Bearsh watched as Dool Pundar handed some data cards to the tall humanoid, who was about the same size as the Neimoidian. He himself waited at a respectful distance of about three meters for people to turn to him.
Which happened when Dool turned to him and gestured for him to come over.
"This is Bearsh," the Neimoidian introduced the new worker to the Muun before turning to his now former ward and aid.
"This is Karsh Tonith, a Muun. He is a nephew of the former director of the Intergalactic Banking Clan. So behave yourself and be diligent!" He patted him on the uniformed shoulder and held out the blaster that Bearsh had never been allowed to carry in the house. "Good luck out there!"
Bearsh picked up the familiar weapon and placed it in his empty holster. "Thanks, Dool."
The Muun sent Bearsh an appraising look from above with golden eyes and turned away, expecting the new subordinate to follow him.
"Farewell and thank you," Bearsh said goodbye to his mentor and left the house with his bundle of belongings.
When Bearsh entered the spaceship behind the Muun, he immediately noticed the cleanliness. Not that Dool Pundar's ship was untidy, but everything here was so spotlessly clean that he felt like he was suffocating in the sterility, that he was polluting something by his very presence. A small gray disc scurried across the hallway in regular paths.
"What is that?" Bearsh asked.
"This is a binary purification unit," explained Karsh Tonith. "In a few hours it will have cleaned the lower deck of the ship and will then continue on the upper deck. Once they have cleaned the floors, they undergo a cleaning themselves and afterwards start cleaning the furniture."
"And these things work all by themselves?"
"In principle, yes," said Tonith. "There are charging stations here on the ship to which they dock independently and then fill themselves with energy again so they can continue cleaning."
'Assuming no one steps on them or otherwise breaks them,' thought Bearsh and said, "That saves a lot of manpower."
"Indeed, but that's not why you're here."
They came to a central lounge where a man sat, whose species Bearsh was also seeing for the very first time. He had brown, scaly skin and hands that were so symmetrical that they even had two thumbs. Tusks protruded from either side of his sharp-toothed mouth. But what stood out most about the stranger were his large, amber eyes with vertically slit pupils. The tall man also wore combat fatigues and had a rifle dangling from his hip, the likes of which Bearsh had never seen before.
"This is Grievous, a Kaleesh, my best manpower - Grievous, this is Bearsh..." Tonith frowned high and Bearsh realized that the Muun had already forgotten the species that Dool Pundar had given him for the new staff member. "... The new one," Karsh Tonith introduced them to each other, then they sat down like the Kaleesh at the large, oval table in the center of the room.
"What species are you actually from?" asked the Muun Bearsh.
"Geroon," the Vagaari said as if shot from a blaster.
"I had never heard of this species until today, but learning never ends," said the Muun. "So from now on you will be collecting debts for the Intergalactic Banking Clan. First of all, this includes locating the debtor, which is not always easy. The confiscation of their goods often helps defaulting payers and they contact us."
Something lit up in Bearsh's purple eyes and the Muun noticed it.
"The confiscated goods must be reported immediately to the creditor administration of the Banking Clan!" Tonith said sternly. "An administrator will then take further care of it and clarify everything formally with the local authorities. Your task and that of your people will only be to seal and secure the confiscated goods until the official registration of those goods as collateral of the Banking Clan has been completed."
"My people?" Bearsh asked with a glint in his purple eyes.
"Yes, you will command units of three to thirty droids that will cover your operations in areas where the authorities do not cooperate with us."
"What about movable goods? Are they just left lying around registered in the debtor's house?" asked Bearsh.
"Smaller and movable goods are brought to our world of Scipio for security, where they are stored in a special vault building. The debtor can release it from there after his debt has been paid."
"Then he would have to pay something extra to get the goods back," concluded Bearsh.
"The administration of these goods involves costs for the Banking Clan," said the Muun, justifying this business practice. "Transportation and storage of goods cost credits! And of course we invoice the debtor for exactly these credits."
The Muun's yellow eyes crinkled, apparently amused by the newcomer's ignorance.
"In addition, of course, there are the travel costs to and from Scipio plus the late payment interest on the actual loan amount that is owed to us."
"Interest?" Bearsh asked.
"If people borrow credits from the Banking Blan, then the Banking Clan will lack this money for a certain period of time. And since time is credits, people pay a fee to borrow the credits. That's the interest."
Bearsh clutched his cleft chin. "That means they always pay back more than they got."
The Muun smiled. "I see you have understood the core business principle of banks."
