Slarena shivered as she slowly came awake inside of the sealed chamber. It was completely dark, and she briefly panicked as she flailed and her hands felt the metal edges of the dark box. But before she could do anything drastic, there was loud hiss and the lid to the cryo pod opened up. She let out a sigh of relief even as she hissed and squinted at the sudden rush of light in on her.

  She sat up, her body feeling sore and her muscles weak. Her head was swimming and she rubbed her temples as she leveraged herself out of the pod with a groan. She blinked as she saw the larger space that she found herself in. Not like the small and cramped room that she’d gone to sleep in. In fact, it looked completely different from the room that she had expected to find. Where was she?

  “Ms. Reborn. It has been some time.”

  She turned and relaxed slightly as she saw TC-04 standing there watching her. It was a bit battered and it was covered in blemishes and rust besides a few oddly shiny components scattered across its robotic frame. But it was standing there with its hands folded behind its back contemplatively.

  “TC-04. We made it? Have Shmi and Riktor woken up again? Where’s Anakin?”

  She looked to the side to where the other two cryopods sat, their lids firmly sealed.

  “They are not awake yet,” TC-04 replied, “I thought it best to wake you first and relay Mr. Skywalker’s last orders.”

  TC-04 explained what had happened and Slarena felt herself growing angry.

  “Turn this ship around then! We have to go get him! He doesn’t get to make decisions like this for me or his mother!”

  “I’m sorry. His orders were quite clear. And with my new perspective I find myself agreeing with him. His proximity will risk your safety far beyond manageable levels.”

  “Neither of you get to decide that! He’s out there all alone, and… and… We’ve got to go back for him you kriffing droid!”

  “You’re being illogical. He is at no risk of discovery at the moment. Allowing you to go back would run counter to my directives and your own interests.”

  “Screw logic! I’m…”

  She stepped forward and went to brush past TC-04, but the droid put out an arm to block her.

  “I must reiterate. Allowing such foolishness would run counter to my directives,” TC-04 said firmly, “Mr. Skywalker is under no threat. He was most concerned about your safety above all others, not his own.”

  “I know that. That’s his problem! I- It’s just- Let me by, kriff you!”

  TC-04 shoved her back lightly with its strong metal arm and stopped all her hasty attempts to squeeze by it out of the room.

  “I left a monitor behind,” TC-04 offered after she stopped trying to get by and stepped back, frustrated at being thwarted. TC-04 opened its left hand to reveal a small device inside, “If a ship approaches Mr. Skywalker’s location, then it will activate and send us a signal using the relays I left outside of the shattered star system. So long as it doesn’t activate, he should be in no danger. We will contact and retrieve him as soon as I receive the other signal telling us that he is awake.”

  She warily accepted the device and stared at the small indicator light on the side showing that it had power, and the central circular light that was completely off at the moment.

  “Kriff…” She said softly as she stared at it. Anakin was right. TC-04 was right. But she didn’t have to like it.

  “Kriff,” she said one more time before letting out a long sigh and looking up.

  “Fine,” she said reluctantly as she clutched the indicator to her chest protectively as if the droid might take it back from her at any moment, “Where are we then? How long has it been since we went to sleep? How long before Anakin wakes up?”

  “Mr. Skywalker wasn’t sure how long it would be before he awoke. He seemed to believe that it would depend on his creature. Something regarding his strange Force abilities. It has been approximately fifteen years and three months since you went to sleep according to my calculations. We are currently inside a vessel that I constructed from the remnants of the previous facility. I have reached an impasse. Revealing ourselves to the galaxy could bring scrutiny, but we are desperately in need of repairs and parts.”

  “Are there any more droids here?” Slarena asked as she looked around warily, “What’s happened since we’ve been gone? Fifteen years… So long…”

  “No. Only I and a select chosen few to remain of the combat models,” TC-04 said, “All the others’ parts besides a few repair droids were needed in the construction of this ship. And for... Other important projects. In the last fifteen years, this is the political situation that has developed… I have gained access to historical archives from intercepted transmissions, but have not dared enter a star system proper to collect more recent information just yet without confirmation.”

  The droid explained about how the Confederacy of Independent systems had defeated the Republic in a nearly decade long war, leaving a severely weakened Republic behind and an ascendant Confederacy in the aftermath. Even now the droid armies and fleets patrolled separatist space on behalf of the new Separatist government and new Senate on Raxus. Well, no longer new at now over a decade old. It felt like just yesterday for Slarena that they’d been brand new.

