Sales and purchases

Three weeks later.

* * *

We were too lazy to sit on the barque ourselves. We sat for a day, and then a boat showed up next to us, landed a dozen kilometers away. The captain got in touch and I asked him to send two people to replace Julian and me. Everything seemed simple-the droids had instructions, the men were there, the technicians too.

The kappa arrived ten minutes later, with three passengers in it to replace Julian and me. Ju explained the intricacies of the job to the technicians, and then the two of us flew the kappa back to the ship.

When I arrived, I locked myself in my cabin and spent a long time thinking about what we were going to do. I sat and thought for six hours, read codes and laws, the constitution, studied other historical and legal sources. I only came out when Shia came to see me.

- Dad? - He came into the cabin, what are you doing?

- Oh, I'm glad you came by. I'm reading the law. It's useful, but awfully tedious. And how are you doing? How's school going?

- Makoi's fine," Shia looked down.

- Well, well... what about Nayner?

- Well..." Shia hesitated.

That's understandable. The Master, a Mandalorian named Nayner Cassados, was a stern, sixty-five year old bounty hunter. He trained Shi'ai, and in the harshest of ways. Shi'ai, having been raised on Jedi tales, had grown up relying on the Force in his youth, but had forgotten that no Force could save you if your knees were shaking and you were afraid of the enemy. Unlike him, I grew up on Tatooine, a planet on which I could have been killed, and I had to be hard on my enemies and everyone else from the beginning. Shia was lucky to have spent his early childhood with his mother, on a safe planet where you don't get shot in the forehead by drunken pirates for leering. In addition, the use of force can sharpen feelings and accelerate movements, but for this it is necessary that these very feelings and movements were, and he knew how to use them correctly, and in time. That's why Nayner studied martial arts, tactics, weaponry, strategy, history of wars, and the "flight analysis" of various naval commanders and generals with Shia for three hours a day. And three hours were allotted to Makoi. More and more I considered shifting the schedule and giving Cassados an extra hour or two of class, but I remembered how important it is for a reasonable person to be well-educated comprehensively. What I've accomplished so far would probably never have been accomplished with primitive forceful methods.

- I see what's wrong with you," I grinned, "you're being lazy again. Well, not everybody likes everything, but alas, there are some things we just have to do. You just happen to be born with the gift of power. Considering that your parents are Jedi masters, it's not surprising, and you can't hide from that. If you want to make something of yourself, you have to work hard at the beginning. It gets easier from there.

- I see..." the boy sighed, "but why did we come here? - he stepped closer. I think he's a little afraid of me, and keeping out of my way. I happen to be a strict and always busy father, who hardly has time for his son. No, if it's either the galaxy or the Shia, screw galactic politics, but no one is asking the question yet. Fortunately.

- We're in the deep core sector. Once upon a time there was a large empire called Koros, named after the capital city, the planet Koros. There are many more planets with long histories, like Taiton.

- It's a Jedi planet," Shia smiled.

- It's been abandoned for a long time, just like the rest of the sector. But we'll see what we can learn from this sector.

- I wondered how we could really legalize mining. This is a complicated legal problem - you need a license to mine, moreover, permission from the authorities. Mining outside the country is also done, but illegally and what is mined is smuggled in, as a rule, in small quantities. The central players of the mining market will not let a potential competitor through, so the laws are optimized so that the probability of accidental market distortion due to the discovered deposits is minimized.

- But then it's enough to just buy the sector," Shia replied after thinking about it.

- I was thinking the same thing. Unfortunately, there was nothing of value in the holonet in my case.

Julian came into my cabin just then.

- Hello... oh, Shia, hello to you too!" both smiled heartily, "how's it going?

- With a squeak, - I honestly admitted, - there are only a few precedents, there are more cases when people like us were just quietly slapped in a dark corner, or suspended from business with the help of economic pressure ...

- Yeah... you were right, money is not only good, but also dangerous.

- Depends on the money," I glanced at Shiay, who had climbed onto my bed as we talked, "the sector itself is a dead zone, but it's still under the jurisdiction of the Republic. That's encouraging-if I can convince certain individuals that they can use me to suck in to the resources of the core, their loyalty is assured.

- And you'd trust resources to just anyone? - That's a lot of money, Julian wondered.

