Luxea came back a little while later and gathered us together in the living room. She had two very dark grey uniforms with black details, and they had oblong oval patches on the shoulders and on the right chest with an embroidered emblem. It was two hands with the palms facing outwards, at a forty-five degree angle from each other. The thumbs and ends of the hands slightly overlapped to make it look like the head and body of a bird, the fingers were the wings, and the wrists were the tail. The letters 'THE WAVE' were embroidered right below it near the edge of the patch.
“Isn't it great?” Luxea asked. “It only took a few minutes to design it and have the droid add them to the uniforms!”
“Yeah, great.” Rhubin said. “I look horrible in dark grey.”
“Ha! You're funny.” Luxea said and tossed the slightly bigger uniform to him. “Women love men in uniform.” She said and handed him the boots with the gloves and cloth helmet stuffed into them. “You'll be wearing that from now on, unless you're performing shuttle operations. You can wear your flight suit if that's the case.”
“Well, thank you very much for your permission.” Rhubin said sarcastically. “Hunter, can you believe this?” He asked and held the uniform up. “Look at it! It's ghastly!”
“Actually, Luxea's in charge of the shipping company.” I said and Luxea grinned. “Unlike us, she's the only one that's been doing it for years and she knows the ins and outs of the business.”
“Oh, come on!” Rhubin said and started to complain. “I'm just a pilot and won't even meet the customers! Why would I need...”
“We have to wear them off duty, too.” I said. “We're going to be walking advertisements.”
“Hunter, have you done this before?” Luxea asked, a little surprised. “I was just about to suggest that.”
“I haven't done it before, I'm just a good guesser.” I chuckled. “I assume you have a couple of removable patches for my uniform too?”
Luxea nodded and took out a small package. “They self-stick and you can put them on when you're not hunting for bounties.”
I took the package from her and opened it. “I'm surprised you don't have the patch on the back, too.”
“You wouldn't see it under the vests.” Luxea said.
“Vests?” I asked.
“I saw the cutest vest accessory that we can wear. It's not heavy duty like the uniform, so it won't add to the weight, and the company logo will be on the back of it.”
“We don't have to wear the vest all the time, do we?” Rhubin asked.
“No, Rhubin.” Luxea took pity on him and chuckled. “I knew you would be a bit of a snob and wouldn't wear it, so I only got one for Hunter and myself.”
“That's a relief.” Rhubin said. “The uniform is going to be hard enough to move around in as it is.”
“You'll get used to it.” I said and looked at Luxea. “I don't see any other packages.”
“The vests will be delivered in an hour.” Luxea said. “The droid only had one in stock and it was in my size. He's going to make another one and dye them both black.”
“Sounds like we have a bit of time to waste.” I said and stood. “Do either of you know where we can go to look at bounties?”
“You don't need to go anywhere.” Luxea chuckled. “Just access the station's network from the console over there and look under contract labourer jobs.”
“You're kidding.” I said, and she shook her head. “It's really that simple?”
“Well, there's going to be specific ones for just this station, then probably for the planet nearby and maybe the whole system.” Luxea said. “I'm not sure when they update the intergalactic listings.”
“I really thought it would be a lot harder to become a bounty hunter.” I said and walked over to the console and sat down, then quickly connected to the station's network and browsed the contract labourer jobs. “Yeah, this is... I can't believe this is...” I shook my head. “They contract for a lot of weird stuff!”
Both Rhubin and Luxea laughed.
“Wait until we hit a major trading hub, then you'll really find some weird things.” Rhubin said. “Just watch out for the ones that say they are 'easy' and have higher that average payouts.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I figured that if it's too good to be true, it usually is.”
“So you do know some things!” Rhubin exclaimed and laughed.
I saved a few of the jobs that seemed a little more difficult than the 'easy' ones that asked to pick someone up at such and such a place and bring them to another place. Rhubin was right. That sounded way too easy to be that easy. Of course, one of the ones I picked was near an easy one, so it wouldn't hurt to check it out.
“Okay, I've got a few of them.” I said. “We've got a loan defaulter on a planet in the next system that took the money and ran, a local militia deserter, and a suspected murderer.”
Rhubin smiled. “The deserter is the easy one, right?”
“You guessed it!” I grinned. “He apparently emptied half of the armory when he left and they don't say if he kept them or sold them.”
“Kept.” Rhubin and Luxea said at the same time, and we all laughed.
