Drifting Through

[Jairus Starvald]

The travel-time in the Elrood Sector was fairly typical and similar to that of other mapped out star regions. It took a determined traveler about seventeen hours to get from the Elrood system to the Derilyn system using the Elrood-Derilyn Trade Route, but that obviously didn't take in account the downtime or refueling needs along the route. The sector had been plagued by pirate infestations and other, more nefarious issues - whispers of Sithspawn in the night, zombies; their bodies animated by ancient Sith rituals, most of it died down once the Alliance came into the Elrood system and cleaned house.

The pirates stayed out of Elrood and the Alliance usually didn't bother them, as long as the main trading route to Derilyn was relatively free and secure, of course.

"Haum, and you think this Cartel can be trusted?" Dregl spoke over his shoulder. The cockpit of the transport was spacious enough to accommodate both the Herglic and Ceri herself, who was standing behind the chair and studying those familiar blue lines of hyperspace again.

"I think they are getting desperate for a return on their investment."
"Desperate people do desperate and sometimes stupid things, Ceri."

Sarova nodded, before realizing Dregl wouldn't be able to see that.

"I agree, so we will just have to be careful."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

It seemed like Ceri was only dealing with Cartels these days. It immediately reminded her of the events with [member="Runi Verin"] over the vaults, and the thing on Nar Shaddaa and that other thing on Spice Terminus... too many cartels these days. But this particular one could not be ignored nor avoided, even if Ceri wanted to.

See, there was a particular planet in the Elrood Sector that interested her immensely.

AEI employed hordes of individuals; explorers, trackers and scouts, who explored the Galaxy in pursuit of valuable 'resources' that could be somehow utilized to Akure's advantage. Mostly this meant a new breed of Sithspawn or other lethal animal that could be skinned and turned into some kind of product. Sometimes it meant stepping in and offering the services of their parent company when a particularly gruesome Sith focal point was getting out of hand and needed to be contained.

But this time around they found Almar.

It was a tropical world: beautiful beaches, oceans, rain forests and grassy plains. It was a world that had historically always focused on the tourist sector, but it was historically also a troubled place.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

See, the biggest population concentration of Almar is not located on the surface. No, most of its population which goes up to a billion sentients, depending on which census data you were using, lived on 'Almar Upside'. Upside was a huge space station orbiting the world proper and was occupied with all the latest, docking bays, hotels, bars, shops, it was meant as a tourist attraction for the wealthy clientele of the Elrood Sector.

The basic plan being was to attract people from all over the sector to stay at Upside, while they are experiencing the splendors of tropical Almar.

But then the thing with Empire happened. They apparently took over a chunk of space near Almar: Derylin and surrounding territories, interdicted it and started to heavily regulate all manner of things.

Well, somehow the corporation doing the maintenance of the space station disappeared. Luckily for certain individuals the data banks that stored all the ownership records were somehow also wiped in the progress. All of this paved the way towards the ancient Alliance to take control over the station and utilize it as some sort of staging ground slash observatory. They were basically spying on what the Empire was doing back at Derylin.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

So the rapid change of ownership without due process and the shift of goals contributed towards Almar's misfortune.

But it wasn't the biggest issue, of course. Most places would probably be able to bounce back from both of those things with some time and luck, but not Almar, because the system was suffering from far more than a mismanagement. The greatest issue was its location, more specifically where the planet wasn't and it wasn't on the Elrood-Derilyn Trade Route. Instead it took about three hours from the Torina system to arrive at Upside.

The problem is clear, then, it was missing most of the traffic that flowed from Elrood to Derilyn. And few people really wanted to spend another three hours just to get Almar, when there were better alternatives on the trade route itself.

So the world was resigned to being a subjectively backwater world.

About ten years back - during the Akala crisis - a few individuals took advantage of this situation. They took over Upside, started to reorganize the infrastructure and clean-up the station, while also trying to work out a deal with Torina next door. The Entertainment Caucus they called themselves.

But that was a decade ago. The Caucus discovered that they didn't have as much pull as they wanted to, Torina kept their borders heavily regulated and closed off most of the traffic that could have flowed to Almar. Adding to that was the fact that the Torina-Almar run hadn't been properly maintained for years now. Travel time had increased from the usual three hours to six now and that was just the last of set-backs.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

With all of their money spend on renovating and cleaning up Upside the Caucus found that their coffers were empty.

They simply didn't have the money to blaze through the Almar-Torina run and make it viable anymore. So they muddied about, living year to year while trying to make end meets. The Caucus started with good intentions, but eventually had to resort towards the less savory means of earning money. Extortion rackets of the Upside citizens who had no other places to go, people started to disappear - no one important, of course. Just the people nobody would miss - and put to work on the surface world.

