[Flight Deck LTC] Perusing the Pearl of Tartany

"Behind the desk sat a droid. The droid had been designed to look like an imposing figure sitting in a large chair, like a throne of old..."

  Hayk looked around, slightly amazed, and slightly confused, by his surroundings. He had never been on a luxury starliner before, much less by invitation. And yet, here he was, aboard the Pearl of Tartany, Haelos Star Yards' flagship of business, pleasure, as well as research and development.

  It was still a fairly recent development, and Hayk still sometimes wondered how he had managed to pull it off, but he had managed to liquidate enough assets that he had been able to purchase a full percent of HSY shares, making Yurk Hargin's Droid Repair shop, on the planet Celanon, one of the largest shareholders of the company that was not directly on The Board. Of course... he had only been allowed to do so as part of a partnership between the two businesses, and for the fact that Hayk seemed to have an extremely large amount of the newly-minted New Republic credit, which had been used to buy the shares in question. This meant that Haelos Star Yards now had the single largest amount of New Republic credits that currently existed in the galaxy as political leverage... possibly more than had yet been minted, but that was a story for another time...

  The part of that story that was relevant to Hayk at this moment was that after making this bold deal with HSY, he and his co-workers at the droid repair shop had been invited to send a 'delegate' to take part in a corporate pleasure cruise retreat aboard the 'pearl' of HSY's fleet. Good ol' Yurk had complained about how he was getting too old for all of those long meetings in fancy places, and persisted that since the deal had been Hayk's idea, he or Snorple should be the ones to take the off-world meetings with HSY. Yurk's exact words had been 'that if any of the talking faces or even Haelos himself --if he actually existed-- wanted to speak to an old droid repairman like himself, they could afford to take the jaunt to the Outer Rim and speak to him face-to-face.'

  Deep down, Hayk agreed on that point, but he was also curious what the flagship of a shipwrighting mega-corporation might look like, and curious about what aspects of research and development he would get to see during the scheduled tour of the ship, especially since the droid repair shop would belumped into HSY's ledgers as being part of research, development, testing, and sales. In short, this was HSY's way of dipping a finger in to the droid repair market as well as speeders and smaller ships, while also giving the shop the ability to sell HSY products in a distant part of the galaxy. Having a small, name-you-can-trust type of business as a partner also gives HSY a more trustworthy reputation among Outer Rim worlds, as anyone that has heard of Yurk Hargin's Droid Repair has heard of quality work.

  Hayk finally reached the section of the ship he had been directed to, where a representative of HSY had told him that they would personally take him on a guided tour of the ship, as a reassurance that his money had been well invested. He looked up the flight of stairs ahead of him leading to an office door. A Mon Calamari technician exited the office and proceeded down the stairs and past Hayk, toward whatever project called for his attention. At the top of the stairs were a pair of ornate lamps on either side, and a desk on the left with numerous holographic displays.

  Behind the desk sat a droid. The droid had been designed to look like an imposing figure sitting in a large chair, like a throne of old. It looked more like some metal creature that had been fused to a metal chair in some strange surgical procedure. The droid stirred as Hayk approached the top of the stairs, and it's vocoder chirped in a friendly, though quite robotic-sounding, voice:

  'Welcome aboard the Pearl of Tartany. How may I be of assistance?'

  'I'm supposed to meet representative Ralx Masor for a personal tour of the ship. I'm a few minutes early, though,' Hayk responded.

  'I will notify representative [designation:] Ralx Masor that you are here, and representative [designation:] Ralx Masor will be with you when they are next available. May I get your designation-- er... name?'

  'My name is Hayk Kuarris. I am from Yurk Hargin's Droid Repair. What is your name?' Hayk asked, with a tone of genuine interest.

  'Unfamiliar query... Designation-- er... name is 4480556329112.'

  'Okay. I'm not the best with remembering long numbers... 8055... would it be okay if I call you Boss?'

  'That would be inaccurate. I am not important enough in the company to be referred to as 'boss'. Such a title could cause confusion.'

  'Well... I'll still tuck that nickname away for later, but what would you like to be called?'

  The droid sat for a minute, processing the strange request. No one had ever asked the droid if it had a name, let alone asked what it would choose for a name. The droid sat motionless for a few more seconds, then replied.

  'I could be called Forty-Four, since the first two numbers of my serial number are fours. This would also be easy for many organic lifeforms to say, as it is a number common in many civilizations across the galaxy.'

  'Sounds good, Forty-Four!' Hayk smiled.

  A small light appeared on one of the holographic displays, which made a pleasant chime noise.

  'The representative is ready to see you now. He will meet you at the door shortly,' Forty-Four chirped excitedly.

  A moment later, the door opened, and a cleanly dressed humanoid in business attire stood there, grinning in a welcoming, polite manner.

  'Mr. Kuarris. I am Ralx Masor, and I will be showing you around the ship. I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long?'

  'Don't worry about it. Fourty-Four and were just talking a bit anyways,' Hayk said nonchalantly.

  'Fourty-Four?' Ralx mused with a slight look of confusion as he looked at the droid, then hesitantly continued. 'Should we start with some refreshments in my office, as I'm sure you have some questions before we get started?'

  'Sure, that sounds great,' Hayk agreed, then looking back at the droid, he added, 'and Fourty-Four... I'll see you around! Let me know if you ever want to get off the ship for a while.'

  The droid looked appreciative, but then looked at it's body puzzlingly. How could he get 'off the ship'... he had been installed into the floor behind the desk.