Revan's Shadow: Chapter Five

Obtena finished her cup of caff and set it aside. "Okay, HK. Let's have a crack at repairing you, shall we?"

The droid nodded. "Affirmative: If you believe your skills are up to the task, master, then I can certainly guide you through the process. Request: I only ask that you be oh so very careful master, I am too valuable and well-crafted to perish at the hands of ineptitude."

"Are you implying that I'm inept?" the scout-turned-Jedi asked with a raised eyebrow, torn between feeling insulted and amused.

"Negatory: Err... no master. You are not a droid, however, and therefore your skills are limited by your meatbag extremities. Or some such."

Choosing not to respond to the failed backtrack, Obtena set to work at opening the three panels that would allow access to the droid's memory core. Over the next half hour, as the rest of the crew rose from slumber, she followed its instructions. Bastila joined her as she reconnected the last three relays and completed the procedure before closing the droid back up.

"...Yes, good, well done master," HK hummed sardonically, "I believe your operation was a success. Accessing new memory... access complete. I have retrieved a great deal of information on my previous owner, master; would you like to hear it?" With a certain trepidation, Obtena nodded. "Recitation: The earliest memory of my last owner specifies that he was human, a low-ranking officer of Systech Corporation. I am unaware of his designation. He purchased me from an acquaintance I cannot identify, for the purposes of protocol and bodyguard duties."

"The man needed a bodyguard?" Bastila asked.

"Observation: Not that I could perceive. The human believed that my presence would increase his importance in the perception of others."

"You mentioned Systech in the shop..."

"Explanation: Affirmative, master. I had assumed that my previous owner was the corporation itself; this is not the case. The human purchased me privately."

Clearing her throat nervously, Obtena asked, "This man, is he... still alive?"

"Answer: Negative, master. The human was terminated by this HK-47 unit prior to system shutdown."

Obtena started. "You killed your own master?!" she exclaimed a little too loudly, and the others began to filter into the cargo bay.

"Affirmative master, though I had not been programmed to do so. The human's termination was accidental," HK assured her. "Explanation: my owner had owned me for a duration of two standard months before discovering my assassination protocol. He was pleased by the discovery. The human informed me that a competitor corporation was preparing to market a product that would ruin him personally; he was most agitated. He activated my assassination protocol and instructed me to kill all those responsible for the competing product. I proceeded to carry out my order.

"My former master was unaware of this, but the competitor was in fact an arm of Systech Corporation, my master's own employer. It did not take long for my master to realize his mistake. By then, I had already terminated 104 corporate officers."

"You murdered 104 people?" Carth yelled.

"Statement: It was nothing, really. The majority of them were not even expecting it, and I move very quickly. I do not know why my master was so upset. He was an officer of Systech and a potential target, but I cannot terminate my own master. I would assume that, being the sole officer remaining, he would surely be promoted. Instead however, the human chose to go insane with rage and attack me."

"And that's when you killed him?"

"Objection: Naturally not, master. As I said, I am incapable of purposefully terminating my owner. My master was not a smart man, however. While he was screaming and stabbing me with a writing utensil, he managed to pierce one of my actuators. The resulting shock terminated him and sadly destroyed my assassination protocol. Pure luck on his part, I suspect."

Mission guffawed. "I don't think he was as lucky as you think."

"Query: Do you know what the chances are of puncturing that sole actuator? I would have congratulated my master were he not sizzling and incoherant at the time. I shut down immediately whenever my master dies. I can only assume that, while I was shut down, Systech was dismantled and I was auctioned off as former corporate property. Observation: No doubt my sale price was quite cheap, leading to Yuka Laka's purchase. How very demeaning."

"Did you recover any other memories?"

"Answer: I have recovered knowledge of some other actuators that shall enhance my performance, master. I will activate them immediately. But as for my own history, negative. It will require further effort on your part to restore them, if you wish. For now, please excuse me master. I wish to meditate upon the face of my former meatbag master as he was electrocuted. I find it most soothing." With that, HK-47's eyed dulled to a mere glimmer as he powered himself down in preparation for the day's violence, leaving the room in stunned silence.

