CHAPTER TEN
After overhearing the Snatchers' plan to move the Star Map, Anakin and Remker had returned to Trek's landspeeder and silently watched as five Snatchers, including the Bosph, boarded their own vehicle, which was a modified A-A5 heavy speeder truck. To Anakin's relief, the Snatchers had existed through a back door, and this had not seen the unconscious guards.
To the Jawa, Remker asked, "Do you think we could follow them by keeping a good distance and without getting them to notice us?"
Trek laughed. "Do banthas carry blue milk?"
He patted his Gotal partner on the back and in moments their landspeeder took off.
* * *
Jokar's team- minus Zaylii, Jast, and the other three Jedi, who had opted to stay behind to help heal Jast- made their way towards the abandoned droid workshop, which, as Je'mak had said, was not far from the cantina.
Inside the building, which was hardly lit at all, save for the few rays of sunlight shining through the glass-less windows, the team found several droid parts littering the place. Protocol droid heads dominated shelves suspended by the arms of an ASP labor droid. Nearby was an astromech droid's body, which had been repurposed into a mobile trash can.
"Whoever took over this place last had an odd decorating sense," Vex muttered.
"Odd doesn't even begin to describe it," Tesara replied as she pointed at something in the corner of the room.
Jokar stared at what she had noticed, which was an average EV-series supervisor droid. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it wasn't quite average after all. Underneath the droid's 'armpits' was an extra set of arms, though they were smaller than the main ones. He also noticed that the main arms had more pronounced claws with extra tools attached to them.
It was then that Jokar realized that he was starting at an A4-D laboratory assistant droid, which, combined with the fact the EV-series droids were quite sadistic....
"Sir, I would prefer it if you would stop staring at my chassis," a cold feminine voice suddenly said.
Jokar let out a yelp as the A4-D's white eyes flickered on and the droid came to life. Behind him, the Rybet called Cyclops laughed loudly.
"Wow! Talk about awkward!"
"Shut up," Jokar growled. To the droid, he said, "My apologies, er, ma'am. I had no idea you were still functional."
The droid's eyes seemed to regard him coldly. "That's what they all say."
The A4-D extended a clawed hand at him. "My designation is EV-A4-V, though my master refers to me as 'Eve.'"
"I see," Jokar said, reluctantly shaking the hand. "Where is your master, Eve?"
"Right here," Eve said. "He's been staring at you for the last few minutes."
Suddenly, the sound of skittering sounded in the room. Jokar and the others searched left, right, above, and behind them, but could not find the source of the noise. When the Wookiee known as Lumpy howled, they looked up ahead.
Behind Eve was an arachnid-like BT-16 perimeter droid. And inside the spherical jar attached where a spider's head would've been was a brain hovering in a nutrient fluid.
Jokar was pretty sure he felt his most recent meal resurfacing and did his best to swallow it back down.
"Er, greetings," he said to the spider walker. "I am Commander Ronn Jokar of the Imperial Remnant. I've been told that you know something about the Star Map here on Tatooine."
"Affirmative," the BT-16 replied in a monotonic voice, no doubt via a vocabulator.
"So, what do you know about it?"
The droid responded with a series of chirps and beeps. Jokar glanced at Eve.
"Translation?"
"Do I look like a protocol droid?" the A4-D said bitterly.
"No, but neither do we."
Making a noise resembling a sigh, Eve said, "My master says that, according to the writings of an ancestor of his, the Tatooine Star Map was located in ancient ruins located outside of Anchorhead, at least as recent as three millennia ago."
"Do you know if it's still there?" Jokar asked the BT-16.
"Negative," Eve translated for the spider walker. "However, it is unlikely for it to have been moved, for no one has been known to have visited those ruins since then."
"One last thing," the commander said. "Do you know the exact location of these ruins?"
"Do you have a datapad?" the A4-D said for the BT-16.
Jokar nodded and brought out a small datapad. The BT-16 extended an interfacing arm from a hidden panel and plugged it into the device.
"The coordinates to the ruins should now be on your datapad," Eve said.
Jokar smiled, with some difficulty, at the BT-16's brain. "And to whom do I owe thanks."
This time, it was the spider droid who replied. "Bib Fortuna."
No comments:
Post a Comment