Second Wave

[Farah]

Farah frowned. She was used to people being interested in what she had to say—or pretending to, at least. Definitely didn’t have to do with the fact that she was a Zeltron.

“Well,” She cleared her throat then took another sip from her drink for good measure. “It’s still a new company. Small. I’d like to keep it that way, easier to manage.” Cornerstone was primarily a way for Farah to access commercial equipment and personnel for her own needs. It wouldn’t hurt to actually produce something useful, in fact she was rather proud of some of her more public products.

“We work with some smaller indie companies.” She swirled her martini by the stem of its glass. “More ‘in’ with the younger crowds. You probably haven’t heard of them.” She paused for effect. “We also supply Coruscant General with some of their medical equipment. You know, CoreGen? The largest, most technologically advanced medical center on Coruscant?”

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Tytos scoffed for the third time that evening. Easier to manage? "Easier to bankrupt," he added dryly, shaking his head. People had no ambition these days.

"I'm aware of it," Tytos said. CoreGen was big on Coruscant, which meant it was big in the galaxy. It definitely kept popping up on top ten lists, though from his recollections it kept getting snubbed by the Kaminoans, Polis Massans, and Arkanians. There were few things humans could do that were not already been expertly handled by aliens elsewhere, it seemed. Tytos would have considered this tragic if he weren't an Umbaran. As it stood, he considered it the natural order of things.

But the natural order of things didn't necessarily apply here, seeing as [member="Farah"] the Zeltron was a licensed surgeon who operated a medical company instead of pimping out other Zeltrons. That explained her ill-conceived desire to keep things 'small'. This was capitalism they were talking about here. Small means poor. Small means weak. "I'm sure that sounds very impressive on your company's holonet page, but CoreGen is a massive operation. They must have dozens of different suppliers at least, and I'm sure most of them provide more advanced equipment - and more of it - than you do... or can."

This was starting to sound like a shark tank lecture.

 

[Farah]

For all he knew, Farah could have been on the verge of bankruptcy. The Zeltron had been trained in medicine, not finance. Finance was boring. It was the sort of job she outsourced to a specialist. Though who knew if she could trust her accountant?

“Yes.” She answered tersely. “They do, as a matter of fact, have many suppliers.” Farah couldn’t deny this fact, but she didn’t like his attitude. Well she hadn’t liked it from the beginning but she liked it even less now.

“But I’m sure that you started at the bottom as well. Unless of course, you inherited your…wealth?” A crimson brow rose as she took an unladylike swig of her martini. It was sort of ironic for her to be saying that, given that she didn’t know what it meant to struggle. Farah had simply spawned into a powerful family and didn’t have much standing in the way of her goals.

Medical training? The Zambrano estate had top notch labs available for her use. Company? Her gangster of a sugar daddy had procured that for her. That’s not to say that Farah hadn’t worked hard for her skills, but she had less obstacles to them than post people.

“Besides, if Cornerstone doesn’t work out,” She paused to order another drink. “I’ll always have this surgeon thing to fall back on.”

She smiled, politely.

"What about you?"

Her voice was almost saccharine.

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Maybe, if he had wanted to, he could have ditched his father and went back to Umbara to live with his extended family. They could have used him in their macabre political machinations, he could have used them for their wealth and connections. Yet he didn't. Tytos probably had his own reasons for this, overwhelming disdain for familial ties probably being foremost among them.

"No inheritance for me, no," Tytos admitted. It had been a straight and boring climb to the top for him. A regular rags to riches, but what did he have to fall back on for it?

A novel enough question. What exactly was his fallback plan? Did he need one set in stone? Or one at all? Theoretically he could have retired at any given time, but why retire with x amount of money when you could require with x-squared amount of money? More importantly, what else would he even do with his time?

"If I'm ever done with the Syndicate, I go someplace else," Tytos explained carefully, wanting to emphasize that he could essentially do anything he wanted and he wouldn't have to spend an ungodly amount of hours hunched over split-open schmuck in order to do it. Unlike some people... "You make enough contacts for yourself, there won't be any shortage of work. Move from one executive seat to the next, go wherever the pay raise is. You might understand when you're older."

