The Passenger

[Eluna Thals]

Corulag



Fifteen pounds per square inch.

The formula applied for 89% of humanoids, humans included. It was sufficient force to break a neck. Eluna looked at the stormtrooper's dead body as it hung limp from her grasp. Faceless. An errant amount of curiosity compelled her to remove the dead trooper's helmet, and she did so. He'd died with his eyes open. Curiosity satisfied, the Human Replica Droid eased him down by the villa's gate, next to his dead comrade. Eluna paused with the helmet, looking in the reflection of the eyepieces to make sure she liked her hair color. Then she pressed the comm at the gate, speaking in an unnatural voice that sounded like a stormtrooper's vox.

"Governor, this is TX-221. Your daughter has returned from the gala."

"Let her through, trooper."

Eluna didn't look like Moff Krossal's daughter, but close enough. The brunette hair and blue eyes, and dusting of freckles across cheeks and nose. It would've been easy to make that mistake. Maybe it's what made the guards hesitate. Pity for them. Walking across the long sidewalk to the manicured lawn and the estate beyond, Eluna casually looked for additional guards. None were found. She stepped to the door and rang the chime. A woman answered the door. Salt and pepper hair. One hundred fifty two centimeters. Mrs. Krossal.

"You're not Gemmarie! Who are you??"

Eluna blinked. Her hand went to the woman's throat, raising her off the ground. Sixty two kilograms.

"Where is Moff Krossal?"

Terror etched in the woman's face as she clawed at the hand that held her. Fingernails dug into synthflesh, drawing blood as she desperately tried to break free.

"Oh God, oh God, oh....please. Please don't. Please!"

Eluna walked inside, carrying Mrs. Krossal as casually as she might a handbag. She again looked up to her whimpering hostage.

"Mrs. Krossal, you have four children."

It wasn't a question. She knew. The woman's terrified expression only confirmed it.

"If you wish to continue to have four, I require your cooperation."

[Eluna Thals]

"D..d..drawing room..."

Mrs. Krossal's face was flush and streaked with tears as the droid released her grip. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath.

"Amon!" she croaked, calling for her husband, desperate to warn him. Eluna offered no reprisal, she simply walked calmly to the drawing room. Within sight of the Moff sitting behind his desk, her pace quickened blindingly, only to come to a halt as he hit a button to activate an emergency durasteel security door, which snapped the entryway shut like a guillotine. Moff Krossal took panic breaths, hitting the alarm to alert troopers to his house as he scrambled through a drawer to find a blaster.

THUNK

THUNK

THUNK

Indentations suddenly appeared, deep and pronounced in the durasteel door that stood between Amon Krossal and his assassin. Quickening his pace, he pulled a drawer free from it's guides, throwing it's contents to the floor as he scrambled for the pistol he could now see sticking out between a few flimsies.

THUNK

THUNK

The door was starting to give enough to weaken it's integrity at the magnetic seals, the shape warping tremendously with each fist-shaped outline. Panic breathing took over the Governor as he steadied the pistol in both hands, clutching at it hard enough to turn knuckles white. The last hit wrenched the mag seal free, and the utterly disfigured security door fell aside, leaving a woman that...was that...?

Eluna was on him in an instant. Again, the passing resemblance drew hesitation. Moff Krossal fired too late, grazing her at the arm before the blaster was slapped from his grasp. A fan of consistency, Eluna again reached for the throat, and Amon's wildly-kicking legs were lifted off the ground.

"Governor Krossal."

190 centimeters. 89 kilograms.

Eluna carried him to the point where he'd dropped his blaster. She looked down at the weapon and stepped on it, breaking it apart. The Governor, a balding man with a moustache, again struggled uselessly against her grasp.

"What do you want?? I'll give you anything, I swear it, I swear! Just let my wife and children go."

The droid looked back. Mrs. Krossal was a heap in the floor, sobbing uncontrolably.

"Mrs. Krossal, go see to your children. You don't want to stay here."

The color drained from Amon's face. He knew what that meant. Trying for once in his life to summon stoicism, he nodded to her. She screamed as she rose to her feet.

"Please....I have money."

Eluna eased the Governor to his feet, and seemed to think about what he said.

"The deal was anything I wanted, in exchange for your wife and children living."

The droid blinked as she raised up her free hand, index finger pointing at Krossal's left eye.

"I choose you."


From outside the house, a chilling scream raised up into the night, even as stormtroopers began to muster at the gate. By the time they would reach the front door, the assassin would be gone.

[Ben Merasska]

Corulag Civilian Industrial Spaceport -three hours earlier


"Oh take me down to the paradise city, where the stims are cheap and the girls are pretty! Oh won't you please take me hooome, yeah yeah!"

Ben Merasska, captain of the tramp freighter Alderaan was singing. Or humming. But humming was basically a kind of singing, wasn't it?

Ben felt like he'd maybe had this train of thought before.

It was a cool day, so Ben wore a jacket — one with no Alliance or Rebel insignias, just a simple thick black affair belted tightly around his waist — and was standing beside his mechanic, Shuvin, a teenage Togrutan girl who was tapping her foot and humming along while she looked over the manifest. The holoradio was pumping out music, which seemed to annoy the man from Aether Hypernautics, but Ben didn't seem to mind his annoyance. Shuvin handed the datapad back to Ben and nodded with her eyes wide.

"That would make us faster'n almost anything in space, Ben," she said. He nodded, a crooked grin spooling across his lips.

A man was walking toward them, wearing a long really fancy looking coat.

"Ben Merasska?" the man called as he crossed the final few steps between them, stopping a pace away and looking at both him and Shuvin intently.

"That's me. You've gotta be Hollander."

"I've heard you can be discreet, and will haul almost anything with no questions asked," the man said by way of an answer. Ben shrugged in reply.

"I always ask questions," he said, enjoying the irritation blooming in the man's pale eyes. "Like, where, when, who. That sort of thing. What and why are only when I'm being asked to do something particularly dangerous or particularly stupid. You'd be surprised how often those coincide."

"You'll be taking two droids to Naboo, to a man by the name of Jarvis. Some crates of supplies, and no more questions."

"Ah, but that's the thing, isn't it?" Ben asked, wondering how desperate this guy was. "It'll cost you extra."

"How much?" Hollander asked after a moment.

"Depends on the danger," Ben answered quickly. "If I get boarded, am I going to have to dump the cargo?"

"Don't get boarded," was Hollander's reply. Ben shook his head.

"Sometimes I don't get a say in that. If it's like that, I'm going to want one of your top of the line hyperdrive and sublight motivators, with the hardware and wiring included. On top of that, I want six thousand, all in advance."

Hollander stiffened, and glared at Ben, who seemed unperturbed.

"That's a steep price you're asking," he said. "What if I can't deliver the motivator?"

"You can," Ben answered. "Bein' a bigwig for a company like yours has some perks, I know. I used to work for people like you. Only scarier. Now, picture this. I accept without a motivator, and I get caught. I have to pass through heavily patrolled Imperial space and across a neutral zone, into Alliance space, and to a fairly high profile Alliance planet. Now, I'm not a strong guy. I'll blab everything I know the second they put binders on me and start up with the threats. But with a motivator like the ones you put in Imperial ships, I can get close to point one five in hyperspace, and sublight the only things that can outrun me will be fighters. That's fast. I'll be able to avoid any unwanted attention with some hardware like that."

Hollander growled for a second.

"Fine. They'll be here at twenty, with the payment, and what you need to get where you need to go."

"The sooner I get those motivators, the sooner I can have them installed," Ben said. The man waved.

"I'll have them delivered in the hour," he said. The man disappeared. Shuvin squealed and jumped up wrapping her arms around Ben and squeezed for all she was worth.

"Do you know how fast we're going to be?" she asked. Ben grinned.

"We don't have 'em yet, Shuvin. Get inside and prep the ship. We'll be leaving sooner or later in a real big hurry, and I'm not getting caught without nothing covering my legs if you get my meaning."

Shuvin nodded, only slightly dimmed by Ben's words of caution, and sprinted inside. An hour later, a package floated in with a delivery droid: the motivators had been delivered. The man truly was desperate, and Ben had profited heftily from it.

"If this job is as hot as it's looking, we're going to need some good cover. I'll see about rounding up some passengers we can cart along the way," Ben said; Shuvin only nodded and hummed to herself as she installed their new components.

[Eluna Thals]

Four hours later

She was blonde now, with green eyes. The freckles had disappeared into her even complexion.

Trolling the civilian spaceport, Eluna paused along the concourse to watch a large screen which was running the planet's 24/7 news feed. No surprise, the big word was that Moff Krossal had been murdered. News speeders were flying around his estate round the clock. An emotionally-drained Mrs. Krossal implored the empire for justice. An artist's rendition of the assassin turned up. Female, humanoid. Mid-twenties. Brunette hair, blue eyes.

Eluna paused to scratch at her bandaged hand and wrist. The Machine deemed it an inefficient response to tertiary tactile stimuli. But it itched. She could certainly turn off that impulse, but it took just as much effort to scratch. She looked at the edge of the concourse to the score of charter traffic that was berthed at the spaceport. Most of them were freelance, and were trying to fill whatever seating they could with passengers to justify a paying trip. She walked along the frontage, opening a packet of gummy ewok candies with her teeth when she stopped next to a fairly junky-looking Ghtroc 720. She was about to keep walking when she glanced at the registry painted on the hull.

Alderaan

That sort of name carried connotations, and the high probability of a friendly face. The Machine agreed, and Eluna ventured closer, popping a gummy into her mouth as she looked it over. A bored-looking Togruta girl sat on the gangplank, and finally caught notice of her.

[Ben Merasska]

"Well howdy!" Shuvin said, taking notice of the blonde that was eyeing Alderaan like a wary butcher eyed a wild nerf. Interested, but still leery. "You lookin' for passage? We're headin' to Naboo, and won't be lookin' to go too far out of our way, just to letcha know."

