Dealing with people, on the reg, and on purpose is difficult for me—even with the people I like.
“Not that I don’t miss you Penny, but why are you here exactly?” my one-time rival asks.
“Francesca, can’t I just drop in to say hello to one of my oldest friends?” She snorts at my awkwardness.
“I’m a little offended that you don’t think I know you better than this, old friend. I’ve asked you to come by for a drink at least once a year, and you always have an excuse not to show.” She takes a sip from some unremarkable bottle next to a fancy gene sequencer. “So I ask again, what brings you to darken my doorstep?”
I sigh and scuff the toe of my shoe against her flooring a few times before answering. “I do actually just want to see you and Jenna. But you’re right, I would also like advice on how to talk to an inexperienced business owner without freaking them out.”
She lifts an eyebrow at me and swizzles her bottle in contemplation. “That does not sound like a Penny request. Are you sick or something? How do you normally approach suppliers?”
“I send them a proposal over the Exchange. The ones I meet in person are formal and on-edge, while the majority of others either confirm or deny my offers.”
“Penny, Penny; now you’ve piqued my interest! You actually want to talk to a supplier, something you just admitted you don’t do, to introduce a business relationship? Tell me why they’re so special.”
“Ugh, can’t you just give me general advice instead of having me explain myself?” I ask. She does not make a single movement to indicate she’s entertaining a response. “Fine! She self-registered for a Symbiote while on earth, then got into making infused explosives. I could very much use an alchemist that focuses on propellants and explosives, and reaching out to and supporting Earth industry aligns with my goals.”
“She, huh? Is she cute? Is this going to be another incident that the Empire will gossip about for another cycle?”
“Uh, no, Summers, she’s 17 and nowhere near t-1. What do you take me for?”
She snorts, “an easy, shameless flirt that has caused almost as many problems for herself than her enemies have levied against.” The Farmer and Doctor smiles broadly before taking another swig.
If I hadn’t thought about it so often in the years I’ve been causing myself trouble, then I might be offended. “That may be true, but I am seeing someone right now, while my crush is off denying her feelings, so I’m chock full of drama at the moment.”
“Wait, you’re seeing someone that’s not your current crush? Well that’s new. I take it the feline ambassador is not the crush then?”
“No, and while I do like Liasha, I don’t like the idea of a political match as much as she does.”
“Gross. Political marriages. Politics in general, even. I’m still mad you coerced me into being your Consul for the Interior. I do, however, like the power to insist on green space in city planning and banning wasteful suburban sprawl as far as the eye can see. At least Astoria’s big enough for wildlife preserves and a few billion people. Not that we’re even close to getting that many, but it’s good to have plans for these things.”
“Thanks for letting me turn that into hunting tourism, by the way. Is that what Jenna’s up to right now?” I miss the muscular, spunky woman that is Francesca’s Partner.
“Mm, she’s on an escort to one of the prospect planets. She tells me that there’s an agricultural friendly one that seems like Elysium but far less toxic, and I’m thinking of starting a lab there. While I do like making new flora and fauna or adapting Earth plants to Astoria, I want to discover some more things in an environment that’s not likely to kill me.”
I’ve invited her to Elysium many times, even agreed to go and protect and fund an expedition, but she declined as creating a home tree on such a high-aether planet would be untenable for her--Dryadic mutations require such things for a stay of moderate lengths and more. I’m heartened to hear a glint of excitement in her voice and I tell her so.
“And the fun part is, I can sign the first half of my permit to stake a claim and bully you for the second.”
“As long as it’s not like half the planet, I’ll sign it. Applejack isn’t that sought after for prospecting, but there have been some businesses moving over there do decrease the food load on inter-system freight.”
“Andromeda, why did you let them name those systems.”
“It’s established custom!” I start laughing, “and it tickles me pink. I’m the one that named the systems Brony 1 through 3. No way was I going to wait to see if they would name the first two systems friendship and magic.”
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“Small mercies.” She takes another swig of the astringent liquid. “Now grab a chair so I can give you some pointers on talking to people like people instead of assets.”
My protest makes her chuckle.
***
My Castle and Condo’s AI, Orem, helps me build a time-dialated astral space for me to meet the owner of Nova-Chem in a more personal setting that isn’t near as creepy and stressful as me trans-positioning into their living room. Orem swears that he can help Miss Novarro’s AI help her connect to this construct with a few aether batteries. The aether that it takes to make one of these spaces is a little absurd, honestly, but I have aether to spare these days and with the practice I’ve had creating aether spaces it didn’t take long.
/Orem, the time dilation is making this wait uncomfortable. ETA?/
\Penny, Tova assures me that Miss Novarro is attempting to meditate to synchronize with this construct. I estimate less than ten minutes.\
I can do that. It feels as though I’ve been here for hours, but who knows how long it’s really been. As a space-time specialist, the idea of objective time makes me laugh, it’s also why I am terrible at estimating timeframes without my HUD keeping track.
