"Gentlemen...welcome." CEO Jakkon said with a grin as he folded both hands in front of him and placed them on the conference table.
The CEO looked about the table at the various department heads of his company, Rothana Incorporated. They were all wearing looks of approval and nodding their heads, seemingly satisfied.
"Rothana Inc. is now the top distributor of starship weapons systems in the entire region!" He said, his voice booming across the room.
One of the Department Heads - Manufacturing, Jakkon saw - nodded and grinned, his perfectly white and straight teeth showing, "We have finished the first line, with twelve thousand more units well on the way."
Jakkon grinned, "Perfect."
They were all basking the in the glow of their own success.
***
Hours Later
"Thanks, Marla, but I think I'll be retiring for the night." Jakkon said as he walked through the antechamber in his office.
Marla, an utterly stunning young woman and his secretary (and lover) of three years, merely nodded but said nothing as she busied herself with a few datapads on her desk. Jakkon ignored her silence and opened the door to his office.
"Hello." A voice said out of the darkness.
Jakkon started and fumbled with the light switch near the door. He flipped it and blinked as the bright light flooded the room, revealing a tall man of average build, whom he did not recognize, sitting at his desk.
The man had gray hair, a lean, handsome face.
"Uh...hello..." He fumbled.
The man did not stand up, and instead twirled a small blaster around his finger so quickly it was nothing more than a blur of motion. Jakkon blinked nervously, realizing his own blaster was in his top desk drawer... in other words completely inaccessible.
"Your weapon is useless." The man said, as if reading his thoughts, "But please, come in."
Jakkon stood his ground, unmoving, and would have stayed that way had someone not shoved him forward roughly from behind. He whipped his head around, and to his horror, saw Marla.
She smiled sadly and - to his complete shock - her skin began to crawl as if of it own volition. As it did this, her head began to get bigger, the hair on her head shrunk, and her height and other dimensions changed.
He stared into a spitting image of himself.
"This is a trick!" he shouted, "Help! Help!"
The man laughed coldly and finally stood up, "Oh shut up. Nobody can here you. Your staff in this building is dead, already being replaced by my men. Your pathetic cries are useless."
Jakkon turned to run, but as he did, he found himself staring down the barrel of a blaster - held by the thing that looked just like him.
"Useless, I told you." The man said.
"Who are you?" Jakkon asked.
The man smiled again, coldly, "I am the Black Hand."
"THE Black Hand? of the Sovereignty?" Jakkon asked, shocked.
The man smiled, "Don't recognize me?" He asked.
Jakkon just frowned trying to place his face.
In response to his confusion, he stood regally and tall, and spoke in a strong powerful voice, "We the citizens of the Outer-Rim Sovereignty, hereby declare a state of war against the Emperor and his Galactic Empire..."
Something about his stature... the way he carried himself... something...
"Griff!" He all but shouted as he recognized the most wanted man in the galaxy.
"That was my favorite speech..." Griff lamented, as if in a trance, completely ignoring Jakkon for the moment.
"What do you want?" Jakkon asked hesitantly, breaking the tense silence that had engulfed the room.
Griff seemed to snap out of it, and looked back up at Jakkon, still twirling that blaster at lightning speed, "Why, Rothana Incorporated, of course." He said flatly, as if talking about the weather.
Jakkon's mouth fell open, "What? Impossible!"
Griff gave him a nonchalant shrug, "Why not?"
"This is MY company. I won't let you steal it from me!" Jakkon shouted.
Griff took a few steps forward, toward him, that blaster still spinning in his hand, "I am not here to steal it. I'm here to make a deal."
Jakkon gave him a hateful look, "What deal?"
"I need a planet, and a front company, Mr. Jakkon. You are it." Griff said.
"I'll be damned if I take orders from you." Jakkon said darkly.
Griff walked toward him, and as he got close enough, raised his arm and pointed the blaster directly at his face, right between the eyes, "You'll be damned if you don't."
He pointed the blaster at the Jakkon-thing that stood behind him holding the blaster to the back of his head, "Sturm here will gladly take your place if you decide not to cooperate. Either way, I win."
Jakkon growled, "Never."
Griff laughed, "Whatever you say."
He squeezed the trigger of the blaster pistol.
