Chapter 15 Money Spent and Money to be Earned
Author's note:
While I know Maul was supposed to be picked up by a trash barge and moved around a bunch till he got dumped on a different planet, didn't really feel like doing all that. So, I picked him up early.
Also, I apologize for the lack of updates, as I noted a few chapters back I started a different job and it's been a whirlwind recently. Really just work and then relaxing by playing games and stuff. That and I'm currently rewriting the next arc a little bit. So, wish me luck!
Standard Disclaimer:
I don't own any of Star Wars, I also don't make any money from this and only really gain slight satisfaction from the development and carrying out of the story in my mind as I write it.
Naboo, Theed, Underground Side Entrance
08-13-32 BBY
18:00
Anakin POV
I smiled at the Zabrak now floating in the bacta tank. It had been a process to get him back here. I'd first had to cauterize his wounds using some force lighting. I'd still been trying to get a grasp of simply summoning fire with the force, but the practice has been slow… after cauterizing the wound I simply levitated him with the force making sure to zap him with force lighting every now and then so he could maintain his hatred and fear. I could only imagine he had sustained himself through the dark anger and hatred within him and it seemed to work. All this would help him maintain his current half dead state.
I'd been able to find his saber staff, he had hidden it under him, probably not confident to throw it in his injured state. His legs… disturbing but I found out how he'd stayed alive from his half-chewed legs. Absolutely disgusting, I couldn't blame him, but just horrendous.
It wasn't the worst thing I'd seen across the galaxy by far, but still eating your own legs he definitely had a drive for survival.
I'd had to knock him out before quickly throwing him into the bacta tank. I watched as the surgical droid monitored his vitals. It turned to me "Patient is showing elevated signs of activity, I believe he will wake soon." I was surprised, most bacta tanks had a built-in drug administration system to ensure the patient did not wake up for the duration of their stay in Bacta.
Certain aliens had metabolisms that interfered with such procedures and needed to be tuned to either be lower or higher than normal, but then again most force sensitives were also known to wake up from their bacta naps as well, the Force helping them to fight the drugs in their systems. "Double the dosage to keep him under, he'll be fine." He might've had half his body, maybe half the blood as well, but still the drugs would kill him, I think.
I shrugged, 'we would have to see', I watched as the droid manipulated the controls and Maul's body stilled, peering over at the monitor I saw his heartbeat still going, a bit weaker, but that was ok.
I turned to see R2 watching me and the droid looking at the Sith in the bacta tank. He whirred in a confused manner, "It'll be fine R2, you know every misfit has their place" I reassured the droid with a pat. Me and him were the same, the odd one out, the underdog, I loved the astromech and was glad he had chosen to accompany me on my journey.
He beeped sadly remembering his past mistreatment from his fellow droids, nobody liked an astromech that acted differently from its programming. I patted his head as I headed back to the front of the ship. "It's ok, we'll show them all R2. Are we ready to go?" I asked, sitting down at the captain's seat.
He whirred an affirmative, he'd been working on the ship the whole time I had gone looking for Maul. The ship's programming basically reworked, and at the nearest spaceport we'd go in and change anything that needed to be fixed.
I stopped, remembering something as I pulled a holo pad from my trusty bag. I switched it on waiting for the receiver to pick up. Beeummm the holo pad lit up as a Lutrillian suddenly showed up on the screen. "Is it time?" he asked impatiently rubbing his hands. I smiled "yes send them in, compliments of Brakh." he smiled back. "What a charitable donation" I shook my head as I laughed, "To Naboo or to me." "Both" he replied, shutting off the holo pad.
R2 gave me a sidelong glance from where he stood next to the ship's interface, "Don't worry about it, just a gift for the Queen" I said with a smile.
"Plot a course to Tatooine I've got some things to pick up." R2 gave an affirmative whirr as the ship rose from its rocky landing pad, cloaking before slipping through one of the Naboo falls before zooming into the distance.
Naboo, Outer Orbit, Space over Theed
08-13-32 BBY
19:00
Third Person POV
Multiple freighters littered the sky over Naboo. Some of the residents were even worried that the Trade Federation or some other power had come to subjugate them before.
