Wherever We Go [GUIDE]

[Magdalena Lethe]

At times she felt like a shooting star; careening haphazardly through the galaxy, setting the skies ablaze with a growing vibrance of success, of growth. GUIDE had proven itself viable. It had Investors, it had backing, it had sponsors, it had ships, it had employees, it had more opportunity than she could have ever dreamed of. But it wasn't enough.

With growth came growing pains, her mother told her once before, it was a natural part of life, and GUIDE was beginning to feel the first wave.

"We can't keep this up without more Investors. We're hemorrhaging funds."
"From what?"
"Upkeep. Our expenses are... frankly, astronomical. Fuel costs, maintenance of the Beacon and our transports. Supplying the teams...something has to give."
"So we get more Investors, shouldn't be that hard. Who do we have on the list to contact?"
"Mmm, the Republic fell through their initial investment when we wouldn't agree to opening Relay Beacons to their Intelligence teams. We'll have to hope someone else from within peaks an interest. Maybe a Senator but it's too soon to go fishing there."
"What about Arceneau? She's loaded."

Magda passed a flat glance to her brother where he lay on his bed, headphones at his neck. She could hear his music from across the room where she sat at his desk. Remembering herself she straightened from her slumped over posture and in a perfect mime of her sister coquettishly crossed one leg over the other, tipping her head at Gabe, "No."

"No? Why not? We've grown. We've improved."
"Because she has to want to. I'm not going to Arceneau again to beg for her support. I'll let her come to us, when we've earned it."
"You really think she will?"
"Yes."
"That'll be the day."

Silence for a time, Magda browsed her notes on her datapad - the first of several tester models for the The Guide. There had to be someone she was overlooking...

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

"I've got it!"

WHACK. Gabe's forehead met the support beam of the bunk above him, "Ouwch! Geez Magpie, chill will ya?"

"This is perfect."
"What? Who?"
"KDY."
"What," it was Gabe's turn to be shooting flat stares from behind the hand that rubbed his forehead, "no. You know we can't do that."
"Why not? What's the worst that could happen?"
"YOU were the one that said we couldn't do that. You tell me."
"But what if it's just a holo-call?"
"What if it's not?"
"I can swing this..." Magda jumped from her chair and began to pace, tapping a stylus at her chin, "I'll appeal to her busy schedule, make a holo-call seem like an avenue of convenience."
"You know she likes to talk-face."
"For big business deals, for important clients. We're just an upstart. A bunch of nobodies running around the galaxy collecting data and calling it a revolution, but an upstart that she showed interest in all the same."
"This is a bad idea Magie."
"I'm going to send her a message."
"What if she finds out."
"I'm going to start with an apology for taking so long to get back to her, tell her the initial interest for Premier Investment was vastly more overwhelming than we predicted and we weren't prepared to handle the influx."
"What if she knows."
"Then! Ohh, yes, this will get her--then I'm going to offer her an extended spot to Premier Investment even though it's technically closed to new Investors, if she can agree to a short holocall to discuss the terms since we're at the far end of the galaxy and it would take us months to get to Kuat for an in-person meeting."
"Magie."
"This is brilliant. Thanks Gabe!"

In a flurry of wild brown hair she was gone.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

She had on her best suit and a smile that tried desperately not to be smug, "How do I look?"

"Smug," said Gabe.

Smug was a difficult thing to boot, presently. She'd succeeded in her plans to arrange a holo-call meeting with the CEO of the Kuat Drive Yards. Now she just had to nail the terms. Magda frowned for a beat, dropping her jaw open to stretch her lips, contorting her face through various expressions before trying again.

