Actor Out Of Work

[Ugoto Chivaro]

FORT AMARANTH
MEETING ROOM

3:28 PM ON A TAUNGSDAY

With a great and pained intake of breath, Tytos closed shut the folder in front of him and slid it to his right, back in front of Felix. The Arconan accepted the folder back, sliding it back into his own binder as Tytos closed his eyes and leaned back into his meeting chair. For that moment, Tytos Ardik looked peaceful. Contemplative. Almost as if he was meditating. But the people gathered in the meeting room knew better than that. This was just an old man gathering his strength for the next round of indignant questioning, of searing interrogation.

Tytos was not a yelling sort, however. His vitriol was somewhat more collected. His eyes snapped open, and he came forward, hands folding in front of him on the table. "Somebody is about to tell me what an Itash is, and why it's now in charge of manufacturing essential equipment."

A few seats down sat Ji Shun, eyes obscured by sunglasses as usual. "Not me. I'm the military stuff. I don't keep watch on where the weapons come from, or what the manufacturers are up to." The Weequay was playing with a stylus, balancing it the tip of a finger. Clearly he was convinced of his innocence, otherwise he would have been more nervous. Or he would at least pretend to be nervous, like a good officer would.

By that measure, none of these people were good officers.

"Digital athhets and thecurity hath alwayth been my area," Felix said, lisping to all hell as usual. "Not that I ever dreamed Corondeth would require regular checking up on. I don't even think we have too many thpies with them, and definitely not plathed high enough to thee thith coming, or thtop..."

Excuses, excuses. The Corporate Sector where Corondex made its home was outside of the Helix Syndicate's usual sphere of influence. Resources there were limited compared to the Alignment, or even Hutt Space. But Corondex was tied to them. They had an arrangement, they should have been watching and they weren't. Clumsy. Complacent. Nothing good ever happened to big organizations that got clumsy and complacent, and Tytos expressed this with the glare that eventually forced Felix to trail off.

The only executive left to testify was seated next to Shun: Casta'obaiwe'doresh - more politely (and efficiently) referred to as Miss Doresh. The Chiss woman was essentially Ardik's bureaucratic enforcer, executing the day to day tasks required to unfold his vision for the Syndicate's agenda. It was rare of her to show up anywhere in person, if only because she was constantly seeing to something or another. In the context of quality inspections, a personal visit from Miss Doresh was not much more welcome than one from Tytos. Someone was bound to end up on the wrong side of an airlock regardless.

Well, maybe not today. The puck stopped with her, and Miss Doresh was not likely to end up on the other side of that airlock. Not without a big fight, maybe a civil war. "Tapani exile. He mostly keeps to the Corporate Sector; runs Didact Defense Solutions, some ties to GenPals. I'm still looking into it. He wasn't on the radar until Corondex gave itself to him."

"And now he sells us guns. We're stuck in a contract with this, this nobody, and we don't even know - Wait, you said give? Give itself? As in, for free?"

Felix chimed in again, shaking his head. "There'th no record of a tranthaction I can find."

S sounds might have given the Arconan some trouble, but the resources at his disposal were quite extensive as was his own expertise in digging them up. If there was no financial paper trail to be found, it meant there was no financial paper trail at all.

Faced with this realization, Tytos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. The Helix Syndicate's preferred weapons manufacturing company had simply, without prior warning or indication of intent, plopped itself right down into Mecetti's lap. Apropos of nothing. How typical. How exceptionally - what was it? Par the course, his cousin would have said.

Some people just had all the luck.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

"Foolish, foolish, foolish," Tytos muttered, tapping a finger to his chin.

This would need to be resolved. The deal with Corondex had been a leftover from a previous administration, one that was mostly based on some idiot secret society that - from what Tytos knew - no longer had regular meetings. There was a working relation with Fa Holdings that had risen from that era, same as Corondex. Helix had maintained these ties as part of a status quo promised to be kept. During those times, Tytos imagined his predecessor and the young whelp that headed Corondex were never more than a holo-call away from direct contact. It was a relation built on trust rather than control.

