Complications
“Here.” Querrick said to Sirena, walking into the bridge, attempting to hand her a pile of black cloth.
“What is this?” Sirena asked.
“What’s it look like?” Querrick replied, “We’re heading to some Imperial base, right? We’re not the same ship or droid that was originally supposed to arrive. If they ask questions, they might accept an answer from someone who they think is one of their own.”
Knoll looked closer, and realized that the cloth in the Cathar’s hands was actually an Imperial uniform. Most likely the one he had taken from that dead ISB agent who had stored away on the Titan, in what seemed like an entirely different lifetime.
“No! No way!” Sirena replied, backing away from Querrick, “I’m supposed to stay hidden. Keep a low profile. I can’t be parading myself about in something like that!”
“You see any other Humans on this ship?” Querrick replied, attempting to foist the uniform onto Sirena again.
“Absolutely not.” Sirena replied again, backing away further.
Querrick growled and turned to Knoll, saying, “Fine, you take it then. You might be able to pull it off. I’m done here.”
Knoll took the uniform in hand, and was about to protest, but the Cathar had already disappeared.
“We have arrived at our destination.” Butter spoke up, interrupting Knoll’s thoughts.
As Knoll turned to look out the viewport, he could see that they had already landed. According to the records, they were on a planet called Chad, home of the rodent-like Chadra Fan. They had apparently landed on one of Chad’s many atolls, a small ring-shaped island, surrounded by a massive ocean. The atoll itself had been heavily modified, there were several lookout towers set up around the ring, overseeing the many Chadra Fan below, who seemed to be working with a number of sea cows in the atoll’s shallow lake. Overseeing them, were a number of Humans. All armed to the teeth and looking none too friendly.
“Ugh, Chadra Fan.” Butter moaned, “Watch yourselves around them, they can’t be trusted.”
This struck Knoll as odd (but, then again, when did Butter ever make sense), as he knew the Chadra Fan to be a rather kind and docile race. Before Knoll could question Butter’s remark, though, he noticed that the droid was already on the move.
“Butter, where are you going?” He shouted, following after the droid.
“I am going to receive the shipment.” Butter stated matter-of-factly.
“Wait! We don’t even know what the plan is yet, you can’t just go out there with nothing to go on!” Knoll cried after him. But it was too late, as the droid had already reached the cargo bay doors.
As the doors opened, one of the Human thugs immediately shouted at them, “Who the hell are you?!”
“We are here for the shipment.” Butter answered.
“What? You ain’t the normal droid. And who are you?” The thug asked Knoll.
“Sorry. My droid is malfunctioning.” Knoll replied. Before he could continue, though, Butter interrupted.
“Quiet, slave!” Butter shouted, attempting to backhand Knoll.
Knoll dodged the random attack in the nick of time, but the random attack completely flustered the Arkanian. He also just realized that he had yet to put on the uniform Querrick had handed him. He realized then that things would not go as he had hoped. It was also then that he realized they had no plan at all.
“Shipment?” A Chadra Fan asked, as it approached the group.
“Quiet!” The Human yelled, punching the Chadra Fan so hard that it sent the creature flying.
This seemed to trigger something in Butter, as the droid started laughing uncontrollably.
“Butter!” Knoll yelled, trying to get the droid in line, he then turned to the Human and said, “Like I said, my droid’s malfunctioning.”
“Do it again!” Butter replied, in between guffaws, “Hit the thing again!”
The Human eyed Butter, and without looking, shot the Chadra Fan dead, he then looked at Knoll and asked, “What did you call him?”
“What?” Knoll asked.
“What’s that droid’s designation?”
“Uh, I’m not sure.” Knoll replied, “We, er, I just call him Butter.”
The Human’s eyes grew wide at the name, and said, “I knew it! You! You owe me two thousand credits! You kriffing droid! Pay up! Now!”
“Wait, what?” Knoll asked, completely confused, “What are you talking about?”
