"The Two-for-One Affair."

By: Anthony Hummerston.

STARRING:

'Mama'
Rojic
Jimmi
Karnov
Niall
Kory
And introducing:
Joe-90 and Hen3ry as the droids.
And, a special guest star: Henry as the cleaning droid.

AND
Storm Cutter
their ship.

The remaining heroes on Storm Cutter are reviewing Kory’s message. Jimmi is listening intently. “Strange, I thought she said ‘Help! Help!’ Only when I play it back, all I can hear is ‘Scape-o I V’endoo I’goo steekun hedsunn pupp karking orfoo-poodoo ved’ru scorcho dondoo shine-e doo karking childa-steela kung!’”

Jimmi turns to Rojic. “What’s going on? Why the discrepancy?”

“I think it’s a timing thing. The message came in before what the Hutts call the ‘agua-cabaña’”

Jimmi doesn’t speak much Huttese. “What’s the translation of ‘agua cabaña?’”

“It’s so shocking; I can’t say it in Basic. Here, I’ll write it for you.”

“Not much good to me, what with being blind and all….”

“Well, even if you had sight, then you’d go blind seeing this word.” Rojic tells Jimmi.

“How come you’re immune?”

“I’m a Todarain! Visual tricks won’t work on me. Only money!”

“I’ll give you three credits.” Jimmi tells him.

“Okay!” Rojic whispers in his ear.

This is what he says:

Jimmi runs from the room. “I’m just going to wash my ears out with soap and water!”

Rojic sighs. “The last time I said that word, the person that heard it had to have their ears surgically removed, bead-basted, oven-roasted and then spent a week in a Bacta tank once they were sown back on!”

Niall asks. “I suppose you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“Sure I do! -And afterwards, I wash her lips out with soap and water!”

Kory meantime is being held in the hold of Rose Wanderer. It’s not quite the same as the hold of Storm Cutter. For one thing, it has nice wallpaper, smooth paint, comfy chairs and soft relaxing music. She thinks to herself. “If it weren’t for the manacles, I could get used to this!”

She thinks back to how she got captured. A stupid mistake! A schoolboy error! -An astro-droid was acting erratically below Storm Cutter. She approached it, and a second later there was a dart in her hand. The next thing she knew, she was waking up in this comfortable hold, while assassin droids measured her up for a gold chainmail bikini. Seeing as she wasn’t wearing much else, they abandoned that idea, and just chained her to a stanchion anyway.

Back on Storm Cutter, Rojic is keen to go ahead with the exchange. “After all, Kory is the only one I respect.”

“The only one in the galaxy?”

“Well, Mama came second, but it was only for a day or two, and now she’s gone….”

“So out of all the billions of people and aliens in the galaxy, you only respect one and a bit.”

“Yup!”

“Remind me of that fact next time I’m re-attaching a big lump of your head to the other big lump!”

“Okay. But still no respect. I only respect money!”

"Just checking my balance. The bank sends it by text....
Here we go....
I think the 'LoL' on the end was a bit harsh..."

Karnov steers them back to the situation in hand. “Anyway, they’re the enemy, they want this exchange. They’re bound to be treacherous.”

Jimmi agrees. “Yes, bound to stitch us up.”

“Done up like a smoked Quarren I say!” Niall adds. “Maybe we should just shoot the prisoners.”

Karnov advises against this. “I think they’d do the same to Kory if they knew what we’d done to their two men.”

“One-and-a-half-men.” Jimmi points out. “This one’s not all human, and has a bit missing.”

“Do you think we should return that?” Niall asks.

“I do and I don’t. It would be easily overlooked, accidentally on purpose. Besides, Rojic’s already tried attaching it to Joe-90.”

“-And?”

“There were sparks. Then fireworks. Then a whole lot of swearing in over six-million languages. –And then Joe-90 started cussing!”

Niall is philosophical. “Somehow, that’s bound to happen when two bits of incompatible homicidal droids meet.”

Jimmi shudders. “It’s a good thing they’re making war not love.”

“Ooh, the pitter-patter of teeny-tiny homicidal maniac droid feet clumping about Storm Cutter, with prejudice turned up to eleven, and droid nappy bulging!”

“It gives a whole new dimension to the phrase ‘wet work!’” Rojic comments.

Rojic wants to get revenge on their enemies. “Let’s go in all guns blazing. Take them all out in a pre-emptive strike.”

“That’s not the Jedi way. We’re firm, but fair.” Karnov reminds him.

