Shadows of Bankor

In a quiet but accessible corner of the resistance base, Verse; who was now sporting an obviously mechanical left forearm/hand; was working on a cylindrical device that seemed to contain some kind of crystal. For those who had seen such things before, it would also be known as a lightsaber.

"There we go, inverse the power relay here, switch over the emitter to a new pulse frequency..."

Work was progressing steadily. She was certain she was going to get it functioning at a 100% again.

Repairing Lightsaber: 1eP+1eA+1eD 1 success

Vaya came around a corner behind Verse, and let out a sharp Hah!. "They told me I'd find you here!"

Verse held up a hand in a wave. By happenstance it was her new mechanical prosthetic one. It was obvious to anyone what it was. She didn't look at Vaya yet; finishing up the final touches on her repairwork. It might've been a little weird, seeing Verse doing technically difficult work like this, and more; seemingly knowing what she was doing.

After a few seconds, she closed the casing, and turned around with the lightsaber in hand. "Careful, got to test if the emitter is functioning right now," she said, before making sure she had enough clearance.

Then she turned it on for a few moments, the brilliant blue-white glow and hum filling the room.

"Yay," she smiled, "no instabilities," and flipped it off again.

"Hey Vaya."

"Is it true," said Vaya, morbidly curious, "that if you do that wrong, it violently explodes? Or is that only on initial construction?"

"Wuh?" She raised a brow, "Who told you that?"

Vaya waved her hand, subconsciously mirroring the gesture Verse had made with her mechanical one. "I read it somewhere. Is it true?"

"Well," she shook her head and smiled, "I've never heard of any exploding unless someone intentionally overloaded the power source. I suppose theoretically if the crystal were cracked it could overload the system and cause an explosion, though."

"That sounds dangerous," said Vaya, "Sss --" and then coughed as she hastily aborted saying someone could lose a hand. She liked to think she was good at reading people, but just because Verse wasn't crying and screaming didn't mean it was time to pile on the jokes. "S-so how are you holding up?" she said instead, somewhat stiltedly.

"Oh, you heard about what happened?" If she noticed the stiltedness, she didn't let on that she did.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad, and I wish it'd gone differently, but we came out without any casualties on our end. I'm still a little sore," she twirled her mechanical fingers around, flexing the hand as if she were still getting used to it. Which she was.

"I'd go pester Juri some more, but I already feel bad for showing up in her clinic as often as I do. Maybe tomorrow though, if she has time."

Technically, casualties include wounded and not just fatalities Vaya, again, did not say. "You wear it well!" she said instead, forced-chipperly, and then in a more normal tone, "I already thanked Petrus, but I should thank you too -- I'd hate to have gone to all the effort of finding the damn place only to have old simulacrum Surra have to blow it up." She shook her head. "I guess it's safe now? Any idea how they found it in the first place?"

She shrugged, "No idea. I... it might have something to do with my encounter with him the day before, but I don't know *how* exactly. I'm hoping we're safe for now, but long-term... well, if it's been found once, it could be found again I suppose."

Vaya smiled grimly. "As an archaeologist, that's usually comforting. Anything that hasn't had its star go nova, you can probably expect someone to turn up eventually." She sat down on a crate. "So long-term, what's your plan? Now that you're no longer just a learner. On which, congratulations." She gave a lazy salute, pointer and middle finger briefly brought to her temple.

Verse gave a thumbs up; this time with her still intact hand; to the congratulations. Then turning it into a salute like Vaya's.

"Well, A Jedi should always be learning, to start with. But you know, just keep going as we've been going. But obviously I'd like to go visit Auratera if I can and it'd be great if you could join me...and not just because I need the ship...... could be important for the future of the Order too, who knows!"

Vaya tapped her chin with a knuckle. "I don't know. I was thinking I might find a nice patch of the Industrial Wastes, abandon all use of technology, and spend the rest of my life here on Bankor practicing meditation."

"Really?" Her eyes grew wide a little, "Well in that case I could maybe prepare a holo with meditation techniques for you and... oh no technology. I'd have to write them out I guess..."

Vaya kept tapping her chin, deadpan. "Oh, I was also going to take a vow of, uh, blindness."

"Well, that's... going to be a little more difficult without technology. What if I made an audio-holo, pay someone to listen to it, and then they can recite it back to you?"

Vaya thought about building another layer onto it, and another, like that folksy Rimmer duet about there being a hole in the bucket, dear El'yza, but relented. "Yeah, this is starting to sound like a lot of work. Maybe we should just go do that thing you said."

"Uh? Oh! You mean go to Auratera? Yeah, we should! Oh, but we really have to keep it a secret. No publishing your finds to the galactic holonet, or anything!"

Vaya smirked. "If you insist, but I'll have to ask for a double share of the treasure as compensation for the stalling of my academic career."

"You know... there's no actual treasure there, right?" She sure hoped that had been clear; especially given what Vandil had been offered.

Vaya rolled her eyes. "Yes, Verse, I did get that. Given the not-riches on offer, do you think Qareme will want in? Or anyone else? It's so hard to judge with you mystical types. Everything in the universe could seem to argue for it, but if you don't feel it's what the Force wants...."

"She'd be welcome to join us, of course," she said with a chuckle, "but you're right, the Force often works in mysterious ways. I get how that might be hard to understood for those not sensitive to it. Especially for the scholarly types."

Vaya gave a hollow laugh. "Hey now, just because I have the mystical sensitivity of a Coruscanti doily, doesn't mean you get to be patronizing. Even if I've also had more years of formal schooling than you've had years of being alive." Her eyes took on the grim look of someone in the presence of youth reckoning exactly how much closer to senescence they are by comparison.