“This droid owes me credits! And you are not supposed to be here. Now, I’m gonna get what’s mine!”
As the Human approached the two, Knoll could see there was no talking their way out of this. Defending himself, Knoll struck the Human as it approached, downing him with a single, precise blow to a critical pressure point.
This was the wrong move.
“The kriffing haran are they doing out there?!” Querrick muttered to himself. He had been in hiding, in the back of the cargo bay the entire time. Because, as he understood it, the job was supposed to be simple. A simple pick up. No fuss, no muss. Overhearing the conversation, though, it clearly could not have gone any worse. And now, a full on firefight was occurring.
Querrick had been biding his time. He thought surely the Doc would have been able to salvage the situation. Talk his way out of it. He had been holding back because he didn’t want to escalate the situation if there was a chance they could still pull this off. It went against everything he stood for, but he thought he was making the right decision. Clearly he was wrong. And now, he was in the worst possible position for the fight. He didn’t have a clear shot at anything down past the boarding ramp. And, from what he could see, the di’kuts firing on them were armed with some sort of rocket launchers.
With what Querrick could see, it seemed like the rockets were being fired from above. Querrick wasn’t sure how many ground forces they had, but he was certain those high perched rocket launchers would take precedent. With a growl, he leapt from his hiding place, and ran deeper into the ship, passing Sadra on the way.
“What’s going on?!” She called out.
“Haran if I know!” Querrick shouted back.
As he made his way to the ship’s turret controls, he commed the bridge, hoping someone was still on it. As Sirena answered, Querrick instructed her to patch his comlink into the ship’s exterior broadcasting system. Getting in position, he made his threat, “By order of the Empire, by order of Lieutenant Science Officer William Corvae, stand down!”
Querrick’s bluff was met by a barrage of fire pelting the ship uselessly.
Querrick shook his head, “You asked for it.” He then aimed the ship’s guns at one of the two mercenaries posted in lookout towers, the only two he could see, anyway, and took a shot. The ship’s cannon decimated the tower, along with the mercenary perched atop it. He then turned to aim it at the other merc in sight, and said, “Final warning!”
“What is going on?!” Sadra asked.
As she approached the open cargo bay doors, Knoll was limping up them. His clothes were singed and covered in blood. He had clearly taken more than his fair share of attacks from whoever it was out there.
“Butter’s down!” Knoll yelled out, gesturing behind him.
As Sadra looked out, she could see a group of thugs beating down on an unconscious Butter, using some sort of stun batons. Among the other carnage were burning remains of a lookout post, a few dead Chadra Fan, and a couple dead Humans. This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen at all.
They had to get out of here. Sadra knew this. But they had to recover Butter first. Sadra turned to see that Knoll was heading back into the ship, already, so, with great effort, she reached out with both hands, and concentrated as hard as she could.
Much to her shock, she could actually feel the droid. And within seconds, she was lifting it in the air, and throwing it into the cargo bay. As soon as Butter was clear, the cargo bay doors closed once more. Sadra turned to see Knoll at the back, staring at her, with his hand over the controls. He simply nodded, and left, deeper into the ship.
“Alright Butter.” Sadra said, looking over the battered droid chassis, “Let’s give this a shot.” Once again, Sadra closed her eyes, held her hands out, and hovered over the droid in deep concentration.
Once again, the shock struck Sadra as she could almost see the inner workings of the droid. Damaged wires and gears, loose bolts and screws, burnt out circuitry. Yet, as she saw it, she could also feel this bizarre power healing the damage. repairing it in a way that Sadra couldn’t quite understand.
In seconds, the droid’s photoreceptors lit up, and Butter was jumping to his feet, shouting, “I’ll take you all on! Wait, what happened?”
“What’s going on?!” Sirena asked.
“Everything’s gone to hell.” Knoll replied, “Can you fight?”
“Oh.” Sirena replied.
Knoll didn’t have time to pay any more attention to the Human, as he turned to the ship’s controls, and attempted to take off. As the ship began to lift, it was suddenly pulled right back down, in a harsh lurch.
