The Mouse Rod

[Valik]

Like a child at frithsmas Valik waited eagerly for his package to arrive. One QQ-543N/53R arriving in the mail for him. A single module was large enough to cover a corvette, and had a mass of approximately five tons. While offering little, if any defense against Ion Cannons and the like, but critically useful against the efforts of EMP waves and Conner Nets. But honestly, when Valik got down too it, he didn't care about Conner Nets, or Ion Cannons, or even ships in general. The affairs of creating ships bored him, there was more to life than gun counts and fire arcs. Sure, art could be made there, but it wasn't the art Valik was keen on painting. Instead he ordered the Cap Drain for one reason, to take it apart. Inside the Cap Drain he'd surely find various circuitry and electronics, a fair bit of durasteel, but at the core would be the prize he sought. Gadolinium, a superconductor with enormous potential. Something he could take and shape into something much, much more.

 

[Valik]

"Now, when most people order a cap drain they want it put onto something." The Bothan delivery man said as he arrived. "I mean, you can do what you want with it, but installation does come free. Are you sure you don't want us to put it on a ship for you?"

"No, I simply need it unloaded and put into the workshop." Valik responded, to which the equine shrugged.

"I'll put it wherever you need it." He responded as he filled his datapad up with commands with a loading droid on the freighter. "I'll warn you though, installing the cap drain without a silk mechanic's license will void your warranty."

"Oh that's perfectly fine. I won't be installing it onto a ship, so it's unnecessary."

"A tank then maybe?"

"No, I just want to do a little . . . weather experiment." Valik finally decided on.

"Well using it for things other than it's advertised function also voids the warranty. Just so you know." The Bothan responded in a friendly manner, as if trying to warn him. There was an audible thump as the loading droid managed to get the Cap Drain onto the floor, before heading back into the cargo freighter.

"Well, you have a good day sir. Don't be afraid to call up Silk for any of your other needs." The bothan said before finally leaving.

It was time to get to work.

 

[Valik]

With sonic servodriver in hand and the Force at Valik's fingertips deconstructing the Cap Drain was an easy task, though it wasn't necessarily a swift one. Taking apart the cap drain part by part was still a long process, and the large chunks of durasteel needed to be moved by long efforts of telekinesis, and even then Valik could only move so much at once time, and only so quickly. Muscling through five tons of weight, even with the Force, was no small task. Periodically he would stop, analyze the circuitry he was bypassing and cutting off, make various notes on their design. Afterwards he'd get a cup of caf, start up a mechanical loader and move the half ton of metal he had just taken off. All told the process took him around nine galactic standard hours before he finally cut in to what he was looking for. The Gadolinium super-conductor. It was, as suspected, an extremely minor part of the machinery, constituting less than 1 percent of the Cap Drain's total mass. Still, there was enough for Valik's needs, and perhaps a little more as well. With sweat on his brow and victory in his eyes he carefully extracted the Gadolinium from the Cap Drain before putting it in a sealed container. Taking the sealed contained he placed it on his desk, before attaching a few wires here and there to the container, allowing his computers to run some diagnostics. He'd get to work on his real project, but, in the morning. After he'd had some rest. After Valik was never in a hurry. One could not rush perfection.

 

[Valik]

After setting up the scans of the gadolinium Valik headed over and took a long sani-stream, before munching down on some protatos and heading to bed. The next morning found him peacefully, no distractions interfering with his sleep. Heading back to the workshop he went to discard the rest of the excess durasteel, having no use for the simple material, and donated it back to Silk Holdings. they'd find a use for it Valik was sure. All that mattered to him was the gadolinium. The tests on the superconductor had been run, the material harvested from the superconductor had a 98.7% purity rating. Impressive, but not perfect. After reviewing the analysis of the other trace metals not conductive to the Gadolinium Valik began to synthesize a specialized acid, that would melt away the impurities. It'd take a couple of hours of centrifuging, but that was not a problem.

 

[Valik]

It was not long before the acid was ready and then poured into the container of gadolinium. It was then sealed before Valik waited a while for the acid to do it's work. After about fifteen minutes he shook the contained and sloshed it around for good measure, before draining the acid in an appropriate waste container. Once he was certain the acid was removed he rant another few scans and indicated the remaining mass was 100% Gadolinium. Stupendous. Extending a hand he reached into the box of Gadolinium, and began concentrated the Force into it. He began to subtly use Art of the Small to stitch part after part together, weaving the pieces of the superconductor together until he had an array of spings, cylinders, even a button! He arranged them together in a fairly intuitive fashion until he had his unfinished weapon, a telescoping baton.

 

[Valik]

The telescoping baton was a remarkably simple weapon, from an age where blasters or even primitive analogs such as tri-blaster or boom tubes were not commonplace. The average civilian wasn't capable of space flight so wandered weren't around, so people didn't arm, or armor, themselves against the unknown. Thus a simple, concealable blunt weapon was brutally effective by lawmen or the gangsters of the day. Valik however, was never one for physical combat, preferring instead to arm himself with an array of gadgets that would put his opponent offguard. For this reason, along with the the nimble and light nature of the weapon, he chose the baton, not to serve as a weapon with which to beat his enemies into submission with brute strength, but to enhance his inherent powers to an unnatural level.

Gadolinium itself was a superconductor, nearly resistanceless in regards to electricity passing through it. Sith alchemized blades acted as a natural magnet to Sith Lightning, and redirected it to a target upon contact. Combining the two properties would allow Valik a way to enhance the capabilities of his own Sith Lightning, while protecting him from the lightning of others. Add in some lightsaber immunity for good measure and it was a variable option to allow Valik all sorts of new possibilities in combat. With a prick of his finger and blood spreading throughout the alloy the baton began to increase in weight, as it's durability increased and it's penchant for absorbing electricity changed into something based on the Force.


Valik's lips curled as he poured lightning into the baton and struck a wall, and it turned blacker than if it were hit by a blaster bolt. His weapon was deadly, and it was ready.