[member="Danger Arceneau"]
In other lives, the Flamewind of Oseon had been one of Selka's favorite sights, but she'd never yet seen it as herself, only in Je'gan's and Velok's memories. As hyperspace flared to starlines and then dropped to realspace, she stood by the window of the yacht's business lounge. In the background, a holographic Selkath was talking with some of her aides, their conversation a susurrus of Ahto City business cant. She could speak fluent Selkath, but she didn't always think in that language, and didn't always absorb it when focused elsewhere. Like, say, on an interplanetary fireworks show.
The backlight shifted.
<<Miss Ventus?>>
She turned and smiled. It was always a gamble as to whether Selkath could determine your expression, but her aide had been with her for years. "Yes?"
<<Ob'stakul informs me that the general was satisfied with the iBorg proposal. We have been permitted to lease office and storefront space on Etti Four. The transit costs are still a concern.>>
"Transit costs do not concern me, Dificul." She often found it best to avoid contractions when speaking Basic with Selkath. "I've navigated the Corporate Sector's procurement processes before, with Silk and with Akure. A location on Etti Four will put us in a position to bid on military contracts, but that's not the whole of it. Many of the Corporate Sector's companies work their labour forces hard; accidents happen. There's a massive market for cheap prosthetics that can still work with heavily traumatized or atrophied connections, years-old stumps -- and that technology is a natural outgrowth of what we already do. A regression, even. A Phade-Clarity connection is just a far more expensive and capable version of the same neural-link-to-prosthesis pairing. Initial outlay may be high, overhead may be high, but we're going to make a killing." She gestured back at the window. "Come watch the Flamewind with me. We're closing in on Arceneau's station."
She and Dificul stood there, silent, until the three-hundred-metre yacht trembled to a halt against the station's airlock. Then they went to go find Danger.