HK-47 greeted Kregg when he got to the cockpit.
"Greeting: Ah, you have returned, meatbag." The droid gestured over to the pilot's chair with stilted arms. "I believe you will find your seat just the way you left it. Addendum: Although, I fear that this planet's hostile clime has sapped it of its prior warmth."
"Fine enough." Kregg forced a smile. He eased himself into the chair and listened as the padding creaked. HK's rotors whirred as the droid loomed otherwise silent behind him. Kregg tuned it out as best he could and tried to focus on the more pleasant tones of Xira's voice off to his side. She was sitting next to Bestia, who Cinder decided to leave behind.
What a merry band of misfits we are, Kregg thought. Another smile waxed across his face. Death in a shroud of rust, a crippled Sith Lord, a warmaiden starved half-to-death, and an old man, all stuck in a ship that spits ash at every step on a frozen hellscape in the middle of nowhere.
"Lady Cinder might not like you wearing her robes," Bestia said. She cradled her chin with her hand, digging a couple fingers into her black lips. She was kicking her legs, too. They cut through the air in smooth motions. Must be all better.
Xira chuckled. "Well, she can take it up with me when she gets back." She eased herself up and waltzed behind Bestia's chair. "If she comes back."
"I've been given no reason to doubt her." Bestia bristled and sat upright. She wanted to dig her boots into the ground, Kregg could tell, but her legs were just a hair too short. "I resent being stuck here."
"Maybe she thought you would enjoy the company?" Xira smiled and glanced over at Kregg. He shook his head.
"Xira," he said.
"What am I," Bestia said, rolling her eyes, "some babysitter?" She spun her chair around to face Xira. "You look better than I expected."
"The lovely sauna your master has aboard this vessel works wonders," Xira said. Kregg could not help but snort at that.
Bestia stood up. Her knees still wobbled, but otherwise she moved as if she'd never been hurt. "There is a plan for you, you know." She slipped a hand onto the pommel of her lightsaber. "But plans have changed before."
"Not the first time I've been threatened by the likes of you," Xira said. "What of it?"
Bestia blinked and her face crept with vines of red. Kregg couldn't tell if she was wounded or fascinated. She doesn't seem like the type to have her threats rebuffed. "It's not for your ears yet," Bestia said before slinking back into her chair.
"'Yet', she says." Xira grinned and bore her teeth. "What'll it take for you to tell me?"
Kregg closed his eyes. For a time, he listened as the women continued to bicker. No matter the words, he knew it wouldn't come to blows. At least, not yet.
He and Xira still had a plan to follow, lest they never get off this rock. They had discussed it at length Cinder's chambers, before they had been so rudely interrupted. Words were exchanged again in the engine room, before and after their arrival on Rhen Var. Kregg had pulled her aside a final time just before they made their way back to the cockpit. He waved at the dour death's head visage of HK-47 down the hall when he grabbed Xira by the wrist and brought her into the medbay.
"Hey," she yelped. "Only I can do that to you. What gives?"
"Sorry," Kregg muttered, letting go of her wrist. The white skin flashed with red for a second before turning back to its pallid hue. "Run it through one more time. There can't be any kark-ups here. Not with that thing."
Xira brushed a hand through her hair. "Marcus, you worry too much." She started for the door. When he tried to grab her again, she swatted his hand away as if it were a botfly. Still, she stopped all the same. "Fine." She huffed and placed her hands on her hips. "I'll size up our crippled green friend and do her in when her guard's down. You distract the droid for a time, then we can both take him together. If need be, I'll hold him off 'til you get the ship in the air." She rolled her eyes. "There. Happy?"
"Well enough." Kregg shrugged. "You're too confident about it. 'Specially without your knives."
Kregg could tell losing them wounded her. "Without confidence, I have nothing left. Failure's not an option for me."
"Aye, that's what you said last time. Then you came to find out you couldn't exactly smother yourself with silken pillows and airy linens."
"We'll be fine. What is it with this droid that's making you stuff your tail between your legs, anyhow?"
