Writing Prompt: take-out food, picnic, gladiatorial combat, candy
Elenawe walked down the Coruscanti street whistling a tune. Hovercars whipped by below, but up here, with the wind whipping her robes behind her like a small flag, and the sky above, she could almost pretend she was on Tython. Almost. There just weren’t enough trees. She smiled at the Senate gardens anyway, taking an apple from her robe and eating a large bite from it, chewing thoughtfully. She wound her way to the nearest fountain and sat down, watching the ripples in the water splash and the koi fish swim in circles. Rippling water always reminded her a little of the Force.
From a stairwell, a man walked up in a tired red coat, black suede pants and a pair of brown goggles pushed up onto his forehead. He stopped in front of her, and put down an over-sized brown travel bag at his feet. She stood, grinning. So this was him?
He looked comical, really, and nothing like how she thought scientists ought to look, smoothing down his tumultuous red hair, which poked out in every direction. He seemed to be in his early thirties. His face was freckled and pale, but he smiled at her as if he had nothing to lose.
“Hey,” he said sticking out his hand. That was all he said. She shook it, smiling and eating the rest of her apple, packing away the stem in a robe pocket smoothly.
“So what’s this invention about?” she asked curiously, tilting her head.
“You ever heard of the festival down near the Galactic Market?”
“Oh yeah!” she said, nodding eagerly, lekku bobbing and shaking behind her. “I love it. Not been there for years. The fire eaters are the best. And the armed combat.”
He smiled. “I figured, well, it’s just the venue for a discussion of my invention.”
She crossed her arms and raised painted eyebrows. “Oh?”
He grinned. “You’ll see.”
She shrugged and followed him to the taxi terminal, where he took out a credit chip, promptly dropped it, apologized to the droid driver, picked it up and dropped it again, then kicked it in his haste straight off the side of the building. Elenawe watched it fall, bouncing on a hovercar on the way down. She grinned, humor twinkling in her eyes, as she looked up into his very red face and stopped him in the midst of his apologies.
“I got this,” she said and paid the fare, stepping into the taxi and sitting beside him, his huge travel pack between. As they sped toward the Market district, wind whipping Evin’s hair into weird shapes – for that was his name – Dr. Evin Luush, in fact.
“I thought you said you were the junior research scientist for Fay Industries,” she said. “Why do you want to tell me about this thing?”
“It so happens that it may apply to Jedi. They are my ‘target audience,’ if you will.”
“Oh,” she said, smiling. “All right. And we’re going to this fair to discuss it.”
He nodded again. “Right. I brought this picnic basket,” he said, pulling one out of the bag beside him. Elenawe grinned. He had seriously stashed it in that bag of his? He waved it around with pomp and set it on his lap, shrugging self-consciously and looking a bit sheepish.
“It’s a very nice day, you know.”
“Yep,” she agreed, and took out another apple, eating it down to the core in less than a minute. He said very little else during the trip, only looking at his feet, glancing at her occasionally, and poking at a large chrono that looked more like a large parasite attached to his wrist.
Evin, or uh, Dr. Luush, Elenawe reminded herself, got out and offered her his hand, but before she realized what he was doing, she had already bounded out and was standing beside the taxi, leaving him gaping. He straightened, flustered, watching the taxi immediately take off.
Elenawe tilted her head, eying him with keen amusement. She couldn’t help herself, though she tried to hide it, for his sake. Dr. Luush was turning out to be far more entertaining than he even sounded over holo. And that was saying something.
“Have you dealt much with Jedi in the past, Dr. Luush?”
“Uh, well, no, not really,” he admitted, holding the old-fashioned picnic basket under one arm, his bag in the other hand. “I did meet one once in college, when I was doing a paper on – “ He suddenly stopped, clamping his mouth shut and then sighed. “It’s not important.”
Elenawe nodded looking around at all the travelers as they walked. “Whatever you say, Doc.” Clearly, he was a bit overawed. Elenawe mused briefly on his misfortune that she was the first Jedi he would be talking to at any length. Oh well. It couldn’t be helped. Maybe she would try to act a bit more “Jedi-ish” … or, er … nah… she thought to herself. Something always goes wrong with that.