The recently re-employed spaceport and hangar workers were flooded with requests to land. Sio Bibble had been called to manage the situation.
"This is freighter 003-XTK The Exotic requesting to land" a warbled voice came over the comms." Bibble frowned at the name of the ship. "What's the purpose of your landing?" Bible asked authoritatively wondering who would be so bold to attack the planet with some of the Jedi still on the planet.
"Ahhh supplies delivery ordered by his Royal Majesty. "Bibble frowned in confusion, the past King of Naboo had long abdicated the throne and fled to who knows where. "His Majesty Ars Veruna?" Bibble asked for confirmation. "Errr no, the invoice is from King Brakh? Paid in advance, just need a sign off from a member of the royal family.
Bibble thought for a moment. 'Brakh… Brakh was one of the heroes of Naboo, but a King…'. Well regardless Naboo would get all the help it could. The Republic could only aid the planet for so long.
"What would the delivery consist of?" Bibble asked just in case. "15 metric tons of Kodari-Rice" the pilot answered impatiently. It wanted to complete this delivery, it'd been on standby for a while now, and though they were paid per day they waited, they'd gotten antsy waiting around a neighboring system for the past couple days.
Bibble raised his brows, "cleared for entry, the technician will transmit the landing coordinates." He sighed as he stepped back allowing the technician to get to work. He looked at Panaka standing behind him ready if there was to be another attack.
"Call some scribes here, I have a feeling Naboo will be accepting quite a bit of resources." He looked over at a display screen showing the many ships waiting in orbit.
Naboo Space, Outskirts
08-13-32 BBY
19:00
Anakin POV
I laughed as my holo pad went off, a different one than the basic one that I used to communicate with Maleno. This one connected directly to the Queen's holo pad. I switched it on watching as she bowed to a handmaiden and closed a set of doors.
"You?" I smiled at the question hidden in her voice. "Thank you, maybe your Majesty?". She still looked quite flustered.
"Thank you" she said as she looked downwards, I could see small tears forming in the corner of her eyes.
I'd sent nearly 350,000 worth in credits to help Naboo, all facilitated through Maleno.
Tatooine, Mos Espa, Maleno's Store
08-06-32 BBY
12:30
Anakin POV
"What's this big job then?" Lutrillian asked, putting his data pad down again. I motioned for him to shut the store down watching as the doors locked and shuttered.
"I'll be leaving soon to help...remedy… the situation in Naboo" he had no doubt heard about it given the close eye he kept on the rest of the galaxy. While the Naboo crisis wasn't the most talked about event. Those in the criminal underworld knew at least a glimmer of what was going on.
"Ohhh" he said, rubbing his hands. "Taking out a Viceroy or kidnapping a Queen?" he said, interested in what his part in the plan was. I was touched he had such confidence in me to be able to do either.
"Maybe taking out the viceroy?" I shook my head, Nute would have to be spared "don't worry about that, you're not involved." He looked downtrodden, the mark on either party probably costly and needing some unique resources to carry out.
"What I do know is that Naboo will need supplies after the Trade Federation is forced to leave." I explained. Maleno's eyes perked up, "of course we can go and sell." I cut him off. "I would like you to sell to them, only I'm going to be the buyer" I said knowing he'd no doubt want to jack up the prices and be rejected by the Naboo council.
He frowned, "that just seems like more work for me, how much are you even going to buy 100,000 credits or something?" he asked disinterestedly. A decent estimation of how much I'd likely earned from the jobs he'd offered me.
I smiled watching as he picked up his data pad to start tapping at it again. "400,000 credits." I stated watching as he dropped the data pad in shock looking at me suspiciously. "You don't have that many credits." he accused, "what if I did?" I retorted.
"Ahhh, still what do I get out of it, sounds like some order processing to me." he said again disinterestedly.
"You can pay the 'transporters' to stay on standby systems over a couple hundred credits a day on top of the supplies they freight in. It just needs to be enough for a couple million people." I knew at the current time that wasn't too big a hit, many fledgling planetary systems provided surpluses of food at low prices. In some places you could buy tons of food for a couple credits.
