Private Don't Forget To Stop And Smell The Subglacial Pseudo Algae

[Niysha]

Niysha followed without being encouraged. The air was unpleasant, but crypt mildew was as bad or worse. The life in here was much stronger, and that alone made it almost enjoyable, in a miserable sort of way. So many people moving so quickly, so frantically. Fear and excitement were electric in the air, and no one seemed to know how to walk, let alone stand still. Yes, the smell was horrid, but everything else was quite nice, actually. She could maybe get used to this building, given a chance.

More importantly, though, only a few moments inside confirmed what she'd suspected. There was a faint, very subdued glint, almost a dim glow in a room one level up. Poorly masked, likely simply sealed behind the thickest cut of the heaviest metal they could find. She didn't know if it was a lightsaber, a particularly large crystal, or maybe even another holocron, but it was clear someone here was a collector. In had given her the rundown about arbitrage a day or three ago; what kind of markup could a middle-man score on a Jedi relic, she idly wondered.

In response, she gave a single nod. "This is the place. No matter how much he can spare for Mr. Quill's mission, he'll want what I've got," Niysha asserted confidently. "The trick is making sure that he knows he can afford it... or at least that he can't afford to lose it."

Her bag felt heavier already. Credits trying to burn a hole in her account before she even had them in her hands.

Tilon Quill In Rhan

 

[Tilon Quill]

In Tilon's favour:

- He spoke passable Rodian and excellent Huttese, which Hoylt switched to graciously.

- The ask was objectively appealing and he knew how to make it appeal. Use Calimancha's unique position as an outbound springboard to verify whether Grek's radical approach during the recent and frankly ongoing Planeshift crisis had punched a big valuable dangerous hole in the hyperspace disturbance at the edge of the galaxy. Drive a fethton more traffic through Calimancha.

Factors weighing against:

- The ask was an up-front investment with a long-term payout.

- That payout was uncertain. If the expedition found status quo, an intact barrier, all it gained was nav data to sell.

- In was right. The Unknown Regions had plenty of bad unknowns that wanted to be known. Poke the unknown with a stick and all kinds of things might happen. Tilon's counter-arguments were that a) Grek's bulk, hundreds of thousands of poor old stars, shielded Calimancha, and b) he was genuinely good at this. He'd been junior crew on voyages to Gadma Station at Cresh and the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy itself — the Longjumper's Mark expedition under Captain Atlas Drake, who Hoylt had heard of — and had co-led an abortive but valuable expedition into the Rishi Maze. The latter had picked up enough scans and samples to cover its costs. Decent track record, big names.

All in all, call it -1.

 

[Tilon Quill]

Tilon burst out of the office onto the stair, pursued by enraged and highly educational Rodian idioms. He let out a shaky breath and went down the stairs with something like dignity. Mostly he felt sad and fight-or-flight about it, but he held it together. There is no emotion, there is et cetera.

"You two, uh, might want to give him a minute before you try your luck."

In Rhan Niysha

 

[In Rhan]

Out of everyone here, In had the least idea of what was going on. She had no idea that a Jedi was here, she didn't know what Nysha was planning to sell a holocron (or even what a holocron was) instead of the statuette from Medi-Creen. She didn't know that statuette was still on her ship, secured only by the courage a small containment box and a couple of thick blankets. But she could draw a couple of conclusions based on other context clues.

The warehouse was run like a finely tuned machine. This implied that Hoylt either knew his business or was a stern taskmaster. More likely both. Secondly, In had never been in a shop where the bosses' office overlooked the work floor and everybody didn't hate his guts. A man like that wasn't likely to put up multi-lingual signs unless he was desperate, let alone bespoke hand-painted ones - and this business didn't seem desperate. That and the 'Hoylt & Hoylt' suggested this was a family business, potentially with a long and/or prestigious heritage.

A blustery man with plenty of money, tendencies towards control, who didn't mind smelling like fermented algae. No wonder he wanted what Niysha was selling - mundane reality must have been incredibly stifling to what In assumed to be a considerable middle-aged ego.

