Chapter 38: The Inventor over Yavin
Hey guys. Decided I needed a little week off again last week so sorry for the delay. I probably mentioned I may occasionally do that so if you don't see a new chapter by Thursday at the latest you can expect it the week after. Also I noticed a few errors I made last time such as the gold credit chips at one point saying eighty instead of eight. If you guys spot any errors I will appreciate it if you include those in your review so I can correct when I can. Now, into the story.
The Ebon Hawk eventually came up to the station that had been highlighted by Davak on the ship's navicomputer. It docked with the station and Calak headed out with the others. They were in a long hallway that connected their craft to the station. They made their way through the hallways which were a dirty shade of brown. At least that was just the color and this place was relatively clean.
There were several doors, the first couple opened and slid upwards when they touched a button. But the final one was locked. This must have led into the main station.
Then a voice spoke over an intercom at the door.
"Who are you?" It spoke in the Rodian language.
"I'm Calak Star," Calak said. "And this is my crew."
He gestured to the rest of his group.
"You don't look like you're with the exchange, but unless I'm mistaken your ship belongs to Davak?" the Rodian said.
Calak frowned. Did this guy not know about Taris's destruction? He must not get out much or receive any word from the rest of the galaxy.
"It did," Calak said. "But Davak's dead, and now I have his ship. And no, I'm not with the Exchange. I'm with the Republic."
This surprised the Rodian. "The Republic, heh? They haven't been out here in years. I don't know why they would start now? But I have no problem with the Republic. Hang on, I'll be right there."
They waited a moment soon the door opened revealing their host was indeed one of the green skinned buglike Rodians.
"Well, don't get many humans here," the Rodian said as he looked at them. "My name is Suvam Tan."
"You must work for the inventor on this station I heard about on my ship's navicomputer?" Calak asked.
"I AM the inventor," Suvam said. "Also I'm the only being to live in this station, besides the gizka."
They saw a few of the reptilian frog like aliens hopping around.
"Uh, we just had to get rid of a whole bunch of those pests on our ship," Carth said.
"Oh, come on they weren't so bad," Mission said. "At least when there's only a few of them."
"Well, that aside… how can I help you?" Suvam said.
"We were hoping you might be able to make or sell us some arms and armor," Calak said.
"Oh definitely!" Suvam said. "I pay people massive amounts of credits to give me any weapons they have so I can take them apart and build something new and better from them. But I charge much more to sell."
Credits weren't much of an issue, unless he happened to charge tens of thousands for everything.
"Well, could you make us some armor that would fit me out of this?" Canderous asked as he presented the remains of Calo Nord's battle armor.
Suvam took it. "Wow, this is exceptionally high quality. Durasteel, Mandalorian Iron. This will be a bit trick but I think I can manage to make a suit like this. It will take a bit of time, which means I will likely have to get my forge droid working immediately."
Canderous went to the forge area of the station that made the armor and weapons Suvam sold. Calak and the others meanwhile looked at what else was offered in the station. There were indeed some fine looking pieces of armor and other weapons. Nothing very small though, all the weapons were rifles.
"Too big for my taste," Mission said as she picked up a blaster.
"Sorry, I don't find pistols to be to my liking on the inventing table," Suvam said. "Their components are fewer and smaller. But you look like the stealthy kind of girl. I do have some advanced stealth generators and armor that will muffle your movement further."
He gestured to a white, red and black suit.
"It also offers some pretty decent protection against standard weapons," Suvam said.
He picked up a blaster rifle that didn't seem to have any modifications and shot at the armor which barely got a scorch mark from it. Mission smiled.
"Finally, maybe I won't be the one who ends up being the easiest to take down!" she said.
She put on one of the spare suits that wasn't used for target practice as well as the stealth field generator that came with it. She vanished from view and moved around. They listened and heard nothing for a while then-
"Boo!" she said as she came out from behind her stealth field right in front of Carth.
"Aah!" he yelled. "Wow, that's the best stealth gear I've even seen."
Calak smirked. "Ha, I knew where you were the whole time, Mission."
"You maybe able to fool our eyes but you can't take away your presence in the force," Bastila said.
"Cheaters," Mission said. "Say you ever use the force for fun? Like trip some jerk that's bugging you at a cantina?"
"I would never use the force for such petty and childish revenge," Bastila said.
"Childish? Is that supposed to be a crack about my age?" Mission asked irritably. "You aren't that much older than me little miss high and mighty! Just because you have the force doesn't give the right to be stuck up!"
"I am not stuck up," Bastila retorted her calm exterior barely hiding her irritation which was clear in her eyes. "I merely have the years of training to show me how petty and trivial such an act would be."
"Oh, come on! There's got to be times when you've thought about it," Mission pressed.
Bastila suddenly clutched her hand as though grabbing something and Mission's feet came out from under as though she slipped.
