The inside of an executive suite was spacious yet elegant. The glossy prussian blue flooring matched the ceiling coated with small white digital comets dashing toward the wall. In front of a long levitating black-glass desk was a set of two oval chairs with a single wooden-mesh pegged table between them.
To the side was a long set of glass pane windows giving view of a buzzing neon-cybernetic cityscape. Miya stood in front of glass mirroring her entire frame, looking past her reflection at the large craters being towed by multiple red star-craft.
“… Welcome to Eidolon! How can I assist you today?”
Miya takes a bite of a black cookie with red dots in the grooves with a subtle crunch, moving her eyes to look the man up and down. She then walks over to one of the blue oval chairs swiveling in the middle of the room and taking a seat.
“Dr. Nichopham, Mensa? Correct?” Miya waves her bitten cookie toward the other seat in front of her.
He strides over and plops in the seats with both his hands balled on his knees with a straight back. “U-uh yes, but please, call me Mensa.”
Miya nods her head with another bite of her cookie. “Could you explain to me what all of this, is exactly?”
“Y-yes of course! We’re a conglomerate of mining and tunneling agencies that help create and expand inhabitable environments for planets looking to broaden their reach."
"Wow, that's so interesting! Tell me more!" Miya enthuses.
"W-what, really? Ok then... Did you know that there are approximately five trillion different types of minerals that can be formed in a planet’s crust alone?"
"Wow! No, I didn't!"
Mensa nods his head with a raised finger. "Indeed! Well, you might not have a need for these resources, however we’re able to harvest said rocks and sell them on your behalf all the while taking out dangerous tunneling nova-worms or crumbling cracklids that could damage your planet's core.”
“Oh, so you dig stuff up for people. That’s cool.” Miya sums up, seemingly losing interest.
“I-In simple terms, yes, we do… Dig things up.”
Miya then hops from her seat while taking the last few bites of her cookie and slaps her hands together.
“But I wasn’t talking about your company.” She then points to the colorful metropolis outside of the glass panes.
“I mean, can you explain what that is.”
Mensa jumps from his chair and stands next to her. “Ah yes! It’s a wonderful city that my father built before I even had my hands in on the company. A lot of cultures derive from that of the humans, the peoples who lived on 4056-E before us. But most of them were killed, or sold off, in the calamity a few centuries ago.”
“Why is it here though? Shouldn’t it be stationed Guroft and not this planet?”
Mensa scratches his cheek. “I… I don’t know if I’m able to…”
“So… You don’t know?”
“It’s… just that I don’t know if, he, would be alright with it.”
Miya turns to him with raised eyebrows. “Who’s, he?”
“… Aberese, the Head of Stravos.”
Mensa turns to look at the doorway where his wife appears with arms crossed at her chest. “Riree! Y-you shouldn’t be here!
Despite his warning, she continues walking forward and stands a few feet in front of Miya with a warm smile. “You’re about our son’s age, little one. You must be quite talented to have become a Patroller at such a young age.”
Miya looks her up and down and turns back to the window. She then taps the glass, pointing at a towering blue and white structure overheading the entire city. The building had a set of symbols circling its entirety that read ‘Stravos.’
“Yes, that’s them. They’re a research facility that works with a lot of big names, selling their ground-breaking narcotics and drugs to anyone who’s willing to buy. However, what they don’t tell the public is that they’re a chemical-engineering firm as well.”
Mensa grabs her by the shoulders with a shake of his head. “That’s enough, Riree! We don’t know who this Patroller is aligned with. What if she’s a spy for Stravos or some intel broker and is trying to take us under!”
Riree moves her head to the side and looks down at Miya. “Is that all perhaps true? Do you belong to a faction?”
Miya smirks with a crimson gleam in her eyes. “And what if I say yes? You’re going to send those four armed escorts in and attempt to kill me? You’d cause a lot more trouble killing a patroller, obviously. And those men you hired are probably just in it to kill me, pin the blame on you then shoot you right then and there to collect your bounty, all in front of your little boy. How tragic would it be for his nice shoes to be splattered with the blood of his dead parents?”
Mensa turns around to Miya with a nervous smile. “W-wait just hold on now! We weren’t gonna—“
Miya presses her hand on the glass pane with a devious smile. “Or maybe I’ll just shatter this window and throw you two out of it then make a great escape. Do you think that would be a little bit better on your son’s conscious?”
Riree’s eyes narrow as Miya walks back over to the couch and plops down, resting her feet atop the table. She then takes another cookie from the bowl of assorted goods atop the stand and rips it open, taking a large bite.
A bead of sweat drips down Mensa’s brow as he turns around with quivering lips. He moves his hand behind his back and reveals a holster beneath his coat, reaching for the gun inside. Riree stops his advance with her hand and nods; She then walks over and sits on the couch in front of Miya while clasping her hands together.
“If you want money we can pay you… Ten-million earthian crowns, or six-thousand stopocs if you prefer credits…”
Miya kicks her feet off the table and leans forward with a small chuckle. “What? Is that to pay me off to forget what you said? Your husband over there said you were a conglomerate of sorts. Shouldn’t you be able to make a steeper price?”
“We… We have a proposition for you… If you hear us out then we can offer you a lot more than capital.”
. . .