It didn’t matter what I looked like—why should I care if my hair was frizzy or my eyeliner running? I didn’t.
The droids were on the deck, playing a game of sabacc when I found them.
“Sian and I are going for a walk,” I told them, grabbing my cross-body satchel from the pilot’s chair and pulling it over my head. “So, if I never come back, look for my body at the bottom of the ravine.”
“Hilarious,” Veebee said, shuffling the cards. “Just…be careful. That sounds like a lot of work on my part. Especially with only one arm.”
“I’ll help you reattach it when we get back,” I promised.
“No, Entoo can reattach it.”
I hesitated, because she always wanted me to. “Are you sure?”
“I can’t rely on you foreverything. Besides, it is my fault we are in this mess,” the droid went on, her gaze flickering to me. “I was not paying attention to your brother when he sold us. I was looking at spices. If I would’ve taken you seriously, we wouldn’t be here. I feel like I failed you.”
I knelt beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have asked you to go. It was reckless.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed, “but it is in my programmingto want to be useful. Though I feel like I have never been that to you, not since you saved me from the junkyard. You are the first person I remember, asking me every question I couldn’t answer yet. Who was I, what was my name, did I want to come with you.” She tilted her head, thoughtful. Then she closed her card hand, set it face down on the deck, and turned to me. “Ardent, I am an amalgamation of dozens of different droids pieced together. Not quite one type, not quite another. I am finicky. I am peculiar. I am testy. I am very likely to explode. And you did not care. Youdonot care,” she corrected, her bright eyes studying me. “You are my family.”
“Vee…”
“So do not take this apology away from me,” she said pointedly.
I barked a laugh. “I love you,” I said as I hugged her around the middle.
“Ah. Yes. Touchy-feely.” Veebee awkwardly patted my head. “But would be remiss not to say: This is a terrible plan, Ardent. The statistical odds that theStarfareris perfectly fine and we simply missed them on Tatooineandmisheard your father are low. Very low.”
“I know.”
“Then you know that either Sian is lying or Val is.”
My throat tightened. “Yeah.”
Entoo beeped and picked up their cards nonchalantly.
“You’re right,” Vee agreed. “Wecankill them both if we need to. Now go have your walk and your fresh air, and we’ll attempt to not corrode while you’re gone.”
So I left the lander to walk into the sweet-smelling air again. I noticed the strange sharpness in my head after I’d breathed it in a few times. These flowers really were menaces. I followed Sian back to the edge of the ravine and down a narrow path cut into the side of it. The drop was steep, so I trained my eyes on his back so the height wouldn’t make me dizzy.
It did still make me nervous.
“So, where are we going?” I asked, pressing as close to the ravine wall as I could.
“To a temple of sorts. I figured, since you like stories, you might like this one.”
Thatdidintrigue me. “A story?” But then a piece of the path by my boot crumbled, and all I could see was—
Down.
“We’ve got time, if you want to hear it,” he replied, glancing over his shoulder only to find me frozen in my footsteps, staring down the cliffside at what I knew was my doom. He backtracked to me and offered his hand. “Hey,” he ventured gently.
All I saw was rushing water far, far below.
So he took my hand and squeezed it tightly. The touch startled me, and I finally tore my gaze up to his.Rushing river was replaced by infinite night sky, and my fear settled again. “Just keep your eyes on me,” he said quietly. “I promise it’ll be worth it.”
I’m not used to taking chances, I wanted to say, but I was embarrassed to admit it. I wondered what he’d say if he knew that the first time he met me on Coruscant was the first time I’d ever left the ship on my own. And the first time I’d lied to my dad about it. The first time I had managed to squirrel myself out from under his watchful eye.
If I’d been more like Val, maybe I could’ve fallen into a thousand adventures by now. What kinds of stories would I have found out there in the stars? What kinds of people would I have met, secrets learned, mysteries solved?
