Stepping through The turbolift doors Des performed a quick series of taps on the control panel, beginning the ascent. He was heading for the hanger he had likely spent an excessive amount of time in. At his hip, In a small pouch was M1, the little training droid Master Jenk had foisted upon him months ago.

  Des had resisted naming it at first, not wanting to view the thing as a harmless pet. It was a combat droid with six blasters built in and he did not know how his Force medeling had changed it.

  That worry was diminished the first night when the Droid abruptly dropped dead to the floor, a quick scan with the Force told Des its power core was drained. The thing lacked the basic sense to seek out a charging dock.

  In the days that followed, the droid learned to conserve its energy, resting on his desktop and bed, or nudging against Des to get him to carry it around rather than move under its own power. The droid had shown no aggression at all since Des’s medaling, if he had to choose a word to describe its new nature, it would be lazy.

  He had scanned it many times trying to understand just what he had done. While he had not found any answers to that question, he had found a serial number, M106626T10N34. Without meaning to, he had started calling it M1 in his head, then over time it just became the droids name.

  The turbolift came to a stop, its doors opening into the hangers cavernous space. It held the standard repulsorlift haulers Des had seen dozens of times before, but he was not here today to see ships.

  He made his way to a small office in the back, hoping to find Chief Booth but his assistant was the only occupant. Absorbed in a datapad, Jane distractedly pointed up when Des asked after the Chief, indicating he was on the second floor.

  Climbing the stairway Des found the Chief lying on the floor, a toolbox at his side working on one of the simulators.

  “Shouldn’t you be doing the clerical work and Jane doing the maintenance?”

  The old engineer looked up, smiling when he saw Des, “Perks of being in charge lad, I get to decide who does what”.

  Smiling back, Des stepped forward placing a hand on the flight simulator. With a small flex of his Force talent information flowed to Des. He filtered it down, honing in on the problem and satisfying his curiosity.

  “Do you want me to tell you?”

  The Chiefs smile cracked a little, “Nah lad, been doing this job long enough, I’ll figure it out.” Rising, he went on to ask, “So, what brings you here today young Desmond? This simulator might be down but the others in the back should be good to go”.

  “Not today chief, I actually came to ask a favour. I was hoping you could put me in contact with your brother, the one in the Mid Rim you said runs a scrapyard.”

  “I could, Aye, but why would you want to speak to that old scoundrel?”

  Having practised his request in his head, Des reached into the pouch at his waist, withdrawing M1. “I was given this droid half a year ago. It’s in good shape but it's old, its repulsor is noisy, its power core doesn’t last long and there’s a dozen other small issues. It's not just maintenance or upkeep, the design itself is old, ancient even. I’ve been learning about droids for a few months now and I can see countless ways I could improve it”.

  Interrupting, the chief interjected, “Okay, but why come to me? The Knights and masters would be able to get you what you need far easier than my brother could. Why not ask them?”

  “I did ask them. They were very helpful, I have a room I can work in with the temple technicians now, and a list of parts and components I can requisition or have made.”

  “Not really answering my question lad”.

  “There’s limits to what I can do with the resources I have. The parts, they cost credits. The Masters gave me a budget to work with but I have Ideas, things i want to try, and not just with M1. Experimenting will cost even more credits, and I currently have none”.

  “So, you want my brother to ship you broken droids from the Mid Rim so you can repair and return them, or maybe sell them off? Not the worst business strategy I’ve heard, but the transport fees would kill your proffit. I can’t see that scoundrel agreeing to your plan, sorry lad”.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I actually had something else in mind”. Des knew this next part would be the sticking point, “I was hoping he could get me a combat droid, or the chassis and cognitive module of one at least”.

  Seeing the expected reaction he plowed on. “I don’t really have enough time to spend repairing droids for credits on top of my training and studies. If I want to earn credits and study I need passive income. I was thinking I could try to make a bounty hunter droid.”

  “Ha,” Chief Booth laughed. Then he laughed some more. “I think I’d like to see that”.

  A little chagrined Des asked “So you’ll help?”

  “I will, but I’ll contact him myself. That old crook would try to squeeze every credit he could out of a Jedi, especially one so young. Best I handle him lad.”

  “Thanks, but what about the credits? I was planning to try to negotiate payment from the first bounty or maybe offer to do some diagnosis and repair work.”

  “Don’t worry about it Des, I’ll cover it myself, you can pay me back from your first bounties instead. I only ask two things”

  Surprised and relieved, Des nodded for the Chief to go on.

  “First, I want to see what you come up with lad. I imagine it’s going to be entertaining at the least,” he said it with his amusement on open display.

  “Second, let an old man have his puzzles in peace. It’s no fun if you go around solving everything with that Force trick of yours, then where would I be, stuck doing the clerical work again.” he joked, shaking his head mockingly.

