“Why did I think that building a business nearly 20 kilometers away was a good idea?” I ask myself as I’m still running for my morning workout. At this rate I’ll need to buy a scooter or a car just to save time.
Well, your laundry and brewery restrictions caused this. You also, subconsciously wanted a location that was less casually spied upon. There are other benefits to the area, but you should explore the area your utility station can cover first.
Yeah, I should do that and keep in mind that I’ll need housing for my own workers around here if I don’t want to run a shuttle service as well. I’ll hold up on creating a gym area until I find a suitable place for that.
\Kimber, I’m on planet and I’ll be in your area in two hours. I see a helipad on an old hospital less than a kilometer from you. Meet you there.\ Penelope Mercer messages to me.
That sounds like an order. And what the hell is she doing on planet?! What kind of business could she possibly have that would be lucrative enough to come to Earth?
You. You are that business, doofus. She told you she wanted an in-person meet just last month.
Sonofa. I should remember meetings with the largest customer I have, who’s buying a product I actually like making.
Marcella is still putting in orders for A-cyanide, and I don’t love making drugs. Sure, I still get orders for my stim chews and the cheap healing balm, but those are batches of less than a hundred units. The best money per kilo is the poison, though, and Marcella keeps reminding me of that so I don’t just give up making it. She also likes the ‘free money’ of reselling the product.
I end up having to clean up in the safety shower and order a set of ‘business clothes’ for my meeting. The walk to the hospital nearby is short, but the building itself is an impressive eight story number with multiple wings apparent from the outside. I navigate to where I see several emergency signs and once I’m inside I get asked if I want to expand my claim to the Nevada Health Services Complex. I obviously say yes.
My message icon starts flashing, a signal that I have important notices to look at but none of which are urgent. Instead of looking at them, I open up a map to the hospital--that is now a building in my settlement--to find the route to the helicopter pad on the roof. Oh, there’s a seemingly separate building that belongs to the Complex as well. I could see making this complex Nova Chem’s HQ.
Tova, can you look at how viable it would be to convert the different types of rooms in the hospital to residences and offices? Same with gym space if you can. I already think that any surgery suits would be good for a lab.
Would you like me to consider workspaces for other employees, or would you like to use other buildings for that?
I would like to keep the emergency services area available for medical concerns, but I would like work areas in our HQ buildings, yes. She affirms she understands and leaves me to my thoughts and walking up stairs.
The wider than normal staircase led to the roof after about four floors. The space is open and leads to open air on three sides, and the remaining of the hospital building on the fourth side. As I walk out upon the landing area I look around to see how defensible this building would be. With no direct exit from the freeway nearby, and an open field and low-story buildings nearby, it would be nearly impossible to sneak up on this place with the knowledge I have access to.
A sleek looking shuttle approaches five to ten minutes later, a staircase descending from near the front of the vessel. The face of a Pixie appears in the opening, smiling at me and waving me to come aboard. Noticing the gun ports on the bottom of ship, I realize there is no point in being wary about going aboard. Plus, she was perfectly nice when we met in her brain space.
“Welcome Kimber, good to finally see you in person.” She offers her hand and I shake it in greeting.
“Good, touching, wait. Pretty to meet you. Oh no.” I can feel the flush rise throughout my body as I was clearly staring at her and caught up on how very pretty she is and the tingle of aether when I touched her hand pushed that dazzle factor through the roof.
Miss Mercer just starts laughing. “This must be what flabbergasted looks like.” The shark tooth grin is still unnerving, but her aura is so warm and cheerful that it’s hard to be scared. Hell, it’s hard to be anything but awed by her presence.
I’m suddenly reminded that I have a skill for this. I thumb a caramel into my mouth and [Mechanical Calm] accepts my emotions and puts them in a convenient capsule for later use or disposal.
“Wow, being around you is intense.” I pause then look back into her slightly swirling eyes, “Good to see you too miss Mercer.
“Oh no! So sorry about the aura. I just had a difficult conversation with the security forces around Bikini Atoll and forgot to reign it back in. And please, dispense with the ‘Miss’, you’ve made me enough money to call me Penny.”
“Have I? I mean, I’ve got a small fortune now because of you, of which I’m super grateful, but I don’t see how that’s ‘enough money’ for a mogul like you.” I recently finished her first batch of ten thousand kilos and though I spent half of it, it’s still a lot of money. Add that to the six thousand in Randal’s account and his random assets, and the thousand I got from turning Randal over to drug dealers, I’m sitting quite pretty.
