"Those demands are ridiculous, deliberately impossible for anyone to meet, and you know it, Tikkes!" Padmé seethed, pressing her palms flat against the large desk, crafted from a type of wood shipped directly from Mon Calamari.
Tikkes reclined back in his seat, pressing his fingers together pensively against the tentacles protruding from his face, calmly watching the enraged Naboolian. It was a display of arrogance that only served to add to Padmé's already simmering anger at the Quarren. If there was one skill the Quarren had picked up during his time in the Senate, it was being able to use someone's anger against them, to throw any pre-prepared tirade off balance.
Tikkes never tried to hide the fact that his only reason for getting into the world of galactic politics was for personal gain. To the surprise of no-one who knew him well enough, Tikkes had made his eye watering fortune with his various business ventures, many of which happened to firmly rest within the Republic's red list for illegal activities. There wasn't an ounce of charity within him, he was a capitalist through and through, one who had wished his ascension to a seat within the galactic Senate would allow him to alter and manipulate certain regulations that had been the bane of his business life for decades, aspiring to see the repeal of certain anti slavery laws.
But alas, the Quarren had found the Republic's political machine actively aligning itself against his proposed amendments. To his horror, he instead realised that not only would any attempt to ram through his desired changes fail almost every time, but that the Republic had plans in place to extend their anti-slavery legislation to the Outer Rim, the one place left in the galaxy where an unscrupulous business mogul had free reign.
Such a discovery led to his undisclosed alignment with the burgeoning Separatist movement, led by the former Jedi Master -- Count Dooku. Just like the other Senators who held sympathies for the Separatist movement, he was instructed to bide his time, to upset the already slow moving inner workings of the Republic before they officially broke away from the Galactic Republic altogether, something he already gained much enjoyment from doing. Promises of a better say in galactic affairs were all Tikkes needed to win his favour.
"Impossible? I don't see why, the people of Mon Calamari have a genuine grievance. I have a mandate that demands I take action," Tikkes shrugged, letting his turquoise eyes roam freely over Padmé's figure, with the Naboolian wearing a fetching decorative purple gown, weaved from Nightspider silk.
"You mean the Quarren people, the only thing you gain from blockading Ruisto is getting a sick sense of pleasure from starving the Mon Calamarians themselves!" Padmé countered, keeping her eyes locked on Tikkes's pitch black orbs, never one to allow herself to shrink away from a conflict. "There's also the matter of your blockade preventing the shipments of necessary parts making it to the Diplomatic Fleet."
"I can see how that can troubling, but import taxes are import taxes, I can't just allow the regulations to be ignored because Coruscant dictates it," Tikkes answered blithely, taking a sip of Xinphar to hide the gleeful twitch of his tentacles, watching the anger that bloomed across Padmé's face as he used Republic law to his own advantage.
"Yes you can, but only if it benefits you personally, Tikkes," Padmé cocked her hip, having heard more than enough stories about the obtuse nature of the Quarren Senator, with most issues he brought up over the years usually being resolved through barely disguised bribes. There was nothing she despised more than a sentient who so clearly had little to no respect for the democratic system, using it only to line his grubby pockets.
"Is that such a crime?" Tikkes asked sarcastically, offering Padmé a choice of any of the decanters containing a wide variety of Mon Calamari wines, which she promptly turned down. "If I benefit, then surely my people must benefit by default? At the end of the day, we as Senators must do what is right for the planets we individually represent, even if a few diplomatic missions on the other side of the galaxy have to be delayed because of temporary part shortages."
As much as Padmé wished she could have dredged up a piece of hard evidence that would have definitively proven Tikkes's suspected record of receiving bribes and back handers, she knew that the Quarren was a master of covering his tracks. His lack of any sense of honour or duty put the Naboolian woman at a severe disadvantage. "This is getting us nowhere, you're clearly just angling for something. Just tell me what it is you want in return for calling off your cruisers."
"Right down to business, that's the thing I've come to admire about you, Senator Amidala. You aren't like the other pompous twits that rant and rave in the senate arena, you get things done, just as I do," Tikkes explained, his fanged mouth formed into a devious grin. "Just look at the situation we're in now. You realised that this trade embargo could drag on for weeks, with both sides battling it out, each one trying to get the holo-cams attention as a means of boosting their profiles. Coming here means one thing, you wish to end this here and now."
