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Primary Function 2000 short story by Mark Newbold Thirteen years before Episode IV - A
New Hope Aurran waited patiently and silently at the top of the ramp of
the Trooper like he had many times before.
He was a master at the art of being patient, which was a boon when in
the employ of the young and reckless smuggler Jan Lomona. Although only sixteen years of age, Lomona
was already displaying the signs of recklessness and arrogance that Aurran
had seen in so many other humans who left their homes at a young age to see
the galaxy and make a name for themselves.
And here on the world of Zelon, where the young A-desandian had
brought them in his ship the Trooper, Aurran stood and waited as his master
searched for employment. It had been a difficult few months. After over a quarter of a century in the service of the Lomona
family Aurran had left their home when young Jan had decided that the life
that beckoned, a life in service to the Empire was not the life for him. And so when the last light of the A-desandian
sun Tri-Lomon had finally set, Jan took Aurran and his counterpart Troopie
away from the main part of the house and to the hangar bay, which sat,
adjacent to the house. And before the
old droid could raise any rational protestations the Trooper was blasting
skywards and heading out towards a new destiny. But not a destiny that Aurran, in his mature and considered
opinion, was looking forward to. It had been a strange life for a droid. He'd been activated sixty-seven years
before aboard the Republic cruiser Renown III. Like every other droid, he assumed that his life would be one
of service and duty. Service to his
masters and creators who had assembled him, duty to perform the tasks that
those same masters gave him. And, for
many years he indeed performed that duty, seeing much of the galaxy in the
process and travelling from Core to Rim on many occasions. But life, as Aurran swiftly realised, had the habit of throwing
unusual obstacles in the paths of those who inhabited the galaxy, sentients
and servants alike. While serving as
the aide to the second captain of the Renown III, Aurran caught the attention
of a visiting attaché from the Mid-Rim world of A-desando. And during a particularly heated
discussion between the captain and the attaché Aurran had interceded with an
incisive comment that broke the stalemate and brought the situation to a
swift and amicable conclusion. The
attaché was impressed. So impressed
that he insisted that the droid be re-assigned to the A-desandian Security
Forces and relocate to A-desando. The
captain hesitantly agreed, having had Aurran alongside him for almost a
decade, and so Aurran became beholden to yet another master, his third after
the death of the first captain of the Renown III. A-desando was a revelation to the smart droid. A world of towering inhabitants, beautiful
cities and vast sweeping plains. He
found it unusual that this world, so full of tall and strongly built people,
should live in almost entirely single-level homes. Only the capital city of Ecaps boasted any mentionable amount
of taller buildings, and even those were in a core area of the central
business district. The natural areas
were well preserved, running rivers through the towns and cities as part of
the link between the natural and the synthetic. To the photoreceptors of the droid he found it a stimulating
environment to operate. He was
attached to the office of A-desando's chief security officer and worked out
of the central city of Ecaps for twenty-four long years. On his travels with the chief of security
he saw many of the same worlds that he has seen whilst in service aboard the
Renown III, and took great pleasure in noting how many those worlds had
changed for the good. But the wily
droid couldn't help but notice how a great number had changed for the worse,
Republic intervention either not arriving or having been refused. He saw that while the inner and Mid-Rim
world were well protected and looked after, the far edges of the Mid-Rim and
the Outer Rim worlds were practically forgotten. As far as the Outer Rim was concerned, the Republic didn't
exist. As the years and decades passed, Aurran's role shrank in
importance and status as newer, more capable droids entered the service of
A-desandian security. The days of
productive and meaningful work slipped by and soon he was reduced to the role
of liaison officer with the A-desandian press corp. It was whilst here that the droid began to notice the swathe of
anti-Republic feelings that were brewing on A-desando and throughout other
Setnin Sector worlds. It was
something that he was wholly unaccustomed to - his years of service and duty
to the Republic were as much a part of his whole as the root commands
hardwired into his brain. Uncertain
of his role in society he requested a transfer. Which came as a total surprise to his superiors. Droids were often required to use their initiative and think
fast in situations, but here was a droid who had been in service for over
four decades, seen most of the galaxy and served all masters with
distinction. And now it was asking
for a transfer. Soon the word got
out, and it wasn't long before a queue of buyers were lining up to take the
droid off the security forces hands.
And the first in line was a well-liked member of Halandon society who
had travelled to her sister world of A-desando from the almost identical
world of Halando. Narn Giappa Lomona
offered the highest amount of credits for Aurran, seeing in the old droid the
wherewithal to help bring up the young family that he and his newly wed wife
Sierra were planning. And luckily for
the old droid the sellers were amenable to the bribe that Narn laid out to
prevent the memory wipe that would normally been standard, but would also
have wiped any vestiges of personality that the droids experiences would have
accumulated. Aurran stayed within the city of Ecaps, moving to the outskirts
where the Lomona family home lay.
