Planet for sale, cheap. (Open)

[Corias Bonaventure]

"Frelling, myopic, brown-nosing, couldn't-tell-paydirt-if-they-sat-in-it bureaucrats... 'Eyes on the times,' my armpit. I've catalogued single-celled organisms that displayed more signs of intelligence."

Corias Bonaventure stormed through the upper Coruscant streets muttering fitfully to himself like a man who'd spent half a year on his own prospecting for resource worlds on the frontier and returned only to find the values of irridium and cesium reduced to a ten-year low because of some new industrial regs pushed through the Senate by the frelling environmentalist lobby.

Which, of course, wasn't too far off from the truth.

He'd thought he was a genius when he set course for the frontier beyond the Cizerack Pride. Those worlds hadn't felt the probing of planetary sensors since the Empire was looking for materials to build the Death Star.

It was the longest tour he'd taken to date. And running a survey ship with a full optronic sensor cortex weighed heavily on a freelancer's budget. He'd found six planets with readily exploitable resources. Dynasty Mining Corp would only pay for the data on two of them. That wouldn't even cover his operating expenses for the last six months. He just couldn't afford to take out another loan to fund his next excursion, so he'd told that pimply, stiff-collared speculating agent to stick his offer somewhere no laser drill can excavate.

Corias left the office as broke as he'd gone in, and unless he could find another client, he'd stay that way.

The young man stepped into the first bar he could find outside the corporate district, not even glancing up at the neon sign that was flashing "Yog's." He was surprised to meet a NRSF agent at the door asking for weapons. He would've turned around and looked for another pub, but, taking a gander at the place, it didn't seem too dangerous, even if it looked like a bathrobe convention was stopping by. Shrugging, he turned over his Rummel P-16 special and mosied over to the bar.

Corias hopped onto a stool and slapped the bartop. "Barkeep, get me an Aldebaran whiskey."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea Kaylen nearly fell off her barstool, starting violently at the loud THWAP! of a sweaty palm impacting the bar next to her head. Groggily she lifted her aching head to see who was interrupting her halfway-inebriated daze.

A rough man in rough clothes had perched himself on the next barstool. He looked every inch a spacer, though judging from the stormy expression on his face, he was perhaps a down-and-out one.

The glass the barkeep slid to the newcomer was brimming with some kind of foreign brew. Rhea had no idea what it was, but the sight and smell of it made her head spin again.

Urrgh...drinking that Corellian Twister had probably been a bad idea...

The unholy loud clank of the spacer's glass on the bar jolted the throb in Rhea's right temple, and she unconsciously moaned faintly as her head sank downward again.

[Corias Bonaventure]

At a fleeting glance, Corias saw a mop of black and white hair drooped over the bartop as he reached for the opaque, green beverage. He wasn't prepared to give it much more thought before he'd drowned some of his entrepreneurial angst. Raising the shotglass to his lips, he downed the whole thing--Holy--!

It raged all the way down his throat, and he almost dropped his glass as he nearly hacked up an internal organ. He thumped his chest hard, wiped his watery eyes, took a few deep breaths, then looked back up at the bartender.

"One more," the pilot said.

[Rhea Kaylen]

The melodramatic ruckus next door made Rhea swallow a snicker. Got what he asked for, if you ask me. Not that she'd been much better at slurping on that nearly-virgin fruit Twister. Even the miniscule amount of liquor in it had set her to choking and hiccuping almost immediately. Halfway through it, and unused to any alcohol whatsoever, Rhea'd been nearly smashed.

She was surprised to hear the spacer wheeze for another glass of his acid drink, and, morbidly interested, turned her head a fraction to peer over the crook of her supporting arm.

"Y'sure you wanna do tha'?" Actually, the words weren't meant to be anything more than a thought, but in order for her to hear over the renewed pounding in her head, Rhea'd found it necessary to mumble them to herself as she watched the young man raise his fresh shotglass.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias glanced at the woman slumped on the bar beside him, then regarded his beverage philosophically.

"Do I want to?" he said. "No, not really. I have to. It's a sort of..." He swiveled the shotglass in his hand, sloshing its contents precariously. "Catharsis. You know, a cleansing of the soul."

He up-ended the glass a second time and bent double over the bar, retching. Once he was finished, the spacer pushed himself upright and rubbed his throat tenderly. "That's enough cleansing for tonight," he rasped.

Corias slapped the bar again, eliciting a perturbed look from the 'tender. "Barkeep, you got any cheese fries? Send some over. And get me a cup of caff."

He cocked his head over to match Rhea's orientation. "You look pretty cleaned out yourself."

[Minion Alghieri]

"The absolute strongest stuff you've got."

