Play Testers Wanted Pt. 16

"I do not get it." She snapped, confused. "When is zero, not zero."

"Huh?" I said as I sat up, forsaking the storm.

"I found the third packet, but it doesn't make any sense." Whisper snarled. I got to my feet and looked over her shoulder at the screen.

"Here," she said, her fingers tapping out commands. "Is your typical number line. The pulsing blue dot is zero. To one side are positive numbers, and to the other negative." She said the flat line bent and formed a V-like shape, and then a third line shot downward. "Each is 120 degrees apart, and here is where my head hurts. Let me color code them so I am not alone in this. The blue line represents positive numbers, the red is negative, and the green is zeros. The packet's language to describe the third line, the absolute line, has no easily referred descriptors. Any ideas?"

"Positive. Negative. And then, like you said, when is zero, not zero. A number that is neither positive nor negative, ugh. Wait, hold the hell on. What if you got the first two packets wrong. What if those represent quantum states? Instead of being a positive number, there are X particles on. The second line is how many particles are off, and the last one is undetermined. We know how many particles but not their state. They remain unobserved." I blurted out, and it made my head hurt, and if I was a judge of sentients, Whisper was equally baffled.

"Statement. On or up," H.K. began. "Off or down. These are basic concepts of a binary state, in effect zeros and ones. Supposition, this race has taken it a step further and somehow incorporated a third undefined state. Let us call them queries or question marks. I can see where Master is going with this to a small degree. Restrictive statement. My programming is quite limited in the field of theoretical mathematics. Proposition, if this species incorporates such an aspect, we are out of our league. I strongly suggest the application of high explosives when all else fails."

"What is the bulk of the transmission?" I asked Whisper even as I silently agreed with H.K. We may need to destroy the Star Forge. It represented a clear and present danger to the entire galaxy. "When the rain ends, we can speak with the Rakatan A.I. and see if our theory is correct."

"A series of ever-growing complex equations. It looks like a test. Maybe whoever is running the damn thing wants to see if we are intelligent enough to access it." Whisper offered. "What do you want me to do, boss?"

"I need to clear my head. Send me the equations, and I will see what I can do." I said as I stripped down. The others whistled and made some interesting lewd suggestions which I found rather complimentary if crude. "I will be outside practicing."

"Practicing... practicing what?" Aoki asked.

"Tutaminis," I said. My head needed a good cleansing blast of lightning or two. I lowered the ramp, stepped outside, and moved to a safe distance from the Wraith. My undead status made the biting wind-driven rain a minor inconvenience. Once I was far enough away from the starship to risk being struck by lightning and not having it arc to my vessel, I raised my arms skyward.

"Oi," Left cried aloud over the raging storm. "What has gotten into you?"

"Oh hey, I need to clear my thoughts, and nothing does that better than pushing my limits," I replied as I called down a bolt of sky fire. It struck my upraised limbs, passed through my body, and then dissipated into the soggy ground. Small pools and puddles arced with residual energy. "Damn, I needed that," I exclaimed as Left bitched and moaned. "Besides, I need to raise my Tutaminis level."

"You know we both feel that right." He laughed. "You are one crazy..."

'Ber-Zapp!' The next bolt knocked me to my knees.

"...I felt that one!" Left roared in delight. I stood tall, reached up higher, and my world went white. The storm stood suspended between one second and the next. The rain was frozen midair, the lightning hung suspended, and even Left's ever-present existence was gone. I was alone and had this moment to contemplate the equations. The first one was easy enough to solve--the next a bit harder, and so on. I reached the tenth challenge and was stumped. Its complexity defeated every attempt I made to unravel it. I retreated to the ninth equation and compared them, trying to find a clue, but they were on two different levels. Did I need to solve all of them to access the Star Forge? I withdrew and looked around at the static environment. I was not alone. Someone or something was there with me. I sent my thoughts out, but they could not pierce the bubble around me. The moment I dwelt in was as hard as diamond and just as resistant to change.

"Kaiburr." The sexless voice uttered before the storm struck. My bubble burst, and I was back in the real world again.

"Kaiburr?" I uttered, and Left asked me what I meant by that. "Didn't you hear it? It said Kaiburr."

