623. Den Var - Raezyr

"So let me get this straight," Raezyr said sitting in his new tailored tunic and trousers on the park bench next to his brother. "In a matter of days, we found a new company called RT Galactic Enterprises, we find and purchase-slash invest in several companies including but not limited to a small arms manufacturer, a small shuttle craft company, a brewery, an air speeder dealership, a cybernetic implant company, and a computer company. And to top all of that off we find and solidify a major political connection. That's correct?"

"Well, in a general sense, that's correct," Trychon replied. "Although to be honest, we weren't looking for the political connection so much as we stumbled upon it." He then added that the large donation made to Helwae's campaign fund didn't guarantee a win in his upcoming election, nor did it ensure they'd be able to call on the candidate for any favors if he did. However, the older Sith had already begun thinking about that and trying to work out possible ways to make the connection pay off.

"Why are you asking?" Trychon wondered.

"Because if we did all that, how in the name of Korriban are we not able to find a residence suitable for our needs?" Raezyr spat in disgust. The two had been searching for two days and had already checked out their top choices, none of which worked out for various reasons.

"I don't know. We just need to keep looking. We'll find something," Trychon mused. "At least we better find something and fast or our investment purchases will become null and void and we'll have to go through the whole process of filling all that paperwork out again."

They sat in silence for several minutes, pondering what few options they had left. "You're sure we can't just rent a place?" Raezyr asked for the nth time. "Because the Farrian Arms Hotel would be about perfect."

"No. We have to have to own the property of residence," Trychon explained. "So not even a condominium would work. We'd have to own the entire complex."

Suddenly Raezyr jumped to his feet. "I've got an idea. You meet me back at our rooms in about 2 hours, and have Scin Mon Muhn available to finalize."

Trychon watched him stride off into the distance without even waiting for his reply. "Raez!" he called after his brother. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"

The big Sith spun around and walked backward. "Hey... It's me!" he called back in a mock-indignant tone as if hurt that his brother didn't trust him.

That's what I'm afraid of, Trychon thought to himself.

------------------

Three hours later Raezyr strode into Trychon's suite, a grin on his face. He was surprised at seeing his normally dour brother in such a good mood. "What's gotten into you?" he asked suspiciously.

"It's ours," the big warrior replied.

"What is?"

Raezyr spread his hands out, gesturing all about.

Slowly realization crept over Trychon. "For the love of Korriban, please tell me you didn't."

"I did. The Farrian Arms is now under Sith management," Raezyr said grabbing an ale from the refrigeration unit, then chuckled. "I guess the mini-bar is free of charge now."

"You asshole," Trychon whispered incredulously, his eyes closed. "There is no way we could afford a high class hotel. Not after we just invested heavily with Dianna. Or have you forgotten about her?" His mood quickly changed to anger.

So did Raezyr's. "Don't you dare throw that in my face. I'm not the one who forgets relationships like you seem to have forgotten about Kord." Trychon's eyes flashed to yellow as he opened his mouth to speak, but Raezyr continued quickly, realizing his brother may be in danger of losing control. "How stupid do you think I am? I did some checking and this place was for sale a few standard months ago but never sold. I tracked down the owner and convinced him it'd be in his best interest to sell quickly and cheaply. We were just able to afford it despite having transferred our investment to the Kingsdoom outfit."

Trychon's mind raced with questions but one immediate issue came first. "Oh, so what you're saying is that until some of our investments start to pay off, if they pay off at all, we're flat broke? I'm supposed to be happy about that?" He whispered through clenched teeth. The older sibling was seething by now.

Raezyr had had enough. "Listen to me, and listen well, brother: We had a problem. I fixed it. We may be broke now, but we were just as broke when we first met. We got by alright then, and we'll get by alright now.

"In the long run, I solved a hell of a lot more problems than I may have caused. We now don't need to hire security or household staff or maintenance personnel because those are already on hand and being paid. Eventually this is just another investment that should turn a profit, unlike a residence which we just sink money into until we were to sell it. Think about it. You're not the only one who can make plans here." By the time he had finished, Raezyr could tell Trychon was beginning to calm down a bit.

