Rumours and old friends



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''Out of the Ord Mantell wilderness, an expansive training grounds is being constructed. Right now, the roadway connecting the grounds with the military base westward only branches off into two locations. One location contains a firing range, the other contains an obstacle course. Beyond the obstacle course, to the northwest, the sparkling waters of the Antilles Sea can be seen. The hills that surround New Alderaan stretch off to the south, and in all other directions, the badlands of Ord Mantell stretch into hazy oblivion. The sky is clear, with a gentle breeze blowing. A wispy, pinkish cloud occasionally appears overhead.''

It is a day of days, a cool not quite spring day with clear skies, a rather brisk breeze to snap at the banners and flags that are tacked to nearly every available awning and balcony. The base itself is in somewhat of a festive mood, with service men and women in various degrees of formal uniforms, the annual celebration of Liberation Day is easing it's way into full swing and by nightfall there will be celebratory parties, entirely too much booze and greasy food, and many.. many soldiers with really bad headaches come morning. In all this mess and hubbub is just one more person, though not clad in any particular uniform, in fact, clad rather plainly like a civilian of some sort, is a dark haired woman carrying a file bag at her side, the carrying strap resting diagonally across her body as she moves along with the crowd.

A small trail of smoke was left in Rasi's wake as he made his way through the revelry, the man, not unusually to those that know him, looking rather dour compared to all those enjoying themselves on this festive day. The earthen tone coat he had on was sparse on identifiers, little beside his name, rank and posting displayed on it, his cap was slipped into one of the epaulets along his shoulders. A silent glare was given as a pair of revelers bump into him, a moment taken to receive their apologies, and before long Rasi had broken free of the worst of the crowd and finally he could take a look around, a few tilts of his head this way and that and he started to walk once more, reorienting himself towards the lone civilian he saw.

Putting every inch of her 5'8" in frame to good use, Cassius makes good time moving through the crowd and spots Rasi somewhere along the same time that he bumps into those revelers, stands for their apology and adjusts his course accordingly. Cassius meets him in the middle, a fine gleam of a smile appearing on her face once she's near enough to speak comfortably. And by 'comfortably' she means 'not shouting over the sound of the crowd'. "Cen," she offers, one hand extending toward Rasi in greeting. "Happy Liberation Day."

On his way over, that cigarette was pulled from between his lips and tapped between two of his fingers, ash falling down from it to the ground. A final puff on the remaining nub and Rasi dropped it, crushing it against the heel of one of his boots. "Doctor.", he replies, the smile returned in his own fashion, which meant a twitch of his lips and a quick nod. "Thank you.", his own hand extended too to meet the woman's. "I apologize that I asked you to meet me here.", his disdain at the rambunctiousness about him displayed with the briefest of grimaces. "I had a meeeting nearby. In any case, what brings you here?"

"You know those things are a detriment to your health, dangerous to your lungs and surrounding tissue? The risks of cancerous growths to lips, mouth, tongue, facial features and throat, just to say the least," Cassius remarks, chiding Cen in a rather amused tone of voice. "Best to get that out of the way right away, yes? This way I won't be saving it up for when you least expect it," she adds with a quick gleam of a grin. This said, she glances around the revelers, having exchanged a brief albeit firm handshake, "I don't mind. I don't spend a lot of time around great crowds like this, so it's a .... distinct change of pace. Your meeting went well?"

A smile, a genuine one, comes then, "I remember you telling me this exact same thing some years back. And I think that compared to the risks of my ship getting blown up or of defeat, those associated with smoking aren't particularly that grave." There was something very familiar about all this, but then the doctor always seemed to warn him about this bad habit whenever they would meet again. "Well enough, yes, well enough. How is your son, he must be what...six or seven now?" Finally, Rasi took a look around, "I do not mind them normally, but on days like these it is best to find refuge inside unless you wish to be caught up in the silly ways people act."

