6.1
GSpectre
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"I am so glad to get out of the Temple," Ori said as he entered the Serenity's small galley, intent on finding himself something to eat. Take off and transition had been at an ungodly early hour and he was not in any way shape or form a morning person, so he had skipped breakfast again.
"Because the Temple is the root of all your problems," Rachi replied from where she was already seated, a cup of tea by her hand as she lazily scrolled through a book.
"Nope, not in the least," Ori replied cheerfully, pouring himself a cup of caf and looking to see what rations the ship had. He hadn't had time to go out and get real food and so had to make do with the Order's ration packs until they got to Corellia. He grimaced at the selection and decided on one of the green ones. A little bit of boiling water later and he was regretting his choice, the only redeeming feature the gelatinous mass of… he didn't know what it was… had was the color. "Interesting read?"
"Hardly, my distance learning assignment," Rachi replied distractedly. "Architectural cues as societal indicators, it presents interesting information in the driest manner possible. If this wasn't the assigned reading for my sociology requirements, I wouldn't touch it. That reminds me, so you know, soon after we arrive on Corellia, there'll be a four day period where Coris and I will be mostly unavailable since she'll be administering my finals. She wants me to get all of my undergrad requirements out of the way so there's no extra paperwork on her end in using my participation on this expedition as credit towards a graduate degree…"
"Distance learning… How did that come to be?" Ori asked, interested despite the dryness of the topic. He'd completed the Republic General Education Degree but hadn't figured out a way to gain access to formal education beyond that. "I thought that we needed to do most of our education through the Order?"
"And you think this isn't through the Order? Padawans do go on missions you know."
"Well yes, but I wasn't aware that there was a formal system in place," Ori responded without any heat. He wanted this information, so he wasn't inclined to be rude about getting it. Being mostly self-educated he knew there was utility in formal certification, especially if he could get it from institutions outside the Order. "I thought that the Order handled all accreditation."
"True, but I'm First Knowledge, and to the institutions we partner with, our academic degrees matter infinitely more than our Jedi rank." Rachi put down the reader and looked at Ori for the first time in this conversation. She was shocked by what she saw, gone was the Padawan in his standard issue robes, in his place was a swashbuckler. He was dressed in a loose white shirt with a pair of grey slacks held up by a black leather gun belt. The only piece of the get up which didn't scream smuggler was the sling restraining his arm, a legacy of his short-lived match with Secura. The most disconcerting thing about the transformation was how comfortable Ori was, it was as if he had shed an uncomfortable costume, letting his natural inclinations show for the first time since she had met him. "Interesting clothes, where did you get them?"
"Ori loots the undercover commissary every chance he gets," Skrath said as he entered the galley, looking over his Padawan and nodding with approval to see him eating, although he couldn't help but make a face on realizing what he was eating. "Verpine paste? Really?"
"I hadn't had it before and it looked the most interesting out of the reconstituted glops," Ori defended himself with a one-armed shrug. "Besides it has all the nutrients, I checked."
"Well yes, but it tastes worse than it looks," Skrath found the Caf pot and took a seat. "Sorry, please continue your conversation on... distance learning I think I heard?"
"First Knowledge keeps close links with several universities of galactic repute," Rachi replied promptly, noting how Skrath hadn't commented on the transformation of his Padawan, he seemed to have expected it. "They let Padawans with a known Master take their courses via distance learning."
"Good idea, I wish the rest of the Temple knew about that," Skrath seemed contemplative as he spoke. As if an idea had hit him that he hadn't ever contemplated before. "Force knows how hard it is to stay on one planet long enough to get a cert, let alone a degree. I presume Renee is known?"
"Considering her published work, I would say so…" Rachi narrowed her eyes trying to decide if she needed to defend her Master or not.
"Oh Ori…"
"Great, more work for me," Ori replied to his Master's gleeful voice. "Do you think they will accept me?"
"Well, you are accredited," Skrath replied virtuously. "Besides, this expedition is going to involve long periods of boredom. Better to have you expanding your mind then getting into trouble."
"Shipboard?"
"You are smarter than that, normally," Skrath lightly teased his Padawan. It was good to see him coming out of his shell, he hadn't expected it to be this quick though, he had thought it would take more time around Renee and Rachi before Ori let himself relax. So, it wasn't the Jedi in the Temple per say, so much as it was the location? "Anyway, I have news! Master Nu came through for us and got a proper Guardian to watch over us for the expedition, we'll be picking them up at Bespin."
"Them?" Ori asked his head cocking to the side. "As in more than one?"
"Bespin?" Rachi asked almost at the same time. "What's there?"
"Them as in the Guardian in question thought that the expedition gave her enough time and opportunities to start training a Padawan. Caused something of a stir at the Temple when she announced she was coming to get her Padawan and would meet us before our second stop." Skrath grinned as he said that. The chaos that announcement had caused had been glorious. The creche minders still remembered Knight Raskta and they had not been happy to hear she was intent on taking a Padawan, especially as she was just coming of a stint as a Watchman as penance for her training methods. "Nothing is at Bespin specifically but… it's right next door to the Hoth system, and I think you both know what happened there."
