Chapter 10 players
The lineup of astromech droids was almost comical. Nolasco instantly liked the metallic, iron-red Astromech, sporting a bright, visibly illuminated power supply on its forward torso right above the main coolant vent. The primary color of metallic red was accentuated with sweeps of gold highlights describing panels. It was obviously new, just out of the box, and probably a tad more expensive than he wanted to pay, so he made a pretense of examining the others. Unlike the others, the red stood steady, neither whining nor otherwise trying to win favor with the potential new owner. The others, however, were almost neurotic with their little twitches, soft, manipulative whistles, their main eyes following Nolasco. The blue one rocked on its two legs with excitement when Nolasco paused and sighed and sagged pathetically when he moved on. Naturally, they all wanted to be of service, but clearly only one would be selected for an adventure. Nolasco pointed to the the metallic, iron-red Astromech.
“How much?”
“You sure you want that one? It’s not been field tested,” the mechanic said.
“It seems solid and I really like the visible fusion port on the front,” Nolasco said.
“Yeah, well, you know how engineers like to modify things just for show. That same feature has made it difficult to get rid of,” the mechanic said.
“So you’ll give me a break on the price?” Nolasco asked.
The mechanic sighed.
“Look, I fence these for my brother as a favor, so I can’t just arbitrarily…”
“Whatever. I’ll take the Red one,” Nolasco said.
Red kicked its middle leg out and slid forward out of line. The mechanic instructed the others to return to the store. They shifted their torsos, planted their forward truck, and rolled away. The mechanic hooked the magnet to Red and used the crane to hoist it into position.
Kiesha stuck her head out the lower hatch.
“Nola,” she said.
“You’ll want to take this call.”
“Really?” Nolasco asked.
“We’re about to leave.”
“It’s urgent,” Kiesha said.
“Quintyl, on Dathomir.”
“Can you pipe it down here?”
“I’ve mastered turning on the comm. panel, not the entire system,” Kiesha said.
“Red?!” Nolasco asked.
“You paying attention?”
The droid whistled an affirmation. As soon as it was situated, it plugged in. The ship’s forward cameras activated and a hollow display of Quintyl appeared in front of Nolasco. Quintyl was a pure blooded Zabrak, a quality he loved boasting about, tracing his lineage to the first Zabraks brought to Dathomir by the Rakata slavers. The deep reds of his skin was accentuated by the darkness of black lines tracing contours, tapering off towards the horns. He was wearing leather, worn and comfortable, as if he were accustomed to being in the outdoors.
“Did you authorize the purchase of property?” Quintyl asked.
“I did,” Nolasco said.
“I’ll be there by tomorrow morning, your time, to explain.”
“You can’t explain now?” Quintyl asked.
“Rather not discuss this matter over a live channel,” Nolasco said.
Quintyl frowned and pointed.
“I know you. You’re up to something. If research found something useful in the specimens I turned in, I expect to get my bonus.”
“Naturally,” Nolasco said.
“And I’ve been a field agent for Bio Enc for seven years now. I don’t want to be cut out of the loop,” Quintyl said.
“I assure you, this is all innocuous. There is nothing to worry about,” Nolasco said.
“I will be there tomorrow. We can discuss this then.”
Nolasco motioned Red to turn off the holo. He then completed his last walk around inspection, climbed up into the ship, and then closed the lower hatch. Though there was room for two in the Tie Defender, it was somehow cramped with the supplies they had managed to pack into the pod.
“Last chance for a bathroom break. It’s hold it or go in your suit from here out,” Nolasco said, flipping switches.
“Do I have to wear the helmet?” Kiesha asked.
Nolasco pushed a button that pressurized the flight deck and confirmed it was holding pressure. The fact that this Tie Defender actually had a pressurized hall suggested it belong to a high ranking officer at one time, as this modification was not standard for combat situations. Even the Astromech droid’s compartment was not standard with the Tie Defender, so whoever had previously owned this either had credits or connections.
