Galactic City

[nickcousland]

Coruscant (pronounced /'kɔɹəs¨»nt/), originally called Notron, also known as Imperial Center or the Queen of the Core, was a planet located in the galactic Core. It was generally agreed that Coruscant was, during most of Galactic history, the most politically important world in the galaxy. At various times, it was the capital of the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire, the New Republic, the Yuuzhan Vong Empire, the Galactic Alliance, very briefly the Fel Empire and Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire. In controlling Coruscant, these governments controlled most of the galaxy in the process.

Coruscant's hyperspace coordinates were (0,0,0), making it the center of the galaxy, though it was not the galactic center, located in the Deep Core. The hyperspace coordinates inspired the planet's military designation, Triple Zero. A large number of the galaxy's trade routes¡ªincluding the Perlemian Trade Route, the Corellian Run, the Metellos Trade Route, the Koros Trunk Line, and the Leisure Corridor¡ªwent through Coruscant, making it one of the richest worlds in the galaxy.

Over the centuries, Coruscant had developed into an ecumenopolis. The actual planet-wide metropolis of Coruscant was called Galactic City. Under the Galactic Republic, the names Republic City or the City of Spires were also used to reference the city. It was also called Imperial City under the Galactic Empire, and New Republic City under the New Republic. However, in practice, Galactic City and its other names were sometimes applied to the Senate District, the central government center and de facto capital of Coruscant. Under the Yuuzhan Vong, the city and planet were both referred to as Yuuzhan'tar.

[nickcousland]

Nick flies the ship across the city-scape of Coruscant and approaches the designated cooridnates that were transmitted to him. He spots the landing platform and brings the Light's Hope in for a landing. He shuts down the engines and powers the ship down. He opens the hatch and leaves the cockpit. As he approaches the ramp, he notices his contact Hanvai waiting for him. He heads down the ramp and approaches her.

"Greetings Hanvai. My name is Nick Cousland. I believe you are expecting me?" His voice coming through clearly regardless of the bio-suit helmet he's wearing.

[El Supremo]

A young Cathar woman carrying a stack of data-tablets and looking slightly harried is waiting and approaches as he comes down the ramp of his ship. She is escorted by two aides and a single armed guard.



"Greetings Master Cousland, I hope your trip and route into system was uneventful. If you have any gear with you these aids will take care of it. I do hate to rush you off to a meeting so soon after landing, but the Administration heads and the Chief of State will be getting the latest briefing from the medical corps in just a few minutes."

She finishes her sentence in a near shout as diplomatic shuttle comes overhead and lands behind her on the open slot on the platform. Che turns and shouts back over her shoulder over the noise.
"Looks like out ride is here! My aids will take your equipment to your rooms in the Executive Building"

[nickcousland]

He nods his head as the woman and two aides approach him. "Yes, the trip was decent enough. No trouble at all." He then reaches into his bag and grabs his lightsaber and clips it onto the belt of the bio suit armour. He taps a couple of keys on his wrist computer and a hover cart comes down the ramp. He turns to look back at her. "These are supplies that I brought with me. That should be all I need at the moment."

He watches as the diplomatic shuttle arrives. He looks at her and nods his head. "Very well. Tell them to be careful transporting the equipment up to the rooms. They are very delicate and expensive." He says and approaches the shuttle.

[El Supremo]

As they hop into the transport and the doors close, the sound becomes a much more comfortable background hum.

"My apologies Master Cousland, after your trip I am sure you would much prefer going to a room and getting cleaned up."

She hands him a datapad, and then another.
"The Senate faction leaders and the executive staff are going to want answers from you I am sure, here is the latest we have figured out. As you can see were are still not sure exactly how this virus is transmitting from person to person. No public statement has been made yet of course, but there is an epidemic of a Nemodian virus running concurrently, more than likely brought on by all of the refugees. It has been going on for quite a while now, billions of people here are infected with it, but except for the very weak, old, or young better than 99% of beings get over it within a week or so with no lasting ill effects... It is the closest common element to this virus that we have identified so far, however there seems to be some correlation with the ATG-341 series chemicals used here to restore some elements of the vongforming. It may have caused a mutation in the strain of the Nemodian virus. If that is the case, with how virulent it is prior to mutating... well, If it has a virulence of greater than 34% we are looking at less than a quarter of the population...

She pauses and pulls a bottle of water out of her satchel and takes a sip before continuing.

