Noventa - A Star Wars Story

"Once I learn more myself." Sharn said. "Because I will. What I have learned so far is that in his age an empire of the species called the True Sith existed, one that gave rise to their own way in the Force and practiced slavery, and he served as their human seneschal."

"Alright, but I'd like to hear more about him at some point."

"I wasn't metaphorical, Sy. This below is the Force at work. A Force-powerful being calling himself Lord Nygmus from 20 millenia ago has reincarnated." Sharn had a rare moment of empathy when he reached out and gently squeezed Zygy's shoulder. "He and I have some rapport, so you shouldn't worry too much."

"What does that mean?" She looked at him with a mixture of confusion and concern.

"Indeed. Like awakening an ancient Sith Lord." Sharn added observing both curiously.

"I'd suspect that the entirety of the story had more to do with something found on planet. We don't have anything on the ship that could generate the type of power necessary to alter weather patterns," Farkas said, apparently not doubting that he might have something to do with the storms.

"Hungrier." He repeated, mulling it. "I have indeed been more desirous and driven, and holding back less. I suppose I am tired of squandering my time on trying to reach my goals and do the actual accomplishing. The factory situation has been a major irritant.

He paused." But there may be more to it. What if I told you the storm below is of my doing?"

"Hmmm?" she looked over. "You've definitely been acting differently. But, I've just assumed you were hungrier than usual."

"Hmm, so callous, unempathetic, disrespectful and petty." Sharn tapped his chin, thoughtful. "Thank you for your feedback, Farkas, it may come useful in my auto-diagnosis." He stretched. "As for your personal concerns related to my sense of humour, you will have none of it if you don't know how to appreciate it. If it is my levity on one scale and our cooperation on the other, I choose to be grim. Lo and behold, I've made a considerate sacrifice. Though out of cost-benefit calculation rather than caring about your feelings. And for the record, I find it hard to recall when I belittled your work. You must have miscomprehended."

He stretched. "And Sy can speak her mind whenever she likes. Sy?"

"Yes, you're behavior has been different. I suspect that you're going through some sort of rutting cycle or something. You've always had a dominant personality, but if you continue to insist on treating me like a butler rather than a colleague then the Strange Charm will be down a slicer. Our collaboration will not be based on whether I make you breakfast and petty plays like that are disrespectful to my contributions. Keep it up and I'll ghost this planet without you just like we ghosted Kuat," Farkas says calmly.

He then holds up a finger, "And before you respond to that, you may want to ask Syzygy her opinion on the matter. I'd hate for you to say something that would represent a unilateral decision that resulted in me leaving if she didn't agree with it. As much as I appreciate both of your talents, I don't really need to stay on this ship to make a living. I'm here because I believe in the prospect of a future with us working together. If you want to try and find someone as good with artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and slicing as I am then please continue the disrespect."

The balding slicer didn't seem angry or put off. He was just stating his case and pointing out his position.

"Excellent. Then I'll aid you with your pet projects tomorrow and the day after." Sharn chuckled. He then pondered something. "A query. Have I been behaving differently over the last week?"

"I'll make your breakfast when it is my turn to make breakfast Sharn. Which means tomorrow and the day after," Farkas replies.

"Unless Farkas repackages it, this one is more like a flight company." Sharn shrugged. "I have no particular interest in it either way. Besides, I won't do anything about any droid business until Farkas relents and makes me breakfast. But as he says, the point may be moot.'

"I wouldn't mind having a droid around." Syzygy said. "Droids were some of my best friends when I was little."

"Likely. And smiliarly, if this droid starfighter had been firing on us I would have gladly sliced into it and ejected it's droid brain into the debris field like with the cloakfighter," Farkas replies with a shrug. "Context and risk make all the difference. Being out here so long though, there may not be a synthetic mind left. How many ion fields, electro-magnetic pulses and solar events has it endured in the years of it's inactivity? It may need an entirely new mind created. I'll investigate and find out. The hardware might not even be viable for that anymore. I'll do an accounting of it, but not here. I don't want to activate a droid starfighter of unknown disposition inside our cargo bay."

"Ah, my callousness about synths showing once again." Sharn chuckled. "I wonder whether you would be similarly appalled if I started to treat organic sentience with the same casual disregard."

"I'll have to look it over. See if it's droid brain is intact and figure out what to do from there," Farkas says. "If it's still got a mind and is simply in self-stasis then this was more rescue than salvage."

"It looks like you have lucked out, Farkas." Sharn appraised the find after it had been hauled into the hangar and the space had been repressurised. "I see benefits of both fixing and reprogramming, and cannibalising."

It was an excellent haul to be sure.

But there was something out there. Something that didn't seem valuable, at first. But it kept pinging the sensors. Once brought on board...

It was hard to believe something like this could survive for so long, without being damaged by the debris, yet here it was.

An inert, yet relatively unscathed, CIS Droid Tri-Fighter. While it seemed to have launched most of it's salvo, there was one buzz droid missile left, inactive.

"Hopefully something good," Farkas responds to Syzygy.