Beginnings: A Remembrance

Commerce Clearance Station

Kalat Arm

Wild Space

33 ABY

Sivi sat down behind the desk for the first time. It was a simple desk, mostly, and she found that pleasant. It was prefabricated, the same kind of desk used by the Imperial customs officials who had originally built the station. That part was significantly less satisfying; she had few fond memories of the Empire, though they did build to last. The Imperial decorations were gone now, everything had long since been cleaned away, and now a new set of colors, a bland combination of white, gray, and dull red, graced the office.

Those were the colors that matched the name plate on the edge of the office: Kalat Arm Trade Bureau. Slightly smaller letters beneath this declaration gave the title of the occupant of this particular desk, a position Sivi still felt rather embarrassed to possess. Chief Administrative Officer of this crazed experiment, she shook her head silently. How did I let them talk me into this?

It had been inaugurated on the thirtieth anniversary of driving the Empire from the region, a date Sivi thought poorly chosen for the first government to claim any sort of control over something larger than a system in the Kalat Arm since the Empire to be created. Of course, the mandate the KAT-B, as people were already starting to call it, had been given was minimalist at best. Even that much may prove almost impossible, she grimaced. Well, I suppose I should get to work then.

Not five minutes later, as Sivi was still reviewing how her accounts had been set up, the door pinged.

She pushed the chair back and was on her feet in suspicion instantly. No visitors had been scheduled and old military habits died hard, especially in such dangerous space as this. It took considerable will to refrain from pulling her blaster pistol. I can't possibly be an assassination target, she thought ironically. No one wants this job.

"Who's there?" she demanded, depressing the intercom button.

"Ah, a most important guest, Chief Administrator," the secretary droid in the reception room beyond answered. "I've buzzed him in."

Sivi's eyes narrowed and her fingers tightened on the grip of her gun. There were only a very small number of people who the droid had instructions to admit without question. Most had better courtesy than this, and all knew better than to surprise someone who'd spent over five decades as a combat sniper.

The door whisked open and her sense of imminent danger vanished the moment she recognized the visitor, though she did not relax. This guest was not to be taken lightly, and his demonstration that her secretary droid could be hacked was simply a small reminder in kind. Slowly, with a calm and steadying breath, Sivi pulled her hand from the pistol and raised it to her forehead. Standing straight she saluted formally. "Welcome your Excellency, a most unexpected pleasure to see you."

Her guest was propelled forward on a completely silent hoversled, making use of state of the art micro-repulsors. This turned about as he made his way into the rather small open space of the office, revealing a corpulent gray bulk. "Yes, yes, thank you," the massive mouth could manage Basic only with difficulty, always sounding wheezy and weak, but it was a gesture of courtesy Sivi appreciated. "Sorry to drop in like this, but I wanted to be the first to appear and offer my congratulations on the new position."

It took a considerable reach down into her core of professionalism for Sivi to avoid giggling a bit at this pronouncement. It was an abject falsehood, of course, and came from the throat of the very being that was sure to be the most significant opponent of everything the KAT-B did for years, but even to someone who had lived for years in politics, it was impossible not to hear sincerity in the words. The desire to laugh came from the fact that it was such an absurd way for a Hutt to begin a conversation, but then it was always that way with Xerweg. He, unlike so many others of his kind, had worked long and hard to master the concept of sounding decent and even nice while conducting his backstabbing.

Legend and rumor said Xerweg had taken flak for his 'kind words' from his Hutt kin for decades, maybe even centuries. Well, who's laughing now I wonder? Sivi thought with a dark smile. "You have my thanks, of course, and please know that Xerweg Desilijic Nurge is always welcome in the offices of the Kalat Arm Trade Bureau."

"Ah, ah, excellent," Xerweg wheezed. "But I do not think you shall see too much of me after this."