She paused, giving the blonde a once over. Well put together, but seemed a bit spacey, or out of it. Druggie?

"Cap'n Ben's on his way back. If you want to meet 'im, ask 'im some questions, just pop a squat here and he'll be by in a jiffy. Drink?"

Shuvin dug her hand into a small hand crate next to her and tossed the woman a pouch.

"S'nothin' fancy, just some nutrient water."

[Eluna Thals]

"Thanks."

Eluna prized the drinking tube free from the pouch. No sugar. Oh well, can't have everything.

"Naboo is fine. Anywhere across the border."

She stuffed her free hand in her pocket, rocking back and forth on her feet. She didn't have any needling questions about how fast the ship was, or any requests for extra discretion or special cargo requests. She didn't even ask the cost. No point, really. They'd bring that bit up at some point or another, and she could cover it.

Eluna sat beside the Togruta teen, seeming as carefree as you please. She extended the open bag of candy to the girl.

"Gummy ewok?"

[Ben Merasska]

"Knew I liked ya!" Shuvin said, grabbing one little sugary ewok and holding it up. It was the first snack she'd had in a while, and she was going to enjoy it.

"Do you even know where that came from?" came a voice from the street. Ben walked up, looking frustrated and annoyed. "You do remember the slave collar incident, right? We don't need another of those. Throw it away, or give it back or something."

Shuvin glared at him, popped the candy into her mouth and chewed exaggeratedly. Ben rolled his eyes and turned to regard the blondie who was potentially going to kill the both of them. He didn't doubt she could, either. But even with the new parts and the six thousand coming their way, money was money.

"Well, you aren't an Imperial spy in disguise are you? No? Jedi? Alliance spy? Freaky lizard alien wearing a human suit? Con artist who looks like someone else? Some deity — or is it deitess — deciding to take a walkabout through the galaxy?"

[Eluna Thals]

A bit of surprise on her expression at the line of questioning from who she assumed was the captain of the Alderaan. Eluna paused, a gummy ewok an inch from her mouth.

"Do you ask all your potential passengers that question?"

She rose from where she sat. The smile was genuine. The Girl thought he was cute.

"You can search me if you'd like."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben's bemused smile was accented by his widened eyes, and Shuvin behind the blonde was winking and nodding while inserting a finger through a hole made by the fingers of her other hand.

"Hokay," he said. "Not necessary. If you're not running from trouble or nothing, then you can come. Provided you have a way pay, that is. With money, preferably."

[Eluna Thals]

Technically, no. She was walking from trouble. Fishing for a chit in her pocket, Eluna came up with one and held it in front of her.

"Okay, sure. How much is the fare, Cap'n Ben?"

She used Shuvin's own term of endearment, waiting for him to call a number.

[Ben Merasska]

"Well," Ben started, but paused. The temptation to gouge was there, but they weren't hurting that badly now, so the need for it was gone. "Seven hundred."

[Eluna Thals]

Entirely reasonable. Eluna's thumb paused over the authorization tab, and she looked back to Cap'n Ben.

"Corulag to Naboo is a bit of distance. Overnight at least. Any in-flight service?"

[Ben Merasska]

"Yeah," Ben answered, accepting a datapad from Shuvin. "Tonight's imitation fish sandwiches with vegetable sauce."

At least he hoped so. He'd have to restock on Naboo and if Shuvin had another late night munchie craving, they'd be gnawing down some protein bars for the trip, which he wasn't looking forward to at all. He glanced down at the pad and grinned. Everything was installed.

"I did some test surges, and we might need some new power converters to make sure the motivators don't blow out our systems. These things are powerful," despite the warning, Shuvin was positively beaming. "Can't wait to try 'em out, Ben."

Ben smiled and handed the pad back.

"Good news. And we have enough to make sure it gets done. Our cargo should be getting here in a few, so let's get everything tied down that isn't nailed, yeah?"

Shuvin bounced up the ramp and Ben turned back to Eluna.

"I hope you're not in too much of a hurry. We're waiting on some cargo. So what's your name?"

[Eluna Thals]

Her smile waned a little at the prospect of the evening meal. Captains with the extra touch always carried waffles. Still, she authorized the chit, and handed it over. Ben and the Togruta girl kept on about upgrades and repairs, which were always a half-reason for tramp freighters like this to take stops and fares. This wasn't her first bantha rodeo.

"No, I can afford to wait. I'm saving two hundred credits compared to what that Bilbringi hauler was gonna charge."

She extended a hand.

"I'm Cina."

A random alias drawn from a database. He was friendly, but still an unknown quantity deep in Imperial space.

[Ben Merasska]

"Nice to meetcha, Cina," Ben replied, taking her hand and shaking it once. "I'll show you 'round once we get underway. But it looks like the cargo is here."

Sure enough, there was a protocol droid ambling to them next to what looked like a medical droid of some kind, fixed into an open crate. Slightly behind them was a man towing a large hoverskid with four large crates atop it.

"Ben Merasska?" the man called.

"That's me," Ben answered, walking to the man and checking the cargo. He didn't have to sign for them, which clinched the idea that he was participating in some sort of corporate espionage game. "Here, bring it over here. You, head up the ramp."

He lead the man with the crates and the packaged medical droid over to the underside of Alderaan and pushed a button while the protocol droid silently made its way up inside. With a hiss of hydraulics the loading lift dropped, and Ben moved the skid onto it, and pressed the button again. The man handed over the credits, and with one last look at Ben and his ship, left.

"Well, let's get going then," Ben said, gesturing to Cina and leading her aboard.

"You'll be bunking here," Ben said, stopping just up and the ramp and heading to a door next to the cockpit access ladder. The door slid open, revealing a snug but still nicely sized bunk, with no visible beds. "Beds and desk fold out of the wall. There's a luggage section right by the beds, door slides up, it's not powered, so don't just touch it and freak out if nothing happens. Fresher's back there, and a water shower unit if you need to get cleaned up. There's a privacy screen that extends when it's in use."

He then showed her down the hall, and showed her a larger open room with a table and a dejarik board, and a kitchen area seperated from the room by a long island, above which were racks and cabinets. The protocol droid was sitting at the table, and looked up at them when they entered, but said nothing.

"Galley and common area's here. Meals are usually around seventeen hundred," he turned to the door on the opposite side of the hall and said, "This is my bunk. I'm usually up in the cockpit. If there's absolutely something you need while I'm in here, knock."

The hall opened up just after those rooms into a circular walkway around the reactor core.

"Back there's Shuvin's domain, and the cargo holds. We'll play a game of poor man's smashball or something on longer trips in one of 'em if there's room. Feel free to look around get yourself situated, just know if something's locked, it's for a good reason, yeah? I'll get back with you once we're underway. If you need me right away, I'll be setting up the cargo."

With a jaunty wave, he turned into the port cargo bay and was gone.

[Eluna Thals]

He handled the glad-handing boilerplate like a man who had logged a few thousand hours on the job, and Eluna stood patiently while he went through most of it. Her eyes did linger on the refresher, the notion of an actual water shower a delight the Girl couldn't possibly resist. She took her meager little duffel to her bunk, stowing it as she closed the door behind her. Unfolding the bed, she sat down, examining her bandaged-up hand. The Machine had noted only superficial damage. She unwrapped it, seeing shiny, tender pink gouges that ran from the thumb to the wrist. Arresting her body's repair process wasn't something she usually did, but it might be better to keep the wound visible if she needed to explain the bandage. Eluna wrapped up, and exited the bunk.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben was standing in the doorway of the galley looking on with wide eyes while within a mechanical voice was shouting and wailing.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Master! Master, whatever I did, I'll never do it again! Master, master why! Why me! I only existed to serve you and now you're sending me awaaaaaaaaaaaay!"

"All I did was ask it if it wanted something, I swear, and now it's like this!" Shuvin's voice was barely audible over the protocol droid's wailing.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna could hear the commotion even before she had opened her door. Stepping through, she saw both Ben and Shuvin standing in the galley, looking utterly perplexed as the traveling protocol droid proceeded to scream bloody digital murder. She stepped closer to Ben, not venturing a step past as she listened to the hysterics.

"What's going on? A short in it's programming?"

She'd seen her fill of protocol droids. Fussy logic and too many overlapping social algorithms could make them peculiar. But to carry on like this?

[Ben Merasska]

"I have no idea," Ben said, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight of a protocol droid slamming its fists onto the table in anguish. After a moment of it though, he was done. "Shuvin! Shuvin! Turn it off!"

"What?"

"Turn it off! The droid! Switch on the back of its neck! Turn it off!"

The teen shot forward, and with a deft swipe of her hand, flicked the switch on the droid, causing it to power down, its hands stilling in the process of slamming on the table.

Ben shook his head in incredulous disbelief, before turning and heading up into the cockpit.

[Eluna Thals]

The pilot moving to his greater duties, Eluna still remained fixed to the spot at the droid. It's motionless body frozen in the midst of an unnatural tantrum. Curiosity compelled her, and she walked to the table where it sat, sliding in adjacent to it's motionless body. No one would program this. This wasn't some personality quirk designed to add flavor to conversation. That would be disastrous in a protocol droid. She leaned over the table, looking up at the droid's slumped head and dimmed eyes.

Leaning back, she glanced at the interface board on the back of the droid's torso. A direct interface was out of the question here, but she wondered what something more second-hand might turn up.

[Ben Merasska]

"You're curious too, huh?" Shuvin asked, leaning up against the table. They both watched the droid in silence until Ben's voice echoed from the intercom system.

Shuvin, keep an eye on the motivators and power. We're about to enter hyperspace.

Shuvin walked a few step to the galley comm panel and pressed the activation button.

"Gotcha," she said, before flicking it off and leaving the galley. A few seconds later the whine of the hyperdrive system activating, combined with a slight jolt, signalled the start of their journey. Ben and Shuvin both entered the galley some seconds afterwards.

"Now," Ben said, regarding the motionless protocol droid warily. "What are we gonna do with this?"

