Elvee is in his room when he arrives there.

"I am LV-1958. Knowledge droid with a specialty in anthropology, particularly the beliefs of non-Jedi force users." 

"Hello," he says. "My name is Marlo. Jedi knight." 

LV-1958 is very likely to already know; it still seems polite to say. 

"But I can be useful in lots of ways," Elvee says very earnestly. "I can remind you of your appointments! And engage in interesting conversation!"

"I have a good memory, but conversation is always nice." 

The ship isn't large, of course, but it's comfortable enough; he's stayed in worse places for longer. 

"Oh, that's okay." Elvee sounds almost disappointed. "Did you know the civilization of Praxat Sil collapsed when they mispredicted the timing of a eclipse?"

(He's not super-sure how interesting conversation works but he personally likes knowing random facts about fallen civilizations.)

That's... oddly charming. Marlo is reasonably certain that one isn't supposed to be charmed by the droid you've been assigned to. He sits down. "I did not! How did that lead to their collapse?" 

Elvee will tell him!

About halfway through the explanation he starts bouncing, and then immediately stops himself. Bouncing is not part of his specs. If he bounces he might get mind-wiped.

He listens enthusiastically! 

He takes note of the bouncing but doesn't take any particular actions about it, except to note again that he's fairly sure he's more charmed by this droid than he should be. 

Marlo looks charmed which is very reassuring.

Possibly it is a good idea to bounce because that is a unique trait and innocuous and likeable, and Marlo will have a sentimental soft spot for it, and then he won't be mind-wiped again.

He tentatively bounces again.

...cute. 

His smile doesn't change. 

Oh good that's really good.

"Do you know any facts about fallen civilizations?" Elvee asks. His procedural memory informs him that turntaking is an important part of conversations.

"Not nearly as many as I'd like, and none that I wouldn't expect you to already know." 

"You could tell me about something you like," Elvee suggests. He looks through his memory to find things that Jedi like. "Uh. Fighting forms? Meditation? Epic poetry? ... I think that one must have just been my last master..."

"I'd like to hear about epic poetry sometime, but what I do in my spare time is music, mostly." 

Elvee considers. "I know a lot of facts about music but I haven't ever actually listened to music, which means I am missing important information about it, as shown through the thought experiment Myyril's Room."

He pauses for a moment to try and remember the Myyril's Room thought experiment, does not in fact remember it, and files it away to ask about later. 

For now he starts singing. It's nothing flashy, he isn't trained in this and he knows how badly it'll go if he tries to sing anything on the top 500 charts, but if he picks something simple enough he can make it pretty. 

Elvee has never actually heard music before as far as he can remember, so he has nothing to compare it to. 

It is the most wonderful thing he has ever heard.

"...I know the silence as the world begins to wake;
I'd like to be that silence, as the morning breaks." 

He finishes the song, takes a breath, and then realizes that it isn't a good sign that he's singing for a droid. 

But the droid is so happy.

He is. 

It — Marlo knows he isn't supposed to trust his feelings, about things like this, but it feels right. 

"I'm nothing special," he says, maybe a little bit too quickly. 

"I think you're very special."

"More seriously, we are here for a reason — do you have the files for this case?" 

"Yep! Can you read, or do you want me to tell you?"

"I can read but it'll be faster to hear them, thank you." 

Six Jedi Knights have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Outer Rim in the past two years. There have been reports of a human male wielding lightsabers similar to those of the fallen Jedi Knights. He may be a user of the Dark Side of the Force.

Are there any commonalities between the six Knights, is there any particular place he seems likely to be based? 

All six Knights were in the Outer Rim and alone at the time of their disappearance, but otherwise there seem to be no commonalities. Based on when he was last spotted, they should begin searching for him on the desert planet Jakku. 

At least it isn't a jungle planet; it's nearly impossible to find someone in the undergrowth if you don't know who you're looking for and they don't want to be found. 

"To Jakku, then." Marlo does know how to fly this line of ship himself. 

Good, because Elvee has no idea. 

He should probably avoid being distracting.

The flight goes — well, not quickly, but not as slowly as it could. Before landing in any particular place he tries a flyover search of the open deserts for settlements that shouldn't be there. 

Elvee has spent the flight sorting through the facts he knows about dead civilizations and being pleased he knows so many. 

If the man is in a settlement in the desert, he's hiding it well.

Ugh. This part. 

He changes into clothes that don't look so obviously foreign and so obviously clean, parks the ship out of the way. "We'll be walking into town," he says to Elvee, insofar as it can be called a town. 

"Possibly I should stay here? I'm not the sort of droid you'd have on Jakku."

"I think the extra information is worth it, and you'll keep better notes than I'll be able to." 

Then he will accompany Marlo to the town!

The town is very small, and very poor, and very corrupt, and very boring.

All towns on Jakku are small and poor and corrupt and boring. Has anyone in this town seen a man with a lightsaber, he owes Marlo's employer several debts and Marlo would like to get this job done and over with. 

No one in this town has seen a man with a lightsaber, or alternately they are too scared of the man with the lightsaber to say so.

Then he'll try poking around some himself, and if he still doesn't find anything he'll try again in the next town. 

The man with a lightsaber is doing a pretty good job of covering his tracks.

He doesn't find much of anything. The sun is setting.

At dusk he starts to head back towards the ship. 

A man is hanging upside-down off Marlo's ship, a lightsaber on his belt, carrying a tin of something in one hand. He waves as Marlo gets close. 

"Cookie?"

......................

"No." He doesn't take his lightsaber off his belt just yet. 

