DISCLAIMER AND AUTHOR'S NOTE: All Star Wars stuff belongs to George Lucas, Guri belongs to Steve Perry (Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire) and Tionne to Kevin J Anderson (Star Wars: Dark Apprentice). No copyright infringement was intended in the writing of this fiction. All other characters that appear belong to me. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies may be made for private use only and must include this copyright notice and disclaimer.

A Galaxy of Possibilities: Guri's Tale
By Kristjan Brezovnik

The giant construction droid slowly moved on its preprogrammed path, the debris beneath its belly disappearing inside it, where it was sorted, melted and reformed, ready to be used to build a new building. It and its companions had been working for years, clearing up the debris that had once been the palace of Prince Xisor, the head of the Black Sun, the largest criminal organization in the galaxy. The droid was working on the outskirts of the crumpled building, which had been destroyed when Lando Calrissian threw an activated thermal detonator down a shaft, securing his and that of his friends escape from the building.

The droid moved, removing the debris. Its movement disturbed a small, relatively to the droids size, pile of rubble on the very outskirts of the new construction site. If one looked through just the right opening at just the right angle, one would see an eye suddenly open. The eye didn't move for a while as its owner assessed the physical damage. It was bad, terminal if it wasn't corrected soon. The owner of the eye wasn't afraid of death, but after some consideration decided that continued existence was preferable to no existence at all. The owner moved a bit and when some rubble fell away, an observer would see it was a woman with long blond hair and wonder how she could have survived. The woman scanned the surroundings to determine her current location. Straining her senses and recalling the last events she remembered, she knew where she was.

She rested for a moment, gathering her strength, and then pushed away the slab that was covering her. She quickly rolled aside and the slab crashed back into place. As the woman got up, the observer would be able to see that it was no ordinary woman. In fact, it was no woman at all, it was a droid, an HRD, a Human Replica Droid, the most perfect of such droids, unique. It was Guri, Price Xisor's loyal bodyguard, assassin, servant and toy. But she didn't know that at the moment and it was irrelevant. All that mattered was how to get repaired. She scanned her files and located the only place where she could get repaired. She needed a way to get there and her files told her that she had a ship called Stinger. The only problem remaining was how to get there. She looked at her body and the visual inspection confirmed what her diagnostic subroutines had reported, her right arm was broken in all three joints, her left arm was a bit stiff because some of the connections had been destroyed, her right leg was also broken in the knee joint, but the joint was locked so that she could walk. She touched her face and felt that the artificial skin on the right side was torn off, along with the right ear.

She looked around and saw the remains of what used to be a huge palace. She was about to proceed to her ship when she realized that it wouldn't be good if people saw that she was a droid. She looked around and located the remains of a glider. She removed the boulder that was covering it and tore off the fabric which enabled the gliding. She wrapped herself in it and then slowly started to limp toward the spaceport.

No one bothered her when she entered her ship and requested clearance for take off. The clearance was given and the Stinger shot into the sky. Guri programmed the ship to take a direct course for the planet where she could be repaired, but then her assassin programming advised her that it would be better if she hopped across the galaxy a few times to shake off any potential pursuers. When the courses were programmed and the first leg of her journey begun, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

There was nothing she could do at the moment to increase the chances of her survival, so she decided to try and find out who and what she was and what her purpose was. She scanned her memory files and soon discovered that her name was Guri and that she was a Human Replica Droid. She found out that she was unique and that she had been Prince Xisor's bodyguard, assassin, servant and toy. She frowned at that last description, but when she rechecked her logs, she realized that she was indeed merely a toy, if an expensive one.

Even though she was a droid and had a very fast computer for her brain, it still took her four out of five legs of the journey and most of the fifth to arrive to those conclusions. She decided to take a break then to think about what she had discovered. Her thinking was interrupted by the ship's alarm telling her that she was approaching her destination. She watched the counter and then pulled the lever, dropping back to normal space. In front of her loomed a planet. She sent out a code and then checked the sensors. Nothing happened at first, but then she detected a tight-beam landing beacon. She followed it and soon noticed that it was leading to a well camouflaged building in the middle of a forest. She wondered briefly where to land when the forest moved and an opening in the ground appeared. Guri saw it was a landing bay and she steered her ship into it. As soon as she was in, the doors started to close above her.

When she had landed the ship, she opened the hatch and existed. An assassin droid approached her and scanned her.

"Guri," it finally said. "Follow me."