"What are the levels of demand when we personally arrest a debtor?" Bearsh continued. "I assume that first there is a demand, then a warning, and later a threat?"
"That's more or less true," replied Tonith. "We are always distant, polite and objective. We only ever do what is necessary. And we work with local authorities when it's worth it."
Bearsh leaned forward a little. "As far as this deposit collection thing goes, does that include people?"
Tonith smiled thinly. "Slavery is forbidden in the Republic. So even if the debtors illegally keep slaves, we wouldn't be able to collect on them because they're officially not allowed to have any. Otherwise we would be slave owners ourselves and that would be very bad for our image."
"And what about detaining people for a while who matter to the debtors?"
Tonith narrowed his yellow eyes. "You mean whether the Banking Clan is taking hostages?" he asked in a neutral tone of voice.
Bearsh nodded.
The Muun rested his thin arms on the armrests as if he wanted to push himself towards the supposed Geroon. "What do you think we are here? Gangsters or pirates?"
Bearsh leaned back in his chair. "It was just a question. Where are we actually going?"
"We will be over Geonosis in six hours," Tonith explained. "There is the base where you can pick up your escort. Lunch will be served in four hours at twelve o'clock sharp. Until then, Grievous can teach you some fine-tuning for your future work."
Bearsh watched the Muun walk out of the room in his flowing robe.
"How long have you been working for the Banking Clan?" he asked Grievous when they were alone.
"For five years," the Kaleesh explained with a less than enthusiastic expression.
"You don't look like someone who would care much about loans and interest," Bearsh surmised.
"Neither do I," Grievous agreed. "But this is not about me, but about my people. We Kaleesh lived contentedly on our homeworld of Kalee for many centuries. Until a few years ago, when the Yam'rii, a rather violent insectoid species, invaded our world to enslave us and our world. Of course we resisted."
Bearsh nodded. "And? Were you able to drive them away?" he asked interestedly.
The amber eyes opposite him lit up. "And how! We chased them back to their homeworlds on Abbaji and Tovarskl, we killed them. But before we could complete our revenge, they called the Jedi."
"The Jedi?" Bearsh wondered. "But they attacked you!"
"But that doesn't count for the oh-so-noble Jedi," Grievous replied venomously. "The only thing that mattered there was that we occupied their home worlds and then their emissaries whined around the temple that we wanted to destroy them. And for the Jedi, every life is sacred, even if it is a callous, aggressive plague like insects that even eat each other!"
Bearsh shuddered. "So you should only have driven them out of your world."
"Exactly!" Grievous snorted. "And then in a year or two they would have recovered and attacked us again."
"Then you could have brought in the Jedi," suggested Bearsh.
"The Yam'rii have been great at portraying us as the bad guys. We Kaleesh rely primarily on ourselves. We would never side with anyone who helps the Yam'rii. I still know exactly the names of the Jedi who fought us back then. If I can get my hands on them...!" He rubbed the brown scaled thumbs of his right hand together. "I will not hesitate to destroy them as I once did the Yam'rii!"
Bearsh smiled. "Give me their names and I will let you know when I see them. But I still don't understand why you work here as a debt collector?"
"After we occupied Tovarskl and Abbaji, the Yam'rii, along with the Jedi, actually got the Senate to impose economic sanctions on Kalee. The sanctions have now been lifted, but our economy is in ruins. My people are starving and dying. That's why I committed myself to working for the Banking Clan and in return, San Hill, the current head of the Banking Clan, committed to rebuilding our planet."
Bearsh touched his chin and whistled appreciatively through his teeth. "Then you must have been damn good and important on your planet if the Banking Clan negotiated a deal like that with you. And? Did San Hill keep its promise?"
Grievous nodded. "Muuns keep their promises. Otherwise, people wouldn't be bringing their credits into their banks in droves. A few more years and Kalee will be at least half as beautiful as it used to be. Then I will return to my people. And I will get my revenge on the Jedi!" Grievous said emphatically.
"If you're clever enough, yes," Bearsh replied with a subtle grin.
"But what about you, Bearsh?" asked Grievous in return. "What brings you to the Banking Clan?"
"Dool Pundar gave me the job. Do you know him?"
Grievous shook his head. "I didn't want to know which middleman brought you to the Banking Clan, but what your story is. Why are you here and not on your homeworld?"
"I no longer have a homeworld. The Jedi came and wiped it out – in collaboration with the Chiss!" Bearsh told him grimly.
"Why?"
Bearsh shrugged. "We were in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Then you had problems with these … Chiss?" Grievous probed.
"So to speak. They saw us as competitors and lured us into a trap."
