Wake Up

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

This was of course ignoring the fact that he could drop Kira like a heavy bag of sand. He was still holding her rather tight, and that support was really the only thing keeping her up. The former Sith Lord wouldn't do any such thing of course, but it was a thought that ever so quickly drifted through his mind.

Perhaps it was his meaner side.

Or maybe he just wanted to win that badly. Kira probably wouldn't take it to heart either, as long as he dropped her softly enough. No matter however, as instead of dropping her he instead increased the strength of his grip, making sure that he did not drop her. His fingers sprawled over her lower back, his knees bracing. For a moment he thought about how glad he was never to have sustained a permanent injury, his species, and the technovirus having kept him safe through years of war.

"I could." He said for a moment. "But I don't want to."

Had to win. "Because I'm so nice."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Nice has nothing to do with it!" she huffed out, wiggling to try and get her arm free. "Hey--ompf!" Kira gave a half gasp, more dramatic than any real harm Soliael was doing. There was pressure along her ribcage but he wasn't hurting her at all.

"Just admit it," as she breathed a bit easier, blowing a hot puff of air up her face. The blonde strands of her bangs went flying, even tickling his face. " You're mine now!" she took a breath and gave a little stretch in his arms, as if it didn't register that he could very well drop her if he wanted to. But he wouldn't.

So instead she stretched herself along in his grasp like a well sated cat.

"I know... you are probably asking yourself how lucky you are to be so blessed! Really, " she gave a wiggle of her toes and an impish grin, along with a flair of a dramatic, "Don't worry about it. I'm quite nice."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Mhmm." In truth...he was only half listening. Not that he didn't care about the games that played, but...well...she'd posed a challenge to him...a technological one.

She couldn't expect him to not think about it.

Kira knew well enough that he would want to start working on this newest project, most of all because...well his other past projects hadn't exactly gone to plan. Like she had so dutifully pointed out his past wanderings into other aspects of crafting hadn't exactly gone very smoothly. He'd given up on whittling, building furniture, and half a dozen other projects. He'd never really been any good at them, or rather, he'd never really been able to focus on any of them long enough to be good at them, but this?

Creating a new galactic map of the Rishi Maze? Oh he would be good at that. "Nice...sure you are."

He repeated, his slowly creeping towards the tech bench on the far end of the room.

The former false god fidgeted slightly.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Are you paying attention to me?" Kira cried out with mock affront. Narrowing her eyes, she gave a sly grin as she brought out her hand from between their bodies. One lone forefinger soon found itself poking at the man's cheek, prompting a dimple along the tanned flesh.

"Hey! I'm plenty nice!" She gave him another playful poke. All the while, the former false god inched over to the tech bench. Every step swung the waterfall of blonde hair, while Kira playfully kicked a leg now and then.

"The nicest Jedi Master you've ever met!" Yup, his mind was elsewhere. He had that slight wrinkle in between his brows whenever he was trying to focus. At this rate he'll lock himself in and try to come up with a viable prototype for the challenge she gave him.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Nicest?" He said absently, though this time with a wide smirk on his face. That was actually true. Kira was without a doubt the kindest, most well meaning person, nevermind Jedi Master, that Soliael had ever met. That meant quite a bit considering how long he'd lived and just how many people he'd met.

That didn't meant he couldn't tease her though.

The smirk pulled across his lips. "I don't know about that..."

Slowly his attentioned returned to his wife. Maybe he could delay the project for just a few minutes, at least long enough to win.

"I mean." He continued as his eyes fluttered to hers, innocent as the driven snow. "I've met a lot of Jedi Masters."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Kira gave Soliael a mock expression of aghast. Her jaw fell open, and she gave a dramatic half gasp, as if how dare he suggest that anyone else would be nicer than her! For her troubles, she gave an audible "Hmph!" her harrumph of feint indignation not quite sticking to the perceived insult.

"Oh really?" she began, giving another wiggle and kick of her legs. "Well look no further Buster," another poke of her finger, this time against his chest. The fabric of his shirt sank as she did so, the warmth of his skin permeating from the contact of the touch. "Really, all you need to know is that I am the best!"

This was talking up quite a bit, and perhaps she was being a bit childish. There were times for such little frivolities. Giving another harrumph, the Lorrdian swung her head, glancing around. He was almost at the tech bench.

"Okay, put me down." she told him, already starting to wiggle and shift to try and slide out of his grasp. "Might as well get started on this project."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael kissed the top of her head in response.

Then did it again.

Then once more.

Then thrice again just for good measure.

Eventually however he did indeed put her down, if only because she was wiggling a bit too much and the locks of her hair were getting caught in his nose which made him want to sneeze. Once she was gently placed onto the deck of the hangar Soliael backed up a bit, his face scrunching for a moment as he forced himself not to sneeze directly into his wife's face. Eventually the moment passed, and the former False God returned to his more composed stature. "It'll take a bit."

