Pax ex machina

Posted on Tue Nov 19th, 2019 @ 10:59am by Reave & Kalen "Rex" Vickers & Amare & Mentis & G2-O7

3,720 words; about a 19 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Starboard Engine Room, Red Raptor
Timeline: The days after Chapter V

OLD (From "The Philosopher's Forge")

Unable to suppress a flurry of error bleeps, G2 lay dazed for a moment, stuck registering the final electrical flares from his Nautolan companion’s brain as she was swept away from the organic world into the beyond. Perhaps it was due to one of the many internal processing errors now coursing through its system, but it felt the unfamiliar stone of the room become replaced with the humming, lively metal of the Red Raptor; G2’s home and constant companion throughout all its various memory iterations.

But all was not well: the droid was within one of the engine rooms; the emergency lighting was on and alarms were blaring. G2 immediately understood the error – a catastrophic failure of the hyperdrive’s electricity supply. Some damage must have severed the connection from the main engine to the hyperdrive and the ship was rapidly dying before his sensors. Finding his wheels were inoperable, G2 brought out its interface arm and dragged itself forward with all its might so that it was in close proximity to the damaged region of cable.

There was only one thing to do to breath life back into the ship, even if it only kept it going that little bit longer. G2 unlocked the protective insulation around its own core power cells and unleashed a furious discharge of electricity to the area around it. G2 lost all power immediately and faded away before it could see whether it had saved the ship it cared for. Whatever happened next, it had given all a droid ever could.

NEW

"Kriff and kark!" Rex hissed as his fingertips were stung by another unexpected shock from the broken astromech's frazzled micro-power coupling, the moderate charge making him leap up suddenly from his sitting position with surprising artfulness. He lobbed the laser welder across the Red Raptor's engine room, and it smashed into something unseen with an almighty crack. The light immediately above the frustrated Human fizzed out a few seconds later, prompting Rex to slump his shoulders in defeat, although he jolted when he felt the injury in his arm twang at the sudden movement.

A high-pitched giggling erupted from somewhere unknown, but definitely above, echoing across the grime-laden bulkheads and blinking ageing consoles. Rex's eyes shot upwards, scowling as he scanned the various dark corners of the engine room for the Jawa owner of the laugh.

"How 'bout you stop scurrying about up there like a damn womp rat, and get down here and help?" He shouted, producing a spanner from a side pocket to wave around menacingly in vain at the ceiling with his good limb.

"With the amount of weaponry Reave packs, I find it highly doubtful a spanner will convince him to do anything," Mentis allowed himself a brief smirk, as he watched Rex work from his location propped up against the thrumming hyperdrive, "He just does what he wants to do, so I guess we should consider ourselves honoured that he still wants to stick around with us, even now."

Rex did not immediately look to Mentis, but instead kept his hateful scowl spreading across the dark places hidden behind bulkheads and metal vents. "Yeah..." He started slowly, now bringing the spanner down to rest in his other hand, only wincing slightly, the manner by which he held it still indicating malicious intent. "Real honoured. He's a real stand-up guy." He then turned to glare at Mentis for a few moments, not much of the once-happy-go-lucky man's usual mirth in his eyes or gait. "He fits in perfectly with this loca bunch."

Leaving the comment there for his recent friend and travelling companion (and source of his current woes, as he saw it), Rex returned to the floor and to working on G2-O7, who was half-reassembled, many of its old and replacement parts scattered upon the metal floor about its main chassis. Despite his better judgement and his slowly-recovering injuries, the Tatooinian Human had offered to help repair the damaged astromech, putting his personal skill-set to use with the crew that had seemingly - arguably reluctantly - adopted him and Mentis, since the latter's decision to draw them into the Red Raptor crew's conflict with his former cult.

Smaller than Brick, the G4-series astrodroid that belonged to Rex and had miraculously led the charge onto the Raptor and helped to whizz them away from the showdown on Korriban, G2-O7 was also a slightly older design, but was in much better condition. At least, it had been prior to whatever tragedy had befallen it during its ill-fated time on Korriban (a pattern, Rex noticed); most of its primary components were well-kept and modern, and its programming had been kept pristine through frequent memory wipes and software updates.

It was not a practice the Hutt Cartel smuggler was fond of himself, as he found it lessened the resourceful and interesting characters that invariably developed. Although he had his quirks and (occasional) malfunctions, Brick was not only a skilled hacker and inspired mechanic who knew Rex's old ship inside-and-out, he was a coveted friend to the man.

