Galactic City

Kel maneuvered his way to the front of the milling crowd in time to hear one of the mechanics mention something about virtual intelligence. Now that was something Kel was definitely interested in. After a second he found to source of the voice, a gray, male twi'lek standing in front of a diagnostics terminal. Based on the context he seemed to be saying something about "advanced auto pilot" or something similar.

....you see, the average software systems on most starships is one of two things. Either it is easy to use, or it is extremely versatile, but it is very difficult if not impossible to find a ship with both of those qualities. the L-con 380 is different. It uses a tactile-holographic user control system that is incredibly easy to understand and customize, and that is coupled with a low level heuristic processor that allows it to learn the behaviors of up to sixty different operators and will even anticipate what each operator will want or need at any given moment. The way we achieve .....

Kel dug through his vest pocket and pulled out his datapad. After taking a few pictures of the ship he started taking notes on what the mechanic/sales rep was saying. Some of the concepts and technology Kel had heard of before or even used, but the applications and combinations were new. And these ideas begat other ideas, which might come together to form other ideas, and relatively quickly it was possible to have a piece of technology in your hands that had never been seen or even imagined before. As the twi'lwk continued to talk Kel circled the ship, still taking notes and pictures and hardly paying attention to the crowd around him.

He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't notice that a woman carrying an assortment of parts was circling the ship in exactly the opposite direction. Not only did he bump into her rather abruptly, he might have also stepped on her foot. He stumbbled for a moment in the other direction and then caught his balance, all the while sputtering.

Ooof. Sorry, that was my bad, wasn't looking. I was to busy, uh, taking notes and yeah.

Aside from a few heads turned in their direction it didn't seem like anyone had really noticed what had happened, but that did not make it feel any less awkward for Kel. Trying to seem less like an idiot, he pointed at the parts that the woman was carrying and tried to make an educated guess, thinking please be right please be right please be right.

Uh, having some problems with hydraulic pressure?

Whew, he'd made a good guess. Even better was that she didn't seemed to be ticked off terribly. Kel managed to relax a little as he put away his datapad and responded.

No, I don't work here, but I am a mechanic. More part designer part mechanic really, I work with droids but a lot of the basics are the same between them and most ships.

Kel half reached to pull a hydrospanner from his pouch on his wrist, just to give his hands something to do so he would feel less awkward, but changed his mind and instead clasped his hand together before putting them into his vest pockets. Then he thought of Kaylee back at his apartment.

If you do need a mechanic I could try to lend a hand, though I don't know if I can really be that much help. I've got a droid that good with ships , but it would take her a bit to get here. Hey, you need a hand carrying anything?

As he spoke those last words he halfway reached for the piping over the womans shoulder. The reason for his willingness to help was partially due to Kel just being a nice guy who didn't mind helping people. But he mostly felt a little bad for stepping on her foot, even though she hadn't brought it up yet. He figured helping her with whatever she was doing could help make up for that at least.

By the way, I'm Kel

Kel took the piping and slid it over his right shoulder. He then stepped back a step and motioned with his left arm in the direction that he presumed Kaytra had been travelling when they collided.

Lead the way

As she began walking Kel fell in slightly behind her; not far enough to seem creepy, just far enough that if she turned suddenly he wouldn't run into her again. As they left the crowd he gave one last look back at the skiff, admiring its smooth lines and the way it seemed to just flow together. It really was a nice looking ship. Turning back around he had to jog a few steps to make up the ground he had lost. Now that they were out of the crowd he felt more comfortable walking even with Kaytra just to her left.

So what brings you to Coruscant, if you don't mind me asking?

As he spoke he looked up and down the line of ships, wondering which one of them was hers.

Kel looked up at the ship and stepped forward a few paces. It looked worse for wear, but then again he would probably be surprised if an older gunship like this one didn't have some scars. He turned back around to Kaytra.

Not bad, I mean she doesn't look all that fancy but I doubt that you'd want something like that..... He jerked his head in the direction of the skiff. ....for running cargo past pirates and such.

He turned back to the ship and headed for the ladder that led to the top of the craft. After climbing up, he cautiously walked along the right up to the engine nacelle and set down the piping before peering into the open panel. He leaned back and pulled out his datapad, which he plugged into a diagnostics port via a retractable cable. He let the program run for a moment and faced the ships owner.

