Nepotism

[Sasha Santhe]

Nepotism;
the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.

Nepotism. Sasha wasn’t sure how else [member="Gerion Ardik"] got work. Not only did he get work however, but he got steady work. Currently Sasha had hired out his company to take the empty space of a factory she’d just cleared out and turn it into a fully automated assembly line for Sienar Fleet Systems most advanced twin ion engine. Already she had another factory on Hypori, but here on Coruscant, the center of the galaxy, she wanted another.

The factory was located within the bowels of Sienar Fleet Systems tower there adjacent to the advanced laboratory where many of Santhe’s premier technologies have been developed.

Sasha hoped that Tyrin knew what an honor it was to be here, very few got so close. “It is a large enough space, for the output we want.” Licking her lips Sasha then added quickly, “I expect this done in a timely manner. And of course, I trust to you and your droids discretion afterward.”

Trust went side by side with nepotism most of the time. That is how it was justified.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Gerion Ardik would have never, in his wildest dreams, imagined he would be invited to the depths of Sienar's more illustrious locations. Largely because his wildest dreams were filled with scenarios he actually wanted. Like sharing a bed with the Queen of Kuat, or freezing Jacen Cavill into a slab of carbonite and ejecting him into a main sequence star. Decent, reasonable things any human being would want. Truly. This did not diminish the honor of being here, though. From what he understood, there were few people who could allege to have gotten to where Gerion presently stood. Probably because there were other things they wanted out of life- like sex and violence.

He surveyed the empty factory floor, "I'm well accustomed to working within deadlines. It will be done within the timeframe."

"Droids are rather secretive things. Especially if they're memory-wiped afterwards. The details of this factory will remain between us, I assure you."

 

[Sasha Santhe]

“Excellent,” Sasha said with a clap of her hands. Bay doors opened revealing a large number of droids brought in by [member="Gerion Ardik"] to do the job. Heavy machinery was being moved about and constructed. There would be a nice assembly line where each component was put together in order of sequence. The machinery was one thing, but the droid workers were another. Tyrin had a nice selection of droids, but as a general contractor he was… an odd choice. Scaffolds were erected where they needed to be, and other droids hovered through the air starting their construction. “I always find your automatons to be… sophisticated. Simple, some of them, perhaps, but yet efficient.”

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

"Plenty of manufacturers attempt to tack on as many things as possible to their droids." Gerion said. "It's a foolish thing. A simple droid with a decent droid brain will often outperform the droid that can barely stand under the weight of their unnecessary features."

With little delay, the factory was stormed by an assortment of labor droids. Mostly ones from his company. True to his speech, Z3s had no built in power tools. They worked with their hands. And then as a result of the J1 Droid Brain they came equipped with, they did a better job than other labor droids in a similar price range. Cheap, efficient, and top of the line. Few other droid manufacturers could claim such a title. Then again, few droid manufacturers were taking their role in the galactic market seriously. Baktoid had been a farce. There had been whispers of someone seizing control of Cybot Galactica, but clearly nothing had become of them.

Then there was Nastass-Tech or something. A novel company, but not of a size to pose any distinct thread. Hegemonic Automaton had the Techno Union at its back. The only thing stopping it from expanding to the far corners of the galaxy and snubbing out competitors along the way was Gerion's preoccupation with... Other affairs.

That would end now, hopefully.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

And so contstruction began and Sasha and [member="Gerion Ardik"] parted ways for a short time. But a short time indeed it would be as soon there was problems found.

The original Santhe Towers was constructed in the times of the old republic. Here is where Darth Maul’s famous little ship the scimitar was created and yet age was not exactly kind. Upon opening up the walls to fit in the great machinery needed. Unfortunately the systems were too old to meld perfectly with the newer equipment. This meant that Sasha had the choice of either rewiring the entirety of the space or simply coming up with a method of converting the equipment. She frowned, the solution would be simple and unreliable to get the newer equipment wired into the older network, however the reliability over time could become an issue.

For this she needed her general contractor and immediately asked Gerion Ardik back for her consultation. “Well?” she asked content to take a delay and merely replace all the wiring.

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Gerion stepped away from the Z3 currently acting as electrician for the whole affair, making his way over to Sasha. "Z3-2119 recommends rewiring this part of the facility. It will, perhaps, take the better part of several days. Not counting any troubleshooting that needs to be done."

"Frankly, it would be better to do it now and be done with it. I'm sure you're aware there will be problems farther down the line if we ignore it now. And by then it will interrupt production."

