Jander sighed, it had been a hell of a week. First the Empire had run rampant over the galaxy like a plague, destroying Sunstar’s interests galaxy wide. Then the great Empire had self-destructed, taking it’s structure down to the bedrock along with everyone else. The Holonet was filled with stories of death, destruction, and natural catastrophes. To make things worse, disaster had struck on the home front as well. A freak increase in the sun’s rays combined with a massive solar flare had wiped out everything his people had built in the last nine months. The fact that the planets themselves were still there was a blessing from Ara. The two rocky planets closer in had nearly been absorbed, and now their surfaces were mostly molten rock. Scientists projected that they would remain that way for some time.
        To make things worse, Jander had set up a military tactics test to be done while he was away at StarForge. It had been in full swing when the catastrophe hit. Nearly everything had been destroyed. Quick thinking and action by most everyone involved had saved countless lives, but still and a horrible cost. Not only were there many deaths, but everything they had done was gone, good for nothing but scrap. His people were fighting for their lives, and he was stuck here, light-years away. An attendant to the Administrator approached him, and the Gand flipped off the news report. The attendant was a short, stocky Twi’lek. He choose a singularly bad time to bring bad news.
        “I’m sorry Kaalif Sunstar, but the Administrator simply does not have time to see you,” the Twi’lek said, standing what he thought was a safe distance away. “It will be another day or two before his situation will allow it.”
        He was wrong. In a flash two blades shot out, Jander’s Baak’tars, slamming into the durasteel wall to the left and right of the aide’s head. His eyes flashing anger, the Gand seethed. “Listen here son,” Sunstar said with a calmness that belied his obvious frustration. “I’ve come to this rock for years, and put more credits into it than you’ll ever dream of. My people have had interests here since before that Administrator even knew what the place was. You will take me to see him, and I don’t care if he likes it or not. My people are fighting for their lives at home, and I sit here waiting for some petty bureaucrat to see things clearly enough to clear his schedule for a half and hour and speak with me. Do you understand?”
        “Y…y…yes, sir,” the attendant stammered. Even as rough as StarForge sometimes got, he wasn’t used to being threatened with bodily harm like this. He watched shakily as the Gand retrieved his weapons and glared at him. At this the Twi’lek jumped and skittered off to the Administrator’s office, with Sunstar following close behind. They entered the waiting room and the Administrator’s secretary immediately protested. This got a gasp and a wince from the terrified aide.
        Sunstar had calmed himself by now however. He had simply suffered one of his rare bouts of temper, which usually cropped up during a fight, after a blow to the head. As he usually was after these bouts, the Kaalif was extremely saddened, and remorseful. It wasn’t in his character to be so violent and to give no regard for others safety. It was just that his medical condition overwhelmed him at times. The argument with the secretary was brief, and ended when she caved and opened the door. Jander walked through, interrupting the Administrator in what appeared to be a meaningless comlink communication, and took a seat across from his desk.
        “What in the blazes is this?” the Administrator yelled, “I said I was busy and not to be disturbed.”
        Had it been possible, the Kaalif would have rolled his compound eyes. As it was, he simply studied the man. The Administrator was a human male, with significant facial scarring, evidently from some accident, and spoke in proper Core-world basic, save some slurring from lip damage. His bearing was very proper, perhaps even Imperial, the Gand thought. Sunstar noticed that he walked with an odd limp as he came around his desk, perhaps a false leg that had never gotten proper nerve attachments. Very odd.
        “I demand to know the meaning of this, right this very second,” the Administrator said through his annoyance.
        “How about you have a seat, Administrator, and we talk about this. It’s all I really wanted, as I don’t have the time to be wasting it on your anger;” the Gand was entirely calm now, all signs of his earlier rage were gone. The human’s eyes bugged, but he sat down at the Kaalif’s gesturing. From there Sunstar took the lead, proposing the reason for him being there.
        “As you know, my organization has had an intrest in StarForge for some time now. In fact, we have operated here since the Galactic Civil War. Even now, approximately 25 percent of the station is officially in Phantom ownership, a steady increase over the last twenty years since our first purchase. Now however, I believe it’s time to take the next step. You see Administrator, I’d like the whole station.”
        The Gand paused for a moment, allowing the shock of his statement to wear off before continuing. “I’m sure this comes as quite a shock, and no doubt your unsure how something like this would even work. Please believe me however, that I plan to be most generous in my offer, but to you and all of the rest that make their homes and business’ here on StarForge. By no means will all those that have made a life here be forced away from that life. I don’t want that by any means. The time has just come when my organization needs more, particularly with recent events in the galaxy at large.”
        The human was showing quite a bit of intrest at this point. He had first hand knowledge of how many credits funneled through Phantom hands, and by extension those of StarForge, his own. He didn’t doubt that their leader would be generous in his offer, though had the Gand known of a secret the Administrator had, things would be much different.
        “Let’s move things along,” Jander said, “To start things off how about I make an offer to you, as Administrator.” The Kaalif took out a piece of flimsy, wrote a number on it, and slid it across the table between them. The Administrator looked at it, and his eyebrows shot up, feigning surprise and pleasure at the number.
        “My my, quite generous indeed. We’ll just have to see what we can do. You are aware however, that this will have to be taken to the Council of Tenants, on which you yourself have a seat.”
        Sunstar knew that was true. He did have a seat on the council, though it was most often filled by one of his representatives who stayed here, his duties kept busy elsewhere. “Very well, that is what I expected of course. That is why I was so urgent to speak with you, I’d like your support in the meeting this evening. Can I trust on that?”
        “Yes,” the Administrator replied, “that you most certainly have.”
        “Good,” Jander said, “I’ll see you this evening then.” He left, he had meetings with other council members still.
        “That you will, Sunstar…that you will,” the human said to himself quietly.
