Chapter 16: Check up
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A/N: so my brain did this thing where it refused to have anything to do with star wars for a while and just bombarded me with other stuff, idk why but the fucker just refused to focus. On the upside that other stuff isn’t useless and I decided to write it down, I’ll probably put that up soon too. As for updates going forward…….that’ll be whenever I feel like it, but meh, im enjoying writing other stuff for now. I won’t drop this, but for now writing it feels like a chore and ill carry on when the feeling hits again. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

 

“Why exactly is the young mistress coming along? I should be back at the ship with her.” Floaty complained as the group made their way through the barely lit cave system.

“I’ve found it necessary to withhold certain information from you because it seems as if you don’t know how to keep anything private.” Atin answers while carrying Miilo on his back.

“He has a point you know,” Anakin chimes in from behind them, “before we even got to your base we knew how many people where here, that you just suffered an attack and that one of your comrades where down for the count, dangerous information for a potential enemy to have.”

“Tsk.” Atin replies in frustration, “you got that much out of him before you even saw the door? To me it looks like the whole pacifism thing is just a guise to make it easier to gather useful Intel on your enemies.”

“Hey! Tha-” Obi wan waves his hand stopping Anakin from continuing.

“One can see it that way yes,” Turning to Atin obi wan continues, “It’s true that our attempts at negotiation could be seen as way to gather Intel before engaging in combat but that’s just a side effect of our efforts at finding a peaceful resolution to conflict, violence is always the last option in a Jedi’s arsenal.”

“Hmph, don’t think I didn’t see you reach for your sabres when you heard me shout back in the cave.” Atin replies, “Doesn’t look like a last option to me.” The trace of venom in his voice reminding obi wan of Satine back when they first met.

Letting out a sigh and giving Atin a sad smile Obi wan answers, “it seems this war is pushing us further from the values the Jedi hold highest,” His expression turning serious obi wan continues, “That just means we can’t stop trying our best to uphold them. And to be fair reaching for our sabres back then qualifies as self-defence in most circles.”

The orange glow of the setting sun lights up the dark cave as the group make their way to the exit, what greets them is the sight of an angry Sparky surrounded by 5 clone troopers with their blasters pointed at him.

“Like I said I live here!” the burst of sparks that erupt from his visor causes one of the clone troopers to flinch and discharge his blaster, the plasma bolt barely misses the war droid as it zips past him and hits a mound of garbage, kicking up a plume of dust and filth as a result.

“Stand down trooper!” Rex yells as he runs up to the group. “Mind telling me what exactly it is that you’re doing!?”

“Yes Captain!” the trooper salutes and starts explaining, “I was on guard duty when this clanker-”

“Enough!” Seeing the trooper use his blaster to point at sparky as he answered Rex interrupts him with a shout, “I said secure the cave entrance! Not harass the locals!” turning toward Sparky Rex continues, "apologies for the mix up sir, the rest of your companions are right behind me.” Turning away from sparky towards the group of now terrified clone troopers Rex starts leading the group of offenders toward the back of the transport ship while muttering to himself, “damn shinies, I swear they get more aggressive with every batch.”

“Why the nerve of these clones!” Another burst of sparks erupt from Sparky’s visor as he approaches the group and complains.

Taking Miilo off his back and having floaty watch over her, Atin falls in with sparky at the back of the group and speaks to him in a hushed voice. “Remember what I said about getting worked up, keep stressing over every little thing and you’ll burn yourself out before I can do what we discussed. Anyway, did you manage to get what I asked for?”

Handing a dirty sack to Atin Sparky replies, “This was actually easier to get than any of the other items you asked for, plenty of them all over the planet.” Sparky pauses for a moment before letting out a robotic sigh and continuing, “Hate the fact that we have to use it.”

“Me too, but it’s not like we have a better idea.” Atin replies as he and sparky trail behind the rest. Next to the transport ship was a large rectangular tent, a smaller tent had been set up on the right side to serve as a makeshift room and next to it was a relatively small Relay dish that pointed straight up, turning his gaze upward Atin could see the faint outline of a star destroyer through the polluted atmosphere and couldn’t help but marvel at its sheer size.