“Of course.” Knoll muttered to himself. They had the ship locked down at this point. There would be no escape.
As he turned to look at Sirena, Knoll saw that the Human was nowhere in sight. Shaking his head, he left the bridge, preparing for the inevitable.
Querrick felt the ship lurch. They were pinned down. There was no escape. And seeing as he had no good line of sight to the rest of the enemy force, he knew that the ship’s gun would be of little help now. He was a warrior. He was a damn good shot. But he was outnumbered, and severely under-equipped. This plastic would do little against a barrage of rockets. He wondered how many of the others were even still alive at this point. He needed help. And he hated this thought. But he could not fall here. Not yet. There was something else far more important that needed to be taken care of first, before he could meet a warrior’s death.
“What’s that sound?” Knoll asked.
Sadra listened, and said, “They’re trying to take the ship apart to get to us. They know the ship can’t be penetrated by their weapons, so they’re dismantling it with their tools.”
Knoll sighed, “We can’t take off. They have us locked down. We can’t fight. They have us outnumbered.”
“And if we sit here waiting, they’ll kill us anyway.” Sadra summed up.
“Then we fight.” Butter said, “What’s a little death? I’ve always come back from it okay.”
Sadra eyed the droid wearily, but said, “Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Knoll shrugged, but seemed to be psyching himself up as he walked over towards the door controls. “Ready?” He asked.
Sadra took a deep breath and nodded.
As she watched the cargo bay doors open once more, a blur of brown color flashed by her, flying out the bay doors. Once it was out in the open, the blur lit up in a flash of brilliant yellow light.
As Sadra focused her eyes, she saw that the brown was a cloak, and the yellow flash was some sort of beam of energy, taking the form of some sort of energy blade.
As Querrick made his way to the bridge, he felt sick and cowardly for what he was about to do. But he saw no other option. Reaching the controls, he attempted to make the call.
Static.
Nothing.
No response.
He was on his own. Which was no more than he deserved, considering his foolish actions over the past few months. He was not Mando’ade. Not yet. Still a mere foundling. If even that. But he would still prove he possessed the mandokar. He would face his death in battle. Not in cowardice. Maybe it would be enough. Taking his rifle in hand, he began to run from the bridge, letting out a primal roar as he began.
Knoll watched in shock as Sirena revealed herself to the enemy. With laser sword in hand, she tore through a number of Human’s, like cutting through Bantha butter.
Not to be outdone, Knoll watched as Butter charged out with the Human, tackling a number of the mercenaries, pounding his vibroknucklers into as much flesh as possible.
While both fought formidably, neither were spared from the barrage of rocket fire from those further out of reach of their melee weapons. Seeing Sirena take cover around the side of the ship, Knoll rushed out to aid her.
“Are you alright?” Knoll asked.
The woman was unresponsive, focusing intently, eyes clenched shut.
“Okay…” Knoll replied, “Look, this is going to sound weird, but I’m going to touch you now. It should help… whatever it is you’re doing.”
Knoll still didn’t completely understand what was happening, or how Sirena could fight so well with… whatever it was that she held in her hands. But he understood that she alone had rescued them from certain death.
The fight was not over, yet, though, so anything he could do to help the woman fight even better, he would do that. He had worked on many Humans in the past. Their physiology was not terribly complex, so he knew exactly the right pressure points to press in order to stimulate the muscles, strengthening them beyond peak performance. At least, for a little while.
As he finished, Sirena’s eyes shot open, and, much to Knoll’s shock, the woman leapt to the top of the ship.
“How in the…” Knoll muttered, trailing off.
As Querrick rushed out, off the boarding ramp, into the carnage, he stopped short, as he saw the destruction. Many of the enemy had already been taken care of. Maybe things weren’t as dire as he had thought. There were still three armed lookouts, though, along with a handful of thugs on the ground. If things had been going this well, though, Querrick knew that he needn’t worry about the closer threat.