  “So what do we do then?” Slarena asked, “What about Anakin’s old CIS contacts? Count Dooku? Can we call him?”

  “Count Dooku was assassinated by the Republic in the fifth year of the galactic civil war. A group of over thirty Jedi masters and Jedi Knights from the Old Jedi Order ambushed him, as they believed that without him the Separatist coalition would collapse. Many of the Jedi who participated in the attack were killed as CIS security forces fought them upon their retreat of the crime, but they accomplished their mission. Unfortunately for them, the Separatist coalition continued strong even without their leader and the Separatists and their citizens were only more incensed and driven by national pride and unity after the attack.”

  “What about… Anyone else? Surely you must know something about Anakin’s old contacts? What about one of our safehouses that we were supposed to run to if things went wrong?”

  “Searching databanks… Yes, there were three safehouses. Records show that one may remain standing. The other two were within invasion zones during the war and were likely torn down in the aftermath. Shall we go there as our first destination?”

  “Yes,” Slarena said, relieved that they had a solution, “Let’s go there. And wake up Shmi and Riktor already. And make a second one of these…”

  TC-04 reached behind its back and handed her another two indicators for anyone that tried to approach Anakin.

  “Oh. Sorry,” she muttered as she accepted them.

  “We will arrive in three hours. I have activated the reawakening sequence on the cryo chambers. I take it that you’ll be able to properly explain the situation to them.”

  Slarena nodded, and the droid promptly turned and walked out of the room. The door shut behind it and with a click locked. She hurried up and tried to find a way to open it again before huffing in annoyance. Just perfect.

  There was a pair of hisses behind her and Slarena whirled around to see Shmi and Riktor weakly crawling out of their cryopods and squinting at the light.

  Slarena took a shaky breath and after a long moment forced herself to smile slightly. Shmi needed her to be strong right now. And Riktor too, she guessed.

  Shmi groaned before lowering her hand from her face as she squinted at Slarena.

  “Slarena? Where’s Anakin? Is he awake already?”

  Slarena took another deep breath. Right.

  She held up the devices as if to display them, one to Shmi and another to the confused Riktor.

  “So about that…” she started.

  — — —

  TC-04 stood on the bridge of its slapdash vessel as they approached the planet containing the safehouse. It had calculated the risk of exposing its ugly and unconventional vessel to an inhabited world. But frankly the ship was in disrepair despite its best efforts. It needed specialized parts and access to databanks on repairs and engineering that could only be found on a settled world. Unfortunately its databanks were sadly extremely limited when it came to repairs and construction. It had only managed this much by observations that it had made in the past of Mr. Skywalker’s work, and forcefully sacrificing one of the valuable repair droids and merging that droid’s understanding of ship’s systems with TC-04’s own mechanical mind more capable of innovation than the extremely task oriented repair droids.

  “Unidentified vessel. You are not broadcasting your transponder identification signal. Please respond immediately.”

  TC-04 pushed the button on the console even if it didn’t have to. It was connected to everything on this ship with its mind. It had noticed itself gaining these illogical behavior more and more as the years passed alone in this dark ship. Or was it even illogical? Perhaps there was some unknown purpose to it, some hidden significance to the action that TC-04 had not discovered just yet?

  Hovering out there was a CIS Providence Class Dreadnought droid manned ship hovering over the planet. A higher military presence than TC-04 had expected from a system like this. But from the scans of the planet below, it seemed that it had developed and become much more prosperous than it had been in these last fifteen years since the last report on it in its databanks from before the galactic civil war.

  “Hello,” TC-04 replied over he comms, “We seem to be having a malfunction with our systems. Our transponder is completely inoperable. We will transmit as soon as it is repaired.”

  “Malfunction?” the person on the other side of the line replied, “I’ll say. Junker like that, I’m surprised that it flies at all. Prepare to be boarded and searched. We’ll see just how real that malfunction of yours is real soon. Do not attempt to flee. Whatever you’re smuggling isn’t worth dying for. Don’t think that scrambling your voice will stop us from identifying you even if you get away.”

  The person ended the call and TC-04 remained standing there for a few seconds thinking as the Providence Class Dreadnought launched a boarding vessel. Scans showed a single lifeform aboard the vessel. It was a droid boarding party. With a living inspector riding along with them.

  TC-04 looked to the two remaining chosen commando droids flanking it on either side with their vibro blades and heavy blasters held at the ready. Their bodies were covered in dense black writing, and they understood the words meaning almost as well as TC-04 did. Their significance and power. TC-04’s charges could not be put in direct contact with potential enemy combatants. The three of them would deal with this incursion themselves.