"Constipated," said Gabe.
"Gabe!"
Her brother sniggered.
"I was going for Tasi's fake smile, you know the one she makes when she hates what someone's wearing but tells them they look nice anyway?"
"I don't think that's the smile you want for this meeting."
Magda huffed impatiently.
"How about..." Gabe gestured to her before folding his arms at his front, "mom's business friendly face."
She gave a thoughtful humm and made an attempt.
"A little less enthusiasm... no teeth, mom never smiles with her teeth for business friendly....raise your eyebrows a bit, widen your eyes like you're super interested, now flare your nostrils. That's like some savage, preternatural thing right? Flared nostrils?"
"Gabe!" Magda gave an exasperated sigh, throwing her arms to her side before turning to pace away a few steps, "uff, now my face hurts."
"But you look great."
"Oh, how much expression really transmits through holo-calls anyway. How much longer?"
"Three minutes."
"Do you think that's enough time to pee?"
Gabe raised an eyebrow, looked around, picked up an empty glass from the table and handed it to her, "Here you go Boss."

"That's disgusting."

 

[Quietus]

Though time within the mobile drive yards of Kuat was vastly arbitrary and often reliant upon how much caffe one imbibed, it could be said to be precisely quarter-past-three when the communications booth within the CEO's private office and suite dialed out into the far reaches of the galaxy. GUIDE had, in the infancy of its existence, garnered the interests of KDY but somehow the timing for that very first Premiere Investor meeting had been off.

Call it fate. Call it poor luck. Lorelei Darke simply called it the overbearing shadow of her current pseudo employer, The One Sith. As always the Darkside required utmost dedication and undivided attention from all of its realm. Even the little people.

The call made its harrowing journey from sector to sector, system to system, leaping and bounding along relays hundreds of thousands of millions of lightyears away. When it connected with its destination within the comm suite of the Beacon of Broadcast a chime sounded to alert the woman standing in wait off to the side. Heels clicked across polished marble floor before she came to stand before the receiver, immaculate in high-professional business appearance.

"Good day, Miss Lethe," she began, "my name is DiVanca Leonardi, Direct of Operations of the Kuat Drive Yards. I'll be your correspondent for this meeting as Ms. Darke was unable to attend. Please proceed at your leisure and do mind the transmission delay."

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Who is that?

At the sudden appearance of not the Kuatian Sovereign but a blond woman dressed so professionally, so pristinely Magda was sure she felt her sister faint somewhere off in the eddies of space and time, Magda nearly lost her stoic veneer.

Who is that?

Gabe was mouthing words at her from off to her left and she tried desperately to ignore him. The full-body transmission didn't give her the option to make hand gestures this go-round, so forced focus was key. She quickly shot him a look of distaste before clearing her throat and straigthening her posture.

"Thank you, Miss Leonardi, it's a pleasure to meet you and I am happy to conduct business with you today. Please pass along my thanks to the Queen and CEO of the KDY for being so gracious as to provide this opportunity despite my own faults in follow-up."

Ahem. She looked down to the datapad in her hands and clicked at a button on the screen for her first topic of discussion: Thank you. Magda nodded to herself and clicked to the next: Premier Investment. Right.

"If Ms. Darke had provided you with the information on Premiere Investment you'll note that as of now we have it closed off to new Investors, but I am happy to approve of Premiere Investment tier for Kuat Drive Yards. You'll receive all of the perks it has to offer, no matter what you decide to invest, so long as terms can be decided today."

Tap. Investment options.

"She inquired as to investment options beyond that of monetary input. As you can see by our list of current investors we are happy to work with many avenues of investment from personnel to supplies to tech, and I am happy to consider other venues and ideas KDY may have."

 

[Quietus]

"I have looked over your provided list of investors. Under normal circumstances Kuat Drive Yards would seek to invest in such endeavors with ships and transportation, though as far as I can tell you seem to have that covered by Koros Spaceworks and Emeritus Industries. Correct me if I'm wrong, Miss Lethe, but I don't think more ships is what GUIDE needs."

DiVanca's expression remained impassive as she glanced down to a stack of holoflimsies on her desk, sifting through various options of investment the KDY CEO had come up with, "Miss Darke would prefer to forgo a simple monetary investment for more particular and useful means. How is GUIDE handling the employment of vessel pilots and Captains?"