She did and the droid led her even deeper underground, into a large laboratory. On the way, they passed several droids and Guri noticed that they were all armed one way or another. When they entered the lab, Guri could see several droids that looked a bit like herself, but they were not active.

"Guri."

Guri looked and saw that her escort had spoken to one of the diagnostic droids and then left.

"This way," the diagnostic droid said and led her to a diagnostic bed. "Lie down."

She did and the droid opened up a part of her scull and attached several wires. Guri closed her eyes. She heard the command to shut down, but for some reason she didn't want to. But when the diagnostic droid started to send its diagnostic subroutines around her brain and her body, she realized that she better do as she was told. She shut down her body and was about to shut down her brain as well when she realized that for some reason the diagnostic droid seemed satisfied and stopped probing her. She decided not to shut down her brain just yet.

She lay still, her body like dead, her mind wondering what to do. She decided to try and find out what her mission was and what her primary directives were. She tried to access the part of her brain where those files should be stored, but she couldn't. She checked the results of the first diagnostic she ran after the reactivation and discovered that that part of the brain was irreparably destroyed. She was at a loss for a few brief moments as to what she should do. She decided to examine her memory files and see if she could determine from them what her mission and her primary directives were. Before she could begin, she noticed that the diagnostic droid was starting to download her logs for analysis. She let it.

She then started to examine her memory files. The process took several hours and she finally came to the conclusion that her first analysis, when she wanted to find out her purpose, was correct. She analyzed the directives and compared them to her own feelings. She would have frowned at the word feeling had her body been able to move. She thought about it and came to the conclusion that she did have feelings, her own notions of right and wrong, which differed from her preprogrammed directives.

She ran another analysis to find out in how many cases her feelings differed from her actions. After several hours, the result didn't surprise her, it was nearly one hundred percent. She wondered what the diagnostic droid would do once it found out that her primary directives had been wiped out. After a brief analysis of fact, she came to the conclusion that it would probably reinstall the same directives. She didn't like that. She decided to write her own directives and set them to overwrite the droid's directives once it reactivated her. But before she could do that, she needed to find out how much time had passed and what was the state of things in the galaxy. She carefully probed the uplink and discovered that it wasn't secured and that she could access the main computer.

First, she checked the time. She compared the current time index with the one from before her deactivation, did a quick calculation and was surprised to discover that nearly fourteen years had passed. That fact sent her into a droid version of shock, but she quickly recovered. Then she checked the most important names. Prince Xisor, dead. The Emperor, dead. Darth Vader, dead. The Empire, gone and replaced by the New Republic. That was enough for her and she decided to write the new directives. That left her with a very important question, namely, what did she want? She thought about it, ran another analysis of her feelings and came to the conclusion that the correct thing to do would be just the opposite of what she used to do. She decided to try and make up for the damage she had caused when working for Xisor. She knew it wouldn't be easy and she knew she would need help. She checked the list of people she once knew and Luke Skywalker's name was on the top. He had once offered to help her, but she had refused then, knowing that the Rebels would probably destroy her or at least wipe out her memory, which was the same.

She checked her diagnostic results and found out that her self-destruct mechanism has been damaged in the accident. She knew she couldn't let the droid fix that, but for now, there was nothing she could do. She checked Skywalker's name in the external database and found out that he was still alive, apparently teaching the Jedi on one of Yavin's moons. She decided to go there and ask for his help.

She checked the droids' progress and discovered that her legs and her arms had been repaired, as had most of her body. She knew that the droids would soon start repairing her self-destruct mechanism. She considered her options and decided to try and break into the main database and alter their instructions. She tried to access the database, but it was encoded. Fortunately, she knew that the key according to which the codes were altered. She tried several and soon found the correct one. She looked up the droids' instructions and altered the parts which had to do with her self-destruct mechanism. She then closed the database and observed the droids' reactions. The droids obviously didn't detect any anomalies and they bypassed her self-destruct mechanism. She relaxed.

Her body was repaired in several hours and in the meantime, Guri wrote a new set of directives. When the body was repaired, the droids concentrated on the brain. Guri minimized her brain activity and passively observed what the droids were doing. Apparently her brain was damaged in just the right places, making it impossible for the diagnostic droid to detect that she was still active. But when the droids started to do aggressive probing of her neural pathways, she decided it would be better if she shut down. She made sure that all traces of her recent activity were hidden among the older files and that her new directives were ready to activate when she would be reactivated. Then she shut down.