"That's going a bit further back then I thought," Ori commented his face a mask of disgust as he gulped down his goop as fast as possible. "Nothing from the New Sith Wars era was obvious then?"
"No, it's about coherency of training," Rachi made a face as Ori downed his caf to get the taste of his meal out of his mouth. "During the New Sith Wars, training standards were all over the place, especially once you got past the first hundred years. By the end both sides were pretty much reduced to throwing untrained bodies at the other. If we want to find documentation, we need a polity with a coherent training policy, and say what you will about both the Old Republic and the Sith Empire, they had that. Not sure just what use the Sith documents would be though…"
"They tended to have ship designs which are closer to ours than the Republic," Ori replied distractedly, using the Force to pour himself another cup of caf without leaving his seat. "Republican designs tended to use a hatchet face, hammerhead in common parlance, for frontal assaults. Why almost no one uses the designs which won multiple galactic wars anymore I don't know but…"
"Well, you're in for a treat once we get to Corellia then," Skrath shared his news with relish. "Our first stop is going to be the old bone yards, get all of us familiar with the designs we're looking for."
"If we know where the boneyards are why aren't we starting there? I mean, the Corellians have to have the trained personal to look over those ships for the databases we want right?" Ori asked before he savoured a sip of his refreshed caf.
"Those ships would've been stripped for parts a long time ago," Rachi shook her head in disagreement. "Even the Sith ships were parted out, what's left are the hulls and little else."
"They might have missed something…"
"And you will get a chance to find out," Skrath interrupted cheerfully. "Your initial EVA training is going to take place on those ships."
"Are we basing off the Light of Knowledge or are we taking short hops in the Serenity?" Ori asked practically.
"Short hops," Renee entered the room and made a bee line for the tea. "According to Space Master Vire, the Light needs at least a month in dock, they took some damage during their last exploration mission when some old patchwork failed and he managed to clear the funding for a complete outer hull replacement."
Ori frowned in contemplation as he heard that. "How old is the Light?"
"A century last year" Renee replied without a care. "She's been with the Order for the entire time, mostly used by the Explorer corps but from time to time they let us First Knowledge geeks borrow her. Beautiful ship, they don't make them like that anymore."
"CR class corvettes? I know I'm the ship geek here but…" Skrath looked confused as he said that.
"CR-50 Wanderer, the last production run to use the CR-12 space frame before CEC switched to what they use now." Rachi put in innocently, watching Ori's expression carefully to see if he would get it.
"A Thranta…" Ori's eyes shown with glee. "I didn't know they kept using that space frame. I thought the last vestiges of that design lineage were in the Sphyrna class…"
"It was a proven space frame and during the New Sith Wars; CEC wanted a known design for their civilian corvettes. They kept making them right up until the transport market shifted to smaller, less infrastructure intensive designs. Still a good ship," Renee was pleased to see Ori was interested in history, even if it was seemingly limited to ship design. "While it's in the yard we have free reign to the old bone yards, although you should focus on training and familiarizing yourself with the equipment and procedures you'll be using for the rest of the expedition since the odds of finding something important all the salvagers and previous trainees somehow missed is effectively nothing."
"Are we going to have any time on world?" Rachi asked diffidently.
"I'll make sure you have three days once finals and EVA qualification trials are finished, you might have more depending on how quickly the Light's overhaul is finished." Renee replied with a fond smile, she knew that Rachi would enjoy the museums and historical landmarks in her time off, Ori and Skrath would need to be distracted though. From everything the rumor mill said the pair of them had a way of finding trouble without meaning too, and it wouldn't do to have her Padawan's vacation interrupted. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Well, there's the Drall Burrows, the Cornet History Museum, and the Selonian Museum of Culture and Trade …" Rachi paused for breath before continuing. "I also thought about seeing a few of the Sith landing sites and the memorials there, but they are secondary to those three since everything I've read has indicated they're more tourist traps now thanks to centuries of rampant souvenir hunting leaving even the monuments themselves heavily damaged... a shame."
"Well, since you have destinations on three of the five brothers, I think Ori would be more then happy to escort you," Skrath put in quickly, seeing an opportunity to let Ori relax before they started out. The Temple had been stressful for him and it would be best if he was relaxed before being cooped up in a ship not his own. He didn't want Ori to spend the entire mission hiding on the Serenity, failing to take advantage of the enormous amount of learning that could be accomplished simply by listening to the old sweats in the technical core, let alone the maverick pilots of the explorer corps. Getting his Padawan to relax for a few days would make him more willing to at least eat in the common mess, where he was certain that Ori's natural curiosity would lead him to what Skrath wanted him to learn.
