Lighting the Beacon at the Empress [Lily]

[Magdalena Lethe]

Empress Teta
Koros Spaceworks HQ
The Iron Citadel

"Ohh, I've always wanted to come here. Not sure why, but something about naming a planet Empress Teta is just so interesting."

The Siblings Lethe had arrived at Empress Teta several months following the initial GUIDE Investor meeting. Though Magda had wished to come here first for all her excitement about the construction of the Headquarters, Gabriel had convinced her to start a bit closer to home.

Couldn't be running all over the galaxy wasting fuel, now could we?

He'd had a point, age and ...maturity won out. Besides, it gave her time to further plan out the needs for running such a large company, the first of which had also been pointed out by Gabriel.

How you planning on flying that thing?

Well I'm not going to fly it. That's preposterous.

Someone has to fly it.

Much to his chagrin, he had yet another point. Where had all this common sense come from? she wondered. They would have to worry about it later, however, as Magda's excitement for the HQ outweighed those current concerns, legitimate though they were. She made a note to reach out to other known Shipwrights for further investment - Rendili, KDY, CEC. Surely one of them might be persuaded to offer up a Captain and crew. Magda knew, without a single doubt in her mind, that Kuat could spare the people. They had an entire university devoted to churning out just those very things. The only thing that gave her pause was ... well, the idea of having to meet the CEO face-to-face.

Something she would like to avoid at all costs.

They arrived at the Iron Citadel at half past noon, just a quarter-hour early for their appointment as told to them by the receptionist in the lobby.

"Miss Lethe, I'll inform Miss Kuhn you're here. Please have a seat."

"Try to keep your eyes to yourself, Gabey," Magda eyed her brother with a coy smirk, "I know she's your age, pretty, and successful, but we're here for business today."


[member="Gabriel Lethe"]
[member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"]

 

[Hailyn]

Lily had woken up that morning with the most painful of headaches she'd ever had - the day before being a day that would forever live in infamy, at least in her memories. She'd heard some vague mention of a meeting scheduled, nothing particularly big she was informed. Hangover just beginning to pass over, Lily flipped open her datapad and was preparing to check what was left for the day when her intercom buzzed and the voice of a receptionist from downstairs filled the room - and her ears - with news that could have been anything but good, at least for someone who was dealing with an ear-splitting headache. "Miss Kuhn, your special guests have arrived, would you like me to direct Miss Lethe to your office?" Patricia, the bland-named secretary, asked. The words, of course, elicited an annoyed groan from the CEO, whom had just sat her datapad down in frustration. It seemed like this was the week for everything - a new ship to be approved from R&D, a family reunion of sorts, and now a meeting with a big customer of sorts - and to make matters worse, the businesswoman was anything but prepared for the week, what with long nights out in nightclubs and binge-drinking until she blacked out. But this was work, and - with a heavily implicated sigh attached - business meant being rigid, formal, and proper. "I don't think moving to the staging room is necessary, Tricia, go ahead and send her up." Lily replied, her tone more than a little short. She'd have to have a talk with these employees about what constituted as "not particularly big" and what was majorly important.

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]
[member="Gabriel Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"Miss Kuhn will see you now."

Magda blinked up from reading a holoflimsy on Koros Spaceworks - some very interesting things, for certain. With a faint smile and a glance to her brother, she stood from her chair and took up her bag.

"Thank you Miss..."

"Patricia."

"Miss Patricia."

"Just Patricia," said Patricia, her own tone having grown short from the shortness of her boss. Really, these young CEO's and their attitudes. Girl was probably out drinking all night. Gods, what Patricia wouldn't give for a lifestyle like that ... but at her age martinis went straight to the hips.

Magda passed a thin gaze around. Did she ... say something wrong? "Ahm," she shouldered her bag, "where do I go?"

"Down the hall to the lift," Patricia waved, "top floor. Last room."

"Thank you," Magda replied.
"-just Patricia," Gabe intoned before shuffling his younger sister off towards the lift.

Patricia watched them go, eyes narrowed. She kept her scoff to herself. Time for a caffe break.


A short while later the Lethe duo arrived at the last door of the top floor. Assuming there were posted Guards of some sort, or an intercom, or a doorbell, or feth- she'd just knock if that were the case, she politely announced herself and stepped in upon welcoming. Magda couldn't help but look about in wonder. She'd done a bit of reading up on Koros and knew what basic public information was afforded her by the Holonet. Owned by twin sisters hardly much older than herself, the company saw good success in recent years.

Must be simply fascinating to own a shipwright, she recalled commenting to her brother at some point.

"Hello again, Miss Kuhn," came her gentle yet bright greeting, "we were a bit early today. Hope that's not an inconvenience for you."

