The journey had been an uneventful one, which to an engineer, was more or less a vacation. The
Phoenix was holding true, and apart from some minor adjustments and diagnostics troubleshooting for under-performing or stressed components, Zekha was largely left to his own devices while the crew did theirs. His accommodations weren't actually a bother yet; no one seemed to get in the way of him loosely organizing his droid parts neatly by the workshop in what available shelving there was. He didn't bother Woo'rah much, nor she him, and it proved remarkably straightforward to share the workshop. One declared their intention to use a tool, the other game a time frame if it was in use. Both simply seemed too engrossed in their individual projects that being belligerent simply never crossed the mind.
On Zekha's part, there was an older Sith interrogation droid that had been neglected for quite some time that needed some pretty hefty retrofits, but that suited the Dug's needs just find. The thing was half-meter in diameter and most of its nasty bits and baubles tucked away neatly into its menacing casing, had it still retained most of those. Of its various torture implements, there was simply a shock bolt and the syringe assembly remaining, which the Dug figured could be loaded up with all sorts of fun drugs if one felt like getting wasted on the go, or to make someone particularly uncooperative a bit more receptive to chatting with a bit of a pick-me-up. Zekha wondered how he was going to broach the conversation with Varen about needing to stop by some seedy back alley for some illegal narcotics for an experiment.
It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, Zekky old boy. he thought mischievously to himself.
He was also firmly in the camp that a droid with a singular function was wasted potential; there was often way more room for way more programing runtimes that it just made sense to give a droid more utility than just being a one-trick Fathier. Case in point. if B-0 turned out to be little more than a co-pilot slash navigator, there were quite a few improvements he could shove in that beak-like chassis. Namely turning the innocuous droid into an incredibly precise marksman or a torturer capable of identifying unique stress points across thousands of organics to inflict maximum suffering. On second thought, maybe that last one would be ill advised. Killer droids were nothing if not relentless, and creators got murdered by their creations way too often because people mistook droids as friends because of that little old restraining bolt. He decided to stick with drug cocktails and using the intimidating profile of the interrogation droid as a housing for a protocol droid; it would be handy, since not everywhere spoke Basic and Zekha doubted the crew was really multilingual outside of their species' wheelhouses.
The intercom came alive with the reptilian tones of Barsuuth, causing the Dug to jump with a start, almost dropping a wrench he was holding. He'd been so engrossed with his work he'd somewhat toned out the rest of the ship. Dutifully, if somewhat annoyed, Zekha set his kit down and made his way up the stairwell, which conveniently lead to the bridge, where Varen, Barsuuth, and B-0 were already waiting for a briefing. At least this meant work.
Well, Tattooine was a planet that one could find some rather illicit contracts and avoid the eye of the Republic and the Empire for the most part, but it was also so backwater it was widely considered somewhere you want to end up if you want to say goodbye to any kind of lucrative future. The bit about the distress signal, however, was more of an irritable sideshow.
"While I don't share Woosie's concern about idiots using their distress beacon as a lure to murder us all, I'm more concerned about us wasting our time at all with distress calls. It's always trouble that takes you out of your way, consumes your finite resources like fuel and anything you give to the
Slimo who got stranded, and you don't get paid for your trouble. Being a good Samaritan in the galaxy never pays off, yeah? B'sides, this heap isn't exactly rated for combat and if this is pirates, we're best flipping them off as we don't lose momentum and head right for Mos Eisley because they'll lose a lot of precious time having to slow down, change course, and try to accelerate in pursuit. I bet we could be there before they get in weapons range." Zekha pointed out.
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