Episode X Dark Hunter

Donal's Shop

Again we find ourselves on the Smuggler's Moon, Videsse rightly concluding that if they found her, the cloaked men had to have come by the way of Donal's shop. It would have surprised her if Donal gave up her location voluntarily, which he did not do; but she reasoned that they may have discovered information from the mech droid, or from his assistant, Timcamca, the Dug.

When Videsse arrived at Donal's shop, she found it in the same condition as her valley dwelling on Geonosis. The place where his shop used to stand was just a pile of black rubble, the fire and smoke long gone. The neighboring dwellings were charred, but not destroyed, as if a controlled fire was performed on Donal's shop. The juxtaposed shops were allowed to remain but Donal's shop was surgically burned. It was a statement. Not even one support beam of the edifice was allowed to stand.

Videsse ran with unabandon up onto the black pieces of plastocrete and melted durasteel searching for any evidence of Donal's body. It was a hopeless effort, any bodies would have been buried under at least a half of a meter of debris. Still, she continued, knowing the futility, but not relenting. Maybe she would even find Donal, hanging onto life by a thread. Her hands pushed aside large blackened rocks as she dug through what she could. More often than not, the unstable pile would shift as she disrupted it and filled in any work she had done.

It would seem plausible at this point that under her helmet some emotion was hidden; that she was searching ceaselessly for Donal because he was the only person left in the world that she cared about; that he would be the one hope of her resisting the lonely existence she was being propelled into. Of course, if you had asked her if that was why she searched with such urgency, I doubt she would admit it. Yet, perhaps it was so. Every handful of soot and rubble, perhaps, drew Videsse closer to what she was losing. Hours were spent; hope upon dashed hope. However, as if hope was titrated out in just the right amount to keep her persevering, her hands eventually landed on the metal leg of Donal's mech droid, a gem in the rough.

Videsse lifted it from the rubble and pieces of dirt and soot fell from it. It was broken and battered beyond functioning. The head was bent and deformed, partially melted. Its arms and legs were twisted in an unpatterned knot. Videsse tried to turn it on, but it was no use. The droid was dead. She pulled a vibroblade from her right boot and worked the eight-inch blade under a metal door on its dorsal housing, looking for its data chip. It came loose with little effort.

"Maybe, I can learn something from you, little one," she said to herself, as she was in the habit of doing.

However, the data port was empty. Someone had removed it.

Videsse reasoned that this may explain how the cloaked men would have found her. It made her feel just a mite more satisfied thinking that Donal did not willingly give up her location. Though, it would have been smarter for Donal to have erased that data. He was never one known for common sense in matters like these. She spent a few more hours combing the debris to ensure that there was no sign of Donal. There was not. She would not allow herself to fully comprehend what that meant. We can postulate that either he was alive and simply not there, or perhaps he was still under that debris, dead.

When Videsse was satisfied that not another handful of debris would reveal her old friend, she stood up and looked at her surroundings. A few Nar Shaddaa grifters were watching her, ready to take from her anything she might find in the pile. They would try. The rest of the population walked by as if the burnt shop meant nothing to them, and in fact, it did mean nothing. The crimelady (if you could call her a lady), Felga the Hutt, had often ended proprietor's leases early, and destroyed dwellings were not uncommon on these streets. Nothing like this was ever performed without the knowledge and more importantly, the approval of Felga.

"My dear, Felga," Videsse gritted through her teeth. "It's time The Dark Star paid you a visit."