======
"Welcome to Corellia," Space Master Quellcrist Vire's voice was jovial as he met the small groups of Knights and Padawans on the hanger deck of his ship. His eyes briefly roaming over the ship which would serve as their second scout, appreciating the neat docking job their pilot had done. It had been put perfectly into the bay reserved for it, and he approved. "I hope the journey here was pleasant?"
"Our pilot was more than adequate," Renee replied with a sniff. "We hardly needed you to offer up one of yours for the trip."
"Clearly it wasn't you or your Padawan," Quellcrist shot back, enjoying the banter with his clan mate, it had been years since they had seen each other, but they fell back into their roles as if it had been yesterday. "Care to introduce me?"
"Space Master Quellcrist Vire, be known to Padawan Daki and his Master Knight Kri," Renee easily pointed the two out. Ori was busy looking around the docking bay with wide eyes, not paying attention.
"An honor to meet you," Skrath bowed slightly in greeting, discretely smacking Ori so that he would pay attention. Ori started and then offered a quick bow, before going back to his fascinated perusal.
Far from taking offense, Vire's own face lit up at seeing Ori's awestruck expression, "I see someone is interested in the ships, your pilot I presume?"
"When I can tear him away from ship watching," Skrath shook his head in exasperation. "You would think he'd never seen a ship before from the way he's acting."
"Are you kidding me? This is fascinating, the frame is from millennium ago but the internals are all new! I think the bay equipment was put in recently, KDY design if I'm not mistaken, I can see how CEC gets their reputation for modularity…" Ori gushed. "The fighters aren't anything to write home about... but the scout ship? That's a YG-4210, it hasn't been in production for more than a century!"
"Path to Illumination, she's a good ship. Been with the Explorer corps for three centuries, and despite her advanced age she's still one of the best scouts we have. They just don't make them like they used to."
"Getting parts for her must be impossible."
"You would think that, but its not the case. Her frame is about the only thing left that's stock. We've replaced just about everything else over the years to keep her in service, probably will keep doing so until CEC or one of the other corps comes up with a suitable replacement. For some reason they keep missing the mark with scout ships. Glad to see you have an interest in history young one, it'll serve you well on this mission." Quellcrist tamped down his huge grin to a more polite smile and turned back to Renee. "And who is this?"
"My Padawan, Rachi'Sitra, Archaeologist in training," Renee answered with a fond and knowing smile, that Ori was even more enthused about history when experiencing it than just reading about it was a very good omen for this expedition indeed.
"So, you finally broke down and found a Padawan, I never thought it would happen," Quellcrist's voice became solemn. "Greetings to you, Padawan Sicra."
"Thank you for the welcome to your ship," Rachi replied evenly, blushing at the respect and trying to fade into the background.
"Well if you ever want stories about how your Master was as a crecheling, let me know," Quellcrist flashed his teeth, breaking the tension. "I'm sure she hasn't told you but she used to be quite the wild one, kept escaping the crèche to wander the halls looking for artifacts. We all knew she was destined for First Knowledge after it kept happening, why I remember the time…"
"No need to tell her about that," Renee interjected, quickly changing the topic before Quellcrist could get started. It wasn't often she ran into the few remaining members of her creche clan, and she had forgotten how embarrassing they were in their pride over her achievements. Being the only youngling to end up as a Padawan, they all felt her achievements reflected well on them, despite the fact that they were all masters of their own fields, and had universally chosen not to progress towards a Knighthood of their own volition. "I presume you have a plan for our EVA quals?"
"Justine just passed her instructor's course, so she and Vandire are going to be taking you out to the graveyard in the Illumination." Quellcrist held up a hand before Renee could interrupt. "I know you're qualified, but it's been years since you took the test. Better to have an instructor with a fresh rating, and time on our current EVA exo suits, make sure that nothing goes wrong."
"Sensible," Skrath interjected smoothly, he could tell the older Knight was on the verge of getting stubborn. "You have a plan?"
"Spend the night settling in and then we start in the morning," Vire replied easily, ignoring the daggers that Renee was glaring at him. She had wanted to handle the instruction herself, there were techniques for getting the most out of any sensor system that needed to be passed on to her Padawan. In her mind she acknowledged that she was being slightly silly, after all competent instruction would be a Force blessed gift when dealing with Skrath and Ori. She would just have to make time to add in her little tricks later in the lesson.
As the two Knights and Space Master dove into the minutia of planning their first trip, Rachi drifted off to Ori who was pacing around the freighter, still fascinated by its lines. "I'm hardly one to say aesthetics aren't important, but would you explain why this particular ship is so fascinating?" Rachi asked softly, her own interest in ship lineages being piqued while still keeping an eye on their masters in case they were needed.
"It's not the aesthetics of the ship, it's the engineering style and the programming." Ori replied evenly. "The YG series began the flat tri pod engine mounting system which you see today in the Consular class and other designs. In its time it revolutionized the shipbuilding industry. It's kind of like if you found one of the first battery powered lightsabers still in use today, an artifact which represents a watershed in design evolution."
