NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: A Promising Lead
Summary: With their new ship sorted out, our duo need to figure out where to go from here. Thankfully, they have a lead...and a new medical droid to help sort out Aayla's memory loss! Somewhat...
Chapter 6: A Promising Lead
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The last two days had been long ones. They'd left Anash's lot a good 53,000 credits lighter. But they'd flown away in a new ship, rechristened the Wandering Fate after a bit of debate and an odd ceremony that Anash and Aayla both seemed to take dead seriously. The additional 13,000 credits had gained them several useful minor additions to the ship, plus a pair of R-Series astromechs. The first, R2-7C was optimized for keeping up with the Fate's maintenance needs. A necessity, given that neither of them were qualified in that area. The other, R3-P3, had been refitted by Anash with several piloting modules which she swore would make it better than almost any piloting droid on the market. Given that even a standard R-series astromech was apparently capable of handling basic piloting, it was possible her claims might even be true. Whether they were or not, it would certainly be capable of at least making sure neither of them fucked up too badly as they learned, or relearned in Aayla's case, how to fly properly.
The next day, they'd spent a good chunk of the day stocking the ship, for both general and personal needs. The remainder of the day had been spent haggling in various pawn shops and other slightly shady places, offloading the valuables from Izuku's vigilante heist. They'd netted nearly another 25,000 credits from the various sales, which they considered more than acceptable, even knowing they'd gotten undercut on the value of the items more often than not. Even after stocking the ship, paying all fees they owed, and so on, their see-sawing monetary assets had ended up landing at nearly 45,000 credits. Two thirds of it they'd stored in a banking clan account Izuku had created before the sale of the TZ-14, with the remaining 15,000 credits kept in a newly-acquired safe aboard ship, in various denominations.
All of which left them well equipped for the next leg of their journey...and staring at a datapad Aayla had, while seemingly in a trance of some sort, acquired from the wall of the Captain's Cabin. The concealed compartment had contained a few personal effects of the previous owner, an odd crystal that had been what seemed to call to Aayla, and the journal they were now looking over.
"So Anash was right, then. This guy was some sort of treasure hunter? Only he specialized in these 'Jedi' fellows? Who are…"
Izuku stopped abruptly at the mixed look of concentration and pain on Aayla's face. She was clutching the crystal tightly, eyes squeezed shut and breathing erratic. Focusing on their link, he could feel her emotions mixed with the pain, oscillating wildly. Carefully, gently, he reached out with both a physical touch to her shoulder and a mental touch to her mind. She leaned into the physical touch, even as the mental one seemed to help her anchor herself. The pain faded, confusion remaining behind. Her eyes opened and she stared at the crystal.
"…Jedi. I…I know what word. The light swor…no, lightsabers, that my dead 'master' and I used in some of my memories. I think…no, I know, that Jedi use lightsabers. Was I a Jedi?"
The last bit was half question and very uncertain, but Izuku thought it was likely.
"From the moment I first saw you move, I realized you'd had some sort of combat training. You move halfway between how a dancer does and a martial artist. The dancer bit could be explained away for other reasons, but…"
Aayla nodded.
"Maybe I was a Jedi, then. Or at least I belonged to one? I don't know much about them. Or, actually, I feel like I should know everything
about them. But I don't remember."Izuku pursed his lips, then nodded.
"Well, then maybe we should try looking into the stuff his guy was after? The last few entries were less than a month ago. Maybe we'll find out something about the Jedi if we follow up on them? That could be the reason that we were supposed to find this ship."
They both frowned uncertainly at that, still not sure what to make of the 'guidance' the mystery force had been nudging them with. Still, after a moment, Aayla nodded and scooped up the datapad, scrolling to the last few entries. Each one was a description of some item the treasure hunter had found a lead on. After dismissing the first two, she stopped on a third, brightening.
"Oh! This is promising! He'd tracked down something called the Jebble Box to The Wheel."
When she looked up to see the blank expression on Izuku's face, she blushed, remembering he knew even less about the galaxy than her fragmented memories told her.
"Right. Um, The Wheel is famous…or maybe infamous would be a better description? It's a huge space station renowned for its casinos. It's also more than a bit shady, given that I think some crime lord or other owns it." Aayla paused, letting him process that for a moment. "It would actually be a pretty good place for us. There's tons of targets for the whole vigilante thing you want to do. And it's a great place to make connections, too. You know, like maybe the sort of connections that might be able to either slice my…accessories? Or at least track down their model?"
That was more than good enough for Izuku. Even ignoring the slight nudge the name had gotten him from the mystery force, this Wheel space station was logical enough choice for all their current needs. Well, all but one, and they'd already found a solution for that. Sort of. He checked the time and nodded.
"The medical droid we ordered should be here in twenty minutes or so, according to the delivery timetable. Why don't we start planning a route to this place. Once we have the droid on board, we can get going, let the droid scan you while we're traveling?"
Aayla nodded happily.
"Sure thing, master! Let's get started!"