Of course, there was a good chance this was all simple conjecture. "Think we should go sweet on this guy, Nysh." The Pantoran murmured, keeping close to her crew. "Soft touch. Let him think he's taking it off our hands, rather than try to sell it to him. Suspect we'll get more if he thinks he's doing us a favor." She explained quietly. "I can take point, you provide the factuals."

Tilon's ignoble return seemed to confirm her suspicions, though. Few things a grouchy old nepobaby disliked more than a bright eyed and idealistic young man with action plans. In gave an awkward pat on the shoulder and smile. "Thanks for loosenin' him up for us." She offered cheerfully.

"And, yeah. I'm sure you'll find a patron for your trip around here somewhere if you keep looking." In might not think it was a good idea, but the Galaxy was full of explorers. There was bound to be somebody interested in what esoteric treasures could be found in the middle of nowhere. "Stick around till we're done, I'll hear you out by way of apology. Maybe I can pass your pitch along to somebody." The Pantoran woman offered as she and Nysha made their way upstairs.

 

[Niysha]

My, what a classy little skill roll. Don't mind if I do.

In Niysha's favor:

• Niysha is capable of and absolutely willing to make the shiny box do its thing to prove its authenticity.
• A large bundle for one bulk price. Multiple equally-authentic but less exciting statues along with the box.
• She's willing to negotiate very low for an authentic find. Her floor is in the thousands, with no expectation of going higher.
• As a result, the potential profit margin is very high.

Factors Weighing Against

• Unfortunately, neither Niysha nor In speak Rodese, and their combined Huttese is only functional.
• In doesn't really know what's going on. Her negotiations will be mostly improv.
• While it would make a very impressive conversation piece, the actual return on investment is risky. That is, of course, the price of arbitrage.

I will graciously give this one a +1. Fingers crossed.

 

[Niysha]

Sometimes the sale just goes wrong. Hoylt (the elder, Niysha presumed) was not in a great mood after his encounter with Tilon, as it turned out, and that made for a rocky foundation upon which to have a discussion. With whatever passed for a "discussion" when half the people assembled were stumbling over half-remembered Huttese. It was discouraging, to be sure, but they weren't completely hopeless yet.

It took Niysha until she was outside and taking a long, deep breath of cold air for her to properly calm down. This was a setback, not a catastrophe. She could recover from this. She definitely owed In travel fare now, but she could recover from this. After taking a few minutes to center herself, Niysha turned back around to In with an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry," she offered in a slightly more ashamed tone than before. "We'll... get it next time."

Tilon was still there. She gave him a sheepish wave. "You won't get any judgement for your performance from us, Mr. Quill. I think the esteemed Mr. Hoylt might not be open for business today." Her quiet confidence from earlier was obviously and thoroughly shattered.

Tilon Quill In Rhan

 

[Tilon Quill]

He thanked In for her good wishes and, when the pair of them went in to give it a shot, he found a tourist-centric local vendor and therein a coat. He paid far too much for it, of course, but he was now capable of being warm without sinking attention into the appropriate mental routines. The coat was even decent-looking, a slim dense burgundy felt, double-breasted. It added about twenty pounds to him visually but didn't weigh him down.

When he came back to Hoylt and Hoylt, it quickly became clear that they'd had as much success as him. Tilon felt the old urge to try a mind trick for self-interested reasons, which flashed him back to his acolytic childhood in Sith custody. He weighed and discarded the instinct as he always had, without pretending it didn't exist. He sighed it away with enough of the sadness to breathe easier.

"Sorry it didn't work out," he told them. "I always figured on decent-to-poor odds of him funding an expedition to see whether Grek's approach ripped a hole in the galactic barrier. I'd just heard he had real money and a local interest, and enough trade connections around Grek to see the appeal. But honestly, I figured you two had a better chance than I did. What were you trying to sell him, anyway? Maybe if the three of us pool what and who we know around here, we could sort out some new angles. Over something hot to drink?"

