Late 960 ARR (40 BBY)
I was two hours into my shift without any customers coming into Zomir's Droids. I was occupying myself taking part and putting back together a broken R4 droid, that looked like it had been through multiple ship crashes.
R4s were a budget option and among the most common astromech droids in the galaxy, especially popular among rim worlds like Naboo. I wasn't sure how it had ended up in this sorry condition. The damage to its mechanical components meant it was beyond saving, but it was good practice at least.
After months of working in the shop and evening classes, I was turning out to be a half-decent droid tech for my age. Given that many of my peers had begun tinkering as small children, this was quite an achievement. Once you got your head round the nonsense, it really wasn't that much harder than assembling a PC on Earth, just with less consistency in the outcome. You could do everything perfectly, and still end up with a droid that stubbornly refuses to power up or one which spontaneously catches fire.
R4-B8 really was a mess inside, but there might be just enough useful parts in him for something. The astrogation processor was completely fried, half the sensors were missing, many of its tools were little more than scrap metal, but at least the central droid-brain seemed intact.
"It's a lost cause." Zomir said as he strolled in from his lunchbreak. "There's got to be something worth salvaging." I replied, more in hope than real expectation, "The droid-brain maybe?" I added pointing to one of the few unburned components. "That's the first piece anyone with an R4 droid upgrades, it's one of the corners they cut to make the model cheap enough for the outer rim." Zomir explained, then added to my surprise "You know what, you can have him, maybe you can scavenge enough other bits and pieces to make something useful."
At this point I'd been collecting all sorts of small cheap pieces of tech that I could get with my modest salary, to give me things to tinker with. Some of the local market stalls sold half-decent older datapads which I had been gleefully dismantling and reassembling in my bedroom/workshop/junkyard. I'd splashed out and bought a pair of broken holo-communicators. Personal holocomms aren't cheap, marketed as a luxury for business leaders and military uses, so even the broken spare parts were pricey.
Even a critically damaged astromech droid, was a generous gift, and I expressed my gratitude to Zomir, who waved it off and left me to my tinkering. I must have been doing a better job than I realised if my boss actually likes me, though I suppose I keep him from having to talk to customers himself.
---
"So you have an astromech? But why, you don't have a ship!"
Kyla, Gavin and I were sat in a small square near where Gavin and I both worked, which had become a favourite spot for us. It was a pleasant afternoon as it always seemed to be in Theed, with a light refreshing breeze taking the edge off the sun, which hung low in the sky.
"I don't really have an astromech, it can't navigate or repair anything, just trying to make it into something useful to have around." I explained again. "If you want more friends, you could try talking to people, rather than making one out of scrap." she replied, extracting a quiet laugh from Gavin.
Gavin was not the chatty type, preferring to let me and Kyla bicker away while he sipped his caf. I couldn't stand caf, it was like coffee but far too strong my own tastes. Being English, all I ever really needed was a nice cup of tea. I had been working my way through the myriad varieties available to find the best substitute for my familiar breakfast tea. My current favourite was Deychin, but I felt more research was needed on this important matter.
"I'm sure R4 will be much more interesting to talk to than you." I snapped back at Kyla, earning a glare of mock offense, "I think I preferred you before you could speak basic." she concluded.
I had no good response to that, she always seemed to get the last word in.
---
A week later, Kyla had dragged me and Gavin along to the 827th 'Festival of Light' abetted by her old school friend Asherré who was studying to be an architect. The festival marked the anniversary of Naboo joining the Galactic Republic, and was the closest thing to Christmas, though perhaps more like Diwali, that the planet celebrated. Throughout the afternoon we wandered through a crowded pop-up market, with the stalls decorated in flamboyantly bright colours, with lanterns hung like Christmas lights throughout the city, waiting to be lit in the evening ceremony.
I didn't initially click with Asherré, who was more interested in art than science or tech, though had at least given me some amusement in her ramblings "What kind of a name is Smith? It's like being called Baker or Gardener, who has a name like that?!" My name going from as generic as can be in England, to conversational novelty on Naboo hadn't gotten old… yet.
As the sun went down, we headed for the central plaza, where thousands were gathering for the main event. We managed to edge through to get a half decent view of the main stage, with various sounds emanating from the musicians of the Royal Theed Orchestra as they warmed up. Various robed officials were taking their seats in VIP box behind the stage.
Kyla who at least read the headlines of the local news each morning on the holonet, started pointing them out to me. Most eminent of these were the newly elected Governor Bibble, who sounded a bit like a Prime Minister seated next to the veteran galactic senator Palpatine. I'd never had much interest in politics on Earth, unless you count the obligatory protests against high tuition fees, and I didn't really pay any more attention here.
The orchestra struck up a classical sounding tune before Bibble rose to address the crowd. He came across as every bit the kindly grandfather he looked, though I soon lost interest in what he was saying, being far more distracted by the sights around in the crowd. Bibble was followed by Palpatine, who was slowly recounting the history of Naboo in the Republic, which having already read about it was even more boring than Bibble.
I was getting increasingly fidgety and restless, on Earth I'd be able to play with my smart phone or something, here I was trapped standing still, surrounded by an audience taking the occasion far more seriously than I could. Palpatine perked up at the end of his speech and pompously introduced the King of Naboo, Veruna, a bald middle-aged man in robes so gaudy and extravagant they made the others look underdressed.
