Planet for sale, cheap. (Open)

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias rolled back his eyes in thought and actually glanced over in the direction Rhea had pointed. Then he laughed disarmingly.

"Well, I'll probably do what I usually do... just wander around until something catches my eye." He mopped up the last of his cheese fries and pulled a credit chit from his wallet. "Here, barkeep. That ought to cover my tab and the lady's tea."

Cutting off any chance at protest from Rhea, he tossed the chit at the bartender, then stood and popped his neck. "So, Rhea... unless you want to go club-hopping or cheap holo-watching or whatver low-budget thrill I can come up with... maybe you could give me your comm. number. I mean, I'll be in town a while. Might be nice to have a friendly conversation now and then."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea blinked and tried not to fall off her barstool. He can't possibly be serious...

But he was. Rhea coaxed a smile from her bewildered countenance and tipped her head in a nod. "Sure, that'd be nice. Umm..." She patted her pockets. "You got a bit of flimsy? Or a pencil, I have some paper."

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias tried to gauge her reaction on a scale from disgusted to excited... but he wasn't sure where to put flummoxed.

But he smiled back at her and dug a weathered spiral-bound memo pad from a voluminous coat pocket--there was a mechanical pencil speared through the metal coil. "Here," he said, tossing it onto the bar. "Stick it anywhere in there. That's just some old prospecting notes."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea pulled the notebook toward herself and flipped back the well-beaten cover. She smiled unconsciously, wistfully, at the rough, otherworldly sketches of planets, flora, fauna, rocks. Corias' rapid shorthand crowded the pages as she turned them, incomprehensible and barely legible.

Finally Rhea found a bit of blank page and scribbled her comm number. Closing the book and replacing the pencil, she handed the little tome back to the man, trying not to feel embarrassed.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias didn't seem to notice as Rhea lingered over a few pages--inwardly, he felt quite pleased with himself about it. It was nice to encounter someone else who had a little appreciation for a hardworking explorer.

Of course, it'd be even nicer to encounter someone with the appreciation and money. But he'd worry about that later.

"Thanks," he said genuinely. He tore out a sheet from the back of the notebook and hastily scrawled out a couple more numbers. "I'm staying at my ship, so that's the dock number and the call frequency."

He set the scrap of paper down on the bartop, hiked his coat over his shoulders, and stowed his notebook. "Hey, it's been good, you know? I feel like... I dunno, got some weight off my shoulders. Maybe I'll see you around, Rhea."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea took the torn page and folded it methodically. She smiled.

"Glad to be of service, Corias Bonaventure. And I hope so."

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias tapped his forehead in a roguish sort of salute and turned to leave. He wasn't exactly sure what it was about Rhea that had captured his attention, but he had the distinct feeling their paths would cross again.

For the moment, his path to the door was taking him very near Alghieri's seat at the bar.

[Minion Alghieri]

A gnarled hand shot out from its rigor mortis grasp of the keg, siezing Bonaventure by the cuff.

"Care to discuss a little business?" Despite the quantity and quality of the drink he had consumed, Alghieri sounded quite sober.

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias stiffened at the foreign grip, and his right hand drifted to the belt holster his P-16 special called home, but his gun was still under the tender care of the NRSF officers at the door.

Oh, right. There were NRSF officers at the door. So he probably didn't have much to worry about.

The spacer turned and sized up the mongrel once more. "Business, eh? Sounds like an idea to me."

He lightly tapped Alghieri's meaty hand, which still had an iron grip on his coat cuff.

[Minion Alghieri]

Alghieri, despite immediately removing his hand, said nothing, merely tapped the barstool beside him. After a few moments, though, he opened his mouth.

"Found anything interesting lately?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias took the seat and waited for Alghieri to break the silence.

"Depends on what you're interested in," he replied guardedly. "I've been resource-prospecting the last six months. Mainly looking for industrial applications. I have detailed profiles of twenty-two unclaimed worlds, give or take a disputed system, so you've got a pretty good smorgasboard if it's real estate you want. With the right connections, I could probably supply every industry from starship construction to quantum research to pharmaceutical development."