"I don't know," Kregg said. Ever since he first laid eyes on HK-47 in The Fat Minister's palace, he had never felt more ill at ease. "No one keeps something that old unless it's got a fekkin' remarkable use. I don't think he's some bucket o' bolts we can push over and call it a day."
"You worry too much." Xira eased forward and laid a finger against his lips. "It's consumed by rust from head to toe. It constantly whines and grinds its gears while not even doing anything." She backed away and punched the air. "One well placed swipe and the whole ramshackle tower will come tumbling down."
Kregg remained unmoved. "Fine. We'll do it your way."
His eyes fluttered open when the droid moved past him on stilted steps. HK-47 paid him no mind, but Kregg took the opportunity to study him again as he walked past. He had his rifle in hand, some ancient battered thing that still bore the weathered insignia of Aratech Arms on its butt, defunct for nigh two millennia. All of him was rusty red where the paint hadn't been weathered down to the bare metal underneath. That, too, ran with spots of orange rust and the greenish tinge of verdigris. Each of his joints were swivels on hinges. They could surely be severed by a well-placed blaster bolt, Kregg supposed. The back of HK-47's head was a large bulb, where the cognitive processors and memory cores had to be stored. It had to be an armored carapace but if it wasn't, one hole would be all Kregg would need.
HK-47 stopped in front of Kregg with a rigid clang. He never turned around. Instead, he kept his gaze outside the ship's viewport. He leveled his rifle at his chest. Kregg tried looking past him, but the chair was too low to get a visual from his position and HK-47 blocked all else.
The rest of the cockpit went quiet. Xira was mid-sentence, delivering some jape about Sith that managed to put a smile on Bestia's face before the latter raised a hand for silence. The fingers on that hand twitched, and the girl's eyes turned to even fatter amethysts.
"Something's coming," Bestia said, almost throwing herself out of the chair. She nearly stumbled over herself to get a look out the viewport, catching herself with her hands on the dashboard. "HK, what do you see?"
HK-47's head was moving in slow swivels. These were much more deliberate than the ones he did when he was stationary, Kregg noticed. Those were more akin to trying to remove a crick from one's neck. Now, the droid was searching. "Answer: There is a life-form moving through that cave directly before us. Fleshy, organic, with a probability of ninety-nine to one of being hostile." The swiveling stopped and he focused. HK-47 raised the scope on his rifle and brought it up to a red eye. "Confirmation: Black dot up ahead. Performing target analysis; will notify upon completion."
Kregg stood and looked over the droid's shoulder. Sure enough, there was something up ahead, coming out of the cave. It shuffled forward on two legs, a long cape billowing in the wind behind it like a wayward rag. If it had arms, they were clutched to its side to stave off the cold. A cowl was drawn over its head.
"That's a man alright," Kregg said. He turned to Bestia. "Do you know him?"
A twitch shot through her arm as she crept the other down to grab her lightsaber. "I know this one well enough," she said. Each word seeped with bile and scorn. "How did this one pass?"
Kregg looked over at Xira. She gave him a coy look in return, but kept her mouth shut.
"HK," Bestia said. She turned herself around and started forward. Her feet were still crooked inward and flat against the floor. She moved on them as if she were wearing heels to avoid falling over. "What weapons does this ship have?"
If the droid could emote, he would have been beaming. "Answer: Oh, meatbag, I thought you would never ask. This vessel comes equipped with eight hull-mounted pulse laser cannons, custom built by Uba Arms; a homing missile launcher of a custom design, built and installed by Paulo Ghintee of Ord Mantell; a rapid-fire turbolaser battery also installed and built by Paulo Ghintee of Ord Mantell; a one-of-a-kind seeker drone battery installed-"
"That'll do," Bestia said. The droid got a few more words in, each one more dour and deadpan than the last, before it realized she was no longer listening. Bestia brought her saber into her hand and headed for the door. She turned around in the doorway and all she said was, "If I don't come back." She pointed at HK before turning around and heading down the hall.
