On A Steel Horse I Ride (Sadal Vas)

[Jorus Merrill]

Coruscant
The Works

"The one you want," said the Gotal, sipping his lum, "is a Miraluka named​ [member="Sadal Vas"] who comes by this bar sometimes."

"Miraluka mechanic?" Jorus gestured vaguely at his eyes. "How's his detail work?"

"Good touch, good instincts, I dunno." The Gotal shrugged.
"The kid doesn't need line of sight on a rusted nut, I'll tell you that much."

"Sounds solid to me. You know where he hangs out?"

"Should be coming by soon. Friend of a friend dropped him a line, said someone was looking for him here. Oh, here he is now."

 

[Sadal Vas]

Sadal entered the bar and took a deep breath. Familiar place, familiar scent of the alcohol in the air, different people around. He never was a big drinker, so he usually went here more to chat with people and look around. But this day was different. One of his friends said that someone wanted to see him.

Sadly there was no description or even a name of the person who were supposed to wait him here, but that’s wasn’t worrying him. Some of the locals knew Sad pretty well, plus there aren’t many miralukas around, so if anything happens this stranger himself will find Vas. Sadal asked a couple of acquaintances who were here for a while if there was someone who was looking for him. One of them pointed to the couple who were talking about a miraluka mechanic. Sadal approached the duo with a friendly smile and raised his hand in a welcoming gesture.

“Hello there. I heard you wanted to meet me.”

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sadal Vas"]

"I did indeed." Jorus spun his chair to face the young Miraluka. "My name's Jorus Merrill. I run a ship called the Wretched Hive, best chop shop around. We mod ships, speeders, all kinds of things. We're hiring, and I heard you're good.

"X-Wing crashes right in front of you. Bottom two engines are junked, bottom two wings get torn off, repulsorlifts need fixing or replacing. You've got a good tool kit and all the parts you need. How do you get that ship back in the air?"

There was no one right answer; offhand, Jorus could think of a couple of ways to solve the problem. What mattered was evaluating the kid's experience and creativity.

 

[Sadal Vas]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

“hmm”, thought Sadal for a second and then answered:

“In fact, there are plenty of ways how to fix it. One of the easiest is to inspect the repulsorlift. They have pretty simple structure, so if it isn’t completely broken- I can fix it in a couple of minutes. If piloting systems are intact it will be enough to fly around the planets surface. However, if you need to fly off to the outer space-it wouldn’t be enough. To reduce the friction with the highest layers of the atmosphere I would recommend to cut out the remains of torn wings and change wings position from cross-shaped to horizontal. Than transfer more of your energy into your working engines. Since two of the engines are broken you will have enough extra energy. Now, with good enough aerodynamic shape and engine power you will be able to fly off from the planet. Sure, the x-wing wont have two of its most powerfull cannons and will be slower, but again, it is the quickest way to get it flying after the crash”

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sadal Vas"]

"Turn it into a Z-95 Headhunter, in other words. Makes sense to me on all counts. All right, let me toss you something a little tougher." Jorus sat back in his chair, arms folded, and grinned though the MIraluka couldn't see it. "You've got an unarmed light freighter, stripped down to the hardpoints. You've got all the tools you could ever dream of, but you're low on parts. You come across two wrecks. One's a little pirate boat, nothing special, all cleared out. The other's a big long-range transport full of valuables, but its shields are still flickering on and off unpredictably every couple seconds, and the generators have some solid plating around them. You try sending boarders or droids, and those shields'll cut them apart or burn them up. To make matters worse, the shields are deflectors - both ray and particle components. They'll stop rocks, they'll stop turbolasers.

"What do you do?"

 

[Sadal Vas]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

After hearing that, Sadal thought for a bit. He took longer pause to think for the answer and smiled a little. It wasn’t cocky or prideful smile, Miraluka simply enjoyed the little challenge.

”I must say-it is pretty good shield, if it is both deflector that protects from rocks and blasters, and is capable to cut through anything like that. Everything I have is my fallen apart ship and empty boat… Well, since my ship now is just a bunch of parts- I think I can take a can of refrigerant from it, come closely to the barrier and put the canister into the shield. Such shields usually absorb part of the energy that was used against it: kinetic energy, heat-doesn’t matter. It partially works by this absorbing ability, but if I will absorb heat from it-it will fail even more than it is now. Shield generator is already malfunctioning and if it contacts with freezing substance, that has the temperature much colder than in the outer space-it will deactivate for at least a little while. It will be enough time to enter the ship. Since neither a boat nor my ship dosn't have good enough shield, I will do everything I can-fix it with my good old-fashioned soldering iron. Sadly, since I can’t see I won’t be able to override local systems, so I will deactivate security systems with the old fashioned way-carefully cutting them off, so they won’t shoot me in the back. Ability to see through walls by using the force is quite useful for that. Now, when I have working ship with anything I need and I’m not risking getting shot by its security systems-I can fly away.”