"What the?" Twi'lek exclaimed before rounding on the female human Jedi. "Hey, that wasn't funny!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Bastila said barely containing her laugher. "But I suggest you be less clumsy in the future!"
"Yeah, we wouldn't you to trip and knock something over while you're scouting enemy territory for us," Juhani said.
"You want some real fun with the force, Mission?" Calak asked. "How about this?"
He raised his hand and Mission squealed in surprise as she was lifted off the ground as though someone had turned off the gravity holding her down to the floor of the station. She spun around in midair and went from one side of the station to the other as Calak's hand moved as well. Soon she got over the surprise and started laughing.
"Now this is fun!" Mission said.
Calak grinned and lowered his hand, causing Mission to fall to the floor. She got to her feet, rubbing the part she fell on as the others laughed.
"Well, I think we'll take that armor and advanced generator," Calak said.
Suvam nodded as he recovered from his own amusement.
"You are certainly much more pleasant company then my usual customers. Trandoshans, leh!"
Calak hadn't seen Trandoshans in a while, they were orange skinned lizard-like aliens that were often bounty hunters and mercenaries. Their society was based on hunting and killing. They weren't exactly known for their manners and friendliness.
"Glad to have your approval," Calak said.
They headed to the forge area where a few droids had gathered materials and were now crafting something hot and red out of metals. Canderous was watching eagerly.
"Seems the droids have fitted the exact size of armor for your friend and are reforging the armor to be the right size," Suvam said. "It should be ready in a few hours."
They played pazaak to pass the time. Good thing there were many of them to play since Suvam did not play cheap. He put three thousand credits on the tab which would cause a dent in all their accounts since they shared the credits in their crew.
They drew their first yellow card each. They had to get the highest number they could that was less then or equal to twenty. But if they went over that number, they lost the round. But as long as one of them managed that against Suvam they'd be good.
Unfortnately for the crew of the Ebon Hawk, most of the decks they had were the basic kind that only had positive numbers. More advanced decks had negative numbers as well that could cause their total to go down. The best decks though, were the kind that had two sides with both positive and negative. Fortunately for the crew, both Mission and Calak had these ace cards up their sleeves. They kept their four randomly personal cards in hand while drawing the yellow ones from the main deck. The others were unfortunately rather rigged to lose with the guest cards. They went over the limit or stopped.
It was all down to Mission and Calak. Suvam had already gotten to twenty in the first two rounds by drawing two tens. He sure was lucky. Perhaps he'd cheated by selecting deck that was rigged in the right order for this number of people? But Calak couldn't prove it. Still, they still had a chance or at least he and Mission did. He was currently at fourteen with a few small numbered cards in hand. He had a six, which he could use to tie with Suvam if this were a one on one play. But since he was working with a team, if he and another player on his side got twenty they would win. He drew the positive six card.
"Twenty!" he proclaimed.
Mission smirked as she drew a yellow card then inserted one of her personal cards as well. "Twenty!"
"Alright, good job!" Suvam praised. "But remember you have to win three rounds!"
They continued playing and eventually…
"We win!" Calak declared.
Suvam handed them the three gold thousand credit chips. They did a couple more rounds with Suvam taking them back, but they won them back and then got another three. Suvam managed to win part of them back but lost again and… again.
Suvam sighed as he'd just lost nine thousand credits. "You all make quite a formidable team."
He'd lost the final round to Bastila who by sheer luck had gotten a perfect twenty while he only had nineteen. They then had dinner and then headed back to their ship to rest while the armor continued being forged through the night.
Calak, Bastila and Juhani all practiced their lightsaber and force skills. Carth and the others set their weapons to stun and shot at them. Good thing the stun shots weren't powerful enough to do damage inside the ship. The two blue blades from Calak and Juhani as well as Bastila's twin yellows deflected the bolts as long as they could. They took turns one at a time with Calak deflecting until he was hit.
The newest Jedi fell to the floor of the ship and awoke to find Bastila leaning over him.
"You're alright, Calak," she told her fellow Jedi. "You lasted two minutes."
"That's good, I guess," Calak said.
"Well let's see how long I last!" Juhani said.
Calak and Juhani moved out of the garage's center and left Juhani to face the incoming volley. She lit her blue blade and the stun blasters came at her. This continued for a total of…
Juhani was hit and then revived soon after words.
"Forty-six seconds," Bastila said.
Juhani sighed. "I just can't seem to last as long as you Calak."
"You're a more aggressive fighter," Calak said. "I almost got overwhelmed during our first fight."
She managed a smile at that praise, but he could feel her regret at that encounter.
"Its all in the past now," Calak assured her.
Juhani nodded.
"Ah man I'll need to recharge my energy cell pretty soon," Carth said as he checked the glowing ammo indicator on his pistol. "Good thing with stuns I can do over two hundred shots."
He removed the current energy cell and brought out his spare. Bastila went next and managed to last for a minute and a half.
Juhani looked at Calak. "Would you mind practicing Soresu with me?"
