May It Be When Darkness Falls

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum had once more returned to Spaarti. However, this time for different reasons. He was looking to get some work accomplished in a specific new area that he hoped would turn out well. He looked forward to meeting the Spaarti leader, [member="Patricia Susan Garter"], again. He wondered if she would remember him, he knew that some organics quickly forgot droids names or identities, even when they supplied a workforce that provided a beneficial accomplishment for their work.

He had landed his ship a safe distance from the headquarters, safe being not smashing into it or creating fear of crashing. He didn't want to create a panic, just because he arrived on short notice. He had brought with him almost a hundred work droids, hoping to be able to get to work on the concept soon.

He had sent word ahead that he wanted to have a meeting if it were possible. He had then arrived hoping that he hadn't come at a bad time.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Patricia had gone through a lot in her young life, she was thirty years old and leading the biggest cloning company in the galaxy. That said a lot for the woman and even though the job had its ups and downs she was always ready to come into work to sign forms and pay bills. Some of those bills of course belonging to [member="Ultimatum"] the droid that supplies Spaarti Creations with droids that handle most of the growing process. So Patricia always had time for the droid and what he wanted to do, and in this case it was something that would benefit the both of them.

The droid was interested in large scale cloning, not in the sense of mass producing like the clones Spaarti currently did, but larger beasts and creatures that would prove to be useful to sell on the open market. She had her team already prepare a beta version of what the droid had wanted, and while it was just a fifty meter glassteel tank at the moment she was confident that with the help of the droids engineering skills they could make this thing work.

So as she prepared herself to look well enough for the droid she made sure everything about her appearance was on point. Despite being thirty she looked to be in her early twenties, thank you anti aging technology. So with everything ready she got news that Ultimatum had touched down a good kilometer outside the facility. Making her way outside into the jungle heat and humidity of Cartao she made it to the ground floor and awaited the droids arrival from the path that lay ahead of her.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum soon found himself at the entrance to the building. He noted that [member="Patricia Susan Garter"] was waiting out in front. He hoped that she hadn't been there long, from his understanding the environment was unpleasant to most. This included himself, the humidity was horrible for his electronic systems, never enough to fully knock them offline but enough to cause considerable problems if left in there long enough. He was always glad that the walks tended to be short and that he almost never spent more than a day in this sort of atmosphere. His droids, which had followed him quickly enough, were appearing to hold out well in the conditions.

The lady always looked her best, he wondered sometimes if she dressed up for visitors or if she was always so professionally dressed. He had little choice in the matter, but that didn't stop him from cleaning his body of any grime or blaster scouring, he seemed to get at least one of the two every few weeks, annoyingly.

He spoke, "Hello. I hope I have not come at a bad time."

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"Never a bad time for you Ultimatum, it's good to have you back." She said as a smile touched her features whilst she swept towards him to stand side by side.

"I got your messages and my teams have already started the barebones of the project. We had to build a temperature controlled dome out back to fit the fifty meter tank but with a climate controlled area we should be able to push forward." The woman kept up her friendly demeanor as she spoke to the droid.

Walking forward Patricia and her guests made it inside of the massive Spaarti Headquarters where her robot company would be safe from the environment that was Cartao, an absolutely wretched place for electronics and even blasters that tended to short out after a day of being exposed here. So with the droids out of the humidity, Patricia kept walking with ultimatum until everyone was quite comfortable away from the heat.

"We have everything we need so far, your workers should help build everything up. But I'm going to let you know these are probably going to be set for a limited production. They are stupid expensive." She said commenting on the fact that a project like this was in fact expensive.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum followed quickly into the relief of the climate controlled building, thanking once more the organic sentients' need to change everything to be comfortable for them to live in. That was the probably the largest reason for the invention of the climate control, to make unpleasant conditions more hospitable. He didn't mind of course, they were a unique set of species. All none sentient or near sentient often simply found an equilibrium with their environment, however it was only these organic sentients who deemed it necessary to take it a step further and alter the environment itself.

