Episode I: part 5

Nearly an hour had passed since Clang and 5532 climbed out of the maintenance room. The ventilation ductwork they crawled through led to a catwalk suspended over a deep shaft that comprised the central axis of the station. The catwalk was one of many that formed a network of walkways over and around the station's central core. Save for the distant hum of power for the station and the regular breeze of ventilation, the interior was silent. Most important of all, no droids had followed them.

At a junction between two catwalks, the trooper stopped and keyed his comlink. He heard nothing but static.

"Still no good. Either we're too deep inside the station for the signal to reach anyone or we're still being jammed." Clang frowned. "I'm overdue to report back with Echo. I've got to warn them about those modified droids, before the droids find them. Especially given what you told me about your 'Master'."

"He is their Master, not my Master." The droid corrected him.

"My mistake." The trooper sighed, "I wish I knew where we were."

"Sector Gamma Two, maintenance access twelve."

"You've a map?"

"Not quite, I simply accessed the station's records. The main memory core was reactivated a half hour ago."

Clang grinned beneath his helmet. "Well, that means someone's out there. They just can't hear us. Can you tell if anyone is accessing the system other than yourself?"

"Affirmative, but there is no activity besides my own at the moment. Last access was thirty minutes ago."

"How about what terminal they were using?"

"Checking." The droid was silent for a moment. "Three terminals were used within the past hour: Engineering, Medical Bay, Command and Control."

"Engineering was Echo, CnC could have been the scouts or one of the other teams. Ok, we're mid-station, not far from the med bay. I know there'll be a shielded line to CnC in medical for emergency use. Lets head there."

"Roger Roger."

Minutes later, the door to medical slid open. Clang crouched low and slipped in, the battle droid a step behind. The trooper tapped the light switch.

Unlike the rest of the station so far, the medical bay was a mess. Clang stepped over a toppled set of shelves to survey a series of scorch marks on the wall.

"These look recent."

The battle droid stopped next to an exam table. He lifted a charred hold out blaster and ruined electronic components. "The Master's droids have been here."

Clang said nothing. He walked over to a console and punched up a connection to Command and Control. "Control, this is TK3422, reporting in."

No one answered.

The trooper repeated the hail twice more with the same result. He thought for a moment, and then accessed the station's security system with his TK number and Imperial security password. A moment later, a view of Command and Control appeared in the holographic display.

The scene was bleak. Burn marks, scorched chairs and bulkheads could be seen. Some consoles sputtered from torn electronics and burned wires. Droid parts lay strewn about the room; the severed ends blackened and melted. Clang took a small measure of relief that he could see no dead bodies. Then he remembered Echo, alone in Engineering. He did not even try the comlink, but brought up the view of Engineering. As with Command and Control, there was similar damage from combat, complete with burnt droid components on the deck plating. Fortunately, there were no dead bodies there either.

"A suggestion, Sir."

"What is it?" Clang said after a moment of silence.

"The security system is active and typically on a different system from the main memory core. It would have recorded what happened."

"I think I can figure out what happened." Then the meaning of the droid's comment sunk home. "Oh yeah, but we can see how they left the station. No bodies could mean they were captured, not killed. Right, right. Sorry, I wasn't thinking." Clang's hands flew over the keyboard. Quickly, he pulled a list of the most recent security recordings. He opened the first one he found.

The holographic display loaded the file then replayed the events of the past hour. Clang watched grimly. "How could we have missed three dozen armed droids when we arrived? That power droid wired to the ion stunner alone should have radiated an energy signature." He sighed, when the last trooper fell.

"I knew I should've called in sooner."

"The Master is efficient, if not addled. I would say you were fortunate."

"No, I was paranoid. I don't like droids." Realizing whom he spoke to, Clang added quickly, "no offense."

The battle droid shook his head. "None taken. I deciphered your true meaning."

"What I just don't understand is why didn't we pick up and droids when we scanned the station? What kind of signal jamming does this Master have?"

"I cannot say. Logically it would be rather sophisticated."

"It would have to be to conceal that many droids from our sensor scans." Suddenly, Clang tapped the pause key when the holo-recording displayed ship traffic information. "A shuttle left before the ambush took place."

"To where?"

"Looks like to a clearing on the surface of Aldair."

"Could they have suspected an attack?"

"I don't think so, the ambush took place ten minutes after they left. They couldn't have known about it." He shut down the security link and hefted his carbine. "Lets go."

"Where?"

"If your former Master is paying enough attention to have an entire squad ambushed and brought back alive, he has to be monitoring the local sub channels. So that leaves out calling Fleet for any assistance. We're going to Aldair. If we're lucky, we'll find the ones that set down on the planet before the attack. I think the closest hangar bay would be on deck fifteen."

"Roger Roger."

The pair rushed from Medical to the hangar. Clang popped open a maintenance panel in the wall and yanked out a set of wires, when they found the door locked.

"Its not quite the same as hotwiring a quartermaster's supply speeder but its close enough to count."

Clang spliced all but two of the wires in his hand together. The last two, he carefully removed a good inch of insulation and tapped the bare leads against each other. Sparks shot out from the connection and the door slid open. Using a small bit of electrical tape, Clang strapped the makeshift wiring together and motioned for the battle droid to follow him.

The trooper's heart sank when he saw the burnt shuttles that remained in the bay.

"They really didn't want anyone following them. These'll take hours to get flight ready."

5532 looked around the hangar bay, in the far corner of the hanger he noticed a small maintenance tug. The tug looked old, but undamaged.

"That service module seems undamaged," the droid said.

"Damn, I didn't even think of that. We're close enough, that would make it to the planet's surface. Good call." The trooper paused. "You were mostly a medical droid right?"

"Roger Roger. Though there are substantial parts from the Jedi research droid, protocol droid and the original battle droid. What relevance does that have?"

"Your droid designator, it takes to long to say." The trooper thought for a moment. "Doc." He nodded with satisfaction. "Yeah, Doc'll do. Good call, Doc."

The stormtrooper ran off to inspect the tug. A chirp from a under a nearby shuttle wreck reached Doc's audio receptors. Curious, the droid walked towards it. No power registered in the craft. Much of the wiring and power couplings had either been removed or ruined. In a very organic gesture, Doc tapped the console. There was no reaction.

"Hey Doc, could use a hand here. If you hold this motivator in place, I can get it welded down." Clang called out.

"Roger Roger," Doc replied. With a last look at the suspicious shuttle, the droid joined his stormtrooper companion.

Under the wrecked shuttle, a shadow skittered to one side near a landing strut. The faint glow of four droid photoreceptor eyes shone from its hiding place. In full view of he eyes, Doc and Clang attached a new motivator, and then opened an access panel to the power couplings on the tug.

Under the shuttle, the small observer watched and waited.