He said, pointing out the obvious.

"The data has to download first, and we have to see what we actually know about The Rishi Maze." Soliael wanted to say that it was nothing, but for all he knew Grandmother had managed to scrape together some kind of information. "Better to start with what we know."

That was simply logic.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

A small grimace wrinkled over her lips as he set her down. Not because he was rough in handling her, just that her muscles were still protesting the sudden burst of speed she had utilized earlier.

"I know," she said, stretching out her legs for a moment while Soliael strode to the tech bench. "Hey, mind giving me a massage later?" she asked, her arms arching up to stretch over her head. Oh yeah, Kira gave a small wince. Maybe she should have given their little tomfoolery a second thought.

Well maybe a bath instead...

"As for the data... well that's one thing." he was right, that was the easy part. Just grabbing what they could from the Freya's Nav Systems would be a good start. "The actual datacron is another..."

Bare feet went padding over towards one of the far shelves. He said Nohei had left him some items before their departure. As the most Technomancy of the four kids, their youngest certainly had quite the talent. She took after Soliael in that respect.

"You said Nohei sent you some stuff?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"She didn't really send me anything." Soliael pointed out. "More gave back some stuff I'd give her."

While their youngest daughter was growing more proficient in the avenues of technomancy, she was still learning to form the more complex matrix systems that were required in some areas of their craft. She would master it in time, Soliael was confident of that, but for now there was still much she had to learn. "Not really useful for making datacrons."

He motioned towards one of the far boxes.

"Datacrons are relatively simple actually. They're just giant Hard drives, fancier and made with a specific system, but honestly they aren't all that special. They lack the most complex part of a holocron, which is of course the Gatekeeper." He smiled slightly and then began to sift through parts on the bench.

"Shouldn't be too much trouble to make a datacron..." He trailed off for a second as he picked out a crystal from one of the boxes. "But the issue is making a datacron that's interactive. Adding in that holocron element without actually putting in a gatekeeper."

Soliael leaned back and flashed Kira a smile. "And yes I will give you a massage later."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Well the only difference there is just the use of the Force compared to simply making a set amount of interactive answers." Well as interactive as she'd figured this project would be. There were limitations. Likely wouldn't be able to really make anything that would emcapsulate everything.

"Are you going to have it have a holographic gatekeeper so to speak?" As much as one could get with what they were working on. Plopping herself beside her husband, Kira plucked a small bit of metal from one of the crates. While she wasn't as skilled as Soliael or Nohei, she knew some tricks when it came to electronic manipulation.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"No." He said quickly. Soliael didn't want to have a gatekeeper, he didn't have to have what would essentially be a knock off holocron. That didn't sit well with him, not at all. In his mind he was picturing something...something more advanced, something better. He frowned for a moment, then plucked the crystal into the air and let it roll across his fingers, slowly considering for a moment before regarding Kira once again, his eyes following her hands. "Something better."

"Interactive." He said quietly.

How?

That was really the million dollar question. He didn't want there to be a limit, he didn't want there to be questions answered or asked, he wanted it all to flow. He didn't want to make a star map, nor did he want to make a stupid flowery datacron that looked pretty but had little to no functionality. That wouldn't do anyone any good, least of all him. He shifted his weight for a moment and then pressed his hand into the crystal. "I have to think about it."

He eventually conceded the point. Even he couldn't do everything on the spot.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Turning to him, Kira studied her husband. Oh, he was diving straight into it. She could tell just by his expression. The lines furrowed over his brow and his eyebrows scrunched forward.

The million credit question. How to make it interactive without the Force? It perturbed him, but it also excited him. It was a new problem to solve. Something that perhaps hadn't been tackled before.

"Well does it have to be mechanical?' she asked him, the petite woman padding over to him. Arms came up and slide around him from behind, upturn face and a pert nose wiggling at him as she peered up and around to see him. He had a crystal in his hand.

"Aren't there crystals that could store vast amounts of information much in the same way? "

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"They can store it just fine." Soliael said. "But to access it properly, at least in the way that I would want it has to utilize the force."

That was the way a holocron worked. "That's what gatekeepers are in Holocrons. They aren't a mechanical interface, they are one based on The Force. It's why Lightside and Darkside holocrons exist, because they draw power from either source. That's the only way the things can actually survive and be used for so long."

So how did he do it without the force?

They would need a new type of crystal, or perhaps a power matrix that fed into the crystal itself. The Map wouldn't have to draw power always, that would help, and when it did draw power it didn't even need to necessarily drain, in fact, it could feed back into itself. Yet it would still need that initial charge, the burst of energy that would actually bring the map to life when it was first activates. His fingers scratched through his beard, a considering sound passing through his throat.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Well there are power crystals." even she knew about those. Her time collecting knickknacks paid off with that. Back at home, Kira had a massive collection of pretty rocks and crystals. Some of them were just pretty, others more sentimental, and a few were rather .. well extraordinary.