[member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"]

 

[Hailyn]

Luckily being young and rich meant having room for extra spending, and in this case it meant a full stock of carbonated water in the mini-fridge located behind her desk. Anticipating the timely arrival of her guest, or guests judging by her memory of Miss Lethe having a sibling of some sort, she placed two water bottles at the front of her desk and quickly downed two bottles of the carbonated variant herself - while Patricia certainly had her frustration taken out on the two unfortunate teenagers that were probably on their way up. Unlike her father, who had a bodyguard and a rather famous (or infamous if you were a member of the Republic at the time) private army, Lily only spent the money necessary for surveillance and security guards, nothing too big - she practically controlled the planet's defense force anyways. Fortunately by the time [member="Magdalena Lethe"] and her brother had arrived at her office Lily had been able to compose herself and apply enough makeup to not look absolutely exhausted. "Good morning, Miss Lethe, uhm, Mister Lethe. Our meeting is certainly the highlight of an otherwise uneventful day." She replied, smiling as she had trained herself to do during any form of meeting or public speaking. "Could I offer either of you a bottle of water?" Lily asked, gesturing a hand towards the two that sat at the center of the front of her desk.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"You can call me Magda," the young GUIDE founder replied as she moved forward to take a seat, setting her bag down beside her, "this is my brother Gabriel. Oh, water would be delightful."

Gabe strolled in with a bit more calm reserve than his hitherto excited younger sister. The young blond casually gazed about, seeming to admire the set up before turning at the mention of his name. There came a polite yet dashing sort of smile - the kind that often reminded Magda of their father - before he approached and leaned to offer [member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"] his hand to shake over her desk, "a pleasure, Ma'am. It's a nice place you have here."

Magda shot her brother a hairy glance and gently cleared her throat. Ma'am? Really Gabe?

She pressed her own smile into her expression, "Well I'm happy to be a highlight rather than an inconvenience. I simply can't thank you enough for all that you're doing here for The GUIDE. I'm eager to see any and all progress made in that endeavor, if there is any at this time? And also to discuss anything more you should need from me in terms of development."

 

[Hailyn]

A firm smile to return [member="Magdalena Lethe"]'s permission to refer to her on a shorter first-name basis, which certainly made things a bit easier on the teenager, and she met Gabriel's hand with her own. Her own grip was far more light than the boy's, her smaller hand dwarfed by his, and she returned his charismatic smile with one of her own, though she couldn't help but wonder if she'd even looked half as confident as she should have. Sitting back in her own chair, hands resting evenly across the front of her desk, Lily looked attentively to Magda, nodding at the start of her statement. Indeed, though she really was rather tired, it was much more a pleasure than it was a nuisance to have someone to talk to and make some actual money working with than filling out endless paperwork - which if it wasn't company things, it was signing over her right to represent the planet to some governor that wasn't even a native of the planet. But this was about money, nothing pointless like politics - not now, at any rate. "Aside from the initial ship, which has cleared production, we've - Koros, spearheaded by myself - been putting together drawn up plans to assist with further exploration by building up funding to eventually construct small satellite stations to be deployed as checkpoints for G.U.I.D.E workers and freelancers alike, not unlike a small research outpost but largely smaller, perhaps fit for a small crew. I'd like your input on that, however, before I dedicate resources to something that might go underutilized." She explained, moving directly into business. Perhaps she wasn't as eloquent or prodigal as her father in these sorts of things, particularly in making billions of credits in such a short time, but her generosity tended to cost her in the short term far less than what she earned in the long run. Spend to make, it was a bad motto for anyone who spent more than they made, but a good one to live by in moderation - and with careful planning and maybe a guiding hand here and there. "We will be producing a small exploratory craft however."

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"Cleared production? Already?" blue eyes widened substantially at this news, "Goodness but you're quite efficient."

Of course, aside from the initial discussion on the group call, Magda had no idea just what sort of ship Koros had in the words for their HQ. It was vastly a guess, a hope, a dream, if nothing more, that she'd used Koros' previous work as inspiration for. The young enterpreneur folded her hands on her lap to keep herself from fidgeting in excitement.

"Research outposts? Brilliant! I wish I'd thought of such a thing - oh, but that's what you're here for isn't it? To come up with the extraordinary. Outposts would be a welcome addition once we're up and running - presently I think just getting the Headquarters set up would be more than sufficient. Our reach won't necessitate outposts ... yet, but I do believe in the future they would come in quite handy once we've set people off to the ends of the galaxy. What did you have in mind?"

[member="Lily Kirsche Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

"Just small outposts." Lily explained.

She pulled herself up in her chair, looking over towards Magda to further explain herself. "They already exist all over the galaxy. Small stations for refueling and resting after long trips. We could make something similar, something more fitted to just GUIDE. Equip them with more powerful sensor relays, longer supply cache's operatives can take from...things like that to make them more independent but also reliable for the long term."