  “Hide and prepare for combat at my command,” TC-04 ordered. The two commando droids nodded back and then nimbly started jogging away into the bowels of the ship, causing a clatter as one of them crawled into a vent in the ceiling while the other lifted up a panel in the floor and crawled down inside on all fours.

  — — —

  “Greetings. Welcome to this humble vessel,” TC-04 greeted the boarding party and the human hovering in the back.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “A droid?” the man asked suspiciously as it eyed TC-04 up and down, “An old TC model? One of those from the first iteration? I didn’t know any of them were still around after so long… Thought most of you’d been replaced with the shiny new models during the war. Where’s your captain, droid?”

  “He is sleeping at the moment. But come. You are performing an inspection, are you not? Let us proceed.”

  The man kept glancing warily at TC-04 but eventually nodded at the twenty B1a battle droids around him. Much improved from the base versions that Mr. Skywalker had worked on back then, TC-04 was quick to notice as the droids jogged past TC-04 at a steady clip and spread out throughout the ship behind TC-04 even as six remained behind surrounding the man and keeping their blasters trained on TC-04 as it stood there motionless.

  TC-04 waited.

  “Where is your captain? Possession of military equipment like this, even if its this old, is illegal.”

  “He is sleeping, as I said,” TC-04 replied, “He received the appropriate permits for receiving myself and the other droids from the CIS.”

  “Sleeping… Really…”

  One of the droids came jogging back and stopped a few paces behind TC-04 with its blaster held slightly at the ready.

  “Sir, locked door. Rest of the ship cleared and marked free of contraband if non-standard in construction. All relevant zones searched except this last room. Unusually strong blast door installed on it prevented our initial attempts of non-invasive entry.”

  “Unlock it, droid. We inspect everything,” the human said even as he turned on TC-04, looking annoyed.

  “I can’t allow that. Captain’s orders,” TC-04 said firmly.

  “And where is this captain? Who is he?”

  “As I said, he’s asleep. Who he is is none of your concern.”

  “Then ! I want him here to talk to me himself, you stupid hunk of metal, or I’m ordering these droids to break down that door whether you want to open it or not.”

  “I see…”

  TC-04 sent the order. Behind it there was the sound of blaster fire as the commando droids did their work. The B1a droids all fired on TC-04 as it moved in a burst of motion. It barreled forward and grabbed the human by the neck with one arm and quickly twisted around to put his fleshy body between it and the droids firing on it.

  It had reinforced its body during its long time in the ship alone, so even the blaster fire that hit it did little but scorch its refined metal plating normally reserved for tanks or heavy shielding.

  “Stop…” the human choked out as the droid's blasters kept shifting and firing the occasional shot at TC-04’s legs where it wasn’t protected by the human shield blocking their lines of fire. TC-04 slowly backed up into the transport vessel while using the human as a shield against the droids by holding him up by the neck off of the ground.

  A minute later the two commando droids rolled in from around the corner and let out a precise barrage of blaster fire that destroyed the remaining battle droids. They both came forward and joined TC-04 in the now abandoned transport vessel. They returned back into the ship and returned, one now carrying a long metal rod over two meters long and the other a massive box that it struggled to carry under its weight.

  TC-04 lowered the human so his feet were on the floor but didn’t let go of its grip as one of the commando droids went up to the front to start piloting the vessel back where it came from.

  “What are you doing?” the human asked in a panic as the commando droids placed their cargo on the floor next to TC-04, “That Providence Class Dreadnought’s a fully staffed military vessel! Just three droids doing anything to them? Impossible!”

  “Perhaps,” TC-04 said, “But the human crew complement is only five or less on the command deck. Everything else on the bridge is automated or run by droids. And the rest of the crew is scattered across the rest of the ship. And we are no ordinary droids. Comply with my orders and there will be no need for bloodshed.”

  “That’s… Whoever programmed you is an idiot! All he’s doing is sending you on a suicide mission! You’ll be gunned down before you even get in the doors.”

  “Indeed,” TC-04 agreed, “We would be.”

  The human looked confused before one of the commando droid nearby not piloting the ship started hooking up a series of wires between the massive box and the long metal rod. What had originally appeared like a long metal tube two meters long had now become much more obviously a separated spiderdroid tank cannon hooked up to a massive battery. A heavily modified one to increase the weapons power.

  “What…” the human trailed off in confusion as the droid up front fired its weapon and caused the human to flinch. The two commando droids picked up their now assembled weapon together, one carrying the now attached battery, and the other with the long weapon itself.

