Nar Shaddaa and Voss

[Dunames Lopez]

Even though Daska Voss knew that Nar Shaddaa is a moon where so many bars, restaurants and nightclubs were present, Dunames was en route back to First Order space from JanFathal so that she can make her way back to First Order space. Dunames had to stock a lot of alcohol bottles on that JanFathal-Nar Shaddaa flight flown using an AT-AT barge refitted so that it can cross any given flight in the galaxy, even fly the Ringo Vinda-Lanteeb route, one of the longest routes in Star Tours operation, without having to refuel (but obviously multiple hyperspace jumps are required to fly that route, and hence multiple stops). Star Tours may well be the largest civilian operator of AT-AT barges, but flying an AT-AT barge had no common measure to flying the Exodus, the current Star Tours flagship. Yet she piloted AT-AT barges all too many times. By now AT-AT barges are so comonly used by Star Tours that the common traveler associated them with either Star Tours or the First Order, and sometimes both.

---------------------------

ATTN: [member="Daska Voss"]

it has come to my attention that you may be interested in opening a location on Nar Shaddaa. Perhaps you could establish in exchange of which you would be featured in the list of potential nightclubs, bars and other points of interest on Nar Shaddaa in the Action-Adventure Deluxe Package manifest, flown from JanFathal, Ringo Vinda, Hosnian Prime, Eriadu and Lanteeb with sometimes multiple daily departures, as well as other destinations served by Star Tours. My AT-AT barge flight is about to land on Nar Shaddaa as I write this so please apologize if I can't add any more.

Dunames Lopez
CEO, Star Tours

---------------------------

 

[NightSister]

In the several months since her company had launched, Daska had seen Voss flourish and grow at a rate that she felt rather satisfied with. However, recently holding the press's interest was hard after the hype following the initial launch had died down and while Voss was making more than enough money to fund itself and keep its CEO living luxuriously, expanding seemed to be growing harder the longer it took.

And so Daska had stayed longer than usual at Voss HQ, placing calls and arranging meetings in an attempt to grow her company, but what little progress she made was just that - little. By ten that night, her eyelids were drooping from staring at her datapad, her vocal cords ached from making call after call, and she had half a mind to spend the weekend in one of her spas.
Just as she was packing up her briefcase to retire for the night, a ping from her datapad told her that she had received a new message.

Star Tours? The name was familiar to Daska: the airline was practically a household name. Having recently gotten over her dislike of her home planet enough to set up a nightclub there - after all, she had several contacts who were dancers and the Smugglers' Moon was the perfect place for a more risque club - she'd been reaching out to see what she could do about the plan, and evidently [member="Dunames Lopez"] had heard. Well, to Daska it seemed like the ideal partnership in every way, and so she blinked several times and then tapped out a reply.

-------------------------

Dear Ms Lopez,

I'm delighted to hear that you'd like to set up an exchange with Voss. In return, we would be more than happy to offer our services to Star Tours in whatever way we could.
If you would be so kind as to drop by the Voss HQ in Coruscant (I will attach coordinates below) at around noon, we can be introduced and then negotiate the details of the exchange. If the place or time doesn't work for you, please let me know and we can figure something out.

I look forward to working with you.

Daska Voss
Voss CEO

-------------------------

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Going to the Coruscant office? That would have meant being in the pilot's seat of the Exodus again... She planned the entire thing as a function of going to Nar Shaddaa, but the pilot-in-command originally scheduled to fly the Exodus back to Coruscant will fly the AT-AT barge to Nar Shaddaa instead. Which means that she can then go to Verkuyl with the Rasta Sub. That is, back to First Order-land. But the days where the Exodus would be present on JanFathal, all the daily frequencies for Coruscant would be rolled into one, and they would all board the Exodus, with about 2,000 bucket seats or so. Or 2,000 cabin slots actually. And yet it was more cost-effective to combine the Exodus' bulk freight and passenger services for the day it is on JanFathal than to use four AT-AT barges that day to operate the flights.

--------------------------

Dear Ms. Voss,

I'm afraid that the Exodus, which is carrying millions of tons of duracrete, glasteel and durasteel to Coruscant for its reconstruction, has hyperdrive class 3. For me to arrive to Coruscant from JanFathal, in the timeframe demanded, would require hyperdrive 0.5-0.7. This means that I will arrive in about two days. By noon in two days I would be on Coruscant. It's just that Star Tours landed a major contract to ferry materials from several locations in the galaxy to assist in the reconstruction of Coruscant. Any passenger services on the Coruscant-JanFathal route will be assured by the Exodus until the reconstruction is complete.