Sure it might be taking advantage of some backwards planets, but still it was highly viable. When the clone wars started, it was a lot harder, planets almost getting glassed or worried of being attacked and focusing more on weaponry creation. Agri worlds being targeted to cut the supply chain. Main hyperspace routes policed by the CIS and Republic, performing spot-checks or randomly firing on ships passing by.
Maleno still looked disinterested, "where's the profit, I only see the risk." I smiled, "how long do you think it will take to resolve the Trade Federation problem?". He thought about the situation calculating the efficiency of the Republic and the known power of the Trade Federation.
"With the Republic, maybe half a standard year or more." He looked over at me "With you maybe a month or two." once again a stunning compliment.
Leaned in closer to him "I guarantee it'll be resolved in a week, maybe a day or two more." He looked at me stunned, a problem on such a planetary scale and involving such powers often took longer to resolve.
"How sure are you?" I smiled knowing he was interested. "You know me Maleno, deadly efficient" I spiffed my nails "I guarantee it" I stressed. "I'll give you 400,000 credits, use however much you need, maybe put the orders in in a couple days. Most spacers probably think the same as you. A simple slow burn of a job, easy money for a year and a half, enough for their hotels, cantina visits, gambling allowance. Then when the time comes I'll call you in and they'll have to deliver the supplies."
I paused "at least put down 350,000 or so credits on the supplies of course. The rest depending on how much you save, you can take." Maleno gave me a smile while doing some calculations on his data pad. "Enough to feed the planet right?" he knew that 300,000 was a lot for just food. "Food, clothes, supplies, whatever you can think of. I know you can cover it right?" I said, raising my brows. He waved me off already going to work, "show me the money and I'll do it."
I laughed as he opened the store again, sliding him an authorization key to a spaceport warehouse. A different one from the one used to store the rest of my warehouses but stored with a box or two with the necessary credits I'd counted out a couple days ago whilst we were getting ready to leave the planet.
"Unit 327, I'll see you Maleno" I called out as I left. "Oh, and I left a note with some instructions on it in the warehouse" I said heading out the door. The particulars on how to fulfill the order, and the names and such.
Hyperspace, Indeterminate route
08-14-32 BBY
04:30
Anakin POV
I laughed "it wasn't much". She looked at me, "Bibble said the supplies already likely amount over 100,000 credits already, and we haven't even gotten through half the ships." Looks like Maleno had sent the required amount, I'd expected him to take a chunk of it. Though he probably made a killing scamming the spacers.
"How much did you spend? The people of Naboo will surely pay you back." she said. I smiled "nothing much, just a drop of wealth really" it was, Gardulla's fortune was extensive. She had kept all her wealth close to her, not trusting her Hutt relatives, similar to Jabba. From what I had collected from some of Palpatine's records his master had paid her handsomely to rebuild the Mos Espa Arena. A fund she had often dipped into for her own personal activities.
That mixed with the fairly long life she had lived, led to a very rewarding payout, not even a fraction of Jabbas at his high point, but enough.
Padme looked at me dubiously, obviously thinking I was lying. "Were there any problems?" I asked. "No,'' she said, thinking about it before remembering why she had called. "Wait, why did you put your name like that on all the invoices?'' she asked. I could barely make out her cheeks flushing on the blue hues of the holo pad.
I laughed again "What do you mean?" I asked. "You put the order under his Majesty Brakh, to be signed off by the royal family. Do you know how many I had to sign off on? I would have called my father in to aid me, but then I would have had to explain who 'Brakh' was." she complained.
'Ooops, I guess Maleno took the prank too far'. The order only had to be under that name, it didn't need to be signed off. Or maybe it was part of whatever deal he had with the spacers. "Sorry" I replied "I ordered through a friend as a prank. I promise." I watched as her face changed wondering who I'd ordered from. "Plus, it's not a large price to pay right?" I tried to change the topic.
