Keshani, Nightshade, Nim, Trax: Arrival on Alderaan

[GM Craig]

With warning, and a gentle transit, you find yourselves in the Alderaan system. Almost immediately, you discover what it means to be in a friendly system.

Shortly after exiting hyperspace, you pick up an escort of a full squadron of patrol ships that take up protective positions around you. They are only armed with ion cannons, so they post no serious threat should Imperial troops arrive, but scanning the system, you see no sign of Imperial presence. Bail in kept quite busy on the comlink checking in with numerous people. At length, the ship makes a final approach to a spacious and well-equipped landing pad, where a large crowd has gathered.

The main boarding ramp opens, and Bail Organa is the first one down the ramp, to thunderous applause and cheers from the crowd. You are all close behind, and step up to a moderately-sized party near the foot of the boarding ramp. Organa and Leia step forward to an elegantly dressed human female with an elaborate hairstyle. They both bow, and they all embrace. Her and Bail share a kiss. Bail then turns and introduces you by name. The Queen addresses you with warmth and sincerity.

"Dear friends, you have returned my beloved husband and daughter to me, and returned the Viceroy to the people of Alderaan. You have our gratitude for your efforts, and the friendship of the people of Alderaan. In honour of the return of my family, we will be hosting a feast this evening in your honour. We would be very pleased to welcome you to our table, but do not hold this as an obligation. If you wish to remain out of the public eye, no insult will be taken by your absence."

Whens he finishes, and before you can speak, a uniformed officer steps forward. "Please, if you will come with me?" You quickly find yourselves ushered through a side passage, away from the crowd, as Bail's amplified voice echoes over the assembled crowd. It fades into the distance as you enter the palace. You notice a small cadre of other uniformed people fall in behind you.

"I am Major Antilles. Her Royal Highness asked me to be your liaison while you are guests at the palace. If it pleases you, I will show you to your apartments first. Once we have you placed there, we can see to any other needs you may have. Her Highness left explicit instructions that if you had any needs, we were to do our utmost to meet them."

You are led to a turbolift, and emerge onto a richly decorated floor. "Your attaches will be providing you with comlinks. Please feel free to call on them, or myself, if you need anything. You are most welcome within the palace. For now, I bid you good-bye, but I will see you again soon."

At this point, each of you are greeted by a member of Major Antilles' staff, and escorted you an apartment. Inside, you find a brightly lit suite of rooms, with large cathedral ceilings, and huge windows giving a magnificent view of the beautiful city and countryside, with nearby mountains and a magnificent lake nearby.Each suit is several rooms, including a bedroom, a sitting room, a private balcony, a game room (with a room-scale holoprojector) and probably the largest bathroom, tub, jacuuzi and sonic shower you have ever seen. Each suit also has a large walk-in closet with a wide variety of clothes already located within, each with a very good approximation of your size. The clothing ranges from simple (but high quality) clothing, allt he way to fancy formal wear and gowns. Each apartment also comes with a squad of personal care droids, programs with a wide range of skills on pampering guests, Alderaan history and customs, hair dressing, and fashion advice.

Everything screams wealth and luxury - even the carpets feel like walking on clouds, and the beds are like nothing you have ever experienced before.

In the intimate dinning room in your suites, there is a deluxe autokitchen programmed and stocked with a  wide range of food options from the mundane to the extravagant. For special orders, you have a direct line to the palace kitchens with a promise they can provide anything you might desire from anywhere in the galaxy, prepared by the hand of a master chef.

You are given a personal comlink, pre-programmed with your personal attache, and Major Antilles, as well as a dozen public-service contacts for various things like rides, entertainment requests, and other similar services.

At the end of the tour, your personal attache also explains that each of you have your own suite of rooms, but if any of you prefer to share, arrangements could be made with a minimum of fuss or inconvenience.

They remind you of the feast at 8, if you wish to attend, and remind you that the palace massage staff request at least an hour to do a passable job.

[Feel free to post reactions here, and let me know if you are attending the feast. If you want to do anything beyond that, please move to your scratchpads.]