Cassius laughs quietly, sweeping a look around the crowded area and back again,"He's six, yes, he'll be Seven in the fall," she adds with that quick gleam of a smile. "I don't mind crowds, in small, brief, uncomplicated doses. I've had to acclimate a bit in order to ensure that he is properly socialized, failing to do that would potentially impair his ability to do so as he ages," a rather technical term that essentially says that she's teaching him to play well with others. "Nagging you about the death sticks is part of the process, Cen, if I didn't nag you, it wouldn't be any fun." She moves one shoulder in a shrug, "I have heard some.. unusual rumblings of late, and I wasn't sure that the rumours I've been hearing are genuine or drink addled spice intoxicated gibberish."

"What sort of rumours?" It wasn't long before there wasn't trace left of that earlier smile, the man's features reverting back to their tightly-controlled blankness. "Let's find somewhere quiet to sit.", and with that he points the way towards a nearby cafeteria, the glass walls revealing it to be fairly quiet, unsurprising given that it didn't have a liquor license.

Cassius eyes the cafeteria before nodding and accompanying Cen to the cafe itself, sweeping a slower look around the interior once stepping inside, noting the lack of crowd and the bored looking barista behind the counter. "I could use a cup of caf anyway," she admits and heads toward the counter long enough to order a cup of the strongest brew that the barista can crew. She pays for the caf wit a simple credit transaction and waits patiently for the barista to pour and cap the brew before handing over the to-go disposable type of cup.

His own tea poured and a credit chit fished out from his coat and passed to the barista, Rasi leads the way once more, this time to a table not far from the southern wall and with a good view of the entrance. "What sort of rumours.", he asks again, and while he waits a quick, tentative sip of the tea is taken. Judging by his face, the drink was passable, but only just.

Once her cup of caf is secured, and then properly modified, Cassius joins Rasi at the selected table and angles her chair subtly so that she has a clear line of sight on the door, the big glass window panes and all the tables (and patrons) at the same time. "I've been observing the action in Caspia," quietly noted. "It's... troublesome, but I honestly expected the Caspian military to put on a better showing. What troubles me, though, is the rumours of a new character in the deck playing from the same sort of rules that a certain fellow by the name of Kreldin used to play, if you recall the name."

"I could never understand the Caspians, their vaunted neutrality is a bit hypocritical I find when we have to be the ones stepping in to clean their mess. But, it is what it is.", his initial answer given, Rasi returns to taking another sip of the tea, the taste...does not exactly grow on him but at least he doesn't think of it much with each passing moment. "Do you still have contacts there that you can talk to? And I do remember him, Kreldin, but what new character? Are you talking about that new Moff?"

Cassius's expression is carefully neutral, not quite impassive though it's close, but the brief set of her jaw and the way her mouth sets in a straight line for a moment gives the lie to the neutral expression. "Once upon a time, I would have said yes. But it has been many years, and in many ways, a life time ago. I have done my best to stay out of Caspian space and, to be fair, Imperial space, for these long years. If I could help, I would," she admits, exhaling a sigh over the cup of caf as she pries up the lid to let the steam escape. "The new Moff, for one thing, seems to be a curious sort of dangerous breed of political animal and something with lots of sharp pointy spines sticking in all directions. That.." she pauses to sweep a careful look around the room and back, "and a most curious job offer came my way a few days ago."

There had been changes in Rasi since the last time the good doctor saw him, for one thing that uniform jacket was perhaps a bit snug on him nowadays. And that might explain why he popped open the top button of it, so that he didn't have to sit down straight-backed. There was also the healthy presence of grey along the curls at his temple. "We'll see if he lasts or he'll be brought down the next time they decide to eat each other. What job offer?"

Cassius chuckles suddenly, "It could be like some sort of celebrity death match, Empire style. Only the winner has to eat the loser, on live vid feed, maybe with some salt or something." She shares a wry glimpse of a smile before curling both hands around the cup, "On the surface, it read like a research grant, which was intriguing. Except the research wasn't so much a funded grant as it would be for services rendered. Said services were into a specific pathogen that reputable labs have been having a hard time properly stabalizing and either replicating into a refinable form or establishing an antigen that works within the established success rates. The offer came to me without a great deal of data, like the source wants to ensure that I can't track it back at first glance."

