"It has to be Bora, who else would be doing it," Lt. Fern snapped at the shift meeting after the watch commander open the discussion on who might be running around destroying the Bliss suppliers. In the past three weeks more then 15 warehouses had been destroyed, 8 accountants arrested, 19 banks raided and thousands of tons of Bliss and related material, along with millions in credits has been sized all due to the actions of a mysterious tipster who has yet been identified or proven wrong.
"Great Fern but can you prove it," Inspector Jones asked Fern.
"Let me run her in and I'll get the confession from her," Fern said, to Smith's eyes he would enjoy beating it out of her.
"What if you're right Fern," another officer asked from the back of the room, "I don't know about you all but I'm seeing some real positive results from Bora. Bliss might dry up around here."
"That is true," Jones said agreeing with most of the officers in the room, "We never could make much of a dent in spice productions. Bliss is a 1000 times worst then spice has ever been."
"If it is Bora, she is running around breaking the law Jones," one of the few old timers on Fern's side. "Granted, she is doing some good, but what is her motivation? Could she be cleaning out the competition before setting up her own shop?"
"Her history has always been assaults and thief; she has never been tied to the drug running side of 'L' street gang." Smith said speaking up for the first time during this meeting. "Plus she is here only on leave; she leaves in a few weeks anyways."
"That we know of," Fern said turning back to watch commander, "if she is setting up her own shop, we need to stop her now!"
"What charge would you being her in on? Fixing a star freighter without a permit?" Jones said with a sneer on his lips.
"That is true Fern, the main space port reported that she spend most of her time there working on some wreck her father bought."
"Why does she need a freighter anyways? She has an X-wing at the military port?"
"Her father bought that wreck before she even returned home," Jones said, "I already checked it out. Her father got it at an auction 3 months prior to arrival. I also found out that no one, including us, knew that she was returning here on leave."
"And she shows up after the Bliss trade really takes off," the old timer said in a musing voice.
"Davis, if she was moving in to take over, wouldn't there still be the same level now before she started torpedoing the trade?"
"I don't know Jones; there are too many unanswered questions."
"How about it Smith," the watch commander asked him, quieting the room. "Could she be doing everything Fern suggested? If so, what is her motive?"
"Does she have the skills to do most of what we are seeing? No question about it, sir, however as far as the bombing part; there I am not so sure. She may have picked up some tips while in the military. I have talk to the commanding general of Borleais when she first arrived, he told me that her actual unit and status was classified."
"Same as with her pardons she received from us and from the GFFA, the governors office claims that the GFFA came to them with a deal, we pardon her and they give us some trade concessions we wanted," the watch commander said looking around the room. "Since it was just Bora, they didn't ask too many questions."
"Maybe she rigged up some kind of scam to appear to be legit," Fern said, refusing to let it go.
"Too many people involved, Fern," the commander said with a disapproving look on his face, "anyways; my nephew is on Borleais as an officer in the legal representative office. As far as he can tell, it all came down right after that Vong problem at Ossus."
"Uh, that is interesting," Smith said half to himself. That would explain a lot. "Sir, when I talk to Bora when she first arrived; she said that she had finally did something decent and she couldn't talk about it."
"You think she's finally flying straight."
"Maybe sir," Smith said thinking fast, "sir, I can't think of any motive for her to doing everything that is happing, other then maybe she decided to use her skills to do some good."
"Or else it is a smoke screen," Fern responded angrily.
"I sorry I just don't see it, Fern," Smith responded trying to keep his cool. "You went to school with her, has she ever done anything out of pure profit?"
"What about all those thief jobs she used to do for her gang?"
"What about all those private jobs that she had done? We never did figure out her motive for those," Smith said in response to Davis's question. Smith turned back to the front and directed his statement to his commander, "Look I'm not saying it is not possible, I'm just saying it is unlikely."
"Smith, I want you to talk to this girl, see what you can find out. I think out of any of us you have the best chance …"
"BUT SIR," Fern shouted out as he jumped to his feet.
"And Fern, you will not interfere or attempt to question Bora on your own!" The watch commander said laying down the law, "I don't want you messing up this investigation! If she is the one running around blow up things or if she trying to set up shop by cleaning out the other dealers, I want to be able to deal with it also. If you go in there and she clams up or worst you push her to do something that she is not already doing; it make our job even harder then it is now."
