Dinesh

**Dinesh** is the name given by Salanda to a Lobha trader who frequently visits the Mu Squad. His real name is impossible for a human to pronounce.

## Biography

He is cagey about his life outside of his relationship to the Mu Squad, but is known to run an interstellar trading empire with connections to several warlords and the ability to get his friends a personal audience on short notice.

When the Mu Squad arrived in the Andromeda Galaxy, Dinesh was quick to offer his assistance as a trader and guide to the new world. He joined several members of the Squad on an excursion into the jungle to hunt a night stalker, though he hid at the first sign of danger and only emerged later when it was time to deal with the corpse. He took it off-planet with him and returned later with a number of tools and weapons for the Squad, as well as a list of Gate addresses for them to explore.

He rather reluctantly introduced them to Ahankari Prime, which the tyrant took as an opportunity to intimidate Dinesh and offer a preview of his fate should he attempt to cheat her. He took this threat quite seriously, being reluctant to meet with her again for some time.

When John Ramos was infected by the Ragan bioweapon, Dinesh helped Kira, Mase and Joela visit General Ragan's space station through his connections, but declined to attend personally, having business matters to attend to.

He later provided the Mu Squad with a selection of missions in O-Town to improve their finances, and also took Kira, Mase and Julius Romani to an upscale shopping mall where the latter was stabbed by a mysterious figure and wounded badly enough to force Mase the Tok'ra symbiote to enter him to preserve his life. Before either of these events took place, Dinesh also took Joela to a hospital on his home planet to remove her tracking implant. This earned him a hug from Joela, which he was visibly surprised and confused to receive.

## Appearance

Dinesh is of human height and build, with dark blue-grey skin and horn-like protrusions in a ring around his skull. One eye is scarred over and permanently shut, possibly missing, while the other has a white iris and black sclera. His face also bears silver flecks along the forehead and jaw. He wears a suit of black power armour, which has a retractable helmet that he rarely wears.

## Personality

Profit-driven but nevertheless friendly, Dinesh has been an ally to Salanda for a long time (while correctly considering her mad), showing loyalty and patience. However, he has an extreme aversion to putting himself in danger, particularly where night stalkers are concerned, and has no shame about hiding avoid physical confrontation. He also tends not to get attached to people: While he frequently visited Salanda over a span of decades, he showed no distress on learning that Za'via had taken over her body and destroyed her mind.

## Abilities

He may have some combat experience, since he knows how to disassemble, sabotage and reassemble a plasma pistol in seconds.

## Relationships

### Warlords

Dinesh maintains a working relationship with the major powers of the galaxy, good enough that he can secure a personal audience for the Mu Squad quite quickly; however this relationship is sometimes tense. Ahankari Prime made a point of having one of Dinesh's business associates mutilated and put on display, apparently to goad or distress him. Her subjects refer to the Lobha as filth. Commander Rakta calls him "a valuable asset" and is quite willing to let friends of Dinesh's wander Ragan's space station unsupervised with no questions asked.

He is also quite friendly with the rest of Mu Squad, providing technology and advice whenever asked, and maintaining the secrecy of the city's address, despite knowing that any of the warlords would pay him well for the information.

### Salanda and Queen Za'via

For a long time, Dinesh was the closest thing Salanda had to a friend. He visited her often on Mu, and while he profited considerably from the Ancient technology found on Mu, he never shared the address or went so far as to bring a team to cart off all of the station's valuables.

However, he doesn't seem to mourn Salanda at all, immediately striking up a friendly relationship with Za'via, who killed her.

### Mu Squad

* He appears to have some romantic interest in both Julius Romani and Selene, admiring both for their intelligence.
* He also is friendly towards Joela in a more platonic fashion.
* Since witnessing her attempting to send Julius on a suicide mission, Dinesh has shown some distrust towards Kira, but he also seems to consider her a kindred spirit, once offering her advice from "one ambitious creature to another" in a friendly manner.
* Devi is one of the few people he openly dislikes.