A jedi's lightsaber

[Hunk]

"A fine room," Hunk thought to himself as he took a seat at the desk in the small room he called his own. He was pleased to see that it remained empty in his absense, allowing him to settle right back in. Though sparsely furnished, with only a bed and a large desk, it was warm and inviting to all that might drop by. Several padded mats and some cusion lay in a pile in the corner, and could be used to accomodate a group of visitors.

But there were no vsitors here right now, for Hunk was preparing to begin a long and arduous task: the construction of a lightsaber. From a small bag he carried with him, he spilled numerous electrical parts onto the table. Parts scavenged from a variety of defunct droids, and a vibro-pike, in a ddition to several parts he had purchased specially for this task. But most important of all were the crystals.

He removed from a pocket on his vest a small velvet bag, inside of which were two Adegan crystals, purchased at a hefty price from a Toydarian trader.

He had the parts, he had the knowledge, he had the patience. Now all that remained was the time. Closing his eyes, Hunk cleared his mind of all thoughts and allowed the force to flow through him. Going into a deep trance, he prepared to begin...

[Hunk]

He came out of the trance calm and focused. Construction began by taking the stylized handgrip he had constructed and opening it in two halves. On one part, he inserted a activation switch, bought from a parts dealer. After fastening it in place, he added a pair of pressure sensative, safety switches, ensuring that no one would be able to accidentally activate the saber without having it held in a safe position. In addition, he inserted several diagnostic controls into the lower part of the hilt; they were formerly droid parts, and would now serve to provide a power readout, among other things. All these swicthes and controls had to be carefully attached the controlling board, a simple, but tiny pice of circuitry.

The lightsaber would need power, of course, at Hunk's would recieve it from a Slayne & Korpil Mk-77 micro fusion generator, taken from a fusion cutter. Though rather large, it provided a great deal of power and, if needed, it could be plugged into a standard recharger. He carefully placed it in the base of the hilt, fastened it down, and attached it to the circuit board.

The next step involved the all-important crystals; it would be the most difficult part of the construction and the true test of his patience and attention to detail. He took the two crystals, one large and a smaller, focusing crystal, and placed them in position. Alligning them would be a difficult task, and would take some time.

[Hunk]

Sweat poured from Hunk's face as he continued to make minute adjustments with his fingers. He had spent the last 8 hours fiddling with the placement of the crystals, assuring that they would have the perfect resonance, providing a dependable blade of plasma. Eyes were closed, they were of no use here; the force was his eyes, it was his ears, it was his fingers. The force told him how to place the crystals.

*CLICK*

There was a mental tick that told him when the crystals were perfectly placed. Carefully taking one hand away, hardly breathing, he took a mounting bracket a placed it gently over the larger crystal. Equally careful, he took the micro-fusion welder from the table and made the few tiny welds that held the bracket in place. He repeated the process with the second crystal, sighing in triumph and exhaustion. The process had been exhausting, and he would need to rest before finishing construction.

[Hunk]

(the next day)

The hardest part was over, the crystals were in place, the saber was ready to be finished. The final pieces were all common parts, scavenged from various energy weapons. The first was a lens, which was placed directly above the all-important crystals. Above this, Hunk attached in place a coupling, to which was screwed a high-energy flux aperture.

With the final component in place, Hunk attached the other half of the handgrip. He wouldn't activate it yet, he would first use the force to examine the saber down to the smallest bit of circuitry, assuring that everything was connected correctly. He set the saber on the floor, and sat, cross-legged before it. Fortunately, he had eaten and drunk only a few hours earlier, for he would spend at least the next 6 hours in a state of deep meditation, examining the saber. He settled himself in position, closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, and sank into a state of deep meditation

[Hunk]

(8 hours later)

Hunk opened his eyes slowly and eyed the saber. The diagnostic had taken longer than expected, there were quite a few malfunctions--he had been sloppy in his construction. One of the pressure switches was defective, the other was improperly installed; the circuit board attached to the aparture was not properly fastened to the casing and threatened to shake loose in the heat of combat; and there was a small crack in the handgrip itself.

He took the saber, placed it on the table, and settled in to begin repairs. The switches were both easily repaired and replaced, and the circuit board was re-fastened to the casing. The crack was a small one, and could be ignored, it shouldn't turn out to be a problem. Again, he placed the saber on the floor and sank into a meditative state, examining every component with care.

[Hunk]

(6 hours later)

Finished.

The lightsaber was finished. He had spent the last few hours making sure, but Hunk believed his construction was now finished.
He reached out and took the saber in his hand, fingers running along the soon-to-be familiar contours. Flexing his hands slightly, he moved his thumb to the slide box activation switch. Now was when he would find out if he had performed the earlier tasks with the needed precision skill and concentration. If he did, he would have a weapon of amazing power, if he failed, he would have start over, at the very least. If the worst happened, he could be seriously hurt by the resulting explosion.

Calming his nerves, he slid the switch smoothly to the "on" position.

The weapon burst to life as the blade emerged with a sharp snap-hiss. The golden yellow blade shimmered as if alive and its hum filled the room with it's soothing song. Hunk could only look at the sabre and smile.