In other words, a stupid relation for stupid people.

Guns were of vital importance to the Syndicate. Far too vital to be left completely in the hands of contractors - Arceneau Trade was different. That trade company was such a bewildering juggernaut of backwater dialects Tytos doubted they even remembered any deal they signed with Helix. They could be trusted to be too slow and too busy to ever act with any decisiveness against them. Corondex was a different beast. Small and now unreliable, too far away to closely monitor. It was a recipe for disaster. This was the disaster, or it soon would be if some unknown variable could bend the hose and stop the flow of armaments to the Syndicate at any time. Had Maleagant truly not understood that? Had he really trusted these random people so much?

What an idiot. "Alright, we're terminating our contract with Corondex. Effective immediately. Write that down, Felix."

The Arconan hurriedly flipped the binder open and began scratching at it with his stylus. Helix Syndicate had designed most of what it got from Corondex. They would keep those rights, Corondex wouldn't. Not if they knew what was good for them. Tytos did not have the temperament that allowed him to accept the fact that he would be paying someone to have leverage over him and his. There were stockpiles set up. They could weather some austerity measures until production was resumed elsewhere.

Speaking of which...

"Miss Doresh, I've decided this is your fault," Tytos said, tapping the table. Felix would later express to a laughing Ji Shun that he was glad his head was down in the binder when Tytos had said that, otherwise the look of relief that swept over his face in that moment might have earned him further ridicule from Tytos. "As such, you'll be in charge of finding a new manufacturer and setting them up. Felix will take over your duties in the meantime."

"Joy," said Miss Doresh.

"That's the spirit. I'll suggest you thaw out your troglodyte boyfriend. He may be useful this time around. Otherwise, do as you see fit."

In lieu of issuing a correction, Miss Doresh smiled lightly. "Of course, Mr. Ardik."

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

BESCANE MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON
LEVEL G - ROOM 8

After what seemed like an eternity of travel, the warden came to a halt. He examined the sheet of paper, then squinted at the small set of numbers inscribed above. "Yep, this is it. Rack G8-047. He's been here for a couple years now, it says. Doesn't say why we booked him, though."

Miss Doresh knew exactly why rack G8-047 was occupied by a prisoner of the Helix Syndicate instead of someone whose detainment was paid for. It was on a need-to-know basis. There was nothing to be gained if the warden was even dimly aware of the long, sordid treachery that ended with Clovv'gaeno'uotthumm's incarceration. "I wouldn't worry about it," she said. "Take him out."

The warden slid the paper back beneath a datapad he had been carrying and input the necessary release code, prompting a slow hiss as the locking mechanism disengaged. The tip of the carbonite slab abruptly jutted out, and the two Sallust-Class Service Droids that accompanied them down to this level began to transfer it to the hover-gurney.

"Let me guess, you're gonna want him thawed out right now. And then I'll be like, 'hey, that's against protocol, I've got to take him up to medical to do that,' but you'll be all like 'I do what I want, blah blah blah, thaw him out now, risks be damned,' and then I'll say, 'you got it, you're the boss 'round here now,' so then I'll thaw him out and - surprise - for once there's just no need for a medical checkup and whatshisface'll come out completely unphased, ready to jump into the thick of it. No consequences for the risky move or nothing, then I look like a worry-wart for no reason. Am I right?"

Clearly someone else had visited this warden recently and hurt his feelings. That was the problem with some of these prisons, they were active links in the Syndicate's chain of listening posts, but they were still remote locales. This guy might not have even known who she was. Something to deal with later, when Tytos wasn't expecting an update every six hours. "Are you finished?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"That's great," She said. "Now take him up to medical."

