I step out of my shuttle’s Pilot egress hatch as Paolo, Bev, and seven rescued drug workers walk down the ramp onto my shiny new factory on Asphodel. Zia, Marcella, and Dzartha meet us on the newly-built spaceport made for the industrial loads that will need transferring to this facility. I resist the desire to run over and hop on my girlfriend and kiss her beautiful face.
“Paolo, Bev, gentlemen, May I introduce the current Caretaker of the Hades system, Zia Astoria; the Process Engineer that helped build the place, Dzartha de Agressa; and you two know Marcella, she’s security chief for”
“The Asphodel industrial complex.” She interjects. Seems that Penny gave her an upgrade.
“Guests, this is Paolo, my plant manager, Bev, his paramour, and his team.” Bev has not yet agreed to be a part of this team, but I suspect that to change as Marcella has upgraded and there is a chief of security job available.
Zia steps forward to shake hands with Paolo. “I apologize that the CEO of Astoria Chemical is not available, but welcome to Asphodel, Manager Paolo. Would you like to review your lodging options or your facility first?”
Paolo freezes, not knowing the politics or the right thing to say. He also doesn’t know that those considerations are not necessary. He looks to me “Quimica, help.”
I smile warmly at the capable, helpful, and stellar example of humanity. “Perhaps Bev can talk with Caretaker Astoria about residences, and you, Dzartha, and Marcella can discuss operations?” He nods at me, then looks to Bev, who considers me for a moment before turning back to Paolo and nodding.
Dzartha moves to Paolo and talks and gestures without getting too close, sensitive that his kind are intimidating to humans.
“Miss Novarro, would you be so kind as to attend me for a moment?” I do not like the sound of her officious tone, so I obey.
Walking over to handshake distance and about to ask her what she wants, Zia takes a step forward, grabs my head and kisses the questions out of me. I can’t help but hold her hips as we kiss until she pushes me to turn me around to kick me in the ass and make me stumble.
“I don’t care for the stuffiness, Kimber. Now go attend to business so we can have fun later.”
Feeling chastised, I pout on my way back to the factory group. Marcella is laughing and not having the decency to pretend to hide it.
“Soo, your girlfriend seems nice.”
“Marcella! Thanks for telling me you declined my offer to work for a different company.”
“What? Zia said you’d be okay with it, and I don’t have to work for my freaking protegee.”
“Shitty sister energy there, Marcie.”
“You little shit.” She dashes over to put me in a headlock and I put a thumb in her butt. She squawks and I stick my tongue out at her.
I look at the others who are a mix of gaping or ignoring. “We’re practically sisters. We bicker all of the time. Moving on.” I walk past the people and enter my factory floor.
There are dozens of more machines and racks and bins than I saw during the equipment review. I pull up my company interface and see that there is an acquisition for an automation suite for the plant and Orem-S drones to perform the manual parts of secondary drying and packaging. I put a query out to Penny about the drones as I don’t see them listed on the exchange, nor do I see a bill on Nova Chem save the recurring materiel allotment that started today.
I see one alert in my interface for the factory and it’s the aether battery exchange schedule. Yep, need to post that in red on the office and factory walls. Those batteries and sand unshielded would mutate my employees in minutes.
“So, you’re an interstellar Cartel starting today.” Marcella says, putting her arm on my shoulder.
“Yeah, it’s hard to believe that training to be an Enforcer led here.”
“Kimber, I guarantee that none of us thought we’d be working on a foreign moon, let alone making drugs.”
I chuckle at that. “The newness of interstellar travel was wrung out of me when I met my star girlfriend shapeshifter who identifies as a dragon.” I expect a laugh, a scoff, something, but I look over to see a bit of wonder in her eyes.
“She’s a dragon?” Marcella whispers. Her response tickles me and I can’t help but giggle my response.
“I guess she’s technically a Draconid, a humanoid dragon embodiment, but she can full western dragon if she needs to throw some weight around.”
Marcella grabs my shirt and pulls me centimeters from her face. “Can you ask her to show me?” she whispers again.
