Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

45

Astera:

Phee Genoa was... interesting, to say the least. She certainly had a knack for storytelling, that much was clear. Bolo and Ketch were hanging onto her every word as she spun a tale of her adventures against the legendary Octomorph. A favourite of hers apparently, as it was one she told often. And one that never seemed to stay consistent.

"I had no choice but to fend off the Octomorph," she declared now, her gaze intense as the two patrons of Cid's parlour clutched each other in tense apprehension. "Barehanded."

"This story changes every time she tells it," Tech remarked, observing the way Bolo and Ketch gasped in fear. Last time I'd heard it, she'd had a sword with her. The time before that, a giant rifle. Hell, that story changed even when she retold it to Bolo and Ketch, yet the two drank it up every time, either oblivious to or ignoring the alterations.

After vanquishing the creature, I swam to the coral cave," Phee continued, hands gesticulating wildly to accentuate her words. "And do you know what I found?"

"What'd you find?" Ketch burst out when she refused to elaborate further. "Spit it out!"

"What? What was there?" Bolo demanded next to him.

"Only the Grand Pearl of Novak!"

"Those two will believe anything," Hunter said quietly, his back firmly to her and focusing on the screen before him. I snorted into my drink, leaning back on the bar with both elbows propped up on the surface. You could tell them the sky was green and made of Loth cats and they'd still believe you.

The sound of the door opening preceded Wrecker's chuckle, both him and Omega returning from the scavenge for a compressor Tech had asked they go on. Clearly they'd come back with more: Omega carried a random assortment of metal pieces and Wrecker had some big rusted part hefted over one shoulder. "Mission accomplished! One compressor, as requested."

"Ah, nicely done, Wrecker." Tech easily caught the compressor thrown at him, Wrecker dumping the large hunk of metal at both of their feet with Omega's smaller pieces following on top. He spared them a quick glance, immediately deeming all of them useless. "This assortment, however, could have been left at the junkyard."

I scooped up my cup and hopped off the bar, curious to see what else they had brought back. I wasn't the only one - Phee abandoned Bolo and Ketch, nearly begging for another story, and wandered over next to Tech, peering at the pieces of metal with a keener eye.

"Easy, quick draw. Let the expert take a look." She picked up a thick metal ring, squinting at it hard as she turned it over in her hands.

"That is a manifold regulator." Tech raised both eyebrows, looking entirely unimpressed with the so-called pirate. I thought I could even detect a faint note of exasperation in his voice. "And a broken one at that."

I shifted aside a few pieces and picked up a circular object close to the bottom of the pile. It looked like no machine component I'd ever seen before, smooth and made of burnished gold with strange bumps and indents that almost looked like a purposeful design.

"Thanks, Clone Obvious," Phee drawled with an eye roll, throwing the manifold regulator back on the pile before glancing over to me, forehead furrowing as she stared at the circular piece of metal I held. "Hang on."

She plucked the strange object out of my hand, ignoring my indignant protest and turning it over to shift a hatch on the back to the side, revealing a set of etched symbols on an inner ring. "These look like... coordinate markings."

Omega gasped, her eyes brightening with a light that only appeared when her curiosity was piqued. "Coordinate markings?"

"Mel, take a look at this." Phee's ancient looking droid tottered unsteadily over to her, a burst of light shining through what appeared to be a disc of glass set into the centre of the object. It was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared and the droid burbled to Phee, who looked at the circle of metal in her hand with a new air.