Chapter 3: 3. Chapter

Two hours later, in the shipyard of the base. HK-47 was checking and repairing an old smuggling ship, it was Revan’s old ship, the Ebon Hawk. I tried to tell this damnable droid that we should take a ship that is not one from legendary jedi fairy tales, but it simply ignored me. It told me that I should sit down, and amuse myself with some child games or something like that.

I was actually sitting in the navigator seat on the bridge, it was a minimalist design, but comfortable, the ship made me feel a bit relaxed. I knew every function of the ship, the controls were familiar everything was well preserved and saved, a beautiful old machine, from a time, where practicality was the keyword in production. It was a time of war, and destruction with little time for general entertainment and useless styles. The ships were crude but massive; every part was easily changeable with many different types of gear. Everything was compatible with everything. Nowadays, it is quite the opposite; things are complicated to a stupid extent purposefully.

I patted the console sentimentally then the old worn-out control panel it was my ship now. Sigh, well, it is probably true, after thousands of years, who would remember this old ship. I am a bit interested, how long will it take for that droid to repair it enough to journey through space. I already packed up my stuff; there was not much, clothes, food, and I refilled the water supply on the ship and packed up some sentimental personal items too. I will not come back here for a while, and I don’t want to leave something behind. I also brought a few electronic devices for information gathering, a handful of different computer spikes and some grenades too, and a one-handed laser gun. I am not stupid enough to underestimate the usefulness of such a weapon. I am not a recognized jedi, nor some half-wit sith. I won’t use such an iconic weapon carelessly everywhere I go. It is already cheesy to have a bluster gun on a thirteen-year-old girl. I had to hide it under a long coat.  By the way, these clothes were created for me with a sewing robot. They are flexible enough, for free movement yet durable. They were like traditional jedi robes with a modern design element. That means that it did not stand out in the middle of a crowded street. They were practical, and looked well too; I liked them, especially the one with flower embroidery on the ends of its sleeves. Oh, and I also brought enough credit with me to last for a few years. We never used galactic banks to guard our credits; it would be too problematic to explain why some random individual inherited our wealth. Even if we manage to do it once, it was impossible for the sixteenth time... They would suspect, something then start an investigation and we don’t want an investigation. It’s much better this way, for everyone.

The door behind me opened and the infamous droid walked into the control room.

- (Statement): The Ebon Hawk is ready to launch; most of the needed repairs were solved by changing the weakened or burned-out energy cells. The ship was in generally good condition, I also changed the main energy core, which lost almost all of its power throughout the millenniums. With the new, modern ship core, the ship will be faster than ever before.

- That is fantastic. I can’t wait to see it fly!

- (Surprised): I never thought that a small meatbag like you would be able to differentiate a good ship from scrap metal.

- You know, that I have your master's memories, and fifteen other masters memories too.

The droid simply ignored my words and continued its tirade as if I wasn’t even there.

- (Statement, frustrated): Meatbags are such nuisances, and smaller meatbags are the worst; they talk all the time complaining and throwing around statements without facts. My circuits and processors are overheating while trying to calculate their loops like questions and false observations.

So basically, this droid hates children, because they ask too many questions... He is lucky since I am not a real child, uhm-well not anymore. I waited for the droid to run one last overall diagnostic scan on the ship. After it deemed its state capable enough, and he packed up a ton of different changeable components, in case something burns out on the way, I finally took my place in the navigator seat. Connected the safety belts over my chest and hips then waited for the droid to start the engines. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long. I saw as the flamethrowers activated outside of the hangar, melting the few meters thick ice and snow that buried it, hiding this place effectively. I watched the process through a camera that was placed outside of the entrance. When the process was done the door opened at the same time the life, supporting systems began to shut down in the old temple. It was programmed this way to save energy and to make the place invisible for almost any possible scanners. I think it wouldn’t be found even if someone used a high-class scanner on the top of the place, but I could not be sure of it, since I was not up to date for the current technological level. This was why our new goal was the technological and cultural central place of the galaxy, Coruscant. We will have to use the Corellian Trade Spine hyperspace lane, then the Corellian Run to reach our goal as fast as possible. It’s good, that Hoth is already in the middle of these hyperspace lanes.

- We are currently in the Anoat sector, droid remind me, how much time do we need to reach Coruscant?

- (Humorous, statement): We have to travel about eight and a half grid, considering that this is the Ebon Hawk, with a specially boosted and currently illegal hyperspace engine, we should be able to reach our goal in less than four days. With the galactic standard hyperspace drive, it would be five days and about twelve hours to reach the core.

- Did you say, currently illegal?

- (Surprised, cynical): Correction, it was usually illegal, because of the eventual reactor overheating and risk of detonation. I assure you, that if you change the case of the reactor core, and the cooling liquid at least every half a year...

