Libraries Have Magic

[J3C0]

Mierin sat within the great library of Coruscant, a thing that had remained marginally untouched even throughout the Gulag Plague.

The massive facility was many square kilometers inside and the vast mountains of data that were stored within had amazed her upon her first venture here. She had been surprised by the sheer volume of the stacks of datapads and the massive amount of knowledge that had been collected here over the centuries. Even after the plague the librarians here had begun to regather hundreds upon hundreds of petabytes of data, beautiful amounts of knowledge that were hard to even Fathom.

In Mierins age such a thing had been impossible. Great store of knowledge had been made of scrolls and tablets, ancient texts that had held knowledge of the force and power. This however, this was something completely different. The vast knowledge of the Coruscant Library were almost limitless. Thousands of datapads containing fiction novels, non-fiction books based on cooking, learning, slicing, ships, and a million other things that Mierin could not even begin to list.

This was where Mierin spent her off days.

Within this vast storehouse of Knowledge Mierin explored and went rampant. She searched through data-catalogs, storehouses and anything else that she could get her hands it.

It was fitting for the once Queen of Athiss to be here. Fitting to find what she wanted and searched for in this place. Today she looked upon the designs of ancient ships pasts. Venators and Lucrehulks, vessels that the galaxy would now call ancient Hulks.

 

[J3C0]

She moved through the catalogs and databases as though it were a job. To her, the study of what was now deemed “ancient” was entirely new and fascinating. When the Clone Wars had occurred, or even the battles of Revan and the Mandalorians, thousands of years had passed already from when she was born. The reading of the legends of both Sith and Jedi was absolutely fascinating, and what little fragments remained that had been purged during the Gulag plague were truly interesting.

What she found most interesting of all were the designs of ships.

Vessels considered old and venerable were entirely new and interesting to her. The Imperial Ships of old especially had a sort of design to them that she found pleasing to the eye. Shaped like triangles and edges they seemed to be grand and intimidating, holding to sign of weakness or even give in their general aesthetics. As she came upon picture of the Imperial Star Destroyers she smiled.

They were familiar to her.

Unsurprisingly it had been a Star Destroyer that had found her floating in the middle of unknown space between Ziost and Athiss. It had been one of those massive and venerable vessels that had found her meager Derriphan and had taken her aboard. She still remembered the feeling of utter astonishment she had felt when she first laid eyes upon the vessel, its massive structure and form looming over her own command ship like some great titan.

How naïve she had been then.

 

[J3C0]

Mierin kept scrolling through the mounds of data on ships. Each time she discovered something new she smiled, though she lingered on those vessels that she recognized.

The one she stayed on the longest was The Imperial Star Destroyer MK II. The vessel that had rescued her and the one that was so iconic throughout the entire galaxy. It was an interesting thing really, how the ship had come into being. It was not only designed as a warship, but as a thing of occupation and fear. The Star Destroyer had meant to be iconic, much like the Dark Blades had meant to be a symbol of the One Sith.

That thought made her smile, and then flip the page.

The next entry was on the predecessor of the Imperial Star Destroyer, or perhaps its cousin. The Victory MK I Star Destroyer, a smaller and lighter version of the Imperial Star Destroyer that had been built during the closing years of the Clone Wars. The ship had been meant for atmospheric flight as well as space to space combat.

It marveled the Sith Pureblood that this vessel had been meant as a support ship and not a vessel of direct combat. Sure it had been used to fight pirates and defense forces, but in the world of the Galactic Empire the Victory MK I had not been a true Hands on Fighting vessel as it was only eight hundred meters long. Mierin shook her head in marvel as she read that blurb on the page, smiling as she thought of what she had once known as the largest ship in the Ancient Empire.

 

[J3C0]

Another page, and this time her eyes opened to something that she had never seen before.

The picture on the page now open on the datapad was of a vessel in comparison to a normal sized Star Destroyer. The huge mass of ship was almost ten times in size compared to a regular Imperial Star Destroyer, and it seemed to loom over everything in another photo displayed. Mierin's eyes opened wide and her mouth hug ajar as she tried to wrap her head around the immensity of the ship picture. She flipped another page, and found a holo-display of the vessel.

She clicked it, and the datapad began to display a holo-image of the huge Starship. For a time it simply spun in place, and then another image began to pop up next to it.