Taking aim at one of the lookouts, Querrick let a shot fire. The shot struck the merc square in the head, causing the human’s head to explode in a bloody shower of viscera. Querrick relished in the adrenaline of claiming a kill with a weapon that was his own. Firing from a ship just wasn’t the same. This was the type of fight he preferred.
Taking aim at the second lookout, Querrick paid little attention to the threats of the Humans nearby. They were threatening to kill the rat creatures if they didn’t stand down. What did Querrick care for some rodent aliens? As he narrowed down his sights, he heard a sharp thud, the sound of bone meeting bone, followed by two bodies dropping. As if it was a cue, Querrick took another shot, killing the wary lookout mercenary dead.
As he moved to aim for the final threat, he found that the merc was already gone. Someone else must have shot them down, Querrick must have just been too focused on his own kills to notice.
Surveying the field, he saw Butter down on the ground, Knoll holding himself in pain, but clearly alive, and Sadra, staring around in shock. Among them were many of the little rat things, simply staring up at the group in confusion.
“You’re free now.” Knoll called out, “You’re no longer prisoners.”
“Back to work?” One of the aliens asked meekly.
“No, you don’t have to do this work anymore, if you don’t want to.” Knoll said, trying to persuade the creature.
“Back to work?” It repeated, confused.
Querrick rolled his eyes, and approached them, “Knoll, we don’t have time for this! We have a tight deadline to meet.” He then turned to the alien and said, “Listen, we’re here for a shipment. Get it on our ship.”
The creature looked at Querrick and repeated, “Back to work?”
Querrick rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, back to work!”
Knoll watched as the Chadra Fan went back to the sea cows. At this distance though, he could see what they were actually doing. They were scraping algae off the sea cows, and placing the algae in barrels. Nearby, there were a stack of barrels, clearly ready for transport. This must have been the shipment they were here to collect. Knoll walked up to one of the open barrels, scooped up a sample of the algae, then said to one of the nearby workers, “We need this loaded onto our ship.
The Chadra Fan nodded, and several workers quickly got to work, loading the barrels onto the Mythosaur.
“Hmm…” He hummed to himself as he considered everything that had occurred so far.
“So.” Querrick called out, approaching Sadra, “That went poorly.”
Sadra shook her head and nodded at the same time, replying with, “Yeah.”
“What’s the plan for the drop off? If this was just the pick up, not an Imp in sight, then the drop off is going to be even worse. We barely made it out of this alive.”
“I dug a little deeper into the data we got. I found the procedure we need. The clearance codes. Everything. This time, it will go differently. But we’ll need Butter. Can you help me get him into the workshop?”
Querrick shrugged, and assisted Sadra in heaving the droid up off the ground. As they got the unconscious droid into the ship’s droid charging station, Querrick wandered off, leaving Sadra to work alone.
This had gone very poorly. And as far as Sadra saw it, the main cause was this erratic droid. If they had any hope of making this delivery and getting out alive, Butter had to play ball. If only for a little while.
Taking advantage of the fact that the droid was not wholly present, Sadra began digging into the droid’s programming. What she saw was the most convoluted mess she had ever seen in her entire life. There were programs on top of programs. Systems attacking systems. How Butter functioned at all, was a complete mystery to Sadra. The droid had clearly been in the hands of dozens of owners in the past. Each one attempting to do what she was doing now. Each one clearly failing in some aspect. The droid had been screwed with so much, it seemed to have unknowingly developed its own software to attack anyone who attempted to screw with its unbelievably convoluted programming.
Sadra was no droid expert. But, once again calling on powers she did not understand, she attempted to “fix” Butter’s programming, setting him to a temporary factory default. Working with skill she did not know she possessed, she somehow bypassed Butter’s defenses. The droid’s photoreceptors lit up, it looked at Sadra, and said, “KX unit K-B7R, reporting for duty.”
“Ha!” Sadra shouted before she could catch herself. She then straightened herself up, and said, “Unit K-B7R, I have a job for you.”