“Oh honey, it gave me an excuse to start a new line of weapons featuring your product, now with improved propellant loading, which has led to some impressive sales figures. That is part of why I am here today. I want another fifty thousand units, and I’d wager you are not outfitted to make that much very quickly.”
I open my mouth to say something and then she looks mildly horrified.
“Oh, crap, I should have started with congratulating you on your settlement! Dang. Sorry about that Kimber. I saw the ‘allied with Camp Elsewhere’ and became very curious. You were already interesting with the explosives manufacturing, but now? I can’t wait to see what you get up to!”
I snort in amusement as her professional veneer fades. “Thanks, it was an accident like much of my successes lately. You’d be right about the order too. With Warram telling me to work up to 100 kilos of coke a month, I don’t have the extra capacity right now, nor do I have the money to jump up . . . four more gunpowder lines? Oof. I might be able to afford the equipment, but I can’t afford the staff I’d need. Plus it wouldn’t give me time to advance the way I’d want to.” By the time I’m finished thinking it through, I’m almost shouting in frustration.
I feel strong, short arms pull me into a hug and I immediately forget what I was anxious about. “I didn’t mean to trigger you. Sorry about that. I was merely trying to make a proposal that would take some burden off of you, not add to it.”
I relax at the statement and decide it would be rude not to hug her back. “you’re a good hugger.”
Her chest wiggles against me as she chuckles. “You wouldn’t know it by the faces my kids make when I hug them. Of course, I tend to pick them up like when they were young.”
The thought of a grown person being picked up bodily by this small, curvy woman makes me smile. After a few minutes I let go of my hug and she does the same. “I, uh, thanks. I didn’t realize how tightly wound I was.”
She dismisses the notion with a few flicks of her wrist. “Not an issue. I get it. Do you want something to drink?”
“Sure.” I look at the inside of the shuttle more and it is more suited to the luxury of a few than the transport of many. “What was the idea slash deal you were thinking of?”
“Our previous agreement was for me to buy from you and for you not to sell to others for ten years. I would like to switch that to a ten-year lease agreement for the recipe with a no-compete clause.” She hands me a glass of water and then sends me a document.
While reading, I keep questioning why she would want to lease the recipe instead of buy it. I’m not really up on the difference between leasing and renting, and it takes until I get to the glossary of terms where it explains that the contract considers incremental advancements of the original recipe are considered to be a part of the leased recipe during the ten-year period. She pays more money than renting it, or buying it, but she also gets my ingenuity and R & D as part of the bargain.
“A lease is a new type of contract to me. This including updates thing is pretty interesting.”
“It’s uncommon to lease technology, but I don’t have anyone in the Empire that is working on researching ballistic propellants. Once you get away from Warram, I’ll likely have a job offer for you.”
“Heh, I’m flattered. But as much as I like working on explosives, I like using them in the field more. Aiming for an operative of some kind. Right now I have a quirky divine judgement thing going on, but I hear I might be able to get a shift in Track at tier 1.”
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“Consider getting off Earth whatever you may look to do. Moving to a planet with ambient aether would suit you.”
I know what she’s saying is a good idea, and that for aether users, ten years isn’t much of an issue, but I’m 17 years old and thinking about a time period that is half again my life span is a bit daunting and I tell her so. I may still be anxious.
“There I go getting ahead of myself again. Hmm, maybe I can talk to some Councilors and get an aether subsidy for Earth-based symbiote users. That’s something for the future though. Do you have any questions for me?”
Why would I have questions for her? She called the meeting.
Why wouldn’t you have questions? She’s one of the most successful women in the Empire.
“How did you manage your initial success?” That seems like a good question. Solid prompt Tova, even if you were making fun of me.
“Like you at first. I had two production skills and Human ingenuity into making things that are capable of violence more capable of it. My first commercial success was mining equipment if you can believe it. But what I really invented was a way to cheaply make synthetic aethrite, or Mana Crystals. I had a friend engineer a magitech interface from the crystals to electronics and the first small scale plasma weapons followed after.
“That didn’t answer your question though. That came from knowing capable people to help me bring my ideas together, and then to find employees that can assemble and or integrate the bits of novelty that I create. What are you trying to use your alchemy for?”
