Private What's One More Deal?

[Darth Empyrean]

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Coruscant, busy as ever.​

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Adorned in an immaculate designer suit, Dorian Harper sat patiently in the lobby of the Senate Plaza - awaiting the meeting he had with the new-to-him Chancellor herself. Adhira Chandra was someone Dorian had grown to appreciate - not because she was loyal, nor even because she was advantageous to him, but because she knew how to play the game. It tickled him to think that their talks could be more than him chastising a galactic leader for poor leadership - especially when it personally affected his checkbook.​

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His thoughts were broken a moment later as the secretary and desk clerk called out his name -​

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“Mr. Harper?”, she asked inquisitively.​

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Maliphant smiled to her in a way only he knew how, and the girl mirrored his expression. She motioned him down the hall to a chamber room where Adhira was waiting for him, humming as he carried himself to the room. When the doors slid open, he gave the same gracious smile to Chancellor Chandra -​

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“A pleasure once again, Chancellor. You seem to grow younger every time I see you.”, he laughed - gently, careful not to be harsh on the ears.​

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Finding his seat, he pulled from his pocket a small holoprojector and laid it on the table - the ghostly apparition of an AI appeared and offered a nod. She spoke quickly;​

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“Hello, Chancellor. My name is Cybele - I hope you don’t mind me accompanying the meeting today.”, she said - though her tone was far more refined than Dorians. It seemed almost perfect for Adhira’s ears, in tonal nature and volume - though the sharp ear would find it had not started as such, fluctuating ever so slightly to find a pitch-perfect tone.​

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Adhira Chandra​

 

[Adhira Chandra]

YOUR EXCELLENCY​

The hall leading to the chamber leading to the receiving room where Adhira awaited was lined by some of the greatest figures in galactic politics. The Four Sages. Tarsus Valorum. Paran Am-Ris. Dorian Janarus. Bail Antilles. Padme Amidala. Mon Mothma. Leia Organa. Lanever Villecha. Immortalized as gold-plated durasteel colossi gazing down mournfully on the azure blue plush carpet and their one-time passengers in Darth Empyrean and the aide who accompanied him. Within the chamber itself and at the far end of the room, seated at a long dark table carved from a branch of a wroshyr tree, was the Chancellor of the Alliance, Adhira Chandra.​

The dusky woman was gazing into a holomap of what appeared to be the neutral space that stretched out between the Galactic Alliance and the New Imperial Order. When the pair of humanoids entered, however, the map disappeared and Adhira's head snapped to attention, dark eyes falling on her guests. With very little effort, the dark-haired woman stood and stepped to greet her guests. "Ah, at last," her stony expression revealed nothing, but her tone was warm, "I trust your trip back to Coruscant was a pleasant one?"​

Adhira stepped out from in front of the chair where she'd previously been perched and the bright blue veda cloth sash that denoted her office swayed like a ripple of the sky. Her hand jutted out in greeting, designating two chairs in the middle of the room, across from one another over the table, where they were supposed to be sitting. As the woman came to her own side of the table, she nodded to the aide who, like clockwork, bowed and left the room momentarily before returning with a tray. The bureaucrat carefully sat the tray down on the table between Dorian and Adhira, upon which set a metal teapot and two cups. "Would you care for some tea, Mister Harper?" Her practiced hand lifted the pot carefully into the air, dangling the spout over the cup nearest her and she allowed the thinnest stream of amber-colored liquid to spill into the basin below.​

As Adhira was preparing to pour tea into Dorian Harper's glass as well, the hologram appeared and almost startled her. "Oh...." she allowed the spout to pour tea into Dorian's glass too, "not at all... I was actually rather curious what this particular meeting was about. As I am sure you know, Mister Harper, the Starbird Trade Spine has neared the point of being fully operational." Clones and Alliance citizens alike had labored for months on end to map out the new trade route and though their partnership with the Confederacy was now solidified, the Alliance felt it was a safeguard worth maintaining.​

Darth Empyrean

 

[Veles Oshu]

Remembering a certain Ophidia and her tea, Dorian frowned ever so slightly and shook his head. Between Sith obsessed with tea, and the Jedi enchanting it, he’d rather not take the risk of putting some ‘diviniation’ tea into his stomach, only to expose himself for the Sith Lord that he is. He raised a hand to deny the assistant, and leaned back.​

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“Apologies, I had some water just before I came in.”, he said with a quick smile.​

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He hadn’t, but what’s a little white lie between friends?​

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“I have heard of the Starbird, and I wanted to congratulate you. The efforts for such are exceptional - but I was curious about the conditions of the deal. Do the Confederacy still intend to levy their outrageous tariffs on all Alliance imports?”, he said with a cock of his brow.​

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“My contacts within the Confederacy have been coming back with poor reports on the Confederate trade practices, and their future are looking dismal. I’d hate for a trade agreement with the Alliance to be finalized, only to hair their autarky fantasy drag you down Chancellor.”​

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Adhira Chandra​

 

[Adhira Chandra]

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The Chancellor watched with careful eyes as the tradesman hastily denied his serving of tea, but undeterred by the rejection, Adhira drank deeply of the warm liquid. It was perhaps a bit more floral than she had hoped, but the distinct Balmorran flavor, which was unique to homeworld and rare beyond its system was always a welcome addition to any important meeting on the distant world of Coruscant. She carefully placed the tea cup aside and listened intently as Veles Oshu voiced his concerns about the pitfalls of the trade route they had constructed and the friendship they were trying to form with the Confederacy.​

