Private Where Skill Becomes Something Else

[Allan Alhune]

Allan watched the interaction closely, noting the way they each reacted to one another. The way Aren seemed to investigate the surrounding area as if trying to disassemble it all and reassemble it to understand its very inner workings.

A small chuckle left him as he ventured to the other side of the room.

“I will let you two get acquainted. I sense a real partnership here.”

Nier's eyes switched from Aren to Allan, watching him move, watching him closely as if there were nervousness there. At first she would not respond, not until after he had left sight.

Nier gently took Aren's hand, giving it a gentle shake.

“Yes I did. It took months of splicing and experimentation, but I finally replicated its very own force signature within the planet.”

Her emerald gaze found Aren's as a slight smirk appeared on her face.

“It's not often a new face shows real curiosity in my lab. Please ask your questions. I can't promise I can answer all of them but I can try my best.”

Her gaze wandered around the room, across many instruments she would use in her experiments, the various chemicals that were kept in bottles in neat racks.

“Before you ask, no I do not sleep here. I have my own room thankfully.”

Aren D'Shade​

 

[Aren D'Shade]

Aren returned the handshake with the same steady confidence, though by now her attention had become divided between Nier and the laboratory itself. Her eyes wandered from one instrument to the next, lingering just long enough to begin forming questions before moving on again. Every bench appeared organized with purpose. Every machine looked as though it had earned its place. It reminded her of her own workshop, albeit one built around an entirely different discipline.

"You replicated a Force signature." The statement wasn't disbelief. It was fascination. Her brown eyes returned to Nier.

"I've felt Force echoes before. Imprints left behind by people or places." She glanced around the laboratory again before looking back. "But intentionally reproducing one..." A faint smile appeared. "That's not something I've heard of."

She stepped a little closer to one of the larger experimental assemblies, careful not to touch anything.

"How did you verify it?" she asked. "Did you have another Force-sensitive compare the original to the recreated signature, or were you able to measure the resonance directly?" There wasn't skepticism in her voice. Only genuine curiosity. If someone had found a repeatable method for something long considered intangible, Aren wanted to understand it.

Nier's final comment drew a quiet chuckle from her. "I wasn't going to ask," she admitted. "But I can see why people probably do." Her gaze drifted around the room once more, appreciating the organization of the space. "I've had people ask me the same thing about my workshop."

Allan Alhune

 

[Allan Alhune]

Her questions pulled intrigue from Nier, she was not just someone asking questions out of politeness, these were genuine questions of understanding. From one experimental mind to another.

“Well, Force Imprints are the same as finding DNA strains, or fingerprints. Every signature is different, but they require some sort of root that points to their species.”

She walked over to one of the devices. A small containment field of transperisteel and within it were several shards of fossilized bone.

“These beings held such understanding of the force that it still resonated from within their skeletal structure. This device was made to measure the frequencies of such resonations. A special song you could say, orchestrated by the same composer based on their style of composition.”

Her hand flicked a small switch causing the machine to emanate a low hum that gradually grew higher in frequency. Eventually the hum began to pulse with its own tempo, its own rhythm and its own song.

“We simply matched the frequencies and built upon sections that were missing.”

Her emerald green eyes looked back at Aren as the pitch hit its peak.

“That is how we recreated and replicated its signature.”

She offered her a soft smile before shutting down the machine then looking back at her.

“But you said you had a workshop? Please tell me about it, what do you work on?”

Aren D'Shade​

 

[Aren D'Shade]

Aren listened intently as the machine began to hum, her attention fixed on the shifting frequencies more than the device itself. As the pitch climbed and settled into its strange rhythm, she found herself unconsciously searching for patterns within it, treating it less like mysticism and more like another language waiting to be deciphered.

"So you aren't really creating something from nothing," she said thoughtfully. "You're reconstructing it. Filling in the gaps from what was still there."

It was an elegant solution. One she could appreciate.

When Nier asked about her own workshop, Aren hesitated for only a moment before smiling faintly.

"Nothing quite so exotic."