“Nah. We’re not going into combat, so not likely to depressurize. Pay attention, Red. I want you to learn the startup sequence.”
“Who’s Red?” Kiesha asked.
“The droid we just bought,” Nolasco said, pausing as he sorted through years of unused training. He hadn’t actually flown a Defender, but had survived so many combat missions in standard Tie fighter that he was allowed to spend free time using the trainers and was over qualified to fly any ship of his choice.
“It was a bit over priced for an R8-B7 series, but I really liked the modified color scheme and look forward to discovering whatever internal changes they made.”
“How do you know he wants to be called Red?” Kiesha asked. Nolasco looked at her.
“What?”
“Maybe it doesn’t want to be called Red,” Kiesha said.
“I’m not calling it by its serial number or is line number,” Nolasco said.
“Can it hear us?” Kiesha said.
“Of course,” Nolasco said.
“You okay if we call you Red?” Kiesha asked.
The droid beeped an affirmation and the screen on the main console translated “yes.”
“Wow,” Nolasco said, leaning forward to see if he could get a visual on what the instrumentation was telling him. He took the time to climb out of the ship, opened up several panels, made some colorful expletives, and climbed back into the ship. He sat, seemingly dazed for a moment.
“What?” Kiesha asked.
“We’re fully armed!” Nolasco said. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure it out. How could Preston have come across a fully functional, modified Tie, with complete armaments? It was not likely to have been stolen. The scenarios he created for explanation kept coming up bust.
“Is that a problem?” Kiesha asked.
“Umm, yeah, could have been,” Nolasco said.
“Had customs inspected this ship, Preston might have gone to prison for a very long time.”
“Good thing he has you looking out for him,” Kiesha said.
“Yeah, well, I can’t do that forever,” Nolasco said. He looked to her.
“You ready?” Kiesha lifted her hands, indicating ‘let’s get this airborne.’ Then she kissed him.
♫♪►
Quintyl was not happy having the transmission cut, which only added insult to his perceived injury. He dialed up a friend. A man looked up from his paper work and smiled.
“Hello, Quintyl,” the man said.
“Pol,” Quintyl said.
“What I’m about to tell you is top secret.”
“Of course,” Pol said.
“Bio Encoders is expanding their operations here on Darthomir,” Quintyl said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Just as sure as I am that I’m being railroaded out of a commission,” Quintyl said.
“So here’s the thing. They bought property outside the domesticated zones, most likely to avoid hiring union workers.”
“Really?” Pol said, frowning.
“I’ve known this Nolasco guy for a long time. He is one of the top ten executives within Bio Enc, and he is the shrewdest, most money pinching, cretin I have ever met. No doubt he sent some flunkey to do the initial investments to get around some of the red tape, but once this is all in motion, he will stand to make trillions, while good, unemployed workers still collect unemployment from the state. It’s time these corporations understand they can’t keep pilfering all the profits from the less industrialized worlds. They need to put some of that back so that everyone can benefit.”
“We’ve always agreed on politics, my friend,” Pol said.
“Thank you for this. Drop by, we’ll have lunch together.”
Quintyl nodded and terminated the call.
As soon as the call disconnected, Pol’s was dialing his friend, the Secretary of State. It took a moment, but the Secretary’s secretary put him through.
“Hello, Pol,” Secretary Trish Dayo said.
“Do you really think you can sneak a corporate expansion in under the radar?” Pol demanded.
Dayo smiled.
“You have me at a loss, Pol.”
“Yeah, play it that way if you want, but I have a very reliable source that says Bio Enc just bought property outside the domestic territories,” Pol said.
“If you think that I can’t shut down this entire planet, just continue on with this reach-around. As I’ve told you, I am for corporations making profits, as long as some of those profits return to the communities that make those profits feasible.”
Dayo’s smile held steady, but there was something in her eye that suggested she was not to be trifled with.
“You know, Pol, we’ve had an excellent working relationship for a long time, so I am going to forgive the subtle threat you just made. I guarantee you, if you shut down this planet, it will be your last act as the President of the Local. So, why don’t you cool your jets and let me investigate this matter, because I assure you, this is the first I’ve heard of it.”