Izuku smiled. They might still be lacking many answers, but they had acquiring new resources at least, as well as some direction. It would have to be enough for now…
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Izuku was legitimately surprised to discover he was getting used to seeing Aayla mostly naked. Of course, 'getting used to' that state of affairs wasn't the same thing as being immune to what the view did to him. Most of the time, at least. In this specific instance, however, his worry was actually enough to override his other reactions at the moment, as their new medical droid checked Aayla over.
Even their initial quick look at a possible course had shown them something important. Both Esseles and The Wheel were on the Perlemian Trade Route, one of the great super-hyper routes upon which ships traveled extremely fast. Fairly far apart in absolute terms on that route that they might be, the trip would still take barely two days, and the lead the previous owner of their ship had on the Jebble Box had been mostly rumors that some sort of deal over the box was supposed to go down in a few weeks, a bit less than two now.
Realizing they weren't actually in a rush had momentarily flummoxed the two of them…a fact that had actually given them something of a reality check, too. They'd been rushing around since Izuku first appeared because they were afraid of someone catching up to them. But, as soon as they left Esseles, there would be virtually no trail left for anyone to follow. They could actually take a bit of time getting to The Wheel…and probably should. Izuku had still only had a crash course in this galaxy so far, and Aayla was only so much help with her scrambled memories. They also needed to find out as much as they could about The Wheel itself, given that it was potentially enemy territory with what they were planning. Possibly. They actually needed to figure out what they were even planning, too.
The result had been a quick decision to jump farther along the Trade Route, toward The Wheel, but only as far as the world of Yabol Opa. That moved them out of the Core where scrutiny tended to be at its highest, and the planet itself was a center of learning. Literally. As in, the University of Yabol Opa covered the entire planet's surface. Access to the University itself wasn't what they were after at the moment, since they barely even knew what to look for. But their proximity to it, docked in an orbital space station, gave them relatively cheap access to huge databases of basic learning. Databases which Izuku could use to start getting a handle on the galaxy, and which Aayla could look through to try sparking her memories.
The memories part of that, however, was why Aayla was currently stripped down to just her accessories again and being scanned by the 2B-1 droid they'd acquired. This one was brand new, unlike their astromechs, but likely worth every bit of its 4,500-credit price tag in the long run. Possibly in the short run, too. Which is what both of them were waiting somewhat anxiously to discover. Finally, the bot finished its exams and retracted the various implements and scanners it had been using.
"As expected. Patient Aayla has been drugged with considerable amounts of glitteryll, a highly illegal synthesis of glitterstim and ryll, known to cause memory loss. Unfortunately, it appears this was not done as a single dosage, but as numerous doses over a period of weeks. Regrettably, this has led to a build-up of the drug in her system and some of it has settled semi-permanently in her lekku. A cocktail of purging solutions will get much of the drug out of her system over several weeks of treatment. But the remaining trace elements will be beyond my immediate ability to treat."
Aayla was pale and Izuku grimaced, taking a deep breath and focusing on the important question.
"And her memories? Why is she experiencing pain trying to recall them? Will they return if the drug is purged?"
The medical droid turned to face him fully, eyes flashing as it seemed to consider.
"Calculations suggest that the pain is the result of her mind conflicting with the drug in her system. If the majority of it can be purged, then the pain will likely lessen considerably. If she will recover her memories or not, however, is impossible to predict. With suitable stimuli, given her existing reactions, at least some memory recovery is 93% likely. Complete memory recovery, however, is only a 3% probability. With this degree of dosage, at least some of her memories are likely lost permanently. The amount is impossible to predict."
Izuku reached out a steadying hand to the very-pale looking Aayla. She leaned into it and he firmly made her focus on the positives.
"Even if you don't remember everything, there's a good chance you'll remember enough to piece who you are together. And even if you don't, I like you for who you already are."
That got a smile out of his companion, wan but genuine.
"Are you sure you don't just like me for my tits?"
Izuku blushed but pushed his way through the light teasing in her voice.
"Your boobs are amazing. But they are only part of the whole." He reached up to tap her on the forehead. "Even as scrambled as your head is, I've gotten a glimpse at how amazing you are. Not just for what you've been able to do with mere fragments of memory…but for how funny and fun you are. I'd like to think we'll be friends, no matter how much or little you end up remembering."
Color returned to Aayla's face in the form of a blush. Her smile was stronger this time as she reached up her own hand to grab his.
"Thanks, master~. That means I lot."
Izuku nodded, blushing at the warmth in her voice, not to mention the way she'd taken to using that title. He quickly turned back to the droid as a distraction.
"Alright 2B-1, please prepare the purge treatment. Let us know if you need anything and please provide us a summary of what the treatment will consist of."
The droid quickly agreed, of course, and they set about seeing what it would entail and how well it would work…
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A/N: Just another 'Hey, I have a Patreon Page,' reminder! Check out my Patreon Page for early access to new chapters of all of my works (including this one). Currently, as of first posting to Scribblehub, 20 chapters of Displaced Hero are public, with 3 more (about 8.5k words worth) currently in Early Access. ALL of my fanfiction content is ultimately free, with nothing stuck permanently behind a paywall. So, while I deeply appreciate anyone willing to help support my writing time...if you don't want to support me, don't :-p. You'll get the content eventually, one way or another, Patrons simply get it sooner.