- It's okay. I have everything under control. The main thing now is to do the right thing in time and preventively protect ourselves from attempts to harm us through the law. I don't have the slightest chance of signing over my property to myself as Anakin Skywalker, an ordinary citizen, but here's the trick...

- Well? - Julian sat down on the bed next to Shia, and I turned with my chair toward the audience:

- You don't have to buy or privatize property... you can just declare yourself the next Emperor of the Coros Empire. That would be much harder to challenge, since all the emperors have been dead for a long time.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa," Julian raised his hands, "Koros has long been uninhabited, we've been there. The Empire is dead.

- No it isn't, my friend. The Empire can cease to exist with either physical or political destruction. But the planets are still there, and they are livable, and no one has conquered the system and no one has declared themselves the next emperor. The laws of the republic do not interfere with us, they do not regulate the internal order of the empire, and the constitution allows becoming a monarch, provided the majority of the aristocracy is not opposed. That is, they will either abstain or vote in favor, or...

- Or if there isn't any at all..." Julian finished for me, smiling at once, "It's an excellent plan. Only you didn't count on something, you're not recognized by the Republican government. They don't want such a powerful competitor in Coruscant. Unless, of course, you don't know any chancellors, then... alas, anyone can declare themselves king, but it's all about recognition by the Republic. If they recognize you, you're king. If they don't, you're a laughing stock...

- "I know a chancellor, Finis Valorum, he owes me a lot," I said in response to his snide remark. I have no leverage on him to pay the debt, but I can ask him to draw up some documents. Especially since I am loyal to him, and if anything, I will help in any way I can...

Ju shook his head:

- You're not lying?

- I'll be a bastard. But it's going to cause us a lot more problems. Mostly for me, if you don't help...

- I'll help in any way I can," Ju said immediately.

- That's the thing, you need managers and bureaucrats, managers, and so on. No, if you want to help, I can find you a job that's interesting and important, but key positions require specific experience and perseverance...

Julian saddened a little, ruffled Shia's blond hair, and stood up:

- In that case, you can count on me. If I didn't lie about the Chancellor... then the idea has every chance of coming to fruition. All the legal issues will be that this is an internal matter of the empire, and all the disgruntled can go to the bantha under the tail...

- You got that right," I also rose, "but before we can implement this highly audacious venture, we'll have to fiddle a bit with personnel, managers, technicians, negotiate with allies... I think KMK can help us in this endeavor. After implementing the program, of course...

I said goodbye to Julian and then returned to my room, collapsing on my bed. It was of such a size that Shia sitting on it didn't interfere with my lying down and thinking. The plan, of course, was a mess, and it all rested with Valorum. He does not, of course, have the right to decide who and how will be emperor, but the attitude of the republic depends on it. And from an economic point of view, that's it - without integration into the republican economy, I have no chance of selling goods, so the sector without the republic as a seller without a buyer - nowhere and nowhere at all.

Slowly I was overcome by sleep.

In the morning, I found myself asleep in my clothes, and even more so, with Shia curled up next to me, snoring in his sleep. Four hours of sleep was enough for me, but it was too little for him, so I didn't wake the baby and left the room myself. Everyone was asleep - it was five o'clock in the morning, according to the ship's time. Only the men on duty stood by the bridge. The barque was still pulling ore from the surface - the captain had turned the ship so that from the main porthole, aka the windshield, one could see how the barque was working. An impressive crater had formed beneath it, and the ore was rising in a thin trickle, where it was already being melted. The ship was a hump - a big hemispherical hump of a cargo hold, wedged into a relatively small ship, corvette class, no more. It would have been possible to use the yacht's holds, but that was unnecessary - there was enough money for the first time as it was.

* * *

The spoils were over by the fourth week. The barque loaded the entire hold with small sand, faintly glowing in the dark. Singing steel, in addition to its characteristics, was a very aesthetic material, so it found use in jewelry, trimmings, ceremonial objects, and as parts of clothing. It was simply beautiful. The steel glowed with a faint white, inner light, shimmering as sand, like sparkling snow in the winter sun. The barque's hold was full - three thousand tons, just like the passport. Julian and I looked at the loot and smiled as we picked up the scarce metal above the roof. It could have been a lost cause. In order not to stumble at the start, I had to plan the right course of action - first we sell the metal to KMK, quietly, without revealing the mining site, then fly to Coruscant, where I try to talk to the chancellor about Koros. I've already tried to find the right words to convince the chancellor to help, and all that's left is to work and work and work.