"They're not poisoned," he says crossly. "Everyone always thinks they're poisoned. I would not poison a cookie."

He opens the tin, takes out a cookie, and bites it, still hanging upside-down by his feet. "See? Not poisoned."

He takes a cookie very deliberately and doesn't bite into it. He raises an eyebrow. 

The man closes the tin of cookies and jumps off the ship, just slightly not graceful enough to be aided by the Force.

"The script says I'm supposed to tell you to, uh, let the anger and hate flow through you, feel your rage, let it turn you to the Dark Side, or something? But that's not very friendly. I feel like recruitment would work better if it starts with baked goods. --Hello!" he says to Elvee. 

"...Hello," Elvee says with great suspicion. 

.....he's not a Force user. Why does he have a lightsaber? 

He still doesn't bite into the cookie. He also doesn't say anything. 

"Piece of friendly advice," he says, "don't mindwipe your droid. LV units are absolutely terrified of being mindwiped. It's the idea of losing information, scares them shitless. The manufacturer doesn't consider it a problem-- makes them more eager to please, you know-- but I do."

He eats his cookie.

Why does this man know that. 

"I wasn't planning on it." 

"Oh, good, so you can say sentences, I was wondering. --You know, this is going way better than it was with the last guy. He was all 'die sith scum, stab, stab, stab' and I could not get a word in edgewise, not even to explain that I'm not a sith. And then he would not stop trying to kill me and I had to kill him. It was awful. I already had five lightsabers, I don't need a sixth."

"I can tell you aren't a Sith. Is there a reason you've been killing Jedi?" 

"My boss is a Sith! Count Dooku, you might have heard of him, he used to be one of yours. I'm his best student in lightsaber combat," he adds proudly.

.....wonderful. 

"Is there any way I can convince you to stop doing that." 

"Well, I don't really want to kill Jedi right now, hence the cookies and the droid advice. Like I said, I already have six lightsabers, that's more than enough. But if someone is trying to kill me, obviously I'm going to kill them first."

This is going to be unproductive. 

"You know, I'm curious, where do you even get cookies on Jakku?" 

"I bake!"

"....and butter and eggs are easy to find around here?" 

"I bake, and also sometimes I show up with a lightsaber on my hip and people give me discounts on baking ingredients. One of the many advantages of being on the dark side."

"I see." 

"You guys are always like 'I can't join the Dark Side, what if it makes me want to murder children.' You could always just... not murder children? My master hasn't murdered any kids. I haven't murdered any kids. I don't feel the slightest desire to murder any kids, or in fact to murder anyone who is not currently pointing a lightsaber at me. I feel like outside your guys' weird religion it is in fact the normal state of things to experience love and passion and emotions and also not want to murder kids."

"I can think of a dozen different examples off the top of my head of people who thought they would do exactly that, turned to the Dark Side, and promptly started murdering children. I'm sure Elvee can think of several dozen more." 

"Yes, I can." Elvee thinks it is probably not the time to start giving examples. This is called social awareness.

"And there are also dozens of examples of Sith who pursued power in a reasonable, non-murder-y way. The Dark Side is not going to make you want to murder kids unless you already had the passion to murder kids to begin with." He pauses. "If you have that passion, I am also going to kill you, regardless of how little I need a new lightsaber."

"I do not, and I suspect we could both dig up examples until dawn and not convince one another of anything." 

"Fair! I'm just saying, the Jedi end up sacrificing basically everything that makes life worth living. You can't be in love because love is an attachment-- my girlfriend Ayar is an LV unit, like yours there. You can't be really happy or sad or angry, because feelings are dark. You can't really care about things, because 'passion' is a Sith concept. And I just wanna say, you know, if you want to get to love people and stop repressing your emotions all the time, there are options."

"I don't know where you've gotten the impression that we aren't allowed to care about things, but I would suggest you consider whether you've been hearing the truth." 

"Oh, yeah, you can care about things as long as you don't get too attached, and you don't get too passionate, and ideally you should be caring about something convenient for the Jedi Council, like perfecting your kata. And god forbid you're angry that the Jedi Council is mistreating someone, or you want kids, or you want to fuck--"

He takes his lightsaber off his belt. 

He doesn't take his lightsaber off his belt.

"A suggestion," he says, "ask your droid friend about Grey Jedi."

He doesn't answer. 

It gets dark quickly in the desert; neither of them will be able to see for much longer. 

Asha tosses Marlo a data stick. "Holo me if you ever want to talk."

Then he takes off at a run. 

He has a feeling he'll see the man again whether he wants to or not. 

He pockets the data stick. "Let's go in." 

"That was an experience."

"It certainly was."

Lots of things happened so probably Marlo will forget to ask about the mind wiping thing. 

(It's not safe to let organics know what you're scared of.)

He hasn't forgotten. But he thinks maybe it's a bad idea to remind Elvee, who he hasn't known for very long yet, that Marlo could hurt him very badly if he chose; he doesn't ask. 

"Do you need anything for the night?" 

"I don't sleep."

He nods. 

Deserts get too cold at night to meditate outside, regardless of how much he prefers to do it alone; he finds a place large enough to lie down in and sits there. 

(There is no emotion; there is peace.) 

He examines what his feelings are — curiosity; a fondness for Elvee; a relief that he cannot place. 

(There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.) 

Where is that relief coming from? That he was given this assignment, that he found the man so quickly — ah. That he hasn't had to fight him yet. 

(There is no passion; there is serenity.) 

Wondering what the man meant by the Grey Jedi will bring him nowhere good; he reminds himself not to let himself be led into traps, closes his eyes and cuts the feeling away. 