“Loan defaulter first?” I asked.
“We should convert the spare room into a holding cell before doing anything else.” Luxea said.
“That's a good idea, except I don't have any money for materials.” I said.
“How much does the job pay?”
“If we can get him back here by the end of the week, it's five thousand credits.”
Rhubin whistled. “What did he get the loan for?”
“Fifty thousand.” I said, and Luxea whistled this time.
“Okay, I'll foot the bill for the modification.” Luxea said and I started to protest. “I expect it back, with interest, as soon as we get paid for the job.”
“How much interest?” I asked.
“Five percent.”
“Five percent for a week! Are you crazy?!?” Rhubin asked.
“Actually, that's a really good deal.” I said, and he stared at me. “She could have asked for seven or even ten percent. What am I going to do? Say no? It's only fifty credits on a thousand.”
Luxea nodded. “If we can get a good contractor, we can get it done by the end of the day.”
“Do you want to handle it?” I asked, and she smiled.
“That's fair, since I am paying for it.”
“Then I'll leave it in your hands.”
“Thanks.” Luxea said. “I'll get changed before I leave.” She glared at Rhubin. “I strongly suggest that someone else gets changed, too.”
“Why not Hunter?” Rhubin asked.
“His uniform isn't done yet.” Luxea said and walked out of the living room.
“She's going to keep doing things like this, you know.” Rhubin sighed.
“Don't tell me you pissed her off.” I said and kept looking at the local system contract jobs when he didn't answer, then I moved on to the multi-system ones. “You can tell me if you want.”
Rhubin smiled at me and started to tell me about the last time he and Luxea had spent time together and how he had tried to do things my way. I didn't interrupt him or stop him to tell him how stupid he was to try and change the way he treated her, and he gave me all the details that I really didn't want to know.
“So, now she's punishing me.” Rhubin said in a defeated tone when he was done of the story.
“Will I still be your friend if I say you deserve it?” I asked without looking at him, and he chuckled.
“I know I deserve it, so yes.”
“Dammit.” I said, and he laughed.
“You're always kidding.” Rhubin said and slapped my shoulder.
“You should get changed before she comes back and sees you're still in your flight suit.” I said.
“Oh, damn! You're right.” Rhubin said and grabbed the outfit and boots, then ran from the living room.
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Luxea came back a few minutes later and she had three large aliens with her. They had one extra arm each that stuck out of where their belly buttons should have been. Other than that, they looked human. They pulled a large trolley cart into the ship and followed Luxea to the spare room, then they got to work. I checked on them some time later and as far as I could tell, all the extra arm did was hold things in place and wasn't useful for anything else, because there wasn't a shoulder socket, and only the elbow bent and the arm rotated. That was it.
It's the first time I've seen an almost useless appendage on an alien. I thought to myself as I watched them work. They stripped the room right down to the bulkheads and reinforced everything to make it into a very strong cell for holding prisoners. I didn't stay and keep watching, since I had things I wanted to do, so I went to my room and sat down at the desk and looked at the electronics I had sorted out.
I took a deep breath and let it out, then went to the bed and opened the hidden safe. I took out my mother's Light sword and the small wooden case, closed the safe, then went over to the desk. I took out the small toolkit and disassembled the Light sword just enough to remove the worn out crystal I had taken from the scaly alien and looked at it. I shook my head at the poor quality and put it aside, then opened the small wooden case. I hovered my hand over the twelve completely unused crystals and thought of my mother Aida as I did so.
The eighth crystal glowed slightly and I nodded as I used a Presence Hand to lift it from the holder and held it near the Light sword, then I adjusted the internal dimensions to hold the much better crystal. I had initially intended to expand the outer casing so I could change all the external controls to internal ones, then changed my mind when I received the crystals from Aphatoris. I slipped the focusing crystal inside the adjusted space and used Presence to attune the crystal to both the components inside the Light sword and to myself.
I sat there and made sure everything was in perfect working order, then reassembled the Light sword. When I sat back, my mother's Light sword was back in pristine condition and was as powerful as it would have been when she had used it before my birth. I closed my eyes and sighed as I picked the weapon up and felt a distinct feeling that it was my mother's weapon. My hand fit around it too easily and I felt how small my mother's hands must have been compared to mine.