Niall wants to know where Rojic will be during this whole conflict.

Rojic thinks carefully. “Directing from an advantageous position…..Say…..Three miles away?”

Karnov is firm. “That settles it then. We’re not doing this Rojic’s way.”

Rojic looks upset. “You’re all such soft wusses!”

“What about using droids?” Niall wonders. “After all, they’ve got them.”

Rojic is keen. “We could remotely control Joe-90, fit him with the sentry gun, and wire up explosives in his innards. Or maybe even give him an explosive waistcoat.”

Karnov isn’t paying attention. “Mmm….Nice waistcoat!”

Niall is dismissive. “Pfft! Waistcoats are so next millennia. If we’re going down that route, -and I’m not really in favour- we should give him a pair of explosive socks!”

Rojic agrees. “Yeah, a pair of Milligans!”^{[ 49 ]}

Jimmi is wondering. “Do we still have a signal from the homer on their astromech droid?”

“Not moving, holding position, steady as a rock.”

“Just like Rojic’s shooting hand!” ^{[ 50 ]}

Meanwhile, Kory is getting well acquainted with her stanchion. It’s a very nice one, a lovely colour of ocean grey, or is it sea grey? Anyway, she has a plan to extract a lock-picking tool from her undergarments, and use it to free herself. This involves a lot of wriggling and jiggling. A lot. –And a lot of jiggling and wriggling. This takes a short amount of time, but for some reason we can see it in an extended sequence of about an hour’s duration. –Fast forward to….An assassin droid stopping by to see whether she is still secured. She is. The droid stomps off. In the background Kory can hear voices. She strains her ears to make out what is being said, but can’t quite get it all. The enemies even repeat it slowly and loudly so she can eavesdrop, but she still doesn’t get all of it. What she does hear is this…..

“Secret of the Sisorium…Not be secret….Much longer….Told two weeks….Hope…That is enough….”

Kory strains her ears again. The evil bad guys finish their conversation. “Well, that has outlined all of our nefarious plans in the ultimate detail. Every angle has been covered. -Apart from the obvious exploitable chinks in our armour, of course. Though we’ve discussed them at length. We have a working plan that the good-guys could only possibly undo if they were here in the room listening.”

A droid voice says. “Please tell us the plan one more time….”

“Okay. From the top….Slowly and succinctly….All we have to do is….” At this point Kory stops listening. –She must have heard enough!

Back on Storm Cutter, Rojic is expounding on his cleverness at building a force shield resonator, coupled with a flux capacitor.

“Isn’t a flux capacitor what makes time travel possible?”

“I’ll tell you last Tuesday!”

“So what are you proposing?”

“That we get inside the cordon around Rose Wanderer, activate the device, and randomly remove two bad droids, leaving Karnov with the dark Jedi and the remaining bad droid.”

“This isn’t a game of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ Rojic.”

“Shame. I always wanted to be a millionaire.”

“Only way that’s going to happen in Hutt space is if you start with ten million.”

“True. Too true!” Rojic sighs. “Oh well, it’ll have to be Karnov waving around his sticky-stick again, while we stand off and blast anything that moves.”

Karnov is outraged. “‘Sticky-stick!’ –A lightsabre is created by Jedi master craftsmen over several months. It is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. -Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age!”

Jimmi brings him down to earth. “Still, you can’t leave it loaded under your pillow.”

“Why not?”

“You’d cleave your head in twin when you slept. –And end up looking like Rojic here.”

“Eew!”

Niall adds. “-And if you run with it, you end up like Darth Maul.”

“What, all red and knobbly?” Karnov asks.

“No! In two bits.” Niall tells him.

“Okay, important safety tip. Don’t run with a lit lightsabre!”

“Yeah, like that matters! This is the galaxy that heath and safety forgot, remember?” Niall reminds them. They all take in his sage advice for a moment. Karnov even fetches a handkerchief and ties a knot in it to remind himself.

Important safety tip....

Niall adds. “-And remember folks, a lightsabre is –on no account- to be used for Morris dancing.”

Jimmi says. “Actually, seeing as Morris dancing involves ritually hitting one another with sticks, it’s actually quite a shame. It could reduce the scourge of Morris dancing from the galaxy by some good margin.”

“You seem to know a suspiciously large amount about Morris dancing, Jimmi.”

Jimmi hastily back-tracks. “Only that you should try anything in life, excepting Morris dancing and inbreeding.”

Karnov says. “I like inbreeding.”

Niall says. “Karnov, eating fish fingers for dinner isn’t inbreeding, -that’s cannibalism!”