"Nope. I did not hear shit." Left informed me. I moved to a sitting position and let the rain and wind pelt me relentlessly as I dove deep and pondered what the single word meant. Kaiburr was the crystals both Jedi and Sith used to channel the Force into their weapons. Pomojema, the healing god of Mimban V, had a massive Kaiburr crystal set into his/her/its chest. It warranted a look when things here settled. There was only one clear course of action. "Traci, how many different Kaiburr crystals do I have in my inventory?"

"Colors or actual varieties by planet and origin?" She replied.

"Distinct origins, whether it is a planet or varying abilities." I fired back excitedly.

"You have found or created over thirty different crystals." She said. "For the record, the Je'Daii Grandmaster left you nearly half of those out of friendship."

"Time to take a deeper look," I said as I leaped to my feet. "I am coming in."

Whisper lowered the ramp, and I strode in with steam wisping from my flesh as I took a hot shower to revitalize my senses. I had H.K. activate the ship's lab, pulled out my entire collection of Kaiburr crystals, watched my students gawk, and asked where I had found each one. The four states of Vorpalite proved easiest to analyze. As Traci identified them, the impact crystals were solely unnatural, as was the synthetic red crystal I had gotten from one of my Sith adversaries. I created Vorpalite by using the full might of Force Burst on a location containing mineral deposits. The raw energy and sheer impact of the discipline transform those minerals. These four showed similar strata and crystalline configurations. The chemical composition proved different, though. The furnace and recipe used to forge a red crystal differed significantly from the naturally occurring minerals from the rock face on Tython. Though there were naturally occurring red Kaiburr, they were just exceedingly rare.

I displayed everything above me as I diligently went from one crystal to the next. I saved the black and clear diamonds from the Darksaber for last. Luckily, I had a second Ghostfire crystal to compare against the diamond I had rescued from the Negative Zone. The lattice structures were remarkably different, and yet the similarities outnumbered the variances. I looked up, and with a gesture, I merged all twenty or so holograms. After a moment, Traci produced a single image, an illustration that revealed the core constants that all Kaiburr crystals possessed.

"There is a parent template they all follow." I gasped as Aoki and Kyanna stared at it.

"What the hell does it mean, though?" Kyanna asked.

"I have no fucking clue, but it hints at a common ancestor or origin point," I stated. "What allows a Kaiburr crystal to grow?"

"A Force nexus?" Aoki offered.

"Korriban does not produce Kyber crystals," I said, knowing the world intimately.

"Do you think just light side nexus then?" Kyanna said, unsure.

"I do not know. Many places are strong in the Force I have not visited yet, so I cannot answer that question. Dathomir. Here on Lehon. Tomorrow we begin training in earnest. I need to meditate on this." I stated, and they found quiet spots of their own to ponder.

"Ilum. Ossus. They have crystal aplenty or did for a time." Left whispered once the ladies had left. "A dozen other worlds had a single type and in tiny numbers. Your namesake is on the peak of one mountain on a backward world."

"What makes a Kaiburr crystal grow? I mean, you said the top of a mountain. It cannot be geological activity, then. A mountain top is as inactive as possible, or the Ghostfire is the oldest crystal in the damn galaxy. If they were born while the area was active, that would make them millions if not tens of millions of years old, wouldn't it?" I pondered aloud.

"Quartz takes only a few thousand years to form in the right conditions. The question is, what are the right conditions for Kaiburr to grow." Left mulled it over. "How is that new speeder design coming?"

"New speeder?" Aoki's voice called from the center of the bridge. She was leaning against the Force tree, and they were in communion or had been. "MMM... what are you working on?" She purred.

"Oh hell, you better tell her already." Kyanna urged. "You may not know this, but in another life, she was a professional racer. If you want suggestions or a test pilot, you can ask for none better."

"I was going to make one for both of you, and seeing as you are a pro, take a look." I relented and displayed the basic prototype of the stealth speeder. "I am arming it with blacklight weaponry. I reverse-engineered the Mandolorian rifle I found and designed its big brother, the blacklight cannon. I have not even run it through the wind tunnel yet."

"Why is the ass end up so high? What is with the split-tail design?" Aoki asked, and I touched the display control that revealed the speeder's biggest combat surprise. "Holy mother of... you are a freaking genius!" She praised me when she saw the under-mounted cannon spin around 180 degrees, swivel up between the split tail so it could target foes pursuing the speeder.