“I find that hard to believe, seeing how the Three Sisters is deemed government property,” Pol said.
“I’m not aware of a bid being placed on the Three Sisters, but given the deed restrictions, I suspect only a corporation as large as Bio Enc might be able to hold that place. Give me some time to investigate the matter more fully. Please. Don’t do anything rash. If there is money to be made here, there is no reason why you and I can’t collect a descent share,” Dayo said.
“Very well,” Pol agreed, terminating the call.
The Secetary put a call through to her secretary.
“Hold all my calls. And get me Kolers on the phone.”
♫♪►
It was a perfectly clear day and from the space port they could look up and see the observatories, and look down to see the monastery and the valley beyond. A river flowed away from both sides of smaller peak, following the mountain range. From the air they had seen a third river on the other side of the mountain range, probably due to a channel cut straight into the mountain. The far side of the mountain range was mostly desert due to most of the rain failing to get over the range, which made the placement of the damn on this side ideal. On the far side of the far side of the mountain range, directly around the pooling of water before flowing away to the river was a scattering of life, a small oaisis that made the desert seem less foreboding.
“Shouldn’t we go into town and get a hotel?” Lestelle asked.
“I already took liberty of having supplies delivered. There is a pod with food, toiletries, blankets, portable generators, everything we night need for a good camp out,” Preston said.
“Come on, it’s a going to be a good hike down to the cloister.”
“There’s a tram,” Corissa said, pointing to the bridges connecting the three mountains.
The tram consisted of three transparent tubes interlinking the three mountains. The tram itself appeared to be pneumatically driven. The top of the tube allowed for pedestrians, with moving sidewalks interspaced through the tubes to add speed. One could, though, walk or run down the middle bypassing the moving sidewalks, perhaps taking on average 12 hours at constant marathon speed to complete a full circuit. Of course, the moving sidewalks were off line, so they would actually be walking down to base.
“The trams aren’t working,” Preston said.
“What else isn’t working?” Lestelle asked.
“What fun would you have if I told you everything in advance?” Preston asked, heading for the tubes.
“No, wait,” Ten said.
“Isn’t this like a dark planet?”
Preston looked up towards the sun and then back to Ten, his hands coming up, palms directed towards the sun. She returned his unspoken sarcasm with a pout.
“I mean, like evil, in dark side of the Force?” Ten said.
“Dark is too loosely used, mostly to describe society’s latent fear of the unknown,” Preston said.
“Ninety percent of this planet is still unexplored; virgin territories abound, but that doesn’t mean it’s evil. There is nothing here that can’t be found anywhere else in the Universe. Relatively speaking.”
“Well, I have a bad feeling about this,” Ten said.
“Oh, don’t say that,” Jordeen and Lestelle tried, but were too late.
Preston calmly closed the distance between him and Ten, towering over her, which might have been construed as a threat, if it weren’t for his general demeanor and projection of kindness. She translated his change in position as a sense of urgency.
“If you want me to train you in the ways of the Force, you must be more careful in your verbal expressions, both spoken and unspoken. Your words have power,” Preston said, sounding more perturbed than angry.
“Be aware of your feelings, but know they are neither good nor bad. It is simply data.”
“Yeah, well, the data is telling me to run away,” Ten said.
Preston frowned. He so rarely frowned, that it was difficult to tell if he was contemplating feelings or trying to solve a problem. Was it possible her feelings were indeed valid, even if he didn’t sense an immediate threat? He was aware that many people died here, brutally, but the bio-residue of those events had long dissipated into the environment, so her reaction was most likely not due to the subtle lingering of material essence, the actual fear breathed out into the environment by those suffering, but rather to the emotional energy which was taking much longer to dissipate from the environment. Environments which lacked sentient traffic, or new emotional input, took even longer to dissipate the last imprinting. Of course, she might not be reacting to the environment at all, but rather to herself, as she was still recovering from a very real and personal trauma.