The usual things.

About six months ago Akure made contact with the Caucus. They had come across some rumors in ancient texts and after paying the necessary bribes a research team was allowed to explore the surface of the world, where they came across the Norris Root. The plant had specific properties that, when treated with certain processes, could help with energy resistance.

Soon after that AEI made formal contact with the Caucus to buy them out.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

"I am still unsure, haum."

Ceri settled herself down in the co-pilot seat. In truth she had her own doubts with this arrangement, but the Norris Root was something with a lot of potential and if they handled this well... there were at least half a dozen applications that she could already think of. They just had to handle this carefully and ensure that all parties were aware of what they were doing.

"I know, Dregl. I know. But this is an opportunity and we both know that under Rave, Akure always seized the opportunities."

Or created her own opportunities.

"Haum." The reply didn't seem too enthusiastic regardless. "If we buy out the Caucus, we will also inherit Upside and they made a complete mess of it. Did you hear the rumors of the things they have done?"

Slavery, abduction, extortion. Oh, Ceri was very intimately aware of what the leadership of the Entertainment Caucus had been doing in the past few years.

"I have. And we will deal with these issues head-on."
"Meaning?"

Ceri sighed, before suppressing a shrug. "Trust me when I say that the Caucus won't be able to enjoy the money we will inject into Almar, I am not prepared to let them profit from our investments."

It wasn't the slavery, nor the abduction or the extortion. She could have accepted any of that, even all of them at once, but there was no class with the Caucus. No self-awareness nor dignity. And that was something that Sarova could not abide by when it came to her business partners.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

"I hope you aren't planning on doing anything stupid, Ceri."
"You shouldn't worry so much."
"We can't all have blubber and thick hides protecting our vitals, that's all I am saying."

Now that got a snort out of Sarova.

"We will play this careful."

Their ship exited Hyperspace about twenty minutes later. She checked the time and shook her head, it had taken them about seven hours, even with a 1.0 military-grade hyperdrive and that was just unacceptable. Even with all their rackets and money flowing in from their other clandestine operations they hadn't gone back to maintain the lane.

Lazy.

"Upside Control to unidentified freighter, state your business, please."

Dregl shot a look to Ceri who simply nodded. In response he initialized the transfer of codes that would identify them as the AEI entourage being expected. Whilst the Herglic argued with Control about proper clearance, protocol and how long processing would take, the Vinithi took the time to study Upside itself.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

The stories hadn't done it justice.

From the looks of it the station could accommodate several dozens of transports and freighters landing without them having to wait for one another. There were several ring structures where larger ships could dock, all sub-capital - no star destroyers or anything like that, but the station hadn't been made with that in mind, either. Several corvettes, maybe a few frigates too, though Ceri wasn't an expert by any stretch of the imagination.

But she saw immediately that it couldn't have been cheap to build it and then to renovate it.

No wonder the Caucus had grown desperate over the years to recoup their investments. That didn't make it any less insulting or lessened the impact of their sloth, but it did explain a thing or two. She was already seeing a few things she would have to shift if they wanted to make this a profitable venture. Expanding operations in other avenues and seriously reconsider how they would have to draw in tourism here. Torina was a no-go, there was no way she would be able to convince them to remove all the taxation and regulations... but that's where their second option came in, right?

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Almar Upside, Docking Bay E42.

Their ship settled down in the bay with one of the docking clamps keeping the ship in place. It was protocol, but even still it made Ceri wonder if there was a way for them to get out, if it was needed. The big bulk of the Herglic announced his arrival, he stood there for a moment behind the doorpost to her room on the ship.

There was an awkward shuffling of the flippers.

"Yes?" She asked finally after becoming tired of the wait.
"I still think you should let me handle it, haum."

Cerita sighed, before shaking her head. Not that the Herglic would see it from his vantage point. It was important for her to start taking an active role in their business here- first and foremost it was about respect. People wouldn't respect a woman who was hiding behind someone, when negotiations were called for. That was only part of it, of course. The other side of the coin being that Dergl couldn't do the things she could do and in this particular instance?

That was exactly what was called for here.

"It will be okay, Dregl. I can handle myself." After which she stepped out of her room and walked past him, only waiting for him to catch up when they were at the ramp, which had already descended towards the bay.

"You ready?" The plant lady asked while trying to feel if there was any anxiety within her.

She couldn't locate it.

"No, but let's go anyway."

And go they went.