“It won’t be a repeat of last time.” Sadra promised, “Butter understands what he needs to do now. He won’t kriff it up.”
Knoll was still weary, but he decided not to argue it. This day had already been stressful enough. And he was still trying to wrap his head around Sirena’s explanations from earlier. The Force? Powers beyond that of a normal being? The galaxy now had magic? He still couldn’t understand it. But it all seemed to be unimportant in the grand scheme. What really mattered was getting this job done, and surviving.
He simply nodded at Sadra and left her and Sirena on the bridge, as he went back to his lab.
He was very interested in studying this algae. Why was it so important to the Empire? As his machines analyzed the goop, it registered as “glower algae.” A powerful hallucinogen. That made no sense. Were the stormtroopers just looking to get high? That’d explain their often terrible marksmanship… but no. There had to be something more. Something else… but what?
“Approaching the landing pad.” Sirena announced.
Sadra looked out the viewport to see a massive factory. A factory swarming with stormtroopers and surrounded by Imperial walkers. AT-AT’s, it seemed, from this view. Querrick was right. This would go much worse, if Butter failed to play his part.
“Shit!” Sirena called out, dropping to the floor, as the ship landed.
“What?!” Sadra asked, dropping to the floor as well.
“The Imperial officer! That’s William Corvae!” Sirena whisper shouted.
Sadra recognized the name. The man in charge of this shipping route. She had discussed the name with the others, previously, but Sirena was not present for that conversation at the time.
“What about him?” Sadra whispered back, understanding the action was meaningless.
“He’s my father!” Sirena whispered back.
“Shit...” Sadra echoed.
Butter opened the cargo bay doors, as instructed. And walked out onto the landing pad, as instructed.
He was greeted by an Imperial Officer, who said, “Who the hell are you? You’re not the usual droid.”
“I am here to deliver the shipment.” Butter responded.
The Officer eyed Butter wearily, and said, “Are you flying this ship?”
“I am not the pilot.” Butter replied.
“Who is the pilot?”
“The pilot is the pilot.” Butter replied, completely monotone.
The Officer let out a groan and said, “Right, I forget they wipe your memories after every jump. Fine. What’s your number?”
“K-B7R.” Butter replied.
“No!” The Officer replied, frustrated, “Your shipping number!”
Butter provided the requested information.
As the Officer input the information, he said, “Fine, get back in your ship. My droids will take care of the unloading.”
“Understood.” Butter replied, walking back into the ship.
Querrick had been hiding away in the cargo bay, just like last time. And he was holding his breath during the entire interaction. If that damn droid went berserk again, it would mean all their deaths. But he would not hold back this time. He would go out with blasters blazing.
As he listened, intently, though, it seemed as that would not be the case. The droid had miraculously actually played his part believably, competently. All that was left was for them to unload the cargo, and for the Mythosaur to take off and get away from this hell hole of a planet.
“He can’t find me here. He can’t find me here!” Sirena was chanting, as she rocked back and forth in a fetal position on the floor. “He thinks I’m dead. I want them to think I’m dead.”
“He won’t find you!” Sadra whispered, attempting to soothe the woman, “You’re safe here, everything is going as planned.”
“They think I’m dead! When they found out I had these powers… they were going to send me away. ‘Pacification.’ I faked my own death. They think I’m dead! They can’t find me here!” Sirena babbled.
“That sounds pretty familiar, actually.” Sadra replied, sadly.
Over the next thirty minutes, Sirena simply rocked back and forth, mumbling, sometimes incoherently. She was consumed by fear, and Sadra could feel it. It pained her. But there was little she could do, herself. For a moment, she even considered calling in Knoll, surely he had some sort of sedative in that lab of his. But just as this thought crossed her mind, she heard the cargo bay doors seal shut. They were finished. All went according to plan, for once. And they were finally in the clear.
As they took off, Sirena was clearly recovering, the fear was ebbing away, but she still seemed overly anxious.
