Falling Behind Schedule

[Janick Beauchamp]

The past week or so has been an alcohol-fueled nightmare for Janick. Of course, Janick's first reaction, upon returning to the Utapau Alchemy Castle, was to go see the monthly balance sheet prepared by Griet, whom she knew was a better bookkeeper than she herself was. She was shocked to read the financial news, where the conditions for the trade of futures for certain materials are, well, relaxed. So, while it's unlikely to affect her cashflow for the time being, since she has a stream of revenue stemming from her role in the supply of songsteel for Elite Neimoidian Yachts, and hence her portfolio of futures, it will affect her ability to expand her futures portfolio in even the short run, let alone the long run. Because, instead of having two possible conditions for delivery, futures traders could now choose from a whopping eight conditions, two of which could lead to directly securing the supply of materials if they were lucky. Perhaps cold-calling someone that is a frequent traveler with its own ship would be a good way to get over the shock of the news she read about, and allow her to get back on track in the manufacture of Utai Pilot Seats, after spending all night alchemizing alcohol and their bottles. I have to be mindful in adopting the "you" view here, she thought, while typing on her datapad:

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ATTN: [member="Daedel"]

You seem like someone that knows what's good for them, especially since you seem like someone who likes to travel around the galaxy regularly, and hence would probably want a custom piece of equipment. For example, if you seem to be in harm's way regularly, you may wish to consider alchemized armor or an alchemized weapon, if you often fly around in dangerous areas, perhaps an alchemized pilot seat that will enhance your Battle Precognition and Instinctive Astrogation skills will be a good fit. Please let me know what works for you.

Janick Beauchamp
Owner, Utai Magic Circle

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[Daedel]

Her dark eyes scanned the words of the holo-note. Her data pad held in a firm grip as she pondered. Her full pink lips moved as she tried to look for some hidden meaning the message.

"What does this say?" She said as she shoved the data pad at an older model protocol droid. "It is not Pacean."

The droid took the pad from her and carefully read the words outloud for his master. As the droid finished the note he read the name and signature line, Daedel paised her analysis. A magic circle? They would not call themselves such unless they delved into sorcery of somekind.

"Intriguing." The woman said as she crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "Send a message in return.

"Attn: Ms. Beauchamp,

I find myself in a position where a alchemized pilot's seat. Please inform me as to how best arrange pick-up and your prefered form of payment for services.

Daedel Stormsister
Dathomir"

Daedel nodded to the droid as he withdrew to transmit the message in proper basic as Daedel stood looking out the viewport of her ship. These were i terwsting times indeed.


[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Alchemized pilot seats, as Janick knew, were more troublesome to produce for subcapitals (light corvettes often fell under that category as well from an outfitting standpoint) than for capital ships. While one could easily fit an X-Wing's pilot seat onboard an Immobilizer 419 or any other Star Destroyer, one couldn't necessarily fit an X-Wing's pilot seat in a TIE fighter. And that could cause problems to enemies that capture seats in working condition (usually with the pilot on it if they do so in space, without the pilot if in atmosphere) and if they want to re-use theirs. I hope that she doesn't mind a slow-ejection seat, but that's the price for personal shielding and a lightsaber-resistant seat, she thought, while typing up a reply to the Witch, intrigued by the whole "you-view" she learned from a business communications textbook she was given as a gift by one of the yeomen that saw her through her hangover on Asop as a result of drinking 25 servings of Asop-mined tihaar.

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ATTN: [member="Daedel"]

Due to the nature of pilot seats, please state what model of ship is your alchemized pilot seat for. You will receive the seat on Dathomir, in three days. As for payment arrangements, payment on delivery is the preferred method, even though the medium may well be a money order, a credit chip or otherwise.

Janick

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[Daedel]

Daedel stood with arms crossed as she listened to the message being read. She understood the need for details even if she didn't understand what the process must be that would be used to create an alchemized item. She considered the facts and the proposition and decided she would trust this woman, Janick Baeuchamp.

Deadel gathered her ship's schematics and modification of which there were few beyond repurposing a few areas for her own rituals and comforts. She considered the help that instinctive astrogation could be in her future endeavors. She thought out how she could use the conncetion with a magic circle as well. She pursed her lips and dictated the next message.

