----- Operation Arrakis A Droid's Life By Sylvana Lorrdain, Josh Nolan ------- Fate.... was bored. The little droid was taking to wandering the halls of Perdition, on only the second day since they'd arrived. Then, the inevitable happened. He found Dis. <"WHEE!!!! what can we do, huh? What can we do? Syl's SOOOOO boring right now!"> Dis let out a low whistle. <"I don't know about you - I'm liking actually having HoloNet access at a decent bandwidth. I can almost pretend we're in civilisation. But Ghost hangs around near the terminals, and frankly, his attitude is starting to give me feedback. What do you have in mind?"> <"Hmmmm we can get Ghost and go exploring!!!"> <"Must we get Ghost?"> The 'younger' droid fell silent a few long moments. <"Well.... no, I guess not"> he tweetled Dis whistled in response. <"Good. There's a music therapy room I'd like to go visit. Interesting to see if crazy people really are the best artists."> <"YAYYY!!!!!"> <"Of course, it does take a certain amount of technical skill to make music - good music, anyway. And I doubt they have much of a band... but it's been so long since I've heard any kind of decent music. Does anywhere grab your fancy?"> <"Nope! The art room too - it's my destiny to see it. I think Syl snuck over there early today anyhow! Maybe she's finally stopping her moping! yay!!!!"> <"Oh, good. Perhaps she'll recover enough to beat some sense into my excuse for a sentient."> Dis whistled thoughtfully. <"How do you manage to get on with her so well, anyway?"> <"It was my destiny to work with her. And she tells good stories sometimes when she's asleep. But a lot of times they're sad stories..."> Fate paused, <"What's wrong with yourse?"> <"Where to start? He's stupid, violent, primitive and arrogant. He's everything I hate about being assigned to Terra. I've been turned into a starfighter mechanic for someone who can't even fly one. He wouldn't know what to make of my skills even if he knew what they were."> The droid blatted derisively. <"Yours tells stories in her sleep?"> Fate twittled, <"Sometimes."> <"Entertaining?"> <"Bwooo... not really. Unless you like scarey stories."> <"I'm *in* a horror story, near as I can tell. Care to relate one?"> <"I don't know if I should,"> Fate responded with a worried whistle. <"Why not? It'll pass the time."> <"Well.. she talks alot about torture, and promising never going back someplace."> <"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. She's from Terra, after all."> <"They do that a lot, don't they?"> Fate wondered. <"Talk in their sleep? Not that I've noticed. But I try not to be in the same room with my human as much as I can."> <"No, the torture thing. or... what was it you were referring to, not being surprised?"> Fate whistled in confusion. <"I was referring to the torture, and the promising never to go back. Being on Terra is torture, and I'd like to never go back..."> Dis blatted. <"Don't be like that. I was just making a joke."> <"Well I can never tell, you're such a rusty-gears sometimes."> <"You should have met me in happier times, I suppose. Back when I could attend actual *concerts*. Did I tell you I managed to see Chuzz and the Niblits just two weeks before Chuzz metamorphosed? Now *that* was a gig."> <"You did THAT!? WOW! That's so amazing! How was it? Oh, please tell me it was amazing!"> Dis tootled smugly. <"I *recorded* it. It was like getting your pleasure circuits hard-wired to on, only without the degradation to cerebration."> <"Can I download it? Please please please!"> <"If you're good. Audio perfection doesn't happen very often, and should never be treated lightly. There was an a capella aria Chuzz sang... think a laser cannon's systems, turned into sound and sung in Chuzz's larval voice..."> "Twoople dee wooooo," Fate was awe-filled. <"My friend, you don't know the half of it."> Dis wooo'd reverently. Fate performed a droidian version of a happy sigh, just then. Just *thinking* about such perfection! Why couldn't have been his destiny to see that? <"Well, I believe this is the rec block. Shall we see what's going on inside?"> Fate's dome spun. <"Sure thing! you first, though."> Dis tweetled assent as he stuck his probe into the dataport. After a few moments, the door opened, and so he retracted the probe and rolled through, into the room. The other followed, looking around, <"Hm, Syl isn't here. I was wrong."> <"Fate, have a scan of this holo over here."> Fate moved over and did so. <"Weird...."> <"Interesting texture, no? The skull inside the globe..."> Dis paused and did a scan. <"Bothan skull. Kind of obvious, I suppose."> <"It's not obvious to me... What's it mean?"> <"Look at the crenellations and trenches on the globe. And see that crater/dish on the other side? That's no ordinary globe."> Fate twittled and looked carefully, then he zoomed back fearfully. <"That's a death star!"> If Dis had eyes, he would have rolled them. <"It's only a holo. Someone's obviously trying to make a tribute to the Bothan spies."> <"I don't like it."> Fate remained backed away. <"I'm ambivalent. On the one hand, it's must have taken a lot of work to sculpt - on the other, it makes a pretty hackneyed point. Why not make the skull morph into that of several species? Mon Calamari, for example, for the first cruiser destroyed by its superlaser?"> <"Perhaps it was done by a bothan who had been related to those who died?"> <"Could be. Whoever did it, they probably feel quite strongly about it."> Dis turned his dome, scanning the room, then fell on a simple painting. <"And whoever did *that* was feeling strongly about something..."> He rolled over, <"Is it supposed to be erotic?"> <"I don't know."> Fate replied, looking at a piece done in a primitave paint on board style. There were several... strange looking Firerreo, with ears not unlike that of the Codru-ji. Two were young, stripped nude and sporting lacerations, bound to whipping posts as others joyfully looked on... but for one, a small child being forced to watch. It was done entirely in a two tone style, the only colours on the board were black, as a background, and shades of a blood red for the images. <"I don't think it is?"> <"It can be hard to tell. The representations can come awfully close, sometimes."> Curious, Fate looked at the nameing tag attatched to the drying artwork. <"My biological made this."> <"So she did."> Dis did a second scanning. <"Yes, I think I agree with you."> <"You do?"> The droid blatted derisively. <"I already said I did. And you're right. Its erotic index is somewhere in the negatives, I think."> Fate twittled disconcertedly, and backed away. <"No wonder she's here, with images like that."> <"It does seem a trifle unhealthy. But this isn't my kind of art, so I could be wrong."> Dis tootled back. <"I really don't like it at all."> Fate backed away. <"I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to. Come on. Let's see what else is around."> Fate tweetled an affirmative, and followed.