Something New

[Soliath Devin Talith]

(This is a roleplay as the NPC Alex, not Soliael)
Alex sat inside of his little laboratory with a small screwdriver. He quickly turned the small metal cylinder over and over again, unscrewing a metallic lid and taking apart a small blaster pistol. He smiled slightly as the screw finally popped out and the metal plate jumped off the weapon. The inside was a modicum of computer chips, wires, and other things of the like. He nodded slightly and wrote something down on a nearby piece of flimsy.

Kuat Drive Yards did not normally manufacture guns, they had subsidiaries that did of course but the big corporation that Alex worked directly for did not.

This didn't meant that he was disallowed from creating them however, he had proven quite often that when he had an idea, it payed to run with it. The best example was the Valkyrie armor, the advanced system that he himself had designed and built at the behest of the owner of Kuat Drive Yards and some secret donor. Alex was quite proud of that creation and its unique jetpack. He smiled slightly as he turned his chair around with a piece of the blaster in a small pair of tweezers.

He placed this piece beneath a microscope and observed it closely, a smile on his face.

@[member="Ivy Lasranae"]

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"Ahem," Ivy had been standing there for several minutes now, observing the man in silence. It occurred to her that these techy-sorts often became extremely involved in their work, but to be night completely oblivious was somewhat concerning. She could have shot him dead and stolen his research ... or whatever it is people do when they kill scientists.

"Excuse me Mister....?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Alex suddenly became entirely too startled. He threw his head up from the microscope and turned to face the woman, his eyes wide like a bugs. He was startled by her, and even more startled by her appearance. She wore armor, and she had guns. Of course he was quite used to armed guards in this building, but seeing them in his laboratory? Yeah that wasn't quite what normally happened.

Sheepishly Alex rolled his chair back a few inches before finally realizing that she meant him not harm.

“Oh...” He sounded strangely disappointed. “How can I help you?”

No hello, just straight down to business.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Well, Ivy would never complain about getting straight to business. She wasn't much of a small-talk sort of person, anyway. Stepping forward, the woman retrieve a datapad from a bag she was carrying.

"I'm Hazel Scheler. I recently was employed by the KDY CEO for some work on a project. She told me if I ever needed anything all I had to do was ask. Well, I'm here and I'm asking. First and foremost, I need to get my armor upgraded," those words were harder for her to say than she thought they would be. Ivy put great sentimental value in her current armor, but the truth of the matter was it simply wasn't up to snuff.

It was, literally, centuries old. Beyond relic stage.

"Second, I'm in the market for a new weapon, only I'm not sure the technology exists."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Alex tapped fingers on his chin in consideration for a few as if thinking of something. She had mentioned Lady Lorelei and truthfully that was enough for him to do just about anything that she wanted, coupled with the fact that she had actually been allowed back here of course, so really the considering look on his face was nothing but a cheap show to make it seem like he wasn't a complete puppet.

“What do you mean by upgrade?” That was an entirely too broad term. Armor could be upgraded in a thousand different ways and she would have to be far more specific than that, and she would likely have to tell him what she wanted him to do.

The second part of her statement intrigued him far more however, a new weapon? And one whose technology might not have existed? That sounded absolutely fantastic, slowly Alex moved to the each of his rolling chair.

“And tell me more about this weapon.” He look about suddenly as if startled by his own words. “Please.”

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"Mm," Ivy had to think on how to put this without tarnishing all the memories and accomplishments she'd achieved in her current suit.

"I need a new suit. A complete rebuild, but I'd like to base it off the fit and design of my current armor. It's... a fully custom outfitting and I'm a creature of habit-"

He cut her off. Apparently the impossible was a bit more interesting. All fine and well, if nothing else she assumed the weapon would take far longer than the suit.