Alghieri was a bit ticked - had been for a few hours by now, really. The gangster had just finished a set of in-person negotiations that could have gotten him quite a profit.

Or not. He'd been forced to dispose of one or two lackies, and washing off his weapons had been a nuisance.

And this after a trip all the way to Coruscant.

To sum up; his mood was indescribably foul.

"And I mean that," he added when the bartender hesitated.

It was goign to take a while, he saw, as some nearby fellow with the look of a prospector had just ordered-

Cheese fries!?!?

Snorting, Alghieri thumped his elbows on the table to wait for his drink.

[Rhea Kaylen]

At first, Rhea was glad the spacer had turned his head; she saw him much better that way. Then he spun completely upside-down, and she rather wished he'd stop trying to accomodate her.

Then she realized he wasn't moving.

Rhea spread her fingers flat against the bar and slowly pushed herself more or less erect. After a moment to take a breath, she blinked at the spacer and replied.

"Yes I am. I swear off liquor as of this moment. Never again."

A brief pause in which Rhea's brow furrowed in thought. Then she hiccuped. "Nope. Never again."

Even to her own head, Rhea sounded like a babbling idiot. Which, all things considered, she was. Her eyes had drifted off the spacer, and she wrenched them back, noticing as she did the figure sitting two or three seats farther down. Whoever he was, Rhea thought he looked vaguely amused.

The bartender swung by and passed off a mug of something steaming and oily to the spacer. She nodded at it, wincing at her headache.

" 'S that stuff help?" Rhea wasn't sure why she asked him, and some of it was probably the Corellian sweetrum talking, but he seemed knowledgeable about such things, and she was willing to try anything.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Wow... the gal had definitely had a little more than was good for her, and from the sounds of things, this was her first time, too. And she seemed to be sitting alone, which meant there was probably a reason she'd taken to the bar tonight.

So, if Corias turned on just enough charm, it was possible his day wouldn't end up being so bad after all.

The prospector reeled in his cup of caff and lightly blew the steam away. "Depends on what needs helping," he replied, mixing in a creamer. "It'll make you feel more awake, maybe start chasing the alcohol out of your system. Ginger tea might be better for your headache. You can pick up an anti-oxidant tablet if you're really in a hurry."

He took a measured sip of his caff--not so fresh this late in the day, but better than what he was used to.

"Unless you were talking about something else," he added innocently.

Corias chanced a peek at the big fellow a few seats down. Uh-oh, looked like trouble. He couldn't quite place the gangster's species, but he could tell the guy had some steam to blow off, and, as far as the pilot's experience went, big, angry aliens and hard drinks made for an explosive combination.

The bartender was a moment more in the kitchen before he returned to his ill-tempered customer. "Only fair to warn you, buddy," he said, hefting a reinforced durasteel keg plastered with all manner of prohibitive typography. "This is the absolute strongest stuff we've got. You sure you don't want second-strongest?"

[Minion Alghieri]

The huge mongrel turned his gaze from the keg to the bartender, and bared jagged teeth.

"Thank you," he said civilly. "That will do just fine. How much for the whole keg?" The bartender named a figure, and wordless, Alghieri payed hard credits and accepted the cask.

"Bottoms up," he mumbled, and began to drink directly from the bung.

Thirty seconds later, he blinked and put the cask down in front of him. That was indeed strong. Close to a hundred percent, if he didn't miss his guess, and with something corrosive mixed in.

"Not bad," he said after a long moment. "Not bad at all."

"Care for a sip, miss?" he asked the girl humorously, the one who seemed to be having serious trouble holding the light stuff. "Clear your head and no mistake."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea watched, half in horror and half in awe, as the big guy down the bar upended an entire keg of what looked to be nuclear waste. Did he actually have a death wish, or just an inflated sense of his own fortitude?

He seemed to take it alright, though, much to Rhea's amazement. When he came up for air, he offered her a swig.

"Umm..." Rhea came back tremulously. Just the thought of drinking that stuff made her queasy. "Think I'll pass, thanks. I doubt that'd really do the trick for me."

Remembering belatedly that the spacer next to her had asked a question (actually an open-ended rhetorical, she realized as her more intelligent faculties seemed to be checking back in), and had been quite forthcoming with remedies for her, Rhea turned back to him.

"Well that stuff," she replied, motioning vaguely to the aromatic caff, "looks revolting, but ginger tea...now there's a smart idea. My headache's about the only thing I can help at this point." This last was said more to herself than the man as she reclined her forehead against her cool hand.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias found himself riveted to the spectacle. Even two seats away, the smell of the grog in that keg assaulted his nostrils almost as badly as the whiskey had. There was only one such substance he knew of that could possibly find its way into the darkest recesses of a pub's beverage locker, even though, by all standards of reason and decency, it shouldn't be anywhere near products intended for organic consumption.