The way back seemed to be even easier - we were flying along the established route, and I was only correcting the flight, not looking for the way, like a blind man on a minefield. We stepped out into the Coruscant system and after thirty seconds turned on the navicomputer we flew to Correlia. During the flight, I slept in, talked to Shia and Julian, got dressed, and got ready to negotiate. The officials are already known to me.

I certainly like Correlia, after all. Something so elusive. It looks not like an alien planet, but like Earth, the local concepts are quite Earth-like, the architecture is futuristic, but of Earth-type, without the alien exoticism, and the legislation seems not Earth-like. It is a beautiful planet.

The yacht landed in Correlia's spaceport, right where it was before. It's hard to park such a giant yacht anywhere. As soon as we landed, I gathered all the necessary paperwork, adjusted my business clothes, classic Corellian, and immediately went up to the bridge.

Cal, as expected, was upstairs, keeping watch. He generally spent most of his time either on the bridge or in the hangar.

- Mr. Skywalker? - he stood up as soon as I came in.

- At ease. Not in the army. So, Cal, I'm betting that flying to the Sith on the horns, with no guarantee of return, the crew was mentally exhausted and tired. You don't have to answer that, it's rhetorical. I can see the mood of the crew. That's why we'll take off as soon as the barge is unloaded, and that's at least until tomorrow night. In the meantime, we'll give everyone the day off.

I handed the captain a card, with the words:

- "Here's five hundred thousand credits. Give it to the crew, let them have a good rest today and buy everything they want.

- Aye!" the captain stretched out in the old army habit and took the money.

The crew was taken care of, the captain was not allowed to say a word, now it was possible to go into business himself. The flight to the office of KMK was not memorable - all my thoughts were occupied with the upcoming negotiations.

I went into the company's office completely out of my mind and calmed down.

- I'm looking for Mr. Lort, - I told the secretary, - room A-28.

- What is it about? - She asked me, without even looking at me.

- The contract.

- What is your name? Do you have an appointment?

- No, alas," I sighed, "I've just arrived. I have a considerable amount of goods in my hands, which I'm sure will be of interest to your company.

- One moment... - the secretary called the manager and after talking to him she turned to me:

- What is your last name? How much is the contract for?

- My last name is Skywalker. Remind Mr. Lort that we made a contract with him to mine Beskar on Mandalore...

- Yes, yes..." The receptionist immediately sent the information over the communicator and Lort asked her to let me through.

Just like that, without a hitch. I remembered the way to my office-the fourteenth floor...

It was even déjà vu, as if nothing had changed here at all. This time I was already familiar with Lort, so I entered without any excitement. A normal manager.

He was sitting at his desk, fiddling with papers, but just for show. Lort looked up at me:

- Excuse me? Is there something you want?

- Exactly. Never mind my appearance, Mr. Lort, the galaxy is full of wonders, even more so for travelers...

- Skywalker? - he recognized me, and his face stretched in surprise," I thought you were dead... though yes, you are.

- I am," I grinned, "I remember a while ago we signed a contract to mine Beskar...

- Yes, yes, you bargained for a long time," he grinned, "I remember.

- But I don't remember that," I smiled back, "I set a fixed price and you didn't bargain, you signed the contract straight away...

- Exactly, - the manager nodded with relief, - so it's definitely you. And with what this time? I remember that the last time you were quite a good set-up for the company...

- The Mandalorians are a hard people, not to be trifled with. But even so, they put on a show for the whole galaxy.

- Yes," sighed Lort, "a member of the Board of Directors died.

- And my beloved," I reminded him, "unfortunately, we were too pushy anyway, and we paid the price for our greed.

- I'm sorry," the manager said, not pretending to be sad, "but judging from the fact that I have you again, you have not left your business?

- No, of course not. Only this time I will approach the matter with the utmost caution and safety net from ill-wishers. I have a product you might be interested in...

- Yes, yes," the manager leaned forward, adjusting to the business attitude, "what do you have?

- Singing steel. Three thousand tons.

- How much? - The manager was astonished.

- Three thousand tons," I repeated, "exactly three thousand tons of singing steel. As you understand, so far I can't tell you where I got it or where I got it. Security considerations.

- Yes, I understand," nodded the manager, "we do not care, to be honest. Do you have the goods in your hands?