Lily tried her best to explain herself, to paint a picture of what she was thinking. For some reason it was more difficult to do so then she had first imagined. She had accompanied her father to more than a few business meetings, and each time he had made it all seem so easy. Now, when she was trying to sell something, it seemed far more difficult. Her stomach felt somewhat knotted, and her voice sounded to her as though it were shaking. She tried to focus herself on Magda, feeling exhausting drape over her still.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"Rest stops..." Magda pondered on this, "even like small relay hubs for them to upload their intel to the main hub. We could even install relay beacons in them," she smiled, "I like that idea. Little safe havens for our employees. Placed somehwere off the main hyper routes to maintain a bit of anonymity. Can't having everyone and their uncle stopping in..."

"Do you have any designs you could show me of similar stations? I've seen a few in my travels but they've been the larger communal centers."

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

She tried to think for a moment.

Her back was still stiff and her eyes were a little tired. It was hard to focus for the moment, but then she recalled a similar design to what she had been talking about, albeit on a much larger scale. From her desk she pulled a small datapad, doing a search rather quickly through various networks until she eventually found what she was looking for. It was something she had known about for a while, something that most everyone knew about actually.

"Arceneau Trade Company makes trade stations." Lily slid the datapad over towards Magda. "They're bigger...much bigger then what we would make and obviously open to the public, but the design and thought behind them is the same. Little rest stops along the way."

Koros was a company wasn't yet large enough to make something that big, nor maintain it, but smaller version we're entirely possible. "It wouldn't be too hard to emulate the function, as for design...perhaps something a little less showy."

The GUIDE Stations would have no need to stand out after all.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda leaned forward to peer at the design, blue eyes lighting up, "Oh I've seen this one! It's enormous!"

"Yeah and the traffic congestion was a hoot," Gabe quipped, causing his sister to jump slightly. He'd been unusually reticent for the duration of the meeting up until now, "took us an hour to get through that sector."

"Oh but GUIDE stations won't be that big and they'll only be used by us. Ohh, what if they were cloaked? Or camoflauged as something else?"

"What? Aren't we getting a bit ahead of ourselves Magie? We don't even have the HQ stationed yet," Gabe gave her a sidelong glance and Magda was momentarily reminded of the same face on her mother. Since when were you the thoughtful one of the outfit, Gabe?

"Oh you're probably right," deflated, she sat back.

Gabe patted her knee and adjusted his seat with a coarse clearing of his throat. He pawed at his face where the hints of blond bristle could be seen on his chin. Peach fuzz, Magda called it. "Not that secret way-stations aren't an interesting idea, I think you have my sister thoroughly convinced, what about these exploratory crafts you mentioned?"

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

She fidgeted for half a second, though it was only for the briefest moments before she managed to regain herself and her composure. "My fathers company makes a coating that negates sensors, I think that would do well enough for stealth. We are talking about the middle of space after all!"

Lily tried to give a small amused chuckle, as though she were telling a joke.

Quickly she was finding out that these types of meetings were more difficult than they looked. She was eternally grateful for the fact that Magda and Gabe were around her age, it made things easier, and it also made it a tad more relaxed. She had been in other meetings before, meetings with the big wigs of the galaxy and honestly...intimidation had been a factor in it. Not on purpose of course, but nerves did tend to get the better of her at times. She hoped that it would eventually come under better control.

"The craft, yes." She tried to gather her thoughts for a moment then shifted. "That's easier. Most starfighters are already well suited to the task of exploration and scouting, but there are few who are actually designed for it."

True enough, most companies nowadays focused on war, not exploration, though there were a few. "Creating a ship with less weaponry and armor will allow us to put sensor equipment and other exploratory gear onto the ship."

"My sister recently returned from a year long trip from the outer rim and expansionary regions." She looked at the two siblings and smiled. "Perhaps she would be of help and consult on what is needed out there."

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"Ohhhh..." Magda was leaning forward again.

"Don't we already have that being produced over at Sluis Van?" Gabe interrupted before the shinied effect sank in too much.

Effective. Mags blinked the gleam from her eyes and took on a thoughtful expression, "Well, we have small transports being produced at Sluis Van. Mmm," she pulled out her own datapad to bring up the initial design layouts and passed it over to Lily to have a look, "I don't know much about ship design myself but from what I understand this transport is ... really more just a transport. It's claim to fame is the anti-matter drive for much higher fuel efficiency and the stealth and cloaking systems, since it has no offensive measures. But the frame is pretty fragile and can't really take a beating. So I think something a bit heavier-duty with some advanced scanning systems and sensor arrays might be useful."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

Lily pondered the thought for a moment.

"For multiple people?" That was the question really, and changed the design of the ship. "Or just one?"

