Two Successful Provocations

My return to Alderaan was marked by a miniature scandal.

It turned out that I'd been too busy with my own affairs to give Alessia the time she needed. Or rather, I'd forgotten to give Ali enough time. The communication that I had originally set out to be quite dense had become sporadic, and there were days when I saw Ali only at the academy and communicated only in a few phrases. It is understandable that at first the good girl let me off the hook and silently went to her room. But her nerves, as it turned out, are not iron. She was not willing to endure indefinitely.

After leaving my boat and paying for parking, I returned to my dorm, where the girl was already waiting for me, and in my room.

- At least you warned me this time," the girl frowned as soon as I entered the room. Erdva was flying over my shoulder, so he was listening to the conversation.

- Hello to you, too, Ali. How's it going in here? - I asked, dropping the small bag off my shoulder.

- I'm fine," the girl turned away and said nothing more. Strangely, I felt a pang of guilt.

- Well, don't be offended, okay? - I came closer to her. - I promise that I won't disappear for a long time, I guess.

- That's not the point! - The girl was indignant, but immediately shut up and looked away. Though I caught the emotion, so we had no problem understanding each other.

I only had to pause, to think what exactly I did so wrong. It turned out, the girl was offended. Maybe, by herself, or maybe she was reminded by her "friends" that she suddenly started to see me less often.

- Well, I'm sorry, okay? - I asked, not knowing what I was sorry for, but with girls it's always like this - you can't figure out what I was guilty of.

- I'm sorry," the kind Miraluka immediately gave in, "but you will spend more time with me! - she declared uncompromisingly and turned in my direction, though it didn't really matter to her.

- All right, all right, Ali, tonight," I said.

- Today I'm busy," she smiled, "but tomorrow, don't be bored! - Alessia said as menacingly as she could.

After escorting Ali out of my room, I finally dumped everything in the closet and fell on the bed. But I didn't get much sleep-thinking about how stuck I really was in business. And I had just started serious business, already short on time.

The demands of Mandalore and studying were really taking up too much of my time.

I had to take advantage of the free time to make a reservation for tomorrow. And today, after getting out of bed, I decided to go to the same shopkeeper, where I had been before the flight. I quickly changed into the local discreet clothes and flew to the electronics market. Erdva was delighted - I decided to make some modifications to it after all. In the future, my iron friend was going to be rather hard-used and difficult to work with. In order to live up to its status as the iron friend of smugglers, millionaires, and the chosen one, the droid will have to be heavily overhauled.

Because shopping and other psychology of consumption were relatively foreign to me, I approached the question of modifying the droid thoroughly, and became a headache for the sellers, who wanted to quickly sell the goods. I was a headache for the sellers who wanted to sell me goods in a hurry.

A relatively honest merchant - a creature, it would seem, elusive, but not impossible - I managed to find and, having bought a bunch of parts, along with a new reactor, a shield generator and the best sets of tools and electronics, suitable for the R2 series, I bowed to the sellers and went to the dorm - to pump my droid. At first this might seem like a completely useless exercise, but Erdva was important as a prototype - in the future I planned to greatly expand the functionality and space on my ship and the droids of this series - they turned out too well. The toolkit of the standard droid series was as versatile as possible. These short ones were a peculiar phenomenon of droid-building - no revolutionary technical solutions, no bold experiments - they could not boast of anything separate, but their creator was definitely a mad genius who balanced all R2 series functions so that they were truly versatile, and this balance was a rare, one might even say unique phenomenon. Usually droids are highly specialized - sharpened like an ant colony, each for its own tasks. But Erdva overcame the fate of mortals... that's from another playbook... R2s could work with ships of all forms-factors - small fighters, light transports, large ships, and mine was once connected to a Death Star. Really impressive versatility, although on the simplest of estimates it would have been worth it for the Emperor to build separate droids for his toy and make its comps incompatible with regular droids. At least for security reasons.

