by D. P. Oberon
“Sara, thing haven’t been going well with us for a while. We haven’t had a day like this in ages. I’m so grateful you took time off to spend with me.”
Saradi shuddered. She’d taken the day off because she’d kept seeing that damn woman’s head being blown off and if she went to the office it would trigger the visions again. Now she thought she would be better off going back to the office. Dealing with him when he was like this drained her already sapped mental energy levels.
“I know, darling,” she said. “I’ve just had so many things to juggle.”
“Sara, I want us to see a marriage counselor,” he said.
Saradi pulled her hand out of his. “A marriage counselor? Are you kidding me?”
“Just think about it, Sara. That’s all. Please? I love you,” he said.
“I love you too,” she said. And she did, no matter how flawed that love was. She did love her husband.
Chapter 8 – Discovery
Newsnet Alert:
Alyona Pavlenko, Chairwoman Founder of Alrosa Mirny, one of the largest mining companies in the world, committed suicide at 0930 on Tuesday 9th of July. An investigation has been launched into the apparent suicide. The hacktivist group Autonomous is claiming that the suicide was a masked homicide. More details to follow.
Saradi stared out at the window of the aero-jet as it neared Alrosa Mirny headquarters, which situated itself eleven thousand kloms from her office in High Paris. Yakutsk used to be the easternmost part of Russia, but now belonged to the China People’s Empire.
Snow covered everything in a white and blue sheen. Her shade-lids protected her eyes against the white of the shining sun. Gray pylons rimmed the mine and occasionally one of them shot out spumes of red fire that turned into black smoke.
The mine itself sat in the middle of a hole in the ground that tore at Saradi’s eyelids and made her stomach squirm. The never-ending pit that was the reverse of a mountain. Bots and humans trudged atop a steep section that plummeted to the bottom. Several tractor-mechs parked themselves on their bellies. They were the twice the size of Autobus-Mannschaft’s own passenger aero-jets and they appeared like toys next to the vastness of the mine. None of the holo-pics, or 3D renderings had done the mine justice. The mine was much bigger than Saradi had imagined. It was also more desolate and tucked away from any part of the world that could’ve been deemed as civilized.
The Alrosa Mirny HQ was situated in the side of the mine. The building jutted out from the mine’s forty-five degree slope and had windows that stared down into the depths of the mine. The building consisted of one hundred levels and stood a thousand feet high. Its supporting struts stretched almost a quarter of the mine. The building had many ducts for the egress passageway of mechs, trucks, and bots.
The aero-jet swooped down toward Alrosa Mirny’s headquarters, a building of at least a hundred stories that jutted out from the mine’s forty-five degree slope. Its windows stared down into the depths of the mine. Saradi didn’t think the building even looked stable or adhered to any proper building code. Her stomach lurched as the aero-jet landed on a narrow platform at level twenty.
The doors at the sides of the jet opened and a dozen securi-bots jumped out. They quickly spread out with their LR1 rifles and the lights from their optic lenses coated the landing pad. The jet was still ten meters from the ground when they issued the all clear to land. Autobus-Mannschaft didn’t send their executives without ample protection, especially not with the CEO and CSO together.
“Did you know Alyona Pavlenko committed suicide?” Albert Rene asked. He sat across from her on the plush, kangaroo leather seat. A large round table with holos showing Alrosa Mirny’s financials hovered in the air.
Saradi swallowed as she got out of her seat. She adjusted her thick polymer jacket and faux fox fur cap. Did it suit her? Aunis Reeves and Zephyrine Du’Bois, their personal assistants, were the only other humans present. Zephyrine showed too much cleavage for the weather, and Saradi wondered if the rumors of Albert Rene’s droit du seigneur were true. She didn’t like when people traded sex for power and decided right then she would fire every man in Autobus-Mannschaft who thought he could take advantage of his female personal assistant.
The rest of their company consisted of securi-bots, about twenty in all, armed and armored. Autobus-Mannschaft didn’t trust this portion of the world. For once Saradi didn’t think the security was overwhelming. If anything she didn’t feel safe.
