Part Two- Learning Curve
"Vargas, get over here," said Helkin. The senior Osokan Captain lumbered over, tening to a small sabre burn on his forearm.
"Yes?" he growled. Osokans, whilst sounding permanently ferocious, spoke Basic surprisingly well.
"How many dead?"
"Two. And four others who will be no good for hunting for a few weeks."
"Four weeks? What are they, runts?"
"Lightsabre burns are extreme. They have severe internal organ damage that evn an Osokan needs time to recover from."
"It's inefficient."
"You would be dead with one tenth as much of an injury," said Vargas, a note of contempt in his voice.
"Don't backchat at me! I do the thinking in this operation, remember? But all that is no good if your people go for a lie down every time something gets dangerous. I wouldn't mind if we had something to show for it. Just one would have done me, Vargas. Could you not have killed just one?"
"A good prey is owrth more than one fight," said Vargas. Helkin rolled his eyes.
"I'm not interested in your cultural enjoyment; I want results! What makes you think we'll ever find them again?"
"I don't," said Vargas. Helkin eyed him oddly. "Why would I? After all... I leave all the thinking to you, Helkin. Sir." Helkin knew he was being mocked but said nothing; he wasn't giving any pig the satisfaction of seeing him needled. "Now, I have to organise the wake," said Vargas.
"Wake? Why bother?"
"My comrades died on the Hunt; that is always worthy of a good funeral. Unless there is anything else?"
"No. Get out of here," said Helkin, more irritably than he had wanted to sound. He watched the Osokan leave. "Cretins..." he said afterwards, to no-one in particular. Then he looked up into the night sky.
"You'd better run..." he said.
---
Cynelinne System
Two weeks later
Cynelline is a quiet world in the mid-rim. It is well-supplied, well kept, well-run, incredibly advanced and sophisticated, administrated by an enlightened democratic process, and one of the founder worlds of the Republic- at least, when the Republic became more than just an association of planets around Coruscant. From the point the Republic became truly Galactic onwards, Cynelline was there. If most people have not heard of it, it is also because it is possibly the most boring place in the Galaxy.
This needs qualifiying. It is not boring in the same way Demarus was. Demarus was dull becuse there are a million other woelds like it, although the wheat was of note. There are no other worlds really like Cynelline. It is boring simply because nothing ever happens there.
The Cynellise themsevles are of some note. Their species is truly ancient even by the criteria of species- one of the earliest known in the Galaxy. Their most remarkable feature is their longevity- their lifespan is measured in millennia- up to ten of them, in fact. There are Cynellise around whose parents were there at the founding of the Republic and remember the evenbts of the Jedi/Sith wars. As a result, Cynellise are one of the wiset, if not THE wisest, species in the Galaxy. Little wonder that their planet is so well advanced and developed and well run. They are also, probably, the laziest race ever conceived.
Whether they are simply genetically less disposed to do things than other people is unclear- though certainly during their evolution and history, crises have been almost non-existant. But their sheer lifespan is what makes them so passive. Most Cynellise have done all they ever wanted to do by the end of their third century. When they realise they still have milennia to exist it kinda indulges a certain lethargy, and they spend 90% of their lives doing, basically, not at all much. They don't just hibernate- they have jobs, build things, go places, try and have fun... it's just all in a hopeless cause. They live too long to be really bothered to do anything much. A history of this has reinforced itself, to the point where it takes Cynellise forever to decide anything at all. Like the Ents in LOTR, they don't think anything important is worth doing unless you take a very long time talking about every possible facet of it. After all, with such staggering amounts of time to make use of... they may as well do something with it.
Crime is almost non-existant on Cynelline, and violent crime is totally eradicated. They trade, but have nothing unique to give. There are no seedy bars or criminal underworlds anywehre to be found; they have no unique valuables anyone would want... in short, there is really nothing there for anyone. Everyone ignores Cynelline. It is ironic, and maybe a little sad, that this ancient world of wise people is perhaps the most irrelevant in the entire Republic. Nothing the Cynellise ever do will really affect the Republic as a whole, and nothing anyone wants to do will ever involve them.
But perhaps it is time for that to change... it is precisely because of these reasons above- and that it was within range- that you have come here. Rand, you once met a Cynelline, whilst arbitrating ovr some territorial dispute; the Cynelline was on the Republican negotiating team and very good he was as well, though it was a good job that these things always take months because he must have read everything about a hundred times to REALLY make sure he had got it right- took him days to go through stuff you had scanned over in minutes. As a result pf talking to him at the time (demonstrated by a good Savoir-Faire roll I just made), you know about this place in some detail. It's perfect.
First of all, there is no trouble on Cynelline. It almost disgusts you to have to rate that as a factor- normally if there is trouble around, it's caused BY you, you aren't trying to avoid it. Right now, however, you want somewhere where there is no chance of running into anything remotely dangerous- Cynelline is perfect.
Secondly, you normally avoid civilised worlds because of the danger that some alert security outfit may spot and identify you. No-one is going to do that here. Even if Kuylen was here no-one would jhave been bothered to evem know who he is, let alone recognise him. All that stuff was only two years ago- it's probably still in the bottom of their in-tray. Even if they did know, the amount of alert security guards around here are about as numerous as vegetarian Osokans in the Galaxy.
