Observation Logs:
Secondary observation Target Detected, Possible termination target
He was at the top of the world "Send Mister Williams to the Site's entrance and notify the security so they can give him the required clearance" said the blonde man over his phone to his assistant in reception. She was getting kinda cheeky nowadays, and that was why even though she was among the people with the highest clearance in his company, right now, she was a receptionist. Only he was allowed to do bad puns and bad jokes.
That was why he climbed to the top after all, if he couldn't get his little fun now and then, why would he climb to the top?
Maybe it was a mistake to hold the reins of this conglomerate after all "It wasn't really worth it..." and he couldn't help but think like that more often than not. Maybe he would return and start working as a normal clerk on a random site. It would be hard to pull it off, but that was part of the reason he was using so many plain suits nowadays. He was cultivating an image, almost 20 years of cultivating this image of liking plain colors, and formal suits.
It would pay off in the future, but for now "I'm sending in Professor Eversoul" he had more important stuff to deal with.
"Send her in by the normal elevator, can't deal with all the questions about how and when we got teleportation and phasing tech," said the blonde man to his ever-cheeky assistant. Why couldn't she be like her sister? He would never know.
"Roger bossman" but for now he had more important stuff to deal with. Like getting in character...Again...This was going to be a long day...
"Good Morning Professor Eversoul" but for now he would deal with it as it came "Please take a seat" and work his way to freedom...One bright mind at a time, for her part this one was more composed than the last one. Of course, she didn't go on a levitating board...Nor saw the holo projections of an alien jungle one galaxy away...Nor experienced phasing through a ceiling...
So she had an unfair advantage over John, not that Alexanders would make a point of it "Couldn't help but notice Mister Williams going before me. While I am honored to be invited into the Conglomerate..." said the black-haired woman while seating herself like a proper lady "I will remind you that my work and myself will never be used to propel nor help any weapon development" and she was even acting all mighty! He already liked her. If nothing else it was refreshing seeing someone that still could talk up to him...Even if it was meaningless in the end.
For now, he was fighting against a smirk and one smart-ass answer with all his might "You misunderstand me Professor" stay in character, for all that is sacred stay in character " Mister William's research will be in a separate series of laboratories " said the blonde man with a level tone, almost like an Emperor caringly admonishing a peasant. This, of course, didn't get past the level-headed professor.
"One of my friends, Professor Kellet came to an interview a few days ago, she told me about this after learning I would come..." said and showed him a few papers.
Indeed these were what Professor Kellet had been given "Those are confidential Professor Eversoul" and of course, he didn't mind if those were shown to the world. The metadata would be erased a picosecond after being uploaded anyway "But indeed, Professor Kellet will also work on the same series of laboratories that Mister Williams" He was liking this woman, and wondered if she would like to work on a more personal project of Alexanders?
"And I assume the project you want me to work on isn't in those labs then?" said the woman without breaking eye contact. She really was living up to her reputation, not like the last one.
"Of course not, we wouldn't make you do something you weren't interested in, we aren't savages here," said the blonde man while pushing a button on the side of his desk. One compartment then was opened in front of the black-haired woman "You will be working with this kind of sample" and one small purple crystal was floating between the blonde and the black-haired woman.
For her part the blonde man was smiling, it wasn't a mischievous one, but one designed to show the superiority of a ruler (And one that also strained really badly his facial muscles, he wasn't designed for this for god's sake!), and the mask of the serenity of the woman was finally cracking "That shouldn't be doing that" only said the woman while searching on her purse and getting a small tweezer and a surgical glove. Alexanders couldn't help but think 'Shouldn't a woman's purse have cosmetics?' but hey, if it works for her all the better...
"I'm not a geologist, so I'm assuming my work would be on understanding how this material is defying all the laws of known physics?" asked the black-haired woman "Exactly, all your research will be aimed at understanding this thing's properties and getting us working theories on how it does what it does," said the blonde man, he pretended to not notice how the sample was now on a test tube and was tucked into the woman's front pocket. He was magnanimous like that "And that research will be used for...?" asked the woman, she could already see several ways this could make the current weapons more dangerous. And even if she liked the idea of a new type of science, she would not compromise his morals.