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It was difficult for Adhira not to admit that his concerns were considerably more valid than she would like them to be, but she did not let her mask drop. Instead, she watched with a neutral expression until he was finished, pretending for almost a moment too long to consider what he had said. "Hmmm..." Adhira began, pensively, "I must admit that I too have had my concerns about where the loyalties of the Confederacy lie... especially in light of their recent pact with the Sith..."​

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There was quite a bit of truth to what she was saying, though the impression she intended to give was that she had never thought about this prospect at all before this very moment. The Confederacy, in truth, had gone from staunch isolationist to Alliance confidant, to Sith collaborator overnight. Adhira had begun to assume they had no idea what they were doing at all, at this point.​

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"What do you propose, Mister Harper?"​

 

[Veles Oshu]

“Perhaps…”, he sat back and tapped his chin with an idled, rhythmic finger.​

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It was a simple gesture, not so subtle as to hide what he was doing though. Perhaps this was on purpose, but the reality was that Dorian never entered a meeting without knowing what he wanted - knowing the stakes, and he doubted Adhira respected many negotiators that didn’t. Dorian, knowing this, stopped for a moment - giving her an equally knowing smile, and motioned to her as he began to speak;​

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“A trade bloc. In the efforts of good nature, the Galactic Alliance uses the IGBC as its trade medium - allowing us to help establish deals, putting the issue of tariffs on us, and all the while increasing your own cred.”, he said with a twinkle in his all too mysterious eye.​

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“If the Galactic Alliance forces all trade to be done internationally through the block, then all others who wish to do trade will be forced to keep a stockpile of GSC on hand - effectively driving up their price, and in turn, creating a self actualizing profit by simply signing ‘yes’.”​

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He glanced aside to his companion, who quietly looked back and nodded. The bust that was her holographic portrait raised two fingers - and with it a slew of data, trade numbers, projected earnings, and cash on cash returns for the Galactic Alliance as a whole. If it weren’t obvious yet, it soon became so that Dorian knew all too well why he was here.​

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“Simple things to peruse at your behest. And with it, other nations will join and add on even more returns. A benefit with dividends, if I might so claim.”​

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Adhira Chandra​

 

[Adhira Chandra]

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The Chancellor had dozens of meeting today and in almost every single one, someone was trying to sell her something. Not in the literal sense. Some junior Senator, right out of orientation, trying to sell her fresh-faced version of the same bullshit proposals she had seen a dozen times before. An overzealous general trying to sell his idea for bigger, more expensive weapons. But this was one of the rare times that someone actually brought a contract with them. The woman sank back into her seat and took a deep drink of the tea, before pushing the cup to one side.​

Adhira steepled her fingers and studied the banking clan executive with scrutinizing eyes. "Please, Mister Harper," she began, smiling coolly at him, "the Senate would not accept any agreement that caused our power to negotiate to be diminished... and for once I am inclined to say they are correct. A rare thing. Putting all our eggs in one basket would be an understatement where this proposal is concerned." Her breast rose and fell as she sighed. She could feel a dull ache in her temple that signaled the beginning of a migraine. She had not slept well the night before or the night before that and it was beginning to catch up to her.​

"But... I think there is something here," the woman waved her hand at the data that had appeared, "it has long been a priority of mine to strengthen the standing of the Credit on the galactic stage, and we have worked to advance its value since we adopted it formally. And of course, this trade bloc would indeed be profitable for us, but you and I both know that nothing in this galaxy is free."​

"And, not that I do not trust you, Dorian," she smiled, "but as strong as our position in the galactic economy would become, your banks would be stronger."​

She allowed for silence to pervade the space between them, though it was clear she was thinking. Then, suddenly, she pressed a single button on the table that had blended into the wood grain until now. In an instant, a tall, thin, young human Coruscanti with blond hair and bright green eyes entered. "Calloway. Come in," she commanded flatly, "track down someone from the Trade Council, have them analyze this data." Adhira gestured at the data that was still clearly visible from the hologram. The expectation, of course, was that Harper would allow them to do so, but it was really not a question. The young man raced forward, downloaded the relevant information onto his own datapad and turned to go when Adhira spoke up again.

"And Calloway... if they cannot get it down to three pages, fire the fether and find someone who can actually write... in plain basic!" The young man smiled and disappeared out the same door he came from. "If there is a way to make this work, that boy will find it," she remarked happily, "but in the meantime, while you are here... I was hoping you might be able to help me with something." The Chancellor stood in a whirl of blue fabric and motioned toward the large window at the end of the room that overlooked the sprawling city below.

"Walk with me?"

Veles Oshu

 

[Veles Oshu]

“I can not fault you for thinking so - but I believe your boy -”, Dorian paused as he glanced at the bright green eyed youth who carelessly tried to download data from his AI Assistant.​

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“- Calloway was it? Be careful with that.”, he juxtaposed into his own speech with a touch of authority. Cybele, however, simply gave a candid smile as though she enjoyed watching the boy struggle even slightly to get the large amount of predictions and market data.​

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“I believe he will find the arrangement isn’t so much taking away your negotiating power - but instead increasing it. There’s more depth to it than that, but we can speak over the specifics another time.”​

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Though, at her request to have him walk with her - he obliged. Standing, he buttoned his suit coat and wiped it free of wrinkles before making his way in her wake.​

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“Of course. What does the Chancellor have on her mind? Surely you wouldn’t be hoping to ask the IGBC for a favor, would you?”​

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Adhira Chandra​