An old friend is better than two

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***

- That's how it happened..." I finished my speech, sitting in the spacious living room with a cup of hot tea in my hands.

Julian listened attentively to my heartfelt speech about my adventures. I hadn't forgotten anything - from university admission to the latest events.

My only friend had settled down well. As time went on, the justice system began to crack down on smugglers. It wasn't the laws of the Republic, it was the profits of the private sector. Smugglers were hurting the economy, so the systems often supplied Justice themselves on a voluntary basis. Of course, it's not a matter of handing over money, in which case it would just be plundered, it's a matter of arming ships. Patrol ships, equipment, supplies... all of which together cut the cost to the Republic almost in half. Of course, de jure it was formalised too - the purchased equipment, including ships were registered to the planetary armed forces and given to the Corps for perpetual use - if something went wrong, the ships would have to be returned. The most common was the Marauder, a Corellian machine-made corvette. About ten thousand of these ships were already on alert - they had cut hundreds of smuggling paths through which black cargo traffic used to flow. All of this had led to a sea of smugglers behind bars. Julian had the good sense to get out before it was too late and change careers again. Now he's a simple farmer, but with a lot of land. A planet in the middle ring, a small income, his own produce... what else is there to be happy about?

Ju didn't greet me warmly, he didn't recognise me at first. Understandably, I didn't take offence.

- That's a good story..." Julian got up and turned the crackling embers in the fireplace with a poker, tossing in a handful of wood chips and a couple of logs. It was cold here at night, and the heat from electric heaters was not the same as the warmth of a fire, with the pleasant aroma of burning wood.

- Not a word," I nodded.

- What are you going to do next? - Ju asked with interest. - Will you go back to your relatives?

- I don't think so," I shook my head, "I have an embedded agent near the queen of Naboo, so I get fresh information. And to return... why would they need me? - I raised one eyebrow. - Mum's got her own life now, husband, daughter...

- You're talking like that," Ju grinned, "You're jealous, aren't you?

- No, no," I shook my head, "I just don't want to go there. I don't have any plans to go back to my relatives. And besides, I've got a family of my own," I nodded toward the room where Makoi had put Shiai to bed, "and I'm planning to be aggressive. I don't want to set my family members up in any way. After all, there might be people who can't attack me directly and try to influence me through my relatives... and I can't put guards on them.

- Well, that's true," Julian nodded, "I can't argue with that. Well, I'm not going to pry...

- I don't mind," I shrugged, "I have other plans. There's a sector of the galaxy called the deep core... you've heard of it?

- Yeah," Ju nodded, "it used to be a densely populated part of the galaxy, but then it was kind of abandoned. Travelling in hyperspace is virtually impossible due to gravitational disturbances in the core and the stars being too close together.

- Also, according to the theory, this sector should be not just rich - there should be just oodles of valuable minerals, metals, other useful substances. And all of this is lying derelict ...

- Come on," Julian said, taking a sip from his glass of Corellian brandy, "I told you, it's impossible to navigate. Though yes, if you get to the sector, it's a fortune. And if you get back, it's a fairy tale.

- Have you forgotten that I can find my way even where there is no route? - I smiled, seeing how my friend's face became thoughtful, -I can guide the ship even in such conditions. It's not easy, but I can do it.

- Shit," Ju slammed his hand on his knee, "that's right! The adventure of the century! Though it's unrealistic to say the least. How are we going to find the right planets out there? How will we find the resources?

- It could take years," I nodded, "although according to my theory, the proximity to the core will do its job - the quantity and quality of deposits on planets and even more so in asteroids should exceed all reasonable limits. The other question is how to extract it and turn it into money, and the problems of transport can be considered solved... at least partially.

Julian thought again.

- I know a way," he turned to me, "there's a ship called a mining barque. The idea is simple: it creates a grav beam directed towards the deposit and it lifts the ore upwards, towards the ship. And then a molecular furnace works, which extracts all the useful elements from the ore. But the barca costs a lot...

- How much?

- Approximately two hundred thousand.

