Star Wars_ MedStar 02_ Jedi Healer - Michael Reaves [82]
“You okay, Uli? Need any help?” Jos called.
“I’m good, thanks. But what in the seven skies of Sumarin was that? I never—”
He was interrupted by a tripedal medical droid that came in, moved to Uli’s side, and spoke briefly to him. Jos couldn’t hear the conversation, but after a moment Uli and Threndy both broke into laughter.
“What’s up?” Jos asked.
“Apparently, Oni females are electrophoretic. I must’ve brushed against a lobe of her capacitor organ during my probe.” Uli shrugged. “Kinda wish I’d known about it sooner…”
Jos chuckled. “Maybe we should keep her around in case our droids need a jump start.”
His shift and Uli’s were over at the same time, and, on impulse, Jos asked the younger man if he wanted to join them at sabacc. They’d been short several players the last couple of times. Tolk didn’t show up anymore, and Barriss seemed lately to be too absorbed in “Jedi-ing,” as Den put it, to sit in on every game. Even Klo had been too busy to put in more than an occasional appearance.
Uli grinned, a smile that spread over his entire face. “Sure!” he said enthusiastically. “I’ve been hoping one of you’d ask.”
Jos grinned back. “Glad to have you.” It would be nice to have something approaching a full set of players again. On one level, though, he did feel bad about it. Uli was so open and guileless, he was sure to be eaten alive by the others. Sabacc could be a tough game.
Jos, Den, Barriss, and I-Five walked out of the cantina.
“Wow,” Jos said. “Who knew?”
“Not you, I’m assuming,” Den replied. “Unless you’re in cahoots with the little—”
“Hey, I had no idea he could play like that. I mean, look at him. He looks like a holorep for some nice wholesome farmworld somewhere.” Jos shrugged. “Besides, we’ve been losing players. And I felt sorry for him.”
“Yeah? Well, feel sorry for me. I lost three hundred creds in there.” Den shook his head.
“Just a suggestion,” I-Five said to Jos, “but the next time you’re tempted to be altruistic in matters like these—don’t.”
“Aw, clamp your vocabulator,” Den told him sourly. “You’re the only one who didn’t lose his shirt. Not that you have one to lose.”
“This is true. However, for the first time in some weeks I have not won anything, either.”
Jos swatted futilely at a buzzing cloud of fire gnats. “Again I ask: what do you need money for? You’re a droid.”
“A fact that seldom escapes my notice, thank you. My need for money is quite simple—it costs large amounts of credits to travel. Especially as far as Coruscant.”
“You’re really going, then?” Barriss asked.
“Yes.”
“But you’re military property,” Jos said. “Even if you could find a way to get transferred to Coruscant, you’ll have limited freedom to search for Pavan’s son.”
“Also true. Which means,” I-Five said calmly, “I might have to desert.”
For a long moment the silence was unbroken save by the gnats. Then Jos said, “If you do, and you’re caught, they’ll wipe your memory down to the last quantum shell.”
“If I’m caught. My time on Coruscant wasn’t completely misspent—I know a variety of ways to slip through the cracks, especially in a megalopolis that large.”
Den sucked on a hydropak for a moment, then said, “No doubt—but first you have to get off Drongar. And won’t you arouse suspicion, traveling by yourself?”
“Droids, particularly protocol droids, make interstellar journeys all the time. We’re not children. No one will look twice at me—especially if I carry the papers of an envoy en route to the Coruscant Temple on Jedi business.”
He looked at Barriss. She looked back quite seriously.
“You are willing to risk everything—your very self—to do this?” she asked.
“It’s something I promised Lorn many years ago, when his son Jax was first taken from him. He asked me to make sure that, should anything ever happen to him, I would do my best to keep watch over Jax, even though he was under the protection of the Jedi. Lorn did not trust Jedi.”
“I must remind you,