So named because it is located one thousand, three hundred, and thirteen levels from the core of Coruscant, Level 1313 is distanced from the politics of the upper levels. Overlooking the chasm burrowing further into Coruscant’s core, one can watch freighters transporting their illicit cargo between levels. One misstep would send the careless careening into the bottomless pit, or aid the local gangs in staging “accidents.”

Weathered duracrete forms the retainer along the chasm wall, built in concentric rings that descend down an untold height. Strengthened with solid durasteel braces, maintenance has not been needed this far into Coruscant for a long time. Nevertheless, droids pre-programmed to fill in the cracks and crevices that might form in the walls float on repulsorlifts without drawing attention from the criminal gangs. The gangs themselves are focused on their next smuggling operation or struggle for control over Coruscant’s scum-filled underbelly.

A figure slowly trudged their way across the almost-darkness, with only the lights of vessels flying outside puncturing the night. The figure appeared to reach its destination, but soon after a blood-curdling scream erupted and filled the darkness.

“What the hell happened?!” the Regent of the Brotherhood, Evant Taelyn, shouted out as he came around the corner, slapping the lights on at the same time.

“The coffee isn’t made!” his Praetor, Halcyon Rokir Taldrya, responded back as he looked despondently at an empty coffee carafe.

“Wait, that was your scream?”

“Didn’t you hear me? There. Is. No. Coffee!”

“Ok, fine, there is no coffee. I’m going back to bed.”

“Wait, are you in your full robes? Do you sleep in your robes?”

“One must always be prepared and looking immaculate,” Evant responded, lifting his head a little bit higher to ensure he looked sufficiently regal.

“Just didn’t know you liked your dresses so much.”

“This is not a dress! This is proper attire for one of my stature! And what are you even wearing? Your pants are almost at your chest and you don’t even have a shirt on!”

“I will have you know that this is the current trend in sleep wear. A high-waisted pant with no shirt. It’s all the rage in the Outer Rim.”

“I’m sure it is, along with marrying your cousin,” Evant scoffed. “Now, I’m going back to bed. I will assume there will be some coffee when I wake up.”

“There sure will be, since you’ll be making it right this minute.”

“You’re the one who’s already awake!”

“And you’re the one who dragged me to the middle of the galaxy, and instead of staying someplace decent decided to shack up on whatever stupid level of Coruscant this is. Which, by the way, smells like everyone decided to bathe in coolant.”

“You know very well that this meeting is important to the Brotherhood. THere will be chaos otherwise, and our patron insisted at meeting on this level.”

“Yes, I know, the great coat pandemic. Why you guys didn’t put in an order for proper coats years ago is beyond me. I guess people forgot that not everyone wants to wear a dress.”

“This is not a dress!”

“Sure, and I’m not biased at all. Now, get the damn coffee!”

“No. As your Regent, I command that you make the coffee and ensure that there is a hot pot ready for me when I awake.”

There was silence for a moment, as both men looked at each other, before Halcyon suddenly fell to his knees in uncontrollable laughter.

“This is not funny! I will need my coffee!” Evant commanded, stomping his foot for effect, which only increased Halcyon’s laughter.

“Evant, you are too much,” Halcyon finally said as he managed to get control of his laughter and stand back up. “But really, go make the coffee like a good and responsible man you are, while the guy who can whip you around this room like a ragdoll goes to sit down for a bit.”

“I have commanded you!”

“And I have ignored you!” Halcyon countered, mocking Evant’s tone of voice.

The men stared down one another, neither giving an inch, as the empty carafe of coffee stood between them.

Tension and silence in the small dimly lit pocket along the wall of the gaping chasm was broken by a flood of beeps and chimes that grew louder as an MSE droid zipped into the room and crashed into the foot of a table, followed by a filthy R5-series astromech whose original color was forgotten long ago.

“Look you woke up the droids,” Evant said accusingly, looking for just about anything to blame Halc for. A little on edge at such an early hour and without any coffee in his system.

“Stop your whining. Who cares if droids are awake?” Halc laughed in response to the feeble attempt to cast blame. The MSE droid rolled backward and nearly rolled over Halc’s bare feet but the Prophet quickly lifted his foot and pushed it down into the droid pinning it to the floor instead. “Careful where you’re going little guy if you know what’s good for you.”

The R5 unit bleated in response and rotated its head back and forth. Evant rolled his eyes and responded to the droids inquiry, “Nothing is broken, Halc was just making a bit of a commotion as he made coffee.”

“Look, you need coffee, I need sleep. I’ll have myself a fresh cup of your brew when I wake back up,” Halc responded, giving the MSE droid a nudge as it zipped away and out of sight into a small hole on the ground as he starting to walk towards the door.

Straightening his robe Evant stood tall again trying to impose some sense of authority to the situation where there clearly was none, “We all need coffee.”

The droid beeped in a low tone.

“No I know you don’t need coffee, I meant those of us who consume caffeine need coffee.”

The droid beeped in a higher pitch now.

“Stop annoying the droid and get some coffee brewing, and then go back to bed Evant,” Halc laughed as he started to walk away again shaking his head, carefully choosing each step to avoid whatever grime covered the floors.

The droid bleated cheerfully and extended a tool from a hidden compartment, opening a door to a cupboard. Evant sighed and looked at Halc not sure what to say to get his way as the Prophet turned and glared at the R5 droid and then looked up at Evant, “What’s that droid doing? Droid what are you doing?”

The R5 beeped and chimed in response.

“What’d it say?” Halc asked looking at Evant, “It’s making coffee isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it would seem so..”

Halc reached out his hand and lifted the droid, effortlessly tossing it the short distance to the bottomless pit and sending it deeper into the lower levels of Coruscant towards the planet’s surface as it beeped in protest.