He replied calmly to [member="Patricia Susan Garter"], "I would assume so, that of course means that those who purchase it will pay for them. It seems fairly straightforward in concept, has there been any difficulty in putting together the device as of yet?" He silently ordered his droids to stay put and begin a thorough systems scan to make certain that they were still all in good condition. He wouldn't push them to breaking point, there was no need to waste resources on something that could be built at almost any time. He had often wondered at the demand for such a device as they were attempting to build, he had classified to himself as something along the lines of a niche market.

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"So far the only problem we have had is finding a spot for the tank, at fifty meters it's a pretty piece of glass steel." Patricia said as she casually leaned against a wall while the droids began to scan through their systems.

"The cloning fluids are easy enough, basically it's just making everything bigger and able to run longer. Usually human growth with the added help of a ysalamir takes upwards to thirty days in a safe speed grow. With the help of Ysalamir here cloning something this large could take up to a year." She said firmly.

Patricia was soon after given a data pad by an assistant. Upon it read the schematics of the tank and the parts that still needed building. The tank was a solid fifty meters long and twenty meters high, cloning fluid was on stand by with a filter, regulator, and a few other bits and bobbles to put the entire tank together. The entire thing was horribly expensive and she wasn't sure if it could yield much profit, but it was always worth trying and handy to have around in general.

"So here are the plans we have drawn up." Patricia said as she handed the pad to ultimatum.

"It's basically a Spaarti Cloning sphere but bigger." She stated as she moved over to his side.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum gratefully accepted the plans and looked them over. At first he was looking for inefficiencies, small parts that hadn't been completely optimized. This proved a useless exercise, the scientists here had proven very effective at their task. He didn't see anything that needed work or could be a weak link. [member="Patricia Susan Garter"] had been right, it was practically a larger version of the Spaarti Sphere.

Ultimatum replied a moment later, "Looks that way. You seem to have done well. I am sure that some corporation out there would want the ability to clone some like a Krayt, I bet the Sith would love to clone Terentateks. The time it takes shouldn't be an issue though, I guess the fact that you are growing something in one year that would normally take even longer is enough to make it worth while."

The droids reported all systems operational, the humidity had done permanent damage to their systems and they were now ready to work. "My droid are ready if you would like to bring your people in for a rest." He sent copies of the plans from his visual readings to the droids so that they would know what they were working towards, it would give them each a better idea if what they were doing was correct based on the plan.

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Ultimatum"]

Patricia nodded in agreement with the droid and smiled to escort him and his droids towards the back of the facility. As the group of droids and one organic pushed through the halls Patricia came to the last door at the end of the hall and quickly opened it by pressing a few buttons on a keypad. The door swung up and open so the posse could roll on through.

"Here we are." She said with a smile.

Stepping inside the plastic climate controlled area was as big as a football stadium and at the center on the field was a massive tank that stretched fifty meters long, twenty meters wide, and twenty meters tall. Standing besides it towering over was a massive water tower filled with cloning fluid and it would be entered Into the tank shortly.

"Think of it as a fish tank, we need to set up a filter to purify the cloning fluid as it ages, and a regulator that ensures the clones safe growing. I need your people to fix a filter on the outside of the tank and cut a hole to place the tubing in. I'll have my people set up the regulator." She said and whistling afterwards to pull her workers towards her.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum turned to his droids and sent the order to begin work. "It will be done."

He had known the various parts of the cloning machines from before, he had made it sure to study them when he began helping [member="Patricia Susan Garter"] by building droids for her. To see it on a larger scale was interesting and he found that in some ways it appeared easier since the truly minute parts became enlarged and normally easier to work with. Of course the glass steel, which he presumed to be some variant of transparisteel, became even larger and harder to deal with.

He set the droids to work on working the filter first. "Did you have to get a custom size for the metal glass? Or do they come in this size?" He asked with an edge of humor, just to keep things light. This was going to be a long project and he didn't want everybody to get on each other's nerves right off the bat.