Yes, there he went bringing age into it. He unscrewed his water for the final time and sloshed the contents idly.

"Don't worry, I'll hire you once Cornerstone goes belly up. Better gig than surgery. We could use a new Chief Medical Officer anyway. Our current one hasn't been meeting his quotas."

 

[Farah]

By this point Farah was resting an elbow on the bar’s counter top, cheek pressed against a loosely closed fist as she nursed her drink and alternated between looking pensive and scowling.

“I may be abrasive but doctors network quickly.” She wasn’t known for her bedside manner or her handling of bereaving families. But if you needed to widen a stenotic vein or replace a mitral valve? Her resume was up to par there.

Farah snorted. “Much older, I presume.” Mumbling into her glass, she went in for another slow sip.

“I like surgery.” Most surgeons tended to, anyhow. There’s no denying that they money and accolades—usually from people not in the medical field—were pretty great. But when you got right down to it, most had a love of medicine, an urge to butcher, and a god complex. If not all three, than at least two.

Instead of hissing and spitting about how her company would certainly thrive (because honestly, she didn’t know if it would), she pressed for more information. “What does that entail?” Lithe fingers idly spun the thin stem of her glass. “Moreover, why me? Why not someone more experienced?”

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Tytos did have a way with words, judging from the complete enthrallment indicated in her body language. Either that or [member="Farah"] was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol she was pouring into her system. Maybe not. She was a surgeon, studied the body, so she probably knew better than anyone else exactly just how much it would take to flatten her. Tytos, so far removed from his youth (which had been similarly dull and dry to begin with), had already forgotten that sometimes that was the whole point.

"Oh, simple things. Mostly organ printing, cloning," Tytos explained. Better not touch on the details, like that it was all illegal and taking place in an underground facility a mile below the surface of a planet covered in frozen wastelands. "You already run a larger, more complicated business. I'm sure you can handle a smaller enterprise and find the time to coordinate the research departments. No?"

He shrugged, "But there won't be much room for surgery."

If anyone ever came to the Syndicate for their black market surgeon needs, then times were truly desperate.

 

[Farah]

“Mm. Pass.” She took a thoughtful sip of her martini, if thoughtful could ever be used to describe booze. “I’ve dedicated my life to carving people up and playing god because I enjoy it.”

She was…honest, at least? Farah really, truly enjoyed surgery. To her and many of her colleagues, it wasn’t “work”. Well, it sort of was. She glanced over at Lukas who had the escort cuddling up to him. Get a room already.

“Have you ever thought of dabbling in pharmaceuticals?” That could mean anything from legal painkillers to spice. “Performance enhancement drugs, perhaps?” That could mean…anything.

“I’m more interested in that than synthetic organs.”

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

"How novel," Tytos said, clearly gripped by how much [member="Farah"] enjoyed her job.

No, not really.

There had been several initiatives planned by the Helix Syndicate to get into pharmaceuticals and performance enhancers. Most of them were canceled, simply because they usually got the "enhanced performance" they wanted out of their employees by stripping out the meaty, fleshy bits they had and replacing them with cold durasteel. Cybernetics. They had an entire division of tech support personnel made up of delinquents that fell afoul of the Syndicate, turned into mindless drones whose only wants are the satisfaction of its peers.

Putting all that into a pill could be cheaper, but the Syndicate was more familiar with cybernetics. So they went with that.

"It was a consideration at one time," Tytos said, offering a shrug, "We currently sell spice to a little company known as SIN. They're big in the Core - Coruscant, even. Perhaps you'll be familiar with them. We don't sell the refined product, anyway, just the raw material. Fresh from the ground at Kessel."

Technically the deal had been cut with the Coratanni Cartel, but this was a formal occasion. Front names only.

"If we ever had need of pharmaceuticals, we would likely contract out to someone else. PharmaTech, maybe, though I doubt they push the envelope far enough to make it worth my while."

