• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Then it appeared, its eyes glowing in its pointed face. It looked like a droid god emerging from the golden sea, striding with all the power of a leader when actually, all it had was its normality. It was assembled, the others were just parts.

“Jedi Skywalker?” it said as if it already knew the answer. Its voice was modulated on the same frequency as Threepio’s, but it lacked the slightly frantic, slightly nervous edge that Threepio always seemed to have. It wasn’t the same model as Threepio, either. Luke could see that right away. Its face was narrower, its chin pointed, and its nose more pronounced.

“I am Luke Skywalker,” he said.

“You are to come with me.”

Luke nodded. He clasped his hands behind his back and followed the droid. The movement felt good. For a moment there, he had felt another presence, one both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Almost as if a friend had become someone else. Traces of the friend remained, but the person was different. If Luke were on Yavin 4, he would have taken the time to sift through his feelings, to find the threads of the person he had known. But he hadn’t the time, or the peaceful setting. He would have to let his subconscious work on it. His conscious was busy.

Brakiss was nearby.

And Brakiss was frightened.

The droid led Luke past the stalled conveyor belts. It seemed unconcerned about the unattached limbs lying all around it.

“What is this place?” Luke asked.

“This is the protocol hand-and-arm-testing facility. We’re working on new hands that will give the fingertips sensitivity and the knuckles greater flexibility. We have made startling innovations in droid technology in the last year, innovations that will serve any function for which a droid can be used.” The droid’s speech sounded like a spiel, as if it were designed to sell droids to a buyer.

“Do you normally handle sales?” Luke asked.

“Oh, no, I’m just a protocol unit, Jedi Skywalker. I do escort guests through the facility from time to time and have been programmed to answer questions.”

“How long has Brakiss been here?”

The droid swiveled its golden head toward Luke. “I don’t know, sir. My memory has been wiped many times.”

Luke suppressed a shudder. Memory wipes had always seemed a barbaric custom to him. He would lose two good friends if he allowed Artoo and Threepio to be wiped. This droid might have had more of a personality, once.

At least it confirmed that Brakiss was here.

The droid led Luke through a door, and into a room filled with golden legs. None of the feet had been attached. They were sitting on the floor like unused shoes, small poles sticking up for attachment to the ankles. The legs were hanging from the ceiling, much as the arms had, and they had a frighteningly mobile quality to them. It felt as though the legs would go marching off on their own if someone attached the feet.

“This is the leg-and-foot-testing facility for protocol droids,” the droid said.

“I can see that,” Luke said. “You don’t have to give me the regulation speech. Just answer a few questions as we go.”

“As you wish, Jedi Skywalker.”

Luke ducked beneath a set of low-hanging legs. “How big is this facility?”

“The protocol unit occupies this building, Jedi Skywalker.”

“No,” he said. He tapped a leg with his finger. It felt cold and hard and lifeless. “The droid-manufacturing plant.”

“The plant encompasses the entire moon, Jedi Skywalker. We make each and every type of droid. Is there one you would like to see in particular?”

Luke shook his head. “This part of the factory seems empty.”

“We have just received a large order for MD-10’s. Most of the units are occupied in the medical-droid centers.”

“Tens?” Luke asked. “I’ve only seen MD5’s.”

“The fives are an older, less efficient model. MD-6’s were used briefly by the Empire. MD-7’s through 9’s were prototype droids, used only in small sectors. When the MD-10’s came about, they revolutionized the medical-droid areas. We manufacture 10’s exclusively now.”

Again part of the speech. The