Starcrossed: A Star Wars Fanfiction

The Greater Good

"I knew if I looked hard enough, I'd find you behind this doshing circus of a karablast," Gryff declared. "You Jedi are clearly confused about who calls the shots on this base, and I've a mind to remind you that I am still captain of this here security troop! It will be over my dead body that you invite one of those imps onto this base."

"If nothing is done to clear up this misunderstanding quickly, captain, you may soon get your wish," Obi-Wan defended his decision. "The base is only equipped to blast small asteroids out of its way. A more tactful approach is in your best interest."

"Invite them here? All while fighting over some damn woman?" Captain Gryff growled. "Out of the question!"

"Affirmative," the hiss of the hospital wing doors released as a revived Q2 marched into the security quarters. "The plan will fail exponentially. You don't need a droid to calculate how fast it will take for the Jeotians to betray us."

Then his block for a head turned to Eris, almost as if his mechanical red eyes yearned to laser their way right through her, as he put so much emphasis on the word betray, that it was impossible to not read into his meaning.

But Eris and the droid would have to kiss and make up later, as now wasn't the time for hard feelings.

"Who let this droid in here?" Gryff demanded, his head darting around to the guards manning the corridor. "My orders were to restrict access to authorized personnel only."

"Which means, shouldn't you be busy in the data archive somewhere, Q2?" Eris eyed the droid critically, trying to throw him a hint.

But the droid was in no kind of programming to take orders from a "traitor" today.

After all, the princess had picked her side with the Jedi.

Meaning her better judgement had clearly been compromised, and could not be trusted to act in her best interests without Q2's redirection.

"The captain is right," Q2 answered, a warning hidden somewhere in his words as his lasers for eyes turned to Obi-Wan. "Defending the base is strictly in Captain Gryff's jurisdiction, and not a task that concerns a lower ranking droid and medic. We will be more useful searching for this 'princess' on base ourselves, to increase the probability that we have not overlooked any entryways a fugitive may have trespassed into...or out of."

And the emphasis on the word 'out' in the droid's true meaning was not lost on Obi-Wan, as Q2's eyes glowered at "the paradigm of Jedi scum" to his left.

But Obi-Wan's eyes weren't on Q2 anymore, but narrowed instead to his left at the far-from-anyone-who-can-be-trusted medical lieutenant, whom the menacing droid belonged to.

But Eris hardly acknowledged the contemptible Jedi to her right, as she glared back at the bold-as-brass Q2 to her left.

And puzzled and frustrated as ever, Captain Gryff's eyes went round and round in a circle from Jedi, to droid, to medic.

Until Eris finally broke the tense silence of the maddening cycle.

"Q2, the captain is not interested in expending his security resources on finding a princess that never existed here to begin with. Can't you see he couldn't give two bantha sticks about where she is?" Eris muttered through gritted teeth. "And personally, I couldn't agree more with him. We can't worry about some fugitive right now, when we have patients to evacuate safely from the base. We'll start with the emergency protocols, in the event that Kenobi's 'ambitious' peacekeeping plan goes scud."

"Your patients are no longer the priority," Q2 persisted. "If the cyborgs are responsible for this siege, it means they have invaded Jeotis and now have unchallenged supremacy over the moon. Therefore, requiring the Jeotian princess to return and sign a treaty officially ending the civil war. The Zekans will not stop hunting her until she's returned, and will terminate any allies who defend her. Including those who imprison her on this base."