As they broke atmo, and escaped to the blackness of space, Sadra could almost feel a collective sigh of relief from the entire ship. Until, that is, Querrick entered the bridge, saying, “We’ve got a problem.”
“Another shipment?” Knoll asked, “What’s in it?”
“Dunno.” Querrick shrugged, “It’s big, though, and locked up far tighter than anything else we’ve seen on this messed up job.”
Knoll noticed Querrick glaring at Sirena for a split second.
“Let’s take a look.” Knoll replied, “We can make a more informed decision once we know what we’re hauling.”
As Knoll and Querrick entered the cargo bay, Knoll wondered aloud, “How are we going to open one of these things?” He asked, staring up at one of the massive crates in the cargo bay. Like Querrick said, big, locked down tight, and covered in the Imperial insignia.
“I've got an idea.” Querrick said.
Before Knoll could react, though, the Cathar took a shot at the nearest crate’s lock, melting it off with the blast.
“It’s not like we’re going to actually deliver this crap.” Querrick replied, shrugging.
Knoll tilted his head in agreement. He had a point.
As they opened the crate, they were met with an odd sight. Gigantic, mechanical archways. On closer inspection, Knoll realized the archways were made of bacta sprayers. The same kind that were in the crates they had just delivered. It was bizarre. It was built as if it was designed to coat a person as they walked through. But, why would such a device ever be needed?
As Knoll pondered this, Querrick interrupted his thoughts, “Uh… Doc?” He asked, picking up a canister filled with green liquid, stored at the bottom of the crate.
“Hmm.” Knoll hummed, “Give me a minute.”
Knoll rushed to his lab to analyze the strange liquid. Much to his surprise, the canister fit into his equipment flawlessly. It was only then that he realized the canister was the same type made for bacta sprayers. Whatever those archways were being used for, this was clearly the “ammunition.”
As his machines analyzed the ooze, it did not take long for Knoll to discover the key ingredients. They were all the ingredients they had been shipping all this time. Combined together, Knoll realized this substance could quite easily be one of the most powerful mind controlling substances in the galaxy.
When the Empire had originally hired Knoll to perform tests of certain “medications,” the test subjects always performed poorly. The “medication” had not been refined. This on the other hand… this could mean the end of everything. If the Empire was already mass producing it… Knoll could only guess at the ramifications. This was not good.
Activating his comms, he said, “Everyone, we need to talk.”
This conversation had been going on far too long, in Querrick’s mind. Knoll had no good ideas of what to do with the Imperial garbage that had been loaded onto their ship. The Human was adamant that they continue delivering the cargo to its intended destination. But considering how poorly their day had gone, Querrick couldn’t think of anything stupider. Besides which, the destination was on the completely opposite end of the galaxy from where Querrick needed to go.
“No.” He repeated, “I am not one of your jare Rebel soldiers! You hired us for one job. We did that. We did that and more. Besides all that, you lied to us when you hired us. As far as I’m concerned, this job is finished.”
“We can’t just let the Empire have this.” Knoll cut in.
“Then blast it out the airlock and blow it up with the ship’s gun. Problem solved.” Querrick countered.
“No!” Sirena cut in, “I need to see this delivery to its end. The Rebels need this information!”
“Then send the Rebels!” Querrick replied, “We’re a shipping company, haar’chak!”
“Who do you think we can send?” Sirena countered, “I am the operative on this case, no one else.”
“I fail to see how that’s my problem.” Querrick replied, “I don’t have time for this. I can’t go gallivanting off to the edges of the galaxy to serve some ‘higher cause.’”
“And where do you have to be that’s so damn important, Querrick?!” Sirena was nearly shrieking at this point.
“Home.” Querrick replied stubbornly, “Back to Rishi. Knoll we already discussed this. When the job was done, and it is done. I needed to head back to Rishi. My b-… my fath-… someone close to me is sick. He may be dying. I might not have much time left. And heading out into the unknown regions, into an Imperial death trap is a side trip I’m not willing to make.”