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Professor Miriam Eversoul POV
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She was sure the blonde man already knew that she would never work on weapon development, plenty of men had tried to entice her, and some even made reasonable compromises, but still used her work for weapons, so she had already burned plenty of bridges, at least she could afford to burn those bridges, and most of her colleagues would still help her, especially her friend Vivian, or Professor Kellet for the world at large. She was the one to give her the heads-up when they found out both of them had gotten an invitation to the Saintsworth conglomerate.
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She still thought this aloof blonde would do the same, all the people in power saw were pawns to do their bidding, and even if this one tried to hide it, she could almost smell it on him. The ego that said he was above them all peasants, the mannerism of an Emperor giving graces to the world. He was wearing the mask of a normal businessman with that normal-looking suit and this almost humble office. But the little details couldn't escape his analytic mind.
She could see the artisanal touch on the wood, wood of a now extinct tree since she didn't recognize the making of it, his normal looking suit had personalized threads and a finish that spoke of a master seamstress, and even the glasses on the shelf behind him looked like a set, but had small differences on the making, so each of them was probably made by a master artisan.
Then there was the 'Painting' that was a monitor and not a painting, even though it looked like one. She could even see a few extra monitors hidden in the decoration, and the windows to her left also fake monitors...Why did he have so many gods-dammed monitors here?
This room wasn't an exception, if she was measuring things right it was bigger than it should be for a normal floor in a building of this size, so either he was wasting space or he was already using technology out of that weird sample, and then there was the sample. He didn't make a move to take it away from her, so sure of himself that she would work for him...
And she really would want to work on this, she was ready to make a few compromises, so long the weapons she helped make didn't get sold to terrorists she could live with that small sacrifice, so that made the answer of the blonde man even more of a shock to her. She thought he would insist, she knew this type of man "For space travel of course!" so those words almost made her lose balance.
There wasn't even one small indication of a lie in his eyes, and that smirk on his face said he knew she was willing to compromise "And this space travel would be..." so there was a catch and she would find it "Colonization mostly, I am planning to send a few geezers to the outer planets, so while I can probably send them to one of our moons...I would rather send them farther away, this thing could help me build a big enough ship so that they have no excuse to return" said the blonde while proceeding to move the blueprints to a ship into the monitor behind him.
It looked really big for a simple colonization ship, but it didn't have engines, so he wanted her to make use of the levitation properties of that crystal to make a new type of engine? "And this thing can do more than just levitate...We wouldn't bring you here if that was all we needed, there are more... Simple-minded people that could do that for us" said the blonde, of course, there were other options, she could name a few of her assistants that wouldn't mind the extra money and would be willing to do the dirty job too.
So she was in a conundrum "Nothing I do will be used to further your weapon manufacturing?" was this sly old man being honest with her?
"Of course, it will be used, maybe not right after you postulate your new thesis on that material, but it will be used at some point" What was his end goal? "The real question is if you can aim your work in a way that any discovery you made is more profitable to use as a civilian tech instead of military" And there it was, the wolf was getting to the surface and pushing the sheep facade out of the way.
So this was his game then? A bet about if she could make it more enticing to develop civilian tech? This man couldn't be that simple "And you don't have to worry about the weapons department. The Saintsworth Conglomerate doesn't mind that much if our focus goes from weapons to charity or even civilian transport...All we care about is knowledge...All we ever care about was knowledge after all" and for almost a second she had forgotten. All the masks this man wears were that...Masks.
The Saintsworths always were seekers of knowledge, they could burn the world if that meant a new thesis was proven right after all...And they did that at least once, so for now "I will accept this work you have for me. And prove that civilian tech is more profitable" said the black-haired woman, she could already see this crystal helping on the civilian transport network.