The festivities were being held in a previously run down section that used to be a droid factory, but had been bravely cleaned up for the occasion. They walked into the area, along with a horde of Coruscanti families, who were off of work early. Elenawe’s robes drew more than a few stares. She just grinned. Dr. Luush followed along behind, trying to keep up with her long, springy strides. She began whistling another tune, as her eyes searched the fray, looking for a suitable vantage spot. Finally, she found it.
She sprung up on top of a stack of crates, moving lightly on her feet, scanning the terrain – rides of various shapes and sizes – a kind of motorized wheel at one end spun people around, while other people bungee jumped off the side of the building… several jugglers… a few fire eaters… and in the center, a large ring with mock combat. She sighed happily. This was perfect. One could see everything.
Dr. Luush looked up at her, eyes wide, from below. A few people jostled him, giving him looks, but most stared and pointed in amazement at Elenawe atop the boxes, likely thinking she was part of the fair. She sat on the edge of a crate, boots dangling and smiled down at him.
“Need a hand up?” she asked.
“No, uh, no, I’ll be fine,” he said, awkwardly handing up the bags and clamoring up the crates. He balanced precariously midway, and Elen eyed him, steadying him with the Force. He swung back and pulled himself up onto the final crate, puffing a little. He smiled awkwardly, taking out a blanket and spreading it on top of the crate. Elen watched.
“What’s that for?” she asked, pointing to the blanket.
“Um…” he looked puzzled. “Crumbs. … Haven’t you been on a picnic before?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Do you always put out a blanket for crumbs?”
“Usually,” he said, and opened the wicker basket. His face immediately drained to the color of a sick Rattataki.
“What’s the matter?” she asked in alarm. He sat aghast, stammering and actual sweat broke out on his forehead.
Finally, he colored several shades darker than a Pureblood. “I.. uh.. there’s… no food in here.”
She glanced into the basket and saw that it was empty. She burst out laughing. “That’s what you’re so upset about? I thought a bounty hunter had pierced you with a poison dart, the way you looked,” she said chuckling. “Couldn’t you tell it was empty by the weight? I guess you eat light, eh?”
She realized after she said it that her words probably weren’t helping, but… what was done was done. He looked blankly, into the crowd, his eyes lost.
“I can’t possibly… I mean… how stupid of me… I must make this right,” he said, voice becoming firm.
“Don’t worry about it,” Elen said unconcerned, pulling another apple from her robe pocket and offering it to him. “Here, we can split this one.” He shook his head resolutely.
“No, I… I… I’ll go buy something.” Before she could object he had shimmied down the crates, falling flat onto someone’s protocol droid who shrieked, and stumbled away, apologizing, in the wake of people’s curses and yells. Her sides shook from holding in silent laughter. This might be the best ‘meeting’ she’d had in a while… besides meeting that crazy Sith who played with a paddle ball at the Nar Shaddaa cantina.
From her perch, she saw him wander from booth to booth, with people shaking their heads, apparently out of refreshments. She sighed, feeling a twinge of guilt and pity for the guy. She wasn’t even particularly hungry and it didn’t matter to her if they ate or not. She just wanted to hear about the invention. But, apparently, this whole food business was really important to him.
He came back finally, nearly an hour later, looking slightly the worse for wear. He handed up a bag of food. The inscription read, “Bubba’s Burgers and Bizaz.” Her eyes sparkled with amusement as he sat down, puffing.
“Thanks,” she said lightly. “What’s Bizaz?”
“Huh?” he said, and she pointed to the bag. He stared at it squinting and said, in a very long winded way, that he had no idea. She nodded, pulling out a burger. She recognized the name as a very low-key and not much thought of Coruscanti take-out place, but she had always wondered what “Bizaz” was. Maybe it was a food. She took a bite and her eyes lit up, surprised.
“Hey, good burger,” she said, between mouthfuls.
“Oh… really?” he said, looking just a bit relieved, and taking his from the bag, removed all the toppings except the meat. She watched, saying nothing. She wondered why he didn’t order a plain burger.
“So, what’s this invention that involves Jedi?”
“Well...” he said, pausing, and settled down more squarely, straightened his goggles and puffed out his chest. “It’s something…” he paused again, for dramatic effect, his eyes becoming so wide that the whites showed. Elen suppressed a giggle that was attempting to escape her lips while she chewed. “That can detect ripples in the Force!” he said at last triumphantly.