- That's a reasonable price, - I nodded, - let's take the barque and my yacht and fly to the core. We'll have a look around.

- All right, it's up to you," Julian nodded, "but what do you want me to do?

- You? - I smiled. - I won't ask anything of you. You're just in on it. You've got enough to live on, believe me. You're too young to settle down on this farm and wait for old age.

Julian finished his brandy in a gulp and took a bite and nodded:

- You know, sometimes I get nostalgic for the old days. Smuggling is a much better-paid profession now, but it requires a lot of training - no one uses ships like my barloz any more - it's too expensive to make a whole voyage with such a small cargo of contraband. The same acclamators, heavy CMC freighters that can land in unprepared areas, are becoming more and more popular. They're harder to inspect, and the profits are astronomical....

- Yes," I agreed without hesitation, "I guess a lot of people have left the profession?

- You ask me," Ju grinned, "almost all of them have left. I'm from the last generation of smugglers.

- In that case, we'll reorient ourselves into a mining company. And the main thing - legal earnings.

Julian thought about the proposal for a few more minutes, and then he agreed.

It was not surprising - the Deep Core, the sector that had been the progenitor of life in the galaxy, had been forgotten and abandoned over time. The ruins of many civilisations have been left behind, and life has moved on. The closest planet to the deep core was Coruscant - it was located literally a thousand light years away from the border dividing the galaxy into two zones. A stone's throw away from Coruscant, on the other side of the barrier, was Koros, the former capital of the former Koros Empire. After the routes laid out by the architects using the balancer disappeared - stars, planets, asteroids shifted, it became impossible to fly inside. However, time does not stand still - I would be able if not to clear the routes, then to lay at least temporary new ones, which will last for several centuries. Then I'd have to do it all over again, but that didn't scare me.

The richest system in the galaxy was under my feet, as well as the oldest, and no one could get there. Or rather, no one could get back from it.

It was time to fulfil one more point in the plan - to fly into the deep core and look at the local holdings. If no one wanted it, then maybe I could work out a plan to privatise the property into my own hands. One shit - no one could fly there but me.

I left a tipsy Julian behind and went to get some fresh air.

In the morning, when everyone was asleep, a crumpled Ju found me meditating on the porch and, thinking I was asleep, decided to shake me awake, but I didn't need to.

It's a good planet, though-the air is fresh and moist in the morning, pleasantly cool on my skin. In the height of summer, morning is the time when flowers bloom and the moist and fresh air is filled with their subtle scents. Dawn had taken its toll and the planet was flooded with sunshine.

When Ju came up behind me, I stood up and with a nod I asked him:

- What's on your mind?

- You mean yesterday? - He asked, writhing with a headache, "Yes...

Without a word, I took the pain away and toned Ju's body, earning a surprised look.

Shaking his head and smiling, the former smuggler already confidently replied:

- Yeah, sure, I'm in.

- In that case, let's go to my yacht," I nodded at the huge cruiser standing on the horizon, "and then we'll figure out what goes where. And we'll have to buy a barque....

Julian nodded and went back into the house to pack.

As soon as we were inside the speeders, the hangar doors closed and the yacht took off. Our destination was Corellia - the largest market there after Coruscant, and not far from our destination.

Exploring the sector without equipment was impossible - we had to buy and install what equipment we could, namely a geological scanner and probe droids.

As soon as we stepped out of the speeders, Julian whistled:

- 'And this stuff is yours?

- Sure," I immediately agreed, "It's a nice boat.

- It's strange that you converted it," Ju didn't understand, "so you'd have a whole warship!

- As a warship it's already obsolete. If I ever need a cruiser, I know where to get one.

- I'm sure you do," Julian nodded, watching as the Mandalorian crew took our speeders into the appropriate hold.

It's nice to have a crew after all! Instead of running the ship myself, all I have to do is tell them where to go and they'll do it without me. I put Julian in my quarters - there were four master rooms - for me, Shiaya, Maekoi and now Julian.

After looking around with square eyes, Ju decided to be quiet and retired to his quarters, having met the cook and eaten a hearty breakfast.

