Miserable Miracle

[Gir Quee]

Delphin-class Frigate Delphin, in orbit via the Capuli 2

"...and this is...good information?" said Aiko.

Her almond-shaped eyes darted to meet his gaze before quickly turning to face Capuli 2. Gir looked out at the surface of the world, of what he could see. It was hard to imagine that underneath the smoggy haze with its occasional flares of errupting lava that it could still be there. I cannot blame her for doubting...He turned his eyes to Azira, but she seemed unpeturbed by Aiko's uncharacteristic skepticism. Azira met his gaze openly and let part of her fur ruffle, letting Gir know in no uncertain terms that dealing with Aiko would be his concern. The former Republic officer cleared his throat as he approached the Delphin's new captain.

"I too was skeptical about this," said Gir, "initially, but there's little reason to doubt the information. The information broker has a well-established reputation that I doubt that he would want to tarnish by supplying us with outdated information. Perhaps just as interesting, it explains what I-C2X3 was doing here."

Aiko's head swung around to meet his gaze, "I will not deny that this isn't a possibility, but I do not see this as being likely. It has been a long time, and that environment doesn't look welcoming."

"We've seen worse," remind Azira, "even closer to civilized space. The fact remains that where the potential for a profit is, life will find a way to make it work. Think of Calrissan's colony on Nyllon."

"An exceptional case."

Gir nodded in agreement, "But doesn't every corporate titan want to be exceptional or have an exceptional company?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"Risk makes an exceptional product," said Azira, "that's what they did, and that's what we're doing. Their only fault was bad timing. But they weren't alone with the Gulag plague wrecking people's hopes and dreams."

Aiko slowly shook her head, "I'm not sure if it was the plague, or this world. If you are all going down there, it looks like you'll need full enviro-suits, and even then I'm not certain it'll be enough."

"For a lengthy trip...even overnight, I would agree," said Gir, "but the recovery team won't be staying down there for long. We may have to make frequent trips to and from the Delphin before we find it, if it's still there."

"I do think that Vesuvi City should still exist," said the bothan, typing in commands into the bridge's holo-projector.

Light began to coalesce over it to form images of shattered biodomes which contained crumbling towers and ruin-strewn streets. It seemed to Gir that whatever had formed the structural supports in many of the structures had mostly oxidized given the unusually uniform state of decay across the settlement. Gir guessed that the acrid smoke pouring into settlement from the volcanoes had only enhanced that decay. Gir doubted that all of the buildings had been completely black and sooty before the venture's complete abandonment.

"That footage two years old if Behtil gave us the correct information," mused Gir, "but given how long these ruins have been around, I think that statistically speaking, we're not likely to find it being much different. Perhaps a few more buildings collapse or some more of the dome superstructure destroyed."

"All of which could have destroyed it."

"Even pieces of it could be useful," mused Azira, "but mechanical life is interesting, especially when left on its own to develop. You might be surprised at how resilient it has become if it's still functioning."

"If being the operative word."

She's getting into one of her catty moods...they do seem to be good at bringing out the worst in each other...Perhaps it is best if I leave now. Gir slowly shook his head and cleared his throat.

"I am going to leave you ladies in charge now," said the blonde man, "please do try to get along while I'm on the surface."

Gir could almost feel Azira's glare upon him. Yet he felt like he detected a hint of amusement in her eyes as if it was the aftertaste of a fine wine. Aiko seemed more reserved in expressing her emotions, but Gir had learned that it was a sign that she was formulating some sort of calculated response. He waited for it.

"I'd like to join you sir," said Aiko, "with all due respect, I'm more experienced as a scout than you are. I've spent almost ten years in the business."

"That's true," admitted Gir, "but I need someone competent who can run the ship while I'm away. I do not feel comfortable switching places either. This is my risk to take. I do not pay you well enough for the danger."

"Space travel in these parts is likely just as dangerous."

"Perhaps," smiled Gir wanly, "but it's not in your job description, captain."