Kregg watched her as she left. Her movements were stilted, her footfalls clumsy. How the hell does she plan to fight like that? It was no matter; with just the droid there with them, it made the plan that much easier.
He turned his gaze back to the cockpit as he heard the cargo ramp lower. The man was getting closer now. He was a shapeless thing still, clad head to toe in black, but the finer details were visible now. Plates of dark metal armor covered him from his neck down. If the wind wasn't so loud, Kregg was sure he could have heard all the rattling. His cape was fastened with rondels made of shards of bone, though these were so obviously makeshift and done in haste they made Kregg cringe. He wondered what had been there before.
A gentle smack sent snow flying forward in great white gouts as the cargo ramp hit the surface of the crag below. The man stopped and raised a hand to the black hole of his hooded face to shield himself. His armor ate the snow happily. Bestia stepped down the ramp slowly, as if to mask her awkward gait. She had donned a cloak, but left the hood down. How long will it take for her to freeze?
"Is there a way we can hear down there?" Xira asked HK-47.
"Answer: Not unless they scream loud enough," he said. He was peering through the scope of his rifle. Kregg could only wonder at which of the two Sith he was aiming.
The man drew down his hood. To call him homely would have been much too charitable. His face was scrawny, weathered, and fleshless, though he somehow was possessed of a set of floppy jowls that would have made half the frogdog breeders in the galaxy jealous. His brows were steep black crags, each one limned over with hoarfrost and ice. His chin recessed so far that it might very well jut back out the other side. It bore not even the lightest dusting of fuzz. Kregg wondered if this one was even a man grown.
He grinned in an ugly way when he spoke, and bandied his arms like a mummer as he and Bestia exchanged words. With another flashy wave of his hand, a bare-metal lightsaber shot up into his palm. Its crimson blade sprouted forth and he readied the hilt in both hands.
Bestia stepped forward into the snow and readied her own blade. She shifted it backwards in her hand, the way an assassin would hold a knife. Its blade was short and stubby, just like the hilt. There was the sound of shifting metal and stone as the cargo ramp began to rise once again. Then, the Sith were on each other like rabid dogs.
Kregg slipped back into the pilot's chair as the show played outside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw HK-47 was peering down at him now.
"Shouldn't you be watching them fight?" Kregg asked. The droid had a murderous streak, that much was obvious. Why would he ever want to take his eyes off a fight?
"Answer: I must let the organics have their fun." The droid held his rifle upright and feigned looking inside the barrel, as if he were cleaning it. "Commentary: If I wanted to make an end of things now, I easily could. But where's the fun in that?" He stepped away from the viewport and towards the doorway. "Remark: Besides, I have two meatbags of my own to deal with."
No, no, no. "We're harmless," Kregg said. He could already feel the sweat dripping down his forehead.
There was the slightest hint of a chuckle from the droid. Or was there? Droid's don't laugh. "Mockery: Yes, you are."
HK-47 tossed his rifle down the hallway behind him and sealed the door shut. Before he could get to Kregg, Xira pounced on him.
Kregg stumbled out of the chair and crawled to the other side of the cockpit. He fumbled with the holster on his thigh as he tried to get his gun. Xira yelped as HK-47 smacked her with the whole of his forearm, sending her reeling into the wall. He stepped towards Kregg and hoisted him up just underneath the armpits.
"Interrogation," HK-47 started as he throttled Kregg in his arms. He strolled forward and thrust Kregg against the wall before shifting a cold metal hand onto the smuggler's throat. "I will give you one chance and one chance only to answer me truthfully."
Kregg groaned as the metal fingers began to close around his windpipe. He shook his head up and down raggedly.
"Query: Did you plan to desert the master in her own ship?"
Kregg nodded.
"Jape: Words, not waggles."
"Yes," Kregg gasped. The droid eased his grasp just slightly. The breathing came a little easier, but the pressure remained.
"Query: Did you intend to kill my master's second-in-command, as well as myself?"
"Yes."
"Query: Where did you plan to go once you had escaped?"
