Roche

Frakutsk stared at the holographically projected board. The game was not going well for him. The Verpine across from him clicked gleefully at a friend who had stopped to watch, which made it even more dificult to concentrate. It was not, Zdik had told him, considered good sportmanship to concede in the Verpine game of Stch, but Frakutsk didn't think he had much hope in this case.

"Even when your opponent controlls all but one wire, you still have a chance," Zdik had asserted in his fluent but overly accented common, "Just find your best chance, and go for it all out."

Frakutsk constantly found himself searching for his best chance, but right from the beginning of every game he had played so far, his opponent had had a solid counter for every move.

Stch was, Frakutsk had been told, the verpine word for static electric charge. The game was based around getting all the magnetic wires to be magnetically linked together on your side of the cube by moving them around. The game was played with a holographic simulater, with no gravity.

Deciding he could not fret over this move any longer, Frakutsk chose one of his few remaining wires and used a curser to bring it further away from his opponents half of the board, causing the rest of his wires to come back a little as well, since they had been repelled slightly by that wire.

Frakutsk's opponent made the move that he had been waiting to make. He remove a wire from his large circular group of neatly connected wires. This caused another wire to disconnect, and then be repelled away by some other magnetic opposite in the sphere. It spun a little, and then pulled Frakutsk's wires in. They hooked together, and hooked onto a section of the Verpine's connected wires. The Verpine had won.

Frakutsk smiled and offered his hand to the Verpine, who shook it, remembering the human mannerism. This was Frakutsk's fourth loss out of the four games of Stch he had played since he had learned how to. It was interesting, but Frakutsk didn't think he would ever have the magnetic eye of some of the Verpine players.

It was a short space-ride over to the Asteroid where the Coalition was setting up base, and some Verpine came over just to say hello. This Verpine who had just beaten Frakutsk was a friend of Zdik. Zdik was the Verpine who had taught Frakutsk how to play Stch, insisting that everyone played in Roche, and that Frakutsk should learn how to, if just to make connections among Verpine.

Construction had been underway on a Coalition base in the Roche system for a few months already. In Verpine style, the Coalition had first created a tunnel system to work from in an asteroid, which served as a outpost until, perhaps, a more elaborate one could be constructed. Now, they were constructing a floating academy, mostly of engineering, hoping to hire some of the very skilled Verpine as teachers.

This academy was Frakutsk's idea of a way to improve relations with the Verpine. With most of the Coalition's efforts focused on the war, however, Frakutsk had not been able to negotiate a very large budget for this project. Despite this, the plans for the academy, which Frakutsk helped design, included more than just classrooms. There were centers for commerce, and even agriculture, if only gardens, among other things, on the station.

"We've recieved another frieghter of supplies on schedual from Tirahnn, sir," reported a young beaurocrat as Frakutsk entered the Coalition's administrative center, "Construction is proceeding as quickly as possible given our equipment."

"Ah, yesa, good," replied Frakutsk. It would take some time, perhaps more than a year, to finish this academy. Frakutsk didn't want it to look overly small and insignificant, so he had had to sacrifice some speed in favor of the final product.

Frakutsk brought up a holographic display of the construction, which was taking place somewhat outside the asteroid belt. The bottom portion of the station was already well underway. When complete, the academy would be roughly the size of one of Roche's larger asteroids, and would have a creative and impressive look.

Surely, there would be students from the nearby Cerea, and perhaps Azgaurd, who would want to learn at the academy from the Verpine, who had developed a name for themselves in ages past. Hopefully, the centre would attract merchants and the sort as well. Frakutsk was glad he had helped with this design, because it would honor him to be a part of what would hopefully become a pillar of the Coalition's ideals.

“No, no, Svent! Arrgh, look, it would be many times faster if you placed the inner beams first, see, and then these.”

Director Djorda Karr, a fierce-looking Cerean made large but precise markings on the confused Mon Calamarian’s report as she ‘calmly’ and ‘collectedly’ explained to him the flaws in his building project’s next phase. He was submitting this blue print for approval, as Djorda required all the engineers to.

