A Ship of Their Own [PM to Join]

[John Rakugan]

Thavron Howard was returning from a long vacation in the Outer-Outer rim, chartering a space yacht to take him as far away from human civilization as possible (with the sole exception of his protocol droid). With a glass of aged scotch in one hand and the clicker for his entertainment system in the other, it was a peaceful existence. Thavron could enjoy his time away from Elysium while John Rakugan, the acting CEO, took care of business. He trusted his best friend to run things the right way and make the right kind of friends in Commenor.

He took another sip of his scotch as the scoop races on the holovision intensified, the commentator blaring through the yacht's 100,000 credit audio system.

"And Johnson's speeding down the raceway ahead in first with Polek Tar's swoop bringing up the rear..."

"GO!" Thavron's booming bass voice reverberated off of the empty yacht as he rose to his feet spiritedly. "BURN THAT FUSION REACTOR, POLEK! YOU MAGNIFICENT MAN!"

"What's this?! Polek Tar's racer is pulling ahead of Johnson's!"

Thavron pounded the leather comforter and pumped his steel metal arm. "WOO! YES! YES!"

There was a knock at the door, and Thavron's protocol droid peered his head inside.

"Master Howard, I do sincerely apologize for interrupting your celebrations, but--"

Thavron reluctantly muted the swoop races. "If it's Rakugan again, tell him I'm busy!!!"

"No, no, sir. It's something else. It's the field scanners, sir. We've located an uncharted planet at coordinates 8, 29 in the Vedal system.

Before the words had even finished leaving the protocol droid vocal capacitor, Thavron was up, out of his seat and in the process of throwing on his mining attire. An anomaly on the scanners in the middle of absolutely nowhere could mean only one thing: they'd just found something special.

"What's the classification?"

"Temperate conditions, sir."

"Valuable minerals?"

"We are unsure of--"

"Is it safe? Can we land there?"

"There appears to be a starport, sir, yes, but I would advise against--"

"I'm going down there", said Thavron, throwing on his blue suspenders and walking towards the pilot's quarters. He wasn't sure exactly what he was expecting, but he was going to find out. When Thavron stepped into the pilot's quarters, he addressed the droid pilot.

"Take us down to that uncharted planet".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The yacht took an immensely long time to change direction, during which time Thavron played with a strength band and finished watching the swoop race (yes, it took THAT long). When the yacht was pointed in the due direction of the planet, the pilot engaged the thrusters.

What happened next was not what Thavron had been expecting. A ship that Thavron had never seen before, accompanied by a number of smaller fighters, was flying directly behind the yacht and was speeding towards them very quickly. The pilot droid let out a worrying beep and pointed to the radar, which showed a cluster of several mean-looking little red dots converging on the yacht.

"Ahhh Chet, I think we got pirates up in here", Thavron muttered nervously.

 

[Warren Century]

A dozen of the Legacy Class Fighters that had been designed by the Narrikians was deployed, along with Masamune. As they came closer to the ship, they sent out a transmission. The ships sent out a transmission in updated galactic basic they'd taken from the Imperial Remnant.

"Unidentified ship, this is the Masamune, Personal Ship of the Narrikian Emperor, and owner of Setus Prime. Turn off your engines, power down your ship and prepare to undergo a Class C evaluation, or be fired upon."

The Masamune began to power up it's weapons, as did the Legacy Class Fighters.

[member="John Rakugan"]

 

[John Rakugan]

Thavron muttered quietly to himself. "Just what I need..." He thought about what he would say for a moment. Should he introduce himself? Should he exercise his Galactic rights and oppose this clearly unconstitutional search? No. No way. He'd just do the inspection and let them check. It's not like he had anything to hide. He'd never heard of this "Narrikian Emperor", and Thavron had done quite a lot of space tourism.

The hell is a Class C inspection, anyways?

Thavron pushed the intercomm again.

"Understood, Masamune. You've reached Thavron Howard from Elysium Industries. This yacht is a rental, so we would rather not have any trouble." He gave his pilot droid a sharp prod. "For fleck's sake, turn the engine off! This thing's worth $3 million credits!"