These words triggered a strange set of thoughts, and Sivi looked at the Hutt again, at his massive, slug-like body, all gray and gruesome. Looking at it like that beyond the usual disgusting surface that was all most humanoids would see, she observed something else, something easily missed. Old, he looks old and tired. Sivi had not the Force-enhanced vision of so many of her Zeison Sha friends, but her own people, the Sephi, counted their fair share of long years. It was enough to reveal to her the signs of aging even in a being as ancient as a Hutt. He is older than Jabba was they say, perhaps considerably so, and thirty years is not the blink of an eye even for a Hutt. "And why is that, your Excellency?" Sivi asked carefully. "Surely there is much business to be done between this office and the head of the largest shipping concern in the Kalat Arm." That the shipping concern in question was also the largest crime syndicate in the region and had considerable influence under other names in more distant portions of the galaxy went without saying.

"All too true, all too true," Xerweg nodded his great head. "A great deal of business for Longrun Shipping, oh yes; profitable times these, very profitable." He licked his lips, possibly without even knowing it. "But it doesn't have the same charm it once did you know," he gave a knowing wide mouth grin Sivi found terrifying not in its assumptions, but in the empathy it engendered. Xerweg was a vile gangster of the worst stripe; she should not be finding common ground with this creature. "Not the same degree of challenge either," The Hutt continued.

"Not a challenge?" Sivi raised an eyebrow. "But these are great times in the Kalat Arm. We have a new government, new prosperity, and all of the new immigrants because of the…" she stopped, realizing what Xerweg meant with shocking suddenness. "War." She ended limply.

"Yes, the War," Xerweg's great eyes got briefly misty. "I did very well in the war, but I suppose you know that, all those bookkeeping requests and all. Very well, indeed, and everyone else, well…"

Sivi interrupted, not wanting to have to deal with a Hutt waxing melancholic. "Hutt Space suffered greatly from the Yuuzhan Vong, yes, and you have my sympathies over that."

"You have mine also," Xerweg replied with a courtesy that, for a marvel, Sivi somehow knew was truly genuine. Faraway in the Mid Rim, Thustra, homeworld of the Sephi, had been occupied and mangled by the Yuuzhan Vong as well. Sivi had fought among those who had freed it, but the wounds would never truly heal.

"Perhaps your duty can keep you here," Xerweg continued. "You are still young enough, but I'm growing old, and I feel it deep inside. Nal Hutta and the homeworlds are calling to me. I'm going to wrap up affairs and then head home very soon now; I don't think I could avoid it even if I wanted too."

Xerweg the Hutt leave? It was as if you were told a mountain would vanish from the landscape. Denial was the only initial reaction possible. "Go home? Leave the business? The Run? Everything? That would be cataclysmic, who will take control?" Sivi's mind raced down a path wherein there was no steadying Hutt presence in control of Smuggler's Run and all the Fringe activity it spawned throughout the Kalat Arm and elsewhere. It would not be like Nandreeson, he had ignored them as a backwater and even then Xerweg had pulled strings from afar. We are not a backwater anymore, Sivi knew. Not as one of the few lands untouched by the Yuuzhan Vong.

"I have taken measures," Xerweg replied forcefully, pulling his bulk upright in full Hutt majesty. "Longrun Shipping will endure, have no fear. I am not Jabba, my gains shall last long past me!" Less pompously he added. "My granddaughter, Educca Desilijic Nurge, has the ability to succeed me and take over management of my concerns in the Kalat Arm. I am going to make it official soon. I wished to inform you first, as a courtesy."

It was hardly that, Sivi recognized. Her acting upon this information from the perspective of law enforcement would elevate Educca, and provide its own form of confirmation for the new crime-lord. It would also buy a measure of protection, for they both knew that a stable criminal syndicate was in the best interests of the Kalat Arm, the KAT-B was not strong enough, might never be strong enough, to fill those gaps. "Your graciousness is most appreciated your Excellency," Sivi replied.

Xerweg turned about, looking at the office. "Old Imperial work is it not? Hmmm…" he rumbled deep in his great Hutt belly. "Those were the days, the Occupation. That was a real time to be alive in the Kalat Arm."

"Oh really?" Sivi quirked a smile. "I seem to recall you saw it differently at the time, something abut how 'You Resistance doggerel! Between you and the Empire you'll drive me to ulcers!'" She couldn't avoid chuckling a little at that, both for the remark itself and at the absurdity of reminiscing with a Hutt.