This was his attempt at good spirits.

In Rhan Niysha

 

[In Rhan]

In was a little sour. She wasn't a GREAT salesman, but she knew her way around a deal and could usually manage to secure a contract once she met somebody face-to-face. A combination of her willingness to take a lower, acquiescent position combined with typically only negotiating with people she already wanted to do business with meant she closed a deal more often than not. Not being able to secure that here stung. It made her look like an amatur in front of Niysha, and she'd also been seriously counting on that credit. She wanted to splurge on the youth festival, and she just couldn't do that without a windfall. As it stood, In was half-sure they'd only not made a deal because he figured he could have them jumped and get it for free, which put her a little on-edge.

Part of her wanted to go back in and shake the smug Rodian for wasting their time and not knowing a good deal when he saw one. The only reason she didn't was that it'd just make business in this city harder for them. And also he'd likely have her broken in half.

"He's an idiot anyway. No way we'd want a guy like that to have the...whatever that thing is. He'd probably just break it or something." In commented dryly, shifting her attention between Tilion and Niysha as she pulled her hood up. "Also, I thought we were selling the other thing. Which is now unattended on the ship??" The Pantoran woman added with some urgency, her tone towards Niysha too apprehensive to be as sharp as she likely wanted it to be. The fact that she clearly didn't want to describe 'the thing' in front of a stranger didn't help that.

Hands on her hips, In sighed sharply and shook her head. "Hot drink sounds good. Nych is a caff girl, so let's go with something like that?" She suggested. "If there's anything special for the festival, I'd love to try that. Don't want to come all this way just to look like an idiot and drink caff I could make at home."

 

[Niysha]

While she didn't visibly wince, Niysha did note the edge to In's accusation. It wasn't entirely surprising, if she thought about it. In didn't really know what the Durace relic even was, let alone what it would do if left to its own devices. "Don't worry," she assured her partner. "I wrapped it in a blanket. It's perfectly safe."

Tilon would like to know, and also would like to find them coffee. This might be productive after all. If he wasn't properly trained, he might just feel called to her current shipment without really understanding why or what any of it was for. To be totally honest, Niysha wasn't entirely sure what it was for. Holocrons were generally reserved for very important things, and this one wasn't... important? It might have been broken, or she might just be reading it wrong.

The alternative, of course, was that Tilon was concealing the truth about how much he understood, which was something she had to plan for largely by "we'll run now and deal with it if it catches up." Or maybe he was exactly as uninformed as he appeared, but for some inexplicable reason was an expert on truly archaic holocrons lost in the vast expanse of the Unknown Regions. Same solution, only the running could be a little more leisurely.

"I wouldn't mind a pick-me-up," she confirmed. "I was so sure I had that." Clearly, she hadn't learned nearly enough from either of her masters. Such was her constant reality.

Tilon Quill In Rhan

 

[Tilon Quill]

"You probably did. Beyond the smell, that place felt off. I can't put my finger on it."

So yes on the hot drinks, no-for-now on the request to know more about their sellable assets. For a ludicrous moment he thought of leading with you can trust me, I'm a Jedi Knight. He'd known too many Jedi Knights to say that without cognitive dissonance.

"I saw a cart around the corner," he said instead, and there was: touristy and heavy on the sugar but a perfectly functional hot-stimulant procurement venue with all the local colour In could ask for. Quiet this time too, before the dinner rush. Tilon got himself something that promised total rejuvenation and settled in at an open-air table.

"I think I'll stay in town at the spacers' hostel. Not feeling like heading back up to orbit on the skyhook just to come down again tomorrow. A couple of men I berthed with hail from here. Their crews might have more leads."