Across the galaxy, it was known by many names--the Vaad called it "Death's Flagon," to the Charnaks, it was "Devil's Bile," and the So'mey'chin'pu'ka'ri'soy gave it a twenty-seven syllable name that translated roughly to "Bringer of Sorrows, Messenger of Agonizing Death, and Chiefest of Putrefactions." But in these parts it was known as the Jedi Toilet Duck.

The spacer could only stare, aghast as Alghieri poured the vile stuff down his throat. There were very few species who could tolerate that level of exposure.

"By the name of all that is holy..." Corias murmured. "You, uh... you know what that stuff is? That's..."

His attention drifted back toward Rhea. "...certainly not what you need. Ginger Tea, yeah, that's a good idea. Hey, barkeep!" He slapped his hand on the bar again.

The 'tender hustled over and clamped a meaty hand on his arm. "Please don't do that," he grumbled.

Corias retracted his arm. "Oh... sorry," he said in a more subdued tone. "Ginger tea for the lady here. Maybe a bit of honey and lemon."

As the bartender lumbered off, Corias glanced back over at Alghieri. "You know, there are some cultures that would drop everything and declare you a deity right about now."

[Minion Alghieri]

"It is strong," Alghieri admitted, elbow slipping on a spill. "Pretty much the strongest stuff I'm familiar with. Think I'm-" he hiccuped, and his face skated across the edge of mortified. "I think I'm halfway to a hangover already.

"Yeah, it's strong," he continued, apparently having forgotten that he'd said that very thing seconds ago. "But deity-level? Nah...I may be successful in my own line of work, but I'm pretty far from being a god to anyone but my men."

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias glanced to Rhea on his right and back to Alghieri on his left. One was quaffing the hardest poison in the galaxy with masochistic abandon, and the other had gotten in over her head one step past a Shirley Temple. Granted, the spacer had taken two shots of whiskey, and he could feel a warm buzz about his ears, but as Alghieri's tankard did its work, Corias was rapidly becoming the soberest of the three of them.

He took another sip of his caff. Alghieri had just slapped down a substantial handful of credit without much compunction. Maybe... just maybe... he had the credits and the need for Corias Bonaventure's particular talents.

"Hey, I respect that," he said. "A leader ought to inspire his men. So what kind of business are you in?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

The bartender finally came back with the spacer's cheese fries (which Rhea eyed dubiously) and a small mug of wonderful-smelling tea with a flagon of honey. The large man looked at her somewhat pityingly; Rhea ducked his sympathetic glance and drizzled a liberal amount of honey into the depths of her tea.

Belatedly, Rhea patted at her pockets to ensure she had the credits to pay for the drink. Frowning as she fingered the chits in her jacket pocket, she silently hoped the tea was not expensive. She needed enough cash to pay for a cab home.

But the smell of the tea was heavenly, and Rhea slowly nursed the soothing (and, blessedly, sobering) drink as she kept half-an-ear on the spacer's conversation, finding herself vaguely interested in the man who'd helped her out.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias didn't hear any response from Alghieri. Considering the volume of alcohol the mongrel had just consumed, he felt it best not to press too hard. Especially when there was still a much fairer patron to his right.

"There, that's better," he said winningly, pointing at the tea. "Better than the sludge they keep in the caff machines, anyway. I don't think I ever caught your name. I'm Corias, by the way. Corias Bonaventure."

[Minion Alghieri]

"Shipping," the gangster mumbled finally, eying the keg askance. An exceptionally odd aftertaste had just kicked in.

"I run transport, mercenary outfits, supply and demand...your all-around sort of outer-rim entrepreneur."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea was about to reply when Super Size down the bar seemed to snap out of his momentary funk and belatedly answer the spacer, Corias', question.

So Rhea, who was beginning to feel considerably better, just settled down to wait and sip her tea.

She needed another moment to reconnoitre, anyway; the alcohol still had her mind moving sluggishly. Corias Bonaventure, eh? Nice name, Rhea couldn't help admitting. Conveyed...wild spacefaring adventures and fantastic voyages and windswept vistas. It was the name of one born to see it all, and by the look of Sir Corias Bonaventure, he'd already been privvy to most of it.

Rhea found herself more interested in him than ever, just by virtue of his name. She was more than content to just sit quietly while he talked to the other man and try to forget the rather large mistake she'd made an hour ago in ordering that accursed drink.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Hmm... well, conversations didn't always proceed linearly in interstellar bars. Corias actually found himself quite comfortable bouncing between two threads of discussion as long as it didn't offend either party.