When the group enter they are met by a saluting clone trooper wearing orange striped armour, this trooper had an antennae attached to each side of his helmet right behind the orange visor that adorned the front. “At ease Commander Cody,” noticing the tense atmosphere in the room Obi Wan lets out a sigh before continuing, “I take it the council is waiting for me?”

“Yes General,” pointing toward a curtain that served as a makeshift door to the right side of the tent Cody continues, “We’ve set up a secure line in there sir.”

A large table took up most of the space in the middle of the tent and the left side had been sectioned off behind a large white curtain. Making his way to Anakin Atin whispers, “why is everyone on edge?”

“You don’t get it?” Anakin whispers in reply as Obi wan makes his way behind the curtain, “He had you.” With a frown on his face he continues. “Jedi aren’t allowed to have romantic relationships. By the time that meeting is over, the men in this room might have to detain their own general.”

“Isn’t he your master? Are you going to let that happen?” Atin replies, frustrated at the reality of the situation and the fact he was once again powerless to do anything about it.

“I don’t have a choice.” Anakin replies through gritted teeth. Atin didn’t fail to notice the dangerous glint in his eyes or the fact that he was unconsciously gripping his sabre.

The two stared at the curtain in silence for a while before Atin broke the silence and changed the subject. “I take it you have better medical equipment in here than what he have?”

“Most of it is specialized to deal with battlefield related injuries but yes, our equipment is centuries more advanced than what I saw on your ship.” Anakin replies.

“Great, do you mind if floaty uses it to give Miilo a check-up?” Atin Asks.

“No Problem,” Turning toward Cody Anakin continues, “Commander, grant the medical droid access to the equipment in the med bay. Our guests have been without proper medical care on a heavily polluted planet for who knows how long.”

“Yes Sir,” Cody salutes and goes behind the curtain, returning moments later holding 3 access cards and handing them to Atin. “Forgive me but I can’t allow a war droid into the med bay.” Gesturing toward sparky.

“Fair enough,” Atin replies with a nod. “You heard that right floaty? Take Miilo and give her a once over while we wait.” Turning to Anakin he continues, “Do you have somewhere I can work on this?” holding up his mechanical arm he continues, “Need to make some changes.”

Sure, we normally set up a workstation in case anyone needs to do unexpected repairs once were in the field.” Looking around the room Anakin spots a long table holding numerous tools and materials toward the back of the tent and continues, “Follow me.”

“And you,” he turns to sparky, “you need to keep operations to a minimum, sending you to retrieve this was a high enough risk. I suggest going into standby whenever possible, at least until I can make a backup of your data.” Sparky replies with an uncharacteristically silent nod, walks to a corner of the room and the lights in his visor go dark. Seeing sparky comply without complaint caused Atin to raise an eyebrow, but any suspicions he had were pushed to the back of his mind upon reaching the workbench. He couldn’t help but think of how shabby his own workstation looked in comparison, “this is just a temporary field outpost,” extending a trembling hand toward the pristine equipment he continues, “but it’s already so much better than anything I have.”

“Yeah, I had the same reaction when I saw the toys we get to play with.” Seeing Atin’s reaction Anakin smiled as he replied. “Feel free to use anything here, whatever tools and spare parts you see you can use however you see fit.”

There’s a thunk and the sound of metal clanking against metal as Atin hefts a satchel up onto the workbench, “I’ll probably be here for a while, you don’t have to babysit me you know.”

Anakin replies with a chuckle, “I’m not babysitting you, you’re not the only one who needs to do maintenance.” Anakin takes off his glove exposing his cybernetic arm and releasing a small stream of sand as he does so, “not even a day and it already looks like this?” A displeased expression creeps on to his face as he continues, “How do you even cope with that much cybernetics?”

“It’s all the dust in the air,” much to Anakin’s surprise, Atin takes what looks like a cybernetic forearm, bicep and hand out of the satchel, followed by a small round black puck from the dirty sack he got from sparky. Hunched over the table he starts assembling the collection of parts and continues talking, “I’m constantly swapping out my arm, but I designed a basic electrostatic induction system for my legs that gets most of the dust out before it becomes irritating.”

