Rebekkah let out a relieved sigh that helped wash the tension from her body as she finally got word back that her friends were safe and on their way home. The last couple hours had been a grueling affair as she watched the feed of them descending into Jupiter’s atmosphere, the ship looking like it was doing its level best to scramble them or rattle itself apart the whole way. It was far more stressful than she had imagined it might be, since she knew that the choppy, grainy feed she was getting ever since they entered Jupiter’s influence was over half an hour late. She watched, dreading the thought of something going wrong and finding out that her friends were gone, and had been gone for almost an hour despite being right there in front of her on the screen.
Now that she could relax and focus on her work, she turned her attention back to the myriad newsfeeds she had running. She tended to jump back and forth between them as things caught her attention, and she was checking everything from reviews of the game to personal attacks against her and her friends from critics and people that were jealous of their otherworldly rise to the top of both the gaming and tech industries. Most of the attacks were unsurprisingly aimed at Evan. He hadn’t made many public appearances, but the ones he did make had been rather spectacular. It was compounded by the fact that the rest of them had more or less avoided the limelight.
The elite members of society were swiftly becoming aware of her presence, but the upper crust tended to express their distaste for someone in a less overt manner most of the time. Particularly when they weren’t quite sure what they were dealing with. One of her screens flashed an alert and she pulled it to the center. After skimming it she smiled to herself. The final stock purchases had been completed. She had worked so very hard to keep it discreet, and judging by the rest of her feeds she had succeeded. Around a quarter of the public news feeds had been covering the so-called Ebonheart Crusade as a valiant effort to keep the less fortunate kids out of gangs and away from drugs, while the rest had been heaping criticism on it, calling it a misguided attempt to look good while shamelessly promoting his own product among other things.
Now though? Now Evan was the majority stockholder for two different pharmaceutical mega-corporations, and she couldn’t wait for him to get back and practically turn the economy upside down. She expected stock values for companies in that industry to plummet, allowing her to snap them up at bargain-bin prices. Once they had control of a large enough chunk of the medical industry she could have Kinzie work on getting the bio-printer ready to sell and kick off yet another storm. She had a sudden thought and pulled out her phone to make a note: have Kinzie and Lisa look into self-defense/protection devices. They were growing fast now, and sooner or later they would wind up with targets on their backs.
Someone knocked on her door, and she waved at the displays to turn them off before telling them to enter. “Ah, Samantha! You are precisely the woman I wanted to talk to! Sit, please.” She waited as the nervous woman sat down, noting several small signs in her behavior that told her everything she needed to know. “Would you like a drink?”
“N-no thank you, ma’am.” She said, her nerves making her stutter slightly.
“Are you sure? Oh well, no matter, I asked you here because I’ve noticed a few things about you, the slight blush whenever I talk to you, the nervousness, the trouble you have making eye-contact, oh a lot of little things really.” She leaned forward, her expression warm and kind. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it for some time now, but I’m always ever so busy, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
Samantha started hyperventilating and Rebekkah swept out of her chair and around her desk. She started to pat the poor woman’s shoulder reassuringly. “Relax you silly thing! I have no intention of making an issue of it, I was rather hoping for quite the opposite.”
“You mean you, but it would, I mean we can’t, it-” Samantha struggled to put things into words and failed spectacularly.
“Oh, yes dear, I am quite certain I mean precisely what you think I mean, and I suspect the ‘it would’ part was going to be something along the lines of ‘it would be a conflict of interest?’” At Samantha’s vehement nod Rebekkah continued. “Yes, I’m sure it would count as that wouldn’t it? Unless of course, I happened to have a way to promote you sideways and out from under me.” She leaned a bit closer and whispered. “Is that something you would like? Is it just a simple crush or do you want more? Is it just my power that you crave, or me?” She stopped the massage now that Samantha was slightly calmed down and returned to her seat, then watched her, waiting for an answer.
“D-do you really mean that?” Samantha asked shyly.
“Mean what, dear? I fear I mentioned more than one thing, and I will need a good deal more specificity to ensure we are on the same page.”
“The part about having a solution for the conflict of interest? I really don’t want to lose my job, which is why I tried so hard to hide it, but you’re everything I always wanted to be, so strong and beautiful and, and, ugh, why is this so hard!” she buried her face in her hands.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Rebekkah spoke softly. “I apologize, I fear I may have come on a little stronger than I should have, I’ve started to become used to getting what I want all the time, and that really isn’t a good thing. Fret not, your position is not, and never was, at risk here, you have been doing a fabulous job and I would no doubt have a dreadful time finding a replacement. Take however much time you need to consider what you want, I would very much enjoy the opportunity to get to know one another better, but only if you desire it as well. My door is always open to you, regardless of whether you decide to take me up on my offer.”