17 hours spent in the cramped cockpit of a Recon Y-Wing can be enough to drive anyone to madness, but for Galin it means time to get a pick up. He needs Caf and lots of it. He is still clad in the grey flight suit, his helmet tucked under is arm as he makes his way towards the nearest store for acquiring it.

"Interesting.", in truth, most of that flew right over his head, but he had enough of an idea that he could at least get some broad outline of it. "Does that worry you, that they've gone to a great amount of trouble to hide themselves, whoever is behind this?" Just then, the cafe's doors slide open and Rasi arches a brow at the sight of the flightsuit-clad person that enterred, no need to crane his neck this way or that to see the newcomer, as he was already sitting in full of the entrance. There was something familiar about the man ut not enough that his memory was jogged right away.

"Worry?" Cassius muses over this word, eyes narrowed subtly, one fingertip tapping against the side of the cup. "No. Worry was a few layers back, when I got a look at the actual breakdown of the structure itself. Worry was: Who the heck wants this, what do they intend to do with it, and where. That was worry. I'm at 'Alarmed', which is a few steps past 'worry' but not into the 'run around like my hair is on fire' stage." She shares that faint gleam of a smile again, "I'm alarmed. I'd like to avoid the 'hair on fire' stage, if you don't mind. It's ... alarming, and disconcerting, and.." she pauses mid-sentence as the door is opening to allow more patrons to enter the cafe. Her eyes track the path of each new arrival, skimming over the details like gender, attire, and looking for weapons, ".. and unprofessional."

Galin wraps his blue fingers around the large mug of caf, devoid of cream or sugar, blowing on it carefully before sipping. It is thus after he gets his fix that he can pay attention to his surroundings. He finds an unoccupied table and sets his helmet down on top of it. He sits down, glancing around at the number of military and civilians mingling in this place.

Drax Rendolen didn't know what the heck was being celebrated and, frankly, he didn't very much care. The fact of the matter was that it was a gift from the Gods for any man trying to move about with minimal interaction deeper than a superficial or deflective statement or two to passers by. The general status of the populace was also helping him to blend in a bit better. In his current state, the Alderaanian was running on combat stims and an assortment of other emergency items to keep going. He was a little jittery, a little wired, and wasn't at the level of sharpness he'd normally like for something like this. There was an overwhelming need to simply pass out that he could feel somewhere underneath the extreme wave of energy he was carefully riding. His sites were zeroed in, his plan was well formed when his faculties were a little more present, and this was when he knew he could dig deep to make the things happen that he desperately needed.

"I will contact certain people that I know who would be very interested in this. Where are you living while you're here? I'll give them that address.", Rasi wasn't careless enough to say that he was going to speak to intel, but then again there was no need to. "Unprofessional though, you'll have to explain that one." There weren't many people in the cafe and those few who came here for the most part did so for the same reason, they were in search of a quiet refuge from the crazed celebrations outside of Liberation day.

Cassius tracks the progress of the new arrivals in the cafe as one orders what appears to be a reasonable sized cup of caf. Since she has her own she does not, visibly, covet the cup of coffee that the flightsuit clad man has acquired, she even drinks from the cup that she's holding to remind herself of this fact. The noise from the outside street presses against the windows of the cafe, the sound seeping through, albeit muted, and blaring through when ever the doors open. "Where? Hm, good question. For the moment I'm parked at the landing field, thanks for letting me park there by the way. I wasn't certain, as yet, that I would be seeking a more permanent sort of residence. It makes me a trifle .. twitchy to establish any sort of observable routine. I am very focused on pre-planning survival options, Cen," she reminds with another trace of smile. "In this instance, unprofessional would translate to 'having any measure of panic attack at the potential ramifications of said pathogen being unleashed'. Panic is unprofessional."

Galin sighs happily as he settles into the chair, taking another drink from the coffee as he continues to do what he does best, observe others, listening to fragments of conversations as people come and go. High ranking officers and civilians make for interesting eavesdropping most days and thus he practices the art of listening without looking like he is listening.