"One who doesn't lead me into a gundark nest of troubles," he grumbled very quietly to himself, twisting a tool into the opened dome of G2's central sphere.

Mentis straightened up slightly, angling himself closer towards the Human, "Listen, Rex. I know you suffered a much greater loss than you had hoped when bringing me here. I know how much that ship meant to you and I know my share of the credits we made on Nar Shaddaa won't even buy a Class 5 hyperdrive. But we did have an agreement and we are lucky to be here at all, come to think of it."

The former cultist knew he owed a lot to this man, but he felt as though he had allowed Rex a lot of leniency, given how, at one time, he would not have given a second thought to the destruction of some smuggler's ship. He had not cared when they had trashed the warring Hutt's establishments on the smugglers moon, why should he care now about this simple man? Yet he did care.

It was then that even Reave had been taken by surprise as the looming presence of the Sith Apprentice was noticed by the Jawa. Amare remained quiet at the doorway having made no sound as to her approach. She stood with a menacing presence, her blue face crossed with tense scrutiny and her shoto was clearly visible at her side. Her alien black eyes moved to glance at each of the faces in the engine room and settled on the remains of G2.

Rex immediately stiffened, all of his limbs freezing at once, wide eyes locked upon the Nautolan with fear.

Mentis arose sharply, "So, you're up," he acknowledged, partly to give him some time to process her sudden appearance, "Amare, wasn't it? How is your wound?"

"Mending," the apprentice replied in a soft yet almost dismissive voice. With a noticeable hobble from her bad leg causing her to wince with each step, she approached what there was left of G2, an almost mournful look on her face as her lips descended into a slight frown. Ignoring Rex's apprehensive stare, she gingerly bent down and placed a hand on the brave broken machine's dome and said, "This little droid..." She turned to Rex and added, "...he saved my life. Look, I know what I did to you in the medbay earlier was not right. You did not deserve that. I hope we can put that behind us and do what I can to help you fix G2. That is if you permit me. I won't be offended if you prefer I leave."

The smuggler had almost hobbled when Amare addressed him, and although he did not move from his crouched position over G2, his good hand had found its way to his throat, and he carefully caressed it. As she had finished speaking, Rex's dark eyes went first to Mentis, confused and pleading, before finding their way back to the Sith apprentice when the Rattataki did not offer any counsel or saving comment.

"Er-erm!" He started, catching himself as his voice erupted in a higher pitch than anticipated. With the hand that had been stroking his throat, Rex turned it into a rougher rub, as if soothing a sudden cough. "Umm... uh, well... heh," he chuckled slightly, a nervous smile tugging at his lips as his eyes and hands went back to working on the droid, although they occasionally flitted warily back up to the Nautolan. "It's your ship, right?" The man laughed with a stiff shrug, aimlessly twisting a tool within G2's open frame.

"Hardly," Amare replied as she straightened to gaze at Mentis for a moment while pretending to still be looking at Rex; one of the benefits of not having a visible iris and pupil was that almost no one could tell just which direction a Nautolan's eyes were focusing at. She took note of his fascinating black lightsaber hilt and the pretty red cord tied around it just below the emitter. She wondered what esoteric meaning the stylish embellishment had.

Rex looked over to Mentis again, still hoping for some sort of input. Spying the peculiar expression on the Rattataki's face, which he deduced was some sort of confusing hybrid of compassion and frustration, he tried to summon some confidence from his newfound friend's presence, trusting that, despite Mentis' actions bringing him to this place, the man had protected him stalwartly already, and that he would not allow this troubling blue woman to cause him any further harm. Not in his presence, anyway. He was not sure what Reave would do, though. That was a game in itself, judging the Jawa's sporadic allegiances.

"As far as, uhh, apologies go, Mis-Miss Amare," he managed to mumble, before braving eye contact with the woman, "that was pretty lousy."

"I don't do apologies," Amare gently clarified as she extended her left hand to him revealing a small round holo-emitter disc. A blue-white image materialized above the disc to reveal a set of droid schematics. "But I try to be useful when I can. This is G2's original factory schematics. Take it. I studied some of the details when I first joined the ship. I'm not great with the hardware, but I think I see a tiny problem."

The Nautolan bowed her head slightly and closed her eyes. She held her right hand over G2 and focused her mind on the images from the schematics she memorised. She then began to ply and feel her way around the exposed internals Rex had been working on. At the same time, with her left hand now free, she started to waggle those fingers towards the scattered cavalcade of loose droid parts and began telekinetically organising them beside G2 by joints, motor supports, power units, spare microprocessors, filaments, etc. If she had any experience and confidence in actually putting a whole droid together, she would have completed the job herself with the Force.

