Rudolf Fischer's office was a desk in a corner of the open room he and the various other aids, researchers, and gophers who aided the officials of the Correlian system worked in. At least, Rudolf liked to think of his desk as his office. A place where he can focus on his duties and accomplish tasks necessary for the good Senator to make policy and party and whatever else it was that senators got up to that kept them from actually reading the bills they argued about on the senate floor.

Now though, he had to leave his little piece of land to visit his boss's office, exciting into the main waiting area before walking into a room with only a single desk in the middle and plenty of room to walk around. A single, large, durasteel desk mostly empty of work except for a small stack of flimsies and datapads off to the side. The shelves lining the walls filled with scale models of various ships, the ones depicting current Correlian lines of production in the most prominent locals. And seated in his large, well cushioned seat was Senator Iblis.

"You called for me?"

"Yes. Close that door behind you please. I would like to keep this meeting private for now."

Closing the door Mr. Fischer stood in front of the desk, his back straight, his hands gripped tightly behind his back. "What is going on, sir?"

Senator Iblis motioned for Rudolf to take a seat as he leaned back into his chair, a glass of brown liquid with a hint of gold in his hand. "Well, an associate of mine sent me a rather interesting proposal that will require the senate to enact certain measures. You studied finance and financial law, correct?"

"Yes sir. What sort of bill is this?"

Garm Iblis slid a datapad across the desk. "It isn't a bill per say. Rather it is a bunch of interconnected proposals, a rather ambitious plan, to help the slavery issue in the Ryloth sector. I want you to look over the theory in this proposal and let me know how feasible it is. Everything looks fine to me, but I can't help the feeling that it seems a bit ridiculous no one has tried this before if it would work out."

"I will give it a look over and let you know as soon as I can." Rudolf turned on the datapad on to begin a brief skim of the proposal.

"See to it. Put aside all your other projects for now. I need that information before a meeting next week and I want you to be as thorough as possible."

"Yes sir."

—-

Ziro Desilijic Tiure, or Ziro the Hutt as he was better known as on Coruscant, was the person people in the core world go to when they want to get in contact with the Hutt cartels or the Grand Hutt Council, depending on the legality of their business. Setting up a meeting was a typically fairly simple process as Ziro mostly stayed in his night club and it was rare that such business warranted extra setup.

But when a Jedi calls ahead to arrange a meeting, well that requires something special. It was a rare occurrence indeed when the Jedi gave forewarnings of a visit. Rarer still when it was not related to some crime they were investigating. Now Ziro was no fool, he knew that Jedi do not just make social calls with Hutts. No, the Jedi wanted something. What that something was, Ziro could not say. As far as Ziro knew there had not been any conflict within the criminal underworld that warranted the Jedi's attention and there had not been any recent lost Jedi artifacts found in Hutt space.

Well, no sense worrying about it was Ziro's opinion as he closed the club down for the meeting. At least, closed to the general public. Ziro could not imagine skipping out in meeting the Jedi with some lovely eye candy around and a few drinks at hand. Just alcohol for now, Ziro was sure a clear head would be needed and his normal cocktail preferences might leave him buzzed for the meeting. No, best to stick to alcohol and stay sober.

"Presenting his most magnificent, Ziro the Hutt," the artificial vocals of one of the protocol droids Ziro kept around announced as it lead in two humanoid Jedi. Both female if Ziro were to make a guess, not that gender ever really mattered to him. Such a limiting concept to be constrained to only one gender and it only being socially acceptable to be with another specific gender. Ziro much preferred being able to take on aspects of both and be with any being he set his eyes on.

"And who do I have the honor of hosting this evening?"

"Presenting Jedi Knight Sar Labooda and Jedi Padawan Tanya Degurechaff.

The two Jedi bowed respectfully before the shorter blonde one holding some sort of box stepped forward and passed the box to the droid. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us, Ziro the Hutt."

"Now now, no need for such formalities. What can I help you with? Hm, what's this?" Ziro waved off the need to use his title before accepting the box and opening it up carefully.

"It is my understanding that in Hutt culture it is traditional to exchange gifts as a sign of a desire to conduct honest business with each other."

"Hm, what? Oh yes, tradition. I did not expect a non-Hutt to understand that. Oh, is this a statue of me?"

Indeed inside the box was a rough figure of a Hutt painted with bright green eyes and purple skin and very distinct yellow markings that closely matched Ziro's own tattoos.

"Yes. Carved from real wood and I have been told the paint was made with naturally sourced pigments. I apologize if the quality is not to your standards, but I was uncertain what would be appropriate and I was unable to give the artist a lot of time to work."

"Oh, I do like it, your artist did an excellent job catching my good side," Ziro said, taking a close look at the figure before passing it and the box to the droid and taking the droid to put them in his office. Readjusting himself on his dias, Ziro focused in on the small Jedi. Taking the lead in this situation shows that the small blonde one must be Knight Sar Labooda and the tall one must be the Padawan. Ziro did not keep up with the Jedi, but she would have thought a Padawan of that age would have been kicked out by now. Unless both were actually not human and instead some near humans that aged at unusual rates.

"I will pass along the compliment. Now, getting down to the purpose of this meeting, the Jedi are interested in attempting a novel method of helping the most at risk populations by creating new economic and financial benefits. Specifically, we are looking to start up several businesses on Ryloth and would like the Hutts expertise involved in a couple of them."

Hutt expertise. My this little Jedi was full of surprises. First giving a bribe, even if an unusual one, under the pretense of respecting tradition. And now saying such flattering things. Well, never let it be said Ziro does not appreciate brown nosing and bribery.

"And what expertise could the Hutts provide your little project?"

"The Hutts have several highly regarded casinos within their business portfolio. One of the planned businesses is a casino to employ a number of locals while bringing in a lot of tourists to bolster the local economy and we would like the Hutts' assistance in properly setting up and running the casino."

The Jedi are looking to muscle into the gambling business? And they want the Hutts to help? Ziro knew those Jedi couldn't be as pure and idealistic as they pretended, but this was something else.

"And what, pray tell, would the Hutts be getting out of this arrangement?"

"Should the Hutts choose to financially back the project along with a few other potential investors during a business meeting next week, then the Hutts will have a stake in the ownership of the casino. If the Hutts wish to not involve themselves financially in the project, then any Hutt who chooses to advise the project will be fairly compensated in a consultant role. We would prefer the Hutts backing the project financially so that you are invested in helping to make the operation as profitable as possible."

Well, at least Jedi Labooda knew how to talk the game. And teaching her Padawan such tactics would prove beneficial in the future, if this was the direction the Jedi were choosing to go in.

"And what would you Jedi be getting out of all this?"

"We will of course be receiving a fair share of the profits in proportion to our investments, most of which will then be reinvested back into this and similar projects, and be the ones to insure the employees are treated fairly and compensated a fair wage that covers their personal expenses to an acceptable level."

Ah, keeping to their idealistic beliefs, while trying to actually make money off of their squeaky clean image. This must be the doing of that old frog they call a leader. Play a long game to maximize the money they could make on a good image. Well, if they want to play this game and deal the Hutts in on the profits, the Hutts will be happy to profit off the Jedi's backs.

"Alright, I'll have to make a few calls before I can promise anything, but you have my attention."

The Grand Hutt Council is going to love this. And Ziro will get all the credit for setting it up and brokering the deal. If everything goes well, then perhaps this will even weaken that damn brat nephew of Ziro's position as clan head.

"That is perfectly alright. I hope that this business venture will be to both of our benefits. We will be hosting a meeting in about a week where I will be going in depth on the plan. Hopefully you will need no further convincing afterwords."

"I will be there. You can count on it."