She replied, “Not until I saw the newsnet update this morning. Let’s see if we can keep this under cover. The last thing we want is for the newsnets to blow up the hostile takeover.” Her voice trembled slightly. Did he notice? She deleted the incriminating last two minutes of the holo-vid and wiped it clean. She was only one of three executives who had the digital permission to commit such an act.
She had come here for one reason: to delete the video capture on Alrosa Mirny’s end. She had deleted the Autobus-Mannschaft files but she hadn’t accessed Alrosa Mirny’s data-core. Until now.
“Agreed,” he said.
Saradi swallowed. For the first time in a long time she felt uncertain of herself. She got out of the aero-jet and fought against the wind to stabilize herself on the slippery ground. Their footsteps muffled by the snow and the constant wind blew white making it hard to see. The wind buffeted her and she caught a glimpse over the rail that plummeted thousands of feet into the mine. She grabbed at the rail and staggered up the corrugated ironridge rungs into the building.
The securi-bots clomped in before her. The smell was like the tang of a pot burning in the kitchen, a thick plastic smell that oozed into Saradi’s nostrils. Her AI told her it was the tainted atmosphere from all the iordite processing. Her AI kept blinking all sorts of alarms at her as her nostril filters activated, letting her know just how bad the atmosphere was to breathe.
What was Albert Rene doing here? She didn’t need any hand-holding. She had everything under control.
They entered a large hall with old fashioned stairs — actual stairs. Where were the jump-pads? The securi-bots paused in confusion and stared at the stairs. They activated their thrusters and levitated in the air and then thunked down on the other end.
This was supposedly Alyona Pavlenko’s office, where she met daily with the mine’s operators. Mud streaks coated the area and the large table was strewn with several cups and data-cubes.
The woman had her mother’s dark eyes, a squarish face, and a stocky build. She wore a fox fur jacket with the silver fur-trimmed hood flaring over her head. She was still. Only her eyes moved, and the first thing they sought was Saradi.
The securi-bots raised their rifles and pointed them at her. She walked forward and stopped, leaving a smattering of snow behind her. A securi-bot reached for her hip, removed a handgun, and fed it into its own vertebral container.
“Yulia Pavlenko,” the woman said. Her voice deep.
“Saradi Anantadevi-Alfsson, Autobus-Mannschaft, Chief Strategy Officer.”
“Albert Rene, CEO of Autobus-Mannschaft. You’re the daughter?” he asked.
The woman nodded. “She’s my mother. Was my mother.” She pointed at the floor.
A white outline the shape of Alyona Pavlenko’s body had been chalked on the steelcrete floor directly in front of Saradi. The memory of her last discussion with Alyona came crashing back to her with a suddenness that ripped her apart as she replayed that moment. This was Alyona’s ironridge desk. The day before, those rectangular windows edging the cornices had been open to show the snow-swept mine.
Yulia’s voice ripped through Saradi’s vision. “My mother’s last wish was to keep the mine operating. Many people in this area depend on us for work. What do I need to do?”
Saradi and Albert shared a glance. He nodded to her. This was her deal, his nod said.
“I’m sorry to hear—” Saradi said.
“She told me about you,” Yulia Pavlenko said.
Saradi had to keep the conversation focus
ed on business. This is what they were there for. “Autobus-Mannschaft has initiated the takeover of Alrosa Mirny’s business. Here’s the deal and I’ll make it quite clear. All of your people will get to stay and do their work, but we need to increase the scope of the operations. Alyona told me only twelve of the twenty mine sites were active. We need to go green in all of them. Whatever that takes.”
“It’s going to cost a lot of resources. Resources that we don’t have.”
“I’ve already done the calculations,” Saradi said, turning to Albert Rene. “This is why we increased the loan.” She wasn’t sure how much that backstabber, Odette Ninon, had shared with him. Saradi summoned the holo-display and it flared to life between them.
Albert Rene stared at the calculations that showed Autobus-Mannschaft’s debt ratio sky rocketing and turning red. He stared at through holo-display. The blinking red decorated his eyes. “Do it,” he said.