“Oh really?” Elen said, genuinely curious. “But Jedi can already do that. Why do they need one?” He looked a bit flustered for a moment, completely forgetting the burger at his feet.
“Um… because, this is a mechanical device, see. You could make droids, to help you detect Sith or…” he gestured. “Evil things. Maybe… you guys could build a whole droid army to detect Sith and sneak them into Imperial territory and have them assassinate them!” Elen choked on her burger, and started laughing again. He frowned.
“What?”
“Jedi don’t just go and assassinate Sith,” she giggled. “Not like that… and how would you get the droids into Imperial territory?”
“Uh… we’d disguise them, obviously,” he said, searching for words, twisting the large claw chrono on his wrist round and round. “And… we could even make them look like protocol droids and sell them to the Imps… but these droids would have teeth! And… er, well, anyway, that’s not important. We haven’t gotten the design plans for the droids finalized yet.”
“Of course,” Elen said easily, finishing the last bits of her burger. She watched the fire eaters out of the corner of her eye.
“So, how does it work?” she asked, dangling her boots off the crate again, and staring out at the fair. She looked back at him from time to time, so he would know she was listening. He abruptly went into a long spiel about how it used cells with midichlorians cultured in the lab, to enhance midichlorian output, then connected the cells to a metal contact that measured electrical pulses along the cell body, which he believes is connected to their sense of the Force. The contacts amplify and enhance the signal, allowing the droid to “feel” the Force, if you would pardon the term, he said.
She nodded rhythmically, noting that fighters were coming to fight in the center ring. They looked like Mandos, with electrostaffs. She grinned. Sparring combat. She loved duels. Nearby was a stand that boasted an absolutely huge piece of caramelized candy, “The Largest Candy on Coruscant!” the sign said.
She looked at him surprised as he finished. “That actually sounds, um, kind of unique and like it might work,” she shrugged and smiled at him. She had certainly never heard anyone try anything like that before. He grinned, his chest puffing out even more.
“So… can you demonstrate it?”
“Sure!” he said, pulling out a metallic looking droid from his bag. It looked like a mouse droid. Nearby, the Mandos continued sparring, jostling each other, whipping out their staffs. She watched and frowned, wondering at the use of such ‘combat’ at a fair. It looked real enough. If they allowed such heavy combat… she felt her fingers tingling, itching to be in a duel… but of course they’d never let her…
She glanced at Dr. Luush as he set the mouse droid down and turned it on. It beeped and whirred. He smiled up at her.
“So, can that thing… umm… help me with combat?”
“Absolutely!” he said, keying a button built into its side. “It has a special combat feature, that will enhance your combat sense of the Force.” Elen smiled, trying to keep down another grin. Combat sense of the Force?
“Great!” she said, pointing at the combatants in the ring below. “I’ll go duel one of those Mandos and you set it out for me, and I’ll see if it enhances me or not. How will I tell?”
“Uh… all right,” he said, “Um, I’m sure you will,” he said, giving her a knowing look. “You’ll probably feel a … tingling, or strengthening of the muscles, like with real Force enhancement. You should know, I haven’t really done a lot of field tests yet. That’s why.. um, why I contacted you, naturally.” She flashed a grin at him.
“Naturally,” she said, dropping down and wading into the crowd. The Mandos were just finishing their bout as she walked up.
“And NOW,” a man wearing a large purple hat with a microphone bellowed, “Who is brave enough to battle the Exterminator, champion of this ring? He will win 1,000 credits and the reward OF HIS CHOICE!”
She jumped up and down and waved, as Dr. Luush ran up, panting, droid under his arm. “I’ll go! I’ll go!” The announcer’s eyes narrowed at her, but he finally said.
“All right, the young Jedi on the floor everyone! She’s our CHAAAAAALLENGER!!” he yelled again, making it sound as if the word were fifty feet long. A murmur of “Oooooo!” went up from people in the crowd and a few more shouldered over to watch. Elenawe grinned as she removed her robe and took out her saber. Just one. That would be enough.
“Name your prize, Jedi,” The purple hat man beamed.
“That!” she said, pointing at the biggest caramelized candy on Coruscant.