There was an air in Tytos' voice. An air that said, simply, "go on - sell me something nice."

 

[Farah]

“I’m familiar with SIN. I live on Coruscant most of the time.”

She also happened to be dating one of the Coratanni Cartel’s operatives. Maybe she was his sugar baby, but Nikolas certainly spared no expense when it came to trying to appease her out of a bad mood. Their courtship had been…weird. The whole relationship was weird.

Farah did not miss the opening he gave her to pitch one of her favorite products. However, Farah was not the best saleswoman. She wasn’t the greatest when it came to drawing people in with something great or using pretty speech to make something seem more enticing. What she was good at was giving you cold, hard facts with not a hint of an amicable expression.

“I’ve got DriveX if you want it.” She shrugged. “It’s a stimulant that enhances productivity and memory retention. Tested it in the field more than once.” She’d made it for herself, initially. Sort of. The other doctors seemed to make good use of it, residents and interns especially.

“Mix it with caf and power through your work day.” Her voice flattened as if she were making a mock pitch now before she snorted and downed the rest of her martini in an extremely lady-like fashion.

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Tytos looked at [member="Farah"] for a long moment after she finished speaking. "Oh, is that... It?"

Was it hard for him to contain his disappointment? Or did he just not care enough to? Tytos had been hoping for something more exotic. Combat enhancers, adrenaline boosters, maybe something to heighten reflexes. These were things cybernetics could do, but again, pills were cheaper. And if pills couldn't do all that less expensively, he would have a hard time trying to figure out why he was having this conversation to begin with. DriveX at least sounded useful.

There was likely no shortage of negative side-effects to deal with, but Tytos would leave that to the people who would actually be taking them to deal with. Maybe a limited run among some under-performing collection centers first, just to see what happened.

"I suppose we could get some use out of a shipment or ten," Tytos ventured. "Do you have anything else in development?"

 

[Farah]

“Yes.” She answered in a hard tone. “For now.”

Was he toying with her? Did he know how much time and effort went into researching and development? You couldn’t just decide to will an idea into existence. There were months, if not years of scientific hoops to jump through, not to mention legal barrier to sidestep.

Some people just had no appreciation for science.

“I’ll put you down for ten, then.” Farah responded briskly. “Buy another ten and I’ll tell you what else I’ve got in the works that you might find useful.”

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Tytos was just striking nerves left and right today, it seemed. He wondered if [member="Farah"] would be spitting into these shipments before they arrived, just to spite him and his. As long as the drug still worked as intended and didn't spread infectious disease, Tytos would hardly care either way.

"Fine, I suppose I could spiritually benefit from an act of charity," Tytos said. "Another ten. What else?"

Twenty shipments of fast-acting focus pills, just to get a peak behind curtain number two. This had better be worth it.

 

[Farah]

Oh. She didn’t expect that.

Or maybe she did? There were parts of her that did and parts of her that didn’t.

“Amnestic drugs.” She declared, a hint of pride in her voice. “Of varying strength. Can erase a few hours of memories or…” She waved her hand, taking a long swig of her new drink. “All of them.”

Farah smiled, not at Tytos, but at the thought of how successful her drug trials have gone so far. Normally she’d be tight lipped about anything in development, but the truth was that MEDEA was ready to hit the market. Even if word got out, any competitors would be hard pressed to duplicate what she’d made exactly. So she assumed.

“And everything in between.”

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Amnestics. The magic word. Tytos had met with every pharmaceutical hack in the Alignment and none of them had managed to offer a viable product. This one only worked on Yagai, this one took too long to take effect, this one left patients comatose, etc. None of it would be as useful as the Syndicate needed it to be. The whole appeal was that it would attract less attention than, say, shooting key witnesses in the face until they were sufficiently dead.

Well, not to mention the market applications. Plenty of people would be willing to pay top dollar for the Syndicate to aggressively (to put it mildly) apply the drug to people of their choice, for any reason of their choice. They would just have to live with the blackmail afterwards. Karma and all that.