Maekoi took Shiai to the study where they studied general subjects, and I, left alone, returned to my charms.

Only a small lab could qualify me for the position of my charm, which was where I did my power forging. Unfortunately, from the old man I learnt not that not everything - almost nothing. So, small things for initial development. The rest was to be learnt on my own. The old man didn't want to give me the architects' technology - their appearance in the galaxy was already too dangerous, and had already led to the political collapse of the whole system. The old man didn't want the same thing to happen again, but with me in the lead role, so he didn't give me anything really dangerous that could cause problems. Almost everything was dangerous, but I didn't get discouraged, and started working on my own technologies in the image and likeness of what was known.

The lab was already set up nicely. On the tables were spread hundreds of steel cubes with markings, crystals that I got from old swords, as well as other spare parts. On the table was the most interesting construct that I started to assemble - an automatic assembler.

Its essence is as simple as three credits - the basis of the assembler is an image with some object, its molecular structure, or simply "structure". The structure is recorded on a special cube, inside of which, under a strong durastal body was a crystal lattice. The principle was similar to the holocron, only instead of the image of my consciousness I recorded a small part of it - the structure I needed. This was the simplest part of the device - the next one consisted of the assembler itself. It was the most difficult to create the assembler - when the force passes through, it must fill the metal with a certain force from the first channel and form the required object, the structure of which is recorded in the cube of the structure. I managed to assemble the first workable sample in three days - however, it required my constant presence to work and could only assemble two kinds of objects - a ball and a cube. But the main thing was that the beginning had been made. After the metal entered the active zone, I poured the power into the crystal-conductor, from which it gradually seeped inside, to the metal, and the second stream went into the cube of the structure. At first the structure was duplicated, i.e. a phantom of the Force was created - a formed force structure, a ghost of a future thing. If there was a metal or other material similar to the one in the phantom, its Force and the Force inside the phantom, if they were identical in structure, were attracted to each other. More precisely, the Force inside the metal was attracted to the Force inside the phantom - with precision down to the molecule everything fell into place. The number of metals and materials was not limited - you could create anything, even a devil with horns, as long as the Great Force flowed inside it. The charge in one crystal, which had once been a sword crystal, lasted for twenty-four cycles, after which it had to be recharged.

The experiments on the lab sample lasted a week - during that time I was able to get a lot of important information about automatic force forging. For example, the formation of a phantom, that is, roughly speaking, a force casting, should take place strictly in vacuum, as well as further work - there is a force in the air, and attempts to create a ball with the formation of a phantom in the air led to the fact that I got a crooked and rough metal ball. The microscopic currents of force in the air created ripples in the phantom and it warped, which after the warped phantom filled the metal felt rough to the touch. Another important detail - the power in the phantom and the assembler can be different in nature, but the same in polarity - having scraped up some dark energy, I poured it into the phantom and light energy into the assembler, which resulted in nothing happening. There was a conflict of energies inside the assembler and the light neutral energy inside the metal was not attracted to the dark energy of the phantom.

Further progress in creation required assigning a direction of research and development. After sitting over ideas for half an hour, I still made a simple list, which I engraved on the wall with the Force. The first was to increase the complexity of the phantom. The second was to increase the system's autonomy from the crystals. I wanted to add automation of the process of recording structures, but I decided against it - then the auto-assembler could be used by anyone, and that was not part of my plans.

Modern automatic factories can produce much more, much cheaper, and waste electricity rather than scarce labour, which is more than cheap. So this limits the use of auto-assembly - it's stupidly unprofitable when everything from building materials to ship parts to weapons is already produced almost entirely automatically. Originally I wanted to build something more impressive, like the famous Star Forge, but as it turned out, I had to solve the problem of power supply. The Rakatans solved it simply by rounding up a bunch of slaves and torturing them, so that the emanations of the dark side were picked up by the forge and fed into the assembly process. I didn't agree to such a thing, besides, once such a thing had become a big problem for the galaxy, I had no intention of repeating the mistakes of the past civilisation.