I covered part of the room in a solid Presence box and turned on the sword briefly. It practically vibrated with Presence and the distinct feeling of my mother increased. I nodded in satisfaction and turned it off, then I placed it in the safe and took out my father's Light sword. I removed Kara's focusing crystal and set it aside, then hovered my hand over the eleven remaining crystals as I thought about my father Lokend. The fifth crystal glowed slightly and I used a Presence Hand to pick it up and repeated the same procedure that I did for my mother's Light sword.
I tested it for only a moment and felt the distinct feeling of my father, nodded at the successfully restored weapon, and added it to the safe. I went back to the table and took out the electronics toolkit that Luxea had bought for me. It had everything in it that any budding electronics expert could want. A soldering iron with multiple heads for both rough and fine point work, small tools for adding and assembling circuit boards, and configuration tools for adjusting the various parts and components of electronic devices.
I didn't really need all of them, since I could use Presence to do a lot of the things the tools were for; but, the tools themselves taught techniques on how things should be handled and manipulated and were great practice to use both my hands and Presence Hands to do the work.
It's time to update my basic weapon. I thought with a smile and unhooked it from my belt and put it on the desk, then pulled it completely apart to individual components and wires. Now that I knew what to look for, I didn't touch the crystal that was inside. I used a Presence Hand to pick it up and used Detect Presence to examine it very closely. With the scaly alien's focusing crystal to compare it to, I could see that there was quite a bit of wear and the Presence flow inside of it was a lot weaker than I thought it should have been.
So, they really do wear out from constant use. I thought and contemplated replacing it, since it was over four years since I had received it. I didn't know if it had been new when I received it then, so it might even be a lot older and could be degrading faster like the one from the scaly alien. I pushed those thoughts and the focusing crystal aside and changed my concentration to the parts in front of me.
With everything apart like it was, and with my updated and intense electronics knowledge, I started the very long and arduous construction of what I had hoped would be the best Light sword for me. I started with the basic circuit board and its standard settings for a Light sword's dimensions. I saw its limitations and wondered if I could change it. I knew it hadn't been done before, since there was nothing in the history class about altering the basic length.
I had done a lot of research on Light swords and the theories behind its construction, so I knew that if I added a regulator there as well as where Kara had added hers for the width, I could change both the width and the length of the energy blade, rather than leaving the direct connection like it was. I didn't go overboard with the regulator, since this was going to essentially be a prototype and a test of concept. It only had three settings and I set them for one foot, three feet, and six feet. That was a ridiculous length and couldn't be used in an actual fight with normal techniques; but, it should be neat to see when it was activated.
With that set, I added another regulator with three settings for the width, like Kara's Light sword. I set them for one inch, two inch, and three inch, which was the standard width. That was as wide as I could do it safely, since the aperture was limited by the width of the lens on the end. If I wanted to either find or buy a custom lens that was larger, I could probably play with it more; but, then I would have to make the entire Light sword much wider to accommodate the change.
That would also mean it couldn't be held with one normal hand, which would make it unusable.
The thought of a not-normal hand made me think of Ohazith and the large hands on her extra arms.
Those long fingers could have held a larger Light sword easily. I thought and rubbed the scars that surrounded my heart. It was a familiar gesture, since thoughts of her kept popping up when certain things reminded me of her, and I rubbed my chest every time. I only knew her for a week and yet...
I stopped myself before I distracted myself from my chosen task or let my anger rise without a focus. I used a mental technique to clear my mind and returned to constructing my new Light sword. With access to a bevy of other electronic components and the fundamental knowledge of how it all worked, I could combine them to create different effects for a Light sword.
I added in directed switches that would activate different modes and added the proper components to make them happen. Since the old droid's arm was quite long, I easily fit in what I wanted, especially since I had opted for the smaller regulators and wrapped the wires around the inside of the casing, instead of bundling the wires together like I had when I made it the first time after graduating my training. I didn't have to change where the focusing crystal was mounted, even with all of the additional electronics and wires, and I didn't have to add external switches.
I had marked them internally in my own shorthand, so that even if someone took my weapon from me and could see inside of it, they wouldn't be able to activate it or use it in any kind of configuration. I was tempted to try to add a palm reader to the outside of the casing, then decided not to. Everything was internal and it was completely sealed from the elements, so adding something external wasn't going to let it keep its integrity.
I did choose a new focusing crystal, since I wasn't sure my old one would hold up to the testing I was going to perform. That was also why I didn't try to use the scaly alien's. I thought about using Kara's, then remembered what I had told Mooglesnark about her crystal not feeling right. It wasn't attuned to me properly, since it had a previous owner, so I didn't try to use it in this Light sword.