Until Canderous turned to Obtena and broke it. "I like him."

"Somehow," she replied, "I'm not surprised."

*

Obtena was beginning to reconsider the black robes as she slumped down atop yet another dune and unclipped the flask from her belt. A moment later, Bastila reached her side and knelt as sedately as she could. Blue robes must not be much cooler, Obtena figured. "A trifle warm... isn't it?" she asked.

"Indeed," Bastila agreed, as she took a much smaller sip of her water than Obtena.

"Not that I'm complaining. You look good, all sweaty..."

"Obtena..."

Obtena's grin widened to an outright smirk as she leaned over and sniffed. "Don't smell bad, either."

"I'm not rising to your bait today, Obtena. It would be a waste of energy, something we can do without in the desert."

"Then I'll have to make do with that exasperated tone of voice." Obtena decided. Bastila immediately tried to compose herself, and Obtena giggled at her; then giggled again when Bastila shot her a look. Feeling Bastila's mental discipline kick in did bring her back to business, though. "This isn't working, is it? Even with HK..." she trailed off and squinted across the sands before them. The disabled sandcrawler left far behind, the droid's footprints stretched before them; but it was over the rise of the next dune, scouting ahead. "Even when he seems to be alone, the Sand People attack him on sight. I guess they don't think of droids like Jawas do."

"He?"

"I decided he has too much character to be called an it," Obtena shrugged.

"Yes, well. I doubt even he would be able to stand up to the mobile turrets the Sand People have scavanged to protect their enclave," Bastila reasoned. "If the behaviour they've demonstrated so far holds, we shall need a new plan to secure the prisoners." Aside from Griff, the Sand People were holding a number of Jawas to fix things they had looted from victims, vehicles and camps. The leader of their tribe had asked the Jedi to try free them as they were preparing to follow the sandcrawler out into the Dune Sea, and Bastila had taken a liking to him even before he'd mentioned his knowledge of the starmap. "Perhaps we could disguise ourselves in their garments..."

"That's not a bad idea. I'll choke a couple so there won't be any suspicious lightsaber burns or anything." Bastila's only response was a small sigh. "But it will probably look odd, having a droid walking along with us. Somehow I doubt he'd enjoy it if we dragged him along as if he was deactivated, heh."

"As if his programmed responses are important to the mission," Bastila remarked quietly, and was rewarded with a tongue stuck out in her direction.

"We'll have to be careful... we should probably wait until nightfall, at least." Obtena paused, then nudged Bastila playfully. "So, how do I look when I'm sweaty?"

"Like a bantha," Bastila deadpanned without hesitation, then sniffed. "You smell like one, too."

"See, I like this part of you. Shame you cut short that argument with Canderous, I was sure the 'Jedi princess' was just getting warmed up." Obtena started to laugh. "Davik's pet kath hound, heheh..."

Bastila sighed. "I've only succumbed to such indulgences since our bond formed. I can only believe it is your influence that makes me give in to such temptations."

Obtena avoided the obvious sexual joke Bastila was probably expecting, though probably just for the sake of proving her wrong. "Yes, I provide such a wonderful excuse for you to indulge; and you provide me with... hm..." she feigned deep thought. "Well, irritation, frustration... I don't think the Jedi serenity has rubbed off on me yet..."

"Look."

HK had emerged from the horizon and was walking back towards them. The pair of Jedi stood and waited.

"Statement: My sensors detected a human and several droids in the distance, master. The human indicated that he required assistance. Shall I go blast them all?"

"Take us to them, HK. As long as it doesn't get us lost."

"Assurance: I know exactly where we are in relation to Anchorhead at all times, master."