The Mon Calamarian made a low noise and looked at his human coworker, who gave him an I-don’t-know-anything look. Removing his data pad from the projecter, the disgruntled Mon Calamarian turned around and began to rework the construction instructions without a word. This wasn’t the first time his plans had been shot down by Djorda Karr, who had a habit of checking on her subordinate’s progress even when they did not call upon her to review their work.

The vicious Cerean Ms. Karr demanded nothing but top-notch work from her small team of engineers whose job was to give the construction vessels instructions. Though their job may have seemed trivial to the layman, in fact, as Djorda Karr knew, it could have a large impact on the speed at which the academy was constructed, given the complicated design and less-than-ideal number of vessels.

Ms. Karr circled around the team briskly, casting a disapproving eye on all the projects, a maneuver which was reported to annoy even the most even-headed engineer, and then stepped into her office. She looked over the instructions for a bit of the space station that was on the border of the widest section of the station and curved from expanding outward to heading back toward the tip of the station. She performed an unnecessary calculation to verify that the section had the proper arc for its part of the circle before finally sending it off to be completed.

Out in the construction site, Rintyyn snickered loudly as he received another perfectly lain out construction order from Djorda. The Wookie lumbered over to the com station and roared something into the com. It was apparently humorous, because the human voice from the other side laughed.

“Allright, sir. I’ll get on it as soon as I’ve completed part 3.16d. Green team is almost finished with, uh, 2.45e… that kid’s got some nerve, all right.”

Rintyyn spoke an affirmative and a good-bye, heading back to his overseer ship’s controls, and coordinating some dockings.

“That Kid” from the Green team was Rakebaz, a young Mon Calamarian who had, in fact, led and piloted the first trip to the Roche asteroid belt, many months ago. As it turned out, he had performed a perfect Chandan backwards maneuver (whatever that was.) This job constructing the academy was a good job for him. Not only was his talent well-placed, for he had a head to remember maneuvers and the steady but swift hand to carry them out, but he planned to enroll in the academy and get advanced training in starship design, etc., and this job would look good on his application.

Rakebaz was working just below the widest section of the academy. Above him there was a large section made from metal colored slightly green. The section that he was constructing was the border of the green-colored section as the metal began to be somewhat blue. The grade was sharply downward, in contrast to the wide, flat section above him.

Soon, this lower area of the academy would be ready for some normal occupants. The shape of the station could be loosely described as a tall pyramid with a circular base upside down with a fatter pyramid with a circular base atop it. The color was a subtle artistic touch, but also happened to provide good organization for sections outside and within the academy.

The interior of the academy was designed in essentially three sections. The lower pyramid was full of corridors and residential complexes. It took a good amount of architects a good amount of time to design, but the same thing never appeared twice. The base of the large pyramid was designed to reflect a planet. There were plants and grass and even small bodies of water. This was also the main location of the academy itself. The room left above this was filled with functional rooms for the space station control, some reserved third-party space for cantinas or the sort, extra classrooms, and large meeting chambers (presumably also usable for things more exiting than meetings. Who could get by without some good Stch tournaments?)

And in seven or eight months it might very well be finished! The construction was ahead of schedule, a rare occurrence attributed to the Coalition’s hard-working and talented personnel. A few more months after that, the inside of the station would be well on its way to full operation, and when their oh-so-perfect semester plan dictated, the academy would open. Applications were already beginning to trickle in.

The agricultural floor of the Roche Academy was bright and uplifting. The feeling of new opportunities and prospects was strong as beaming young people got off the lifts from their two-floored intertwining homes down below. These were the best young minds (or, somewhat older minds, in some cases) in the coalition. Each one went through an impressive application proccess and extensive background review to be here, and now, gloriously, they walked to their first classes.