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ATTN: [member="Janick Beauchamp"]

My ship is a Mobquet Medium Transport. I am sending over the ship details for your consideration and to aid in the design and planning of the production process. If you would prefer I can come to you so you can better understand the ship's system. If you are content with the plans, that is fine also. I am very greatful for your offer and look forward to hearing of your decision and answering any further questions.
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Deadel sent the message and decided to go to the cargo hold and spend the rest of the afternoon attending to her Rancor. The large bull was young but he had already been through many dangers with her. he deserved her care now while they had a quiet moment.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

As is usual for any production shift among the Circle, she had another venipuncture, as usual for anything Utai Magic Circle did for alchemizing stuff, especially the more dark-sided stuff. A... Mobquet Medium Transport? That's a capital ship, she thought, upon reading Daedel's response, and hence she could have a surplus seat for a Neimoidian Yacht fitted onboard. The very Neimoidian Yacht whose supply of songsteel for the elite version forms the backbone of her futures portfolio. And whose seat is the same regardless of whether the yacht is considered elite or not. So she prepared to sprinkle blood all over the base seat that is to become Daedel's alchemized seat, in preparation for the alchemizing ritual. When the process of sprinkling blood all over the seat was over, she then washed her hands, as is usual of any hygiene requirements, and then proceeded to respond to Daedel one more time, prior to actually infusing the dark side into the seat.

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ATTN: [member="Daedel"]

Since you offered to come to my location so that I can better understand the ship's systems, I'll take you up on that offer. As a bonus for coming to the Fourth Moon of Utapau, you will learn Drain Knowledge as a bonus, and get the product delivered on-site as well.

Janick

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[Daedel]

Daedel nodded to herself. Her dark eyes caught the light fro the communications console of her ship as she heard the latest message from Utapau. She walked with slow deliberation toward the cockpit of her ship and took her seat in the captain's chair as she began her preparations for departure.

Throughout the ship the ship began the process of routing to the new destination. The engines cycled up and hatches to nonessential areas were sealed. The ship's small crew all members of the Dathomiri Stormsisters clan moved to their stations for final checks before the jump to hyperspace. The woman rested her chin on her thumb and forefinger as the crew made ready and began final calculations.

"Ready, sister." Daedel's co-pilot said as they recived the final astrogation updates for the Utapau system from the navicomputer.

"Proceed." The young clan leader said as she straightened in her chair and assumed a look of stoney contemplation.

The ship seemed to stretch on into the distance like an elastic band as the stars appeared to elongate around it. Then in a snap the ship was gone from the bounds of realspace and into the strange cerulean cloud of hyperspace. She was on her way.




[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Once she washed her hands, Janick began infusing the seat with Force-energy, which, hopefully, would actually grant the properties. In doing so, her own mental activity spiked, given the sheer amount of concentration required to ensure that the object would actually gain the three properties requested, that is, lightsaber resistance, Instinctive Astrogation and Battle Precognition. That, knowing it has ion drives, an inertial compensator and a shield bubble generator. Hopefully a slow ejection speed is worth the Force-enhancements to her, she thought, once the process was over, an hour or so later due to the seat's complexity, with Griet working on alchemizing the much simpler duranium drill bits in the meantime. A few days later, when [member="Daedel"] arrived in the low-gravity environment of the fourth moon, her ship took up a lot of room in the local spaceport. For this reason, she just loaded the seat onto the speeder, using telekinesis, and then drove it to the spaceport's maintenance entrance. Upon arrival to the spaceport, she comes to greet Daedel:

"My name is Janick, and I represent the Utai Magic Circle. As agreed upon, you shall take delivery of the seat and I will even install the seat personally"

 

[Daedel]

The ship sat down on the designated landing area and began to cycle down as the very small crew moved toward the boarding ramp. Daedel walked with a practiced grace as she moved down the ramp towards the welcoming party from the Utai magic circle.

Her eyes scanned the area from left to right and settled back on the raven haired woman in the front of the group. She met the woman's eyes as she began to speak. Daedel watched her mouth while she spoke offered an accommodating though small smile.

"I thank you for the honor," Daedel said in a formal tone as she inclined her head a fraction of an inch, "I am Daedel Stormsister of the Stromsister clan of Dathomir. We are well met Janick Beauchamp."

Daedel stepped forward and reached for the woman's hand and raised it to run her tongue along the woman's palm in a standard greeting of equals and then stepped back.

"Where shall we begin?"

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"As promised, you will learn Drain Knowledge from me"

Drain Knowledge. One of those things that she knew she had to tread lightly when approaching the topic in any shape or form. Her memory was pretty good, sure, but she had to be careful about it. Upon looking at [member="Daedel"], she seemed to remind her of her run-in with one Sith knight called Joon, on Korriban, with the difference being that Joon has yellow-orange eyes, which can cause a few to freak out. If that witch could make it work, she could actually learn some extra things about a topic of her choice. But as with any Force-power, there were several ways: the cold and calculated methods she knew some people preferred, usually being light-siders but a few dark-siders also seemed to sometimes be using something other than emotions, and sometimes making use of one's negative emotions (fear is appropriate for Force-fear and any of its variations, as well as Force-cloak, but here despair was more appropriate when it came to Drain Knowledge), which is a favorite of dark-siders.

