Those That Are Hidden

[Alric Kuhn]

Byblos

Alric stood quietly in a laboratory, leaning upon the small wooden cane that had been gifted to him by his children, though really it was more of a regift situation. Not the sort that was frowned upon where you took a present you received and gave it to someone else, but more the sort where you got something that had already been given to you once before. That usually would have been frowned upon as well, but here it was something Alric was rather thankful for.

When Lily and Rose had first gifted his cane to him he had been a bag of mixed emotions.

On the one hand the gift had been kind, thoughtful, and necessary, but...well the very idea that he had needed a cane in the first place was something Alric found off-putting in it of itself. Of course he couldn't have really denied the fact even if he'd wanted to, his knee was so busted that at this point he could barely hold his wife against th-well that didn't really matter.

He frowned slightly as he looked around the lab.

His first cane had been lost in on Dromund Kaas, when some Sith had let loose a horde of zombies upon the planet. The disaster had spread rather quickly, and caught up in the middle of it had been his now daughter, Myra. Alric had moved to rescue the little girl, and during that rescue his cane had been lost. It wasn't something he had been happy about, though looking back he would make the sacrifice with no quesiton again and again. It had just been a cane after all, no matter who had given it.

"Mr. Kuhn."

A voice finally caught his attention.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

He looked up. "Yes, Andrew?"

One might have thought that Alric wouldn't memorize the names of his employees, but he had made it a point to do so for many years running now. Respect was a two way street, and even though he wasn't getting any younger, and thus his mind wasn't getting any sharper, he still made sure to at the very least get to know his researchers. Vanir employed hundreds of thousands of people, there was no knowing them all, but at the veyr least he could recognize those who he would work closely with.

"The Serum is this way, through the R&D labs."

"Ah." The old man said with a smile. "I guess I'll get the full tour then."

The man in the coat smiled at Alric, though didn't respond.

"Lead the way then." He wasn't in any particular hurry, the Serum was a nice idea really, a supposed way that would allow them to fix his knee, but Alric wasn't banking on it. The problem with his injury wasn't just the ligaments and muscles, but down to the very bones. To fix everything that was wrong with the injury was...well simply too much to ask of one product. Alric and Danger had both accepted that a long time ago.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

The two men slowly began to wander through the laboratory, Alric eyeing half a dozen different projects that seemed to be spread out over different workstations, each separated by thick glass walls. A few times his gaze fell on one item in particular, the old man lingering as he observed what was going on behind the glass. He frowned for a moment, then slowly shook his head and beckoned Andrew to move forward. The chemical lab was located at the other end of the facility.

Eventually however something caught his eye. "What's this?"

Alric said as they passed by a particularly large room. Within it were three men, two of whom wore the same lab coats that decorated Andrew's shoulders, the third wearing the robes of a Jedi. Alric frowned for a moment, glancing towards Andrew with an inquisitive look. The scientist looked down at his datapad, pulling up a file and then offering it to Alric so that the Old Man could see.

"A force Detector, Mr. Kuhn."

The former Titan frowned for a moment.

Force Detectors weren't all that rare in the galaxy, Alric had seen them, and even produced them before. Granted Titan's Force Detector had been a creation of the Yuuzhan Vong, but the effect and general principal was still pretty much the same.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

"Hm." Alric mused for a moment as he glanced towards the small device in his hands. He read a few lines, thinking for just a second more before he looked back up towards the glass room. "Let's take a closer look."

Though he technically was no longer involved in running the company, Alric still had sway.

In theory, Rigor, the droid crafted by Vanir Technologies almost decades ago was now in charge of the company itself. The droid was posing as Alric Kuhn, and many of the senior employees at the corporation were well aware of this. Despite knowledge of that however most here still retained a great deal of loyalty to Alric himself, not only because of Vanir's stringent morality, but also because of the companies own loyalty to it's employees.

Respect beget respect. "Indulge an old man."

Alric told Andrew, who seemed to have never even thought about arguing.

The two of them headed towards the glass room, a door falling away as they stepped inside.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Alric stepped into the room, Andrew right behind him. The two men shimmied past the first of the researchers, moving behind the two so that they could get a proper look at what was happening. For the time being it seemed that the robed man, whom Alric assumed to be a Jedi, was simply sitting there. The former Corporate Titan didn't say anything as the test went on, though he quietly observed the screen off to the right slightly changing as datapoints were connected.

A simple set of wires was connected to a mask like device stationed upon a metal pole. A rather...simplistic design, but an effective one if Alric had ever seen one. "He is a Jedi?"

