Forward to the Past

[Onrai]

[member="Ember Rekali"]

Mr. Rekali,

It has recently come to my attention that you have recently acquired territorial gains in a nebula. Emeritus has research, from our acquisitions at the Subach auction, regarding gas mining technologies and uses for nebular gas. We believe such could be useful in cooperation with you, and I would like to speak with you about such a potential business opportunity. Would you happen to have a suitable meeting location?

Regards,
Vitor Imperieuse

With the message sent, he would now wait for a simple response.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

Mr. Imperieuse,

You have my attention.

One of our interim logistics centres is on Old Jovan Station, near the edge of the Roil. We're still cleaning up, so forgive the mess, but that's where I'm based so far as this project's concerned. It's also close enough to the nebula that a short jaunt ought to take care of any demonstration or experimentation needs. Bring whatever technology you feel comfortable bringing; transportation can be dangerous these days. I'll be there or nearby for the next two weeks, so drop by whenever is convenient for you and I'll take care of the rest.

Best wishes,

Ember Rekali

Ember sat back and folded his arms, examining the message. The refit of Old Jovan Station was a massive, ongoing project; the dang thing had been a home port for multiple Star Destroyers in Palpatine's Empire. Something that old just couldn't be fully brought up to spec, not without making it a massive credit sink. Even his office here was bare durasteel, missing a wall panel where the cousins had stripped out a conduit worm. No, Old Jovan Station would never be more than a waypoint and logistics base, albeit a well-positioned and spacious one.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Ember Rekali"]

The Legacy-class Heavy Cruiser Vindication traveled to the site listed in the response. Close to a nebula, were a deal to be reached with the Rekalis, it would serve as a splendid location to begin the initial development of second generation gas miners. Already he was considering the possibilities of such a design, and how it would be able to function. Syntibanna as was originally envisioned would be a failure, but if the Rekalis were technically apt, perhaps they could help soothe the issues. It would certainly help to diminish the monopoly on natural gas...

Then again, perhaps Ember had other ideas.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Various Clan Rekali vessels -- bulk freighters, small-to-midsize capital ships, all of Mandalorian make -- were present in the Jovan system when the heavy cruiser showed up. As the Vindication moved towards the gigantic station's docking spines, Ember got on a hovercar whose path wound through the old turbolift shafts. Kilometres of durasteel blurred past; the car's driver, a witch in beskar'gam, made worryingly good time. At the earliest possible opportunity, Ember disembarked, thanked the cousin, and went the rest of the way on foot. One of the docking spines was available for the big cruiser, and the long pyramidal structure had more than enough empty space for technological demonstration and evaluation.

His consigliere, Oren Beorn -- a tall, lean Vahla with a sword on his back -- met him at the main airlock. "I'll make myself scarce in a minute, aliit'buir," said the Dark Jedi, preempting Ember's internal debate over whether to have Beorn present. The man was a little odd, truth be told: a fallen Jedi, a hermit widower, prone to recreational use of pelko bugs. Lethal with a blade, of course, and a logistical genius. Also not the best possible example to the Clan's young, but he kept his nose clean.

"Thanks, Oren. What you got for me?"

The tanned Vahla handed him a secure datapad. Ember scrolled through the files. "You whipped all this up?"

"Had some of the cousins do it. I'm no analyst."

"My thanks to them, and to you. Have a good one, Oren."

The blademaster nodded, bowing fractionally, and walked off in a swirl of desert robes as the airlock hissed to admit [member="Vitor Imperieuse"] .

 

[Onrai]

Stepping into the room, Vitor confidently strode forward towards Ember. "Ah, Mister Rekali. A pleasure to finally meet you." He turned a bit, eying the interior of the station. "Nice location you have here - excellently salvaged, from what I can tell." Then again, he supposed it was time to get to the reason he was here. "You mentioned in your last response that you were intrigued by the concept of refining nebular gas into more functional substances than the mere refined tritium and deuterium used in fusion reactors. I have with me a sample that I believe may interest you."

The sample was one of the last examples of syntibanna, as Subach had attempted to make it. Refined from nebular gas, it was cruder and less functional than the natural thing, but if mass-synthesized, it would cost fractions of a credit in comparison to similar amounts of the real thing.

[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

"Thanks, Mr. Imperieuse, or do you prefer Master? We like this place well enough. It may be a wreck, but it's airtight, power's up, plenty of room for anything we need, and it's right beside the Roil."