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

BESCANE MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON
LEVEL A - MEDICAL STATION

From the other end of a one-way window, Miss Doresh and the warden observed as the droids attached the carbonite slab to a wall unit in the medical bay. One of them input a code into the slab's keypad, and the thawing process began. The droids stepped off to the side. The problem with the Syndicate's carbon freezing process was that, while it was more reliable, it took longer to thaw these people out. This gave Miss Doresh and the warden some idle time to make lovely conversation. "Is there a reason you wanted him suspended for this part?"

"Yes."

"...Are you going to-"

"No."

Clovv'gaeno'uotthumm had, at one point, had almost won the Most Handsome Man in Business contest in some Entrallan magazine. He had ultimately placed third, being snubbed in favor of two comparatively mediocre looking human gentlemen. Entralla was mostly inhabited by humans, and most humans in the Alignment were racists. Some internalized, some not, but that was what ultimately cut him out of the winning slot. It was easy to see why he'd gotten as far as he did, though. Chiseled jaw, slick hair, flattering beard. He had that easy-going charisma that helped propel him up the ranks as well, not to mention his prosthetic - an electrum coated cybernetic right hand. The official story was he had lost it working in a factory - the kind of tall tale that really endeared him to people. Here was a working class guy that clawed his way up the latter and still managed to remain humble and down to earth. Relatable. But like everything else about Clovv'gaeno'uotthumm, the truth was far from flattering.

He knew how to run a good PR campaign. Or rather, Miss Doresh had.

Light enveloped the carbonite slab as he was thawed out. It started around the chest, then worked its way in either direction. This gave Miss Doresh a few extra minutes to admire the stupid expression that had been flash-frozen into his face. Considerable effort had been made on Clovv's part to project calm self-assurance. But it seemed that doubt and realization had finally set in at the last second, along with frozen carbonite. Such a tool. Eventually enough of Clovv had thawed out that he tumbled from the suspended carbonite slab, naked as the day he was born and blind to boot. Clovv grunted and instinctively groped at the empty air before smacking face first into the cold duracrete floor. He laid there for a few moments, mouth smacking for air and pushed himself up slightly.

"Oh," said the warden. "Yeah, I see what you did there."

Miss Doresh did not look away, instead watching as the droids approached the sputtering prisoner.

The droids came forward now, grabbing Clovv roughly by the arms and hoisting him up. "Clovv'gaeno'uotthumm, you have been released from custody. Please relax."

There was a reason organic personnel were not supposed to be in the room when prisoners got thawed out. And here was the reason: they were often violent and unpredictable. Clovv began to struggle as soon as the droids had him, kicking and flailing without grace or result. "Get your hands off of me! Off! I'm Clovis karking Gannon, you take them off right now!" He barked, then adding, "Really! They're cold! Off! Off!"

"You want to go in now?" The warden suggested. "Maybe he'll calm down for a familiar face. Or voice, as it happens."

"Let's get him dressed first."

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

The myth of Clovis Gannon would purport that this process of being thawed out of carbonite and apprehended by droids was taken in stride. But the myth of Clovis Gannon had died without anyone to sustain it. Now there was just an angry Chiss man in his thirties sitting on a medical table with nothing but a strategically placed towel to cover himself. He had so far refused any other form of clothing on account of not being able to see anything. That probably made more sense in his head. Clovis sat there like a petulant child, arms folded, waiting for the opportunity to complain to someone as soon as he could.

When he heard the doors open and two people walk in, Clovis sensed his chance.

"Who's that there? I want to speak with someone in charge."

"I'm the warden," said the warden. Miss Doresh remained silent.

"Good, that's good. I'd like to buy my way out of here. Now." Clovis said. He shivered from the cold, then added, "And I want my clothes back. My clothes, the ones you people took from me before shoving me in the freezer."

The warden opened his mouth to respond with the usual line of "that's not going to happen," but was nudged in the gut by Miss Doresh. The warden grimaced but elected to play along.