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna was eye-level with the interface board, still giving it a cursory glance.

"Well, doesn't look like there's a physical interruption on the logic board. Even if there was, you'd likely get a cascade failure before...whatever that was."

Realizing she was rummaging in someone else's scrap, Eluna sat back slightly.

"My sister's got a repair shop on Corulag. Cybot Galactica units like these are usually pretty plug and play. I could get it into safe mode for a guided diagnostic. Anything deeper and you'd want to interface it to a terminal."

Strange. Eluna looked for any microstamping. Anything to give a clue as to where the droid came from.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben fixed Eluna with a guarded look, before glancing at Shuvin, who shrugged once.

"Let's do that... stuff, then," Ben said. "Shuvin."

"Only be a few minutes, don't do nothin' fun without me!"

Ben's mechanic nodded and shot out of the galley.

"Sister's got a repair shop on Corulag, huh?" he asked.

[Eluna Thals]

"Well, she's the expert, not me."

The Machine crafted the desired backstory, easily accessible in minute detail.

"But we grew up tinkering. Helped her build one of the old models from mismatched salvage when we were too young to get speeders and joy ride."

He looked a little on guard, and Eluna gave a slight shrug.

"It's your droid, I'm just a passenger. I've never seen a programming defect like that before, so you honestly probably better off getting it to a qualified tech on Naboo than having me poke around in it's guts."

He was still standing there.

"I'd rather have more human company on the trip anyways."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben sighed, finally figuring that even though there was more to this woman than she was saying, there was more to every woman he'd ever met than they'd said. It was bonkers. He'd probably learn about it in the worst possible way and at the worst possible time.

"I suppose," he said, trudging into the kitchen and pulling out the fish (or fish-like product), and a couple packages of frozen bread. He started cooking the fish and slow thawing the bread. "What're you headed to Naboo for, if you don't mind me asking?"

[Eluna Thals]

"It connects to Lantillies, which is where I live. I struck out on my own from Corulag years ago. It was somehow easier to visit back home before everyone declared peace. Now it's an expensive hassle."

Eluna peered over the table to get a better look at what he was doing. Still, no waffles.

"You're the closest connecting flight, and the cheapest. It's serendipity."

Getting up, Eluna wandered to the kitchen, determined to have a more face-to-face talk. Maybe she'd find a cache of namana berries while she waited.

"You seem like I'm about your thirteen thousandth fare. I take it you're an old hand at the freighting business?"

[Ben Merasska]

"Been doing it for a while now, yeah," Ben answered absently while he kept an eye on the food. "Only been able to fly on my own for about a year now, but I've been freighting for almost five or six years. Along with a lot of other odd jobs. But you tend to learn the ropes pretty quickly if you wanna survive out in the black."

Shuvin re-entered the galley, holding a datapad with a pair of wires.

"All right cappie," Shuvin said brightly. "Come do your magic, and I'll take care of the food."

"I'm no droid technician," Ben protested, flipping the fish portions while giving Shuvin a wary glare. Shuvin scoffed.

"You do the technical readouts for Alderaan all the time, cap," she said. "And don't think I don't know that you can work with astromechs. All former aces have."

She pushed the datapad into Ben's hand, and deftly swiped the spatula from him. "Now, shoo, I've got food to make."

Ben shook his head. Always more to every woman.

"Well," Ben said, hooking the wires into the datapad. "Let's see how this takes, eh?"

He powered it up, and spent the next few seconds mumbling to himself about menus and operating interfaces.

"Ah, okay. Let's see..." he scrolled for a few moments. "Damn. This guys hasn't had his memory wiped in years. We've got him on Corulag, Coruscant, Corellia, Lantilles, Thisspias... all in four years. This guy's seen a lot. It looks like a lot of corporate run of the mill stuff."

He stopped and frowned, reading the next line with disbelief: FOLDER: AETHERHYPER DESIGN SPECS: MILITARY / CIVILIAN / IMPERIAL STARFLEET / IMPERIAL JUSTICIAR SERVICE

He powered down the datapad with trembling hands.

[Eluna Thals]

Ben returned to the droid interface, and Eluna followed him, sitting opposite at the table. He began the direct link diagnostic, and only a few minutes in, it looked like he'd seen a ghost. Heart rhythm increase of 38%, constrained pupils. Trace perspiration. Eluna's eyes were on him.

"What's the matter?"

[Ben Merasska]

"Nothing!" Ben yelped, Cina's voice bringing him out of his fear induced coma. "Nothing's wrong! What makes you think that? Ha ha ha."

"Food's up," Shuvin called, bringing over a plate of the fish sandwiches. The vegetable sauce was in a pouch which she dropped on the table next to the plate. "Find anything Ben?"

Ben hurriedly grabbed a sandwich and lathered on some sauce, before stuffing a huge bite into his mouth. He shook his head.

"No," he answered. "Not particularly. He's not had his memory wiped in a long while, but it doesn't look like anything that would cause him to act like that."

Shuvin hummed in thought. "Well, give it another shot."

Ben blinked twice. "Uh..." he looked at his sandwich, and back at the datapad. "Oh... okay."

With a trembling hand, he powered on the datapad, and hurriedly swiped down to get the awful words out of sight.

ALLIANCE DRIVES SPECS: INTEL/STARFLEET/STARFIGHTER/BORDER

Ben's eyes widened even more. What the hell? Why would there be both Alliance and Imperial specs in this thing? He continued to scroll.

SHIPMENT ROUTES/SHIPS/CAPTAINS/DROPOFF/PICKUP/SUPPLIES passcode:

PRODUCTS/CUSTOMERS/SUPPLIERS passcode:

Ben read a little farther, before shutting down the datapad and eating the rest of his sandwich.

"Seems like this guy was with the same owner for some time," Ben said, breaking his silence. Internally however he was running a thousand klicks a second, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. "I don't know what happened to the guy, but this droid seems to know, and it didn't like it."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna startled at the high pitched reply from the captain, and was about to press him when Shulin returned with food. It might have well been meal-in-a-kit, but the combined efforts of Ben and his Togruta sidekick had put some lipstick on the gamorrean. She fussed at her own meal doling out the sauce appropriately, while still keeping keen eyes on Ben's reaction to the readings on the droid diagnostic. Heart rate still hadn't returned to homeostatic rhythm. From observation, he seemed to be enduring some manner of fight or flight response. Either way, it might not be cataclysmic, but it wasn't nothing.

"It sounds like malware. Doesn't seem like something that would develop even on a long activation cycle."

Something in the analysis disturbed the Girl inside, and she glanced back to the deactivated shell slumped across the seat. Deep emotion. Aberrant behavior. She was different. This was just a protocol droid. Her curiosity was pulling her in a direction she probably should avoid, and Eluna took a thoughtful bite of her sandwich. The gas chromatograph dispassionately sorted out the organic volatiles in the matrix of textured vegetable proteins and aminos. The Girl certainly wasn't paying attention to the meal.

[Ben Merasska]

"I didn't see anything like that," Ben noted. "Malware in protocol droids is a bit inefficient; astromechs or a unit that jacks into networks on the regular are the usual victims. It's just easier. I can't remember how many times we'd get an astromech unit from a dealer way back when that we'd have to wipe clean, which was a pain because half the reason we'd pick 'em up in the first place was their logged experience on different ships. They get a handle on the different ways ships act, and the older ones could do some scary things with all that accumulated experience. A new unit would have all the newer ship coding systems in its banks, but the only people who use the newest coding systems are military or high profile civilian corporations. So we'd prefer the older units who could work with a wider array of older ships."

He didn't sound like he was shooting down Cina's suggestion. His brow was furrowed and mouth thin in thought. He shook his head.

"We don't need to do anything with this droid," he said finally. "We just do the job, drop it off, and everything will be fine. Everything will be fine."

He wished he didn't sound like he was trying, and failing, to convince himself of that.

[Eluna Thals]

The Machine sorted up a suitable metaphor.

"Street smarts versus book smarts."

She rolled off a shrug.

"So it's just a part of the cargo delivery then? I'm guessing whoever made it your problem didn't go into detail mentioning eccentricities."

Aside from the statistical improbability of a behavioral quirk like that manifesting in a continuously running droid, that was probably the long and short of it. So why did Ben look so rattled? Eluna gave him a reassuring smile.

"Come on, Cap'n Ben. Eat your fake fish sandwich. Let sleeping droids lie."

[Ben Merasska]

"Suppose you're right," Ben said, hungrily finishing off his sandwiches and leaning back in his seat. He did seem a bit more at ease, but there was still a sense of wariness about him. "Well, I've got dishes. If you're not done by the time I am, you're washing your own."

The rest of the sandwiches were gone in short order, and Ben was loading the plates into the sanitizer. Shuvin hummed a bit, working on a datapad of her own, but after a few minutes shut it down and bade Cina and Ben good night.

"Need my beauty sleep. Heard the boys on Naboo are to die for!" she said with an eager smile. Ben shook his head while he wiped down the surfaces, but grinned at Shuvin's boy crazy nature. In the meantime, a small light began to blink within the droid, but since it was hidden within the chassis, it remained unnoticed.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna had followed Ben into the small kitchen unit, helping to stow the last of the cutlery and clean dishes. She watched Shuvin leave and smiled.

"Don't take it the wrong way, but you two make a pretty unusual pairing."

She was young, and while certainly of the age to be romantically involved, it didn't seem like that was the tie that bound. To top that off, a she was a teenager in service to a tramp freighter, which didn't exactly seem like an ideal sort of posting.

"How'd that come about?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben blinked a bit, unused to having help with these sorts of chores. While Palara wasn't above doing them, she seemed to have an almost military bent in that she expected herself and others to do the work assigned to taken on by themselves. If she had to help, it was with a slightly impatient mien.

