Chapter 11 – Shopping

Layan didn't know what the council was thinking but to his mind, this interview didn't have a mishap. The green jedis still had a rift between them and the main order, even during the clone wars most of them chose to protect solely Corellia and stay neutral toward this galactic-scale conflict. Except if he threatens Corellia well-being he shouldn't have any problems for the time being.

Leaving the building, Nejaa drove them back to the hotel where Aola and Xiann were waiting for them.

Once reunited with the girls, he took them to the commercial district of Coronet City where the girls could buy whatever they want. Layan would later visit the black market of the capital, the 'Treasure ship row' in the blue sector where he will be able a few things unavailable on the legal market.

They took the maglev train and reached their destination, surrounded by several skyscrapers was a square build on five levels where several shops of all types were located. From food stores to clothing stores to mechanic stores, everything could be found here, in the limit of legality.

The light was everywhere to advertise the shops, several holographic displays were broadcasting the speech of an official, once the speech over, the hologram change to another, a speeder, a few seconds later it was a woman wearing exotic clothing. These holograms were advertising the products here and sometimes breaks happened and the hologram became a purple holographic tree.

The girls hurried to a shop with clothes design shown at the outside, Layan followed them as the girls started to look at the design. Being a high-end shop, technology was here to help the clients, the clothes model was exposed in the shop but clients weren't forced to try it. Scanning devices were used to take the client's measurements to adjust the clothes, and a real size hologram appears after showing the image of the client wearing the product. Trying was just here to test the feeling you have when you wear it.

Everything was customizable, from size to colors, once the product selected the clothes were made in the back shop by droids in a few minutes.

The girls took a few hours to test everything they would like to try. Each of them bought several outfits and Layan too did some purchases, he bought some casual clothes, and something more fit for stealth and his future activity on the field.

It was a black coat made of thick fabric, to go with it he bought a pant and gloves made in the same fabric. He also bought a sturdy pair of black boots. The only different color was a white belt with a few storage compartments.

"you know master, to go with your golden skin tone, you should buy white clothes maybe with black or gold embroidery. It would suit you better."

Lyn was in good mood during this shopping spree and even gave Layan and the girls fashion advice. She was so much into it that she could continue to buy clothes without stopping.

"Remind me, are you my apprentice or the salesman here? You'd better prepare for your future training, no rest until I said so."

At Layan insistence, Lyn bought clothes sturdier and less aesthetic than what she bought before. Her attire was a red top with long sleeves and black embroideries, a diamond shape aperture was showing her white skin and navel. To go with it she bought a black cap with a hood to cover her top, a pair of sturdy and comfortable gloves and black leather pants and boots. She also bought fabric to cover her lekkus and a headset covering the space on her head between her lekus. Finally, she bought a thin white belt to hang at it her future lightsaber.

After buying all the clothes, the girls were ready to go as they didn't have any place to stock anything else if the bought it, but Layan had another idea in mind.

They headed downward, toward the level where the shops selling droids, spare parts or antics found on other worlds were sold. These shops were legal so Layan couldn't what he wanted to, that's why he planned to make a stop on Tatooine before finding a place to settle at and begin Lyn training.

Stepping inside the biggest store at this level, he saw all sorts of droids being exposed at the foremost of the store and in the back on the left were hundreds of shelves with shiny new spare parts. On the rights were arranged all types of spare parts coming from old droids of a past era.

To Layan who was passionate and love to create droids to calm himself down as a kind of moving meditation, this place was what could be called paradise.

Walking toward the line up of droids, he saw droids made for all kinds of tasks, astromech, protocol, utility or even fighting.

He stopped while looking at an R2 unit, the R2 series was the most popular series produced by Industrial Automaton, never again did this company reach such a degree of excellence. The R2 series had an excellent design, and several functions really useful while in space that was not present in the following series to reduce the cost of production.

"Shopkeeper, could you paint it for me?"

This R2 unit was white and yellow with a grey metallic dome, not really at Layan taste.

"Yes, what color would please you?"

"Change the white in black and the yellow by a bronze color."

Layan always liked the R2-Q5 design specially made for the Empire, so he chose to make his own. After the droid was taken at the back shop for a moment, Layan headed further into the shop and bought enough spare parts two fill 2 big crates. He brought everything necessary to build a droid except the joints and the mainframe. To build the droid he had in mind he'll have to find pieces unavailable on the legal market.

The girls were following behind while supporting boredom, now they felt how Layan felt previously, they took hours to buy a few clothes whereas he was ready to leave in ten minutes.

On the old spare parts, he found an old antenna, the antenna of an old HK-47 droid but except that he found nothing else interesting. When he saw this antenna, it made him remember that these droids were rediscovered during the Clone Wars and built under the Empire. Maybe he would rebuild them, he knew precisely the location of the remains but the autonomy the HK series are capable of is a bit frightening, not only this but their lethality is too.

After his little tour of the shop over, he smiled when he saw the state the girls were in and chose to leave after buying a few engineering tools and a dozen of Marksman-H combat remote to help in Lyn future training.

"Master, why do you smile like this? It gives me goosebumps."

Seems like Lyn knew when Layan had ideas that may be dangerous for her, or maybe he unconsciously shows his smile when he thought to calm down this unbridled little girl.

The shopkeeper was waiting for them with the newly painted R2 unit, R2-T3 and a big smile when he saw the two crates hovering behind them. Layan bought for more than 20,000 credits, the R2 units alone cost 5,000 credits. Layan asked the shopkeeper to deliver everything at his storage at the spaceport.

They got back at the hotel and put all the clothes they purchased in their hotel room and headed toward the hotel's restaurant for a meal.

After the meal, they visited the museum of Corellia where was exposed all the history of Corellia ever since the beginning of their space-exploring thousand of years ago. The museum was interesting especially to Layan that could see a functional T3 unit, in the present time it was impossible to see these droids except in private collection.

A few hours later, they left the museum as the sky was becoming darker. They took the maglev train and headed back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, Layan resumed his teachings to Lyn. This time he didn't made her practice meditation, he made her use the force to use the telekinesis around her.

Lyn was pretty talented and listened well during his lesson, even if she was a bit too impatient.

"Master, when will you teach to fight with a lightsaber?"

Once the lesson over, Lyn asked him with a slightly hopeful tone, ever since she saw the sparring session in the green Jedi enclave, she became even more motivated to train under Layan.

"Once the ship ready, we'll make a short trip to Tatooine, if we're lucky we won't stay for a day, after that, I'll start your training for real. Nothing except training, from morning until night."

"But why go to Tatooine? What do you want to do in this sandy world?"

"Keep your impatience in check. We'll go on Tatooine to buy illegal equipment and other stuff. We could buy it here but buying illegal products under the jedis nose isn't a good idea. I'll also try to find some crystals on Tatooine to build training lightsabers."