Saradi turned to Yulia. “I will need all the authorization codes to access the data-core. Full permissions.”
Yulia didn’t blink. Her stony face bathed in the light of the holo-display as she transferred the auth-key digitally. Her gaze never left Saradi.
#
Saradi sat on Alyona Pavlenko’s chair. She toyed with the plastiwood nameplate and put it face down to obscure Alyona’s name. The ironridge seat pushed against her spine uncomfortably. Everything in Alyona’s office spoke of Soviet era manufacturing. The neuralnet connection here consisted of time-spliced bandwidth. Who’d ever heard of that? These backward people made Saradi feel like showering.
She looked up at all the mine leaders assembled in front of her table, and said, “I am Saradi Anantadevi-Alfsson, and I am in charge of Alrosa Mirny effective immediately. That makes me your manager. Now, do you represent all of the heads of the mining operations?”
“Yes, we are the mining constables of the Mir mine,” said a woman in a thick Chino-Russian accent.
The sorry looking lot of miners blinked back at her as if they were moles. The men and women wore a uniforms made from synthplast fabric with long, blackened creases across their shoulders. The Alrosa Mirny logo of a sinkhole with a shard of iordite emblazoned itself on their breast pockets.
Saradi said, “I am here to accelerate the mining program and open up all twelve mines. Since you are the senior members you will be leading a team for each of these new divisions. The only change is that you will use my company’s advanced technology. For example, we have class one, remote-controlled bots. With this tech, each of your subordinates can control ten bots each. We will also fit each of the tractor-mechs with neural connectors.”
The woman frowned. “But we don’t have neural upgrades. We cannot interface with them.”
Saradi shrugged. “We will provide your upgrades as part of the operational handover from Alrosa Mirny to Autobus-Mannschaft. Obviously, the cost will be deducted from your salaries.” She smiled. “But that shouldn’t matter as you’ll be putting in many more hours.”
Those gathered muttered to one another, speaking in an odd combination of Russian and Chinese. Her AI’s translation informed her that these people had unwarranted fears about biotech.
“We don’t trust upgrades. We have never had them. It’s our tradition in Alrosa Mirny to have humans do the work,” said the woman who had spoken to her before.
Saradi splayed her hands against the desk as she stood. She looked down her nose at the assembled rats. Snivelling, complaining, rats. She said, “You will do your job or you will have no job. Is that understood?” She nodded her head in an exaggerated gesture. “Nod your head if you understand.” Six of Autobus-Mannschaft’s securi-bots lined the edge of the wall, and for some strange reason they were nodding too.
Saradi gestured at the securi-bots. “Our security force will be in place around the mine to assist you. You may go now.” The miners shuffled away with faces that looked like thunderclouds and she called out, “Wait one moment. A funeral is going to be held for Alyona Pavlenko. While anyone may go, as far as I’m concerned it is not a company-sponsored event. If you choose to attend and in doing so miss a shift, you will forfeit pay and a percentage weight will be added to your performance for causing a negative impact to productivity.” She glowered at them. ”Only cowards commit suicide.”
Saradi thought somebody would respond, but she quickly walked toward them and the securi-bots fell in around her, clearing the way.
#
Saradi entered the data-core and walked through the long dim rows of compute columns. These half-sized columns only came up to Saradi’s shoulder. Their blocky, grinding storage arrays spoke of hardware made in another time. It was often said that the China People’s Empire had the most advanced tech, but clearly that largesse hadn’t extended to this civilian outfit.
She had waited until she thought Albert Rene would be heading back toward the aero-jet before starting this expedition. She smiled as she threw the auth-key hologram up and down in her palm. It rotated in the air like a flipped chip as she came to the end of the compute columns that made way toward the master node.
Saradi froze in the shadow. Her AI scanned the area then highlighted and tagged Albert Rene and Yulia Pavlenko’s silhouettes. The two bent close to one another as they whispered. Saradi strained to hear their words, but her AI detected a sound shield.
Yulia’s hand hovered over Albert Rene’s and a twinkling diamond fell out of her palm and disappeared in Albert Rene’s engulfing fist.
