23 Fencing

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20+ chapter ahead. -----------------------------------------------

- Remember, Rein," Dzik said, fiddling with the droid's insides, "never put a full load on a distributor. It's better to put another one in the droid than risk distributing power. I'm not saying it's just risky. One short circuit and the droid won't wake up. Even in my R3 I put another one in, even though it has one of the best distributors. What R2 is good at, among other things, is just the two distributors.

- But if it's that bad, those same distributors must be very reliable.

- They are," nodded the big man. - But as they say, the Force will take care of you.

It was only a week before my birthday, and since it wasn't a custom at the Order to celebrate it, I thought I'd make a present for myself. And you've probably already figured out what it was. That's right: a droid. But not a purchased one, but one assembled by my own hand. Okay, even if not completely by my own hand, but with my direct participation, that's for sure. Why do I need a droid, you ask? No reason. Can I have a toy?

I decided to make R2 the basis for the droid. Yeah, I'm not very imaginative. But the little squeaky vacuum cleaner with the R2 series droid loyalty matrix will cheer me up every day. Better than these protocol droids, which would be like spitting in my mouth to change their masters. They're certainly useful, but... I don't want a droid with human speech. I want a pet. Bane, the darling, stayed on his home planet, and the local animals aren't pets.

At this moment, Dzik was fiddling with the base of my future pet, which was just a frame with only a few parts fitted inside. And why he was talking about distributors, which are installed at the end of the assembly, I personally did not understand.

- And why were you talking about switchboards? - I couldn't help my curiosity.

- A lot depends on their number. For example... Come here," he waved his hand, beckoning me closer. - Look. If there's only one distributor, then about here," he pointed to an empty space inside the droid's frame, "the controlling block of sensors will be installed. But since we'll have two of them, in fact, this entire section," he showed another circular rotation of his hand, "will be displaced here. This is all just for the sake of example. In fact, there are a lot of nuances. From the number and composition of the components themselves, to the number of power leads. And that's just the meat, so to speak. Yes... - The man sighed. - When I think how much I have to teach you..." He shook his head. - He shook his head.

- Dzik.... If it bothers you that much...

- What? No! No,no,no. I'm just a technician. Not a teacher. Every time I'm afraid of not telling you something. And I don't know which sequence to do it in.

- Just tell me what you're doing, and then I'll figure it out. I have books that I don't forget to read.

- Books? Books are good," smiled the technician. - All right, kid," he patted my head, "we'll manage it. - He got up from his squat, and stretched himself. - That's enough for today. Tomorrow the last parts will be delivered, and then we'll continue. You could say we're done with the preparations for assembly. You'll have a droid just as good as mine. It'll be a bit pricey, though.

- What about the Order's discount? - I asked.

- It certainly helped us, but it's going to cost you more to maintain and repair than you usually do.

- Never mind," I said. - Not a fighter, you know.

- That's true. In any case, you don't care. It'll be here, which means it'll be free for you personally," he grinned toward the end.

When I returned to my room, I found Ahsoka there, sprawled out on MY bed, practicing her telekinesis with MY datapad.

- You've completely lost your fear, you horny one.

- Oh," she dropped the datapad on her stomach.

- What took you so long? - They were all over me. Didn't even bother to get up.

- Ahsoka. You've got some nerve.

- Pfft," she snorted, getting out of bed. - Come on, let's go fart around. I'll show you a new trick. I'm sure you'll come right off," she said in a lordly tone.

- "Stiletto," I called her for the first time with a nickname from my world, "it's time you realized that I don't go right away.

- You've got to stop making up nicknames for me! - She exclaimed indignantly.

- Or else what? - I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

- What? Well... I'll think of something for you, too.

- I don't care if it's ten times.

- Yeah? Well, great... then... it's...

- You'll think of something later. Let's go now, I suddenly feel like fencing with you.

- A... well... - she finished uncertainly.

- Are you with us, boys?

The guys agreed. All except Jiro. He'd been reading some textbook on the psychology of races he'd found in the Archive for two days.

- Just don't get into a real fight," he admonished us. Diplomat, my ass. Have I ever let anything like that happen?

I went into the hall and grabbed the first training sword I could find, and went to the nearest court to wait for Ahsoka. She, apparently, for lack of outfits, as a true lady always allocates time to choose a sword, although they are as if the same, and what there is to choose, I personally do not understand.

- What are you waiting for? - I turned to the boys. - Grab a sword and go practice BP.

So it was all right for the lads to have combat anticipation, for kids. But they needed something to occupy them.

- So Ahsoka... see for yourself," Sam mumbled. - Until she chooses one, she won't let the others either.

