Public A Signal in the Desert

[NE-1]

Moisture farmers across the planet of Jakku knew of one rule. An unspoken one that most never shared with anyone outside the community of farmers scraping by. Not when that information kept raiders from hitting them more often.

If you see a stray power droid, don't try to keep it.

A larger than average power droid wandered the whole of the planet, records never mentioning the sandblasted gun metal thing. But the moisture farmers knew about it, if you knew how to ask. They warned the people who knew how to ask. Warned them to be thankful for the little thing if it wandered into their camp, but never to be greedy. The raiders were always watching. The raiders loved the little droid, and made a point to keep watch over it.

Sometimes guiding it back to their own hidey holes to power the limited machinery they had gathered over time that hadn't broken down and scrapped. Parts were a premium on the planet, and you couldn't afford to snag a generator if you had no means to fix it. The little droid was a divine being, sharing power for nothing, and no one would keep it against it's will.

Which was why at the base of a dune, tall and casting shadows over the ground below it. The gunmetal power droid was standing over a particular point in the desert, complaining loudly and occasionally shouting it's name in the middle of the desert sea. Over another dune a few kilometers out, a pair of raiders watched over the droid, their speeders parked and powered down. They always kept it within sight, moving as it did and had been stopped now for some time.

Each time it complained, a transponder signal was sent out as a request to fix this thing it was standing over. It reached out clear into space, all over the planet accompanied by the honking screech of it's name.

 

[CLEM]

A single 'gonk' in Gonkian carried modestly dense information and moderately great depth of meaning. Few could truly understand the nuances of the signal that NE-1 disseminated. Small wonder, then, that kinship and commonality increased the likelihood of understanding and response.

A second GNK droid - much abused, paint peeling away in rainbow layers, and of a lesser size - plodded along the dunes. A faded sticker above a power port read HELLO My name is CLEM. The rough-edged GNK paused at the crest of a sand-choked krayt skeleton and got its first proper view of NE-1.

"Gonk!"

 

[NE-1]

The first droid paused in it's complaining at the sound of another proper gonk droid. The slight shuffling of it's feet as it turned to examine the new arrival making the raiders in the distance making them look between the two with a shake of their head. The lead scout pondered just how much time they were going to spend here now, watching over two gonks.

NE-1 gave a woeful gonk in reply, The large door panel before it was in need of repair, the mechanism holding the door in place threatening to be locked shut by rust eating away at the cover panel.

"Gonk!"

 

[CLEM]

Drawing near, CLEM examined the problem. The big gunmetal GNK was looking down at a corroded hatch. Rust had consumed patches of the cover panel. Through irregular little gaps, CLEM estimated a high probability that the mechanism was in much better shape.

Gingerly, he extended one of his power pack dispenser trays - he was an ammunition Gonk - and hooked it into a stretch of rust. The makeshift limb had only a few inches' reac, enough to push large buttons or shove, say, exposed locking levers.

Twisting on his bulky feet, CLEM ripped off the cover plate. Metal squealed - he tested the tray's retraction function and found it nonresponsive. That particular tray was toast. He used its jagged stump to shove the locking lever.

The door opened.

NE-1

 

[NE-1]

The other gonk droid set about opening the door as a final signal was sent out from NE-1 to come fix the door ahead of it. When the door opened, the last signal lingered, NE-1 ceasing the beacon as it looked at the handy work that CLEM had done with an affirming and pleased "Gonk." in kind. Shuffled steps lead it inside as the hallway before them seemed untouched for some length of time. It signaled for CLEM to follow it inside.

Particles clung to the air, almost like a tomb being opened as the raiders over the dunes lost sight of the pair and became alarmed by the development.

NE-1 activated the external floodlight on his left side, scanners firing away as it tried to find the generator for the place they had come into. A series of maze like hallways and powered down doors and consoles were around the pair, slowly trudging forward as it tried to find the main generator. Sand was present in the hallways, piling in the corners and filling the empty floor space as the tracks behind NE-1 cut through and pushed a pair of lines in the sand.