I can assure you, the more risqué destinations like Nar Shaddaa would include spending a night in a Voss casino in the more basic form of a tour, especially for those JanFathal or Hosnian Prime people, who have much more tame entertainment at their homes. I know they want more risqué entertainment, the demand for Nar Shaddaa routes will only increase once the casino is in there, which will be mutually beneficial to the both of us.

Dunames Lopez

-----------------------------

[member="Daska Voss"]

 

[NightSister]

Her datapad chimed with a response almost at once, and her smile widened. She fired off a reply agreeing to meet the day after Ms. Lopez's arrival on the planet, then packed away her things and went to her apartment, sleeping better than she had in weeks.

Over the next two days, Daska busily revised all of her contract policies and reviewed over exactly what would and wouldn't be negotiated, ensuring that her side of the exchange would be as solid as it could be. It was the first time in months that her company was being given the change to grow and she wasn't going to let anything get in the way. By the time the day came, she was tired but fiercely determined, and would be waiting dressed in her sharpest business suit by the reception of Voss's headquarters, which she had had thoroughly cleaned and tidied the day before, ready to meet her new business partner.

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

Spoiler: OOC

Sorry for the delay.

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Three days later, Dunames is back on Coruscant, where she had to sleep at one Ugohr Poof's Coruscant office - that the One Sith let him operate prior to the Alliance winning because real estate did not pose a threat - due to the lack of space. And then again, so did a whole lot of refugees, sleeping in what business space was still left until the prefab housing would be complete as well as any skyscrapers. But IGR's Coruscant office was just a few blocks away from Voss' head office. Voss dealt with nightlife and hospitality, presumably having the Deluxe Action-Adventure Package clients spend a night at Voss' hotel on Nar Shaddaa once Voss' hotel on Nar Shaddaa is finished. Said hotel will have a rather large cantina, a casino and any other facilities that would warrant a spot in the more risqué nightlife locations of the galaxy. Thank the Force it isn't the same as the Jiroch-Reslia service, the Moonlight Monument.

"This is Dunames Lopez, from Star Tours. Please, let Ms. Voss know that I am here regarding Nar Shaddaa"

"Nar Shaddaa? If it works, better have a steady supply of alcohol on location" the receptionist told Dunames.

"I know about Nar Shaddaa's alcohol habits. However, Star Tours is not at liberty of suggesting alcohol suppliers. Now, what Star Tours can do with alcohol suppliers is to let them use our services to ship alcohol to Nar Shaddaa"

[member="Daska Voss"]

 

[NightSister]

The phone on her office desk rang: the receptionist. Daska almost tripped over herself pressing the 'accept' button.

"Miss Voss, Dunames Lopez from Star Tours is here. She-"

By that point, Daska was already halfway to the reception desk.

"Ms Lopez, it's wonderful to meet you," she said in the most authentic cheerful voice she could muster while still trying to appear professional. "If you'd just like to follow me, we can sit down and discuss this deal."

She led Dunames through to a comfortable and reasonably sized room with two armchairs and a table that had two mugs of caf waiting.

"If you'd like to get started right away...well, your suggestion was to add Voss's new casino/nightclub to the Nar Shaddaa Star Tours package. I wanted to know what you were hoping for in return?"

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"You have to realize that, while dozens of millions of tons of duracrete, alusteel, transparisteel and whatnot need to be ferried around the galaxy, while Coruscant is being rebuilt, one day the massive shipments of duracrete, alusteel and transparisteel will end. And when that day comes, Star Tours will be operating multiple Exodus-class bulk freighters and a Star Destroyer-sized bulk freighter rumored to still be in the more advanced design stages, and whose construction is to start once an order is placed, all of which will be operated in mixed configuration"

Due to the regulations on space freight, SD-sized bulk freighters are very uncommon and each of these SD-sized bulk freighters would have to be highly customized. A company can own one or two, and the maximum length of the ship is tier-dependent, to be on the safe side, even if the latest Ringovinda StarYards product being developed is designed to operate in the roughest zones of the galaxy, it is best to stay within 2000m even if Star Tours was to one day grow to tier 5, let alone 6. Star Tours was knocking on the door of tier-4, so it would realistically pretty soon order what will the Design Triumvirate cook up. Each client for such ships can be pretty demanding on the shipbuilders. But then Dunames reached for the mug of caf. Star Tours knew that certain factions would be chilly if they saw megacorporations owning a fleet of battlecruisers or supercarriers from converted noncombat ships...