“We’re in love, dummy, and you live in her sector. Just warn Danielle not to treat her as a science project and invite us over for dinner or something.”
Marcella tries to hide her smile, turning around to collect herself, but the massive fist pump gives her away. My sister is a huge dork. I say, not having squeed when I saw my girl’s pink-scaled majesty. Nope, not at all.
The next two hours, we walk through the equipment as I discuss the apparatus changes with Paolo, and flag parts of the procedure that will require suits for his workers, an evacuation for certain evolutions, etcetera. Dzartha reminds us that he will be here tomorrow and the next few days to help supervise the process and we all thank him for it.
When we walk out, Zia and Bev are having a picnic. Of course they are, why wouldn’t my and Paolo’s partners picnic? I see Zia manifest a stool in front of a significant board full of sushi and I skip over to sit next to her.
I scoot the stool closer, kiss her cheek in thanks and wiggle a little before enjoying my fish snack.
“You remembered the Nope Rope Eel! You’re the best Zee.” I put my hand on her leg to squeeze in appreciation. She slaps her hand over mine to keep it there. I smile back at her and enjoy the suddenly delightful situation.
Paolo sits and snuggles with Bev as he eats. They feed each other and it’s cute, but not for me. While they coo at each other and eat, I turn toward Zia.
“We should go on a light hunting trip. I like the idea of catching food for you.”
She smiles wide, “I like that you try to provide for me too, little Nova.” She manages to purr the last part and my middles wiggle a little as the warmth between my legs toes the line of manageable.
I cough a few times while jamming fish in my mouth. Zia laughs in return and Bev’s crooked smirk is knowing. I want to bathe in Zia’s warmth and hide from embarrassment. SO CONFLICTED. Words will deescalate with awkwardness!
“What kind of residence did you decide on?”
Bev quirks an eye before beginning. “With your generous pay for Paolo, and considering the transit time and service availability, I have tagged a villa, a high condo, and an addition to the factory as options.”
“Me amore, the residence in the Factory was for convenience, a decision I made before my life changed.” He grabs her hand and kisses it before looking adoringly into her eyes. What a hecking romantic! OMG. My inner romantic squeals. “I am happy to have an offsite location that we can travel to within ten to fifteen minutes.”
“Paolo, your pay includes use of company shuttles my man. A third of the moon is fifteen minutes away if you’re in a hurry.” I say to my plant manager.
His eyes brighten as he realizes that Bev’s other options are now viable. “Me amore loves shopping and city life, so we should accept the condo no? So we may do work and each other instead of maintenance, no?”
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Bev pulls Paolo into her lap and mugs the man with affection. He seems to be gasping for air, but also enjoying the pleasant deaths.
“How long have they known each other?”
“Six months? After meeting you, I don’t think timeframes matter so much.” I reply as she reaches to dapple wasabi paste on my lips. She licks my lips and kisses the spice into my mouth. This fucking girl, I swear. We’re in public!! I love it.
\I’m not staying to watch you four to fuck. See you tomorrow Kimber.\
/Rude. Night sis./
Dzartha excuses himself as well, and it’s just the four of us. “Zia, is there anything keeping them from sleeping in the condo tonight?”
“They need to stop kissing long enough to sign a contract, but otherwise no.”
Paolo politely asks for a moment of space before continuing in their new home and signs the work and lodging contract.
Zia grabs my hand and stands, stowing both of our chairs as she leads me back to her shuttle. When we get into the cockpit, she holds my face close and talks into my mouth. “I have a mansion on this moon that could use some christening.”
There goes my crotch composure--Literally dripping with arousal as she breathes scandalous promises into our kisses.
***
“Mom’s never going to sell you an Orem. They’re her personal projects. I can’t believe that she put a whole squad in your new factory, but don’t get your hopes up Kimber.” Her esses slur as her dragon mouth isn’t made to make the noise that humans make.
“Babe, I get it. It was just a question. I’m sorry if I triggered something.”