That is an excellent question. To level up is the main answer. Then I guess explosives and enhancements? That resonates as the truth. “Besides leveling, I’m working with tinkering too so that I can make purpose-built explosives. I also like the enhancement parts of alchemy, like some gummies I make that help with concentration and energy.”
“Is that like stat food? Do you get cooking levels with your alchemy? Why pick tinkering?”
I hold my hands up in surrender and chuckle at her rambling interest in me. It’s flattering, really, but also super uncomfortable? “No to the first two. My best guess is that at least one component requires alchemy tools to create? You could call blacksmithing cooking if you wanted to think of it like that.” She snorts at that and mumbles something about a steel croissant. “The tinkering came to mind easily. What’s the easiest way to make a weapon stronger? Modifications. What’s the most readily available supply? Junk. Many of my infusion tools were made with tinkering to some degree.”
Penny nods in understanding. “I think your biggest problem with ‘branching out’ or becoming more successful is the lack of aether and aether-capable crafters that could help you infuse or charge crystals, etcetera. When you get comfortable with your cash levels, I would ditch tinkering in favor of enchanting or something magitech related. Tinkering may even fold into magitech integration, and then you could do something like install infusers on your machines and connect them to an aether battery bank. Steps like that will spare you some of the more boring tasks that don’t require ingenuity.”
“That makes good sense. With the amount of money I’m spending on infrastructure right now, I’m not sure I’m in a place to invest in a brand new talent, but I’ll see what levels 12 and 16 offer for modules. I appreciate the feedback though, and this magitech integration seems promising for sure.”
The arms manufacturer begins emitting a positive tinted aura and she seems happy to have helped. “Oh! Did you finish testing that infusion study with the magitec device verses the sand?”
“What? Yes. I had to switch up my production line at Warram almost immediately after my first test, so I forgot about it. The charged corundum sand infused much faster, but even with the high charge of the sand, it loses its ability to infuse as the concentration of aether in the solution matches that of the sand bed. The magitec infuser doesn’t have that limit, but it is far more likely to explode from localized concentration peaks.”
“But the process works for both?” She asks with interest.
“Sure. Though the infuser was designed for airflow, I think, so I want to attach a circulation loop that would also lower the risk of explosions I think. Both make my production process much faster, though slightly more expensive for charging the mana batteries through an Astorian service.” I notice her fingers twitching while she listens and it’s mildly distracting.
You do something similar when you’re messaging people. She is probably just taking notes.
I guess we’re both pretty weird.
“You know, I figured you’d have a lot more questions. You seem pretty inquisitive, is this just an off day for you? Do you have someone you can talk to?”
Is she seriously offering to be my friend right now? “Not really. My mentor got assigned several hundred miles away and she doesn’t have much time anymore, and my other two ‘friends’ ended up not being a good fit for me. There are millions of kids in a worse situation than me though, so I can manage.”
“Just because people have worse problems, doesn’t mean what you’re going through isn’t hard. Here.” She says and then I get a ping in my p2p messages and see a contact card for her office. “If you need to bounce a craft idea off of someone, use the office number and say you want an idiot check for a project. I’ll put Nova Chem on our list of collaborators. If it’s something more personal, use my personal ID and I’ll always get back to you. I won’t always be available, so I’m also sending you my daughter’s ID. Her name’s Zia and she’s better at introspective life management than anyone I know.”
“Does that mean she gives you life advice?”
Her cheeks pink a little, “Well yes. She was raised by my whole friend group for a while so she has a lot of perspectives on life floating in that brain of hers. Wait, why are we talking about me again?”
I snort at that. I doubt there’s a room she walks into that people don’t start asking questions about her. “Okay . . . got any scooter recommendations?”
“Andromeda, no. Hoverbikes are the way to go. Vermencia mk. 5 is my favorite. Or they were before the tier up where my wings became high-speed capable. I like that question. Mmm, my friend David just texted me. I need to head over to Ganymede for a weapon consultation.”
I catch myself taking notes with finger wiggles, a hoverbike sounds awesome. “Okay, thanks for taking the time to meet with me and for taking a little stress off my shoulders.”
“Of course! I like getting out of my lab every now and again. Oh, send me a parts list for your powder setup okay? Give my engineers somewhere to start from. Thanks!” She touches the edge of my jaw and suddenly I’m 20m away, watching her shuttle take off from nearby the roof access door. She can teleport other people without going herself? That’s so cool!
Now that your urgent business and distraction is flying away, I’m going to push your alerts at you.
