Emerald Repatriation Society: Meetings, Slaves, and Pastries (Pt20)
02 Feb 2024Vasil Vasilescu
(<--Part19)When I entered the meeting room, the meeting between Octavia and Captain Whitney was going about as well as I expected, with each at opposite ends of a large oval table and wearing unnaturally neutral expressions to hide their dislike for one another. I recognized the four people at Whitney’s end of the table as the First Officer, the Chief Engineer, the Chief Cargo Mate and the Navigator. I took a seat on Octavia’s right, between her and Kat.
Octavia glanced my direction, annoyed that I was late, but continued expressing to Captain Whitney her aggravation that the planned deployment was being altered for what she considered a trivial matter. Not wanting to interrupt Octavia, I leaned to Kat and whispered, “Where is Stefan? He is supposed to be here.” The ‘trivial matter’ was, in fact, his fault.
“Aunt Octavia sent him away as soon as the meeting started. Told him, in front of everyone, to go wait on the Alpina with the honorary board because she did not want him making a fool of himself in front of Whitney and his officers.”
The meeting had started ten minutes ago. I thought it slightly odd that Stefan and I had not passed one another either in the hangar lobby or the command deck’s lift lobby, but it could have been that he had not gone directly back to the Alpina. “What did he do?”
Kat shrugged. “I think it had something to do with you telling the captain about the AX escorts problem rather than Stefan, who is supposed to be the board’s communications liaison with the ship. It made me uncomfortable just listening to her talk to Stefan like she did. I can’t imagine what he felt like.”
“So, another of Octavia’s beratings. She’s perfected the art of public humiliation to the point that she should charge people to watch.”
Kat stifled a laugh, which immediately drew Octavia’s attention.
“...and what does my VP in charge of operations think of this plan,” snapped Octavia. “Or is there something more important that you and Katarzyna need to talk about?”
Kat stiffened.
“I agree with Captain Whitney,” I said. “Until more AX escorts are contracted, our operations should be less aggressive than originally planned. For the time being we need to avoid stationing the Emerald Dawn in systems with an active Thargoid presence.”
“And what about the people we need to help,” demanded Octavia. “How is being farther from the front going to impact the number of people we rescue?”
“Not much,” said the Captain. “Contracted rescue ships can get to the target systems in one or two jumps.” Captain Whitney nodded toward Kat. “We also find Ms. Lova’s proposal to be an acceptable means of reducing risk while still maintaining high mission standards.”
“Oh,” said Octavia arching a brow and looking to Kat. “And what proposal is that?”
Kat smiled nervously. “Well, it concerns resupply and repair, so it would require Uncle Vasil’s support. It was just an idea, nothing really planned out, and the logistics of it are-“ I nudged Kat under the table with my foot to remind her that Octavia was drawn to a lack of confidence like a shark to blood. Kat straightened in her chair. “If we station the ship in systems recovering from an attack, we are in a better position to resupply and help repair damaged stations and settlements. It keeps us out of an active conflict zone while still being close enough for rescues.”
Octavia did not look convinced.
“Increasing repair ops could help us avoid problems with the ISA” I said. “Because of the numbers of slaves the ship will be carrying as cargo, the ISA is demanding that we count time stored in stasis as time served on the slave contracts.”
“Preposterous,” snorted Octavia. “If they signed a service contract they need to serve their full term. They are not serving if they are in stasis.”
“True,” I said. “However, the ISA has a legitimate concern about slave hoarding. They don’t want someone with a year left on their contract to languish in stasis for six or more months only to be required to finish their remaining year. Anything over a week in stasis has to be counted for fulfilling the contract.”
“You can thank Torval Mining for that,” said the Cargo Mate. “I was with them for a few years and saw how they would hoard pods until prices went up, then sell the full-term slave contracts at huge profits.”
“Fine,” said Octavia. “But how does changing what system the ship is in going help any of this?”