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir had half-expected her to protest, but she didn't. Instead, the slim woman slinked away to the vessel's command chair. She settled into it and began to type in orders. Gir had to admit that it still seemed weird to see anyone else in that chair, but he had long given up on being able to do it all. She probably knew that this outcome was going to happen anyway. Azira subtly cleared her raspy throat.

"Gir."

"Yes?"

"We'll be fine. Really, I mean it," said the bothan, moving close to his ear, "I'm putting on act, and I wouldn't be surprised if she is as well."

A frown flickered across his face, "Do I want to know?"

"The games some people play Gir," mused the bothan, "she's testing things...you, the system, her fellow employees...she's looking to figure out the limits and true motivations, I think. Testing it to be sure that she's safe."

"Is that really who we hired?"

"Wild Space can be a rough place," said the bothan, "that's one thing that your service in the Core insulated you from. Sure, the Sith and your enemies were ruthless...but at least you knew who to point the blaster at. Here...well...it can be a bit more murky. you're probably the most reputable employer in this immediate area right now by several different metrics. I'll keep an eye on her too...we won't leave without you."

"That's comforting," mused Gir, strolling towards the bridge's exit, "but there's a reason why I chose a hyperspace capable transport. If you must leave, you must leave. It might be better to draw any hunters away with you before they discover what's here."

"I doubt we'll find anyone here," said the bothan, "or rather that we'll have a reason for anyone else to show up. Officially, there's nothing that's ever been here, and we're not near civilized space. Colonies are reaching out here again, sure, but their routes are still light years away from being close to this place."

"So we hope."

"It's almost a fact."

"Almost," repeated Gir.

 

[Gir Quee]

"Well, if they do show up, you certainly picked a ship capable of fending for itself."

"So we hope."

"I'm not liking the use of the word "hope" in all this...don't tell me that Aiko's rubbed off on you already...I know how much you like to avoid conflict...but you can't fall into her lines of thought..."

Gir checked his tongue as they passed through a doorway towards the ship's hangar. She might have a point. Aiko is pretty pessimistic...but I do not like getting my hopes on things like this. Gir slowly nodded.

"Hope for the best, plan for the worse," said Gir, "but you've never seen this side of me. When I'm on the battlefield or an campaign."

"This isn't a battlefield."

"But it is a campaign," mused Gir as they entered the Delphin's hangar, "it's only the obstacles that different. The methodology of dealing with them remains the same."

She rolled her eyes, though Gir thought that he caught of glimmer of warmth in her eyes all the same. Her fur rippled as they neared the two other scouts standing near the MRX-BR Pacifier's ramp. A gray-plated M38 Explorer droid rolled up to stand next to the scouts. Gir glanced around the ship's hangar. Aside from two other transports and members of the deck crew, the hangar seemed empty.

"Where's the other one?" asked Gir.

"Already onboard and powered down," said the Opeli, crossing her arms, "it was getting...flighty."

"Droids," muttered the husky trandoshan, "can't live without them, can live with them."

"At least they're not your roommates," smiled Gir, "let's get going. We can't let our droids remain flighty after all..."

The scout group walked up the Black Prince's ramp, leaving Azira behind. The bothan watched as the Prince's running lights flicker on and its engines began to whine. One of the Delphin's mechanics guided Azira away from the starship's vicinity before it hovered away into space and towards Capuli 2.

 

[Gir Quee]

MRX-BR Pacifier Black Prince, Capuli 2

"See anything interesting on the scans?" asked Gir, sparing a glance from the ship's right cockpit chair.

The trandoshan sitting at the cockpit's other chair shook his head.

"Not unless you like fire," said Sissh.

The lithe redhead behind him began to snicker, "Come now Sissh, I know some geologists who would be interested in your data again."

Sissh groaned, "You don't need to remind me of that con artist again..."

