[Legacy Of The Force] - 01(63)

“Sure.”

“What do you look like in them?”

“I’m a very big human teenager. With somewhat overdeveloped bones to handle the strain caused by my great mass.”

“I’m going to open my pouch,” Ben said. “I’m going to pull out a little holocam. Please let me record you with it.”

“Go ahead.”

Ben reached into his pouch and pulled out the holocam unit he’d used on Adumar. As soon as it cleared the lip of his pouch, though, the droid gestured and the holocam snapped across the room into the droid’s other hand.

“Hey,” Ben said. “You promised.”

“No, I didn’t.” The droid held the holocam up to its head, scrutinizing it under a succession of sensors. “I have to be sure it’s not a blaster disguised as a holocam.”

“Well, it’s not. You sound like someone who’s afraid to get killed.”

“I am afraid to get killed.”

Ben felt a surge of accomplishment, as though he’d managed to take a step toward eventual victory. “Anakin Solo wasn’t. You’re not him.”

“Quiet. I’m going to examine this thing’s programming.” A slot in the droid’s head, approximately where a human mouth would be in relation to its eyes, slid open. It stuffed the holocam into the slot and it closed.

“Hey! What do you think just happened?”

“I’m using my Force interface with computer equipment to analyze the programming.”

“That’s not a Force power, you twit. And I mean, what just happened physically? You stuck my holocam into your own head!”

“You’re crazy.” The droid’s mouth slot opened and deposited the holocam back into its hand. The hand twitched, and suddenly the holocam flew back across the room toward Ben.

Ben caught it. “So?”

“I’m satisfied it’s not a weapon. Or programmed for any activity not part of a holocam’s standard tasks.”

Ben brought the holocam up, made sure that the droid’s magnetics had not disrupted its operation, and began recording. “Do me a favor,” he said. “Wave. Like you’re on holiday. Do you have a message for your parents? Say something.”

“That’s a good idea.” The droid waved awkwardly. “Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad. I’m working hard but having a good time. I hope I’ll get to see you soon.” It paused. “How’s that?”

“Pretty good.” Ben’s feelings of dismay intensified. The droid’s words, as banal as those spoken by any average teenager separated from his parents, hit him hard.

He stopped the recording and held out the holocam. “Now look at what you just recorded.”

The holocam flicked out of his fingers and into the droid’s hand. Once again the droid lifted it to the mouth-slot and internalized it.

Ben waited. There were more voices out in the hall, and the clanking of equipment being set down. The only other sounds were the hum of all the electronic equipment in the room and Ben’s own breathing.

“It’s a lie,” the droid finally said.

“You looked at the holocam yourself. You said it had no weird programming.”

“I missed something.”

“No, you didn’t. You know you didn’t. That holocam is dumber than a mouse droid. It couldn’t hide anything from you.”

The droid turned its upper body as it looked at Ben again. The boy could swear that its posture sagged.

Tears sprang to Ben’s eyes. He wiped them away. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “But it’s true. You’re a droid who’s been programmed to think it’s Anakin Solo. But if you were really Anakin, you’d help me destroy the station now, because the people who made you can use it as a weapon and they could destroy whole stars with it.”

“How would you have destroyed me?”

“I didn’t come here to destroy you. I came here to destroy the station. I have a way to cause this control room to send a pulse through the station and wreck it.”

“Killing everybody aboard.”

“No, it sends an emergency evacuation code first and waits ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?” The droid sounded offended. “You think everyone on a station this large could get to escape pods in ten minutes?”

Guiltily, Ben shrugged. “I didn’t come up with the plan.”

“Give me the data.”

Ben reached into his pouch and grabbed the spike-topped data card. As an afterthought, he also grabbed the other data cards, those that would have initiated self-destruct or shutdown sequences from other control rooms in the station. He held them up and felt the droid’s magnetics yank them out of his hand. A moment later they went into the droid’s mouth-slot.