"You're doing a good job of it."

Smile.

"Thanks. I try."

He smiles back.

He has a lovely smile, and she doesn't even want to kiss it, she just wants him to hold her again, it was so nice...

"Doctor Gelrath wasn't so much wasted potential, he had a perfectly nice job that I stole him from. With bribery." Smirk.

"What sort of bribery?"

"I promised him better equipment, more mobility throughout the galaxy, and access to some archival data that most people aren't allowed to see. Also better hours and more freedom. ... And better pay."

"As bribes go, that one sounds pretty nice."

"I take my bribery seriously. When I bribe, I aim to win."

"Is there anything you don't aim to win at?"

"I haven't started trying to become a pilot or something! If I were aiming to win at everything, I'd have more hobbies."

"So it's just a matter of time, then? I should start logging more hours in my X-wing."

She laughs.

"I didn't say that. Your pilot status is safe from me." Fond smile.

"I just - if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it right. So this ends up as aiming to win most things that I do."

"I can understand that. Wanting to do things right."

"Yeah. ... Also, Sith. I don't know if you've noticed, but we don't really do things halfway, as a rule. It's all or nothing. Even if the all is really stupid superweapons - I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just really annoying."

"You know, I think I actually forgot to tell you the other half of that story."

"Other half?

"They built a second Death Star. After the first was destroyed."

Callida takes a long, passive aggressive swig of hot chocolate.

After she has done this, she says, "Of course they did. How long did this one last."

"It was a few years before we found where it was under construction."

"Okay but once you found it, how long did it take for you to blow it up."

"Maybe a month."

"Ah huh. Do you know what I call that, Luke? An unsound investment. Also known as fucking idiotic."

Yeah, that's exactly what he was expecting.

"Please tell me it did not have time to get its planet explosion abilities up and running before you blew it up."

"It did, but they didn't use it against any planets. Just our fleet."