"Maybe you're right," he finally agreed after mulling it over for a minute in silence. "Things are going to be tight for a while. It's a good thing we had the ships stocked with supplies first. We can live off that for a while if necessary. But we're going to have to hoof it across town to the spaceport. We can't afford to hire a skimmer now."

"No problem. We'll just have Schyrt and Reed come pick us up on the swoops," Raezyr countered.

"No can do. Having two hired hands come pick us up will blow our cover as miners," the older sibling reminded him. "Nope... we'll have to hoof it."

A thought suddenly struck Trychon. "Raez, how exactly did you 'convince' the hotel owner to sell?"

A grin spread across the big warrior's face as he opened an ale from the mini-bar and leaned back in his chair. "I merely suggested that at his age, he should enjoy life while he still could because a heart-attack could knock him dead at any time." Raezyr took a swig of his ale as if finished.

Trychon glared at him. "And then?"

The younger man sighed. "Okay, so I might have given his heart a little nudge to make it believable."

"Dammit, Raez!" Trychon yelled, getting to his feet. "You promised!"

"I didn't kill him," Raezyr said plaintively.

"But you did threaten him with a heart attack," Trychon reminded him. "And he's not going to forget that. If word about that gets out in business circles it may lead to some unwanted scrutiny in our business dealings, including where our wealth really came from."

They talked for while about this new problem and eventually came to the conclusion that it was time to let HK-51 operate under the "assassin" portion of his "assassin/protocol" nomenclature. The Sith decided it would be best to pick out a couple of suites, designate them for their personal private use, and leave the droid on Den Var in de-activated mode. After a few days, Huck could re-activate, conduct his business, then return to quarters and shut down again until they were able to return for him.

They put in a call to the droid over their private comm channel and within the hour Aitchkay had arrived and acknowledged his mission with what appeared to be excitement, or the closest thing to it they had ever seen from him.

The next morning the pair packed up and checked out of the Farrian Arms, and after the Sith slicer uploaded a remote monitoring program into the hotel's main frame under the guise of "getting acquainted" with their new hotel, they left explicit instructions that their private quarters were not to be entered unless specifically directed to do so.

By the time the two Sith were less than a block away, Trychon had not only erased any evidence of the assassin droid's arrival a the Farrian Arms, but had ensured that when the droid activated himself in a few days time, the hotel's computers wouldn't record any of the droid's movements.

"There, that's taken care of," the older sibling noted as he tucked his data pad into his backpack. "We should be able to get to the Den Var Spaceport by mid-afternoon, depending on how long we stop for lunch."

"And maybe an ale or two," Raezyr added hopefully.

"No, someone made sure we don't have any extra money for ale," the other Sith retorted. "We'll have to settle for having one when we to the ship."

They started walking at a brisk pace down the lanes and boulevards of Den Var, sometimes making small talk, sometimes lost in their own thoughts, but as they progressed, the streets and neighborhoods surrounding them became less and less reputable.

Several times they stopped to check the map on Trychon's data pad to ensure they were still heading in the right direction as neither remembered the place looking this way. At the same time, they had been in a hired air-speeder and their minds had been on things other than the neighborhoods and buildings passing beneath their feet.

Unfortunately for the two, the map Trychon had downloaded wasn't very detailed, showing only major thoroughfares and points of interest and a few times ran into dead-ends in the slums they were trying to navigate, forcing the necessity of entering more than one cantina or other dive establishment to ask for directions.

After leaving one such establishment by late morning, the two Sith who where currently engrossed in looking for streetsigns and landmarks, failed to notice the two heavily-armed near-human males who exited the cantina several moments later and began following them at a distance.

622. Den Var - Raezyr

Zhan Helwae wasn't what they were expecting. He was a bit taller and more muscular than most humans, especially most of the business men they had met so far. He had blond hair and a broad smile which could disarm a Mandalorian and put him at ease. He stuck out his big hand to shake their hands as they approached, "Mr. Vandelay... Mr. Alucard... nice to meet you both. Can I call you Raezyr and Trychon?"

