2.05

Bespin was a gas giant the size of Saturn in the Anoat sector. Surface gravity was almost exactly Earth standard and due to the planet radiating several times as much energy as it received from its distant sun, there were layers in its atmosphere that had survivable, if somewhat frigid, temperatures. All of that wasn't unusual as gas giants go. What made Bespin rare was its very high metallicity - the percentage of elements heavier than helium in its composition. Not only did it have enough oxygen in some atmospheric layers to make them breathable, but it also had unusually high exotic matter content, much of it in the form of Tibanna gas, a compound that was both a chemical explosive and an energy storage medium to an extreme degree. While exotic matter, in general, was nothing new in the Star Wars universe, this particular gas had two very interesting uses beyond simple explosives; it was a better cooling medium than Helium in its liquid form, and better at rapidly discharging any energy it absorbed than most superconductor-based capacitors.

Cloud City was a ten-mile-wide floating city, built over four hundred years before when Bespin's unusual properties were discovered. It had been originally meant as a colony for a freed slave race but had turned into a major tourist attraction within only a few decades. The combination of a normally uninhabitable gas giant, survivable weather, and a sense of novelty and danger promoted by a city basically hanging in the skies above an abyss deeper than most inhabited planets were wide had made it a magnet for wealthy visitors that could afford the trip to the Outer Rim. Casinos, clubs, and similar attractions had been built to accommodate the streams of visitors even as the original inhabitants had been forced to relocate to another floating platform.

Beneath that high society resort and meeting place however, Bespin had slowly developed as a mining colony. Blasters could be made without Tibanna gas, and other weapons such as ion cannons and stunners had no need of it, but it was like saying shells for tank guns could be produced with steel instead of Tungsten or depleted Uranium; performance was half that of Tibanna-fueled blaster weapons. Bespin was far from the only place in the galaxy the exotic matter gas could be gathered, but any source was valuable... which made it all the weirder that Anoat sector was not a massive trade hub but very nearly barren instead.

Was its distance from the Core Worlds the problem? Did it have anything to do with the slow game of mercantilism played in the Outer Rim over the past two centuries by the Trade Federation and similar companies? Had nobody considered to simply invest in the operation? I did not know, and neither did Father. In fact, until I'd mentioned Bespin as a source of Tibanna, he'd planned on going to Kril'Dor instead, a mid-rim Tibanna harvesting operation that saw far more traffic than Bespin.

The Cloud City of 29 BBY was ruled by the Parliament of Guilds, the Exex - the leading corporate executives of the largest businesses, and a Baron Administrator that wasn't Lando Calrissian. Considering that Lando had to be only a year old at this time, that made sense. The locals had been very surprised to see the massive bulk of the KSS Doughnut descend through the upper atmosphere, but elated at being told our cargo was fifty million tons of recycled Carbonite and two hundred million tons of reactor fuel. Cloud City was a ten-mile-wide saucer suspended in mid-air via repulsors and tractor beams; the city's primary reactor had greater fuel requirements than the Doughnut itself. And without raw Carbonite, they could not store Tibanna in the capsules that kept it in a non-explosive liquid form suitable for transportation.

Father was quick to notice that the mining colony that would have changed hands in a game of Sabacc in the future was struggling without a dependable trade partner to transport their goods and bring in more resources. In fact, the long-lasting peace in the Republic had hurt the Tibanna mining industry more than most and was probably why Cloud City had not rapidly expanded in the past few centuries. Magnanimously, he offered the services of the Doughnut for several trips a year, in exchange for a competitive price for their product as well as an exclusivity contract for the foreseeable future. The Exex readily agreed, and the Parliament of Guilds made the agreement official despite any red tape through their control of the courts. The current Baron Administrator didn't but was quickly overruled. If I was reading things right, he would not be a baron much longer.

Loaded with valuable weapons-grade Tibanna purchased at favorable prices, and having secured lucrative trade agreements that were borderline exploitation, we set a course for Kuat, where prices for weapons materials had recently skyrocketed - news that was curiously kept off the galactic information channels. Now, what could possibly be the reason behind the secretly inflated prices of a commodity mostly used in turbolaser manufacturing, when the Republic approached near a millennium of peace?

No wonder insider trading had been illegal back on Earth; it was so ridiculously profitable.

xxxx xxxx xxxx

​

"You are slow."

"I'm twelve!"

Aurra Sing was a woman of few words... or rather, she used no more words than necessary, just as she did with blaster shots. So instead of continuing the argument, she kicked me. Under two standard gravities, what was becoming the new standard for our training sessions, seeing the blow coming did not help me avoid it. All air was forcibly expelled from my lungs, the world spun, and I found myself lying on my back and gasping for air. Then she stopped being polite and hit me with the shock-stick.

"You know, I could have the security droids stun you and throw you in the main hold," I said as soon as I caught my breath again. Releasing anger and pain into the Force and letting it slowly revitalize me allowed for faster recovery from the futuristic tazer, but not nearly fast enough to matter against an opponent like the pale bounty-hunter; another loss was added to my tally. Still, it did help with clarity of thought and speech, so... "Where the repair droids will attempt to weld you back into full functionality."

"Then who will train you for the coming war, little girl?"

"You're right." Damn it. Why did I agree to this again? I was probably shocked more often than Maul had been, and his Master could use Force Lightning. Though... had that been a hint of a smile in Aurra's face? Nah, probably a contemptuous smirk or something. She was too much of a bitch for something so normal.

ZAP!

Case in point; using a weak shock to force me to get up and fight. Struggling to my feet against the weight of two little girls, I wiped the sweat threatening to fall into my eyes and mess them up even momentarily while taking as many deep breaths as I could of an air that tasted stale and felt too thin to support light activity, let alone a high-gravity duel.

"Why are we training at half standard pressure? My limbs feel like they're made of Neutronium." I clumsily dodged a left jab, barely leaped over a kick aiming to scythe my legs from under me, then was forced to block a right cross with my heft arm, which promptly turned numb. I didn't know for how many years my trainer had been in the business - her near-human heritage didn't age properly after adulthood - but it had been long enough to turn her muscles into durasteel; the thin atmosphere didn't seem to slow her down at all.

"Bodies adapt to low oxygen with a higher red blood cell count. The Force helps, which is why Jedi initiates do so many breathing exercises." She casually pulled beyond my reach, then snapped a kick at my solar plexus. I didn't quite manage to avoid it, leaving me gasping while trying to keep a safe distance.

"I... I know... that!" I snapped back in protest. "But it will still work if I do it while reading, or even sleeping! No need to make these fights any more uneven."

"True," she said, then drew her blaster in a blur and shot a stun bolt at me. Even with the Force blaring in warning, I wasn't fast enough to dodge or block with the shock-stick. "But this isn't just combat training," Aurra said and approached as I tried not to curl up and cry. I was an adult damn it! This child's body didn't define me! "It is also an 'I-won't-be-a-whiny-lazy-ass-brat' exercise."

Then the ex-assassin threw off my expectations by picking me up and supporting me on the way to the medical station without her customary sneers and acerbic commentary.

"Cheer up, honey. You only have to learn all this from yours truly, whereas I had a ship full of pirates giving me lessons." She pinched my cheek as I tried and failed to swat her away. "Trust me, things could always be worse".