With an audible "shomph", the Commenorian XT-10 Yacht turned its engine off. Thavron could hear the holovision in the living room shut off. The droid pilot flicked a rather large switch, moved its pincers to the thruster sliders, and turned them all the way down. The yacht was dark now except for the internal emergency lights, freely floating through space. The entire crew had no idea what was going on, and so they began to gather in the cockpit to watch the events unfold.

Thavron removed his blaster from his holster and placed it on the dash console so that he would appear unarmed to the inspectors.

 

[Warren Century]

The Masamune docked, and a dozen Narrikians in heavy hazmat suits with oxygen tanks and rebreathers attached to those, the suits being hermetically sealed boarded the ship. They began to examine it for biological terror agents, any form of disease based weaponry, or technology that was similar to such. One thing was certain, the Narrikians were not going to allow something like the Gulag Plague to get to Setus Prime. Never again were they going to be unable to protect themselves from problems like that.

"Your ship is clear. No biological terror agents, or weapons of that ilk, no chemical agents, no disease based weaponry, no technological weapons that function similar to any of those. You have passed the Class C inspection." said one of the inspectors. "You're fortunate we didn't call upon the Star Destroyer, or Twelve Cruisers to intercept you for the examination of your ship. If you had been carrying Class C, we would have been under orders to command those ships to open fire on your ship with us on board. Now, do you have any contraband, IE samples of diseases that are on board your ship or similar, just so we are absolutely certain we have completed the scan according to the mandate of the Emperor?"

[member="John Rakugan"]

"You may turn your ship back on, now that we have performed the Class C Threat Analysis of your ship. Class C stands for contaminants, such as viruses, diseases, bio weapons.... In this case, anything that could cause a planet-wide epidemic. We take scanning for such very seriously."

 

[John Rakugan]

Thavron watched the men with radiation suits enter, examining every nook and cranny of his precious yacht. Whatever they were looking for, they took their sweet time. Thavron stood there for well over five minutes. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. He got sick of it, crossed his arms and cocked his head slightly.

"Excuse me, when is this gonna be over?"

Thavron heard the mini-cooler in the living room open. Aw hell naw. He turned around and peered into the living room to watch his expensive Phrack Laniels signature brand whiskey being extracted from the liquor cabinet, examined, and then cracked open...for the very first time.

"Hey! Hey! That's my Phrack Laniels, what are you--"

But the inspector simply held up a hand and continued: they didn't stop. The inspectors kept looking until the officer was satisfied with the search. When he had finished talking, Thavron looked very concerned.

"No contaminants on board. Lots of intoxicants on-board, though! Want some?" Thavron grinned at the man, who was stone-faced and seemed to not be in the mood for jokes. "...ehem...the answer would be no. No contaminants, no diseases, no samples, no research. Scout's honour." He gestured to his protocol droid, who headed for the cockpit. In a few moments, and with another loud "shwomph", the engine turned on and the thrusters were engaged. One by one, the yacht's lights turned back on, and the holovision blared the swoop race once more. Thavron shut the holovision off and grabbed his scotch, which he sipped and then set back down.

With the room calm again, Thavron turned to the inspector and decided to try and get some answers.

"Right. As you can see, I have no idea what's going on and I'm completely uninvolved in...this" Thavron waved his hand slightly. "You mention an Emperor, and some sort of bio-terror threat. Is there a quarantine on that planet down there?"

 

[Warren Century]

"You remember the Gulag Plague?"

This was asked by the inspector in a stony voice.

"It hit our world hard. The emperor before our current and his predecessors made a law. All ships that come to our world are to be searched, and examined for any contaminating agents like we were ordered to check for you. Your ship is cleared, and will be allowed to dock at coordinates 25,88, 55, 105 in the Space Port."

The inspector then sighed. "The Emperor will want to meet with you anyway, to learn what you are doing here in our area of space. We usually keep to ourselves, so that's probably why we haven't become well known to the Galaxy. In any case, Mr.? You're free to proceed to those coordinates. We will leave your ship, but be warned. A cruiser will have its weapons trained on you. "

[member="John Rakugan"]

 

[John Rakugan]

Thavron periodically sipped his scotch, listening intently to the inspector's story. By the time the story was finished, Thavron looked both fascinated and gravely concerned.