"Oh?"
"Podded engines aren't that revolutionary; you can see that from this ship after all. It's the avionics system which allowed them to be flat mounted rather then cluster mounted around a ship's center of gravity. I really want to get a look at her computers and see if any of the original coding is still loaded, that's the basis for a lot of the shipboard systems in use today. If I could get a copy of it…"
"Hmmm," Rachi shook her head at the younger twi'lek's enthusiasm. "Getting your geek out moment over with early?"
"A bit, I have time to wander and be impressed at the moment," Ori replied with a soft laugh. "I doubt that when we're all in the field I'll be able to geek out like this. We'll all have too much to do. Might as well enjoy it while I can."
"It's not all going to be taunt delicate extractions of secret holocrons, there's going to be plenty of tedium, repetition and make work between the real work excitement and I doubt anyone will comment if you geek out while doing that."
"Naturally, but you don't think our Masters are going to let the time go to waste, do you? Between the three Knights on this expedition I fully expect that any 'free time' we have will be filled, and not with make work." Ori flashed her a grin. "Any clue how and why the Explorer corps keeps such old ships around? I would have thought that they were replaced regularly…"
"According to Space Master Ima-Dun-Gud, an old friend of my Masters who has transported us across the galaxy, the service corps are not visible enough for the Senate to give them the budget they deserve, and they're viewed as old fashioned and too conservative in their design choices so no one wants to cater to their needs in the shipbuilding community," Rachi shared what she knew freely, missing the way Ori's eyes narrowed at the mention of their budget being Senatorially controlled, and practically slitted when she continued on about how they were viewed. The idea that ship designers wouldn't want to push the edge, and create the most high-tech explorer possible was completely out of left field. In his estimation there should have been hundreds of design teams clamouring for their ship to be known as the one which charted the next Corellian Trade Spine. Something was seriously wrong here. "Exploring has been out of fashion for the last millennium, especially these past hundred years. According to the Space Master I talked to, Also, apparently the last couple of designs that were proposed looked good at first blush but… no one came back from the prototype flight expeditions which used them. The old ships got through fine, but the newer ones? Disappeared without a trace somewhere in hyper. So they couldn't even figure out what went wrong. The best guess anyone has made is that the redundancy in these old designs keep them running even after a major mechanical failure, and newer general purpose designs just don't have the redundancy to do the job no matter how modified they are to try and fill that gap. The corp would love to commission a design to their specifications but they don't have the budget to do everything they need to and to sponsor an entirely new line of ships."
"Custom designs?"
"The Councils, almost all of them, hate that. The Explorers already use their ships as homes, and modify them accordingly, but building one new to an Explorers spec?"
"I can see how that would be an issue," Ori winced as he considered trying to justify having a ship built to his specifications to Mace Windu. That was a mental image he didn't need, he could feel his ears ringing even thinking about it. "Newer designs are that bad? I thought that technology was marching on, not going backwards?"
"Not bad per say, just not as rugged. For ship hulls? The new durasteel formula is three times as tough as what we were using even fifty years ago. It's the more sensitive systems which are an issue, the paradigm these days is for efficiency, so your engine geometry gives you three percent improvement on fuel efficiency but…"
"If you lose one, you lose the entire cluster." Ori grimaced as he contemplated that. It sounded to him a lot like someone was trying to keep everything contained to the known galaxy and had been for a very long time, which was worrying. He shifted to a slightly different topic, "How does that square with the Consular class being a repeat of the engine geometry of the YG series?"
"That's a case of the hyper matter plant being poorly designed, along with a really sensitive hyper drive, the Consular class has a massively overpowered plant, and it really doesn't take well to reducing the power requirements. Too long at too low a load…. Let's just say the results are spectacular to watch if you're lucky enough to be in real space and leave it at that. If you try and run it as an all up military ship, then it doesn't have the fuel capacity to do the job. The hyper drive eats fuel at a prodigious rate, and its sensitivity means imbalances can be… bad. Rip out both of those systems and replace them, well you might as well just buy an entirely new ship. The corp keeps hoping for one of the yards to come up with something they can use without gutting it and rebuilding it from the frame out, but that hasn't happened yet."
"How did you find out about that? It doesn't seem to be something you would be interested in…"
"One of the first 'digs' Renee took me on was an abandoned Judicial station orbiting Ithor III, when the Ithorians began to scrap the station they found the remnants of an ancient explorer corp outpost that the entire station had been built around. We worked with a lot of the older explorer corp ship masters and technical corp engineers during that dig, it was fascinating to hear them complain about the issues they were having. Of course, that was in my downtime, most of the time I was looking over artifacts and systems that dated from the Great Galactic War, now those were properly redundant. Not powerful enough to use today but…" Rachi began to tell the story, happy to have such an attentive listener for once. It wasn't often someone in her age group let her rattle on about her profession without either mocking or quickly losing interest and focus.
