Stealth and Luxury

[Lira Dajenn]

A man sat at a small writing desk with a pencil in his hand. Before him lay a set of blueprints as well as a set of small models. His face contorted slightly as his pencil stroked across the paper. Sharp quick lines dotted the ship on the paper, clearly turning into some sort of dreadnought. He smiled slightly as the drawing became more full and well defined, grinning as he completed it and added a bit of shading. Behind him her heard a door slide open, and almost immediately the man slammed a piece of paper over his drawing.

“Sam!”

A voice called out behind him, and Sam whirled around in his spinny chair, models and engineering notes laying all around him.

Sam by trade was a ship designer for Santhe/Sienar corporations. It was his job to make an executives dream become a reality. He had designed a few famous ships, though of course he had received credit for exactly none of them, though that hardly bothered him. Sam enjoyed the look of the ships he designed, and he enjoyed watching them roll off the line for the first time.

His friend, and liaison between the engineers and Sam himself wandered into the room. Michael was an interesting man, a genius by all accounts and one of the head engineer's, Sam turned to him, a smile on his face. “Ya?”

The two had long ago done away with formalities.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Michael moved into the room swiftly, his foot steps ringing out loudly as she rushed across the room to meet his old friend.

In his hand was a datapad filled with information. Mostly it was the basis of a new ship design thought up by a dozen or so men and women who had been sitting in the room for the last three days. Michael moved across to Sam, and deposited the datapad directly into his lap with a wide smirk. The Other man seemed to stare at him momentarily, and then look down at that datapad.

“It's a new idea, something that no ones doing.” Michael seemed almost eager, strange for him.

The black haired man scrubbed his beard, looking down at Sam with a strangely excited face. Sam looked up at him, though he said nothing. Instead he simply began to read the datapad in front of him, his eyebrows shifting slightly as excitement spiked through him slightly.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

“This is...”Sam read the datapad with interest, his eyes scanning over some technical details, though mostly it was just a general outline of what the craft was supposed to be when it was finished being designed. “Interesting.”

He continued as he finished reading the datapad. The idea of this ship was certainly unique, not something that was currently on the market and not something that he would think a corporation like Santhe would be interested in making...or well not something he would think they would invest an entire team on. Of course Sam was hardly a marketing expert, and if the big guys wanted to go for it, who was he to question?

His frown turned upside down, and quietly he looked at Michael.

“Right, so explain this to me.” Sam said the words as though he didn't already understand the concept. He enjoyed Michael speaking about ships, the man knew his stuff.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Michael looked around the workshop for a few minutes, spotting a chair and pulling it over to him with. He grabbed the chair and pulled it over to Sam, sitting himself down and smiling slightly as he took the datapad from his friend. Entering a few codes Michael pulled up a picture of a StealthX fighter, Sam quirked an eyebrow, but then nodded his head in recognition.

“The concept is pretty simple.” Michael pointed to the StealthX on the screen. “This ship was crated before the Gulag Plague to function as a fast stealthy attack craft for the Jedi, it doesn't use cloaking devices or any of that sort, it simply uses sensor dampening tech and relies on more rudimentary stealth functions to remain unseen.”

Sam nodded along as Michael explained how the StealthX had been meant to function.

It was an interesting design, that much was to be sure. Sam had heard of the unique ships and he had of course heard of Kuat Drive Yards successful attempt at remaking the starship. The Blackbird was a popular recon vessel for most Mercenary groups now.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

“I see.” It was the only words Sam said for a few seconds, as if he was lost in thought.

He could see the benefit of the StealthX, and even the Blackbird. The fighters were excellent for individual hit and runs and even better for Jedi units that could communicate without electronics, but why make a Star Yacht out of the tech? And how would they get the tech in the first place? He shook his head, how would this work?

“Michael, we don't have the tech for this, and besides, why make a Yacht like this? They won't be attacking anyone.” Sam was right of course, the plans for this ship called for nearly no armament at all, no one would be doing any damage with this. “It doesn't make any sense.”

Logic dictated that much, Sam wasn't one to think outside of the box.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Michael looked at his friend as though he were an idiot, which at times he was. Sam was never much for thinking outside of his own little world of technical specs and complicated machinery, he never had any imagination, never saw the use of something besides it original intended purpose, it was really his greatest failing.

“The StealthX.” Michael said as if teaching an idiot child. “Was designed by a company that has worked very closely with Sienar before. The Blackbird, was made by Kuat Drive Yards, another company we have close relations with. All of these components are on the open Market and quite easy to obtain.”