You won't believe it, all the computers in the galaxy ran on.... Triple logic. Yeah, yeah, no "0101110", just ternary logic. Binary logic was the most archaic kind, used by very few people.

Erdv's standard toolkit was two manipulators, a welder, a circular saw, a fire extinguisher, and a small cargo bay. Since mine had a built-in jetpack, it didn't need a maneuvering engine for space, but I pulled out the bulky rocket structure and drained the fuel from it - I'll take it to a flea market later, since Erdva flew exclusively on repulsors and didn't use rocket engines. Because I was designing a prototype for future droids, which I was going to order for the cruiser in the amount of more than a thousand pieces, I still inserted maneuvering engines into the Erdva for autonomous movement in space. They looked like small, matchbox-sized photon engines. They would not make the ship go faster, but they were good for moving leisurely from one part of the ship to another.

Yes, I bought almost everything I could fit into the Erdva - it cost me forty thousand, but it's really easier to design this way than on CAD - I used exactly the method of construction by force, which manifested itself in a very... unusual format.

Imagine sitting there, eyes closed, I can see both the droid and the parts by force, and I'm not only fitting one to the other, but also using my intuition. It's as if some parts are just begging for some places - if you ask the force the right question, formulate a wish, then it will help. In this case I was concentrating on creating the perfect droid and, as if a higher power was drawing my attention to certain details and the construction of the droid. In ordinary people this is called "insight", but in Forsuzers it is called intuition. Indeed, I got the impression, or even intuition told me, that such a perfect series of droids was the creation of the same Force Design method. The droids looked too... too right, too balanced and too perfect.

The rocket engine went to the scrap yard, freeing up a lot of space for me inside the hull. The manipulators, the circular saw, the fire extinguisher, and the serial welder went next, exposing to me the hulk of the droid - its reactor. I had to knock out the droid watching my manipulations and continue the operation - to disconnect the reactor and transformer from three thousand contacts with various parts would have taken a normal person in the workshop a whole day, but for me - ten minutes of work with power. Subtle influences were my forte-if the Jedi made a machete out of their power to chop and cut with, my power was a scalpel. In many ways I attributed my abilities to the fact that I had never been trained by the Jedi - they "formatted" Forsuzers to their format, so all Jedi were the same - the combination of independent development and just a bloated connection to the force allowed me to develop something that the Order would definitely never develop simply because their methods were not designed for people like me.

The reactor also went to the pile of old parts-I bought a new one for Erdw, a particularly powerful one, five times more powerful than the usual one. The modification of the droid began with its most important part-the reactor. The new one was expensive, more expensive than the production droid in the series, but the power... plus, I'd done a lot of work on it before I installed it.

After replacing the reactor, I began to install what and how the force told me to - the place of the multi-knee arms was taken by manipulators ala human octopus - long, shower hose-like, flexible arms. Tools were stored in compartments inside and docked with the manipulators. The place of the welder was taken by a small blaster. To be honest, I didn't buy it-illegally, I just stripped out one of my Westar guns and welded the docking part from the very welding machine to it by force. Erdva was thus armed enough to defend himself. Next on the list was the circular saw. To replace it, I made a completely unique tool from the parts I had bought earlier - a light arc projector, that is, a small and thin lightsaber. It took me one crystal and several programmer modules to assemble this miracle, with the help of which Erdva could reduce the light arc to one millimeter if necessary, or increase it to a half-meter length. A meter-thick steel could easily be cut through with such a tool. The thickness of the light arc also varied from one micrometer to three millimeters. I created this tool because I liked the properties of lightsabers too much - they can cut, melt, weld, and, depending on their power, heat almost any part.

When I got my own lightsaber, I supplemented them with the next tool, which I had to create myself from a repulsor - a projector of attracting rays. It was almost identical in construction to the gravity generator, and a bit like the repulsor, so it was quite feasible to convert one into the other. With the projector, Erdva could attract anything up to about thirty kilograms.