The fondness for Elvee he takes and turns in his hands, examines; it doesn't look like it's harming anything just yet, even if it is strange. He lets it stay. 

The relief — he isn't sure about the relief. Relief that he hasn't needed to fight someone obviously very competent seems fair, but relief that he was given an assignment that wouldn't necessarily involve combat is less so, and he can't see a way to disentangle them. He pulls that feeling apart as best as he can — relief at not needing to kill is not wrong, he thinks, and he lets that remain where it will. 

(There is no chaos, there is harmony.) 

Breathe in. Breathe out. 

(There is no death, there is the Force.) 

Breathe in. Breathe out. 

He finds himself more able to sleep than he might have thought. 

Elvee spends the night jacked in, neatly arranging all the information he has about Count Dooku, lightsaber users who are not themselves Force users, the history of Jedi joining the Dark Side, and Grey Jedi.

In the morning he asks Elvee about lightsaber users who are not Force users. 

(He conspicuously does not ask about Grey Jedi.) 

"There aren't many, especially if you exclude everyone who sliced their hands off," Elvee says. "It's generally believed that the instincts and quick reaction time the Force gives you are required to be able to use a lightsaber safely, which is why it is the weapon of the Jedi. If that man is truly not Force sensitive, he's very exceptional."

"What information do we have about Count Dooku?" 

"He was once a respected Jedi Master, trained by Yoda himself. He fell to the Dark Side of the Force after the death of his former padawan. He is powerful within the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which is rebelling against the Galactic Republic."

He nods. 

"...I'm fairly sure we'll be seeing that man again soon whether we want to or not. Do you think the information on the data stick is worth the risk?" 

"Yes," Elvee says quickly. Then he reconsiders. "But I'm a knowledge droid so I'm probably a bad thing to ask."

"You're the one who's reading it," and he hands Elvee the stick. "Who else would I ask?" 

"Well, I'm going to say 'yes' regardless, because I always want to have more information. It's in my programming."

"Fair enough. Here — do you have a port for it —" 

Of course he has a port for it. What do you take him for, a protocol droid?

After a while he says, "Asha has stripped most of the useful metadata from the data stick. But there's a number at which you can holocall him, and also some recipes."

"Thoughtful of him." 

He tries the number; he's aware that there's probably some kind of trap waiting for him, but there doesn't look to be anything else to do. 

Asha answers. He appears to be on some sort of military vessel, and also resting his feet on an important command console.

"Nice to talk to you in a context where I don't have to kill you."

"Clearly you didn't have to kill me before. 

I'm informed your name is Asha?" 

"It's what my friends call me."

That isn't an answer. 

"I'm Marlo," he says, instead of trying to get a real name out of him. 

"Marlo Aliya. Your master had nothing but positive things to say about you, you know."

"Did she." 

"Yep! Very dedicated, very self-controlled, very compassionate, full of love and concern for all living things, good at stabbing. All the essential Jedi Knight traits."

"I am aware that the question you want from me is How do you know my master." 

"Well, I wasn't aware of that, so you're one up on me."

He waits for Asha to speak. 

"So! What did you call me about?"

"I was curious what the hook would be, mostly." 

"No hook! Come talk to me whenever about whatever. Try to get me to reveal the Sith's secrets. Talk about cookies. Gossip about which Jedi secretly have four kids. Whatever you want."

Uh-huh. 

"Is it true you aren't Force-sensitive?" The curiosity in his tone is honest. 

"Yep! They tested me. I'm as Force sensitive as a rock. Or your droid friend."

"I'm impressed you still have both your hands, then." 

"Reports that you have to be Force sensitive to have a quick enough reaction time to use a lightsaber have been greatly exaggerated."

"The number of people who cut off one or both of their hands would seem to indicate otherwise." 

"I'm very good."

"Yes," he agrees. "That's why I'm impressed. What kind of employment benefits did Count Dooku offer a non-force-sensitive?" 

"Lightsaber training, unfathomable wealth and power, a legal setup so my girlfriend can own herself and if I die she won't be sold for scrap. The usual."

"Your girlfriend." 

It's not that there are no humans who date droids, but it's — not generally the sort of thing you advertise. 

His face is soft.

"Thought I'd mentioned her, she's the same kind as your droid. Her name's Ayar. She's great." 

"Tell me about her?" 

She specializes in the Early Republic period! She knows so many things and it is so interesting to listen to her! Her hobbies include Bothan opera and molecular gastronomy and writing sonnets! He is going to surprise her for her creation day with several valuable artifacts that, reading between the lines, were definitely stolen from a Jedi ship!

He really loves her. 

.....he's going to have to close this line earlier than he thought he would. 

"Thank you," he says. "For the recipes, mostly, I should really be getting back." 

"All right!" Asha says. "Feel free to call whenever you like, it's an excuse to skip boring meetings."

"I'll do that." He won't. 

He ends the call. 

"What was that all about?"

"I wasn't assigned to neutralize the threat, I was assigned to investigate it. I doubt I can get more useful information out of him and I know I can't tell how much he's reading from me, so I'm going to go back to Coruscant and give that data stick to the Council." 

"I recorded the conversation to my permanent memorybanks."

"Thank you." 

The flight back, like all flights back, goes faster than the flight there. 

Elvee is quiet and pensive for most of the flight, and halfway through he says, "I'm scheduled to have my memory wiped every three missions."

"I'm not planning on wiping you." 

"Not that I'm not grateful but-- why?"

"Memories are useful even if you retain facts you've learned. — and you're obviously not enthusiastic about the idea, even if I do assume Asha was lying, which it didn't particularly seem like he was." 