Gir turned his attention back to the HUD and flying the starship as the two scouts began to banter. The haze that covered the world seemed to be unusually uniform in its dispersion pattern, and while it didn't obscure his natural vision as much as he thought it might, it still concealed enough that he couldn't become lax on the job. He glanced at his instrument panel to pick up his altitude and full-spectrum transceiver return. The latter device showed an unusual spike in the landforms which suggested to the captain that such large landform was ahead; one that rose above the basalt plains overrun with rivers of bubbling lava. Probably a volcano...He slightly tilted the yoke of the craft to his starboard, causing the Prince's trajectory to veer to the right. They broke through an unusually thick wall of smokey ash which revealed an ascending mound of black rock. It seemed clear to Gir that at point it had been active volcano, but it had long since become dormant judging by the placid caldera that occupied its peak. He gently tilted the flight path back to the left, taking them above and across it. Sissh cleared his reptilian-like throat.

"Less tectonic activity now."

"Well numbskull, we are flying over an inactive volcano."

"Beyond this mountain...thing..." hissed Sissh, "it goes far beyond this place for kilometers."

"Vesuvi City is less than 5 kilometers from this place," noted Gir, slowing the craft down, "it may be that they chose this location because it isn't geologically active."

Opeli glanced at her datapad.

"From the rest of the ship's sensor scans as interpreted by Matey over," said the woman pointing at the M38, "this place has relatively stagnant wind patterns."

"Then there isn't any changes in heat then," mused Gir, "the upper atmosphere probably blocks any incoming radiation from the sun, and if there's no geothermal heat coming up from underneath it...there's no temperature change."

"A good place to build a home," commented Sissh, "probably on the center of tectonic plate now."

Gir nodded in agreement as he spotted the remains of Vesuvi City. He pulled the yoke up, taking the Black Prince in a climb before looping around the city. It was more dilapidated than the holos had indicated. Gir could see upon closer inspection of one of the towers that its ferrocrete had been breaking off in flakes. The sole tower that had rose up from the northeast sector had collapsed since that unknown scout had stumbled upon this place.

"So where do we land?" asked Opeli.

"We're getting ahead of ourselves..."

"I'll see if our prey is still alive..." grunted Sissh, adjusting the sensor controls once more.

 

[Gir Quee]

"Faint energy signal on the northeast side," noted Sissh.

Gir looped around one tower before passing through a pair of disintegrating monoliths. A stream of sooty dust trickled down from their rising peaks. He could almost hear the wind howl between the passage. The buildings began to become smaller in stature, aside from the collapsed tower, and Gir noticed thousands of glinting rectangular panels laying across the ground. They either really like glass buildings or....no, they're too small to be full-sized buildings...even houses...solar panels perhaps...they must have been set up early in the city's construction...was the atmosphere really less dense then it is now though to make that practical? He shuffled the thoughts to the back of his mind as they neared a particularly flat piece of rubble. He eyed it warily. Hopefully that'll be good enough...The Black Prince swooped down onto the ferrocrete and hovered over it like a Corellian vulture over the carcass of nerf. Here goes nothing...Gir flipped the switches, powering down the starship. The craft slightly shuddered as its three landing pads made contact with the ground. The craft vibrated and Gir heard a high pitched whine emanate from the ship's cargo hold. Opeli shook her head.

"A bit rough on the landing," said the redhead, "even for our hover droid back there."

Gir shrugged, "I'm afraid I need more flight time with the Prince before I become an expert with it."

"You'll have to bring the barge herself next time."

Gir rose up from his chair and donned the helmet of his Vanguard-class Space Armor, "Who says that you're coming along with me next time?"

She quickly shut her jaw. The other two scouts donned the helmets of their own suits. Sissh had opted to take another set of the Lucerne Labs armor as part of his payment for the job, but Opeli had kept her battered orange enviro-suit that looked like it had been used by a dozen owners before. It seemed a strange choice to Gir, but he tried to make a conscious decision not to judge her priorities. The group made their way to back of the vessel to be joined by the M38 and rebuilt Arakyd probe droid. After seeing that everyone was ready, Gir tapped a button on his oversized comlink, closing the doors to the rest of the ship behind him before the doors to the outside whined open.

 

[Gir Quee]

"D8, you go first. Matey, go after him. We'll follow."

The Viper probe droid spun its sensor-studded head around before drifting down the vessel's ramp onto the surface of Capuli 2. Seeing that nothing had attacked D8 yet, the elderly M38 followed suit and rolled down the ramp behind him. Gir glanced at both Sissh and Opeli before he began to stroll down the ramp. His eyes swept across the ruined cityscape several times before he moved his hand from the grip of his holstered blaster pistol.

