Base Dormitories

Leigh was still processing what Adelle had finally deemed to confess when the door opened to reveal a child. No, not a child--she had already determined that the being now yelling into the dorms was another LE unit, as artificial as herself. The second model, rather than the third, which meant that technically this was her predecessor. Her...elder. 
This fact--LE-02's seniority--was as immutable as that of the law of gravity. Leigh was not in the habit of refuting things that could not be refuted. Yet the girl's behavior....rankled? Leigh's memory rifled quickly through the dictionaries of multiple languages, and this word was 87% accurate for describing the feeling she had for LE-02. Not active hatred, but there was enough marked different between them to generate annoyance. From their limited interactions, Leigh had calculated that they were opposites in every sense of the word that mattered.

LE-02 was forever a child, while Leigh had been born into adulthood. 

LE-02 was loud and demonstrative, while Leigh's emotions were so subtle many believed them not to exist at all. 

LE-02 was made to be happy; Leigh's body was made with a deadly weapon instead of a second arm.

LE-02, as far as Leigh knew, still believed their mother to be a saint as well as a genius, and was probably thrilled to find her alive. 

And Leigh had finally, finally gotten Adelle to open up about the demons both she and Na'an had seen inside her, and here came LE-02 like a braying iriaz without a single apparent thought.  

As it were, Leigh repressed the urge to activate the sigh she had written two years ago, instead turning to face the child (who was not a child, but still).  "Hello...sister," she said, with a overly pleasant tone and a moment of hesitation only a droid could decipher. Her hologram flickered to Adelle, watching her reactions rather than focusing entirely on LE-02. "Are you in need of assistance?"

The loud shout from the small HRD shocked Adelle out of the vulnerable state she'd settled into. While Lana was synthetic like Leigh, she didn't seem to possess half the worldly knowledge Leigh did. And that meant the dark and restless things had to be pushed back into the closets and corners of her mind. She straightened from her nigh-fetal position, pressing her spine against the wall. Leigh addressed the child with all the civility of a smiling direcat; smiling outwardly and speaking pleasantly but there was something off about the tone. Almost like she was asking something else entirely.

Adelle pushed herself to her feet and walked towards the door. It seemed that there was family business to be finished and it probably should be done without a third party observer. As Adelle slipped past Leigh into her room, she laid a hand on the droid's shoulder as if for support.

"Thank you," she whispered, "for . . . trying." She slid her hand from the cool metal and disappeared further into the shadows of her room. Leigh blocked the doorway so she couldn't have total privacy, but the refresher station had a separate door. Aside from that, it was almost impossible for anything to get past Leigh. Her shower would likely go uninterrupted.

As soon as the door to the refresher closed, Leigh rounded on 02, displaying a face that even the least sophisticated organic could read as angry. In one of her minor subroutines, she noted that her chosen face, while not identical, was close enough to that of Eliana Shan to make the effect rather alarming to a Life Emulator unit. 
"Fine. I will not lie," she said, standing to take full advantage of her considerable height. "Instead, I will make it quite clear that you have chosen a bad time to impose yourself, and an even worse time to assume that you have my confidence just because we have a common creator. I have been busy with several important matters, not least of which trying to alleviate the damage dealt by our creator in the last couple of days. My processors are undergoing an unusually large amount of stress, I have had no time for calibrations or self-repair, and my friend is somewhere in this temple dealing with the parts of this affair that I am not capable of confronting. On top of that, you've just interrupted a conversation of the type where there is no predicting when the human who just left will have the emotional capacity to even BEGIN speaking of such topics again. I am in a very, very bad mood, and am likely to remain so.

And my name. Is. Leigh." 


As if on cue, the comlink on her cannon arm beeped. Leigh raised her arm to answer it, snapping her face off when she recognized the face on the other end of the message. 


If there was any time for that sigh subroutine, this was it. Leigh activated it with relish as she repackaged the audio and forwarded it to Na'an's frequency, along with some commentary of her own. It seemed from Rutil Iorek's tone that they would be away from home even longer than expected. 

"Now," she finished for 02's benefit, "Is there anything else you require?"

