Phoenix - Ghosts of the Past

IV

23rd, Month Esk, 6 AFGE

The Phoenix softly docked with the Outland Station, next to her, so did the From the Ashes. We were delivering a shipload of weapons to the station. Apparently pirate attacks were becoming more common yet the local moff is doing nothing to stop its spread. As a result, the station is starting to arm itself in tubrolasers, instead of just the usual laser cannons. We were one of the contractors delivering parts, and parts we did deliver. This would be a profitable run.

Indeed, it was profitable. The pay was enough for us to upgrade both ships' hyperdrives to class one hyperdrives. I and Emlita stayed to install it while the others left for the casino on the station. It didn't take long to switch out the hyperdrives on both ships. I just wanted to stay on the Phoenix to meditate, but Emlita dragged me to the merchant's row. The market district was as expected, loud, crowded and full of all kinds of goods mish-mashed together.

'We have all kinds of decorations you can ever dream of! Need a gift? Feeling your place is too bland? Come and have a look now!' A voice shouted.

Well... The Phoenix was a bit lacking on the decorations side. This would be a good opportunity to make the place feel a bit more like home. I walked towards the vendor. On the shelves behind him, I saw quite a few paintings, real hand-drawn paintings instead of the holopaintings that don't really look right for paintings. There were also different kinds of small trinkets, from bubbleheads to small gemstones to miniature statues. The vendor was a human man, with a head shiner than the twin suns of Tatooine, and the most fantastic moustache I had ever laid my eyes on. Then I saw it. There was an intricately decorated triangle-shaped object sitting in a corner, and a yellow crystal gently humming in the force, and my crystal hummed in return, resonating with it. A Sith Holocron and a kyber crystal, one that, was seemingly a velmorite from its texture and one that, wants to be in the same sabre with my original crystal. I would leave this shop with both, even if only to keep them out of the emperor's hands. Force knows the emperor didn't need more holocrons and crystals to his disposal.

'Hello there! What decorations and trinkets do you want?' The vendor asked, noticing me. 'Whatever you want, I'll have it. Just name it!'

'What about that crystal and the pyramid there? How do you come by them?' I asked, pointing at the objects of my desire.

'Oh, these two were already here when I took over this shop, no one ever wanted them, so I'll give you a discount, 800 for both.'

'Sounds fair, you have a deal.' I passed over a credit chip, and he scanned with his chip reader, deducting the amount then passing it back to me. I scooped up the two things, placed them in my back, and left. I can't wait to get back to the ship.

I slipped out of the market when Emlita was distracted and made way to the Phoenix as fast as possible, excited at the chance to own a multi-crystal sabre. Back in my room, I took out the tools I had lying around and disassembled my sabre. Through the force, the sabre separated into many parts. Since I had to make do with what I had, my sabre had more space in the hilt than what was required, and that space was filled with a block of durasteel. I measured the length of the sabre core after I changed the crystal chamber then shortened the block accordingly with the grinding tool I had. That took far too long to complete, when I finally put the sabre back together, it was already night in standard time and suddenly there was a knock at my door, it was Sinya. 'Hey, Emlita cooked dinner, get out of your hidey-hole before we eat it all!'

With a groan, I stood from my seated position and opened the door. Sinya greeted me with her arms folded on her chest, 'Now, why did you bail on me?' She asked.

'I got stuff to do.' Came the reply, 'I found a better crystal for this,' I tapped my sabre, 'so I came back and install it.'

'Still, that's not nice.' She pouted.