Viren Quell awoke to find himself still in the hammock, surrounded by aliens. @#%$. So it wasn't a dream.

X-1 turned and bowed deeply to him. "Mr. Quell, we are on our final approach to Azguard. The interdiction field is down and the space-port has aknowledged our landing-zone. I would request you gather any personal belongings you wish to take with you, the rest will be forwarded to an assigned room for you. X-6 with accompany you to see High Lord Regrad - "

There was an audiable grumble at this from X-4.

"-And from there we will see what happens next."

"Who is this Regrad guy, what does he want with me, and where the hell are we already?" Said Viren with force, swinging out of the hammock. Miette, who had been sitting nearby, got up.

"They told me all about themselves while you were asleep" she said, and she gently pushed him back into the hammock. Viren was not satisfied with this answer though, and he got up again.

"Seriously here" he said "I want some answers already. This has been one @#%$ confusing day."

"Actually, yesterday was the day where the majority of these confusing events occured" added X-1 "But we understand what you mean. All right, if you'll sit down and relax I will explain to the best of my ability what is going on."

Viren sat again, and waited while X-1 pulled up an old supply crate, sat upon it, and began to speak. "A commander in the Coalition and Lord of Azguard, Regrad, has dispatched us to offer you the chance to meet him so that he might hear your advice on galactic situations. However, our mission was compromised when you fled and the government was alerted to us. We had to escape, we didn't really have time to ask wether you wanted to come or not, and it wasn't safe to just leave you there.

"The reason you have never heard of the Azguards in detail is that we - for the most part - are a secretive race that hides in Wildspace and does as little as possible - most of the time - to attract attention to ourselves. Unfortunately, we have made ourselves know at times but we have never given out too much information, allowed to many visitors, or divulged the coordinates of our home.

"Our military tactics, our foreign policy, and our understanding of galactic functions and interations are all horribly organized and inneffective, and have improved little since their recent establishment. After our defeat in the war, Regrad came across your reports about our bumbling behaviour and found them to be stingingly accurate. He went on to read every piece you have ever published, and has taken a liking to how you handle yourself and your opinions. So, at last, he's decided he needs someone like you to tell him everything you know about the galaxy, so he in turn can go on and do whats' best for it. Do you comprehend?"

Viren sat there for a few seconds, as all this sunk in. His first thought was another passionat "Bullshit", no way would some powerful ruler far off in wildspace want to talk to him for advice on how to run his government, and certainly wouldn't deploy intelligence agents on a foreign world, risking an international incident, just to get at him.

But then, who were these guys? They were definetly intelligence agents, or something like that, and they had already risked an international incident to get ahold of him. Hell, one of their men was lying on a litter over there bleeding badly and covered in bacta-soloutions simply because he'd been prepared to kill himself then risk hurting them. That's practically dangerous fanaticism. Someone really wanted to talk to them, and so far it kind of made sense.

"...All right then" he said at last "I'll go see this Regrad guy, but you better not be making this up-"

He was interrupted - again - by the sound of the shuttle cutting through the atmosphere. Several lights blinked around the ship for a few seconds, and then everything went back to normal. The agents, Miette, and Viren crowded around a viewport and looked down on the mountain world below.

Dotted with clusters of lights and towers, the jagged mountains of Azguard rose to meet their ship as they made their way to the planets' capital. There, a landing pad glowed invitingly sticking out from the tallest tower on the planet, and they touched down upon it. The shuttle door opened, and Viren cautiously took a step towards it.

Outside, he saw a short walkway leading from the pad to an open door. An Azguard in a white robe stood there, guesturing for him to step this way. Feeling awkward, he and Miette stepped out of the shuttle, and were followed by X-6. Once the three were out the shuttle door closed, and it quickly departed for another landing pad far below. They moved along the landing pad, and were politely met by the Azguard in the white robe.

"Ah, Mr. Quell, so nice to actually meet you in person said the Azguard gleefully. "Regrad is just upstairs at the moment, but he would be more then happy to see you now. You look exhausted, how was your trip?"

