droids trying to stop it, but it was a heroic little thing. It got the part and loaded up on combat hardware as it did. By the time it chugged it's way back up the ramp it was the meanest little toaster on the planet.
Fix the console. Still no joy. The system had been rerouted to a fuel processing center console, and every physical connection severed. It went to the access door to the fuel processing center, fighting its way through everything. Damn, I was going to buy this little guy an oil bath! And I would polish his metal butt personally!
It reached the console, entered the code. I saw the emergency tunnel access to the mine flash open. Then suddenly, nothing.
At the same time up until that last point Atton had to talk. "So, how long have you been a Jedi? Must be tough. No family or..."
"I was a foundling. Some woman with more hormones than sense had me and dumped me at a med center in Cornet on Corellia. I spent three years in an orphanage before the Jedi found me." I turned, and something in my gaze told him to shut up. "Any more questions?"
"Uh, no-"
The console bleeped, and I read the actions of our brave little assistant.
"T3." I called. No response.
"Hey, the little cargo container came through." Atton was glad for another subject of conversation. "If he got the turbo lifts cleared.-"
"He didn't." I looked up at him. He had been babbling and obviously not paying attention. "The turbo lifts were locked down manually. All he could do was unlock the emergency access tunnel to the mining tunnels."
"Wait!" He waved his hands as if the world would stop and let him talk. "When I heard that explosion it must have been down there. There's nothing but superheated rock and steam left down there!"
"Probably." I stood up.
"And collapsed tunnels! Only an idiot would go down there right..." He saw the look on my face and shut up.
"Atton, unless you want to sit here and wait until we find out what our saboteur wants, someone has to go through that tunnel to another area of the base. Idiot or not, I guess I am it."
"You're out of your tiny little mind! Either you're crazy or stupid or-or both!"
"And what else is new for one of the 'riders of doom'?" I asked.
His mouth snapped shut, and somewhere in that pile of jelly a spine emerged. "Then I'll just have to make sure you live long enough to finish this damn argument!" He sat at the console, keyed some information in, and a com link dropped from a slot. "I'll monitor your progress from up here. Be careful. As far as I can tell the only thing moving down there are droids. The com link will let me access any systems you happen to pass, and I can use them to track any dangers ahead. If it gets too bad, run back here."
He looked at me, and suddenly blushed. "Not that I care what happens to you, but if you die down there I have to take that same walk."
"Yeah, I can see your butt spreading across the chair." I chided. I touched his shoulder, and gripped it firmly. "See you soon."
I ran back down the hall toward med bay. I reached the tunnel then something niggled at my mind. I ran on, back to med bay. Kreia was in a meditation seat, and I didn't bother her. I went to the medical computer. When it came up to treatment, I was able to trace the order for the lethal drugs to console 34-103. It wasn't on the admin deck. But if I used that console, I'd know it immediately.
Then I ran back to the emergency access, and rode the lift down. I stepped out in the mine entrance. There was a burr of static.
"Can you read me?" Atton's voice sounded like he was halfway across the galaxy.
"Barely. There's a lot of static down here."
"There's a lot of interference up here too. Probably caused by the explosion. Peragian fuel tends to leave microwave residue. Give me a moment. All right, reading from scanners. There looks like there is a clear route to the fuel depot if the tunnel in between hasn't collapsed. A lot of the sensors are down.
"At the entry into the mine itself there should be an emergency equipment crate. Mainly it's so that miners can get tools and things they should have brought down but forgot. That is ten meters ahead through the next door. Watch yourself. I am getting a lot of droid ID signatures down there. I'm going to check the main tunnel maps."
"Do that. I'll be careful down here. If anything approaches, let me know." I opened the door, and it was right where he had said. I opened the crate and went through the contents. I found a miner's uniform and suddenly wondered who forgets his clothes on the way to work?
The seat and chest were too tight and the rest hung on mde like a demented stylist had made it. But it was warm and Atton wouldn't be looking at me like that again...