"Because the Temple is the root of all your problems," Rachi replied from where she was already seated, a cup of tea by her hand as she lazily scrolled through a book.
"Nope, not in the least," Ori replied cheerfully, pouring himself a cup of caf and looking to see what rations the ship had. He hadn't had time to go out and get real food and so had to make do with the Order's ration packs until they got to Corellia. He grimaced at the selection and decided on one of the green ones. A little bit of boiling water later and he was regretting his choice, the only redeeming feature the gelatinous mass of… he didn't know what it was… had was the color. "Interesting read?"
"Hardly, my distance learning assignment," Rachi replied distractedly. "Architectural cues as societal indicators, it presents interesting information in the driest manner possible. If this wasn't the assigned reading for my sociology requirements, I wouldn't touch it. That reminds me, so you know, soon after we arrive on Corellia, there'll be a four day period where Coris and I will be mostly unavailable since she'll be administering my finals. She wants me to get all of my undergrad requirements out of the way so there's no extra paperwork on her end in using my participation on this expedition as credit towards a graduate degree…"
"Distance learning… How did that come to be?" Ori asked, interested despite the dryness of the topic. He'd completed the Republic General Education Degree but hadn't figured out a way to gain access to formal education beyond that. "I thought that we needed to do most of our education through the Order?"
"And you think this isn't through the Order? Padawans do go on missions you know."
"Well yes, but I wasn't aware that there was a formal system in place," Ori responded without any heat. He wanted this information, so he wasn't inclined to be rude about getting it. Being mostly self-educated he knew there was utility in formal certification, especially if he could get it from institutions outside the Order. "I thought that the Order handled all accreditation."
"True, but I'm First Knowledge, and to the institutions we partner with, our academic degrees matter infinitely more than our Jedi rank." Rachi put down the reader and looked at Ori for the first time in this conversation. She was shocked by what she saw, gone was the Padawan in his standard issue robes, in his place was a swashbuckler. He was dressed in a loose white shirt with a pair of grey slacks held up by a black leather gun belt. The only piece of the get up which didn't scream smuggler was the sling restraining his arm, a legacy of his short-lived match with Secura. The most disconcerting thing about the transformation was how comfortable Ori was, it was as if he had shed an uncomfortable costume, letting his natural inclinations show for the first time since she had met him. "Interesting clothes, where did you get them?"
"Ori loots the undercover commissary every chance he gets," Skrath said as he entered the galley, looking over his Padawan and nodding with approval to see him eating, although he couldn't help but make a face on realizing what he was eating. "Verpine paste? Really?"
"I hadn't had it before and it looked the most interesting out of the reconstituted glops," Ori defended himself with a one-armed shrug. "Besides it has all the nutrients, I checked."
"Well yes, but it tastes worse than it looks," Skrath found the Caf pot and took a seat. "Sorry, please continue your conversation on... distance learning I think I heard?"
"First Knowledge keeps close links with several universities of galactic repute," Rachi replied promptly, noting how Skrath hadn't commented on the transformation of his Padawan, he seemed to have expected it. "They let Padawans with a known Master take their courses via distance learning."
"Good idea, I wish the rest of the Temple knew about that," Skrath seemed contemplative as he spoke. As if an idea had hit him that he hadn't ever contemplated before. "Force knows how hard it is to stay on one planet long enough to get a cert, let alone a degree. I presume Renee is known?"
"Considering her published work, I would say so…" Rachi narrowed her eyes trying to decide if she needed to defend her Master or not.
"Oh Ori…"
"Great, more work for me," Ori replied to his Master's gleeful voice. "Do you think they will accept me?"
"Well, you are accredited," Skrath replied virtuously. "Besides, this expedition is going to involve long periods of boredom. Better to have you expanding your mind then getting into trouble."
"Shipboard?"
"You are smarter than that, normally," Skrath lightly teased his Padawan. It was good to see him coming out of his shell, he hadn't expected it to be this quick though, he had thought it would take more time around Renee and Rachi before Ori let himself relax. So, it wasn't the Jedi in the Temple per say, so much as it was the location? "Anyway, I have news! Master Nu came through for us and got a proper Guardian to watch over us for the expedition, we'll be picking them up at Bespin."
"Them?" Ori asked his head cocking to the side. "As in more than one?"
"Bespin?" Rachi asked almost at the same time. "What's there?"
"Them as in the Guardian in question thought that the expedition gave her enough time and opportunities to start training a Padawan. Caused something of a stir at the Temple when she announced she was coming to get her Padawan and would meet us before our second stop." Skrath grinned as he said that. The chaos that announcement had caused had been glorious. The creche minders still remembered Knight Raskta and they had not been happy to hear she was intent on taking a Padawan, especially as she was just coming of a stint as a Watchman as penance for her training methods. "Nothing is at Bespin specifically but… it's right next door to the Hoth system, and I think you both know what happened there."
