Technological Transdimensional Turbulence
Part 5
Second Hand Ship Lot. Nar Shadda.
"Sir, do you think we can learn to fly one of these?" Fred asked me.
I'd been studying both Fallout and Star Wars tech since I'd started exploring the multiverse, as had Fred for a lesser amount of time, and since my efforts in transforming what was left of Las Vegas into the Free City of New Vegas were going well, I could afford to divert my a little of my attention elsewhere at least for a while.
Granted things were progressing fast in the Mojave Wasteland, but with some droids to maintain the ship, it shouldn't take much effort from me to keep flying it around and I would have help from others.
It was a worthwhile investment as a craft from this galaxy could even help me in my plans and be used to protect the Free City of New Vegas, and we did need to take that satellite out so as to be totally sure that it could never be used to destroy what little civilization had been restored.
While coming here was a bit of a distraction from our work I knew that Fred was happy to be able to check out a proper alien world, the demon dimension she'd gotten stuck in hadn't been a fun place to stay in, but coming this moon had Winifred grinning like a bit of a loon.
Veronica was a lot stoic about the visit, being more interested in the tech than the scenery or the people. To be fair we were surrounded by real spaceships and she was going to be able to fly in one. The idea was making me feel a little giddy as well.
Despite it being an adventure just to be here I wanted to limit our time on this moon as it was a dangerous place, and it was good that we'd been able to make our way to the lot before trouble found us. I'd rather not run afoul of the Hutts or some version of Black Sun.
"Droids can do most of the work when it comes to flying and maintaining the ship" I replied as we walked around the used starship lot I'd brought us to "And I think between us we can figure out the rest".
It seemed smart to leave the ship somewhere in the zombie world that I raided for resources and then fly it through portals when I wanted to take it somewhere. That way I didn't have to worry about the NCR or some chapter of the Brotherhood trying to claim the technology by force.
"I'm more concerned about the portal projector" I admitted.
It took some time to do, but we had a working model of my portal projector that could be installed on a small spaceship. Truthfully, I didn't fully understand how the tech worked, because the power requirements should be staggering, yet the tech somehow did its job.
As Veronica began to discuss some of the technology involved in flying spaceships with the owner of this business and Fred went off to inspect the vessels some more, I looked at a holonet feed which was currently declaring the foundation of the Empire was progressing well with some CIS holdouts having been dealt with.
Seeing this made me glad that I'd brought us to this overbuilt moon rather than somewhere more regulated. Trading in the Core Worlds or even the Mid-Rim would have been risky.
Emperor Palpatine and his lackeys might have sensed us if we were that close to Courscant. The risk of being sensed via The Force was why I'd been visiting worlds in Hutt Space during different points in time and in a few different Star Wars timelines.
I didn't think any higher powers in this part of the multiverse would care about some visitors popping in to buy some tech, but if the Jedi or Sith found me they would try to remove me as a possible threat or attempt to control me, to use me for their own means, as would the criminal cartels and the governments. The Force Users would just be more likely to figure out that I didn't belong in these parts.
As for the ship I planned to buy, it would be a good idea to get some sort of cloaking device, or at least some decent stealth tech for when I visited different universes. I didn't want to have to deal with hostile locals when I wanted to visit say a space station.
Having portal tech made it pointless to worry about FTL drives and weapons weren't a big concern either as I intended to avoid fights and could use portals as a delivery system for nukes, so I'd chosen a ship that looked both boring and dependable.
Not that I really noticed the ships at first as I'd gotten rather awestruck by Nar Shadda, sure it was a moon full of scumbags and villainy, but it was impressive even for someone who made exploring parts of the multiverse a regular activity. I'd never seen so many different kinds of people in one place and the sheer amount of different cultures in one place meant that no one really blended in much so we didn't stick out due to our strange clothing or alien weapons.
"So do we have a deal?" asked the owner of this used spaceship lot.
