Azula Amongst the Stars

Chapter 5

Skeeve struggled to lift one of the large heavy cables that were replaced into a bin for disposal. His skills were in finance and computer work, so why was he stationed in engineering doing heavy lifting?
He stood there resting on his knees, heaving in tiredness and his scrawny arms burning. It took him awhile but he managed to collect all the old cables and damaged components from his sector, now he just needs to dispose of them.
"Hey new guy!" Cetro called out from the catwalk above, "I wanted all of that trash taken care of already! Why's it still here?"
Skeeve grimaced to himself before putting on his submissive persona, "Sorry, the cables are just really heavy and-"
"Then eat protein and build some muscle mass!" Cetro shouted, causing him to wince in response.
Skeeve has only known Cetro for a short amount of time but he already has a great disliking for the overbearing head of engineering.
"It's bad enough that I'm stuck looking after you idiots! Now I've got a fire breathing primitive to teach the basics too."
Skeeve's pointed ear perked up at that last comment. They have a primitive on board? But why? The population SkyBurner picked up on their initial scan of the planet showed that it had a population of primitive life forms but they didn't seem like anything special and the Crimson Storm didn't seem like the type of organization that would dabble in the slave trade either. This wasn't the first time he heard about this primitive as the SeCore crew kept chatting about it and the survivors of the Death's Head whispered in apprehension of this primitive.
Skeeve saw one of his fellow former Death's Head members working a console; a seven foot tall woman with a dark green carapace, long limbs and a mop of long black hair obscuring her face, and approached her.
"Hey, what's the deal with this primitive I keep hearing about?"
"You don't know?" She responded with a dry two toned voice, "The primitive destroyed the bridge to SkyBurner with some energy weapon."
He did recall seeing a blast of electric energy being fired when he peaked out from his hiding place. He didn't think a primitive would know how to use such a weapon, he figured they must have offered her to join in appreciation.
"How'd a primitive get a hold of an energy weapon? I'm pretty sure that's a recipe for disaster."
The taller woman scoffed at him, "Figures you wouldn't know. You were probably hiding somewhere with your tail between your legs to see it."
Ignoring the slight against him he pushed for more info, "See what?"
"She is the weapon." The insect woman left her station with her work done leaving Skeeve to process this information.
There is someone on board that is able to naturally generate a blast of energy powerful enough to pierce the hull of a battleship. Skeeve had heard of races capable of generating natural electric energy but never powerful enough to do that.
Perhaps this individual can aid him in his plan for the fabricator.
"NEW GUY!" Cetro hallared from the catwalk startling him again, "Trash! Get rid of it! NOW!"
"Understood sir!"

Dr. Bevel entered the science lab, medical tablet in hand, where she was met with a glare from Azula.
"Bevel! Good to see you." Lectro greeted hoping to get rid of some of the tension Azula emitted.
"I hope this is important Lectro, I have work that needs done in the cultivation room."
"Very important actually, you see-"
"Whatever you injected into me took my bending away!" She finished with an accusatory tone.
"Excuse me?" The older woman's face contorted in confusion.
Lectro proceeded to cut in, giving a quick explanation of their current predicament to the doctor before Azula could escalate things further.
"Are you certain that my vaccine is the cause of this?" She asks.
"So far it is the only thing we've got to go on. The problem is we don't have enough information on her fire bending in general."
"Perhaps comparing and contrasting medical data from Dr. Bevel's medical scans of private Azula and our current scans may provide an answer." B3 added.
"Good idea B3." Lectro dragged a large transparent board from one corner of the room covered in various scribbles that vanished with the press of a button before displaying a 3D image of what Azula presumed to be herself.
Dr. Bevel tapped away at her tablet with another image of Azula appearing next to it. The two scientists began discussing the issue using technical jargon Azula couldn't understand very well with them asking her questions that ranged from mundane to invasive along with taking several more scans, saliva and blood samples.
By a certain point she couldn't take being cooped up in this room and being the only person not able to fully contribute to the conversation and decided to leave.
"Where are you going?" Lectro asked as he examined a brain scan.
"It's clear that I am no longer needed here so I'll be getting a jumpstart on my work in engineering."