He eyed it and gave her a strange look but shrugged and finally said, “And she asks fooooooooooorrrrr, THE BIGGEST CARAMALIZED CANDY ON CORUSCANT, folks! See, the Bangfort’s candy is desirable to all, even Jedi! Get your pieces now, before they’re gone!”
She grinned, stepping into the ring, igniting her blade and doing a few warm up moves. The ‘Exterminator’ glared at her from the opposite side of the ring, his armor a blood red, with plenty of scrapes and dents. Someone was whispering to him. This would be the best fight ever! Fighting for candy. Mmm. She smiled up at the large candy on display. Someone touched her shoulder and she looked up. It was Dr. Luush.
“Here,” he said urgently, shoving the droid at her. She took it, and placed it by the wall at her feet.
“Hey! No cheating!” some official in black yelled.
She looked at him and shrugged. “It’s just a droid.”
Scowling, he glared at her. She grinned. She was pretty sure there weren’t many rules for this kind of thing. Cheating was probably encouraged. He stalked off, and she advanced to the center of the ring. The Mando advanced as well. They stopped ten paces apart on a neatly chalked line on the durasteel. Elenawe reached out with the Force, attempting to ‘sense’ the droid, but she felt nothing. She focused on her opponent, smiling, blade to the side.
“3 – 2 – 1 – GO!” the announcer purple hat man yelled. Elenawe leapt into action, jumping at the Mando, feet first, hoping to knock him to the ground. He side stepped easily, despite her accelerated motion, and something swished in his hand. She gaped as she tumbled to her feet, seeing a red saber come to life. The crowd gasped. He smirked, visor up.
“You didn’t think he’d let you fight unless you had a chance to lose, did you?” he said. He spun at her. She jumped out of the way, flipping behind him and ignited her second blade, falling into Ataru without thought as she landed.
To her amazement, he parried her flurry of blows with relative ease. A ripple of darkness washed over her briefly. A Sith? Seriously? She grinned suddenly, at the abrupt raising of the stakes, throwing all her energy into the fight with gusto, relishing at having to work for her dinner.
She spun back, doing a dance of blades, but the Mando matched her strides. He was an amazing duelist! What was he doing in this fair? The crowd gasped with awe as the two of them swung around each other, parrying, thrusting, sending up showers of sparks into the late afternoon air.
Out of the corner of her eye, the mouse droid was moving closer, closer. She glanced at it and frowned. What was it doing? She unleashed a flurry of blows to block his attack, pushing him back. He was backing up toward the droid. Suddenly, he put out a foot and it landed awkwardly atop the droid. He tripped, and she immediately kicked him in the stomach, sending him sprawling, face first. His saber flew out of his hand, turning off in mid-flight and ricocheting into the crowd. She grinned as she bowed to the crowd, and the purple hat man announced her as the victor.
The Mando in red threw his helmet down in disgust, scowling.
She eyed him, tilting her head. “Are you Sith?” she asked.
He sneered and spat at her feet. “No.”
He stalked away, melting into the crowd, who were jeering and cheering him. He was probably looking for his saber, she thought. She looked back at the booth and grinned as they started to unstrap the gigantic candy from its perch.
Dr. Luush ran up, eyes wide. “That was amazing!” he said. “Did you feel anything?”
Elen shrugged. “No, not really. I think it needs more work.”
The purple hat man beckoned to her on stage and handed her the huge candy as she walked up. It was almost a foot across and three and a half feet tall. The stem alone was bigger than her thumb. She grinned, gasping a bit at the weight, and clutched it to her chest, waving at the crowd.
***
On the taxi ride back to the Spaceport, Elen grinned at Dr. Luush, who sat morose, mouse droid on his lap, wicker basket once again stowed away in his travel sack, which was instead at his feet this time. The candy sat across her lap, taking up the entirety of the taxi car.
“I’m sure once you do some more field tests, you’ll get it right,” she said encouragingly. “It did help me win.” He sighed, then nodded, a look of determination solidifying in his eyes.
“I’ll contact you as soon as the data comes in,” he said solemnly. “This will change the face of modern warfare, I tell you.”
Elen nodded amiably, licking the end of the gigantic candy, and sighing in satisfaction. Dueling and candy! This had been a good day.
