Telos...
Four months later...
Miles Johnson looked down at the planet below from the window of his quarters onboard the Mon-Calamari super-star Capital ship
Orion with a mixture of curiousity and grim admiration. The large ship was in geo-synchronous orbit around Telos, keeping a watchful eye over the planet and its denizens, along with two medium sized escort fleets on patrol around the general area, one insystem, and another keeping vigilant along the closest section of the Hydian way, quietly monitoring inbound and outgoing traffic.
All pre-armed and on standby ready to either engage or to jump to a set of pre-arranged co-ordinates should a number of threatening situations call for it.
The inhabitants of Telos had been through a hell of a lot, and been let down many times.
Miles turned his concentrated gaze from the planet to the data -pad he held in his left hand, and scratched his forehead with his right hand thumb absently, grimacing at the status report, with this thought in mind.
It was his every intention, to ensure it would not happen again.
His eyes returned to the view from his quarters, and studied the patch-work looking structure of the still (albeit, sparsely) functioning Citadel station, hovering partially over the planet like a kind of ill-fitting patch of armour.
In the distance he could just make out the glimmer of the defence fleet now patrolling the planet, ensuring it had not missed any rogue elements that might still be hiding somewhere insystem.
As the situation on the ground began to improve, so now it was time to get the ball rolling above it.
The station, a hold-over from the Old Republic days, had seen better days, and bore the scars of many past battle and accidents, but its super-structure was mainly intact, Vinda-Corp's own surveyors had noted it could be strengthened, repaired, improved and updated.
And that was what both he and his former boss fully intended to do.
With it , the regeneration of Telos could be speeded up, significantly.
Already he watched closely as thousands of droids, and humans alike started work across the breadth of the station, making its surface crawl as if it had been taken over by an army of ants.
He nodded to himself slightly in approval.
...but there was still much to do.
An interim government, with emergency powers had been put together to co-ordinate efforts both in space and on the ground, and so far , they were making progress, liaising with both the civil services and a newly raised urban police force keeping relative order.
Formed by democratically elected community leaders and representatives from the major cities of Telos itself. The elections had been swift and somewhat unceremonious, but that was more to do with the desire to improve the situation on Telos quickly and efficiently than anything else.
Gradually the framework had been put into place, and the denizens of Telos, were rising to the challenge.
Four new terra-forming plants of V-techs own design had been put into work on the planet and were working well, recycling the polluted and dangerous gases and elements of Telos's battered environment into a cleaner and safer atmosphere.
Infrastructure was slowly being repaired and rebuilt, buildings, roads, plazas, both residential and commercial being constructed, to not only provide the long suffering citizens of Telos with clean and new homes, but with a future.
For those immediately homeless, temporary Hard-light shelters had been set-up to accommodate those who needed them most.
A huge down-port had also started construction to act as the main hub between the ground and the station above it, it would in the future act as both a commercial enterprise and as a kind of passport control for all civilian traffic coming in or out.
The design had to account and prepare for not just the current business climate, (which to be fair was practically none-existent due to the state of the planet) but for the future, it had to be able to cope with the heavy demand they all predicted would come as the regeneration of Telos began to take hold.
This would have to be tempered with the ecological impact this might have, it would be a fine balance, where each day the progress would have to be tracked and measured against this.
Miles reflected upon this for a moment, it would happen, of that there was no doubt, Telos used to be a key stop-over point along the very busy Hydian way, and with a bit of investment and some thought, could become so once again, potentially very lucrative.
He chuckled to himself for a moment, remembering how excited the old man had been, Mile's didn't know where he got his energy from, where as most people would start to slow down at his age, Vinda seemed to be the opposite.
Seemingly not content with raising a company from scratch and steering it to become arguably the most successful Corporation of its kind , he had now taken on even more responsibility by becoming Executor for Bonadan, no less.
Miles had heard the news from the Holo-net of the old man's success, it was official, Vinda was now a politician , a key representative of this Commonwealth.
His admiration for the man had grown more, (despite his move into politics)
Miles wondered what pushed the ex-corporation man, why he took on these big challenges, what drove him. He had seen the man's drive first hand, on Bonadan. Capricia; he had thrown his lot in with the Caprician's very early on, most people had written them off, seen them as too small, too remote to be profitable, or useful.
Vinda had seen something they had all missed, supported them, and taken a huge risk, everything in fact.
Miles shifted uncomfortably as some of the memories of that period flashed through his head again..
He shrugged them off.
The gamble had paid off, probably more than the old man had expected too.
Together with the Commonwealth they had all built something worthwhile, something tangible, not only for themselves but for all their people.
With this in mind , a thought struck Miles. Looking down at the activity below him, drenched in the aura of the glowing planet , he realised just how much this must have affected the stubborn old Bantha.
The line could be traced directly from those events, to the first meeting maybe?...
Chance?
Stupid dumb luck?
No. Miles thought to himself plainly, that didn't ring true...
Fate?
Miles contemplated this for a moment, weighing up its significance, not just to past events but to himself as well...
Perhaps.
He glanced back at the status report on his data-pad, and smiled faintly to himself...
...there was still much more to do...