The Hutt's laugh was immense and deep in reply, the way only a Hutt could laugh, and so seldom heard, for their mirth was not often genuine. "Oh yes, I know, but the memories are so much richer from those days, so much more vibrant. Not like this last war, all grubby, ugly, and brutish. Such senseless butchers the Yuuzhan Vong, no pride in the craftsmanship of war and conquest, just disgusting."

"May I ask, what will you do going back to Nal Hutta?" That world was a blasted wasteland, scourged by massive Vongforming. Thustra's suffering had been tame by comparison.

Xerweg actually winked at her. "I'm going to spend, spend, and spend some more," he laughed, this time with typical Hutt villainy. "They all said I was nothing, a nobody, for working out here, on the edge of the galaxy, well they got theirs for trying to play with the Yuuzhan Vong, and I lost nothing. I'm richer than ever, and I'm going to give them all loans and rebuild Nal Hutta. They'll call me 'Xerweg the Savior' you watch, I've already started the rumor-mongers on it. It'll beat the stuffing out of the legacy of anyone who ever mocked me."

Sivi gave a broad smile. "I wish you every success," she told Xerweg, and meant it. Why not? It was only an accident of galactic geography that had insulated the Kalat Arm from the war, but if Xerweg could turn that into leverage among all Hutts, well, how could she not cheer for the slimy race to get such delicious comeuppance.

"Haha, you are a sly one," Xerweg chuckled. "I'll have to tell Educca to be very careful with you." He paused, and his eyes drifted back and forth slowly. "It's a shame it'll be the Yuuzhan Vong to make me famous though, to make anyone famous. Such a waste, I'd rather be famous for the Occupation."

"Surely you still will be?" Sivi questioned, genuinely confused. Xerweg had played both sides off against each other with fabulous skill during the struggle between Resistance and Empire in the Kalat Arm. "It would be hard to leave you out of those stories."

"Will anyone tell those stories? I wonder…" Xerweg looked toward the ceiling, but the Hutt seemed to be staring much further, deep into space, and perhaps even toward the edge of the galaxy, not far away in the wisp of the Kalat Arm. "We Hutts see the arc of history with more clarity than short lived humans. In a thousand years will anyone care about the fight with the Empire of Palpatine? Or will they simply talk about the 'decades of chaos preceding the invasion.'"

In the silence that followed Sivi considered this thought. She had fought in battles since before the Clone Wars and she by no means believed she was free of picking up the rifle again before her years came to an end in another hundred and fifty years or so. Xerweg is right; it was the Empire that was the great moment, not the lies of the Clone Wars or the thuggery of the Yuuzhan Vong. That was where the best stories lay. "I do not think we will forget the occupation years anytime soon, not in this region," she told Xerweg, feeling a growing sense of conviction. "But I will make sure those stories are waiting to be heard, at least."

"That is very good of you," Xerweg nodded. "Now I must be going, thank you for your time Chief Administrator. I am sure I will call upon your office again soon."

"A pleasure, your Excellency." Sivi bowed her head slightly as the Hutt reversed his repulsorsled and floated out.

When he had gone she got swiftly back to the work of the day, but not before making one small addition to her assignments program: find a way to start historical arts program – Imperial Occupation.

Some things were too important to ignore, even when it was a Hutt as the messenger.

Story Notes

This short piece is designed as a frontispiece to the collection to follow, and takes place many years after everything else will. References to canon events are intended to be as accurate as possible, something I intend to preserve throughout the collection.

Informational Notes:

The name Kalat Arm is made up by me, but the region in question is canonical. It is the distinctive terminal arm in the southeastern portion of the Star Wars galaxy map. Using the Essential Atlas grid it contains stars falling within: Q-20 and Q-21; R-18, R-19, and R-20; S-18 and S-19. This is analogous to the Tingel Arm on the other side of the galaxy, it is considered part of Wild Space.

Sivi is a Sephi, a near-human species introduced in the Jedi:Yoda comic. Sephi lifespans can reach 400 years.