"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.
"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.
No comments:
Post a Comment