[b]Kwenn System,
Nova Retreat.[/b]

Neia walked through the crowd of guests and visitors on her station, gambling their credits on the games of chance or spending credits on drinks and meals. She passed some of her people, Kalira and Boher who were playing sabacc with some visiting Corellians, Boher was grinning fiercely while Kalira and the Corellians were looking rather depressed. Elsewhere she spotted her twin talking with Deliah, Kiyla and HK-51 of all people. Passing them by she heard HK-51 give a account of some adventure he had been on a few centuries ago, enjoying i ngreat detail to describe the means he eliminated the people who had stood in his way. Neia made sure no other patrons were nearby but apparently this corner of the cantina had been completely occupied by her people who were off-duty at the moment.

She turned back to Vette who was shadowing her steps, "Missed being here?" She asked.

The Twi'lek smiled and nodded, "Oh yes, while doing errands for you is exciting, it is good to be home once in a while. And that is saying something, never thought I would have home here, glad you convinced me to sign on Neia. Speaking of which was Mochi furious with me again when he saw the state of the ship?"

Neia laughed, remembering the Verpine moaning and caressing the scorched sides of Passing Shadow, Vette's ship, as if it was his injured child. "He had some unkind words hurled in your general direction, yes. But he will get over it, trust me to have something to do is what he craves most, boredom doesn't suit him. And since we fulfilled our last contract the work on the shipyard is down again, waiting for a new business opportunity there, although we, ah, have some work in the construction bays." She didn't specify what, one of the jobs was working on some kind of yacht for a syndicate underling that had to be enhanced with some less than legal modifications. "But not enough to wet his appetite or satisfy his boundless energy to work on projects."

"Oh well, repainting my ship and thinking of a tirade to be hurled in my general direction will amuse him for a while." Vette replied with a slight smirk, "So the reason why I am not yet taking a shower or sleeping after my journey is because you wanted some training?"

Neia nodded as they reached a corridor that was off-limits to any visitors to the station and walked down it. "Yes, you have been trained in Echani combat arts and I feel a need to improve my own martial skills, getting some training with my electrostaff, figuring one such as you can train me quite well in it's use or at least be a good sparring partner who will probably kick my ass a lot that will me strive to improve myself a lot quicker to prevent getting beat up a lot." She said with a smile as they headed to the training chambers.

Vette started cracking her knuckles with a smirk, "Let's see how bruised you can get...."

________________________________________________________________________
[b]Sometime later....[/b]

"Remind me again why I decided to increase my business ventures? Because I thought I clearly stated at some point I wanted to do less paperwork?" Neia grumbled, nursing her arm which felt bruised and beaten after her workout with Vette, looking at the files she still needed to read and process. All she got from Jantor was a shrug, but she had the sense he was secretly amused by all of this. "What's this? Fuel prices are going up again? Great, even less guests for the casinos, then again the fuel prices might be in our favour again..." She muttered and then jumped a little as a hologram appeared, she recognized the appearance as that of one of her Twi'lek courtesan bodyguards just standing outside her office. "Yes? Something wrong that needs my presence, away from the office?" She said, sounding hopeful.

The hologram shook her head and seemed, disturbed or irritated by something. "No... well yes, there is someone here... who got past all the security checkpoints and reached us here, apparently a meeting with you is desired." The Twi'lek glanced somewhere behind her, probably at the intruder and then looked back to Neia.

Jantor was alert, a hand on the blaster at his hip while Neia frowned at this news. "Checked for weapons?"

The Twi'lek nodded, "Found none."

Neia pondered this for a moment, someone slipping past the guards around her inner sanctum could have ill intentions towards her, this is true, but in that case they would have remained silent and hidden to wait for a opportunity to strike. "Very well, our 'guest' can come through." The Twi'lek nodded and faded away as Neia opened the door and looked to see who or what would come through.

The being that entered was a rather ordinary looking human male, the only thing about the man that stood out was the very fine cut of his business suit. He gave Jantor a quick calculating glance as he entered and approached the desk before stopping a few paces away. "Neia Kahleesi, A pleasure to meet you." He said with a smile.

Bahn and Ginna had stood up at the entrance of the human but the dwarf Vornskrs were not growling, which was a good sign to Neia as she gestured for her pets to lie back down, which they did, their eyes not leaving the human however. She studied the man for a moment, then gestured to a seat in front of the desk. "Wish I could say the same, but you haven't given your name or who you are with, congratulations however on getting this far without detection." She looked intrigued, "Care to tell me how you managed that?" So she could correct the blind spots and security risks she thought to herself.

"Not particularly." The man responded "Call it a trade secret if you will." He added with another smile as he took the offered seat. "You may call me Mr Aurek, I represent the Republic and have something of an offer for you." He said once he has made himself comfortable.

Neia frowned and gestured for Jantor to relax, which the Kel-Dor naturally didn't do, sighing Neia leaned back in her chair, "Republic spook, huh? This will be interesting I wager, refreshment?" She asked as she poured herself a glass of water.