There was no way Sasha had not already resolved to re-wire the facility. They were people of business. Good ones, at that. And the people who conducted good business did not put off maintenance and upgrading when they needed it. Perhaps she was just asking to humor him. Again, Gerion couldn't imagine why. He was no electrician. He had to get appraisal from a re-purposed Z3 Labor Droid, for goodness' sake.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

Morgan was so pleased that [member="Gerion Ardik"] had returned from his extremely long business trip. Where in the galaxy had he been anyway? Probably trying to figure out a way to save more credits… perhaps negotiating with a lower-cost paper company? She emitted a sigh over the thought of all that paper and flimsiplast. So archaic and detrimental to the environment. One of these days she would make sure his files were completely and unequivocally digitized, even if she had to lock him in a supply closet and do the file transfers herself.

“Ms. Santhe, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Morgan, extending her hand to [member="Sasha Santhe"], CEO of Santhe Corporation. “I’m Morgan Redeaux, Chief of Security for Hegemonic Automaton, here on behalf of Gerion Ardik to tour the facility and inspect your security protocols.”

Morgan looked over a bit wistfully at the Z3 Droid who was recommending that the facility be re-wired. Well of course it should, she thought. But given the state of the historic Santhe Towers, one would need to do this as carefully as possible as to not damage the older parts of the building. Mr. Ardik was not known for his extravagance in these types of matters. She opened her mouth to say something, but then instead, pulled out a gift wrapped box and handed it to Gerion.

“I brought you a present, Mr. Ardik,” the HRD said. “Because I’ve missed having you around the office.”

Morgan wasn’t sure if Sasha knew that she was a protocol droid. Better to keep quiet about it as usual and let the Umbaran businessman tell her if he found it was relevant.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Sasha smiled at Gerion. Of course she had known this. It was the only thing that made sense in the long run really and so she ordered it, that being said he was the general contractor and this was his job. “I’m glad you’re here though,” Sasha said. “I have a design schematic for …” and then the Security Chief walked in. “Wow,” Sasha said doing a little lap around [member="Morgan Redeaux"] as she introduced herself.

She stood behind the woman, as she talked with [member="Gerion Ardik"], examining every inch of her. “You know, you’re droid would be more convincing if she jittered a little more. She’s really stiff and rigid, which yeah normally I’m all into, but most people move a bit more, you know sway as they stand.”

Aproaching Sasha put her hands onto the robot and concentrated on the force. Circuit and wire were revealed to her. “An amazing design,” she said finally before walking in front of the Human Replicant Droid and looking Morgan in the eyes. “Who designed you? It wasn’t him," she jerked her head at Gerion, "was it? Although that might explain your… assets.”

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

Morgan wasn't put off by Ms. Santhe's inspection. As a droid, it was perfectly normal to be scrutinized to some extent.

How were you built? Who is your maker? What type of functions do you perform?

The HRD's head swiveled around, following the brunette as she made her circle around her. "Ms. Santhe, do you find me stiff?" she asked, sounding not the least bit insulted. "I am sure there is programming that can fix that." She mused upon that recommendation, not sure if she wanted to specifically "jitter."

But it wasn't a bad idea to refine her systems so that she would be a more convincing human replica.

"Oh!" she exclaimed as the female CEO suddenly gripped her shoulders. At the question of her maker, she shook her head. "I was engineered by Lanax Grayson from Mayferria. A special commission for a Coruscant business man named Bartho Redeaux." A soft laugh followed.

"I think Mr. Ardik would have designed me quite differently." From what she could tell the Umbaran businessman favored utilitarian droids like the Z3 and the T1 Battle Droid manufactured by Hegemonic. Even HA's specialty products, like the A2 Jungle Droid, were made strictly for performance. Luxury droids or even holograms with AI were not really in the realm of what Mr. Ardik preferred in a droid. Or so she suspected.

"All function and no form," she said smiling knowingly at Ms. Santhe.

But what of Sasha? Did she have any cybernetics hidden under her lovely pale skin? Morgan activated her doppraymagno scanner and looked for any signs of mechanical parts or electronics inside Ms. Santhe. Her eyes would briefly glow with a blue light as she executed the scan.

[member="Sasha Santhe"] [member="Gerion Ardik"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Morgan Redeaux"] | [member="Sasha Santhe"]

Suddenly, Hegemonic Automaton's Chief of Security was upon them. Gerion had brought her along to make sure the facility's security measures were up to date. He had not anticipated Morgan or Sasha would like to oogle each other and run prying scans on what they had underneath their clothes. Frankly, he should have expected that. What he was ready for was the present Morgan handed him right after she introduced herself to Sasha. Gerion guessed it was a bow-tie. It was probably a bow-tie. It was a bow-tie. No matter how many times he insisted he would not wear such an antiquated device, he still got them. And for no particular reason, usually.