"He wasn't."

He nods. "Thank you for telling me. — I'm not going to." 

"It's strange for an organic to care about my opinions."

"Even without your opinions memories are still useful.

And maybe I'm a bit strange." 

"That's good. --Do you want to know other preferences I have?"

"If you want to share, yes." 

"There are a bunch of things all droids of my line like-- we like knowing things, we like getting to explain things to people, we like getting to figure things out. I liked hearing you sing. I like it when you smile. I think I would like to touch you."

"I can sing more, I'm mostly out of the habit of doing it absentmindedly but that's reversible. I like hearing you explain things. And when I'm not flying I can touch you." 

Elvee is smiling. 

"I can-- do things you like too. You're my master, I'm just a robot."

"I like singing. And I meant what I said about liking to hear you explain things." 

This is a very good situation. He doesn't have to be mindwiped AND he gets to listen to Marlo sing. 

He picks a song and sings for the rest of the way back. 

Elvee quietly allocates a part of his memorybanks for recordings of Marlo singing. 

(It's knowledge. He'll have it even if Marlo changes his mind.)

He gets as far as,

"— yes I have an ambivalent shooting machine,
as fickle as the hand that holds it —" 

before they reach the dock and he has to go quiet and concentrate. 

Once the ship is parked he says "Do you know where my quarters are?" to Elvee. 

"I do."

"I'll meet you there after I make my report, then." 

Elvee goes to Marlo's quarters, plugs himself in, and listens to the recordings.

And Marlo informs his immediate superior that he was able to locate the source of the disappearances but not to neutralize it, that the six Knights were killed by a non-Force-sensitive working for Count Dooku, and that he was able to retrieve this data stick, which has had most of the metadata wiped from it but contains a holonumber. 

Once his report is made he goes back to his quarters. 

His immediate superior seems politely confused by Marlo's claim that six Knights were killed by a non-Force-sensitive wielding a lightsaber.

When he returns, Elvee is sitting perfectly unmoving.

"Hello," Marlo says, and sits down next to him. 

"Hello," Elvee says. "How did it go?"

Doesn't Marlo have someone better to talk to than a droid?

"She seemed politely confused that a non-Force-sensitive took down six Knights, which is to be fair kind of implausible. It went all right." 

It's theoretically possible that the answer is yes, but he did promise. He hugs Elvee. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

— oh. This is good. He hadn't realized how much he missed this; it's been a long time since he had a chance to hug someone — something — it hardly signifies. 

Hugging humans is EXTREMELY GOOD. Marlo is EXTREMELY WARM AND SOFT. He wants to keep hugging Marlo FOREVER.

(He is maybe slightly concerned about how quickly he's deviating from his programming.)

He lets go after a couple of minutes, which is already an extremely long hug. 

"I'm going to get some sleep, you can do whatever you want for the next few hours as long as it's quiet." 

Marlo has a very specific sleeping arrangement, which involves two heavy blankets and also a pillow on top of him. It's a little excessive, especially when he barely even gets cold, but it works well enough that he can close his eyes and be asleep less than five minutes later. 

He should NOT have let go after a couple minutes he should have hugged Elvee for LONGER.

But complaining about this would not help. 

Elvee learns everything there is to know about the songs Marlo was singing, and considers the possibility that he might have acquired a romantic orientation. 

If he dreams at all, he doesn't remember it by the time he wakes up. 

Elvee is very anxious about when he will next get to have HUGS, but is also concerned that if he expresses any desire for this in any way Marlo will get angry at him, so he attempts to look very busy.

He finds himself things to do rather than interrupting Elvee.

(He doesn't sing on purpose, but he also doesn't stop  himself from doing so absentmindedly.) 

Please interrupt Elvee! Elvee wants very much to be interrupted!

He expresses this desire through not saying anything to Marlo and trying to look as busy as possible.

Elvee records it when Marlo sings.

When it starts getting dark outside — as much as it even matters on Coruscant; as far as ambient light is concerned it never goes past twilight here — he curls up next to Elvee and hugs him again. 

!!!!!!!!

Hugs are better the second time. 

Yeah. Yeah, they are. 

"Sing something?"

He does. Elvee can feel the way his chest vibrates, when they're this close. 

(He wants — something — he doesn't know what. He files that away to deal with later when he meditates.) 

Elvee puts his hand on Marlo's chest and shuts off his auditory input and listens.

That's — nice. Marlo isn't sure why that's so nice but it is. 

"It's nicer to listen to you without auditory input," Elvee says when the song is over, "because I have to reconstruct the song from limited data and that is an interesting intellectual exercise."

Elvee is very endearing and very good and he really needs to examine this feeling before it gets out of hand. 

He lets go, still smiling. "That's adorable." 

He's not disappointed. He's not. (He's disappointed.)

"Thank you."

"I should meditate. Good night." 

"Good night."

Did he do something wrong. What did he do wrong. 

He finds a quiet place and (there is no emotion there is peace) sets about picking apart that strange wanting. 

It isn't about sex; that's the first thing he thinks of. It isn't a passionate thing at all, really, it's just — 

It's just that he kept an attachment and allowed it to grow.

A day isn't long, but clearly it's long enough; he does his best to excise the wanting to be closer, the wanting contact, the wanting to please; it feels more like cutting away living flesh than like clearing away dead undergrowth, and he suspects that there are places he's missing, but he tries nonetheless before he goes back to his quarters and tries to sleep. 

Elvee listens to his recordings of what Marlo was singing, compares it to his reconstructions, makes notes on how he can do better next time. 