Rose had gone by herself, and she had used only a single VT-Momentum to go. The ship was neither a survey ship nor a combat ship, instead utilizing speed to escape situations that were dangerous. Of course what Magda was hinting at was something that could take a hit, probably not in combat, but rather surviving harsher environments like those found on many worlds. It was necessary for a thing like the GUIDE, after all they would be exploring and studying.

Making something like that wouldn't be hard, just a matter of design.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"Well, our transports were designed with the intention of comfortably housing just one with the option for up to four extras in extreme situations," she tapped at her datapad screen where it listed the interchangable cargo areas, "but I think perhaps just one for an exploratory ship might do. Maybe an accompanying droid like an R2 unit might not be a bad idea. What do you think Gabe?"

[member="Gabriel Lethe"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"] [member="Alric Kuhn"]

"Considering we want these transports to be durable for areas that are less than pleasant, we should also consider that exploring these places will be dangerous. Meaning that sending only a single person there would not be the way to go - we would need these exploration ships to house at least two, but possible three or four people at a time. Comfort is less of an issue, so packing them together in tight places isn't outside the question. But our explorers will need backup."

He shrugged.

"The last thing we want is for them to get caught alone and without backup on a planet surrounded by environmental hazards and the sort."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Gabriel Lethe"] [member="Magdalena Lethe"]

"That makes sense." This was not Lily's area of expertise. She had studied ship building, business, and had picked up for than a few things from her father, but exploring the galaxy? That was all Rose. Of course she could likely call her sister and ask, but that seemed rather presumptuous so she decided to wait on that suggestion in case they ran into any real problems. Instead she shifted slightly in her chair again, stiffening so that the leather back would be more in line with her spine.

"But, I suppose the real question is if these ships will be for long range exploration or short range exploration." Her hands clasped together on the desk. "That is to say, will they be gone for long periods of time or just sent to explore things after an initial assessment has already been made?"

If it was the former, then cramping people together would not be a good option, even she knew that.

When they had taken family trips in her childhood she herself had experienced that a lack of room often lead to...disagreements, and that had been with her twin! She wouldn't even want to imagine a bunch of explorers together in a cramped ship for more than a couple of days. She imagined that egos would get the better of everyone and eventually...well it would be none too pleasant.

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"] | [member="Alric Kuhn"]

Gabriel leaned back into his seat and pondered that for a moment. His thoughts were going along the same line as Lily's, mostly that if they were going to focus on extended exploration then space would be an issue. Which begged the question what they really needed from this particular transport.

"Fact is that Sluis already provides us with smaller transports that can be used for short-range exploration." Lethe looked over to Mag, seeing if she had anything to add.

"So, it is probably a better idea to make this run specialized in long-term exploration. Would also fit more with the advanced scanners my sister was talking about a few minutes ago."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Gabriel Lethe"] [member="Magdalena Lethe"]

She gave a slow nod in affirmation.

So something bigger was required then. That didn't really shock her, if anything it was what she had expected. The GUIDE wasn't a simple operation, and the bigger it got the more it's needs would expand. Something like that would of course be more difficult to create, and in fact she suspected that what they would eventually be creating were larger exploratory crafts that could also function as minor stations. Briefly she recalled a ship designed ages ago by CEC that had much the same purpose.

"The biggest issue won't be stealth capabilities, fuel, or even survival capabilities." Lily began to speak more confidently now. This was a subject she at least knew. "Designing a ship like we're talking about is relatively simple. The problem will be adaptability of design."

There were craft that could function in a hundred different environments, but generally they were largely innovative, and thus expensive. "We'll have to find a way to make the ship capable of surviving in multiple scenarios without driving up the cost of its production to a point where it becomes absurd. Most vessels can already survive in harsh environments, but not the extreme ends of the scale."

"I would suggest the creation and adaption of shield technology to facilitate that." That would work out best and wouldn't be too expensive. Koros had done work with Molecular shielding before, in theory the technology could be adapted to absorb and deal with high levels of radiation. Likewise if they adapted Ray Shielding to protects against physical dangers such as snow storms and acid storms. It wouldn't do much in combat, but be invaluable in exploration of harsher terrains.

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Alric Kuhn"] [member="Magdalena Lethe"]

The basics he could do. It had more to do with common sense than anything else, but when you go into the specifics of ship building... well that was where Gabe found himself a bit at a loss. He mostly handled security for Megs these days, making sure the rowdy crew that Arumi got them behaved and was focused on the job.

"Think I read somewhere that hibridium cloaks have the benefit of counter-acting radiation, but I am not an expert and it would probably drive the costs up way more than needed."

Another shrug.

"I defer to you, in this instance. Meg?" They were hiring her company to do this thing. Micro-management wasn't beneficial to developing good products, especially when they were a bit clueless about it all themselves.