Deathless Stars

The Empire… not The Empire 'of Something' because when you are that powerful you can simply use the first name 'The'. Of course, you still weren't powerful enough to replace your name with a made up symbol and insist on calling yourself The empire Formerly Known as The Empire because for one, everyone would look at you funny and make jokes behind your back that would far outlast your actual existence and for another, someone would simply abbreviate that to TEFKATE, which is what you'd end up referred to rather than your actual title.

*Ahem*

The Empire ruled the majority of known space with a great deal of force and brutality, but lacked a weapon of terror that could be used as its iron fist due to its size. Sure they could have the surface of any world turned to slag with its Star Destroyers, but for an empire of its size, greatness and ego… well it lacked the personal touch.

The Emperor, who must have been one of the most caring individuals in existence, since he not only took over all of known space and ended countless wars, allowing people to live in peace with one another, but he also kept Darth Vader as his second in command, despite the man's horrible disfigurement and numerous crippling injuries, decided he needed something special to showcase the might of The Empire, so in his wisdom he gathered together his top designers and put them to work.

After three months of discussion and a dozen innovative ideas, and half a dozen 'accidental' electrocutions, they presented a design the Emperor approved of, the Death Star…

The costs of building the Death Star were enough to beggar a dozen star systems, but spread over the length and breadth of The Empire, it simply reduced the unemployment rate a good couple of percentage points and encouraged economic growth that continued long past the completion of the project.

Of course the project was not without its problems…

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

In the palatial living quarters of one of the head designers of the Death Star on the Star Destroyer 'Ewoks Must Die!', a trio of designers sat around a stark white coffee table and examined the design.

"OK, I'm not trying to point fingers here, but this section right here looks very familiar," Cog 1 said before leaning back on the stark white couch.

Cog 2 nodded. "I have noticed surface similarities…" he trailed off inviting the third designer to add his thoughts.

Cog 3 rolled his eyes. "I know it's a copy of my room here, but who do you think designed it?"

Cog 1 and Cog 2 looked around the stark white room devoid of any soft curves except for the slope of the room itself and as always their eyes were drawn to the open shaft that took up two thirds of the room and lead straight down to the reactor core.

Cog 1 sighed. "And why not have a rail around the shaft at least?"

Cog 3 grinned and pushed a button on the table summoning an Ewok that he'd had trained as a butler.

The furry little creature with its stubby little limbs and beady eyes scurried forward only to misjudge its position in the nearly featureless white room and fell into the open shaft straight to the reactor core, squealing all the way.

Cog 1 and Cog 2 began to laugh until the smell of burnt hair wafted up the shaft.

"Ugh," Cog 1 groaned. "That's like having the world's biggest pile of bantha crap right here."

Cog 3 nodded. "I know, I forgot to add a thermal exhaust port to take care of the smell."

Cog 2 quickly made some changes to the blueprints.

"What's up with the bio-mechanical creatures in the waste pits?" Cog 3 asked.

Cog 1 raised a hand. "That one is mine. You know how Gungans get into everything? Well…"

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"No human crew or conventional AI is going to be able to run it," Cog 2 said as the three gazed at the moon sized frame being assembled in space.

Cog 3 nodded. "The sheer size and number of people required to run it would strip a planet bare of people and require its own government."

"Actually, I have a solution for that," Cog 1 said. "An experimental AI that should be stable enough to run all the critical systems, while using standard AI for the subsystems. It was part of a plan to reduce human roles with AIs that the Emperor scrapped."

"That takes care of half the problem, but what about the crew?" Cog 2 asked.

"I've been working on that and I think I have the solution," Cog 3 said. "Rather than standard clones, which have been shown to be less reliable than we'd like, I was going to use a mixture of DNA from a number of sources and have the Death Star's AI weed out any substandard units while making additional clones of the successful ones."

"Wouldn't the greater variation in units cause an increase in the equipment costs to outfit them?" Cog 2 asked.

"Half the DNA used will be from a single cell sample to keep the physical variations to a minimum."

Cog 1 grinned. "And who might this perfect DNA sample be from?

Cog 3 shook his head. "Not me. Being a trooper would bore the hell out of my DNA. No, I got this beauty from a slave that was perfectly loyal and made his boss a lot of money before someone won him in a bet. Fortunately the owner kept a cell sample."

"What about officers?" Cog 2 asked.

"Strip a bunch of officious idiots from a dozen planets, the Death Star's AI will really run the show and it'll give Lord Vader idiots to kill, a win-win situation."

Typing by: The Last Primarch!

AN: Just an idle thought on how the Death Star came about.