Veda stared at her mother, mouth hanging open, for what felt like an eternity. She regained just enough composure to turn to Shad and his grandfather. "Would you excuse me?" she said. "I think I probably need this conversation to be private."
They nodded to her. Major Twofeather, extended a finger toward the human with Veda's mother. "You keep out of my way," he said quietly. "There's no need for trouble between you and me, but if you try another stunt like you did before, you're going to get run over."
"Not at all, Major," the other man said, smiling and giving a head nod. “I should note, though, that if our paths cross during the course of Phase Three, all bets are off. My employers are paying good money for my service.”
"Employers? Sicaris, of course," the man said smoothly. Of course. This was the Major Waters whom had been such a pain at the end of Phase One. Veda had only ever seen the man in videos before, and he was shorter than she had expected.
Plus, she was still trying to understand why her mother was here. "Let's go," Veda said in a low voice to her mother. She strode away, not bothering to see who followed.
Mother kept up. "That's all the greeting I get after a year and a half apart?”
“Mother, I am busy here, and I can't imagine why you came,” Veda growled. The auction was about to start. She told off her personal system to go and watch for items on her wish list, but that was never as good as paying attention in person. "How did you even afford to come out here?"
"Proxima is paying the way of many different tourists who are interested in seeing a reality engine at work," Major Waters said smoothly as he caught up to them. "After all, there aren't nearly as many crafters and other usual employees coming this way, so plenty of empty berths on the ships. It's a win-win situation. Your people here on the Hub manage to sell their goods. Folk from back home who never get a chance to see what happens at the point of the spear are getting a ringside seat for the first time."
"The family sent me," Mother said. Veda kept making her way through the crowd, trying to buy time to collect her thoughts, and also to get Major Waters farther away from Shad and his grandfather. She didn't need any of her contracted humans starting a fight.
"The family has nothing to say to me," Veda snapped. "I've already turned a profit twice as high as what they could have reasonably expected. Our Phase Two license is secure."
"Exactly," Mother said happily. "Which is why we have decided it's time for you to come home and turn your focus elsewhere."
"Come home?" Veda stopped where she stood. The crowd of partygoers ebbed and flowed around her, most of them making their way toward the back of the room where the auction would be held. A pair of lizardfolk had to detour around them. They glared angrily through their membranous eyes at her, but she was too busy trying to understand what kind of point her mother could possibly be trying to make.
“But of course. It’s time.”
“You don't stop a successful exploit when you're in the middle of it.”
“Tvedra Corporation has never been involved in a Phase Three operation before," Mother pointed out. "We're a Phase Two company. You did well there, Veda. Better than most of the family thought you would. I knew we were right to place our faith in you.”
“You did no such thing. I had to fight to get a chance at this." Her mother had been one of the strongest critics of Veda's plans, though in fairness she had expressed those doubts in private and not in front of the board of directors like Uncle Yarin.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Nevertheless, dear," her mother said, "the family wishes to consult in person before deciding what direction to take next. We need to return home for a board members' meeting as soon as we can. Otherwise, they'll be forced to hold it without you."
"Can't," Veda said, shaking her head. "During an exploit, the exploit leader is sole commander of the company. Board cannot recall the commander or order changes.” That was laid down in the Corporation's earliest bylaws, set down by her great-great-great-great grandmother. It was a wise choice. Often, reality engine exploits were several weeks, if not months, of travel away from wherever the family happened to be headquartered at the time. News would be slow to travel. Only people on the spot had a chance of making timely and accurate decisions.
“I think you'll find, dear, that the conclusion of Phase Two serves as the end of your time in charge of our exploit. After all, our bid was for Phase Two.”
Veda's blood ran cold. Her mother might actually be correct. She would have to check the words of her contract. “I’ve already sunk most of our profits into this Phase Three attempt. If I leave now, we lose everything.”
"Sicaris has offered us a very favorable buyout," her mother said.
"We'll just have to confirm the size of your latest monetary allocations,” Waters added smoothly.
"Hang on," Veda said as a thought struck her. "Phase Three just opened. We've only had a few days' warning that it was coming. How is it that you're already here?"
Her mother looked briefly taken aback. She glanced at Major Waters. He shrugged as though saying, "I don't know."
"Well, dear," her mother said, clearly flustered. "The family knew that Phase Two would be coming to an end soon. We just wanted to see you, to bring you home where you belong.”
"Right," Veda said. She bit off what she would have wanted to add. Either her mother and entire family had decided to conspire against her, or more likely, Sicaris — rather, Sicaris' parent company, Proxima — had been putting pressure on them. This hadn’t happened overnight. Had her mother arrived before the end of Phase Two, she would have had some other line of attack.
"Look, this is neither the time nor the place for this conversation," she said. "I need to go to the auction—“
“And I'm afraid I brought along corporate authorization to freeze your funds the moment I arrived here on the hub." Her mother wouldn't meet her eyes. She looked almost embarrassed.
Veda felt like she'd been stabbed in the stomach. "You can't. I need those funds. Whatever I have left has to keep me going. I'm paying the expenses for my team. They'll have nothing to fall back on."
"Sorry," Waters said, smirking. "I guess old Louis will have to find another retirement plan besides making himself king of Earth."
"I think you're right, dear," her mother said. "This is not the time to speak. Here's my comm code. Call me later when you're ready to have this discussion, and we'll figure out what to do next."
She and Waters left Veda standing in the middle of the crowd. The sponsors, backers, off-world visitors, and dignitaries swirled around her as she stood and felt everything crumbling out from under her feet.
I can't let them do this. I can't let them take this away from me. This wasn't about her family anymore. Mother was right. She'd done what Tvedra Company needed. She'd kept their license alive. But she'd done so much more than this, more than anyone had thought she could.
Her relatives had trusted her with the last of their funds, even though they weren't convinced she could make good, not because of their faith in her, but because of their belief in the Tvedra Corporation. She'd paid that back already.
But somewhere along the way, she'd gotten caught up in the game, in what happened to Shad and Sage and the rest of the humans. She wanted to watch as they took Phase Three by storm, just like they'd done in Phase One and Phase Two. She wasn't going to be frozen out now by some soulless intergalactic conglomeration.
Veda straightened up. She made a decision. If her funds were frozen, there was nothing more she could do here at the auction. She needed to go back to her own quiet living quarters and read her contract. And then she needed to start studying on corporate law, exploit history, legal precedent.
She sent one quick message to Shad, saying she wouldn't be able to meet up with him again, alerted his grandfather she’d be missing the auction, and then sent word to Mama Grace, asking her to relay to Colonel Ames the fact that Major Waters was back and working for Proxima.
Then she sent all of her incoming notifications to "Do Not Disturb" and headed for her own pod.