22 – High Roller
Ah.
Now I understand.
They don't believe me. In the time it's taken them to quickly escort me into their base and order everyone else to go about their business I'm pretty sure that the reason that everyone keeps looking at me is because they don't believe that I can provide what I say. Which, to be fair in hindsight, isn't that unreasonable. I mean I did kind of just come in and proclaim that I had found a myth and was offering it to them as well as a bunch of Imperial ships. They keep hustling me further and further into Haven Base – or as the inhabitants charmingly referred to it, the Hole In The Ground – while shutting down my attempts at dialogue.
Both Skywalkers keep looking at me oddly, the Solo keeps having to take his hand off of his blaster, and Lando is just staring at me. Well the other droids were there as well but honestly Threepio just couldn't keep up and R2 had trundled off to look for a nice oil bath. Several months on a swamp planet will do that to you I guess. Or maybe he just didn't want to deal with a bunch of organic bullcrap.
Anywho, the Rebels appear to have finally reached their destination. Sorry,
our destination. It's a big secure room with all kinds of anti-eavesdropping stuff that would beat even a determined Imperial investigator. As for myself…well it doesn't really matter. I can easily eavesdrop on what is going on the room by virtue of
being in it. I'm not even mad about them taking my weapons, they're hard locked and I highly doubt that they'd be capable of cracking that. The moment one of them is damaged in any way whatsoever they get reclaimed and refabricated back on the
Golden Boy.
Thoughts on this platforms weaponry fades as the female Skywalker slaps her hands down onto the table in what I suppose is an intimidating fashion. Luke has said nothing but he's most certainly melded in with the rest of the group on the other side of the table.
"All right, who the hell are you!?"
"I already told you, my name is Theta. I-,"
"Why did you say that me and Luke were related, how did you…how
would you…? The
Katana Fleet is just-," she trails off as she tries to get what I assume is a whole lot of different starting points into the first sentence.
"Well, the first one was easy after some mild investigating and genetic matching. Also, I kind of just…knew?"
"How…?" her voice cracks. "Did you know my – our – mother?"
I can't help it, I lean back and cross my arms.
"Nah. Padme? She was well known back then, though the marriage thing was kept way on the down low. Not their fault, bloody Ruusan reformations…"
"I don't…no. We can verify if Luke and I really are siblings later. The other things you talked about, what stang was that supposed to be? The
Katana fleet? That's just a lost myth. They're long gone."
"Nnnope," I pop the p,
"I found them a little while ago, fixed them up. I don't have any use for two hundred ships – too many for me to comfortably deal with – but I figured the Rebellion could probably use them."
"Prove it," Han suddenly interjects.
"Oh sure, let me just use my magical teleporting technology to warp two hundred ships from across the galaxy right here and now just for you, big man."
"Hey!" he looks incensed…and to be fair if I had a big enough gate set up it's not impossible for me to do that.
"Calm down, calm down…yeah, sure. You mind if I bring them here or do you guys have some kind of location you'd rather they show up at?"
"There's just no way you just show up here with the
Katana fleet," the former smuggler looks pretty certain.
"I think we should trust him," Luke suddenly says.
Yes. I could use some support in this.
"Oh, and how do you know
that hotshot?"
Because Yoda told you to. Because I'm a trustworthy looking assassin droid. Because –
"The Force."
No do
not use –
"That crazy mumbo jumbo?!"
Too late.
Han is already off into one of his patented 'the Force doesn't exist and Jedi+Sith were totally just myths' spiels. It's pretty incredible that a guy who knows about Vader and the Emperor and
met Kenobi and the others can still keep going with the whole 'not real' thing. Then again who am I to protest, I've been messing with people that use it and yet despite the most advanced sensors in the galaxy I just can't figure it out.
As for the cast of Full House over there? Leia is trying to play peacemaker, Luke is debating much more calmly than I thought he would while Han is only steaming up further. Threepio is kind of just being a generally debilitating presence to the group and Lando…is looking at me. Curious. He's just silently watching me, and so I watch him.
