Chapter 3

They had left a note for dad and headed for Coronet Spaceport. Riding the long causeway out there across the Torsin Channel Geda looked up to see the bulky frames of soon to be G.A.N. cruisers under construction. Back in the days of Palpatine's Empire Corellia's penchant for rebellious individualism had been punished by turning the planet's small personal freighter industry into one of three main centers for all Star Destroyer construction in the galaxy. The planet had been thoroughly subjugated and the forced, underpaid work, quickly turned the beautiful city of Coronet into an industrial slum. They had cleaned it up a lot since those days but the infrastructure for major ship building was already in place, so the private conglomerate that took over the formerly imperialized plant just switched who they were building ships for. Today, three quarters of the Galactic Alliance Fleet was constructed in and above Coronet.

An hour after riding down the Torsin Causeway they were on a third class shuttle to one of Corellia's two inhabited moons. She kept looking to her uncle for conversation but a wink or a tight smile is all he would offer. He was nervous. She had caught snippets of the trouble Uncle Cyrus had gotten himself into while away, and now he was walking back into the nexu den…for her. For family.

The trip to Tralus's capital city, Navos, which doubled as the gambling capital of the quadrant, took only forty minutes. They touched down and made their way through the spaceport quickly as they did not have to pass through customs. Coming out into the early evening light of Corell was a bit of a shocker for Geda. After the war with the Hutts twenty-five thousand years ago, the humans of Coruscant and their handful of humanoid allies led by a mysterious group called then the Jed'aii Bendu, had spread out from the Core in a very methodical, organized manner. Worlds were terraformed to match the gravity of Coruscant and a simplified time keeping system was implemented. If multiple worlds in a system could be settled, settlements would be built where the planets rotation would keep them in the same day/night cycle as the rest of the settlements in system. However, on Tralus, the moon had only one continent, and that continent was in a location that would keep it a half day ahead of Coronet. Unwilling to build an ocean surface city, visitors to and from the planet had to resign themselves to a pretty awful case of time lag.

Where Coronet was a city rooted in industry, Navos was a city rooted in leisure. No factories, no cloudcutters, no construction. Just bright lights beckoning visitors to come in and spend their hard earned creds. Her uncle looked a man on edge. The bright lights and sounds of laughter and debauchery seemed to have the same effect on him loud noises had on veterans. In the midst of the glitz and glamour was an iconoclastic building made of stone. A human female and a twi'lek male stood near the steps outside, each intoning "may the Force of others be with you". Uncle Cyrus made a b-line for the building and put a couple credits in the can the twi'lek was holding before making his way up the steps and into the temple.

Geda knew her uncle had overcome his faults with drinking and gambling by devoting himself to religion, but she had never seen that need in action until tonight. While her uncle meditated Geda explored. Everything in the temple was meant to help induce a feeling of serenity. The thick stone walls kept the noise of Navos outside. A small trickling waterfall made its way down over stones on one side. A small wroshyr tree with a handful of birds rose up from the front of the back of the temple. Incense and candles burned from every meditation pad in the sanctuary. Statues of long dead Jedi kept a watchful eye on parishioners from their perch in the corners of the ceiling. The tour brought back memories from her childhood. Her mother had taken them to temple sometimes two or even three times a week when she was younger. Geda had been taught to place her faith in the Force in all things. But her death had changed all that for Geda and her father. A woman who had dedicated her life to the Force was repaid by a loose cable that dropped a turbolaser on her and one other worker. For Geda, life was too short to devote so much time to something so apathetic to life.

She waited the last ten minutes for her uncle outside. The memories of her mother stirring up too much resentment. Her uncle rejoined her with a far easier smile and they continued on.

A few minutes later they came to a trandoshan standing outside a lone doorway. There were no bright lights enticing visitors into this room. In fact, it looked like it was trying to keep people away.

"I am with the Force, and the Force is with me" Cyrus whispered under his breath.

"Hey Akss" he waved at the reptilian bouncer. He was still nervous, but far less than he had been when they landed. "Is Kaia in?"

The Trandoshan just whipped his head towards the door and hissed as they walked in. Inside the door was a horned gotal who frisked Cyrus. He started to frisk Geda but Cyrus grabbed his arm as his hand moved up her stomach toward her breast. "She clean Tush'nek" he hissed in what sounded like an impersonation of the doorman outside.

"Not until I confirm it she's not" the furred alien shrugged.

"It's confirmed" Cyrus answered, gripping the alien's forearm tighter.

Tush'nek placed his hand over Cyrus's and threw it off. "you get your stangin paws off m-"

"Uncle Cyrus" Geda said with a warning hand on his chest. "It's okay".

He looked at her, his jaw still clenched tightly. "It's okay" she mouthed again, putting as much calm into the words as she could. Finally he relented and turned away as the bodyguard finished his excuse to grope his niece.

A few seconds later she heard Tush'nek make a clicking sound, followed by "ok you're good".

They walked down a hall and into a large room lit by a collection of dim but multi-colored lights. There was a large felt table in the center and around it sat aliens of species Geda knew and a couple she didn't. At the center of the table sat a human woman of late middle age. She wore her hair short and its white color contrasted nicely with her olive complexion. She a white jewel stud in her nose that connected to one of her multi-pierced ears. Her body wrap was two shades of blue and rose into a high collar that came to a point at her jawline. All in all, she was attractive and exotic looking and in a moment she went from laughing lightly to drawing a hold out blaster and pointing it at her uncle.

"Cyrus Chalus…you better have my creds".