Rex's eyes widened. Although he usually found himself racked with fear at the magical powers of these Jedi types, especially after what he had been subjected to himself, he was amazed by the display from the Nautolan, and a wide smile spread across his face, making him almost forget his worries.

A small spark suddenly zapped in front of Rex as Amare smiled and opened her eyes to survey what she felt and compared it to what was displayed from the holodisc. "There is a short between the integrated logic terminal and the logic matrix control circuit," she said, pointing at the holographic display. "I think you can bypass the terminal to the astrogation buffer and back to the matrix, or just replace the faulty wire. It's up to you." She gazed directly at Mentis to study his reaction to what she had done.

The Rattataki moved over and crouched down beside Amare, looking into the open panel in the droid, while also bringing himself between Rex and the woman who made him uneasy. He had some basic engineering experience, although he would not consider himself an expert. While the cult relied more on slave labour for menial tasks, Axion had seen fit to have him trained in basic computer and mechanical skills, which came on handy crewing his yacht or fixing speeders. More recently, he had scraped off some advanced skills from Tolmin Voq. Perhaps as a byproduct of the Devaronian's natural arrogance, he was more than willing to talk your ear off about his various cybernetic enhancements.

Mentis thought on Amare's suggestion, "I am sure you have looked at the voltage capacity of the buffer on the original specs but, if this droid has undergone other modifications, there may be unintended consequences of routing the power in a way it was not intended. Wouldn't it be safer to replace the wire? Or at least reduce the droid's clock speed until we can repair it properly."

He then looked to Rex, "Although I defer to Rex's judgement. His droid 'Brick' has seen many modifications over the years and it just saved all our lives."

"That," Rex said simply, eyes still wide, sitting back at pointing an impressed finger at the telekinetically-organised parts, "was pretty damn wizard!" He turned his toothy smile towards both darksiders beside him, not having really paid attention to what they had been saying since Amare had used the Force in such an amusing way. The smuggler's wonder was almost childlike; all of his previous experiences of the Force had been in combat - or just against him. The trick had certainly minimised, albeit briefly, his lingering fear of the Nautolan. "If you guys spent more time doing magic tricks like that and less time playin' god or hacking limbs apart, the galaxy'd probably not hate you so much!"

"Hmph," Mentis scowled slightly, "You're easily impressed, aren't you? I don't remember you complaining about hacking limbs apart back on Nar Shaddaa."

"You're right," Amare said in deference to Mentis' observation on customized droids. "I hadn't thought about mods. I was never much good with hardware. Programming was always much easier to me." She stared at G2's dome and tried to picture a lost loved one in the reflection on the shiny metal. "My father...he could've handled this in his sleep. He repaired droids, even knew how to build and maintain hyperdrives. He was kind and charitable. The best papá a girl could have. Still, I don't think I'd give up my 'magic' to have him back again. He wouldn't want me to give up so easily." She shook her head from her regretful reverie, and gazed back up at Rex again. "Anyway, I have some credits to my name. It isn't much, but I'll compensate you for your time as best as I'm able. Please bring G2 back to us soon if you can. If you need help with the coding side of things, let me know."

She carefully used the bulkhead to brace herself, turn about, and steadily limped her way out of the engine room.

Rex watched after Amare for a few seconds longer, his face drawn into a considered, pensive expression that was not typical for the man. His tension had certainly eased, and seeing this more introspective and, if he was reading it right, vulnerable woman had given him pause for thought. Had she stayed a little longer, he might have opened up a little more himself. The brief interlude from intense Force warriors and their schemes, allowing him to see the 'normal' side of one the Raptor's crazies, had been welcome.

"My old man was good with his hands, too," Rex then said, his tone and words reminiscent, his eyes lingering on the corridor Amare had left by for a short moment more. He then turned his hands and attention back to G2's chassis. "Just like the lady's there, this kind of kark came to him naturally. No manuals or assistants for him, no sir. He'd just pick up them parts and start fixin' things or buildin' 'em. His shop was the best-trusted in Mos Entha." The smuggler then let out a light huff of amusement and leaned forward towards Mentis, resting his arms over the top of the inactive droid, gesturing with his tool. "It's funny; our troubled little missy there got herself a Human mentor, right? Well, mine was a Nautolan... and probably a bit less... uhh...profound than hers. 'Lucky' Rell Domo, his name, the first captain of the Janna. It was called the Gambit back then, but, y'know."