After a pause, Niall retracts that last statement. “On second thoughts, for you it might be both.…”

They think for a minute. “So the droid option is out then?”

“Well, not totally. We can rig up some mouse droids with explosives, and maybe use them to deliver the payload.”

“That might be better. No negotiations with Joe-90 needed. Phew!”

Niall agrees. “Besides, you just can’t talk to droids.” He pats Hen3ry on the dome. “Can you Hen3ry?”

“Bleep. Bop Bloop, woo-woo!”

“That’s right! Good boy -well said!”

Rojic offers to rig up some salvaged battle droids. They agree to this compromise solution.

Niall decides to swallow his pride and consult with Rojic over the makeup of the explosives. “What should we use for maximum yield, but minimum cost?”

“Well, certain things are highly explosive in large concentrations.”

“Such as?”

“Well, sticks of dynamite, for instance!”

It takes a second for Niall to get the joke.

“I was thinking about more readily available products. As I recall the money for explosives was your mission, in which you managed to spend several hours completely failing to do.”

“Sorry.”

After a moment Rojic asks. “Anyway, how about custard powder?”

Karnov, who is listening in, can’t help himself. “Mmm…Custard….With fish fingers, yummy!”

Rojic says. “You’re weird.”

Jimmi looks at Rojic. “No, you’re weird!”

Rojic reacts. “Oh that’s rich! -Coming from a blind, hermaphroditic, gender-bending girl/boy trans-dressing cross-sexual.”

Jimmi is raging. He yells. “How dare you call me blind!”

“You are blind!” Rojic reminds him.

“Am not! Now….Which one of you said that?”

Niall goes back to his planning. To ensure the plan works, he considers letting the enemy know what they are doing. Karnov asks. “What about smoke?”

“Thanks, but I just put one out.”

“No, not death-stick smoke, smoke-smoke!”

Niall sighs. “The thing with smoke is that it works both ways.”

“Like tracer bullets.”

“Yes, like tracer bullets.”

Karnov thinks. “Y’know if we deployed smoke, tracers, and Jimmi firing blind into the melee, it’d be very confusing.”

“‘Confusing’ isn’t the word I’d use…. ‘Carnage’ is the word I’d use!”

Rojic is listening in. “We could possibly fly one of the speeders by remote….We’d just need to look in the manual how to do it.”

“Can’t be that difficult, it’ll be on the first page of ‘Speeders for Dummies.’”

After a beat they both yell. “Karnov!”

Kory has finally jiggled the right amount to get her underwire/lock-picker into her hand. There are two other obvious things to put in her hands and jiggle, but she ignores the director’s pleas. She deftly starts on the manacles around her wrists. It’s going to take some time. An assassin droid stops by to check on her. His blank expression is met with the sweetest of smiles from Kory. –Probably because she’s hidden the wire in her mouth as he passes by. “Got an itch….” She says, bluffing the droid. The droid has no concept of itches, so it passes on by. “I’m ‘itching’ to get out of here!” Kory stage-whispers after the droid leaves.

Rojic is making the explosives; Jimmi and Niall are fixing up the speeder. “We need an additional power supply, to run the remote control sub-system.” Niall calls over to Rojic.

“Umm….We got some salvaged power supplies from K-59. -They’d do.”

“Ah yes, the reduced-sized gonk droids.”

Niall can’t help himself. “Gonk, gonk!”

“Actually, they’re a lit smaller and higher pitched. More like ‘gink, gink!’”

“Gink droid, -I like it!”

Rojic goes back to his work. It’s not going well. They close the door on the noise and cursing coming from the workshop. Niall looks back. “Should one really use a big hammer with delicate explosives?”

“It’s a mistake you only make once….” Jimmi observes, dryly.

Rojic has made three explosive devices. With all his hammering and melting, and playing with fire around them, he’s incredibly lucky not to have blown himself and the ship sky-high. As it is, he’s only made one good batch; the other two are critical fails. –Though at this stage we don’t know in what way, and which is which. He’s also managed to wreck a mouse droid in the process of fitting the quart of explosive into the pint-sized receptacle of the little droid. Karnov has a flashback at this point, and has to take a breather.^{[ 51 ]}

When Rojic has finished, he shows his work to the others.

“So we’ve got an unlicensed nuclear device strapped to a mouse-droid.”

“-And very highly sensitive to vibration, no doubt….” Jimmi observes.

“Yes. The slightest breath of wind, shake, or tremor could set it off!”

