Maya-202

Chapter VIII

Answers Breed Questions

It was, as usual, busy in the Uscru District of Coruscant. The streets were filled with what were obviously, even at first glance, crooks and criminals. But Aren didn't like to pass judgement – it wasn't the Jedi way. Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't come here for a less shady reason than the crooks that wandered the place. He came to get his droid friend a weapon from some sleazy backstreet blaster store. He didn't know of a specific one he was taking Artex to, but he presumed there would be one open here, especially since he had heard the calls of merchants selling blaster parts before. He had offered Artex the chance out of this adventure if he wanted, since it was proving very dangerous for them at the moment, but he refused to abandon him. So, this was the other way to give the droid some protection.

Lurking around these streets was beginning to make Aren feel a little uneasy – the pair were attracting several stares from people who seemed to be just hanging around. Artex was also starting to worry that someone was going to try and rob them to sell his his droid parts, but Aren reassured him that once these people saw the lightsaber (that he was purposefully making an effort to show others he had as he still held it in his hand after use in his earlier battle), they wouldn't dare try to take a Jedi's things. Many criminals here had in fact been caught by Jedi here, and had had their possessions like their vehicles confiscated from them, so they would hopefully understand that Jedi were not to be trifled with.

Aren put his head down at what looked like a couple making out in the shadows of the alleyway the Jedi and the B1 had just turned on to, to offer some sort of privacy for them. If he was remembering correctly, then the cries he had heard of the blaster seller had come from this direction. And thankfully, as it had been a while of searching around, the pair stumbled across a fluorescent green store front, which had a bright yellow sign saying 'Yazurna Blasters – low prices for great weapons!"

"Only a storefront in the Uscru District would celebrate the fact that they have a store full of cheap weapons…" Aren rolled his eyes, but then reminded himself again that he was buying one here for the very reason that the guns were easy to find and cheap. The two walked in, and a bell rang as the door opened, as if they were walking into a local newsagent rather than a gun shop. "Evenin' fellas! What can I get you?" the shopkeeper, probably 'Yazurna' himself greeted. He was a Nikto, who was very jolly for someone running a shop in this area of town. Artex looked stunned. Aren nodded as if to ask if he was alright. "Sorry, I'm just having a few flashbacks…" the droid murmured. The walls were completely filled with blasters and weapons, apart from the top-left hand corner, which had a TV buzzing away with the news on it – there wasn't a single bare patch in sight. "Hi there. I'm looking for a weapon for my droid friend here," Aren told the merchant. Yazurna saw the droid over Aren's shoulder, and commented "Ah, an old B1 I see? I don't have any E-5s or anything that you Separatist guys used to carry, sorry. But I can offer you something else if you want." Artex said "Thanks, I'll just take a look around for now…" However, it only took him a few seconds to land upon a weapon that made his photoreceptors almost light up in excitement. "Can I have this one?" he asked Aren, as if he was his parent and they were at a toy shop. "Hey, you can have whatever you want," Aren chuckled at his droid, and then squinted at his selected weapon.

"Ah, the EZ-17 Grenade Launcher! That's a beauty!" Yazurna exclaimed, "and I won't even ask what in the Force you're doing with a weapon that dangerous, because we have a No-judgement, No-questions Policy!" Presumably this little statement was to get them back to this store if ever they needed a quick cheap blaster for reasons too complicated (or socially undesirable/illegal for that matter) to explain. Aren had withdrawn some credits from his bank account at a cash machine earlier. He had still had lots of funds in his account, so nothing there had really given him a clue as to his memory loss. He was beginning to think it was just some sort of strange accident that had caused it – maybe he too fell from a ship into the Deep Beyond. If this was planned by someone, and he had been declared missing/dead or something, the bank might have emptied his account. "How much?" Aren asked. "200 credits" Yazurna replied. Typically, these would be around 2000 credits, so the sign wasn't lying when it said the store had good prices. Aren gave him 200, out of the 500 credits he had withdrawn, straight up. 300 left. He would have to use them wisely. Yazurna took the money, then pulled the Grenade Launcher off the rack on the wall, and brought it back to the counter. He put it in a carderoid box, and sealed it together with some tape. "100 creds for ammo," Yazurna then said. Aren couldn't be bothered trying to haggle or anything, so he paid right away and in return, was given another carderoid box, this one filled with Impact Grenades that exploded as soon as they hit the target from launch. He thanked Yazurna, but then something on the news caught his attention. There was a photo of a man with short brown hair, who looked uncannily similar to the man who appeared in the last thing he remembered before his memory for the last 6 months went blank. The only headline under it was 'BREAKING NEWS. Invasion of Iryx: Live Updates'. He couldn't tell if it was a coincidence or not, so he asked both the shopkeeper and Artex if either of them knew who that was on the news. Artex shrugged and shook his head, but Yazurna turned around to look and said "That guy? That's that Prince fella. Thomanius, I think. He's the son of that King from that old case, remember the assassination of King Erasmus? Nobody knows who did it still, but suspicion is on the two sons. He just invaded his home planet, where his brother still lives yesterday, Iryx. Get this, the pair of them have their own private armies. I even remember a couple of years ago pouncing on the opportunity when I heard he had a droid army, trying to flog some of my blasters to Thomanius for them, but he didn't take any of them. After all, he has so much money from his dad that he could just hire his own goons to make better quality weapons for him. In fact, I think they made his droid army too, which he sent to invade Iryx." That was.. informative, to say the least. "Thanks, that's very helpful. Do you know where he is now?" Aren queried. Yazurna was a bit puzzled for a moment. The last time he had seen the guy was around 2 years ago, apart from hearing about him on the news today. "Sorry, I'm not sure. Maybe Kamino? I seem to recall he mentioned his private Kaminoan armsmiths producing the blasters he needed, hence why he turned mine down. Why? Are you planning to… blow him up or something?" the storekeeper asked as he peered at the grenade launcher purchased for Artex not moments ago. He changed his mind. "Actually, never mind. I said I had a no-questions policy! You do what you wanna do! But if you're just buying that just for protection reasons, please don't report me to the police for saying never mind about the idea of blowing up a Prince!" He added hastily, in case Aren was going to tell on him for allowing a potential assassination to occur. "Don't worry. We won't say a word. Also it is just for protection for my friend here. Thanks for your help!" Aren said again, before he and Artex exited the store. The bell rang a second time upon leaving.