"As a competitor?"
"They have their empire and we had ours. Then the Chiss started to capture our ships and take them, and there were skirmishes. They interfered in our internal affairs, invaded our worlds. And then the Jedi came."
"What happened then?"
"The Jedi unleashed a massive wave that incapacitated and strangled every commander aboard our ships. Then the Chiss came with their droid starfighters and did the rest."
Grievous let out a deep whistle. "I've never heard of anything like that – a wave, you say?"
"No one on board could sense it, but there is one of our people who also has some Jedi power. She felt the wave, but no one wanted to believe her. Then the wave came and it was too late."
"Typical Jedi!" Grievous hissed contemptuously. "All you have to do is present yourself to them as a weak victim and they will do anything for you – how dishonorable!"
Bearsh thought about his counterpart's sentence. "How long do you think it will take you to finish here and get back to Kalee?"
Grievous' mouth turned bitter. "Long enough to get you in here, doublemouth."
It was twelve o'clock on the dot. An automatic announcement from the ceiling announced lunch in Basic and in a language that Bearsh found rather monotonous and boring. He strongly suspected that it was the host's language. The dining room was conveniently located right next to the kitchen and they were served by a human waitress who served the food ready to eat on each plate with a smile.
"I was told you eat everything," Tonith told Bearsh. "So I assigned you the same as Grievous. I hope it tastes good."
Bearsh took a bite. "One can eat it," he replied nonchalantly.
The Muun raised a non-existent brow and the Vagaari recognized his faux pas.
"Excuse me, Sir, we say that as a compliment so that you don't embarrass your host with excessive praise."
"Then I know that now," replied Tonith, "but at the next opportunity and especially somewhere else, you can praise me a little more."
When Bearsh had eaten about half of his meal, a thought occurred to him. "What does the payment actually look like?"
Tonith raised a non-existent brow again. "You could have asked that earlier during the meeting. Now it's dinner time and we're eating. So think about your remaining questions until the final meeting in the main room an hour before landing."
Bearsh nodded silently and looked at Grievous, who was apparently suppressing a grin. Apparently the Kaleesh had made the same mistake earlier.
The waitress approached the Muun from the side and poured some red liquid into a slim glass goblet. At that moment, Bearsh realized that he and Grievous only had simple glasses next to their plates. A little further in the middle of the table stood a carafe filled with a transparent liquid; Bearsh guessed water.
"We can help ourselves to the water," Grievous said, recognizing Bearsh's silent question.
The Vagaari poured himself a drink from the decanter and kept the question about the red liquid to himself.
"What do you mean?" Bearsh asked his guide after the Muun had disappeared into his private cabin again. "How much are they going to pay me? Can I negotiate?"
"You'll get three thousand credits to start with. If you are good, the monthly salary can increase to five thousand credits in later years. "But you also have to use this to pay for travel costs and repairs for your assigned droids and your spaceship."
"That means they're passing a lot of administrative work on to us," Bearsh said.
"Exactly," Grievous confirmed. "But that also gives you certain freedom."
Bearsh's left mouth smiled. "And I have a big spaceship. Do you always have to work with droids here?"
"As I said, what you do with the money is your responsibility. But when I arrived from Kalee with my Izvoshra Guards, some customers complained and I've been using the more neutral droids ever since."
"I see, they don't want you to grow your own military force at their expense," Bearsh guessed.
"My Izvoshra are waiting for me on Kalee," Grievous replied evenly. "And I hope there's someone waiting for you somewhere."
Bearsh grabbed his chin with his right hand. "There is indeed someone there, but she too will have to live somewhere else for a few more years until we can be reunited again."
"At least you still have someone," Grievous replied in a weak tone. "My beloved was killed by the Yam'rii. And I couldn't even retrieve her body to say goodbye to her."
"You'll find someone new," Bearsh said confidently. "A guy like you shouldn't have any problems. I guess you're a hot candidate in your home country."
"I already tried. But it wasn't the same. We were made for each other. And the other women … let's forget it."
"At least your people are still alive," Bearsh tried to comfort him a little.
"You never catch everyone," Grievous replied. "I'm sure you'll find some of your people too."
Bearsh nodded silently.
They reached Geonosis and Grievous received a hundred Magna Guards. The young Vagaari was about to complete his first debt collection mission at Grievous' side.
༺༻
The Sullustan Gibi Gum had once been a senator of the Republic. After leaving the Senate, he founded an economic consulting firm, which initially flourished - until one of the companies he had advised filed for bankruptcy. He lost clients; new ones stopped coming to him at all. Now Gibi Gum was faced with the problem of no longer being able to pay the installments that he had agreed to pay off a loan with the Banking Clan. He had been in arrears for three months now. He had to react, otherwise he would quickly lose the villa that he had bought with this loan, including default interest.