Leigh did not show any response at first. When she responded, her dome remained off, her tone flat and businesslike. "I believe that. But you do not know me enough to assume anything about my childhood. You might have noticed," and at this she raised her cannon arm to gesture at the girl, "that you and I did not exactly get equal treatment."

There was a short beep on her cannon arm; Leigh shifted to check it, noting that Na'an had marked the message as read. Based on the prompt response, it was probable that her partner was already looking for her to make plans. Master Iorek's message had seemed urgent, and despite their initial plans to stay on Felucia, Na'an had never been the type to delay when calls were urgent--least of all when it was someone who mattered.

Steam disappeared into her lungs and swirled in little clouds as she exhaled, trying to clear her mind. She pressed her palms against the wooden walls, breathing in the sweet scent as the nigh-scalding water pounded against her back. Dirt and dried blood ran in rivulets down her skin, swept down the drain by the torrent. Na'an's heated words still echoed in her head. Adelle smacked the wall and pushed herself to stand fully under the cascade, blowing the water away from her nose with forceful breaths. Her teeth ground together seemingly of their own will as the hot water brushed back her bangs. Slowly, she forced her jaw to relax, turning her mind instead to each drop of water that shot out of the shower head, their shape and motion, the soft impact on her scalp.

"Emotion, yet peace," she whispered. "Emotion, yet peace."

Outside the walls of the refresher, she felt two more presences show up to her room, one all innocence and fresh sky, the other fire and steel. Adelle's shoulders sagged and she groaned as she thumped her head against the wall. A rush of cold air let her know someone else had entered the refresher. For a fraction of a second, she jumped to pull a weapon from her hip before she realized it was Morgan.

If she was being honest?

"No. I've . . . had a long week," she said. She chuckled at Morgan's question, and poked her head around the frosted transparisteel door. "What, Felucia's ponds not enough for you?" Still, she slid the door open wider, giving Morgan the opportunity to decide for herself. Adelle sat cross-legged on the stone tile floor, centered in the spray.

She pressed her lips in a grimace of a smile and brushed a wet lock of hair out of Morgan's face. A lump formed in her throat and Adelle withdrew her emotions behind the wall she'd built years ago. Morgan could never know. Adelle withdrew her hand and reached for the shampoo. "You don't need to know, Morgan. It happened a long time ago."

Na'an watched Morgan dart into the dormitory with practiced blankness, then moved herself just into the door, leaning against the jamb. "I got your message," she said to Leigh. "Sorry, but it looks like that rest you wanted me to get is off the table."

Leigh nodded in response; when she spoke, it was with the same warm, deliberate tone she had reserved for Adelle or Na'an--for those she considered her friends. "I expect so. Which I assume means our next plan is to catch the next freighter to Yavin--after, of course, leaving our regards to the Masters?"

"Um..." Na'an hesitated, looking at the other child in the room-- a little girl who happened to be looking at Leigh with considerable emotion. "Do we need to get ourselves a room? I mean..."

"The child is not a security concern. Besides, yours is just over there," Leigh turned to indicate the refresher door, "With Miss Bastiel."

"...Miss, uh, Bastiel is over there?"

"Yes."

Na'an exhaled a long breath, her face flushing slightly. She wiped at it reflexively, then pinched the bridge of her nose in a familiar gesture. "Right. Okay. Add that to the list of things I need to handle in the next ten minutes."

"If you say so. In the meantime, let us consider our transport options."

*It wasn't just the hair Morgan paid attention to, but every muscle of her mama's face. Her senses were also seeking as well, examining, looking for any trace of anything telling. Parents always hid things from their kids, and Morgan didn't like that. Her daddy often shared many things with her, but even he had his secrets, or his explanations were tone down for her sake. She hadn't always noticed before, but lately she'd been able to more easily discern such things...

They were tough to crack, though. Sometimes they might chip away a little, but mostly they stood their ground. Mama hardly ever budged. But the sudden speed at which her closed eyes shot open was just enough of a tell for Morgan to know something was going on. But that was the only sign she got.

She too forced a smile when it was her turn for shampoo, stepping around and sitting down on the ground with her back toward her.* "What did they make you do last time?" *she asked, reaching up to run her hands through her hair a bit and making sure it was thoroughly soaked before the shampoo came.*