The grasp tightened, like pincers around Kregg's neck. Everything was starting to go purple, grey, and black. His thoughts went slow and vapid, and his brain felt like it was turning to liquid mush. "Nar.. Nar..."
"Nagi," said Xira. She thrust a clawed hand around HK-47's own neck and swiveled his head around. He dropped Kregg at once and started grappling with her.
Kregg clutched at his throat and let out short, ragged breaths. He was breathing heavy when he drew his gun and loosed a shot. He missed HK-47 by half a standard meter, and the bolt bounced up and down between the ceiling and the floor before dissipating into a scorch mark.
Fek it. Kregg bolted to his feet and bounded towards HK-47. The droid was batting off Xira with one arm. He stuck out the other and snatched Kregg's head in his hand. He felt the fingers tighten. He winced in pain. Any tighter and this thing will crush my fekkin' skull. He thought delirium was setting in when he heard a stupid, ugly chortle.
The monkey-lizard pounced down from the ceiling tile grazed by Kregg's blaster. Snikkit landed on HK-47's head and smacked his meaty little fists into the rusted metal. The droid did not flinch. Snikkit made his way down the arm holding Kregg and started to bite, nibbling through metal with his beak.
The pressure dissipated as Kregg slumped to the floor. He rubbed at his head; his fingers came away with small smudges of blood. I told you so, honey. He crawled backwards until he could rest his head against the wall.
I'm being outdone by a fekking monkey-lizard, he thought as he watched the fighting. By my own first-mate. Xira was dodging each of HK-47's blows and trying to knock him off balance. The joints are evidently better constructed than I thought. He watched her land a kick on one and, instead of the droid crumpling over, it was Xira. Before HK-47 could raise that same foot to smash her head, Snikkit jumped onto the droid's and started clawing at his eyes. HK-47 went stumbling backwards and smashed into the pilot's chair before he used two fingers to pick up Snikkit by a pinch of flab on his back and flung him into a wall. He laughed hoarsely as he slid down to the floor and slumped over.
HK-47 tried to get himself back up, but his heels drew sparks against the floor instead. Xira rose up and pushed him from his resting place against the chair down onto the floor. She sat down on his chest and wrapped her hands around his segmented throat, trying to rip his head from his shoulders.
"Snark: I believe," HK-47 said. His vocabulator was damaged. Each word came out accompanied by clouds of static. "I believe you will find no connection to sever there." He tried to grab her but Xira easily swatted his arms away. "Commentary: Revan was quite the engineer."
"Exquisite indeed," Xira muttered. She scooted back a bit and tried to peel open the droid's chest plate.
"Quip: You will find it does not open there, either."
"Then where?" The skin around Xira's right eye where the droid had hit her was turning as black as her facepaint.
"Snark: Find it yourself."
Kregg got to his feet with his gun in hand. He staggered over to HK-47 and aimed at the droid's head. "I've got a better idea," he said. "I shoot you and we'll be done with it."
"Challenge: Do your worst, deserter. I have died better deaths against worst people."
Kregg raised his finger to the trigger and was about to pull. Doubt washed over him for a moment. He turned to Snikkit's lifeless body slumped on the floor. Not even a twitch. He readied his trigger finger again, but still couldn't bring himself to do it.
"What are you waiting for?" Xira yelled at him. The look on her face was one he had never seen before, bloodthirst mixed with hatred and scorn. Kregg could not tell if it was directed at HK-47 or himself. "Are you karking stupid? Now! Before he gets up again."
Kregg eased his gun at his side and walked over to the viewport instead. Bestia and the other Sith were still fighting. Their scarlet blades would lock and bind with one another, then separate, then lock again, all in the span of a few heartbeats. He could tell both combatants were getting tired, and the battering wind was of no help. Their pace grew sluggish, Bestia's steps grew more stilted, and the other one was spewing out so much breath that he looked about to create a gust of wind of his own.
He swung his lightsaber down like a hammer at an anvil, and Bestia did not bother to catch it. She rolled to the side, slashed his cape in half, and grazed him in the back. It did not look like it penetrated the plate armor, but Kregg couldn't tell. The Sith staggered forward as Bestia circled around him. He turned and caught her saber as it came at his side. She drew hers back and danced away.