Coming from the UK on Earth, a King was a familiar concept, though this was the first time I'd seen a monarch in person, albeit from a distance. He proceeded to give his own long speech about history and tradition. In this moment, it did occur to me how the leadership of the planet seemed to be dominated by white, older, human men, though as this was little different to western nations on Earth I gave it little further thought. Eugh, what I would give to be playing Pokemon or even snake right now.
Eventually Veruna managed to draw his remarks to close and move over to a large brazier, taking a lit torch from an aid and lighting it, to thunderous cheering and applause. Moments later, the lanterns throughout the city lit up in a range of warm colours, before a rocket shot up from behind the palace, beginning what was,I had to admit, the most spectacular fireworks display I had ever seen. Kyla gave me an enthusiastic hug "Light bless you, John", before embracing her friend and brother.
We then headed to the 'Leaky Hyperdrive' a packed café/bar or, as Gavin insisted it be called, a cantina. Given hyperdrive leaks are extremely toxic it seemed an odd name for a cantina, but what did I know. We all sat out on a veranda, enjoying the warm evening with a view of some of the lights, working our way through a few bottles of Tarul wine, which was one of the few things other than plasma actually produced on Naboo.
I can't really remember what happened after that, as for the first time in my life in either galaxy I was completely drunk. Gavin reliably informed me that I sang some song in English which they couldn't understand before he half carried me back to our apartment. Overall, a pretty decent night out.
---
Is it a droid if it can't move, communicate or remember anything? A question for philosophers to ponder I suppose. On my desk was an Intellex III droid-brain, salvaged from R4-B8, plugged into a battery and a datapad I had managed to configure to display diagnostic information. As far as I can tell, it was working, for what little that meant in this condition. With the original datacore having partially melted and the language encoder missing, I was kinda stuck at this point.
Still, using the pad to run a performance check showed that the droid-brain was working when asked to undertake various test calculations and logic puzzles. This is all well and good but unless I can give it any new tasks it really is little more than a paperweight. Besides, even when working properly, R4 droids can't speak as such. Instead, they communicate basic ideas through series of beeps that even protocol droids sometimes struggle to fully interpret.
When I first learned about astromech droids I wanted to know why you couldn't just install translation functions into them, combining them with a protocol droid. The short answer is protocol droid-brains are completely different at both a software and hardware level. Protocol droids are also a lot more complex and expensive. JX was one or only three available at the largest hospital on Naboo, which I belated realised showed just how generous the care I received had been, to have him on hand to teach me basic.
It is possible to connect two droid-brains together, into a sort of hybrid, but there's no guarantee they'll actually work together. In these configurations, it wasn't unusual for one or other of the droid 'minds' to go insane.
Out of curiosity, I attempted to access the R4's source code. Unlike an Earth computer, the 'operating system' is stored in special storage within the droid-brain rather than the data storage (like a hard drive).
I can't begin to describe the wall of nonsense that was now streaming across the datapad. It turns out near sentient AI is a combination of alphabet soup, hieroglyphs and the deranged scribbling of a toddler on a sugar high. Zomir's explanation had been no exaggeration, this was surely a dead end.
---
Lying in bed that night, I found myself pondering what it was I wanted to accomplish here. My new life was pleasant, I was mostly enjoying my work and studies, even if it wasn't particularly exciting. With my growing technical skills, I could look to get a job on a ship or another world, but by all accounts, my life would probably be far less comfortable as a mere technician in most of the galaxy, there were real perks to being a Naboo citizen.
My thoughts drifted to what I'd be doing in my old life, working for some big tech company, maybe even a video game designer if I was lucky. I could be creating smartphone apps, while in the here and now I don't even have a smartphone or anything close. Heh, on Earth I'd probably be playing with my phone right now, doomscrolling through endless videoclips as anyone who can't sleep ends up doing….maybe this galaxy is better off without all that…but I do miss it.
---
The following evening, I was sitting in class, trying with difficulty to pay attention to a lecture on the workings of holoprojectors. Holo tech is kinda cool, but the mechanics behind it really aren't that complicated. When I thought about it, blue flickering 3D images aren't really superior in practice to what we could do with LCD and LED screens on Earth. Colour holos were possible if temperamental, but they were not used for communications as the bandwidth requirements were tremendously more than the monochromatic, though I had no idea why that would be the case.
I was sat next to a girl around my age who I hadn't noticed in the class before. On Earth I'd say she was mixed-race though that didn't really mean the same thing in this galaxy, with dark hair styled in long a plat down her back.
She turned and looked at me, which prompted me to realise I had been staring at her rather than the riveting presentation from the front of the room. My eyes snapped back to the front until the end of the class, trying not to look anything other than studious.
I packed my bag hurriedly at the end of the class, attempting to make a dignified retreat. "Not into holotech then?" I turned to see the girl still there making no effort to leave, looking at me with an evident smirk as the room emptied around us. "Oh, what makes you say that?" I defended pitifully. "You looked like your mind was elsewhere." to which I replied an articulate "erm". "Rana" she said, to which I could only stare again at her intense brown eyes, "My name is Rana, and you are…". "Oh I'm John" I managed to communicate at last.