RZ-7 Pieces

If droids could smile RZ-7 would have, but instead his eyes just flickered on and off as if he was pleasantly taken aback by the announcement. At least, that was what Karr chose to believe. But he would not get the chance to confirm it.

The floor was covered with parts of his friend, and he knew that his only hope of rebuilding him was to collect them all. He was so overcome with emotion, however, that when he reached out to grab part of the droid’s casings, he forgot he wasn’t wearing his gloves.

A vision, sharp and loud, went pealing around in the space between his ears. He heard nothing else. He saw nothing else. Not RZ-7 or the interior of the Avadora, clean and bright and sterile.

He saw his parents. At home. RZ-7 was powered down and sitting in a corner like a discarded toy, and his parents were talking with the casually anxious ease of people who are worried about many things—but not being overheard.

His mother was at her sewing machine, which had been hauled out to the kitchen table for a large piece of work. She shook her head. “One day, he’s bound to find out. If not from us, from someone else. Maybe we should just tell him.”

“No,” his father replied. “It’ll only fuel his obsession.”

His mother didn’t quite sound cold, but she sounded tired when she said, “It’s still our job to protect him.”

“And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

The vision swam, and Karr missed a few words, but he caught the last bit. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“True,” his mother responded. “But it might just drive him mad.”

The edges of the vision fluttered and melted, and Karr felt many things all at once. First he felt stupid. It had never dawned on him to touch RZ-7, because they were practically inseparable. What the droid saw, Karr saw, and what they didn’t observe together they shared with each other. It hadn’t even crossed his mind that RZ-7 could witness something without noticing it. Second he felt confused. What were his parents talking about exactly? What would drive him mad? Did he have a tumor? But most important, he felt angry—angry that he was being lied to about…something. Something big. And he intended to find out what.

Karr’s stomach was in knots, but his eyes became steely as he stared at the empty pilot seat. He had learned a lot in the past few days, but had he learned enough to pilot the ship home by himself? He sat in the chair and buckled himself in.

Hell, yeah, he thought. In fact, there were a number of things he was about to do that he had never done before.


- Force Collector, Chapter 18