"Marcus, you fekking bastard," Xira said, drawing his attention back to her and the droid. "What are you doing? Kill this stupid thing and let's go!" Her voice was raw and scratchy, and she was on the verge of weeping.
Kregg studied the droid again, leveling his pistol at HK-47's head. He closed his eyes and tightened his fingers around the grip.
There was a clatter as the gun hit the wall on the far side of the room. "No," Kregg said. "I'm no deserter. We're staying."
"What?" Xira bounded towards him and raised her hand to hit him, but he caught it this time.
"We're fekking staying, Xira," Kregg said with a sigh. "I'm a lot of things. Ghost, smuggler, ne'er-do-well. But a deserter I fekkin' ain't."
"More like you don't want to give up your new favorite cunny." She spat at him and walked over to the door before remembering it was locked. She slumped down and squatted, burying her head between her knees.
"I have an obligation to Lysara Synder and I mean to repay it." Kregg sat himself down in the chair next to HK-47. For a moment he wondered if the droid would reach up and try to throttle him again. Instead, he stayed still.
"You already have," Xira said through gritted teeth. "What more do you owe?"
"It was her doings that set us free, Xira. You want to go back home, be my guest. I'll repay my debts."
"When did you become so sentimental?" She was still glaring at him, but he could tell the anger was softening.
"It comes with age and experience. Maybe it's different in your corner of the universe." He rubbed at his temple. "Besides, you heard her earlier. They got plans for you, more than like means they got plans for me."
"You don't know that."
She had him there. "I'm sure there's something."
"Interruption: This saccharine nonsense is torture enough," HK-47 said in between spurts of static. "Please, meatbag, I implore you fetch your gun and lodge a blaster bolt in my memory core. Make it end."
Kregg turned to the droid. "How did you know?"
"Answer: Would you wish for me to tell you I've installed portholes all around the ship to eavesdrop whenever I wish?"
"You have?" Xira said with a mocking sneer.
"Answer: No, of course not. There is no need to waste so much effort and material." HK-47 twitched his leg slightly and scooted back. There was the scraping of metal on metal as he pushed himself back until he could rest against the bottom of the ship's navicomputer. "Confession: The real answer is not so enthralling. It is rather simple, in truth. I am a droid. I hear more than organics can."
"The real question," Kregg said. He spun his chair to face the droid. Above, he had a good view of the duel between the Sith outside. "How long, and why wait so long to act?"
"Answer: I knew from your first discussion in the engine bay," HK-47 said.
"Well then you ought to know that was our second discussion," said Xira.
"Correction: That would have been your first discussion whilst I was aboard the vessel. I would not be privy to any prior conversations you two meatbags might have shared. Barb: Might I continue?"
Kregg and Xira nodded.
"Continuation: Upon my restoration, the master subjected me to a great number of 'improvements.' Commentary: Many were downgrades, intended to curtail my directives to terminate hostilities. For example, I could have made quick work of both of you if the master had not removed all of my in-built weapons systems. I will not bore either of you with the details of each system, as I know you care little. A pity." HK-47 attempted to rise again but remained slumped. "Continuation: One meaningful improvement was an upgrade to my aural array. I am able to hear any sound, no matter the frequency, up to a distance of one hundred standard meters away."
"So this entire ship," Kregg said.
"Admission: Yes, and then some."
"And you did nothing?"
"Retort: You wound me, meatbag." HK-47's vocabulator feigned shock though his face remained stoic as ever. "Do not paint me as a mere assassin droid. Though I possess some of what you organics call 'autonomy', I am still beholden to the directives of the master. Rejoinder: I merely waited until the time was right. There would have been little sense in killing you sooner, and it might have attracted the ire of the master had she not been properly made aware first." His head started to swivel again and each of the scratches Snikkit had left caught the cockpits lights, giving them a bright silver gleam. "Addendum: The other organic's comment was not a bluff. The master does indeed have plans for both of you, in spite of how untrustworthy you have proven yourselves to be. Or perhaps because of it."