 

[Miss Blonde]

@Ultimatumi

Patricia let out a humorous scoff at the droids little joke before answering him back, she was honestly quite impressed that the droid could crack a joke in the first place. Most droids were just cold programming, zeros and ones designed by man to subjugate a creation that they gave emotion and pain to at times. Either way it was nice to see that the droid could have fun.

"Oh I got these on clearance, apparently there's not a huge need for fifty meter long slabs of metallic glass." She said with a small giggle herself.

"As for the filter it's right over there, in pieces. Should be about six meters tall when complete. I'll get my boys working on the regulator and pump to make sure the liquid is well kept." Patricia said then whistled to her workers who were standing by a large unassembled regulator.

The men got to work quickly and began to dig down into the earth so the regulator could be properly grounded. Didn't want any electrical components that weren't grounded first, that would be bad. So as her men continued to do that she snapped her fingers a couple times and had her electricians get to work on placing down the generator that was going to power this massive thing.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum sent the commands to the droids, who then began moving the parts and whatnot into place in order to construct and then fit it into its place without difficulty, or at least as little difficulty as possible. He also noted the size of the generator, almost commenting on how it looked like it belonged in a starship.

Ultimatum asked, "How much liquid goes into this tank? How much would it cost for all of that?" He expected quite a lot, since materials such as these were quite expensive in nature, which was why cloning was considered a very high end business. Thus making clones an even more expensive product. That would make this sucker extremely expensive. But then, one could have a rancor grown up in captivity and taught who to obey. That would be a singularly useful ability, to grow just about any creature inside a tube and in less time than it would take to get the creature normally.

Ultimatum smiled as he prepared to ask another question, however out of politeness he waited for [member="Patricia Susan Garter"] to answer his questions. Common courtesy and all that.

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"Let's just say it's a lot of fluid, but Spaarti can pretty much produce an infinite supply of the stuff so I really wouldn't worry about it. For us it's about as common as dirt." Patricia said as she looked down and checked a few things on her datapad.

Patricia afterwards looked up to check on the progress of everything. The regulator was being nice and grounded, and the hoses were being cut and placed into the tank so it could keep the clone alive during its growing process, as well as feed in the genetic material needed to make the clone. The regulator would perform both an gestating function and of course regulate the embryo.

"Make sure the generator is inspected again! You know the rules about moving equipment!" As the massive generator that looked like it belonged on a corvette was placed down Patricia nodded to one of her engineers to perform a safety inspection of it to make sure nothing was going to go wrong in powering this tank.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum shook his head. That made things easier. The fluid would probably have been the largest amount of any of the substance to collect for this giant machine. It probably would not have been the most expensive, however he guessed that the sheer volume required would be more than enough to bankrupt a small economy, not that this bugger didn't appear to be capable of such on its own.

Ultimatum watched as the finishing touches were put onto the filter. He then silently ordered the droids to move onto cutting a hole for the tubing. He also ordered the use of strictest caution. He wondered why [member="Patricia Susan Garter"] had agreed to such an uncertain project if the costs were so high. "Do you have any potential customers for this sort of cloning tank?" He knew he was a potential customer, but he wondered if she had any others in mind.

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Ultimatum"]

Patricia let out a near snort of laughter from the question that the droid had asked. Did they have customers for this? Did a bear crap in the woods? Not only could she not sell the tanks individually but she could start growing massive creatures like Krayt Dragons, Taozin, pretty much anything within these limits. So there was a massive market for people who would want a monster flash trained to obey them.

"Oh yes completely." She said with a smile.

"With this tank we can change the face of cloning." turning her head to her workers she inspected them.

The check up on the generator was complete and the regulator had been assembled nice and neat. The tubes were being placed inside the tank and now all that was left to do was place the neural interface for the clone. What would allow the company to sit there and flash train memories, images, whatever they wanted into the creatures brain provided that they could handle it.

But with that being taken underway all that was left to do was this generator for the most part. Three simple pieces for the machine. The regulator, filter, and generator. The tank would act as a massive womb and grow the clone over time.

