The experience she just endured was much too real. The sand storm. Talking with Eeloh Ssaah in that Cantina that she hated. Talking with her mentor, Boba Fett, and eventually finding herself being swallowed whole by a sand collapse. And death. At least it felt like death.
“It was more than a dream, or a vision,” she whispered to herself. “I felt so real.” She kept going through the details of the experience in her mind, “Boba, you were there, but you were not with me. It was like we were connected somehow.”
But How?!
Her heart sank as her thoughts moved quickly on the girl that changed her life forever, Moon. Her feelings for her were the driving force to getting her back to this place. To find that she was not there created a feeling of guilt, failure, regret and remorse.
I never should have left her.
She began to rationalize her decision.
I trusted TAC with my life… He never would have...
“TAC?!”
The last thing she remembered about the garden was kneeling before TAC’s remains and a feeling of exhaustion. As her mind shifted to the present, she looked over her shoulder and realized that those memories where all too real - as she looked at all the parts and debris around her.
What happened to me?,she thought to herself.
She felt dizzy and warm. The bloodsnake’s bite wound was starting to get infected and needed medical attention.
Suddenly she heard a sound from the room just outside the garden. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Okha tried to get on her knees, and eventually to her feet. The pain from the bloodsnake bite began to overwhelm her. Slowly, she approached the door. The sound got louder. Okha noticed there was a hammer on the table, and took it and stood as close to the doorway as possible. She was more than ready to bash whatever was about to turn the corner.
Okha decided to do so first, and quickly turned the corner - to a loud Squeaking squeal pitched as a mouse Droid got in full view.
Okha’s eyes widened, “TOW?!” and smiled in disbelief.
The diminutive mouse droid began squeaking and twirling in all directions. If it had arms, Okha would have hugged it. She dropped to her knees and inspected the tiny droid’s outer layer.
“Tow!... What happened here?!”
The mouse droid began squeaking and squealing and would not stop.
Okha kneeled and put her hands next to the tiny droid.
“Okay, okay, relax… please tell me… slowly”
The mouse droid continued to squeak and chirp at a slower rate. Okha nodded, “I can see that, everything is just…” The chirping continued and Okha continued to listen and nod, “... so… they took her… Did any of them say where?” The mouse droid’s chirps did not seem very lively and dwindled.
“I see…”
Okha looked around the room once more, “There’s nothing for us here, Tow. No one is coming for us. Or, they would’ve been here by now.” Okha shrugged, “I hope they are okay, but Emmaneld and Dudeel may not necessarily know how to find us, as there are so many mountains and I never gave them exact coordinates. Which means they are either unconscious, trapped or killed” She struggled to say the last words, but managed. The mouse droid rolled lightly back and forth.
“We need to go see Maz. But first, I need to get my armor and weapons from the lake.”
Okha stood up and shrugged, “at least, whatever we can find.” TOW began to chirp and wail. “Yes, WE.” TOW chirped and wailed some more. “Well, all you need is a slight modification… and, we can definitely have you check the lake.”
Okha walked back to the garden and approached TAC’s remains, “You will work again my friend”. She looked over at TIC’s remaining cylindrical body and rollers. Despite being malnourished and weak, Okha began taking apart the torso/head connectivity area. “TOW, get over here.” The diminutive droid on wheels reluctantly rolled towards her. “This is going to work, OK?” Okha proceeded to gently flip TOW over and take apart the undercarriage assembly.
TOW began chirping and whirring with concern. “Yes, I will be extremely careful.”
A solid two hours had passed. Okha was wearing a pair of dark goggles that reflected the bright blue light from below. A few more minutes of blazing lights before she slowly wiped the sweat off her brow with her right wrist.
In her right hand, a soldering iron, in the other, a plasma torch. On the floor was a combination of droid parts of which had never been seen. The body of an R5, the torso of a SuperBattle Droid and the head of a Mouse Droid.
Okha took a long look as she stood up, “What have I created?”
TOW began chirping incessantly. “Okay, okay, I will stand you up - hold on.” Okha put the tools down and tried leveraging what little strength she had left to get her new creation to sit-up.