"You don't say? I've done business on the rim myself. Planetary survey, mainly--resource prospecting, that sort of thing. I also procure interstellar artifacts for private collectors."

He took a large handful of greasy cheese fries and stuffed them into his mouth.

"Of course, the market on that's been slow lately," he added while chewing. He washed the wad of fries down with a gulp of caff and turned back to Rhea. "Still with me? I can call you a cab if you need it."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea watched Corias, trying not to grimace at his eating habits. Cheese fries...

"No, I'm fine for now, thanks, Sir Bonaventure. I'm Rhea Kaylen."

She extended her hand with as bright a smile as she could muster under the circumstances.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias had the presence of mind to wipe off his hand before taking Rhea's. He gave it a gentle squeeze and noted that her skin felt just a bit clammy and cold--that drink really had done a number on her.

"Sir Bonaventure?" he laughed. "Wow. No, call me Corias. Or Cor. Or whatever. I'm just a hack spacer. So tell me, Rhea, why's a girl like you doing a night on the town all alone?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea grimaced. She had to stop doing that; nobody on Coruscant wanted to be called "Sir." Dumb habit, anyway.

Corias' hand was warm and rough, and he was making Rhea almost afraid to talk to him any further. She didn't want to get into trouble by trusting him blindly.

But he seemed nice, so...

Rhea snorted in reply before taking a sip of her drink. "Because nobody's desperate enough to remedy that situa--"

D'oh!! Wake up, Rhea, complete stranger! "Uh...I mean...um, because I needed to get out, I guess."

Stupid talking sweetrum...

[Minion Alghieri]

Eyeing the couple stoicly, Alghieri returned to his keg until such time as they were finished. The spacer had piqued his interest.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Rhea seemed just a little put off--not that Corias was necessarily the most sensitive to such things, but her sentiments weren't quite as subtle as they might have been otherwise. Maybe he'd been a bit too forward, or maybe he'd come too close to a sore spot. Either way, he guessed he'd probably better back off a little--he didn't want to scare Rhea away.

"Hey, no problem, I know how you feel," he said casually, with no good clue as to which of Rhea's answers he was talking about. He paused for a moment as he groped for a direction to take from there.

"I mean, I spend a lot of time staring at the inside of my ship when I'm in space. Heck, even when I'm on Coruscant I spend a lot of time staring at the inside of my ship. Now, don't get me wrong, she's a good ship, but she's not real good for conversation."

Then he started thinking about ginger tea and remembered that's what he used to drink to help him sleep. Combined with the alcohol already in Rhea's bloodstream, it might be downright anesthetic.

Uh-oh. The last thing he needed was for Rhea to think he was somehow trying to take advantage of her.

[Rhea Kaylen]

I've really got to watch what I say and how I say it, thought Rhea, feeling the awkwardness her untoward outburst had caused. Let's...just back up and start over.

"You have my sympathies," she replied aloud, smiling again so Corias wouldn't think her to be afraid of him. "Good conversation can be a tad scarce here, despite the fact we're living in the biggest city in the galaxy. I can only imagine it to be worse for a space-traveler. Speaking of which, your line of work sounds interesting. I don't get out much,--"obviously"--and have never seen a great deal of the galaxy myself. I'm sure you must have a library of tales?"

Rhea suppressed a yawn, wondering where it had come from, because she really was interested, just very tired.

[Corias Bonaventure]

"One or two," Corias replied, quickly regaining his poise. "I mean, it's not all glorious adventure and teetering on the edge of ruin and disaster..."

He reached for the cheese fries again--he only took one this time.

"But when you're on the rim, you never know what to expect. You know, two years ago I was out past the Mists of Ogygia between Menkalinen and Ord Mantel. I had just stepped into the shower when I heard a proximity warning. I run to the cockpit in nothing but a towel, and all my scopes are blank. So I look out my canopy glass, and all around me, there are these huge creatures--they looked like a cross between a manta ray and a cuttlefish, and some of them were kilometers long. There were at least fifty of them, all moving off toward the Outer Rim.

"So I fire up my scanners, and all the EM bands are full of noise. Then I hit the X-ray band, and you know what? They were singing. That's the only way I can describe it. I patched the signal through my comm. system and listened for hours. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard."

Corias sat quietly for a few moments, fingering his cup of caff in reverie. At last he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Naturally, none of it recorded. All I got was a couple camera shots, and they didn't turn out. And as far as I know, nobody else has ever logged an encounter with these things. But that's the way the galaxy is, I guess. It's a lot bigger than you think."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea had to force herself not to gape. His words were enthralling, captivating (even despite the mental picture of the guy in a bath-towel), and she was having difficulty trying not to daydream.