I was about to reply and buy the boring ship when I discovered that place of business had someone within its perimeter. Ahsoka Tano, it had to be her, had turned up and I spent more than a moment just staring at the former Jedi Padawan.
What was she doing here? Shouldn't she be hiding from the Empire? She couldn't be here by mere chance. Was this the will of The Force or was something else getting involved?
"Who are you?" she asked me when she realised that I was staring at her "You seem really out of place for some reason, and so do your friends".
The owner of this lot looked annoyed.
"You're late for work, Ashla" he stated.
She must be able to sense that we didn't belong and given the fake name she must be hiding from the Empire. It would explain the oil-stained civilian outfit and the lack of lightsabers on her person.
"Have we met?" asked the alien babe.
"No" I replied, "But I know who you are".
She didn't panic and run for it or attack, however, she did tense up as I used my Observe ability to make sure she was indeed the former Jedi Padawan who I suspected her to be. My electronic eyes scanned her and gave me enough information to confirm that she was Ahsoka Tano.
She looked different than the live-action version of her I'd seen on TV, she was more colourful and she appeared less human as well. Yet she was still attractive. I'd say she was vibrant, almost as if she was more real than everyone else around here.
"I'm in the middle of a sale, Ashla" complained her boss "Get back to cleaning the spare parts".
She didn't obey the blue-skinned Twi'lek male. She was too concerned about me and she had reason to be as I could report her to the Empire. That would bring the Inquisitors here, although thankfully not the Warhammer 40k kind.
"You don't want this piece of junk," she said to me "Let me show you a good ship".
Money wasn't a concern. They accepted gold in Hutt Space and I had an infinite amount of that just lying around on versions of Earth that lacked any human presence able to interfere with me looting the remains of their civilization.
"How do you know me?" Ahsoka asked once we were some distance from her employer.
Before speaking, I waved Cameron away. She'd incorrectly assumed that the alien female was a threat to me. I doubted that Ahsoka Tano of all people would seriously hurt me as if nothing else she was trying to keep a low profile.
"I don't know you personally" I answered "We've never met. I'm just aware of your work during the Clone Wars".
The former Jedi waved her hand at me.
"You will forget you saw me" she commanded.
I had to laugh.
"Mind Tricks only work on weak people" I stated with a smile on my face, "You don't need to worry about me reporting you I'm no friend of the Empire. In fact, I'm not from around here".
As soon as we got on the part of lot Ahsoka had been guiding me to, I knew the ship I wanted, a YT-2400 light freighter. According to the nearby sign, it was part of the YT-series light freighter produced by Corellian Engineering Corporation similar to the YT-1300 that had been made famous by Han Solo.
Due to my extensive nerd knowledge and Ahsoka's knowledge of ships that she chose to share rather than question me further, I knew that Dash Rendar's Outrider, which this ship had to be as it shared the name, was a heavily modified YT-2400 freighter, and that was what made me want the vessel more than anything else they had on this lot.
Partly this had to do with its small size, as this would make it easier to move through a portal, but there were other reasons for purchasing this craft rather than one of the others.
The starship featured the YT-series trademark saucer-shaped hull and starboard-mounted command pod like the Millenium Falcon had. Like most Corellian designs, the YT-2400 was fast, tough, and endlessly modifiable, at least according to what Ahsoka knew and my knowledge backed that up.
Stock YT-2400s such as the one before me were 18.65 meters in length, required two pilots, and were armed with two 1D servo turret laser cannons, mounted dorsally and ventrally, and while this wasn't much firepower compared to other starships, I didn't intend to get into any space battles.
I would much rather avoid that sort of combat since I had no experience with it, and even my upgrades don't help much when someone is firing at you with energy weapons while you are in space. At least with its double-armoured hull plating and bulky engines, the YT-2400 could easily handle the strain of deep-space combat, should it be unavoidable.