After several dunes, and complaints from Obtena that the desert was too big, they found who HK had spoken of. It was a man in a faded Czerka uniform, surrounded by four poor-quality battle droids that didn't appear to be functioning properly. "Hey there, thanks for stopping," the man cried. "I've been stuck without water for hours! Could you maybe help me get out of here?"

Obtena felt Bastila recognize the man... and didn't like him. "What happened here?" she asked.

"Well, it would appear that I've worn out my welcome with my wife, Marlena. She fixes my droids... fixed them up good, this time..."

"Commentary: One would hope the female is better at repairs than Yuka Laka," HK interrupted. "I would still like to crush his neck, master."

Obtena looked over at him. "Hm? which bit of his neck, vertical or horizontal?"

"Answer: The vertebrae between the two give the most satisfying crunching noises, master," HK said, proud that he had such information to share. Meanwhile, the ex-Czerka man was starting to wonder if he'd attracted the attention of the right sort of people.

"Uh... I triggered some sort of trap she programmed. She probably figured I wouldn't be smart enough to fix them... bah, she was right."

"Why would she do something like this?"

"Something about her archaic rules for proper conduct in a marriage. I swear I never saw this coming."

Obtena frowned. She remembered now, seeing this guy in the lodge last night, trying to smoothtalk Bastila as she gathered information. "You don't seem too concerned about what caused this..."

"Hey, I'm the victim here! I'm not sure how divorce works where you're from, but this is a little extreme, don't you think? The droids are in some kind of discharge loop. If I move from this spot, they're threatening to blow up! Could you try to do some repairs? They don't care if you move, it's just me who's stuck."

"I say leave him," Bastila interjected, and for a moment Obtena thought the bond had grown to include a telepathic link.

The unfaithful man blinked at her. "Oh, it's you. You're pretty heartless for such a pretty lady, you know."

"I take it back. Let's congratulate his wife."

"Commentary: I say we blast the meatbag and save you the trouble, master."

"What's with all the droids, lately?" the man whined. "My wife get to you too?"

"Negative. I just don't like organic meatbags!" HK explained, than hurredly added "Except for the master, of course," before accomplishing a very good likeness to a chuckle.

The man's shoulders sagged. "I'd really appreciate some help... please?"

Obtena pretended to ponder for a moment before replying, "No, I don't think so. A disloyal, immoral chauvenist like you deserves a cruel death. I think I'll bring something cool and refreshing out here so you can watch me drink it..."

"So you just want me to die? That is so typical of the women I meet! And marry! Thanks a lot! Well, I'll just stay right here, I guess; you can get lost. I'll...I'll..." his temper faded and he returned to pleading. "Oh come on, you're joking, right?"

Bastila shrugged at Obtena and gave her a look that basically said they were Jedi first, women second. "Oh, all right," Obtena grumbled as she approached the nearest malfunctioning droid. "But I'm taking any parts I want from these droids of yours." The man opened his mouth to complain, but she cut him off. "You shouldn't hunt with them anyway, especially if you can't even maintain them yourself. It's an unfair advantage... and proves you have as much courage as you do integrity. Consider this a big turning point in your life. Perhaps if you turn over a new leaf, behave, find a job that actually helps people instead of getting you into bed with them... well, maybe you can make your life worth saving."

Obtena did her best to ignore the man's thankyous and assurances as she spent the next ten minutes disabling the droids, and removing any hardware she thought HK or T3 would be able to use. In the end, letting them blow up would be a waste of parts that would probably be worth more to her than their owner would ever be to anyone. She considered letting HK shoot him, but eventually let him run off back to Anchorhead.

*

Once Tatooine's twin suns had set, the trio approached the valley that led to the Sand People enclave. The valley was hardly unguarded, and the fight took longer than the trio could reasonably handle as reinforcements kept popping up out of nowhere. Obtena knew Bastila did not succumb to fear during the battle, so it wasn't such a simple error of judgement that led to her charging forward to meet the last group alone while she was dealing with their more stubborn attackers from the last wave. Surrounded, she had fought impressively but not without cost, and her final opponent successfully landed a blow to her head that knocked her to the ground. If Obtena had not caught him up in a whirlwind that left him spinning until his victim had recovered her wits, the following attack would have been Bastila's final experience.