She reached out her hands in front of it, “Okay,give me your hands.” With no strength left, Okha used her weight to allow her new droid to get to its would-be-feet - or in this case, the rollers from the R5.
Catching her breath, Okha looked at her creation in confusion and in awe. At the bottom, R5’s body and rollers kept slipping, shifting and spinning to keep the upper-torso of the Super-Battledroid balanced. The head, which was the once-mousedroid: TOW, fought to adjust to the new height and weight.
Seeing the intense balancing act the tiny droid was doing with the insane arrangement, Okha sightly laughed with some words of encouragement, “you can do this TOW…”
WIth a few chirps and whiirrrs, TOW found a stable pose and looked around the room. Standing at an approximate 2 and a half meters, the droid began to roll forward slowly. Okha could not hold back her smile, “you got this…” the positive chirps that followed were met with a loud THUD as the rollers gave way under him and fell on its back. Okha felt the ground shake with the impact as she winced in disappointment. The new droid used the arms of the Super-Battledroid’s torso to push itself off the floor. Regaining the would-be-footing with the R5’s rollers took the droid more time than Okha would’ve liked, but she waited patiently for it to do so.
After another half hour of the droid attempting to find its balance, Okha nodded, “well, it is time to go…” The chirps that followed did not seem to be in agreement. “Oh, you totally got this… and I do believe you need a new name my friend.” Okha squinted as she looked at the droid from head to toe, “you’ve got TIC, TAC and yourself… TI. TA…. TITAN.” If TOW had a face, it would look confused. “Yes, TITAN it is,” she said with a smile and a nod. TITAN did a slight shrug, and the tiniest of chirps that could be interpreted as Okay in any language. Okha continued to gather her thoughts and looked at TITAN, “We are going to Maz’s to get a ride to Kamino. If Emmaneld and Dudeel are still there - they need our help.” She worked her way to her room, found a new jumpsuit and looked for any weapons and accessories with no luck. TITAN rolled to the door and peeked in. Okha looked back and shook her head, “they sacked the place better than I would’ve liked. I can’t find anything. So, my original plan stands. We need to recover any and every part of my armor from that lake.” TITAN’s chirps expressed a sense of worry.
“I am almost sure you can float. Just figure a way to propel yourself.”
Shaking his head slightly, TITAN rolls towards the main landing area. Okha smiled to herself and continued to search for anything that could help her wound.
This needs serious attention.
Suddenly, thoughts of Moon took over. The pain faded and she regained a new-found focus.
“I need to find her - at all costs.”
She finished zipping up her jumpsuit, and packing a few provisions into a small knapsack.
“Ok, TITAN, let’s go.”
Okha proceeded to find TITAN in the mangled landing area. Much to her surprise, she found him working on a wrecked swoop speeder.
“TITAN?”
The excited chirps and whiirs that followed were well received with much confusion, “WHAT?! You fixed a…? where did… ?” The droid stood proudly by his achievement. “Well, we do have a much faster way to getting to Maz’s… however, we still need to get my armor.” TITAN’s enthusiasm went down with his shoulders and a lowering whiir. “Look, at least I already killed the bloodsnake. Getting the armor from the bottom of the lake is only a matter of adjusting sensors and you paddling through the water.” Okha feigned a smile as she walked her way towards the repaired swoop speeder. TITAN did not move or make a sound.
She mounted the speeder and turned towards the droid, “Okay, when we get to Maz’s I’ll make sure you get the best oil bath you’ve ever had!” TITAN remained still and silent yet again. Okha then realized that Tow, now TITAN, had no concept of how much droids enjoyed oil baths. “Look, it is the best experience you will ever have as a droid - trust me.” TITAN lightly shrugged and got onboard the speeder behind Okha.
She knew that for a little while longer, she had to put aside her pain and exhaustion.
She proceeded to rev-up the engine -
VROOOOM VROOOOOM
“Common TITAN, cheer up!... this is going to be fun.”
TITAN shook its tiny mouse-droid head and held onto the bike for dear life as it shot-out the landing area like a mynock out of an exogorth.