Calak nodded. "Sure, but I'm not exactly a master of it."
"You are the best user out of it all of us though," Bastila said.
And so, the two blue blades moved back and forth, not striking but pure blocking. That was what Soresu was, the all-defensive form. Only striking when they saw an opening. This had saved Calak's life more times than he could remember from both blaster fire and other attacks since he'd become a Jedi. Of all the forms he'd practiced in his pursuit of the sixth form Niman, this was perhaps the one he relied on most, with the others as support. Of course, a true master of Niman knew how to use almost all the preceding forms to their fullest extent. Calak felt he had a good foundation but he was not a master of any of the forms… yet. Though unless this war dragged on for years, he doubted he would ever be… unless he remained with the Jedi. Calak wasn't sure. Maybe he'd leave after the war was done and live in peace somewhere.
He and Juhani guarded themselves from the left, then from the right. Up top, down low. Then they practiced defending against each other with their lightsabers on a lower level of power that would only sting if they made contact with each other rather then cut each other's limbs off. The two blue blades clashed against one another. As they did so, Calak somewhat wished he or Juhani had a different color, he didn't want to have the same color as someone in his team. Of course, blue, yellow, or any colored lightsaber would get the job done. But maybe if he found another crystal he liked he'd consider changing it. Though he didn't want to go red as that was the color of the Sith.
For a while Juhani managed to last without getting a hit and actually managed to penetrate Calak's defenses with a quick feint. He yelped as the weakened lightsaber blade grazed his shoulder. A bit of anger lit up in Calak at this but his discipline allowed him to put it aside.
"Got me," he said, accepting the defeat.
They resumed and eventually Calak blocked her strike then saw her overextend, he brought his blade back around and caught her on the hip. Her blade was too far out for her to get to the other side in time.
"Got to keep things tight," he said, repeating words Master Zhar had once told him when he made the same mistake. "Can't let yourself be open for your enemy to get in."
They continued, by the end Juhani had made a bit of an improvement in her defenses. Mission had likewise improved her proficiency with blasters, being more accurate than she used to and even learning a bit of hand to hand from Carth. They all sighed in exhaustion after their various training and climbed into bed.
When they boarded the station again, Suvam had the new armor brought out. It was primarily silver with a bit of purple on the chest and legs as well as black sleeves.
"This is one of the best armors I daresay I ever made," the Rodian said. "Whoever made this was a genius."
Calak had a feeling that Calo might have killed the man who made his armor, given his homicidal tendencies to murder people for the slightest reason such as trying to talk to him. The galaxy would definitely be better off without that bounty hunter running around it.
Suvam then told them the price, which was very high. Thanks to the additional nine thousand credits they'd gotten from the pazaak games though, they had enough to cover the expenses with a bit to spare. Hopefully when they got to Kashyyyk they'd have another high paying job. But Calak just hoped it was ethical. That might not the case though since he knew Kashyyyk was controlled by Czerka right now and the wookies were being rounded up for slave labor.
"Pleasure having you aboard," Suvam said. "I hope you'll come back soon."
"We'll definitely consider it," Calak said. "These weapons of yours could really help us against Darth Malak."
"Darth Malak? Never heard of him," Suvam said.
"Whoa, you are isolated out here," Carth said. "He's the Dark Lord of the Sith been giving us trouble in the Republic for over four years now."
"A new Dark Lord, is he?" Suvam asked. "I remember when Exar Kun tried to conquer the galaxy, it was on this very moon."
He pointed out of the viewport to the orange planet of Yavin nearby.
"I was young when that happened," Suvam continued. "I've stayed here for a long time to stay away from the troubles of the bigger galaxy."
"That seems like a nice life," Bastila said.
"Sounds boring to me," Canderous said, carrying his new armor. "But thanks for the armor."
"You're welcome. Good luck to you," Suvam said.
"Thanks. Hope to see you again," Calak said.
They got back on the Ebon Hawk.
"Well, lets go," Calak said.
"Coordinates for Kashykk set," Carth said.
They detached from the Yavin Station and turned in the direction of the hyperspace route.
"And hit!" Carth called as Bastila pulled the hyperspace lever.
They yet again went into hyperspace, vanishing into the seemingly endless void of space. Light shined through their cockpit as they headed toward their next destination. The Wookie Homeworld. They still had a week before Griff had to have the Tach Gland for the Tarisian ale. They'd have to find that, as well as the Star Map if possible.
Hopefully this would be better then the last few planets, but Calak doubted. Trouble just seemed to follow them or be waiting for them wherever they went. No rest for the wicked, or the saviors of the galaxy, it seemed.
Zalbaar in particular was uneasy as he knew they were going to his home. He just hoped that his father had learned the truth in the years since he'd been gone.
…
On the forest planet, a certain wookie looked up at the giant trees in a dark area.
"Oh, my son. Why did I not listen to you?" the wookie growled in his language.