Toward the end, the droid got a fire extinguisher that was more efficient than the production one, and I got down to its electronics.

In my earthly life I had to deal with CUDA a couple of times. Without going into technical details, these were very powerful computing modules which were attached to specialized computers and could greatly increase the power of a computer. Something similar existed for droids as well, but the R2 series did not have a stack for inserting such modules, but the architecture allowed for such modules. Here I had to use all my abilities, strength, and knowledge to create the appropriate design elements. The computational module I bought was designed for stationary systems and projector droids, but not for astrodroids, but it fit like a glove.

Since I worked with the projector relatively often, I replaced it with a better one - now the droid could project clear images measuring about two meters. Compared to the standard seventy centimeters, this was a remarkable result.

With all the new gadgets in place, Erdva was set aside. It was past midnight, so I left the disabled droid in the corner of the room and quickly fell asleep.

Since the exam for the year had been passed, I was legally obliged to attend classes only from the beginning of the next course, but in fact I had no right to relax-it was easy to lose the momentum I had taken, so I decided, once I was done with the iron, to continue my studies at the same pace. But first of all, Alessia. You shouldn't be like some particularly zealous businessmen and "marry" your work. I didn't have any hard feelings about it.

Alderaan is the most beautiful place in the galaxy. Okay, I can't speak for the whole galaxy, but for myself, it's the most beautiful planet I've ever seen. The huge beehive palaces of a long-gone race of insectoid Kiliks, who ruled the planet a million years ago, in the slightly purple light of the moon, meadows full of greenery, lakes, animals, and seemingly a corner of pristine nature, it was all unusually beautiful. Especially at night, the lakes reflected the light of the moon, and the appearance of the lakes was extraordinary.

The inhabitants of Alderaan were obsessed with beauty, and it showed in everything from architecture to the most mundane conditions of life.

Under the light of the moon, the majestic palaces of a long-vanished race seemed illogical, inconsistent with humanity, but beautiful works of art in their own way. The evening with the girl was probably the first truly normal, ordinary time in my life - without Mandalorians, Jedi, Tatoons and smuggling. That is, without all the things that distinguished me from the ordinary people of the galaxy. It was worth it to feel like a simple man, not some runaway chosen one who wandered around the galaxy like a loner and, under his blanket, made plans to conquer the universe. It's only two days off, days in which I promised to devote all my attention to Alessia and not to think about business.

Alderaan has many notable places, for the planet's unique nature is truly beautiful in terms of the human sense of aesthetics. One such place has become popular not only because of its beauty, but also because of its unusual location, the surrounding landscape, and the restaurant and hotel complex nestled on... a mountain top.

The top of one of the mountains of a large ridge was simply cut off, so a gigantic platform was formed on which a real palace was placed. It was originally the residence of the first queen of Alderaan, Celestia Riekan, and belonged to her personally. Then, as I read on the local infonet, the palace was given to the next king, another ruling house, Bouris Ulgo, and when the Organa clan defeated and assimilated the Ulgo clan through competition, the palace went to them. The Organa family, being businessmen, decided to move the palace to the capital, and turned the "country residence of the kings" into the most luxurious hotel the galaxy had ever seen. On one side of the hotel was a plateau, mottled with lakes and green grass, and on the other side were the vast palaces of the Kiliks, from the foot of the "royal mountain" to the horizon. The Alderaan complex was three thousand meters above sea level, and from it, in clear weather, one could see all of Alderaan, its suburbs, and the other cities of Alderaan. In a way, I understand the queen; you could see her kingdom like the palm of your hand from here.

It's worth mentioning the contingent. On the one hand, if the prices were too high, the Organs would lose customers, but letting just anyone into the Alderaan would be a verdict on the reputation of the ruling house and the planet. And what about - the holy of holies of the Alderaan monarchy! So our Organa's business plan was quite cunning - the place was designated as a cultural treasure and, at the same time, transformed from a residence into a restaurant and hotel. The cost of staying there was exorbitant, but. But - all the income from the Authority's guests was given to the budget, and they took the income from the services for themselves. I've seen such a scheme on the ground - Pullman trains, where the ticket price is the usual, but on top of it a bunch of services that cost very different money. And yet it brings income!

