In the staff cantina, which was now a little empty and was used as a kind of headquarters of the Nimbus 3 striking Turbosteelers, sat Mr.N, a major union representative, above him, one of the governing body, even called Dave and Dave's wife Julie. Dave downed half a pint in one go and put down the glass with a satisfied sigh. But Julie was lest approving. 'You really want to watch that Beer your drinking does you no favours, you know!' she scorned.

Dave gave an easy smile in response, 'oh, come on, we all need to relax. Now, N, how is morale amongst your lot, this strike has been going on for a while now. We can give you financial support if you need it.'

'I suggest you listen you your wife about your drinking, it may let you down one day. But whatever, morale is holding up. But we may very well need that financial support you where talking about. Especially if this dispute is going to become a war of attrition. The Empire has cut of supplies to this planet, officially under some obscure reason involving spacerights, but everyone knows it's really to do with the strike and the population's strong support of it. At least here. But we are having shortages and our shopkeepers are been less than sympatric towards us.'

Dave frowned, totally forgetting Mr.N's comments about his drinking. 'I think I can help with the supplies. I do know people who can help you out there. I'll have a little word. Well, I have a union executive meeting later on this week. If you like you can accompany me. We're always interested in the opinions of those on the ground Arthur Pit coal is charring it.' That was the leader of the Turbosteel union. A bit of a radical firebrand. Especially in his opposition to the Empire Palpatine. He was one of the few people in public life who had the courage to critize the Empire so publicly and forcefully. Helped by the semi-privileged position the workers where in.

Mr.N accepted the invitation gratefully, 'Yes, I'd love to come. I'd like to meet the Hirebrand again.' Arthur Pitcoal wasn't human. He was of the Hirebrand species. Many of the Turbosteelers weren't human, more than half actually, though the humans where the most numerous species. But Mr.N did have an idea of how Dave was going to get the supplies. From the smugglers. Many had landed on Nimbus 3 delivering unofficial goods, partly due to chocking Imperial regulation and taxation, but more on that subject later. Mr.N thought Dave's plan was definitely frowned on by the authorities and at the worse highly illegal, but if the Strikers won, then it might not matter, thought he.

So, Mr.N was of to the Planet Corellia where the Turbosteel union had it's headquarters. It wasn't an easy journey. Despite the Union officials been above the Imperial oppression in some ways, they where still hampered and searched by custom and the like. Many times. It seemed that the Imperials where determined to catch the people out for something. At one point, Mr.N had to stop a Stormtrooper scanning the droid, 67t, with a tool, which strangely had been reprogrammed to a point where it would have exploded the droid.

'Thank you for your help, kind sir,' 67t said to Mr.N. And on another occasion, Mr.N did a quick scan on planetary entry and found that one of the ship's wiring had been altered and set to explode on entering the atmosphere.

'Now that is interesting,' commented he. 'Any ideas who might be behind this?'

'Someone in the Empire I would guess. While the Imperials are, at the moment, not taking any direct actions against the strikers for fear of alienating those at work, they are certainly not above 

actions of stealth and cunning. Many of us fear assassination attempts, more than once those of us in the Exec who support the strike the strongest have spotted some suspicious movements, on one case Arthur, our leader saw what he was sure was a suicide droid just near him. We don't know for sure if the Droid was after Arthur, they have many different and complex missions, those things, but we got rid of it all the same,' explained Dave.

Well, the exec meeting was due the next day. It was an extremely important one, setting out the direction of the striker's policy for the coming month. But before the start, there was a little surprise for Mr.N. 'We have someone here for you,' said Dave and, in a Bar which was owned by the union a figure emerged from behind a newsvid. Mugwort! The mysterious Mugwort! One of the major opponents of the Empire. He had been a wanted man now for some years, although technically speaking he wasn't a man, but he was also extremely clever and Mr.N knew that Mugwort often managed to appear with a large number of fake IDs.

Mugwort extended a black hand and enthusiastically shock Mr.N's. 'Pleasure to be here. Nice to see you again! I thought I might sit in on a couple of Union meetings too. Might need my assistance.'

Mr.N replied, 'Thanks. I see your reading the News. Some of us had a little fun some days ago with the stormtroopers I hear,'

Mugwort stopped the pleasantries. He sighed, 'Is that what you call it? I'm afraid your fun is putting you in a very bad light in the Imperial media. There are very graphic pictures of those Stormtroopers that where beaten up. Yes, I know none of ours are shown but we must be careful. Try not to rise to any provocation. We do it appears have some supporters in the Imperial council. But the last thing you need to do is to alienate the entire body.'

Mugwort was accompanied by a lady by the name of Judi. She supported him. 'Yes, Mugwort is right. There has been some talk about outright rebellion against the Empire and there has been certainly some fighting on the fringes. But this could be our chance to remove the Empire peacefully. You people are producing something which the Empire crucially needs. I think it's taking everybody a little while to realize this. But it's a shame at the moment that you are not all united.'

'We'll come to that.' Added Dave. But Judi was right. Around 20 of the Turbosteelers where still working. A total walkout would have stopped Turbosteel production. The Empire would not have coped with no Turbosteel. It wouldn't even have been able to produce any spaceships. Or anything, actually. But going on strike can be a painful experience as the Turbosteelers themselves needed to sell their products to survive.

So, the Empire had, largely under Tarkin's policy blackmailed, bullied, besieged, bribed some sections of the workforce to remain working. But an all-out strike was still a possibility. So the situation remained tense. Anyway it was time for the meeting and everyone rolled out.

As he left the cantina, Dave couldn't help but notice Whitesnake and Baldrick on one of the tables, trying their best to be inconspicuous. 'Evening Imperial commander Whitesnake, evening Baldrick,' said Dave loudly to them, smiling at their attempts to hide from the stares of the crowd.



Except Baldrick that is who replied with a smile, 'Good evening,' than yelped as Whitesnake kicked him in the shin under the table.

'We are supposed to be trying to be here quietly,' Whitesnake growled at his assistant.

Dave smiled as he entered the Union exec meeting room. Well, Mr.N thought that sitting in on a meeting like this was very informative. The Union's leader Arthur was very energetic and enthusiastic as he normally was in speeches, rallying people and making sure that the meeting stayed in order. But one thing which Mr.N noted was how much Dave had influence. Unions governing bodies where not necessarily all democratic places. There where one or two people there that would have liked to have tried to bypass the views of the ordinary Turbosteelers. Dave was one of those that made sure it didn't happen.

When he wasn't drinking too much that was. More than once Dave nearly nodded of and Mr.N had to nudge him awake. But one point was raised by one member. 'There has been some suggestion that we should have a secret ballot to legitimize this strike action, should we do this?'

Arthur answered, 'Personally I don't see why. It isn't in the constitution that we should. As 80 of us are on strike anyway, I think that people are voting with their actions, don't you?'

'Yes, but if we are so sure of success, we could just hold one anyway to counter some of the propaganda against us,' suggested the first speaker.

Dave was just dropping of again and had to be nudged by Judi to answer this point, 'That's a bit of a red herring. Would having a ballot change the reaction of the Imperial press by one degree? I don't think so. Remember the case of the Alderaan electrical strike. They decided to have a ballot where strike action was supported by 95 I do believe. Didn't stop the press saying that they where all greedy workers who should be boiled in oil, practically did it?' Which was quite a perceptive political point. Dave was a good leader when he wanted to be. Just a shame he relied so much on cheap ale. But partly that was because of the Galaxy been in such a bad way an no way to help it. Enough to drive anyone to drink.