TS6 Chapter 3

Hyperactive pop music pumped through the room’s speakers, setting Kat’s teeth on edge, forcing her smile into something more akin to a pained grimace.  A couple paces away her mother was laboring over a cheap charcoal grill, flipping hamburgers while Kat’s sister chatted excitedly with one of her friends.

The friend in question, a quiet girl named Stacey, seemed terrified.  Kat didn’t really blame her.  Stacey was the daughter of one of the executives that worked for Kat, and although the girl Michelle seemed to be close, that hadn’t done much to prepare Stacey for the company she was in.

Jasper and Davis stood next to Kat’s mom, commenting approvingly on her grilling technique as Penelope flipped the burgers.  A couple paces away, Emma and Iris, Jasper’s girlfriend, were chatting excitedly, catching up on all the latest gossip as Hans, Michelle’s pet dire wolf, snuffled the ground next to them.

Kat took a drink of her soda and turned her attention back to Belle Donnst.  The other shareholder stood stiffly in front of her, an uncomfortable and pained look on her face as she tried her hardest to fit in with the rest of the party.  At Belle’s side was one of her many husbands, a cowed looking man named Reginald.  Occasionally Whippoorwill would ask the man a question, but he would always demur.  Clearly, he was here more as an ornament than an active participant in the gathering.

“Thank you for inviting me to this cookout,” Belle said woodenly, her hand moving slightly to rotate the wine in her glass.  “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m not sure that this is the best environment for me.  Between the fake sunlight and the… energetic music, it’s all a bit much.”

“That’s on me for letting Michelle pick the music,” Kat replied smiling.  Whippoorwill snorted, earning her a playful elbow in the ribs.  “Apparently this is what’s popular with kids in high school at the moment.  I can’t say that I care for it, but I don’t get to spend enough time with Michelle so I’m trying to make her feel welcome.”

Belle responded with a pained smile.  Her husband whimpered, shaking like a leaf.

“As long as I am not the only person suffering Ms. De- Katherine,” she replied, pausing just long enough to take a drink from her wine glass.  “I am really not one for these sorts of social gatherings.  I feel like I should be measuring myself against my compe- the other guests.  That I should be twisting and maneuvering.  Simply standing in the fake sun and eating hamburgers is a bit novel.”

“I know,” Kat said.  “I don’t expect you to be an expert at small talk.  God knows I’m not.  If you throw more than three or four strangers into a crowd, I’ll lock down into shareholder mode as well.  I just wanted to give you a chance to learn how to let go slowly.  Give it a little time and we’ll be more than allies.”

Belle nodded stiffly, and Kat did her best to keep the amusement off of her face.  It wouldn’t be fair for her to mock Belle’s struggles after the other shareholder stepped so far out of her comfort zone at Kat’s request.  She was trying, and mocking someone who was giving a genuine effort was bad form, especially if Kat’s goal was to create a deeper connection with her.

“Relax,” Whippoorwill said with a roll of her eyes.  “As annoying as interacting with people can be, this isn’t a competition.  There’s no winning and losing, just awkward small talk and trying to keep up with the social butterflies as they drag the rest of us along.”

She cocked her head to the side slightly, a half smile chasing a fleeting thought across her face.

“Plus,” Whip continued, a twinkle in her eye, “if this were a competition, I’m pretty sure that Michelle already lost.  She’s talking the ear off of anyone that will listen and she’s refusing to change the speakers to anything but that awful racket.”

That drew a little bit of tension from Belle.  The other shareholder relaxed slightly, a hint of mirth glittering in her normally steely eyes as she replied.

“Undoubtedly.”

Before their conversation could continue any further, a loud clanging sound drew all of their attention.  Kat’s mother was banging her metal spatula against the side of the grill.  Once she saw all of their eyes on her, she spoke up.

“Burgers are done and sodas are in the cooler.  We’ve got ketchup, mustard, cheese, and pickles on the table.  There are some melon and apple slices in the tupperware.”

“Katherine and Michelle,” she continued, pointing the spatula at each of them in turn.  “I expect both of you to have some fruit with your burgers.  You’re growing girls, and I don’t want you to mess all of that up with a diet of junk food even if this is a cookout.”

That finally drew a dry laugh from Belle.

“It’s as if your mother doesn’t realize that she’s in a room filled with some of the most powerful people in the world.  Something makes me think that she’d scold even me if I were to step out of line.”

“Maybe,” Kat replied, walking over toward where the line for the food was forming.  “Maybe not.  Half the point of a gathering like this is to leave all of our titles at the door so we can just relax.  That said, I don’t think anything is going to make her forget that she’s our mom first.  I might own more money than even I fully understand and spend the nights stabbing alien monsters that would make an entertainment feed exec blanche, but at the end of the day she worries about me and she’s going to let me know.”

“And you welcome it,” Belle said thoughtfully.  “A novel take on the concept of parenthood.  Certainly not one I’ve experimented with, but novel nonetheless.”

“No offense,” Kat responded, grabbing a bun from a plastic bag, “but I’ve seen your parenting and I’m pretty confident that I’d like to opt out of it if at all possible.”

A pointed cough from Kat’s mother ended the conversation.  Penelope stood in front of the grill, a burger on her spatula as she glared sternly down at Kat.

“None of that young lady,” she said, taking Kat’s bun from her and slipping the burger onto it.  “Raising a child is hard.  God knows that there were times that I wanted to punt Michelle and you out the window.  Belle may not have taken an ideal approach, but the life of an executive is cut throat and I’m sure she was trying to prepare her children for it in her own way.  It isn’t polite to judge her for the decisions she made because there’s no telling what you would’ve done under the same circumstances.”