"That's fine. We have gathered all the necessary data to try and figure this out for now. If we make any progress we'll let you know." Dr. Bevel said, going over the scans on the board.
"Fine, but I ask that this not be spread throughout the ship. For a bender to lose their bending is... distressing."
"Alright, but we've got to tell the captain this." Lectro explained.
She immediately turned to him, "You will do no such thing! If she finds out then I'm useless to her and I'll be tossed aside."
"The captain's not like that, Azula. If this turns out to be permanent then she'll find a place for you here. The rest of us don't have firebending and we're all just fine." He continued to reassure her.
She rolled her eyes, "You wouldn't understand. A firebender is nothing without their bending." Memories of what happened to her father at the hands of the Avatar resurfaced.
Lectro was going to continue but a gentle hand from the doctor stopped him, "This is a cultural issue Lectro, one that I don't think either of us are ready to deal with. Let's focus our efforts on solving the issue that we can handle."
"Alright fine, we'll hold off on telling the captain for now. But if we can't figure anything out we've got to tell her."
It's not what Azula wanted to hear but she accepted this.
"I will escort her to engineering. That way you and the doctor can continue your research." B3 said to his owner.
"Very well. Lead the way, trash can."
"My designation is B3." The robot corrected before taking the lead.
She followed the robot through the corridors in silence. She focuses on watching the robot as it glides across the floor trying to keep her mind off her bending. Perhaps conversing with this machine will help alleviate her misgivings along with getting some more useful information, "So, machine."
"My designation is B3." the robot repeated, his head swiveling behind him to look at her.
"Right." she said with very little interest, "What do you make of my predicament?"
"Unknown." B3 stated in a toneless manner, "I have insufficient data regarding your firebending ability, therefore I cannot make any assumptions regarding such a matter." He opened a bulkhead to a stairwell, his spherical wheels retracted as he scuttled down the steps like an insect.
"You can't just make an educated guess like the others?"
"I repeat. I have insufficient data regarding-"
"Yes, yes. I get it. I figured with you being a scientist you would be able to make some sense of this."
"You are mistaken, Private Azula. I am not a scientist."
"Then what are you?"
"I am a modified B3 service droid."
"So you're a servant?"
"An appliance would be the correct term."
B3 made no attempt to continue this discussion with a long string of silence following them.
"At least you're not a conversationalist, I've had enough of that."
"I am not programmed for prolonged conversation."
"Clearly."
They exit the stairwell, "I understand that you are upset, however lashing out at others could be detrimental to forming friendly relationships with your fellow crew members."
She rolled her eyes and spoke under her breath, "I can't believe I'm taking advice from a talking trash can."
"My designation is B3."
She rubbed her eyes and grumbled to herself, "This feels like the damn eclipse all over again, except I don't have my dai lee or the upper hand in anything."
The robot's head swivels back around to her, "Eclipse? Please elaborate."
"Why the sudden interest?" she asks as they approach the doors to engineering.
"Any more information you can provide regarding any other past events such as this can be useful."
She sighed, "Very well. Two years ago there was a solar eclipse that took away the bending of all firebenders around the world for a short period of time and then when it passed it returned."
"I will share this information with doctors Lectro and Bevel. Please enjoy your first day working for the Crimson Storm." B3 turned and wheeled away.
She sneered at the notion and entered engineering where she was met with the same cacophony as before.
"About damn time!" Cetro shouted, tossing a toolbox into the arms of another engineer nearly making him fall over, "I need you to hose out the gunk on the cooling fans to the auxiliary engines and I need it done now!"
She didn't respond at first and instead only gave him a look of annoyance, "Good day to you too, head engineer. I'm thrilled to work with you as well."
He sneered at her sarcasm.
"Aren't I supposed to receive an education on what to do as a ship engineer before I start doing tasks?"
"Yeah, it's called hands-on learning. You'll start by cleaning the crap off of the components first and then once we are back at base, and not on life support, I'll give you a more detailed education. Now get the hell out of my face and do what I tell you!"
Her face tightened at his rudeness, "Fine. Which way to the-"
"HEY!" he called out to someone else and pushed past her, "Did you get that inspection done on auxiliary engine five like I asked an hour ago?!"