 

[Ultimatum]

"I am glad that this is so. I have a question about cloning, I confess that my knowledge in that subject is not quite as extensive as in other areas. What is required to clone? Aside from the equipment for the cloning device. What are the organic materials required? A complete structure of the creature's DNA is part right?"

Ultimatum was interested in this. He hadn't used the cloning spheres he had purchased as of yet, mostly because he was taking his time working through other issues and plans. He had wondered what would be required to function such a large version of the cloning tubes.

He had an idea for such a large device, it would take time to implement however, he saw it as completely plausible, given that all the necessary supplies. Dependent on what would be required for this machine, it might require quite a large cargo container to move this thing from place to place. However Ultimatum had found a possible solution, it would require more time to fully plan out of course.

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"Normally yes, all you really need to grow a clone is some blood, spit, whatever really from a person. But if you want to make a more complete clone it's best that you take samples from all over the body." Patricia said with a professional tone.

"Brain tissue, spinal fluids, blood, organ tissue, just little swabs of everything will work. There's no need to take a life when you are doing it, but all you really need to do is just get your subject and get those pieces. But whenever I clone Yuuzhan Vong technology I end up just harvesting the entire beast." she used the word harvesting to make it seem a little less cruel than ripping their organs out on an operating table and dismembering them.

As for the tank the finishing touches were being made and the massive cloning tank would be done. The generator was hooked up and ready to go, the regulator was good, the filter was good, and the top of the tank would have ray and particle shield installed to keep a seal while allowing whatever cloning droids to have access in and out of the tank to make any corrections to the fetus as it grew.

"I think we are done here, do you want to grab a drink or maybe some premium oil? I had my assistant go out and get this Corellian motor oil the last time you came to visit. Super expensive stuff since you know." she said mentioning the destruction of the planet.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum weighed the options, he could most probably use the oil, having not replenished his body's store in a few months, in fact he hadn't put any in since the first production of the body. It would also be the polite thing to do, as he had been offered by a business partner who had put more than a little effort into the acquisition of the said substance for his use. Not that he was upset to have to take some of the liquid, it had always seemed to him an embarrassing factor to intake substances such as oil in the presence organics.

Some may have called that a quirk of programming and Ultimatum would not disagree. Probably something he had picked up when seeing some organic somewhere consume food in an untidy fashion. He did not know. He had not wasted time searching his memory for the reason of his preference, he was not going to remove the oddity.

The times however called for a polite and correct acceptance. Ultimatum smiled sincerely as he spoke, "Thank you, I think that would be very nice."

Corellia, he had only read some minor reports on its destruction, he hadn't been active at the time, he didn't think. It matter little, he might have been traveling when it happened, or building a base on Mustafar, or as previously thought not even active at the time. The fact was that he had not read much more than that the planet had been devastated to such a degree that it was considered destroyed by organics. From what Ultimatum had read the planet had not been utterly obliterated such as the famed Death Star was capable of, that meant that it was possible to rebuild. Though of course the effort required to reconstruct the planet would likely bankrupt a few of the galactic powers.

Ultimatum ordered the droids to line up and go into hibernation mode unless approached by someone. He told them to socialize in the case of a curious organic, be as friendly as the droids could be. He thought about the information he had been given. Blood, spit, some form of bodily fluid he guessed would be enough to clone a species. But in order to actually and properly clone an individual would be more tedious. He would of course be careful if he ever decided to go that far, but his plan would not truly require a full clone of any one thing. Of course the smallest amount of liquid from all the various species on a single world was likely to take up such a massive space.

"You have done well. I believe that this will sell well, along with those creatures that come from it." He would ask his question later. He turned to follow her, she her building better than he... though he bet that he could cajole a computer to give him the schematics, not that he had much experience in that field.

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"Wonderful then, let's be off." she said in a happy tone.