Already a wealthy man due to his ties on Halando, the home was a
welcoming place to live. They made
the old droid feel like a part of their small family, a family that grew four
years later with the birth of a son Hijjin, their first child. Feelings of apathy and resentment towards the Republic continued
throughout the years as Aurran continued to serve the Lomona's. When the ruling council of A-desando broke
off all ties with Halando the whispers of Republic intervention and meddling
were rife on the streets. As awkward
as it was for the Halando-born Narn, that discomfort was offset by the
growing dissatisfaction with the Republic.
And yet Aurran, bound by the deep-rooted orders of loyalty to one's
master kept his feelings to himself.
Not that he believed he could ever get away with expressing such
feelings in public again, not on A-desando. A second son followed three years after Hijjin, a sickly baby
called Luude. And yet despite his
physical weakness he was loved by Narn and Sierra and doted on by his elder
brother Hijjin. To many they seemed
like the perfect family, with their idyllic home and good prospects for the
future. And then Jan Lomona was born. Wise old Aurran could see in the boy a kindred spirit. From an early age Jan always fought to do
things his way, even when the path to where he wanted to go was a long and
circuitous one. While Hijjin and
Luude were smart and obedient boys, polite to anyone and everyone, young Jan
was a spitfire. Nothing that Narn and
Sierra did seemed to stem his rebellious streak, and soon it was left to
Aurran to drag Jan back on what his parents perceived to be the straight and
narrow. And for a while he did. Jan listened intently to the old droid,
listening to his stories of glorious days past in the employ of the Republic,
travelling the space lanes and visiting distant worlds. Jan's eyes grew wider as the stories
became more and more fantastical and soon the boy wanted nothing more than to
leave dull old A-desando behind and find his own fortune out there among the
stars. All was good... Until Luude died. At the tender age of nine, Luude succumbed to a mystery
virus. Many doctors believed that it
was brought to the planet by an off-worlder who had not correctly followed
the requisite vaccination procedures.
Already a weak and skinny child, Luude put up little resistance to the
virus and died quietly in his bed without so much as a whimper. His parents were devastated. All their dreams were slowly unthreading
before their eyes. The worst thing
that a family could endure, the loss of a child, had happened and it threw
the Lomona's into a dark mood. Narn
decided to stop living off his family's wealth and enlisted in the
A-desandian Security Force. Certain
that the fault lay with the lax attitudes of the Republic he threw himself
into his new career and quickly rose through the ranks. Sierra followed, joining the same forces
and forging ahead with her career.
Which left young Jan, seven years old and still a rebel, alone with
his elder brother Hijjin, twelve years old and brimming with the desire to
serve alongside his parents. The two
fought constantly and it took all of Aurran's wits to keep them apart. And despite the elder brother knocking
lumps off his younger brother, and Aurran vouching for Jan when Hijjin
attacked him it was always Jan who was handed out the punishments. It was of no surprise to Aurran or Jan when Hijjin left home at
the age of eighteen to join the Empire.
The Republic was no more, planetary forces spread throughout the
entire galaxy had seen to the end of that august and venerable old
organisation. The sith had slain the
Jedi and the galaxy was perched on the edge of a new order. And Hijjin wanted to become a part of
it. His father Narn had long since
switched from the A-desandian forces to the Empire and had risen through the
ranks with as much vigour as he had before.
Both mother and father showed immense pride in their eldest son. And nothing but blind contempt for young
Jan. Age thirteen, Jan was even more of a troublemaker than he was
before. With an absentee father and a
brother at the academy he ran wild, prairie racing with his Trandoshan friend
Treesk and winning some high-stakes races.
Soon he had amassed enough credits to purchase his first ship, the
Trooper. She was a small,
hyperspace-capable vessel with little cargo capacity and no weapons. But she was Jan's, and she was a ticket
off world. With the ever-loyal Aurran
covering for him he worked on the ship in the hangar bay that his mother
never went in to, making her ready for a lift-off that would take him away,
never to return. Snapping away from his recollections Aurran paused, as he was
about to turn away from the ramp and continue back inside to prepare the
evening meal for his master and plug his astromech counterpart Troopie into
the power supply. Someone was lurking
about in the distance, hiding behind the cargo crates that littered almost
every landing bay in the galaxy. He
tried not to make it appear obvious that he had the lurker in his sights and
moved away from the top of the ramp, which led directly into the small cockpit
at the nose of the ship. He raised a
metaphorical mechanical eyebrow as he stepped up into the cockpit. Quite why Master Jan orders me to leave
the ramp down whenever we land is beyond me.
He paused as his head rose to look through the cockpit window, giving
him a better view of the landing bay and the lurker who was nearing the
ramp. Master Jan only took us away
from A-desando six months ago, and yet every time he leaves me alone on the
ship he insists that I leave the ramp lowered. If I didn't know Jan better I'd think it was blind arrogance. He paused as he allowed that last thought
to work its way through his brain.
Well, it's obviously arrogance, but there must be something more
behind it. If not, it looks like I'm
about to meet my new master. The lurker had built up his confidence to boiling point and was
readying himself for the final move.