"Yeah. I guess we are," he allowed, leaning back against the countertop. "We met when I first got Alderaan. After a... well, after a bad run, I was looking for a ship and had a bit put away. I came upon Shuvin working in a parts shop with some good ships in it. She was actually a slave to the owner. When I said I liked it, she asked me to buy her along with it to get her out. Never really liked the thought of people ownin' others, so I say yes, buy her, free her, and she worked with me for a bit while we kept an eye out for her family. Found 'em eventually, but they'd not had a good run either, and needed some bailing out. I helped out with that too, and told her she was free to go where she wanted, but she's been working with me ever since. I guess this life's grown on her, which can't be easy or good for a settled life."

He grinned.

"She'll either leave or stay, and I don't have the means or inclination to keep her here if she decides she wants to strike out on her own somewhere. But she's a damn good mechanic and engineer for being mostly self-taught, and isn't too put out when times are lean. I'll have her as long as she wants to stay. She's become something of a little sister to me, I suppose. Can't deny that it's comforting at times to have another soul round on the long hauls."

He gave Cina a look.

"Tale for a tale. I've told you something, though seein' as your so new I prolly shouldn't have. So you tell me something. What do you do to get by? You don't look the repairin' sort, though looking at Shuvin when she's all dolled up, you wouldn't be able to tell her mechanic skills either."

[Eluna Thals]

He had a kind and giving heart. Eluna listened to his tale, the Girl warming to the idea of Cap'n Ben as more than just a nice-enough guy to get you from point A to point B. He'd seen injustice and did what he could in no small part to right it.

"No one deserves to be alone, Ben. I hope she stays with you, you both get along nicely."

The way he'd talked about her though. The Girl knew that tone. It was expectation. Eventually things change. She almost didn't hear Ben reciprocate in the question asking, and looked a little surprised.

"Me? Oh. Well, after a foolhardy stint in the Rebellion, I decided that I didn't like getting shot at and went into charity service. There's enough people on both sides of the fight who are hurting and looking for a hand up. It's easier making a difference for those people when you're face to face, rather than part of some distant idea out somewhere."

It was a lie, and the Girl increasingly wished circumstances were different so she could be more frank. Ben seemed like a truly genuine guy, and Eluna wanted to reciprocate in some meaningful way.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben seemed to lose a lot of his tension when she'd told him that. He ignored the bit about no one deserving to be alone. It was a simplistic point of view; sometimes it wasn't about whether or not someone deserved it, but just how life happened.

"Coreworlds' Burden, eh?" Ben said, referencing the old stereotype of the more civilized and sophisticated dwellers of the core of the Republic and Empire going and trying to save and 'bring up' the less sophisticated and ruder Rim Worlders out of their savagery. "I gotta confess I was a bit worried you might've been a die hard Alliance type. You know, 'if you're not with us, you're with the Empire' sort. I'm glad to see that's not the case. It's hard enough gettin' by without having to prove yourself to the two big shots in the galaxy."

Ben stretched, feeling a few joints pop, and looked over at the droid.

"All sorts of folk are running around like the galaxy's not big enough for 'em and they've gotta take from others to make good for themselves." He shook his head. "Ah, I'm getting philosophical; must be getting tired. It's about time to get ourselves some shut eye, yeah?"

[Eluna Thals]

"I don't know, Ben."

Eluna's conflicted look was genuine.

"I think everyone's trying to do some good somewhere in the galaxy. And in our hurry we step on each other's toes all too often."

She longed for him to stay and talk, even if it was about everything or nothing and even if she had to lie. How long had it been since she'd met an actually decent person? A person she wished she could be.

"I suppose I shouldn't impose. Hate for us to crash on account of a lack of sleep."

Eluna's hand moved close to Ben's on the counter, and she shyly retreated.

"Good night, Cap'n Ben. Oh, and you know, if waffles somehow turn up at breakfast, well I won't mind."

She retreated back to her bunk, green eyes watching him the whole way as she slipped inside.

Sleep for a droid was never really that. Eluna changed into a sleeveless top and pajama pants, and unlatched the cot once more. She lay down, the Machine powering down her main systems to go into safe mode for power conservation. Eluna adjusted the thin pillow beneath her head as she stared at the blank wall. She used to dream.

[Ben Merasska]

'Waffles, eh?" he grunted to himself as he climbed the ladder to the cockpit. He settled himself in the captain's seat and lasted about two minutes before his eyes slid closed and sleep took him. He dreamt of waffles and a pair of dead eyes over a smile.

Within the galley, the blinking light within the protocol droid continued its staccato rhythm, until finally with a few quick bursts, settled into an unceasing beam. The internal homing beacon had finally found its location and was broadcasting. There was no real effect, aside from a notification somewhere else in the galaxy, but for those aboard Alderaan, sleep was uninterrupted.

'Morning' aboard a starship was a fluid thing. Many bulk freighters and military ships standardized their time, to streamline shifts and keep things in order. More than a few tramp freighters would do the same thing, but just as many if not more would simply run on their own time, with shifts running from a little as three hours standard to as long as twenty four hours or more. It was a question of necessity. Ben awoke first, the buzzing of an alarm in the cockpit pulling him from a slightly less than restful sleep into a fuzzy state of panic while he tried to figure out where exactly the alarm was coming from. Finally pinpointing the noise to the astrogation display, he noted that the alarm was to let him know that there was about three more hours of flight time left. He shut off the alarm and stretched. He spent a few minutes going over everything, making sure that Alderaan was in working order before sliding down the access ladder and stumbling into the galley.

Still somewhat asleep, he opened the cupboards and began to prepare some food, and persisted in that same fuzzy daze until Shuvin's voice penetrated the sleepy haze.

"Waffles, eh? Don't you normally go for something quick in the morning? Not that I'm complaining," Shuvin said. "Or is it that you're trying to impress our guest?"

She waggled her eyebrows and grinned lasciviously.

"I didn't even know what I was making," Ben said in surprise. Shuvin's expression changed to one of bemused amusement.

"First time I've ever heard of someone sleep cooking. But if it gets me waffles, I don't mind one bit. How long until we reach Naboo?" Shuvin settled herself at the table and poked the still powered down droid with one finger in idle curiosity.

"'bout two and a half hours," Ben answered, inwardly pleased that his waffles seemed to be well cooked. For being asleep while making them, it was pretty good. "We'll pick up some of those extras for the motivators when we touch down."

[Eluna Thals]

Standby mode disengaged. Internal battery at 81% capacity.

Eluna's green eyes opened, staring at the same spot of hull she'd been aligned to when she powered down. But she had never really been asleep. There was something terrifying in the notion. Being turned off. Losing the precious connection to the world around her. She overrode the Machine's insistence that her personality matrix was unneeded during standby, even if it meant a less efficient dormancy. Even if it meant she was awake and alone every night, thinking about millions of things with no one to talk to.

The droid breathed, the gas chromatograph reporting the presence of organic volatile compounds in the air. A dispassionate analysis of carbon, vanilloids, denaturing casein and gluten protein matrices. It was all data. Familiar data.

Eluna smiled as she cuddled her pillow.

Ten minutes later, she was the picture of perfection, stepping out of her bunk with tidy hair and new clothes. She turned toward the kitchenette to see Ben hard at work, and she beamed.

"You're getting the best Zelp review ever."

[Ben Merasska]

"Yeah? Well, maybe that'll give me some more business then when I'm in the Core," Ben said. "How hungry are you? I made too many, I think."

He set down a plate of waffles stacked high, and watched with wide eyes as Shuvin hungrily piled some on her plate and began eating.

"You'll get fat," Ben said to her. "And then no boy will want anything to do with you. Except the creepy ones."

Shuvin looked up at him with wide, glistening eyes. "If I get fat... will you still love me?"

"No!" Ben laughed. "You won't be able to fit into all those hard to reach spots to fix things!"

Shuvin pretended to think while still shoving waffles into her mouth.

"Better grab some while there's some to grab, Cina," Ben said, walking back to the kitchen and starting to clean up.

[Eluna Thals]

A sparkle to her green eyes, Eluna commandeered two waffles, expertly intercepting Shuvin's designs on another to add to her collection as she arranged them on the plate. Then came the butter, which was applied as evenly as possible. But butter was always secondary to syrup. Eluna picked up the bottle of brown artificial sap flavored confection, tilting the bottle back and forth. She analyzed the dimensions of the bottle and the meniscus of the liquid until the Machine did her bidding.

240 milliliters

She looked down at the waffles arranged on her plate. Eluna smiled, starting to tilt the bottle and summoning a surgically-precise ribbon of syrup. A debate about waffles versus pancakes was folly. Waffles were clearly superior. They were a breakfast food engineered to perfection. Each square sized just-so to accommodate the required amount of syrup. Carefully, the droid applied her volumetric analysis with a savant's detail, ensuring that every square in each waffle was filled to capacity, and that syrup saturation was at maximum. That should leave...

Sixteen milliliters

...of syrup available. A sheepish expression in realization of her greed, Eluna innocently set aside the plastic jug. She sat up, lacing her fingers together in happy examination of the perfection she'd brought into being.

[Ben Merasska]

"Stars, Cina," Shuvin gasped, staring at the puddles of syrup covering and permeating the waffles the blonde had taken. "You're gonna get diabetes or something if you eat waffles like that every time."

"Like what?" Ben asked, walking over while wiping his hands. He looked over Cina's waffles and then at the nearly empty bottle. "Huh."

He picked up a waffle, spread butter on it, and poured a thin string of syrup on it. Folding it over, he ate his waffle butter halfwich and took a long swig of milk.

"Might wanna grab the rest there Shuvin before it's all gone."

The teen scrambled to do just that.

Ben laughed shortly and made his way up into the cockpit to wait out the last bit of time before they reached Naboo. An alarm light blinking, however, caught his attention. Something in the cargo bay. He grumbled a bit about Shuvin not strapping things down right as he made his way past the galley where Shuvin, apparently sated, had decided she wanted some holos of the droid looking like it was eating. She was busy trying to make sure the unresponsive hand would close enough to hold onto the fork.

