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When I arrived at the Vande I found him sitting in the observation lounge, sipping his favorite drink, a Corellain Gin and Tonic. Having done my homework on the man, I knew that this was his favorite. Once I seated myself in a private booth, and had the waitress give him a drink on me, with a message that I would like to talk to him, I knew that I only had to wait for his curiosity to get the better of him. Sure enough, once she gave him the drink, and the message, he got up from his seat, and made his way over towards me. Hudson Hawk: "I was told you wanted to talk to me. Look, if it's about the Chandrilian Consulate's daughter, I had nothing to do with it. I'm not the father. " Intvr: "No Mr. Hawk I'm not here about that, I wish merely to interview you." Hudson Hawk: "Oh,…. well sure." Intvr: "Well Mr. Hawk" Hudson Hawk: "Please, call me Hudson." Intvr: "OK Hudson, Tell me about yourself." Hudson: "First, who do you work for?" Intvr: "I work for the Galactic Weekly News Stack." Hudson: "I've read your magazine, not bad. " Intvr: "Thank you, but if we could get on with the interview." Hudson: "I'm also writing a book too. " Intvr: "Really. What's it about?" Hudson: "Well I've noticed that a lot of people or corporations are putting out books about new and hard to find technology. So I've decided to put out my own called Hudson Hawk's Fantastic Technology. It will retail for about 10 credits and is Published by Stars and Nobles Galactic Publishing." Intvr: "Really, . . . um that sounds interesting, but please let's start the interview." Hudson: "Ok. Well I'm not going to talk about my early life, but Ill tell you one of the more interesting events that happened early on in my career. " Intvr: "And this is pertaining to?" Hudson: "I'm getting to that, it's pertaining to Tanquilla Beach, and by the look on your face I see you have heard of it." Intvr: "Yes I have. Never been there though. My magazine's insurance would sky rocket if they found out we sent people there." Hudson : "It's really not that dangerous of a place, if you know what to do. But that's beside the point. Well it all began about 5 years ago. I was being chased by some bounty hunters, and my co-pilot and I needed to lay low for a while. Intvr: "Who was your co-pilot?" Hudson: "His name was Boular. He was a Wookiee . " Intvr: "Was?" Hudson: "Now that is another story, but getting back to the point, we were running from the bounty hunters, and needed a place to lay low for a while. Boular had been to this shadowport once or twice, and he decided to head there. I was busy , didn't really care, and besides, what was I supposed to do to stop him anyway?. In my mind, any place was better than where we were at the moment, so off we went. After a 5 day jump we came out of hyperspace in front of a nebula, called the Wastes. Intvr: "And just where is this nebula at?" Hudson: "About 5 days jump from Sullust at x1. I argued with Boular, saying that we were in the wrong place. He just urfed at me and proceeded to fly the ship. We skirted the nebula, and after a while we came across a nav buoy. A closer scan reveled that there just wasn't one there was a whole slew of them, leading straight into the nebula. Well we followed them into the nebula and soon we came upon Tanquilla Beach." Intvr: "What does it look like?" Hudson: "It is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. And trust me, I've seen quite a few." Intvr: "Like for instance, the Consulate's daughter?" Hudson: "Hey! I said I had nothing to do with that." Intrv: "Don't worry, Mr. Hawk, I'll edit that from the record." Hudson: "Good. Well as I was saying, Tanquilla lies within a small pocket of open space inside the nebula. Tanquilla itself is bustling with lights, plus with all the ships around it, it is a swirling work of art. And when you add the multicolored array of the nebula as a backdrop, you have a picture of sheer beauty. Well we landed in a private docking bay, and after customs…" Intvr: "Customs? On a shadowport?" Hudson: "Ya, they have customs, but they just want to know what's on your ship, nothing more, they didn't really care that you had it or how you got it." Intvr: "What about weapons?" Hudson: "Sidearms are ok, but as to grenades, missile launchers, and biological weapons, they not allowed off the ship. " Intvr: "So, what is the station like?" Hudson: "It's pretty big and it has lots of stuff to do in it. It has a bazaar that would put an Ithorian herd ship to shame. Plus any type of shop you could think of: gun shops, armor shops, one of the best ship modification and repair docks in that sector of space, also survival stores for the scouts, computer stores for slicers, and surveillance shops for the paranoids." Intvr: "Pretty busy place." Hudson: "That it sure is. Well after shopping around I got kind of thirsty, and decided to head up station to the greatest bar I've ever found in the Galaxy: The Asteroid Bar. I've heard people say that if the bazaar is the heart of the station, then the Asteroid Bar is its soul." Intvr: "The best, huh. So what is this bar like?" Hudson: "The specifics are kinda... fuzzy but I do remember that when I walked in there, I saw the bounty hunters that were chasing me, all sitting at the bar." Intvr: "What happened? Did they start shooting?" Hudson: "Nope, Tanquilla is considered neutral ground for bounty hunting. Intvr: "And how do they enforce this?" Hudson: "Oh easy, they have hired about 50 real badass mercenaries to police the station, and they do a good job of it too. I guess the owner of Tanquilla has a belief that violence is bad for business. Violence on the station, that is. Intvr: "So what happened?" Hudson: "Oh, the bounty hunters offered me a drink, and after checking it for toxins, I had that drink. After a few more drinks, the leader of the hunters said that they would be laid over on Tanquilla for a few weeks, and I could get a good head start. " Intvr: "So did you take that rather kind advice?" Hudson: "Of course I did, in fact, I left station a few hours later, and they never caught up with me again." Intvr: "Probably because their employer died." Hudson: "Bingo, when the slug kicked the bucket, they stopped chasing." Intvr: "Well that was interesting, really, but what else have you done? For example, how did you get in debt to Jabba the Hutt in the first place?" Hudson: "That's a long story, and it all started …. Hey! that cute Twi'lek over there at the bar is checking me out, so I'm going to go talk to her now, No offense, of course." Intvr: "None taken, so when will we meet again?" Hudson: "I'll find you." (Hudson gets ups and leaves) Intvr: "Thus ended my first interview with the slippery Hudson Hawk, this may turn out to be a very interesting story, very interesting indeed... "
The preceding article is an excerpt from the first section of the Tanquilla Beach Supplement. This supplement is due out this spring from Stars and Nobles Galactic Publishing. If you have any questions, or wish an update on our progress, please email us at Tanquilla_Beach@hotmail.com. We hope that you enjoyed this preview. John Patton, for the Stars and Nobles Staff
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