"It does, but I find it immensely frustrating anyway."

"It'd probably work better if it wasn't run by Sith."

Sigh. "Probably. With Sith they sort of - they don't play well together. It feels less like three branches of the same military and more like three separate armies that only grudgingly don't kill each other."

"Sounds like the early days of the Rebel Alliance."

"It sounds like you solved it, though. The Sith - if anything, we're getting more and more fractured. None of us liked the Emperor, but he brought stability. Doesn't help that about a third of the Dark Council died at Corellia seven years ago, and most of the replacements haven't been very, ah. Stable."

"It would be a waste if you were dragged down with them."

"Persistent, aren't you."

"You deserve to live the life you want to live."

"Well, yes. But so does everyone. And, really, much as I'll complain about the Sith, I don't precisely mind being one."

"If you're sure."

"If I could fit everything I wanted to through the door... Maybe. I think I'm inclined to be a doorstop for an hour so Occlus can investigate this bar, too, so perhaps my answer will change. And at the very least, if there's any technology - medical especially, as I'll understand if you hesitate to relay other technology to a Sith Lord - that you'd like to impart from the future..." She smiles. "Well, I wouldn't say no."

"I think you'd put it to a good use."

"I absolutely would," she agrees, smiling brilliantly.

...He blushes a little. Then gets up and goes to the door. He opens it and pulls out his comlink.

"Artoo, can you pull down a copy of the latest Encyclopedia Technica and bring it up to my apartment? Yes, all the volumes. And, uh, better bring a reader too. Yes, I know you're helping with the X-wing but this is important. No, it's kind of a secret. You'll see when you get here."

Aw, he's cute when he blushes.

"Thank you, I appreciate it," she says, once he's done. "I think I'm going to go ask about the rules of how this place works while you doorstop for my benefit, if you don't mind. I can even get my free drink."

"Go ahead."

So she goes and gently interrogates Bar for how the place works, ending up with a stack of explanatory napkins and one pink drink with colorful bubbles and a tiny orange umbrella.

And eventually a blue and white astromech shows up and passes Luke a datapad, and beeps inquisitively about the bar where the floor plan indicates there should be a 'fresher. He does his best to alleviate the confusion and the droid eventually departs, with a somewhat skeptical squeak.

Callida listens with half an ear, reading the explanatory napkins and sipping her fabulous drink.

She thanks Bar politely for the drink and the conversation, and returns to her seat at the booth.

"Bar mentioned there's a translation effect in play, so if we actually leave Milliways we might stop being mutually intelligible. Also, there's a number of things I can buy from her directly, she doesn't just sell food and drinks. And she accepts all kinds of currency, and rents out rooms. Staff get rooms in exchange for doing various kinds of work - security, janitorial, there's even a med bay."

"Sounds useful if you wanted to stay a while."

"According to Bar, there's a whole multiverse, filled with strange people, stranger places, foreign technology, materials, and lifeforms, and different types of magic." She's smiling, again. "So I thought I'd take a job in security and stay for a while."

"Sounds exciting. Mind if I stick around too?"

"Not at all. Though you hardly need my permission, it's a public bar."

"You might want to discover the secrets of the multiverse without a Jedi looking over your shoulder."

"I will magnanimously tolerate your presence."