Ben jumped the stairs into the cargo bay and looked around, but couldn't find anything that would cause the alarm to go off, until he caught sight of a light blinking on the medical droid. He flicked the lights in the cargo bay on, and strode over to the droid and tapped it. Nothing. What was the light for...?

The droid suddenly snapped open with a hiss that cause Ben to jump back and trip over another crate, and he watched with wide eyes as the droid's chassis continued to pivot farther until a naked teenage boy, unconscious within, was in full view.

"Okay," Ben said, still on his ass. "Okay. What the hell? Okay."

The boy sneezed, but remained mostly unconscious.

"Shit."

[Eluna Thals]

"Every time."

The human replica droid was almost afraid to disturb the perfect syrup and griddle-cake equilibrium, pausing with knife and fork perched over like an appraising artist. At last, she began to dissect her work.

Eluna was economic in her waffle negotiation. Expert handling of her fork ensured each bite properly sponged and swabbed the plate to catch every milliliter of syrup possible. The Machine kept a mathematically exact count on the calories, leaving Eluna to simply bask in her artificially-skewed sweet tooth. She only paused to watch Shuvin rope the poor malfunctioning protocol droid into her selfie schemes, a somewhat disapproving look on her face.

"Come on, hasn't he suffered enough? You're going to make him have a second meltdown."

Shuvin was already giggling over her schemes when Ben's protestations carried from down in the cargo hold. The Togrutan bounded up to see what the fuss was about. Eluna was more reluctant. She was only 78% finished with her waffles.

[Ben Merasska]

"What's up booooosss?" Shuvin trailed off as she caught sight of the boy curled up in the medical droid's chassis. She stopped, looked at the boy a moment longer, and without taking her eyes away, said, "Cap, is this an early birthday present? Because I'm flattered, but it's really creepy at the same time."

Ben shook his head furiously.

"I didn't — just opened — are you saying you can see me buying somebody for you?" his shock drained away into consternation and he shot Shuvin a look. She shrugged.

"If you think it'll keep me out of trouble, well, yeah," she said simply. Ben made to rebut her, but stopped.

"Well, let's figure out what the hell's going on with this. We're coming out of hyperspace in about thirty minutes."

[Eluna Thals]

Still dissecting her waffles in perfect square incisions, Eluna paused mid-bite as the timbre of conversation down in the hold died down below the usual casual conversation level.

"Well, let's figure out what the hell's going on with this. We're coming out of hyperspace in about thirty minutes."

Her brow knit slightly in concern. As if the bizarre behavior of the protocol droid wasn't unusual enough, apparently something else was going on.

"Everything alright down there?"

[Ben Merasska]

"Uh, yeah, everything's fine. How're you?" Ben responded while sweating slightly. He didn't know how Cina would take to all this, and a good Zelp review was in the balance. His voice dropped down to a whisper. "Maybe we can close it again."

"Why?" Shuvin whispered back, now taking a closer look at the boy and obviously liked what she saw. "I don't see no harm in lettin' him down."

The boy sneezed again and shivered. Ben sighed.

"Let's get him into a bed."

"Mine?"

"No."

"Aw, Cap'n Ben, I wouldn't do nothin' to him while he's sleeping!"

"No."

Ben scooped the boy up and carried him down to an empty passenger cabin. With a practiced kick, the bed dropped from the wall, and Ben laid the boy down and pulled the blankets up over him. The boy seemed more comfortable now that he could stretch out.

"Go grab the first aid kit," Ben said, crossing his arms to hide the fact that they were trembling again. "We need some answers, and only one person here at the moment has any chance of knowin' the answers."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna mouthed the words How are you wordlessly, looking away from her fork full of waffle in confusion. The Machine was applying the timbre of voice to previous examples of Ben's exasperation, noting that he didn't seem to be particularly adept at hiding when something was bothering him.

Her waffles forgotten, Eluna stood and headed to the doorway that would lead her down to the hold section of the ship.

"Go grab the first aid kit. We need some answers, and only one person here at the moment has any chance of knowin' the answers."

The droid frowned, and pressed the button to open the door. It buzzed in rebuke, signalling it was locked.

[Ben Merasska]

Shuvin nodded and rushed to the door, opening it only to nearly run into Cina. She squeaked, glanced back at Ben, and then scooted away down the corridor without a word.

Ben glanced up, his face giving away his strain. Things were getting complicated again, and he was getting a bit tired of it.

[Eluna Thals]

The look of surprise on Shuvin's face only confirmed that something funny was getting swept under the rug here. Maybe it wasn't her business. Maybe. But they still weren't exactly out of danger. Eluna stood in the open doorway with her hands crossed.

"Captain, what's going on?"

Wildly malfunctioning droids. Secrecy. Needing a med kit. Suspicion everywhere.

[Ben Merasska]

"I don't know," Ben answered her. "But I intend to find out. Life's hard enough freighting without having to deal with customers lying about the cargo you're shipping. And in Imperial space?"

He shook his head.

In the meantime, Shuvin had run to grab a medkit from its box attached to the wall in the corridor around the reactor core, and on a hunch, run into the galley. With a few input commands from Ben's wired datapad, she shut down the protocol droid's speech commands, and powered the droid up. It immediately began to sway and wave its hands before it realized there was no sound.

"We have a boy in a bed here. He's not very tall, brown hair. Human."

The droid stopped and turned to look at her.

"He's asleep, and we need to wake him up. Now you can help us, or I can shut you down again. No screaming or wailing. Got it?"

The droid nodded emphatically. She reset its speech functions, and it immediately said:

"Where?"

"Follow me," she commanded, and led the droid into the passenger cabin. Ben gave her a look, but anything he was about to say was cut off by the droid.

"Master! Oh Master, what have they done?" it cried, and made its way over to the boy.

"Do you know how we'd wake him up?" Ben asked. The droid didn't look away from the boy.

"I am not a medical unit sir, so I cannot say with any real precision what has been used to induce this sleeping state. But if he's been asleep for as long as I think he has, then a simple flushing agent should have him up and about in five to ten minutes, although with a pressing need to urinate."

"Adrenalin," Ben said. The droid perked up.

"Sir, too much and —"

"We don't have anything kinder, and we don't have the time to wait even if we did," he said. "Make it a small dose. Just enough to perk you up."

Shuvin nodded, and with careful precision, filled a needle with a tiny amount of adrenalin, and depressed the plunger to make sure there was no air pockets within that could kill the boy. She shot the fluid in and wiped the needle with a sterilization pad and closed up the kit. Just as she had done so, the boy shot up, eyes wide, gasping for breath.

"Master, oh master, are you well?" the droid asked, and the boy looked around sightlessly for a moment. Ben stood over him and watched as the boy calmed slightly.

"Where... where am I? This isn't..." he trailed off and noticed his nakedness. With a start, he pulled the blankets close to himself and gave the three people in the room a confused look. "Are you Imperials? Knights, even, maybe?"

Ben couldn't but hear the note of hopefulness that had suffused the boy's voice.

[Eluna Thals]

The cargo was a person. No, a person and a despondent droid that was supposed to be watching over him.

Eluna watched as Shuvin administered the adrenaline and brought him back to consciousness. The first thing out of his mouth was to ask if they were Imperials...or Knights. The human replica droid arched an eyebrow, considering the portent in asking for the Imperial Knights by name. He seemed hopeful to get an affirmative.

"We're friends. You should rest."

Eluna's smile gave as much reassurance as she could muster. Certainly a more convincing expression than Cap'n Ben could muster in a pinch.

[Ben Merasska]

"Care to tell me why you were bundled up in a medical droid, kid?" Ben asked. Fear was driving him, but his resolve to get answers at any cost crumbled in the face of the boy's own fear and confusion.

"I..." the boy started, staring up at him, the realization that he was not in the company of Imperials. "I don't know. Last thing I remember is —"

"I think you do know," Ben pressed. "Your droid has all manner of interesting little things hidden inside it, and I think you know what that's about also."

The boy froze, looking up at Ben with wide eyes. Shuvin was looking back and forth between Ben and the boy, confusion writ clear on her features. She glanced over at Cina.

"Please," the boy said. "Please, describe whoever gave me to you."

"Taller'n me. Brown hair cut short. Wore fine clothes but his boots were a bit used if still shiny."

"Did he have green eyes?" the boy asked, staring down at the blankets covering him.

"I do believe he did," Ben answered. The boy sighed deeply and closed his eyes.

"Black Sun," he said, finally. "Black Sun gave me to you, and that's who is waiting for me at the end of this trip."

"Tell me everything," Ben said, his eyes closed.

The boy, whose name was Marron Lighever, was a young clerk for Aether Hypernautics, mostly due to his father. He'd come upon one of his father's superiors using his father's account to make deals with Black Sun to sell the information on all the ships the Imperials had outfitted with Aether Hypernautics products. The droid he'd reprogrammed after he realized what it held in its memory banks, and he'd been caught trying to set up a meeting with the Imperial authorities.

"They captured me obviously, and I don't know what's happening now."

"So you got through to the Imperials?" Ben asked, crouching down and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Yes. They had me put a locator in Fourtee."

"So they know you've missed their meeting, it has to do with Black Sun, and the Alliance, and that you're in danger."

"...uh, yes."

Ben stood up.

"Why me? Why is it always me? What did I do to deserve this?" He asked as he stalked out of the cabin and up into the cockpit, where a muffled yell emanated a few moments later.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna remained silent during the exchange. The Machine took over, analyzing the boy's words to cross-reference against any Alliance Intelligence missives concerning data wholesaling. It didn't take long. Aether Hypernautics was one of several Imperial firms that had been identified as possible security pressure points that could be exploited. The Alliance was content to outsource the actual dirty work through Black Sun, and pay for the mined data that could be stolen. Aside from a packet of dirty money going under the table, it was fairly guilt free.

She continued to watch the boy as Shuvin startled at the sound of Ben's distant yelp.

Lighever, Marron_

Secondary objective: Bring into custody_

Optional objective: Terminate_

[Ben Merasska]

They had ten minutes until they were going to drop out of hyperspace.

