Starcrossed: A Star Wars Fanfiction

Droids

"I knew it," Lex folded her arms across her chest. 

Finding her mechanical Frankenstein coolly leaning over the data extraction console he'd made into an impromptu card table, as he gambled a heated match of Sabacc against the data computer.

She sighed.

Why are droids always so inconveniently predictable?

"23!" the system computer's voice boomed throughout the room, revealing a winning hand on the table. A crushing suit consisting of The Evil One, The Star, and an odd number of Staves, Sabers, and Coins.

In response to that move, Q2 slammed his metallic fist down on the cards in front of him, "By Bane's blade, you hot-wired scum, you're cheating me!"

"I don't need to, sir," the computer answered in a crisp, gentlemanly voice. "I have rightfully won the hand, based on the predetermined values that were locked into the table before the game. I have computed all possibilities. This is the 107th winning hand out of 1013 possible outcomes."

"Since when does 3 Staves get you an 8?" Q2 challenged. "What kind of idiot do you take me for?"

"Can you not compute?"

"I can compute just fine, you block of sheet metal."

"Correction. I happen to be firmly constructed with a titanium based core," the computer informed him. "Pay up, droid-bolts. The game is finished."

"Here's me paying up," Q2 replied, activating the blaster pistol compartment in his wrist. "This will teach you, you karking crinking junk pile. Deal me again!"

"Glad to see you're so relieved I'm not dead, Q2," Lex remarked to the Zekan cyborg, finally making her presence known. 

"Ah, mi'lady," Q2 greeted, waving for her to join them. "You want in on this hand?" 

"Deal me in. But I'm shuffling," she snatched the cards from his mechanical hands. "You always cheat."

And feeling petty, Lex bumped him aside to take his spot at the table, dealing him a fresh new round. 

"How could you not tell me about the Jedi?" she got to the point. 

"You had it under control," he reminded her.

"He's been stalking outside your door."

"And how did your plan of 'making friends' with him turn out?" Q2 asked. 

"These visions are getting worse," she said. "And always when Kenobi is around...They've never been this violent." 

"What do you mean, mi'lady?" Q2 looked up in deeper concerned. "If he harmed you in any way, I'll march right out there to Kenobi and-"

"Q2, hush." 

Lex paused in deep contemplation, the split deck of cards in her hands frozen as the unsolved meaning behind her vision haunted her. 

Was Kenobi dangerous enough to hurt her in visions? 

Or was this vision a warning that he eventually could, if she didn't jump ship and put a whole galaxy between them, just as Q2 had begged her to do?

But visions could be as vague as they were false prophecies. 

She didn't have enough pieces to the scud pie yet. 

And without more conclusive intel on what she was to do about these Jedi, there was no telling what the vision in the corridor meant yet, and no reason to send Q2 rampaging after Kenobi prematurely.