To Extend Our Reach to the Stars Above

[Ugoto Chivaro]

KESSEL
SPICE MINE T44

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

Tytos did not like sharing. He especially did not like sharing revenue from the little smuggling circuit Helix Syndicate had set up some years ago. It did not look good in his bookkeeping, not when a new contract could be negotiated with better terms. That incompetent feline - Thengil Ri'whatever - had sold over the entire growing operation to one Lord Fa. The whole point of the pact was that all three of the groups were beholden to one another. Syndicate for sales, the cat for growing, the bird for moving. Now more money was going to Fa and the Syndicate had been snubbed, continually, for the entire operating history of the route.

Time to trim the fat. Start fresh someplace new.

There wouldn't be a warning. The Syndicate cut itself out of the picture. None of their contacts would be buying from Fa Holdings any more. A minor inconvenience most likely. Fa could find others if he put his mind to it. That wasn't the point.

The Syndicate owned a majority of the spice mines in Kessel's northern hemisphere. Manufacturing droids to staff them was still ongoing, as was planning the stage at which each mine would be activated. Only a fool started production without having a place to sell charted out first. Now the Syndicate was the grower, and instead of relying on a third party for transport, they would sell directly to the Coratanni, who would manufacture a usable drug of one kind or another out of the materials. That was the general idea, anyway. Maybe the cartel had different ideas. Tytos would be glad to hear them, and so arranged himself on the landing pad of mine T44 (one of the nicer ones, most recently refurbished but not yet operational), waiting for the arrival of their appointed representative.

It would probably be a child.

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

Kessel
Kara Thawne

Spice.

It was the most profitable venture that Coratanni was entered in. Easily so. The technology was good, the clothing was grand, but it was where spice where Coratanni truly made it's profit. If there was one thing that was true about the galaxy is that it had a lot of troubles to forget, and spice helped a great deal with that. Kara was an expert in the subject. She herself controlled almost every facet of Coratanni's spice operation. From the fields of Rishi to the mines on Ylen.

All of it was hers.

They had more than a dozen strains, a hundred different product lines, but still it was not enough. The people wanted more, and with the opening of The Walk on Coruscant things were getting busier and busier. Even with all of Coratanni's resources it was hard to supply the entire galaxy with a steady supply of spice. Always they wanted more, and Kara was inclined to give it to them.

A smile touched her face as she glanced out of the viewport, her ship settling on the landing pad with a slight jarring shake. A simple motion of her hand and one of the servants she kept around helped her to her feet. She glanced at the man, then dismissed him with another wave of his hand. "Stay aboard, this will be quick."

The Coratanni Executioners she had brought nodded.

Without another word the Twi'lek stepped out of her state room and headed towards the ships ramp, descending it just in time to step off the end when it hit the platform.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

It was a child. A Twi'lek, too. Crime was such a young person's game these days. It was a wonder old man Ardik could even keep up. Yet he did, much to the chagrin of the long list of potential successors squirming about underneath him. Behind Tytos stood a guard of his own, the Trandoshan Derrenger and no one else. Aside from the three of them, the only other current residents of T44 were a few custodians, a handful of contractors, and about three dozen droids. Hardly a garrison, but the vagrants skulking on Kessel knew better than to pick a fight with Helix.

Tytos doubted Kara Thawne came alone either. There were probably at least half a dozen killers waiting for something to go wrong on her ship. She left them behind, however, which was nice. Tytos did not believe in similar gestures. Derrenger stayed. He wasn't very talkative anyway, which was part of the reason he always ended up sitting in on these kinds of meetings.

"Ms. Thawne," Tytos greeted, extending his hand for a shake. "I hope your flight was pleasant."

It was amazing just how little sincerity made its way into Tytos' voice. One could wonder why he bothered to say it at all. Perhaps it was just habit.

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

"You can't even imagine." Kara replied just as flatly, her gaze flickering towards the Trandoshan briefly.