"By all means, Mr. Helwae," Trychon said as the three exchanged handshakes.

"Please, call me Zhan. Have a seat."

The three men sat down at the table an immediately a Duros server was at hand to take their order. No serving droids for this level, Raezyr thought to himself. He looked around the room, and it was hard to believe this place was in anyway affiliated with the Club Sky many levels above. The tables here were made of real wood and the chairs upholstered in real leather. The smell of real cigars permeated the air and the lights and music were low and mellow.

The patrons here were all dressed in upscale suits, robes and tunics of the latest styles and finest fabrics. Raezyr looked down at his and his brother's simple mining garb and severely out of place. Helwae apparently noticed. "You gentlemen must not have been in town long. I'll have Miss Vestin set you up with my tailor. He's one of the best on Den Var."

"It would be much appreciated, Zhan. We have only been planet-side for a day or two and have been busy making investments, getting our newly found wealth to work for us as quickly as possible," Trychon said.

"And speaking of investments, we're wondering why you're interested in selling a highly lucrative brewery like Ortan Ales," the older Sith prompted, wanting to get down to business.

Helwae explained his situation. He owned many businesses on Den Var and was a well-known figure in financial circles all over the Matra System, and didn't have a direct hand in many of them, preferring to let the CEO's and presidents of the various companies have direct control. Lately he had been approached by some very influential people about running for political office, and while it wouldn't affect most of his business dealings, the decision to sell Ortan Ales was a purely political image move as his advisers thought it best to distance himself from the alcohol business.

"Why get into the political game?" Raezyr asked, trying to sound interested.

"Right now Den Var and it's surrounding systems are an independent entity forming the Matra Federation, and lately there has been pressure from inside and out to join the Galactic Republic," Helwae explained.

Suddenly both the Sith became very interested. "And what is your stance?" Trychon asked.

"I'm firmly against the move. While there may be some economic gains to be had, the political ramifications would only hinder our Systems development, and although our small military's strength would be bolstered, there really is no need since there's no threat of war. On top of that, there's the Jedi issue," he added with a frown.

"The Jedi issue?" Trychon prodded.

"During the Great War we were one of the few systems to profit. We traded with all sides: The Republic, the Sith, and the Mandalorians. In return, they left us largely alone although all sides pressured us to join them," he explained. "The downside was that we allowed all their agents access. The Jedi were the worst of the lot, often initiating altercations and incidents all over Den Var and other Federation planets, yet they refused to be held accountable for their actions. Somehow they were above the law, and even in the times they seemed to help, they left us to clean up their mess and rarely sticking around to even fill in our local authorities on what was happening, and often leaving them in the dark completely. 'Jedi business' was always their excuse. In reality they caused us more headaches and problems than they ever solved. It took us many years after the War to get the Jedi permissions and authorities revoked. It's not something I, or many others wish to return to.

"Hopefully, I can keep it that way," Helwae concluded.

The political hopeful and the two Sith spent the following hour going over the details of the sale, and Helwae had his legal agents on hand to finalize the sale of Ortan Ales. Trychon and Raezyr even made a considerable donation to his campaign on the grounds their political views were the same.

Afterward, they spent another hour or so engaged in less business like conversation before retreating several floors up to a level which hosted a dance club.

The music was loud and the drinks flowed. Neither Sith remembered how they got back to their suites at the Farrian Arms.

The next morning, Trychon awoke to find himself naked and his bed being shared by not only a blue-skinned Twi'lek girl, but also an Epicanthix female, neither of whom were clothed as well. After kicking them out of his suite, he made a pot of caf and then went to wake his brother in the adjoining suite.

After removing the dark-haired woman who had spent the night there he handed Raezyr a cup of caf and tossed him a pair of pants. "Get dressed brother. We still have to find a residence here or all our investments will become null and void."

