Something New

[Quietus]

The Queen's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, you've said, a weapon and shield that can be carried by anyone and appear out of thin air. It's not the usefulness that I doubt, it's the reliability. Your research and predilections have stated that the energy required to power these instruments is monumental. A seventy-second usage timeframe is hardly worth the seventy million I'll be pouring into this. Not to mention the likelihood of malfunction using your proposed battery, and the complex circuitry."

Folding her arms, she gave the man a pointed stare, "To be of any use at all to a military system, this device would need to run cleanly for five minutes, bare minimum."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Alex thought for a moment. Thinking about power supplies, batteries, energy, anything that he could grasp at. He tried to think for a second, looking from Hazel to Lorelei then back at Hazel and then finally landing on the Queen again. At the same time a thought popped into his head, a tiny one that seemed to bloom like a flower.

“Lightsabers...” He trailed off for a few moments. Hazel and he had been talking about Lightsabers earlier, but they had never really touched on how they worked. Alex knew of course, or at least he knew the rudimentary parts of how one worked, he couldn't actually build one obviously, but he knew what powered them and what kept them powered. “With some parts of a lightsaber I cou-”

He trailed off for a second and then suddenly his eyes popped open, he had to explain, these two women wouldn't know how the device worked! “A lightsaber is powered by a Diathium powercell, a type of compressed Tumponium gas that when heated produces a plasma rod. Normally the plasma rod is of course designed to create the blade of a lightsaber, but with enough time I could design a system that would feed the energy of the plasma into the projector and recycle it periodically. The pieces are all there in the construction of a lightsaber...they just have to be altered.”

It was far more complicated than Alex actually made it sound, but it was a start, and it would give the device the five minutes Lorelei asked of it. Of course Alex would first have to get it work, not an easy task.

 

[Hazel Scheler]

Ivy blinked, casting her gaze around so as to not have to look at the Queen directly. This whole thing, this whole mess of time and money, was entirely her doing, and if it all failed she would be the one to blame. Ivy wasn't quite sure what the consequences in the case of failure would be, but seventy million credits was quite a bit more than she could afford to pay back.

Frowning, the woman leaned up in her chair, waiting for Alex to complete his statement of reassurance.

Lightsabers ... weh.

"There's still a small possibility that in some very antiquated form this technology still exists. Most of these ideas are based on conjecture because we don't have the working unit to study. I've done some research, pulled some strings back at OP, and I think I may know where to find a working unit. Or, at the very least, one that is intact. Would you be willing to fund the expedition and his pre-emptive research to at least look into the possibility of this technology? I've seen it first hand, and I know it's real. It's doable. It's worth the effort."

 

[Quietus]

Lorelei lofted a brow at the Merc. Hazel Scheler - a woman of as much mystery as herself. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn the Epicanthix had quite a few skeletons in her closet. Still, she was good at her work and carried herself with a certain sense of galactic weariness that she could appreciate.

Jaw set, Lorelei released a short breath.

"I will fund your expedition to retrieve the unit. If you manage to find something that will further this research, then I will consider pursuing the project in full. Get me a list of what you need, I expect a full report on your findings when you return."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“E-expedition?” Alex stuttered out slightly as he wondered if Madame Darke meant for him to tag along on this little adventure she implied.

He was not an outdoorsy man, nor was he a man to go chasing after artifacts and legends. He was meant for the laboratories, for research and development. The hunting of ancient technology...well he would leave that to people like Hazel, people who had experience with such things, people who were actually good at such things.

Alex's frown somehow managed to grow deeper.