First Reply Overtime Pay

[Elara Veyran]

"Late was the hour."

DUSK | REPUBLIC SENATE BUILDING

TAGS | OPEN​

Had it not been for recent events, the representative of the planet Vandelhelm was usually among the first to board a charter off Naboo. Rarely did she linger in the Senate Building after formal operating hours had concluded. Yet now, the ghosts of deadly thoughts and terrible permutations circled through her mind like carrion birds preparing for slaughter.

She would have to ensure they did not feast upon her flesh.

That meant late nights, preparation, and the eventual necessity of networking and diversifying her political partnerships. Of course, she reassured herself that through hard work and dedication, anything was possible within these halls.

Or credits.

The latter certainly seemed far more expedient to some.

Elara, however, made every effort to avoid corruption and short-sighted decisions where possible. If she were to achieve the greater ambitions she had destined for herself within the High Republic, then she would need to remain clean without alienating those of a more self-serving nature. The key, she believed, was positioning herself as the perfect middle within a galaxy divided between the corrupt and greedy on one side, and the devout and stern on the other. A woman capable of shaking the left hand of one faction while offering her right to the next.

But such ambitions could wait.

Ensuring local assignments and maintaining loyalty came first. Preparations needed to be made, people needed to be convinced, and paperwork needed to be filed.

And so she sat alone within the Senate chambers and, for the first time in her political career, remained long after the majority had departed. Engrossed within her dedicated holo-workspace, she busied herself drafting recommendations and structural procedures to present before the senators once she had fully confirmed her intended course of action to capitalize upon recent intelligence.

Part of her wondered whether any of the senators even cared enough to notice.

Had she become so predictable that their minds had already assumed her departure from the chamber? Or had someone, somewhere within the sprawling machinery of the Republic, noticed that the Senator of Vandelhelm had, for the first time in her career, chosen to stay behind?

 

[Tal Corvin]

Tal did not want to be assigned the Senate gig.​

She begged Greng to let a freelancer do it. It's because I didn't get on my hands and knees. Too much pride, that was her problem.​

"It's grunt work. None of the aides will give me an interview and any senator I can pin down just speaks in empty soundbites. I could get more interesting copy out of a janitorial droid."​

"Kid, you're my best reporter," Greng urged. Tal frowned.​

"I'm your only reporter."​

"Stop bitching and do your job. What else do I pay you for?"​

Tal had hung around the Senate Building all afternoon, eager to track down any sniff of a story. Once again, she'd been left wanting. A few scraps of rumours from senatorial aides which she didn't trust. Twice, she'd tried to approach a senator for comment. Twice she'd been shot down with a scathing look. Tal was beginning to understand why the gutter press preferred raiding people's trash rather than actually trying to talk to others.​

By dusk, she had nothing in her datapad notes but a few doodles and a mildly actionable death threat she'd scribbled against a representative. Taking up a spot in the Senate viewing gallery, she scrolled through whatever she could in her datapad, hoping she could conjure something juicy out of thin air and hope. It took her a frankly embarrassing amount of time to realise that the chamber wasn't empty.​

Peering over the edge of the balcony, beyond the safety screen, she could see a lone figure at a workstation. Pulling up her cheat sheet of names and positions, she identified her: Senator Veyran, Vandelhelm. A similar age to her and quite serious, if she was staying late to get some work done. Tal weighed up her options and whether she could bear another scathing rejection from a High Republic politician.

With nothing else to show for her time, she decided to try anyway. Making her way down from the gallery, she approached the security checkpoint into the chamber. Flashing her PRESS credentials, stamped with her name and Interstellar Standard, she approached the bored guard.

"The Senator for Vandelhelm is still in the chamber. Could you ask if she has time for some questions?" Tal asked, trying her best 'winning' smile.​

Elara Veyran