"I knew it," Lex folded her arms across her chest.
Finding her mechanical Frankenstein coolly leaning over the data extraction console he'd made into an impromptu card table, as he gambled a heated match of Sabacc against the data computer.
She sighed.
Why are droids always so inconveniently predictable?
"23!" the system computer's voice boomed throughout the room, revealing a winning hand on the table. A crushing suit consisting of The Evil One, The Star, andan odd number of Staves, Sabers, and Coins.
In response to that move, Q2 slammed his metallic fist down on the cards in front of him, "By Bane's blade, you hot-wired scum, you're cheating me!"
"I don't need to, sir," the computer answered in a crisp, gentlemanly voice. "I have rightfully won the hand, based on the predetermined values that were locked into the table before the game. I have computed all possibilities. This is the 107th winning hand out of 1013 possible outcomes."
"Since when does 3 Staves get you an 8?" Q2 challenged. "What kind of idiot do you take me for?"
"Can you not compute?"
"I can compute just fine, you block of sheet metal."
"Correction. I happen to be firmly constructed with a titanium based core," the computer informed him. "Pay up, droid-bolts. The game is finished."
"Here's me paying up," Q2 replied, activating the blaster pistol compartment in his wrist. "This will teach you, you karking crinking junk pile. Deal me again!"
"Glad to see you're so relieved I'm not dead, Q2," Lex remarked to the Zekan cyborg, finally making her presence known.
"Ah, mi'lady," Q2 greeted, waving for her to join them. "You want in on this hand?"
"Deal me in. But I'm shuffling," she snatched the cards from his mechanical hands. "You always cheat."
And feeling petty, Lex bumped him aside to take his spot at the table, dealing him a fresh new round.
"How could you not tell me about the Jedi?" she got to the point.
"You had it under control," he reminded her.
"He's been stalking outside your door."
"And how did your plan of 'making friends' with him turn out?" Q2 asked.
"These visions are getting worse," she said. "And always when Kenobi is around...They've never been this violent."
"What do you mean, mi'lady?" Q2 looked up in deeper concerned. "If he harmed you in any way, I'll march right out there to Kenobi and-"
"Q2, hush."
Lex paused in deep contemplation, the split deck of cards in her hands frozen as the unsolved meaning behind her vision haunted her.
Was Kenobi dangerous enough to hurt her in visions?
Or was this vision a warning that he eventually could, if she didn't jump ship and put a whole galaxy between them, just as Q2 had begged her to do?
But visions could be as vague as they were false prophecies.
She didn't have enough pieces to the scud pie yet.
And without more conclusive intel on what she was to do about these Jedi, there was no telling what the vision in the corridor meant yet, and no reason to send Q2 rampaging after Kenobi prematurely.
"What's your wager, Q2?" she changed the subject lightly. "And you better make it good this time. I kick ass at Sabacc."
"I am not equipped with an ass to kick, Lex Halo. However, my last master was a gambler, and he had a risk analysis appendage wired into me for such occasions as these," Q2 warned her, expertly dealing out the remaining cards at machine speed. "But I'll go easy on you, since you are by far my favorite human in the galaxy."
"More gambling, less flattery, Q2."
He played first.
"So," Q2 began. "Fantasizing about your irresistible Jedi was the only reason behind gracing us lowly droids with your presence tonight?"
Lex shot him a look.
"I was actually hoping you'd have something more useful to tell me about him," she told him. "It is your job, after all."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi. Human. Male. 38 standard years old. Originated from the planet Stewjon. Force-sensitive. Jedi Defender of the Galactic Republic. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Weight, one hundred and-"
"Yes, Q2, I've seen his medical file," she stopped him before he could ramble on further. "I'm more interested in his allegiances. Like for instance, why he seems so intimately connected to Senator Amidala? And what we can gain from making them both our allies? And why...why he always looks at me like..."
"That information wouldn't be uploaded to the data archive."
"Of course it wouldn't be. But...you're an espionage droid. Haven't you been espionaging around lately?"
"I've been busy," he defended himself. "Since the influx of refugees on the base, I've been down here categorizing all the new data, and getting no thank you for it. I haven't had time for the act of espionaging."
"Well, I'm glad to see you taking your duties around here seriously, Q2, but remember, you work for me."
"Anakin Skywalker is the father of Senator Amidala's children," Q2 reported the intel he actually had learned. "The name was of particular interest to the Jedi Masters. According to my 3 year long study of human emotion, they showed both anxiety and grief for Skywalker."
"It was my understanding that the Jedi were incapable of such a thing," she said.
"Actually, it is quite possible," Q2 informed her. "Biologically speaking, the reproductive functionality of the male human anatomy permits the conception of his offspring by the mating act of-"
"What I mean, Q2," Lex cut him off, before he could go down that Greeper hole. "is that Jedi have never made upstanding parents...In fact, I was under the impression that it was against their Jedi code to form such attachments."
"Correct," Q2 responded. "However, based on the evidence, it has happened otherwise, without the blessing of the Jedi High Council."