Before Viren had a chance to answer the Azguard was already moving on to Miette. "And you must be his secretary, we recieved a communication to excpect a second guest half-way through the trip so your room isn't quite ready yet, but I'm sure it will be before dinner. Oh, what am I doing? Keeping you both out here in the elements? Come inside!"

As they all moved indoors, the greeter also added "And welcome back Mr. 6, your uncle was very worried when he heard news that the mission had run afoul of government forces-"

"Yes, ok, that's enough" said X-6, who waved away the greeter. "I'm sure my uncle will be happy to see me" he added, with little conviction. The greeter didn't seem to notice and quickly moved to the head of the group again.

"If you could just go through these doors here." He said, and waved in the direction of an elevator. "It will take you straight to Regrads' room, he's expecting you shortly."

Viren, still a little dazed by all of this, carefully opened the door and stepped into the elevator. X-6 and Miette followed him, and the doors closed, with the greeter waving madly at them 'till the last.

"What a weird guy" said Viren, as the elevator began to rise. "We won't be seeing many more like him, will we?"

X-6 chuckled "Oh yes you will. Pretty much every Azguard you'll ever see is like him. The only ones who have any sense at all are Regrad, the Intelligence branch, and some of the military officers."

Viren sighed. "Anything else I should know?"

"Yes" boomed a loud, confident voice. The doors slid open and they were in a spacious, fairly empty room with a bed, a chest of weaponry, a desk, a couple chairs, a computer terminal, and a single, crumbled fireplace. Behind the desk sat a weathered, gaunt Azguard with supreme confidence and authority exuding into the simple room around him. He guestured to a second chair before him. "Mr. Quell? Please, take a seat."

Viren, cautiously, steped into the room. Looking out the window, he could now percieve it was night, and the bright lights of a vibrant city shone brilliantly below. Regrad was leafing through some yellowed papers on his desk, and eventually Viren sat down. Regrad looked up and smiled.

"Ah, Mr. Quell" he said "I have waited a long time to talk to you, longer then you could imagine. I have read your work and I must say I am impressed. I have never known a man with such strong political beliefs, and at the same time such a just moral character."

There was a faint click and whirr noise as Mietted walked slowly over to stand behind Viren. X-6 seemed rather sullen and skulked over to sit in a chair at the far end of the room. Viren, who was finding the whole thing weird, spoke.

"Ok, no way is this right. No way is this the room of some "High Lord". The only leaders who would live in this sort of room are the ones who are dirt poor or the ones who are acting 'modest' and 'of the people'. Can you even prove you're this "High Lord" guy?"

Regrad sighed "A little cynicism is to be excpected. Mr. Quell, you must understand my nation is not very public, as it were. I can't really undeniably prove we're part of the Coalition or that I'm the High Lord, can I? I mean, any witnesses or officials I bring in could be droids. Any crowds could be holograms, any passports fake. So if you could believe, for a while, that I am in fact the Lord of these people, we are part of the Coalition, and I have brought you here for a chat, we can move on."

Viren paused. What the hell, its' not like there was anything he could do. "All right, so saying you really are "High Lord Regrad of the Azguards", what is it you want to talk about and why do you want to talk to me and not someone else? Its' a big galaxy."

"I am aware of that, and I can think of millions of dignitries and politicians I could invite and talk politics with, but that's the problem. When you talk politics with a politician you will only ever hear that politician and his views. You are a well-informed man, a moral man, and if I must see one persons' views I would rather see yours."

So a Lord of a faraway planet was apparently a fan and wanted to talk to him about politics? This is ridiculous. "Ok then" Viren said "So what do you want to talk about?"

Regrad turned back to a stack of papers, and plucked out a small, yellowed sheet. Viren could see it was a printout of his "Seven steps to destroying the Galaxy". Regrad scanned it, and put it back down "I gather that in general you don't like the Coalition? What is it we do that is so wrong?"

"Well" said Viren, feeling odd critisizing a government to its' face, so to speak "You've got good intentions, but bad execution."

"One could say the Empire is the other way around, with bad intentions and good execution, and is thus far worse. And since we often oppose them, isn't that a point in our favour then?"