"Sorry, with all the bio-chem in the air it drys my throat out something fierce. As I was saying, if it is at 34%, we expect less than 1/4 of the population to survive the month. That is what the numbers are projecting currently, our sources for data are scarce as you can see. The remains of the victims rot much faster than is normal for the climate.

This is something very nasty Master Cousland... and we may have been the ones responsible for it. We are hoping the Jedi can determine the cause and to find a cure or at least a preventative. Though we may not make it to the end of the month, as you can see from the other reports we are loosing more people to fear of the virus than it itself.

She is clearly nervous, but she finally manages to fall silent and let him read to prep for the meeting.

[nickcousland]

He nods his head in understanding. "I'd rather head up to my rooms and get settled in, but I understand the urgency of this of course." He takes the datapads she hands him and glances at them.

"They're going to want answers from me? That's going to be kind of difficult to start out with. For one, I have no idea exactly what's happened other than it being a virus. For one, when did it start and where did it originate from?" He leans his head back against the seat.

When she mentions vongforming, he thinks a minute. "Vongforming? I wonder...this virus could indeed be a mutation from the Yuuzhan Vong mixed with another sickness. If that's the case then, we'll need to keep an eye on all the other planets that the Vong had terraformed to their likeness."

He nods his head when she drinks from her container. "Its quite all right. Now, you were saying that only possibly a 1/4 of the population would survive the month and that the corpses rot and decay faster?"

He sighs and nods his head. "You're right. If this keeps up, the citizens of Coruscant will begin to riot out of fear. I'm afraid we may have to implement martial law just for their own safety."

[El Supremo]

She shrugs;
"I know, it does not make sense seeing your basically getting the briefing now that everyone else will be getting at the meeting. But you know how it is, your a Jedi... they are going to be looking for you for the answers, even if your only reading the same thing they are.

From what we know; one of the aids to Senator Draavo may have been the first known case of it. She was the first one to die from the disease at any rate. Senator Draavo contacted it shortly after her from what we can tell, and succumbed very quickly. He was at a breakfast lecture when the full symptoms began, not long after making it to the hospital he died. As we started to review who he had contact with we discovered his aid had not arrived to work that morning, and in investigating her residence we found her remains. Of course with the degradation, we may have missed something, but there did not appear to be any indication of a substance being forcibly introduced unless someone gassed her with it."

She takes a sip of water and then continues

"Well, that is what I am saying to you Master Cousland, it at this point is pretty clear that it is not Yuuzahn Vong. What it appears to be is what we did to get rid of the Vongforming. If word of that gets out... I do not have to tell you how fast the government would collapse and we would once again be back in a civil war. As to the virulance figures, yes, if this is as contagious as the Nemodian Space Virus it looks to be mutated from, We might be looking at almost 75% of the planets population becoming infected in the first month. And there is no evidence as of yet that it is possible to survive the disease.

That is the main cause of the emergency session today. The riots are getting bad now, just with the traffic tie-ups from the quarantine, people are causing accidents while trying to get in or out of system illegally. Right now more people have died from that and the riots at the spaceports than the disease itself. People are calling for a march on the Senate.

She sits back and takes another sip of water as she watches him read and digest the information.

[nickcousland]

He silently nods his head as he listens to her. "Yeah, I know how it is. That's what I get for staying secluded at Yavin for so long. I get behind on things. Bugger." He mutters quietly to himself.

"I see. What exactly are the symptoms of this virus? I understand that it is currently a high priority assignment of the Senate." He sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. "So the first main thing I need to do is see Senator Draavo's aid's apartment. She was the first to die from it? And then Senator Draavo at his meeting. Interesting. I'll need to see that location as well. One more question, where are you keeping the remains of the victims?"

When she mentions that it was not of Yuuzhan Vong origin, he raises an eyebrow. "So you're trying to tell me, that it was us that somehow caused this virus outbreak while trying to restore Coruscant? Oh maker. This won't set well indeed. We definately need to make sure this does not get out to the public that the Government was the accidental cause of it."

[El Supremo]

She takes another sip of her water, as the shuttle crosses over the ruins of the Old Senate, most of which has been partially removed and is now a park.