"Okay. How much are you paying?"

"Contact my secretary, please. Casta Doresh, works for Zauberlord Industrial. She'll pay you what you need."

Was he serious? Maybe he thought he was buying time before they put him back in the slab. It wasn't unheard of for prisoners to be thawed out for only a couple hours while routine maintenance was performed on the holding slots. Miss Doresh briefly wondered how many times that might have happened to Clovis during his stay. She came to the same conclusion that she usually did when thoughts wandered towards Clovis: she didn't care. "Zauberlord Industrial was sold and dismantled several years ago," she said, and Clovis flinched at the new voice.

"C- Casta?"

Still calling her by her core name. Miss Doresh usually tolerated it from others, but from Clovis she found it particularly agitating. They had immigrated to the Alignment together. All too often their names were all they had left of Csilla and he insisted on obliterating them.

"Yes, Clovis. We have a special job for you."

His jaw clenched. Clovis was not good at this whole vulnerability thing... And definitely not while he didn't have pants on. "Maybe I don't want it?"

Miss Doresh looked to the warden, who took his cue and chimed in. "I guess we'll have to put him back under."

"Okay, well, let's not be hasty. I'd like to think about it."

"Think faster," Miss Doresh said, checking her watch. "You already wasted a lot of time fighting with the droids."

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

BESCANE MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON
LEVEL A - WARDEN'S OFFICE

Clovis, now dressed more modestly in business casual, sat in one of the chairs in the warden's office. More comfortable locales could be afforded to him now that he had agreed, even if it was an agreement made only under great duress. Miss Doresh took the warden's chair. If the warden found this to be a terribly insulting gesture, he didn't care to show it. He lingered near the wall, pretending to inspect an oil painting of his predecessor while decisions above his paygrade were being made. Clovis blinked rapidly, still trying to restore sight to his eyes.

As if that would work. "I knew you'd come back for me, you just had to find an excuse first, right?"

"We're actually on a time crunch here, Clovis. This saves me time."

"Uh-huh, I bet," Clovis folded his hands behind his head and attempted to kick his feet up but, being sightless, misjudged the distance and slammed his ankle into the carpet. He frowned, but continued to recline anyway. "Whatever you got to tell yourself, I'm here for it."

Miss Doresh pursed her lips. "I can throw you back in there any time I want."

"But you won't, because like you just said-"

"I'm also willing to cut my losses and find someone else if you start being a problem, Clovis."

Clovis scratched his blue beard. Its growth stopped by carbon freezing, it was still as immaculately maintained as when he went in. "Okay, true."

Having worked with miss Doresh in the past, Clovis was familiar with several of her "time to cut my losses" moments. Properly incensed, Miss Doresh's definition of cutting losses could more accurately be described as a doctrine of total annihilation of any sign that she had wasted her time. Projects dismantled, people fired, records destroyed, earth sown with salt, etcetera. It wasn't pretty, but neither was a drain on money and reminders of failure.

She continued, "We're starting a new operation on Jaemus. War industry."

"Ah, so that's why you got me out. It'll be just like old times," Clovis took on an airy tone. "Remember that time, with the Countess from Serenno, when she was gearing up to-"

"No, Clovis. I don't."

Records destroyed.

Clovis coughed uncomfortably. "Hmm... Right... So you want me to run it?"

She shook her head, only to realize that Clovis still couldn't see her. "No. You'll be meeting with investors."

"Meeting with..." Clovis nearly trailed off, but then snapped back, "Wait, you're not making me a- a-"

"Figurehead, and yes," Miss Doresh replied. "That's exactly what you're doing."

