9.31.4786 Republic Reckoning

Igashu: Igashu leads J'ror and any others wishing to partake of some refreshment and conversation to Mike's. Igashu chatters on nonstop for most of the walk, barely letting anyone get a word in edgewise. He changes topics erratically without even a pause, avoiding his usual mocking tones and sarcastic remarks for the moment. Arriving at the mostly empty bar, Igashu slips a bit ahead and lays claim to a corner booth large enough to accommodate the entire group, and order's the first round. "First round is on me... figuratively, any of you joker's go trying to pour a drink on me will get a free month's worth of catered meals, prepared by me."

Giving everyone a full ten minutes to figure out what to drink and what is available on this planet allows the bar to begin to fill in. A group of what looks like off-duty construction workers unpacks instruments and begins playing songs that were in style on Praconis a few years ago. And that means they were fashionable on more mainstream planets a few more years ago.

As the first round of drinks are ordered from the waitress, To'iir arrives, drawing a stare from the mostly male patronage. She quickly zeros in on the group and makes her way over, making several rude gestures to several rude remarks along the way. J'ror gets up and meets her just out of easy earshot of the table. She grabs his hands, says something lost to the noise, and they hug for a moment.

Mira: Mira nudges Igashu, sitting beside her. "And yet they protest their innocence," she says just above the din. "No wonder Vraile left."

Igashu: Igashu shrugs in response, and whispers back. "They've made it clear it's none of our business. If there really are problems caused by their feelings the issue will be forced when we find Vraile. Things will work themselves out then... hopefully for the best... besides I promised to be nice today... but tomorrow... oh wonderful tomorrow." Igashu flashes a humorously sinister grin, and then turns his attention to his drink.

J'ror: Moving back to the table, J'ror sits and looks at the group around the table and says "Okay, I bet everyone wants to know just what is going on here. First, I'd like to apologize for leaving you on Byblos like I did. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Now, I'm not so sure. Second, I'd like to say if you have alerted the Republic enough to check out the fleet storage, then I think we can consider this mission mostly accomplished, since it seems that she doesn't have an army yet. I don't know where she'd get one, but there are some large mercenary groups that could be bought. Even still, there's not much that even they can do if the Republic interdicts her. A planetbound army is not much of a threat."

To'iir: "However, that still doesn't mean that we're through here," says To'iir. "Vraile's still out and about and where she is, Dormamu and her cabal are. Or at least their trail begins."

To'iir: "However, that still doesn't mean that we're through here," says To'iir. "Vraile's still out and about and where she is, Dormamu and her cabal are. Or at least their trail begins."

Mira: "Why would you want to go after her at this point?" asks Mira. "She's made it clear that she doesn't want to be rescued, isn't that right?"

To'iir: An annoyed To'iir responds, "Because she, like the rest of the people running this pseudo-army, are Force-users. And therefore, it's our job to make sure they don't do anything stupid." J'ror's phone beeps. He takes it out and messes with it while To'iir continues. "According to J'ror they went northwest into the woods. According to locals, the paramilitaries move that way with some frequency, so we should see what's up there. At the very least, we may be able to find out what's going on before they kick us out of here. I can't imagine that our descriptions will be arriving much later than now with the amount of traffic we're seeing here, so we should move out as soon as we've figured out the details."

J'ror: J'ror looks up from his phone. "Now. What you all really need to know is that, A, Vraile has decided to work for Dormamu in her rebellion. B, There is no army, yet, at least here. C, I think she's had to move her plans up a bit. Figured that if I was going to Coruscant that her time may be short. Little Did She Know. Anyway," J'ror paused to take a long sip from his recently arrived beer, "ask away."

Igashu: "Ooh, This was my favoite... but they haven't played it in years!" Igashu taps his hands on the table and spaces out as J'ror returns, and opens the floor for questioning. As the song dies down, Igashu takes a drink from his glass, and begins. "Well I guess I'll open it up then. Since you seemed to be the one in charge on Byblos I'm gonna start with some repeats to see if you have better answers than Curly... What do I bother explaining for you can keep up." Having said that Igashu takes a deep breath and lets out aa many questions as he can, speaking nonstop until he is forced to take a breath. "Did you have anyone else working on the whole Dormamu thing besides, yourself, Vraile, Mira, Johan, and Argel? What were they looking into? What did they find? With Vraile's change of heart is it possible that Johan and Argel have similar allegiances with Dormamu? How dangerous are they? Mira said she was making shields for you, How many were made? Why did you need them? Where did they go? Do you still have some, since they seem handy for keeping people under the radar? Why does the council seem to deny everything about what is happening? What did you do to piss off Heavy-D? She really decided to kick us out rather suddenly, and it wasn't something I did... How much does it cost to research a breakfast serial or a soda? I still think they spent an awful lot... but what do I know. Oh! and this is our second system, P3X259 was the first, but we identified a 3rd, TX784G9?, do you know what we might find there?"