- There's a barge full of it in the spaceport. But this is not an isolated case of our cooperation, if everything goes well, then perhaps we can expand our cooperation.

- As I understand it, it's premature? - Lort asked.

- No, absolutely. Besides, I have some legal matters to take care of. Will you take the metal?

- Sure," he nodded. "You won't charge me much this time, will you?

- I didn't charge you much last time either," I disagreed, "the privilege of getting Beskar bypassing MandalMotors isn't cheap anymore.

- I agree," Lort replied after a moment's hesitation, "let's not talk about the past. Three thousand tons..." he gave a price estimate on his datapad, then said:

- Five billion. That's a little below market price, but considering the bulk supply and the unknown deposit... it's a fair price.

- I agree," I nodded without haggling, "the price is quite acceptable, given the deposit and the experience of our past cooperation.

Actually, I had a different reason. Obviously, bringing all the metal found on that planet to market would lead to a reduction in price, so the price was well within the level for future deliveries. Legalizing, again, there was no way I could do that without support among the bureaucrats and connections, and I didn't have any. So this time I had a small choice of buyers - KMK, Kuat, Blas-Tek, a couple more armor and weapons companies... that's about it, among those willing to buy and pay for three thousand tons...

- I'll need a few minutes to draw up a contract," the manager took time out. I nodded and did not interrupt him. Fortunately, it was enough to enter only names and other variables - the contract was standard...

I had to read it over carefully a couple of times before I signed it. Surprisingly, they didn't try to cheat me. If you consider the price a little below market, someone, like Lort, would get a good kick out of it.

I was on my way back with a team from KMK. They took a barque for me to sign, and after looking at the cargo, they took it away to unload it. I had to fly with them to control the unloading, so they wouldn't steal the goods. It took them only an hour to unload the cargo, and when they opened the hatches, the barge poured all the metal sand into a big tank. After weighing and counting everything, we signed the papers once again, saying that the unloading was done, and they gave me back my barge. The clerk handed me a card in a sealed envelope, which I immediately printed and checked the amount. Everything was accurate. After signing the final document, we parted ways. I now had five billion and a little more in my hands. The money, of course, was impressive for an ordinary citizen, but... my ambitions stretched much further.

Now there was funding for further accomplishments. In a good mood I returned to almost empty yacht and went to bed.

In the morning the battered crew returned to their places. Outwardly everything looked civilized, but I felt that after such a rest I should take a sick leave. More than half of them suffered from a hangover, others, judging by their faces, recollected their nightly adventures in the local brothels. Fortunately, no one had to be rescued from the police-the Mandalorians were the kind of gang the police would be afraid to mess with.

I went out in the morning for the traditional Mandalorian formation, which the captain held in the hangar, and I had time to examine the crew. The captain was arranging them as in the navy, and everyone was standing at attention. Having finished with the traditions, the captain dismissed them in their places and came up to me:

- "Good morning, Mr. Skywalker.

- Good morning to you, too, Kal. I see the crew had a good time. We leave in twelve hours- I need to get ready for the next rendezvous, and the crew needs to rest after yesterday and get in the mood for work. One day off a month is not enough.

- Aye! - the captain called his bluff, will there be any more instructions?

- Not yet, till... - I looked at my watch, - till sixteen zero zero ship time everybody is free. Departure at seventeen zero zero.

I really needed to fly, get my appearance in order, and get a new shuttle - the Kappa was a timeless classic, but it was not well suited for business flights, too utilitarian and practical. At the same time I was going to sell the Corona yacht in the hangar. The one that had killed Alessia, the one I had time-traveled in. She was a reminder of a not-so-great past-the two women I had loved, and with whom fate had separated me...

The yacht was wonderful, but in its used state it was worth about five million, that is half of what it was originally. At first I didn't want to sell it, I thought I would keep it as a memento, but as time passed and every time I came across it in the hangar I remember the time I spent with Alessia and Tosya, and this doesn't make me feel any better. On the contrary. So I thought it best to get rid of unnecessary memories. I still have good things to remember, like Alderaan and Shia. Especially Shia. Therefore, it was better to get rid of the old boat, especially severely damaged by enemy fire and four years of downtime.