Now she was alone with still no idea where her station was and decided to ask where the auxiliary engines were and was directed to them by another crew mate on the level below the twin main engines where the many lower auxiliary engines reside, all cut off while the main engines were at work.
The auxiliary engines were much smaller than the main engines but still much larger than a person of Azula's size. The engineer handed her a hose and some protective clothes before being left with her task. She wasn't even told how to properly do her job and instead had to observe several others in the same position as her hosing down the fans of the engines.
She observed the gun of the hose and mimicked them pulling the trigger but was not expecting the recoil causing it to slip out of her gloved hands and blasting herself in the face with a full jet of water.
Angered and humiliated she picks herself up glaring at the centaur-like alien that snickered at her failure two engines down.
"First time hosing down an engine?" a nasally voice came from her left with an amused tone where she found a blue skinned rodent man in similar garb doing the same job.
She wiped her face with her sleeve and gave him an icy stare ignoring his comment as she grabbed the hose once more with a firmer grip and began firing.
Skeeve studied how she did a haphazard job at spraying the dust off. The pressure for the water was too high and it was causing her to fail at keeping a steady aim causing a mess. Was this really the primitive that everyone was talking about? It made sense that she wouldn't know how to operate machinery but seeing it was just sad, she didn't even look like the type of person who has ever done a labor intensive job before. What stuck out to Skeeve most was just how young she was. He expected the powerful new member of the storm would be a little older. This did not faze him in the slightest, children and teens were always easier to manipulate and hopefully he can get this apparent living weapon on his side.
"You know, if you twist the nozzle you can lower the pressure and make things easier for yourself."
She gave him another sulky look before turning the nozzle, finding that he spoke the truth.
"Thank you." She begrudgingly said.
"No problem. Always nice to help out a rookie." He said with a honeyed tone, "You seem like you're new around here."
She rolled her eyes and responded sarcastically, "Really? What gave that away?"
"Well most people who hose down the cooling fans usually check the water pressure first."
She remained silent, hoping he would stop talking to her.
"Say... you're that primitive that got picked up from that planet we were just at, right?" He suddenly asks, with her halting her work. She really started to hate that word.
"Call me primitive again and I'll waterboard you with your own hose."
His candied expression shifted to nervousness when he saw just how real that threat was by the look in her eye.
"Sorry, didn't mean anything by it. It's just you're new and I didn't recognize you as one of the new recruits I know."
"So you're Death's Head then."
"Former Death's Head, actually." Skeeve corrected.
"The same Death's Head that was trying to kill me not too long ago."
A cold sweat fell on him as another glare was shot his way. Something about her sharp piercing gaze and tone made him quiver.
"We were on a job. You all just happened to be in the way of it."
She turned her attention back to the engine in an attempt to ignore him. He didn't seem like he could serve a purpose for her plan so she shouldn't waste time on him.
"Doesn't matter now, though. Duritax is dead and the whole group might fall apart without him, all because a weird energy weapon took him by surprise."
"Who?" she asked, not recognizing the name.
"Duritax." Skeeve repeated hoping that would be enough of an answer but clearly wasn't, "The leader of the Death's Head mercenary group."
"Hmph..." she shrugged in disinterest as she continued her work.
Skeeve was beginning to grow more annoyed by her refusal to acknowledge him but he was more patient than most, "Word is that beam of lightning didn't come from a weapon, but a person with strange powers from the planet."
Azula halted her work at the reminder of her bending, or lack thereof, "Let me guess, you want a demonstration?"
"Oh no! I caught a glimpse of it outside during the battle and I think once is enough. Just wanted to see the one responsible for my freedom from continuing to waste away with a failing mercenary group." He said with a flattering tone that hid the fact that he was very well paid and the Death's Head was far from falling apart, "Not only that but I thought that someone who doesn't know anything about the galaxy at large could benefit from having a friend. One who is well informed on current events."
Azula rolled her eyes. One of the drawbacks of being powerful were the parasites that hoped to benefit off her. She dealt with more than enough of them in the royal court so she wasn't very surprised they would exist in the universe at large, but after being out of power for so long she almost missed having weaklings try and leech their way into her good graces. Almost.
"I'm Skeeve, by the way."