/The added buildings have a higher than normal Utilities requirement.
/Utilities capacity 1000/5000
Yes?
That’s a little nutty, but who else in my settlement would be eligible?
//Query: Who qualifies to perform the duties of lawman in Camp Elsewhere?
//Answer: Kimber Novarro, Gunner Quinn, Peter DuBois.
I keep forgetting about that feature. It clearly can answer with information that I don’t know, but as the settlement leader I would have the ability to look that up. Saves me a ton of time though.
You’re welcome. It’s how I get many of the answers you ask me, but I can’t ask queries that I think of or ask you to think them for me.
“So that’s why you can only get information I ask about? That makes a ton of sense. On your side, not the System’s side. So what’s next? A big part of me wants to carve out a personal space from this hospital. What do you think about converting the whole top floor into a residence, lab combo.”
You have some tasking messages from Warram that will show up the next time you enter a lab, and Hailey reached out about some internal investigations interviews that she needs your schedule for. Also, the top floor of either large building in this complex is an extremely large space for a single residence and a laboratory.
“I dunno Tova, what would a rich person put up there? A gym, a garden terrace, or rooftop patio? Can you do all of that? I think I want to have a cafeteria area and a gym on the first floor with the entryway being a lounge and reception for the apartments I want on this side. Keep ten beds or so for patients? And I think most of the workshops and spaces will be in the building across the parking lot.”
If you have enough credits, that is all doable. Since we’re on Earth, and you have no contacts to do the work, we’ll have to have modules delivered that fit within the concrete structure. I would appreciate no further tasks for today.
Alright. I send a few messages while I walk back to the laundry it is.
/Hey Zia, I’m Kimber. I talked to your mom today and she said you would be a good person to talk to if I needed it. So instead of poking you while I’m in a crisis, I figure I’d introduce myself./
\Hi Kimber! Mom spends more time encouraging me not to talk to some people, so you must at least be interesting. So yeah, feel free to message about anything. I like chatting with people who aren’t fight, train, work all the time; or at least are trying to escape those. I should talk though, I’m currently on an Elysium Safari on our yearly culling of beasts around settlements. This place is super insane with aether, you should definitely visit.\
/I love Elysium seafood! I get a little sushi platter made with fish from there when I need a crafting charge./
\Yeah, not my department, but the fishmongers do come to the feast at the end of the month. So what’s it like living with no ambient aether?\
/It’s all I’ve known, so okay? It’s kind of expensive to eat and purchase batteries for aether/
\Blarg, that sounds tedious. I mean, I do some of that anyway, because I don’t like group projects and I fly to different planets a lot, which I need spare batteries for and all that.\
/What do group projects have to do with batteries?/
\Oooh, magic newbie! Earthers call it magic right? Anyway, some workings or diagrams are too large or complex or power hungry to do alone, so most perform cooperative magic or ritual magic. Mom and I usually do the preparation and ritual-like magic because mom doesn’t like sharing, and I can’t stand the feel of Human magic leaking into my body. I’m a Blink Pixy bee tee dubs.\
/Gods, you two are like walking databanks of useful stuff. Yeah, most people here call it magic, and here, when people talk about ritual magic, it’s covens or cults that are doing it. And run of the mill Human with a symbiote here./
\You say that, but Mom started out as a human with a symbiote too. They never stay that way though. I haven’t met a single aether-using human that hasn’t developed to a demi-human or a sub-species. It’s created some fun diversity in Aelea. I like working with aliens a lot too, neat perspectives on things.\
/I like hearing from someone who’s had off world adventures. Could I text you for a story like once a month or something?/
\Uh, I am not a fan of creating a wall of text. But I can try? Mom has really neat stories too, though. You could always ask your AI to query about missions I’ve done and ask me questions about those.\
/Is it weird that people read stuff written about you?/
\Yeah, but only when they start talking to you like they know you. I talk to researchers all the time. Mom is rarely available and my siblings are, so far, all a bit detached from reality. People are waiting for her next kid to develop to see if it’s some Pixy curse of something. Maybe you’ll have some new questions for me since you’re coming from a perspective I’ve never thought of.\
/Okay. That sounds interesting at least . . ./
\Crap, beastie. Gotta go!\
It sounds as though her life has been a rollercoaster of weird. Mine felt like a slope of disappointment until recently. Yeay progress! Now let us see about that hoverbike.