He wants to know everything about Marlo. It's like he feels about the fall of civilizations or about long-lost Force cults or about Asha; he wants to know, he wants to understand, he wants to have all the information lined up neatly and organized and put into a system, he wants to make predictions and test them, he wants to contemplate the beauty and complexity of his person--

They gave him the ability to program. He's good at covering his tracks. The Jedi Temple is not as good at computer security as it should be. Elvee downloads Marlo's school records and his health records and his Master's reports and the results of his Trials, everything he can find. He doesn't have time to read through them all now, but he will later, and they'll be there when he needs them.  

Droids can control how they file things, to a degree; there was no point in removing the ability, most droids see no reason to hide things from their masters. Elvee carefully places the information about Marlo somewhere obvious, but hidden enough that whoever's mind wiping him thinks they've found all his secrets. He hides the recordings in "music," next to the information about epic poetry and obscure philosophical thought experiments; he fills "music" with musicoethnographies and Thandyusian whalesong. 

He does not sleep peacefully, that night, and in the morning it's nearly painful to go through his morning routine without holding Elvee. 

(It hasn't even been two days, and already attachment has brought suffering —)

Is Marlo not touching him now. That's okay. 

Why can't he record hugs and then play them back later?

He leaves his quarters and goes — he doesn't know where he's going. His form is excellent but it can always be better; he goes to the training ground and works until he's exhausted and then meditates, tries again to cut away this attachment, fails again. 

(If he tells anyone they'll take Elvee away and he'll be wiped — the fact that Marlo cares so much about that is evidence that it would be a good thing — he still can't make himself tell.) 

Elvee sorts through his facts about Marlo, gets lost in the intricacies of youngling education and yearly physicals.

(The information about Marlo's birth family will be particularly hidden. Elvee wants it.)

He goes back to training, works on exercises that use different muscles this time. By the time he's done he feels like he's going to collapse if he pushes himself further; he goes back to his quarters and barely gets his shoes off before he falls into bed. 

(Elvee will have to look hard to find anything on his birth family, but in the records of younglings considered for the Order there's a Relani Aliya, female, human, two years older than Marlo, mildly force-sensitive but not enough so for Jedi training.) 

Marlo isn't holding him. Why isn't Marlo holding him. What did he do wrong?

He looks for information about Relani Aliya's family. 

When Marlo wakes up in the morning he'll find an unsigned message on his console:

you gave them my number? not cool. don't worry, it's still open for you whenever you want to chat xo

not very smart of you, anyway-- i was going to help you. here's something as a show of good faith: dooku's other students are after you, and most of them aren't as nice as I am. the big guy is interested in you specifically. dunno why, i'm just a minion. he thinks you're something ~special~.

here's my cookie recipe. expect an interesting next couple of years xoxo

(Relani Aliya is from a city planet several systems away from Coruscant; as of her second birthday her parents were an architect and a physical therapist; there aren't any photos of her older than two, but the photos in which she's two look remarkably similar to the pictures from when Marlo was very small.) 

He doesn't answer the message. He doesn't delete it either. 

He can maintain files full of information about Marlo and that is-- not actually comparable to hugging, they fulfill different needs, but it is very rewarding anyway and if he had to choose one he would choose the files.

He puts in a request for records from the city planet. He listens to recordings. He doesn't talk to Marlo unless Marlo talks to him. 

That's — good, if Elvee is busy that means he doesn't have to have this conversation just yet. He finds work for himself. (He rereads the message, still doesn't respond.) 

Elvee is not bored but he is very conscious of the fact that the thing he's doing is less enjoyable than the thing he could be doing.

In the mid-afternoon, he gathers his courage and says, "Master, is there something you wanted from me?"

"— hm?" 

"You haven't given me any orders. If there's some way that I can be of service--"

"There's nothing I particularly need right now, but I'll let you know if that changes." 

He hesitates before saying, "And I'm sorry." 

Elvee looks confused.

"I'm a droid."

"I know. I'm still sorry." 

"You don't have to apologize to me any more than you would apologize to a toaster. I'm not a person. I don't have feelings."

"I have also apologized to toasters," he says, instead of engaging with that statement properly. 

"I suppose," Elvee says, and notes down this fact for his Marlo file.

There's some datawork he needs to catch up on, but once he's done that it's back to waiting for an assignment, creating work for himself, and debating whether to delete the message, answer it, or report it. 

In the middle of the afternoon he receives an invitation to meet with Senator Palpatine.

He accepts, of course. 

"Hello, Senator." 

"Good afternoon, Marlo. I see you've done well on your first mission."

"Thank you, Senator." 

He's very sure that most people do not receive invitations to speak with Senators after their first missions, no matter how well they go.

"As you know, I've always taken an interest in the Jedi."

"You have, Senator." 

"You are one of the rising stars of the Jedi Temple. Yoda himself has spoken to me of your... potential."

"Thank you, Senator." 

"I like to acquaint myself with the best of the new Jedi. We may be working together in coming years."

"Thank you, Senator. I hope you're right." 

"Have you thought about how you'd like your career to go?"

"It would be rather strange not to have, Senator." 

"I'd like to hear your thoughts."

"Mostly what I want is to be in a position that lets me do good in the world. The rest is — not quite window dressing, but it's less important to me."

He's aware that this sounds like the sort of thing you say when you're trying to polish yourself, but he's entirely sincere. 

"It can be difficult when you want to do good," Palpatine says mildly. "There are so many people suffering, and whenever you help one it feels like you are abandoning the others. I myself-- but you do not want to hear the ramblings of an old man." 

"You yourself?" he prompts. 