Ben had ten minutes to decide what to do. The boy Marron, his droid, Cina, Shuvin all danced around behind his eyeballs and into his brain. He tried not to exaggerate the consequences of any particular decision too much, but he wasn't the most stable person in a crisis, and he knew it, which made the decision even harder, knowing he was not suited at all for making good decisions in a crisis. But it was his decision to make. With a heavy sigh he made his way down the access ladder again, and past the cabin holding the others, past the galley where the smell of waffles and syrup still lingered, and into the hold. With a flat bar pulled from the wall, he opened up one of the crates and found Alliance and Imperial uniforms; another crate yielded data spikes and thermal detonators. A short alarm went off, indicating there was four minutes until it was time to drop out of hyperspace.

"Ben?" Shuvin's voice trembled from her place in the open doorway. They'd been played, and they hadn't even known there was a game.

"Shuvin," Ben said. "Make sure that the motivators will hold, and that everything is secure."

"Ben?" Shuvin asked again, real fear and confusion on her face this time. "What are we gonna do?"

Ben stalked back to the cockpit, giving Cina a short look as he stepped past her to the cabin where the boy was looking at him intently.

"What's going —?" his voice was cut off as the door slid shut with a low breath of air, and Ben locked it.

Shuvin had one hand on the reactor core, almost like she was propping herself up. Ben wished Alderaan felt as firm beneath his feet as it did for her; but he had too much experience for it.

"We're dropping out of hyperspace in three minutes," he said, making to climb the ladder. "We might be in for some heavy flying. Be prepared for anything if Black Sun is involved."

[Eluna Thals]

Concern knit on Eluna's face, even as the Machine began accelerating it's own inexorable processes. She followed Ben to the ladder.

"Ben, what are you doing?"

The Girl was asking earnestly; fearfully. Ben Merasska and Shuvin were not the sort of people who deserved this fate. She'd known them less than a day, but the Girl knew enough. She'd seen the other sort well enough to know where the difference lay.

[Ben Merasska]

He glanced at Cina, and took in her own concerned look. Whatever his misgivings about her, however much he didn't know, it didn't change the fact that she was his passenger.

"I'm trying to keep us all alive," he said. "Let's just hope it works out."

The drop from hyperspace was smooth, and Ben looked around anxiously out the viewport, and kept an eye on the scanners. An Alliance cruiser was floating in orbit, looking serenely menacing. Naboo looked pristine, a globe of blue and green with white clouds gaily swirling in its atmosphere.

Ben glanced down at his scanner, ignored the hail from the Alliance cruiser, and began their descent to the planet's surface.


***

Shuvin turned a strained eye to Cina.

"Ben's been in plenty of these situations," the Togruta said. "If anyone can get us out, he can."

"Shuvin," Ben's voice carried down from the cockpit. "Lock the cargo bay door. We don't want any suprises."

"Sure thing," she called, affecting an air of her usual cheer. It seemed forced. She walked to the cargo bay and was going to palm it closed, when a sound caught her ear. It sounded like a beeping, but nothing familiar that Alderaan did, so where was it coming from? She stepped into the bay and frowned, listening while she narrowed down where the sound was coming from. She stepped down and walked past two open crates, one with uniforms and the other with thermal detonators, and stopped at the last crate given them on Corulag.

The sound was emanating from there. Shuvin glanced back at the open crates, and turned to walk away, until the sound of the crate opening had her turning around. A droid was standing from it, and her eyes widened as its own optical sensors activated into a dull red glow.

Activation commencing. Protocols: termination of all non friendly organisms and units.

Shuvin shuffled back, and felt fear rippling up and down her skin when it turned to regard her.

Activation complete. Non-friendly unit in range. Terminating.

Shuvin screamed and tore for the doorway, and a sound like a chuckle emanated from the droid. She'd made it to the doorway.

"Ben! Ben help —!"

A searing, hot pain flared from her back, and she fell.

" —me." She whispered, unable to pitch her voice any higher. The pain was drowning out everything else.

[Eluna Thals]

Ben! Ben help! -!

Eluna's head turned suddenly, the Girl clearly comprehending the fear in Shuvin's voice. Immediately turning to face the sound of danger, Eluna moved fluidly, running to the sound in the cargo hold.

NO!!!

The Girl wanted to scream at the sight of the Togruta girl splayed on the decking, her body unmoving and now silent. The fabric of her jacket puckered and scorched were clear signs of a localized blaster impact. The close air in the cargo hold hung heavy and acrid with scorched organic matter. As Eluna looked up to the source of blaster fire, the look of sharp emotion drew away from her face. The Girl was pulled free, her anger and fury impotent as she pounded the walls of the menagerie.

The Machine was now in complete control.

Humanoid Designation Togruta Female Adolescent. Life Signs Indeterminate_

THREAT DESIGNATION: Droid. Hunter Killer_

Eluna's head canted dispassionately, eyes fixating on the killing weapon in it's grasp.

Destroy_

The human replica droid closed the distance in a burst of speed. A killing bolt meant for Shuvin splashing into her abdomen. Eluna faltered a half step, her left hand moving with blinding precision to tear away the blaster from the droid's grasp. A short windup, and Eluna smashed the blaster to pieces against the wall next to her. Her right hand followed the movement a beat later, punching the HK droid through the thin shell of durasteel cargo container it was emerging from.

Eluna let the destroyed blaster drop from her hands, closing distance with the threat in a seemingly casual gait.

[Ben Merasska]

With impeccable grace and balance, the droid flipped itself upright. Another laugh, as if there were an organic underneath the droid's (http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140419194858/villains/images/b/b6/EG5_slasherhunter_2.jpg) faceplate, emanated from it. It's hands went to two protrusions on its hips, and withdrew two hilts, which extended into two wickedly sharp vibroswords. With a speed that left nearly any other droid model in the dust, it went on the attack.


***

"Shuvin!" Ben called back, hearing her voice screaming. "Shuvin!"

With a hard pull on the steering column, he pulled Alderaan from its downward descent and back up into orbit. The Alliance cruiser was closer now.

"Freighter! What the hell are you doing!"

Ben glanced down at the comm display. The caller was on the planet.

"There's something in my cargo hold!" Ben shouted, feeling a tremor in the ship and casting a desperate eye back. "Something that's causing my ship hurt!"

"The droid shouldn't have activated!"

"Now you're telling me!?" Ben shouted back as the Alliance cruiser fired a warning shot. Another ship materialized, and Ben eyed it wildly.

It was an Imperial cruiser.

"Oh, sure!" He grunted, pulling the Ghtroc freighter away from the two cruisers and into open space. "When after this is all over, everyone's gonna remember me for starting the war all over again!"

[Eluna Thals]

DESIGNATION: EG-5_
THREAT ANALYSIS: High_

The Hunter Killer attacked thrusting a vibroblade forward in a lunging stab, piercing Eluna at the side, pinning her against the wall. Blood flowed freely from her wound, staining through her clothing. The HRD canted her head down hawkishly to assess point of impact.

MODERATE DAMAGE SUSTAINED_

Her head moved in quick, precise movements, looking around her.

IMPROVISE COUNTERMEASURE_

A quick hand moved against the wall, slender fingers searching for purchase against a metal conduit pipe that ran flush against the hull. It suddenly wrenched free in a shower of sparks, and just as quickly smashed across the droid's face with a deafening metallic KAANG. The follow-through was equally forceful...

KROOONG!!!

...smashing the EG-5 unit across the room and through a coolant pipe which belched a gout of thick fog.

Eluna moved to pursue, halting momentarily to notice she was skewered into the wall of the ship. A hand came down, breaking the blade in half as she slid off it's edge with a wet visceral sound.

IMPROVISE_

Three quick strides brought her to the engineering workstation, and the droid brandished an arc welder, sparking it to life.

[Ben Merasska]

The assassin droid pulled itself from the wreckage and fixed its sensors on the other droid. There was nothing else it could be, although in every way it looked human. It stalked smoothly, like a predator, over to the HRD, and pressed its attack once more, this time using its acrobatic ability coupled with the free range of its servos to its maximum potential.


***


"STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP!" Ben screamed back, too intent on avoiding the still following cruisers. They hadn't yet released any fighter complements, but it was only a matter of time. And then, right in front of him, materialized another ship. This one was another cruiser, one that Ben was familiar with: a Gozanti cruiser (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gozanti_Cruiser), with Black Sun markings. An Interceptor frigate materialized some seconds later. Both vessels locked on to Alderaan and fired.

"Oh," Ben hummed, turning Alderaan sharply and blasting off back towards the Alliance and Imperial cruisers. "I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die..."

[Eluna Thals]

The sudden change in ship's attitude sent the combatants in the cargo hold pitching to the side. A few unsecured crates shifted, spilling contents on the floor. Eluna caught her fall by hooking a hand onto a support beam, only for the HK droid to strike at that exact moment, severing her hand at the wrist.

STRUCTURAL DAMAGE_
MODIFYING COMBAT TACTICS_

Eluna looked down to her bloodied stump as if it were anything other than a grievous injury. The synthetic flesh and blood gave away to the dull greys of composite materials within. Without hesitation, she stepped in close before the HK could bring his blade in a return trajectory, ramming the lit arc welder into it's shoulder servo to completely arrest the mechanism in a bloom of white-hot metal. Blank-faced, she then caved in the droid's cranial plate with a savage beating from her own severed arm.

[Ben Merasska]

The hunter killer screeched as its systems sent a barrage of information about damage to its central processor, but most of its processes were fixed upon ending the opponent before it. It raised its free arm, where a blade slid out from its 'hand' with a slight metallic ring. One quick slash tore into Eluna's face, and the next plunged down through her wrist and twisted to get her to release the welder, or at least remove the tool from itself before it lost any more use of that arm. It used the impaled extremity to pivot, settle Eluna's weight atop it, and throwing her over itself and into the cargo decking with a thud, leaving a deep indentation. It lifted its leg, where another blade extended from its foot, and brought it down, intending to skewer the HRD through the face.