"Well the symptoms start off as most of the common Nemodian-strains; aches and pains, lack of energy, headaches, nausea, mucus of the eyes, ears, nose-throat, fever, etc. but it progresses rapidly to intense abdominal cramping, difficulty breathing, eruptions of sores discoloration of the skin, and those progress rapidly. It ranges from several hours to as short as a half hour for the symptoms to cause fatality either through unstoppable progression of fever, anurisim from clotting of the blood, or in the worst cases, the sores that form in the lungs react poorly to oxygen... the faster people try to catch their breath the faster they wind up poisoning themselves. In short, they are frequently agonizing deaths.

I will make arrangements for you to see the aid's apartment and the And the room where Senator Draavo was in prior to his collapse. We will be also going to the facility where the remains are.

As to the other matter, it is not definite yet, but a particular amino strain of the disease has chemical markers that indicate that somewhere along the line it reacted with one of the chemicals used in restoring Coruscant... and elsewhere."

[Caitlin Windancer]

Earlier that day in the quarters of the Bakuran embassy.

The alarm sounded and Amelia groaned not wanting to get up yet. She was soooo tempted to turn off the alarm, pull the covers over her head, turn over and go back to sleep. No matter how tempting that was she couldn't do it. The ambassador was counting on her. She turned off the alarm and laid there for a few minutes trying to remember the dream that the alarm had so rudely interrupted.

Why is it that the alarm only does that to the good ones? She thinks. And it had been a very good one. Though in her opinion any dream with Nick Cousland in it was a good dream, especially when he was kissing her. She still could feel the imprint of that kiss on her lips, hearing his voice calling her his beautiful wife and saying I love you.

I wish. He probably has forgotten all about me other than as a childhood friend. He probably has a Jedi girlfriend he is mad about. She thinks depressing herself. Then rolling over on her side and punching the pillow with a groan of frustration before she rolls back over. She reluctantly throws off the covers and puts her feet on the floor in preparation to getting out of bed. She runs her fingers through her hair and sighs.

How do I get my self in these situations? Stuck on Courscant in the middle of a plague? She says out loud not really expecting an answer. Who would ever think that switching places with her friend so that she could go on an extended honeymoon would lead to this. She sighs again. No time for this. I need to get ready and meet the ambassador. The chief of state has called an emergency meeting on what to do about this plague thing.
It was rumored that the Jedi had sent someone to help find a solution to this thing.

She sighs again and gets up to take her shower and get ready. When she is ready she puts on her bio-suit over her clothes and leaves.
********

A couple of hours later Amelia is standing next to the Ambassdor of Bakura having just the heard the Jedi Master has landed and is on his way to join them in this meeting with the Chief of State. She gets a little jolt of excitement when she sees who the Jedi Master is. Nick! She thinks. It's Nick! Oh no! He is going to be angry when he sees me here. She looks around for a place to hide. Maybe if I'm real quiet he won't notice that I'm here.[/i] She thinks.

[nickcousland]

He listens intently as she describes the symptoms to him. "Ugh, sound like a definate gruesome death. The Force help those who are infected." He sighs quietly and watches as they fly over the ruins of the Old Senate building.

He looks at her and nods his head. "Good, that way I can try and see if I can find anything you guys missed."

He raises an eyebrow. "So this chemical caused a mutation somewhere along the way in the disease? Great, that's just great. I'll need to see exactly what chemicals were used in this process. Maybe somehow I can discern a cure from out of it."

[El Supremo]

"That is the theory that the teams working on it have come up with so far. But then again they are not Jedi either. I hope they are wrong about it, it would certainly cause massive hatred towards the Alliance.

The ship skims down and lands on a pad of the New Executive Building. They are high enough up that there is only a token guard at the platform, this being well above the public entrance levels, and in a secured airspace. Hanvai gathers up the datapads and opens the door for the Jedi Master. "After you Master Cousland"

[nickcousland]

He nods his head. "Massive hatred to the Alliance indeed. We need to keep this quiet from the RGE as much as possible. Word gets out, the Alliance will be the laughing stock of the galaxy."

He watches as the shuttle comes to a complete landing and then he steps out of it when she opens the door for him. "Well, let's get this started then shall we?"

As he exits the shuttle he pauses momentarily, almost swearing that he recognizes someone that he knew from his childhood with the dignitaries, but shakes his head and keeps walking with Hanvai.

[Caitlin Windancer]

When Nick pauses for a moment after exiting the shuttle, Amelia holds her breath and ducks behind the Amabassador.

Muttering under her breath, Don't notice me, I'm not here. You don't see me. You don't see me.