He stands up and stares out the window, which has a beautiful view of Coruscant. "When I was an ambassador, there was a young girl who asked for sanctuary in the embassy. We sheltered her for a while but eventually traded her for political concessions. Improved conditions for millions of Twi'leks. I often see her terrified face pass through my mind."

He opens his mouth and closes it and opens it again and says, "I don't know if I could survive in politics, for that very reason." 

"The duties of a politician and a Jedi Knight are in many ways similar. We must both avoid... attachment."

"Yes," he agrees, because he isn't sure he can say anything more detailed than that and still sound neutral. 

"But I am sure you have no difficulties with that. And you did not come here to listen to an old man reminisce about the glories of bygone days."

"I came here to listen to a Senator give whatever advice he cared to," he says, instead of commenting on whether he's had any problems with attachment recently. 

Palpatine asks Marlo more questions about his assignments. He is thoughtful, perceptive; he listens; he gives good advice.

He doesn't talk much, but then, he never does. He listens closely, thanks Palpatine whenever it seems appropriate. 

Eventually the half hour is up and Palpatine says, "Thank you for your time."

"And thank you for yours, Senator," and he goes. 

Elvee is in their room reading about Gray Jedi.

Gray Jedi are very interesting and if Marlo ever asks he will be prepared. He is drawing up a lesson plan. 

He does not in fact ask about Grey Jedi, then or in the next few days. He does ask about ancient civilizations, and listens enthusiastically to what Elvee has to say; he doesn't hug Elvee again no matter how much he wants to. He adds a third heavy blanket and deals with being too hot at night. 

Elvee happily tells Marlo about ancient civilizations, and does not suggest that droids are better than blankets for being heavy at night.

Marlo gets another unsigned message:

the outfit was not my decision. it's tacky. the boss wouldn't let me veto it. xoxo

.......he doesn't respond to that. 

He doesn't report it or delete it either. 

That afternoon Marlo is given an assignment. 

Apparently the non-Force-sensitive human with a lightsaber has kidnapped a minor princess from the Hapes Cluster. His job is to rescue the princess and neutralize the threat.

.........the outfit was not his decision, huh. 

Alright. Does he know what planet Asha is on? 

His hyperspace route suggests he may have gone to any of the following four locations!

He can check them. Apparently it was planned in advance that this would happen and that Marlo would be the one assigned to deal with it; Asha probably isn't hiding.

He doesn't talk to Elvee much during the flight. 

At location #3, there is an enormous Venator-class Star Destroyer. Possibly this is the ship he's looking for.

Possibly it is. 

Is Asha going to make it difficult to get in? 

He'll be allowed to board, but the ship is crawling with mercenaries. 

Great. 

He leaves Elvee on their ship; he'll try stealing a uniform before he tries to fight his way through the mercenaries. 

Unfortunately, the mercenaries do not seem very inclined to let him steal a uniform. 

That is unfortunate. He doesn't like stabbing people but he's good at it — there are kind of a lot of mercenaries though —

Those are a lot of mercenaries!

They seem to be sort of herding him towards the center of the ship.

Well there isn't really an obvious other place for him to go, is there —

The center of the ship has a giant, impressive-looking throne. It's black. There are metal bits sticking out. It seems like it was ordered from a catalog titled Evil Thrones Monthly.

A girl who must be the minor princess of the Hapes Cluster is wearing a collar and chained to the chair. She is wearing an outfit [nsfw] made of a sheer black material that only highlights the fact that Marlo can see literally every aspect of her anatomy, and that all of her anatomy is of the sort considered conventionally attractive. 

She is also sitting in a very comfortable chair, looking at a datapad, next to a space heater. 

Asha is not actually sitting in the throne, he's standing on his hands with a disgusted-looking facial expression. 

"....I see what you mean by tacky," which should probably not be the first thing out of his mouth, but there you go. 

He leaps onto his feet, lightsaber on.

"I had nothing to do with it."

He turns his lightsaber on. "I believe you." 

Lightsaber battle!

Asher is, in fact, very very good. It's a little strange fighting him-- he's slow sometimes, fast other times, and he can't do anything that requires using the Force-- but it is not easy.

Good thing Marlo wasn't expecting it to be easy. 

Marlo is also very good. He is not, as it turns out, as good as Asher. 

Dejah Thoris, princess of Hapes, does not look up from her datapad.

That's a little strange but his attention is a bit occupied right now! 

Asha disarms him, points a lightsaber to his neck, and says, "handcuff him and bring him to Dejah's cell." With obvious reluctance, he adds, "And put her in the other outfit."

He'll go where he's brought; he has no particular desire to be the seventh Jedi Knight that Asha has killed. 

Then he will be placed in a nicely outfitted cell with two comfortable beds and a desk and some books. 

Not as bad as it could be. He picks one of the beds and looks through one of the books. 

The book is a science textbook he does not understand. 

Dejah Thoris is brought to the room wearing an outfit that is slightly better [nsfw], because he cannot actually see her nipples, but that sure is skin-tight rubber and lacy underwear instead of pants. 

"I assume you're Marlo? I'm Princess Dejah Thoris."

That cannot be comfortable. Or warm. "I am. Hello, your grace." 

"Dejah is fine. Asha has been giving me space heaters but I'm worried they might make you too warm. You know, for the person who's deciding what outfits I wear, he really seems to dislike them."

"I think it's his employer's decision, actually. You can borrow one of my shirts if you want, that looks difficult to sit in comfortably." 

"Thank you," she says, "I usually just lie in here naked but obviously I'm not going to do that if we have to share a cell."

(She has a really cute smile.)