***


Ben glanced up, his face as white with fear as his knuckles were with tension from gripping the steering column as tightly as he was, noting that both the cruisers were priming their weapons to fire on him and his ship. The sounds of fighting down in the cargo bay were being drowned out by the impacts of laser fire on the freighter's shields, but the tenor of Shuvin's last scream was still ringing through his head. He focused on the present, trying to stay alive, but his heart wasn't pounding from fear of the ships trying to kill him as much as he was afraid of going below and looking into Shuvin's dead eyes.

Below the cockpit, the cabin door Ben had locked slid open and the boy peeked out, holding on for dear life.

"Master, it isn't safe! Stay in here, Master! I can't lose you again!"

Marron glanced back at the droid and shook his head. "I can't stay in here when there's something I can do out there, Fourtee!"

He checked to make sure the blankets he was using to cover himself were as snug and as secure as he could make them, and stepped out into the corridor. Smoke was wafting in from the back of ship; he headed toward it, heedless now of his droid's cries for him to wait. There on the ground, stretched through the doorway to the cargo bay was the still form of the smiling Togruta girl from before, and within it were the blonde droid and an assassin droid locked in a fatal struggle. He picked the girl as gently as he could (there was a brief resolve to build some muscles and strength if he survived this) and brought her forward, where Fourtee was standing by the cockpit access ladder, holding on to keep from falling over.

"Hold her, Fourtee!" he gasped. As soon as she was in the droid's arms, he clambered up the ladder and looked down. "Hand her up!"

The captain was shooting glances back at him, but said nothing; the ship was shuddering mightily and groaning louder than ever. He pulled her up and into the cockpit.

"Shuvin," Ben cried, his eyes locked on the charred blaster wound in her back. "Set her up in a seat, quickly!"

Marron did as he was told, and strapped the girl in.

"Captain, hail the Imperial ship!" he said, settling himself into the copilot's seat. Ben shot him a sharp look, but had to juke suddenly to avoid more laser fire. "Captain! The Black Sun is playing both the Imperials and the Alliance. They're planning on using the information to sabotage key ships! I need to explain this to them!"

"It's too late now, kid!" Ben gritted out, skirting the Alliance cruiser much more closely than he would have liked. "They're as like to kill us as listen to us! Where's Cina?"

"Captain!" Marron shouted. "They'll believe me!"

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna quickly pivoted from her prone position to avoid the terminal stomping that was incoming. Her back arched unnaturally as she whipped to her feet, the synthetic flesh on the left side of her face hanging off in a bloody ribbon, revealing a dull grey ocular beneath the blood. What remained of her face was as impassive as ever as she intercepted the HK droid's free hand as it returned for another strike. Servos screamed against each other as each droid leveraged for dominance. In a sudden jerking motion, Eluna wrenched the HK droid's arm high and taut, opening up it's side for her to kick, which she did with the force of a pneumatic driver. The chassis dented in with force, but more importantly the HK's arm wrenched from it's housing, hanging on by a few supporting durasteel cables. Another kick tore it free, throwing the EG-5 into a power conduit which exploded forcefully.

Eluna didn't waste a second of superflous movement, throwing the droid's arm aside as she pulled the EG-5 from the conduit by it's neck, throwing it into the ceiling with enough force to explode the light rail above it.

[Ben Merasska]

The assassin droid fell to the ground with a heavy thud and immediately tried to recover, pushing itself back up, but the flow of electricity from the power conduit had severely damaged its internal systems. It could only raise its ocular sensors, still glowing red, to regard Eluna with the opaque gaze only a droid could have. Once more the droid laughed lowly.


***


The lights in the panels and consoles flickered for a moment, causing Ben to swear and glance back at the access ladder, as if he could see what the hell was causing so much damage to his ship.

"Captain, if this doesn't work, we're dead," the boy, Marron said quickly but passionately, while his eyes flickered back to Shuvin's far too still form. "But if I don't, we'll die anyway."

Ben pushed the ship into a steep dive.

"Call 'em!" he said finally, pulling up underneath the Alliance cruiser. Fighters were beginning to issue from the ships, and Ben watched them warily.

"Alliance and Imperial cruiser, this is Imperial citizen Marron Lighever of Corulag. I have information that Black Sun has been, with the help of some its informants within Aether Hypernautics, gathering information on the systems of Alliance and Imperial starfleet vessels with the goal of sabotage and destruction. I request assistance and rescue from the Black Sun vessels targeting this freighter!"

There was silence for a moment from the comm systems, even as Ben threw the ship between the two superpowers' cruisers, while the Black Sun ships dogged it.

"Can you confirm with solid information?" a clear voice intoned from the speakers, but it was almost drowned out as the ship was once more under fire.

"YES!" Marron shouted, his eyes on the ship's diagram on the console; there were few portions of the ship not in red. One more good hit, and the ship would no longer function at best, or be utterly destroyed at worst.

Ben pulled up, hugging the hull of the Imperial cruiser now. The Gozanti cruiser slowly rose above the Imperial's dorsal hull, and locked on to Alderaan.

"Shit," Ben gasped, "we're not getting away from this!"

And a TIE fighter's blasters tore into the Black Sun vessel's armaments with a vengeance, followed by a whole squadron of the deadly fighters swarming the cruiser. But it still powered up, locked onto Ben and the Alderaan with a grim determination to end them.

The Gozanti cruiser fired.

A TIE fighter seemingly teleported into the laser blast's path, and was incinerated; Ben sagged, eyes wide, mouth open, watching as the Black Sun cruiser was disabled by the Imperial fighters, and the Interceptor frigate was taken down by Alliance fighters.

Ben watched the viewport for a few moments, simply breathless. Once more, he'd lived.

Freighter, are there any injured aboard?

"We need a doctor, medicine, something! My mechanic's been shot!" Ben shouted, before tearing out of his seat and crouching next to Shuvin and undoing the crash webbing that had held her secure. Pulling her away from the seat, where a dark red stain marked marred the once clean fabric, Ben tilted her face to him. "Shuvin, don't die on me. Please, not again. Not another one."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna's bizarre, mangled mask looked down at the severely damaged EG-5. For a moment, it seemed like the Girl regained control. The face, for an instant, turned to a half-snarl of fury.

She stomped.

The entire ship seemed to shake.

Another stomp.

Thunder peeled across durasteel.

Stomp. Stomp. STOMP.

The destroyed head of the EG-5 was flattened to an inch. Eluna picked up the still-glowing ocular, pulling it free from the single wire that connected it to the rest of it's ruined body. She held it in her one good hand, and crushed it into sand.

OBJECTIVE COMPLETE_

[Ben Merasska]

"Captain," Marron's voice was quiet, and Ben ignored it, continuing to hold Shuvin close. "Captain."

Freighter, this is Alliance Cruiser Everlasting. We have a medical team standing by. Dock and we will care for your crew and yourself.

Ben didn't seem to hear a word of it.

"Captain," Marron said. "I will watch over Shuvin. She needs medical assistance immediately."

Woodenly, Ben released Shuvin into Marron's arms and sat in the pilot's seat. The moments he spent landing Alderaan aboard the Alliance cruiser were the longest he could remember for a long time. He set her down, and knelt down next to Shuvin, taking her from the boy, who immediately went down the ladder and to the ramp to allow the Alliance medical team entry. They had to pry him from her, as he couldn't hear them.

"Is there anyone else?"

"Cina," Ben said quietly, not taking his eyes off of the sixteen year old. "Blonde. She must be hurt if..."

Two medical personnel scurried down the ladderwell to search for the missing passenger.

The only thing he was aware of was Shuvin's face, still and lifeless as it never had been before. He stayed kneeling until they had put her on a stretcher and followed it down the ramp, and then turned around, taking in the ship and the damage that had been done. He was only dimly aware of the Imperial shuttle landing, and the group of Alliance and Imperial military looking at the datapad that spilled the Black Sun's secrets.

"Three ships have already been sabotaged and lost due to system failures," the Alliance captain, a man with thick brown sideburns and short military cut hair said. "Reports have been coming in during this snafu."

The Imperial immediately took to his comm and spoke quietly into it for a few moments, before turning back to the conversation, his face as grim as the Alliance officer's.

"There's nothing on why they were doing something like this, though," an Imperial, with Vice Captain's squares on his chest, said. Shock at the scope of the operation and sabotage to both the Empire and Alliance had stilled any real awkwardness between the two groups for a moment. "There is no point to it. What profit could they have had from such an operation?"

"The only thing my memory banks have is a codename," Fourtee the protocol droid stated. "Coriander."

"That name means nothing to me," the Imperial said, looking over at the equally shocked Alliance captain, who shook his head. "But be sure the full power of Imperial Intelligence will be set upon this question."

Ben staggered aboard the ship, brushing away any hands trying to push him elsewhere. He looked through the ship and stopped in the cargo bay, taking in nothing of the damage and destruction; he was looking at it, but all he continued to see was his bright little mechanic, only a breath away from death.

Or perhaps she already was. Cina was, unfortunately, one of the farthest things from his mind at the moment.

[Eluna Thals]

"There's a lot of blood over here..."

Two medical technicians cased the cargo bay with pen torches, looking around in the dark. With the destroyed light bar above, it made searching the cargo bay a grueling affair. One of the techs moved in the direction of one the nearest adjacent cabin. He tapped the door controls, which opened with a hiss leading into another darkened space. He stepped inside, and the door closed behind him as a gun barrel pushed into his mouth.

"You will do exactly what I say right now or I will kill you."



Ten minutes later


The medical technicians hurriedly exited the Alderaan, returning hurriedly with an antigravity medical sled. One of them took Ben by the arm.

"Sir, we need you to exit the craft right now. We have a situation here. Please sir, clear the area."

[Ben Merasska]

"Clear the area?" Ben asked, jolted out of his malaise. "This is my ship!"

