For Your Photoreceptors Only/Prologue

For Your Photoreceptors Only

Prologue

The doors to the lift opened and they stepped out on to the 36th floor. "You go left," Bont said. "I'll take right."

The Zeltron MI5 operative Jace Bont, and his droid counterpart QUAD, were searching for a Human that was hiding out someplace on the 36th floor of the hotel called Ice Palace. As Bont headed down the hallway, blaster drawn, he kicked in the door to each room looking for the Human.

The hotel was located just outside Elesa, the capital of the snow-covered Mid Rim planet Ando Prime. The hotel was built specifically to house the podracing spectators who flocked here for the races. And since the podracing was currently going on, the hotel was pretty much empty...except for this Human.

The Human is named Asho Luckbar. He has a habit of betting on podracing, with a tendency for losing those bets. And as of now, Luckbar owes a lot of beings a lot of money. So he's resorted to stealing money and valuables from unsuspecting beings and using that stolen property to pay off his many debts. Since these thefts have been ranging well up into the hundreds of thousands of credits, MI5 was called in to stop this criminal.

MI5, also known as the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service, is a counter-terrorist organization that helps the Galactic Republic police the galaxy. Jace Bont, a former Commander with the Corellian Security Force, is a Zeltron MI5 agent. QUAD, which is a shortened form for "Q'u Branch's Ultra Agent Droid", is a droid agent specially designed and built by MI5's technical department, Q'u Branch. He stands about 7 feet tall and is programmed with training in all types of combat.

When QUAD found the room where Luckbar was hiding, he immediately radioed Bont.

Luckbar had been rummaging through the belongings of the podrace spectators while they were not in their hotel rooms. He figured that since these beings are wealthy enough to afford to stay at this Ice Palace hotel, they would probably have some high-priced jewelry or something.

Bont, wearing his heavy clothing for the freezing weather on Ando Prime, came rushing down the hall toward QUAD. QUAD said in a deep, monotone masculine voice, "My sensors indicate movement beyond this door."

"Then what are we waiting for," Bont commented, "kick in the door."

QUAD lifted a heavy, metallic leg and bashed the door down. He and Bont entered, weapons drawn. While Bont carried a blaster in his hands, QUAD had blaster cannons built into his forearms. There they found Luckbar holding a bag full of stolen valuables. He had a frightened look on his face.

"Drop the bag, Luckbar," Bont ordered.

Luckbar then slowly moved his gaze to the left of Bont. Bont followed his gaze to see a massive Whiphid standing next to him. The Whiphid stood over 8 feet tall. He was even bigger then QUAD. The Whiphid smiled...or what Bont thought was a smile...and lifted an over-sized blaster to Bont's head, the barrel only inches from him. It looked more like a repeating blaster. The large blaster suited the large Whiphid.

"I'm thinking maybe you better put down your weapons," Luckbar said to the MI5 agents.

Bont slowly set the blaster on the floor. QUAD retracted the cannons back into his arms.

Keeping the repeating blaster trained on them, the Whiphid circled around to stand next to Luckbar.

"I guess it's time to go," Luckbar said to the Whiphid. "Finish them off and I'll meet you downstairs."

Bont's eyes went from the repeater to Luckbar as the thief stepped past him and out the door. QUAD was calculating different scenarios in his CPU of how to get out of the situation and capture Luckbar.

When Luckbar was gone from the hotel room, Bont and QUAD, arms in the air, were standing there in front of the Whiphid and his repeater.

"Did he hire you as a bodyguard?" Bont asked the Whiphid. "How much did he say he'd pay you?"

No response.

Bont figured he'd better keep talking long enough for QUAD to calculate some sort of escape. "Ya know, this Luckbar guy is broke. He doesn't have any money to pay you. You're not going to get a credit out of this job." He paused. "He's probably long gone already. He won't be waiting for you downstairs."

Still the Whiphid didn't say a word. But Bont could see his trigger finger begin to move. Bont flinched when he heard blaster fire. He didn't feel any pain...and he was still standing.

QUAD was still standing too.

Bont looked at the Whiphid, whose large frame suddenly collapsed on to the floor with a loud thud and a blaster hole in his head. Bont saw movement by the closet door. When he looked, he saw QUAD in the closet doorway with his arm outstretched, as if he had just fired his arm-cannon. Bont then turned back to the droid standing next to him. It was QUAD.

What the hell? There were two QUAD droids?

When the second QUAD disappeared into the closet, Bont ran over to see him. The closet was empty.

"That droid looked like me," the real QUAD stated.

"Yeah," Bont said. "And he seemed to just...disappear into thin air. The closet's empty."

QUAD added, "My CPU is running equations, but there's no rational explanation for these happenings. How could I be in two places at once and not know about it?"

"I don't know," Bont said. "But we'll worry about it later. Right now, we have to catch Luckbar before he gets away."

- - - - - - - - - -

By the time Bont and QUAD reached the parking garage on the ground floor, they saw Luckbar escaping in a small red landspeeder. So they picked the nearest speeder and hopped in. Bont was able to hot-wire it fairly quickly, so they sped off out of the garage and into the cold, snowy afternoon outside.

Bont was piloting the speeder and QUAD was in the passenger seat next to him. As they raced after Luckbar, QUAD questioned, "Could Q'u have built another one of me?"

Bont shivered from the cold wind whizzing past him as they drove. "I don't know, tin man. Just concentrate on shooting the speeder to disable it." He pointed up ahead at Luckbar.

"Right," QUAD responded as he opened up both arm cannons.

"Don't kill him, though," Bont said when he saw both arm cannons. "We're supposed to bring him in alive."

QUAD fired once and nicked the side of Luckbar's red speeder. The speeder began to lose control and swerve back and forth. It veered off into a snow bank and over a small hill.

Bont turned his speeder and followed him over the hill.

On the other side of the hill was a short drop to a frozen lake below. The speeder slammed into the ice surface, cracking it. Thankfully the speeder didn't go straight through into the freezing water below the ice. Bont steadied the speeder and continued following Luckbar, who wasn't too far ahead now.

As they sped over the ice surface, Bont could hear some sort of buzzing sound. And it was getting louder. It seemed to be coming from behind them. Before he could turn, something larger than the speeder whizzed by overhead. Both Bont and QUAD ducked.

Then another one went by. And another.

Bont noticed that they were podracers. It was those twin engines that were making all the noise.

QUAD said, "Commander Bont, it seems we've stumbled on to a podracing course."

"Yes, I can see that," Bont said, a little annoyed at the obvious statement the droid made.

Another couple podracers went by, one of them clipping Luckbar's speeder. Luckbar went spinning out of control and crashed into a frozen rock formation protruding out of the ice surface. Bont slowed his speeder and came to a stop. He jumped out of the speeder and, sliding across the ice surface, managed to tackle the escaping Luckbar.

"Get off me!" Luckbar struggled.

"Sorry, pal," Bont said. "It's over now." He slipped stun cuffs on Luckbar's wrists.

Another few podracers went past, one of them clipping the tail of Bont's speeder. The speeder flipped end-over-end and landed upside down on the ice.

"Great," Bont said. "That was our ticket out of here."

"Not quite," QUAD said. He grabbed Luckbar in one arm and the bag of stolen valuables in the other. "Climb on to my back."

Reluctantly, Bont climbed on to the droids back, wrapping his arms around QUAD's thick neck.

QUAD then activated the small repulsors in the souls of his feet and lifted off the ice surface. The repulsors burned hotter and the three of them went flying up and out of the podracing track.

Chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Epilogue