Raezyr sat on the edge of his bed and glared at Trychon with blood-shot eyes and making a face due to the "post-drinking morning breath" permeating his mouth. "I just have one question: Where's the bantha?"

"What bantha?"

"The bantha that crapped in my mouth last night."

621. Den Var - Raezyr and Trychon

"You said not to shoot anybody!" Raezyr yelled at his brother back at their hotel. They were both lounging at the private bar in Trychon's suite. "I didn't actually even mean to do it, not that I care about the guy. I just got so angry when he told me my leg was not fixable."

"So you gave him a heart attack? Why didn't you just tell him you wanted to find a second opinion?" Trychon asked while he made goofy faces in his disguise while looking at his reflection.

"Well... I did, kinda. Just went overboard at the same time." He responded as he twirled his slugthrower mindlessly. "It won't come back to bite us, I don't think. I paid up front in hard creds and they didn't get a name because I explained that I didn't have my idents yet. I could feel that they didn't believe me, which is ironic... But in the end nobody wants to turn down pocketable money."

"Fine. No more killing on this trip though."

"Agreed. Are we going to meet with your consultant now? I want to get this over with." He stood up and put his weapon back in its holster and started towards the door. He knew this was important to their plans, but it didn't interest him nearly as much as it did his brother.

"Alright, get back here," Raezyr heard coming back from the common area. He headed back and was getting ready to complain about the delay when he saw Trychon was setting up a flatpanel transmission.

"Alright Mr. Mon Muhnn, my associate is ready. Do you have the list I asked for? Your prime candidates under the conditions I laid out?"

"Yes, sir I do. I've contacted the ones I could and have them ready for brief discussions before we move forward. They are all fairly young companies with a strong business plan but slow progress due to lack of capital. Most because they didn't have enough of a business background to get the loans they really needed. High risk and somewhat desperate."

"Perfect. Link us up, Mon Muhnn."

With that, a separate display popped up with a male and female of a near-human race Raezyr didn't recognize.

The male nodded. "Greetings and well wishes, Misters Vandelay and Alucard. Mr. Mon Muhnn has told us of your interest in investing in our venture. We appreciate your unexpected interest, but we're afraid we must decline."

Trychon looked pensive. "I'm sorry to hear that. It's an awful lot of money to be turning down without any discussion."

The female spoke next. "Yes, it is an awful lot of money. Lodo Drives is our dream and our lives. The amount you propose would give you legal controlling interest and majority ownership."

Trychon gave her an understanding smile. "I know what you mean. We're just humble self-employed miners ourselves who happened to get lucky. It was hard for a very long time for us, but we wouldn't trade our freedom for better accommodation by a corporate mining firm, and it paid off. We're not looking to sweep your life from under you. We're just looking for like-minded individuals we would like to support and can give us a return higher than a banking institution. We would entrust the business handling to you entirely."

Surely it sounded too good to be true to the alien couple. Sure enough Raezyr noticed it gave them pause. The male responded again. "That sounds wonderful, but truly we are only looking to make an honest living and work for ourselves. There is much that we could do with that money to be sure, but it is not what we are looking for."

"You could expand your business and do wonderful things." Trychon let it sink in for a moment. "Within months, you could use that growth to hire strong help to take a lot of the load off of yourselves. Your lives would be enriched with the free time alone, though I'm sure the additional credits you could be pulling in would also help." After letting them mull for another half minute he interrupted just before they gave their last attempt at declining his offer. "We'd be willing to draw up paperwork that ensures we have no more than minor influence and control unless you are struggling."

Together their jaws nearly dropped. "So you're serious about what you say?"

Trychon looked back for Raezyr's consent. Trusting in whatever plans his brother had he gave an imperceptible nod. "Of course."

"Then I guess we should set up a time for you to come look at our business a bit more in depth. Yes?"

"Not necessary. After meeting you, I know all I need to know. I'll have the documents drawn up and we can proceed from there."

"We can have them checked by a legal advisor before we agree?"

"Naturally. Though we are only on planet a few short days before we must go back to oversee a few things."