Much like the crystals Soliael and Kira found deep under the caverns of the castle at Exocron.

"We could see if we can find something that may work?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He shrugged. "Not the crystal I'm worried about."

She was right of course. There were two dozen different powercrystals that existed in the galaxy, but in truth he didn't think that any of them would fit. All Crystals, well, at least the most common ones would eventually run out of power. It was simply the truth. Either their energy would eventually dim or they were too easily broken. They would need something more constant, something that they could harvest and craft into the central storage system.

Soliael frowned for a moment, considering.

"Sunstones maybe." He mused out loud to her. "They take in sunlight, make it thousands of times brighter then it was."

He considered the thought, then brought it a step further. "Put it at the center of the housing, then when it opens and is introduced to light...even the barest light, it reflects it in such intensity that it powers tiny panels inside the Map and sparks the device to life."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Sunstones?" now there was stone the Lorrdian had not heard of before. Slipping her arms around him, Kira studied her husband quizzingly. "Never heard of those before."

Oh, she believed him. Devin had a wealth of knowledge not only just from personal experience, but from the decades he spent studying and absorbing as much information as he could in his youth.

"So they reflect sunlight and enhance it?" taking a small stool, she dragged it over and plopped it down beside the former false god. A slight grimace at the protest of her muscles cut her expression, but she settled down quickly enough once she sat on the chair.

"Only sunlight?" one hand began to toss back and forth the bit of metal. Idly, Kira rolled the metal. It wasn't ordinary metal, but the sort that Soliael had used to train Nohei with back when she was younger. It was easily manipulated with the Force, falling apart and then coming back together.

"Oh, so any light." that was interesting. It also meant that as long as there was some measure of light, it would continue to power itself.

"Where would we get sunstones from?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael let out a deep breath. He hadn't exactly thought of that part. He didn't think he had any sunstones laying around, and he doubted that they would be able to find one somewhere in The Rishi Maze. The stones were incredibly rare, if only because they were also extremely dangerous. Nobody really wanted to carry them, not unless they were going to sell the damned things or do something nefarious with it. That was the trouble with a Sunstone.

"Dunno yet." Maybe he'd have to jump back to the galaxy for a second. "They're rare."

Soliael explained to his wife. "The problem with this is...they don't know when to stop reflecting. They can take the tiniest spark of a flashlight, and I mean the tiniest, and turn it into a blinding light that will leave the eyes burned out of your socket."

He considered for a moment.

"Not pleasant at all, and that's not even with a powerful source of light. Expose that thing to direct sunlight and you can see it from space." That was what would make it such a great powersource, that mystical ability to enhance and empower sunlight. Of course, it also would make it dangerous if he didn't find out a way to stop that particular effect.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Yeah... I rather we do not attempt to burn our retinas out." Kira said dryly, shaking her head from side to side. "As much as I'm sure you'd still be pretty hunky, " she assured, leaning forward from her chair to press a kiss against his bicep.

"I rather make sure your lovely little eyes are okay." A wide sassy grin shone in his direction.

"Well, we could check your database back on Exocron." recalling the weird little stone figurine he had.

"Any way to remotely connect to it?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Ehhhh." Soliael thought for a moment, his eyes half rolling up as he considered the idea. "No."

The amount of effort to connect back to the stone would be...well he might as well go back and grab the damn thing himself. That wasn't to mention the danger in doing it in the first place, better to just stay here and try to pull data from The Freya. "Wouldn't be much help anyway. That thing has absolutely zero about the Rishi Maze."

He shrugged.

Soliael didn't even have to touch the statue to know that. He'd compiled every little bit of knowledge that sat inside of the thing, and although there were a few map like bits from around the galaxy, it primarily was used as a datacron like device to store a different kind of knowledge. Any ship with nav data would know more then the statue, except for perhaps secret routes that lead to the Aing-Tii homeworld. Then again, that wasn't really something Soliael wanted on the map anyway.

"We'll figure it out." He said with a shrug. "Maybe we'll find something like a sunstone in the Maze."

Below them, the ship shook, a brief jump into hyperspace pulling them in.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

As the Freya went through another hyperspace jump, Kira brought up her knees a bit, securing them on the rungs of the stool beneath her. The slight turbulence wasn't enough to her to unbalance herself, but she did at least settle herself down.

Jumping into Rishi Maze was still a rather unknown thing. Anything could happen. With the knowledge that pirates were starting to litter the area, even getting interdicted could be a potential risk.

"So if you have a sunstone powersource, and say it does work --" Kira began, "How are you going to be able to moderate the amount of light reflection it gives out?" that was the issue.

Kira twisted her lips, thinking about it.

"Aren't there specific coatings for Glasteel that automatically polarize to make seeing through it more manageable against the rays of the sun?"