Kline Tel'daris

"Would any of you gentlemen happen to be Jebo Helica?"

Name	Kline Tel'daris
Age	36
Faction	Republic
Rank	Citizen
Species	Human
Occupation	CEO - A4 Industries
Hair	Black
Eyes	Green
Height	1.85m
Weight	85kg
Status	Active
Char_id	353

Profile

A Lawyer, A Politician and smooth talking business leader all wrapped up together. Kline runs a small for now freight corporation with R&D divisions in Spaceships and Droids.

Background

Kline Tel'daris grew up without a father. Kline's father was a politician like his brother but died in an accident before Kline's birth. He was raised by his mother, Lyta, who refused to beg for money from her late husband's family. Lyta was trained as an engineer, so she opened a droid repair shop to provide for herself and Kline. Lyta would buy droids from scrap merchants and refurbish them for resale. So from a very young age, Kline was around droids, dealing with customers, and helping to run his mother's business. This is where he picked up various trade languages and gained an understanding of droidspeak. Even as a child, Kline would handle sales and learned to be a shrewd haggler.

When Kline was 12 years old, his mother's shop and home exploded while he was out doing the grocery shopping. Lyta did not survive the explosion. It turns out the business was not healthy, and his mother had been borrowing money to pay rent. The unscrupulous types she borrowed money from were tired of her missed payments and decided enough was enough. After the "accident," Kline was taken in by his uncle Bartol. Bartol was a well-to-do politician and had been climbing social ladders his entire life, soon to be the Planetary Governor. Bartol Tel'daris was a friendly man to the public, but personally was a cold, hard figure. There was no love for Kline, just a sense of duty to his dead father.

Kline didn't live with Bartol for more than a week before he was shipped off to boarding school. The most interaction he had with his uncle was via letters. Uncle Bartol expected perfect grades, threatening to cut Kline's already meager stipend for food and board. Kline enjoyed learning and was grateful to his uncle for giving him the chance. Kline was going to make something of himself; maybe then his uncle would love him.

Kline excelled in academics but also in wheeling and dealing. Kline didn't have as many spending credits as the other kids, so he bartered what he had with the other children. The kids in boarding schools are not traditionally given the privilege of leaving school grounds, so if a child needs something, they write their parents who provide what they need. Unlike the other children who were all from well-to-do families, Kline could understand droids. Kline found out many of the helpful droids around campus that couldn't vocalize Basic would happily go on errands for you if you would just ask. So he was able to get things into the school that would normally not be allowed through normal shipping. Kline stayed away from illegal items, fearing what his uncle would think. So he stuck more to mundane items those banned by school rules that interested his fellow schoolmates to the consternation of their parents.

Uncle Bartol decided that Kline should be an attorney and had him shipped off to Coruscant University to study Law and Politics. "You could be a Judge one day," his uncle said. At University, Kline studied Mathematics and Economics as well as Law and Politics. He was involved in debates and public speaking clubs. He interned in a Coruscant Law Firm where he helped to proofread and perform research for corporate contracts. This is where Kline really got the ins and outs of the business world.

After graduation, Kline went to work as a lawyer at the same Law Firm he interned at. He worked for them for 5 years and had a few clients when he received news that his Uncle Bartol had died in his sleep. There was no love lost; Kline had given up the childish dream that Bartol would ever love him like his mother did. They were also not very close; Kline was barely ever in the same room with the man. So it was quite the surprise when he discovered he had been named in the will as the Executor of Bartol's Estate. There were also several things pressing that needed to be resolved; after his death, Bartol's Estate was using lots of storage reserved for the planetary Governor, and it was causing the Estate quite a lot of money. Kline took a leave of absence from the Firm and headed back to the Tel'daris Estate.

It was strange being back at the house; Kline had never stayed more than a week or two there in his entire life, so the whole place was foreign to him. Cleaning up after the death of his Uncle was a full-time job. There were several debts that needed to be taken care of, and many outstanding late fees from lapsed commitments. Kline was going to have to sell the house just to cover his Uncle's outstanding debts. While Kline was inspecting a warehouse his Uncle had been renting, he found many strange things. The most interesting thing was an Architect droid that appears to have been left to his own devices for many years. This was Kline's first time meeting A4-0.

There were things in that warehouse Kline had never seen before, one-of-a-kind things that A4-0 had built. There were droids, cybernetics, starfighters, and weapons. Kline asked A4 how long he had been there; after a few beeps and whistles, he found out the droid had been by himself for the last 20 years. That in his boredom, he had taken things apart and repaired them, made new things, took those things apart, and made other things. The warehouse had turned into a kind of Gallery showcasing A4-0's works. Kline informed the droid that his uncle had died, leaving everything to him as little of it was that was left. A4 was not like any droid Kline had never met before. Droid Manufacturers always recommended memory wipes every few years to keep droids under control. This droid had a mind and will of his own.

Kline knew that if he sold the droid, it would most likely be memory-wiped. But looking around at the warehouse, he knew that would be a huge waste of talent. There was profit to be made, and Kline knew droids had zero rights in the Republic. So Kline convinced A4-0 to go into business with him; he told the droid that with the correct legal structure, A4 could be protected long-term and left alone. As Corporations live on forever and they are often bound by covenants that are written into their founding documents. So they packed up the contents of the warehouse for sale and became partners.

A4 Industries Corp was born; Kline as the CEO drew up all the paperwork. He submitted all the required forms and paid all the fees. It was official; they were a corporation. Kline knew what he wanted to do; most of his life had been decided by his Uncle, he was going to pursue running a company. He told A4 that if they created a successful business, they could each get what they wanted. Kline wanted a happy life and something to do. A4 wanted to make things. And the more successful, the longer it could protect A4, even after Kline's death.

Kline decided they would sell some of A4's creations and would work on an automated shipping fleet that A4 would help him build. With A4's knowledge of droids and ships, it was only a matter of time. They could scale up by building more crew. Kline took the remains of his Uncle's credits and purchased a large container shipping vessel. It was modular, so it can be adapted to whatever they needed of it. It was a platform to kickstart their business, one of many more to come.

They started out shipping ore and food, things that were not valuable enough to attract pirates but in bulk was worth something. Kline was hoping they could get enough money to purchase a starfighter, and they could hire a pilot or A4 could build one. That way they could have an escort. And when they could slowly increase the value of the items they transported.

Logs

CLICK TO EXPAND

Title	Date	Scene Summary
Trash, or Treasure?	March 23rd, 2024	Soren contemplates giving Kline one of his old projects, but the droid escapes.
The Look of Audacity	February 17th, 2024	Wynn now hates Canto Bight.