Before Grievous left the Banking Clan courier ship with Bearsh and the Magna Guards on Sullust to confront the ex-senator, he pulled something out of his pocket and brushed it over his face.
"You have a battle mask? Cool!" said the Vagaari admiringly to the Kaleesh. "That's the skull of a real animal, right?"
"This is a Mumuu mask. On Kalee the men almost always wear them, partly because it is so hot and dry there."
"I used to have a mask too," Bearsh replied, looking at the narrow red lines painted on Grievous' mask, which ran vertically across the eye recesses.
Grievous looked at him carefully. "What happened to your mask?"
"It stayed on my ship when the Chiss shot it to pieces."
"Then make yourself a new one now and bring it with you the next time we go on a mission together."
When the crowd arrived at their destination and rang the doorbell of the prestigious property, no one answered at first. Now, however, Grievous had been clever enough to pretend to be an interested customer of the Sullustan's consulting work and to make an appointment with him for this purpose - right now - here at his home. But the debtor didn't show up.
Grievous had the Magna Guards surround the stately estate in order to cut off any escape route for the defaulting payer. It took a while and then a woman came out with a small child in her arms.
Grievous exhaled sharply. "They try this tour often."
"What do you want?" asked the yellowish Sullustan, her cheeks trembling as if she knew exactly what was going on.
"I am Inspector Grievous. The Intergalactic Banking Clan would like to speak to your husband," Grievous said calmly.
"He's not home," it came back.
The Kaleesh bared his teeth. "We are waiting."
The woman went back into the house. A loud argument could be heard, then the landlord himself came to the gate.
"Gentlemen," he said crestfallen. "Unfortunately I still can't pay. However, I would ask for a postponement for six months…"
"You've had this delay long enough!" Grievous barked. "You should count yourself lucky that the Banking Clan gave you at least three months in which to wait for your money! But now it's payday!"
"I will rent out half of the house. And I can pay the debts from the income!" asserted the debtor.
"We can't wait that long," Grievous replied icily. "You now have two options: you pay now, or you come with us to the police, where you will be taken into custody while we take possession of the building and put it up for sale. The proceeds of the sale will then be credited to you, less our expenses and your debts."
Panic spread through the Sullustan's eyes. "One moment please."
Without waiting for Grievous' reaction, he went back into the house. Loud shouting could be heard again, again between the man and his wife. Then Gibi Gum came back and presented the debt collector with a pair of earrings and two bracelets set with precious stones.
"Yes, should I hire an expert to estimate it first?" Grievous snapped.
"Please," pleaded the Sullustan. "There's a stamp back here that says it's twenty-four-carat aurodium. All three items are worth at least twice the amount we owe to IGBC."
The Kaleesh weighed the jewelry in his brown, leathery hand. He saw Bearsh looking at him and put one of the bracelets in his hand. Bearsh also weighed the piece of jewelry carefully and bit into one of the links of the bracelet with his mouth, causing the Sullustan to scream in horror: "Now you're going to dent it!"
Bearsh nodded encouragingly to his colleague and Grievous turned to the Sullustan. "It's not yours anymore anyway, so what the heck?"
For a moment the Sullustan cursed, then he too nodded slowly.
"Well then, I'll be lenient again," Grievous said graciously. "But it's best to get a lodger now, otherwise we'll be at your gate again in three months!"
"Thank you, Inspector Grievous," the Sullustan said, folding his hands in front of his chest in combination with a slight bow.
"That's a good catch," Grievous said to his trainee as he walked with him back to his ship.
"It's still better than dragging him to the police," Bearsh said. "I assume the Banking Clan has jewelry experts on hand for cases like this."
"Of course," Grievous confirmed. "This is one of the more harmless cases here. There are also people who first tell you something about some company that supposedly owns the building or whatever now, and you shouldn't even get involved because they're all just straw men anyway. In that case, we either take people to the police, or we hold them until the person who supposedly owns the house comes and then pays the outstanding debt – whichever way people prefer."
Bearsh smiled. Yes, it was always good to give people a choice - to give them the illusion of freedom of action that they had long since forfeited.
༺༻
His first mission of his own took the young Vagaari to Naboo, where he was supposed to visit a nobleman named Vedo Veruna. The son of a former king of the planet had run up huge gambling debts in a casino owned by the Banking Clan since its previous owner filed for bankruptcy.