Her eyes wandered briefly across the laboratory before settling on one of the benches.

"I'm an engineer, mostly. Electronics, communications equipment, droids... anything with circuitry tends to find its way onto one of my workbenches eventually. Sometimes I'm building something new, sometimes I'm repairing something everyone else has written off."

She gave a small shrug.

"I enjoy figuring out why things stopped working." A hint of amusement entered her voice. "Machines usually have a reason. They don't lie or hide their intentions. You just have to ask the right questions."

Her expression softened as another thought came to mind.

"I've also built a few droids over the years. One in particular..." A quiet smile lingered for a moment. "She started as little more than salvaged parts someone had abandoned. Putting her back together ended up being a much bigger project than I expected."

Aren looked back toward Nier, genuine curiosity returning to her expression.

"I suppose that's one thing our work has in common." She gestured lightly toward the equipment surrounding the fossilized remains. "Whether it's old technology or ancient bones, we're both trying to understand what someone else left behind."

Allan Alhune

 

[Allan Alhune]

Nier let out a small chuckle.

“Regardless of space magic, you can’t make something out of nothing. At least, not in my experience.”

She listened as Aren spoke of her workshop. It sounded as if it were something simpler. Not that simple meant less valuable, or less important. It was all perspective to her. Simplicity had the grace of practicality. It would force you to only retain tools that were essential. But if she were to make a business out of it, who was she to judge?

“My experience with droids, due to my Families history and their stigma against technological advancements, is rather limited. But I am always interested in learning more. Perhaps we could share notes sometime? Maybe even joint studies?”

There was a genuine curiosity in her eyes as she asked her questions after listening to Aren speak of her project. It was clear she loved to be challenged, afterall, how could one truly ascend themselves without challenge?

Allan slowly walked over after they conversed, his eyes flicking between the two.

“Nier, it is time to continue your work. Aren is going to be receiving a tour of your home, if you don’t mind of course.”

Nier’s gaze suddenly flicked towards the floor, her body tensing at his words. The look of genuine excitement and curiosity now replaced with a cold stare to the floor daring to not look him in the eye.

“Of course, my Lord. I’m sure she would love a tour…I’ll get back to work.”

Without another word she kept her gaze low and continued working on one of the machines analyzing different plants and what seemed like fossilized bone.

Allan gently waved his hand towards the next door before Aren.

“Shall we? You are my guest, allow me to show you around the palace.”

Aren D'Shade ​

 

[Aren D'Shade]

Aren's expression brightened slightly at the suggestion. "I'd like that." Nier's field was far enough removed from her own that Aren suspected they could both learn something from the other, which made the prospect considerably more appealing than simply comparing two approaches to the same problem. "I can't promise how useful I'll be when you get into biology, but technology I can manage. Joint studies could be interesting." She smiled faintly. "And I can introduce you to EL sometime. She'd probably have opinions about being considered a study subject, though."

The change in Nier was impossible to miss when Allan returned. Only moments earlier, she had been animated and curious, openly discussing her work and the possibility of collaborating. Then her eyes dropped to the floor, her body tightened, and all of that enthusiasm disappeared beneath something Aren couldn't immediately identify. Her gaze lingered on the woman for a moment before shifting toward Allan. She said nothing. She barely knew either of them, and whatever existed between the two wasn't something she understood well enough to challenge. Still, the reaction lodged itself firmly in the back of her mind.

It also brought back the question that had been following Aren ever since Allan had transported her away from her workshop. What exactly had she gotten herself into? The chained prisoners had provided one answer. The creature feeding somewhere in the darkness had provided another. Nier's sudden withdrawal offered something subtler, but Aren wasn't convinced it was any less important. Curiosity had brought her this far, though, and despite the increasingly large collection of warning signs, she still wanted what Allan had promised to teach her.

"I'd like to see it," Aren finally answered, giving Allan a small nod before moving toward the indicated doorway. Before following him through, however, she glanced back toward Nier at her workstation. She didn't interrupt the other woman's work or make a promise aloud with Allan standing there. She simply committed the thought to memory. If she had the opportunity, she would come back. There were plenty of questions she still wanted to ask Nier, and after seeing the way she'd reacted to Allan's return, Aren suspected there were a few that had nothing to do with Lava Wyrms.