Lecturing was always fun. “As for why make a yacht with this technology, its simple. Do you know how many people would bite, scratch, hiss, and kill for a ship that can get them in and out of a system with no problems? How valuable being unseen is?”

Criminals across the galaxy would go for this, smugglers, crime lords, and of course legitimate business men who wanted something more...subtle in their life.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Same looked at his long time friend, his eyes turning back to his drawing pad.

He could envision a ship like this in his head, sleek and matte black. Designed for stealth and speed rather than strength and power. Sam hardly ever got to design something like that, Sienar was mostly about power. He respected that of course, but there was something about stealth that he liked, something about the idea of designing something that was to remain unseen.

“Alright.” Sam said almost reluctantly.

“But why tell me all this?” He spoke the words almost hopefully, he wanted to design this ship. No, he needed to design this ship. An image began to form in his mind, smooth lines, cut angles, it was beautiful. “I mean...”

He trailed off.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Michael grinned at his friend. “Because your best friend Michael, got you put in charge of designing it.”

Oh the glee on his face was absolutely sickening. The smugness grew in his eyes and every emotion splayed across his face. Sienar was a massive corporation, a project like this could have gone through thousands of people. Sienary alone had hundreds of designers, each working on ships, speeders, starfighters, and hundreds of other things. Sam was hardly an expert, a project like this could make his career.

Michael knew this, and he would watch his friend excel.

“Show me what you have in mind.” Michael knew the way that Sam worked, he knew his friend already had something in his head, something beautiful and artistic that would be...well hopefully not seen the galaxy over, that would defeat the purpose of a stealth ship.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Sam didn't even respond to Michael, before he said anything he had already put pencil to paper and began to draw. This was what he loved the most, drawing the ship in his head. Later he would use all sorts of technology to map out the ship, show its functions, build its engines, and do any number of design works.

But this was the part he enjoyed the most, sketching out the image of the ship, putting his imagination into reality.

Before even a few minutes passed a ship was beginning to form. Sleek and hunched over, wings that folded up and down in reminiscents of the old Lambda-class Shuttles that Sienar had once created. Almost faster than Michael could keep up with Sam drew the image, titling the class of ship before he even finished drawing, the Sicarius. He grinned slightly as he slowly finished the sketch, the sleek ship appearing to perfection.

“What do you think.” He said waving his hand at the drawing.

Most would have called it perfect.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Michael practically shoved his friend aside, taking the drawing by the edges of the piece of paper and lifting it up. Slowly as he looked at it in more detail a grin spread across his face.

“It's perfect.” The ship was sleek, stealthy, and most importantly subtle. It would not draw the eye when pained in black, or even when seen on the horizon of a sunny day. This was exactly what Sienar wanted, exactly what they would need to make this ship work. Of course it wasn't nearly done, the design would get changed around hundreds of times and shifted by the stealth technology that Sienar could easily acquire.

But it was a beautiful start. “You'll have a team to work on this.”

Michael spoke almost too quickly, being an executive he probably had wasted far too much time here already.

“They'll help you design the ship and fit the stealth systems on board. Most of them are already purchased and waiting, though I expect you'll have a lot of work ahead of you before you ever manage to get there.” Michael smirked, and then placed the drawing back on the desk.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

“A TEAM?” Sam almost stammered the words out, confused and slightly disoriented. He had never had a team before.

This project was bigger than he had been lead to believe. It was not a make or break for Sienar of course, but it was big. The amount of money this could make was huge, and Sam suddenly realized that. If they succeeded and kept the design to what the concept was supposed to be, every lord from Kuat to Kaas would want one, and since Sienar sold to everyone...

His head began to swim slightly, and dizziness threatened to take him. To steady himself Sam placed two hands onto the desk before him, righting himself and shaking slightly as he looked up at Michael almost pleadingly.

Sometimes it hurt to get what you wished for.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Michael slapped his friend on the back with a laugh, a smirk forming on his face as Sam realized exactly what he had just gotten himself into.

Responsibility was a difficult thing after all.

“Better get to work my friend, they expect the first prototype of the Sicarius in a month!” As Sam's eyes threatened to jump out of his skull Michael only laughed and fled the room. He almost ran, but in reality he knew that he had given his friend a gift.

If the Sicarius succeeded, like Michael knew it would then it would open doors for Sienar. They had all the technology, all the components, everything they needed to make a Stealth Yacht. Incom, the firm that had created the StealthX was a close partner of Sienar, their technology was Sienars fully, not to mention that fiberplast and grav projectors weren't exactly hard to come by.

The difficulty of the project would be fitting it all together, but Michael knew that his friend was more than capable.

The Sicarius would come to life.