“So… we're back here so we can meet a princess?” Anakin kicked at the dusty ground of Tatooine. “I hate this place… it’s just sand and heat!”
“We’ll only be here for a day or so, you’ll be fine,” May flicked the back of Anakin’s head as her eyes scanned the crowds. “We need to help the Jedi get their charge to Coruscant. Dan said it was vital if Palpatine is to get the sympathy votes needed to become Chancellor.”
“I know… but I don’t have to like it,” Anakin sighed. He rubbed his skull and joined May’s efforts. “Is that them?”
Anakin pointed to a tall, bearded man with long hair, followed by a lanky alien and a younger woman. An r2 unit trailed behind them, abuzz with hums and gurgles as it puttered through the crowded streets.
“Yes,” May nodded. She took a breath and stepped forward, Anakin at her heels. “Master Qui-gon Jinn? My name is May, a friend of Jedi Master Kast and his padawan Etain.”
She bowed her head as the calm faced man fixed her gaze with endless pools. This Jedi reminded her of Merlyn, but tempered by a greater stillness. Depths of mystery, but without the abrasive edge of her Master.
“We’re here to help you get on your way,” May gave the expressionless Jedi a smile and held up a holo-projector. It displayed the needed hyperdrive for the Naboo cruiser. “It should be here after the big race, a few days from now, if you’re able to wait that long?”
----------------------------------------
“Darkwing?” One of the orange robots tilted its head and stepped forward. “This is not Darkwing’s base, you’ve made a mistake…”
Dan shook his head. The Robot’s voice held an unusual echo, a mix of tones that carried the same words. He scanned through the noise of the base, filtered back the clanks and wires of machines, until just the voice remained. Not voice, but voices… one a bit ahead of the drone’s before him.
“My bad, but depending on who you are you might do just as well,” Dan shrugged as he walked forward, headed for the sound of the lead voice. “Why don’t we talk in person, instead of through all these drones?”
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“My name is Robot, the leader of the Teen Team,” The drones moved to block his path. “I’m afraid that section is off limits.”
“Teen Team… that’s a horrible name,” Dan snorted as he craned his neck to look past the multitude of Robots. “We can talk this way if you like, but you can’t fool me,” he shrugged and tapped his foot on the concrete floor. “I can hear the human voice that you’re pumping through those machines, somewhere down below.”
Dan let the sounds trickle in and frowned. Whoever he was talking to, they had some serious health problems. Their lungs and heart were abnormal, arrhythmic. He held up his hand and sent a command to Venom. The symbiote projected a hologram of various technologies, mostly used in medical care.
“I was looking to house crash on Darkwing and give him some data on my people’s technology, but you seem like you might need these more,” Dan continued to cycle from schematic to schematic, while Robot stood silent. “Whatever's wrong with your true body, maybe something here could help?”
Dan waited patiently as his ears tracked the slow approach of the laboured heartbeat. The tick tack of a mechanical spider, filled with a gurgle of liquid. A door opened behind the army of drones and a mobile test tube walked into view. The man within was deformed, twisted around himself and connected to his container by a dozen tubes.
“Who ARE you?” The self titled Robot moved closer, well out of reach and guarded by his machines. His questions were in a different vein, but his eyes stayed glued to Dan’s projections. “How could you know about this place… about me?”
“I didn’t know anything,” Dan laughed and pointed to his ears. “I followed a data trail to this base, and I could hear your heart beat the second I tunnelled in here.”
“Impressive, both detecting my digital presence and your physical abilities are remarkable,” Robot twitched in his tube, while several drones leaned in to inspect Dan’s figure. He waved an arm at Dan’s holographic schematics. “Are you and this technology alien, some other super race like the Viltrumites?”
“Something like that,” Dan ignored the mechanical eyes and met the gaze of the man in the pod. “But unlike Omniman, I’m not interested in running around, he’s reactive instead of active.”
An instruction to Venom transmitted a large data package to the glass entombed man. Information on Kryptonian medical research and development, as well as the schematics for a clean energy reactor.
“This is just the beginning of what I can give you,” Dan tapped the side of his head and smiled. “The only condition is you move to make these innovations available to all you can, as cheaply as you can.”
“Why?” Robot tilted his head and bobbed within his jar. His spider carrier tattered forward, ungainly but somehow well balanced. “What motivates you to help the people of Earth like this? What could possibly convince me this wasn’t some kind of alien trap?”
“A trap?” Dan raised an eyebrow and snorted. He shook his head and floated into the air. “If I wanted to destroy this planet I wouldn’t need to take such a roundabout path.” He glanced upward to judge his path and sent a final transition to the ‘Robot.’ “Call me on that frequency, any time you like. I’m going to poke harder for Darkwings lair…”
A rush of air and Dan pierced through the ceiling, a rapid advance until he reached open sky. The only potential threat on this planet seemed to be Omniman. That guy gave Dan an uncomfortable itch. A spider at the base of his spine that he couldn’t catch.
“Venom, what information can you find on the Viltrumites?”