Zia sighs as she gathers a wing around me. “I just . . . I get jealous of her, you know? And when you ask her for help it flares. I don’t know how to temper this, but I feel like my mom and my siblings are so amazing, and I’m just . . . I’m just Zia.” I growl a little at that and I want to grab her snout and talk to her sternly.
I run my finger along the top supports of the wing and watch her shudder. “You’re more than good enough for me, Zee. The others will accept you in time.” An evil grin spreads as I think about her arrival on Earth. “If they don’t, you can always breath fire on their villages and eat their cows.”
“Oh! I have read stories like this. I don’t want to terrorize, Kimber. Though I am interested in local cuisine.”
I snort at the sudden mental image of a large dragon with a bib eating a cow with a fork and knife. I open my mouth to comment, but instead, learning from previous mistakes, I tug at her hand.
“Look at me Zee.” She does, reluctantly and it seems hard for her to maintain eye contact. “I can’t fathom how hard it is to see how amazing you are, because to me you’re a beacon of confidence and wonder. How do I convince you that you should not compare yourself to your family and appreciate you like I do?”
She picks me up and cocoons us in her wings for a few seconds. “Stay, and love me. But mostly stay.”
“Mutated Voosels couldn’t keep me away, doofus. I love you, Zee. Both sides of you are so amazing and I would love to spend centuries appreciating them.”
She chuckles as she hooks her snout around my neck. “I hope you live that long to share the time with me.”
Oh dear. This girl is getting all of the smooches later. For now, I scratch the area above her tail, letting her know that I appreciate her.
She releases me with a scandalous lick along my jaw, making me shudder with delight as we continue to walk along the shops in the business district of Asphodel. Tech City is such a dumb name, so Zia tells me that most people call it Asphodel Metro.
“Are you like Queen Regent now?”
“Why, do you secretly want to bang the ruler of the Empire?”
“Zee, we’ve covered this. While your mom is pretty, she is not you. I love you and your big stupid face. Okay, your pretty scaly face. Anyway, I just wonder how busy you get when your mom is away.”
She nips my ear in chastisement before nuzzling me. She is really affectionate as a Draconid. She’s less sure of herself as an Elf and it makes me sad both in that it doesn’t feel like her skin, and that she has to be in it for us to get as close as she wants to be.
“Yeah, well, one of these days you might actually believe me.”
“Not likely. But I like the compliments anyway.” She sighs, “I’m merely a princess unless the Consuls recognize me as Regent. They won’t do that unless they need Pro Tempore powers or until the next Founder’s day, where a ruler of Astoria must be present.”
“If I remember correctly, Founder’s day after next has some of her Judicial projects coming due.”
“Ugh, don’t get me started. She wants me to move to Earth! Can you imagine?”
I grab her snout and stare her in the eyes. “Yes, Zia, I can imagine living with you and seeing you everyday.”
She pulls her head away to blush. “It’s not that I don’t want to . . . with you. I, it’s just. It’s a lot of work, Kimber, and I’m afraid of what will happen if I’m not good enough.”
I run my finger along the top supports of her wing and watch her shudder. “You’re more than good enough for me, Zee. The others will accept you in time.”
She buys us coffee and a crepe thing for breakfast before we hop in our shuttle, that her AI so thoughtfully drives while we continue flirting over our meal. I ask what she’s going to do for the day, and she tells me most of the Empire is run with administration and working in the interface. I don’t care for the amount of interface administration I have to do, I can’t imagine the scale she has to deal with. Penny had to set up a whole government just to help her run things. Blearg. I should get some notes though, because I am likely going to have to do something similar for my settlement as it continues to grow.
When we land, I see Paolo talking with the Herrati engineer, and Marcella walking towards us from an apartment block in the distance. I’m definitely asking her about that.
“Kimber! You arrive at an opportune time! We need your aether signature to have the Orem workers check your saturation levels.”
“Are the sensors not in the tanks or something?” I wonder if the Orem models have to check the aether saturation manually and consider that there is no way a process engineer would be that inefficient.