Vessels ranging in all sizes began to display next to the Super Star Destroyer, all of them set to scale as a comparison to show just how big the huge vessel was. Mierin watched in awe for a moment, before finally shutting down the holo-projector and turning the page. There she read the blurb about the Super Star Destroyer, known as the Executor class.

Mierin read in wonderment, her mouth becoming agape once again as she saw the lengthy dimensions of the marvelous vessel, nineteen thousand meters. The immensity of it seemed to boggle her mind, and for a moment Mierin simply sat dumbfounded.

 

[J3C0]

For a moment she simply read about the Executor Class Star Destroyer, absorbing all that she could until finally she turned the page away from the massive vessel and shook her head. The idea was impractical all together. She herself preferred smaller ships, that was why in part the Black Blades were in fact only about two thirds the size of Star Destroyers. The vessels had the firepower of ships several times the size of regular cruisers, and their size made them immensely more mobile than anything larger.

It was amazing that the Old Empire had thought that bigger, meant better.

Then again perhaps for them it had not been about strength, but intimidation. If they could induce fear within the populace then there was no need to ever fight wars. She did not know if this was their thinking, but it was likely. Her lips pursed slightly, and she flipped the page to the next entry. This time it was about a smaller vessel, something called a Venator.

Another Star Destroyer.

She let out a sight and leaned back in her chair, relaxing slightly. She picked up the datapad and placed it into a stack of things that she deemed “useless”. She was sick of reading about Star Destroyer and other such things. Was there nothing more interesting within this collection?

Slowly Mierin stood, beginning to peruse the section of Data behind her.

 

[J3C0]

Her eyes drifted over volume after volume, hundreds upon hundreds of labels of ships, catalogs and other useless things that she had no interest in. What she had just read had been a compendium, a book that had listed a great many ships. What she searched for now was a similar thing, but for..smaller craft.

Star Destroyers were all well and good, but they were...boring.

Mierin had already created one of the greatest Light Star Destroyer the galaxy had ever seen. More heavily armed than an Imperial Star Destroyer and only slightly larger than the great Harrowers of the so called Golden Years of the Sith. She rolled her eyes at that thought, Golden Years. She knew the true glory of the Sith had been during her age, when the Sith had practiced their craft at will and used dark forced to subjugate entire star systems rather than fight petty wars with the Republic.

Another step, another turn into the next section of the library and Mierin was finally able to find what she was looking for. An interesting compendium.

“Stealth Craft&Interceptors”

What a novel concept. Speed over destructive capability, and the need to remain unseen. Her lips pursed slightly, and then split into a smile. With a singly smooth motion Mierin pulled the novel from its place on the shelf and slipped it beneath her arm. Then quickly she made her way back into her favored reading spot in the library.

 

[J3C0]

Taking her book Mierin moved through the library to reach her chair once again, finding a woman there sorting through the stack of her unwanted material. She smiled slightly at the sight of the librarian. The woman was familiar to her, having spent many hours conversing with the nearly ancient librarian. Slowly Mierin walked up behind her, placing a gentle hand upon her shoulder. The Startled woman turned around, jumping slightly and looking at Mierin aghast.

“My god dear! You frightened me half to death!”

Mierin let out a slight chuckle, but then apologized to the aging librarian with a smile. The old woman simply nodded, and then began to stack the datapads that The Pureblood had collected within her arms, spying with one eye what the crimson girl had collected this time. When she noticed the title of the book she seemed to nod to herself and shook her head as though she had confirmed something.

“If you're looking for that sort of thing. We have some schematics from ancient stealth ships.”

The woman chuckled.
“Though I suppose they might not be very stealthy now.”

Mierin pursed her lips slightly. Technology had not progressed far within the last few thousand years, or so she had been told, yet much had been lost during the Gulag Plague. However a stealth ship form nearly two millenia ago would likely be rendered inert by the unique search and destroyer craft that now existed, or even the advanced scanners of some starships. For a split second Mierin pursed her lips, but then she nodded.

“Bring them to me if you would.” Her voice was impassive, though the Librarian was used to that by now.

Nodding the old woman scurried off, leaving The Sith Pureblood to her work while she went and sorted the unwanted books, and gathered the materials Mierin had requested.

 

[J3C0]

Again Mierin began to read. She had always enjoyed reading, even back on Athis when she had been but a child. She had spent years within the great libraries of her father, learning the techniques of the kings of Sith and gaining knowledge at a vast rate. It helped that she remembered almost everything she read, her mind absorbing the knowledge like a sponge. It also helped that she had a keen interest in the subjects she studied.