"That's going a bit further back then I thought," Ori commented his face a mask of disgust as he gulped down his goop as fast as possible. "Nothing from the New Sith Wars era was obvious then?"
"No, it's about coherency of training," Rachi made a face as Ori downed his caf to get the taste of his meal out of his mouth. "During the New Sith Wars, training standards were all over the place, especially once you got past the first hundred years. By the end both sides were pretty much reduced to throwing untrained bodies at the other. If we want to find documentation, we need a polity with a coherent training policy, and say what you will about both the Old Republic and the Sith Empire, they had that. Not sure just what use the Sith documents would be though…"
"They tended to have ship designs which are closer to ours than the Republic," Ori replied distractedly, using the Force to pour himself another cup of caf without leaving his seat. "Republican designs tended to use a hatchet face, hammerhead in common parlance, for frontal assaults. Why almost no one uses the designs which won multiple galactic wars anymore I don't know but…"
"Well, you're in for a treat once we get to Corellia then," Skrath shared his news with relish. "Our first stop is going to be the old bone yards, get all of us familiar with the designs we're looking for."
"If we know where the boneyards are why aren't we starting there? I mean, the Corellians have to have the trained personal to look over those ships for the databases we want right?" Ori asked before he savoured a sip of his refreshed caf.
"Those ships would've been stripped for parts a long time ago," Rachi shook her head in disagreement. "Even the Sith ships were parted out, what's left are the hulls and little else."
"They might have missed something…"
"And you will get a chance to find out," Skrath interrupted cheerfully. "Your initial EVA training is going to take place on those ships."
"Are we basing off the Light of Knowledge or are we taking short hops in the Serenity?" Ori asked practically.
"Short hops," Renee entered the room and made a bee line for the tea. "According to Space Master Vire, the Light needs at least a month in dock, they took some damage during their last exploration mission when some old patchwork failed and he managed to clear the funding for a complete outer hull replacement."
Ori frowned in contemplation as he heard that. "How old is the Light?"
"A century last year" Renee replied without a care. "She's been with the Order for the entire time, mostly used by the Explorer corps but from time to time they let us First Knowledge geeks borrow her. Beautiful ship, they don't make them like that anymore."
"CR class corvettes? I know I'm the ship geek here but…" Skrath looked confused as he said that.
"CR-50 Wanderer, the last production run to use the CR-12 space frame before CEC switched to what they use now." Rachi put in innocently, watching Ori's expression carefully to see if he would get it.
"A Thranta…" Ori's eyes shown with glee. "I didn't know they kept using that space frame. I thought the last vestiges of that design lineage were in the Sphyrna class…"
"It was a proven space frame and during the New Sith Wars; CEC wanted a known design for their civilian corvettes. They kept making them right up until the transport market shifted to smaller, less infrastructure intensive designs. Still a good ship," Renee was pleased to see Ori was interested in history, even if it was seemingly limited to ship design. "While it's in the yard we have free reign to the old bone yards, although you should focus on training and familiarizing yourself with the equipment and procedures you'll be using for the rest of the expedition since the odds of finding something important all the salvagers and previous trainees somehow missed is effectively nothing."
"Are we going to have any time on world?" Rachi asked diffidently.
"I'll make sure you have three days once finals and EVA qualification trials are finished, you might have more depending on how quickly the Light's overhaul is finished." Renee replied with a fond smile, she knew that Rachi would enjoy the museums and historical landmarks in her time off, Ori and Skrath would need to be distracted though. From everything the rumor mill said the pair of them had a way of finding trouble without meaning too, and it wouldn't do to have her Padawan's vacation interrupted. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Well, there's the Drall Burrows, the Cornet History Museum, and the Selonian Museum of Culture and Trade …" Rachi paused for breath before continuing. "I also thought about seeing a few of the Sith landing sites and the memorials there, but they are secondary to those three since everything I've read has indicated they're more tourist traps now thanks to centuries of rampant souvenir hunting leaving even the monuments themselves heavily damaged... a shame."
"Well, since you have destinations on three of the five brothers, I think Ori would be more then happy to escort you," Skrath put in quickly, seeing an opportunity to let Ori relax before they started out. The Temple had been stressful for him and it would be best if he was relaxed before being cooped up in a ship not his own. He didn't want Ori to spend the entire mission hiding on the Serenity, failing to take advantage of the enormous amount of learning that could be accomplished simply by listening to the old sweats in the technical core, let alone the maverick pilots of the explorer corps. Getting his Padawan to relax for a few days would make him more willing to at least eat in the common mess, where he was certain that Ori's natural curiosity would lead him to what Skrath wanted him to learn.
