Toxic Waste Management

[Dunames Lopez]

After taking part in one more podrace, called the Phu-Phuii Classic, Dunames realizes in horror that the Dominion contract could not be signed in the first place because they evacuated the planet it was supposed to be operating from, under its terms. Yet Star Tours' dealings with the CSA were mostly limited to one cruise voyage called the Valentine Cruise, flying from Commenor to Zeltros and Yutan, in that order. She also realizes that, while the First Order already had waste management and public transit covered, the CSA did not. Then again it was no longer a monarchy, not like it was when Star Tours first came to the region. Oh the topic of sanitation. And yet the very topic of waste management seemed to conjure horrible memories of Quintas, where an ill-fated attempt to get highly hazardous toxic waste disposed of in a black hole got her arrested by the FOEA, and detained by one Robert Braunfel. Once she snapped out of it, she wrote the following message on the topic of waste management:

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ATTN: [member="Lady Kay"]

Subject: Waste management

In order to ensure the sanitary safety of the population, I would like to know whether there is any opportunity to get a deal done regarding waste management

Dunames Lopez
CEO, Star Tours

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[Kay-Larr]

Kay raised an eyerow as the message from [member="Dunames Lopez"] came across her desk. It wasn't so much the subject matter as it was the company that was offering the contract. Star Tours handles waste management? Well, it sort of makes sense, given that there was sure to be waste generated from their tours and it had to go somewhere.

She shrugged her shoulders a bit and whipped up a reply:

~Dunames Lopaz,

Thank you for your request. Given our rise in population and new worlds under our care, outsourcing waste management might be a good idea.

Please visit my office at the Royal Palace in Chasin City at your earliest convenience.

Thank you.

Lady Kay Arenais
Queen of Commenor
Chancellor of Commenor Systems Alliance~

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Dunames had to fly from Phu to Commenor to get the deal done. Coming at one's earliest convenience regarding waste management was certainly welcome, since she could simply open up shop on Attahox, which was the main planet under Commenori control that could be used for a landfill. And yet perhaps Dunames might be led into a trap, even though several things taken for granted by most people in the galaxy were just low-key in the business world. Glamorous items often included armament, vehicles and all other manner of combat equipment. So two days later, she would arrive in Chasin City, with her plan for outsourcing waste management. Growth in population? New worlds? That was consistent with the information she had on the Commenor Systems Alliance. Upon arrival to the spaceport where her own ship, one of the old Neimoidian Yachts, was parked, she immediately hired a luxury speeder to get to the royal palace of Chasin City to get her business conducted and, once on the palace premises... [member="Lady Kay"] awaited.

"State your name and the purpose of your visit" the security guard asked Dunames, once off the speeder.

"I'm Dunames Lopez, from Star Tours; I'm here regarding a waste management deal with the Commenor Systems Alliance"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Some people were busier than others. And when it came to tourism, such an industry never slows down. Kay wondered just how much time someone like [member="Dunames Lopez"] would have to spare.

Security checked the lady's credentials and then led her through to Kay's office in the Palace. A few knocks on the door were made before the guard opened it. "Miss Dunames Lopes, M'Lady." He side stepped

Kay got to her feet, though remained at her desk. "Welcome back to Commenor. Can I get you anything?" There was always tea and water on hand.

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"No thanks" she told [member="Lady Kay"] upon entering her office in the palace.

Her Polydroxol physiology made it so that she seldom needed to drink; however, when she needed to do so, it was a sign she needed to go to sleep. But she had to gauge the need for toxic waste disposal, knowing that non-toxic waste can be flown just fine while using the bulk space in the cargo hold. It's pretty much public knowledge that Star Tours operates every cruise ship in combi mode, that is, in varying proportions of freight and passenger. Understandably, non-toxic waste is usually not worth a whole lot to a hauler, while toxic waste is usually worth more because of risk premiums attached to it.

"You have realized by now that Star Tours covers nearly every segment of the shipping market, of which tourism is only one. Including the less savory ones such as toxic waste management, which can be taken out of CSA territory alongside non-toxic waste in special areas inside ships"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay nodded and sat back down as [member="Dunames Lopez"] stepped further in. She folded her hands on top of her desk while she listened to the woman give her pitch. It came as a surprise to her that Star Tours dealt with more than just the tourism trade. The only way that she knew about it was through the message that was sent to her.

"On the contrary, I had no idea until you had contacted me. But it's certainly something to think about. The wastes from the mines and from our cities and villages does need a place to go. But I must ask, where do you take it all?"

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"Attahox being the major landfill world in Commenori territory, whose main industries revolve around recycling plants and the use of molecular furnaces they make to this end, and, if necessary, as is the case with biohazardous waste, we can take waste to other planets with incineration plants. If push comes to shove, that is, for the most toxic stuff that cannot be safely used in incineration plants or in molecular furnaces, there's always black holes"

That meant Sarapin and Lujo for that waste requiring incineration. Usually volcanic planets were preferred; from what she knew the Dominion used a waste incineration plant to power the mining outpost on Eol Sha. [member="Lady Kay"] would probably grateful for Attahox's presence, for its role in the landfill industry of the region. Of course, Lady Kay was not aware of the full range of services Star Tours did in terms of shipping, after all, few people outside of supply chain management were. However, while Attahox was well-known as a landfill, or a salvage yard for those who would instead recycle, it would do no good if its spaceport facilities can't handle that much waste. Early in her career as a cargo operator did she see the effects of insufficient throughput: it bottlenecked the hypermatter refining activities on Sump. So she was asking about the tonnage, and, if necessary, whether outsourcing spaceport expansion would be on the table as well, in which case Star Tours has proven it could do so on multiple occasions: Kaeshana, Trian, Gravlex Med, Taris, Gilaria, Fenessa.