Of course, he didn't have any evidence--no sound or pictures...but Rhea wasn't completely like her "seeing is believing" father. She'd gotten a little of her mother's wild imagination as well. So she was willing to go on a little faith.

"I imagine it's a great deal bigger than anyone supposes," she replied, taking another sip of tea and beginning to feel very relaxed, indeed. "For instance, there are still some of my own people who don't really realize that there's an enormous Republic of systems and planets beyond the borders of their own homeworld. Most of them know this in a vague, cerebral sense, but so very few are willing to get out and see any of it. There are some who wouldn't believe a description of Coruscant if I told it to them. But I'm glad I got the chance to at least see a little."

[Corias Bonaventure]

"Oh really? For a little bit I thought you were human, maybe a colonial... There's something about your eyes, though... don't tell me, let me guess."

This was something Corias genuinely enjoyed--he'd encountered a fair number of species on his travels. He got off his stool, backed up, and squeezed one eye shut, regarding Rhea like a portrait painter. Then he sat back down, took a look at the back of her hand, and then craned his neck around to see the shape of her ears. It might have been awkward for Rhea, but he was quick about it, and she may have suspected some of the scrutiny was just for show.

"Well, you're not Bendreezi," he said. "And you're not Tarellian unless you've lost two of your arms. So I guess you're..."

He hesitated, and he took another look at her profile.

"Wait, don't tell me, it's on the tip of my tongue."

He tapped his temple reflexively, eyes shut in concentration.

"Imrani?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea just about choked on her tea (she had a bad habit of doing that). Her eyes went wide and she stared in genuine disbelief at the astute spacer.

"Y-you're good!" she said, her face breaking finally into a grin. She'd thought he was just playing a parlor trick, what with all that prodding and measuring, but...he honestly knew what he was talking about.

Which meant he'd been to Imran!

In a sudden burst of...not homesickness, but definite curiosity, Rhea leaned closer to Corias. "You've been to my homeworld! I've never, in all my time in this city, met another who knew of it!"

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias matched Rhea's grin--it helped to cover how relieved he was that his gamble had paid off.

"Oh, I believe it," he replied. "I wasn't there long... I was just passing through--"

He caught himself. It was probably best he didn't let her know he'd been speculating on the prospects of strip-mining Imran's moons.

"Ahem, 'scuse me. I stopped in and refueled at a local spaceport, then spent a night planetside before heading out again. Lovely little planet. I'm surprised to see an Imrani this far into the interior, though. You're awful far from home. What brought you to Coruscant?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea couldn't entirely wipe the small smile off of her face.

"I'm surprised that you've been there. Oh, it's a long story. You want the short version or the really short version?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias chuckled. "Whatever's convenient for you. I've got too much time to know what to do with it."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea really was grinning, now. "You probably shouldn't have said that; I'm liable to talk your limbs off one by one. So just tell me when you've heard enough.

"Yes, I am a long way from home," Rhea began, sitting back and sipping at her tea (which, she saw sadly, was nearly gone). She pondered for a moment on the wisdom of disclosing any appreciable amount of information to Corias, as he was technically still a stranger, and she didn't know who might still hold a grudge against her family. But whether she was still loose from the rum or the tea was making her unguarded, she went on and told him what she willed.

"You probably know that all Imrani are Force-sensitive. My grandparents decided, after the end of the War, to come to Coruscant and become Jedi of the GJO. After achieving the title of Knights, they returned to Imran to pass along their craft to other Imrani. They had two children, brothers named Kal and Kay. As an adult, Kay decided to follow in his parents' footsteps. He and his wife came to Coruscant and became Knights themselves."

Rhea polished off the last of her tea with vigor and set the cup down, fighting another yawn. "When they left the Temple," she continued, "they moved to a nearby ghetto section of town rather than return to Imran. They--" Rhea cut off abruptly. Perhaps she should not disclose everything. "They had one daughter, me, and raised me as a Jedi. But when I was six, they began to sense that they were in some sort of danger, and sent me back to Imran to live with my grandparents. They...died soon after.

"My grandparents and uncle raised me, taught me the Jedi arts. When I turned twenty, I returned to Coruscant, and here I am!"

Rhea smiled, catching her breath, and sincerely hoped she'd not bored the spacer to death already.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias listened attentively, though he was a little disappointed--he'd wanted to hear a little more about her... how she grew up, what she liked to do, and what she saw in this town that had made her want to come back. Not that he had a problem with Coruscant; he just never wanted to live there.

"Sounds like your parents were important to you," he said pensively.

Eh? What was that? A good way to kill a conversation, especially if she turned the query around on him.

