I had almost forgotten about my paper when I was recalled to Coruscant to defend my thesis in front of a military tribunal of my peers and superiors alongside Rear Admiral Tenant. I may have almost suffered another panic attack from the fright when I had originally skimmed the order and missed a few details.R4 seemed to take the few seconds where I almost failed to calm myself poorly. She had almost wailed in joy when I managed to calm myself. I’m starting to think she may have finally snapped and imprinted a personality. Honestly I was expecting this a while ago, but I suppose I should just be happy she has a personality in the first place.

  Back to the issue at hand, organizing the squadron for my absence was thankfully easy. I threw the overall command of operations at Senior Captain Hugh, since High Command forgot to promote a member of the 347th when they promoted myself on top of not promoting Lieutenant Mi-Kus to Adjutant Commander at the same time. I ended up putting Luis in charge of the 347th proper and requested he not do anything too unorthodox during my absence. He promised to do his best.

  It seemed a bit unnecessary for me to personally head all the way to Coruscant for this, but I suppose it would be too rude to simply holo myself in. I temporarily took command of the Avarice and the 159th as the Logistics Section headed towards Bothawui. It was a simple resupply run and it was honestly almost relaxing. Hutt space was well patrolled since the Hutts enjoyed selling the right to enter their territory very much. We entered Bothan space a couple days after leaving Dac and I returned command to Senior Captain Hugh.

  The next leg of the journey was the riskier leg. Travel from Bothan space to Denon and then it would be safe sailing through the Core. I had passage on a military convoy that was well protected. Three Dreadnoughts, eight Peltasts for supplies and two Acclamators for fighter support and Army equipment. I was happily stationed on one of the Peltas configured for personnel transfers and spent most of my time reorganizing my paper’s defense.

  Thankfully the convoy was not attacked at any point and we made it safely to Denon where the convoy unloaded the passengers and some raw materials from the Outer Rim and resupplied from the local depots for their return journey to Bothan space.

  I, meanwhile, transferred onto another convoy to Coruscant. This one only consisted of six Acclamators and four Peltas. The convoy would be stopping at Corellia to pick up war materials to eventually bring up to the Perlimian trade route to resupply the local garrisons and task-forces. I would be taking advantage of the two days the convoy would spend on Corellia to see a couple of the sights and relax before throwing myself back to the war.

  When people say Corellia doesn’t have much culture I point them towards two things, the shipyards and the cantinas. Since I wasn’t on official duty I was spending my two days on Corellia in the cantinas of the planet side industrial cities. It wasn’t as charming as the ones on Fondor, they lacked a certain frontier feeling that permeated everything on Fondor despite the thousands upon thousands of years Fondor has been a well established shipyard and industrial hub.

  Despite this I was happily nursing a Corellian whiskey sour. This cantina did a good job of the cocktail and it was nice and quiet in the middle of the commute between the shipyards and housing districts. It was the early afternoon so except for a couple spacers I was on my own in a booth R4 sitting by the bench. A couple people had come and gone and a droid had come by a bit ago to pick some ale up a while back, but the atmosphere was relaxing.

  “THRAKEN YOU SON OF A GUNDARK!”

  I’m thrown out of my train of thought when the doors are slammed open to reveal a man in his early thirties or late twenties with a bit of stubble a Fondorian accent and clothes that have seen better days.

  “Elix?” I ask, recognizing a couple features on his face.

  “I KNEW IT! I TOLD THAT BASTARD LUX THAT IT HAD TO BE YOU!” My old friend shouts.

  “Elix, sit down and be quiet. You are disturbing the local patrons!” I say motioning for him to sit his ass in the booth.

  “Oh, I am so happy to see you. This is good, this is great! I got to tell you I on a lucky streak right now!” he says, as he sits down.

  “What happened this time?!” I ask, a smile covering my face.

  “Remember how I did some questionable shipping between Corellia and Yag’Dhul, after that karking ion storm threw me into dept again, right? I got out of dept and tried legally shipping medical spice between Yag’Dhul and Fondor and some jackass of a customs agent on Yag’Dhul seized my returning shipment of bacta because I had a karking spelling mistake in my forms, despite all the seals and my name and the name of the issuing officer and office being right?”