"I can get the information you need …"
"Yes, I am sure but I want to be able to use it in court and not have a law suit on my hands," the watch commander said studying Fern closely, "just for your information. If you do decided to disobey my orders I'll ship you back out to orbital patrol, this time it will be around Kidriff 12, understand?" Without waiting for an answer, the watch commander returned his attention to Smith, "it doesn't have to be today but I wants some kind of answer soon."
"Yes sir," Smith said, he just knew today was not going to be his day when he got out of bed.
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"Excuse me, Dr. Targon," his rather attractive receptionist said as she leaned against the doorframe of the small kitchenette he had in his office.
"Yes?" Elassar said looking up from his meal he had sitting on his table, not that he was really eating it since he was too absorbed in reading the declassified reports on the mind altering drug Bliss, which was infecting many of the human worlds. It was a rather upsetting report that documented the increasing rate of infection spreading from many worlds. So far they have reported to have no clear idea what it was or where it originated from, let alone how to fight it. Even thought it was reported in almost every case to be fatal, some still had hope to get those affected into some kind of treatment or hospitalized to be study.
"There is a human on the holo comm who wishes to speak to you," his receptionist said with a condescending tone; on Devaron, humans have never been look upon with a friendly view. Usually, they are seen as a step up, a small step up, from food. "She said that she needed the 'master of the universe' to confer with for just a few minutes."
"Well, finally someone knows how to butter me up," Elassar said flashing a smile to her as he got up from his noon meal. Once he reached his private office, he was able to secure the call, which he saw came through with Wraith Security encryption protocol. He was not to surprise but was pleased to see Ratnena Bora's holo pop up on his receiver. "Prankster, what can I do for you today?"
"Hey Charm Boy, how is the exciting life of the doctor these days." Ratnena asked looking worn out to Elassar, as if she wasn't getting enough down time.
"Without having to take care of you every other day, slow and not nearly as pretty to look at," Elassar said with a grin. "If I could have charged you and Peacekeeper, I could have retired by now."
"You mean her," Ratnena said with a very tired smile on her face, "I was a easy patient to have around."
"Sure as long as I had enough straps to hold you in place," Elassar said watching her reaction, to his professional eye she was showing physical symptoms of stress but she seemed to be hiding it well in her voice. "So you ready for the psychotically exam and take a few years of to spend a quite time in a nice hospital yet?"
"No, someone is got to be around to pull Peacekeeper out of trouble," Elassar could hear a R2 unit in the background but couldn't identify where she was calling from, "in fact she is the reason I called."
"I am all ears."
"I tried calling home but they must all be out on a errand, I'm not sure when they will get home either."
"You're not home either."
"No, I was on vacation but now I doing a bit of sightseeing here on my home world," Elassar read between the lines, the other were out taking care of a problem and she is working independent for now, "I am sure you heard about the new crazy here."
"I might have heard a thing or two about it on the net," Elassar read between the lines, the other were out taking care of a problem and she is working independent for now, " are you thinking of getting in on the ground floor?"
"Well, I wanted to find out about it anyways. I saw something interesting on a report and wanted to see what you think of it."
"Do you have a copy to send me," when she nodded yes, he set up his connection to accept large files. After she had sent the file, he dove right into it. So far, he saw only brain scans of about 50 different aged, sex and social victims of Bliss. The areas of burn out that was caused by the drug was consistent with the reports he had seen and was a tell tail marker that it was the same substance in each body.
When he told her this, she replied by saying, "If you have a copy of Peacekeeper's scans or can remember it, look at those files again and compare them to hers."
"Hold on," Elassar was able to keep a copy of her file, so he could study it and try to predict what the outcome of her shaping would look like. Even thought Tahiri hated being a science project, she was smart enough to understand the more information he had the better chance he had to intervene before something bad happened. It took a few minutes to compare the files but when he did, he felt his blood run cold, "by the Force."
"I was right then, I thought I remembered what it looked like but wasn't sure."
"You were correct, Prankster, the same areas that Peacekeeper uses is being affected by Bliss."
"I'm still not sure what it all means but …"
"Do you have a chemical break down of Bliss?"