“I see the confusion. The tanks are dry so we can cover the procedures for filling and changing out the aether charging media and the protective measures that your employees will need unless they acclimate to Elysium.” He explains as he waves me over.
I turn to Zia, “I think Marcella and I need to talk to you about integration in the area, but I should do this with them.”
She tosses a gust of wind and pushes me back a little, smiling as she does it. “Go on, be a good CEO. I have things I can talk to your sister about in the meantime.”
I give her a little wave in thanks and trot over to the warehouse to join the team. Dzartha leads me to a panel next to the Orem recharging and storage bay that asks for my aether signature. I manifest one of my currently active contracts and set it against the sensor.
//Aether signature accepted. Delivery of Orem-S autonomous workers completed.\\
//Warning: Removal of Orem-S units from the areas owned by P. Astoria or K. Novarro will result in destructive deconstruction of the units.\\
Well that’s a way to stop the proliferation of mobile AI tech. I ask the console to send me the map while it queries me for control settings and permissions. I set it up simply: Penny Astoria and Kimber Novarro for unrestricted control. Plant managers for production related tasking, and security for unit safety related tasking.
I enable verbal and text tasking and ensure it recognizes ‘factory control’ ‘automated workers’ ‘Orem units’ and ‘Odell’ as identifiers for itself. I like Odell because Nova-Asphodel becomes Odell pretty easily.
“Alright, Odell. For today only, I am granting Dzartha Plant Manager Permissions.”
\Yes, Miss Novarro.\
“Please reply in the medium the request was received.” I correct.
“Yes, Miss Novarro. Dzartha Aggresori granted Plant Manager permissions for eight hours.”
Uh, is that correct?
The Astorian Day ends in eight hours or so. Our relative speeds are different and if we travel there the dilation changes things as well, but the System Host in orbit in Astorian space recognizes Astorian as a valid date time group for Supercluster Business.
Huh I’m going to need to dual date and time stamp my systems on Earth.
HQ is already set, you need to get some help in the Factory.
I need some help, period.
The Engineer set a task list for Odell and the automated workers and directed the rest of us to the modified Habitat suits that are supposed to protect against aether exposure and fire-generated radiation in emergency situations. I put on my combat armor. With my headband-like shield emitter so I don’t have to wear a helmet.
“Does that have the appropriate aether suppression?” Dzartha asks me.
“I’ve been hunting on Elysium and I’ve played with the aether products before. I’ll be fine.” He shrugs and then leads us all outside, Orem units in tow. He directs them to the shipping and receiving lot to back a tanker cargo pod up to the fuel tank outside with two to maneuver the hoses and connectors.
Two remaining bots are directed to load crystals onto a grav cart for installation into the automation hardware. I follow to watch the process as I know how to fill a storage tank full of corundum, but I don’t know the interface for the power systems.
One of the workers walks over to the control panel and navigates menus and warning prompts until two sides of the sloped rim to the floor drain rise up out of the floor. They then pull the vertical panel out like a dishwasher door showing two tightly packed rows of slots for what I assume are for the crystals we brought. They pull a lever on the side of the rack that seems to un-clench the inner space before turning toward the sealed crates on the cart.
The padded side panel of the crate comes off to reveal six by six rows of crystals the length of my arm and as thick as my wrist. Curiosity gets the better of me and I walk over and pull one out. One of the Odell units squawks at me but I tell it to finish loading and leave the one I’m holding for last.
The first thing I notice is the tingle in my hands and my unprotected face. Huh, I should not hold this for long, the primal part of my brain signaling danger, I take a few snapshots and ask Tova to take as much data as she can in the seconds I hold the device before slotting it back into the crate.
With Tova’s help, I re-create a representation in my HUD and study the ultra-clear center with engraving marks on each of the eight faces and the color gradient at the tapered ends of the crystal, where the magitech receivers interface with the energy held within the crystalline matrix. There would be no way for me to decipher the intricacy of the engraved spellforms without studying every facet, but the views that I did get should help me learn more about engraving, and hopefully more about crafting containers for explosives that help shape ignition profiles.