“Sometimes it is up to the living to renew a place. I’m going to make this a home, a new community,” Preston stated simply.
“I would like you all to be a part of it, as I believe we will be safe here. Corissa, you said it yourself. You wanted to help others. We can rebuild this academy and offer educational services to orphans or victims of the war. Or maybe we will make this a sanctuary for abandoned slaves who can’t find employment because they lack sufficient training or self confidence to do differently. I believe we were called together to serve, but then, maybe this is just my dream. I don’t wish to impose my agenda on any of you. If you feel it best to go, I will pay Gregg to deliver you elsewhere.”
“I’m staying,” Jordeen said, without hesitation.
Corissa seemed hesistant and Preston wasn’t sure if she was choosing to stay because the alternative was harder, or because his dream did resonate with her own sense of personal mission parameters and ideas about productivity. Here she would have access to other adults, food, shelter, but most importantly, she could devote her time to Ten, undistracted by the milieu of daily city life.
“If you want me to start fixing things, I’m going to need help. Astromech droids are fairly flexible,” Corissa said, not verbally committing.
Lestelle seemed to hesitate.
“I am with you; however, I am going to go with Captain Gregg. After he drops off his shipment, I’m will pay him to take me to Hapes, so that I can diversify some of your funds and make them even more untraceable, hire you a ship, body guards, and more staff.”
Preston turned to Ten.
“What do you want?”
“Why are you asking me?” Ten asked.
“Because, no one has asked you what you wanted and I apologize for not taking that into consideration,” Preston said.
“So, I have a choice?” Ten asked. Preston shrugged.
“Not like I have anywhere else to go,” Ten said.
Corissa hugged her.
“Come on. A family that walks together, stays together,” Corissa said. The two of them headed for the tube down.
“You sure you’re going to be okay here?” Gregg asked.
“Absolutely,” Preston said.
“What could go wrong?”
“You know how you don’t like people saying ‘I have a bad feeling about this?’ Well, that’s how I feel about that statement,” Jordeen said.
Preston considered.
“Fair enough. I will be more aware of my own verbiage,” Preston said. He went and hugged Lestelle.
“Travel Light, my friend.”
Lestelle hugged him back.
“I like that saying. Where did you get it?” Preston shrugged.
“If you need anything, just call.”
“Okay,” Lestelle said.
Gregg waved off a hug from Preston. He bowed and tarried while Lestelle and Gregg returned to the ship. Jordeen stood with Preston till the ship departed. It lifted easily, rotating before accelerating away. Jordeen took Prestons arm. She shivered.
“You okay?” Preston asked.
Jordeen’s focus returned to the present.
“Something really bad happened here.”
Preston nodded, but didn’t fill in the blanks. He looked around as if looking into the past and seemed to radiate compassion. Jordeen hugged him.
“Thank you,” Jordeen said.
“For?”
Jordeen shrugged.
“I don’t know yet,” she said.
Together they went to the cat walk, and once in the tube they could see Corissa and Ten further along. They picked up their pace to try to catch up, but when Jordeen laughed, and had to take a pause, they adjusted their pace accordingly to minimize symptomology. She rested her head on his shoulder, holding his hand. Daylight through the tube’s transparent medium was less intense than outside, but still offered a warmth that took off the chill of the air moving naturally through the tubes. CU2 got ahead of them and hovered in their path, making a request.
“Yes, go explore,” Preston agreed.
“But for now, limit your collecting to intel: visual, auditory, and olfactory only. No physicl artifacts.”
CU2 grumbled a complaint as it sputtered off searching for something fun.