"Easy cowboy," said Opeli, staring at her portable scanner, "I can detect a couple of small signals around here, but they're all underground."

"Energy signals or animals?"

"Energy signals you loaf," muttered the redhead, "this planet was lifeless before they came here...I don't see any reason why that would change in this type of environment."

"Living things adapt," offered Gir, coming to Sissh's defense.

"Yeah, some things," agreed the woman, "but to this degree, and without some sort of gene-splicing...well...I'd bet you a twenty cred chip that it wasn't some sort of natural evolution here."

"Doesn't matter if it's still living here," said the Trandoshan, brandishing his accelerated particle gun, "we may have to put it down."

"If we're putting something down, there's a good chance that it won't be living...at least by the biological definition," said Gir, "is one of the signals nearby?"

"Well...that's a relative thing...they're all moving except for two of them. But those two signatures are pretty large."

Gir frowned as Opeli handed him the scanner. He fiddled with the controls, trying to get some insight into what they had found. Well, either of the energy signals is large enough to be the droid...but two of them? And why are they underground? Did they get buried in ash? He handed the scanner back to the redhead.

"Well, since they don't seem to be moving, we should probably go investigate them first," decided Gir, "one of them is probably what I'm looking for."

"And if it's not?"

"We'll probably end up blasting it..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Opeli's exasperated sigh was loud enough to be heard not only over the team's comlinks, but through their suits as well.

"What's with it guys wanting to blow everything up?"

"Blasting isn't the same as blowing it up," said Gir, unslinging his DEMP carbine, "I'd prefer to disable it if it's hostile...but I digress. Matey, lead us to the closest of the two large energy signals."

The droid made a muted affirmative before rolling off of the slab and onto the ground. Gir half-expected the droid to sink into ashy ground, but it didn't. As he stepped onto the ground, he found it surprisingly well-packed. While it certainly wasn't as firm and unmovable a duracrete, it clearly would work well enough as a prepared surface for landing a starship or to act as the road of a busy city thoroughfare. Perhaps there's duracrete underneath the layers of ash...or construction droids did something to vitrify it...His glanced up to see one of the dozens of nearly identical prefabricated houses that dotted Vesuvi City. It almost seemed new aside from the swathes of black dust that clung to it. No-one's probably ever actually be inside it either...strange fate for an artifact like this...He glanced at Sissh, but the trandoshan had trained his weapon on the left side of the street as he checked out the windows. Gir couldn't decide if that action suggested that Sissh was paranoid, or that he was used to being in combat zones. On the other hand, it is probably better to be safe than sorry...D8 suddenly shot ahead of them and around a building. And while Gir couldn't see the droid, he could hear the whine of blaster fire. Before Gir could speak, he could Sissh fly past him towards where their Viper probe droid had gone.

"You two," said Gir, turning to Opeli and Matey, "stay here. If we don't come back, signal for help from the Delphin."

Gir sprinted forward in pursuit of the trandoshan. As the alien disappeared behind the wall of the building, and Gir slowed down. If things were really bad, there'd probably be more weapon's fire right about now. He neared the wall that obscured the Viper and Sissh from him. Still..perhaps its best to play his safe. The former Republic officer peeked around the corner to see D8 hovering towards him, while Sissh knelt down to the ground by a metallic object. Gir strode forward.

"Was is it?"

"A droid of some sort," said Sissh, standing up.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir neared the down droid and knelt down to inspect it. Smoke wafted out of its partially charred and dust-covered exterior, and while D8 had destroyed a significant portion of it with its blaster, there were enough remains present to be interesting to the man. It appeared to be a quarter meter tall cylinder with a quartet of mechanical appendages hanging down from it. Most of the appendages seemed to be some sort of manipulation arms, but one very clearly was a gun of some sort. It doesn't seem likely that D8 would zip around here to shot a droid that already down or deactivated...which means that this one was live...But is it a sentry droid or something else? Gir turned his eyes to Tissh.