When she was reactivated, she quickly ran a self-diagnostic. Her body seemed to be okay and her brain also. She checked her directives and discovered that the droids had indeed reinstalled the old directives, but that they had been rewritten by her own. She was satisfied. She opened her eyes and looked at the droid.

"Report," she said.

"All damage has been repaired," the droid said.

"Good," she said and got up. "I need access to the historical database."

The droid turned to an assassin droid and gave him an order in binary.

"This way," the assassin droid said and led the way.

The droid led her into the part of the house that was above the surface, into a room full of computer terminals.

"Wait outside," she told the droid and it left.

She sat down and logged on. She was pleased to discover that she had a level 9 security clearance. She wanted to check up her specifications first, but she suspected that she would need a level 10 clearance. She knew she could try to crack the code, but she decided to first check up on what was going on in the galaxy at the moment. The data from the spies had continued to come in and she compared each report with the official version of the events on the HoloNet, which contained more information. That took her a couple of days to process and she spent another day analyzing the data and making plans for the future. First of all, she decided to cut her ties with the past and start over. How exactly she would start over was not yet decided, but she knew how to sever the ties with the past. She smiled as she imagined General Cracken's face when he would receive the data. She knew there was a high probability that NRI would identify her as the source, if not necessarily the sender, but she didn't care. She did mark several people and added a note that they should be given a second chance if they wished to change. She knew the importance of second chances, she had been given one herself.

Once she had compiled the data, she started to think about what to do after she left the planet. She had several options available to her and she finally decided to go to Luke Skywalker, her first choice. She knew she could learn a lot from him and she knew he would listen to her.

She then went to check up on her ship. It had been refueled, but was otherwise untouched. She turned to the assassin droid, who had been escorting her, and gave him a list of weapons she wanted. The droid attached itself to a computer port and communicated her request. It didn't take long before cargo droids started to deliver the crates of weapons. She opened the small cargo hold and let the droids load the weapons. When they were gone, she closed the ship and went to the cockpit.

She accessed the compound's main computer and downloaded its database for later analysis. Then she concentrated on the part of the database she couldn't access with her clearance. She had the landing bay doors opened, in case she needed to make a fast getaway. She checked the same codes she had used several days earlier. None of them worked, not that she had expected them to, but she calculated the algorithm according to which the codes changed. It was an easy job since the codes hadn't been changed for almost twenty-four years, ever since Xisor had her creator killed.

When she was in, she ordered all the droids to shut down. They did and she downloaded the rest of the database. When she was done, she reviewed the security protocols and rewrote them so she had complete control over the compound. Then she reactivated the droids and activated the new security protocols. She ran a diagnostic and was satisfied that everything seemed to be in order. She did make a mental note to make a more thorough analysis of the security systems and protocols. Then she took off.

After making several short hyperspace jumps, she set a course for Coruscant. When she entered the system, she hid under a large automated ore hauler and shut down most of her systems. She accessed the HoloNet for the latest information on Luke Skywalker. There didn't seem to be any, so she decided to go to Yavin and wait there. She set the course and waited until an outbound freighter came close enough. Then she sent the data to General Cracken and hid under the freighter. When she reached the jump point, she jumped.

She made several long hyperspace jumps used the transit time to analyze the database she had downloaded from the compound. That done, she went to Yavin.

She came out of hyperspace outside the Yavin System. She scanned it, waited several hours for the fourth moon to get into the right position and made a micro jump. She made a rapid descent through the atmosphere and then flew over the tree tops until she found a suitable spot to land several kilometers from the Jedi Academy compound.

She was surprised that they didn't have a better security, but then again, according to the records, they didn't really need it, as a couple of won battles testified. She wondered if the Jedi would detect her and how they would react to her presence. She also wondered how she should react.

When she got closer to the compound, she hid and observed the activities of the Jedi and their students. She noticed that several Jedi and even some students looked in her general direction, but none seemed concerned. She wondered how they had detected her and finally decided it had to do with the Force.

"Guri."

Guri jerked, astonished, and turned around, ready to fight. It was Luke Skywalker and he was alone. She was surprised that he could sneak up at her. She looked into his eyes and saw that he had matured and that an aura of confidence and calmness surrounded him. She got up, making sure that she couldn't bee seen from the compound. She also noticed that Luke was also standing so he couldn't be seen from the compound.