The vessel had the power to spare and Ahsoka spoke of how she'd like to spend time installing some decent modifications. So if I could find someone with the right skills, such as Ahsoka, the vessel could be upgraded over time.
I was told that the YT-2400 was configured with a pair of starboard bracing arms that connected to the cockpit compartment, essentially a long tube. The aft section of the cockpit tube contained the primary escape pod, which seated six. The bracing arm's interior space generally was used for crew quarters and living space.
"Let me show you the interior" offered Tano.
Once we got inside the ship for a look around I found that the rounded hull area was devoted to cargo holds and the ship's system, however, there was room for more so perhaps something like a backup power generator, or an extra weapons system could be installed.
There was even a second escape pod, as well as an airlock, which was located on the far side of the cargo compartment, directly opposite the bracing arms, and those were used to clamp this ship to another. I assumed that this was in place of a tractor-beam emitter.
"This is the ship for me," I said to Ahsoka "You can come with us if you like. I can take you to somewhere the Empire can't track you".
The former Jedi was still giving me odd looks like I was a puzzle she wanted to solve.
"I'll think about it," she said.
While she did that I went to buy the Outrider. I was going to pay for this ship in gold bars that I carried on my person.
During the bartering, I discovered that gold was valued at ten to fifteen Republic credits per gram, depending on fluctuations in the market. However, due to the recent rise of the Empire, the Republic credit had been replaced with the Imperial credit which had a more fixed value.
As such, it was ten credits for a gram of gold here in Hutt Space despite gold not having the same value within the Republic/Empire as it did out here in the galaxy's rim. Economics could be confusing.
Here on Nar Shadda, a single peggat was equal to forty standard credits and as such, it contained about 4 grams of gold. It varied a little due to the economic changes and the impurities sometimes found in the local money, so that was just the average.
The second-hand YT-2400 was going to cost me 30,000 Imperial credits, it had been 32 thousand but the salesman had been open to giving us a discount since we were willing to pay in gold and take the ship with us right away. Less work for him.
That was 3 kilos of gold overall, and a kilo of gold was a thousand grams and I knew that it was somewhere under 50,000 American dollars for a kilo, so overall I was spending less than 150,000 American dollars on the second-hand vessel.
While this might sound like a lot, in reality, the gold meant very little to me as I could easily salvage or earn more, having my own spaceship was worth it. The Outrider would be billions in American Dollars due to its technology.
No wonder people like Han Solo could afford their own ships if they only cost 150,000 thousand dollars for an old YT freighter. They'd had thousands of years to develop their tech and I didn't know much fuel cost, but still, it was a bargain.
You could buy a top-of-the-range sports car, a vacation or home or a yacht for that amount of money. So in this galaxy owning a spaceship is a dream for most, but not impossible if you were wealthy or brought one as a part of a group of reasonably well-off people.
"You'll need an astromech droid too," Ahsoka told me once she'd reappeared.
That was a type of droid that served as an automated mechanic, performing a variety of repair duties and often serving as an adjunct or substitute for a nav computer on smaller starships. Astromech droids could also use the mainframes of larger ships to their advantage. Many starfighters relied on astromech copilots.
As luck would have it, the lot owner, also had some droids on offer, and I let Ahsoka pick one out since she would naturally know more about them than I would. Once she had selected a droid I paid more than it was worth just to get a move on and because the owner was annoyed at Ahsoka Tano for stopping her boss from trying to sell us his inferior models.
"So are you coming with me?" I asked my group moved to board the vessel.
The alien woman paused for a moment and asked me to wait while she grabbed her bag. When she got back she spoke again.
"There's something different about all of you," she said "I want to know what it is".
She seemed overly trusting, but to be fair she was far from helpless and we'd hardly be the first strangers she'd decided to tag along with.
As Ahsoka and I got into the cockpit she started to power up the ship, and it would be good if we got moving as soon as possible. The portal projector didn't need to be installed to be used once as it had microfusion cells as a backup power source.
