Heritable Modification (Cerita)

[Ashin Varanin]

TOWN OF LASARALEEN
TASH-TARAL

Lasaraleen would be a nothing town, anywhere but the Outer Rim. Here it was downright metropolitan. On the settlement's edge, Shambleau adjusted her facewrap and headgear for a better view. No matter how she wiped her goggles, the town didn't get any bigger. Still, if you wanted to get ahold of some of the less publicized divisions of Akure Executive Interstellar, Tash-Taral was the place to be.

Feth, but the desert gnawed at her skin. Mikans, for all that they looked like Zeltrons or Pantorans or Umbarans, weren't fond of arid climates. They weren't even mammalian, let alone humanoid. In her natural form, Shambleau was at home in the seas, on the beaches, in tide pools. When she was done, she'd get back aboard her chrome Santhe Challenger and take a dip in the immersion pool she'd crammed into the back seat. Until then, she could bear with the heat and the grit.

AEI had a small local office, a liaison with some kind of native settlement dozens of klicks away. Shambleau knocked, gave a prearranged passcode, and slipped inside. The air was much better in here.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Lady Shambleau"]

Strange how relationships could change by the flip of a coin.

First Varanin had marched in, trying to claim the Dark Forge for herself, but after the dust had settled they formed a partnership of sorts instead. It was a matter of convenience, to a degree. Akure always weighed new contracts by their worth and the former Empress of a thousand worlds had enough assets to make this partnership worthwhile.

Lasaraleen. They had agreed to meet on Tash-Taral, something had happened in Alliance space a few weeks back, but the details were sketchy on the best of days.

Maybe if she had spend less time on Tatooine and Antlean, things would be different, but when you are already splitting your attention twice... you miss things.

Had to do with the Charon and Otherspace, though. That much had been made clear. AEI had plenty of experience with both of those locales; they once hosted a resource station in Otherspace, before Rave gave it away in a contest at her death. Not even speaking of the Charon bio-engineering that had allowed the Qo'saarai Tuk'ata to exist in the first place.

Shambleau would enter a dim living room. Three desks were placed in the center of it and various alchemical equipment, computer screens and flimsiplast with obscure writing were decorating it.

"Shambleau, welcome." Ceri greeted, without taking her eyes of the one of the screens.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

"Sarova," said Shambleau with a nod. The chamber had the comfortable gloom of deep water; her eyes adjusted happily. She walked as she talked, examining the curios on display.

"Theed Hangar would like to talk with you about Otherspace and the Charon. There was an incident off Indupar -- a hyperspace accident involving a Galactic Alliance expeditionary carrier. It wound up in Otherspace and was boarded by Charon. The ship was able to repair its hyperdrive and repel the boarding operation, and the whole incident was classified. But a Theed Hangar engineer was aboard, and now the Hangar and the Alliance share a goal: we need as much information about Otherspace as possible. It's clear that Charon incursions can come from anywhere, at any time, whenever a Charon enclave finds or is given a hyperdrive. We believe it's only a matter of time until the Charon are used as a weapon...lured to a place that corresponds to a given realspace location, then given hyperspace impetus. It's happened before, in the Unknown Regions, almost three decades ago.

"Our goal is to secure the Naboo system against any such potential incursion. Through various means, we know that Akure's expeditionary ships ranged far afield when you owned what I believe is called Jen'asha Station. Did your ships ever collect Otherspace survey data anywhere near locations that might correspond with Naboo?"