"It beats dropping back and wasting valuable time shooting them that way. The weapon gives the pilot a targeting display to attack while hauling ass to their destination. I already have a small enough stealth field generator to fit it, but there is one major problem plaguing it."

"What?" Aoki asked.

"Ground disturbance," Kyanna chimed in. "The repulsor engines create a ground effect disturbing the earth below."

"Yep. It beats the hell out of me, for now." I admitted. "What?" I asked as Aoki touched the screen revealing the guts of the vehicle. She looked at the turbine engines and how I had muffled them to reduce noise to a minimum. She spun them around and made odd noises.

"You know what," she giggled. "In another life, these would work." She said, doing her best to stay in character.

"Most of my designs would work in another life, as you say." I declared properly.

"Pity there isn't a power source to make that bad girl go," Aoki said with a severe pout.

"Want to see the speeder bike version?" I asked, and there went the rest of the afternoon. The three of us brainstormed, and both speeder and bike took on a definite form. Aoki was invaluable when it came to redesigning the speeder bike's controls. She helped with a more ergonomic and user-friendly configuration. She preferred a reclined model to one where you sit upright. The vehicle's light armor protected the pilot and improved on its streamlined design.

"That will let it go faster and more maneuverable. The pilot being closer to the thing's center of gravity made for speed and control. So, two forward-facing blacklight repeating blasters and the cannon below. Perfection."

As they took a required rest period, I continued. I opened a new file and began work on a droid design, and this one would be a step up from the typical protocol or assassin droids. I even had a designation for this model, DP-69. Her servos would allow her to move and attack with the same agility as a flesh and blood woman. I dropped coin on the schematics to the female [redacted] protocol droid I had seen in the split spire.

"I fucking knew it. Neither droid is of Rakatan make." I cursed triumphantly. I dove deep and understood how clever they had been when they designed her. I gave full credit to the devs on this one. They built her for speed and close combat. The devs crafted her exoskeleton from an unidentified poly-alloy layer with interconnected hexagonal plates that allowed her to quickly disperse damage from the impact area across the other cells of her honeycomb design. Those same cells allowed her to absorb a percentage of energy from blasters and the like to recharge her internal weapons. She had two heavy blaster rifles built into her arms, a flamethrower down her throat, and a small but effective personal shield array. Like my H.K. version, she had two dedicated power plants, one for most of her functions and the second for weapons and shielding. Like an octopus, she has three interconnected brains. "You would be a bitch to take down."

I brought up her schematics and viewed them. She had several deliberate design flaws, and that was disconcerting.

"Why would they build her like this," I said, thinking aloud.

I tweaked her hips, elbows, ankles, armpits, and even her ribbed skeleton. I lost track of time as she slowly took form. I let Traci reassemble the first iteration and sat back and noticed flashing notifications. There were dozens of pieces of fan mail and questions. I recorded responses to each of them and sent them to Kat to post. Rule one, keep the fans happy. Besides, there were some great questions or observations from clever members. There were gold-level messages, and to my pleasant surprise, there were male and female voice actors offering their services to voice NPC companions or droids. Some of them were actors whose names I recognized instantly, some I did not.

"Play audition clips," I directed Traci. She would flash the actor's name and then play their prepared audio clip. Some provided a video file, and most of those were female actors who wanted to tip things in their favor with a smile or tease me with their tits or ass. The first voice that caught my attention had a distinct Russian accent. I turned my head away from the crafting station, and I felt my jaw drop open. Her skin was nut brown, she was naked, and while she faced the camera, her ass was clearly on display. Her name was Liya Silver, and she was very popular as an adult entertainer.

"Your pulse just jumped, not bad for a dead guy." Traci teased me. "If you like her, take a look at this one, another Russian." A curvy blonde danced and moved, showing off her body and several tattoos she possessed.

"Nata Lee, that is clever," I commented. "Worth a second look, both that is. Let us continue, and I will listen for the right voice." I tore my gaze from the curvy blonde. "Can the droid touch her toes?"

"Are you crazy? Let us see." Traci laughed. "Nope. She can bend over, though. Her abdomen is too rigid for that kind of range of movement. If we shrink the hexagonal plating, we sacrifice defense for mobility."