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"Welcome to Corellia," Space Master Quellcrist Vire's voice was jovial as he met the small groups of Knights and Padawans on the hanger deck of his ship. His eyes briefly roaming over the ship which would serve as their second scout, appreciating the neat docking job their pilot had done. It had been put perfectly into the bay reserved for it, and he approved. "I hope the journey here was pleasant?"
"Our pilot was more than adequate," Renee replied with a sniff. "We hardly needed you to offer up one of yours for the trip."
"Clearly it wasn't you or your Padawan," Quellcrist shot back, enjoying the banter with his clan mate, it had been years since they had seen each other, but they fell back into their roles as if it had been yesterday. "Care to introduce me?"
"Space Master Quellcrist Vire, be known to Padawan Daki and his Master Knight Kri," Renee easily pointed the two out. Ori was busy looking around the docking bay with wide eyes, not paying attention.
"An honor to meet you," Skrath bowed slightly in greeting, discretely smacking Ori so that he would pay attention. Ori started and then offered a quick bow, before going back to his fascinated perusal.
Far from taking offense, Vire's own face lit up at seeing Ori's awestruck expression, "I see someone is interested in the ships, your pilot I presume?"
"When I can tear him away from ship watching," Skrath shook his head in exasperation. "You would think he'd never seen a ship before from the way he's acting."
"Are you kidding me? This is fascinating, the frame is from millennium ago but the internals are all new! I think the bay equipment was put in recently, KDY design if I'm not mistaken, I can see how CEC gets their reputation for modularity…" Ori gushed. "The fighters aren't anything to write home about... but the scout ship? That's a YG-4210, it hasn't been in production for more than a century!"
"Path to Illumination, she's a good ship. Been with the Explorer corps for three centuries, and despite her advanced age she's still one of the best scouts we have. They just don't make them like they used to."
"Getting parts for her must be impossible."
"You would think that, but its not the case. Her frame is about the only thing left that's stock. We've replaced just about everything else over the years to keep her in service, probably will keep doing so until CEC or one of the other corps comes up with a suitable replacement. For some reason they keep missing the mark with scout ships. Glad to see you have an interest in history young one, it'll serve you well on this mission." Quellcrist tamped down his huge grin to a more polite smile and turned back to Renee. "And who is this?"
"My Padawan, Rachi'Sitra, Archaeologist in training," Renee answered with a fond and knowing smile, that Ori was even more enthused about history when experiencing it than just reading about it was a very good omen for this expedition indeed.
"So, you finally broke down and found a Padawan, I never thought it would happen," Quellcrist's voice became solemn. "Greetings to you, Padawan Sicra."
"Thank you for the welcome to your ship," Rachi replied evenly, blushing at the respect and trying to fade into the background.
"Well if you ever want stories about how your Master was as a crecheling, let me know," Quellcrist flashed his teeth, breaking the tension. "I'm sure she hasn't told you but she used to be quite the wild one, kept escaping the crèche to wander the halls looking for artifacts. We all knew she was destined for First Knowledge after it kept happening, why I remember the time…"
"No need to tell her about that," Renee interjected, quickly changing the topic before Quellcrist could get started. It wasn't often she ran into the few remaining members of her creche clan, and she had forgotten how embarrassing they were in their pride over her achievements. Being the only youngling to end up as a Padawan, they all felt her achievements reflected well on them, despite the fact that they were all masters of their own fields, and had universally chosen not to progress towards a Knighthood of their own volition. "I presume you have a plan for our EVA quals?"
"Justine just passed her instructor's course, so she and Vandire are going to be taking you out to the graveyard in the Illumination." Quellcrist held up a hand before Renee could interrupt. "I know you're qualified, but it's been years since you took the test. Better to have an instructor with a fresh rating, and time on our current EVA exo suits, make sure that nothing goes wrong."
"Sensible," Skrath interjected smoothly, he could tell the older Knight was on the verge of getting stubborn. "You have a plan?"
"Spend the night settling in and then we start in the morning," Vire replied easily, ignoring the daggers that Renee was glaring at him. She had wanted to handle the instruction herself, there were techniques for getting the most out of any sensor system that needed to be passed on to her Padawan. In her mind she acknowledged that she was being slightly silly, after all competent instruction would be a Force blessed gift when dealing with Skrath and Ori. She would just have to make time to add in her little tricks later in the lesson.
As the two Knights and Space Master dove into the minutia of planning their first trip, Rachi drifted off to Ori who was pacing around the freighter, still fascinated by its lines. "I'm hardly one to say aesthetics aren't important, but would you explain why this particular ship is so fascinating?" Rachi asked softly, her own interest in ship lineages being piqued while still keeping an eye on their masters in case they were needed.
"It's not the aesthetics of the ship, it's the engineering style and the programming." Ori replied evenly. "The YG series began the flat tri pod engine mounting system which you see today in the Consular class and other designs. In its time it revolutionized the shipbuilding industry. It's kind of like if you found one of the first battery powered lightsabers still in use today, an artifact which represents a watershed in design evolution."