"Wait a minute," Xira said, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. "You said you can hear everything in a hundred standard meter radius. What's going on outside?"
"Sarcasm: It seems I have been caught in a lie. How am I to be punished?" HK-47 shifted a bit on his hands. "Answer: Our fellow organic fights a target with no known name besides the alias 'Eradicus'. He is a human male of twenty standard years, standing at a height of one-point-seven-three standard meters, and weighing a whopping sixty-five kilograms soaking wet. It appears he and our steadfast protector share a rivalry. Here, allow me."
The droid raised a finger to the side of his head and feigned the act of flipping a switch.
"Playback: '... go crawling back to Darth Ruin, fool.'" The words came through the droid's vocabulator in Bestia's voice. "'Else I will gut you where you stand.'"
"'Lady Bestia.'" The words came through in an unfamiliar voice that must have belonged to the other Sith. It was frothy with phlegm and hoarse from where the harsh winds had torn at his throat. "'I thought you were dead. We all thought you were dead. What a pleasant surprise.
"'Though you will also be surprised to learn I'm no longer the fool I was when you left. I am a Lord now, like you. Darth Radix.'"
"'Clinging to Ruin leaves you a fool still,'" Bestia said. "'I'll give you two options: leave or-'"
"'Join you?'" The sound of Radix spitting was so vivid that Kregg almost thought he was in the room with them. "'Never. The Dark Lord is maddened with lust for her, to the point it has shattered what was left of his mind. Everything else, the voice took.
"'Cinder won't topple him, though. Her nor her dog.'" He laughed. "'That look on your face, that's hilarious. Of course he knows about the boy. He'll kill him too, and that'll be that.'"
"'I don't think so,'" Bestia said. There was the sound of a lightsaber flashing to life, followed soon after by another.
"'We'll see,'" Radix said as his lightsaber shifted. "'When I'm done with you, I'll return to Lord Ruin, no doubt lost in his grief. I'll put the old dog out of his misery. Might be I'll make a chew toy out of him like he did me. Then I'll be Dark Lord and get our order back to where it belongs.'"
Bestia laughed. "'Oh Eradicus. Always so eager. I'd love to see you try.'"
The next sounds were only that of fighting, and Kregg ordered HK-47 to shut the playback off. The fighting he could see well enough himself. He rose from the chair and walked to the viewport, standing at HK-47's left. Xira joined him at the right. Knowing it would make the droid squirm, they held hands.
Radix had gained the upper hand, but just barely. Bestia was down in the snow holding her lightsaber up to block him as he rained blows down as if he were hammering a nail. Snow billowed all around, carried hither and thither by the wind. The howling was at its loudest now. A large gale swept a pile of snow straight at the viewport. By the time it slid off, Kregg could only see one lightsaber still aglow amidst the sea of white, but he couldn't tell which Sith still stood.
"Care to give us some more playback, droid?" Xira said with a coy smile.
"Resignation: I don't suppose I have a choice." He uttered the "playback" prefix yet again, and all that could be heard was a howl made even worse by screeching white noise. A few labored breaths came through, though still too faint to make out to whom they belonged. "Request: Meatbag, do me a favor and lower the cargo ramp. It is the foremost blue button on the left-hand side of the nav."
Kregg hesitated but decided to heed the droid. I hope he realizes if this is another ploy to kill us, this Sith bastard will just kill him too. Pistons pounded, gears shrieked, and metal slammed hard against stone as the cargo ramp lowered back down. An even bigger pile of snow than before sprayed out in all directions, a good chunk of it tumbling down the sides of the cliff.
There was the meandering thump of slow footsteps as someone scaled the ramp. A lightsaber switched off once the footfalls stopped. Kregg felt himself bristle. He wanted to go grab his gun just in case, but he knew what a fool's errand it will be. He'll just cut my blaster bolts in half, or send them right back in my face.
It wasn't Darth Radix who stumbled into the cockpit facefirst, however, but Bestia. Her skin was blanched a sickly shade of bile from overexposure. She shivered, and her lightsaber rolled from her hand as she rested against the cold metal floor.