They wait. –And they wait. None of them are moving a muscle, hardly daring to breathe.

Karnov breaks the sudden silence. “Atishoooo!” He sneezes, rattling the ship to its support struts.

They all grit their teeth, waiting for the inevitable. –Nothing happens.

Rojic bangs the mouse droids on the table. He yelps triumphantly. “Heath and safety…. Be damned!”

Karnov is watching Rojic work, he shakes his head. Niall decides to take a look at the lightsabre that he retrieved from the cyborg.

^{[ 52 ]}

He carefully removes the belt ring, which is the most critical part of any lightsabre construction, and the hardest part to manufacture. He then looks directly down the business end. In a galaxy that health and safety forgot, he fiddles with the knobs on the side. Fortunately for him, the knob that he twiddled doesn’t extend the blade into his eye, but ejects the power-pack. After that, deconstruction is fairly straightforward. Niall carefully places each component part on a piece of clean white cloth, each part in relation to its interlocking or connected parts. Finally it’s all in separate components in front of him. He marvels at its construction. With some insight, and a little technical knowledge, and maybe a hint of the force, he realises that this blade has been made by a master for a student. Crafted well, balanced expertly, but made simple but effective for an apprentice to use. He sits back and marvels at the workmanship, the expertise and the simple beauty of the design. The reverie is broken by Karnov who sneezes loudly behind him. He looks over. Rojic catches his gaze and raises his eyebrows, while a soft tinkling sound can be heard.

Niall turns back. The lightsabre has gone! Karnov is wiping his nose with the white cloth, and the carefully arranged parts are all on the floor! Before he can explode in a rage, Niall is almost tripped over by Henry the cleaning droid, sweeping the bits into a dustpan. Niall threatens the droid with ‘an emptying he’ll never forget,’ and the droid leaves the parts for Niall to pick up, and scurries off at R-17. Niall shoots a look at Karnov. “Sorry!” He says, and shrugs his shoulders. “I think I’m coming down with something.”

“Extreme lightsabre poisoning, if you EVER do that again!” Niall tells him.

Rojic tries to break the tension. “Seeing as I wrecked the last mouse droid, do you think that this will do?” He asks, holding up a cereal box, to which four dissimilar wheels; a motor and a coat-hanger aerial have been attached.

Through clenched teeth Niall snarls at him. “Yes. Okay! Whatever!”

“Ooh, touchy!” Rojic replies, but Niall has stalked off.

Karnov tries to reassure the Toydarian. “Perfect!” Rojic beams. Under his breath Karnov says. “What a piece of junk!”

Karnov contacts the enemy commander. “This is Padawan Karnov. I want to do a deal. Your guys for my girl. –But I need more time….Say….” He looks at Rojic’s pathetic excuse for a mouse droid. He clenches his teeth. “Ten hours?” He winces.

“This is master Livkin. Two hours, or there is no deal.”

Livkin pauses and then adds. “Or maybe….She’s not that valuable?”

“Maybe I can get your men to talk…..” Karnov suggests.

“You’re welcome to try….”Livkin replies.

Karnov looks at the prone bodies, still in their comas.

“Okay. We have a deal.” He pulls up a map. “How about across town, at…..” His finger jabs on a place just out of town, and roughly equidistant between Storm Cutter and Rose Wanderer. “Gree bridge. That’s the place. We’ll do the deal there in ten hours.”

“In two hours.”

Karnov sighs, heavily. “Okay….”

The crew load up the speeders. Karnov is hatching a plan. He disrobes, and hands his clothes to Niall. “Here, put this on.”

“But it smells of fish!”

“We’ll all be sleeping with the fishes if we don’t build in an element of surprise.”

“Okay, what’s your plan?”

“You disguise yourself as me, while I hide beneath the bridge. Then if there’s any monkey business, I’ll be in a position to disrupt their evil plans.”

Niall can see the sense in this. But still has reservations. “But I don’t look like you.”

Jimmi says. “I’ll do something with this makeup.”

“I’m not even going to ask where you get makeup from, or why indeed you’d bring it to a prisoner exchange.”

“I have my reasons.” Jimmi says unhelpfully.

Soon Niall is all made up to look like Karnov. The disguise is so good that even Jimmi’s mother couldn’t tell Niall and Karnov apart.

“Good” Karnov says. “Now all you have to do is to ‘pose’ as a Jedi.”

This riles up Niall. Though Niall is damned if he’s going to let is show. He seethes angrily at he jibe, all the while smiling sweetly.