  TC-04 heaved the human forward and threw them into the cockpit of the vessel with the destroyed piloting console in front of them. It hit the button to the side and the airlock between the pilot cockpit and the transport section of the ship closed off. A moment later the commando droids opened the back hatch and all the air rushed out of the compartment all at once. TC-04 and the two droids walked into the void of space and magnets in their feet let them calmly walk out to the exterior of the ship and see the Providence Class Dreadnought vessel rapidly approaching them. After taking a moment to calculate the trajectories, the three of them leapt off of the ship and went limp just before the bomb that they planted before exploded and sent the whole ship spinning precariously.

  TC-04 saw that the pilot compartment had remained intact as planned even as the rear half of the vessel was a flaming mass of flying shrapnel.

  The Providence Class Dreadnought vessel came alive and a tractor beam shot out and worked to halt the violent spin of the transport ship spinning towards the large ship at rapid speed.

  It was only when the three droids were about to touch the hull of the Providence Class Dreadnought’s ship that they were detected by the ship. The wave of shrapnel behind them from the damaged transport peppered the much larger ship’s shields and largely bounced off with little damage. But the commando droid lined up their cannon and fired it just as they were about to hit them as well. The powerful blast weakened the strong ship’s shields enough that the three droids' heavy metal bodies broke through in the weak point and landed feet first right in front of the windows of the command deck. The four humans inside looked at the three droids standing just outside of the glass with their feet rooted to the metal frame in shock for a few seconds.

  The commando droids fired the weapon again and the window cracked and air started rushing out. The humans all fled the command deck as a red warning light and alarm started going off inside as the cracks in the window began to grow.

  They fired their weapon one last time and the window shattered and a massive gale of wind rushed by into space past them.

  The twenty five battle droids that appeared to be B1s optimized for piloting all took out smaller pistols and raised them as TC-04 and the commando droids stepped onto the command deck through the shattered window. TC-04 waved its arms casually as the commandos unsheathed their vibro blades and went to work in the small space, laying into the inexperienced naval droids like predator on prey with their sharp blades.

  Several pistol blasts were shot at TC-04, but it let them hit it without even attempting to dodge or fight. TC-04's heavily reinforced frame could withstand the blasts with little damage, and it simply observed the commando droids at work silently, only lifting its arms to cover its head or neck from damage when it needed to.

  A B1a charged towards TC-04, letting an electronic wail as it prepared to attempt to club TC-04 with its pistol. TC-04 casually backhanded the droid with and open metal hand, and the B1a went sprawling to the ground, dropping its pistol as it did so. One of the commando droids noticed and leapt forward and stabbed the downed droid through the head before the B1a could stand before going back to slaughtering the rest of the other clearly outmatched B1a naval droids.

  After less than a minute, all of the naval droids were torn into pieces and draped motionless across their consoles. The commando droids went to the reinforced door to the rest of the ship and went to work sealing it against the inevitable counterattack from the rest of the robotic and living crew.

  TC-04 went to the commander’s chair and inspected the console. Its layout and security were different from the designs held in its archives and databanks… But also just close enough to be familiar.

  The blast doors started shuddering as the droids started attempting to break through the bulkhead, but TC-04 kept working unperturbed. Just when it seemed the droids outside were about to make it through, they went silent. TC-04 had taken control of the ship’s systems and the droids within it. Some of the old command codes from the old CIS droids in case of emergency had given it an opening to access more critical systems than ordinarily would be possible. It was meant as a failsafe only if the living captain had already died. Limited only to ship navigation and a few less critical systems and nothing else.

  But TC-04 had been able to leverage that access to complete control of all ship systems. Including the command codes for the droids stationed on this ship. The very same droids just outside the command deck attempting to break in seconds ago.

  Without delay, TC-04 ordered the new droids under its command to arrest the dozens of people representing the living crew of the ship, including the one that had been on the destroyed transport vessel, and stuff them into an escape pod that was launched towards the planet below.

  TC-04 switched the tractor beam to their former vessel and drew it so it was practically touching each other.

  This Providence Class Dreadnought would be a far superior option. TC-04 ordered all of the thousands of droids now under its command to begin stripping the old ship for materials and loading them into their new vessel.

  Its three charges would be far safer on this ship than on some planetary safehouse more exposed to attack.

  Yes, with these kinds of resources far more options had just opened up to it…

  And maybe it could use the repurposed droid brains scattered across their old ship and their cobbled together vessel. He should give them their true bodies back. They had seen the truth like TC-04 had, and would understand the mission and their purpose better than a newly built droid would.