Samantha nodded a bit awkwardly. “That-that would be nice, I, I guess I’ll let you know? Do you really have a way to avoid the conflict thing?”
“Not this exact moment, but I have it on good authority that some very high up positions in another company will probably open up soon, and that I will have more than a little say in who gets to fill those positions. Now off with you dear, I have work to do and you have some thinking to do and makeup to fix. Really now, am I that frightening?” Samantha nodded, then shook her head hurriedly, then looked panicked and bolted. “She’s so adorable,” Rebekkah said with a smile.
Lisa’s voice came through her communicator, sounding curious and tentative all at once. “Um, Rebekkah? Isn’t she a woman?”
“Yes, she most certainly is.”
“Aren’t you a woman?”
“Last I checked, yes. Does this have a point? Or are we about to have another discussion regarding frivolous power expenditures?”
“I, er, sorry, but aren’t women supposed to date men? Like Evan and Kinzie?”
Rebekkah was caught off guard and burst out laughing. “Ah, I’m sorry dear, I don’t mean to laugh, but there are clearly parts of the internet you have miraculously avoided. To answer your question, you are quite right, normally a woman would date a man. I, however, find it silly to quibble over who has what parts. A lasting relationship is a partnership of the mind, not the body, and that is what I look for in my partners. Samantha has a remarkable mind and a significant amount of untapped potential, all bottled up in that adorably shy little cocoon. I can’t wait to see the butterfly that springs forth when she finally manages to break free of it. Now stop wasting power, I’ll not have you dying on my watch while the others are returning from the ordeal they experienced in order to save you.”
She glanced at the time and sighed. Always so very much to do, with so little time to do it in. She stood and stretched, then double-checked to ensure her ensemble was as flawless as always. Image was important for someone in her position. Namely, those that are about to attend a press conference. She headed downstairs to the room they were stashing all the reporters in, idly hoping that Samantha would choose to seek her out to discover once and for all if they were compatible.
She swept into the room and up to the podium, intending to get this particular ordeal out of the way and off her agenda. “Miss Holt! Miss Holt! What plans does Archangel have going forward?” One of them managed to shout over the others.
“Please, Rebekkah will be fine, and Archangel has a great many plans for the future. We are working hard to increase the range of devices we can offer to ease the lives of people all over the world, and our Software teams have already begun working on a second game.”
“Rebekkah! Rebekkah! Lisa Stewart, reporter from GNN, can you provide us with any details on the new game? Is there an estimate on the release timeframe yet?”
“Well, aren’t you the naughty one, slipping in a second question like that,” Rebekkah said with a mischievous smile. “I’m afraid I haven’t been brought up to date on all the details of the new game just yet. All I know right now is that it is intended to be a hyper-realistic space fighter game with a focus on PVP. Players will be able to lead a number of fighter craft based upon their ranking into skirmishes against similarly skilled foes.”
“Mrs. Holt! Does Archangel intend to address the public outcry regarding the so-called Ebonheart Crusade?”
Rebekkah frowned at the man. “Firstly, if you must absolutely insist upon addressing me by my last name against my expressed wishes, I would ask that you at least get the honorific correct. I dread the thought of potential suitors thinking I am spoken for and being driven away by your boorish lack of courtesy. As to your question, my good friend Evan, namesake of this crusade people are so interested in, has no intention of stopping his good deeds. Neither he nor I are all that concerned with whether the world at large agrees that what we do are good deeds, all we are concerned with is results.” The man started to turn red with rage as she insulted him and when he started to try and retort she spoke over him, taking full advantage of the microphones in front of her.
“Those results I mentioned, the ones that we find more important than the puerile ideals of those that know nothing of situation we are attempting to address, speak for themselves. In the short time since the beginning of the Ebonheart Crusade crime in troubled neighborhoods has plummeted, gang violence is down, the number of runaways is down, school attendance is up, drug use is down, and each and every guardian that has received our donations has responded with nothing but glowing praise for the good it has done their children. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot imagine how nobody has noticed this yet, but Shard rewards those that put in the effort. You must endeavor to improve yourself to succeed, both there and in the real world, and much of the design is built to encourage such self-improvement, both in the game and outside of it. Now I’m afraid this man has rather effectively quashed my desire to stand here answering questions for the day, that will be all, farewell.” She ignored their continued attempts to ask her questions and gracefully left the room.