Elenawe walked down the Coruscanti street whistling a tune. Hovercars whipped by below, but up here, with the wind whipping her robes behind her like a small flag, and the sky above, she could almost pretend she was on Tython. Almost. There just weren’t enough trees. She smiled at the Senate gardens anyway, taking an apple from her robe and eating a large bite from it, chewing thoughtfully. She wound her way to the nearest fountain and sat down, watching the ripples in the water splash and the koi fish swim in circles. Rippling water always reminded her a little of the Force.
From a stairwell, a man walked up in a tired red coat, black suede pants and a pair of brown goggles pushed up onto his forehead. He stopped in front of her, and put down an over-sized brown travel bag at his feet. She stood, grinning. So this was him?
He looked comical, really, and nothing like how she thought scientists ought to look, smoothing down his tumultuous red hair, which poked out in every direction. He seemed to be in his early thirties. His face was freckled and pale, but he smiled at her as if he had nothing to lose.
“Hey,” he said sticking out his hand. That was all he said. She shook it, smiling and eating the rest of her apple, packing away the stem in a robe pocket smoothly.
“So what’s this invention about?” she asked curiously, tilting her head.
“You ever heard of the festival down near the Galactic Market?”
“Oh yeah!” she said, nodding eagerly, lekku bobbing and shaking behind her. “I love it. Not been there for years. The fire eaters are the best. And the armed combat.”
He smiled. “I figured, well, it’s just the venue for a discussion of my invention.”
She crossed her arms and raised painted eyebrows. “Oh?”
He grinned. “You’ll see.”
She shrugged and followed him to the taxi terminal, where he took out a credit chip, promptly dropped it, apologized to the droid driver, picked it up and dropped it again, then kicked it in his haste straight off the side of the building. Elenawe watched it fall, bouncing on a hovercar on the way down. She grinned, humor twinkling in her eyes, as she looked up into his very red face and stopped him in the midst of his apologies.
“I got this,” she said and paid the fare, stepping into the taxi and sitting beside him, his huge travel pack between. As they sped toward the Market district, wind whipping Evin’s hair into weird shapes – for that was his name – Dr. Evin Luush, in fact.
“I thought you said you were the junior research scientist for Fay Industries,” she said. “Why do you want to tell me about this thing?”
“It so happens that it may apply to Jedi. They are my ‘target audience,’ if you will.”
“Oh,” she said, smiling. “All right. And we’re going to this fair to discuss it.”
He nodded again. “Right. I brought this picnic basket,” he said, pulling one out of the bag beside him. Elenawe grinned. He had seriously stashed it in that bag of his? He waved it around with pomp and set it on his lap, shrugging self-consciously and looking a bit sheepish.
“It’s a very nice day, you know.”
“Yep,” she agreed, and took out another apple, eating it down to the core in less than a minute. He said very little else during the trip, only looking at his feet, glancing at her occasionally, and poking at a large chrono that looked more like a large parasite attached to his wrist.
Evin, or uh, Dr. Luush, Elenawe reminded herself, got out and offered her his hand, but before she realized what he was doing, she had already bounded out and was standing beside the taxi, leaving him gaping. He straightened, flustered, watching the taxi immediately take off.
Elenawe tilted her head, eying him with keen amusement. She couldn’t help herself, though she tried to hide it, for his sake. Dr. Luush was turning out to be far more entertaining than he even sounded over holo. And that was saying something.
“Have you dealt much with Jedi in the past, Dr. Luush?”
“Uh, well, no, not really,” he admitted, holding the old-fashioned picnic basket under one arm, his bag in the other hand. “I did meet one once in college, when I was doing a paper on – “ He suddenly stopped, clamping his mouth shut and then sighed. “It’s not important.”
Elenawe nodded looking around at all the travelers as they walked. “Whatever you say, Doc.” Clearly, he was a bit overawed. Elenawe mused briefly on his misfortune that she was the first Jedi he would be talking to at any length. Oh well. It couldn’t be helped. Maybe she would try to act a bit more “Jedi-ish” … or, er … nah… she thought to herself. Something always goes wrong with that.