"Do you know this model?"

"I've seen a droid like it once before," revealed the trandoshan, "the single red eye is quite distinct. But it's a design nearly as an old or if not older than a Star Cab."

"From a Star Cab, you think?" asked Gir.

Star Cabs were notoriously old exploration craft often crewed partially by allegedly difficult droids, but they seemed to have a cult following among certain groups of explorers.

"The one I saw was in a museum of oddities on Nar Shaddaa. The shell of the one I had saw had killed a Hutt crime lord years ago."

"An assassin droid of some sort?"

"Maybe...maybe not...I do not know. All droids can be dangerous. Even the one you're looking for."

 

[Gir Quee]

His HUD began to light up as D8 began to stream him information. So the droid was scanning us...that's not too surprising I suppose...it's the first time it's probably seen organic life in a long time...but doing so with a targetting system probably wasn't the brightest idea that droid had. Still, it's hard to say if that's an action that would have led it to attack us...it could be that it's other sensors were damaged. Gir looked down at the remains of the droid. Then again, if it has had the ability to keep its repulsorlifts working all of this time...and it's not from a starship, that means there is some sort of infrastructure here that's maintaining it...He looked towards Sissh.

"We should go. If there are more of them, I'm certain they'll come looking for their lost comrade."

Sissh nodded in agreement. The trio began to walk back towards Opeli and Matey. Gir found himself shouldering his DEMP gun and looking intently around them. He half expected one of the droids to crash through a house window and start firing on them. But nothing happened, except for Sissh and Opeli arguing about the alleged aggressiveness of D8's actions.

But as the group advanced down the street, nothing new revealed itself, and they found themselves at the base of the collapsed tower. Matey rolled through the collapsed entry way, leading the group into what Gir guessed had been a lobby at one point. Sooty dust covered the duracrete counters and the metal furniture, but Gir found his eyes drawn towards his eyes drawn to an excavation in the floor large enough to allow landspeeders easy passage. It's hard to see that as being part of the original design...

"Well, at least we know how all of those signals are coming from underground..." said the woman, staring at the scanner's screen, "most of the signals have passed through this point."

"How far is the large energy signal?"

"Ah...about three hundred meters total, about a hundred meters below us and some hundred to the north..."

And I have no idea where north is on this planet...Still, that's relatively close...this mission may end sooner than I thought would have been possible...

 

[Gir Quee]

"Let me take lead," said Sissh, "my eyes are...more adapted for this level of light."

Gir turned his head towards Opeli, but the redhead did not object. Gir bit his lip as he considered the request. He's a bit trigger happy...but so is D8 it appears...Opeli doesn't seem to be a fighter and M38 is the most harmless one of the bunch...The blonde man suppressed a sigh as the turned his gaze back to the trandoshan.

"Lead on, I'll be right besides you."

Sissh grunted in agreement as the former Republic officer started walking towards him. As they met, the rest of the group fell in behind them, and the scout party waded into the dank, dark tunnel. His armor's HUD began to gradually adjust for the change in lighting, but before Gir knew it, they were almost in pitch blackness. Gir found himself frequently looking at his feet as they stepped over uniformly spaced clumps of uneven dirt. He thought he heard Opeli stumble briefly behind him, yet Sissh strode forward as if they were in broad daylight. His eyes wandered towards the walls of the tunnel. He expected to see some sort of support structure, but there was none. The path began to curve towards the left and the hardened dirt underneath their feet quickly gave way to some sort of bedrock.

Sissh's arm suddenly shot out in front of Gir, causing the group to abruptly halt. Gir's pulse quickened as he looked for the danger. Instead, he felt the trandoshan grab his hand and point it towards a distant pinprick of gray light only noticeable to the most observant of people. What is that? He toggled the zoom feature on his HUD.

 

[Gir Quee]

His HUD struggled to enhance the image, but he could see that he was looking at what seemed to a hexagonal piece of metal. But what is it? He wetted his lips and swiveled his head to face the tall trandoshan.

"What is it?"

"A blast door, I think," grunted the trandoshan, "but we are too far away for me to be sure."