- It is perfectly safe to use, I know HK... The only reason it is illegal is that those idiot slimy huts never even considered reading the possible safety hazards leading to a series of accidents all over the galactic hyper-lanes... The politicians of course never listened properly to a lowly engineer telling them the reason for the malfunction, banning the whole technology outright, deeming it too risky, damned fools!

- (Emotional, cynical): Masters words, spoken with the mouth of a little meatbag. My circuits are overheating.

I crossed my arms over my chest then said while slightly pouting.

- I have a name you know?

The droid turned towards me, a few awkward seconds later it stated cryptically.

- (Observation, re-evaluation, conclusion): Meatbag.

- I am going to rewire you, you stupid scrap - squeak!

While I was distracted, the hangar door opened, the ship was finished with its configurations and the engines were already warm. The damn droid chooses that moment to activate the afterburners and the ship burst out of the hangar, quickly accelerating towards the sky, effectively scaring me.

- (Satisfied): Hearing the terrified squeaks and futile pleas of meatbags always had a cooling effect on my circuits, such pleasure.

- Damn, this child body... wait, thinking about it, there was no other individual in my memories that become a master of the order as a child. The youngest before me was at least twenty-two years old, am I some unfortunate pioneer here? Stupid master, how am I supposed to fend for myself as a child? I can’t even drink! They will throw me out of any cantina if I showed up like this! No one would take me seriously; even this droid makes fun of me constantly! I am doomed!

I leaned back in my seat dejectedly as the cruel reality sank into the bottom of my stomach.

- (Humorous, statement): Ah, the average problems of small meatbags are amusing; also, I am going into hyperspace drive mode, right now.

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- What, ugh, we are already in space? What did you just say - screAM!

That day, I swore that I would never let my guard down around that damnable droid. This whole attention problem is because of that crazy muun, always talking to herself!

When we accelerated to our maximum speed, having nothing else to do, I walked back to my chosen room, sat down, and sulked for a while. Minutes passed until I realized the childish impulses that took over me again. All of those memories I gained finally started to calm down, and sort themselves out. I knew that it was the cause of most of my current emotional turmoil. The memories were constantly fluctuating in my mind, over a whole day now; the worst was in the temple. If I looked at almost any item, hundreds of memories appeared before my mental eyes. In the Ebon Hawk, those appearing memories were more specific, they were Revan’s memories and not sixteen different being’s memories. It was bearable here.

- Heh, a few more days and the memories will settle down enough, and I will be able to control them through my will. I can’t separate them from my personality completely, but I will be able to make them more dormant. It would be dangerous to see randomly appearing memories in crucial moments after all. Like in the middle of a lightsaber fight or a large-scale battle... Hell, even in the middle of a normal conversation, to blank out randomly, that would be awkward!

I guess I am going to sleep now to hasten the process. Then I will laze around the ship, for the rest of the trip, do some light training too... yawn... good night...

A few days later, after exiting hyperspace, in the middle of space traffic checkpoint on the atmospheric border of Coruscant.

- So HK, what will we do, on Coruscant exactly, I mean I know that we are supposed to check on the current technological state of the galaxy, but how will we do that exactly?

- (Lecturing, statement): Little meatbag should think before activating its communicator device. My databank states that the now ruling government is a democratic galactic republic. That means any citizens can freely enter the intergalactic general archives, located on Coruscant.

- That’s pretty neat, but can children enter too?

- (Statement, order): Yes, I will be your guardian in this endeavor as an educator protocol droid. I expect your full attention and respect while I update my database with the current situations.

- Wait, can’t you just download the whole database?

- (Statement, disappointment): No, even my superiorly designed memory bank can’t handle that much data. I will only update a few critical sections then we will go.

- Good enough.

In the space traffic, control station, a few kilometers away.

- Sir we found a suspicious ship!

- Suspicious, what did it do?

- Nothing sir, the ship is waiting in line orderly, although there is a warrant of caption on this type of ship all over the galaxy from the jedi order.

- From the jedi order, is it stolen or what?

- No sir, the warrant is very old, about five hundred years old to be more concrete.

- What the hell!

- It says that this ship is a rare type of dynamic-class freighter, and only a handful was ever created under the time of the Mandalorian Wars. It was the exact type of ship, which Revan the betrayer used. It has enormous historical value. The jedi temple wishes to buy one, as a relic of war, the price is negotiable with the current owner.

- What is the name of this ship?

- I will scan it, sir, just a second. Here...

- Is there any problem?

- The name is Ebon Hawk some history enthusiast probably... but the date of assembly is strange, over five thousand years ago... Originally certificated, under the Old Republic could it be?

- Are you trying to tell me that it’s an original one and not just a copy of the ship design? Hold up the ship for a while; I will call the temple instantly. They will have to pay some extra for us too; this is an unexpected bonus, which literally appears every five hundred years. I won’t let it slip through my fingers.

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