"Howard. Thavron Howard, Chief Financial Officer for Elysium Industries. Good to meet you, Mr...?"

Thavron offered the inspector a handshake. The man would notice that Thavron's hands were meticulously clean, but calloused from years of hard labour. "Must've been here on this planet for centuries without any outside contact. By the Gods, I can't imagine what your race has been through. I'm speechless." Thavron didn't quite know where to start to explain to the man what had happened: how much the mid- and inner rims had changed since the bio-terrorist Zero had released the Gulag Plague into the Outer Rim so long ago. Did they know about the politics of outside world? Did they know about the subsequent wars? Were the planet's star maps out of date? Thavron's curiosity grew to see what kind of lives these men and women lived.

"We're no threat; just an executive and a few of his droids on vacation. Tell the Emperor we'll meet him at the starport."

Thavron would see to it that the Narrikians inspectors left, and then he would direct the pilot droid to land at the coordinates provided, being a little bit annoyed at having to wait for the yacht to turn nearly all the way around. The yacht slowly and steadily maneuvered itself into the starport, with the Narrikian Legacy Fighters keeping a close eye on him. When Thavron finally arrived at the starport, Thavron called for his protocol droid to accompany him. He opened the landing flap of the yacht and stepped out to greet whoever had come to meet him.

[member="Sirius Nova"]

 

[Warren Century]

When he arrived at the Space Port, the Narrikians had come in large numbers to see about the visitor to their world. Of course they'd mainly come to make sure Sirius Nova, their Emperor stayed safe. This was their main reason why one hundred and fifty, twenty of which were force users, and the rest were highly trained soldiers had accompanied him to the meeting with the individual who had come.

Sirius looked at the Chief Financial Officer. "I was told you pose no threat, so I will take you at your word. So tell me in your own words. What has brought you to my world?" asked Sirius. Sirius was making sure he understood everything before he gave the guy free reign on his world. "In any case, you are here on my world. You said you are here on vacation?" asked Sirius Nova, as he looked at the guy.

 

[John Rakugan]

A hundred and fifty was a lot of forkin' people. Thavron was astonished and taken aback by both what he saw while the yacht was landing, and--confirming that, yes, it was real, and wasn't some sort of Jedi mind trick--the man muttered a curse word to himself with amazement. It wasn't often that you came across an assembly of people coming to see something as mundane as a ship landing. Thavron, wholly misunderstanding what was happening, felt humbled by the huge welcoming party. He must have been one of their only visitors in a very long time.

The Narrikians got a glimpse of the CFO for the very first time. Thavron was a six-foot-two black man with the build of a house. While the yacht was turning itself around, Thavron had changed into much more appropriate attire; he was wearing a smooth and classy red suit, with a blue shirt and a white tie. His blue eyes moved to his brown leather boots, minding the gap between the starport and yacht.

"Was a hell of a welcome party", were the first words out of the man's mouth, looking to Sirius. "Can't really blame y'all for doin' that, now can I?" Thavron gave a genuine smile.

Thavron immediately recognized the looks of worry on the faces of some of the Narrikians, and so he relaxed his pose, sequencing out his next set of moves. This was a tense environment, and he had to calm everybody down. They didn't know who he was, where he came from, or what he was doing, and the concerned faces said it all. He had to tell them. That's what he'd do.

Clearing his throat slightly, Thavron projected his booming bass voice throughout the starport. "My name is Thavron Howard, an engineer. I come in peace.", Thavron would announce to the crowd at large. He had no idea how they would react, but he had to say something.

"I was told you pose no threat, so I will take you at your word. So tell me in your own words. What has brought you to my world?"

Following his welcome to the crowd, Thavron lowered his voice and spoke directly to Sirius.

"I came out here for a quiet day away from business. I had no idea anythin' was here except for a nice, quiet area of space to relax in. Well, I guess I drifted too close to the planet's orbit, and y'all showed up to look around the yacht."