Allan Alhune

 

[Allan Alhune]

Allan moved silently to the, gracefully opening it for her and gesturing with his hand for her to move on through.

“Ladies first, of course.”

After she had cleared the doorway he stepped in with her. The both of them were greeted by a set of steps that spiraled upwards where he led the way for her to a final door. His hand waved, silently and gently opening the door and just beyond was a great interior of stained wood and candle light. A hall with many sections that once held portraits but now were barren faded marks of what used to hang in place.

Soft music played through its halls and just ahead was a half circle of steps leading towards the main area. A gentle warmth surrounded them from a great fireplace just below and servants both droid and biological alike walked its halls performing duties they were assigned to do.

“Welcome to Carcosa, Aren.”

His gaze flicked over to her then back to the hall as he stepped down the steps.

“A very special occasion indeed, Carcosa never truly has outsider visitors. It was a law from the previous…owners.”

The final word though it came from a gentle voice was still tinged with venom.

“Now it is my home. Could possibly be yours too, if you are inclined to stay.”

Once they had reached the bottom of the steps she would see the walls lined with tomes, much older than the usual holodiscs that held records within the modern libraries. These were tomes of leather and paper. Relics of a nearly forgotten era and full of knowledge waiting to be uncovered.

“Here we have the study. Some sections have tighter security that require special permissions.”

His finger pointed to a door on the other side. A door of black metal that seemed to soak up the warmth around them and emanate a sense of cold.

“That door is forbidden. And that is your one warning of that area.”

He continued to walk with her after his small talk of the area.

“But any questions are welcome of course.”

Aren D'Shade​

 

[Aren D'Shade]

Aren stepped through the doorway with a small smile at Allan's courtesy, although it didn't take long for her attention to wander away from him. The spiraling staircase naturally drew her eyes upward as they climbed, and when the final door opened, she slowed slightly to take in everything beyond it. Warm firelight spread across stained wood, soft music drifted through the halls, and biological and mechanical servants alike moved through the space attending to their duties. Even the faded spaces where portraits had once hung caught her attention, little absences that suggested there was considerably more history here than Allan had begun to explain.

"Carcosa," she repeated after him, committing the unfamiliar name to memory as she followed him down the steps. Her gaze continued wandering as they went.

The comment about previous owners earned a curious glance in his direction. She heard the change in his voice when he mentioned them, but whatever story existed there was clearly more complicated than something she needed to ask about immediately. His next offer was harder to simply overlook. Aren's eyebrows rose when Allan casually suggested Carcosa might become her home as well. "You haven't even finished the tour, and you're already offering me a room?" There was a trace of humor in the question.

Then she saw the books. Aren slowed again, her attention caught almost instantly by shelves filled with actual physical tomes rather than holodiscs or files stored away on some server. "Oh, now that's so unfair." Any attempt at maintaining her usual composure suffered considerably as her gaze moved from one shelf to another, lingering over bindings and whatever titles she could make out. Her entire life revolved around information, but most of that information existed as data. This was different. Some of these volumes looked ancient, and the possibility of what might be preserved inside them was enough to make the rest of the room temporarily less interesting.

Allan's warning pulled her attention toward the black metal door. She studied it for a moment before giving him a simple nod. She was far too new to Allan, and this place to start questioning a boundary stated that plainly, much less testing it. "Got it. Don't touch the ominous black door." Whatever was behind it could stay there unless Allan eventually decided otherwise.

Her attention promptly returned to the shelves. "What am I allowed to access without this special permission?" The hunger to learn was obvious now despite Aren's normally stoic nature, and she made little effort to conceal it as she wandered a few steps closer to the nearest section. She kept her hands to herself for the moment, though the temptation was plainly there. "Because if you're about to tell me I can actually read some of these, the rest of your tour might be in serious trouble."

Allan Alhune