“I’ve spoken to some of our staff lawyers, about slave rights,” I said. “If the ship is operating in an Imperial-aligned system near the front, we can legally issue an open acquisition contract for any Imperial slaves needed for repair efforts. Small slave traders are not scrutinized as much by the ISA. Because the slaves they are bringing us will already be assigned repair work, all we have to do transfer the slave contracts to station management and let them deal with the ISA. We can even pay a premium for delivery. If we base the premium on the expected profit from the current cargo, we will not take a loss and will look charitable for paying above market price.”
“There are currently a thousand pods on board that are well beyond the one week time limit,” said the Cargo Mate. “If we use these pods first, then backfill those with the pods being brought in, that will eventually reduce the average time in stasis as cargo. It may take another three to five thousand pods rotated over the course of maybe three weeks to ensure we are under the one week threshold for all pods.”
“We already have several requests for labor,” added Kat. “If we concentrate on systems with large numbers of stations and settlements that need repair labor, we could probably get down to the one week threshold much sooner.”
Octavia said nothing at first. She realized there was too much support for not placing the Emerald Dawn right at the front line. The Emerald Dawn would still be closer to the conflict than the rescue megaships. There would still be publicity. Her name would still be in the news feeds. But it would not have quite the glorious shine she had hoped for. Though unaccustomed to not having her way, Octavia was practical and saw no reason to arbitrarily deny the changes. When she finally spoke she did so with calm dignity but without admitting she was wrong. “I am still disappointed we are not following our original plans. However, I will approve the changes with the understanding that they are not the end goal, but an interim means by which we reach our end goal of helping as many citizens as possible.”
“In that, we are in complete agreement,” said Captain Whitney.
The remainder of the meeting was spent addressing minor problems, most of which were due to failed communications between the board and the ship’s command staff. Communications and public relations were Stefan’s responsibility, but other than not informing Captain Whitney of the AX situation, none of the issues would have hindered the ship’s overall mission. By the end of the meeting it was determined that I, having moved aboard the Emerald Dawn, would be the point of contact for the ship and would act on behalf of Octavia.
As we were leaving the meeting, the osseous transceiver in my ear hummed. I tapped the small com badge on my collar and discreetly connected to the COVAS on the Alpina. “Incomming call from Emerald Dawn Security Commander.” I remained in the empty meeting room and tapped the badge again to accept the call.
“Commander Vasilescu, this is Sergeant Lydko, Emerald Dawn Security. We have in our custody the individual you requested. His name is Jack Vaughn.”
“I am on my way.”
“You should know, sir, we found him near the Alpina in the company of Stefan Vasilescu.”
“And my brother, Stefan?”
“He did not interfere and remained in the VIP hangar.”
“Good. Keep Vaughn isolated and tell him nothing other than he is being held for assault. I’ll be there shortly.”
The sergeant acknowledged the direction and closed the call. I caught up with Octavia and Kat as they waited for the lift. “There’s something I need to take care of,” I told them. “I’ll see you on the Alpina.”
“We are leaving in an hour, Vasil,” said Octavia. “Do I need to inconvenience our guests waiting on the Alpina and tell them that this unexpected ‘something’ will delay our departure?”
“No. I’ll have another pilot on standby in case I am not back in time.” Octavia’s lips formed a thin line, a mannerism of hers whenever she started to become irritated. “This might concern Stefan,” I said. “But don’t tell him. I will take care of it.”
“Stefan,” Octavia huffed, exasperated. “Of course it involves him. Does this have something to do with that whore he brought with him as his personal assistant? No... never mind. I don’t want to know. Just take care of it, Vasil.”
“Claire seemed nice enough,” said Kat. “She is not his assistant?”
“Anyone can act nice enough if you pay them,” snorted Octavia. “And the only thing of his she assists with is getting his pants off.” The lift doors hissed open. Kat and Octavia stepped in. “I suppose I should be happy she chose a believable pseudonym and not something that sounds like a donut."
“Donuts are usually stripper names,” I said. “Anyway, eclairs are more of a pastry than a donut.”
Kat snickered. Octavia glared at me. The lift doors closed.
(Part 21-->)