In Rhan Niysha

 

[In Rhan]

Open air was nice. The cool air was pleasant, even if she knew her companions were likely suffering for it. The caff promised to have all the beneficial algae-based things one could want, but at the end of the day it mostly tasted like caff with too much of the wrong kinds of sweet. Barely tolerable, in a 'better than nothing' sort of way. Rather than sit at the table, In stood - leaning against the edge downwind from Talion and Niysha to light a cigarette. She leaned back against the table and sighed in exasperation.

"My plan was to go back up to the ship after we made the sale. Now I'm not so sure." In grumbled. "You might have the right idea, Tilion. They didn't have the cash to splurge on a repeated skyhook trips just for convenience, and spending time in orbit meant less chance of securing a buyer for their fine art pieces. She was still a little anxious about THE THING being unattended on her ship, no matter how cozy Niysha had made it - and In was still a little sore that she'd been misled on that front.

She couldn't let herself dwell on that. In trusted Nishya about as much as she COULD trust somebody she'd only known for a couple of weeks but had survived a harrowing near-death experience with, and that wasn't none. "What's your thought, Nysh? Or do you wanna decide if we're staying planetside after we try and chase down a couple more leads? Maybe we'll find an art collector or whatever."

 

[Niysha]

Just standing around in a place with natural sunlight and a cool breeze was enough to set a lot of Niysha's head to rights, but the coffee definitely helped. She'd never turn down a decent cup. As the three of them settled into a more genial discussion of their plans, Niysha took a seat and placed her bag on top of the little table provided. There was a lot that she and Tilon both weren't saying, and at this point, she needed to start talking or her head was going to explode.

"I don't have much in the way of plans," she replied, giving In space to say her piece. "I'm willing to keep Mr. Quill's company for as long as he's willing to humor us. Whether in pursuit of a buyer or not."

Approach. The topic. In was still absolutely consumed with concern. Her aura was choked in it. "In, it isn't dangerous. It's not radioactive, poisonous, or contagious. At the moment, it's a very scary rock, and wouldn't be worth anything to anyone who didn't have a keen understanding of what it used to be."

She cleared her throat and looked back Tilon. "As opposed to the piece we brought with us. Mr. Quill, I'm prepared to offer you a substantial amount of trust. I'd appreciate it if you'd endeavor to be worthy of it." The Miraluka's fingers rested on the zipper of her bag, and after a moment, she opened it up. Nestled amongst four carved stone statues was a very, very old holocron. Its construction wasn't obviously Sith, so it was probably either Jedi or something similar.

Tilon Quill In Rhan

 

[Tilon Quill]

At which point Tilon froze, the peacoat and the hot drink notwithstanding. This had not been the situation he'd thought it was. With discomfort, he wondered how many of his impulses and choices had been Force-guided or impelled, or whether he'd missed moments of instinct.

"A long time ago," he said absently, focused on that holocron, "bear with me, the Jedi set out to purge a Sith academy on Ziost. When they started killing the apprentices, there was a...bargain. An old Jedi Master went rogue and worked with a Sith to evacuate two dozen of the youngest. Most of them went back to the Sith, but one, a war orphan and alchemical test subject, stayed with the old man who'd saved him. The old man left the Jedi over it, trained the boy, adopted him. The old man became an archivist with a lot of secrets. The boy grew up on trips to local species' elders, and surrounded by books and scrolls and tablets and holocrons and statuettes. When the boy turned into a Jedi Knight, the old man wasn't thrilled, but things are better now. Not much of a Knight, granted, but not bad for having a day job. Priorities."

He tore his eyes off the holocron and met Nysh's, so to speak.

"Since we're talking trust."

In Rhan Niysha

 

[In Rhan]

Okay, so the plan was mask off. Although she'd made an effort to learn more about Niysha's... culture? Religion? Roots? There remained a sizable chunk of the whole Jedi/Sith thing that In just plain didn't understand. Information was too sparse, aggressively guarded or nakedly partisan. Often times it was more propoganda than anything else. The only reliable source she had was Niysha, and In wasn't very interested in pressing her partner for more than she wanted to tell. It was clearly something she didn't want to talk about, and In didn't really understand it anyway.