What sort of problem are you having. I mean besides the hydraulic pressure thing?

Kel glanced at Kaytras knees when he heard the metallic sound, but he didn't say anything. She might have been wearing kneepads, or had something metal in one of the lower pockets, it didn't really matter. He nodded to himself as he listened to Kaytra. As far as he could tell she seemed to know what she was talking about, and the results scrolling up on his datapad backed up what she was saying. The datapad bleeped at Kel just then, indicating that it had finished scanning the ship. He pulled the equipment from the socket and glanced over the results, then he peered into the engine over Kaytras shoulder. As she pulled out the brackets he took them from her and set them in a pile next to the first one.

So, sorry about stepping on your foot before. I got a little absorbed with some programming interfaces I was working on, that twi'lek gave me a couple ideas for solving some recurring problems at my job with a pilot droid we've been developing. It refuses to find a more efficient route when possible, but I have a working idea on a fix for it now.

Kel was mostly trying to be polite with the conversation, he really had no idea what to say and the silence was uncomfortable right now.

Cyborg? Interesting. Kel had met a few before through his job, so the idea of melding body and metal was normal to him and far from repulsive.

We tried that a couple times. It would work for a few days, but then the droids would almost settle into a sort of rut if that makes any sense. Almost like the traffic controls were seeing new behavior and were overriding the droids systems to keep them in line. We were figuring that it might be a bug or some bad code but we can't find evidence of either. Recently we've been trying to work around the problem instead of attacking it directly, but we haven't had much luck. But I'm thinking if we assign some basic profiles then we might be able to figuratively partition the droids learning process from traffic control, allowing it to communicate but filtering out non-emergency overrides. We haven't tried something like that before, but I think it's worth a shot.

After the last bracket was pulled out Kel took a moment to forward the diagnostic report to Kaylee with instructions to analyze the data. When she was finished she would send him a list of fixes and locations for parts and service, including any small parts that could be manufactured by Kels prototypers in his apartment.

Boredom mostly. I just finished about four hours of overtime and wanted to do something that didn't make me think to hard.

Kel reached for the new piping, ready to hand it to Kaytra when she needed it.

As good as my job is, I don't think that it's what I want to do the rest of my life. Living on the same planet, dealing with the same customers and problems all the time. It's even worse when the customer IS the problem. Sometimes I just want to leave this place. Not just the district mind you, I mean the planet.

Kel glanced down at his feet and let out a short laugh.

I guess that's a big reason I come here on my time off, just to see the ships and let my imagination run a bit so that I don't go crazy here. I've tried getting off world before, just today in fact. But I can't find a single ship that needs a droid designer, at least that's what they say when they turn down my resume. I guess I'll just have to get used to being stuck on this rock.

To say Kel was surprised would be a bit of an understatement. His exact thought was wait what? A total stranger offering him a job opportunity off world. Either a dream come true or a rather malicious creation of his imagination. Kel almost glanced over his shoulder to make sure Kaytra was talking to him.

Um, are you sure? Actually forget that, I would love to take you up on that offer, don't even really care who or where. Just gimme a sec.

Eagerly Kel dug out his datapad and punched out a message to Kaylee.
<FORGET THE SEARCHES AND DIAGNOSTICS. PACK ME A BAG AND BRING THE SMALL PROTOTYPER. WE ARE LEAVING CORUSCANT!!>
The second message was to his boss, cashing in on unused vacation time. Kel was so excited he had trouble putting his datapad back in his pocket. After he had finally done so he grabbed a bottle of sealant from the box of parts and handed it to Kaytra.

Thanks so much for this. I really appreciate it.

Kel noticed Kaytras pause but did not say anything. It didn't seem like a good idea to press potentially sensitive issues with a stranger who just found a job for him.

My droid can take care of most of that, I just need to make some arrangements about my job and apartment.

Kel was almost shaking with excitement. Just hours ago his dreams had been crushed. Now from out of nowhere he is offered a ride off of Corusacnt to some unknown destination. Wait a sec. Unknown. That's normally not a good thing, is it? Kel shifted closer to the access hatch and peered into the engine cavity and Kaytras handiwork.

So who do you work for?