She had recently spent some time on Kashyyyk, a world often visited by the lizard people. They ventured there to hunt the Wookiees, though in her book both species were equally disgusting. A small hint of distaste touched her features for just a moment before she slowly drew her attention back towards Tytos. She studied the man briefly, pulling some memories off the top of her head of what her siblings and parents had to say about the Helix syndicate.

After a brief pause she continued.

"Let's not mince words, shall we?" This had worked with Nadir, hopefully this man didn't insist on all sorts of small talk before they got down to business. He didn't seem the type, but you never knew with these sorts of people. "You have spice mines."

She trailed off as she gestured towards the world around them. "And I need more spice."

Kara wanted to make a deal and get off this barren rock.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

Right to the point. How charming. One could often expect the Spawn of Thawne (metaphorical spawn, obviously) to be charming, all in their own unique ways. Perhaps if he was not too busy later, he would spend the time imagining how the rest of them would go about handling this meeting. What a source of amusement that would be. Or not. He was always busy. Tytos could not afford to not be busy.

"You clearly have an affinity for directness," Tytos remarked. A hand slid into the fold of his jacket and retrieved a datapad. He commented as he pulled up the necessary documents, "I suppose you will be uninterested in a tour, then."

That was for the best. Kara did not look like the Thawne child that would be interested in the architecture of a spice mine. Would any of them? Hard to say. Clearly there would be no need to woo her on his part if she required a large influx of spice so quickly. There weren't going to be many other venues for that with the Syndicate essentially running Kessel's northern hemisphere.

"We are slated to begin production here and in several other locations in the coming weeks. You can see here our projected output," he handed off the datapad now. There were numbers. Charts. Line graphs. All the things women of her age found most interesting. "If this is adequate, we'll leave it at that. If not, we will be progressively opening more locations until such a time as your demand is met."

If the other mines were unnecessary, they would be leased. Or the Syndicate would find someone else to sell spice to. Exclusivity was not a watchword among the Cabal.

Tytos cleared his throat, "Page ten will include your projected bill, per month. Bear in mind this is only a projection. All things will be fluid, speculatory if you will, until the first shipments leave. Prices will be adjusted from there, I'm sure you understand."

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

Kara grabbed the datapad with a delicate hand, her eyes quickly flicking over the numbers.

She did so hate to get into the details. The Twi'lek had always preferred to let one of her siblings handle that sort of thing, though that didn't mean she wasn't capable. This was her business, the flow of spice into the galaxy. Kessel was indisputably one of the largest sources of it in the galaxy, had been for millenia. Having the mines here devoted to producing spice just for her?

Yes. That would be nice. "You will need more mines."

She stated, then went on.

"I'll need something add to this." The Twi'lek mused for a second as she flipped through the pages, her eyebrow raising slightly as she saw the price. It was on the higher end, but not ludicrously so. The wholesale cost of spice was nothing compared to what it could be cut into later. The profit margins for the drug were massive, and considering Coratanni had it's own smuggling and shipping routes the only true cost would be buying the actual drug from Helix itself. Something that posed no real issue considering the money that was to be had.

"An Exclusivity Clause." She said, finally looking up. "Helix will only sell the spice from these mines to Coratanni."

Kessel spice was it's own sort of brand, one she could market.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

A lesser man would have balked openly at the request. Instead, Tytos' eyes momentarily narrowed into slits, clearly skeptical. "That seems rather excessive."

Didn't he just get done thinking exclusivity wasn't a watch word for the Cabal? What an atrocious curve-ball. Derrenger remained stone-faced behind him, but Tytos could sense indignation from the Trandoshan. Was it just the matter of spice greed, or that coupled with something else? He was a sharp one. Maybe he noticed Kara's displeasure at his presence. Whatever.

"The gross output of every mine we own, each running at full capacity, would account for just over sixty percent of Kessel's total export," Tytos explained. This was of an astronomical value, but getting it to that point would take years of steady development. Maybe exclusive sales were an option for the Coratanni for now, but as production increased... And not to mention the money Tytos wanted to collect from the leasers! "Buying such a volume at the rate it is produced would be ill-advised, perhaps financially ruinous, if not impossible."