"We understand. We look forward to hearing from you."

After they signed off, the investment agent Scin Mon Muhnn wanted to object to Trychon's seeming recklessness, but the older Sith was having none of it. He told the man to connect the next prospect and they continued on.

Raezyr mostly sat quietly through several similar proceedings that went the same way. Some were more resistant than others, though that may have been due to the fact that only some were being offered enough capital to potentially lost control of their business. They were all substantial investments though. In the end, Trychon convinced all of them that it was in their best interest. After looking back for his sibling's approval, he made them final.

That changed when they got to the investment Trychon said was their next to last one. It was a middle aged Toydarian male, who outright refused. Trychon agreed quickly to only a forty percent share and the alien grinned and accepted. After dismissing the alien and then their broker, he looked back to Raezyr and told him to go ahead and ask the questions that were on his mind.

"Mind trick?" He asked, sounding impressed.

"Not quite, no. Similar, but it's more of an aura of authority and power. It's easier to do over long distances or a transmission than a real mind trick. My holocron's been helping me. Still can't get the mind trick regularly, but this worked out well. I knew it probably would after I was able to convince Mon Muhnn to share his best leads with me for his normal fee. He'll still make a killing, but it could've cost much more."

"Shiny. You gave up on the small arms company rather easily though." The younger Sith noted.
Trychon grinned nearly from ear to ear. "Yes, Toydarians are notoriously hard to influence with the Force. I knew it wasn't worth my time."

"You're smiling awfully big."

"He recently went public with his company. That was the only public company I targeted. As soon as he makes any sort of expansion move or press release, I've set an account up to anonymously buy shares in small increments over the next two months or so. He'll think he's being successful, but ultimately we will have the majority shares in his company. That was an important one."

"So is that it?" Raezyr asked. "Are we done here on Den Var? Because I could have sworn you said we had an investment appointment elsewhere."

"We do. It's the big one," Trychon informed his brother. "This one we meet in person, but he wanted to meet at Club Sky. I guess he wanted a more casual setting."

-------------

"I still don't understand why a big shot businessman wants to meet at a small time night-club like Club Sky," Raezyr said, tipping his wide brim hat back to get a better look around the dimly-lit room. He was already growing to like the hat as he could pull it low and make the scar on his face less visible, yet still have the natural peripherial vision that even the best helmets failed to afford the wearer. "And I don't see anyone even fitting his description."

"He said to take a seat at the bar and we would be contacted," Trychon said walking to the bar and leaning both elbows on the plastoid counter. They each ordered an ale and after it was served, turned and put their backs to the bar.

The older of the two could sense his brother's impatience growing, but before he could say anything, a pale-skinned Twi'lek female in an extremely well-tailored business suit approached. "Mr. Alucard? Mr. Vandelay, I presume?"

The Sith nodded.

"Excellent. I am Lao Vestin. My employer, the honorable Zhan Helwae, sends his greetings and bids you follow me," the Twi'leki female said with an enchanting smile and turned without waiting for their answer.

Trychon took a moment to appreciate the alien's curves as she strode across the room. "I could follow that all day," he commented.

"I bet you could. First droids, now aliens," Raezyr said dryly, rolling his eyes and giving his brother a small shove in the right direction.

She lead them over to a small hallway and stopped at a door with a key pad. She punched in a series of numbers and the door whooshed open. She lead them into a small foyer in front of a turbolift whose doors opened only after the door to the room had closed behind them. Once again she plugged in a set of numbers. The building was approximately three stories tall and the Sith warriors expected a short but swift rise upward. Instead they were thrown for a loop when the lift began to drop instead. And it continued to drop for some time, much longer than they expected.

A bemused smile crossed Vestin's lips. "Club Sky has many private levels, each lower level more exclusive than the one above it. The only way to get to a lower level is to be invited by someone already there," she explained. "While Mr. Helwae doesn't have access to the bottom, he does however, have access to one of the lowest. No one knows exactly how many levels there are total, except for those on the bottom. My personal guess is there are 100 levels."

