10-26-2014, 08:03 PM
“Samus. I can assist you. What’s the plan?”
Samus registered the words only on some primal level, and discarded them as being of immaterial importance. What was the plan? What did it matter. Once they opened that hatch, things were going to being rapidly unravelling. This was it, all of the respect she had worked for and the prestige she’d gained in Coruscant, about to be discarded. Why? Because this was the Right Thing To Do.
But that didn’t mean she had to like it.
She sighed, her stress-headache merely background noise at this point. Once she started shooting, it would go. Turning, she regarded the android. His body language was far too uncanny to be anything less than state of the art. He was hunched ever so slightly, not enough to make him seem odd but just enough to give the impression of submissiveness. She narrowed her eyes behind the glass veil of her visor. She didn’t need her scan visor to extrapolate certain particulars. This robot was far more intelligent than his bounty had revealed. That might be good, or it might be bad. All she could do for now was log that fact.
“We’re going to be escaping,” she said, “To the Vasty Deeps.”
The blue sensor in the center of the robot’s head, where its eye would be, widened and then returned to normal diameter. “I see,” he said.
“After we finish talking I’m going to change our course to the Gate. They’ll begin attacking us immediately. I’m going to go up to the deck to defend ourselves. Do you have ranged offensive capabilities?”
The android drew a finger across his mouth (a gesture Samus mentally added to her growing file on the android). After a moment, he slowly shook his head. “I’m not sure. I don’t know. When I arrived here, I had no weapons, but … maybe …”
Samus nodded. “You’re a Prime. You can summon, just like I just did. I hate to force you into violence,” (a partial lie told just as naturally as the android imitated human body language) “But I think this is going to be hard. Real hard.”
The robot nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to summon something.”
Samus pressed a button on the side of the barrier-prison, releasing her captive. She reached down and snapped the cuffs. No time for subtlety. “Make it good. We might be immortal but I don’t want to get captured by the Empire. Do you?”
The android shook his head.
“No, neither do I,” said Samus. She nodded firmly and stepped backwards, turning in the tight space of the ship and leaning over the cockpit to view the outside world. Nothing was happening yet but she didn’t want to leave them on course for any longer than she had to. “Adam!” she barked.
“Yes, Samus.”
“Erase all the files on the ship. Get yourself ready to eject if need be. We won’t be able to take the ship through the gate.”
“Understood.”
Samus felt battle anger rising up through her and begin to course. Long ago, she’d been nervous before a battle. Sometimes she still was. But time and practice had a way of forcing adaptation. Now all she felt was something hot, and cold. A feeling that simply enveloped everything else, numbing her thoughts and feelings and narrowing her vision to what she saw through the visor. She turned to the robot, hiding her impatience. In a matter of minutes, they would be fighting the Empire.
Samus registered the words only on some primal level, and discarded them as being of immaterial importance. What was the plan? What did it matter. Once they opened that hatch, things were going to being rapidly unravelling. This was it, all of the respect she had worked for and the prestige she’d gained in Coruscant, about to be discarded. Why? Because this was the Right Thing To Do.
But that didn’t mean she had to like it.
She sighed, her stress-headache merely background noise at this point. Once she started shooting, it would go. Turning, she regarded the android. His body language was far too uncanny to be anything less than state of the art. He was hunched ever so slightly, not enough to make him seem odd but just enough to give the impression of submissiveness. She narrowed her eyes behind the glass veil of her visor. She didn’t need her scan visor to extrapolate certain particulars. This robot was far more intelligent than his bounty had revealed. That might be good, or it might be bad. All she could do for now was log that fact.
“We’re going to be escaping,” she said, “To the Vasty Deeps.”
The blue sensor in the center of the robot’s head, where its eye would be, widened and then returned to normal diameter. “I see,” he said.
“After we finish talking I’m going to change our course to the Gate. They’ll begin attacking us immediately. I’m going to go up to the deck to defend ourselves. Do you have ranged offensive capabilities?”
The android drew a finger across his mouth (a gesture Samus mentally added to her growing file on the android). After a moment, he slowly shook his head. “I’m not sure. I don’t know. When I arrived here, I had no weapons, but … maybe …”
Samus nodded. “You’re a Prime. You can summon, just like I just did. I hate to force you into violence,” (a partial lie told just as naturally as the android imitated human body language) “But I think this is going to be hard. Real hard.”
The robot nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to summon something.”
Samus pressed a button on the side of the barrier-prison, releasing her captive. She reached down and snapped the cuffs. No time for subtlety. “Make it good. We might be immortal but I don’t want to get captured by the Empire. Do you?”
The android shook his head.
“No, neither do I,” said Samus. She nodded firmly and stepped backwards, turning in the tight space of the ship and leaning over the cockpit to view the outside world. Nothing was happening yet but she didn’t want to leave them on course for any longer than she had to. “Adam!” she barked.
“Yes, Samus.”
“Erase all the files on the ship. Get yourself ready to eject if need be. We won’t be able to take the ship through the gate.”
“Understood.”
Samus felt battle anger rising up through her and begin to course. Long ago, she’d been nervous before a battle. Sometimes she still was. But time and practice had a way of forcing adaptation. Now all she felt was something hot, and cold. A feeling that simply enveloped everything else, numbing her thoughts and feelings and narrowing her vision to what she saw through the visor. She turned to the robot, hiding her impatience. In a matter of minutes, they would be fighting the Empire.
![[Image: 0bwAI3j.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/0bwAI3j.jpg)