Anakin was in the process of using an air compressor to blast the sand and dust out of the joints in his hand when he heard Atin’s sentence and stopped with a shocked expression on his face. “What was that?” Remembering the pain that came with connecting the nerves in a cybernetic arm Anakin couldn’t believe his ears, “Swapping it out?”

“Well yeah,” Not looking up from his work Atin continued, “how am I supposed to know if my alterations and modifications where successful if I don’t test them.”

Seeing Atin reply as if was the most natural thing in the world Anakin couldn’t help but ask, “Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Worse than a Bantha trampling your testicles, but it’s nothing I can’t endure.” Atin’s hands moved quickly as it assembled the new arm in a practiced fashion, the main difference to his current arm was the screen embedded into its forearm. Giving the Black puck two quick taps using the inanimate finger of the new arm a ping sounded and Atin nodded his head in satisfaction. “Perfect.” Looking to his left Atin saw that Anakin had finished the work on his arm and was standing with his hand on his chin and a look of focus on his face as all the parts and components of his lightsabre Levitated in the air in front of him.

Noticing Atin stare at the mass of floating components Anakin tore himself from his own thoughts, “finished?” Waving his hand the floating components gathered together and reform into a lightsabre, to Atin it looked as if the sabre had assembled itself and Anakin had only given it a push in the right direction.

Resisting the urge to ask Anakin to let him see that again Atin replies, “Almost, Floaty just has to check the measurements before I put it on.” Looking toward the curtain he continues. “They should be done by now.”

“Squeeeee! No more!” the words had barely left Atin’s lips when Miilo burst out from behind the curtain with a high pitched squeal and floaty in tow.

“This is the last one mistress, I promise.” Floaty replied in an eerily calm voice while holding a large syringe tipped with 5 small needles in his hand.

“That’s what you said about the last one!” Miilo yelled in response as she made her way behind Atin and used him as a human shield.

“And it was the last……of the vaccines. This is a nutrient shot, it’s completely different from a vaccine.” Floaty replied and made his way toward the two. “You need this to help process all the drugs and vaccines I just put inside you.”

Looking down and seeing Miilo look up at him with pleading eyes Atin remarked with a smile, “remember the face you’re making right now, well need that later.” Turning to Floaty he continues while holding up the new arm, “Almost done? I need you to check the dimensions of this for me.”

“Almost, we’d be finished if not for the mistress refusing the final shot.” Floaty replies.

“Give it to me,” Taking the syringe from floaty Atin hands him the cybernetic arm in return and turns to Miilo, “Let me show you a trick when it comes to taking shots.” Holding out his hand he waits for Miilo to present her arm.

Giving him a sceptical look Miilo slowly extends her arm, “is it still gonna hurt.”

“Oh most defiantly,” giving Miilo a smile he continues. “But at least my way it won’t last as long. Now slowly count to 10 for me.”

“one-“ -stab- Miilo quickly pulled her arm away and looked at Atin as if he just murdered her entire family.

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad,” Atin couldn’t help but chuckle at her reaction. “An instant of pain is better than getting sick and dying isn’t it?”

Hanging her head, rubbing her eyes and holding back a quiet sob Miilo replies. “It still hurt.”

Feeling a pang of guilt in his stomach Atin quickly speaks up. “How about we make some Joopa meat tonight as a reward?”

The sad demeanour was instantly replaced with joy as Miilo beamed in response to Atin’s sentence, “yay!!”

“Can i assume we’re using the same base design as the previous model Master Atin?” Floaty finished his scan and spoke to Atin.

“New functions and features but yes the same basic skeleton.” Atin answers.

“Marvellous, in that case the following adjustments must be made. Point A1.3 -4%, point A1.7 +17%, point A3.9 -5%, point C4.5 +3%.”

“I think that’s the closest I’ve gotten to getting it perfect on the first try.” Atin replies with a smile and makes his way back to the workbench to start making the necessary adjustments.

“I must insist that I give you a check-up as well master Atin.” Floaty speaks up as Atin turns around.

“In a minute, this is almost done.” A few minutes later Atin turns back to floaty. “Let’s get this over with.” he makes his way through the curtain and hops on to the closest bed, putting his satchel on the table next to him.