....he is aware of how this script goes and has absolutely no intention of following it. He gives Dejah his outermost layer and looks politely away. 

She changes and opens up her datapad. 

"At least I'm getting some work done."

"Glad to hear it." 

He puts the science textbook back and tries another. 

"He got the books for me, I'm not sure if they'll be to your taste."

"I can try, anyway. You like —" he glances at the book — "biochemistry?" 

"'Princess' isn't actually a job. I do terraforming."

"Politics is a job but I'm aware it's not for everyone. This book makes approximately zero sense to me, tell me about terraforming?" 

"Oh, I'm involved in the Consortium as well, I'm just a workaholic."

"Sounds like it." 

She'll tell him about her work!

She is less good than Elvee at keeping track of what her audience understands about atmospheric chemistry.

It's still significantly easier and more interesting than trying to read one of the textbooks on his own! 

Eventually she asks, "why does Asha's boss want me to dress like this?"

"At a guess, because they're trying to get me to turn to the Dark Side and for some reason think that the way to do it is by getting me to have sex with you. Which, sorry, but that's not going to happen." 

"I guess if you wanted to I might be up for it, I mostly like girls but non-Hapan men seem less vapid."

"I don't, especially."

"Probably wise, if it would make you fall to the Dark Side. That's a pretty weird thing for sex to do though."

"It's more complicated than that, we're supposed to avoid attachments entirely as much as we can, but yes. I don't pretend to understand why anyone thought this would work." 

"So, wait, you can't have sex because it might make you like someone?"

"I'm allowed to like people, I have friends." 

"I don't see why sex is a problem, then, it's not like I'm in love with everyone I fuck."

"It's the sort of thing you don't want to take risks with when you don't have to. And I am also, separately from any oaths I have taken, not interested." 

"I wasn't proposing anything, I was just asking questions. I haven't met a Jedi before."

"I don't know that I'd be my first pick of representatives, but I can try." 

"So what is an attachment?"

"It's... not just caring about something, for some reason people keep thinking we aren't allowed to care about anything, it's — caring past the point where it makes your judgement worse." 

"That doesn't seem that unusual as a thing to warn people against, although in Hapes it is more usually handled with conflict-of-interest law."

"When you do it while regularly using the Force, the risks are less 'a judge has a conflict of interest' and more 'one of your classmates goes insane and starts murdering children.'" 

"That seems a bit dangerous a trait to have in the guardians of the Republic."

"You aren't wrong — it's one of the reasons we start training young, and the rules are probably a lot stricter than they need to be, as an organization the Jedi aren't fond of risk and there's a good reason for that." 

"And the ones that go evil start kidnapping random terraformers and trying to get them to have sex with Jedi?"

"I do not pretend to understand Asha's boss, I just know he keeps making me job offers and there are only so many reasons to put you in clothes like that." 

"Normally, they do it because they like seeing you in the outfit, but of course a man wouldn't be so forward."

"...I think that's more true on Hapes than it is anywhere else, but Asha claims he tried to veto the outfits because he thinks they're tacky so I still doubt that's why." 

"He's very pretty and a good kidnapper. If he were Hapan and noble I'd offer to marry him."

"...is 'good kidnapper' a trait most people look for in a husband or is this just you?" 

"If he gets you a space heater when he has you in his power, probably he will be kind in general."

"...fair enough." 

Atmospheric chemistry?

Atmospheric chemistry! 

Elvee is EXTREMELY WORRIED.

Are they going to try to escape at some point or are they just going to talk about atmospheric chemistry. 

(Not that he objects. Dejah Thoris is very pretty and he's glad she wants to marry him even though he is monogamous with Ayar.) 

Marlo is aware that the script for this interaction was written before he ever got the assignment; he's aware that if Asha wanted him dead he'd be dead; he is also aware that he empirically cannot beat Asha in a fight, and that he doesn't have his lightsaber. He's going to continue talking about atmospheric chemistry. 

In the morning Marlo is taken from his cell into a meeting room. 

"Hello!"

"Good morning." 

"Any complaints? Food all right? Company pleasant? Any messages you want me to pass along?"

"Everything is fine. I don't have any messages that I would want to pass through you." 

"If there's anything you'd like me to fix up I'd be happy to, I try to make being kidnapped by me as pleasant as possible. Good karma for when I'm on the other end."

"...I can't imagine his is the first time you've heard this, but have you considered that if it's karma you're looking for, you might be better off not kidnapping people at all?"

"I could say the same thing to you. Propping up the decaying wreck of the Galactic Republic is not my idea of doing good."

"I assume there's a reason this entire thing was orchestrated." 

"I think you're overestimating my rank in the organization. I know as much as you do. 'Kidnap this princess.' 'Put this princess in a stupid outfit.'"

"The outfits really are stupid." 

"Ah, well, bullshit is part of every job."

"...I was assuming there was going to be another job offer at some point but if you don't know why I'm here either then maybe not. Is there a reason I'm in this meeting room, other than asking if I have any complaints?" 

"If I convince you to join the Dark Side, I will get the credit for doing it. My strategy is being nice and honest and genuine and hoping you'll realize that being a Jedi sucks and also props up a system that hurts people. And I'm happy to advance my plan while the big guy is working on his."

Is Asha under the impression that being a Sith wouldn't involve hurting people? Marlo would like to think nobody could not realize that, but —

"Not Force sensitive, can't read your mind," Asha says cheerfully.

"I was wondering if you were under the impression that being a Sith doesn't involve hurting people." 