"There's one question left to resolve: is there any estimate on the tonnage capability required?"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay had figured that the best way to dispose of waste was to be rid of it completely, either sending it into a star or as [member="Dunames Lopez"] had said, into a black hole. Yet given that Attahox was now in Commenori territory and it was a world who's main economy was driven by recycling waste, who was she to take that from them? It would be cruel and would by no means show any kind of support for the small planet.

So it was best to get something sorted.

Dunames questioned her on the quantity of waste that Commenor produced. For that she needed her datapad. Kay opened one of her desk drawers and took it out, turning it on and going through some of her files until she had found what she was looking for. "It differs with the changing seasons. At most your looking at 200 metric tonnes in any fiscal quarter. That's just for Commenor, mind you. You'll have to go through our other planet's governments individually."

 

[Dunames Lopez]

200 metric tonnes a day? That only accounted for the toxic part... and, in Dunames' mind, that was very low-key. So it was possible that previous Commenori sanitation policy, possibly dating prior to [member="Lady Kay"]'s tenure as president, included room for future growth. However, on most planets, waste management was a municipal mandate. So it was entirely possible she could be talking about Chasin City only. One AT-AT barge's worth of toxic waste a week really wasn't much, and that was barely enough to cover Chasin City proper, to say nothing of the rest of Commenor. Then again it was entirely possible that Chasin City produced most of the toxic waste on Commenor. Gyndine undoubtedly produced more toxic waste, and Cyrillia to a lesser extent, so these were the big two pieces in terms of toxic waste. Tarhassan and Yutan didn't produce a whole lot of toxic waste since their respective industries did not revolve around the use and manufacturing of toxic chemicals, to say nothing of the frozen wasteland called Belasco.

"We can have a provisional deal for Commenor proper, for 200 tons of toxic waste, which includes opt-in options to expand to other planets Commenori space, with each planet opting in having to negotiate the terms individually. As for the prices, we can have it hauled to Attahox for 15 credits per ton"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay nodded. [member="Dunames Lopez"] seemed unimpressed with the amount, but that could just be Kay overreaching on gaging her reactions to the number in question.

"That sounds quite reasonable. If we were a larger planet with a bigger population like Yutan, then you'd make more credits off of us. But some is better than none. And with all of the wars everywhere, there's a good chance that we could get influxes in our population growth of people wanting to escape it."

 

[Dunames Lopez]

Dunames might have seemed unimpressed by the toxic waste numbers for Commenor proper, but [member="Lady Kay"] had a point: while Commenor was the capital, it was far from the most populated planet in CSA-land, bringing up Yutan as an example. Attahox could handle an AT-AT barge's worth of toxic waste a day, let alone a week, without trouble. And Yutan, more populated than Commenor? Perhaps, but she would think Tarhassan and Cyrillia, to say nothing of Gyndine, would be even more populated than Yutan was. With that said, they will be billed by the ton, so that the Chasin City municipality won't pay more than they absolutely need to. So Dunames produces a preliminary contract, filling in the few blanks that actually were in a shipping contract, oblivious to any criminal activity that the Attahox-based smugglers may wish to exploit. Yes, Attahox was a landfill world. But the Black Sun and any of the other smugglers may get into trouble if they used the same stratagems as they had on Nar Shaddaa and JanFathal. She thus handed the waste hauling contract to the Queen, with Dunames' signature already on it:

"With those terms agreed upon, here's the contract"

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay looked over the contracts. Thankfully there was room for adjustments later on. She's handled plenty of contracts, so she knew where to look for known loopholes. Yet everything seemed to be on the up and up. There was even more than one copy, so that she'd have one for her own files. That was good. It saves her from asking about getting one.

She signed her name to both copies and handed one back to [member="Dunames Lopez"] . "Here you are. Pleasure doing business with you."

 

[Dunames Lopez]

"Have a good day" she told [member="Lady Kay"] before leaving the premises.

Now that the business she came to Chasin City for was done, Dunames made preparations to go to Yutan, where Lady Kay's lead would probably, well, lead to another business opportunity to be capitalized upon. Yes, it may seem low-key today, but if Yutan, and after that, Gyndine, Tarhassan and Cyrillia could be had, then the CSA will have its toxic waste disposal covered, especially with Attahox being able to handle more. If there wasn't enough space on Attahox, there would be a need to handle the spaceport's construction. Or perhaps Hijarna; it was more than possible that Hijarna could handle the surplus waste, especially since the planet only had a few scarce inhabitable regions. With that said, she left the premises, escorted by the same guards that let her inside that office, and took the time to locate the proper points of contact for those other four planets, knowing that Cato Neimoidia was even lower-key when it came to toxic waste, and probably left for Neimoidia to handle.