Clocks were ticking away in Drax's head. How long was left on the dosage of stims he had taken just before embarking? How long could he manage this journey before odds ran out that someone might find him. Would someone even want to do that? Was that a good or a bad thing if it happened? He was cautious enough to know that the scenario was better played out under his own terms than those of anyone else. Already he could feel a resistance when thinking, as if the wind were beginning to blow in the opposite direction. Adrenaline driving him forward, he takes a moment to check his surroundings. Having just walked to the end of the large glass window of a cafe, he pauses there, his hands patting at his pockets as if he were searching for something while using the reflection of the window to check behind himself for any figures he recognized from earlier. After a brief moment of doing so, his eyes blur and he fights to regain focus, temporarily causing him to look within. For a half of a second, his eyes widen with recognition and he pushes forward on his journey, willing himself not to be hasty with panic. Another clock began ticking in his head, joining the chorus of it's brothers and sisters.

"If it can be used as a bioweapon, then I think I should let those people know right away." A final quaff of his tea and he downs the by-now tepid substance. Rasi rises, and when on his feet, there is first the matter of that button he popped open when he sat down. "I will let you know what they say soon, they may get someone to talk to you as well since they're always keeping an eye out on threats of this sort."

Cassius angles her head subtly to the side as she casts another, slightly longer, glance toward the flight suit clad individual, a curious gleam entering her eyes before she's glancing back toward Rasi. This so simple of a movement has her gaze sweeping over the windows that front the cafe, drawing breath as though to say something before her attention drifts past, pauses, then snaps back to the figure on the other side of the window. She goes quiet, rather abruptly, and very still, save for the way her eyes widen, noticeably, then track subtly up then down again. The hand that is curled round the coffee cup tenses, dimpling the side of the disposable cup, before she flinches, startled, as Rasi speaks. Cassius stands when Rasi does, habit as much as courtesy, nodding slowly as he speaks before frowning at him. "You will, I trust, please phrase this as a voluntary sharing of information, and not a credible actionable threat that certain members of your chain of command will feel ever so giddy to blame on me," she notes in a low voice before Cen takes his leave. Leaving her standing there, looking a little disconcerted.

There are few words that will attract the attention of an Intelligence agent like 'bioweapon', when said by a Naval officer to a civilian in public, interest becomes grave concern. This word catches Galin by surprise, as he has a mouthful of coffee, or did. It is splurted out of his mouth and nose as he chokes on the energy giving beverage. He chokes loudly as he stands up, wheezing as he stands, getting the last of the coffee out of his system and causing quite a commotion.

The door is barely shut behind Cen when she hears the coughing, wheezing and what may sound like spluttering emanating from the flight suit clad man who seems to have attempted to aspirate his caf. Cassius is moving swiftly toward the wheezing man at the same time that the barista is rounding the corner, napkins already in hand, a look of alarm on the teenagers face as she hustles toward the wheezing patron. Cassius pauses, not quite hesitating, but doesn't run OVER the barista that's alternately slapping the flight suit clad man on the back and inquiring as to whether or not he's 'Ok'.

Galin does his best to wave off the barista, his blue cheeks a shade of purple from the agitation caused by gagging on caf.Once he has a moment to catch his breath he does, righting himself and then worrying about getting the beverage off of his face and chest, "I am fine." He responds curtly, his attention drawn back to the woman in black as she approaches, irisless red eyes focusing on her. "other than embarrassment, I think I am gonna live."

Cassius observes as the Barista turns an interesting shade of embarrassed as well, mutters something about getting the man a free replacement, drops a healthy sized stack of napkins on the table after swiping it clean and somewhat dry before hurrying back to the counter. She shifts her attention back and meets those red eyes with her own, one eyebrow arching upward in a incremental gesture of amusement. "I have read the research on external application of caffeine to the epidermal layer and found that, while the results were initially 'interesting' the net gain was insufficient for a transferal of caffeine for internal use." This said she flicks a slower look, ranging from head to toe then back up, "Was it the data or the request to not be blamed that caused you to attempt to absorb the caf externally?"

