We returned to the Homestead. I was in a state of disbelief and couldn't trust myself to bargain well for anything else right then. I'd figured the metals would be valuable, but not that valuable.

  It didn't matter too much right then, Pal had been a keen hunter and the extra meat had expanded my food stores.

  My mind chewed on the problems this sudden wealth would cause. The Quoop'entini were trustworthy, but someone would over hear, or catch sight of something that would give me away. Eventually.

  Another Jawa Cn might poke their nose into things, or the Maker forfend a Hutt might get a tip about a jumped up nobody like me, making bigger deals at the Bazaar. It really didn't matter who, I wasn't ready for a small war over this.

  That the Cn Elder knew what the metals were, but that I'd never heard of them, nor seen them before now was odd. That implied there was a deeper game being pyed in the background. On one hand there were secret mines, and probably whole smuggling networks involving these mystery goods. The other hand had the conniving Hutts, who wouldn't hesitate in seizing any advantage. The Quoop'entini knew. So who else was involved? And how far did this go?

  Do I want to get any more involved? A smart py might be to sell the mine's location to the fierce Jawas. Then this all becomes a them problem, not a me problem. Make a small ship the price, then I'd be out of here.

  If only it were that simple. There were at least two permits, and probably more, between me and getting out of this system. I could get fake ones from the Bazaar if I found the right contact.

  But all of that felt like the wrong py. I think I'd lose some self-respect, and likely the respect of anyone that knew me. I knew I wasn't a very brave person, but if I left the pnet running from trouble, I'd a sense it would become a habit. Not sure I liked that idea in the first pce. I might not be brave, but I was stubborn.

  Still, was all of this would fighting over? Could I even make a fight of it, right now? No, not really.

  While Pal was an amazing combatant, he was only one droid. I was going to need more protection, a whole lot more. At the speeds Droids and certain other species could move, I was a liability in a real fight, and not likely to get significantly better at it anytime soon. Though maybe at some point, I could look into augments. Those might help me st a few extra seconds.

  As I ran experiments with the Adamantite, I started pnning trips to a few more scrapyards looking for droids and droid components. While I could now afford a few more refined options, if I started throwing lots of money at the problem, I'd get noticed faster. No matter what path I took to get off of this rock, I wanted to avoid attention as long as I could.

  I left all of my ponderings to ruminate in my subconscious for now, as I tried alloying the Adamantite with all the metals I had on hand.

  The results from a straight 1:1 mix with standard metals, was interesting but disappointing. The Desh mix crumbled immediately, unable to support it's own weight. The Bronzium wouldn't mix properly at all, and I ended up with a swirled ingot, of dubious value and poor durability. Durasteel already being an alloy mix, came out the best but seemed to gain nothing from the process.

  From the non-standard metals, I got much better but confusing results. Alloying with Truesilver, created a stable and durable ingot. Basically I got a silvered steel. Hard as durasteel, malleable as the silver. More conductive than the Adamantite, but less than the Truesilver. It seemed to be emitting some form of radiative mana. The amount was tiny but still possibly dangerous to non-resistant people. Hmm, more testing on this combination could prove useful.

  With Electrum, a greenish ingot took form. Highly resistant to chemical tests. But the durability and hardness left much to be desired.

  Mixing Electrum and Truesilver, produced a highly mana radiative ingot. Further testing was probably not a good idea, and when I tentatively tried to use Absorb Mana Sources on it the ingot disappeared instantly. This spoke of high instability. While I didn't get enough energy from it to level, it was a nice jump in my development.

  Huh. Interesting, but I was worried about using this combination again, it seemed off, wrong somehow.

  I kept at refining ratios of the mixtures, ter I began trying more advanced alloy combinations. With was fascinating end products.

  I also started on a new project. Something I was already thinking of as a Mana Enhancer. I molded a basic amplifying circuit from the Truesilver, while pcing the small coin size sample of 8th metal as an input. Running simple mana tests, showed a 1 to 5 increased output. Speed remained unaffected. Further experiments showed that this increase remained consistent when feeding my abilities into the 8th metal receiver.

  I now had a booster for my abilities, however the Truesilver circuits burned out after about a dozen uses. The 8th metal itself dispyed no signs of degradation.

  That night as I went to sleep, I smiled at my success. I dreamed of pying amongst the stars again.

  The next few weeks, began a cycle of routines.

  If I was at the homestead I worked on alloy tests. Thanks to the Power Loader and Red, when I was tried of staring at odd mixtures of metal, I worked on restoring the newly accessible generators and pump stations. We'd even got a few more of the Moisture Vaporators running.

  Every fifth day I'd go to the Mining Town with Red and Pal. Check for signs of interference, and then spend the rest of the day smelting loading the trailer. Between loading times I'd work on my abilities, both with and without my new Mana Enhancer.

  I'd quickly redesigned the device to fit into my Slicing vambrace. I'd made the Truesilver amplifier circuit into a modur case. As one circuit burnt out, I could slot in the next module. Easy to use, easy to change out modules, easy to recycle the old modules too.

  Working on my abilities was fun, and I developed a routine for them as well. I'd craft a different module each time using Summon Parts to complete the device. Then I'd upgrade the module, scan it, sabotage it, repair it, then render it. After the module was reduced to base components, I'd recycle them and start again.

  The fun part of this all was the realization that I could work in the scanned upgrades myself on the next cycle. After a few cycles the new modules were hardly recognizable compared to the original device. The sad part of the of all of this, was that there was a break point where Upgrade Step I stopped working on a module type I'd evolved. Some in built limit to keep me from advancing too fast? Or was there another basic principle involved?

  I was slowly getting more comfortable with these abilities, and my data on more successful alloy mixtures, to the point that I was almost ready to use my newfound gains to upgrade my droids. Well not Pal, other than his armor ptes, I hadn't yet been able to improve on his advanced design or internal components.

  The sixth day would see me back at the Homestead, off loading my half of the ingots. as well as checking what supplies I'd need for the next cycle.

  The seventh day was Bazaar day. I'd swing by Rekarsh to orient myself and then head for the tent city, selling my new ingots to the Quoop'entini. Earing anywhere form 60,000 to 250,000 credits each time. I'd then buy supplies, like food, or tools I couldn't make myself.

  Then I'd spend a few hours in one of the scrapyards, hunting for droid parts, before heading back to the Homestead. While after four weeks I had gathered enough parts to fully assemble a few new droids, but they'd be real hodgepodge jobs. I wanted to spend some time crafting new matching parts and integrating my upgraded modules, so they'd function better.

  Another few cycles like this and I'd be ready to get a permit letting me get up to the orbital shipyard, where I'd purchase a used ship and fix it up. Probably working a few orbital scrapping missions before I'd be able to buy my way out of the system.

  But tomorrow, tomorrow I was ready to start working on these new droids.

  Matuscarantos