"You may wish to access my brain as you would a computer in the Force. Depending on the mental defenses of the target, it can be a little hard; also, if you're careless, you may accidentally remove knowledge from the target, as opposed to simply downloading information from somebody through the Force, but if the target has a good memory, it will be harder to accidentally make the target forget something, but you will be more likely to get more information. The hard part is combing the target's brain for the desired information. For your first attempt at Drain Knowledge, you have two choices: either attempt to learn Force-alchemy using Drain Knowledge or more personal information about me. Just make sure to place your hand on my head first, If you succeed, visions of what's being drained will flash in your mind"

 

[Daedel]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

Deadel raised her hand toward the woman's head but pulled back for a moment unsure. She studied the woman's eyes then looked to her curving form. The way she held herself there calm and in control. She studied her posture briefly and noted the way her eyes held no fear.

This woman, this stranger, stood without hesitation and offered to let Daedel delve into her mind with the full confidence that she would not be harmed by this exchange as if it held no dangers. Daedel didn't know whether to laugh at the trust placed in her of worry that it was some trick.

She lifted her hand again and whispered a spell for power before placing her hand on the woman's dark hair. She exerted herself and let the power flow through her and delve into the woman's thoughts. Myriad images filled Daedel's mind and she gasped as she tried to sort out what she wanted. She looked for the manner the woman performed her alchemy but the images were not clear. She tried to delve deeper, with more power and slowly began to filter out thw information she desired.

After, many moments she pulled back her hand and stood breathing heavily as if having run a race. She looked at the woman again and fixed her with his black eyes.

"Very...interesting." she said at last, "Very, interesting indeed."

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Janick was very confident that memories of the alchemical process would remain in her brain somewhere; after all, she was doing it on a regular basis and hence would have that set of memories pretty much down cold. Also she found the process of somebody using Drain Knowledge oddly stimulating, just as stimulating as she did if she used it herself, but in a pretty different way. So the visions that [member="Daedel"] had in her mind, and also in Janick's mind as that tasty knowledge was being copied onto the client's mind, were of how to spray blood onto the object being alchemized prior to infusing the Force, and, after that was done, the whole process of infusing the Force into the object, since blood from living beings was a good sponge of Force-energy, and especially the dark side. She must also have realized that, unless one wanted to craft a poisonous item, it was better to work with blood that wasn't contaminated. Once the process of Daedel draining that knowledge out of Janick was done, she carefully examined the layout of the ship's cockpit in an attempt to determine what components should she be wary of for actually installing the seat.

"Now that I have an idea of how the systems near the seat are laid out, I can start working on getting the seat installed"

 

[Daedel]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

Daedel watched the woman work and waited to see what she would do. Her dark eyes took in the scene and she tried to take in the processes that she had just learned from the woman. The ancestors of her people had not taught about the force and these mind tricks but there was little doubt they were connected.

She followed the woman and her employees onto the ship and to the cockpit. She didn't speak as the other woman didn't seem to really need to be told anything for her to do her job. Instead Daedel began gathering together her planned payment for the services that were provided. It wasn't as much as she had thought it would be but it was the agreed amount.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

With Janick now in position to do the heavy, Force-assisted lifting, the Utai valet proceeded to perform the more delicate work, which was mostly related to cabling. Said cabling was precision-engineered, since one bad cable connection could defeat the whole purpose of installing the seat or induce parasitic malfunctions in other systems, such as the TCAS or other avionics systems. Which she knew was a bad thing, given her experience as a pilot and, more importantly, the CVW commander onboard the Verdict, even though she also knew that fighters were different in terms of hazards vs. a freighter. The seat's installation process was pretty seamless, so she didn't spend that long in the cockpit, no more than the Utai valet did, despite the sheer weight of the seat. Meanwhile, she could sense that [member="Daedel"] was preparing her payment; from the Utai Magic Circle, she was getting a very good deal indeed, even though the Circle's profits are not nearly as high as hoped. For the cost of the seat itself, she got to learn Drain Knowledge, and cover the installation cost of the seat on top of that.

"Now that the payment has been received, may the Force be with you. If you ever needed alchemical items, you know what to do"