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The bustling of shoppers on Coruscant greatly contrasted with the uniformed crew Zak Jorys had spent the last few months with aboard the Nocturne. Not that she minded; while Jorys wore her apparel with pride, it was nice to lounge in less formal attire when she was off duty. Now that the Republic Subjugator-class vessel was docked for the next forty-eight hours, she was eager to take the opportunity to wear something casual.
While the stop on Coruscant wouldn’t be long enough for Jorys to visit her family (she and the crew were docked near the Jedi Temple since Master Sanna had business to attend to), she did want to partake in some shopping while planet-side. Slinging her backpack over her shoulders, Jorys boarded one of the public transit shuttles and flew downtown, watching the world as it whizzed by as the shadows of the night enveloped the city.
Getting off the shuttle and onto an elevated platform about twenty minutes later, Jorys began to head north. There was one particular purchase she hoped to make before work pulled her elsewhere. She walked through the familiar streets with ease, sipping a frozen concoction she’d purchased from a vendor until she arrived at Alistair’s Droid Shop.
“Welcome!” a bothan behind the counter said in Basic, trying not to appear too eager that a customer had arrived but ultimately failing. Jorys had only been to this establishment a couple times before, but she knew from prior experience that this was the owner of the secondhand shop. “What brings you here today?”
“I’m looking for a droid,” Jorys replied, “One that could not only help with menial tasks but also be a friendly companion of sortst,”
As much as Jorys loved spending time with her friends on Nocturne, she sometimes needed time to herself to recharge, particularly if she’d just worked a long shift. In times like these Jorys enjoyed staying in her quarters and delving into creative efforts, but even then she found herself thinking time and time again how nice it would be to have a pet. While she would have loved to have a living, breathing animal, her line of work involved long hours on the bridge or in the heat of the occasional unexpected battle, both of which could take her away from her quarters for long periods of time. A droid, on the other hand, wouldn’t have to be fed or need interaction twenty-four seven, but it would be there waiting for her when she got off duty.
“Hmm,” Alistair scratched his chin as he considered the options. “I have a few DUM-series pit droids, are you looking for something like that?”
Jorys smiled politely. “Not exactly,” While she enjoyed the charms of pit droids, she wasn’t searching for something that would repair speeders or walk straight into a fiery end. “Though to be honest, I don’t have any particular droids in mind. I was just hoping to see what is currently available,”
The bothan extended his arm around the cluttered but extensively-filled shop. “Be my guest,”
Jorys inspected her options. Most of the droids were set on sleep mode so as not to cause confusion and chaos in the shop. There were a number of gonk droids that stood at the ready against the left wall, one even sporting a wild green coating with white flower designs painted across the surface (“Gotta love how artistic folks can really spice up a boring droid like that,” Jorys thought). Still, she had no need for a power generator, nor something that could be mistaken as a fridge.
Continuing through the store, Jorys saw everything from astromechs to protocol droids, but still she couldn’t locate one that really “spoke” to her. She’d began to give up hope when she saw something small and grey shoved behind a rusted DLC-13 mining droid. Pushing the lumbering rust bucket out of the way, Jorys found a rectangular unit with two little legs. Picking it up, Jorys brought it over to Alistair and asked “What kind of droid is this?”
“That right there is a BD unit” he replied. “Good for exploration,”
Jorys set the droid on the floor and inspected it. The droid was grey save for a white underside, inward-facing part of the legs, and antennas. Aside from some minor scrapes near the bottom that was likely the result of walking on hard terrain, there didn’t seem to be any dire repairs needed.
“Is there anything wrong with it’s programming?”
“Pass me the ID tied to it’s antenna,” Jorys obliged. Alistair scanned the tag and ran through the inventory system on his datapad. “Says here the droid is in excellent physical working condition. Only known defect is that for some reason the programming was set up in such a way that the droid doesn’t like exploring long distances, rendering it counter-productive to what it was initially built for,”
Jorys nodded. If she really wanted to have it re-programmed she could, but she didn’t feel like spending her credits on that. “Can I turn the droid on?”
“Sure,”
Jorys pressed a sequence of buttons and the droid came to life. Shaking it’s body as if waking from a nap, it beeped happily when it saw it was getting attention from a newcomer.
“Hey there little fella,” Jorys let out a laugh as it twittered happily and stamped it’s little feet in excitement. Looking at Alistair, she asked “Does it have an ID?”
“M3D-4D,” Alistair replied.
“Hi M3D-4D,” Jorys greeted the droid. “I’m Zak Jorys, an ensign stationed aboard the Nocturne. Would you like to accompany me on the ship as we go on some missions?” The droid nodded it’s head, eager to leave the store with the nice lady. “Excellent!”
Taking the credit chip out of her backpack, Jorys told Alistair she’d take the droid.
*
“And these are my quarters,” Jorys said as she introduced M3D-4D to her small portion of the ship, “And now yours too,”
M3D-4D beeped excitedly as it took in everything with it’s radar eyes, from Jorys’ standard issue bunk to her vibroblade. Jorys was more than willing to show her new droid anything it wanted to see, even the picture of her family on her holorecorder. “That’s my mother, father, and brother,” she explained. “Hopefully you’ll get to meet them next time we arrive on Coruscant,”
After Jorys retired to her bed for the night and edged towards sleep, she became vaguely aware of M3D-4D sneaking up to the side of her bed to be near her and putting itself in sleep mode. That night Jorys fell asleep with a smile on her face, fond of her new companion.