“This is bigger than you, Cathar!” Sirena countered.
“I am not one of your little Rebels playing at soldier. You cannot order me around, Human. And you have no idea where anyone’s priorities lie. Going back to Rishi may net you allies and armament. Something you obviously need, if you’re considering taking on a secret Imperial base.” Querrick replied, glaring at the Human, “I’m offering you a chance at power you could not otherwise hope for. Besides, I don’t see any of your precious Rebels here, offering their help.”
“Well, we could try contacting Aklee.” Sadra spoke up.
“The Underboss? What does she have to do with any of this?”
“Aklee is an Alliance operative.” Sadra answered, meekly.
“Another Rebel.” Querrick replied, shaking his head, “Is anyone in this company not a lying, deceitful Rebel spy?”
“I’m not.” Knoll replied, “Not for a lack of trying.”
“I will crush any Rebel opposition.” Butter stated, plainly.
Querrick looked over at the droid, then to Sadra, and asked, “What did you do to him?”
“I’m honestly not really sure.” Sadra replied, sheepishly.
Querrick shook his head, “Doesn’t matter. I’m not going to Illa or whatever the haran you called it. I don’t have time for that. If that means I’m off the job, off the payroll, then fine. Drop me off at the nearest port world. I can find my own way back.”
“Wait.” Knoll spoke up, “Let’s not be rash. How about this. We go to Rishi. We use that time to contact the Rebels and any other allies we can find. We use that time to plan and prepare. To figure out just what it is we’re getting involved with on Ilum. Querrick can take care of his personal business, and we get a chance to actually strategize. Deal?”
“As long as I go where the cargo goes, you can do whatever you want.” Sirena replied, leaving the bridge.
“Kriffing witch.” Querrick muttered under his breath.
“Querrick?” Knoll asked.
“Fine by me.” Querrick replied.
“Coordinates locked in.” Sadra called out, “We’ll be there in five standard days.”
“Fine.” Querrick replied, leaving the bridge as well.
As he wandered back to the cargo bay, his resolve shattered as an all new panic set in. He had just gotten what he wanted. But it didn’t hit him until just that moment that what he wanted was insane. He left. He ran away. Yet, now he was heading back. He was going “home.” And there were no guarantees any of them would survive long enough to even think about what would follow after this little “detour.”
Yet, despite the panic, a certain resolve was settling. He hadn’t done much right in his life. Certainly not within the past few months. Perhaps this was the first step toward the honorable life he’d always sought. A life worth living. A life sworn to the Resol’nare.
“Have a seat Butter.” Knoll instructed.
Butter sat, without a word. The droid’s behavior had been strange ever since their last battle. Apparently Sadra had done… something to him. But it was as though she stole away the droid’s very soul. Not that droids had such things. Still, it unsettled Knoll.
He knew as much about droids as he knew about blasters, which was to say, nothing. But he knew Butter. He knew the droid’s interests and eccentricities. And Knoll had an idea.
Fetching the vial of pink Zeltron pheromone extract, Knoll began to apply some of the pheromones to Butter’s head.
Almost instantly, the droid’s photoreceptors lit up even brighter, and Butter’s hands were suddenly clutching Knoll’s head. “Oh, Knoll!” Butter exclaimed, “You did it!”
Much to Knoll’s shock, the droid pulled Knoll into his body, as if cradling the Arkanian, he then began to gently caress Knoll’s head, almost petting him.
“Uh, Butter.” Knoll tried to speak up.
“Shhhh…” Butter cooed, continuing to caress Knoll.
After attempting to free himself from the droid’s bizarre grip for several minutes, and failing to do so, Butter finally pulled him away, and said, “If I could, I would kiss you!”
Butter then got to his feet, and began skipping out the med lab, shouting, “I’m baaaaaaaack!”
Knoll stared at the empty doorway with wide eyes, wondering if that really was the best course of action…