“No,” Halc smiled, “That’s the job of the Regent. He commands it to be so.”

Evant’s mouth gaped as he stared at Halcyon, “What in the hell did you just do?”

“The droid wanted to help. I gave it some time off instead,” Halcyon smirked.

“Do you know how much effort and time it takes to procure and put together even a single droid? Do you?!”

“Uh, I mean, a little, but there’s a ton of droids and models like that one are fairly easy to replace in the end. I mean, if it bothers you so much I’ll be sure to leave a couple extra credits on the table once we leave this disgusting place.”

Evant could only shake his head in sorrow, a small “tsk tsk” sound emanating from under his breath. “No Halc, it’s no so simple. Here, let me show you.”

From seemingly thin-air a rectangular board made of a shiny white material appeared, along with its own built-in stand. Evant quickly set it up, a black marker appearing in his hand.

“Wait, Evant, where did that whiteboard come from? What else can you fit in that dress of yours?”

“It. Is. Not. A. Dress!” Evant seethed, before calming himself and turning back to the whiteboard, “And one never knows when others must be educated on logistics!”

Halcyon could only stare in both shock and horror as Evant delved into the entire supply chain of how a droid is made, beginning with how the universe was first made and how the basic elements were formed.

-- 12 Hours Later --

“Now, once the metal has been formed into the correct shape we may begin putting form and function together. Ah, but how does the droid function with just metal you may ask? Well, that involves even more technology, which we shall now turn to as we delve into the world of electronics and circuitry and see what it takes for that to get to the form we recognize.”

“Evant,” Halcyon managed to croak for what seemed to be the millionth time.

“What is it, Halc?” Evant turned, looking at his Praetor in annoyance, “We’re just getting to the exciting part. The process for photoreceptors is especially fascinating as you will not believe the amount of hands they pass through!”

“You’ve been talking for over twelve hours. We missed that meeting, which was the whole reason we’re here for.”

“Oh,” was all Evant could say, as he scratched at the side of his head.

“And we still don’t have any coffee.” “Oh.”

“Right. And I’m pretty sure I want to murder you at this point too.”

“Oh.”

“Actually, correction, I am certain I want to kill you. But you know what might take the edge off?” Halc said exhaustedly, his gaze fixated on the Regent, interrupting again before he could speak, “Coffee. Exactly.”

“Well, we would have coffee now, had you not, you know, so carelessly ended that droid,” Evant stuttered, tripping over his words as he shifted his mindset away from the complex supply chain supporting the galaxies droid manufacturing back to matters at hand.

“An action I regret only for having resultantly endured your stream of consciousness on droid supply chain best practices and continuity of supply risks posed by unstable governments and pirate groups. Which by the way I do feel like we should exploit. But besides that, do you honestly think it was going to make drinkable coffee? I probably saved our lives.”

“You know what, at this point, I don’t even care what it tastes like,” Evant said exhaustedly, snapping the cap back onto his black marker and abandoning the lesson.

“Do you also not care who makes it?”

“I care,” Evant said defiantly, mustering what little energy he had left to stand upright.

“You know what else, there was probably coffee at the meeting we missed,” Halc said amusingly as he picked himself up from the chair he settled into hours ago and stretched his muscles.

“There was coffee,” a new voice stated, alerting the two who spun around to notice Yacks near the coffee maker, “but where the frak were you idiots?”

Both stood silently, not sure what to say just fixated on the coffee maker. Yacks attempted to get their attention but neither seemed focused.

Yacks spoke again after getting no response, “Also,checkout was six hours ago, and now we had to pay for an extra night this drukhole of a place, which considering we’re the only people staying here wasn’t much of an issue but,” the Prophet paused confused why neither seemed attentive of his presence which normally wouldn’t bother him but he just had to attend a meeting alone as the only representative and do all the work where he had expected to just sit around and look important and imposing, “seriously, the frak is wrong with you two?”

“We need coffee,” Evant said exhaustedly setting his black pen on the tray at the base of the easel to his whiteboard.

“We do,” Halc added, “Evant has been coming up with hours worth of excuses to skirt his responsibility.”

“It’s easy to skirt when there is no responsibility to be found of me having to be the one who makes with the coffee drink.”

“I really hate both of you,” Yacks said, pouring himself a cup of fresh coffee from the pot in the room and noticing the whiteboard, “that’s also a terrible drawing of a photoreceptor, and you should feel bad for having drawn it.”

As Yacks walked out of the room shaking his head in disapproval the two walked over to the coffee pot, with Halc flipping over a few cups on the table and Evant pouring some of the precious coffee into both. It was as if nothing had mattered, as the cups touched their lips and the steaming black liquid found its way into their mouths. Smiles formed on both their faces for the first time that day.

“Delicious,” Evant said to nobody in particular lost in the moment.

“Yacks should always make the coffee,” Halc responded, taking another sip.

“You think he’s really mad about the meeting?” Evant asked.

“He can’t possibly hate us more than he already does, or be any more mad about literally everything. I’d say everything will proceed as normal,” Halc responded as the two began to head for the exit.

“I should probably go ask him for his notes,” Evant said lost in thought.

“Yeah, you should also probably go look for that droid you love so much so we can return it, might pay for the extra night we had to book.”

Evant peered down the bottomless pit, “How the frak am I supposed to ever find that droid? It’s probably on the planet’s surface.”

“I don’t know, going down there where it landed is probably a good first step,” Halc said as he mustered what energy he had left to push the Regent into the pit.

“I don’t care this much!” Evant yelled out, “it was probably only a couple hundred cre…”, the last legible words as he kept falling out of sight and Halc could no longer make out what was being said.

Halc looked around and noticed he was finally alone. Smiling as he walked back to get some more sleep.