The Protostar representative sighed, reaching down to straighten his tie and brush non-existent lint off of his jacket one more time. The green alien turned as the door behind him slid opened on its power coils, another identical Protostar clone entering the small office. The newcomer, a Grade 1 Real Estate Agent, nodded once and spoke in a clipped tone, "The client is here."
Sighing again, the Protostar representative arose from his place behind the desk, moving briskly past his subordinate and into the room beyond where they kept materials and supplies to upload into the holographic housing displays that guests and customers could view in the main room. As he walked towards the showroom, the alien paused, reaching a hand out to push aside a curtain that divided the backroom from the show space. He parted the curtain just enough to peer through without actually exposing himself to the room beyond.
This early in the day the showroom was empty, which was exactly why he'd arranged the meeting for this time. It took him only a second to spot the person who'd come to see him, and he took a moment to study her.
Across the room a Highborn Cassian woman stood, peering at display of a magnificent Cassian estate. Long red hair fell to her mid-back as she peered over one of the cloth ropes that kept visitors from touching the display. She wore a red and gold outfit that playfully hinted at being the attire of a corsair while plainly having been made of the finest material that money could buy. Her ears were encircled by golden jewelry that sculpted her eartips into the pointed look of the Luminai, although the Protostar representative knew that she was an ordinary human by her height. Standing at no more than five foot, two inches, the woman would hardly tower over anyone as a Luminai might and in fact was likely shorter than any of Protostar's workers, especially given that they were all the exact same height!
As the alien began to push into the room he paused one last time, noticing for the first time that two rather hefty looking mag-pistols rode on the Cassian's shapely hips. He swallowed hard, noting how each of the pistols blinked with a merry green light on the handle indicating that they were fully charged. He straightened his tie one last, unnecessary time before pushing past the curtain barricade and into the showroom.
"Excuse me, Lady Flammadies? Lady Biara Flammadies?" he said politely, plastering a salesman's smile on his face.
The Cassian woman turned, her green eyes studying him and a smile playing across her lips. Although the Protostar Representative was not all that familiar with humans, he could tell she was young, likely just an adult and probably attractive for her kind, not that he cared much. She dipped her head towards him, her voice as soft as he'd imagined it would be and hopefully would remain, "Yes, good morning! And please, just Biara if you will. Formalities are for their time and place, but not when I am shopping hmm?"
The alien nodded, swallowing again before replying, "Yes, of course. I do apologize for calling you in so early in the morning. You see, there's been a bit of a...problem with your purchase. Yes, a problem! However, Protostar is here for you, and we're going to solve it!"
The smile on Biara's face dipped into a frown and she studied the alien more closely, "What do you mean 'a problem'? Is there some issue with my payment?"
The Protostar representative's eyes widened and he shook his head, "Oh no no no no! We certainly received your payment, and thank you for that by the way. No, the problem actually is with the logistics of the purchase. You contracted a Protostar transport to move your belongings to your new property if you recall, and we began that transportation operation yesterday."
"Yes...do go on..." Biara said, now looking suspicious.
The alien continued on, his words sputtering out, "Well er...there was a slight...malfunction, yes a malfunction in the cargo lifter's anti-grav thrusters and um..."
One of Biara's eyebrows had begun to creep its way ominously up her forehead as the alien continued, "And...?"
"Well, the cargo lander actually crashed. Into the property you purchased. And was vaporized. With all your things," the alien finished. He cringed slightly, looking nervous.
Biara's eyebrow had gone as high as it could without physically detaching itself from her face. Her voice was flat now, "I see. And my personal possessions?"
"A-also vaporized! But, there is good news!" the alien said, plastering the fake smile on his face again. "You were not vaporized, and since you opted to purchase Class III Protostar transportation insurance, we will make good on your property! There will just be a small matter of processing the paperwork which can take between ninety and three hundred and twenty days."
Biara rolled her eyes, sighing. She straightened her back murmuring a prayer to herself, "Evindra give me patience." She looked at the alien again, shaking her head, "I trust you have found me a new property to replace that which I paid for?"
"Oh of course, of course!" the alien replied. "That is precisely why I asked you to come. We've found you something temporary while we work out the paperwork for you! Please, step into the teleporter there and I will show you!"
Biara nodded, striding over to the teleporter, her red leather boots making loud noises on the stone floor in the empty showroom. She followed the alien through the teleporter, the world shifting around her as they dematerialized and reappeared elsewhere.
When her vision had stopped spinning from the teleport, Biara looked around, sighing again. They were on an equally large plot of land, but instead of the spacious mansion she'd planned to purchase stood a rather drab per-fabricated Cassian house. While that was disappointing, there were also some issues with the property in general.
"What is that...? Is that a meteor impact site? Seriously?" Biara murmured, pointing with some annoyance at the still smoldering hole on the far side of the property. She squinted, noticing that there were cargo containers near it and what looked like scientific equipment. "That is a containment unit. Is this property infested...?"
"Oh no no, not at all Lady Flammadies!" the Protostar representative said cheerfully. "Just a little precaution! We'll have all of this cleaned up in no time I assure you!"
Biara sighed again, looking over the property and noting some debris near the teleporter platform. "And there. Clearly you just scooped up whatever pile of dirt you could find in a hurry. There are marauder debris scattered all over the grounds!"
"No, I assure you we carefully selected this land using our expert surveyors!" the Protostar representative argued.
"Really? Then why is there a marauder cot and the remains of some keg party over there?" Biara said, pointing with one manicured nail. "You people really should have done a better job of resolving this."
"P-please, we did the best we could in a hurry!" the Protostar representative whined. "Please d-don't retract your payment! O-or vaporize me! My health benefits haven't kicked in yet!"
Biara sighed again, shaking her head, "I'm not going to vaporize you. Just...get me replacements for my possessions as quickly as possible. I am here to serve the Emperor and distractions like this are not welcome. You may go now. I will survey the property and send orders up to our ships with whatever materials will be needed to properly clean the grounds."
"O-of course, Lady Flammadies! As you wish!" the Protostar representative said, happily backing his way into the teleporter and disappearing.
When he was gone, Biara walked to the edge of the platform, peering through the shielding around her floating property and down to the planet Nexus below. It was there that she would serve her Emperor. There that she would honor the name of her family. The entire project may have started out poorly, but she would see it through.
Her green eyes tilted upwards to look at the heavens above, watching as ships entering the atmosphere left streaks across the sky. Up there, somewhere, the fleet was disgorging thousands of eager soldiers of the Dominion, and her family's own personnel and ships would be slowing starting up and making their way down. Soon they would begin to build up their resources, and then the enemies of the Dominion would learn what it meant to challenge her and her people.
As a particularly bright streak filled the sky from a large cargo-hauler heading down towards the planet, Biara Flammadies smiled and turned, walking towards her new home.
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