Yanibar Tales/Sarth interview

''This interview is for my Current Events class with Teacher Sowsren and I'm interviewing my uncle, Sarth Kraen
 * Ryion: Okay, here we go. First question&mdash;Tell us a little about yourself.
 * Sarth: That's both not a question and not very specific.
 * Ryion: Uh . . . fine. What was it like growing up?
 * Sarth: I grew up on Commenor living with a fairly well-to-do family. I suppose you could say I was a bit quiet as a child. I pretty into school, though.
 * Ryion: What did you study?
 * Sarth: I studied droid programming and power systems at the Mrlsst Institute, then received an advanced degree from the Magrody Institute of Programmable Intelligence.
 * Ryion: So, I guess that makes you pretty smart, then.
 * Sarth: I suppose so. It's more important to be able to do things and use what you learned than to have a bunch of fancy signed holodocs saying how smart you are.
 * Ryion: Then what was your first invention?
 * Sarth: I was twelve when I put together a flying contraption thing.
 * Ryion: Contraption?
 * Sarth: Mechanical pest might be a better description. It was supposed to be a flying droid that could take holo for me and buzz around. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to program the compensator properly. The high-frequency gain was too high and it made this awful noise when I actually got it flying. It was also too sensitive, which meant that it, uh, crashed a lot.
 * Ryion: Wow.
 * Sarth: To say the least, my parents hated it. They also stopped funding the extensive repairs it needed to discourage me.
 * Ryion: So what happened once you got out of school?
 * Sarth: I went to work for the Republic. It was during the Clone Wars and they offered big incentives for scientists and engineers to work for the government.
 * Ryion: What did you do?
 * Sarth: The Republic was fighting a terrible war against the Confederacy, which used mostly droid forces. I helped work on efforts to decipher the droids' programming and help the Republic defeat the battle droids. Ironically, that's what lost me that job.
 * Ryion: How did that happen?
 * Sarth: I had just made a major breakthrough by figuring out the full control algorithms of the Confederacy's droideka droids. That would have been a serious advantage to the Republic, but somebody else wanted the research, too. They wiped my computer and dosed me with a mind-altering drug. Nobody believed my story, and I was fired.
 * Ryion: Who was it?
 * Sarth: The Mistryl Shadow Guard, a nasty bunch of female mercenaries.
 * Ryion: What did you do then?
 * Sarth: I went to work on a freighter, the Hawk-bat, as a ship's engineer, and tried to recreate that decryption file in my spare time. That's how I met your father.
 * Ryion: When you rescued him, right?
 * Sarth: Pretty much, but then he rescued me a few days later, from the same people who had tried to wipe out my research before.
 * Ryion: So then you guys worked together on the ship, along with Aunt Cassi? What was it like?
 * Sarth: That's right. It was a pretty close-knit crew and we got along pretty well, kind of like a small family. We had our struggles, but there was camaraderie, even in the times when we didn't know if we'd have enough money to keep going or if we'd escape the rock we'd ended up on.
 * Ryion: Was it exciting, roaming the stars?
 * Sarth: There's a certain novelty to it at first, and you do get to experience a wide variety of different sites and cultures. That said, it can also be very frightening. It's much more stable here.
 * Ryion: What's the difference between here and living on the spacelanes?
 * Sarth: Stable time zones, for one. Also, it's hotter and drier here. There's much more constancy living on one planet, but the important thing is to be with the people you care for.
 * Ryion: Did you like it better as a ship's engineer, or living here on Yanibar as a Jedi?
 * Sarth: It was a different time in my life. Now that I'm settled down, I prefer here much better. It's safer and a good environment for our family. It's hard to raise a family in space.
 * Ryion: So now what do you do?
 * Sarth: I work at Kraechar Arms as the president and senior engineer. I have my own little workshop where I develop special projects to help out the refuge and the Yanibar Guard.
 * Ryion: Like what kind of special projects?
 * Sarth: Well, right now, I'm working on a fast swoop-like vehicle that's supposed to be used by elite forces that need low-observable high-mobility vehicles.
 * Ryion: So you're making a super-fast, hard-to-detect swoop? Is it armed?
 * Sarth: Yes.
 * Ryion: Can I fly one? Please?
 * Sarth: . . . we'll see. I think I'd probably need to get that cleared with your parents first. Anyway, they're still in the testing stages.
 * Ryion: Have you flown one yet?
 * Sarth: Not quite. My swoop-flying days are over.
 * Ryion: You used to fly swoops?
 * Sarth: Once or twice. It was pretty terrifying&mdash;even back in the day, I was never that great at actual combat. It scared me more than just about anything.
 * Ryion: What was your worst fight?
 * Sarth: Hard to say. It was either that time where I nearly blacked out inside an Imperial Star Destroyer during a blasterfight, or when we were captured by Tyber Zann. Both of those were pretty awful.
 * Ryion: But you're still alive.
 * Sarth: Yes, but that was far from certain at the time.
 * Ryion: Did you used to go on a lot of missions?
 * Sarth: That was a long time ago. Your father was always more of the "go on a mission" sort than me. Much better with a lightsaber, too.
 * Ryion: Have you ever beaten him?
 * Sarth: Not that I can remember. He was training with lightsabers before I barely knew what they were and his natural Force skills are much greater than mine. When it comes to lightsaber dueling, I don't think that there's anyone better on this colony than Selusda Kraen. We both have strengths, though.
 * Ryion: Did you ever go on any really strange missions?
 * Sarth: Hmmm. Probably the time Cassi and I went looking for an old mentor of mine, Nasdra Magrody. We never did find him, but we rescued his wife and daughter, only to be captured ourselves. Another one might be the time I rescued Selu, of all things, by flying into a hostile planet and chasing off a Dark Jedi.
 * Ryion: You chased off a Dark Jedi? How did you do that?
 * Sarth: Actually, I probably shouldn't say too much more. I'm not sure how much of all that has been de-classified.
 * Ryion: Oh. Well, uh, how about some caf or tea?
 * Sarth: Uh . . . no thanks.
 * Ryion: It's just a filler question while I come up with something better. So, anyway, what's the best part of working at Kraechar Arms?
 * Sarth: Due to my position in the company, I have a lot of freedom with what I research and develop. That's very welcome as a design engineer, knowing that I can use a fair amount of resources without having someone looking over my shoulder. It's also a lot of responsibility, but I've been pretty careful.
 * Ryion: Do you have a favorite invention?
 * Sarth: Well, I'm not completely certain, but I think my next invention will be favorite.
 * Ryion: Okay, thanks for your time and your answers.

Interview ends.