Two days in "Alderaan" with breakfasts, lunches and dinners, a short excursion, visits to the baths and entertainment in the form of training in the classic Alderaan style of painting, learning the history of the Kiliks, which the Alderaans painstakingly restore in bits and pieces, here for all this I had to pay four hundred twenty thousand credits. By comparison, the cost of living for five years at the academy I paid one hundred thousand.

This pricing policy focused the institution exclusively on the galactic oligarchs and aristocrats - there were billions of them both in the galaxy, and the "Alderaan" did not suffer a lack of customers. Guests of the royal house, kings of other planets and systems, financial tycoons, senators, and the like stayed here.

The view from the palace windows was truly mesmerizing.

In front of us, the waiter placed masterpieces of the local culinary arts. Alessia knew that I had quite a lot of money after Mandalore, but she did not know the taste of that very money, though I understood that her family did not suffer from a lack of funds.

Even though Ali didn't see all the delights of the planet, her black-and-white vision was also quite good at conveying the beauty of the planet and the palace. Still, she felt out of place at first - it was all too... aristocratic. There were no droids in the service, only technicians, and those were not visible - only live attendants, which was very unusual by the standards of the robotic galaxy. However, the attendants knew their job - they were well trained.

Still, Ali was a little more relaxed after a couple of meals, and we went upstairs to the rooms, debating the advisability of my business on Mandalore and the results of the negotiations with Satin. Here was another surprise waiting for Ali. Of course, I had promised her I wouldn't infringe on her maidenhood, but what was to stop me from renting one room for two? Of course, it was a lot more than I had allowed myself before, since there was only one bed in the room. Or rather, one bedroom - sofas, armchairs in three rooms and a private balcony, all amenities attached. It is not necessary to say that the furnishings are emphasized - elite - it seemed to me that the Alderaans with their art in design have tried to the glory. When I showed Ali to our bed, she blushed to the roots of her hair, and was almost offended, although at this point it was the hardest to determine her emotions - there was even fear. It all went away, though, after I solemnly promised her that I wasn't going to do anything like that to her... at least not until she wanted me to. Some of the emotion and fear was gone-apparently the girl thought I was going to have sex with her. However, the rosy hues on her cheeks never left Ali's face. While she was in the shower, I went out to the balcony and spent a wonderful half an hour there - the view of Alderaan, flooded with moonlight, from three thousand meters, was beautiful. I was in a kind of meditation, and the time flew by for me in an instant. It was Ali's hand on my shoulder that pulled me away. I turned around and caught a picture worth spending half a million credits for. Ali, wrapped in two rather narrow towels that gave absolutely no room for imagination. I was right about the theory that frequent use of force affects the body's growth process-Ali looked like a girl of about fourteen by human standards. A slender girl, with pink after a hot shower and smooth skin, a waist thinner than her human counterparts, and pleasantly refined facial features. On her head was a dark bandage made of a material similar to silk, which looked organically on the face of the myraluka. A slight smile on her red lips completed the picture. In the light of the moon Ali looked much sexier than usual, so I came to my senses for a few seconds after the spectacle, though Ali helped me by ruining the charm of the moment:

- Are you going to take a shower?

- Yes, yes," I distracted myself, trying to calm down, and quickly slipped past Miraluka.

If she was unhappy that I was spending little time with her and distancing myself, I decided to demonstrate otherwise. As much as I could, provided the age when it was okay to just have sex had not yet arrived. This had a downside - my teenage-adult psyche was not ready for such an ordeal because, like all teenagers, I had certain desires and, as an adult, knowledge of what those desires were, exactly how to do it, and no unnecessary complexes. So I hopped under a cold shower and stood under the cold water jets until I got cold. I sort of calmed down and turned on the hot water to warm up.

