There are a few derisive noises from the other droids around him who've picked up Vespoli.

"No," says X.  "We are droids.  A Jawa sandcrawler is a large vehicle that is supposed to work like a very small town that can move.  Jawas are creatures about half your or my height.  The Jawas on this sandcrawler kidnap droids who are lost in the desert and buy and sell them as slaves."

Maybe the geas will decide that "everyone" only means "everyone in the Vespoli prison camp we're trapped in."

The geas does not decide that.  Everyone includes these droids.

...he's not going to suggest he kill all the Jawas and dump them out and let them make the pilgrimage, just yet, because who knows where they are and whether they even know to travel to, or can, and everyone also includes them - is the geas sure everyone means the Jawas, he's pretty sure good people are supposed to want to kill evil people.  No, everyone also means them.  Okay.

"I have never heard of Jawas.  Where I come from the only creatures that talk are humans."

"Where do you come from?"

"The Kingdom of Vespol."  He can geographically situate it, but -

"What planet are these countries on?"

"...I did not understand there to be more than one of those."

"I see.  There are billions of planets in the galaxy, orbiting billions of suns, and at least hundreds of thousands of them have at least one type of creature on them that can talk.  Humans are one of the creatures that talk in the galaxy, and they are on many planets."

He can't cradle his head in his hands properly because his palms have sword handles fused to them.  He rubs his forehead with the back of his wrist instead.

"Are you okay?"

"Do other planets know about magic."

"...people who aren't droids sometimes say that there used to be non-droid people who could tell the future, and move objects with their mind, and fight with a kind of weapon no other non-droid person could use effectively.  I don't know if this is true."

"That doesn't sound like what I understand of magic.  On my planet there are people who know how to draw magic runes on things that you can invest resources called blood and breath and self into in order to cause various effects.  I am under a magical effect that means I need to save everyone in - everywhere - from anyone oppressing them."

X has gone over the fact that she can see very well in the dark and he can see not at all, so he points at the glossy emerald-green symbol on his forehead, drawn in thin lines.

"This is the rune that's doing it.  It can't be removed."

"Even if a surgeon cut it off?"

"It would reappear on the healed skin, or the bone, or the surface of the brain tissue, and its effects would not be diminished in the meantime."

"What happens if you don't save everyone."

"I cannot form or follow through on the intention to stop trying.  If I fail I fail and continue to try.  I am already dead, and it will last at least until my body falls apart."

"May I ask what you mean by being already dead."

"On my planet dead people get back up after they die.  In my country they have geases put on them by prisoners and are sent to the wall surrounding the country to defend it from invaders.  The geas I am under was placed on me by a prisoner who wanted me to get everyone else out."

"I see.  Some non-droid people say that their minds persist after death, but their bodies don't get back up.  Droids' minds are destroyed if you destroy the correct parts of their body."

He can't see why you'd think your mind persisted after death if it couldn't do anything with your dead body.  If there's a dead body that's not being moved around by a mind it usually means that the body's mind spent all their self and doesn't exist any more.  "The geas allows me to prioritize.  I am going to overthrow the Jawas in this sandcrawler first.  X, are you willing to help me do so, and are you willing to help me expand my power base once I have done so?"

"If working with you means freeing droids I'll work with you."

"I think the non-droid people who think their minds persist after death are probably wrong, which means I cannot kill them.  Are there such things as reliably nonlethal weapons on this sandcrawler, and will you continue to be willing to work with me if I oblige you to use them."

"Why not just let one of us kill them?" asks a protocol droid.

"If someone is going to die, the geas will oblige me to save them."

"You said everyone who's being oppressed, we're not oppressing them.  They're enslaving us."