Rojic can’t believe his eyes. “Jimmi, you’ve made him up to look like a turbot!”

Jimmi turns to Rojic. “That’s how he looks to me!”

Niall wants some backup. He tells Jimmi. “Stay here. If we contact you, come immediately to our position, and open fire on anything that isn’t us.”

“But who’s actually going to fly this thing?”

“Let Hen3ry do the flying. You’re the lookout!”

Jimmi considers this. “Great!” He says, not without a hint of irony.

Rojic starts hauling battle droid parts into the speeder. “This is for close encounters!” He tells the others. “Define close?” They ask him.

“Well, these two haven’t got any legs, and their aim’s a bit off, but they’ll help bulk up our firepower.”

“That’s close enough!”

With trepidation at the reception they’ll receive, the others make their way to the rendezvous. They arrive early. The bridge was once green, but the paint has long since faded. –Maybe that’s why it’s called ‘Gree’ bridge. The river is muddy and about six-feet deep at this point. They have precious few minutes to scout out the area. There are a few scattered houses, and a couple of abandoned warehouses on both sides of the river. As soon as they are in position, another speeder approaches, and disgorges assassin droids, a human, -presumably Livkin- a Trandoshan, and a bodyguard droid. Two assassin droids are flanking Kory, who is convincingly struggling weakly. –Despite her having slipped her manacles, and having had a scout around Rose Wanderer. She managed to grab a hold-out blaster on her tour. “Aha! Exit thorough gift shop!” she said to herself. On the journey she asks Livkin if he’s going to monologue. “No.” He says. –And that is that.

Our heroes are arranged as follows: The two working battle droids are in the lead speeder. Behind them, in the rear seats are the still unconscious Zabrak and Dark Helmet. In the second speeder are Niall -who is driving- and Rojic, who is remotely driving the droids in the forward speeder. Behind Niall and Rojic are two Battle droid torsos. They are part fixed into position and part wedged upright with cushions and pillows.

Karnov has decided to follow health and safety rules and has discarded his high-visibility vest. He’s hiding beneath the bridge. He’s also wondering how much he’d enjoy eating any crossing Billy goats. As he hangs in the water, he’s reminded of a quotation. “The troll character is dirty and smelly and everybody is frightened of him. I think that heightens the pathos of the ending, because it’s basically a witch hunt, without any evidence.” ^{[ 53 ]} This puts Karnov in a bad mood, and determined not to become the tragic victim.

Even though he’s piloting the speeder that he’s not driving, Rojic manages to spot a lone gunman droid on a grassy knoll, atop a building over the river. He points this out to Niall, and slowly aligns the battle droid’s guns in that direction.

Under the lead speeder speed the three little mouse-droids. Rojic suggests naming them ‘Huey,’ ‘Louie’ and ‘Dewey,’ but Niall prefers, ‘My-T-Worky’, ‘Won’t-E-Worky, and ‘Big-Kablooey!’ So that they can be recognised, Rojic has painted them with three distinct colours: ‘Pristine-white’, ‘blackest-black’ and ‘snot-green.’

The speeders with the exchange prisoners are poised to cross the bridge. By the time that the enemy speeder has come to rest at the approach, Kory has slipped her binders and has her hand on the hold-out blaster, which was nestling somewhere she wasn’t searched, is mainly in the public domain, and somewhere she could reach easily with both hands.

From a vantage point in the doorway of an abandoned warehouse, Livkin shouts. “What have you done to our men?”

“They’re unconscious, but….Um…..Unharmed.” Niall informs him. Under his breath, he whispers to himself. “Mostly, unarmed-less.” He calls back to Livkin. “-And what about our girl?”

“I’m about to knock her unconscious!”

Livkin doesn’t though. It might be because of the look that Kory shoots him, or he might not actually be that evil. He merely shrugs, and idly wonders whether Kory might need another intimate search before the handover.

The speeders meet, almost nose to nose. Two droids are with Kory. Livkin is getting short of living goons after all. The droids roughly manhandle her out of the speeder and shove her forward. “You could ask nicely!” She snarls at them, but they are oblivious to her ladylike charms. “Stupa droida, I heada’a crunchoo, widoo tinopera, ignoroo mea? Ya poodoo!” She says. They continue to ignore her. “Your mother was a can of spam!” She whispers. Reacting to this slur on their good character, they shove her again, -really roughly!