The old Mando nodded at the suggestion of a sample. "From your...synth-tibanna project, right? I did a little digging once you made contact. It's definitely got promise. Tibanna stand-ins have been found before, and they've always wound up in limited production for one reason or another. Most of the nebular territory we work in is high-risk, so that has its impact on overhead costs. But that's the price of getting access to regions dense enough to harvest with ramscoops in a practical way. If your project delivers, I don't see why it couldn't offer this whole region a viable low-cost tibanna alternative. That's definitely got my interest."

He gestured at a nearby room the size of a corvette. "Got a big ol' chamber set up if you've got demonstration rigs. Or we could go out to the nebula. Your call."

 

[Onrai]

"I believe it would be best if we got some of this nebula's particular cocktail. I do have some of the machinery needed to disintegrate and reintegrate the nebular gas into the most effective of cocktails, but I believe doing things in a work environment is better than in a lab." He turned, eying the Mandalorian with a thin smile. The man understood business, that he could tell merely from being in his presence.

Hopefully it was the right kind of business.

[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

"Field test? Sounds like a plan. I've got a ramscoop freighter that just came in from the Hard Roil. We can hook one of its cargo tanks to your rig, for starters."

He squinted out the nearby viewport, eyeing the prow of the heavy cruiser. Not a resource-gathering or transport ship, but modifications could have been made. He didn't know the line well enough to say. "If your machinery like the taste of the Roil, and if your ship's got it's own harvesting gear - ramscoop or something similar - we can head out to the nebula. If your ship doesn't have the gear, there's room in the ramscoop miner for it and us both. Sound workable to you?"

 

[Onrai]

"I believe using your vessel would be best for the time being." He smiled. "While we may end up designing a new type of gas miner for our corporate use, yours is far the better option at the moment."

A quick notice was sent over to the heavy cruiser, a message transmitted to prepare the molecular disintegration and reintegration technology for a move to the freighter. "Because I want to help ensure our samples are as pure as possible, would it be possible for us to fit the device into the tank-shifting system? Half the tanks could be filled with nebular gas, while the other half could be filled with the syntibanna as we refine it."

[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

"Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard, they're all modular. Couple hours' work, though I'll have to check with the boat's engineer to be sure. In the meantime, make yourself at home or head on back aboard your ship, your call. We're not much for creature comforts on this hunk of junk." Ember scratched his chin. "Once we get it running, it'll be a proper port on a good line. Profits and then some, with our without the gas thing panning out. There's gold in them thar hills, as they say."

A few hours' work would see the gear installed in one of the modular slots, ceteris paribus and all that. The ramjet miner would have been cost - ineffective in any lesser nebula; only the Hard Roil's hazardous density made it remotely worthwhile. He sort of hoped they'd see a bit of turbulence, if only to get a read on how well this gear stood up to the unique conditions hereabouts.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Ember Rekali"]

In that span of a few hours, both Vitor and Ember would be on board the freighter, the Vindication following it as the vessel moved to enter the nebula. "A more efficient synthesizing system should be able to be developed once we determine the rate at which nebular gas can be converted to syntibanna. This will allow us to determine how large the nebular holding tanks should be in comparison to the syntibanna storage - chiefly considering conversion will always result in the constant depletion of the former."

Now it was time to play the waiting game.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

"That's the real trick, isn't it," Ember agreed. "See, on the one hand, it's basic chemistry: the same amounts of A, B, and C will always turn into the same amounts of X, Y, and Z. But on the other hand, composition in the Hard Roil varies widely. No two ramscoop runs are exactly alike. We've got analyses and estimates and averages as best we can, but we still don't know how some areas stack up composition-wise. The ship's chemist and navigator are layin' in a course right now, trying to make sure we run into the right precursor elements in the right proportions."

The ship entered the Hard Roil to powerful turbulence, buffeted by microfragments of dead stars and hyperaccelerated particulates. The ramscoop fired up, a diffuse, invisible magnetic field the size of the Death Star. It began to funnel the chaos into the gas tanks as the buffetting grew worse. Ember held onto the arms of his chair. "Forward," he said. The ramscoop miner's simple engines flared to life. Like a drillbit dropping, the miner chewed its way into the Hard Roil. A stellar-core fragment flared, plasma pocket detonating; it disrupted the field for a moment, but its waste remains were siphoned into the tanks.