"Sir. Please. We need... to... take this Black Sun material out of the ship and catalogue it."

One technician looked at the other in dismay, but Ben was looking at the crates now. He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned back around to leave the cargo bay.

"Fine. But I find one bolt missing from my ship," he said, stopping and looking back at them from the cargo bay entrance. He looked around at the damage to his cargo bay. "...After I fix it, I'll find you and wring the credits for it out of you."

He trudged off, suddenly feeling tired as he saw a spot of red on the decking outside of the cargo bay door.

[Eluna Thals]

The medical techs entered the cargo bay again quickly. They remained only a minute or two before leaving with a body on the gurney. Bloodstains started to seep into the heavy white blanket in spots. Cina's face could be seen from outside of the blanket, turned to the left and half obscured by an oxygen mask. One of the technicians carefully negotiated an IV drip as they hurried her along the hangar deck to the medical ward.

"I'm sorry Cap'n Ben. I'm sorry."

[Ben Merasska]

Two Days Later
Alliance Cruiser Everlasting Medical Bay


"Captain."

Ben turned his head slightly, and took in the sight of Marron Lighever, wearing an Imperial Starfleet uniform, standing in the entrance to the Alliance cruiser's medbay.

"I don't like it," Ben said bluntly. Marron laughed slightly.

"I don't expect you would," he said, stepping forward to the bedside. He paused. "Has there been any word on...?"

Ben shook his head.

"I see," Marron replied. He flushed a bit, and proferred an envelope to the Alderaani freighter captain. "I only knew her for less than a day. Less than an hour really. But..."

"Yeah," Ben said, taking the envelope. "She grows on you pretty quickly."

Marron nodded. "Thank you Captain. My family has offered you a sum for your part in my rescue. Have you taken it?"

Ben shook his head, still staring at the ceiling.

"I hope you do. And no matter what, know that you will always have a friend on Corulag, or wherever I go, in me. I owe you my life."

Ben smiled crookedly. "No you don't, kid. But if you ever need work done, make sure it's nice and simple, and I'll do it."

"If I ever have a choice, you will be my first one, Captain," Marron said with a smile. "I must go. My family has arrived to take me home, and the good doctors have seen fit to give me a clean bill of health. Take care, Captain."

Ben watched him leave.

"You too, kid," he said.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna sat alone in her medical suite, with a dish of jelly beans as her only company. A tight bandage wrapped across her head and down the left side of her face. Her left arm rest in an air cast, similarly bandaged. It was the same as the show by the medical techs - a distraction. Her artificial components would certainly heal, but without the aid of bacta like a true organic. On the microscopic level, nanodroid modules were already at work on the painstaking task of knitting alloys, polymers, and biological substrate into a seamless whole again. The Girl was once again alone to herself and to her wistful thoughts. She'd met two nice and well-meaning people today who had very nearly died. At least this time it wasn't due to their proximity to her.

Eluna's knees tucked in close under her blanket as she shoveled in another handful of jelly candies. She thought of Shuvin, hoping for the best.

[Ben Merasska]

"Captain?" Ben looked up. A medical technician was standing there, looking down at a datapad. "She's ready to receive visitors."

Ben nodded and followed the young Bothawuiian (how did you refer to a native of Bothawui, he wondered idly) to a door and gestured to it. Ben thumbed it open and stepped inside.

"Hey there Cina," he said awkwardly as he took in the bandages all over her. He stepped closer. "How're ya feelin'? It's been a couple days, and they wouldn't let me see ya. I was more'n a bit worried."

[Eluna Thals]

"Hey Ben."

He'd caught her with her hand in the jelly bean dish and she let the remainder clatter back. She pushed the candies onto her bedside table, stretching her legs out again. He looked so tired.

"I'm...okay." she lied, smile not convincing. The Girl's emotional turmoil, however, was very real.

"Headaches." she lied again. The Machine's lie.

"I, um. I kept my promise you know."

She reached to the bed stand, pulling free a small data pad that was keyed on the Zelp HoloNet address. A four star, glowing review.

"The way I figure it, everything was great with...until...you know."

Eluna breathed in deeply. She needed to know. She was scared to ask.

"How's..." Eluna's voice caught. She'd seen Shuvin take the shot. She'd watched it shoot her. The Girl wanted justice, but her voice broke with her lip trembling.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben didn't answer, though his face lost whatever false cheer he'd managed to put into it. All he kept seeing when he slept was a girl's face, waxy with death.

He hadn't slept well these past nights.

"No tears now," he said, laying a hand on her head and tousling her hair. "Don't want to mess up your pretty face with tears now, do you?"

He paused.

"I, uh, I came to make sure you were doin' all right. And, well, the way I figure it, I don't deserve that review just yet. You paid me to take you to Naboo. I've only got you so far as orbit. I asked the doctors, and they said at this point it's up to you if you want to leave."

He took a step back, towards the door, but hadn't yet turned away from her.

"So, if you're feeling up to it, I'd like to finish the job you paid me for. Totally understand if you can't. But I had to offer. Wouldn't've felt right if I hadn't."

[Eluna Thals]

A grateful smile bloomed on her face, and Eluna nodded.

"I'd like that very much. I'd rather heal with Theed visible from my window instead of no window at all."

Eluna gingerly righted herself, the Machine taking pains to give her apparent suffering a convincing look. She reached for Ben to take her hand to help her up. There standing together, the Girl couldn't think of anything to say. No thanks or condolence seemed exactly right. The Machine had no input on the matter.

She leaned in and kissed him gently as a feather on his cheek. The Girl knew it felt more true than anything she could say.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben blinked, not having expected that. He smiled. She was a sweet girl. He led her out into the corridors and towards the hangar, making sure to walk at her pace.

"You know, Cina," he said. "I asked after you while you were holed up getting yourself put back together. And, funny thing, no one could tell me your name. They recognized you when I described you, though."

He carefully kept his eyes forward. He wasn't trying to put her on the spot — well, he was, but he wasn't trying to be very pushy about it — he just wanted some clarity.

"So I have a little addition to the price of fare," he said. "Tell me your name. No lies."

[Eluna Thals]

The Machine was quick to offer alternatives. 459,586 alternatives in 0.0041 seconds of runtime. It would have been so easy to discard Ben Merasska with another lie. An unwitting accomplice. A tool that was used.

I won't do it

He doesn't need to know

The mission's over!

The great dragon that stood vigil over the Girl loomed large on her now. She was so small, but so defiant. Her back was straight, eyes unblinking.

"Do you know what it means to always be running away from something. Something terrible?"

Eluna didn't waver from his eyes, though her expression wore her fear behind her own.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben huffed a laugh.

"Now that I think I might have a little experience with."

[Eluna Thals]

It was a needed comfort. It didn't make the revelation he asked of her easier, however.

"Have you ever tried running to something you can never have at the same time?"

[Ben Merasska]

"I didn't know your name needed all this talkin'," he said with some amusement, but at the same time, there appeared some wariness in his eyes. "But I have. Still am, actually. Been doing that for quite some time."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna reached out with her good hand, fingers grasping for Ben's opposite. They curled in gently, as if she could divine some truth from their shared vague tragedies, and some strength. Her green eyes looked at their hands clasped together in that loose embrace, and she looked up to him once more.

"My name's Eluna."

[Ben Merasska]

Alderaan sat in the hangar, looking beat to shit. The entry ramp was down, but there was no movement around it. Ben remained quiet as they approached.

"Nice to meetcha Eluna. My name's Ben. Ben Merasska." He smiled, though the expression didn't hide his exhaustion and the pain of the last couple of days.

The ramp closed, and Ben took Eluna up into the cockpit. They were entering Naboo's atmosphere thirty seconds later. Two minutes later, they'd landed in Theed.

He helped Eluna down, and opened the ramp.

"Now," he said, "I think I might deserve that review."

"Ben?" a voice carried out from a cabin. "Ben. Damn it, I think I need my bandage changed again."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna moved to help, taking a half step up the ramp before she paused. This was where her journey ended, wasn't it. Their paths parted ways. The droid's wistful look went from the gangplank entryway and back to Ben. She smiled sweetly.

"Take good care of Shuvin, okay? And don't skimp on the waffles, even if she puts on a pound or five."

A nervous hand reached to straighten the lengths of her blonde locks not tucked away behind bandage. Again she looked to Ben.

"Thanks again, Cap'n Ben. If I ever need a ride again, I hope it's you offering to take me."

There was trepidation on her face, but she wanted it to be a happy goodbye. After all, they'd all made it through an ordeal that could have been so much worse. Eluna took three steps backwards with her green eyes on Ben before she turned to part, heading for the beautiful fountainhead at the Regent's Piazza. The Girl never wanted to close her eyes again, it was so beautiful.

Behind the eyes, the Machine worked.

Internal communications synced to HoloNet distribution. Encrypted and ready to transmit across the galaxy. On some far distant planet, a computer terminal opened up. Connection established.

User - OSPREY - has signed on.

Status report.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE COMPLETED. MOFF KROSSAL TERMINATED_

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE FAILED. OPERATION CORIANDER HAS BEEN COMPROMISED_

Disregard Marron Lighever. You have a new objective. Find the Black Sun information broker. Eliminate them.

ACKNOWLEDGED_

Assign Ben Merasska to your persons of interest category and await further instructions.

ACKNOWLEDGED_

User - OSPREY - has signed off.


Eluna blinked. Was she daydreaming?

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Halfway around the galaxy. Worlds were still changing.

The figure behind the computer reached forward, turning the machine off. Traces of purple smoke curled nearby from a cigar that was nearly spent. Her hand reached out to the data terminal, pulling free a holocard. The light from the desk lamp glinted off the crystal, refracting in a rainbow as the holocard was passed to another waiting hand.

"Desstrrojy thjiss, Kallum."

The woman at the desk remained for a few minutes longer, drawing her cigar to her lips in deep contemplation.

Worlds were still changing.

Sometimes the people that inhabited them changed as well.