Saradi turned into the shadow, and walked quickly away. Two red eyes appeared out of the dark at the end of the row of compute columns, startling Saradi. It was Albert Rene’s personal securi-bot. It just stood there.
Saradi made her way around it and fled for the aero-jet.
She had just seen Yulia Pavlenko hand Albert Rene a diamond-disk.
And she knew exactly what it contained.
Chapter 9 – Hope for Humanity
“Welcome to Parent Teacher Night!” said the words displayed via huge laser lights hovering over the central dome of La Terre Quavois. The most exclusive school on Earth modelled itself after the Versailles Palace in sixteenth century France. The colossal superstructure floated in high earth orbit with a dock zone that rivalled planetside spaceports.
Saradi stared at the school from the aero-jet’s windows as the dock zone came into view. She switched off the anti-grav and enjoyed the sensation of floating to the front of the aero-jet where she stared out of the huge cockpit windows. The bot-pilot didn’t even acknowledge her as she pressed her fingers against the glass, staring out.
The greatest irony of La Terre Quavois being the greatest school on Earth was that it wasn’t on Earth. Space rarely gave her hope; even now the Earth was an eyesore on the periphery of the school’s horizon, looking like a congealed mass of brown snot. Somewhere out there the orbitals that would build Rebirth floated, maybe that gave her hope for humanity. She wasn’t sure.
The sun glimmered in the distance but she couldn’t see the moon. For a moment she felt completely disoriented.
“Docking sequence initiated,” the pilot bot said.
The principal of La Terre Quavois, Marie Antoinette, greeted Saradi personally. Antoinette wore an entirely black suit that consisted of a silk shirt with a plunging neckline. Her exposed throat encircled by diamond necklace.
So this is where my money is going. Saradi shook the outstretched white-gloved hand. This popinjay makes the execs at Autobus-Mannschaft look underdressed, Saradi thought.
“Mrs. Anantadevi-Alfsson, it’s nice to meet you. This is an unexpected surprise. It’s been a while since our last meeting,” she said.
“Guilty as charged,” Saradi replied, grasping the weak hand shake with a firm grip. The woman’s eyes narrowed very slightly.
“Your husband is not coming today?”
“Claas is sick. So I’m taking his place.” She wasn’t happy with him and his mental weaknesses. Couldn’t he see that the middlers and lowers had it ha
rder?
“Sorry, but have you been to a parent teacher night before?”
“I read Novalie’s report card summaries,” Saradi said, somewhat defensively. She hadn’t been to a single parent teacher night. “Claas is the stay-at-home parent. As an executive, as you can imagine I have little time.”
“Well, it’s great to have you here now. We’ll take the scenic route and I’ll show you our latest developments.”
They entered the left wing hallway. The elegant wood polished to a bright sheen — real wood was extremely rare on Earth and only left in museums — here it could be trod on. Even the securi-bots here resembled sixteenth century French soldiers with their LR1 rifles modelled to look like muskets. They even sported the blue blouses.
Parents crowded the hallway, and Saradi’s AI identified many of them for her. These were leaders, the politically powerful, or rich businesspeople. A leader from the China People’s Empire spoke with a young man on her left. A few meters away a rich politico from the Austra-Asian Empire, another leader from the Peruvian Upper Empire, and an entrepreneur from the Britannic Europan Empire conversed intently. Saradi thought it strange that some of the empires were at war, others openly hated one another, and yet here, in a school of all places, they were all at peace.
“By the time we get to the audience hall, Novalie will be with Mrs Okotie-Eboh, the arts teacher,” Antoinette said.
“Very well, I’m happy to start there,” Saradi said.
“Actually you don’t have to visit all the teachers anymore. We have created a single holo report for you to discuss with the child’s elected teacher. It seems your daughter has a bond with Mrs. Okotie-Eboh.”
“Niniola’s daughter, Tulissa, and my daughter are best friends,” Saradi said.
They stopped at the entrance of one of the halls.
“This is our newest development. It was sponsored by the Greatest Scientist herself.” Antoinette stepped into the adjacent hall and beckoned for Saradi to follow her.