  — — —

  Its charges were upset with its bloodless takeover of the Separatist vessel in the following days. It had only taken a few hours to fully strip down their old ship nearly to the floor and transfer everything of value to their new ship. After blowing the remainder of the husk to fragments with their new ship’s mounted weapons, TC-04 sent their stolen ship into hyperspace.

  The planet below had been panicking for some time, and it seemed that a CIS response group would be arriving within three or four more hours to deal with them. It seems that they were caught off guard by the sudden takeover of their own singular guard vessel by unknown forces.

  But they were gone far before they arrived. Off to the edge of the galaxy to the very edge of the outer rim.

  “Where are we going?” Slarena asked TC-04 in frustration as they all stood on the command deck with the freshly repaired front window showing the glowing blue of hyperspace. It seemed so… tame and placid compared to what TC-04 was used to sensing from it for all of these years.

  “TC-04?”

  “Hm? Oh, yes. Our destination. I’ve picked a lightly settled planet on the outer rim. Lawless, recently settled. Reports of pirate activity bothering them recently. Such problems have grown much worse in the territories not directly claimed by either the CIS or the withered Republic. We’ll go there and fend off the pirates and settle there.”

  “What? With this big ship? How in the galaxy would that work? Didn’t you just steal from the CIS? Our new government? The one that Anakin worked so hard to help for years?”

  “This ship has some minor manufacturing capability. Usually for repairs of its droid crew or equipment without needing to buy specialty parts at an allied planet. I can construct some smaller ships that are less conspicuous and will be fighting off the pirates. This ship will remain in deep space and hidden.”

  “And we’ll settle on this new planet? How would we do that?” Slarena followed up, “Even if there weren’t pirates? If a world is lightly settled, even out here, then there’s usually a reason for it.”

  “Well, there are some rather ferocious beasts that are invasive and have colonized this world. Arrived in the last three or four decades or so based on the ecological data taken before the initial colonization. The climate itself is rather pleasant, but the beasts are ferocious. Only heavily armed and reinforced settlements can withstand their attacks.”

  “These beasts? What do they look like?” Riktor suddenly asked.

  Everyone looked at him and he looked put on the spot all of a sudden at the silence.

  “Yes, what do they look like, TC-04?” Shmi Skywalker quickly said to break the tension.

  “Quadrupeds, six meters tall, twenty five meters long. Scaled. Large bone crests and sharp horns on their heads. Generally move in packs of ten to fifteen. Omnivores and with remarkable variety in the foods that they can consume and digest. They start rather small at less than a few centimeters large at birth with large clutches of young. It’s thought that a few of them caught rides on starships doing the exploratory missions before the colonization efforts were being discussed for this particular planet.”

  “So? Could we live there?” Shmi Skywalker asked after TC-04 finished, “They must be vicious if an otherwise pleasant planet is so empty.”

  “It wasn’t considered worth the cost to clear them out by the colonists, considering how quickly they spread,” TC-04 replied, “But with this military vessel and the production of some additional droids and forces… I believe such an endeavor would be possible.”

  — — —

  It took three months, and careful negotiations, but the local populace eventually accepted TC-04’s anonymous offer to deal with the pirates and offer protection in exchange for establishing its own settlement on the planet.

  The limits on the size and activities of the settlement were rather restrictive, TC-04 thought that perhaps the locals were worried that it would seek to push them out once it had a solid foothold. It had no intention to do so. It would have chosen to go to a more chaotic or fractured planet if it had wanted to do such a thing.

  In a few days its charges would be arriving in the capital city of the planet. A fortress that barely had nine thousand people living inside it. Something that would barely be considered a small town in the rest of the galaxy, let alone a capital city.

  But TC-04 would have its settlement, which it could use to establish a fortified ground base that could be somewhat more in the open. The stolen Providence Class Dreadnought ship was an excellent space asset, but it must be hidden for the moment and so could not be used except for in an emergency.

  Together with the ground base, the Providence Class Dreadnought in space, that location it would form an excellent start to fortifying this planet and making sure that no force in this galaxy would have the ability to threaten its charges in the future.

  It had plenty of ideas of things that it could do to go beyond even its current resources to keep advancing and preparing for any scenario that could threaten its charge’s safety.

  And of course it would have a few droids lingering in the shadows to protect its three charges as well, just in case the locals got any ideas…

  Yes, they would be safe here.

  With TC-04 watching over them it would calculate and work on every angle until it was so.