Yeah. I reached through the Force for the hilt of his swords and grabbed the first three.

- Hey," Tano called out, catching one of the swords with her hand. - What are you doing? I haven't chosen yet!

I'm not paying attention," Tano said, and picked up another of her swords.

- Here," I lowered the hilt into the boys' hands. - Would you take the helmets and the droids yourselves? - After glancing around the boys, I looked at Ahsoka. - How long will I wait?

She still hadn't changed her grip, coming toward me with the one she'd grabbed from me. And she came up, being rather annoyed.

- Get ready, boy. I'm going to beat the shit out of you.

- Come on," I activated my sword.

- Hold on

Then I was hit with a hail of blows, not so much a hail of blows, but quite a lot of them. The girl's speed was, as usual, excellent. Her blue blade flashed beside me with a distinctive buzz, but she couldn't penetrate my defenses. I didn't know any more than she did in the Form itself, but she didn't hide her blows in the Force, either. A technically simple trick, but quite difficult to perform. She hadn't been very good at it before, but now, when she was really annoyed, she was actually telling me where she was going to hit. Usually in fencing, as well as in deflecting blaster shots, you can only feel where your opponent is going to hit, but it's hard to know what kind of blow it will be. Even if your opponent isn't hiding it. For example, you can feel that the next blow will be to the chest. But is it from above, from below, from the side, or a straight jab? All in all, if it were that simple, a sword fight would be like the one Vader and Kenobi fought on the first Death Star. Minimal swordsmanship, maximum foresight. In reality, it's like the same personalities, only on that volcanic planet I can't remember the name of. Strength, agility, speed, knowledge, tactics and a little BP. That's if you keep it simple.

Ahsoka, on the other hand, wasn't showing any of that right now. Except for the speed. And even more - whether I'm so awesome at BP or she's overexcited, heh, but like I said, I could almost see where and most importantly how she would hit next. Ha, and someone else is going to tell me that sith are letting their emotions run wild? Using, yes, maybe, but giving free rein? If they did, they would have ceased to exist long ago.

- Calm down," I said, diverting another blow from the girl. - You're too annoyed. Get your punches in order. See your adversary at last.

Blow, blow, one more. Block my punch, and attack again.

- You're wasting your strength," I went on. - You can't see where you're hitting, how you're hitting, why you're hitting," I went on with my bullshit. It's all about a steady voice, a measured tempo. She needs to calm down. Start calculating her actions. "Hide," I said. She took my blow, didn't even fully retract it, and then lunged at me again. - You're in too much of a hurry," I said, stabbing her in the shoulder. Which she didn't pay much attention to. - You're not even watching my blade. - A hard block of her lunge, a soft deflection, and another past punch. This time on her right thigh. - And you're beginning to annoy me. - No wonder they didn't want her as a Padawan.

Block, right step up, left leg kick. Block, punch, withdrawal and a jab to the heart. When are you going to wake up? Punch, punch, block, punch to the armed hand. Classic Cho Mai. If I didn't have a training lightsaber in my hand, Ahsoka would have seen what it was like for Luke Skywalker when Vader used So Tea on him in Cloud City. As it was, all she did was drop the hilt of the training lightsaber. And froze.

- You toggrats are brutes," I said, breaking the silence. - You've got to start fighting your instincts. Do you remember the second half of the match at all?

- No," she answered faintly.

"I don't... ...shithead.

- Calm yourself," I waved at the training droids with a sigh. - Go fight off the shots.

- Rayne...

- Don't whine. It's all right. Go on, now. Calm down, focus, and come back.

"Yeah," I rubbed my forehead. - "That's something to think about."

The time until my birthday, when Dzik and I hoped to finish assembling the droid, seemed to be dragging too slowly. I'd almost stopped going out at night to train alone. It happened, of course, but only twice in the last week. The rest of the time I was accompanied by little ones, who, to be perfectly honest, didn't get in the way much. And in some ways they even helped me. For example, it was while explaining to the children how to absorb energy that I realized, or rather realized, that I absorbed energy not with my body, but with a field formed by the Force, which I had not paid attention to before. If you sit down and think about it, that's how it is, but I was psychologically more comfortable doing it through touch. Accordingly, I subconsciously reduced the thickness of the field to a minimum. If I increased its volume, I would be able to absorb energy at a small distance. Moreover, the density of the field does not decrease with distance, i.e. if before it was a thin foil, now... exactly the same foil, but five centimeters thick. So now it's not even foil, per se. And you know what it all came down to? I finally absorbed the training droid's shots. But not at the expense of the absorption rate, but at the expense of the density of the field. The charge simply had no time to pass through it.