Once we got to the zombie world and found somewhere to park I would be able to take the time to explain fully to Ahsoka what was going on and what kind of people she'd decided to tag along with for whatever reasons made sense to her.
The Lucky 38 Casino. New Vegas.
Up in the penthouse, a young brown-haired woman called Winfred Burkle looked out at the city that her lover ruled over. Having grown up in a democracy it was odd in Fred's opinion to have someone ruling over a city as a tyrant, yet given the state of the place it clearly needed a firm hand and it wasn't as if he intended to rule over it forever.
Mostly he was fixing this place up as a favour to another member of the group while using it as a base to operate out of when he went looking for technology in different places and in different universes. Recently he'd purchased an actual spaceship and found an alien woman who seemed happy to help them run it.
As homes went the Lucky 38 was rather nice, and Fred felt comfortable, and to be fair her last home had been a cave and it was hard not to improve upon that. Still, the casino was a place of luxury even when compared to her old life on Earth and she was grateful for it.
Fred didn't think much about New Vegas, it was interesting to watch and listen as he made his plans, but she kept her focus more on science and technology, caring little for politics. She left that sort of thing to the man she'd devoted herself to. She was too used to keeping her head down to worry much about strangers.
How could she not be devoted to him? He'd saved her from something close to hell and brought her somewhere much safer. She lived in luxury, she never went hungry, she got to see things few others ever would, and she worked with technology that until now had only existed in science fiction for her.
She called him Sir because she belonged to him and she was fine with that. It seemed natural to be dominated by him and it wasn't as if she was still a mere slave. She could leave whenever she wished and he never demanded that she do anything she would be unhappy doing. In fact, she'd do more for him than he asked. She often fantasised about such things.
Fred spent her alone time mostly working on better understanding the science behind portals and how they allowed travel between universes. The technology they used to move from one dimension to another clearly worked yet it should have much greater power requirements and it shouldn't be something you can attach to your wrist.
It could take her years, maybe decades to figure it all out, maybe she never would, but that wouldn't stop her from trying, and she'd been considering asking her sir if he would share The Spice with her in the hopes that it would expand her mind and help her to better comprehend the multiverse.
If she started taking it she'd never be able to stop, at least not unless she wanted to die, and she'd never be able to leave him if she did, not that she wished to. As such, she'd decided to give it a lot of thought and maybe she could ask him about other enhancements that didn't involve drugs.
When she'd left her home to go study in LA she had promised her parents that she'd be careful not to get hooked on drugs. She'd feel bad if she broke the promise she'd made to them.
Making the choice could wait, she was in no rush and she still had a lot of research to get done, or at least she would tomorrow, tonight she was going to spend some time with him. They seemed to find time to be together and Fred didn't mind so much that Cameron sometimes hung around and watched.
Perhaps they would relax and watch a movie on the entertainment system he'd picked up on that world which was overrun by zombies then they could do bed and do other things.
Overall for Fred, life was good, she had her work, new friends, someone who could take care of her, and most importantly no one wanted to eat her or make her do hard manual labour.
Lucky 38 Casino. New Vegas.
Veronica Santangelo decided that despite having left her old life behind, she was content with her choices. As she sat in the cocktail lounge with a drink in hand, she looked out at the city of New Vegas, the city she was helping to turn from little more than a ruin with some fancy lights in parts, into a proper society.
The group she'd joined, which was led by the new overlord of Vegas, they were working towards that very goal, and Veronica had come to realise that she'd never achieved anything of real note as part of the Brotherhood, and she never would have, so she'd let them go.
It hadn't been easy and she'd argued with the Elder, she'd even tried to convince them that the Brotherhood needed to change by showing the Eldar technology her new group had recovered from vaults, yet it had been pointless.
The Eldar hadn't listened and the chapter only become more hostile towards her as she tried to make them listen. She had to accept that they were going to stay in their bunker until either they all died or they just gave me and left the Mojave.