  “Yes I remember most of that.” I reply.

  “Well I decided to avoid Yag’Dhul since that shithead of a customs agent was the nephew of the local customs minister and so I did some questionable shipping of ship-parts from Sluis Van to Corellia and did pretty well with it so I went legal again and tried shipping Fondorian machine parts to Denon, but then the damn Civil war started! The people I was selling my shipment to on Denon got incorporated into the Department of Naval Procurement or somethin’ and no matter how I complained the department wouldn’t take the machine parts! I tried selling them to a civilian group, but no one wants machine parts from an officially C.I.S. world for some reason! Even if the quality is twice as good as the karabast pieces they’re getting from Kuat and Xal Fel, so I was stuck selling them at half my expense cost to some bastard from Kuat who turned around and sold them for a five times profit for a military contract after putting a new label on ‘em!”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “So you’ve turned around and started to selling Corellian ale and whiskey on Fondor and selling Fondorian machine parts to planets like Abregado Rae which has stayed loyal to the Republic.” I deduce.

  “Well I’m also running bacta on the side, Thyferra has sided with the C.I.S. after all. I’m making a lot of money right now. More than enough to pay off a couple depts I got into for that sithshow with the Kuati bastard.” He replies.

  “I don’t know why you keep insisting on being fully legitimate when you make so much more money when you go smuggler.” I say finishing off my drink and asking R4 to get a round of ale for the table.

  “IT’S THE PRINCIPLE THRAKEN!” He shouts while I snicker into my fist.

  “Oh yes the principle. Never mind your Alice. You, mister, were making five times my current salary when you were running those shipments between Yag’Dhul and Corellia.” I say.

  “Five times? Wasn’t it eight times?” he asks.

  “I got promoted to Commodore, that is about one and a half times my rate as a Captain, which is what I was last time we met.” I reply.

  “DAMN, my old buddy is a big shot now!” He says.

  “I wish, only reason I’m here is to get to Coruscant where I have the questionable honor of defending a paper on military theory I wrote.” I say as I accept the ale R4 offers and take a swig.

  “Big shot.” Elix needles after taking a sip of his own ale.

  “Come on Elix, not like you aren’t swimming in credits right now. Said so yourself. You gonna hitch up Alice at some point? Or start your own trading company? Finally upgrade from the old C-ROC Gazonti to something newer?” I needle in turn.

  “Probably the later two. Maker knows it’s a pain in the rear to fly the damn thing on my own. Might put it in storage for a rainy day. I got my eyes on a bigger ship now anyway, main problem is the crew requirements. Plus you know Alice’s only ever happy when I’m legit.” He pouts.

  “Putting old Hopper to rest, not the worst business decision you’ve ever made. Though you did try legally shipping spice laced bacta one time.” I say.

  “It was entirely legal, you should damn well know, since you were there for it when that malfunctioning droid told the customs agent on Fondor that the documents were off and the bastard voided the cargo,-” He starts.

  “-And the bastards didn’t even repay you or apologize when they realized the mistake, I remember it was a whole ordeal and almost got me expelled out of the naval academy on Fondor.” I finish for him.

  “Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen your old man so angry.” Elix says.

  “I do. Not a fun way to wake up from binge drinking." I say. We both sigh and take a moment to drink some more of our ales before I continue, “You know if they’re doing alright?”

  “More or less. I check in on them every other time I’m in system. Ma’ is doing alright. She’s trying to ignore the whole war part of her job now. Your Pa’ though isn’t doing as hot. He had some kind of break down a month into the conflict when he was informed a series of former C.I.S. worlder officers in the Republic were imprisoned on accounts of treason. He was so worried you’d be one of them he even hired me to find someone less upstanding to see if you were one of them. Wouldn’t take the finders fee though, wasn’t proper of me.”

  “You didn’t take a commission?” I ask.

  “Nah, you’re basically family and I was putting off finding out myself, since it would either confirm my fears or well … I just didn’t want to know. Of course once he learned you were safe and promoted too he calmed down. The guy I found reported back only a week later so it was a rough couple days, but it turned out alright. Speaking of your Pa’ he gave me this.” he says as he places a clip of eight slugs specifically made for the ancestral slugthrower. I pocket the clip in my pocket.