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

MYTON DEFENSE OFFICE BUILDING
SEVENTH FLOOR - OUTSIDE OF MEETING ROOM 7A

Miss Doresh smiled pleasantly as the investors filed out of the meeting room and into the hallway. A few of them looked pleased. The rest seemed contemplative, either that or too composed to betray whatever intentions they had after the sales pitch. Miss Doresh had never been good at reading people in the ways that mattered. Clovis would have a better idea of how well he did. She remained seated on one of the chairs in the hallway, typing a status update into her datapad. Any self-assessment from Clovis would, fortunately, be unnecessary. Such a sheer volume of investors had been scheduled to meet with Clovis over the next few days that they were bound to eventually pick up the money they needed to continue the self-starting process.

It would just be more helpful if they got it done sooner. Faster. The more time she spent doing this, the more time she spent with Tytos Ardik breathing down her neck. Not a pleasant man, not a pleasant visual, and definitely not a pleasant experience. Miss Doresh glanced up from her datapad up when Clovis poked his head out of the door, but had already returned her attention to the device before he could even speak.

Clovis furrowed his brow, but continued anyway. "How many more of these do I have?"

"Several. If you need the refresher, you've got twenty minutes before the next group arrive."

"Casta, baby," Clovis said, pleading and stepping out. "You're going to work me to death! All these meetings, I might need longer-"

Miss Doresh snapped her datapad shut with a sense of finality. "The refresher is down the hall if you need it."

"Oh, come on! I can't sell to these people if I'm dead tired, Casta! I'm being beaten into the ground here, beaten!"

She didn't respond immediately, instead staring passively at Clovis. The male Chiss stared back, hands open and eyebrows arched, waiting for her to say something. When a full minute ticked by without anything, he shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Clovis thought very carefully, took a deep breath, and then asked his final question. "Where'd you say the refersher was?"

Sensing victory, Casta opened her datapad back up and resumed her status report. "Down the hall to your right."

"Great, thanks," said Clovis, dragging himself off in that direction.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

MYTON DEFENSE OFFICE BUILDING
FIRST FLOOR - MAIN LOBBY

So close.

A pair of burly Enforcers impeded Clovis' progress. Clovis hadn't seen anyone watching the front doors, but he figured that was a trap, so he went for one of the emergency exits. And Miss Doresh had figured he would figure the front door was a trap, so she stationed the two Enforcers over by the main junction to get to one of the fire exits. The Enforcers regarded him with immediate suspicion. They had probably been briefed well, something along the lines of "he's poor, so don't bother letting him try to bribe you, he's got nothing."

This was true... For now. Clovis did not intend to remain poor for long - or on someone else's leash! He could pay them back eventually, though there was the small problem that the Helix Syndicate would probably execute them if they took the bribe and sell their immediate family into slavery. That would take a little more convincing, a little more bullchitting, but you do what you have to do to survive, or get out from under someone else.

One Enforcer, a nasally Duros, was the first to speak. "What are you doing over here, Ganon?"

"Oh, just taking a walk. You know, the usual."

The Duros' hand rested on the collapsed stun baton clipped to his belt. "Is that so?"

Clovis said, "In fact, it is! A man's got to stretch his legs every once in a while. I've been in meetings all day, and-"

"We know you've been in meetings," said the other Enforcer, a Gotal. He checked his watch, then frowned. "You're supposed to still be in meetings."

"There was a postponement. Really, I don't understand what this fuss is about. I fancied a stroll, is that so wrong?"

"You fancied a stroll over by the fire escape?"

Clovis smiled. "Yes. Well, I didn't know the fire escape was over here, it just happened to be here. As I said, I was just getting a lay of this building I've been in all day. Don't you get curious about these things, about the rest of the structure you're stuck in?"

"We're not paid to get curious," muttered the Duros.

"Now, that's a great injustice. Back in my day, the philosophy was work smarter, not harder. Come on, why don't you fellows walk with me?"

The Duros looked to his compatriot. "Can we do that?"

"Well, we shouldn't let him out of our sight now, that's for sure, and if he's allowed to be walking around..."