An automatic factory, according to my calculations, can create items many times faster than an auto-assembler, and using an auto-assembler for mass production is idiotic. And it would also be impossible to produce anything really big with it - I could build two or three small ships in an hour on my power reserve, while the auto-assembler could build only one in the same amount of time. But the autobuilder had a key advantage - the complexity of assembly was nothing to it. It could produce axes, lightsabers, complex laboratory equipment, and other highly complex systems with equal efficiency. The advantage was precision and size - the auto-assembler took up several tables in laboratory form, and when ready for use it was quite feasible to design it in the form of a large cabinet.

The only thing I set about after finishing my experiments was building a furnace to create crystals. The furnace worked on the force, just like the auto-collector, but with a completely different principle. The old man taught me how to make crystals and even demonstrated the furnace itself. Externally, it's just a composite box - the outside is a thin layer of durasteel, and the inside is lined with a thick layer of neuranium, which shields the crystal at the creation stage from external influences. On one side there is a small hole for the force to pass through, and inside there is a steel rod around which the crystal is formed. Since the volume of the force was directly proportional to the size of the crystal, I immediately put in it the requirement for the maximum size and started melting.

In general, all this work was similar to electrical engineering - the force, like electricity, was controllable. There were several kinds of elementary blocks of power circuitry - for example, a diode, which passes the flow of force in one direction only, or a rectifier, which stabilises the Force passing through it into a continuous flow. That is, the Force can be poured into it as you wish - the output is a thin directed stream. There were also fuses, which interrupted the flow of force through them if its volume exceeded any permissible norm, the list goes on for a long time. The main thing was that all this could be miniaturised into a single circuit - so even a small object could contain a very complex power structure. Of course, it took time to master the principles. It remotely resembled a classic electronic circuit. So far, I had not been able to implement any complex circuit in the block - I had to "play dice" - to implement different circuits in blocks of different sizes and connect them with threads of force. As a result, it turned out to be a rather cumbersome construction.

With practice, however, it was possible to miniaturise or simplify some blocks by inserting their structure into others, but so far this is only the beginning of the journey.

The auto-assembler got its own name - "duplicator". I aimed to achieve something else - to put in my laboratory a machine that could, when sufficiently filled with the power of crystals, assemble non-stop any objects - armour, weapons, small parts of machines and mechanisms.

The crystal was created for about two days - during this time I managed to make serious progress in the creation of the duplicator - one of the main components - the control unit, managed to create in one single block. It was responsible for analysing the loaded materials, starting the work, monitoring the rationed supply of Energy. The rest could easily be done by ordinary electronics - to control loading and unloading, to monitor the evacuation of air from the core, and to store the received samples.

The use of the primitive aspect of the force, raw energy, could not be registered by electronics, so there were problems with this in terms of control - the electronics could not see what was going on inside.

I finally completed the testing of the first workable sample by inserting a cube into the slot, inside of which was the structure of a tablet that came to hand. From the outside it looked like a microwave box with an opening door, only twice as big. Next to it on the table was a similar box, with a memory block inserted into a recess at the top, and in the back in a cylindrical container in the shape of small containers of sand were various materials - more than three dozen different primary materials in all.

After inserting the block, I placed a crystal filled with power in a separate recess and closed its lid, shielded by Neuranium. The cover of the duplicator was transparent, so it was possible to see - if to switch on the power vision, then in the air in the middle of the chamber, right after the crystal insertion there was a phantom of the tablet, or as they say here, datapad, and with ordinary vision only slight air fluctuations were visible. Switching on the apparatus - materials begin to gather in the chamber and pour into the structure. If you melted the datapad, filmed it, and then let it record in reverse, it would probably be a bit like this. After half a minute of work, a brand new tablet lay in the core. Unfortunately, a duplicator can't copy energy, so the permanent memory was pristine and should have been flashed with all programmes before switching it on.

It wasn't much work to transfer the memory chip from the old tablet to the new one, and now I had a fully functional sample in my hands.

The only thing that distracted me from my work was the arrival on Corellia.