"Well," the woman began, stepping over towards his workstation and placing the datapad down for him to view, "I'm not much of an artist, but that's the closest I could get to it. It.... I," how to explain where the inspiration came from without sounding completely crazy, "I ran into a man many years ago who was something of a mad genius. He used a weapon against me that looked something like this. Not a lightsaber, some kind of energy blade though. Never seen anything like it since. I think it was a personal project of his, but we blew his laboratory sky high so all evidence of the tech is long gone." By several hundred years, in fact.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Alex studied the datapad for some time, looking at it then turning the datapad upside down as if flipping the image on the datapad itself didn't occur to him in the least. He stared at it for quite some time, and then decided that it was indeed not a lightsaber. Alex had not seen many lightsabers, but he knew that they couldn't be projected in complex forms like this device and that was enough for him, he nodded slightly to himself and then looked over to Ivy once again.

“There aren't many projected energy weapons in the galaxy. In fact the lightsaber is really the only weapon design I can think of, though it uses superheated plasma.” Alex prattled on like that for quite some time then asked an obvious question. “Did the weapon give off heat?”

By now Alex had completely forgotten about building the woman a new combat armor, they could return to that later.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"No. I've been stuck by a lightsaber before, too, and this weren't no lightsaber. No heat, still fething hurt. Left a good scar too." Right across her hip, but she wasn't about to show that particular trophy off.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Alex stared at the woman for a long time, though truthfully he more stared past her. His mind was racing with a thousand ideas, each one as absurd as the last. Finally he settled on something, though before saying anything he frowned slightly, as if the idea was almost too silly to put into words. Slowly he leaned forward again, putting his chin into a web of his fingers in an intellectual sort of way.

“May I see it?” His statement sounded slightly perverted, but he didn't even think of that aspect.

Different weapons sliced in different ways. A knife cut flesh, a lightsaber burned it away, and a disintegrator simply eradicated molecules. It was important to see HOW this weapon had done its damage, and if Alex was correct in his thinking then seeing the cut might confirm it.

Then again it might not do anything at all and he would just have to guess.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"I - what? Why?"

Ivy blinked at him, brows pulling flat over her eyes in a deadpan stare.

"It's a very old scar. I doubt it'll do you any good to see it."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“Oh...” Alex sounded rather disappointed but not for the reason that most would think. He frowned slightly, and then thought for a few seconds. “Do you remember what it hurt like?”

That was also a strange question, but it was one he needed answered. A lightsaber like weapon could still burn cold, after all when one cut themselves with a plasma torch it didn't necessarily feel hot because it deadened the nerves almost immediately, with a lightsaber it was different but perhaps this weapon was based off of plasma. “Like...was it a cut...or a burn? Or did it sting?”

He sounded weary as if he had no idea what any of those pains felt likely.

Alex picked up the datapad and began to study the image further, his eyes drifting over it again and again.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"It felt...like a blade. Like a regular, impossibly sharp blade," Ivy really couldn't recall those details very well, even despite the several hours she spent pouring over her memories.

"It, actually, it kind of tingled. You know that feeling you get after static shock? Or...after your leg falls asleep and begins to wake up. Pins and needles. I don't know, maybe I'm not remembering right. I did have a few drinks after we decimated his labs so..." the woman's brows shot up as she looked around. Maybe it had just been the tingling sensation of the booze settling in.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

He frowned slightly, then rolled his chair far back from Ivy and her weird eyebrows. He whirled around and set her datapad on his desk, looking at a sketchpad and quickly drawing something onto it. He wrote down a list of something and then turned around again. A quick list of materials and some things that Ivy had said, almost comically he then rolled himself back over to Ivy with a pen tapping his chin.

“Projected energy weapons are strange. Most of them are plasma...in fact all of them are so far. But from what you've described I would say...” He paused for a second as he grabbed a datapad and typed something into it. “That the blade was made of a solid state hologram.”

“Its a technology that is rather experimental and never really came to fruition due to the immense power consumption.” He tapped the pen against his chin again and became lost in thought.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"So I'm not crazy then..." she'd certainly spent a good deal of time pondering the possibility that she had lost it back during Gulag. Many people had - but this news came as some relief.