The festivities were being held in a previously run down section that used to be a droid factory, but had been bravely cleaned up for the occasion. They walked into the area, along with a horde of Coruscanti families, who were off of work early. Elenawe’s robes drew more than a few stares. She just grinned. Dr. Luush followed along behind, trying to keep up with her long, springy strides. She began whistling another tune, as her eyes searched the fray, looking for a suitable vantage spot. Finally, she found it.
She sprung up on top of a stack of crates, moving lightly on her feet, scanning the terrain – rides of various shapes and sizes – a kind of motorized wheel at one end spun people around, while other people bungee jumped off the side of the building… several jugglers… a few fire eaters… and in the center, a large ring with mock combat. She sighed happily. This was perfect. One could see everything.
Dr. Luush looked up at her, eyes wide, from below. A few people jostled him, giving him looks, but most stared and pointed in amazement at Elenawe atop the boxes, likely thinking she was part of the fair. She sat on the edge of a crate, boots dangling and smiled down at him.
“Need a hand up?” she asked.
“No, uh, no, I’ll be fine,” he said, awkwardly handing up the bags and clamoring up the crates. He balanced precariously midway, and Elen eyed him, steadying him with the Force. He swung back and pulled himself up onto the final crate, puffing a little. He smiled awkwardly, taking out a blanket and spreading it on top of the crate. Elen watched.
“What’s that for?” she asked, pointing to the blanket.
“Um…” he looked puzzled. “Crumbs. … Haven’t you been on a picnic before?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Do you always put out a blanket for crumbs?”
“Usually,” he said, and opened the wicker basket. His face immediately drained to the color of a sick Rattataki.
“What’s the matter?” she asked in alarm. He sat aghast, stammering and actual sweat broke out on his forehead.
Finally, he colored several shades darker than a Pureblood. “I.. uh.. there’s… no food in here.”
She glanced into the basket and saw that it was empty. She burst out laughing. “That’s what you’re so upset about? I thought a bounty hunter had pierced you with a poison dart, the way you looked,” she said chuckling. “Couldn’t you tell it was empty by the weight? I guess you eat light, eh?”
She realized after she said it that her words probably weren’t helping, but… what was done was done. He looked blankly, into the crowd, his eyes lost.
“I can’t possibly… I mean… how stupid of me… I must make this right,” he said, voice becoming firm.
“Don’t worry about it,” Elen said unconcerned, pulling another apple from her robe pocket and offering it to him. “Here, we can split this one.” He shook his head resolutely.
“No, I… I… I’ll go buy something.” Before she could object he had shimmied down the crates, falling flat onto someone’s protocol droid who shrieked, and stumbled away, apologizing, in the wake of people’s curses and yells. Her sides shook from holding in silent laughter. This might be the best ‘meeting’ she’d had in a while… besides meeting that crazy Sith who played with a paddle ball at the Nar Shaddaa cantina.
From her perch, she saw him wander from booth to booth, with people shaking their heads, apparently out of refreshments. She sighed, feeling a twinge of guilt and pity for the guy. She wasn’t even particularly hungry and it didn’t matter to her if they ate or not. She just wanted to hear about the invention. But, apparently, this whole food business was really important to him.
He came back finally, nearly an hour later, looking slightly the worse for wear. He handed up a bag of food. The inscription read, “Bubba’s Burgers and Bizaz.” Her eyes sparkled with amusement as he sat down, puffing.
“Thanks,” she said lightly. “What’s Bizaz?”
“Huh?” he said, and she pointed to the bag. He stared at it squinting and said, in a very long winded way, that he had no idea. She nodded, pulling out a burger. She recognized the name as a very low-key and not much thought of Coruscanti take-out place, but she had always wondered what “Bizaz” was. Maybe it was a food. She took a bite and her eyes lit up, surprised.
“Hey, good burger,” she said, between mouthfuls.
“Oh… really?” he said, looking just a bit relieved, and taking his from the bag, removed all the toppings except the meat. She watched, saying nothing. She wondered why he didn’t order a plain burger.
“So, what’s this invention that involves Jedi?”
“Well...” he said, pausing, and settled down more squarely, straightened his goggles and puffed out his chest. “It’s something…” he paused again, for dramatic effect, his eyes becoming so wide that the whites showed. Elen suppressed a giggle that was attempting to escape her lips while she chewed. “That can detect ripples in the Force!” he said at last triumphantly.