"And I would like to call on Voss' expertise to make sure the entertainment and hospitality onboard the Exodus and the Terminus, as well as any Star Destroyer-sized starship we will operate in the future, is up to exacting standards of luxury. We have a demanding customer base who would want to tour the galaxy for sometimes as much as four or five weeks at a time once these ships are used for these operations. The spots will fill up at that hotel pretty quickly, since Nar Shaddaa is Star Tours' hub in that region, and we would also ask for copies of Taking Off on a Star Tour to be made available at all Voss locations"

[member="Daska Voss"]

 

[NightSister]

Daska frowned, carefully trying to weigh out her arguments.The deal seemed very solid, but she didn't want any surprises.

"So," she said carefully, not wanting to trip over her words, "in exchange for catering for your starships and promoting Star Tours at all our establishments, the Voss casino/hotel opening on Nar Shaddaa would be made a part of Star Tours' Nar Shaddaa route. The leaflets are no problem, but the starships will require a good deal of our resources, especially to maintain the level of luxury we pride ourselves on. I'd estimate that each starship would cost at least 500, 000 credits to furnish at Voss standards, and you are talking about multiple ships. Voss's other hotel makes a profit of that size in about six to eight weeks, and I imagine that with Star Tours' help it'll take perhaps a month. In short, with the exchange the hotel's profits will go up by approximately eighty percent, which will be perhaps a fifteen percent increase in total profits for the company. How much are you expecting to profit from Voss's catering?"

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"Roughly 500,000-1 million a month for each Exodus-class ship. We would expect each Exodus-class ship to carry about 15-20,000 passengers at once, and, if we were to get the Star Destroyer-sized bulk freighter at some point you would be talking about if the rumor mill is correct, almost 10 times as many so the economics would have to be multiplied by 10. However, we will pay separately for the SD-sized bulk freighter fittings at a later date; said bulk freighter hasn't even begun construction"

The Ultima, if ordered, will feature several debuts: a CHX 5.0 acoustic theater, Gatling and Nekogal turbolasers, to name these ones. It has even the chassis and armament of a Star Destroyer so that it can operate unescorted (Star Tours found that operating armed bulk freighters was cheaper than to operate escort fleets separately from the freighters) Plus Star Tours staff will probably reverse-engineer the fittings on the Exodus or the Terminus and install it by themselves once the Ultima is at the fitting-out stage. That is, if Star Tours even makes it that far as to become a tier-4 company. Then again the largest shipping companies in the galaxy were tier-4s. Maersk Star Freight, Bluth Company, Justice Shipping, to name the light-sided ones, while the One Sith-based spacelines were crumbling especially after the fall of Coruscant. Star Tours is on the verge of buying Hedeek Shipping, taking over its dominant position in First Order space.

"There's a reason why Star Tours won the Most Improved Spaceline award by Hyperspace Traveler: the old, Galactic Civil War-era Star Tours was spartan to the extreme, while luxury is the order of the day here"

[member="Daska Voss"]

 

[NightSister]

"In that case, the exchange seems fair enough. Voss will benefit a great deal from this deal, as I'm sure will Star Tours. Did you have a contract with you that I could sign? If so, I'll need a day or two to review it with my advisors - just protocol, nothing personal of course - but then I see no reason not to go right ahead with the exchange.

We'll be able to achieve our side of the deal within the month most likely, and I expect you'll want input on the catering for your starships. Of course, the colour schemes and decoration styles will be in accordance with how I furnish all of my establishments, and I'd like Voss's logo to be displayed on each starship, even if it's just on the labels, but obviously nothing will happen without your approval."

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"Ah, yes, the contract. I have it right here. Now my signature will appear on it"

Dunames pulls out a datapad with the contract on it, as well as the terms previously discussed, so that she can print two hard copies: one for [member="Daska Voss"] and another one for Star Tours' records. Both copies have Dunames' signature on it. Dunames sees no reason either, terms appear equitable to Star Tours' administrators, knowing what added value there really is to what Dunames describes as exacting standards of luxury when said standards are spread over 20,000+ passengers in a single Exodus-class ship. it was time to show the galaxy that Star Tours truly deserved to be more than simply the most improved spaceline in the galaxy. Whereas the Galactic Civil War-era Star Tours attempt at luxury lining ended badly on Dathomir in 0 ABY, the current incarnation of Star Tours appears headed in this direction. Neimoidian Yachts and, to a lesser extent, AT-AT barges can make do with mostly holotray-equipped bucket seats, free in-flight meals and in-flight duty-free that can contain the occasional stolen item. But larger ships require more than just that. As she hands the contracts to Daska...

[member="Daska Voss"]

 

[NightSister]

Taking the contract gingerly, Daska gave it a quick scan. It wasn't that she thought Star Tours were the sort to trick people out of their company somehow - more that although Voss was relatively well-known due to its good start, it was especially known, among business markets in particular, that Voss was new. She hadn't had enough of a chance to show the public the ruthlessness with which she would grow the company, and until she did it would be assumed that as the new company, Voss would be the easiest to embezzle from. Any company wanting a bit of a boost could supposedly add a hidden clause in their contract and Daska would have no argument in a lawsuit.