I walk through the offers I have for the owner of Noca-Chem, the order she put forward for the sniper rifle and a pistol design I’ve been working on for her infused accelerant. It’s funny to me that as many projects as I’ve worked on, I never once wanted to learn alchemy. I have an alchemist on staff for healing and apothecary stuff, but never pursued finding another one for the more nefarious or destructive stuff. Now that I have a sample of infused gunpowder, however, I see credits just floating in the sky for me to pluck and pocket—as soon as we solve some issues.
A tall, fit teen with stylish black hair and a far-off look fades into the construct and I start moving forward to greet her as soon as she solidifies. “Miss Novarro! Good to finally meet you! I’m excited to discuss . . .” I pause when her expression slides to awe and a bit of fear? Huh, I never thought about how I might come across in this place.
“Oh, yes. Good to meet you too.” the girl stammers “Sorry about my face.”
There is nothing objectively wrong with her face, she’s quite pretty actually, so the fact that she’s apologizing for her facial reaction is deeply amusing. I cackle a bit as I tell her that her greeting was the funniest I’ve ever heard.
“Oh, Andromeda is that good.” I wipe my eyes and gaze back at her. Well, she’s staring, but I get that she’s never seen a pixie before. “I’m Penelope Mercer.”
“Kimber Novarro.”
“Great! Now that we’ve discussed your face, to business!” I bring up my data sheets on the propellant and casing tests that I had my engineers run at the Merc Arms facilities. “Do you absolutely need the powder to be in a casing? The metals I can mass produce that thin have been fouling the breech and unless I go through a more laborious enchanting process, you’re going to be replacing parts left and right.”
“So are you thinking a multi-stage chamber? A blow fill of the powder, or something more complex?” I see her nervousness fade as she engages her professional interest.
I explain the multi-action loading with a special magazine, and a more-aether intensive teleport option. I clearly favor the special magazine even though it’s going to need in-depth cleaning every 100 rounds. She seems okay with the idea, so I tell her about the pistols I designed with that very mechanism.
The point of the offer was to distract her and get a better deal on bulk smokeless powder, and it works. While normally I would revel in saving money via cleverness, this feels like I’m taking advantage of an adorable kid. Good job Penny, heartless tyrant. To assuage my guilt, I give her a sweetheart deal on the sniper rifle and a few hundred rounds and offer to help her and her company get Imperial discounts.
I complain about the paperwork necessary to do these things, but I can tell she’s barely listening while she thinks about the weapons she just bought with our little contract, as long as she can deliver the weight I need. She appears to need a little more help with startup, so I set up an account with a small forward amount to get her into more equipment and arrange the rest of the payment on delivery.
Minutes later, I see her form in the construct is getting little fuzzy, so I say that I need to get on with my day. It’s a little out of character for me, but I don’t want whipper snapper to suffer from mana withdrawal. I start dissolving the construct to kick us out just as she fades from my vision. Andromeda she was a cutie, can I adopt her? Do I want another kid? One like her, adorable and industrious? Shit, I think I do.
I want to physically punch my middles and my head for seeding me those thoughts. I have had four children and only my first seems to have any attachment to me. Damnit Penny, Bella and the twins are not at fault. You picked the brains and biology that you would pair with and Tessa and the Matrix was the wrong choice if I wanted to have kids that stick around. Umbra, it might even be my essence that makes them wander and be distant. It’s frustrating that when I had Zia that the need for a family nest hit me so hard. Some good that did.
/Orem, can you send me Warram’s latest regional data??
\You have told me to warn you about these reports and your desire to intervene based on them.\
I scoff to myself and to Orem via my data stream, /Sanitize it if you must, I want his hemisphere numbers as I have tasked him. I am entertaining establishing a protector as I will soon require for the Prospects. I want the data from Earth, specifically my unbiased agent on that planet, to help me see if the data supports that decision. Is that too forward, Orem?/
\Your directives account for this. I will send the sanitized data in a few hours as it is compiled.\
/Thank you Orem. Sorry for being snippy even though I told you to rebuff my demands on this case./ He chirps at me in tones that I have since translated these last decades. In fact, Alaris, Mab, and Titania would also prefer the chirp tonal language, but I talk with them and I have asked them to only rely on that language in emergency lest I lose a speaking language just to chirp with the beings I talk to the most.
In an effort to reign in my rapidly unraveling sanity, I look at my schedule and see a meeting with the Herrati Council on Kepler-3, I’ll be there a week and I’m sure Liasha will want to go to that jungle lounge she favors. I make appointments and then schedule an additional day to go to Earth to see Kimber Novarro in person. Get her measure and address how her batch delivery goes in a few months. Yeah, it’s for business, not for the desire to pinch her cheeks and hand her gifts.