Mystic force pervading all things. Wanted some things, wanted others. How you felt about it changed how it felt about you, but not really? Didn't make sense.

But it seemed that Tilion was in that same club, albeit on the other team. Or at least adjacent to it, as those things went. He probably knew what the little cube was, he might even have been able to recognize the Thing from Medi-Creen. Which meant he might be, or know, a good buyer.

On the issue of The Thing, In decided to bring it up later. Standing at the edge of the table, she ponderously smoked and nursed her expensive caff. Niysha was the expert here, and if she said the protections were sufficient then they must be. Hopefully the Miraluka could see the acceptance in her soul-shape or whatever.

For now she opted to let the two Force-Users discuss things. In was an active audience, but out of her depth.

 

[Niysha]

Everyone had a complicated backstory. Niysha was more reticent with hers than others might've been, but Tilon clearly needed to provide context. Poor In seemed almost... resigned by now. Her life had gone from zero magic to primarily magic over the course of just a week or so, and now here they were making friends with something approaching the idea of maybe a Jedi at some level.

At least Niysha hadn't been off about his complicated, possibly incomplete training. Took one to knew one, apparently. When Tilon had explained to his satisfaction What Exactly His Deal Was, Niysha put down her coffee and rested her hands on the table. "I kind of figured," she replied with an encouraging but careful smile. "Otherwise it would've been a bit silly to show you a holocron, right?"

No need to spill any more beans than she needed to. She brought one hand to her chest for a moment to indicate herself. "I'm not a Jedi. But it's not hard to pick one out of a crowd." Second time in as many days she'd used that lie of omission. Fortunately, she wasn't on In's ship and she didn't owe him a substantial backpay of credits.

Back to the thing. She took another sip of caff and indicated the holocron. "If you know anyone who wouldn't completely rip us off to take this off our hands, we're all ears. I have plenty of contacts for hawking Jedi artifacts, but they're all coreward." Hyperlane travel was particularly messy right now.

Tilon Quill In Rhan

 

[Tilon Quill]

As always, Tilon regretted sharing. The holocron was provoking him and he wasn't sure what that looked like - psychological or psionic. Some holocrons had powers. Others were just Important enough to sway behaviour, particularly at the right moment. Force help him, he felt the urge to trade his ship for the damn thing and take his chances. This was exactly the kind of thing that reinforced his longstanding choice to be a person first — an expedition crewer, a comms officer, an explorer — and a Jedi second.

"My father would in a heartbeat," he said, gesturing at random with the hand that wasn't holding algae-dusted coffee, "but he's ten thousand parsecs that way in the Scar Worlds, and he's a hermit. I don't know if he could pay what you'd get elsewhere." Tilon had his own relevant friends on, say, Manaan, but that was very far too. The Sith worlds were closer but definitely not. What else was anywhere nearby now? Dalonbian, Raioballo...

"What you want," he said after a moment, "is someone who does make the long trips to the Core Worlds, someone with a good chance of selling it to the New Jedi Order. They've kept the Core at, uh, peace for decades, they're stronger than ever, and they'd take this off anyone's hands reliably. Which means maybe you're not looking for some local sorcerer, you're looking for something that I think's more comfortable for all of us: just another spacer. I've got those contacts that I'm hoping to meet at the hostel and some of them make trips like those. How much are you hoping to get for it? Depending on what's in it, three, four figures — or whatever equivalent you can get out here?"

In Rhan Niysha

 

[In Rhan]

This part of the song and dance was more familiar to In. She had no real idea what a Holocron was worth, or what one really was, but she could talk costs and sales... hopefully better than she'd done with Hoylt. Whom Niysha had been confident would buy it at first blush for a handsome amount. It shouldn't be hard - the way Tilion's eyes had locked onto the little box betrayed his interest - and she'd almost thought for a moment that'd been about to snatch it and bolt. Thankfully he hadn't.