Xira rushed over to her at once. "Fek, fek, fek. Are you alright?" She stooped down beside her and rolled Bestia over.
"Oh shite," Kregg muttered.
Her left hand had been cleaved at the center, leaving only a thumb behind. The skin there was already turning black and grey, and the cauterized wound was the color of old ashes rather than white hot.
"Fine," Bestia said. Her voice was hoarse and dry. "The bastard's dead. I can get new fingers." She eased herself upright with her good hand. When she turned around, she found HK-47 lying in his heap. "What the hell did you do to him?"
"Answer: It is a long and boring story, meatbag," HK-47 said with a slight hint of joy. "I doubt it's something you need to hear now. The medbay is a better place for you than here. Admission: The master will have me dismantled should anything more happen to you."
Bestia exchanged a look between the three of them. She sighed and rested her disfigured hand across her face. She let out a yelp when the stump touched her. "Get the droid upright and I'll meet him in there."
"Remark: The joys of playing sawbones again. How wonderful."
It took Kregg and Xira both to get HK-47 back to his feet, and both of them shied away the moment they were able. He allayed their fears by strolling past them without a word, heading to the medbay to check on his new patient.
Xira pecked Kregg on the cheek. "I forgive you, by the by."
Kregg cracked a smile. "I'll allow that remark you made, but only this once."
"You're supposed to say, 'I forgive you too, Xira'." She gave him another kiss on the lips and strolled out into the hall. "It's fekking cold. I'm going to go play in the heat some more."
"Might be I'll join you in a bit," Kregg said. "I gotta mull some shite over, sweetling."
Xira rolled her eyes and smiled, then turned around and went on her way. Kregg eased himself back into the seat once she left. His eyes went to Snikkit on the floor, still slumped and lifeless.
"Well, little buddy," he said to the body, "we did it. Hell, you did it. You saved my life." He felt tears welling up in his eyes and tried his damnedest to fight them off. He wouldn't let himself weep, not openly anyway, but still they came. "You were the best first mate a man could ask for, Snikkit. Rest in peace."
He half-expected the monkey-lizard to start laughing at him then and there. He thought his relief would smother him when Snikkit didn't move. He spun the chair around so he wouldn't have to look.
Later, there was the clanking of metal behind him. The droid. Kregg didn't bother to turn around.
"How is she?" He pawed sleep from his eyes.
"Answer: I am not a doctor, meatbag." HK-47 was back to his dour self already, it seemed. "But her condition is stable. It is my opinion to take her whole hand, but that is up to the master to decide. Clarification: I have focused on keeping the wound from festering for now."
Kregg knew it best to defer Bestia's treatment to Cinder. She might rather kill Bestia than leave her maimed.
"Statement: Besides, that is not why I am here." HK-47 stepped further up until he was at Kregg's side. His torso was stained with a clear blue film that smelled of sterile chemicals. Seems our doctor spilled a bacta bag. "There was a piece of the conversation we missed during playback. I will not waste time playing it for you now, but it appears the dead thing outside was more than willing to point the way to his master."
"You want me to move the ship?" Kregg's eyes narrowed. How do I know this isn't a trap?
"Affirmation: I believe the master will need a lift if she has gone as far as was claimed." HK-47 paused and his head swiveled aimlessly. "Statement: She also needs not know about your attempted mutiny. She will ask about these scars I bear, though." He pointed up. "Commentary: And the scorch mark above us. Query: What shall we tell her?"
"Darth Radix forced the cargo ramp down and stormed the ship," Kregg said. The lie came quick to him. "You and Bestia fended him off."
"Remark: Somehow with minimal damage to the interior walls. Apathy: Bah, it will serve." HK-47 walked away, though not back to the medbay. Instead, he lowered himself down into the copilot's chair. "Clarification: You will need directions. Even inebriated."
"No plans to drink this time," Kregg laughed. "Point the way." He eased himself forward and prepared The Ashen One for takeoff.