"Oh?"
"Podded engines aren't that revolutionary; you can see that from this ship after all. It's the avionics system which allowed them to be flat mounted rather then cluster mounted around a ship's center of gravity. I really want to get a look at her computers and see if any of the original coding is still loaded, that's the basis for a lot of the shipboard systems in use today. If I could get a copy of it…"
"Hmmm," Rachi shook her head at the younger twi'lek's enthusiasm. "Getting your geek out moment over with early?"
"A bit, I have time to wander and be impressed at the moment," Ori replied with a soft laugh. "I doubt that when we're all in the field I'll be able to geek out like this. We'll all have too much to do. Might as well enjoy it while I can."
"It's not all going to be taunt delicate extractions of secret holocrons, there's going to be plenty of tedium, repetition and make work between the real work excitement and I doubt anyone will comment if you geek out while doing that."
"Naturally, but you don't think our Masters are going to let the time go to waste, do you? Between the three Knights on this expedition I fully expect that any 'free time' we have will be filled, and not with make work." Ori flashed her a grin. "Any clue how and why the Explorer corps keeps such old ships around? I would have thought that they were replaced regularly…"
"According to Space Master Ima-Dun-Gud, an old friend of my Masters who has transported us across the galaxy, the service corps are not visible enough for the Senate to give them the budget they deserve, and they're viewed as old fashioned and too conservative in their design choices so no one wants to cater to their needs in the shipbuilding community," Rachi shared what she knew freely, missing the way Ori's eyes narrowed at the mention of their budget being Senatorially controlled, and practically slitted when she continued on about how they were viewed. The idea that ship designers wouldn't want to push the edge, and create the most high-tech explorer possible was completely out of left field. In his estimation there should have been hundreds of design teams clamouring for their ship to be known as the one which charted the next Corellian Trade Spine. Something was seriously wrong here. "Exploring has been out of fashion for the last millennium, especially these past hundred years. According to the Space Master I talked to, Also, apparently the last couple of designs that were proposed looked good at first blush but… no one came back from the prototype flight expeditions which used them. The old ships got through fine, but the newer ones? Disappeared without a trace somewhere in hyper. So they couldn't even figure out what went wrong. The best guess anyone has made is that the redundancy in these old designs keep them running even after a major mechanical failure, and newer general purpose designs just don't have the redundancy to do the job no matter how modified they are to try and fill that gap. The corp would love to commission a design to their specifications but they don't have the budget to do everything they need to and to sponsor an entirely new line of ships."
"Custom designs?"
"The Councils, almost all of them, hate that. The Explorers already use their ships as homes, and modify them accordingly, but building one new to an Explorers spec?"
"I can see how that would be an issue," Ori winced as he considered trying to justify having a ship built to his specifications to Mace Windu. That was a mental image he didn't need, he could feel his ears ringing even thinking about it. "Newer designs are that bad? I thought that technology was marching on, not going backwards?"
"Not bad per say, just not as rugged. For ship hulls? The new durasteel formula is three times as tough as what we were using even fifty years ago. It's the more sensitive systems which are an issue, the paradigm these days is for efficiency, so your engine geometry gives you three percent improvement on fuel efficiency but…"
"If you lose one, you lose the entire cluster." Ori grimaced as he contemplated that. It sounded to him a lot like someone was trying to keep everything contained to the known galaxy and had been for a very long time, which was worrying. He shifted to a slightly different topic, "How does that square with the Consular class being a repeat of the engine geometry of the YG series?"
"That's a case of the hyper matter plant being poorly designed, along with a really sensitive hyper drive, the Consular class has a massively overpowered plant, and it really doesn't take well to reducing the power requirements. Too long at too low a load…. Let's just say the results are spectacular to watch if you're lucky enough to be in real space and leave it at that. If you try and run it as an all up military ship, then it doesn't have the fuel capacity to do the job. The hyper drive eats fuel at a prodigious rate, and its sensitivity means imbalances can be… bad. Rip out both of those systems and replace them, well you might as well just buy an entirely new ship. The corp keeps hoping for one of the yards to come up with something they can use without gutting it and rebuilding it from the frame out, but that hasn't happened yet."
"How did you find out about that? It doesn't seem to be something you would be interested in…"
"One of the first 'digs' Renee took me on was an abandoned Judicial station orbiting Ithor III, when the Ithorians began to scrap the station they found the remnants of an ancient explorer corp outpost that the entire station had been built around. We worked with a lot of the older explorer corp ship masters and technical corp engineers during that dig, it was fascinating to hear them complain about the issues they were having. Of course, that was in my downtime, most of the time I was looking over artifacts and systems that dated from the Great Galactic War, now those were properly redundant. Not powerful enough to use today but…" Rachi began to tell the story, happy to have such an attentive listener for once. It wasn't often someone in her age group let her rattle on about her profession without either mocking or quickly losing interest and focus.
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