He grabbed another fry as he changed gears. "So, do you still do the, uh..." Suddenly drawing a blank, he waggled the cheese fry around in a silly imitation of a lightsaber. "...the Jedi thing?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

"Oh, no. I mean, not as a profession; I never did it as a profession. I know how to do it, of course--it's like flying a spacecraft, you never forget--but I'm rusty and would just rather live normally. I'm better at doing that."

Rhea was amazed that the spacer was so interested; he genuinely wanted to know about her. It had been a long time since she'd seen that kind of curiosity from anyone, let alone a man with his choice of any other girl in a bar. Not that Rhea was so naive that she was going to jump to any kind of a conclusion about his intentions, good or ill, but it was sort of...nice, she concluded, that another person would take an interest in her.

It was only right she reciprocate. "What about you? Did you always want to be a spacer, or are you the black-sheep son of a politician or something?" She smiled.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias took a deep breath, his eyes fixed thoughtfully somewhere in hyperspace, then turned an ironic smile toward Rhea.

"Nothing so interesting, I'm afraid. My dad owns a freighter line on the Mid Rim, the Bonaventure Starfreight Conglomerate. I grew up on freighters until my dad made his first million; then he bought an estate on Beta Centaures. I didn't want to end up working for him the rest of my life, so, when I turned eighteen, I bought a ship of my own and headed out."

And hopefully that was enough to satisfy her curiosity for the time being. Best to move the conversation along now.

"Being a freelancer has its ups and downs, of course. You never know what the market's going to look like when you get back into town. Take my last tour, for example..."

No, didn't need to go down that road. He gulped down the last of his caff and clacked the mug back onto the countertop.

"Ah, but you don't want to hear about that. Anyway, I'm pretty much going to be stuck here until I can find another job outsystem, but that's the risk you take. So, if you're not a Jedi, what do you do? Besides sit around in bars and listen to spacers talk their heads off."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea heard the shift in the man's voice back to a slightly more businesslike tone, and couldn't help the small pang of disappointment. But of course, she couldn't expect a businessman to have unlimited quantities of time just to spend in bars talking to people. He'd be looking for a job, something she could not help him with.

So she smiled a bit more politely and replied, "Oh, nothing, really. That is, I don't have a trade. I work where I can make enough money to survive without needing special training: cook, waitress, that sort of thing. I was working daytimes at a diner downtown and nights at an airship manufacturing plant, but I lost the diner job. Today, actually. So I'll be looking for something new, myself."

Rhea reached into her pocket to finger her few credits again. She'd probably have to walk, but she wasn't upset; the tea had done her good.

"What kind of work are you on the lookout for, Mr. B--erm, Corias? Any kind of shipping job, or...?"

Rhea took another sidelong glance down the bar at the mongrel hulking there. He'd seemed to be in a similar line of business as Corias Bonaventure.

[Corias Bonaventure]

The spacer's brow creased sympathetically. "Sorry to hear about the job. The economy sucks right about now."

He fell silent again, all except for his fingers drumming pensively on the bar top. "I'm not really outfitted for shipping, not unless you're talking about small packages. And then you're probably talking about... well... stuff you don't want to talk about."

Especially not with a couple NRSF agents at the door. His thoughts also drifted back toward Alghieri. Somehow Corias sensed he hadn't lost the mongrel's attention--it couldn't hurt to try a little advertisement.

"But, anyway, that's not really my style. Right now, I'm rigged for search and survey. I've got more sensor power on my ship than a Corellian cruiser. It's a great rig if you need to find a cobalt signature on a class-D planet, or search for water deposits in an asteroid field." There was a touch of professional pride in his voice as he added, "On a clear day, I could park out-system and see what the chancellor's having for dinner."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea grinned broadly, impressed.

"With instruments like that, it seems to me you'd be in high demand. Did you just get back from a job?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

"Yesterday," the spacer replied with a nod. "I've been surveying unclaimed worlds on the frontier of the Cizerack Pride for the past six months. I found six planets that could make a man rich if he had a shovel and a mule, but there's not a mining corp on Coruscant with the guts to face down the environmentalist lobby and the Cizerack bureaucracy. Sorry, I'm griping again."

Corias swept his tongue around in his mouth and made a face--however it may or may not have strengthened his constitution, the combination of Aldebaran whiskey and cheap caff had left his mouth tasting like old bantha hide. He leaned over to a tray of spearmints sitting between him and Alghieri, grabbed two, and popped both of them into his mouth. He thought he'd better leave the rest for Alghieri.

"Sometimes the NR hires private explorers. The pay's not great, but it'd be something. I hear there's a company putting together an adventure cruise to the Rim; maybe I could be a consultant, or maybe a tour guide. And I guess if I get really desperate I could give tours myself. But I don't like the idea of taking on passengers."