“Oh really?” Elen said, genuinely curious. “But Jedi can already do that. Why do they need one?” He looked a bit flustered for a moment, completely forgetting the burger at his feet.
“Um… because, this is a mechanical device, see. You could make droids, to help you detect Sith or…” he gestured. “Evil things. Maybe… you guys could build a whole droid army to detect Sith and sneak them into Imperial territory and have them assassinate them!” Elen choked on her burger, and started laughing again. He frowned.
“What?”
“Jedi don’t just go and assassinate Sith,” she giggled. “Not like that… and how would you get the droids into Imperial territory?”
“Uh… we’d disguise them, obviously,” he said, searching for words, twisting the large claw chrono on his wrist round and round. “And… we could even make them look like protocol droids and sell them to the Imps… but these droids would have teeth! And… er, well, anyway, that’s not important. We haven’t gotten the design plans for the droids finalized yet.”
“Of course,” Elen said easily, finishing the last bits of her burger. She watched the fire eaters out of the corner of her eye.
“So, how does it work?” she asked, dangling her boots off the crate again, and staring out at the fair. She looked back at him from time to time, so he would know she was listening. He abruptly went into a long spiel about how it used cells with midichlorians cultured in the lab, to enhance midichlorian output, then connected the cells to a metal contact that measured electrical pulses along the cell body, which he believes is connected to their sense of the Force. The contacts amplify and enhance the signal, allowing the droid to “feel” the Force, if you would pardon the term, he said.
She nodded rhythmically, noting that fighters were coming to fight in the center ring. They looked like Mandos, with electrostaffs. She grinned. Sparring combat. She loved duels. Nearby was a stand that boasted an absolutely huge piece of caramelized candy, “The Largest Candy on Coruscant!” the sign said.
She looked at him surprised as he finished. “That actually sounds, um, kind of unique and like it might work,” she shrugged and smiled at him. She had certainly never heard anyone try anything like that before. He grinned, his chest puffing out even more.
“So… can you demonstrate it?”
“Sure!” he said, pulling out a metallic looking droid from his bag. It looked like a mouse droid. Nearby, the Mandos continued sparring, jostling each other, whipping out their staffs. She watched and frowned, wondering at the use of such ‘combat’ at a fair. It looked real enough. If they allowed such heavy combat… she felt her fingers tingling, itching to be in a duel… but of course they’d never let her…
She glanced at Dr. Luush as he set the mouse droid down and turned it on. It beeped and whirred. He smiled up at her.
“So, can that thing… umm… help me with combat?”
“Absolutely!” he said, keying a button built into its side. “It has a special combat feature, that will enhance your combat sense of the Force.” Elen smiled, trying to keep down another grin. Combat sense of the Force?
“Great!” she said, pointing at the combatants in the ring below. “I’ll go duel one of those Mandos and you set it out for me, and I’ll see if it enhances me or not. How will I tell?”
“Uh… all right,” he said, “Um, I’m sure you will,” he said, giving her a knowing look. “You’ll probably feel a … tingling, or strengthening of the muscles, like with real Force enhancement. You should know, I haven’t really done a lot of field tests yet. That’s why.. um, why I contacted you, naturally.” She flashed a grin at him.
“Naturally,” she said, dropping down and wading into the crowd. The Mandos were just finishing their bout as she walked up.
“And NOW,” a man wearing a large purple hat with a microphone bellowed, “Who is brave enough to battle the Exterminator, champion of this ring? He will win 1,000 credits and the reward OF HIS CHOICE!”
She jumped up and down and waved, as Dr. Luush ran up, panting, droid under his arm. “I’ll go! I’ll go!” The announcer’s eyes narrowed at her, but he finally said.
“All right, the young Jedi on the floor everyone! She’s our CHAAAAAALLENGER!!” he yelled again, making it sound as if the word were fifty feet long. A murmur of “Oooooo!” went up from people in the crowd and a few more shouldered over to watch. Elenawe grinned as she removed her robe and took out her saber. Just one. That would be enough.
“Name your prize, Jedi,” The purple hat man beamed.
“That!” she said, pointing at the biggest caramelized candy on Coruscant.