Igashu stops and sucks in a deep breath, and takes a long drink before adding, "Well I guess that's enough for now, I won't be able to keep up with the answers if I keep going...", and then looking at J'ror and waiting for his answers.

J'ror: J'ror leans back, takes another sip of beer, then responds. "I had a handful of other people that I met there that would talk to me about anything going on in their department, but none were Jedi and none were involved in the, shall we say, conspiracy. They were just looking for anything out of the ordinary, I approached them as someone who might be able to influence upper management if there was something they were uncomfortable about. It was mostly used to deal with incompetent employees that had mid-level patronage. Dormamu used those contacts to make the company run better, I used it to keep an eye on the activities of those branches. She may have investigated them, but nothing was turned up so I doubt they're suffering any repercussions other than a possible delayed raise.

"As for Johan and Argel... They very well may have changed sides. I don't know. With all the running around in the past few months I haven't kept good track of them. Then again, they were also instructed to remain in the company if at all possible, so they may simply be moles in different positions now. We would need to find them and talk to them to determine their loyalties. If they have turned, they are as dangerous as any rogue Jedi. If not, they could be our greatest allies.

"Mira's shields were used to shield her, Argel, and Johan, plus supply Vraile and I with escape measures if necessary. I don't know how many were made, you'd have to ask her, but I know I have one and Vraile has one. I presume she, Argel, and Johan still have at least one of theirs. The left over ones may have died by now from lack of nutrient bath, or Dormamu may posess them and is maintaining them properly.

"I don't know why the council is denying everything, I can only presume that there is more afoot here than even they know. Perhaps J'hund would know, he keeps an eye on such things. Asking him, however, will not be easy.

"Researching new food products is not my specialty. Maybe you can contact the owner of a competing firm and see what their ballpark costs are. I haven't been able to do a rigorous accounting check of Santaros recently, so this is news to me. If they overspent there, it very possibly could be hiding of funds destined for elsewhere.

"The reference numbers to the systems don't mean much to me without a star chart and my survey data. Guessing as to what we found here, if they spent money elsewhere, it may be something similar or far more sinister. Perhaps they built a shipyard there to produce the ships that you found in P3X259.

"Finally, remember the object that I was tossing around on top of the ship? One of those badly burned Dormamu's...pet. She was unhappy and decided to take retaliatory measures I presume. Mira was the least useful to her of the remaining spies, so that would be why she was selected for this honor." He looks at the others. "Anything else?"

Igashu: Igashu listens carefully to J'ror's answers, and then jumps in at the end. "Less informative than I had hoped... but yeah, I've still got some important questions. Do you honestly believe you are acting with the approval of the council? and why do you believe that?"

J'ror: J'ror frowns and looks at his beer. "I did, at least before they called me in. I know I was acting with the approval of the old council. but since we lost so many of them in the last few years and so quickly... It seems that the current council doesn't know what's going on. Even if they don't agree with my mission, I don't care. The mission needed to be done and we are proving it right now. I know that I did speak with the council some eight years ago and was assigned to look into Dormamu as I saw fit. J'hund was there, he could corroborate. Councilman Valis was one of the three that assigned me to my mission. The other two have died. Valis did vote against such latitude, but I could see that he did approve of the concept."

Igashu: "And that leads to another question or two... J'hund is little more than a ghost. Yet he seems to have some position of authority in this 3 ring circus. Do you actually trust him? Or more specifically his motivations... intentions... and course of action?"

J'ror: With a smile, J'ror asks "Do I trust him to do what? Look out for the best interests of the galaxy? Sure. Not screw me over if he thinks it's the right thing to do? Hell no. Let's say he's the most powerful Shadow currently around that there is not a well documented certificate of death on. And he loves his job. His instincts have never proven wrong that I know of yet, and he claimed that Dormamu was a threat."

Return to June 3 2003.