Her father had told her that if she had wanted, Sith Sorcery would have come as easily to her as collecting pollen came to a bee. Such things had never really challenged her however. The more mystical uses of the force bored her. She had always considered it much more of a challenge to use the force in more...creative ways. The simple aspects of telekinesis, the more challenging techniques of the Darkside like Spear of Midnight Black, and of course the stark unleashing of power that was Force Lightning. These are the things that interested her. The learning and forging of the force through sheer force of will, not mysticism.

This same thing applied to her ideal of gathering technological knowledge now.

The application of technology was key to military victory, a lesson that had been taught to her during her near demise in the Great Hyperspace War. Those that lagged behind, were doomed to be destroyed, and those that did not know history, were doomed to repeat it. So her study here was two fold, one, she sought after the History of the Sith.

And two, the history of technological development in the past.

Both would serve the Dark Lord well.

 

[J3C0]

She began sliding through the book on Interceptors and Stealth Craft and was not surprised to find that the novel began with an interpretation of the Sith Meditation spheres as the first true “Stealth Ships”. This was untrue of course, the ships had been designed to enhance a Sith Lords power in their use of Battle Meditation, but to a layman the small eye like vessels would have seemed like the perfect stealth ship meant to sneak behind enemy lines.

Mierin read for a while, coming upon a dozen or so novel concepts of stealth ships and fast attack craft that ranged from smart, to the just plain weird.

A few times she found herself laughing outloud. The strange designs of some of the interceptors, and even the names of a few of the Stealth ships tickled her greatly. She smiled as she came upon a ship that was designed like a simpler version of the now Famous Tie Fighter. Apparently the vessel had once been used by the Jedi as a strike fighter and their main attack craft. Her lips pursed, and she turned the page just as the librarian showed with a roll of what appeared to be downright ancient documents.

“These are for you dear. These are original and copies of design schematics of ancient Stealth Ships, top secret for their time mind you.”

The woman sounded almost chiding, but Mierin knew her well enough to smile at the comment. “Thank you, Edina.”

The old librarian turned away with a soft smile and a nod for The Sith Pureblood, leaving her to enjoy her research.

She turned another page of the book, and was astounded by what she saw.

 

[J3C0]

The ship she had now stumbled upon that was detailed within this novel written during Krayts Empire had been called the Scimitar. Only one of them had ever been made, used by a Sith Lord whose name was not mentioned within the book. The History of the Ship was, though large parts of it were missing and only its primary manufacturer was listed. Mierins eyes scanned the ship, of which there was only a single picture and a drawing of. It appeared the name of the ship was a Sith Infiltrator.

A smile tugged at her lips.

That name was apt, for it was a stealth Ship made to infiltrate worlds without the Jedi, or anyone else finding out. The thing was utterly perfect, and its design was beautiful. She watched it for a moment, an then read the manufacturer. Republic Sienar Systems. Her lips pursed slightly and she tapped the base of her chin as she began to wonder. That was a corporation that no longer existed, Sienar was a subsidiary of Santhe corporation now, an entirely new entity run by someone that Mierin couldn't currently recall.

For a moment she wondered, and then she looked over to the table.

Reaching for a datapad into the center she looked into the Republic public database for traces of Republic Sienar Systems. There she found that the company had not in fact been bought by Santhe, but had first been dissolved and its assets taken by the Republic Navy, meaning its designs and all of its specs had been taken into the Republic Records, which also meant.

Her eyes opened wide suddenly as she looked to the pile of Ship specifications that lay to her right.

Most often times when governments found their old Ship designs to be obsolete those designs were released into the public eye for use by corporations and other system. This was a simple fact of life, it occurred all the time, though usually it took several decades for this to occur. Luckily for Mierin it had been several hundreds of years since the Scimitar had actually been created.

Slowly she reached over to the pile, searching through tube after tube of rolled up blue-prints until finally she found the one she was hoping for.

After looking through nearly three dozen ship schematics Mierin finally found those for the ancient Sith Infiltrator vessel known as the Scimitar. Her lips turned up into a smile, and her eyes lit up slightly as she realized what she had stumbled upon. The ship was the perfect thing for an assassin, the perfect vessel to get in and out undetected, the perfect vessel for a hand of the Dark Lord.

Mierin smiled, the perfect vessel for her.