Author's Note: Ugh. I just had the longest first week at school I've ever had, and then a long and busy weekend. Then this morning I decided - 'Well, I really should write chapter three. It's been awhile.' Which leads me to my next point. I found that I work best in the early morning hours, for some reason. xD
SkywalkerChild: I know - I'm trying to do things a bit different in this story. Instead of loading on a whole lot of information at once, I'm'a gunna try to... permeate it throughout the story. Same goes with Zach, you'll find out more about him in the next chapter.
DarthLady14: Thank you! Lol, don't worry, I love the Han/Leia pairing.
SuP3R G1R: - frantically directs to lines 3-5 of profile. discluding disclaimer -
darth mojo the spork: Thank you. No, she's essentially the same Leia. Just, sortah, supporting the other (wrong!) side. xD Yeah, Heart of Darkness is definitely one of my very favorites.
Eliza Evenstar: Thank you. :) I actually wasn't about to have Zach. Then I decided, what the hell, it'd make things more interesting. And, like you said, it adds a touch moreof realism.
CHAPTER TWO: OF SPICE AND STUPIDITY
Glancing at her watch, Leia decided, was a nervous habit that she had. For the thousandth time within ten minutes, she felt her eyes wander to her wrist. There were exactly eight minutes until the meeting started; whenever the Emperor scheduled a meeting, everyone was supposed to be either early or promptly on time, including himself. Leia supposed that it was because it gave him a sense of control over every aspect of his Empire, down to the very second.
But she respected him for it. And she was sure everyone else did, too, because if one was late they were either dead or scared down to their boots (depending on how late they were).
Not a word was said when two official-looking men rushed in exactly four minutes later, just a few exchanged glances. Two and a half minutes after that - at this point, Leia desperately wanted to discard her watch - was when the Emperor arrived. It was the same meeting room in which Leia was in the day before, therefore the Emperor arrived in all his majesty through the same grand, arched doors, flanked on either side by red Imperial guards. He had made this battle cruiser his second home. At this point, Leia was able to feel the nervousness and fear generated by the two other ambassadors (of whom she recalled no recognition). Although she was, on the Emperor's orders, forbidden to be trained in the Force, her father taught her a few things that wasn't training as much as it was practicality. She was taught to relieve stress - a problem that she frequently faced - and her somewhat weak connection with the Force allowed for excellent instincts and judgement on her part. For her to feel, at this degree, the fear that was coming from her counterparts must mean that at any point they were about to get up and bolt. Metaphorically speaking.
"Ambassador Leia Skywalker," Ambassador. She liked that. "Xij Greng of the Imbod System and Telur Ambrodi of Xinin," She nodded at them, immediately noting their systems and within the span of half a second she conjured up with her brain all the information she's ever read about them. Imbod: Inner Rim, swampy and desert, mines spice and gases within the crust; Xinin: temperate, run by the long-standing monarch dynasty of Ylemi as well as Empire, exports of spice and excellent yacht buisness, suspected of illegal spice trading. In a nutshell, that is. She marked quickly that spice was a common between the two, and instantly began paying attention to what the ambassador of Imbod started saying. Thank the gods he was only a few words in.
"...proposal that, if successful, would strengthen the economy of our beloved Empire - " Quit sounding like a sales pitch.
"'If sucessful'?" quoted the Emperor suspiciously.
"Ah - yes - erm, we will need some... c-cooperation that would be, um, impossible to succeed with... without. Special signals on our freighters that will be recognized by the Empire so we won't get boarded and arrested - that sort of thing..."
"What, exactly, are you going to be shipping?" interjected Leia sharply.
Ambrodi sighed, giving a glare to the stumbling and stuttering Greng that clearly meant 'shut up and let me speak'.
"Amabassador Princess Skywalker..." (She really did love that title.) "Our countries are involved in the import and export of spice on the black market, and we find it as a great economy booster," Now this guy was to the point. "We are requesting a galaxy wide legalization of spice shipping concerning certain companies - or a certain company, if this is kept quiet enough - that will ship spice to our more richer costumers or to planets as a whole. The Empire would be involved - we will gladly pay any tax or tarriff on the shipment - " By now he was speaking to the Emperor. " - as well as the usual tax on company ownership. I tell you, Your Majesty, if this proposal is put into action inflation will decrease dramatically and more money will go to you and your Grand Moffs - we are simply begging permission to legally do the work ourselves."
"Did you heed no thought on what would happen if I were to reject your proposal and the consequences to your whole planet for the illegal transport of spice?" Emperor Palpatine asked pleasently.
"Well - yes," Ambroi said, faltering for the briefest second. "But we were hoping the figures would be good enough where that wouldn't happen." he bent over, retrieving a datapad from his bag and handing it diagonally to the Sith Lord, who waved his hand and had it float over to Leia. She immediatley switched it on, watching as screens flashed by filled with percentages and economic hypotheses and charts and graphs. The whole room was dead silent, staring at her, for the five minutes she spent studying the figures, but that did little to deter her or make her uncomfortable (it happens when one happens to be the offspring of Darth Vader). She had to admit that it looked... reasonable. She had hoped that this was all complete blasphemy. To her, the majority of the galaxy was stupid enough without legalizing a primary catalyst. Spice, in her mind, was about as degrading as orange lipstick.
As soon as she was done, she gave a firm nod to the Emperor, who conceded to look through it himself once it passed the first test.
"I will like to make this operation quiet," he informed them, causing them to both look as if they were saved from death. Inwardly, Leia groaned. There goes the scholars. "It may make some of population... unhappy, thereby causing sympathy for the Rebellion."
Both nodded fervently and simultaneously. The better for them, Leia thought wryly.
"Is there anything else?" By this, it meant that he knew there was something else but disguised it as a question.
"Yes. We requested the planet of Kessel to join us when we were drawing up this plan, but they wanted nothing to do with it at the time - they felt they were under enough scrutinization of illegal activities as it was. As you know, Kessel deals in the mining and shipment of spice, and making them a company contact would be extremely useful - as well as annexing Nar Shaddaa into our operation, although Kessel shall come first."
"Skywalker will be on her way by 2000 hours today." The Emperor agreed. "You may leave." They both nodded, and walked out holding their chins a little higher than they did when they came in.
"Skywalker, a royal transport will be waiting for you at platform 27F at 2000 hours. You are to take these figures and negotiate with Kessel and Nar Shadaa about our operation. But keep it quiet." he ordered. Leia nodded, and once he left she gathered up her things and made her way from the conference room to her suite for the second time in two days.
She could see the universities burning now.
Okay. I made up the names of the two planets thatGreng and Ambrodi were frombecause I looked all over Star Wars Databank and the only two planets associated with spice were Kessel and Nar Shaddaa. So there, deal with it. xD