Her boss was actually getting things done. He was out there gathering useful technology, making allies, sorting out a treaty with the NCR and he even had plans to deal with the Legion when the time was right. With his portals, he could easily deal with them.
Transforming New Vegas, was slow going even with the robots keeping order on the streets. Old buildings had to be knocked down, new ones needed to be put up, and even robots could only work so fast.
Thanks to the new treaty the NCR had sent engineers to Freeside to help set things up, and her new boss was happy to pay people to do simple labour for him, but since they lacked a skilled workforce the progress was slow and it would be a long time before they had that workforce.
It would get done. Her boss would make sure of it. Vegas would have schools, an orphanage, hospitals, homes and businesses. The quality of life would improve little by little as the years passed by and she would have made a difference in the wasteland. That was really all she'd wanted to do.
So Veronica allowed herself to feel happy. Her life wasn't all she wanted, she hadn't found true love, or that certain dress she'd been looking for, but she had companions, perhaps they were even friends, a purpose, a reason to go living, and she could make things better for people. This was more than enough for her.
Lucky 38 Casino. New Vegas.
As she wandered around the basement level of this building, taking the chance to inspect some of the technology that had been gathered here by a group of people she was considering joining, the former Jedi Padawan found her mind racing with thoughts.
Ahsoka Tano hadn't expected any of this to happen. The Fall of the Republic. The end of the Jedi. The Rise of the Empire. She should have seen it coming, the Jedi Order should have prevented it, but they hadn't, the old government was gone and a new one had taken hold of the galaxy.
While no longer a Jedi, the clones who were compelled to carry out Order 66 hadn't cared about that detail, and she ended up on the run, she'd gone into hiding in Hutt Space, outside of the Empire, and away from the Jedi hunters. If nothing else she'd needed a safe place to stop and think, to take stock of her life.
On the Smuggler's Moon, she'd just one person out of billions making a living as best she could. No one had paid her much attention and with her skills, she'd been able to find a decent job and even a somewhat safe place to live. She'd never had much and didn't need a lot to survive.
She'd been restless about her new life even though it was sedate. Her boss hadn't been too bad and she'd liked working on the ships. There was something satisfying about taking broken things and making them work again. If nothing else, it made a nice change from being the one who needed to do the breaking of machines.
Then he'd turned up. A somewhat normal human at first glance who felt different in The Force from anyone she'd met before as did the people with him. It hadn't taken her long to be drawn into their group, she'd been intrigued by the mystery and she hadn't sensed any danger.
Besides, there hadn't been much keeping her on Nar Shadda. The Smuggler's Moon was well-named for it was a haven for all sorts of crooks, and even though it was controlled by the Hutts the empire's influence had been spreading.
Soon she'd discovered that the three humans, and a very advanced human-looking droid, were all from different dimensions and that they travelled the multiverse.
This was not something Ahsoka knew much about outside of reading a few scientific theories and some of the more bizarre holonet shows that created stories using strange ideas such as time travel and alternate realities that involved a changed history.
Yet here she was in another galaxy, in another universe, and she could sense that it was different via The Force. It wasn't bad, it didn't feel wrong in any way, it was just a bit odd, and she figured she'd get used to it soon enough.
To add to the strangeness the captain of the starship she somehow ended up agreeing to take care of, had invited her to join his group. He had something of a harem going, not that all the females involved were having sex with their leader, and he offered her a place.
Clearly, he desired her, you didn't need The Force to pick up on that and Ahsoka did find him interesting. She wasn't required to avoid attachment anymore so she hadn't dismissed making an arrangement.
Having a place to stay away from the Empire was tempting as was the chance to explore whole new universes, but what really had her interested was the dimensional traveller had offered to help her set up a rebellion that work against the Empire.
That there would be one sooner or later wasn't in question. The Empire seemed good for the galaxy, however, it was run by the Sith and would in time become a domain of evil. Not everyone would accept that, those who were willing to act would do so and they would need help.