"In any case, you are here on my world. You said you are here on vacation?"

Thavron would pause to allow Sirius to respond, then he continued. "I'm on vacation, like you said. I'm a citizen of Chasin City, Commenor. I take care of business at Elysium Industries: spend most of my time in the starport either repairing ships, or making them. Before that, I ran a mining company."

Thavron tugged at his ear slightly; a tik that he often did when he was nervous. Ask the damned question, son. "I was just wonderin'...exactly how long has it been since this planet's last had a visitor?" He gestured to the large gathering.

 

[Warren Century]

Sirius thought about the question. Travis Caalgen had been the last visitor along with his entourage. They had allied and the Narrikians had become a protectorate of the Imperial Remnant. "Sorry about the treatment of the yacht, but we can't risk any contaminants coming to Setus Prime. After the Gulag Plague, I've done all I can to reassure the people the plague won't happen again, but they are a bit worried. So while I don't agree with their paranoia I left the old law in effect that puts outsiders under heavy scrutiny when they come in ships, and has their ships searched for anything that could potentially contaminate Setus Prime." said Sirius.

A brief pause was done by Sirius. At the words of Thavron most of the soldiers loosened their grips on their weapons, and the Force Users stopped channeling the Force into their hands, or weapons. Sirius continued.

"You say you build ships? What a coincidence. The Narrikians happen to need more ships, a lot more ships. You may have just hit pay dirt. In fact, how would you like to manufacture ships for the Narrikians? As to when we last had a visitor, a month ago. As to why you have so much of a welcoming committee, let's just say most are there to protect me. "

 

[John Rakugan]

Though he was slightly disappointed that the welcoming party wasn't his, Thavron's disappointment was immediately washed away with the ring-a-ding-ding of those profit bells going off in his head. Today must be my birthday!, the CFO thought excitedly. Things could not have worked themselves out more perfectly. He hated to scoop a contract before his boss did, but this one--this very very big one--was something Rakugan could find out about later. For now, Thavron Howard's attitude was all business.

The executive gave a quick glance to the yacht. It definitely wasn't going to be a rental anymore.

"Your highness, it'd be my pleasure." Thavron said to Sirius, beaming. "What kind of ships were you looking for? Big ships? Little ships? Huge ships?" Thavron's smile faded slightly with the mention of huge ships, but then he added, "Whatever it is you need, we can make it...within reason. You gotta know, your highness, that we're small and specialized. Your projects would take up quite a bit of our time and resources, so we gotta talk about--" Thavron stopped mid sentence. He suddenly became much more aware of the huge crowd and where he was, coming down from his temporary endorphin high. This wasn't an appropriate place to negotiate.

"Let's talk business somewhere private."

 

[Warren Century]

"Let me put it to you this way, we need a frakking Armada in orbit around our planet, big ships, small ships, medium ships, EPICLY Huge ships, enough ships to where anyone who tries to come to the planet without permission from myself, or the CDC or the Space Port Authority will regret that decision. Especially if they try to detonate another bioterror agent. The Gulag Plague was bad enough, I'll not have some insensitive idiot decide he wants to play racial annihilator with some sort of super weapon because the Narrikians were under equipped!"

After his rant, Sirius forced himself to take a deep breath and calm his nerves. The Gulag Plague was a touchy subject among the Narrikians and a cause for much paranoia. The Narrikians didn't like that virus, they didn't like it one bit. In fact, if they had found the individual who did it he would have been likely tortured, maimed and then killed. Weapons of that magnitude, well the Narrikians knew better than to fool with them.

"You know that ship you encountered in orbit, Masamune? It's my personal ship. Until the Narrikians get more ships in orbit, we are working with what resources we have, and technology the new Galactic Empire has lent us. We had a Star Destroyer and twelve cruisers locked onto your yacht. If you had been carrying Class C, they had orders to open fire upon your yacht."

Sirius said that, as he led him to an empty diner in the Capital City they were in, Nova City. It was more of a Chinese type eatery, but modern.

"Here is where we will begin our negotiations."

[member="John Rakugan"]