"Thank you, Morgan." He didn't open the box. The Umbaran simply held it behind his back for now.

Gerion bristled at Sasha's subsequent insinuation. Fortunately, Morgan was there to defend him. Ish. He wasn't going to correct them and say that a Fondorian droid engineer had been the one to design all of Hegemonic Automaton's products. Because that would have been to imply "hey now, that was someone else who designed all those function over form robots. If it were me, I would totally design all of my droids to look like bodacious babes." Which (and Gerion would be unsurprised if it were true) sounded like a direct quote from Ovmar's autobiography.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Morgan Redeaux"]'s scans of Sasha would reveal... nothing. As a technopath she would brook no examination of her secrets and as such quickly disguised herself from the scan. No mechanical or organic parts would be detected, there would be a blank spot there. Simply nothing. Sasha smiled back at the fuax woman. [member="Gerion Ardik"] didn't approve, but then again he rarely did.

"Gerion dear," Sasha said with a smile, "Aren't you going to open your gift?" It didn't take a genius to see something was going on here. "Poor Morgan will think you don't care for her show of affection. We can't have that." Sasha shrugged, "I always thought you were more proper than that."

"What sort of security would you recommend?" She said pleasantly to the robot not waiting for Tyrin to respond. "I'm sure you have so many good ideas."

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

But maybe there wasn’t a bow tie in the gift box. Maybe this time, Morgan had bought Gerion something he might really like versus her normal purchases of wardrobe monstrosities. Because who really thought the bow tie was an attractive accessory (except Morgan) in the first place? It is very likely the person who invented the bow tie also invented jodhpurs.

Either way, Morgan only interpreted the Umbaran hiding the gift behind his back as excitement over it.

“He wants to open it in private, Ms. Santhe,” the HRD said. “That’s understandable.”

Turning to the Sasha she said, “In terms of security, I was thinking you could model what we do for Hegemonic. That is, of course, if Mr. Ardik will let me grant you access to those specifications.”

This wouldn’t include all of those alarming doomsday prepper rooms unless Sasha happened to be as paranoid a CEO as Gerion Ardik.

“You will also need monitoring or even predictive capabilities within the system programming,” the protocol droid recommended. “And a software update every three months to combat slicers.”

[member="Sasha Santhe"] [member="Gerion Ardik"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Sasha Santhe"] | [member="Morgan Redeaux"]

If looks could kill, Sasha would have exploded into an unrecognizable shower of liquefied gore. But now was not the time to be entertaining such base fantasies. Morgan had already deflected the topic by bringing it back to the security measures present at this facility. Hegemonic Automaton's security policies were hardly patented or featured anything special. They were just thorough and kept under tight wraps. Despite Santhe's bothersome behavior, Gerion could tolerate some mimicry if Santhe wanted it and Morgan recommended it.

What else were friends for?

"Go right ahead, Morgan." He said.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

“Of course, Mr. Ardik,” Morgan said, and with zeal, she approached the Z3. She wasn’t sure how long it had been since it had a memory wipe, so she said, “Excuse me, Sir. I just need to access your dataport.” The Z3 opened up its chest plate and allowed Morgan to begin accessing its controls. As it patiently waited, she plugged a datapad into one of its ports. These droids were so sturdy and the gyroscopic stabilizer on this particular one was quite impressive. And for a moment, she was lost in admiration of the fellow mechanical but quickly moved onto the installation of the security protocols for Santhe Corporation.

Accessing her vast data memory bank she would merely transcribe the specifications via the datapad and into the Z3’s memory so it could essentially serve as foreman for this upgrade. Blueprints or any other types holo-models which were stored within her pretty blonde durasteel and synth-skin cranium would have to be sent along later.

“There,” she said, finishing with a couple of taps to the keyboard. “I’ve given this Z3 instructions on how and what to install for physical security, IT security and fraud prevention. Also the materials and supplies for the purchasing department.” She unplugged and gave the trusty droid a little pat on the shoulder.

The HRD looked over at Sasha, hoping the CEO would be pleased with her work. Then she turned to Gerion Ardik and said, “Now I have to insist you should do what the lady wants and open the gift. Besides I’m very curious to see your reaction.”

Unlike the Z3, Morgan Redeaux was extremely sapient, almost to a fault. She presently displayed a mischievous smile which betrayed nothing about what may have been in the small package.

[member="Sasha Santhe"] [member="Gerion Ardik"]