A rebellion would need funding, food, medicine, ships, weapons and people. He was offering to help supply some of this and with his ability to create portals to other dimensions, they could store resources away securely for the day they were needed. They could set up entire bases outside of the galaxy making it impossible for the Empire to find them.
It made sense, and despite her desire to lay low after the Fall of the Republic, Ahsoka knew she'd be heavily involved with any rebellion because she knew how evil the empire really was. The Sith could not be allowed to rule the galaxy.
She'd give it some more thought and talk to the other women who were involved with him before making up her mind. She had to decide carefully as it would affect the future of her galaxy.
The Lucky 38 Casino. New Vegas.
I'd left Ahsoka Tano to think over my offer for a time. As for me, I'd gotten back to work trying to fix up the city and studying the technology I'd been able to gather so far while exploring this world as well as others.
Despite all of my studies, I was still trying to fully understand how the people of this world had been able to build power sources that were able to provide energy to laser and plasma weapons of so many kinds.
Part of how they'd managed it was due to the shortage of resources. They had to build smaller and smaller reactors that produced energy as they had a limited supply of materials. But the precise method was still something that eluded me.
I couldn't help wondering if there was some alien technology involved as that would explain a few things about the workings of these energy weapons and there were supposed to be aliens in this setting.
Should the former Jedi Padawan join us then I would have her fly the Outrider and take out that potentially dangerous satellite and perhaps later we could put a few of our own into orbit to make long-distance communication and intelligence gathering easier.
While up there we should keep an eye out for alien flying saucers. They might need to be dealt with in case they interfered with my plans, but I would confirm if they existed or not before coming up with a plan to deal with them.
For this evening I wanted to relax and have some fun with Fred who already looked ready for bed. She was wearing one of my t-shirts and nothing else I'd bet as she sat on a sofa, no doubt waiting for me to join her so that we could relax before going to bed as we did most evenings.
I took a seat across from her on a comfy chair, and I smiled at my sexy assistant. Fred was always pleased to see me and very eager to do whatever it was I required of her. Something I intended to take advantage of very soon.
"Play with yourself for me," I ordered the former runaway slave.
With any delay, Fred closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat cushion. Her fingers were pinching her nipples through the fabric of the t-shirt. Her other hand was soon between her legs, her fingers rubbing the bare skin, she'd removed all of her pubic hair as I'd told her to and I'd threatened her with a spanking she didn't keep herself smooth down there.
I watched as she slide a single finger into her tight little pussy, and so did Cameron who had come over to observe as she sometimes did. She was only wearing a matching set of bra and knickers. Walking around in a state of semi-undress was also something Cameron also seemed to like to do. Not that I was ever going to complain about the sight.
"Get naked and sit on the sofa next to Fred" I ordered.
My Terminator was naked very quickly and she sat down next to Winifred who looked curious about what was going on, yet she kept getting my attention with her lewd display.
"I want you two to put on a bit of show for me," I told them.
Cameron didn't do anything, perhaps she wasn't sure what she should do, Fred must have noticed this as she made the first move. She leaned in close and kissed my very sexy cyborg.
Before long, Cameron kissed Fred back and put her arms around the brunette woman, as they began making out like a couple of horny teenagers. Both of the women, if that term applied to a Terminator, didn't need to coordinate their efforts, they both somehow knew what to do.
"I've kissed a girl before," said Fred as she took off her top during a pause in the action "It's not that bad".
Despite her words, my feeling on the matter was that Winifred was actually as straight as an arrow and any enjoyment she got from this had to do with pleasing me. She was always eager to follow my commands and hungry for my attention.
She began to kiss and caress Cameron, letting her hands run all over the
living flesh that covered the android body which was hidden beneath the human-looking appearance. The Terminator did her best to return the favour, only stopping to glance at me, as if checking to see if I was approving of her actions.
