ANH 'verse. Tatooine. A Mission Complete?

[astrotechmech]

He was back on the ship. He must have been. This was not merely something that need a tune-up. It was a victim, and it had all the battle damage to prove it!

"What the heck did you guys do to this thing?!? I can barely tell one part from another!"

His on-board equipment had been fixed from his earlier "scuffle" by now--for which he was glad because this thing need all the help it could get!

Comments

[astrotechmech]

"I'm working on it, all right! . . . That's how everyone learns them, but I have no intention of the person she learns it from being me!" Random sorts through the parts they brought with them for the one needs.

[random_xtras]

"Heh... mentors never do. Hey... did she get wiped or something?" Hot Shot turns and frowns in the other direction.

//Hey, Random,// says Wheeljack in his abrupt but not antagonistic way. //Is Kia with you? She's not at the dome.//

[astrotechmech]

"Huh."

That causes him to stop and turn around to look at Hot Shot. "'Wiped?' What do you mean, 'wiped?'"

// . . . She's not there?!?!// Great, now he's starting to panic and it shows.

[random_xtras]

"You know. All her files deleted." Hot Shot turns and looks in yet another direction, then spits out wind-blown sand. "Great, there's another storm coming."

//I wouldn't have asked if she were,// says Wheeljack, sounding a bit miffed. //Don't tell me she ran off.//

[astrotechmech]

He was hoping he wouldn't have to explain it quite so soon . . .

Random starts to fidget, and not just from Hot Shot's question. //I honestly don't know what to tell you! She wouldn't do that.// Or at least I'd hope she'd listen to me when I told her to stay there. "No, not great. Wheeljack says Kia's not at the dome!"

[random_xtras]

//I can't leave the refiner, unless we want a crater where the dome should be,// grumbles Wheeljack.

"What?" Hot Shot blinks, then turns in the direction of the dome. "I don't see her. How good is her GPS?"

[astrotechmech]

//Great.// comes the sarcastic reply.

"I . . . don't know, actually." There was never really a time when she would have needed it, was there? He couldn't recall.

[random_xtras]

"Slag... //Hey, Wheeljack, turn Fido loose. Yeah, he's programmed to find me first. Yeah, I made sure. Great. Thanks, buddy.//

[astrotechmech]

Fidget, fidget.

Kia, where are you?

He's completely forgotten about the generator at this point.