The Merc bent over to look at her datapad and the additions he'd made. Chicken scratch, she couldn't understand any of it. Ivy supposed that was likely par for the norm with these sorts. "It's possible then... to recreate the technology?" Four hundred years should have been enough time to make some advances and raise the chance of it becoming a feasible weapon.

This was sort of exciting.

"Where do we start? How can I help?"

@[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“Oh yes.” He paused for a second as he looked around the room almost absent minded. He wasn't quite sure where to begin actually, the technology was so old, and so rare at that that it would be difficult to replicate. He supposed the beginning of it would start with a hologram projector, and from there...modification.

He looked at her for a moment, his eyes flashing slightly in excitement. They would need power, and lots of it in a tiny device.

“We'll need...well the best thing would be to have a copy of the original device. But I suppose thats impossible?” He asked her almost hopeful.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

"That's....completely impossible," Ivy frowned, "like I said, we destroyed the entire complex. There was nothing left but ash."

But if the technology existed before, wouldn't that mean there had been other pieces like it?

"Where else could we find examples of solid-state-holograms? There has to be others. A museum, maybe?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“Doubtful. Most things were lost during the Gulag Plague, that includes things from museums.” He pondered for a few moments, tapping his chin with his long fingers and looking at her. Again some might have called it leering, but Alex was simply lost in thought. She had brought the technology to him, so it was she that was his current muse. “In theory, I could try to replicate it...but the amount of money it would take.”

He would have to get this approved by R&D, it was the only way.

The amount of money miniaturization took was ridiculous and he knew that this would require an immense amount of energy to even get working. They would have to make the hologram create more compact photons and even then it would be difficult to maintain such a thing.

For the first time, Alex became frustrated. “This will take time.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy watched the man, unsmiling, and pondered his dilemma. Money...was an issue. She was a Merc - a good Merc with plenty of business to keep her comfortable, with not to mention the backing of the Protectorate, but it was all too likely this project was well out of her budget.

Perhaps there was a way though.

The woman rifled through her bag and produced a datacard with her contact information, "You go ahead and do what you need to do to get started, I'll get you the funding. Your Queen and CEO owes me a boon. I'll be in touch real soon, thanks for your help."

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

 

[Quietus]

Two days later in the R&D conference room.

Lorelei stood before the center table pouring over the images and plans provided by the Scientist known as Alex. The KDY CEO had agreed to see them based only on the favor she owed to the Mercenary Hazel, otherwise she would have dismissed this whole project as a waste of time and money. KDY was not a weapons manufacturer, though they took on private commissions from time to time simply because they had the funding and the necessary materials. Not to mention they boasted some of the greatest weapons engineers and designers within the Republic so far as ship armaments were concerned, so to take on side projects wasn't often an issue.

Today it might be an issue, at least the potential for it remained until she could be convinced otherwise.

"And you believe that there is enough feasibility in the production of this weapon to make it worth my while..." she said, having just listened to Alex prattle on about how everything here was entirely possible to make, it would just require a great deal of time and money. The woman rounded a stoney gaze upon him but not first without eyeing the woman who brought her here today sitting across the table, "tell me, Doctor, how you plan to turn this into profit."

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Alex wasn't usually one to be intimidated, but Lorelei Darke seemed to be a woman that intimidated most everyone...including himself. He wrung his hands for a few moments, thinking on her question before finally stuttering out an answer.

“With respect my lady...your majesty...Ma'am.” He didn't quite know what to call the Sovereign Queen CEO of Kuat. “That's were your marketing department should come on.”

That wasn't a joke, Alex wasn't very good at jokes. “but..”

He started speaking again before the woman smacked him in the head.

“What we have here is a weapon that in the end will be smaller than a vibroblade, more compact than the smallest knife, incredibly easy to hide, and almost limitless in usefulness. I could think of a dozen ways in which the average person could use such a device, the least of which is self defense.” It was true. A knife and a guard that popped out of no where? Such a thing was almost unimaginably useful in today's society, especially if one sold such a product to an entire military, something that KDY was entirely capable of doing.