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

A line formed over her brow as Magda attempted to mimic the woman's stoic business facade. Truly it was a wonder of nature to behave in such a manner one might be mistaken for a HRD. She wondered briefly if that was the case.

"We have rented out space for business and job expos on Byblos with a rather high success rate of new hires. For many of our job opportunities this has proven more than effective, but I will admit we've had some fallouts where pilots are concerned. Frankly we don't have an adequate enough team to provide training to new pilots and ship crewmembers. The Beacon especially has been a challenge as it's a rather large and specialized ship that will require a trained crew. It is one of our shortcomings we are actively seeking to correct and improve...is this something that KDY could help with?"

[member="Lorelei Darke"]

 

[Quietus]

"Kuat is home to one of the galaxy's finest naval academies and training facilities. Though most of its graduates opt for jobs within the Crowne Fleet of Kuat or at the Drive Yards, we handle a fair amount of job placement assistance to those who wish to outsource their careers. As it stands, we are working on placement for the most recent group of graduates. KDY would be willing to place these people with GUIDE to maintain major ships and train newer crew members, as well as fund their placement as a pseudo live-field training experiment to further their experience abroad. We can send as many as 75 freshly graduated pilots and ship crew immediately, with more to come on an as-needed basis."

"As for the Beacon..." DiVanca looked aside to a holoscreen on her left, pulling up the file on the masterful work of Koros Spaceworks: The Beacon of Broadcast, "a fledgling crew won't suffice for such a ship. You'll need a Captain and crew with experience of piloting and maintaining something that size. We might have just the person. I'm sending you a file now."

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

Gabe suppressed a heavy yawn.

The moment that Lorelei hadn’t appeared personally to the conference call was the moment all tension disappeared from the situation. Sure, there were still a whole fethton of risk associated with KDY and cooperating with them on any intricate level.

But as they said on good ol’ Nar Shaddaa: Dontcha worry about the future, when the present has so many shet that can kill ya with ease.

...at least he thought they said that. That late-night holoshow with the desperado vigilantes and other gunslingers running around the urban scene seemed to like it!

Bleep!

The terminal next to him started blinking when it received the file sent from KDY. He shot a look at Megs who was pointedly not looking at him - probably in an attempt to seem more professional than she really was.

Ugh. Eyeroll.

He lazily stretched out and poked at the touch screen. The little projector initiated itself and suddenly the projection of an older-looking feline appeared in front of him.

“Captain Miraenni Miet’ra.” a calm female voice announced while the projection did a 360 degree turn to show them all the… angles?

Feth, this was almost like one of those Coruscanti model shows.

Some more information hung suspended next to the Cathar’s hologram. Race, age, qualifications and all that.

Gabe gave Megs the thumbs up. As far as he knew - and he didn’t know all that much - this Mirae was an experienced captain and would do excellent.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda could not help the expressive nature of her face as the Director spoke. She smiled brightly, enthusiasm pouring from her eyes, "Oh, yes! That would be wonderful! I mean, anyone fit to pilot or work for the KDY is above and beyond what we could have hoped for."

Thankfully the woman continued on with a remark towards the Beacon. With a blink Magda glanced over towards her brother who sat at the communication's console and watched him expectantly. Beep. Captain Miraenni Miet'Ra. Magda peered at the holographic image, gaze switching between the information she couldn't read from so far away and the dubious thumbs-up from her brother. Lips twitching, she quickly thumbed through her own datapad to transfer the file over for a quick look.

"She's a Cathar? Don't they have issues with hyperspace?"

 

[Quietus]

"A common mistake - you're thinking of Felcats, the changeling race. Cathar are a wholly separate race and have no problems with space travel in any form. Captain Ra has spent many years within the KDY and is a venerable member of our team. She runs the Crowne Royale Eralis, the Queen's Command Ship for external projects and affairs. Since coming under the control of the One Sith Empire the Eralis has found itself at port more often than not. Sufficed to say, Captain Ra has been forced into a premature retirement. We briefed her on our plans for investment with GUIDE, this was actually an idea of her own volition. She is eager to join your team and bring her old crew along."