[Minion Alghieri]

"Got anything inhabitable? Part of my outfit needs a secondary base of operations, and a private world would fit the bill nicely."

[Corias Bonaventure]

The spacer nodded.

"Of course, you have habitable worlds and you have habitable worlds. If you're looking for a terran-class planet... you know, with a dynamic ecosystem and a solid agricultural base, your options are going to be a lot slimmer. Especially if you want to keep it a private world."

He pulled out his notebook, licked his thumb, and began rapidly flipping through the pages. "If all you need is a place to put some facilities, and you want to keep a low profile, you probably want a fallow world--oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, a little surface water, and not much else. That way there's not as big a chance some development firm or colonial initiative will want to horn in on your turf. But as far as shipping goes, your chances of finding something on one of the main trade spines aren't that good."

Corias stuck his thumb underneath one of the pages to hold his place. "Twelve of these will naturally support animal and plant life at some level. They're scattered from Hutt space to the fringes of the Unknown Regions. I usually stay away from the Imperial sectors, but I know of a couple decent border worlds that way. So, what's your pleasure?"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

EDIT

[Minion Alghieri]

"Near the unknown regions works for me. 'Fallow' world, and it would be best if it could support life. How much?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias scratched his chin introspectively and started leafing through his notes once more. A private sale wasn't an investment like a corporate development contract. Fortunately, the kind of planet Alghieri was looking for wouldn't have made him much in royalties anyway.

"I imagine you want exclusive rights to the data?"

Of course, the only people who'd want a piece of a fallow world on the frontier would probably be people like Alghieri, but he got the idea the mongrel didn't want to risk anyone else setting up shop on his planet on Corias's recommendation. Not only that, but it would drive the price up significantly--Corias was eager to get as much out of the sale as he could.

"In that case... Let's see here... A fallow world's pretty cheap real estate, so the full report with exclusive rights will run you between five and six hundred credits. And that includes the full atmospheric, biospheric, and geological analyses, about twenty kiloquads of information. Now, I've got two planets that'll fit your bill--CR-483 and CG-621. Of course, you can always change the name if neither of those captures your imagination."

He scanned over his notes once more. "CR-483 has barely any organic matter left in its soil; most of the surface is petrified. There are enough photosynthesizing microbes to keep breathable levels of oxygen in the atmosphere, but I wouldn't send any asthmatics there. There's some significant tectonic activity, but the geo survey will highlight some areas of relative stability."

The spacer flipped a page over. "CG-621 is... well... swampy. Plenty of surface water. Mostly primitive plant life, and all the fauna I encountered were invertebrates. There are also rocky highland regions that'd provide some firmer ground for installations."

And, of course, planets were huge. Even fallow worlds could hold plenty of surprises.

[Minion Alghieri]

"See-Gee Six-Twenty-One sounds perfect," Alghieri grinned. "Six fifty work for you?"

[Corias Bonaventure]

The response was already on Corias's mind when his mouth fell open--No, I'm sorry, I can't accept an offer below five-eighty...

Hang on, what order were those digits in again?

"That would work," he replied positively. "When do you need the data?"

Six-fifty... that was more than double what he'd expect to get from a corper under a standard package contract. Not a bad return on what had seemed like a dead-end survey.

[Minion Alghieri]

Algheri swigged his drink and grinned around a mouthful of that unique beverage.

"Whenever you can find the time. Here's my ship's comm number. Call me when you've got the data."

He stood up, a trifle unsteadily, and extended his hand to shake.

"Pleasure doing business with ya."

[Corias Bonaventure]

Corias found himself grinning back, despite the overwhelming smell of the unholy bilge on Alghieri's breath.

"I can get it to you on data crystal by tomorrow, if you can make the payment at the same time. Hey, the pleasure has been all mine, Mr...."

He blanked. Woah, that was odd.

"Uh... I don't think I got your name."