Accordingly, I made my plans known to Erdwah and took only him. I did not tell Julian - he would have asked me to sell the yacht to him, I know him, he would have, and my aim was still to get rid of the yacht for good, so as not to see her again. Only I haven't told that to anyone - there's no reason to show my sentimentality. Only Erdva knows about all my adventures, so he can be trusted. Especially since his anti-hacker protection was about the best possible.

The shuttles had their own specifics. The Kappa didn't fit the standard of a small ship's shuttle - it was stocky, wide, and low. What made the hangar special was that it had a decent height - on my boat the hangar was between five and ten meters high. Ships vary in size, and the hangar must accommodate not only a swarm of small ships, but also one large ship if needed. Therefore, the height was calculated with a reserve. The hangar on the yacht was enlarged compared to how it was before the alteration - the engineers could not expand it, so they made another deck, like on aircraft carriers, where shuttles and ships descended on special elevators. Because of this design, as well as storing almost everything in the hangar on the lower, "technical" deck, the hangar itself was free. Only my yacht and the kappa were upstairs. Because of the high hangar ceilings, the shuttle configuration was made as suitable as possible for storage in the hangar - the wings, into which almost all the systems were placed, could be folded upward. This allowed the internal space of the shuttle to be much freer, especially in comparison with the freighters, where all the systems were hidden inside the hull and, accordingly, the interior was a hold and cabins connected by corridors, and part of the space was given to the ship's systems. The shuttles had no such thing - the entire hull was one big cabin or hold, as well as the pilot's cabin.

The largest flea market of new and old ships in the galaxy was on Correlia--a sector the Correlians often left their world and lived in space like gypsies for some reason. The market was also appropriate - a large area, several dozen kilometers long, littered with ships of all sizes - from small shuttles to large corvettes. No more were allowed in, there was a market for those. I flew my Corona to the market, parked it in a vacant spot, and went to the resellers.

At first they would not take it - they said it was expensive and everything... Of course the trimming alone cost several millions, to say nothing of the handmade construction of nearly all components and the unique configuration of the equipment. But with difficulty I managed to buy the boat for five million credits. Immediately we signed where necessary, and I went in search of a shuttle.

The most mass-produced, as you can easily guess, were the Kappa. There was an overabundance of them, and they lost sight of the rest. What was there to see? By the way, almost any well-to-do system could produce shuttles, so there were over two hundred manufacturers in the galaxy. Most, in my opinion, were artisanal. I skipped them at once. Since I went exclusively in the sector with new ships, I wasn't afraid of missing out - there was a series behind every shuttle. And it was much less than the sector with the used ships, because they were not exhibited all of them, but only the demonstration models. The sector with the new ships was located in a large hangar. It was not, of course, the polished Alderaan showroom of private yachts, but a strictly utilitarian place of sale, not for aristocrats, but for local, Corellian people. With all that entails.

An old acquaintance, the T3L-Lambda shuttlecraft, caught my attention separately. It was actively used in the imperial fleet, which means it's probably not a dud, given the imperial requirements. Every manufacturer could make a single characteristic to the maximum, but it was necessary to evaluate the overall quality rather than individual characteristics. And lambda was probably the best option. The info-file had specifications - third-class hyperdrive, eight hundred and fifty kilometers in the atmosphere, two pilots in the crew, eighty tons of payload and a price of three hundred thousand... produced by the RAF.

While I climbed the shuttle, Erdva obediently stood in front of the goods and waited for the result.

Since I only needed one shuttle, I approached the salesman, an unassuming young man sitting near the goods and lazily looking at potential customers.

- May I see you?

- Yes," he got up, showing me that he was tired of the job and didn't want to see me, so I nodded at the shuttle, "would you sell these two?

- Why not? - he shrugged, - does the price suit you? Components?

- Passenger, eight seats.

- Well, well..." he looked at his datapad and after a minute looked at me, "where shall I deliver it to?

- Spaceport, parking lot... Erdva?

- 111th place.

- Oh, just a moment," the young man ran his fingers over the screen of the datapad, and then looked at me and said:

- "I'll have it delivered to you. Payment is in place, inspection too. Anything else?

- No, no," I left the young man sitting there, poking at the datapad. At that price, it's no wonder he didn't have many customers-Correlia is not a good place to sell expensive shuttles. The kappas were a hit, with their price of thirty thousand... But what can you do - surplus production. The shuttles themselves, as a rule, were much more maneuverable than their older brothers - freighters, and were equipped with more powerful engines - after all, their task was to quickly deliver passengers and cargo at close distances. And the features of the design required a more complex structure, compact systems, and good protection.