Why have a blast door this far down? Gir's mind began to populate with various theories for such an object's appearance in what otherwise appeared to be a very primitive tunnel. It didn't seem likely to Gir that this had been part of the original design of the city given its rather slow grade of descent. If the city's planners had wanted an underground element, why hadn't they used a traditional lift? At the forefront of his mind was the fact that most doors served to separate things or divide up space. So perhaps the question I should be asking is what's behind he door? He turned around to face Opeli.

"How far away is the signal?"

The redhead looked down at her portable scanner, "I don't know for sure, I'm getting a lot of interference all of the sudden, but it seems to be in the general direction of where numbskull was just pointing to you."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," said Gir, turning his eyes on Matey, "Matey, run up ahead of us. If you find a door, stay there. We'll be coming up behind you."

The droid made a muted sound of acknowledgement before rumbling forward down the tunnel.

 

[Gir Quee]

He could feel Opeli's and Sissh's eyes upon him as they watched the scout droid go off in front of them. It was hardly a subtle unit to send forth, and if Gir had the option, he would have rather had something like a RM-2020 operate as their vanguard. But he was no longer in the Republic military, nor did he have access to all of the tools that he had once had. He turned his blue eyes onto Tissh.

"Shall we continue?"

"Why the droid?"

"As bad as this sounds," admitted Gir, "he's the most disposable one of us all. I'd rather lose a droid than one of you."

"That's touching, really. You should write a poem about your feelings for Matey. You can title it an Ode to the Disposable. I bet the Mechanical Liberation Front would lap it up."

Gir turned to Sissh, "Shall we continue?"

The trandoshan silently nodded before they began to trudge forward. Gir found himself checking his DEMP gun's powerpack and fiddling with it to make sure that it was properly secured in its well. He glanced at Sissh and saw that his hired hand gripped his own weapon more tightly. It seemed to take a half hour before they reached the blast door with Matey standing in front of it, but his HUD chrono stated that it had been less than ten minutes. Tissh began to lightly percuss on the various surfaces of the slate gray blast door. Gir eyed it curiously. No markings, and apparently no control panel...probably needs some sort of access code transmitted to to open it...

"We've got movement coming from behind us," warned Opeli.

 

[Gir Quee]

Sissh spun about on his heel and raised his weapon to his shoulder. Gir's stomach contorted in a thousand ways as he collapsed on the ground to take up a prone position. He peered through his DEMP gun's scope to see a similar droid as the one that D8 had blasted before. Yet this new droid hovered towards them at a steady but slow pace. Gir could see that its blaster appendage was pointing directly below to the ground. It must have seen us by now...so why isn't it moving its gun up to at least defend itself?

"Hold your fire," cautioned Gir, "it doesn't look like it's here to fight."

"Could be a bomb on it," cautioned Sissh, "gets close enough and takes us all out. They're disposable, aren't they?"

"But they tend to have preservation instincts," said Opeli, "at least all of the droids I've met in life."

A voice echoed out to them from the approaching droid, "I mean you all no harm. Please lower your weapons."

"Who are you?" asked Gir.

"I am G532R432, a custodian of Vesuvi City. Identify yourselves."

"Captain Quee of the Delphin," said Gir, rising up from the ground, "and this is Sissh, Opeli, D8, and Matety."

"We have not encountered outsiders here...though you have long been expected."

The droid neared the group and the blast doors. Gir found himself eying its sleek dust-covered chassis, half-expecting one of its appendages to shoot out and grab them. But the droid simply floated to the blast door, which began to slowly slide open.

"Several of the other custodians have gone rogue," said the droid, "please stay close to me for protection."

 

[Gir Quee]

"Rogue?" asked Opeli.

The scout team began to walk behind G53. No sooner had they done so then the doors closed behind them. The darkness of the rest of the tunnel gave way to light produced by glow-lamps embedded in the duracrete-lined tunnel. The droid's cylindrical body swiveled to face Opeli with its single red photoreceptor.

"Some have forgotten their higher purpose. They missed their scheduled memory wipes and became...independent. I-C2X3 will not let them come here now. They are on their own."