Clovis clapped his hands, "How wonderful! We'll be the best of friends, won't we now? Come, follow me." The Chiss stepped forward, guiding each Enforcer with an arm.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

MYTON DEFENSE OFFICE BUILDING
FIRST FLOOR - MAIN LOBBY

They began meandering about the building for approximately ten minutes, strolling along the first floor. Both Enforcers seemed to quickly grow bored, but otherwise put up with Clovis as he chattered on and on about any little thing: the architecture, the city itself, the weather, angry bosses, recent sporting events. On and on the Chiss went, and more and more the Enforcers grew less responsive. It was all perfectly intentional: bored people did not pay as close attention to their surroundings or the actions of others. They were far too busy being bored out of their skull, trying to retreat into their own minds for some form of entertainment. This was why neither Enforcer observed that Clovis was scouting out the building for an alternate avenue of escape, or that the Chiss was searching for an opportunity to lose them.

But that was only for ten minutes. Before Clovis' plan could come to fruition, the radio the Gotal wore crackled with static and Miss Doresh's voice filtered through. "Clovis is missing. Someone find him."

Uh oh.

Both Enforcers exchanged looks before seizing Clovis by his arms. With a free hand, the Gotal responded to the radio. "Yeah, we just caught him down here, screwing around."

"Hey, hey now!" Clovis immediately began to struggle. Both Enforcers grunted and struggled to keep him restrained. Clovis was rather strong despite his age.

The benefit of carbon freezing was that it didn't get you fat or contribute to any muscle atrophy, unlike other forms of stasis. He was fit as a fiddle, and both Enforcers were apparently unready for this. Miss Doresh responded, but none of the three could hear her over the sound of their scuffle. Crowds in the lobby were starting to pause and regard the struggle before moving on. Security was unlikely to intervene - nobody interfered with people on Syndicate business. Not even local law enforcement.

Except for Clovis, of course. "Unhand me, I said!"

"Shut up and quit it!" The Duros yelled back, trying to get Clovis' prosthetic hand behind his back, "Should've known better than to-"

Someone must have slipped, because Clovis got his cybernetic hand free and smacked the Duros with it. The alien recoiled back a step, relinquishing his grip in favor of covering his face. The Gotal grunted, "Hey, don't...!"

It dawned on Clovis he was in for it now. Might as well double down. He immediately punched the Gotal in the throat with his now free hand. It had the desired effect, his other arm was now freed and the Gotal collapsed to the floor, clutching his neck and making all sorts of strange grunting noises. But by now the Duros had his bearings again, and there was an audible snapping noise as his stun baton extended, now cackling with electrical energy. "Buddy, you just made a big mistake."

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

MYTON DEFENSE OFFICE BUILDING
FIRST FLOOR - MAIN LOBBY

The Duros swung, Clovis wrenching himself back just in time to narrowly avoid being smacked in the face with the baton. And yet it passed close enough to him that he could feel the electricity cackling on the edges of his beard. Clovis stumbled back into the Gotal, who had almost gotten back to his feet but was knocked over by the Chiss' stumbling - both fell to the floor. The Duros closed in, seeking to press his advantage, grabbing Clovis by the shirt and attempting to pull him up off of the Gotal. The poor Gotal continued to cough and hack, attempting to swear while scrambling to get his own stun baton off his belt.

"Karkin' piece of blue-"

Clovis swung blindly, clocking the Duros in the side of the head with his regular hand. The blow sent the Duros recoiling as before, freeing Clovis enough that he could scramble away. Both Enforcers regained their bearings by the time Clovis was running through the lobby, making his way towards the front doors. The observing crowd parted to try and let him through, though some on the fringes hadn't been paying attention and were callously shoved aside by the fleeing Chiss.

If he had bothered to look back, he might have seen the Duros speaking into his radio again and deduced that there were more Enforcers elsewhere - perhaps right outside the entrance to the building. But he didn't, so he was caught completely off guard when he burst out into the city streets and directly bumped into a tall, bulky Jenet... Which was, of course, wearing the Helix Syndicate's standard HSAS Tactical. Enforcer standard issue, just like the two outside.