"Fantastic. I didn't ask."
His smile faltered.
"As for your friendship, I think I'll be fine without it. The captain can provide me with the necessary information I need to survive."
Skeeve let out a shrill chuckle, "You're gonna take her word?" He looked over her shoulder seeing the centaur alien move on to another engine further down out of earshot, "She's a Pendaren."
She raised an eyebrow to this, "Obvious racism aside, what does that have to do with anything?"
He scoffed, "What has she told you about the Pendaren Empire? Did she give you the typical imperial propaganda? That, 'we're here to spread peace and order throughout the galaxy' crap that they always go on about."
She recalled what My'Rell had shared with her regarding the empire and it indeed wasn't much, "Enough to know that she isn't apart of it anymore."
"That doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned, you can take a Pendaren out of the empire but you can't take the empire out of a Pendaren."
"Then what can you tell me of the empire that I don't know?"
"Well they're the biggest, oldest and meanest intergalactic superpower in the known universe that most would rather not or can't go toe to toe with, they're the most entitled species I've ever had the displeasure of meeting, they think that just because they run the most successful society in the galaxy they know what's best for the universe, and you know what the scariest thing about them is?"
"What?" She asked with genuine curiosity.
"They're spreading."
"Of course they are. They're an empire, and from what I hear, a powerful one at that. When you are powerful you spread your influence to other places to accumulate more power and trample any who get in your way and if you don't you run the risk of being conquered yourself. It is only natural that weaker nations would fear them." She stated immaculately, repeating her fathers teachings and reliving her own conquests herself.
Skeeve side eyed her as he finished hosing down his engine, "Spoken like a true Pendaren. You sure you aren't one?" He said with a sly smile, "Just pray that the empire never shows up on your doorstep, or at least not in your lifetime."
"Speaking from personal experience?"
"Me? No, nothing like that. I'm Just a man who's trying to get by in life. Had some run-ins with imperial Pendarens, all of which were not pleasant and if you've lived as long as I have you see and experience a lot of things and you can't help impart some wisdom on the younger ones like you."
"How thoughtful." She said sarcastically, "What is the likelihood of us running into the empire once we reach this place called Kazima?"
"Kazima? That's pretty far outside of imperial territory, so unless we actively go looking for trouble with them, or unless they took over the place already and everything in-between, I'd say pretty low."
"Interesting." Now she has a new factor to accommodate for.
The Pendaren Empire sounds like a formidable foe, one that the Crimson Storm seems ill equipped to handle and the knowledge that this faction is actively spreading its territory draws some concern. As powerful as bending is, it probably wouldn't be enough to topple an empire that has conquered other worlds, even the Avatar may have difficulty dealing with them. Perhaps once she has taken the Crimson Storm and conquered the earth her first decree as ruler will probably be to fortify just in case the empire does turn their gaze in her direction.
She then remembered Skeeve doesn't necessarily seem like an unbiased source of information, he's already shown that he has a disliking towards Pendarens and may be feeding her misconstrued or false information. He is a parasite after all, what better way to keep someone as powerful as her under his control than to control the narrative? But then again she is dangerously low on vital information.
She'll use Skeeve for now, get all the necessary information from him she can and toss him aside once he's outlived his usefulness. She'll even let him think he's in control, it'll be a wonderful sight to see once she decides to show how she outplayed him.
She put on a honeyed smile of her own, "Thank you, this little session of ours was very informative. Skeeve was it?"
"Indeed it was, Ms..."
"Azula."
"Ms. Azula. Hope we can chat some more."
"Maybe later. I believe I should focus on my current task. It wouldn't be wise upsetting Cetro on my first day." She can hear the echoes of the head engineer shouting at another worker.
"I think his default setting is upset." Skeeve gathered his hose and began moving on to a different engine.
Skeeve smirks to himself, he manages to draw Azula's attention and give her information on the universe at large. He gave her some necessary information, cherry picked some details out that she didn't need to know but he mostly told the truth. However something he didn't account for was the intelligence he saw behind those piercing eyes. He never did associate intelligence with teenagers yet this one showed a surprising amount of it, manipulating her may be harder than he thought but if manages it he could not only get the fabricator to the client but maybe get himself a useful tool.