A smile cut across the otherwise slate-faced features of DiVanca's facade, and not one born of the same innocent enthusiasm on her correspondent's face. Seemed she was pleased to be rid of the Captain.

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Magdalena Lethe"]

A very, very small part of Gabriel was scratching at him. It was the inherent paranoia that was lectured into him by their parents, this time around he wondered if it was a good idea to become this dependent of KDY and their personnel. Because at the end of the day… well, Gabey didn’t have a doubt on his mind that Darke would somehow try to leverage an advantage out of this for her and hers.

Then again.

Did they have any other option right now? Gabe wasn’t exactly the best when it came to all this financial stuff: the numbers would blur together the moment he laid his eyes upon them.

But from what Magda had told him… they were in a bad spot right now. Which was fething weird.

Think about it.

The gorram success they were having was the direct source of their current financial troubles. How can you be so successful that your company starts to suffer for it?

Didn’t success mean that you didn’t have to worry about that sort of things?

Thoughts of overextension didn’t even come into Gabey’s mind, though. He wasn’t an economical major and probably never would be, he had different interests.

Oh… nice. New message from Katja.

Huge grin spread out on his face and he forgot about all those petty worries. Magda got this, definitely, yeah.

His fingers started to type furiously.

Furiously.

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda would never say it aloud but she was glad for her brother's silence. Especially in the face of her minor blunder where feline races were concerned.

"Oh, well that would make far more sense," she gently cleared her throat and looked back down to the Captain's profile on her datapad, "she has quite an extensive list of flight experience. I'm sure she'll be perfect to take the helm of the Beacon. Thank you, Miss Leonardi, I would be happy to place her and her crew with us. When can we expect her ...or should I arrange to have her picked up?"

 

[Quietus]

"Captain Ra has her own private ship that she will be flying out to you in one standard weeks time. I trust the Beacon has room for her. With that settled, there's one more item on the list Miss Darke would like to put forward for investment that should help to belay some rather extensive costs. She would like to offer free fueling, maintenance and repairs on all GUIDE ships for five years at any KDY owned space station or drive yard facility, after which she is willing to renegotiate new terms and assess the status of Captain Ra and her crew to see if they would like to continue their placement within GUIDE."

"For security reasons KDY will provide each GUIDE ship with it's own unique VIP access codes to cut docking procedure times and advance them to the forefront of lines for our VIP docks and ports. These do not, however, provide clearance to enter Kuat airspace or pass through our planetary security or shields, nor will it allow GUIDE employees to meander about anywhere beyond the VIP port areas. Captain Ra will have bring the setup module with her. Are there any questions?"

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Lorelei Darke"] | [member="Magdalena Lethe"]

And send.

Oh, you are so money, Gabey. This is so, so, so on.

His attention then returned to Magda and Leo...pard? Ardi? Leonari, that’s it. Gabriel nodded to himself, before coughing rather loudly. All of this an attempt to get Magda’s attention who was pointedly trying to ignore him, keep up the serene expression of professionalism and all the while pay attention to Leo.

She was really good at this. If Gabey wasn’t in annoying big brother-mode, he probably would have been proud of her.

“Pssst. Ask Leonari if we get KDY-marked hats and shirts too.”

 

[Magdalena Lethe]

Magda had to actively keep her jaw from hanging open.

"I...well, this is..." she searched for words, "wonderful, Ms. Leonardi. It's more than I could have ever hoped to ask for. I-" movement at her side caught her attention, she glanced just long enough to catch her brother's dopey expression and hissed words.

She scowled, cleared her throat, and reorganized her thoughts, "Please tell Madame Darke that GUIDE is very grateful for her contributions and we are proud to list the Kuat Drive Yards as a Premiere investor. I look forward to the arrival of Captain Ra and her crew, as well as the graduates of the KDY Naval Academies. Thank you so much for your time today and if you or Madame Darke have any further questions for us please to not hesitate to contact me directly. I have no further questions and do not wish to keep you any longer from your busy schedule."