Nona Neraal twitched and wiped his hands against the rear of his
jeans. He could see the ramp of the
small shuttle lowered, her large cockpit chair indicating to him that the
owner was a Wookie, a Trandoshan or possibly an A-desandian. Certainly one of the larger species of the
galaxy, that was for sure. He checked
his blaster at his side, swallowed hard and prepared to run hard into the
ship. Aurran stayed in the shadows of the Troopers cockpit, not
wishing to show himself and therefore deter the lurker. He was sure it was simply a starship
thief, chancing his hand at taking a shuttle or whatever he could get and
make his escape. He pondered some
more over his master's wishes to leave the ramp lowered, but kept those
thoughts to himself. One way or the
other, he would soon learn the wisdom of that choice. Nona Neraal came out from behind the crates at a swift pace,
drawing his blaster and hammering the plastisteel surface towards the Trooper. As he approached he looked left and right
to make certain for a final time that he was alone and then ducked his head
for the entry into the ship. It was something like running headfirst into a blast door when
you expect to run through an open doorway.
Nona's momentum and forward velocity were almost instantly nullified
by the powerful mantrap that Jan had installed in the entrance to the
ramp. He hung in midair for a second,
his face contorted into a grimace of surprise and despair, and then the powerful
gravity generators kicked in full power and slammed him into the floor with
the force of five gravities. He tried
feebly to crawl away back down the ramp but found the effort too taxing and
remained still. Aurran came out of the shadows of the ramp and moved to the top
of the ramp, joining Troopie who had rolled out of the rear engine
compartment to see what the commotion was about. Aurran looked down on the domed head of his yellow and blue
coloured friend and nodded towards Neraal. "Did you know
anything about this?" Troopie issued a stream of elaborate beeps and whistles, to
which Aurran cocked his head. "What do you mean
I would have told someone? Discretion
is one of my prime assets." Troopie bleeped again. "Master Jan does
not know everything, although he might like to think he does." "Can't argue with
that old buddy." Jan Lomona
approached the Trooper, his arms swinging by his sides in a relaxed gait and
a wide grin plastered across his young face.
His yellow and purple long jacket was swung back behind his arms,
showing his blasters off to the unfortunate thief who lay immobile on the
rubber-covered ramp. "I take it your
meeting with Belarra went well, Master Jan?" "You take
well. He's offered me a few local
jobs and some trips out to Gista."
He kneeled next to Nona, just out of range of the mantraps gravitic
influence. "I didn't think today
could get any better. I'll have to
thank Romanoe for the good work on the mantraps." Nona managed to twist his head enough to catch Jan's eye and
slowly his mouth moved the words.
"...Lllleeeetttt....mmmmeeeee....oooouuuuttt...." Jan sucked in his upper lip and glanced up at Aurran and Troopie
at the top of the ramp. Troopie
hovered on the spot, a wire filled bundle of excitement as Aurran stood
impassively waiting for Jan's next move.
Try as he might, the only word he could use to describe the young man
who he had helped raise since birth was unpredictable. And that was Jan's biggest advantage. That and the impetuosity of youth. "Tell you what,
I'll give you a break. You're the
first scumbag to try and steal my ship and you won't be the last. I've had a good day today, but that won't
last. Nothing ever does." Aurran zoomed in on his master as he said this. He was pleased with what Jan was saying
and doing. It showed that he had
learned much from his experiences out in the galaxy already, and despite the
fact that Aurran was against leaving A-desando in the clandestine manner that
they did he was pleased that he was still with his young master. It was a more honest life for the droid
who was activated aboard a Republic cruiser sixty-seven years before than to
stay with the bitter minds and hearts of the Imperial sympathisers the Lomona
family had transformed into. He watched
as Jan stepped around Neraal to the top of the ramp and de-activated the
mantrap, smiling at Aurran as he did so. "I'll show you
how it works properly later on, old man." He whispered. Glaring
down at Neraal who was slowly dragging himself to his feet he scowled. "Now, get the hell out of here. If you really want to steal a ship there's
a YT-1300 with its ramp open on Level 4.
But I didn't tell you that." Nona Neraal got to his knees, took a moment to catch his breath
and then began to walk slowly away with a sorry expression across his
face. Jan watched him until he had
left the landing bay and then closed the ramp. Aurran waited for him in the cockpit, duster in one hand and a
cup of hot Chav on the other. Jan
raised an eyebrow. "Which one's for
me?" "You're the
captain, you tell me." Intoned
Aurran in his drollest voice. Jan
took the Chav and slumped into the pilots seat. "Nice work there
Aurran." Aurran looked balefully at Jan, his mechanical eyes unable to
reflect the pride that his android core was feeling. "It was nothing
Master Jan. Protecting the ship is my
primary function." Jan closed his eyes and rested the Chav on the dash. Aurran paused for a moment, watching his
master as he fell asleep, and then moved out of the cockpit. Primary Function 2000 short story by Mark Newbold Thirteen years before Episode IV - A
New Hope Histories - This short story by Mark Newbold
tells some of the back history of Aurran, Jan Lomona's
trusty old droid who has been with the Lomona family since before Jan's
birth. Set just after Jan initially
left A-desando to embark upon his career as a smuggler, we see
one of the few occasions that his first ship the Trooper is
mentioned in the stories. Cast of Characters Aurran Jan Lomona Nona Neraal Troopie |