Chapter Four: Shala

Smiling to herself, Shala walked to the lift in the Inn. The droids buzzed about their business and did not get in her way. She thought back over the last few hours. So much was happening in the small settlement. Things looked like they were close to turning back into their favor. The lift stopped at the top floor of the Inn and Shala moved off down the hall to her private rooms.

There was so much that she needed to find out about the group that had just arrived and their intentions. The offer that had been presented looked at first glance to be a true partnership. This held some concern and to any other person would have been easily taken at face value to be genuine without any strings. But Shala wanted to make sure that there was nothing that would come back in the long run to be a detriment to the settlement.

She sat at the computer terminal and started to search the news, archives and other databases at her disposal for the Kajidic Syndicate. She stood and walked to the balcony while she waited for the synthesis of the information collected from the search.

The past years had been difficult and the next looked to be even more difficult. Buyers for the produce from the settlement had not yet been found. Each day that past without a response through normal channels led to more unrest among the council. The lack of resources to feed the settlement was beginning to tear apart the settlement.

Over the last month there had been three attempts on the storage warehouse, all failures, but still attempts. There had also been a few groups who had decided to set out on foot to find something better only to return a few weeks later crazed and starved. Without speeders, or a ship getting out of the settlement was next to impossible. Getting in was often much easier than leaving, as the Bounty Hunter had found out.

Shala frowned upon the memory of the Bounty Hunter’s arrival. She had always known that someone would eventually try for the bounty on the settlements primary scientist. The hope was that whoever came would do so after the scientist had the opportunity to share all of his knowledge with the other scientists. There had been other attempts, but these had been easily thwarted.

A natural distraction had aided this hunter’s attempt on the bounty. Infighting had broken out within the settlement. Someone had gotten a hold of a communication directed to the council. The communication had been about the settlements regular supply shipments. Somehow the payment for the shipments had not been received and until such time that back payment was taken care of no new shipments would be delivered.

Settlers had gone into a panic. A mad rush had been made to the landing pad only to find out that the remaining shuttle’s engine power supply was damaged and needed repair. The Bounty Hunter’s arrival had provided an opportunity for those who wanted desperately to leave.

The Bounty Hunter had brought little with him, arriving on his swoop with only his weapons and pack. The leader of the settlers who wanted to leave had approached the Bounty Hunter for help, which had been agreed to on the condition that they provide information and assistance in collecting the bounty on the scientist. This however, had not gone as the settlers had hoped.

The plan was to hand over the scientist in exchange for parts to fix the shuttle. The Bounty Hunter had agreed to provide the parts once the scientist had been secured. He had ensured the settlers that he had partners waiting within sight of the settlement for a signal that the bounty was ready for retrieval. It was a simple enough plan, or it would have been if it had been kept secret.

The Bounty Hunter kept a low profile while the settlers went about their preparations and everything would have gone smoothly for the exchange, but for an overly friendly group of cantina patrons, a few too many drinks, a few games of pazzak and an observant, seductive zabrak.

It had been the only trip to the cantina that the Bounty Hunter had made to the Cantina since his arrival. It was there that Shala had learned there was a Bounty Hunter in town, and he had even booked a room at her Inn. She had also learned of the plan for the exchange. The consequences to the settlement had been devastating.

When the plan started to unravel the leader had panicked. He had determined that the Bounty Hunter would be caught and expelled from the settlement as all others before him had been expelled when their intentions had been unearthed. The Cantina was the downfall of many a hunter as was the case with this one.

This time however, the leader of the group planning to leave instructed his associates to steal components from the Bounty Hunter to try to fix the disabled shuttle. By the time that Shala had learned of this double cross it had been too late. The Bounty Hunter had awoken in an ally, head throbbing from his encounter with the local drink and the enthralling movements of the zabrak, to hear the hum of the shuttles engines. He had known then that he had been double crossed.

Unfortunately, those that had been part of the seduction had thought him dead when they had deposited him in the ally. Shala later learned that the Bounty Hunter had triggered a destruct sequence on the parts that the settlers had stolen to repair the shuttle. It had been hard to find fault for this action, though the settlement tried. A trial had occurred where it was agreed that restitution needed to be made to the settlement for the damage to the shuttle and loss of life as a result of the actions of the settlers who would provide shelter and food.

It was not the best result or the best option, but the parts that had been stolen stopped the hunter from being able to leave. The settlers had also taken his communication devices so any help that the Bounty Hunter could have requested was out of reach.

The biggest loss however, had not been the shuttle, but the scientist who had been part of, to Shala’s dismay, the whole plot and had been killed in the shuttle explosion. The incident had claimed a quarter of the settlement’s population and the last hope of getting a shipment of supplies.

Shala turned back from looking out over the settlement and walked inside her apartment. The computer screen was flashing which indicated that the search and compile was complete. She sat down ready for a few hours of reading only to find a couple of pages with only a passing reference to Kajidic.

The holo buzzed. Shala calmed her anger before answering.

“Veriag,” Shala acknowledged. “Is the council ready?”

“Yes Mistress,” Veriag responded. “Lord Tareq is also here and we are waiting your arrival.”

“I will be there momentarily,” Shala nodded and turned off the holo.

Shala collected a data pad and downloaded the slight information on Kajidic to it. This would be an interesting meeting. She had hoped to have more information to share with the council on who this group was and if their offer was indeed genuine and as it seemed.

The council chambers were at the opposite end of the hall from Shala’s apartment. She took her time walking down the hallway as she also read through the information she had found again to see if there was anything that she could learn about this Syndicate. The council consisted of seven members unfortunately since the incident they were down by two.

Shala walked into the council chamber and closed the door. She approached her seat next to Lord Tareq. The council members nodded to her as sat. No one spoke; the atmosphere was heavy with dread.

