Lost Tribe of the Sith 05 - Star Wars Purgatory

she
didn’t
understand was why the Sith hadn’t just rigged the fusion core to blow. A
living
stowaway they might have valued enough to work out an escape plan—but a
droid?
She could not imagine that any Sith deserving of the name would give a second thought to sacrificing a droid.
    Jaina reached her StealthX and found BY2B standing behind the far wing, holding the last laser-cannon in her heavy cargo arms. Jaina did a quick visual inspection of the bedraggled starfighter, then asked, “Is she ready to fly?”
    “
Ready
would be an overstatement,” BY2B answered. “But the craft is capable of launching. I
do
hope you checked your flightsuit for vacuum hardiness.”
    “No need—it’s not
me
that will be going EV.” Jaina ascended the short access ladder and climbed into thecockpit. As she buckled herself in, she asked, “ByTwoBee, have you seen any new droids around here lately?”
    “No,” the droid said. “Not since departing Klatooine.”
    “Klatooine?”
Jaina’s stomach began to grow cold and heavy. “Then you
did
see a new droid before we left for the Maw?”
    “Indeed, I did,” BY2B replied. “A Rebaxan MSE-6.”
    “A
mouse
droid?” Jaina gasped. “And you didn’t report it?”
    “Of course not,” BY2B said. “Captain Calrissian had warned me just a few minutes earlier to expect a courier shuttle delivering a new utility droid.”
    Jaina groaned and hit the pre-ignition engine heaters, then asked, “And I suppose he told you this over your internal comlink?”
    “Yes, as a matter of fact,” BY2B replied. “How did you know?”
    “Because that
wasn’t
Lando you heard,” Jaina said, speaking through clenched teeth. “It was a sabotage droid programmed with an impersonation protocol.”
    “Sabotage?”