There are limits, of course, No-one knows who you are, but if you start causing trouble... well, they may be lazy but their not stupid, and they WILL react. Inf act, cause a crisis and some of the younger ones will be grateful for something to DO, and you may be surprised what they can pull out of the bag if they need to- or they may just call the Jedi.. So this is a quiet holiday, which suits the planet just fine.
Thirdly, a sophisticated world like this has all the supplies of any type you need to totally fill up all your stocks.
Fourthly, you could stay here for years and no-one would know. Like I say, with no seedy bars or criminal world... there is no information exhange. There's no gossip, not even a decent news channel If anyone IS looking for you... no-one is going to hear any rumours that you are on Cynelline. Unless, again, you start breaking stuff.
Fifthly... and best of all... the Cynellise medical facilites are first rate. Their hospitals can treat any known injury for any known species. The head doctor at the one you have checked in at has been in general practice for over 4000 years; in that time he has familiarised himself with everything even in a place as vast as the Republic. Accidents happen on Cynelline as much as anywhere else, and whilst much of his staff is robotic this Doctor does actually regularly practice- furthemore, you aren't the first travellers to seek medical aid here; outside the Inner Rim, facilities this good can be hard to come by, and the Cynellise charge very little (they are very welfare orientated).
You guys are posing as space travllers whose ships were caught in an unusual magnetic storm in that nebula you just navigated by when escaping Demarus. The storm left your ships unharmed, but, as you can see, had a terrible toll on the occupants. The Doctor diagnosed damage to your nervous systems, and was able to come up with a treatment (some aspects of which those of you with medicine observe closely. You can replicate the chemicals that he uses to 're-soften' the damaged nerve endings; the effects will still hurt like hell but not enough to cause impairment (effectively allowing you to remove the neuro damage). The extended treatment to actually totally remove the effect takes days or weeks, but you can live with that. Trouble is, the process is not easy; you need decent facilities, beyond which that your ships have.).
Now, if you had been bleeding to death, the doctor would not have been so lazy as to prevaricate whilst you died- like I say, they are not stupid. However, as soon as he was sure youy were not about to die, the Docotr has been prevaricating rather a lot about treatment, trying to find the best way to totally clear up the problems, especially in Tanic and Rand, and especially in light of Rand's age. As a result, he has insisted that those two stay in hospital; he was not happy about discharging thew rest of you but you seem a restless bunch. HGis deliberations have extended now into weeks.
At first, this suited you- yup need a break. Two weeks here has cleared all your damage- including neuro damage. However, now you are gettign itchy feet. It's not that you think there is a problem here... but you guys are driven (especially those of you who took Power Hungry), and you know there is a destiny out there for you- and wherever it is, it isn't here. A place this passive grates seriously against your very nature. You are healed as much as you want to be; staying here to heal to 'perfection; seems indulgent.
Today, then, those of you not in hospital are coming to visit Rand and Tanic; Rand and Tanic will now insist on being discharged. Then you guys can meet at a quiet Cynennlise cafe, and have a [I]really[/] good chat about... everything. Then you can decide where to go next, and bugger off!
So right now, the visitors are walking through the disturbingly clean hospital corridors.
"I'm not happy about this," says the Doctor. Cynellise have a vaguely avian look to them, but they seem more human than anything else. Tall, though. "Mr. Rand, especially, should be very careful. I recommend nothing but the most passive of activities for at least the next three months, and light work only for the three after that. They really are safer here. Without knowing the full details of what actulaly caused this damage it is hard for me to guarantee their recovery."
(i assume we're there besides the doctor)
"yes" says Takuan with a small chuckle.
"it's bed rest for him for a while, ofcourse. We have some big cozy pillows. i'm sure he'll be just fine. We appreciate your help"
(i just try to blend in with the nice-ness...belive me, i'm puking my guts out as well at this 😛...but...we must be proffessional)
i'm gonna go write the lil speech. However...a cafe? 😛...that so..dawson's creek.....a bunch of extremely dangerous men meeting in a....cafe, having a chat over a ..Cynelinne shake 😛. oh well.
Also. this world seems EVERY last vilain's paradise. is it safe to assume that we're the only bad guys blending in?
Yes, that's the thing, this is a very cultured place for ultimate evil. Mind you, Rand will be at home; give his operation a bit of class.
You;ve seen a few spacey types at the space port- the quiet bar there being the relative equivalent of an illegal sex and drugs whorehouse- but none who seem obviously evil; if there are others here they must have cloaking devices.
This is such a quiet part of the Galaxy, you see. The Hutts aren't interested, the pirates are sparse, there are no bounties worth a damn (until you gfot here of course)... any other bad guys who ever stayed here (assuming they knew it existed) probably had the same problem- they just got bored. There is more to be made, and safer (because this is only safe if you are quiet), on more outlying systems.
Shame you dropped Subterfuge, Takuan...
"As for Tanic," says the Doctor, "I'd be more worried about long-term issues if you discharge him early. He may develop certain forms of early signs of old age if I don't check to my full satisfcation that my treatment has worked."