But she wasn't going to let that happen.
"Thank you very much. It shouldn't be a problem that your signature appears, but as I said, I'll need a few hours to read over all of the contract. I expect I'll be able to get it back to you by tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest."

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"Roger, I'm willing to wait until tomorrow morning - unloading the Exodus can take about a day or two"

One of those rare moments where Dunames could spend a night on a planet was well-appreciated in her lifestyle. She was always flying around the galaxy, mostly onboard an AT-AT barge, a Tofolk or a Maersk; only as of late did Dunames even think of piloting the Rasta Sub or the Exodus. And no Coruscant-bound flight needed a relief pilot. In First Order space she was tasked with all the special Logistical Command missions they called dominions. Here she could relax and unwind from all the dominioning she had to do as of late for the First Order: Thakwaa, Hoth, Virsun...

[member="Daska Voss"]

 

[NightSister]

"That's a deal then. Well, it's been lovely meeting you - until tomorrow."

After seeing her out, Daska immediately called in her team of business and financial advisors and set them to work picking apart the contract. As she'd expected, nothing in the pages could be used against her, and within a few hours was packed up ready for a relaxing evening to unwind. Safe in the knowledge that come next week, her collaboration with Star Tours would be plastered all over the media and business would soar, she went out for an expensive dinner, restocked her wardrobe full of expensive clothes and made full use of her night.

In the morning, Daska was up a full hour earlier than usual and was groomed immaculately by the time she left the house. She would be waiting at her office for Dunames with a smile, a mug of caf each and her contract on the desk.

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

By now Dunames had a good night of sleep in some hotel on Coruscant, in Voss' five-star hotel, where she booked a luxury suite that was the closest approximation to what she expected out of Star Tours suites once the contract is signed, which was to say capable of rivalizing with the most luxurious hotels in the galaxy. Luckily she only needs to spend one night because the room was booked solid afterward. With Star Tours, there was essentially two classes to travel: first class and economy class. Whereas Galaxy Tours, Roon Tours and their ilk, usually ran at least three classes for long-haul flight: first class, business class and economy class. The conventional vision one has of spacelines is that one is seated in bucket seats: yet, as demonstrated in front of [member="Alize Rosenheim"] et al, you can make comfortable bucket seats with holotrays and plush cushions - most travelers that are happy in economic class would accept to fly economy class with that. She returned to the office after checking out from that night in the hotel to recover the contract - hopefully she would find the signature of [member="Daska Voss"] at the end.

"Now you have found that Star Tours' proposal is most satisfactory for both parties..."

 

[NightSister]

It satisfied her to see how well rested her business partner appeared: she had received the message from her secretary in the morning that the CEO had checked in for the night. With that bit of knowledge boosting her confidence ever so slightly, Daska presented the contract with a smile.

"Of course. I've signed in all the appropriate places -" she flipped through the pages, pointing to where her surname was signed in a flourishing cursive - "so if you want to just go ahead, and then Voss can begin furnishing your starships right away." Turning the pages around so they pointed towards Dunames, Daska offered a pen and waited anticipatingly.

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"And here are the requisite signatures" Dunames said, after combing the contract for dotted lines where her signature was needed.

She probably would not have gotten more than one night at that room anyway, but that was enough to see how much rapture there was to be expected in a room outfitted by Voss, ultimately convincing her to go ahead and seal the deal. And how would all classes of passengers would benefit - the transformation from a spartan, low-cost company of centuries past to a luxury spaceline where everyone will revel in the lap of luxury is what earned Star Tours the Most Improved Spaceline award; the Best New Spaceline award wasn't awarded to them because Hyperspace Traveler was considering Dunames' Star Tours as simply being the legal successor of the Star Tours of Galactic Civil War fame.

[member="Daska Voss"]

 

[NightSister]

"Excellent," Daska said pleasantly. She flicked through the contract finding spots that asked for her name and signed in a graceful cursive font.

Already she could envision the boost that Star Tours could offer her cherished company. In her mind's eye, Daska was busily planning out the next few months - obviously she would need to get her team of pilots on mapping a route from Voss HQ to the Star Tours base, and then she'd have to ensure that she had all the necessary furniture and decor, which would be nothing she couldn't afford but it wouldn't hurt to pass up her daily manicure, just until the press caught word of the transaction and plastered the story across headlines...everything was falling perfectly into place, giving Daska an immensely rewarding feeling of accomplishment.

[member="Dunames Lopez"]

OOC: Really really sorry I took so long.