Chapter XIII: The Meeting (10 BBY)
The streets of Gevest buzzed with activity as the mid-day rush hurried about the city. Landspeeders traveled barely a meter above the paved streets, sending the hum of repulsorlifts through the busy avenues. The whine of airspeeders drifted from above as several of the richer members of the community bustled about to their offices. A plethora of humans walked by on the streets, dressed in the typical clothes of university students, and massed towards various eateries placed around a nearby square.
Jorec Merridon, dressed in a simple camouflaged outfit, also walked among the throng of humans. He quietly scanned the crowd in front of him, even nine years after that dreadful day he was still heavily cautious. Also in the last eight years another thing had become painfully obvious to Jorec, the rarity of non-humans. Life at the Jedi Temple had been filled with various species of alien sentients; Jorec's own Rancor Clan was primarily alien with only three humans to the fifteen youngling class. Now in the New Order of Emperor Palpatine, Jorec had heard that terrible things were happening to those who weren't born human. The holographic trophy wall at the hunting lodge was a major piece of evidence for the rumors that were going around. Several pictures dating from the Pre-Empire years were an even mixture of human and alien, and all those after the first Empire Day were composed of 95 humans.
The sounds of commerce grew louder as Jorec neared his destination. The 89th Street Bookstore was soon visible over the crowd of people, a favorite location for Jorec ever since his first trip into Gevest five years previously. The light red painted durasteel building was also a favorite of students at the local university, and a few students could be seen entering the store ahead.
Jorec entered the store and viewed the rows of datapads stored on several shelves, and noticed the old Toydarian shopkeeper sitting at his usual place near the entrance to the store. Jorec looked at the red-skinned Toydarian and noticed a glum look on his face.
"What's the matter, Kraat? Not making a lot of profit?"
"Not too little profit, too much," said the Toydarian with a scowl.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
A look of disgust crossed Kraat's face as he related the tale.
"Non-human tax the local Moff has enacted. A large percent of my profit goes directly to his pockets! Back when the Republic was around, this never happened to me. Just a week ago my brother had to declare bankruptcy after his restaurant was taxed to death."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Kraat…"
Kraat quickly flew up from his chair, short wings beating furiously and his middle finger angrily poking Jorec in the chest.
"You are sorry! You are the one profiting from this New Order! You may say you feel sorry for the non-humans that are oppressed, but is anything being done about it?"
The angry Toydarian noticed the stares of the other patrons and quickly stopped his rant. He threw his three fingered hands in air and addressed the crowd.
"Go on, go on. Continue about your business, keep looking for the datapad your looking for!"
"And drive me out of business…" the Toydarian added under his breath.
Kraat flew angrily and somewhat erratically into the backroom of the store, bumping into a shelf and sending its displayed datapads tumbling onto the floor below it. Jorec and the rest of the shoppers in the store looked at the swinging door to the backroom in shock. After the shock came the rumble of confused conversation from the majority of the crowd. A woman's voice rose above the clamor of the crowd, trying to calm the masses down.
"OK, OK, let's break it up. Go back to whatever you were doing previously."
From behind a shelf to Jorec's left came the speaker, she was dressed in the standard blue shirt uniform that the humanoid employees of the store all wore. She had brown hair that flowed down to her shoulders and brown eyes that caught Jorec's attention. A strange feeling came over Jorec, even though he had never seen this woman before she seemed strangely familiar to him.
The crowd dispersed from around the store counter and once again went about their business throughout the rest of the store. Jorec, however, remained standing next to the counter and watched as the woman took over for the missing Toydarian.
"What exactly happened to Kraat?"
The woman looked up from her work and shook her head.
"I assume you heard him yell about the Non-Human Tax? Well, his payment is due tomorrow and we're all wondering how he's going to come up with the money to pay it. The other employees and I have heard that he's squandered away most of his profits in some investment that never panned out like it was supposed to. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to clean up the mess he made."
The woman kneeled on the ground and began collecting the many fallen datapads that lay scattered on the blue carpet. Jorec looked at her, and wondered where he could have possibly seen her before.
"Do you need any help picking those up? It was kind of my fault after all."
She motioned for him to come forward to help her, and shook her head at his last comment.
"Don't worry about it. He would have snapped at somebody eventually today, probably me. I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner, he's been under a lot of stress lately."
Jorec began picking up a few of the scattered datapads next to him and placed them in a neat stack next to the stack that she had created. Jorec stole a glance at the woman as he continued to pick up the datapads on the floor. Jorec decided to strike up a small conversation with the woman.
"I don't think I've seen you in here before. Are you new here?"
Jorec put another datapad on his pile and waited for her answer all the while hoping that he wouldn't sound like an idiot in front of her.
"I've only been working here for about three weeks, haven't seen you in here either. Although Kraat keeps talking about you coming in every week and buying something."
Jorec looked slightly confused at her words.
"He does?"
"Yeah, you're…" She pauses for a second as she tries to recall his name. "Joren Merridon?"
"Close, it's actually Jorec."
"Sorry about that. I'm Lia Garent."
"Nice to meet you Lia."
Lia moved to pick up a datapad that had fallen into one of the main counter's shelves. Jorec saw her crack a smile as she reached for something on the shelf.
"I think we found another reason why he's so cross today."
She pulled a flask of brownish liquid from the shelf, and sniffed at the contents. A look of revulsion flashed across her face as the fumes hit her nostrils.
"That's another reason all right. Do me a favor and dump this stuff in 'fresher."
She handed the bottle of potent Toydarian Liquor to Jorec, who quickly complied.
Haller Surool's face formed out of the small holoprojector near Jorec's couch.
"Jorec, how have you been?"
"I've been doing OK, tell your wife that I'm finally learning how to trust more people."
"That's good, I'll tell her."
"In fact, that's what I'm calling you about… You see there's this woman I've met."
Haller smiled at this news.
"Good for you! And six years ago you thought it would be near impossible to actually live a normal life. How long have you known her?"
"About five weeks, I met her at the 89th Street Bookstore in Gevest. I'm very interested in her, and I think she's interested in me."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't know, it just feels like she is. Now, the main question I have is this: how do I ask her out on a date? And where do we go if she accepts?"
"The first part is easy, though it probably sounds way too easy. Just ask her to go out with you somewhere. By the way, she isn't dating anybody else is she?"
"I'm pretty sure that she isn't. And it's that easy?"
"It is. Now as to your other question, just take her to a nice restaurant somewhere in Gevest."
"That's it!"
"Yep."
"Thanks Mr. Surool. See you and the rest of your family at the next holiday."
Jorec turned the holoprojector off and shook his head.
"I've participated in a battle of the Clone Wars, but I'm scared to death of asking a girl out on a date…"
It was six weeks after he had first met Lia Garent in the bookstore where she worked, and as Jorec slowly walked from the public garage to the store he felt the nausea created by his nervous state begin to kick in. He tried a Jedi calming technique he had learned at the Temple many years ago, but somehow he had the feeling that the technique had never quite been used like this before. He opened the door and walked into the store, hoping that everything would work out for him or at least that the rejection wouldn't be that painful.
He walked out of the bookstore a happy man, perhaps more happy than he had been ever since the traumatic betrayal of the clone troopers he had experienced. The nauseous feeling in his stomach had been silent ever since Lia had agreed to a date one week from that day, and for once Jorec felt normal…