I react to his cheerful demeanor by relaxing some. Maybe there is nothing to fear in these errands after all. I beep cheerfully to him and advise him that I am here to deliver a box of circuit regulators and a ore analyzer to Tose Phen. "I believe he is your master?? I wonder if you might have heard about my Mistress. I am doing a couple of errands so that I can get some new tools for her workspace. She is so wonderful and she brought me back from the dead. I am always working very hard to repay her for the miracle she performed in rescuing me from certain indignity." I pause for a moment to see what Spudnik might have to say.

               

   

     

I feel like my dome is spinning. This was supposed to be a simple delivery to allow me to purchase something for my Mistress and now there is shooting and running and all sorts of crazy stuff. I bet that Dizzy person is behind this!! Okay, what would my glorious Mistress do in this situation. Mere mortals would say "rip off their arms and beat them", but that just proves that they do not know the patience of my Mistress. I must obviously draw on my inner Mistress to solve this.   .........beep................boop...............whirrrr...................beep.....................boop..............................whirrrr...............................beeeeeep (please remember those of you who are privileged to read my travel journals that I am a droid and therefore think much faster than you can even conceive of)   I turn to Spudnik while pulling up my map of the city. "Your Master said to go to the spaceport, but we cannot go straight there. We have to go in a different direction than your Master took, but still get to the spaceport to meet with that Gov Gnul in a timely manner. I suggest that we take a long diagonal course that also bypasses the market as I prefer to not upset my Mistress if she happens to see someone shooting at me - well, someone that she is not aware of shooting at me. We have been in some interesting situations the past few months."   With a plan in place, I trundle quickly after Spudnik, passing hm to start leading the way to the spaceport. This was not supposed to go this way. Perhaps I can use these events to get a few more things for my Mistress?!?!?

       

         

I whir in contempt - even that Dizzy person would know better than to roll past him and expect him not to recognize Spudnik. If they have been watching the miner for long enough to know where he lives, then they know what his droid looks like. I could get away with it, but I am not enough disguise for Spudnik. I then decide that the best option is to get him to focus on the end of the street. I pull up the diagnostics of his cyber eye and decide to hack it to project an image of Spudnik's master running across from one alley to the other ahead of him. This should get him moving away from us so we can safely progress to the spaceport.

       

I freeze for at least three milliseconds. A probe droid??? After us?? AND they know our designations! I knew it was a bad idea to trundle past him as if we weren't the droids he was looking for. I feel vindicated for another millisecond and then I quickly hack his communication signal so I can listen in and provide 'helpful' hints as to where we are and the last area we were spotted.   I quickly turn to Spudnik and ask him to calculate a safe path from here to the spaceport. We can coordinate my sending of false sightings on their comm channels which should lead the probe droid on a wild goose chase while we quietly and quickly move around their current search area. Since I am listening in and only providing the occasional helpful message, I should be able to ensure that we can sneak past using various shielded bays and other safe areas to cloak our signals.

 

     

       

I maintain my subtle connection to the probe droid and do my best to keep it from noticing my intrusion. I have to time it just right to avoid the regular checks and protocols that it has running to detect such intrusions. I only have to do it for just a little bit longer - just long enough for us to get to help.   I was kinda hoping for the food fight route as it is always fun to watch the humans play. My glorious mistress is also one that enjoys a good game and we play chess sometimes - of course I always let her win as one should never tempt a Wookie to anger. However, if Spudnik has some pit droid friends who can help us, that should let us get to where we need to be so I can finish this mission. Suddenly, I stop for a second and think back over what I was saying. This is just the first mission that big droid gave me!!! I have to be more efficient if I am going to do both so I can buy my Mistress the tools she wants!!   Then I think over again where we are going through - the WRECK'n Pinion ship repairs?? Why do all of my electrodes suddenly give a cold shudder at the thought?