From kkeisel@columbus.rr.com Tue Jul 8 23:19:18 2003 Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 17:05:27 -0400 From: Ken Keisel To: cantina@deathstar.org Subject: FoE Role-Play: molithauv's cantina (han) 2 [ The following text is in the "Windows-1252" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] The Pink Falcon Part 2 Once a month when it rises over the tranquil Corellian Sea, which is to say virtually the entire surface of Corellia, the full moon of Jespa will fill a third of the horizon. For those who've seen it, it remains something they can never forget. Even to the Corellians themselves it never goes completely unnoticed, and it's often the high point of any visit to the planet. Diplomatic trips, vacations, and those "romantic getaways" are often timed around it's schedule. But far more than just being beautiful, Jespa is the life engine that powers Corellia. From the rising of its tides to the rising of its land masses little either terrestrial or geologic happens on Correllia that doesn't involve Jespa in one way or another. The name "Jespa" had come from the word "Jespata," its name in "Old Corellian," though it had not been known by that name in nearly a millennia. "Jespata," to those who understood it, meant "Brave Warrior," for it was once felt that the giant moon hovering silently in their night sky protected the Corellians, keeping the fierce monsters inhabiting the depths from crawling or slithering up onto dry land at night and swallowing them whole. It wasn't far from the truth. Without Jespa's gravitational pull the Corellian seas would have quickly frozen over near the poles, eventually dropping the sea level by over sixty feet. Over time, such a disaster would have driven many creatures from the shallows and up onto the land, and the human feast that awaited them. Jespa's gravity managed the Corellian tides, but it also deprived them of any beaches. Of the planet's 100,000 islands only a few could boast of a beach. Most were surrounded by ragged, rocky cliffs, and a tide that rose and fell daily by over twenty feet. Jespa's other role was purely geologic. Her powerful gravity drew the planet's liquid magma from it's hellish depths upwards towards the planet's surface where it eventually reached the ocean's floor. The bottom of the Corellian Ocean was a cathedral of fiery volcanoes rising like spires thousands of feet through the water. Occasionally one would grow tall enough to pierce the ocean's surface, and a new island would form. Throughout Corellia's geologic history new islands constantly rose from the waves, while old ones, left behind by their volcanic lifelines, crumbled and vanished beneath the seas. None of this mattered to Captain Jonuta. He had seen a Corellian full moon before (though he did glance up from his to display to gaze at it for a second). He was looking for Police Boats. Even his landing clearance was still no guarantee that some policer wasn't just over the horizon waiting to get a piece of him. Captain Cautious had received his name for good reason. Jonuta smiled. "Good, good," He was no friend of Policers. They didn't like his business and they didn't like his shrewdness and they didn't like him. They did want very much to meet him, but not to discuss his caution or his shrewdness, and not just for a nice visit. If he ever slipped and was caught by any policers anywhere in the worlds-teeming galaxy he would be in for a long, long visit. If he survived. Captain Jonuta's business was people. Humans mostly. He sold many though he bought few. They were available for the taking on non-tech planets, provided one was cautious, and careful, and he was good at being both. As he approached the Island of Serabi his attention diverted to finding a docking bay that could handle "Coronet." He could have left her in orbit and taken her in-gravity spaceboat, but that would have drawn unnecessary attention. There was no need to leave a reminder of his visit hanging in orbit for all to see. Especially when Port Qualara could hanger her just fine. The "Coronet" was a large ship as Corellian vessels go, and very large for a slaver ship, but a necessity to accommodate Jonuta's vast weapons batteries, defensive measures and redundant systems. He was also known as Captain Chicken to some, most of them envious. The "Coronet" started out life as a Corellian Heavy Blockade Runner. A ship designed first for speed, then quite literally for everything else. She was not cheap to buy, not cheap to operate and not cheap to fix and Jonuta could afford to do all that. Her sixteen P&W R-4800 "Super Banshee" engines could accelerate her from a stop to speeds that left most of Jonuta's enemies and competitors far, far behind. Where a ship like Solo's "Falcon" won out was in maneuverability, which the "Coronet" definitely lacked. While Jonuta could outrun a Corellian Light Cargo ship, or a Galactic Police Boat he couldn't out maneuver one, but that didn't bother Jonuta. That was what the Coronet's impressive array of Pulse Cannons was for. Far below the slowing Coronet Port Qualara rolled into view. The spaceport was near the city's coast, and Jonuta waited for the blinking lights that would signal his docking bay. This was home and he'd been here enough times that there was no cause to worry. They would know how to accommodate him, even if it meant putting him in the largest docking bay in the whole spaceport. The dock officers also knew they could count on getting paid for their troubles, and remembering that he wasn't actually there. Descending over the open bays, Jonuta searched them for the ship belonging to the one person he had come all this way to find. On this occassion it didn't take long to spot it. Jonuta recognized it by its shape, but not by its color. Gone were its countless scuffs and blast marks, replaced instead by a paint job of iridescent blue, purple and pink, finished off with garish flames painted on both sides. "There's got to be a story to this," Jonuta thought to himself as he descended into his space dock, "and I can't wait to hear it."