♫♪►
To say the place was huge was not an exaggeration. The girls made their camp site in the dormitory west wing, taking the blow up mattresses and two of the portable generators, to make their campsites. They chose rooms that were closest to the labatory and set out lights so if the need arrised they could find their way. Corissa was surprised that the bathrooms were in pristine condition, but Jordeen knew that they had recently been Forced cleaned, as she could sense that Preston had been here before them. Preston decided not to secure a camp site, but instead walked around, exploring areas that he hadn’t gotten to in astral form. He got no further than the library, which pleasantly enough, had power. Soft indigo hues ran the length of the book shelves. The room was long, with the outer wall up against the lake, so that the windows looked out into the water. Light filtered through the lake entered the room, mixing with the pastel lights from the shell making a nice blend. Identifying fish occupied him for several minutes, before he finally turned to the shelves. There were actual hard cover and paperback books, interspersed with electronic chips that no doubt held academic journals from hundreds of different worlds and generations. Several of the books were personal journals that had been hand written by people who once occupied the academy. But even this didn’t hold his attention for long. At each end of the library, there was a desk butted up to the book shelf, where several HO scale trains rested. If one sat at the desk, the trains set at eye level, and the controls on the desk came to life as he sat down. He pushed a throttle forwards and the train on the immediate shelf in front of him departed, going down the length of the shelf and disappeared into an opening on the wall. A moment later, the train was going by underfoot. It was only then that he became aware that the floor was comprised of a transparent acrylic, and beneath that the entire floor of the library was a massively elaborate rail system with an artificial city landscape. The desk had monitors that allowed him to follow the progress of the train, but instead he got up and tried to follow on foot. When he got to the other side of the room he activated one of the trains on that side and sent it down the track. A moment later, two trains were operating beneath his feet, pushing through tiny plastic villages that had possibly many hours of hand crafted effort put into them. One of the trains went outside, into the lake. Preston pushed up against the window and noticed a tube outside that ran along the wall and then entered back on the other side of the library. Fish were attracted to the chain of lights as the train made its way through the tube.
Preston wondered what would happen if the two trains collided, and then he noticed that the acrylic top floor was cut in sections that could be lifted to get access to the trains and villages below. Part of the village was constructed with blocks, revealing constructions styles changed denoting different sentient contributions to the tiny fictional world beneath his feet. As he followed the track back to the other side of the library he came across a three dimensional printer. Apparently, its last instructions were to make blocks, which had collected in a container. Preston examined these, and began to assemble and disassemble them. He activated the 3-d printer. The present printing menu showed a box set of connecting blocks, that if assembled could make either an imperial walker, or several other items depending on the configuration desired. The possibilities were endless, but this specific collection had four demonstrated options with instructions for creating them. There were other block sets available on the menu. He scrolled through and found a sand crawler, complete with droids and little plastic Jawas. He pushed print. The machine began to craft each individual block, sometimes five at a time, sweepping the completed blocks into a container at the end of the work station.
Preston sat down on the floor right there and began assembling pieces, spilling what was in the box into a pile in front of him. He shifted through them, examining each, connecting them, pulling them apart. He tried prying two stuck pieces with his teeth and decided that wasn’t practical, then popped them apart with the Force. The task set beforehim was such a simple joy that he was surprised when Ten was seemingly suddenly upon him.
“What are you doing?”
Preston looked up to Ten.
“I’m playing.”
Ten’s face suggested disbelief.
“You’re playing with blocks?” Ten asked, skeptically.
“Oh, yeah, this is much nicer than sand mandalas. Well, maybe that’s not fair. It’s different, how about that?” Preston asked. He beamed happiness.
Ten sat down next to him on the floor. She sighed heavily. Preston looked at her.
“I don’t think I like it here,” Ten said.
“Already?” Preston asked.
“It’s too quiet here. I am bored,” Ten said.
Preston nodded, searching through a pile of blocks for a specific piece. He liked the sound of shuffling blocks that he kept pushing them around.
“Well, be careful equating quiet with boredom. Remember, you come from an environment that is over stimulated with sounds and lights, but we are healthiest in environments that are immersed in nature, with only some tech. 24 7 entertainment and distraction is like eating only candy. Your brain needs this. Listen to the wind, to the trees, to gentle rain, meditate with the morning or evening sun. Walk in nature.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Ten said, not convinced.
“But I miss my tunes. I found a player in one of the rooms and soon as I touched it, the thing fried.”