Fred suddenly stopped and took Cameron's arm, leading the other brown-haired female over to my bed.
"We'll just keep going until our master decides he wants to join in," said the Texan.
Having her call me master felt good.
"I want you two to keep going" I commanded.
Fred smiled at me before she began to suck on Cameron's nipples and finger her pussy which was also bare of hair. My bodyguard lay there, emitting little cries of pleasure as Fred covered her breasts with kisses and fingered her.
I wondered how much of Cameron's expressions and noises were just part of an act, and how much of it was expressing something she actually felt. She could feel and as an AI she had the capacity for growth, yet she was also capable of faking being human in order to carry out her mission. Her job was to protect and serve me, she would do anything I asked.
Another thing I wondered about if only for a moment, was how far Fred would go to make me happy. She was starting to perform oral sex on a cyborg just to entertain me, and she looked really into it. If this was all for my benefit, then I doubted there was much she wouldn't do for me.
Cameron grabbed Fred's head as the physicist drove her down inside the cyborg, Cameron writhed on the bed as the brunette woman ate her out.
It was at this point that I made my move, without warning I grabbed the human female's hips and then I pushed my rock-hard cock inside a very eager cunt.
"Don't stop licking her" I ordered.
Fred did her very best to focus on her task and Cameron used one hand to keep the Texan's head in place as she used her free hand to play with her own breasts. All the while maintaining eye contact with me.
"I think she'd done this before" commented my Terminator.
Perhaps later I would enquire about Fred's previous experience with girl-on-girl action, right now my attention was on something else. I was using Fred's pussy as a cock sleeve as the small woman moaned into Cameron's thighs.
To be careful, I had to restrain myself somewhat as I was worried that I might hurt Winifred, not that she ever seemed to mind when I was rough with her and it wasn't as if I had super strength.
"I can't take anymore!" Fred called out.
She went limp when I let her body drop and I rolled her out of the way, making her yelp in surprise just before I started fucking again, this time I was making use of Cameron's body. Despite being an AI in a robot body meant to kill humans for another AI, she felt like a normal girl when I was inside her.
That made sense as she was an infiltration model and attractive, and therefore would be equipped to use sex as well as more painful methods to get what she wanted from a human.
She was rather good at it, she wrapped herself around me as much as possible without hurting me, and made all the right noises as I kept fucking her until I filled her cunt with my seed.
It was sometime later after I'd rolled off Cameron that I saw Fred's face looking down at me.
"So are we going to watch a movie tonight?" she asked.
That would involve me getting up so it was going to have to wait a while.
The Crystal Caves. Dantooine.
While waiting for Ahsoka Tano to decide if she was going to take me up on my offer or not I'd been happy to give her some space as well as time to think. As such, I hadn't been expecting her to come to me with a request, one that could be some sort of test of my ability to aid the rebellion in the future as I'd promised. Not that this was just some test, as I could tell that the request she'd made was important to her personally.
The former Padawan had come to me wanting my aid in locating some crystals suitable for the use as part of a lightsaber, two sabres in fact. Ahsoka had been to the ice world of Illum more than once and could have gotten a suitable crystal or two from that world as she had done before, but she was sure that the Empire would have seized control of the planet if only to stop any surviving Jedi from collecting crystals.
While the Jedi Order of Ahsoka's time only gathered crystals from Illum, at least as far as Ahsoka knew, however, it was far from the only place a Force-Sensitive being could go to when he or she needed a suitable crystal for their sabres. That was why I'd brought us to the farming planet of Dantooine.
I was mildly surprised at how easy a time Ashoka Tano and I had in finding the caves. Of course, it helped that she had The Force to guide us and I had some decent scanning equipment, but still searching an entire planet for one cave system was something that should have taken longer. Perhaps the cave wanted to be found or maybe it had to do with how many hours I'd spent playing KOTOR II.