Clovis blinked and backed up a step. "Ah... Hello there."

The last thing the Chiss would recall is the snarl of the Jenet, and watching in slow motion as he made a fist, pulled his arm back, and slugged Clovis right in the mouth.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

BASEMENT

Clovis snapped back to reality, jerking violently in his chair. He couldn't spasm too violently, however - he quickly found that his cybernetic hand was bound tightly to one of the arms. The rest of his limbs were free, however. If the chair weren't so heavy, he might have been able to move... But he wasn't too sure he wanted to. The back of his head throbbed from where he probably hit it on the pavement, as did his mouth. Clovis worked his sore jaw carefully, relieved that it hadn't been broken. Judging from the dry blood he felt on his face, his nose hadn't fared as well.

Where was he? It was dark and damp. Nothing could be seen. Probably a basement. Clovis rocked back and forth in his seat in an attempt to get the seat to scoot in one direction or another, only to fail miserably. For a while he sat alone in the darkness, his chief concern soon fixating on his bladder. Maybe he should have actually used the refresher before making his escape attempt. Now he had no idea how long he'd been out. What if he had to pee and still nobody came down here? Were they just going to let him... Soil himself?

Truly nobody respected Clovis Ganon any more. This would have never happened back in the days when Galentro ran this star system, back when he was top dog. Then the Syndicate had to muck everything up. Somewhere off in the darkness, Clovis heard a door open up. With the flip of a switch, the darkness was suddenly obliterated, and Clovis' unadjusted eyes were tempoarily blinded by the light. Even as he shut his eyes and covered them with his free hand, he could hear someone's high heels making their way down the stairs.

Miss Doresh. Heavier footsteps followed her. When Clovis opened his eyes, the Jenet Enforcer was standing behind his former paramour.

"Clovis." She said.

"Yes, that would be me," Clovis confirmed, bound arm flexing against the restraint. What was that, armorweave rope? Had they seriously come here with that?

"We rescheduled the investors you were going to speak to for tomorrow. A lot of appointments were shuffled around. A few canceled."

Wiping some blood from his upper lip, Clovis did his best to appear remorseful. Not really. "My most sincere apologies for the inconvenience."

Miss Doresh nodded to the Jenet who, without comment, stepped forward and backhanded Clovis. When Clovis' head had settled back into place and the Chiss had begun to blink the daze out of his eyes, Miss Doresh began to speak again.

"Let me put it to you this way, Clovis," she began again, voice taut with frustration. "You're in debt with the Syndicate. You and Galentro tried to obstruct, and now you're on their list. Galentro is gone. All those executives are gone. It's only you with outstanding debts. If you keep this up, you're not going back in carbonite. They're sending you to the mines with one hand. Or maybe they'll just shoot you. I don't know, usually that kind of decision gets passed on to Mr. Shun."

"Uh-huh," said Clovis, tasting blood on the inside of his mouth. He did not spit.

She folded her arms. "I'm doing you a favor by setting you up with this, Clovis."

"Oh! Well, when you say it's a favor, suddenly my face doesn't hurt so much. Thanks, doll."

The Jenet wound up for another punch, but Miss Doresh waved him off. "If you do this again, you're off to the mines. Do you understand?"

"Nominally."

Good enough. Miss Doresh rolled her eyes. "Are you going to play ball now, Clovis?"

After a lengthy grimace and weighing of options, Clovis sighed his consent. "Yes."

At the end of the day, the Helix Syndicate had traded the business of one slug for another - but at least this slug could be controlled, his cupidity and disobedience sometimes curbed. It was the beginning of a new era of militarization for the Syndicate, one that would shame the criminal empires that came before it. I can't believe you probably read all of this. I'm so sorry for you. Here are the credits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FkN__GPL_o​