[Keshani]

Kesh was immediately on edge upon seeing the large crowd gathered, her survival instincts kicking in, unbidden. She hated throngs of people - sweaty, noisy, pushing, shoving....they made great places for a person to hide who meant you harm. They also made it hard to escape, although sometimes they made it easier to hide....

Taking a deep breath she looked around for Maris before forcing herself to walk down the ramp. She had a feeling Maris would be the only one who was even more uncomfortable than her with the new surroundings, but figured she was probably making herself invisible for the moment...

She followed the rest of the group, feeling a little dizzy at the sudden change in surroundings, as they were led to the suite of apartments where her feeling of anxiety continued to increase about ten-fold as she saw the richly decorated floors and furnishings. She was afraid to even walk on them, for fear of messing them up so instead she found herself tip-toeing forward, trying to find somewhere to sit that she wouldn't get accused of wrinkling the furniture or anything else.

Finding the least fancy chair in the corner of the room she hesitantly sat down, curing her knees up beneath her and trying not to touch anything as she sat, trying to figure out what exactly she was supposed to do from here.....

(OOC: Not going to fancy, crowded, scary feast... :-p)

[Trax]

Trax checked a bewildered comment a number of times.  He'd been in what he considered very luxurious accommodations before at Cali's, but this, this was so far beyond that it almost made him uncomfortable.  But it was the perfect place for Nim's recovery, and for Rand.  He couldn't have imagined a better recovery room while she went through her numerous surgeries.

He had a number of requests he wanted to make, but they weren't urgent just yet so he'd leave them be for now.  Right now he had to consider the Queen's invitation.  They'd already been exposed to the public when they came off the shuttle, if that really mattered any.  The Empire was now very well aware of each and every one of them, so as he figured they had two options.  Hide somewhere that the Empire had no presence, or pop up here and there, very publicly at times, to keep them guessing as to where they might show up next.

When the mention that they each had their own room assigned Trax turned to look at Nim and exercised the skills she'd been teaching him.

Our room, or our rooms? he asked the woman, referring to either sharing a room or each having their own.  It was obvious his preference would be to share, but he was well aware that the woman may want times alone as well.  Granted, the suites were so big they could probably spend a month in one together and barely see each other.

[Nightshade]

Nightshade exited the shuttle with the others, looking around to take in all the sights.  Intelligence was of prime importance to his life, and the more information he could gather the better.  Unlike some of the others, the attention was not unwelcome...he trusted his skills to keep him out of the line of sight, more than anonymity. 

He had never been to Alderaan before, but the opulence wasn't anything new to him, he had served various high-profile clients before.  Setting his things in a corner of the room that was unobstructed by other furniture, he laid out his meditation mat and ran through his exercises to stay centered.  He was not going to let the lavish surroundings make him soft by any means. 

As the hour for the feast approached, he consulted with the droid both on any differences in local etiquette and to select something fashionable but muted to wear, and made his way to the dinner at the appointed time.  He was very interested in learning all he could about this culture and its people, in case future assignments brought him back.

[Nim Naja]

It wasn't hard to see the bewilderment that Nim was feeling as they traveled through the palace and suites. She'd been to extravagant places before, mostly during her and Alexa's 'golden years' of the holovid industry, but none like this. Besides, most other opulent abodes were utterly gaudy and here was elegance.

"A quarter of the bathroom is as big as my apartment," she mumbled not too loudly. She gave Trax a look of Oh yeah, we're sharing.

"Let's do the dinner. Nearly everything that I've built for the last five years had blown up the second we stepped foot on that station. So I don't mind living like kings and queens tonight."

She nodded to herself. "Yeah, definitely can't risk going back to the apartment. I hope I covered my trail well enough that Jodoba is left alone. I wonder if Bem ever sent us anything."

[Trax]

Trax couldn't help but smile at Nim's reaction and words, both spoken and unspoken.  He turned to the attache (or a nearby droid if the attache isn't present).

"Can you arrange for a room to be shared?" he asked.  When he'd received a reply he turned to Nim.

"Yeah, I'd have to agree.  Any damage due to public exposure has already happened, no sense in hiding now.

We could contact Bem, we're a little out of reach of anything he'd have sent us but we might very well be in the area again.  I've got a call or two I need to make anyway."