Noventa - A Star Wars Story

Sharn dusted off his sleeves and pressed the button releasing the hydraulic lift of the freighter's ramp, expecting a guest to come aboard.

A woman had arrived at the ramp, skin nearly at the opposite end of the color spectrum from his own. She looked tired. When the ramp lowered, she mounted it confidently at least, soon in front of him. "Hello, Sharn."

"Good evening." He looked at her before stepping to the side so that she could pass through into the cargo load. There was a lot of new equipment and a battered starfighter inside, something she hadn't seen before. "Are you neglecting sleep?" He, on the other hand, didn't look particularly tired or traumatised. Maybe a bit more solemn and watchful, though still projecting excessive self-confidence.

"Less neglecting and more disrupted by Mr. I'm-hot-shit making sure everyone knows he's up and about," she complained with a bit of annoyance.

"He seemed to be treating you affably, having once served your kin." Sharn mused. "Aren't you worrying too much about this? What is the worst thing that can happen with him out in the open?" He asked rhetorically as they walked, himself having his own answers.

"Well, the last Sith Lord we dealt with had relatively mundane ambitions and we got the Empire," she pointed out, then sighed. "I'm just... I don't know. I don't think it'll go well for other people and I feel guilty, I guess."

"Don't excruciate yourself. If anything, it's a rare chance for you to find yourself among these new circumstances. A True Sith, hmmm?" He looked at her with a measure of multifactorial intensity.

"You think so? I guess I shouldn't tear myself up about it... it's not like it'll improve matters." She shook her head and sighed, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. Or one mixed with a human, anyway. What that means... I don't really know. I guess it's something to learn about from..."

"This galaxy's collective amnesia unnerves me. A chance like this to look 20 millenia back is a unique opportunity." He nodded. "It is likely that a greater clarity of purpose is in your grasp once you've learned more about your genetic and memetic makeup."

She smiled at Sharn. "You always help make things clearer. I'm too emotional sometimes."

For some reason this drew a gentler smile out of him that was there just for a second of stealing her glance before the deadpan mask returned.

"One reason for this might be that some sub-particles that make you and me up are quantum-entangled and form a single extra dimensional wave-function that collapses only when we choose to... consider it. When something shifts in me, something shifts in you..." He sighed. "Or it may just be the magnetism of my brain that reassures you. Either way, it's good that it does. Clarity is important."

"Or you might just be easing the cognitive dissonance that comes from wanting to think well of myself but then going and releasing a massively powerful Dark Side being for the sake of satisfying my own curiosity," she said, chuckling a little. "In any case, I guess I shouldn't knock it. It works. I'm glad you're here."

"Stay with me as long as you need then. My psychological and biochemical processes are not indifferent to your presence either." He said after swallowing, just as they were entering common area from the cargo load, just past the nooks of the engines. "Caf?"

"Yeah, please," she agreed, flopping down into a seat.

He went about preparing the caf for them both. "The question remains how we can meaningfully benefit from his release."

"Yeah... I mean, he clearly has a ton of knowledge and power, and he might be willing to share, though I'm more focused on the former."

"So we're like-minded on this." He mused, then tapped the table with his finger for a moment of pause. "Have you noticed any changes in yourself ever since our joint quest to free him began?"

"Myself? No, not really. Still the same Runi," she replied curiously. "Have you?"

"I may have, in how I perceive and attribute value. With greater consequence, I suppose. It may be an enhancement, though it's too early to tell." He patted the table. "It's about the shift, from subatomic to astronomic, when you look at things. It has become more seamless for me, to zoom in and zoom out. Along the long spectrum for sapience to exist at this particular level of aggregation, measured in centimetres and kilograms, is quite peculiar. Our complexity increases the risk of failure of functions, but also can bypass those failures to an extent, through non-conscious mitotic regeneration, conscious meiotic reproduction and conscious technological augmentation." He chuckled. "It may all be about breeding and starships that makes us favoured medichlorian hosts."

She chuckled at his summary. "I like that. You could also put it as, 'it's all about the fucking lasers'," she replied, grinning warmly. "Still, I see what you're saying. The Force affects living and nonliving matter, so the former being able to use the latter creatively is probably relevant."