She breathes a sigh of relief when he continues walking. She peeks out from behind the Ambassador and thinks. That was too close. Now if I can avoid him seeing me for the rest of the meeting.

She watches him with longing in her eyes as he follows Hanvai over to talk with the Chief of State. She is glad to see him even in these circumstances. She somehow has the feeling that everything is going to be okay now. Nick is here. He always made her feel safe.

She thinks to herself as he stands talking to the Chief of State. How is it that he can make even a bio-suit look sexy?

[El Supremo]

The boring and overly formal portion of the proceedings gets over with fairly quickly as they walk in. "Senator So-and-So, head of the Something or over committee, vice-chair of the .... and so on and so on." They are quickly escorted into a large circular meeting room where the Chief of State is already at talking with a few official but non-Senatorial looking sorts. Several clinically dressed people are gathered in a small group pouring over data-pads and conversing with themselves.

As the rest of the entourage file in, they all fan out to take their seats. Apparently this is something the the Senate must spend most of their days practicing, because they all shuffle around and past each other knowing apparently exactly they are all supposed to wind up in orders of seniority and status. Hanvai notes how this complex orchestra progresses and with a weaving fingers finally points to a pair of chairs, once she had determined the correct protocol pattern they were using for the day. To one not used to it, it is more akin to watching the jocking of Droidball players or an elaborate dance.

"There those two chairs... your in the one closer to the Chief of State."

[nickcousland]

He nods his head to Hanvai as they both enter the meeting chambers. He takes his seat and listens to the many different Senators talking. He then notices the Ambassador of Bakura and a young woman seated next to him. He nods his head politely to them both and then nods his head to the Chief of State.

"Well, Chief of State, if you are ready to get things started, I'm sure we have a lot of work ahead of us."

He pulls out a datapad and begins to get ready to take notes.

[El Supremo]

The Chief of State nods to Nick and to all assembled.

"The purpose of this meeting is to update us all on the current state of the disease, and the steps we need to consider to control it and develop a cure. I have asked of the Jedi to assist and offer guidance in this matter due to the serious nature of it. Master Cousland here *gestures*; Is a member of the High Council and was personally recommended for this assignment since healing is one of his primary focuses. He has just arrived and it is my understanding he is getting up to speed, so before beleaguering him with questions let us hear from the science team... Doctor Saygnlus..."

Doctor Saygnlus leads a short but well prepared synopsis of the data known on the disease. He leaves out the full nature of the theory that there was a GA issued chemical involved, glossing it over to "environmental contributors" to the mutation. At the end of his 5 minutes of talking, he inquires if there are specific questions.

[Caitlin Windancer]

Amelia watches Nick as he takes his seat next to the Chief of State from under her eyelashes trying not to stare. She knows if she is not careful he will be able to feel her watching him just what she is trying to avoid. Her breath catches in her throat when he nods to her and the Ambassador sure he has caught her staring. She briefly nods in return while looking down at her datapad hoping he doesn't recognize her. She then lets out a sigh of relief when he turns his attention to the Chief of State and gets out his datapad.

As she sits there the image from her earlier dream comes in to her mind again. She tries to push it away and it comes back even stronger. No, not now. She says to herself becoming distressed. She again feels the press of his lips on hers as the image strengthens then suddenly fades. Her breath has quickened and she gives a small audible gasp when the vision fades. Her hands are trembling and she grips her datapad as if for dear life.

Her vision has set off a slight tremor in the Force because that was what it was ....a Force vision. Anyone with the any sensitivity to the Force will feel it.

[Sam Milla]

*Sam makes it to the space port and buys a ticket to Hapes but he gets in his own ship then takes off for Courscant Orbit.*

[nickcousland]

He listens intently to the Doctor's report and nods his head slightly. He notices that Saygnlus left out mention of the GA fault in it and shakes his head slightly. He then raises a hand slightly and looking at his datapad, he speaks. "Yes Doctor, so its for sure a mutated variant of a virus that is common among the Neimoidians. Now how far along are we in developing a cure, or have we even started developing one yet?"

He then feels a slight tremor in the Force and being incospicuous, he looks slightly at the woman sitting next to the Bakuran Ambassador. It is then the he realizes who she is. He smiles slightly but turns to look back at Doctor Saygnlus to keep his mind on focus.

He then makes a mental note to send a message to the Prime Minister of Bakura, his father, Lucian Cousland.