  “Fine old man. I’ll leave your puzzles in peace” Des returned with mirth before saying in a more serious tone “but thanks Chief, I’ll pay you back”.

  “Course you will lad, I have no doubt. Enough of that though, I’ve got work that needs doing and you’ve got Jedi studies to be getting on with. I’ll let you know when I’ve spoken with my brother”.

  Des thanked him one last time before he left, making his way back to the turbolift and then to his room. Along the way he thought about his plan. The idea of a bounty hunter droid had first come to him while examining M1. The blasters built into the droid were low powered, only intended to cause pain, but they could, in theory, knock someone out. That, coupled with Knight Yules visit and the thought of him out in the galaxy hunting down the Sith, had planted the seed of an idea. Now he was going to make it a reality.

  Rounding a corner, the doorway to his room came into view, as did Krit, The Ithorian youngling clearly waiting for him. Closing the distance, Des greeted his friend, “Hey Krit, you looking to do some more sparring?”

  Krit shook his head, then to Des’s surprise reached out and grasped his shoulder. A voice that was accompanied by a feeling of joy spoke within his mind. ‘Hello Desmond, it’s good to finally talk to you’.

  His shock must have been obvious because the feeling of joy was joined by a sense of amusement at his surprise, Krits two mouths curving upwards in harmony with the emotion.

  “Krit, you. When did-” caught wrong footed, Des's mouth stumbled as his thoughts played catch up. Jedi were capable of telepathy as well as sensing emotions, he knew that. He had grown used to the latter but What Krit was doing now was not commonly done. His friend had spoken directly into his mind with a crystal clear baritone.

  “Congratulations”, Des said, his surprise waning as he recalled exactly where he was and what universe he was in. “When did you learn the new trick?”

  ‘I finally got it down today, Knight Casin’s been helping me learn the technique. I still need to touch the person I want to talk to, but I can do it every time now’.

  Des was pleased for his friend, but it did bring to mind the question of why Krit never spoke. Ithorians did struggle with Basic but there were translators specially designed for that.

  Something of his curiosity might have transferred over because Des was hit with a sudden jumble of emotions. It was a tangled knot Des could make no sense of and it only lasted a moment, before Krit did something that cut the flow off abruptly.

  ‘Sorry’

  Des could tell his friend was embarrassed but none of it made it across the connection to him. ‘I’m supposed to filter my feelings out but it's difficult, especially when I’m excited. Sorry’.

  “Don’t worry about it, No harm done” said Des trying to reassure his friend.

  ‘Okay, Do you know where Shofo is?’

  “No, I haven’t seen her since group meditation earlier, why?”

  ‘I’ve told Jason, and now you, just have to find her now’. Once more the sense of amusement bled through to Des. ‘Gotta go, see you later Des’.

  Krit let go of his shoulder then marched off in search of Shofo.

  Des began chuckling to himself as he crossed the threshold of his room. He imagined Shofos reaction to the surprise she was in store for.

  Telepathy was one of the Jedi powers he cared little about and had not spent any time giving thought too. Time was a precious commodity now he had a mostly free rein on his studies.

  He had not been lying when he told Chief Booth he could not spare the time to repair droids for credits. Between his morning classes on the Jedi code, his personal meditation, lightsaber training, group meditation and now trying to balance studying multiple fields of science alongside learning droids. Des was swamped.

  ‘Still’ he thought to himself as he pulled M1 from its pouch once more. ‘It's not so bad’.

  Reaching out with the Force he lifted the droid, holding it suspended in midair. The little grapefruit sized ball of blasters offered no objection, perfectly used to the experience by now and content to save its energy.

  Telepathy might not have excited him but this did. Telekinesis was arguably the most common place of powers, Force pushes and pulls a Jedi’s bread and butter. Common it might be, but to Des that took away none of its wonder.

  The droid felt almost weightless in his metaphysical grip, the feeling like nothing he had imagined. In the movies, he had watched Jedi strain to lift heavy objects with the Force. He had assumed that there would be a strong physical aspect to the power, and Maybe that's how it felt for other Force users, but not for him.

  The closest feeling to the sensation he could think of was an odd one. It was like having a word on the tip of his tongue. That feeling of pushing against a barrier in his memory as he struggled to grasp the word he was looking for, only, with the Force, the word could actually be grasped. That wasn’t entirely accurate, but it was the closest analog he had come up with thus far.

  Gliding his pet droid around his room, a sense of contentment filled him.

  Thinking of earth, of his past life and his death. It did not have the same impact it once had. His last life had been ripped away from him in a meaningless tragedy.

  but this new one, was shaping up quite nicely.

  Excitement filled Dess as his thoughts drifted, imagining just what his future might hold.