Ten minutes later I was out. Alessia was definitely more cruel to my psyche, as I found a pair of robes in the bathroom, in a prominent place. The hellcat obviously didn't take the robe - she wanted to mess with me, since I had already promised I wouldn't touch her.

If anything, I wasn't alienated by the idea - biologically I was about fourteen, and at that age I was "allowed", meaning it wasn't pedophilia or anything, since puberty had already set in and the hormones were pounding hard in my head, but on the other hand, psychologically I was even older. I'll say nothing about Alessia, since Miraluk mating age starts at fourteen, and from the point of view of humans they were about sixteen at that point due to the constant connection to the force and as a consequence, faster physical development.

I came out of the shower in my robe, without supporting Ali's game, and unlike her, I had nothing to show - my body is hard to call attractive. Not repulsive, more like a normal teenager's carcass, without any noteworthy elements-I hadn't done more fencing than was necessary in peacetime. Except for the Tatooine light tan.

Miraluka had already dressed in her not too modest clothes and climbed into bed. I followed her. Now Ali wouldn't whine that I was alienating her-the girl's emotions were the most positive, but it was impossible to make sense of them. I climbed under the thin blanket and lay down, and there was silence for a while. Ali sensed something, too, but like I said, the girls' emotions were a mystery to me.

- Ani, why did you do that? - she asked, immediately explaining. - Well, the whole thing? I can understand the restaurant, but..." She got really embarrassed and stopped talking.

- I don't know," I shrugged under the covers, and since our hands were touching, she definitely felt it. - I can't always explain my motives for what I do. I just... I just do, that's all. It's an intuition. Or rather the habit of following it without thinking.

- And the results?

- Intuition? It hasn't failed me yet," I shrugged again. Ali thought again, and gradually began to escalate her emotions to the point that I was worried.

- "Ani, what's the point of all this? I understand that you're... well, you're that age, but it must not be very pleasant for you, right?

- Why not?" I smiled. - It's very pleasant. You know," I said, "it's been so hard for me... everything in my life, from when I was a kid to now. I've never even taken a vacation. Time to be a simple man, without much to worry about. Always finding things to do with my head. It's... exhausting.

- So you enjoy being simple? - Ali turned to me. Not so much to see as to have her breasts touch my hand. I sensed the ruse in her emotions, but I didn't react, except that the arousal washed away by the cold shower returned.

- You could say that," I answered, looking at the girl's face.

- Ani... I've been thinking..." she began, very embarrassed, "you don't have to follow your word.

What word were we talking about, I could tell by the emotion-a little determination, fear, shame, and even desire. Yes, it seems that my provocation, designed to show intimacy and to assuage her anxiety to some extent, was successful. It must not be very pleasant for her to lie in bed with her boyfriend and just fall asleep, either.

- Ali, that's out of the question. You're thirteen, I'm even less," I sobered the girl. Tried to sober her up.

- "Ani, who are you kidding? - Ali was indignant. I was afraid for a moment that she'd found out about my second identity as part of the first. But she dispelled my fears. - You know we marry off at fourteen. And if I don't find a boyfriend, they'll marry me off next year. Although they might wait until after I graduate from the academy... but I don't think so.

- Any candidates? - I asked in a businesslike manner about possible competitors. I'd already given myself a vow to sharpen my blinker.

- One so far," Ali smiled, "but don't doubt my mother will find more. She's not likely to consent to marriage to a human. The consequences... could be.

- I'll give her a 'no'," I was immediately indignant. What would some old bag come between me and Ali? That wasn't going to happen.

Ali, meanwhile, moved closer and found my lips with hers. It was an unusually hot kiss, but this time Ali was in no hurry to take the lead in the kiss and rather yielded to me. I eventually submitted to the experience of years of, if not fornication, not the most private life, and rolled over and found myself over the girl, who already had her arms around me. Indeed, it was foolish in my position to complex myself - we are both at an age at which sex is quite real and the desire is, and therefore to hell with the morals of the priests of a distant, far-off planet called Earth! The laws of the galaxy in general on this matter allow the process from the beginning of puberty in any race.