"Well, when you think about it" answers Viren "How do you know which ones' worse? All it means is when you do something @#%$ up and apoligize you usually mean you're sorry, and not just lying through your teeth."

Regrad paused "Fair enough. What about the Soverinty, what do you think of them?"

"The soverinty? I don't know why you work with them. Its' bad enough you get the @#%$ beat out of you by The New Order, it doesn't help when you go running to anything run by men like Griff and Marth for help"

"But if they side with us, then surely they are doing the right thing? Siding with a losing just force then a winning evil one?"

"I think they were just using you as a distraction to grab some land while no one was looking, if you want my opinion."

"Oh, I do, Mr. Quell" said Regrad, who rose at this time. Over on the wall was a battered red button, which he hit with a little too much force. A fuzzy voice speaking in a grating language came out. Regrad responded in the grating language, and pressed the button again. He then sat down behind his desk.

"All right, Mr. Quell, what do you think of Jan Doddona?"

Viren paused here. He had to be careful, even he knew when he might be crossing the line. Joren Logan's loss was still fairly recent, and it was believed Jan and Jesmin were the only two left in any high point of authority, but reports had leaked out of a battlefield commander of equal importance to them in the Coalition. Looking at the humble room and the plethoria of weapons, Viren began to suspect this commander was the guy he was talking to.

"I think he's... an Idiot. The guys' got next to no PR skills, no tactics, and baisically has the diplomatic ability of a glass of tepid water. He's got good intentions and plenty of good organizational skills, and for that he's an Ok guy, but besides that I find dead animals with more capability to lead then that guy."

Regrad almost smiled.

"I think you're just the man we need here, Mr. Quell."

"Huh?" Viren had been caught off guard by the comment, and he didn't have anything ready to reply to it "What was that?"

Their conversation was interrupted by the clatter of a tray. The door opened, and two quizzical creatures walked in. One was very short, shorter then Viren, and he had grey, knobbly skin and a long, wiry beard. He also had a flat nose, which made his face look odd. He carried a tray with tea on it. Behind him walked an alien Viren had only heard of, a Frozian. Frozians were nearly wiped out when the Empire destroyed their homeworld, combined with race-wide sterility caused by too long away from home. He carried a tray with bacon on it.

They both smiled, put down their trays, exchanged some poltie words in the grating language with Regrad, who eventually gave a little bowing nod and the two left the room. Before they left, Viren noticed the short one whisper to the Frozian in the grating language, and he definetly heard the word "Viren" mentioned.

"Ah, excellent, some dinner" Regrad said, and proceeded to pour out three cups of tea. "I'm afraid I don't actually know of Miette drinks anything or not." Miette politely shook her head, and Regrad placed a cup of tea on a side table. Viren was offered a cup of tea, but he wasn't really paying attention to that.

"What did you say, though? Just before the tea came in?"

"Oh yes, sorry, how rude of me." said Regrad, putting down his tea "I'm becoming easily side-tracked these days, where was I? Oh yes, now I remember. I would like your help in forming a new ministry in the Azguardian Provincial Government. I call it "The Ministry of Ethics", and its' job will be to make sure the government of the Coalition - the whole Coalition - isn't doing anything immoral. I want this Ministry to monitor everything, the big and the small, and stop me or anyone else from doing something stupid or wrong that will cause problems or would be unethical, put simply. And as a prominent man of the galaxy with vast knowledge of how it works and a strong moral conscience, I want YOU to head this new ministry as "Minister of Ethics and Internal Affairs."

Viren just gawped. This was... insane. The Coalition couldn't possibly want HIM to work in the government. Did he even want to work in the government? He didn't know enough about the Azguards and this Regrad guy, maybe their morals are different, maybe they'll hang him out on a bunch of spikes if he does something wrong, how could he decide? This couldn't be real, honestly.

"Its' something to think about, I know" said Regrad, nodding politely, "You don't have to answer me today, take as long as you want. We have a room reserved for you near the ground floor. It isn't much better then this one, mind, but its' certainly closer to the kitchen. My nephew, X-6 over here will escort you for the time being. You are free to come speak to me any time, and you are also free to leave the planet alltogether, or wander freely around the city. I apoligize if I'm cutting our first meeting short, but its' late and I would really hate to keep you up."