Although, I did add an extra little bit on the end of the handle. It was a second lens and behind that was a stun emitter. It only had a single charge and would be a drain on the internal long-life battery if used too often, because it took a lot of energy to work and it didn't have an external power receptacle. That didn't matter for me, since I could use Presence to transfer energy into the battery, or I could pop it apart occasionally and switch out the depleted battery for a fresh one.
Now that it was completed, I held it in my hand, almost reverently. Once again, it felt like it was a part of me and I was comforted by the feeling that it was well constructed and would last for a very long time. I didn't activate it, though. This wasn't the time or place to do that, so I grabbed a polishing cloth from the desk and gave it a good cleaning and removed all of my fingerprints and smudge marks from handling it, then hooked it to my belt and stood up.
I slid the old crystals into the polishing cloth and put them into the small wooden box with the remaining nine new focusing crystals, then put the box back into the safe on the headboard of the bed. With them safely tucked away, I covered the desk of electronic parts with Presence and made it solid to protect them and stop anything from being stolen, then left my room.
“There you are!” Luxea said happily as she saw me walking towards the kitchen. “Quick! You have to see this!”
“Can't I get a bite to eat first?” I asked.
“No.” Luxea grabbed my arm and dragged me down the hallway to the spare room. “Look at this masterpiece!”
“Masterpiece?” I asked and looked into the room. It looked almost exactly the same, except that it had four bunk beds mounted to the walls instead of the single bed in the middle. They looked like they folded up to get them out of the way, and there were two nice soft couches that someone could sit on to eat meals on the medium-sized table in front of them. “Couches and not chairs?”
“I told the workers that giving prisoners weapons to attack us or each other wasn't a good idea.” Luxea said. “The couch was the best compromise, and they are embedded into the bulkhead with the reinforcement.” She chuckled. “There's no way anyone is going to move them or the table.”
I took a moment to look around with Detect Presence. “At least it all matches the ship's normal decor.”
“I was worried about that myself, then I watched them tear the room apart as it if was a puzzle and they preserved everything.” Luxea said, and I could hear that she was impressed. “They quickly adapted the new things to integrate into the room without it looking like an eyesore.”
“What about the door?” I asked.
“There's actually two!” Luxea said and pulled me outside and pointed to the panel. “Since we won't have prisoners all the time, one door is for regular use and looks like a normal door.” She pushed the button and the door whooshed shut. “No one would know it's also a cell.”
“The other door?”
Luxea hit the button to open the normal door, then she slid a lever and hit the button again. A heavy reinforced metal door slid out from the other side and three bars extended to mate with it as it closed.
“Food trays can be given either directly...” Luxea pulled open the slot and I saw that the door was about six inches thick. “...or it can be rotated in.” She said and pulled the slot out of the door to be the width of a food tray, then pushed it closed. “No physical interactions are needed once they are inside.”
“Okay, that's a good idea.” I said. “I could have escaped each time the guard brought me my meals back on Granis Station.”
“With what you can do, you could have escaped at any time.” Luxea said, then she looked at me. “That reminds me. I meant to ask you why you didn't.”
“I agreed to take the punishment without retribution.” I said, and she laughed.
“You're such a softie.”
I shook my head. “I'm not. I needed their help, so hurting or killing them to escape wouldn't make them want to cooperate.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” Luxea smiled. “You know for a fact that scared people cooperate. Look what you did to The Order council to get away.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then shrugged.
“Okay, now we can go and get something to eat.” Luxea said and hit the button to open the security door and pulled the lever to disengage the mechanism, then hit the button to close the normal door. “It's pretty late and I was so busy working that I forgot to eat.”
“I was busy working as well.” I said.
“Oh? Were you playing with all those miscellaneous electronic parts you bought?” Luxea asked, and I nodded. “What did you make?”
“I remade this.” I said and pat the Light sword cylinder on my hip.
“I've seen them active before, mostly from news broadcasts of The Order. I've never seen one in person, though.”
“That has to wait until we're not on an enclosed starship and preferably on a planet with lots of space around.”
“It's a good thing our first bounty target is only a short hyperspace jump away, then.” Luxea said with a smile. “I can't wait to see what you did!”
“Me, either.” I said, and we went to the kitchen to eat the last of the leftovers from the restaurant meal we had eaten earlier that day.