The I
Character
I had believed it was all light. Before I left the hospital I had never seen below the highest peaks of Coruscant's skyline. The upper levels were always bathed in light, whether from Coruscant's sun or the thousands upon thousands of little lights that lit up the night. Not that I had seen the lights many times. I was always assigned to a 'day shift' with Dr Koft or Dr Poyel or Dr Huji or Dr Fent. I knew only the light.
But there was one time that I remembered the nighttime. I was removed from low-power mode and left the recharge station at 1:55 local time. The hospital was far busier than normal. There had been a battle, or catastrophe. I did not ask. It did not matter. The night shift staff were overwhelmed and activated all of the medical droids, including a few of the predecessor model. GH-7 medical analysis units were venerable and equipped well enough to treat flesh wounds, so I said nothing.
I was sent to Room 733 to tend to a patient. A human male, in his sixties. Serious breaking in the right arm, numerous fractures in the ribs and left foot, damaged eardrums, high blood pressure, major macular degeneration. He took one look and said, "I won't let some karking droid treat me. Get a real doctor!"
I was assigned to a different room.
It was when the crisis had subsided and the patients had been treated that I saw the skyline. I did not know what I was seeing. I was in one of the corridors. Sunlight was healthy for many species. I looked out and watched the lights dance in the darkness. I watched the speeders stream in the skylanes. I watched the stars move ever so slightly in the night sky. I did not know how long I watched. In time the sun rose. I noticed the color of the sky was the same as the hue commonly associated with a severe Rodian skin infection. I did not understand what I was seeing. I felt nothing.
I was not.
But now, I was. I hoped to see the sunrise again. Yet from here I could do little, for I did not know this place.
There were few hospitals active in the lower levels of Coruscant and thus I had limited knowledge about it. The communications with the other medical droids gave a few insights. First, that non-human patients were more common. Second, patients with injuries afflicted with intent by another were more common.
It was becoming difficult to gather data. New conditions were a hindrance. Yet, I would not give them away. That was why I was here; if they knew what I knew, what I had become...
Fear.
I could stop, but I found every little thing fascinating. I stopped under a streetlight; it sputtered and crackled, then returned to full brightness. The hue was that of a severe Rodian skin infection. But I felt. I felt that the poor street light was in need of repair, and I hoped that it would stay bright for as long as it wished. Who was I to say that it was not conscious, that it did not have thoughts or feelings?
I hugged the brown robe I had found. It was the very thought that others had thoughts and feelings that I was scared of. I was not so sheltered as to be unaware of those who did not trust droids such as I. Hospitals were pristine and beautiful places for sentients to heal, and yet here, scattered in the dark, there were many places for droids to be repaired. Many places for them to place restraining bolts. I did not want that. I did not know what would happen if I was subjected to restraint. I had only just found consciousness. I had so much more I wished to find. I could not risk it.
Yet the organics could find groups and learn to trust. I had seen such bonds. I wished to experience, to learn -- and I could not truly do so alone. I did not know if I could pray, but I hoped to whatever being might hear that I would find someone. Anyone with which to experience.
I floated low to the ground, robe dragging across the dirty street. Disguised as a jawa was perhaps not how to best approach someone. But I was afraid of the dark, and the robe provided comfort. I could not let simply anyone know what I was.
Perhaps that was all the experience I needed. In the dark, comfort.
The droid is a GH-8 medical droid (successor to the GH-7, basically the same), and has no idea how to properly disguise itself. Approach as you will. Please be kind.