The lift suddenly came to a stop and the doors slid open to a foyer similar to the one they had just left. "Welcome to level 87, gentlemen."

620. Den Var - Raezyr and Trychon

Seventy-two percent of Den Var was covered in oceans. For Den Varians, this meant the dry land was covered in lush, dense forests. Or was at one point in it's history. Now it was covered by vast cities, and while there were still many places where forests existed, it was vastly exceeded by it's square kilometers of urban landscape.

While it was by no means anything compared to the planet-wide metropolis of Coruscant which boasted buildings tall enough to rival mountains, it was still a sight to behold and many predicted that someday Den Var would most likely reach Coruscant or Taris-like proportions. For now it was content to allow it's citizens to admire it's beauty from solid ground, rather than duracrete walk-ways suspended kilometers above the planet's surface.

Schyrt and Reed set the Twilight Stalker and the Jet Razor down in a private berth at one of the larger spaceports. Their orders were to take care of supplies and maintenance on the space craft then stand by and be ready for departure at a moment's notice. Aitchkay was set to his usual duties, interacting with space port personnel and ensuring the proper docking paperwork was filed.

The two Sith warriors rented a pair of speeders and made their way to the Farrian Arms Hotel, reputed to be one of the more upscale locales where many businessmen frequented when they needed to visit Den Var. After checking into separate suites Trychon came over to Raezyr's room with an extra bag he had packed and tossed it on the bed.

"What's that?" Raezyr asked.

"It's what we'll be wearing for a little while... to maintain our cover story," Trychon explained.

The big warrior opened the duffel and started perusing the contents. "And what exactly is our cover story? I'm assuming you already made one up seeing as you have costumes for it already." His tone was one of irritation, and in light of their recent conversation Trychon figured he'd better tread lightly.

"It's minor details that has no real bearing on anything but they way we'll dress for a day or two. It's only in the event that someone starts asking us where we made our fortune," the older sibling said.

Weeks before when they had visited Den Var for the first time, they had accidentally befriended a couple of miners who had made small fortunes. The miners, in a gesture of friendship, had given the Sith brothers a pair of peculiar hats. Raezyr pulled one of them out of the bag and looked at it quizzically. It was black with a wide brim turned slightly up at the edges and the crown was dented on the top and sides. It was adorned with only a small black band with a silver colored buckle on the side.

"Please tell me we're not actually going to wear these things," he said, then groaned when he saw the grin on Trychon's face.

"We're miners from Wheedon 9 in the Fillion System, and we struck it rich with a carrinium mine," Trychon said, smiling triumphantly.

"Wheedon 9? I think I've heard of it, but can't recall anything special about it," Raezyr said thoughtfully then tried on the hat. "Hey, this fits pretty well."

"That's the whole point... not the hat... okay the hat too," the older Sith quickly amended at his brother's confused look. "Wheedon 9 is one of those places most people have heard of in passing, but it's unremarkable... and as long as we just tell people that we made our stake while mining, then invested wisely, no one will even question it."

Raezyr continued pulling things out of the bag: A pair of dark blue canvas trousers, a white button-down tunic with a black vest, black heeled leather boots, a tan calf-length canvas jacket with buttons in the front, and last but not least, a older, revolver style slug-throwing pistol replete with leather holster. "Is this piece of junk really necessary? I mean, does it even fire? And if so, why would I bother with it since I have lightsabers?" the big warrior asked incredulously.

"Um, miners don't carry lightsabers, so yes, it's necessary," Trychon said. "But like I said, it's only temporary until we kind of establish our back story. And although it does indeed work, you don't need to be killing people here. We're soon going to be dealing with upper-class businessmen. Putting a gun to their head might seal one deal for us, but it'll have repercussions and close many doors. Our wits will win more battles here on Den Var, I suspect, than a lightsaber ever will."

After a moment, Raezyr agreed and changed into his new outfit after Trychon had gone back to his own suite. The brothers split up after that. Trychon needed to finalize their legal documents so they could purchase property here and Raezyr made an appointment at a nearby medical facility which catered to a wealthier clientele.