Niall sees their treatment of his crewmate, and lowers the handrails of his speeder. With all the grace of a graceful thing, he kicks out with both feet, and the enemy agents spill out onto the roadway in crumpled heaps. Kory jumps up onto the speeder, and climbs aboard. She and Niall exchange glances, and show each other their concealed weaponry.

The assassin droids check ‘dark helmet’ and the Zabrak. Livkin shouts out, wondering if they are okay. “Okay sir. Alive, but unconscious. –A bit like Gerald Ford.” There is an awkward pause. No one is doing anything antagonistic. All they want are their people back. The two parties eye each other up.

Then one of the Assassin droids notices that fact that dark helmet has no arm.

“Master Livkin, this one has no arm.”

There is a pause as this sinks in. “Blast ‘em!”

Karnov heaves himself up to the parapet of the bridge. To nobody in particular he yells “Let him have it!” ^{[ 54 ]} Shots ring out from the enemy’s side. Karnov replies in kind and a blaster bolt streaks to the assassin droid. It explodes on the metal chest of the droid, but does no appreciable damage. The droid steps back. The droid nearest Karnov shoots at him wildly, but the shot merely fizzes in the water behind him. Karnov makes a grab for the droid, and it’s a straight strength versus strength to pull the droid over the edge of the bridge. Karnov nearly succeeds, having taken the droid by surprise. The hapless droid dangles precariously. Niall takes the cue, and concentrates on the other droid on the bridge. With the force flowing through him, he slowly and carefully sweeps his arm rightward. The rightmost droid is picked up, and flung into the water below, where it splashes impressively and sinks like a stone. It’s snapped shot makes the water boil with steam and bubbles and erupts like a little geyser. Rojic activates the battle droids and they start firing on the assassin droid on the roof. Shots play around his position, but don’t find their mark. “Stupid battle-droid targeting!” He hisses. “Roger, roger….Rojic!” they reply, pointing their guns at him as they do so. He repeatedly jabs down on the control box in fear.

The assassin droid aims for Niall, in the sights is Niall’s head plumb in the middle of the crosshairs. The droid takes the shot. Niall doesn’t duck. -He’s still flinging the other droid into the water. The blaster bolt impacts….But onto the transparent windshield of the speeder, where it dissipates harmlessly. – A lucky break!

Kory is shooting, but doesn’t find her mark this time. Livkin and his cronies are crouching in the doorway. Livkin is concentrating on his speeder. In a second it lifts up under the power of the dark side of the force. The dark-side master goes to throw it at Kory and Niall, still in their cockpit. Niall feels the force flow, and responds. It’s now a battle of wills to make the speeder respond. Who will succumb first?

Karnov and his droid are having an arm wrestle over the parapet. Karnov has the droid’s arm, and is stopping it from shooting him. The droid squeezes off a shot, but Karnov’s strength pushes the blaster wide. Karnov uses his other had to ignite his lightsabre. The assassin sniper takes a bead on Rojic. A shot makes the air crackle as it passes the gap in his head. A close shot! Ironically saved by a previous injury! Rojic yelps. “Mummy!” He presses his remote control, and the battle droids open fire. Two of them miss the assassin droid, but the other two pump hot plasma into the advancing Trandoshan, blasting him back a bit. On the left hand side, Karnov sweeps his lightsabre up with his off hand, and in a fountain of shrapnel, neatly removes the droid’s shooting arm. The bodyguard droid with Livkin lays down some covering fire. Three streaks zip over the bridge, keeping the defender’s heads down. They impact on the girders, and send showers of yet more sparks raining down. Rojic grabs the control box for the mouse droids and twists the knob. The three little droids scoot under Niall’s speeder and out the front, looking for targets. Niall is still concentrating on stopping the levitated speeder. His eyes sweep the battlefield. Is it time to press their advantage, or retreat with the spoils? Kory raises her gun….

NEXT EPISODE: A Bridge too Farce?

Zap zap pow! Zap!

TO BE CONTINUED......

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Footnotes. (Click numbers to return to the story.)

[ 49 ]   An explosive sock is pure Spike Milligan.
[ 50 ]   Neither hand is a shooting hand. Both are drinking theiving hands.
[ 51 ]   Jim used to be a UPS robot courier, but he got better. One day you'll be able to click here. But not today!
[ 52 ]   Originally 'cybork' A kind of Sweedish robot hybrid. I nearly left it in, except my proofreader would throw a wobbly!
[ 53 ]   The original quote is here.
[ 54 ]   "Let him have it!" Can be misunderstood, meaning one of several outcomes. Tragically this may have been the case with Derek Bentley.