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sadal Vas"]

Jorus clapped once, grinning. "Love it. Not sure the refrigerant stunt would work, but yeah, you could absolutely use any number of ship parts to shunt power out of the shield. And flying away with the wreck - beautiful.

"I'm satisfied you've got what it takes, but this is fun. Let's go for one more.

"You find the wreck of an Old Republic dreadnought, nine hundred years old. Some Separatist fleet shredded it back in the day, and the main reactor blew. The explosion got the dreadnought spinning end over end, and it's still spinning just as quickly a millennium later.

"You want that ship. It's in bad shape, its main reactor is gone, and if you try docking or spacewalking over, the spin's probably harsh enough to rip you apart. Oh, and your ship doesn't have a tractor beam."

 

[Sadal Vas]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

“So, how would I get this ancient rotating thing…. I still have wonderful set of tools I could ever want?”, Miraluka chuckled a little and continued after that,” First of all-I should stop it. Lets take anything from my ship that is relatively heavy and attach it to the long cable. It will be our harpoon. After that I will drop it from my cargo bay right in its rotation. If it rotates with enough speed to rip me apart it will be good enough to penetrate itself with my simple “harpoon”. Now we are connected to the ship. Since it isn’t rotated by some consistent force-my own engines will be enough to make it stop its rotation. Now I can even enter the ship, if I have a spacesuit, of course. But what the point? Reactor is destroyed and any other source of energy is now gone, energy from my little ship wouldn’t be enough to charge the whole dreadnought. Since main reactor exploded-I don’t think it will be repairable. So, I guess, the best thing to do will be to attach this ship to mine with the use of some cables and move it to the closest shipyard. I need something more than skill and a good set of tools to fix reactor after the explosion, that broke not only the reactor, but also the part of ship around it. I need atleast some parts to fix holes in the dreadnaught and, of course, to fix and reactivate its reactor”

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sadal Vas"]

OOC: Sorry for the delay. Busy few days.

IC: "Tricky. It's clever - I don't know how well it would work, but it's innovative. If you've got the patience, and if you don't rip the harpoon mounting out of your hull, and if your cable doesn't fray from all that torsion... Yeah, the slowdown could work. The hyperspace tow, maybe not. That's a lot of ship to drag with your little boat. Probably wouldn't all fit in your hyperspace bubble, so you'd keep reverting to realspace. Still, I suppose you could get where you're going one little hop at a time... That's a good one." Jorus slapped his knee. "I've gotta remember that.

"Alrighty, Sadal, you've got a job if you want it. If you don't, we're always looking for associates to call up if we go after a big score. You interested in piecemeal work like that? Or you got other plans?"

 

[Sadal Vas]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

“Traveling around the galaxy is always a good opportunity. It’s always nice to see new people, work with new ships. It will be great experience in my opinion”, Sadal held out his hand in order to shake hands with his new employer, “ I will be more than happy to accept your offer. What about my plans… Nothing much. I just hope I will be able to leave the ship from time to time”, the last part was said in a joking manner with a huge smile on young Miralukas face. Maybe it wasn’t wise on Sadals part to agree without asking about payment, but he felt like he could trust Jorus with this. And besides he, just like any ordinary young man, had something inside him, that was calling him to go and explore the galaxy. And that was seen pretty well on his eyeless face.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sadal Vas"]

Jorus shook the offered hand. "Oh, you'll get plenty of shore leave, Vas. The Wretched Hive makes landfall at every decent port of call in the Outer Rim, and most of the indecent ones. Ord Mantell, Nar Shaddaa, Point Nadir, Port Mynock - we hit it all. And that's when we're not kicking around the Outer Rim Coalition, where I do most of my work. Swoop biking in the canyons on Zonju V, trading parts in the bubble cities on Pergitor, shining your shoes to visit the bazaar on the Foundation space station - son, you're going to see things you never could on Coruscant. The heck you doing here anyway? You're an Outer Rim soul if I ever met one. Coruscant - apart from level 1313, it ain't much that's real or satisfying."

 

[Sadal Vas]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

“Never had an opportunity that was that good, boss. I tried to join the crew of a couple of ships back in the day, but captains were afraid that I will read their minds or something like that. You know, just ordinary stereotypes about everyone who uses the Force. I didn’t try to go away from Corruscant myself because, well, I don’t know how everything is done on other planets. ”

After that Sadal made a little pause and turned towards the exit.
“Mind to show me your ship or can we have a drink for a good deal first?”