Once they were outside, Artex questioned the Jedi. "So… I hope I'm not prying, but what was all that about?" he said.

"That guy.. the Prince guy.. the last thing I can remember before my blank patch was his face, and him about to talk to me. I'm thinking if he is the last thing I can visualise from 6 months ago, then maybe, just maybe he might have some answers for me," Aren informed.

"Are we heading to Kamino, them?" said Artex hopefully.

"If I knew the way then we would, but unfortunately I don't," the Jedi sighed.

"Not to worry. I was part of a strike team once sent to there to invade the cloning facilities, so if my RAM serves me right, I could give you the directions!"

"Damn, I'm very lucky you're here and have all this past experience. Thank you Artex, that would be great."

"Yay!" the droid chirped. Aren once again giggled with his bubbly droid friend, and then yawned.

"I dunno about you, but I'm zonked. As much as I'd love to go and find answers right this instant, I'm too tired. I might check in at a hotel for a quick nap" Aren planned. His legs were beginning to ache from all the walking and action he had experienced across the day. "Us droids don't get tired, but I think a recharge might be good for me," Artex suggested.

"Well that's that then. Let's get some rest. Besides, I think an actual proper sleep would do me well too, as the last rest I got was being unconscious in the Deep Beyond. It would be nice to voluntarily go to sleep in a warm bed this time," Aren mused. He and the droid wandered around the streets again in no particular direction, searching for a hotel, until they eventually found one called the 'Uscru Inn'. Whilst he was less then comfortable staying in the Uscru District, the prices for hotels in the Federal District were out of his budget. All the money Aren had left from his earlier withdrawal wouldn't have even covered the night for the pair of them.

"Good evening, sirs. Can I get ya a room?" the friendly protocol droid receptionist asked when Aren and Artex strode in. The reception lobby had blaring red walls with soft yellow lights, and the paint on the walls was clearly peeling off. But still, he was only gonna get what he paid for, and at this point hotel quality really wasn't a big deal compared to a huge chunk of his memory feeling as if it had been erased as if it was on a droid's storage chip. "Yeah, please can we have a room for the night. Single bed with electricity please," Aren requested.

"Sure. That's 100 credits, please," the protocol droid asked. Aren handed them over. The money was dwindling down rapidly by this point. Still, he reminded himself that at least he had a hundred credits left, which was better than nothing. "That's all booked in for ya – room 891, on floor 7. If you need anything, the rooms have a comm with a hotel frequency channel, so you can easily contact myself, YC-04, or any of the other helper droids around to ask us for something. We'll bring it straight to ya – although you'd probably prefer that I brought it, as some of the other droid staff can be less than cheery in this place…" YC-04 remarked, before giving a key card to Aren. He and Artex thanked him, and they made way to their room.

The elevator which took them up to floor 7 was amazing – its walls were completely made of glass, which allowed for an extraordinary view of Coruscant at night. Even the Uscru District looked beautiful from this position. Artex gazed in awe at the view of the city, with mesmerisation clearly visible in his photoreceptors. "Wow…" he commented.

"It's very pretty," Aren responded, although the droid wasn't really asking a question anyway. The lift doors chimed open with a little 'ding' sound, and a female computerised voice told them "You have now arrived at your desired level. Thank you for choosing the Uscru Inn." Floor 7 was like a clone of every other floor of the building, from what they had seen from the elevator ride. Whilst it was good that it was cheap, Aren hoped the bedrooms didn't feature the bright red walls present in the hallways, otherwise he would never be able to get to sleep.

Aren pressed the card that YC had given him into the blue slot outside their door, and it buzzed and then the door clicked open. Thankfully, the room was a more neutral, light grey tone inside, which he felt was out of place with the rest of the hotel's colour scheme but decided now was not the time to play interior designer. Like a child, Aren jumped onto the bed, pleasantly joyous at how soft its sheets and the mattress was compared to the rock-solid ground he had been lying unconscious on in the Deep Beyond. The room was a little small, but there spacious enough to accommodate Aren and his droid friend. There was a wireless charging port for Artex too, all he had to do was stand on it and his battery would refuel. After a few seconds, Aren crawled under the half-clean white sheets, and said "Night. Buddy." Artex said goodnight to him back, and hopped up onto the charger, before putting himself into standby mode with the simple press of a button on the back of his 'torso', if a droid's bodywork could be allocated names that were shared with humanoid parts. The Jedi switched his light off, and laid back into the bed. He was wearing the clothes he had still had on earlier, since he had no sleepwear and he felt too cold to sleep in his Jedi under-garments. He relaxed into his thoughts, wondering what answers this trip were going to reveal. He attempted to concentrate using all of what little effort he had left in him to see if he could remember anything else from the past 6 months, something he may have missed when reviewing his very last memories, but he couldn't dredge anything up. Instead, he fell into a peaceful sleep, preparing himself for whatever challenges the next day would present.