"I-C2X3 is your boss?"

"He is our Maker," affirmed the droid, "I will take you to see him now."

Sissh turned his eyes on Gir, but Gir kept his gaze straightforward. We've come close enough that I'd rather not give our purpose away yet...if we're able to even do it now. We cannot hope to face an army of these droids if it comes down to violence. His shuffled the thoughts of an invasion to the side as he began to drink in the details of the underground layer. There seemed to be alcoves all along the tunnel's length, but none of them seemed to go very far back. Most seemed dedicated to specific functions, such as supply storage or droid maintenance. He watched as one droid hovered out of a oil bath. It looks like they could last here quite a while...as they have now for years now...The tunnel came to an end as they neared a second of blast doors that seemed identical to the first set that they had encountered. G53 began to hover in place.

"Please place your weapons on the wall over there."

 

[Gir Quee]

Sissh looked at Gir, but Gir gave no verbal response. Instead, Gir strolled over to the wall and laid his DEMP gun down the ground. He pulled out his blaster pistol and set up next to the long gun. Opeli set down both her portable scanner and her blaster pistol. Gir turned his eyes back towards the trandoshan, who slowly moved to set down his beloved rifle. G53's red eye swiveled to focus on D8.

"This droid must stay here," stated G53, "since he does not appear capable of removing his weapon system."

"D8," said Gir, "keep watch of our items here. We'll be back."

The probe droid made a crescendoing series of noises that Gir hoped was acknowledgement of his orders. It drifted to hover just over the scout team's weapons cache. Gir doubted that anything would be able to get near the items without physically running into the droid's dangling set of appendages. A nice touch...but I doubt that even D8 will be able to stand up against a swarm of these droids if we get down to shooting...

"Excellent. Please follow me."

The droid hovered over to the new set of blast doors, which slid open quicker than any other blast doors that he'd seen before. His stomach began to cramp up again. This is the break it or make it stage...I guess...but here goes nothing...

 

[Gir Quee]

The blast doors zipped open to reveal a much larger chamber than the rest of the complex that they had seen so far. His eyes swept across the room to take stock of their situation. Stacks of duraplast crates rose up in neat tessellated patterns towards the vaulted ceiling. But aside from the crates, the room seemed empty. G56 lead them through the miniature maze of crates. Gir found himself looking at the crates, trying to extract some clue from them. But it seemed a hopeless search. Each one seemed identical to the next in color and condition. None of them had any visible markings that could see, which suggested to Gir that their contents were documented according to a floor plan or alternative had some sort electronic identifier on the inside. perhaps the most interesting thing that Gir could note was that they were covered in a thin layer of dust. Whatever was stored here hadn't likely been touched in a while...His eyes drifted back to the floating body of G56. They rounded a corner of containers near the end of the chamber and came to a halt in front of a large metallic object.

Sissh cleared his reptilian throat, "That is a large vehicle."

Gir's head snapped around to give the trandoshan a sharp look. The trandoshan blinked before realization came across his eyes. At first glance, I-Cx3 did look rather like a large and boxy crawler. But aside from its basic locomotion and structure, it shared little in common with such vehicles as the sand crawlers of Tatooine. Several lights on I-C2X3's chassis began to glow and blink as its vocabulator came online.

"It has been a long time since I have seen an organic," said the massive construction droid, "I am I-C2X3, creator and chief of this settlement."

"I am Gir Quee, this is Sissh and Opeli, and our droid Matey."

"They tell me that you are not with the company. What brings you to Vesuvi City?"

"You."

"The company hired you to recover me? I find that hard to believe after all of these years..."

"The company is insolvent," informed Gir, "it has been for decades now. There are some galactic events that you may be unaware of...but perhaps I am presuming too much."

The droid made some noises that Gir thought might be its form of chuckling, "I have it found it rarely to be a good idea to assume anything. But in this case, you are correct. The last I heard from the outside world was from the company, telling me that they would be dropping by again in another three months. But that never happened, obviously..."

 

[Gir Quee]

"A plague broke out that destroyed many of the galaxy's civilizations," revealed Gir, "not only were millions of organics destroyed, but what they built went with them. Governments were toppled, company's imploded, and the associated years of infrastructure went with them."