"Show me." I directed, and we localized vital areas that limited the droid's flexibility. "We are getting close to the limit factor. If we give her any more motion, she will fold on the first hit."

"Many droids do, but uh, I have a suggestion to make her sturdier... oh, you are a dirty old man." Traci laughed.

"Statement," H.K. said, startling me. "You will never be able to mass-produce that thing."

"This is most likely just a one-off H.K., three at the most. I agree. She is too intricate for mass production." I stated.

"Query. What good is she, genders, by the Maker, what is her primary function?" H.K. rambled on seeing the schematics. "Pleading Statement. Tell me you did not give her genitals."

"She is not a sexbot, and she is going to be, if I can manage to get the materials together, a spy or assassin/bodyguard," I told him. He stalked off without a word. "You had a suggestion."

"Yeah. We can use the secondary power source to run a personal shield generator for the droid." And Traci purred when she uttered the last word. "If her function is to infiltrate and take out high priority targets, then stealth and defense seem a wiser option."

"Do it and run a mobility test," I ordered.

"You are building a Jedi killer. You know that, don't you." Traci giggled. "Or a Sith slayer."

"I do not know what you are implying." I lied. "The Brotherhood was a manifestation of problems yet to come," I said as I watched the droid's stationary movements. It was all well and good, but she stumbled and faltered when we ran her through form one lightsaber training. "Let me see her feet. We need to tweak those too. H.K. is right. DP-69 might be a one-off, but what a unique droid she'll make."

[2] Rakata Primer:

My students woke, and I let Traci examine the current version of DP-69 and look for improvements to the problems I identified. We all ate, which meant they offered up enough blood to get me through the day. The wet season had just begun, so their training was limited.

"I have made a decision," I said. "I am going to teach you the eighth form," I informed Kyanna. "And I am going to improve your lightsaber skills," I told Aoki. "Here, I made this while you slept. It is a shoto lightsaber for your off-hand."

"Thank you, Master," Aoki replied, looking at the sleek dark weapon.

"While I walk Kyanna through the first steps of form eight, I want you to drill the forms, you know. By the way, which ones are you skilled at?" I asked, and a look passed between my two students. "Well?"

"One thru six," Aoki laughed.

"She taught me the excellent art of firearms and shooting from the hip," Kyanna added.

"I feel a story coming on," I said with a smile. Aoki began, and they took turns explaining how they had created a joint account. The masked female Chiss, known only as the Solitaire, could fill in slots from gunslinger to generic tank to Jedi healer. They cross-trained each other until their skills were damn near identical. The genius part is that Solitaire was an alias for their main characters. Aoki preferred being a Force-sensitive gunslinger, and Kyanna adored her identity as a powerful Jedi weapons master. What they both hated was the politics involved in dealing with the Jedi and Sith. That is why they jumped at the chance of joining my faction, the Je'Daii. "My faction?"

"Didn't you know?" Aoki laughed. "Just a second," she muttered as she worked her HUD. "Ah, got it, take a look at this." I pulled down my own HUD and saw the groups, official organizations, and factions. "Holy shit, I never knew there were so many people asking to join my faction. I cannot just let everyone join. I do not want the Brotherhood or former members infiltrating. Traci? Can you vet potential members?"

"No. I cannot do that. I can transmit your request to Mistress Kat." She replied. "She has the resources and authority to fulfill that request."

"Can I ask a question?" Kyanna said, her voice filled with caution and curiosity. "Did you train the Shrike?"

"You mean the Sith in black armor?" I stated, remember the mysterious woman using form eight. "No, I have no idea who she was." Was she a player or NPC? It did not matter. We would have a reckoning. "Like any good villain, she will be back."

"Speaking of villainous," Aoki said, moving closer and smiling. "I stood right next to you at the damn bar. I did not feel you."

"Oh, that." I laughed nervously.

"Oh, that?" Kyanna closed in from another direction.

"Force cloak. It reduces your aura to nil." I said and saw that hungry look I must have had when the Rakata trained me. "It is not an easy discipline to grasp, trust me. Do either of you have any talent hiding?" That was my in-game version of asking if they possessed the stealth skill. They both checked their HUDs and replied.