He rubbed his eyes and chuckled. "Ah, business talk is depressing. There's gotta be something fun to do in this town. Know about anything in the neighborhood?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea wrinkled her nose somewhat. "I...can't really see you as a tour guide, I'm afraid. But if you're looking for something to do right now, well, let's see: there's a cinema a couple blocks away, three discotheques within walking distance...a kabuki theater in the Museum District, art galleries. Gardens back toward the Senate complexes. Fountains, too. It kind of depends what you're looking for."

Rhea narrowed her eyes and looked at him askance. "And if you're wondering, the Red Light District is that way," she pointed vaguely off to the right somewhere.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias rolled back his eyes in thought and actually glanced over in the direction Rhea had pointed. Then he laughed disarmingly.

"Well, I'll probably do what I usually do... just wander around until something catches my eye." He mopped up the last of his cheese fries and pulled a credit chit from his wallet. "Here, barkeep. That ought to cover my tab and the lady's tea."

Cutting off any chance at protest from Rhea, he tossed the chit at the bartender, then stood and popped his neck. "So, Rhea... unless you want to go club-hopping or cheap holo-watching or whatver low-budget thrill I can come up with... maybe you could give me your comm. number. I mean, I'll be in town a while. Might be nice to have a friendly conversation now and then."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea blinked and tried not to fall off her barstool. He can't possibly be serious...

But he was. Rhea coaxed a smile from her bewildered countenance and tipped her head in a nod. "Sure, that'd be nice. Umm..." She patted her pockets. "You got a bit of flimsy? Or a pencil, I have some paper."

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias tried to gauge her reaction on a scale from disgusted to excited... but he wasn't sure where to put flummoxed.

But he smiled back at her and dug a weathered spiral-bound memo pad from a voluminous coat pocket--there was a mechanical pencil speared through the metal coil. "Here," he said, tossing it onto the bar. "Stick it anywhere in there. That's just some old prospecting notes."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea pulled the notebook toward herself and flipped back the well-beaten cover. She smiled unconsciously, wistfully, at the rough, otherworldly sketches of planets, flora, fauna, rocks. Corias' rapid shorthand crowded the pages as she turned them, incomprehensible and barely legible.

Finally Rhea found a bit of blank page and scribbled her comm number. Closing the book and replacing the pencil, she handed the little tome back to the man, trying not to feel embarrassed.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias didn't seem to notice as Rhea lingered over a few pages--inwardly, he felt quite pleased with himself about it. It was nice to encounter someone else who had a little appreciation for a hardworking explorer.

Of course, it'd be even nicer to encounter someone with the appreciation and money. But he'd worry about that later.

"Thanks," he said genuinely. He tore out a sheet from the back of the notebook and hastily scrawled out a couple more numbers. "I'm staying at my ship, so that's the dock number and the call frequency."

He set the scrap of paper down on the bartop, hiked his coat over his shoulders, and stowed his notebook. "Hey, it's been good, you know? I feel like... I dunno, got some weight off my shoulders. Maybe I'll see you around, Rhea."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea took the torn page and folded it methodically. She smiled.

"Glad to be of service, Corias Bonaventure. And I hope so."

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias tapped his forehead in a roguish sort of salute and turned to leave. He wasn't exactly sure what it was about Rhea that had captured his attention, but he had the distinct feeling their paths would cross again.

For the moment, his path to the door was taking him very near Alghieri's seat at the bar.

[Minion Alghieri]

A gnarled hand shot out from its rigor mortis grasp of the keg, siezing Bonaventure by the cuff.

"Care to discuss a little business?" Despite the quantity and quality of the drink he had consumed, Alghieri sounded quite sober.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias stiffened at the foreign grip, and his right hand drifted to the belt holster his P-16 special called home, but his gun was still under the tender care of the NRSF officers at the door.

Oh, right. There were NRSF officers at the door. So he probably didn't have much to worry about.

The spacer turned and sized up the mongrel once more. "Business, eh? Sounds like an idea to me."

He lightly tapped Alghieri's meaty hand, which still had an iron grip on his coat cuff.

[Minion Alghieri]

Alghieri, despite immediately removing his hand, said nothing, merely tapped the barstool beside him. After a few moments, though, he opened his mouth.

"Found anything interesting lately?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias took the seat and waited for Alghieri to break the silence.

"Depends on what you're interested in," he replied guardedly. "I've been resource-prospecting the last six months. Mainly looking for industrial applications. I have detailed profiles of twenty-two unclaimed worlds, give or take a disputed system, so you've got a pretty good smorgasboard if it's real estate you want. With the right connections, I could probably supply every industry from starship construction to quantum research to pharmaceutical development."