“I have been sharing the offer that was made by the Syndicate earlier this evening,” Lord Tareq finally spoke. “Were you successful in finding any further information on this group?”

“Little is known within the holonet,” Shala sighed. “What little I have found would lead me to believe that they deal honestly with their associates and with extreme prejudice to those that cross them. Their offers do not hold strings, but there is not much to be found either on them. It is likely they are new to the playing field.”

“But they offer an opportunity,” Veriag spoke up. “One we have been waiting a long time to come our way. We don’t want to make the same mistake we did with the last one.”

“That was not our mistake,” Lord Tareq snarled. “Yes, this is an opportunity, but is it the right opportunity. Can this Kajidic still provide an opportunity without our directly joining them?”

“We need a consensus,” Shala said calmly. “The opportunity presented looks good, there is no indication of falsehoods. It will provide us with the ability to once again become a functional settlement.”

There was silence to this statement. All present were cautious about what to do next. Mistakes had been made in the past that could not be repeated. Lord Tareq sat back in his chair and watched the display of emotions across the faces of his council.

“This is my decision to make,” Lord Tareq declared. “I bring you together for your council as always it is valuable. However, in this instance we don’t have much in the way of options. We are almost out of food supplies and have an abundant stock pile of product that needs to make it to market. The Kajidic Syndicate offers us a partnership, a lucrative partnership if the offer is true. We can once again feed our people and begin to rebuild the trust that has been lost over the year. Our settlement will find new life.

Unless something comes to light in the next few hours to stop this alliance I will be accepting the offer of this Syndicate.” Lord Tareq waited for an argument. None came.

“We shall meet again just before dawn,” Shala stood and moved towards the door. “Any further information about the Kajidic will be addressed then and we will make our final decision.”

The council nodded agreement and everyone prepared to leave. Some council members returned to their chambers while others lingered in the council chambers. Lord Tareq caught up to Shala as she was waiting for the lift.

“You still seem unsettled,” Lord Tareq observed. “Have you had a vision?”

“No, I am just being cautious,” Shala responded. “After what happened last year I am more worried about visitors. We have nothing to offer, no product, no produce, nothing. What would a syndicate want with a dying settlement? I just don’t understand.”

“I also have my concerns,” Lord Tareq agreed. “The Bounty still remains on our dead scientist, even though he is dead, and there are other debts that the community has that continue to grow daily, maybe this is how the debt collectors are working these days. My concern is saying no, what happens then?”

“I need a few more pieces of information before I can answer that question,” Shala responded stepping onto the lift. “I hope to have the response by dawn.”

“Until then,” Lord Tareq turned and walked back to the council chamber.

Shala growled. She disliked not being the one controlling events, and with this she felt completely ungrounded. She needed information; she walked into the security office of the Inn and closed the door.

The Bounty Hunter had been extremely useful over the past year. He had installed listening devises throughout the settlement and beyond. Shala flipped some switches and listened to the talk coming in on the feeds.

The chatter was similar regardless of the channel she accessed. Mainly about what the newcomers could want with the settlement, were they just passing through and if they were would they take others with them. The community was starting to show cracks of desertion, which never led to good things.

Shala accessed the security cameras in the Cantina. She watched the patrons and noticed that the mix was more bikers than locals, but that the locals were intermixed with the bikers and not moved off to the side. A lively game of pazzak was in progress and the twi’lik was dancing.

Ysme was smiling. It had been a long time since Ysme had smiled and Shala the weight of the coming decision lesson a little upon seeing Ysme’s smile. Drinks were being delivered rapidly and credits exchanged. Profit would be had this night, but what to the supply. Shala then noticed that the drink was not the regular ale, but a lighter version of it. Pipe had watered it down, smart man.

Shala tried to access some of the sensors at the edge of the settlement. It did not surprise her when they came back dark. The bikers had agreed to set up their own camp; it was not surprising that they would also have brought their own jamming equipment.

A loud roar came through the security system from the Cantina. The twi’lik had stopped dancing and the patrons were expressing their displeasure. She motioned that she needed a drink and would return soon moving towards a dark table in the corner. Shala noticed that the Bounty Hunter occupied that same table.

‘Good’ Shala thought, ‘they have made contact, let us see what the result is.’

At that same instant the room began to spin, haze filled her vision and she had to lean back in her chair. She blinked to clear the haze, it had been years since she had received a vision and she had forgotten a little of what it was like.

The haze cleared and Shala found herself looking at a bright community. Streets of duracrete, buildings of durasteal and sandstone, and people moving about. Clean people, not dust covered and hunched, but tall and in well kept clothing. At first she could not understand where she was and looked for a landmark to mark a location.

The landmark that came to view was a little bit of a surprise. Smiley’s Inn, bigger than it was now, but the sign did not lie as it was the same as always. Children played in front of the Inn while parents sat on the patio of the Diner sipping hot drinks.

Children, the settlement hadn’t seen children in years. Children in a settlement could only mean one thing, growth. Shala continued to look around the vision. There were new buildings where once stood huts and sandstone hovels. Swoops and speeders hummed through the main street. There was prosperity here.

Shala looked down towards the Cantina and was shocked to see a large structure with a sign indicating the Gank n Anchor. A new cantina. A holo studio was across the street and a large office building connected to the cantina. Patrons flowed freely from the doors of the cantina laughing and talking. Much prosperity.

The haze returned as suddenly as it had arrived, the vision had left Shala slightly shaken and even more concerned. Was the prosperity the result of the acceptance of the offer or the rejection? She had not spotted any of the current locals in the vision, or had she?

Shala stood; she needed to meditate for clarity on the vision. She left the security office and returned to her apartments. As she closed the door to the balcony and dimmed the lights, taking her usual position she began her deep meditation.