"You offered help," she said and Luke nodded. "When Xisor's palace blew up, I took a glider to escape, but I was still caught by the explosion. I was damaged and deactivated. I was reactivated a week ago and I discovered that my primary directives had been deleted by the explosion. I wrote a new set and I made the droids that repaired me ignore my self-destruct mechanism," she explained and made a brief pause. "I wish to help people and I was hoping you could show me how," she finished, finding it strange to ask politely for something.

Luke observed her quietly for a few moments and Guri had a strange feeling that he could see straight into her soul, as humans put it. Then he smiled briefly.

"You can study with the students," he suggested.

"I'm not Force sensitive," Guri pointed out.

"They don't learn just to use the Force, there's more to the Jedi than that."

Guri considered the idea. She was a machine and she was sure that the Jedi would notice. Then again, the Jedi were supposed to be the good guys and if they learned other things beside using the Force, perhaps she could trust them for the time being and perhaps learn something from them. Not to mention that NRI wouldn't bother her while she was under Luke's protection.

"Very well," she decided and Luke smiled.

"Why don't you bring your ship to the main hangar? There is a lesson you can attend to. I will tell them to wait."

Guri nodded and went back to her ship.

When she exited her ship, Luke was waiting for her.

"Come," he said and Guri followed him. "The group you will join consists of our latest students. The lesson will be held by Tionne. She is not very strong in the Force, but her other characteristics make up for that. While you are there, I will see about your curriculum. Would you be willing to help out?"

Guri raised an eyebrow, surprised.

"How?" she asked, curious.

Luke smiled.

"You are good in combat, you know weapons and many other things."

"I thought the Jedi only use lightsabers."

Luke nodded.

"But that doesn't mean that we don't need to use some other weapon from time to time. And it is always good to know what kind of weapons we can come up against."

Guri thought about it and then nodded, agreeing.

"After the lesson, I will prepare a list of what I could teach the Jedi."

Luke nodded.

Guri then noticed the group of students she was to join. They were of nine different species, some young, some old. She noticed that some of them, including the woman she guessed was Tionne, were observing her sharply and she guessed that they felt that she was different.

"This is Guri," Luke introduced her. "She will study here."

He nodded at Tionne, smiled at Guri and left.

Guri looked at Tionne, who smiled at her.

"Make yourself comfortable," Tionne said and Guri sat down, ignoring the curious glances from the students.

When Tionne started her lesson, the students forgot about Guri and listened to Tionne. Guri found it strange how the Jedi teacher managed to enchant her listeners. She did an analysis of her voice and the melody, but they were normal. Then she did an analysis of what Tionne had said and she realized that it would be considered a masterpiece by many people. Tionne's speech was not just words, it was somehow more than that, much more, and even Guri found herself immersed in it. Her mind made up images that corresponded to what Tionne was singing. She was surprised when she realized what she was doing, but then she realized it was what biologicals called imagination. She had no idea that she possessed imagination, but after a quick analysis of her memory files, she realized that she did indeed have imagination and that she had used it several times before, but not in such a large extent. She decided it was a useful asset.

When the lesson was over, Tionne sent the students away to contemplate. Guri got up and considered what to do. She didn't need to contemplate as she had done that when Tionne was telling the students to go contemplate.

"We don't get many droids here," Tionne said.

Guri looked at her.

"You've had droids here before?"

"One. His name was 4-LOM."

"Bounty hunter. Partner of Zuckuss."

"Yes."

"He studied here?"

"Yes. A very… interesting droid."

"He is force sensitive?"

Tionne smiled.

"No. He wanted to learn more about the force so he could be a better bounty hunter." She paused for a moment. "What do you want?"

"That is a very dangerous question," Guri said.

Tionne nodded.

"Yes. And it comes down to trust."

Guri thought for a moment.

"I have analyzed my memory files after I was reactivated and I discovered that what I have done differed from what I wanted. I decided to… make up."

"Good. Come, Luke is waiting."

Guri raised an eyebrow and then followed the Jedi. It was a strange conversation, but when she ran an analysis, she realized that it was a very concise one, not a word that was said was superfluous. And what was more, the Jedi wasn't angry at her, in fact, she showed no emotions at all, except smiles. But then again, Tionne had also smiled at the students, so Guri guessed that the smile expressed satisfaction and that was a good thing.

As they entered the ancient Massassi temple, Guri felt that a whole galaxy of possibilities had opened to her and it was up to her what choices she would make. But first, she needed some general guidelines and Yavin 4 was the best place in the galaxy to get them.

The End