"A spacer with Jedi contacts, hmm, I wonder where we could find somebody like that." The Pantoran woman cooed sweetly, considering the cherry of her cigarette. Her voice was thick with bemusement, her posture remained relaxed. Honestly, if they could get a handsome price from this guy so he could gamble with it - that was a win in In's book. But it wasn't her cube. It wasn't her call.

In continued glancing over her shoulder. "This piece represents a significant cost for our operation. We're here in Calimancha explicitly to sell it. The Youth Festival is secondary. If you're prepared to buy it for what we offered the big man..." She trailed off, gesturing towards Niysha. "Or for what she feels is a fair value, we can do business. But something this rare? There's collectors even out here who'd make it worth our while."

Tilon Quill Niysha

 

[Niysha]

Being open once again paid dividends. Niysha had to make a note of that. At this point, she'd spent the better part of a decade running, hiding, keeping out of sight, and avoiding entanglements through subversion and obfuscation. Her first reflex on meeting In had been to say as little as necessary - when she'd opened up, it'd gone pretty well. When she met Tilon, her first instinct had been to say as little as necessary - when she'd opened up, she'd gotten immediate results.

She quietly made a note.

Fortunately, Niysha didn't have to do most of the talking here. In was more than willing to be a fast-talking saleswoman when given a chance. She'd been given the runaround on this thing for two planets, and even besides that, she was between jobs and desperately in need of something to keep the Dancer moving. That meant that Niysha didn't have to try her incompetent hand at negotiation twice in one day. She could just answer questions when prompted and let the captain hash it out.

Questions like "how much?" Didn't even have to think about that one, and she could be open and honest about it without worrying about someone running her out of town or calling the guards. "My low bar was five thousand, but it could probably fetch a higher price to the right people. I'm not on Fondor; the Jedi would likely offer five times that." She pursed her lips slightly. "Obviously, we'll take what we can get."

This wasn't negotiation. In was doing the negotiating. Niysha didn't have to worry about screwing up again. Stars, Leos would've run her over the coals for this much self-pity.

Tilon Quill In Rhan

 

[Tilon Quill]

He was about to protest, jovially even, that he wasn't the customer In was looking for. He didn't have five thousand credits or wupiupi or whatever currency Nysh meant. He'd made about that on the Rishi Maze debacle after costs, and spent it visiting home and coming all the way out here and buying this coat and this mug of caf.

But Nysh's estimate could be at the low end. The right holocron had been known to sell for more than enough to finance a proper expedition.

"I'm not saying I could afford it," he said slowly, pondering his cooling dregs. "I don't have much to my name in that ballpark. My ship, but no."

Or his lightsaber. Well-made, beautiful even, with a botanical crystal at its heart. He could probably place his saber much more easily than they could offload a holocron out here. For a Jedi Knight to sell his saber was unthinkable. He searched his instincts and wondered whether they were his own.

"It depends what's on it," he said, trying to buy himself time to sort himself out. "Can I try to activate it? Not here, but..."

In Rhan Niysha

 

[In Rhan]

Some kind of storage, then. Interesting.

Once more, In was out of her depth. She didn't doubt that Tilion wanted the holocron, and she reckoned he might even be telling the truth about not being able to afford it. Maybe he could come up with the money quickly? Who knew. She knew she wouldn't have sold her ship, either, which meant he was fairly rational. Cutting off your income to buy something was rarely worth the price, and you kept paying that price over the years in opportunity loss. In likely wouldn't have accepted the ship as collateral even if he offered it - she didn't want to risk having to hold onto it and strand him here.

As far as having a look inside the box, In didn't have a horse in that particular race. She didn't want some strange man with a laser sword and a keen desire for that box alone with them on her ship, even if he did seem friendly. She imagined Niysha understood that without her needing to point it out, probably because Niysha was even more cautious about such things than she was. In quietly finished her cigarette, then set to her caff. The air was starting to warm up a little as Maratton went into what passed for a pleasant afternoon on Calimancha - still well below freezing. A nice day for a festival.