As they struggled into the garments of their enemies and crept forward across the sands beyond the valley, Obtena took full opportunity to reverse the direction of near-constant beratement. She paused only to disarm and retrieve the occasional mine in their path, or when they came within earshot of one of the Sand People wandering about as they guarded the approach to the enclave. Even then, Bastila could sense Obtena's mood towards her. She had locked her mind away from Obtena as best she could, but she could not hide her confusion or bewilderment from herself. All this time, she had critisized Obtena for not following the tenants of the Jedi order as she should. Why, then, did Obtena's current protestations seem to carry so much more weight?

They had reached the entrance and seen for themselves the portable turrets guarding it as they passed through. Once they were inside, it took little time for the residents to realize that they were not who they appeared to be. Luckily HK proved able to translate their peculiar language, and instead of being attacked on sight they were stripped of their stolen wrappings and brought before the chieftan.

At first, the encounter had gone well. The droid had been able to discern various cultural oddities that kept the negotiation going without any potentially fatal insult. Obtena managed to strike a deal that would end the attacks on the Czerka people by the Chieftan's tribe. Mission's brother Griff had indeed been taken prisoner, but had been found to be so useless noone had even taken the effort to kill him yet. The chieftan agreed to allow them to take the Twi'lek back to Anchorhead with them. Unfortunately, things suffered a swift reversal when Obtena asked the same of the other slaves. It soon became clear that the Sand People would not give up the Jawas that kept all their stolen equipment functioning. As soon as Obtena had HK make it clear to them that the release of the Jawas was absolutely necessary, the negotions came to an abrupt and violent end.

When it was all over, the bodies of the entire tribe littered the sand.

The dark frown was back on Obtena's face. As she and Bastila paced around the circular encampment, searching for where Griff and the Jawas were being held, she struggled with her ambivelance. She had assured the continuation of their mission, but they had come so close to getting through their visit without further violence...

She shook her head. "Lesser of two evils," she murmured.

"What was that?" Bastila asked.

"To find the starmap. Deal with the Jawas, or deal with the Sand People. We'd come so close to making everyone happy, but these bloody fools had to be stubborn, and..." Obtena trailed off and shrugged helplessly.

Bastila observed her for a moment. "It's not so easy now, is it?"

"What?"

"Fighting to the death, predator and prey. Perhaps against dark Jedi your argument may have some merit. Here, however..."

"...Yes," Obtena admitted. "All these men and women..." Then she shook her head again and straightened her defeated posture. "Still. There are other tribes out there, and in the grand scheme of things our visit won't amount to much in the long run." I hope. "Better this and save the galaxy than let the Sith win and wipe out every last one of them."

"You're assuming the Sith would take the trouble to do so, if they are even aware of them."

Another frown. "They are." A pause. "I'm sure they are," Obtena repeated falteringly. She had no idea how she knew, but she did. Before her training, she would have passed it off as a revelation brought about by the Force, but now she knew better. Her certainty was coming from... somewhere else. "And they would. Once they ruled the important systems, they'd turn on the rest, across the entire Outer Rim." She snapped her fingers. "With a starmap on this planet, they'd be bound to want to take it, and they'd practice genocide to do it. That must be what I was thinking." Bastila did not reply, and Obtena did not see the fearful glance cross her fellow padawan's face.

HK caught up with them. "Statement: I have collected all the gaffi sticks, master, including the chieftan's. I also took the opportunity to appropriate some other items the sandy meatbags had in their possession prior to their violent and well-deserved slaughter. Query: may I repeat my appreciation for your choice to purchase me, master? I have been in your service for less than two days, and my combat functions have already seen a reasonable amount of use."

"Don't mention it, HK," Obtena replied, meaning it far more sincerely than the droid would ever be able to understand.