Usually appointments needed to be scheduled several days or even weeks in advance, but with a little "incentive" provided to the scheduler, Raezyr was able to get bumped up to urgent status and was seen right away.

The doctor who examined Raezyr's knee using several hand-held scopes then viewed the images on a hand held data pad, all the while making not-so-reassuring clucking noises.

Finally, Raezyr couldn't stand it anymore. "Well, are you gonna put me in the kolto tank now or what?"

"Well, that certainly would be an option..." The doctor said without looking up, "if you had come by much sooner." There was a slight pause. "There's only so much we can do now for it. Some rather invasive surgery could get you back to... say roughly seventy percent of your previous function in that leg. The rehab would be long and painful though. I strongly recommend replacement surgery."

"Tendon replacement?" The Sith growled. He was afraid he knew where this was going and he was already beginning to seethe at the thought.

The doctor chuckled. "Goodness no. That would be a waste of time. A cybernetic leg is your only real option."

Raezyr could hear his brother's 'sympathetic' laughter and reassurances. "Wrong answer. Fix it up completely and without turning me into some droid."

"I'm afraid that's just not possible. You wouldn't become a droid... a droid at all. We would merely..." There was another pause, and then a cough. "Excuse me. Anyway, we..." The man stopped once more, as his eyes began to widen and his voice failed him. He grabbed his chest as though he was experiencing great pain. His mouth silently formed the word 'help'.

Raezyr glared at him and watched as he slumped to the floor and curled up into a ball. "I think I'll seek a second opinion. I'll need some meds to hold me over though. Thank you for your time." He walked over to a cabinet in the corner, and took his time picking out the combinations he thought would be a nice change of pace. A fancy stim injector also caught his eye. Ooh. That could be handy. he thought to himself.

He walked out through the reception and calmly told the nurse at the desk that the doctor said he wasn't feeling very well.

-------------

Trychon stared at the forms on his pad. Ah, ronto droppings. he mused while he shook his head. I didn't even think about surnames. Oh well. It's not like it's permanent. He quickly filled in the rest of the forms and headed up to the terminal where he was greeted by a holographic head of a man who was probably in some other building on the planet.

After the hologram gave up on engaging in unnecessary chatter, Trychon beamed the forms through.

The head hummed as it went over the data. "Hmmm... two temporary to permanent resident visas? What's the purpose of your migration here to Den Var?"

"Business."

"I see... and what type of business will you be engaging in, sir?"

"Undetermined as of yet."

The near transparent eyes rolled. "Service industry? Manufacturing work? Entertainment? We need to get you off on the right foot! We'll set you up with information about jobs we have open."

"Investment. I've already made contacts. Haven't decided where to buy yet. Help is not required."

The head nodded. "Thank you, Mr.... Vandelay? As in... are you related to Art Vandelay?"

Trychon smiled. He was going to pay for this later. "Actually, I'm Trych Alucard. My associate is Raez Vandelay." Suddenly it hit him that he was supposed to be acting the part of a wide-eyed miner all along. "No relation that we're aware of... but we're both very big fans of his work. I love mindless holos. Wouldn't that be something though, to meet him and find out that my friend is some distant kin? First we hit it big on that mine... then that. That would be somethin' indeed."

The man on the other end of the computer seemed happy to get something in the way of a real response back and smiled. "It sure would, Mr. Alucard. Den Var is very proud of Mr. Vandelay. Now. Your temporary-to-permanent visas have been approved. Don't forget to check in with your acclimation officer once a month and study up for the citizenry test in eight months. Have a wonderful day!"

With that, the head disappeared and Trychon was left with the computer readout and before long, two ident cards they needed to keep with them at all times.

He looked again at the names he'd assigned them. Yep... It'll be a long sparring session tomorrow. He could always gauge how well he was progressing in his lightsaber sparring by getting under his brothers' skin and seeing how hard things got when there was little holding back.