• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"I-Five, I take back every nasty thing I ever said about you," Jos told him. "Except for the times you beat me at sabacc."

They reached the evac vessel’s boarding ramp and hustled into the vehicle. A few people were already on board, including Klo Merit and Barriss Offee. Jos blew out a soft and quiet sigh. Safe.

"Are all your memory gaps closed now?" Zan asked I-Five as the ship lifted on its repulsor beams and began its ponderous journey.

I-Five said, "Not quite. But the process seems to be heuristic-the more connection nodes my cyberinfor-matic programs implement, the faster the process goes."

"Good," Tolk said. "I’m looking forward to learning about your heroic moments."

"You and me both," the droid said.

Jos glanced through the viewport, but there was noth-ing to see save an occasional flicker of what might be ei-ther heat lightning or Separatist weaponry. Other than that, the Drongaran night was as black as an assassin’s heart.

"How does the idea of being a hero make you feel?" he asked I-Five, and it was only after the question had left his lips that he realized that it had not felt odd in the least to ask a droid about its feelings. Welcome to sto-chastic hyperspace, where all bets are wild...

I-Five seemed to be giving the answer some thought. "It’s intriguing," he said at last.

"Somewhat exciting as well. As I explained to Padawan Offee, human behavior fascinates me, and a big part of that is your ability to choose the path that harms the least. Not all species have that option.

"Obviously my emotional and intellectual parameters were determined by human manufacturers. My fear is that I’ve been programmed-or reprogrammed-to sac-rifice myself, if necessary, for the greater good. If a mo-ment for such a heroic act comes, I would want to make the decision, not some predetermined algorithm. And I’d like to believe I’d choose the greater good."

A utilitarian droid, Jos thought. Who’d have thought it?

A burst of sickly greenish light from above leaked through the viewports. It didn’t fade, and after a mo-ment Jos realized that the Separatists had fired one or more hover-flares.

A moment later an explosion, un-comfortably close, rattled the vessel’s framework.

"I hope they’re not getting our range," Zan said. He glanced through the still-open cargo bay entrance-and suddenly froze, his face registering stark horror in the putrid light.

"No!" he screamed, and leapt for the open ramp.

39

Den saw his transport idle to a halt at the pickup point just ahead. At least the big, rectangular vessels had some armor plating-once you were inside you would have a little more protection than being out in the open afforded. He aimed for the transport. In the pallid lights of the hover-flares he saw his favorite pubtender, Baloob the Ortolan, clamber up the boarding ramp into the craft. He grinned. Good. A being who can mix drinks that well deserves to survive-Another ear-smiting explosion rocked the area, knocking Den from his feet. A good thing, too-before he could get up, several chunks of metal, one the size of a landspeeder, hurtled just above him like meteors, the shrieks of their passage splitting the air. Den grabbed his ears in pain.

A freighter barge went past on his other side, repul-sors humming. Two of the smaller flywheel chunks hit it hard enough to embed themselves in its hull. The im-pacts momentarily canted the barge, and whoever had packed it had apparently missed a pressor field node or two, because several pieces of luggage fell off and went bouncing over the wet ground.

Somebody’ll be looking for clean underwear tonight, Den thought. Too bad-"No!" somebody screamed.

Den glanced at the surgical evac vehicle, fifty meters or so ahead. He saw I-Five restraining Zan, who looked like he was trying to jump from the vessel. Den fol-lowed Zan’s frantic gaze and saw the reason: one of the fallen pieces from the cargo carrier was an instrument case-the one Zan carried his quetarra in.

Most of the base’s personnel were loaded and moving away from the chaotic scene now, and Den was about ten meters away