And then a subtle smirk broke across Lex's face.
"What a surprise," she remarked quietly. "And this Anakin, he was someone close to Kenobi?"
"His former apprentice," Q2 nodded, claiming another winning hand against her cards.
But Lex wasn't paying attention to the game anymore.
Her thoughts were on Padmé again, slowly piecing her story together.
"Amidala is dying and this apprentice is nowhere to be found. Typical, coming from a Jedi. Always duty before love...No wonder the galaxy hates these gutterguppies."
"Perhaps he was executed with the rest of the Jedi by order of the newly appointed Emperor?"
"If that were the case," Lex mused, thinking back on her vision. "Then why does Kenobi seem so conflicted about Skywalker?"
"Skywalker isn't our problem," Q2 reminded her. "It's Kenobi. He came here asking questions."
"Of course, he did. He's a Jedi," she said. "But that's what I have a droid security detail for, right?"
"He's requested access to your data file, mi'lady."
Lex paused, slowly lifting her eyes from her Sabacc cards until they met Q2's. "And did you give it to him?"
"What kind of security droid do you take me for?" Q2 replied. "I told him I had no authorization to access employee data files on the ship, and that I was only a communications droid."
"Did he buy it?"
"Unlikely," Q2 answered. "These Jedi have an instinct that we droids will never compute. They know without knowing. It is likely that the Force is driving Jedi Kenobi to question your identity and your reason for being on Polis Massa. Twice he mentioned that it was odd you reminded him so much of..."
"Yes?"
"Never mind. It was a misunderstanding, and I told him so."
"I decide what is and isn't a misunderstanding, and you follow orders accordingly," Lex noted. "Reminded him so much of who?"
"His master," Q2 admitted.
"Clearly a misunderstanding."
"He wondered if it were possible that-"
"Absolutely not."
"Well good, because as I said before, I informed him so."
"All the more reason why I need you to keep this Jedi off my trail. Give him something, anything that would keep him busy until I find a way to save the senator."
"Why are you so determined to save Amidala, when our obvious plan of action should be to leave Polis Massa immediately?" Q2 asked.
"It's nothing," Lex dismissed him, turning her attention back to the game. "Your play, Q2."
"You're intentionally putting yourself at risk with these Jedi for nothing?" Q2 challenged her. "That sort of thinking is wildly out of your favor, mi'lady."
"You remember that thing I said about me making the decisions and you following orders?"
"A droid never forgets."
"Then all you need to know is that I can't abandon the senator," she said. "It would be unethical to leave a patient like this."
Q2 studied her intently before quietly playing his move.
"Whatever distant memory this senator evokes in you, saving Amidala will not change the past. You can not save everyone you meet in this galaxy, and you must prepare yourself for the likely possibility you won't save her," he said. "Prolonging this any further will only compromise your own safety. You have exhausted every alternative within your scientific discipline, and none have been successful."
"No, we haven't tried everything yet" Lex said, looking up at him from her cards. "Which brings me to the reason I'm here. I need to ask you a favor, Q2."
"You never need to ask," he said. "I am yours to command."
"But in this case, it's more courteous to ask than to demand you carry out this mission," Lex replied.
"I will engage in any mission you request, courteous or not," he said. "Even if the odds of me liking it are slim."
"I need you to return to Jeotis."
"I knew I wouldn't like this."
"Find Neb, and deliver a message to her on my behalf," Lex instructed him. "She'll know what to do with it."
"You want me to transmit a message to your slave, Nebula Starcreth, on our home world, which happens to be in the middle of a Zekan occupation?"
"I need you to transmit a list, actually. The ingredients I need to process a Neptune's Kiss Comatose potion. Most of the ingredients I can find here, but the life-sustaining chemical, Eclium, can only be extracted from a volcanic flower that grows on Jeotis," Lex told him. "It induces a coma, which may sustain the senator's life, and buy us time to reverse the adverse effects of her condition. By that time, maybe she will find her courage to live again."
"You want to bring Sith medicine onto a base crawling with Jedi and administer it to the senator with the last remaining Jedi Masters looking over your shoulder?" Q2 clarified. "Would this be what humans call a suicide mission?"
"It's not 'Sith' medicine. It's common coven craft," Lex defended. "Just something these 'light side' Jedi haven't bothered to try yet."
"Mi'lady, I'll have you know that protecting you would be easier if you would just stop compromising your own safety. If Kenobi suspects that you have any affiliation with the Nightsisters, he will kill you," Q2 informed her. "And if your hologram is intercepted by the Empire, or the Zekan prince, not even I will be able to defend you. Your position will be compromised, and your enemies will come looking for you."
"Then don't let it happen, Q2," Lex replied. "I'm counting on you to get this right. You've been a faithful droid to me, and it has been an honor having you at my side this far. But if this is to be the last order between us, know that I want it no other way."
Reluctantly, Q2 folded.
"Affirmative," he said, bowing his mechanical, boxed head in submission. "As you wish, mi'lady."