Episode 2: Fugitives

[ZehnWaters]

"If it makes any difference," Britton said through mouth fulls of food.  "I know a bit about mechanics myself, it's just the basics but if Kara or Sam need help..."

[donimator]

Sam processed Caden's request as it was made and had the results matrixed and tabulated four ways before he continued talking with Brim and Britton - there was precious little to work with. Sam considered the task further and recognized his deficiencies in investigation. His programming was always of the 'shoot first, ask questions later' variety. He lacked the data package needed or even the basic systems required to reprogram himself as a sleuth. There is only so much you can do when one is built for war.

Which led him to consider the droid hierarchy that must exist on this station. Somewhere he could find a droid or system much more capable of pulling info on this Varta than he could and most likely that droid could make use of Sam's talents as an enforcer in exchange. On the outside Sam sat motionless with his companions, on the inside he was smiling and cracking his knuckles.

He used his internal comlink to access the low security data frequencies to pull up a public map of the station and try to locate a likely meeting spot for droids where he could start asking some questions.

[tomcat]

Sam's system combed through a number of city frequencies until he at last picked up a channel that appeared to be transmitted, received, and communicated on primarily by droids.

He silently multi-tasked; listening to the people in front of him as well as gleaning the information he wanted from the comunication network. It seemed that in the busy city, there was a maintenance area in the sub-levels of the city, near one of the refineries, where droids did congregate. Many came from different areas of the city to procure new hardware, software upgrades and repairs. Sam realized that the maintenance shop was run by another independent droid, like himself.

It would definitely be a good starting point.

[watanabe]

Kara gunned down her double quickly and looked around.

"Well, if there is nothing else, I'll go look around and see what I can scrounge up and what contacts I can make on the station in terms of parts and armaments."

[donimator]

Sam rose with a mechanical whir of his servos and left the bar. He synchronized a secure channel with Caden's commlink that was relatively light with traffic and continued to send updates on his position to Caden's datapad. As a droid, you never know when you might end up in a scrap pile, especially on these scavenger outposts like Bespin. Sam made his way through the labyrinthine streets and passages by a meandering route, updating his internal map with locations of note and features not shown on the 'official' map he pulled off the public data stream. Barring any encounters of note, Sam continued to the maintenance area to try and find a droid with which he could barter for information.

[sdrotar]

  First and foremost, let me sincerely apologize to everyone here for my recent absence. I've been moving to a new home and dealing with a family health issue, but all's well now. I'm looking forward to joining everyone again for our adventure!

Caden was certain that they'd all be on the wanted list soon enough. Clearly, they were set up to take the fall for the political assassinations on Bakura, and they ended up as the perfect patsies. The real culprits weren't going to let that golden opportunity pass them by.

As much as he wanted to simply run, run as far away as he could and keep running, the others were right - with a crime this heinous, they'd never stop being hunted. The only way back to what passed for a normal life was to turn the tables on their accusers; on the real perpetrators.

Caden wasn't exactly a predator... but he was a fast learner.

"Let's see what we can find out," he said to Brim and Britton, knowing their legal status could change at any moment. "Keep your eyes peeled."

He looked at Brim's giant, bulging Rodian orbs and immediately regretted his turn of phrase. Suppressing a shudder, Caden headed toward the city center.