Let me get this straight before we go any further. I was celibate for over 20 years. When I was exiled I... slipped. Humans seem to spend a lot of time thinking about sex, having sex, and having all sorts of angst about sex. One reason they are leery around Jedi was the fact that we didn't think about it or talk about it or-
-erase and correct. We did think and talk about it. Some of our late night bull sessions once we noticed the... differences in our fellow apprentices were down and dirty, even when it was all girls... Especially when it was all girls.
Besides, until we became apprentices, we slept in rooms with a dozen or more without noting the differences in sex beyond the obvious, what is that thing?
As apprentices, we stayed in barracks until obvious signs of puberty set in, and even then if we didn't experiment, we stayed in those rooms together until we became Padawan.
But part of our training was that focusing on one person means you lose focus on whatever your lessons, and later the mission you are on, or distracts you in other ways. A lot of the elders and Masters seem to think that sex would drag us all into the dark side of the Force like a tractor beam.
Well once I was no longer among the Jedi, I tried it. It was fun, a lot of fun sometimes, and an interesting way to pass an afternoon or evening. But beyond that so what? It's not like I had ever expected to exercise the option to have children. Can you honestly see a Jedi charging into a confrontation with a sleeping baby snug in its carrier on her hip?
The Mando'a had a better way to my mind. Once puberty rears it's ugly head, you take your training class (girls were as much warriors as the men so they trained right alongside the boys) and lock them in a large room with a lot of food and drink and soft cushions, and leave them alone until they decide they've had enough.
And I found from my own observations of my fellow students that it isn't the physical act that bothers the Masters. It is the emotions that can go with it. Possessiveness, lust, jealousy. If they could have guaranteed that none of us would ever feel such things, we could have had all the 'fun' we wanted. Since some may have such problems, it had been decreed millennia ago that none of us have the fun.
But as I said, why bother? I have met far too many of either sex that thought a drink they had bought for me was a lifetime commitment. What do you think they'd feel about actual have to clean up before you leave sex? I finally slipped back into celibacy not because I thought it was better, but merely to avoid the emotional entanglements.
But some men could start my sexual motor running just by existing.
Maybe this scoundrel Atton Rand was one of them? None of your business!
"All right, I have the entire tunnel system up. Did you find the supplies?"
"Yes. Someone might have forgotten their uniform. I found one here."
"Damn!" I smiled. As much as he had complained about my 'half naked interrogation', had he liked the view that much? "Uh, I mean good! Good to hear it. Don't want you running around half naked. It's distracting...I mean, the droids might..."
"Take a deep breath, calm down. If we had the time I'd suggest a nice long, ice cold shower." I replied levelly.
"There should be a survey sensor there, and a safety harness. The miners wear them when they're looking for new pockets of gas so they can stake a claim."
I looked at the headset, sliding it on. On the small screen before my right eye I could see a series of markers. Some of them were red and pulsed. The harness went over the outside, and I tightened the straps. There were plates of some kind of armor.
"Got them."
"The sensor detects not only pockets of gas, but also other miner claims, usually in green. Sonic charges register as red. The harness has combined Achneoic-ablative plate armor that softens the impact of a sonic charge, and limits thermal damage due to heated rock or gas, but if you're too close, it will still hurt or kill you It will also limit penetration if you run into a battalion of droids."
"Good. Anything else?"
"Remember when I said 'Battalion' of Droids? From the readings I am getting, it looks like there are that many down there with you. The good thing is their sensors register heat primarily. There is enough heated dust in the air that maybe you can sneak by them."
"And if I can't?"
"Get in close. These things aren't combat models, so they don't have the hardwired targeting systems. They can shoot you, but it's like being shot at by a moisture farmer militia on their monthly practice rotation.
"But there has got to be a central control system down there. I think... Yes!" He gave me directions.
"Understood. Watch my back."
"Will do"