“Please remove your clothing and cybernetics.” Floaty spoke up as he organised the numerous needles, syringes and vials on the tray he put next to the bed. Atin was already used to this by now, albeit in a much less sanitary setting, so he removed his shirt and presented his neck in a practiced fashion and as if on cue Floaty administers the shot. “The anaesthetic is much more effective than what we usually use so there’s no need to wait for it to take effect.” With a few grunts Atin removes his cybernetic limbs and lays back on the bed.

Staring at the ceiling while he waited for floaty to finish all his tests Atin’s mind couldn’t help but drift to thoughts of Obi Wan behind that curtain, he had just met his father and now there’s a chance that he has to watch him get arrested? The unfairness of it all left a bitter taste in his mouth. In an attempt to distract himself Atin spoke up, “Hey Anakin, are you in earshot?”

On the other side of the curtain Anakin was inspecting the newly built cybernetic arm with no small amount of interest, hearing Atin suddenly call his name he got startled and almost dropped it before answering, "yup, what's on your mind? "

"It's about your suggestion to drop the artefact into a black hole." Atin replies

"Yeah? Something wrong with it?" Anakin questions.

"To the best of my knowledge the closest black hole to us is somewhere in the middle of the kessel run, surrounded by asteroid fields and a cosmic storm. We're going to need a ship powerful enough to escape the gravitational pull of a black hole and agile enough to make it there and back in one piece.” Atin replies.

"How about a modified delta 7 aethersprite class light interceptor with two transgalmeg hyper drive  thrusters strapped on the front of it." Anakin answers.

"What!" Atin exclaims, the excitement obvious in is voice, "you can get something like that!? The sub light acceleration on that thing must be insane, who's crazy enough to build let alone pilot something like that?"

"You're talking to him." Anakin replies with a proud smile, "I call it the Azure Angel, and I don't think the kid who swaps cybernetics like fashion accessories has any right to call someone else crazy."

"I thought the Jedi where supposed to be a strict monk order without worldly possessions or attachments, to be honest, you and my father don't seem the type." Atin states.

"I can't say anything Obi Wan’s behalf but in my case it's probably because I joined the order later than most." Anakin replies, “and besides the order only let me build it for testing purposes, all my flight data gets sent straight to Kuat Systems to use for the next generation of Jedi star fighters.”

Floaty turns around carrying a tray holding numerous syringes and needles, administering shot after shot to the unflinching Atin," it seems your fight with the bounty hunter put too much stress on your legs, the wounds have opened again." Floaty’s hand retracts and gets replaced by a specialised screwdriver, using it to remove the outer ring from one of the connection implants on his legs, he reveals the raw flesh hidden behind it and a small trickle of blood mixed with bright yellow pus leaks from where the metal meets flesh. "I would prefer to put you under general anaesthesia for what comes next." 

"No. Use a local anaesthetic, I refuse to be put to sleep." Atin snaps back. 

"Very well, however I need to inform you that I will be removing and replacing all connective implants and in order to fully heal you cannot be allowed to use your legs at all for the next 2 weeks." floaty explains, raising a new syringe and filling it with a green liquid. 

"Stop! I can't be in a floater for what I have to do next." Atin yells at sparky.

"I'm afraid I cannot comply with that order master Atin," sparky replies with a calm robotic voice and continues to prepare the tools he needs for the surgery. 

"Anakin! The arm! Bring me the arm! Hurry!" Atin yells from behind the curtain while searching his satchel with his remaining hand. 

Anakin opens the curtain with a confused look on his face and the new cybernetic arm in his hand, "what's going on?" 

Atin finished fishing through his satchel and with no reply he simply snatched the arm from Anakin and put it on his lap. Hitting a few spots on the screen a beep sounded, "sorry about this floaty." 

"About what master Ati-" Atin had made his way to the foot of the bed, barely in arms reach of floaty and with a small crackle of static electricity he placed the black puck on the back of his head, causing him to stop mid-sentence. 

"I promise I'll take it off later." letting out a long sigh Atin continues, “but you left me no choice.”

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