“Yeah. I want you to practice energy meditation with Jordeen. She will help get that undercontrol,” Preston said.
“But until then, I can’t do anything with tech?”
“Want to play blocks with me?” Preston asked.
Ten tried to suppress her own mirth, before focusing on a negative.
“You’re making an AT-AT?” Ten asked.
“Well, the blocks were already in there, so I thought I might as well,” Preston said.
“Why do boys always make things of war?” Ten asked.
Preston considered, pausing in the construction.
“I don’t know. Would you like me to stop?”
“It won’t make any difference,” Ten said.
“What would you like to make?” Preston asked.
Ten shrugged. Preston got up and scrolled through some of the options, with Ten joining and looking over his shoulders. She responded favorably to a house set, and together they added people, animals, and a variety of garden paraphernalia, making it priority over his sand crawler. Preston returned to the floor as her pieces began to drop in the box. She took the first of her pieces with some of the others that had accumulated since she entered and sat down in front of the pile of blocks on the floor. Preston began disassembling the AT-AT to make a spaceship. She asked if she could use some of his pieces and he nodded enthusiastically. As he watched her home developing, he noticed a pattern. One of her peoples carried a wrench. Another carried a book, which was probably Lestelle, based on the hair that she clipped into place. The Twilek person was a no brainer. And then there was a male human, holding a lightsaber. And then there was her, a character that had a heart painted on the torso. The Jedi character was holding the mechanic’s persons hands
“It kind of looks like you chose to make us,” Preston said.
“Why can’t I have a normal family like this?” Ten asked. Preston shrugged.
“Do we seem normal to you?”
Ten frowned, but didn’t answer.
“Do you suppose there had been families living here?”
“I’m certain of it,” Preston said.
“Why would they go and leave all of their stuff? I mean, if there were kids, wouldn’t they at least take the toys with them? More than that, why hasn’t there been any vandalism, or theft? It seems bizarre.”
Preston considered his response, knowing there wasn’t one specific answer, but a multitude of overlapping issues. He could discern fairly easy the history if he touched the Force, but he found it wasn’t necessary to follow the thread at this particular moment, and he quickly lost interest. A train passed underneath them. Ten started.
“What was that?!”
“It’s a train,” Preston said.
“Oh, wow, that scared the crap out of me!” Ten said.
“It’s automatic?”
“It’s both. Want to drive one?” Preston asked.
“You sure it’s okay?” Ten said.
“I don’t want to break it.”
“I doubt you can break it, but if you do, it can be fixed. Oh, yeah, your Force thing. The controls are EMP pulse protected. Who ever built this system wanted it to last,” Preston said, leading Ten to the ‘East’ station controls.
“Use that control pad to select the next train and use the throttle to send it into the mix. I haven’t figured out all the controls here, but this analogue dial seems to alter the brightness of the lights.”
“I think I can figure it out,” Ten protested, pulling optional menu’s revealing a complexity that even Preston hadn’t considered. One could not only control each train, but one could alter track placement if need be, and call up views from cameras in the pretend village, front and back of the train, or even views where passengers would sit.
After being schooled by Ten, he went to the adjoining ‘West’ control station and booted up his screen. It was interesting seeing the individual cars of the train lift off the track as its magnetic repulsurs were activated. The running lights along the sides, as well as interior lighting, made it seem less toyish and more real. A few switches later, Ten was moving another train into the make believe world of blocks.
“How many can we have out there?” Ten asked, yelling over to him.
“Let’s find out,” Preston said, lighting up the train in front of him.
“Put your headset on,” he yelled back to her, picking up the mic and head set on the shelf in front of him.
“Testing, testing, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, train master,” Ten said, glad her set didn’t blow up in her hands.
“Sending my last train out now, six cars in tow.” A screen bounced to the forefront of her groupings, highlighting a section of track where a collision was likely.
“Do you see that?”
“I do. I’m slowing train alpha down,” Preston said. The warning went away and the collision was neatly avoided.
“You’re going to have to speed gamma up.”