"Oh? Geology, archaeology? Sounds great. Uh—well—there are some strange old buildings on my planet. You have to come take a look sometime," Harley said, clearly intrigued.
Good—just rich guys with more credits than culture. Otherwise Amir would've blown his cover already.
"I study a bit of everything," Amir said. "Recently, I found some Masassi crystals in a ruin. I'm collecting them now."
He had BD-4 pull up the recorder log to show them, then gave a quick explanation of the relevant history.
"Definitely interesting," Kordel said. "I've always been into history. I've heard of the Masassi civilization—lots of museums have their artifacts. It's all pretty astonishing."
"We'll keep an eye out for you," Kili said. "Leave your comm. Our mining surveys also need geologists—we could talk cooperation."
"Thanks," Amir said.
After Amir and Millisyn finished eating, they said goodbye to the three—who were heading off to a casino for fun—and walked back to the clinic.
The moment they reached the entrance, they saw the fully cybernetic female guard facing off against a group.
"Bring Kaharman Juarez out now. Your people killed men serving Senator Hamiti Rowe," the man at the front shouted.
The group slowly tightened a circle around the guard at the clinic's doors. They were armed—private mercenaries by the look of them. In the middle sat a man on a hovering chair, surrounded like a VIP.
The doors slid open. An assistant in a white coat stepped out.
"Doctor Kaharman is in surgery. He doesn't have time to see you," the assistant said firmly.
"Then tell him this: if we don't get a satisfactory explanation, we will treat this vile incident as a provocation against the Empire!"
The cybernetic guard—squarely in the center of the dispute—spoke up at last. "You attacked me first. I responded in self-defense."
"Perhaps we can arrange a time to discuss this," the assistant said, recognizing they were deliberately stirring trouble, still trying to defuse it politely.
"No need to arrange anything," the senator—clearly their leader—floated forward in his hover-chair from the rear of the crowd. "Hand over the killer as compensation. Also… this medical facility is nice. I want the building."
"Wait—you can just take a building? I want one too!" Millisyn blurted out, shocked.
"No one's getting it," Amir said coldly, staring at them. Whatever else Kaharman was, he was a resistance collaborator—and right now he was also helping Amir.
What bothered Amir was how brazen they were, picking a fight right in the center of someone else's turf. That made the whole thing feel too clean—unless the senator was genuinely stupid beyond belief.
Within seconds the area cleared out, leaving the two sides facing each other. At the same time, Eternal Ark's security forces converged.
On the street, special combat droids on rolling assemblies pushed the crowd back, weapons trained toward the center. The air filled with dense swarms of drones.
The assistant looked even more confident. Eternal Ark had survived for years without being crushed—not because of friendly relationships and soft promises. This place was fat prey surrounded by predators. Without real force, it would've been stripped to the bone long ago.
"I think there's a misunderstanding here," the assistant said, arms crossed, still calm—though anyone could see the balance of power had shifted.
People gathered around Amir, watching. From their whispers, Amir learned the senator's identity.
He was only a mid-rim sector senator, not especially influential—but he seemed to be working for someone larger, a member of a bigger faction.
This stunt likely meant he was being used as a pawn… or acting as the spark for a larger conflict.
Amir quickly sensed something off.
Even surrounded by heavy security, the senator didn't look nervous. If anything, he wore a smile like everything was already decided.
And then Amir felt that familiar sense of déjà vu. He'd seen this before.
He closed his eyes and used Guli Ganna's active precognition. Behind his lids, several blurry images flashed:
A corner of the plaza. Inside the crowd. A figure in a black robe holding a mid-sized controller, watching the confrontation while constantly inputting commands.
With the final tap—
All the droids and drones turned and unleashed mad, concentrated fire at the central building. The barrage shattered shields, crippled fixed turrets, and shredded the assistant and the cybernetic guard at the entrance into gore-speckled ruin.
Amir snapped his eyes open, ripping himself out of the vision.
He replayed what he'd seen.
Force precognition didn't trigger on demand every time. Amir didn't use it often. But when he experienced a strong enough "this has happened already" sensation—like the present moment had been lived once before—then pushing into a deliberate vision was far more likely to work.
And it had.
He'd seen a piece of one possible future.
At the entrance, the assistant also sensed the wrongness now. The other side was acting absurdly fearless under overwhelming firepower, still pressuring him to force Kaharman out and surrender compensation. The assistant's patience thinned—he wanted to teach them a lesson, remind them who ran this place.
He signaled.
The combat droids advanced a few meters, tightening the ring until the group was fully boxed in.
"What, you're going to attack an Imperial senator?" The senator leaned back, legs crossed, voice dripping with provocation. "That's treason. Tomorrow this station will be erased under Imperial guns."
Some of the combat droids began pushing the crowd even farther back, herding anyone stubbornly trying to spectate—people like Amir—into the distance. Eternal Ark didn't want its "honored guests" getting caught in the crossfire.
Amir let the crowd carry him backward, eyes constantly scanning faces—searching for his target in the sea of bodies.
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🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past
📢 The Force Calls! 📢
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