He eyed it and gave her a strange look but shrugged and finally said, “And she asks fooooooooooorrrrr, THE BIGGEST CARAMALIZED CANDY ON CORUSCANT, folks! See, the Bangfort’s candy is desirable to all, even Jedi! Get your pieces now, before they’re gone!”
She grinned, stepping into the ring, igniting her blade and doing a few warm up moves. The ‘Exterminator’ glared at her from the opposite side of the ring, his armor a blood red, with plenty of scrapes and dents. Someone was whispering to him. This would be the best fight ever! Fighting for candy. Mmm. She smiled up at the large candy on display. Someone touched her shoulder and she looked up. It was Dr. Luush.
“Here,” he said urgently, shoving the droid at her. She took it, and placed it by the wall at her feet.
“Hey! No cheating!” some official in black yelled.
She looked at him and shrugged. “It’s just a droid.”
Scowling, he glared at her. She grinned. She was pretty sure there weren’t many rules for this kind of thing. Cheating was probably encouraged. He stalked off, and she advanced to the center of the ring. The Mando advanced as well. They stopped ten paces apart on a neatly chalked line on the durasteel. Elenawe reached out with the Force, attempting to ‘sense’ the droid, but she felt nothing. She focused on her opponent, smiling, blade to the side.
“3 – 2 – 1 – GO!” the announcer purple hat man yelled. Elenawe leapt into action, jumping at the Mando, feet first, hoping to knock him to the ground. He side stepped easily, despite her accelerated motion, and something swished in his hand. She gaped as she tumbled to her feet, seeing a red saber come to life. The crowd gasped. He smirked, visor up.
“You didn’t think he’d let you fight unless you had a chance to lose, did you?” he said. He spun at her. She jumped out of the way, flipping behind him and ignited her second blade, falling into Ataru without thought as she landed.
To her amazement, he parried her flurry of blows with relative ease. A ripple of darkness washed over her briefly. A Sith? Seriously? She grinned suddenly, at the abrupt raising of the stakes, throwing all her energy into the fight with gusto, relishing at having to work for her dinner.
She spun back, doing a dance of blades, but the Mando matched her strides. He was an amazing duelist! What was he doing in this fair? The crowd gasped with awe as the two of them swung around each other, parrying, thrusting, sending up showers of sparks into the late afternoon air.
Out of the corner of her eye, the mouse droid was moving closer, closer. She glanced at it and frowned. What was it doing? She unleashed a flurry of blows to block his attack, pushing him back. He was backing up toward the droid. Suddenly, he put out a foot and it landed awkwardly atop the droid. He tripped, and she immediately kicked him in the stomach, sending him sprawling, face first. His saber flew out of his hand, turning off in mid-flight and ricocheting into the crowd. She grinned as she bowed to the crowd, and the purple hat man announced her as the victor.
The Mando in red threw his helmet down in disgust, scowling.
She eyed him, tilting her head. “Are you Sith?” she asked.
He sneered and spat at her feet. “No.”
He stalked away, melting into the crowd, who were jeering and cheering him. He was probably looking for his saber, she thought. She looked back at the booth and grinned as they started to unstrap the gigantic candy from its perch.
Dr. Luush ran up, eyes wide. “That was amazing!” he said. “Did you feel anything?”
Elen shrugged. “No, not really. I think it needs more work.”
The purple hat man beckoned to her on stage and handed her the huge candy as she walked up. It was almost a foot across and three and a half feet tall. The stem alone was bigger than her thumb. She grinned, gasping a bit at the weight, and clutched it to her chest, waving at the crowd.
***
On the taxi ride back to the Spaceport, Elen grinned at Dr. Luush, who sat morose, mouse droid on his lap, wicker basket once again stowed away in his travel sack, which was instead at his feet this time. The candy sat across her lap, taking up the entirety of the taxi car.
“I’m sure once you do some more field tests, you’ll get it right,” she said encouragingly. “It did help me win.” He sighed, then nodded, a look of determination solidifying in his eyes.
“I’ll contact you as soon as the data comes in,” he said solemnly. “This will change the face of modern warfare, I tell you.”
Elen nodded amiably, licking the end of the gigantic candy, and sighing in satisfaction. Dueling and candy! This had been a good day.