The Crystal Cave was located somewhere southeast of the capital city of Dantooine. Khoonda still existed, granted it was a much larger city in this version of the Star Wars galaxy at this point in history, yet it was still the capital and more importantly, it had the same name so that had helped narrow the search quite a bit.
According to the information I got from the Internet while visiting what I would consider a modern world, the Jedi Order discovered the caves that Ahsoka and I were now visiting back when Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas established the Jedi Enclave not too far from here.
In Ahsoka's time, the Jedi only had one real headquarters, that of the Jedi Temple on Courscant. That was a mistake as it made it harder for the Jedi to separate their order, in even part, from the leadership of the Republic.
Sadly, The Enclave had been bombed to rubble by Darth Malak thousands of years ago and the Jedi were gone, however, this world was still strong with The Force if Ahsoka's judgement could be trusted and I saw no reason to doubt her.
After the Enclave was set up the Jedi Order was given sole access to the world's wealth of precious crystals, which were vital to the construction of the Order's lightsabers. Among the naturally occurring crystal structures were the rare Adegan crystals, once believed to only grow on Adega, which produced blue, green and yellow variations.
While I knew that both Revan and the Jedi Exile had once been in this very place if Ahsoka felt any trace of them then she didn't mention it. They had both been dead for thousands of years so that was to be expected. Still, it was interesting to think that such important figures of history could have walked where I was walking.
"I can sense something," Ahsoka let me know "Are we nearly there?".
Rather than reply, I let the central chamber of the crystal cave answer for me, once she saw the place she didn't need an answer.
"You wanted crystals here are some crystals," I said "I bet at least one of them will respond to you".
This cave offered crystals in many colours and in the past different coloured lightsaber crystals were used to indicate a Jedi's chosen class. Blue indicated a Jedi Guardian, a Jedi who used the Force on a more physical level, a warrior in truth. Green indicated a Jedi Consular, a Jedi who preferred to reflect on the mysteries of the Force and fight the dark side at its heart. Yellow indicated a Jedi Sentinel, a Jedi who honed his or her skills in a balance of combat and scholarly pursuits.
There was nothing stopping a Jedi from having a purple-bladed lightsaber or any colour other than red as they were only used by Sith as far as I knew, and there were a few other places where a Jedi could find the right crystals.
Having a variety of different coloured blades was something that fell out of practice in later years, and more modern Jedi, those seen in the movies, nearly always used blue or green crystals that came from the Ilum caves. Purple, yellow, and orange crystals were still used by some Jedi until the fall of the Jedi Order at the time of the prequels, but they were exceedingly rare as uniformity was encouraged among the Jedi.
To me, that was a sign of how stagnated the Jedi Order had become by the Clone Wars as while each lightsaber was still unique due to the range of different materials used during construction, they forced every student to come here rather than seek out other places in the galaxy.
"If none of the crystals here calls to you then there are other places we can try," I told the alien babe.
She turned to look at me.
"You know even more places where we can find crystals," she asked.
I'd done my research.
"There is the Adega system," I said to Ahsoka "We can go there if you can't get what you need here".
That system was located in the Auril sector of the Outer Rim Territories, it was once a major centre for Jedi activities according to the gatekeeper of the Tedryn Holocron. Again its abandonment was a sign of the Jedi Order's failing. They were so focused on maintaining the Republic that they kept nearly all their operations on Courscant, a world that was not strong in the light side of the Force.
"I always wanted a lightsabre" I commented.
Ahsoka patted me on the arm.
"Without the proper training and a connection to The Force, you'd be more likely to injure yourself than anyone else if you tried to use a sabre" she stated.
There were exceptions to that rule, but I knew that they were few and far between.
"I do have psychic abilities" I pointed out "I might be able to use a sabre even if it's not very well".
Ahsoka considered my words.
"I can always take you through the basics with training sabres" she offered.
Some combat training would be a good idea.
"I'll leave you to find your crystals," I said before leaving her to it.
She might be a while I needed to make sure that no one interrupted her.
