Epilogue

They did, in fact, kill what Atton questioned as ‘it’. With the Heavy Water, the creature composed of pure energy had been destroyed as much as any creature composed of pure energy could be. With barely a dozen staff left alive, Sergeant Muldoon began the ridiculously long, tiresome and gruesome task of cleaning and repairing the base. John mused that there was no one more suited for the job than Muldoon. Carpenter was dead, so they had to call in a new head the science department. John heard something of a name, one Doctor Goll. HK-47 was recovered from the horrible depths of Frontier Station and after a thorough going over by Bao-Dur was he cleared. The Droid had in fact been infected by the energy being, only it had begun thinking long term and decided to infect incognito. John found himself reminded of an old movie with a somewhat similar situation, but shrugged it off.

John felt a sort of sense of completion as he watched Atton Rand and Carth Onasi going through the warmup sequence, bringing the Star Strider back to life. They were leaving Hoth and Frontier Station. They were finished. But something was nagging at his mind. What was it? John turned and left the cockpit, leaving the pilots to their...piloting. He strolled unhurriedly back through the central corridor into the main hold as the Strider rumbled to life, lifting off out of the hangar to leave the surface and make its brief journey through the atmosphere. He knew Mira was waiting for him in their dormitories, she said she was going to read a datapad; but what Mira said was usually different from what she meant. Especially when she gave him that look. The look that said, ‘you know what I mean.’

HK-47 was one of the few inhabiting the main hold, he was standing along the back wall, watching the others with ever vigilant crimson eyes. Less of eyes and more of slits, John mused. Giving the Droid a perpetual paranoid look. It suited him. Canderous was seated up on the far counter, habitually cleaning his rifle. Jolee was perched upon a couch, sipping something warm and staring at a datapad. A thought struck John as he spotted Jolee’s datapad, he reached into his own pocket and extracted his own datapad. Looking at the list, he scanned the list of names in a manner that suggested he was a man who double checked lots of things for fear of forgetting something. It finally paid off.

“HK.” John said, slowly lowering the datapad. The Droid immediately shifted his gaze towards John.

“Reply: Yes, Master?” He asked. John still felt uncomfortable with the whole Master thing.

“Do you know where the Droid T3-M4 is?” He asked. The rumbling in the ship stopped, indicating that they had made it through the atmosphere of the frozen Hoth.

“Irritated Statement: That bucket of bolts insisted upon going with my previous Master, despite her wishes against it. I was more loyal, and remained behind to, loathe though I admit it, benefit the Republic in any way possible.” HK replied in his buzzing voice.

“Previous Master?” John prodded.

“Indeed, the one you recognize as Sarah.” HK replied. John nodded, well, that solved that. He made his way into the corridor again, this time making headway towards his dorm. Another thought tugged at him. He paused beside a porthole window and pulled out his communicator, punching in Giles’ number. He noted they were in hyperspace now.

“Yes?” Came the reply.

“Good news, Giles. We have everyone that we’re going to get. I’ve gone through the whole list. We’re on our way to Courasant. We should arrive within three days.” John replied.

“Excellent, John! Excellent! I shall meet you at a location that I shall specify once you arrive in orbit over the planet. See you in three days. Giles out.” The line was cut quickly. John shrugged the matter off and replaced the communicator in his pocket. He continued on, opening the door to the male dormitories. He found it invitingly dark and deserted save for a single being. Smiling, John began to undress.