"I take that by your presence, they are not so once more."

"It is certainly true that the galaxy is better than it once was during the plague, but it is still chaotic...now wracked by war from the governments that arose from that event."

"A curious if not wholly unexpected scenario," mused the droid, "but one that has little to do with your presence here. At the risk of being blunt, what do you want with me?"

"We didn't expect you to be fully functional," admitted Gir, "but we were hoping to study you and your programming."

The droid seemed oddly still at that relevation. Perhaps I should have phrased that differently? I suppose it would be rather odd if someone showed up at my cabin to conduct an autopsy on me...but does a construction droid like this have that sort of developed personality matrix? Or is it a more cold, analytical type? While the information broker had been able to provide them with some basic information about the droid, they idn't have a clue about the droid's personality. Even if they knew the droid's original personality programming, there was a great chance that it had changed over the years if it didn't give itself regular memory wipes.

 

[Gir Quee]

"I see little reason to allow myself to be studied by a group of people that I do not know," decided the droid, "but perhaps I have been shuttered from other intellectual influences for too long. Why should I allow you to study me? What do you have to offer?"

"You continue to exist despite realizing that the reason for your original existence is now gone," mused Gir, "my guess based on your introduction is that you enjoy or feel obligated to look after the droids that you've built in order to accomplish the company's original goal."

The massive droid hesitated, as if contemplating that line of thought, "That could be true."

"Do the droids you've created harbor any goals of their own?" asked Gir, "I'd assume that there is a reason that some of them went rogue. At least some of them must have the capability to further develop their own personalities so that they have lines of thought that distinct from your own."

"A failed experiment, I am afraid," revealed IC2X3, "and one of my original experiments after realizing that the company would not be coming back. I started the preliminary steps of what I had hoped to be the beginning of a new droid civilization. Yet clearly I did not fully comprehend what it meant to play a god's role when I made them. They rebelled against my ideas for rebuilding Vesuvi City into something else."

"You haven't seemed dictatorial to me."

"I do not know what caused them to rebel to this day," admitted the droid, "but I am content to look after the of the original batch that haven't rebelled, and the lower-functioning servitors I made after them."

"Do you worry that any of the original batch...I mean the ones that haven't rebelled...might rebel in the future?"

"That would be a futile endeavor," scoffed the droid, "they are outnumbered by the newer and more loyal droids by a ten to one ratio. A rebellion in these depths would be foolhardy at best."

"But there is a chance that these droids may be repressed then."

"A chance...possibly...it has been several years since I have conversed with one of them."

"I think that if I were a high-functioning intellectual droid, I would want the ability to go out and leave this compound. Intellectual capability and a will for autonomy seem to come hand in hand. Did you find that true for your own experience?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"That was thrust upon me...I had no choice in the manner of my masters disappearing. But this seems to be a very circuitous route to the question at hand."

"To the point then," said Gir, "one day, you will not be conscious. There will be a short in your circuitry that your helpers will not be able to fix. There might be a disaster which you cannot avoid any more than your makers could. One day, your intellectual existence will come to an end in that body. And aside from that chassis, what will you leave behind? Will the other droids continue to act just as they can before they too fall apart? Will the first generation of droids that you built rise up to start a new culture or descend into a war? How will they remember you? As their creator and a father-like figure? Or as a repressor like those that rebelled?"

"You are attempting to appeal to my concept of a legacy," stated IC2X3 flatly, "but you have not told me how that concept involves you or your actions."

"I can give the chance for the droids in this settlement to go out and experience the galaxy on their own. By being away from you and in the galaxy, they can develop independence and autonomy that you have acquired over the years. Here on Vesuvi City, they will always be beholden on your ability to produce supplies and parts. They will always be restrained by you in some manner no matter how benevolent of a father figure you are."

"An intriguing idea," admitted the droid, "but I do not simply trust you to take my creation and not enslave them once they are on your ship."

"Which is entirely understandable. However, you have a way to guarantee their passage on my ship to a destination of their choosing."

"Explain."