Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

Finally

She had done as much as she could

Now she could relax and do what she loved best: thinker herself out to sleep...except she had beeped Daz to tell him to come. She thought she had given him a long leash so far, keeping an eye out from afar but they might need to rethink this.

Meanwhile she cleaned her bench and got ready to create

Force cybernetics 1 (day 4 EE: creation, daunting, Master artificer, inventor, r5 aid, manipulate, bench: 2eA+3eP+3eD+2eB+2eF 6 successes, 1 Triumph, 1 Light Side, 1 Dark Side
Light side used for a success.

Total: 11 successes on 15

Daz entered and said, "Master, how are things?"

''Tense'' she smiled with a smile regardless, her hands working on the workbench to mold metals ''How about you Daz? What do you think of your time on Alderaan so far?''

"Very busy, but hopefully doing some good for the people," he responded. "Just trying to help where I can to keep the peace."

''That's what is important...this place is under high tension.'' she frowned and took a pause ''I did talk to you about the Star Cabal, right?''

"Vaguely, something, something evil dudes doing evil stuff?" he responded.

''A cult like conspiracy that seeks to destroy both Jedi and Sith. It seems they are currently active on Alderaan...and are actively plotting something.'' She closed her eyes and drummed her finger on the edge of the workbench.

''We already have a volatile situation and these terrorist come to play. I swear...we just don't have enough to do.''

She shakes her head

''Regardless we will need to be careful from now on...especially you since you are fairly visible on your stream.''

"Of course Master, I will use caution," Daz responded. "What's the plan?"

She whistled

''First: wear the armor jacket I made you...It looks great and is pretty solid. Second: get speed...even if they try to get you it's useless if they can't catch you. Maybe you can craft yourself an overboard? I will assist you if you choose that route''

She paused

''But seriously...I would like to have a clear one but that might not be possible. The three likely pieces they will try to move are Houses Thul, Ulgo and Panteer. I am sure they wish for some confrontation between them...the explosion in the Spaceport might have been their work. I have spoken with Duke Ulgo but how far my words reached I cannot know. There is also the Black tooth and Killik situation.''

"Where are we at on the killiks?" he asked.

''The stolen vase has been recovery and is being studied. I await the result. The Black Hound is dead so we may have a way to negotiate with the nearest killik hive. I reverse engineered the weapon used against them two days ago and fixed the problem so we have that in our back pocket. We also studied the corpses of the dead hive...the data is very interesting.''

She showed him what had been found so far

"Whizz, so what are we doing to reach the killiks? They don't seem to think like us," he responded.

''Yeah, they have good reasons to. We are the invasive species after all...and as alien to their eyes as they are to ours.''

She paused

''Still Galen managed to have and exchange with them and the Black Hound was troubling them too... maybe we can exchange a conversation? They do think collectively but are not stupid so we might have shared interests.'' She leaned back ''The vases could reveal something more but right now studying our the joining work could also give us another path.''

She paused

''I'd rather talk first''

"Well if we can find some way for them to coexist, let's do it."

''There is a lot of prejudice...possibly on both sides...but it can be done I am sure'' she inhaled ''We just need to find a way for each party to communicate properly...despite how alien they are to each other. If we can convince the hives to have joiners retain their individuality it could help bridge the gap''

"Is that possible? I don't really know what that joining thing entails," he asked.

''As of now...it might not be. I do not know how the process works either or if they control it.'' She mused ''But the joining must have a use for the hive. Our personalities are made from our memories and experiences...if these are absorbed by the hive then it become a little more like the joiner?''

"Maybe, we really don't know anything about that do we?" he asked. "That's a hell of a leap, Master."

''Not as much as your think. I have touched the hive mind and it was...something I can hardly describe...but the hivemind is a communal thing. Like if all of it's parts made it.''

She paused

''And I met a man today who affirmed that the killiks were spacefaring, once''

“Hives in space?” he responded. “Well even so, these hiveminds are… unpredictable, master.”