Alric asked Andrew quietly.

"I believe he once was, Mr. Kuhn."

The Tetan nodded slightly. There was no real need to dig into the Robed Man's background. The simple enough explanation was that he was a force user that had likely come on hard times. Vanir Technologies was known for it's neutrality, and it paid well enough. Coming in to the company and acting as a test subject was likely appealing to those who needed a bit of money, after all even force users needed to eat and a place to stay, Vanir could quite easily provide that.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

The Jedi shifted slightly, his eyes finally opening.

The man didn't look at Alric or Andrew, instead kept his gaze focused on the object that was in front of him. A small silvery orb sat on a pillow before the Jedi. The object was entirely miscellaneous, holding no real great distinction or significance other than being a bit shiny. All four of the other men watched in silence as the Jedi seemed to focus for a few moments, and then simultaneously glanced over towards the screen as the orb slowly began to lift into the air.

"The mask reads impulses in the force."

Andrew began to explain.

"It will show not the force itself but rather what is utilizing it, an aberration if you will."

"I see." Alric said quietly as he watched the screen, a bright flare forming around the Jedi who was simply sitting in place.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

"To what degree does this extend?" It was an important question when it came to Jedi and Sith, mostly because Alric had seen what they were capable of. His late wife, one of his daughters, and a multitude of his acquaintances were all powerful force users, capable of astonishing feats. "Can it detect smaller impulses?"

Another good question.

Certain Force users could utilize their ability to a degree that was both amazing and astounding, capable of changing the smallest detail without much effort. Alric had witnessed it more than once, though it had been on somewhat...amusing occasions. Lily or Rose hiding food, Silara causing their daughters to slip into a pile of snow. Small pushes and pulls that would have gone completely unnoticed had Alric not been told about it later. A force detector was more useful if it could read those signals.

"Yes."

Andrew's answer came.

"Smaller impulses, even unwilling ones we've found."

Alric perked an eyebrow, slowly glancing towards the Jedi before turning his gaze back towards the screen. The silvery orb slowly floated back down towards the pillow, the odd haze that had been created around the Jedi on the screen quickly fading back into nothingness. "Interesting."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

"The technology is still flawed however."

That wasn't too surprising really, especially given the nature of the force. Silara and his twins had all tried to explain it on more than one occasion, either trying to put it in simpler terms or drawing it out for him over and over again. He'd understood a little, but there was always something missing. The reality of the matter was that the Force could never really be understood, it was something mysterious that most people simply had to guess at.

He supposed it was easier for force users, but most of the galaxy didn't have that advantage.

"How?" Alric asked quietly, his eyes focusing on the screen again. The haze had all but disappeared from the Jedi, just a small slice of blue remaining around the man before that too winked completely from existence.

"The force is complex, and according to our data touches...everything. This can lead to problems. False positives, the sensors getting overwhelmed...."

Andrew trailed off.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

"It not's an exact science." Alric cut off the researcher, glancing at him with a slight smile. "My late wife was a Force User."

Surprise colored Andrew's face. "She attempted many times to explain it all to me, always failed in the end. Some concepts are simply beyond the understanding of simple men like me."

He shrugged.

"I would hardly call you simple, Sir."

Alric smiled at that. "Flattery won't get you any further than you are now, Andrew."

The researched smirked, though said nothing as Alric glanced back towards the Jedi. Even if the system was flawed, it was still a step forward. Devices like this were rare enough in the galaxy, ones that worked more than half the time? All but unique. The last time a corporation he controlled had created something like this had been Titan, and that had been a biot that needed to be implanted in the eye. This was far more user friendly.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

After a moment more of watching several smaller experiments, including having the Jedi try to disguise his force signature, Alric got bored of watching. He no longer controlled the company, not really anyway, and he trusted that Rigor and his researchers knew what they were doing. There was no need to second guess anyone here, least of all the researchers. Whether this mask would enter production or not they would yet have to see, but he liked the idea.

"Alright, show me this miracle serum of yours." The Old Tetan said as she slowly began to walk towards the door, the tap of his cane ringing out as he moved.

The Jedi finally glanced up at him, Alric catching his eye for just a moment. The Tetan smiled, offering a small wave. He considered asking for a picture with the man, something that he could show off to Myra, but decided it would disrupt the research a bit too much.

"I wish you would stop calling it a miracle, sir."

Alric let out a laugh as the glass door opened up before him. "Well, then stop promising the impossible."

An odd thing to say, since that was what Vanir claimed to do every day.