Tytos glanced over his shoulder as if to make sure he wasn't being watched - like he didn't want anyone to see he was sneaking into a gold mine. He didn't even notice what Doctor Whoshisface and his former escort Miss Whatsittoya were up to now. Looking back to [member="Farah"] he said, "And how soon will that be going to market?"

 

[Farah]

He hadn’t ridiculed her this time, which was telling of his interest. Maybe. Farah didn’t exactly have the best people instincts for a Zeltron.

“Depends on how badly you want it.”

Arrogance in the form of a smirk curled its way onto her face, pleased that she now appeared to be holding a card that he wanted.

“Could be next week, next year.” She shrugged as if she didn’t know.

She removed the toothpick from her drink, teeth scraping gently against the wood as she effectively removed the speared olive.

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Considering Tytos had only learned about the existence of these amnestic drugs less than twenty seconds ago, somehow he doubted their release and production hinged solely on him. He snorted indignantly through his nostrils. This was a business transaction, not some kind of yuppie blind date. What was all this wretched coyness? And that smirk! How inappropriate.

"I see," Tytos said, pursing his lips in an effort to fight off the distinct and constant urge to scowl at [member="Farah"]. "Suppose, hypothetically, my organization is willing to spend a recurrent sum of money on a continually replenishing supply of those drugs and your DriveX."

Something glinted behind Tytos' normally dull eyes. It looked like greed.

 

[Farah]

Farah’s lips pursed, just slightly in thought.

“That depends on what you’re after, exactly.” She explained. “As I mentioned, this drug comes in varying levels of intensity. The lower grades will be easier to supply—low risk to subjects with enough potency to wipe a few hours to a few days’ worth of memories.” The primary use of the amnestic drug she’d concocted was to reduce the number of civilians you had to kill when they saw something they shouldn’t have. Or perhaps to relieve an agent of the memories of torture.

“As for the most potent class,” The toothpick shifted between her fingers slowly. “It depends.” Her eyes flickered upward, enough to latch onto the glint in his gaze. “On how well you treat me.”

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Were they still haggling? They were still haggling. Now [member="Farah"] was after better treatment - whatever that meant - instead of money. Tytos supposed he could start by not condescending to her as often as he currently was. If he tried really hard, maybe he could stop condescending to her entirely. That would be the day. He drummed his fingers on the bartop and bit back something insulting, instead saying, "You'll find that the Syndicate is more than willing to perform favors for its friends, and offers them rather serious protection from those wishing to do them harm."

Tytos paused for a moment and then added more pointedly, "What else do you want?"

 

[Farah]

“Hmm.” Farah thoughtfully sipped her sixth? Seventh drink? She had an early shift tomorrow, not like that made a difference. She’d likely end this night at the hospital, propped up on a hallway bed with a banana bag IV in her arm. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Krieger and his new friend were already gone, not like either of them had noticed. Not when there were memory erasure drugs on the table.

“That’ll be all for now.” She decided. The protection of another criminal group was always a good thing. “I’m sure that we’ll have more to talk about as I complete more trials. I don’t plan to stop here.” Farah wasn’t the type to rest on her laurels, not that she had laurels.

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Really? Was it that easy? No one knew how cheap it was to send armed thugs to disperse trouble, apparently. Not that doctors usually got in all that much trouble. Which made the promise of "back up" even more flimsy. Whatever. Everyone always loved to hear about being protected, even if they were never really in danger in the first place. Tytos pursed his lips again and nodded, "Very well."

He fished around in his pocket, eventually finding his wallet and sliding a business card out from it. It was about the least interesting business card a person could carry. Perfectly rectangular, pitch black with white text. It had Tytos' name on one side and his contact information on the other. No graphics, no titles. Tytos liked to operate under the assumption that if you were getting his card, you already knew what he did. Otherwise, why bother? He slid this to [member="Farah"] and then got out of his seat.

"We'll be in touch, I'm sure."

Yes, time to go. All this sass and betrayal had exhausted him, and watching this pink harlot drink like a fish could only stress him out further.