A fine black eyebrow matches the human female's arch, "I would fill a bacta tank with the stuff and go for a swim if I thought it worked better than the old standard way of drinking, but the taste give it power, I think. " He uses the moment to collect his thoughts, he is nominally a military officer and Rasi wasn't exactly being discreet after all. "AN interesting question, each component enough to cause a reaction on it's own, added together, it is just as ...unexpected."

"Hmm, a tank full of caf would be almost as much fun as swimming in it, though alas, it still wouldn't really help. Plus, it's unpleasantly sticky, residue wise, as it dries," Cassius notes with a wry trace of a smile. She'd angled her head subtly to the side as he'd collected his thoughts, studying his facial features for expressions before, then as, he speaks. "Unexpected, in what way?"

His voice takes a serious tone, "A senior Republic officer mentioning weapons of mass destruction with a civilian on a major holiday in the Republic capitol and a request to not be blamed is unexpected when popping in for a mug of caf." The edges of his lips can't help but curl into a slight smile as he always tries to diffuse serious matters with at least a hint of humor.

"Ahh, protocol," Cassius notes, a tone of approval in her voice. "Right. Nominally, I a civilian, though I prefer 'retired' officer to civilian. I don't imagine I'll ever quite grasp the fluidity and often frivolity of civilian life. Secondly, it is not, as yet, a viable weapon of a sort as to warrant such a designation, as the chemical compound is highly unstable and therefore not a viable or even prime component of aerosol disbursement, on this or any other holiday, hence my suspicion as to the actual nature of the request. Lastly, but not least, in order of importance, my request to be not blamed for being the bearer of intel is as much courtesy as it is necessity." This summed, she extends one hand, "Dr. Cassius," offering her name by way of greeting.

"Right." He responds to himself mostly, glancing around at the commotion that he had caused, not quite settled down, he reaches out and shakes the offered hand, "Commander Galin." He replies, "Thank you for being honest Doctor Cassius." He steps in a bit closer to her, his voice dropping to barely a whisper. " I am with Republic Intelligence and would very much like to talk to you more about this, somewhere that is not here."

Cassius accepts the offered hand, her head tilting slightly to catch the words spoken in a lower voice. If her hand hadn't still been on his, she might have concealed the jolt better. As it is, her hand squeezes his tighter than intended before she releases his hand, with a look that is both apologetic and alarmed. "So long as that somewhere else is not a locked room with armed ...hospitality staff, I'm willing to share what I know."

Galin's uniform is not just for show, and he has a surprisingly strong but gentle grip, releasing her grip as she does his, "This is a friendly request in the same manner as your offer to Captain Cen, you volunteered the information and we want to listen." He pulls a small piece of clear plastifilm from his breast pocket, offering it to her. "This will get you an appointment at my office at headquarters."

"Attempting to aspirate your caf and absorb it externally would get you an appointment on my patient chart as well, no card required," Cassius replies in turn, a wry trace of that smile again, though the look in her eyes remains sober. "I'll be in touch, and soon. I have to respond to the job offer within the time table outlined or they'll take it to the next person on the list, if it isn't being shopped around a set list already." She holds the plastifilm between her fingers, worries the edge of it before glancing up again, "That's one of the reasons I brought this to Cen's attention. Sheer probability dictates that I'm not the only one this job is being offered to. statistically, I'm in the top five, to be fair," her tone is actually grim, not bragging, "which means I may be able to put names to the others in the top tier of the list. I would like to reach out for more data before we speak again."

"Any data you can bring to our attention would be appreciated, We can devote resources to tracking down people, places, and thing that might be instrumental in containing the threat." He says matter-of-factly, skirting the fact that his job is often spent skulking in dark places and doing tings that the military cannot. "I really do need to find the fresher now, it was a pleasure meeting you, Doctor Cassius."

"People who send out job offers like this aren't easily tracked down or brought in for questioning," Cassius notes in a soft voice. "They're frequently the sort of people with power, persuasion and pull. Tread lightly, Commander Galin, and carry a heavily armored battalion with you. Just in case." This said, she lifts the plastifilm and taps it lightly against her left temple in salute, "The pleasure was mine," she adds as she turns and walks back to the table where her own cup of caf is rapidly cooling.

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