Well yes, River had a point. Sometimes people had to make mistakes in order to further progress. Mistakes really were the way people learned what needed to be corrected in order to move technology forward. It had been true in her universe, and it was true here. People could only use what they had at their fingertips, so clearly nothing was perfect. Sometimes disaster was needed to happen in order for the next step in technological advancement to be better and safer.
When River got up to grab some paper and a pen, Mara glanced over at Luke for a moment. It was difficult to keep herself from going after Jacen right now, but she was trying. Her need for vengeance was subsiding little by little at least. Meditation helped, but also keeping her focus on Luke and River helped. As long as she could focus on her love and allow herself to exert her maternal side, she wouldn't suddenly disappear and find Jacen. The last thing anyone needed was her confronting and fighting Jacen right now. Even Mara herself didn't exactly want to fight him. It would only make the situation all the worse, and that wasn't something she wanted. She wanted to make it better, so keeping her focus on things that wouldn't nurture the vengeance within her had to do.
Looking back at River as she began to sketch, Mara slid off the couch and moved to kneel beside her, looking at the sketch. Running a hand through her hair, she pulled her red locks over one shoulder to keep it from obstructing her view. Now she was able to follow River's drawing and explanation. She wasn't exactly a mechanic, but she had done enough odds-and-ends jobs in her life to know these kinds of things. So she nodded in understanding when River pointed out what needed to be rewired.
"It would seem that they discovered that afterwards and were able to engineer a new one that would not suffer the same fate." She smiled at River, thinking, not for the first time, that the girl was incredibly intelligent. Mara respected that, and it made her a bit sad to know that someone had tortured her. People really could be so cruel sometimes. But she was glad that River was able to have periods of lucidity. "Sometimes it does take a tragedy to highlight the short comings of things so that they can be made better."