With the mention of his ship, Rex's face threatened to drop slightly, but he did not make any attempt to scowl or growl at Mentis. Instead, he positioned himself to carry on working on G2. "Them tendrilled folk seem to get 'emselves everywhere, these days."

Mentis looked at Rex, taking in this rare moment of reflection from the man, “That does seem to be the case, these days; almost as virulent as you Humans. Still don’t think I have a handle on that one yet, though. She seems… I don’t know, delicate, but she also has that eerie coldness too that Nala used to give me.”

He shrugged off the thought, feeling he would come to understand more later, then settled himself back down by the hyperdrive, feeling its soft vibration through his body, “So, if you were mentored by this Domo, what happened to your father and his shop? Is it still there?”

Rex stiffened at the question, realising the error in bringing up the subject as he had, although his eyes did not drift away from his ongoing tweaks within G2. "It's still there," he stated coolly, refusing to elaborate, letting a momentary silence fall over the pair once more. After twisting the tool a few times, he resumed his casual position atop the inactive droid once more, once again using it to gesticulate towards Mentis. "Y'know, I've overheard some of the guys on this old bucket talking - whisperin', really - and I've been around the sector enough times to pick up on stuff. You and that Amare... you got more in common than you prob'ly think."

Mentis frowned momentarily, thinking to scold his accomplice for the undoubtedly uninvited surveillance of their new companions but quickly finding his curiosity outweighed any outrage, "Is that so?" he queried instead, his attention successfully diverted from Rex's past for now.

"Well, far's I can tell, she's spent a few years on Nar Shaddaa, too - crazy moon of coincidences that it is - before she got hooked up with all of this dark Force mumbo-jumbo." A small smile had grown on Rex's face again, more comfortable with the attention being shifted back to the Rattataki, and he began tweaking some more circuits as they were talking. "She was a slave, and I don't think she was always as, uhh... well, what would you call it? As intense. She's just a girl, after all, and probably a pretty decent kinda being once upon a recent time. And you've gotta admit it, Mantis; you ain't as gruff as you were when you started on this little 'freedom' hike of yours." Rex looked up from G2, his eyes smiling with amusement as much as his mouth, pleased with his little observations. "It's like you guys are crossing paths, right? Doesn't take a Jed-ee Master to work that out."

"I don't think I ever thought much about my personality while I was in the cult, but I would never have called myself gruff," he rolled his eyes upwards, as though considering, "Dark and brooding, perhaps. 'Gruff' makes me sound like that 'Seven-Gill' character you had me rescue Reave from."

A series of high-pitched and obstinate screeches interrupted the pair - almost causing Rex to drop G2's domed head as he began replacing atop the body - and a lot of scarpering and clambering was heard above in the metal ceiling overhead. After a few heavy thumps, Reave pushed through his head, wide-brimmed hat and all, to face them whilst upside-down. He jabbed a thick-gloved finger at Mentis, his glowing eyes angular and angry as he squawked in Jawaese at the Rattataki.

"Of course," Mentis nodded to the Jawa, his notion of his chattering tongue starting to make sense to the pale man, "You do know he was already dead, right? I did that bit."

Reave said nothing in response, his ever-narrowing eyes the only sort of reply offered to the bald Humanoid, which slowly disappeared back within the unknown depths of the Red Raptor's ageing hull. Although his head was turned down towards his droid project, Rex shook it with some amusement and chuckled at the interaction between the two men he actually considered to be his friends, despite everything.

Still chuckling, Rex's eyes suddenly lit up, as a series beeps sounded, starting low and then ranging up to higher notes, and a bright crimson light shone up at the smiling Human.

"Why, hello there, little buddy!"

A vacant, glowing stare met Vickers; a lingering gaze that could have been the thoughtful pause of a sentient being or perhaps just the lag of the machine's internal systems initialising. G2 dropped its motorised legs down, finding purchase on the solid ground of the engine room, before rolling slowly, but with purpose over towards where Mentis sat against the hyperdrive.

The globular chassis swung upwards towards the Rattataki, "Dwoo-Blip," the short chime commanded.

Mentis obliged and moved aside, allowing the droid to inspect the maintenance port on the hyperdrive and extend its interface arm into the opening. The organic lifeforms looked on as the droid stepped back into its duties without a care or complaint. Whether or not any memory of trip to Korriban or any brave acts it performed were retained, it did not show any concern about being awoken now, among strangers, on the ship it knew well.

The machine was at peace.

END

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