[Minion Alghieri]

"Got anything inhabitable? Part of my outfit needs a secondary base of operations, and a private world would fit the bill nicely."

[Corias Bonaventure]

The spacer nodded.

"Of course, you have habitable worlds and you have habitable worlds. If you're looking for a terran-class planet... you know, with a dynamic ecosystem and a solid agricultural base, your options are going to be a lot slimmer. Especially if you want to keep it a private world."

He pulled out his notebook, licked his thumb, and began rapidly flipping through the pages. "If all you need is a place to put some facilities, and you want to keep a low profile, you probably want a fallow world--oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, a little surface water, and not much else. That way there's not as big a chance some development firm or colonial initiative will want to horn in on your turf. But as far as shipping goes, your chances of finding something on one of the main trade spines aren't that good."

Corias stuck his thumb underneath one of the pages to hold his place. "Twelve of these will naturally support animal and plant life at some level. They're scattered from Hutt space to the fringes of the Unknown Regions. I usually stay away from the Imperial sectors, but I know of a couple decent border worlds that way. So, what's your pleasure?"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

EDIT

[Minion Alghieri]

"Near the unknown regions works for me. 'Fallow' world, and it would be best if it could support life. How much?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias scratched his chin introspectively and started leafing through his notes once more. A private sale wasn't an investment like a corporate development contract. Fortunately, the kind of planet Alghieri was looking for wouldn't have made him much in royalties anyway.

"I imagine you want exclusive rights to the data?"

Of course, the only people who'd want a piece of a fallow world on the frontier would probably be people like Alghieri, but he got the idea the mongrel didn't want to risk anyone else setting up shop on his planet on Corias's recommendation. Not only that, but it would drive the price up significantly--Corias was eager to get as much out of the sale as he could.

"In that case... Let's see here... A fallow world's pretty cheap real estate, so the full report with exclusive rights will run you between five and six hundred credits. And that includes the full atmospheric, biospheric, and geological analyses, about twenty kiloquads of information. Now, I've got two planets that'll fit your bill--CR-483 and CG-621. Of course, you can always change the name if neither of those captures your imagination."

He scanned over his notes once more. "CR-483 has barely any organic matter left in its soil; most of the surface is petrified. There are enough photosynthesizing microbes to keep breathable levels of oxygen in the atmosphere, but I wouldn't send any asthmatics there. There's some significant tectonic activity, but the geo survey will highlight some areas of relative stability."

The spacer flipped a page over. "CG-621 is... well... swampy. Plenty of surface water. Mostly primitive plant life, and all the fauna I encountered were invertebrates. There are also rocky highland regions that'd provide some firmer ground for installations."

And, of course, planets were huge. Even fallow worlds could hold plenty of surprises.

[Minion Alghieri]

"See-Gee Six-Twenty-One sounds perfect," Alghieri grinned. "Six fifty work for you?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

The response was already on Corias's mind when his mouth fell open--No, I'm sorry, I can't accept an offer below five-eighty...

Hang on, what order were those digits in again?

"That would work," he replied positively. "When do you need the data?"

Six-fifty... that was more than double what he'd expect to get from a corper under a standard package contract. Not a bad return on what had seemed like a dead-end survey.

[Minion Alghieri]

Algheri swigged his drink and grinned around a mouthful of that unique beverage.

"Whenever you can find the time. Here's my ship's comm number. Call me when you've got the data."

He stood up, a trifle unsteadily, and extended his hand to shake.

"Pleasure doing business with ya."

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias found himself grinning back, despite the overwhelming smell of the unholy bilge on Alghieri's breath.

"I can get it to you on data crystal by tomorrow, if you can make the payment at the same time. Hey, the pleasure has been all mine, Mr...."

He blanked. Woah, that was odd.

"Uh... I don't think I got your name."

[Minion Alghieri]

OOC/ Six days...that may be my new record for forgetting to post...

IC/ "Alghieri, and yes, I can pay by tomorrow. What account do you want the deposit in, or are you a hard-currency kinda guy?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

"I'll take the cash if you've got it," Corias replied. And he'd need it if he was going to make next week's mooring charges at the Ben Zedi spaceport. His bank on Avignon Prime was secure, but it was small--best not to put undue stress on its transaction channels when deadlines were looming.

"And here's my comm. if you need to get in touch with me. We can meet right here, if that works for you, say, fifteen hundred local time?"

[Minion Alghieri]

"Fifteen hundred sounds good. I'm going to need to come back here anyways with enough credits to stock up on this stuff." He tucked the keg under his arm, making sure none sloshed out.

"See you then, Mr. Bonaventure. Bonne chance avec la fille."