"Please." he said as he held a hand out for a glass. Once he had taken a few sips of the water he spoke again. "I've actually been here for a little under a week now, so if you're truly worried about your security let me tell you that it did take some advance planning." He then looked directly to Jantor, "You should try mixing up their routines a little bit, make things less predictable." He then looked back to Neia and took another sip of water. "But as to my offer. As I'm sure you're aware there is a war on. The republics manufacturing site have been pushed to the limit and then ordered to increase production even more. As you can surely imagine this is an issue. The result is outsourcing, the larger and more secretive vessels and equipment are manufactured in republic foundries while contracts are awarded to the private sector."

Neia was silent for a moment and then turned to Jantor, "Fine this swayed me, start training the security with the Dwarf Vornskr to patrol the corridors with them." She turned back to 'Mr Aurek' if that was his real name, "Sorry that has been a discussion for a while that things might have gotten lax around here." She took a sip of her own water and pondered for a moment. "I know this, last time I was contacted by a Duros colonel by the name of Aishzeen, who had me build some Y-wing bombers, granted this was a little over a year ago. But I guess, that since my construction of sizable small shipyard has gotten the attention of the Republic again, knowing that I'm not too unfavourable towards your government, that and this is Hutt space, officially neutral territory in the galactic conflict. So with the direction this is going you are here to offer me a contract, probably a risky one if they send a spook in to make the offer?"

"We wanted to be certain of the security of your facility, who better to assess such than someone used to circumventing such measures." He replied to the 'sending a spook' comment. "The vessels we would Like you to construct are a recently field tested replacement to the Arquitens class. As you would recall from the bombers we much prefer that the schematics of vessels built for us remain secure as well as the craft themselves of course."

"That is understandable." Neia replied slowly, "I am getting a feeling now, hearing this, that this new production run is going to be even riskier than the bomber production... then again, that usually means that the payment is worth the risk I trust, I may have some republic leanings but I have to make a profit somehow after all." She said with a shrug.

You will be adequately compensated of course, I am authorized to make payment of 5,600,000 republic credits per month for the use of your shipyard, our engineers took approximately 3 months to construct this class of vessel."

Neia blinked, she even noticed Jantor was staring when the credit amount was mentioned, she was silent, mostly due to shock and surprise and then leaned down and placed a bottle on the table, "Thikkiian brandy, a gift from a Wookiee friend I've made, this seems like a deal that needs a stronger drink to process." As she poured a generous amount in two glasses. "That is a lot of credits, I have some security, if you've been here for a while you may have noticed the ships I have patrolling my station and shipyard, still from the sound of it, a new class of vessel, I'll probably gain a nice fat target painted on me for any CIS commander who thinks he or she can score points with the higher ups by raiding me of this new design of the republic you represent."

"You are right of course." Mr Aurek said as he picked up the glass of brandy, though did not drink. "These new vessels are important to the republic war effort, as such Commander Shayne of the republic 456th fleet has been given command of a small task force, A venator and four Arquitens, for protection detail should you accept the contract."

She blinked, "Hmm, good thing we are on the border of Hutt space, or the cartels would have made some strong objections to that presence of warships. "With such added protection I think I will take the job... and make sure my patrol and escort ships will be kept close for the duration of the contract." Drinking the brandy, grimacing for a moment as it burned through her throat. "That and if the crews of those ships get bored they can have shore leave on my station, my cantina and casinos can always use more credits, might even give them a cover of some sort, crew o nshore leave and relaxing in neutral territory?"

"I'm sure the men and women under Shaynes command would appreciate that, she never was a particularly hardline commander after all." Mr Aurek replied as he took a small sip of the brandy. "Your wookiee friend has good taste." He said afterwards. "How soon can you begin construction?" He then asked as he fished a datachip from a pocket inside his suit.

Neia stood up from her chair, "We can start construction once, if I assume that chip you are holding holds the plans, my crews get the word and means to start working right away."

"You would assume correctly." He said as he handed Neia the chip. "I can signal Commander Shayne to begin her duties when I leave, it should only take her a couple of days to reach you."

She looked at the chip and nodded, "My Verpine friend Mochi will like this, I just have to remind him to no copy the files, and until commander Shayne and her task force arrives my own people shall provide the security needed." She looked back at Mr Aurek, "Somehow I suspect once you leave my office it will be like as if you were never on the station?"

"Of course not, going to the trouble of erasing the memory of you and your people would be counterproductive after all." He said with a chuckle. "Of course digital surveillance will have been scrubbed." He added as he also stood. "For what its worth I hope the CIS doesn't bother you over this."

Neia did smile a little, "For what it's worth, if they dare to try, they will find out I have amply means to protect my assets." She said, thinking about the planetary ion cannon that had been modified and installed on the Free Trade Gambit. "I wish you a good day Mr Aurek."

With that the republic spook, or whatever he was for the republic made his departure, leaving Neia with Jantor in her office. "Right I think I will take this to Mochi and..." She trailed off when Jantor approached her, holding his hand out for the chip, she sighed. "And you will take this to Mochi and I finish up this paperwork, fine." With a grumble she sat back down and went to work, ignoring Jantor's chuckle as he walked away.