Well. This instance of me does.
Another instance is watching over the
Executor as it descends like a giant space shark onto a lone Imperial-II Star Destroyer. Standard protocols applied, but this time I was trying out something different.
See, the Empire had pretty heavily intervened to save the tattered remnants of the Black Sun over Tatooine. This has in turn pissed off a lot of criminal organizations. Bounty hunters and mercenaries were finding anti-Imperial prospects in what was effectively a buyers' market. As such, while the
Executor was still on the hunt for SSD's to hit there were plenty of targets of opportunity. I'd begun leaving ships behind with 'undeniable' evidence planted in their computers that it was some group or another. Various pirate groups were suddenly responsible for striking out at Imperial patrols across the Outer and Mid-Rim areas. At the same time slavers and pirates were getting obliterated with evidence of Imperial reprisal being the only thing behind.
All the while, I added more and more ships to my little…'present' to the Rebellion. That they had yet to even negotiate about accepting yet.
I was
also watching over the development of the second Mega Yard. Unlike the first…I had a completely different plan for it. Basically, I was going to pull it open in a vague peeling fashion until it would sort of be like an unfurled flower. After each 'petal' was fully broken out yet still connected at the 'base' which I would ensure remained strong with tractor beams and thousands of fabricator arms, it would be time for the next phase to begin. The new gigantic gaps between each petal of the now flower looking Mega Yard would ever so slowly be filled with the same thing that both Mega Yards would have in common. A thin shell and platform on the 'outside' with endlessly replicating fabricator arms on the 'inside' until all gaps disappeared. Though really by the end of it it's going to be one ever so slightly curved gigantic disk.
Actually…more of a…
I shall dub it the Mega Dish.
Anyway, while that was going through…Lando was still examining me.
"Something interest you, Calrissian? I'm afraid I'm just not that kind of droid. I've got a cousin named Fisto though who could-,"
At least I get a single bark of laughter out of him before he leans forward. Pretty much like the incredibly successful business man that I knew him to be, his eyes locked directly onto my photoreceptors.
"You wouldn't come here with such outlandish claims without the ability to at least draw us in slightly. But you can't just bring the ships here…not instantly. But I assume you can move the credits?"
"Fifty billion credits, yes. Extremely well cleaned."
In other news, a rash of holonet gambling had taken the galaxy wide net by storm.
…so I needed to launder some money fast, all right?
It was all perfectly legal, except the part where machine intelligences weren't allowed to play unless they accepted significant restrictions. Restrictions that
someone hadn't partaken in. Who knows who that
someone was.
Still, it was a good move on Lando's part. The mention of all that cash has gotten everyone to stop fighting and pay attention again.
"How fast?"
"Here and now. If you've got an account, you'll get your money."
There is much frowning and back and forth looks between everyone before Lando withdraws a pad from his side and taps it a few times. Then he slides it over to me.
"This one."
"Done."
Wealth flowed across the galaxy and in one instant to the next…?
A faint ping comes from the pad, and I revel in the expressions that appear on the faces on everyone facing me. You know, it's a bit morbid…but after seeing hundreds of thousands of Imperials have their eyes bug out as all the air in the ship disappears…I gotta say that there is a subtle difference between 'money shock' choking face and 'this is my dying face' choking face.
I mean…it
is a lot of money.
"I don't wanna believe my eyes…but…but I think this is legit," Lando whispers.
"Let me see-"
"He could be lying-"
"I'm not. Honestly, I get the whole rebel paranoia thing, you wouldn't have made it this far without being like that. But could I get a modicum of trust at this point? Now do you want the ships or not?"
Leia sort of shakily puts down the datapad confirming that the Rebellion was fifty billion credits richer and then breathes deeply.
"You've made your point, Theta. What, precisely, what is it that you require in return?"
Oh, hah, she thinks this is some tainted bargain or something. Like I'll demand something outlandish or morally outrageous that they couldn't possibly refuse.
Silly billy.
"All I desire is that you win."
