Canvas Town, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Sixthmonth, 1634 PTS
Heutel marched through the sterile hallways of the Redwater Sect’s Linen Palace. The design of the building did not match the complex and gaudy mess that the Seiyal called their ‘aesthetics’. Instead, it was set up in a basic Staiven style, one pleasing to all the senses that mattered. It was strange for her to think that most other races cared so much about the electromagnetic frequencies that were absorbed by a given material.
She was not particularly religious, but if she had to choose a deity whose precepts she best lived by, Heutel would have to say that she felt closer to Fulstovis than any other. Life was all about trades. One had to pay for their home, had to pay for their nutrient baths, and they exchanged their own services for those funds.
This work of hers, in what might as well have been an alien land, was much the same. The Redwater Sect was trading their information, and the bodies of their own people for mere medical assistance. As they did in any transaction under Nahalken’s skillful leadership, the Venin group had come out ahead. Unlimited access to Seiyal test subjects was quite the benefit. This partnership had brought the corporation a valuable opportunity to carve out their own large section of the Seiyal medical industry, and it was Heutel’s responsibility to manage it. She took her job extremely seriously.
In fact, she was fortunate that the position even existed at all. The position had essentially landed in her lap after the Redwater Sect offered to open the facility, and supply it with subjects. It was actually impressive to find someone so willing to openly hand over their own people for genetic experimentation. Even a mass murderer like the Riverfiend had apparently been opposed to the idea. His subordinates, however, did not seem to mind all that much. The Vice-Sect Leader and the lowlife named Orion had been particularly instrumental in such endeavors. His blind, greedy ambition was something that Heutel could respect.
All in all, over the past few weeks Heutel had already grown accustomed to living within Canvas Town. As there were no nearby bathhouses, they had needed to construct one within the compound itself, a lengthy process that had involved several porter robots needing to carry tanks of nutrient fluid all the way from the nearest skydock.
Stopping by to peer into one of the side rooms, she inspected a tank filled with a viscous fluid, within which stirred a slumbering martial artist. His body was being inspected while he remained comatose, recovering from a surgery that had excised the dantians from his body. Eventually, the crippled martial artist would be released back into the population, with no recollection of this period of his life.
The Venin Group did, of course, have ethical guidelines they needed to follow. Nahalken was a religious man, after all. Regardless of whether their participation was voluntary or not, all of the subjects were paid for their time, and treated humanely. If they were to die, the money would be secretly deposited into the account of their nearest relative.
Personally, Heutel thought it was a waste of money, but if the truth of their activities were to get out, it would allow for total deniability on the corporation’s part, which she was happy to know, given her culpability in the affair. Should the matter reach court, she would simply have to claim she believed the subjects had openly consented to the experiments.
As Heutel passed another of the side rooms, she could sense the work of a Staiven woman who was leaning down onto a workbench to closely inspect her work. As Heutel knew, this was one of the laboratories which dealt with cadavers. Currently, she was injecting miasma into a dantian that had been surgically removed from its host.
This was an experiment which Heutel herself had designed. Though she was no scientist, she felt that she had a sense for business. There was a possibility that the secrets of a martial artist’s dantian might result in some sort of storage technology innovation for the dangerous substance, and that possibility was something she would certainly wish to test.
It was unlikely that such experiments would result in any beneficial findings for Staiven health, but discovering new facets of miasma’s properties was an easy way to receive grants and benefits from the government and the Church of Teiklan. Heutel had to privately admit, however, that the findings intrigued her.
As an organ, dantians were relatively unique, something that would never grow on a naturally evolved species. They were crystalline structures that grew inside the Seiyal’s flesh, small transparent gemstones that did not seem to be the product of warpings, but a mundane, Tellesian substance. Unlike a Staiven’s eyes or a fiend’s core, the dantian was not initially a miasmic material, though the cores they were capable of transforming into certainly were. Rather, they were composed of complex silicon chains, the nature of which was rather difficult to synthesize.
While they would not be the first to do so, one of the project’s research aims was to replicate them. If they could figure out the source of the material’s special attributes, she could hardly even estimate the potential applications. Moreover, being able to synthesize dantian material in place would allow them to potentially treat crippled martial artists, which could be an incredibly lucrative field. Especially if they were to lease the patent to corporations outside the Tseludia System.
Heutel’s pores expanded hungrily at the thought of what such a massive accomplishment could do for her career.
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She reached the end of the hallway, facing the hatch which led to a conference room, one that had already seen more use than the main one in the sect proper. This conference room was specifically for the purposes of the Linen Palace, one that was mostly used by Heutel for the occasional meeting with envoys from the corporate Headquarters. Nahalken himself rarely stopped by, only doing so when he was meeting with the Sect Leader. When Heutel needed to report to him, she had to do so either through the network or by traveling to the corporate headquarters in the second district.