With a little help from Miette and X-6, Viren made his way down to the elevator, took it down to a lower floor, found his room, flopped on the bed, and fell asleep once more.

Viren woke hazily, and fell out of bed. He took a look around the room, and saw that there was just a holo-viewer, window, bed, and bathroom. That's about it. Grumbling, he got up, and remembered he was still wearing the same clothes he'd been wearing for what must have been two days now. In the bathroom could be found a ceramonial-looking robe marked "Guest clothes". With the lack of anything else to wear, Viren put that on.

Opening his door, he found X-6 waiting for him, apparently sleeping while standing up. Viren raised an eye-brow and gave him a light poke. X-6 awoke, almost fell over, regained his balance and saluted.

"Okay then" murmured Viren as he closed the door behind him. The familiar click and whirr was heard just before Miette came out of a room further along the hall. Viren nodded politely to her and then turned to X-6 "So, what do we do now?"

"Anything you want." said X-6 plainly "If you want to accept Regrad's offer or just talk to him you are free to. If you want to leave you are free to do that too. Besides that, you can wander the city at will."

Viren sighed, some fun this would be. Like he wanted to 'wander the city'. Oh well, what else was he to do? Then he got an Idea.

"X-6, you Azguard guys, you've got libraries, right?"

"Oh yes, of course."

"And Holo-channels, you've got those too?"

"Yes, yes we do."

Viren nodded "If Regrad wants me to decide wether to join his Coalition or not, I should learn a bit about you guys first."

__________________________________________________________________________

What followed was a long day of reading in libraries, talking to people in the street, and watching everything on the Holo-net from the news to daytime shows and the like. Viren took a good, long time to pick up as much as he could about the Azguards, the Coalition, and their role in it. And the more he learned, the weirder it got. They were nice people, just, weird.

And the weirder they seemed, the more Viren felt perhaps this job was for him? They really did look like they needed some outside guidance, and they definetly had a just and moral society, it was just pretty stupid when interacting with people outside of their little niche in the galaxy.
__________________________________________________________________________

Returning to the Command Tower after a long day spent exploring Azguard, Viren once again ascended the elevator to Regrads' office. He was now quite used to the variety of aliens he'd never seen or thought were extinct all looking at him and whispering around him. His writings appeared to be pretty popular around here.

Viren, Miette, and X-6 waited in silence as the elevator continued to rise. Miette had insisted he buy one of those little paper flags an a commemorative mug, both of which he had stashed away for now. As the elevator finally reached the top floor, the doors opened, and Viren walked into Regrads' humble abode.

Viren entered, and saw Regrad was writing out a long sheet of paper. Looking up from his work, he smiled to see Viren step in "Ah, Mr. Quell, how nice it is to see you again. Do you hve an answer for me, or would you like to know something?"

"Yeah, what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swal-"

"I've heard that one, Mr. Quell, and I don't know. Anything else?"

Viren paused, this was his last chance to think it over. Dictating ethics to a bunch of aliens that will change massive, galaxy-spanning decisions? Did he want that kind of pressure? What if he did something wrong? But then again... it was a great job, he could make a difference in a galactic government, they really needed his help, and its' not like it would screw with his writing or anything.

"...All right then" Viren said "If you guys really want my help, then all right, I'll be the Ethics Minister."

"Splendid!" Exclaimed Regrad, who leapt to his feet. "Excellent news! Wonderful!" Regrad came around and shook Virens' hand vigorously. "We have already prepared an office for you. The ministry is in F-wing, its' two floors down from here. I've got everything set up and I've even left a stack of instructions on the desk. Lunch is at one, and the day is over at seven."

Viren and Miette were directed back to the elevator, while Regrad passed to them all sorts of papers, data-pads, and so forth, until they were back in the elevator.

"Welcome to the Coalition, Mr Quell."

*EDIT* I am fairly aware that this was a crappy ending, but to be frank this thread took forever and I kinda hurried along. Also I'd been expecting Viren to be under Gash's control, but as he wasn't it didn't come off as well as I'd hoped...