Now, they would have several years of training in engineering, physics, other sciences, and virtually any subject. When they were finished at Roche, they would take prominent positions among the Coalition, or even apply to high-profile White Knight academies or other "graduate" schools.

Holding data pads, they each went off to seperate 4 or 5 story-buildings, which rose happily out of the grass. There were Verpine, and all sorts of aliens, each filing off to their first class. And this was the beginning of the pleasant (if hard-worked) life of a student at the Roche Academy.

But elsewhere, other people, who had already graduated from this type of school, were more concerned. A group of experts, Frakutsk among them, were gathered in the operational headquarters of the Roche Academy, conducting long-range sensor operations.

"Yesa, look, wesa see debris andsa asteroid scatter everywhere... excepts for here. Setsa scanning mechanism to sonic... looks at those distortionsa. Itsa huge!" Said Frakutsk, pointing from his station to his coworker's.

Concerned but not convinced, the high-profile navigation expert went back to stuying his scan readings. These Verpine-technology Sonic readings were notoriously easy to misread, and the distortions which Frakutsk was pointing out could be from a number of sources.

Of course, that was where the Imperials were going to construct their space station. And the Coalition had confirmed that, indeed, the Imperials were constructing some sort of station, no doubt of a military nature. The odd thing was not that they suspected the Imperials had something there. The odd thing was that the Coalition suspected the Imperials had something huge there. It must have been cloaked... and it was beginning to scare the coalition.

And, indeed, even the fine engineers in charge of the Roche Academy station would most likely have never noticed this, even with the Verpine's sonic technology. They were fine with ignoring the obviously cloaked from sensors spot, thinking this normal. But the engineers were not the only ones on the Roche Academy Station.

Over these last few months, Frakutsk was developing his meditation skills that he had used in the battle between the Coalition, Verpine, and Imperials. He had found in long periods of meditation that he could extend his senses further and further, until, eventually, he discovered something out of the ordinary. While the Coalition experts were investigating into why they saw no Imperial Space station, Frakutsk discovered the force signiture of a large group of people, much like one might expect from a space station. So, that meant that the imperials were constructing something... and it didn't seem right to Frakutsk. It was up to technology to discover just what that something was.

"Minister, the asteroids all have varying consistancies. Without testing each of them for their individual sonic distortion, we coulden't be certain that the... hole in our sonic readings isn't just a product of a unusual set of asteroids influencing our readings of that area."

Frakutsk paused for a moment, then answered the human, "Yesa, yesa. But it'sa not likely. I say start testing, maybes the verpines have de asteroids' distortion constantsa. Rale," Frakutsk said, adressing another worker, who looked up at Frakutsk, "see if thesa Verpines mind giving usa little help."

Rale nodded and went back to working. Frakutsk nodded and went back to his station. No one asked why the imperials would want to cloak thier "legal" operation, it was clear that they must have been doing something that they didn't want the Coalition to know about. No one asked what the imperials were doing, because obviously no one knew.

Frakutsk was convinced they were making progress toward uncovering the state of things. The Academy, just now starting its classes, did not seem to be in any immediate danger. The fine minds of the Space Station control hard at work, and the fine minds of the students at the Academy also hard at work, Frakutsk, the Jedi, headed off to his temporary residance on the space station to meditate. Perhaps he could make some progress in discovering the imperial's hidden agenda.



Frakutsk's deep meditation was interrupted by the sudden presence of a young human at his door. An urgent knock sounded, and Frakutsk stood up from his cross-legged position to answer the door. Frakutsk pressed the button to allow his door to open, and was confronted by a young man, breathing hard and leaning against the doorway.

Upon seeing Frakutsk, the man, who coulden't have been older than 20 stood upright and spoke exasperatedly. "Sir! I just came back from flying around the system... and there's this giant cloaked spot on the other side of the asteroid belt!"

Frakutsk coulden't help but wonder who authorized this boy to fly a personal shuttle around this enemy-inhabited system, and Frakutsk certainly didn't approve of the man getting near enough to the cloak to actually see it, but he didn't exactly mention this given the situation.

