Ask You Again?

[Cipher Six]

Anaxes was going to be a long con and she knew it. She was still operating under her cover to gain insights on the corporation that operated the shipyards. Funneling the ships out to the Empire would be a massive win, but it had to be a slow and steady approach.

With her alias and skills, she cleared a series of interviews to get employed in the company as a project manager. She was posing as Ava Durst. She arrived for her second week on the job, dressed in a crisp black suit and skirt with tall heels. Her hair was pulled back in a bun and she had glasses on that discreetly had a HUD.

She had a briefing to present today about some cost cutting measures for new shipments. Six had been logging relevant intel and data points to help her make moves towards aiding the Empire, but she had to play her role well to stay employed.

She strode into a board room, a long table lined with seats. Six stood at the end, flicking on a Holoprojector. She scrolled through her datapad as she waited for people to arrive. The product division and the financial division were both invited to this. She was representing product.

@Zay

 

[Ben Keldan]

A spreadsheet displaying hundreds of thousands of numbers scrolled by as Ben sipped an espresso and jotted down a couple notes. He straightened his glasses as streaks of green and red dotted certain cells in their respective rows. His hazel eyes languidly took in what he already knew. Ben was pretty average at a lot of things, but when it came to patterns and numbers, his big dumb brain was a durasteel trap.

Since taking over a leadership position in Anaxus Ship Inc. he’d been doubling down on his hours on the job. It wasn’t exactly the most fulfilling job in the galaxy. He hated finding solutions because they tended to cause people to lose their jobs. He wasn’t exactly the ruthless financial “Suit” he needed to be, but he thought that made him better at the job.

To Ben, people mattered. His colleges saw them as resources or tools or expendable. It made him sick. Life was hard enough without having your livelihood ripped out from underneath you for a fraction of a percent. He took a final sip of his drink, transferred his notes to his Data pad and slipped into his blazer. He’d decided to rock a tailored navy suit, and a tie with a little flair. He’d been told adding a bit of pop to an outfit promoted confidence and he needed as much help there as he could get.

Currently, he was pretty happy with his team. They were cohesive and worked well together. So, as he stepped out of his dank little dungeon of an office the other two perked up.

“Ready for the meeting, boss?” asked his assistant, Chu-ni.
Ben smiled, “Probably not,” he laughed adding, “Wish me luck?”

Chu-ni did just that and Ben made for the board room. He hopped the elevator wondering how hard it would be to convince them to play some good old classic Jizz, rather than this drab b-movie background music, then the door opened and he forgot what he was thinking about. He stepped out of the elevator and extended a hand to his boss, Mog’ner Callen.

“There he is!” exclaimed Callen, boisterously pulling Ben in for a hug.
“He-AY there boss!” replied Ben as he was nearly crushed by the other man’s embrace.
“It’s just gonna be you and me today, Dari is out with a cold, but between you and me, I’m pretty sure it was the Zeltron stripper he was snorting spice off last night, huh? HUH!”

With each “Huh” Callen jabbed Ben with his elbow. Ben managed not to recoil at the story, who was he to judge, but this was the third meeting Dari had missed this month.

“Hey, speaking of which, when are you coming out with us?” Callen asked.
“Oh, I’m pretty lame, sir. More of a stay home and play video games kinda guy,” replied Ben with an apologetic smile. Callen barked a sharp peel of laughter.
“Oh really? Well we’ll just have to change that, son. Tell you what after this meeting I’ll buy lunch and we can see what kind of trouble we can get into?”

Ben was trapped, what was he gonna say, “Sorry boss, I don’t eat?”

“Can’t wait,” he managed. Then Callen ushered him into the room.
The Products division was already inside and seated. As Callen and Ben entered they all shared stunted professional greetings and took their seats. As Ben looked toward the presenter he nearly fell out of his chair. His mouth hung open and he was suddenly very hot.

Their eyes met. Oh Good, she still had the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen. Cool, coolcoolcool.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He wasn’t three whiskeys deep and covered in rejection this time. Besides there was no way she’d remember him. He’d been such a loser when they’d met he bet this would be like starting over. He scrounged what solace he could from the thought as things got rolling.

@Sreeya