After five minutes of passionate kissing, I pulled off Ali's nightgown and she pulled off my only panties and we continued kissing. We didn't break away until a minute later. The girl immediately asked:

- Ani, what are we doing?

- I guess we don't dare? - I smiled and put my palm on her breasts, which didn't seem to cause any rejection emotionally or physically.

Ali smiled back at me, and we continued a very desirable activity that we hadn't dared to do and hadn't seen the need for before. But, apparently, growing up. Growing up.

In a minute I was already covering Ali's body with kisses, and she was getting even more excited - she was definitely craving more and more already.

I didn't hesitate to torment the girl with expectations - a Jedi shouldn't take pleasure in other people's suffering, even if... hmm... in that sense. But having just started, I had to stop immediately, so that the girl would get used to the foreign body part in herself. I know from past experience, it happens that way. Just before the process began, I caught fear and some pleasure from Alessia, but then the desire to interrupt the process for a while.

That's the beauty of it - the emotions of my young soul part were also rushing over the edge, and I was getting some, quite a bit of pleasure out of it - too... sincerely. Being at least a man of some experience, if not a womanizer and an experienced macho man, I had grown weary of this real emotional storm-the first time. I don't remember mine from a previous life very well. Hormones, alcohol, excitement... in general, I don't remember much, but this time there was nothing that disturbed my perception and I was catching a buzz emotionally as well.

It took me three times. In ten different positions, which was already a lot of variety. Toward the end of the process, Ali and I just collapsed and fell asleep in my arms. Sweaty, hot, tired, but totally happy. And with the same emotions and feelings for each other.

It is one thing for a grown man who can go three or five times in a row, and after that still go with other men to paint a bullet, and quite another thing - two teenagers, though very active, but still, with an immature nervous system. At the end of the process, I felt that I had exhausted myself emotionally and physically - I did not want to think about anything. I fell asleep instantly.

Morning on Alderaan is always a beautiful sight, and it must have been phenomenally beautiful to watch the process of dawn from the mountain, when the horizon is first illuminated by the light refracted by the atmosphere, and then it appears from behind the mountain ranges, majestically painting the Alderaan land under my feet.

I didn't know anything about it, for we woke up close to lunchtime. Ali gave my hand a rest, but I paid no attention to that, but I was glad to wake her up with kisses. Ali woke up eagerly and immediately responded to the kisses, just as she had begun to respond. A minute after she woke up, she was already in the riding position, and thanks to the blanket that had been thrown away yesterday, I could see her in all her glory. In the morning, sex is a classic. We wished each other a good morning and, without talking, we did a "control shot", so that for sure, we wouldn't say that we were stupid. Though I was not going to say so, but I could not help reading Ali's desire to consolidate her success in her emotions, and, judging by the excited state in which she woke up, the girl's dreams were not about pink ponies.

This time Ali was on top, and I only wondered at her enthusiasm.

Finished, with heavy breathing, but now definitely energized for the day, we finally went to shower. Today we had an extensive entertainment program. We were already late for the keel lecture, but it was not too late to learn how to draw. Studying and creating is a favorite pastime of the Alderaans, so it was not unusual for them to offer study as an entertainment program.

After washing up and almost having sex again, we got dressed decently and held hands and went to the local artists' house. Ali definitely reeked a little bit of happiness and total satisfaction after all that had happened, as far as I could tell. I'm with her, I'm not going anywhere, and I'm willing to do a lot for her. What else does a girl need to be happy? Besides, I'm even beginning to be considered as a candidate for marriage. It was... a little different than I was used to, but it didn't hurt my plans in theory, so I didn't disapprove. What was wrong with Ali staying with me after she graduated from the academy?