She wiped a tear away. "On behalf of the people of Naboo thank you Anakin" she stressed. I laughed knowing she truly meant it. I'd taken a look at the papers on the council table and most of them had to deal with resource allocation.
The Republic did have a relief fund but spread across the various planets it was hard to allocate properly, or even be authorized for funds. Palpatine had pulled strings to bring the support he did, and it was just a show of generosity from the recently elected Chancellor to his planet.
I smiled again. "Don't worry about it" I said looking down at a now beeping monitor. I smiled at the holo pad Padme wondering what was going on. "I'll talk to you later, and don't worry about the accounting. It's just a small gift." I said. "Wait where are y…." I cut the transmission as the ship exited hyperspace and I saw Tatooine appear before me. Better for her not to know where I was going, she might try to find me to settle the bill.
"Bring us to the Great Dune Seas" I told R2. As we approached, he whirred back at me annoyed as the ship recloaked. "What do you mean by the whole things a dune sea? Fine I'll do it then" I said taking the controls. R2 gave a celebratory woot, he had won this argument. I landed in a mountainous area, looking below I could barely make out a Jawa Sand crawler, 'perfect' I thought to myself disembarking the ship.
"2-1B ensure that the patient stays under." I said to the surgical droid before leaving. R2 would be able to navigate the ship away if anything happens, I'd set him up with a direct link with my comms link as well.
I jumped down from section to section of the Mountain making my way to the Jawa Sand crawler.
Tatooine, Mos Espa, Mos Espa Space Port
08-14-32 BBY
06:30
Anakin POV
I had gotten a working, well barely working speeder from the Jawas. Likely some junk that had broken down in the middle of the Desert. That coupled with some spare parts was an easy fix. There were some worries here and there, and I had to fix some of the coolant pipes to make sure the bike vented properly. It almost overheated and blew up a couple times, but finally I made it to Mos Espa again.
I took a breath of the fresh desert air as I looked around, still the same shithole. I laughed making my way to my storage. Checking the contents, I was glad to see everything still there. Then again only the Hutts really did spot checks here. As long as their somewhat costly renting fees were paid it was fine.
Taking one of the many grav sleds I'd stored in the unit I loaded four or five boxes on. Easily around 5 million or so in credit cubes. There were many different crates that I had organized by their contents. Many of the bigger ones simply have precious gems, or materials. The other ones carrying credit chips or cubes.
In all Gardulla likely had only a couple of billion credits worth of stuff. While it may seem like a lot, it was actually quite small in perspective to the almost incalculable money that the Empire and the Republic had. As well as the massive loans the Muuns gave out.
She would've had a lot more, apparently making a majority of her welth off the slave trade when it was still legal. Sadly, for my coffers, she had gambled a lot of it away. Leading to her disagreements with the other Huts and eventual fleeing of Nal Hutta.
Jabba's fortune was probably somewhere in the trillions, maybe quadrillions of credits. With the potential to gain more if the rest of his clan died. But he lived very lowkey, not trying to pull any attention to his growing criminal empire.
I thought about it a bit more before placing a box of Krayt Dragon pearls I'd stolen on grav sled. It was time to get rid of some of them I thought as I carted my crates away in search of a larger speeder to load my goods on, stopping for a moment to grab Revan's Holocron from deeper inside the storage area before walking off again. I could have used Maul's speeder, but I knew Palpatine was no doubt looking for any sign of where the Scimitar was. The Sith didn't like loose ends.
Tatooine, Dune Sea, Jawa Outpost
08-14-32 BBY
08:30
Anakin POV
I had gotten R2 to cloak the ship and pick me up before it was time to head off. I needed to amass a bit more funds before I did anything.
While it was true, I had a phenomenal amount of money on hand, it wasn't even close to being what I needed in order to buy all the things I wanted. The clones could be covered as well as maybe half the weaponry. But the large ships, as well as the technology I wanted to develop before the clone wars started, was going to eat up more than three or four times these funds.
I also wanted to test my luck and maybe meet up with Voss again.
"Plot a course to Nar Shaddaa R2" I told the droid, time to have some fun.