The Naboo had not even responded to any contact requests. So Bearsh first went to the casino to inquire about the late payer. He learned more than he wanted to know. After two playing partners told him about holdings in various companies, he knew how to do it.
He went to the police with his Banking Clan ID and found out that the debtor had not appeared on Naboo for six months. Bearsh then went, accompanied by twelve of his Magna Guards, to the company building of the Space Engineer Corps, in which Vedo Veruna held shares, in order to have the shares seized there.
"A word, Inspector!" he heard someone say from the side.
"Yes," he replied, as if he was short on time.
"You're here for Vedo Veruna, aren't you?"
He pulled up both upper lips. "Why do you care?" he asked back, as if trying to protect the fugitive's privacy.
"He owes a lot of people credits," the blonde human replied, looking at the green badge on Bearsh's chest that identified him as a representative of the Banking Clan. "And if the local judiciary can't catch him, then maybe the Banking Clan can."
"And what exactly do you have to say to me?"
"I know he went into hiding with my mother. She lives on Eriadu. She's at least twice as old as him and he's just exploiting her financially and squandering our family's inheritance!" he fumed.
"Then why doesn't the local police have any control and doesn't make an extradition request to Eriadu?" he wondered.
"They did, but the Eriadu police are not responding."
So Bearsh traveled to Eriadu to do his research. After locating the woman's house, he introduced himself to the older woman as an investor who needed the exact shares that her lover would hold in the Starship Engineer Corps - and of course he offered a great price for them.
"Vedo has been cheated on so many times by his partners," the woman began. "And then when his last business partner betrayed him …"
Bearsh stifled a yawn. Once again he was dealing with a creature that fraudulently moved from branch to branch only to end up on a branch that would break. That's exactly what made the work for the Banking Clan so strenuous. People would text him for hours with stories and he had to listen to them patiently and sympathetically in order to get results, like now, for example, so that the woman would eventually bring Vedo Veruna over so that he would sign the contract. The woman scanned the fictitious purchase documents with interest. Then she grabbed her comlink and a little later the debtor came into the room.
"In the name of the Intergalactic Banking Clan, you will be transferred to the custody of the Naboo Police!"
She raised her arms in horror. "No!"
"Then just give up your shares in the Naboo Starship Engineer Corps to the Banking Clan. And you can also sign over your shares in Phlut Design Systems to the Banking Clan."
The woman turned worriedly to her lover. "But then you no longer have any income at all and even that only came every six months."
Vedo Veruna raised both hands. "You can't do that! This is part of my livelihood. This is not confiscatable because it represents my minimum living on Naboo!"
A blaster aimed at his chest. "Tell that to the Naboo police, who are cooperating properly with the Banking Clan, as it should be," the Vagaari said harshly.
Vedo Veruna turned to the window in a panic, only to see that the house was surrounded by at least twelve Magna Guards.
Bewilderment was written on the woman's face at the transformation of the not particularly tall outsider from an initially modest, sensitive listener to a cold enforcer. But neither she nor Vedo Veruna dared to resist. So the Naboo signed the prepared contracts and allowed himself to be led away by the Vagaari.
After Bearsh had gathered all the necessary documents, he brought the defaulting debtor to Naboo and immediately handed him over to the police at the Theed Spaceport, whom he had contacted immediately after leaving hyperspace. He then headed to the High Port Orbital Station above Muunilinst, the home planet of his boss and the Banking Clan.
"That was good work, Bearsh!" Karsh Tonith praised the young inspector after his return. "We've been chasing this for so long. And because you have worked so well, you can now fly this spaceship as long as you work for the Banking Clan or purchase it via leasing installments!"
Bearsh let the rest of the Muun's words rush past him, just in time to absorb the content in case something important came up.
And it came. "I wanted to give you this too."
Bearsh looked at the document that the Muun placed in his hand. It was an ID card with his name, his species as Geroon and his date of birth, at least the one he had given to the immigration officer on Jedha at the time. The date of issue was exactly three years and two months ago when he fled. His purple eyes widened. So the clever pirate Dool Pundar kept your ID card under lock and key the whole time to control you and keep you down - and then gave it to the Muun instead of you!
"Thank you," he replied simply.
Bearsh spent the rest of the day setting up his ship, planning new purchases for it, and arranging a visit to the planet Affa, where his cousin Marasha currently lived and worked.
Author's Note: General Grievous's past life before he became a droid general can be read in the six-page short story "Unknown Soldier: The Story of General Grievous" — Star Wars Insider 86 from 2006.