Sure, it wasn't Tytos money or his business. But the thought of hemorrhaging that kind of cash was near enough to make his knees knock together. No sense of fiscal conservatism on kids these days. That was the real problem with the underworld.

"And there would be the expectation of covering the costs of other supply contracts we might have signed, other advantageous deals that might have been brokered with the help of Kesselian spice. Do you believe you have that much money?"

Tytos did not. In case that were not already obvious.

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

Kara smiled pleasantly at the man. "The Coratanni Cartel controls the Coruscant Underworld."

She expected that even this fool knew that fact. Coruscant had been the Cartel's pet project for the last few months. They had expanded ruthlessly, quickly, and efficiently. Their business was both legal and illegal, supported by half a dozen different organization all of whom either directly, or indirectly contributed to the sale of Spice and other drugs. It was an Empire, one that produced more money than most beings could ever actually imagine. Though of course, the Cartel hadn't stopped at just Coruscant.

"Add to that our hold on the markets of Empress Teta, Corellia, as well as several other Core Worlds..." She trailed off. The Core worlds were the most populous in the entire galaxy. Coruscant itself had over a trillion people. True only a fraction of a fraction of that consumed Spice or any other drug, but it was enough. "Not to mention the territories we control in the Outer Rim."

The Cartel had begun on Rishi and spread out from there, truly spread out.

Most of the spice in that region came from their holdings on Utatpau and Rishi itself of course, but if she made this acquisition then she intended to diversify everywhere. Demands had to be met, and new ones had to be made. That was how this business worked. Sometimes the customers had to be shown what they wanted.

"I'm not some fool girl playing at business, Mr. Ardik." Kara stated plainly. "The Cartel can more than meet the demands of what I'm asking."

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

[member="Coratanni Cartel"]

The corner of Tytos' mouth twitched, implying a smile might have grown there were the mostly-Umbaran not so adverse to outward displays of amusement. As it was, he only pursed his lips. A child! This was a child giving him the what-for. How demeaning. It didn't matter, though. Kara Thawne was more than self-assured and he would have smelled a lie a mile away. While Tytos remained skeptical of their ability to pay for everything at peak capacity, their ability to pay for it now and within the next few years was undisputed.

If their payments were coming up short, it would be time to renegotiate. If it didn't... Well, money had a funny way of soothing the terrible wound of being proven wrong. Especially when it wasn't taxed.

Tytos conceded, perhaps faster than someone actually interested in protesting would have. "Very well, Ms. Thawne. You can consider the Coratanni the sole recipient of Syndicate spice for the foreseeable future. Expect to receive the relevant paperwork by transmission before you leave the system."

The Syndicate, alone among all other criminals, kept meticulous signed records of even their illegal deals. Would these records come back to haunt them? Probably not. And if they did, they would pale in comparison to the undocumented atrocities they committed on a regular basis. If justice ever came, and it rarely did, the paperwork would be the least of anyone's concerns. In the meantime, it was convenient for keeping track of these sorts of thing and also an active way to flaunt their untouchable status.

No one in the Alignment, not even the Sith, would come after them.

"Unless there's something else you wish to discuss?"

 

[Coratanni Cartel]

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

"No." Kara stated simply.

Paperwork, the other thing she hated so much. Oddly enough Nadir had demanded the same thing of her. It seemed that in this day and age a handshake was no longer good enough for most criminal dealings. She would have found that fact amusing had it not been so forcedamned annoying.

"I believe that will be all." She glanced around for a moment. "I hope you don't live here."

It was really an idle comment, nothing more. "This place is dreadful."

That was the last thing that Kara said before she turned around and began to walk away. As far as she was concerned there was no need to continue their little conversation. They had both gotten what they wanted. The paperwork she would receive would be forwarded to Verin and she would take care of that. Kara was more than confident in the numbers, but it was always good to have her accountant sibling check everything over once or twice.

Either way though, she had gotten what she wanted here.

The Spice would flow.