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Alexanders POV
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He had won the face off "If you can outperform the 10 labs that will work on the weapon's side, I will give you control of the full site" said the blonde man, making the black-haired woman again deflate another few centimeters, she wasn't as good as she thought in this. Granted Alexanders had probably three times the experience in politics (Even if he loathed each decade of experience). But for now, he wouldn't mind an industrious mind trying to outperform the big bad wolf.
He almost couldn't control the smirk on his face, this one wasn't as tiring, since it was closer to his base persona "But don't worry Professor Eversoul, you will have most of the surface under your control, instead of fighting with the ten underground laboratories" said Alexanders while showcasing the diagrams of the base to the black-haired woman.
She had already signed the contract "Holograms?" so he didn't mind showcasing a few extras "You will also have a fifth of the samples extracted per year and access to an eight of all the samples collected till the moment you signed that contract" said Alexanders while adding a counter on kilograms of the volume she would have to work with. For her part, the woman was still processing the revelation of what should be science fiction technology being used so casually.
"You don't need me to make weapons out of this do you?" asked the woman looking at the blonde, for his part he just shrugged and answered.
"I am not particularly special in my field, what made you think you were?" said the blonde man playing with the hologram and zooming into the upper levels "This will be your main laboratory, it has a connection to Laboratory 0 and the site where the Crystal Geode is located, you will need to hash out the details of access with Mister Williams since that will be his Laboratory" now the hologram was zooming into a deep shaft and at the bottom a crystal geode, several facilities where build surrounding it, but the shaft had direct access to the surface.
"What's the shaft for?" asked the woman while wondering what that weird noise was, it sounded almost like giggling, but it was probably some weird sound of the hologram matrix or engine.
"That's the ejection device" That weird giggling was almost over but it resurged a few seconds after Alexanders answered her question. "In case of emergency on-site, that will be supercharged and turned into a magnetic cannon" After this she couldn't help but make the calculations in her head and turn to look back to the blonde man.
Maybe she was misinterpreting things but "You......turned that into a railgun?" to which the blonde once again smiled and she couldn't help but think this one almost looked childish.
"We do need to evacuate and protect the personnel on-site" If only he wasn't the tyrant at the top of the Saintsworth Conglomerate he might even look like a little kid showcasing his new toy.
But sadly he wasn't a little kid showcasing a new toy, but an old monster "...Aren't you old enough to be playing with this kind of toy?" asked the black-haired woman.
For his part the blonde "You hurt my feelings Professor Eversoul" pretending to grab his chest and stumble from pain "This is a serious situation if that crystal ever becomes a dangerous thing there isn't a way to safeguard the base" said the blonde man bringing another holo screen. This one showcased a crater in a desert she didn't recognize.
"That was the old black site, someone decided to try and ionize a sample half the size of the one on your pocket, but the sample didn't like it..." said the blonde while rewinding the video to a point in time where a military facility was showed "And then this happens" the video slowed to a crawl, almost frame per frame. First, there was a base, then there was a black blob and finally, there was a crater.
"After that, we decided on two things." said the blonde man moving the holo screen behind him and showing two different blueprints "First we need a faster delivery system in case something goes wrong" and so he highlighted the railgun "And second we need faster capturing cameras" and so he showed a drone that came into the office bringing a selection of beverages.
Among them the black-haired doctor grabbed the hot chocolate, she didn't know how the blonde man knew about his favorite drink, but that's the Saintsworth intelligence network for you. "Thank you" Of course she thanked the drone who only tilted himself a little as knowledge, she could almost feel personality from the round floating thing.
Alexanders just grumbled something under his breath and grabbed what looked like one of those heavy alcoholic drinks, she thought for a second that it smelled like apple, but maybe he just liked to use flavored sodas instead of normal coke in his drinks? Rich men were weird like that sometimes after all.
For now, she would try to not think too much about his new employer or the work site.
Observation Logs:
Possible Target Detected
Reviewing Past