Even with the large piles of gathered sand and debris, NE-1 pushed on, it's hull pushing over a fallen pieces of ceiling debris out of the way as it pushed forward.

CLEM

 

[CLEM]

NE-1 's superior bulk cleared the way for CLEM, who stumbled even with the aid of the gunmental Gonk's footprints. CLEM paused at maze-like intersections, turning around to get a sense of the layout and piece together a partial map of this hidden site. With an aggressive but somehow plaintive "gonk," CLEM marveled at NE-1's sense of direction, and inquired as to their objective. CLEM had come to help a droid in distress; now it seemed that droid had a capital-P Purpose, but that Purpose remained unknown to CLEM.

Regardless, CLEM followed faithfully in NE-1's footprints, which offered the easiest course. Well, the easiest forward course - CLEM discarded the option of just plain leaving.

 

[NE-1]

Through the mess of hallways, which were mainly designed to fool the sentient, and debris there was a faint power signal in the deep of the complex. A failing one that NE-1 had locked onto. The door at the entrance had failed to keep the pair out given CLEM ripping it open. Now the pair would find themselves eventually within the bowels of a certain observatory thought lost to time.

The door CLEM had ripped open had been a small and discreet service door, not included in the original plans drawn up so long ago.

The raiders outside had come closer, inspecting the now open door and pondering what to do. The leader of the pair sent the second to relay a message, leaving the lead scout waiting just inside the doorway as the other ran off.

NE-1 replied with an adamant and resolved gonk about the need to power the old system inside. It had been a command from long ago to feed power to whatever needed it. Albeit that order was likely given a great length of time ago. And maybe they were taking the command a bit too literally, but something needed power. And NE-1 was the droid to do it.

It was single-minded in this task, pushing debris out of the way, some marked with imperial stampings as the pair pressed on. Old sentinel droids, rusting and uncared for shook to life as the pair made their way through the central chamber and into a hallway. The new droids assessed them, deeming them relatively safe but questioning their purpose as NE-1 gonked at them to let him pass and kickstart the generator.

 

[CLEM]

CLEM had its doubts, but in the end its primary purpose was to power things, and NE-1 said something here - something significant and worthwhile - needed to be powered. And together two GNKs could power anything. So CLEM, though it wasn't much of a follower, followed both NE-1 and its prime directive, and trudged past old sentinels and Imperial debris with exactly one flicker of curiosity. CLEM assessed the sentinels' ancient weapons and determined power pack compatibility, in preparation for the off chance CLEM needed to start dispensing ammunition. CLEM hadn't dispensed ammunition in far too long.

The passages opened into a complex and baffling chamber far outside CLEM's experience, intuition, programming, and interest. Was this the machine in need of power? It certainly seemed like it.

"Gonk?"

 

[NE-1]

NE-1 gave an affirming "Gonk." as the pair moved deeper into the complex. That drive pushing it forward until a large vent emerged to their left with a set of consoles dominating the far wall after a short hallway. Old computers, some powered down and others flickering as the power slowly ebbed out of them.

The droid approached what was likely a healthy generator at one time. Now dilapidated and showing plain signs of disrepair. NE-1 gonked in remorse for the poor thing, power cable socketing into the old thing and spinning up as power was diverted from the internal fusion generator into the old thing.

"Gonk!" NE-1 signaled to CLEM to join them before hearing the generator slowly cycle itself back. It sputtered, power of one droid not sufficient enough yet to power everything or even kick over the generator. The flood light flashed off, dedicating all external power to its fusion generator.

 

[CLEM]

Now this was familiar ground. The place might be bizarre, the purpose uncertain, but helping kick-start a reactor was something CLEM could do in its sleep. Literally - it had a useful 'recharge large object while hibernating' setting. In fact it started to drowse off, devoting significant operating power to the task.

The fusion reactor began chugging to life, plasma circling a superconducting ring and approaching stellar-core temperatures. CLEM was aware of none of this. To CLEM, a fusion reactor was a light of the dead, red, yellow, or green variety. And that light had just hit yellow.

CLEM dreamed contributory dreams and began to snore.

"Gonk...gonk...gonk...gonk..."

NE-1