Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 03_ The Lost Ones - Kevin J. Anderson [12]
Jaina found a place to sit down, perching herself on a stack of recycled blankets that. Peckhum no doubt intended to sell to some alien merchant.
Zekk hurried off to prepare a quick lunch. "Last time we saw you, Peckhum," Jaina said conversationally, "you were cornered by a jungle monster on Yavin."
Peckhum laughed nervously at the memory. "I haven't been that scared in a dozen years!" he said. "Let's hope your jungle moon gets a little more civilized."
"Are you making another supply run to the Jedi academy soon?" Jacen asked.
"No, I've been assigned to riding the mirrors up in Coruscant orbit,"
Peckhum said. "It's a lonely job, but the pay is good-and somebody's got to do it. Besides, it's relaxing... if you look at it that way."
Because so much of the surface of Coruscant was covered by cities, engineers had long ago found ways to make even the cold northern and southern latitudes more habitable. By focusing sunlight from huge orbiting mirrors, they could direct enough warmth to thaw land as far north as the arctic, so that millions upon millions could live even in Coruscant's less hospitable areas.
Jaina understood the engineering difficulties of operating the huge automated mirrors, of making sure that the beams of directed sunlight shone down on appropriate areas. The job was not unlike the ancient task of running a lighthouse on an ocean world, where people worked alone, ready for emergencies that rarely came.
"Such an austere assignment would provide a good environment for contemplation," Tenel Ka pointed out.
"It does that, all right," Peckhum said. "I just wish conditions weren't so... basic."
"What makes the mirror station so uncomfortable?" Jaina asked. "Don't you have entertainment systems and food-processing units up there?"
Peckhum snorted. "According to the design, yes. But they're all malfunctioning. The mirror stations were set up long ago, even before the Emperor took over. During the Imperial years, riding the mirror station was a punishment assigned to stormtroopers who had disobeyed orders.
"Nowadays, the food-prep units, entertainment systems, temperature control systems, even the communication systems-all fritz out randomly.
No repair tech is willing to go up and give the whole station an overhaul. The New Republic has so much other business that I'm afraid getting spiffy holovideo reception for the mirror station just isn't high on anyone's priority list."
Jaina pursed her lips and placed her chin in her hands. "Those symptoms you described sound familiar!" she said. "Could be you need a new central multitasking unit. That might fix everything all at once."
Peckhum switched off his datapad and tucked it into a satchel hanging from the seat. "Don't I know it! But those units are expensive and hard to come by I've requested a new system five times, and it's always been turned down. 'The resources of the New Republic are allocated according to greatest need,"' he said, as if quoting from a report. "My comfort isn't a great enough need." He scratched his stubbled chin. "Oh well, I'll survive. It's a job. Last month I used some of my own credits to get a hand-held holoplayer to take up with me. It'll do."
Zekk came out of the kitchen area balancing a stack of self-heating ration cans in his arms. "I know where we can get a central multitasking unit! " He pressed his chin against the top can in the stack to hold them all in position. "Remember that old shuttle we found? Models like that had lots of subsystems. They must have had units to run everything."
"Sure did," Jaina said, nodding vigorously.
"Those outdated passenger shuttles all had central multitasking units.
They were cumbersome, but they worked."
Peckhum grinned, then frowned. "Well, I'm leaving tomorrow morning, and I'm not sure how I'd install one of those units myself, even if you did get it."
Zekk waved his hand in dismissal. "Relax, Peckhum-I'll get one for you by the time you return. I promise."