  I wonder if I had ever seen my old man break down. I don’t think so, even when I was at my worst, or work was at his throat he always kept calm. I didn’t want something like this to happen again. Nine hells of Corellia I need to do something to make sure they don’t worry like this again.

  “Elix, is there some way I could contact them? Doesn’t need to be fancy, just something that I can use to tell them everything’s fine on my end and maybe have it be able to do the same back?” I ask, hesitant, ale forgotten and pushed to the side.

  Elix takes a drink and thinks for a bit. R4 nudges into my leg in an attempt to comfort me. Finally after a moment he answers: “Depends on a couple things doesn’t it. A simple holo connection won’t do, since the Republic would intercept that easy. It would need to be strong enough to pick you up from, whereabouts?”

  “North eastern Slice.” I respond.

  He whistles at that before thinking for a bit longer. He continues after about a minute of him rubbing his chin: “Maybe a simple hyper radio? Simple network, something any half decent spicer could pick up for cheap and modify to your specifications. What’s your time frame and security concerns?”

  “As secure as possible and I should be back in Corellia in about a week and a half, but after that it’s back to the front.” I answer.

  “Well for something real secure, something neither the Republic or Confederacy will pick up easily would take at least a month, probably three if you want it to last longer than a year or two. Plus it will be expensive at that point. You got any shady contacts on your end? Someone you would trust, but with the connections?” he finishes.

  “Maybe, but he is questionable at best and opportunistic at worst.” I reply.

  “I suppose I might be able to get it to you personally. Everyone does need high quality machine parts and bacta after all,” He says, “but it will cost you. A lot. I’m risking my neck going through a battleground here at worst and the Hutts at best.”

  “How much do you want?” I ask hesitantly.

  “Depends where you’re willing to pick it up. I could get to Junkfort station, it’s a decent shadow port and has an easy-ish route to get to. In Hutt space proper I’d be willing to cut back further, of course if you’re picking it up in the core ‘round here it’ll only be a couple dozen grand.” he says.

  “I can get to Junkfort station, but I’d need to abuse my power. Can you bring it to Toong’l, Baros or Dac? I could get there pretty easy and it’s only a couple jumps further out from Junkfort.” I say.

  He starts rubbing his chin again as he thinks. He finally replies with: “I can do Dac, they have some high grade shield generators I’m sure Ma’ would love to convince the Ministry to buy for Fondor’s civilian defenses. I want a hundred grand for this:”

  “Elix, you know I can’t give you that kind of money.” I say.

  “You’re right, but I know the war won’t last forever and when it’s over you can pay me back however you like. You’ll owe me a hundred grand, but I won’t ask for any interest and if you kick the bucket I won’t be charging your folks for it either. It’s the least I can offer you and you know it’s more than fair.”

  I quiet down at that. He was giving me the kind of offer he would have wanted. He was giving me a damn good deal. He was trying to be a good friend. Damn it all: “Fine, but whenever you set up your trading company or whatever I want a piece of it. I want a share of the profits to pay you back with.”

  “You know that means giving me more money, right? And … well I haven’t had the best of luck with legitimate business.” he says, rubbing the back of his neck as he finishes.

  “Yeah, but maybe your luck will turn around and if it doesn’t the money I’ll owe you should keep you out of the hole.”

  “Fine. I’ll see what I can do and I’ll inform you when I get to Dac, I’ll even stay until you can pick up your end of the system.” He says, offering out his hand.

  “That’s a deal I can’t refuse old friend.” I reply as I shake his hand. I finish my drink in one go and order three shot for each of us to finish up the deal like a proper Fondorian. R4 loyally brought the six small glasses over from the bar and she received two respective head pats when we liberated our glasses from her grip. We toasted to the deal and drank. We toasted to our families and drank. We toasted our friendship and drank, slamming the glasses upside down on the table whenever we finished the shots.

  I can’t say I remember much of that day. I specifically remember hugging Elix goodbye and heading off on a late transport to my convoy and falling on R4 after getting a couple steps into my temporary quarters. I also remember being incredibly hungover the next day.