Patricia liked the droid quite a bit, he was polite, well rounded, and genuinely nice to have around. She had spoken to cyborgs who had less personality than Ultimatum and they were still considered living organic beings. But regardless the woman was quite pleased with the droid and his ability to hold conversation and be generally just be useful.

"You're going to enjoy the stuff, top notch. I wounds some gears through a test batch and the resistance was next to nothing." She was of course speaking of what oil was used for.

As the two rounded a corner it was a straight shot to the private lounge where VIPs could relax and unwind after meetings or flights, it was a more luxurious area for preferred Spaarti customers or partners.

"Can I get you anything else though?" she asked the two made their way down the hall.

Once at the door it opened automatically and revealed a very plush room of expensive burgundy seats, atrisian rugs, a very fancy room all together. It was brought together by a centerpiece that was an old cloning tank that looked as if it had weathered an explosion or two. It was odd to have at the center of the room but the piece had history to it perhaps.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was glad to hear that it was high quality. After all, not everything that became expensive after Corellia's destruction was worthy of its new found price. He was thankful that the organic was willing to to such trouble as to actually test the oil before giving it to her guest. Yes, this was a rare organic, one of the truly polite and yet logical. He wished that more organics were as she was, but alas he was doomed to be and work with a flawed race. He because he had been created by them, and they because they more often than not refused the simple call of reason and logic.

Ultimatum listened to the question and remained silent for a moment, he would have to think on that for a bit. When they entered the room Ultimatum took in a number of the objects. First and foremost was the cloning tank, which piqued his interest. History was such a marvelous thing that he was always intrigued by the possibilities. In fact he had hunted down many a place for historical items so that he could better understand a time period or a people. He would have to ask her about that.

But he recognized something else, the carpets. The rugs were atrisian, a fact that he knew solely because he had been to the planet and was in a business relationship with the ruler of the planet. That brought back the fact that not all organics were akin to [member="Patricia Susan Garter"], some were simply not reasonable or especially logical. Some were more selfish than thoughtful or self absorbed. The ruler was not all of these things, but he had a few of the flaws and that was enough to remind Ultimatum of the failures that he had to avoid. As a creation of a flawed person he was inclined to make the same mistakes, thus he had to work doubly hard to avoid them. He wondered for a moment if this organic had known his creator. Certainly the man had been unique enough. White hair, previous crime-lord, became part of the... what was it.... Rebels? Rebel Alliance? Probably something like that, Ultimatum had pushed away those, those disgusting memories of his early days.

He little appreciated the path that his thoughts were taking so he switched his mental pathways for a different conversation. "Well, for starts, could you tell me the story behind that?" He gestured towards the cloning tank.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Patricia smiled at [member="Ultimatum"] and chuckled a bit, it seemed even advanced artificial intelligence were curious about the tank. But hey at least Patricia knew that her centerpiece got people talking. Gathering her thoughts on the ruined cloning cylinder Patricia moved to one of the plush comfortable seats around it and sat down. The feeling of the soft fuzzy material felt great as she took a load off, letting her feet slide out of her heels and onto the chair.

"Waldo have housekeeping bring in the oil and a drink for myself please." Patricia said on her comm unit.

A few moments later a few people of mixed species came into the room wearing polo shirts with the Spaarti logo threaded onto the left breast pocket. Quickly placing down four large cans of corellian oil down on the coffee table in front of Patricia along with a daiquiri of some kind, Patricia took the drink in hand and smiled at ultimatum, lifting and taking a drink as the housekeeping left.

"That my friend is a piece of history." She said after taking another sip.

"Eight hundred years ago, give or take some decades. There was the republic battle of Cartao where Spaarti Creations was nearly destroyed. But we survived, and we carried on. Most of our products and cloning tanks were destroyed and our copycat facility blown away." taking a drink she set her glass down on the table afterwards.

"It's a reminder of just how fragile everything is. One moment you're on top of the Galaxy and the next you are gone, like that." she said snapping her fingers.

"Because no matter what. Droid, organic, whatever. We all end." she said with a small chuckle and picked up her drink once more.