Honestly, I never thought that technical knowledge could be useful to me. No, no, of course, I took refresher courses from time to time and studied new devices used in the Empire, but I didn't need it at all.
Terrible, absolutely terrible, I'd rather have more books like [Particle Accelerator for Dummies] or [Brief History of Shield Generators] in my library than 101 collector's editions of [Around the Empire in 49650 Standard Hours]. The book is definitely overrated, inaccurate, and has too much combat, not to mention a really long story. Sure, it was based on real events, but that didn't help much in the current situation, especially with what I'm doing now.
Moving away from the half-welded robot body and putting down the micro-welder, I stood up and stretched. Horrible, I really shouldn't be spending a lot of time assembling. Maybe I should let an automatic assembly line do it? Hmm, that's probably not very efficient, because the design problems will only be discovered at the final stage. Hah, so many problems...
I turned to the hologram of the project. A meter-long robot spider with ten legs and a small shield generator. Yeah, considering how expensive this project was, I doubt I could afford more than three test units. Damn, why are portable shield generators so expensive in this galaxy? They're the backbone of every standard Empire ground army, they should be mass-produced...
Oh yes, the lack of any significant centralized military formations in this Republic. If the militaristic Senators of the Empire were to learn of such an underdeveloped political structure with vast territories and an incredibly low population density, they would faint... and within an hour they would be calling for another galactic war.
Hearing a characteristic click on the floor, I turned to the door. When it opened, my best robot acquaintance began to report.
“Sir, we are receiving a signal from P7/2 reporting that their group has been intercepted by pirates and is currently collecting the ship's remains. Due to the damage to P7/1 and the failure of P7/3's engine, the mission has been suspended until we have sufficient forces to advance through enemy territory. Is it worth sending a backup group?”
Oh yes, my favorite pirates! It's much easier to collect parts when they come for your “merchant” and “defenseless” fleet than to conduct illegal mining. Actually, maybe not. Their ship components were outdated even by the standards of this galaxy. The best riches could only come from raiding corporate convoys, but hey, thanks, but I still need my ships.
“Sir?”
“Send the nearest backup team. Have them help them break through Hutt space. 7th Force needs to get repairs in the south. Send a wake-up call to the South Shipyard.”
“Aye, sir.”
The robot, or Droid, as they're called in this galaxy, has left my workshop. In general, the Maid Droid or Special Ship Cleaning Robot or SSCR-1 was far from the best for its current job. In ideal circumstances, it would have been replaced by a live officer, or a specially designed battle droid in case of a shortage of live officers. Unfortunately for me, I had neither a living officer nor blueprints and parts for command droids. That's why this slow maid droid was the base for all my “advanced” developments by the standards of this galaxy. What a nightmare.
I looked around the room. Well, perhaps I should stretch my legs and get ready to travel to meet with potential customers.
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***
[Empire Shipyard] is my favorite and largest ship. It is my mobile base and a large space shipyard that I have constantly tried to develop and improve. This huge chunk of durasteel was slow,poorly maneuverable, and was generally small on a galactic scale. 500 meters in the folded state for interstellar travel and almost a klick in the unfolded state for repairs, ship assembly and resource transshipment. He had almost no weapons.
Only a small part of this space was really suitable for living and resting, but I was able to fit a few pots with plants here. I sat on the seat and sipped my drink while looking out the window at the Red Dwarf star of the [R362930] system. What a fascinating name. There was not much interesting in the system except for the 3 gas giants. Therefore, the second name of the system is [Three Sisters]. A real jackpot for getting gases. Probably the best thing about this system was that this system was in Wild Space, so I could park my unregistered merchant-privateer ships there. Of course, this system is away from the trade routes, so it's not often that my ships stop here.
Time is money, and money is money.
“How much time until the scheduled flight to the Lothal?”
I set my glass down on the droid tray.
“Eighteen standard hours, sir.”
Well, that won't be enough time for me to finish the robot spider project.
“Departure in three standard hours.”
“Acknowledged, sir.”
Looks like it's time for a visit to the graveyard.
***
I stood silently in the ship's graveyard. This place always brought back bad memories.
The cryptosleep compartment is not really a graveyard, but it feels like one. 26 crew members are in cryptosleep and the 27th chamber is open. I'm very afraid of coming here and disappearing into thousands of years of history.
Why are the other 26 crew members in cryptosleep? Very simple! THE DAMN PSIONIC ENTITY!
When we first arrived in this galaxy on a small cruise ship, this DAMNED ENTITY got into our brains. The locals call it the Force, and they say that there are even fanatics who sacrifice their will and sanity to the Force in exchange for the opening of their psionic potential. No wonder, because this entity is trying to completely destroy disloyal psionics.
Our ship was thrown off its usual psionic path by a psi-drive malfunction and dragged into the entity's control zone. Because of this attack, I almost fell into a psionic trance, as did these crew members with weaker psi defenses. Now the whole ship is covered with a psi-defense generator, but to pull a psionic out of a trance requires professional help, which I cannot provide at this time.
I kissed the lid of the sarcophagus and stepped out into the corridor. Time to go to Lothal.
***
[Starfire] is one of the officially registered freighters. Little armor, few weapons, a lot of space. All by Republic standards. The [Outer Wind] transport company has not been very successful, to say the least. Of course, when your competitors have been on the market for centuries, it's hard to find a customer base. Unless your goods are illegal or you need to move them quickly through Hutt space.
This is where the merchant privateers come in. Fast, safe, and without inspections from Corellian Run to the Perlemian Trade Route. All the ships are without a single living person, so if the Hutts are angry, they can blame the Trade Federation. They don't think some non-corporation is bold enough to fly through their space, do they? No, they don't, because my ships have been using this system for years. Yes, they do get caught by pirates from time to time, but in general, this scheme brings a lot of profit.
My official fleet generally travels between the Hydian Way and the Corellian Run. This is a vast, sparsely populated area. It's a long flight, mid profit, and slow business expansion. I could wait and have my own mega-corporation in a century or two. As if I needed it. Empire Star Shipping was doing incredibly well, I wonder how it's doing now.
[Sunfire] was actually my way of traveling from [Three Sisters] to the rest of the known galaxy. If I had to attend a Lothal as the head of [Outer Wind] or another official customer meeting, I wasn't too far away. Of course, this means burning hyper fuel for every little physical encounter, but it's all in the name of security. I even used a few spy satellites in neighboring systems of known space to minimize the chance of detection. All in the name of secrecy.
The SSCR was waiting for me in the hangar in front of the lowered ramp.
"Sir, everything is ready for launch."
"Excellent."
My command droid remained on the Mothership while I climbed the ramp and walked to the cockpit. The pilot droid was already sitting in the main seat, so I took the second seat. After testing the systems and receiving permission to take off in automatic mode, we took off and flew through the now open hangar door. Well, I wonder what this year's meeting will bring me.