By the time she had arrived, Orion was already seated, waiting expectantly for her arrival. Heutel had known he was already present, of course. She had sensed the presence of somebody within the room before she had even left her office, and had chosen to arrive late on purpose. This was a remarkably simple but effective manipulation tactic that would serve to pressure him in certain ways.
“Were there any issues with the upcoming delivery?” she asked, going on the offensive before even greeting him. Most martial artists were best dealt with by acting polite, but Orion Dinyu was more of a thug than anything else. Bluntness was the superior tactic with his type.
The coarse man smiled reflexively, and then waved his hands dismissively.
“No, no issues. You can expect to receive the subjects by the end of tomorrow.”
“Good.”
There was an awkward, extended pause as Heutel waited for the martial artist to continue speaking. He had requested this meeting after all, and she was much too busy to waste her time small talking with an alien. She had once tried to do so with a Jobu before, and the man had the stupidity to ask her whether she had seen a certain new film. The event had taught her a valuable lesson.
“Try to find a greater variety moving forward,” she finally said, breaking the silence. “Ideally we would want a mix of subjects who utilize each of the miasmas.”
Orion extended his hands in a pacifying gesture, though Heutel was not experiencing any negative emotions at all.
“There aren’t enough extant practitioners on the station to find a consistent supply,” he explained. “As for Formless and Sanguine… I would not be surprised if the only practitioners were in the sect.”
For a moment, Heutel considered asking if she could experiment on some of the sect’s disciples, but then she discarded the thought. It would be best not to take it too far. Not so early in their relationship, anyway. She would find a time to ask later, when the number of disciples had risen much higher.
“Say… would you happen to know where to find a manifest treasure?” he asked, finally getting to the point.
Heutel gave him a knowing smile. So this was the real reason the man had requested the meeting. He seemed to be preparing to reach the next level. Unfortunately, that industry was not one she had any direct relations with. If she were to try and acquire one, she would need to call in some favors, and make some payments, neither of which she was willing to do on Orion’s behalf. She was about to inform him, when suddenly, something that had been mentioned during one of her inspections came to mind. Her smile widened. She had been looking for resources for testing a certain hypothesis, and it should be easy to persuade the man. Perhaps this meeting might not be a waste of time, after all.
“Now that I think about it,” she said, “one of our scientists has some thoughts on the matter. Perhaps we could use a martial artist’s dantian as an incubator for the eyes of a young or adult Staiven. According to her hypothesis, this could potentially be a method of farming natural treasures.”
The Seiyal narrowed his eyes, unconvinced.
“Have you already started testing this?”
Heutel responded expressionlessly.
“It is just a hypothesis. We would need a suitable test subject.”
Orion frowned.
“Do none of the subjects I have already brought you work?” he asked.
Heutel shook her head.
“A pinnacle core formation practitioner like yourself would be ideal. But I suppose a meridian establishment practitioner would serve.”
He hummed a quiet sound to himself, clearly considering just where he might find such an individual. He truly was a convenient sort of person, Heutel thought. Such a self-serving individual was trivial to make use of, assuming one had the capability. And by borrowing the corporation’s power, Heutel certainly did.
“I’ll tell you if I find any suitable subjects,” he said.
Cyrus Yu wished to be cautious, and for his goals, perhaps that was his best course of action. But cautiousness would not progress Heutel’s career. She lacked connections, having emerged from a merely middle class family. None of her relatives could assist her, and she had not wished to consign herself to the firm control of one of the churches in exchange for favors. Instead, she had raised herself to this level, garnering with her own efforts and acumen the attention of Nahalken, a corporate bigshot. If she faltered, nobody would be there to catch her. She needed to acquire merits, and hopefully reach an even higher position.
The company did not care what she did, so long as it acquired benefits for them.
Corporations and Staiven History: [The concept of the corporation has existed for as far back as Staiven history clearly recalls, before even the arrival of the Pantheon on Staive. Merchant collectives could be found in several nations, and in one case, a nation was overthrown when mercenaries were hired en masse by the corporation, and used to establish a new, oligarchic government. Of course, after the foundation of the Pantheonic Government, no vestige of that government or the culture of the nation it had ruled remained. In the aftermath of the War of Foundation, however, corporations took on a whole new role, steadily rising to power and influence due to the protections the Church of Fulstovis insisted upon for the newly introduced free market economy. These opportunities caused new social structures to develop as the financial gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen, and the corporations began to work even more closely with the churches, who saw no issue with such developments.]