"Yea but the main chemical sequence is still a mystery."
"Send it to me," Ratnena looked confused but complied with his request. As he read the enzymes listed on the printout, she sat quietly waiting for him to finish. "Prankster, do you see line 157 enzyme Alpha Trite, the unknown?" When she nodded he dropped the big bomb, "that is found in Yuuzhan Vong plants. There is a variation found in Yuuzhan Vong animals, Peacekeeper has some of it in her brain cells. It is created by a gene found in all Yuuzhan Vong life forms."
"No poodoo!"
"No wonder no one has figured out what it was, it is so obvious."
"If it is, then why doesn't anyone else see it yet?"
"Because, I had to learn how to identify it after it has been contaminated by our chemicals. Peacekeeper has it upstairs but it has been modified by her human enzymes. Bliss is a mixture of whatever plant this came from and chemicals found naturally here."
"So why isn't she going bonkers like the rest of them are?"
"I said it is similar but not the same … you said they were all out right now?"
"Yea, they are supposed to swing by for a visit but no idea when."
"I need to run this by someone … do you know if her old boss is still on Denon?"
"I think so, not really sure, they aren't high on my list you know."
"I better go see him right away; I am not familiar enough with the others to know for certain but if I'm right you might have just found a big piece of the puzzle." At her look of confusion he elaborated for her, "it is believed that the Jedi powers, such as clairvoyant and extrasensory skills, are located in these areas of the brain …"
"That is why the addicts claim they can hear the gods and the addiction rate is so high, they are having what the Jedi naturally can do …"
"But their brains can't handle it nor can their systems, this drug is boosting their latent powers. It is also changing their body chemistry and the effects are so great that their bodies start to crave it and …"
"Boom, instant addict who will do anything to experience it again." Ratnena looked thoughtful for a few minutes and then asked. "Charm Boy, could they be susceptive to subliminal messages or suggestions while high?"
"I don't know really, not enough data yet," he said after some thought of his own, "Why would you ask that question?"
"Because no one here or any of the reports I have seen can explain why there are so many new addicts running around. By now, at least here, there has been enough press on what happens when you use Bliss. It is simple you will die! There can't be that many stupid people in the galaxy!"
"So you think that they could be encourage to share this new powers with anyone around them?" Elassar said watching her closely, during her last statement her stress was really showing through clearly. It rather reminded him of the night before she and Tyria headed to Denon for a recon mission.
"Think about it for a second, if you already addicted would you really want to share any and after all the deaths and … Charm Boy I have seen children run into a burning ship to get this stuff! It was all over the news, for days! Would any sane person want to take something like that after seeing people do THAT!"
"Like I said, I not sure anyone has any data yet. However, with the information you showed me, we have a new avenue to explore." Elassar said carefully, "by the way, how are you feeling?"
"Fine," she said after a very long pause. "I just need some more sleep that is all …"
"Prankster …"
"I got to go, let me know what you fine out."
"Wait Prankster, talk to me …" but it was too late she had already cut connection. Elassar leaned back in his chair and snarled out some curses in his primary language. She was pushing her self to the edge again and she refused to see it, again! Last time Tahiri was there for her, for Ratnena's sake he hoped that Tahiri was able to help her again before she blew up. He will have to help that along while he is on Denon, and call Luke Skywalker before he leaves to get the ball rolling on both problems. There was a lot to do and he had the feeling time was running short … again.
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The Wraiths
Loran, Garik 'Face' Commander, Wraith 1; Poster Boy
Ruskin, Flight Officer, Wraith 2; Pathfinder
Hun, Sorr, Lieutenant, Wraith 3; Watcher
Foruta, Kic, Flight Officer, Wraith 4; Snipe
Tahiri, Captain, Wraith 5; Peacekeeper
Killjoy, Jake, Flight Officer, Wraith 6; Socket
Littlefoot, Cathy, Lieutenant, Wraith 7; Doc
Uhilka, Flight Officer, Wraith 8; Hunter
Bora, Ratnena, Lieutenant, Wraith 9; Prankster
High, Aden, Flight Officer, Wraith 10; Snoop
Squeaky, Supply Officer, Wraith Eleven; Junk Pile
Little Brother, Wraith 12; Dagger