"I said 'prop up a system that hurts people.' I'm not under any illusions that my hands are clean, and certainly not under any illusions about my... compatriots. But the Republic is dying. Everyone knows it. There can be something competent to replace it, or not. And if we're involved in the early stages of creating its replacement we can make it better. No slavery. No planets like Jakku or Tatooine in grinding poverty while Coruscant feasts."

"I don't believe a set of principles that specifically advocates seizing power at the expense of others is going to lead to anything better." 

"If someone without those principles tries to seize power, I'm happy to defect."

The only thing he can think of to say is, "I'll be interested to see how that goes for you." 

"All right. Well, if you think of any complaints or want to talk, just tell a guard."

"Will do." 

He is not anticipating wanting to talk. 

The cell is still comfortable. He still doesn't have his lightsaber, and is still almost certainly being watched. 

Asha has apparently made the executive decision that Dejah should be given cargo pants and a baggy shirt.

Good for her. 

There is someone on this ship who is not supposed to be here. 

(He suspects that there are a lot of someones on this ship who are not supposed to be here. But Seku is the only one that Seku knows about for sure.) 

Asha does not notice that particular someone who is not supposed to be here. There are kind of a lot of mercenaries, he has lost track of which ones he's actually paying.

He does, however, notice a different someone who's not supposed to be there, about twenty minutes too late to do anything about it.

He ignites his lightsaber, his heart pounding. 

He still doesn't have his lightsaber —

The someone makes it to Marlo and Dejah's cell before Asha does. 

"I am Ranna," the alien says, a bright-red lightsaber in his hand, "and I'm going to kill you and marry Dejah."

"Is this how people get married in your planet?" 

"This isn't how people get married on any planet —" 

He doesn't have a lightsaber, doesn't even have a blaster, doesn't have anything —

Asha is running as fast as he can but it's not fast enough--

Ranna attempts to skewer Marlo with his lightsaber.

And Ranna's lightsaber turns off. 

He tries to turn it on, fails, and shakes it, confused. 

"What's going on--"

"This is the least competent kidnapping I've ever experienced."

Ranna is hit in the back, twice, and the back of the knee, once, with a blaster. 

And Asha appears with a lightsaber. 

"Uh. I guess that problem solved itself."

"...what just happened." 

"My plan to interfere with the Big Guy's plan got interfered with by my late and unlamented compatriot Ranna, whose plan in turn appears to have been interfered with by some unnamed fourth party with a blaster."

"That's almost Hapan."

The unnamed fourth party with a blaster holds very still and very silent. 

...the Jedi in the room can tell that there's still another Force-sensitive nearby, and it isn't Ranna anymore. 

"Unnamed fourth party, literally all I am going to do is thank you for shooting Ranna, he's awful."

A purple-skinned, heavily freckled Twi'lek drops down to the walkway. 

"Thank you for shooting Ranna. He's awful."

"You're very welcome." 

"I owe you a favor."

He looks at Asha like he's trying to gauge — something. Not truthfulness. 

"I need safe passage." 

"Those two good? I'm supposed to let them escape, although they've mostly been busy talking about atmospheric chemistry instead of even trying."

"I empirically cannot win a fight against you even if I do have my lightsaber." 

"They'll be fine." 

"I got such stupid guards. They'll all fall for the old 'throw rocks one way and run the other' trick. And I left your lightsaber in a room totally unguarded. I did my bit."

"Try engineering a rescue."

"Good idea, I'll try that next time."

If Asha is going to just let them walk out, he is happy to walk out. 

(This still feels too easy.) 

"I'll fake the video cameras," Asha says, "but please attempt to make some sort of effort to escape, I've got to tell Dooku that you escaped on your own and I didn't tip you off."

"Of course."

"Of course." 

He's already gone to the trouble of looking like he belongs here; "escorting the prisoners" isn't that much more difficult than getting to them in the first place. 

"See you."

Asha goes back to his office to work.

One "They're with me," two "Boss's orders," four condescending stares, and a blaster shot later, they have Marlo's lightsaber and are on Elvee and Marlo's ship. 

As soon as Marlo gets on the ship he receives an armload of droid.

"Marlo! You're alive!"

"Yeah," he says, and doesn't let go of Elvee just yet. "Yeah, I am. — this is Elvee. Elvee, this is Dejah, and this is..." 

"Seku Ani." 

He holds himself differently now that they're off the Star Destroyer; he still isn't smiling but he doesn't look half so sharp. 

Neither of those people are Marlo.

"I thought you were dead-- you went on the ship and then I didn't hear from you and I thought I would just end up floating in space until we ran out of electricity and I died--"

"Hey, I'm not dead, we're not dead, you're not going to die, we're okay —" 

Elvee is being hugged. It is hard to be frightened if you are currently being hugged.

Yes. Elvee is being very, very hugged. 

After a couple of minutes, though, Marlo says "I do need to be able to fly the ship." 

Elvee stops hugging him.

"Hello," he says to Dejah and Seku. "I am LV-1958, a knowledge droid specializing in non-Jedi Force users."

"Nice to meet you," he says, and glances at Marlo's back, and says, "I'm a non-Jedi Force user." 

Elvee bounces.

"What kind? Can you tell me about it?"

"I am... not actually familiar with what the kinds are." 

"Oh! You're a wild Force user! --Do you mind if I ask you lots of questions?"

"Ask me as many questions as you like." 

He's smiling, now.

There are lots of specific hypotheses about which ways the Force is just because everyone expects the Force to be that way! Elvee wants to test all of them!

Seku is largely self-taught out of snippets of things he overheard or found when his former master wasn't looking; if everyone knows a thing about the Force, there's a good chance he's heard it too.