"And, whensa are yousa classes?" Said Frakutsk instead, frowning but unable to prevent smirking somewhat.

"Not until 4:00, sir!"

"Hmm," responded Frakutsk, "and yousa have yousa space-crafts readings?"

The man, brown haired and green-eyed, Handed Frakutsk a datapad. The readings were clear. This was alot larger than the Coalition expected, and there was obvious activity. Frakutsk had no idea how the man got close enough to get these readings, but the man was obviously trying a little more than he let on.

"Do yousa have sonic records? Wesa think the cloak may not block thesa Verpine method of observation." This was stretching the truth. The Coalition had made suprising little progress in the matter over the past few months, largely because they were occupied arranging the Academy and finishing its construction.

The man smiled and pressed a button on his customized datapad user interface. He obviously had an extraordinary craft, but it was a saving grace for the Coalition. It was sketchy for whatever reason, but it was there. There was obviously something large being built. That was bad news, but it was the proof that Frakutsk needed to give the engineers.

"I see..." said Frakutsk, taking in the finer points of the reading.

"You can keep the datapad." Offered the boy, helpfully.

"Have yousa gone to the station control?" Questioned Frakutsk.

"Yessir. They asked me to come tell you." The boy might have said this earlier.

"Thank yousa much, I'm going back there, yousa cans come too." Said Frakutsk, he was now in quite a hurry.

He swept through the polished metal hallway, which was tinted green in places, with speed and grace, suggesting that he might unconciously be using the force to speed himself up. He then took the staff lift directly up to control. The young man was a little ways behind.

The place was significantly less tame than it was when Frakutsk left it. Everyone on staff was there, having been called from their off time to work on this new problem. Rale had a Verpine dignitary on the line, telling him worridly all the things they had discovered. The Verpine (as a whole) were not entirely familier with cloaking devices and were suprised by the threat that the cloaked vessle seemed to pose. However, they did recognise that this was within the bounds they had established for the New Order... even though (the Coalition thought) it was bound to be used to break those bounds.

The man who had woken Frakutsk (his name was Derek) turned out to be infinately valuable. Apparently, on this self-run mission he had managed to determine though inference that there were many smaller vessels patrolling the area to prevent any sneak-operations the Coalition might wish to perform.

"Wellsa," said Frakutsk, and everyone listened while they continued what they were doing, "I don'tsa think wesa accomplish alot from here. How are thesa sonic scan attemptsa?"

The man who Frakutsk had been talking to earlier answered Frakutsk, "I've been able to confirm the existance of something behind that cloaking device." This was not helpful. There was a cloaking device, of course it was hiding something.

"Yesa, we need to get in closer. Rale, see if thesa Verpines willsa allow us to use one of theirsa asteroids near desa Imperial ship. We cansa use sonic equipment from theres to determine what thesa imperialsa doing with accuracy."

Rale nodded, and concentrated harder on speaking with the Verpine. While the Verpine spoke basic well, Rale, a master of foriegn culture, was trying to learn a way to speak their language, and switched determindly to speaking Verpine now, as he continued his discussion. He was going to request the use of an asteroid near the Imperials soon.

From this post, the Coalition would theoretically be able to project just what was happening beneath the imperial's shroud of darkness. Frakutsk suspected strongly that the imperials were not building a center for learning.

Frakutsk listened, impressed, as Rale mimicked the Verpine speech in a way that didn't sound unnatural or stressed, but still sounded alot like the pitchless verpine click-speech. Frakutsk didn't think that he could have learned to speak a new language that well in just a few months. (Though he could use the force to communicate).

With Vigor, Frakutsk went over to the head engineer and together he, Derek, and the engineer set about finding out as much as they could about the imperial presense, using Derek's results from his solo shuttle mission.

Fortunately, though he and Frakutsk forgot about it entirely, someone remembered to excuse Derek from his classes.