The rest of the trip was not so productive. I was interested in different models of vehicles. My old speeder, which I had assembled from a Sith interceptor, had not stood the test of time and had fallen into complete disrepair. Sadly. After wandering around the market for a while, I came upon a cluster of small vehicles - aero-spiders, speeders, and the like. The assortment here was richer than I had imagined - there were at least a hundred models of aero-spiders alone, not counting the usual landspiders...

I only stopped when I got to the PT6 model. It looked like a pretty unremarkable speeder, but it wasn't the gray mouse of the market. The powerful base, the two engines along it half the length of the speeder, and the protruding cockpit were all protected by dural-steel armor a finger thick and the systems duplicated. The engines were obviously overpowered - it didn't look like a supersonic speeder. What was interesting about this Spider was that while the normal speeders had jet or ion engines, with their round nozzles sticking out to the back, the outside of the engine was a thin panel across the hull, divided into dozens of square sectors. Each segment was powered by its own fuel tube, and a power conduit in the form of a thick cable. With a hull length of five meters and a width of two and a half, there wasn't much room for passengers, though the cabin was comfortable. It was being sold, as were several others, by a not-young man, who immediately approached me:

- Good afternoon. Interested?

- Just making a price. How much is the speeder?

- A hundred thousand," the man answered immediately, "an aerospider based on the speeder 'Guardian', armored, most of the systems duplicated...

- Is there a slot for the astrodroid?

- Inside the case," the salesman answered immediately, "for the R2 series.

- In that case I'll take three of them," I nodded.

I rode back in the speeder. Fortunately, I didn't have to register it anywhere, I was leaving the planet anyway. The other speeders, as well as the shuttles, promised to deliver to the address within two hours.

I took one of the speeders just to experiment with the duplicator. I could not create one from scratch, but with the proper technical know-how, it should not be difficult to modify. The hangar accepted me, after which I climbed out and waited in it for the shuttles. They arrived, along with the speeders, in half an hour. Surely the orders must have been placed with the same office, so they shipped together. During this time I got out of the speeder and had time to examine it from all sides and in every detail - inside there was a classic, automobile layout - two seats in the front, two in the back. What I first thought were the engines on the sides were just the trunks. Apparently, for greater passenger safety.

The first thing that came to mind - instead of armor made of dural steel, quite powerful, but also heavy, install armor made of a lighter alloy. For example, singing steel, only the luminous speeder would be an excellent target - to remove the luminescence in the singing steel would have to add other metals. Actually, there was no problem with that - the steel itself was more than enough. This armor could withstand a long burst of laser cannon fire or a fighter's fire from all the guns without penetration. Not the kind of thing that would happen on Mandalore, and that's the kind of protection that doesn't even take into account the pretty powerful shields.

When the lambdas with airspeeders flew up to the cruiser, the captain contacted me.

The goods flew into the hangar - the technicians on duty in the hangar immediately accepted them, and in the shuttles themselves came the couriers, with whom I signed the purchase documents and handed over the money to them.

The captain went down to the hangar to see in person what I had brought with me, and the XO and even the navigator-navigator were with him. The whole trio turned to me as the courier flew away.

- Mr. Skywalker? - The captain asked, questioningly," Why do we need the lambda?

- The kappa is nice, but not suitable for business flights at all. Clearly an army and utility shuttle, not a passenger shuttle. That's why I took two Lambda's, one mine, the other ship's, that is in your jurisdiction...

The captain nodded in agreement:

- That's right. Where are we going?

- Coruscant. I'm going to see someone I know. Erdva," I turned to the droid, "before we leave, book a suite at the 500th house on Republic.

- Got it. Just a minute..." The droid booted up, and I rode my elevator up to my apartment. Shia and his teachers were waiting for me there.

I devoted the rest of the time before I left to my son, and we learned to assemble a lightsaber together. Unfortunately, Shia wasn't an architect, so he hadn't inherited my abilities - his strength was crude - but I remembered how well precise work develops abilities, so I took him to assembling and disassembling the lightsabers, of which I had more than enough from the previous owners of the cruiser. And Shia was very enthusiastic about the idea of working on weapons. Just like any other boy of his age.