“I actually was a fairly terrible mother,” Belle replied, shifting uncomfortably.  “I pitted my children against each other, and if they failed, I would simply abandon them to their fate.  Looking back, there was-”

“You wanted to teach them how to thrive, right?”  Penelope asked, using her spatula to pry another burger off of the grill.  When Belle nodded, she served the patty, talking calmly the entire time.  “You probably pushed too hard.  A lot of parents do.  What matters is that you learn from your mistakes and don’t do it again.”

Belle blinked, glancing at Kat earning herself a shrug in return.  Kat hadn’t ever gone in depth with her mother about what exactly had happened between Belle and her.  As far as Penelope was concerned, Belle was simply a business rival turned ally in the cutthroat world of corporate ownership.

“Thank you?”  Belle replied, uncertainly.  “I certainly am trying to learn from my mistakes, but I’m not sure I would say that my previous actions were successful, moral, or even the most efficient.”

“Come on,” Kat said, shaking her head slightly as Whippoorwill took Belle’s spot and waited for her burger.  “Let’s get some ketchup and a seat.  My engineers have come up with a new product.  It isn’t done yet, but I think that your security teams are going to be very interested in it.  Given that we’re relying on your refineries to keep production going, I want to do what I can to make sure that your defenses are top notch.”

“What kind of product are we talking about?”  Belle asked, looking dubiously at her burger before putting the smallest dab of ketchup on it.  “If it’s viable, we could make a lot of money by selling it.  Your arms exports subdivisions are some of the biggest money makers for GroCorp at the moment.”

“I don’t know if that would be a great idea,” Kat replied, taking the ketchup from Belle as the older woman surveyed their seating options at the picnic table with pursed lips.  “I’ve put together some plans for selling the new product, but I’ve been going back and forth on whether we should actually do that.  It sounds like the tech will be able to stop one or two high caliber bullets or a burst of gunfire from a more normal gun.  I’m all for making more money, but having guards that can do things that no other group can match is a bit more appealing to me, especially considering that Millennium is still out there and on the loose.”

“That would be useful,” Belle said grudgingly.  “It would also be incredibly profitable.  Hopefully there is some way that we could make a lesser version of the product that we can put out on the open market.  That’s what we’ve done for most of the weapons and armor you’ve developed to date, and I’ve been nothing but satisfied with the financial returns.”

Kat bit into her burger, thoughts churning as she went over the product presentation.  The shields were still a couple months from mass production if everything went smoothly.  After that it would probably be another couple of months before the engineers would finish developing the upgrading charging stations.

“Right now we’re thinking of selling lower output models that can only be charged from proprietary stations,” Kat replied. “Enough to stop one shot, but after that it would need to be refilled.  The shields would stop snipers, but at the same time, so long as we control the number of charging stations we’re selling, we would be able to limit the number of functional units people could use.”

“And you can charge an obscene amount for the charging stations,” Belle remarked thoughtfully.  “A good idea, but how do we stop our competitors from reverse engineering the power supplies?  I know that the stallesp tech itself is resistant to people reworking it, but if it’s just a matter of internal switches restricting where it can absorb electricity, then we might be in trouble.”

“It uses mana,” Kat replied.  “Apparently my engineers figured out a way to convert electricity into mana.  The procedure is expensive and clunky, hence the charging stations, but they’ve assured me that the process is complex enough that with a modest application of anti-tampering explosives, it will be all but impossible for someone to figure out how we did it.”

“That’s certainly novel.”  The older woman frowned slightly, her finger tapping the picnic table next to her untouched burger.  “Your people will know the specifics better than me, but it seems logical that it would be hard bordering on impossible to reverse engineer an electricity to mana converter, and that would certainly be an effective way for us to keep control of the product.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Kat agreed.  “I still don’t like the idea of our opponents being able to ignore the first shot from a sniper, but I suppose that’s part of being in the arms industry.  At some point, the things you sell could theoretically be used back against you.”

Belle nodded sympathetically, her voice straining unnaturally as she tried to sound sympathetic with her response.

“Of course.  That’s why I try my hardest to let other people do the bleeding and dying when it comes to conflicts.  You can’t get shot with your own gun if you’re nowhere near the shooting after all.”

“But what about the more advanced models that we’re keeping for ourselves,” Belle continued with an excited glint in her eyes.  “Surely if the public model can survive one or two shots, we will have something better for our security.”

The clang over Penelope’s spatula on the side of the girl interrupted the two of them, drowning out the steady bumping beat of the awful pop that Michelle was forcing them to listen to.

“Michelle, turn off that racket, it’s time to eat” Kat’s mom said sternly.  “Now I know that most of you work together and your jobs are very important, but we’re having a cookout to spend time together and relax.  You can talk about performing hostile takeovers on orphanages once the burgers are done.  Until then, you should all try and act normal.”

With that, Penelope sat back down and after a couple of seconds ordinary conversation returned.  To Kat’s left, Whip was trying to talk to Belle’s trembling husband about some sort of new music trend that was sweeping entertainment channels, and further to the side Jasper, Emma and Iris were engaging in some sort of high society gossip that Kat couldn’t even begin to track.

After a couple seconds of awkward silence between her and Belle where neither of them knew what to talk about, Kat spoke up again, this time in a whisper so that her mother wouldn’t catch her.

“The engineers are almost done building a hookup that can directly draw on the user’s mana.  The shield is stronger and more efficient because there’s no need for mana storage crystals.  It only works for players, but given the number of players we have available to us through our alliance with the lokkel-”

“That would function as a force multiplier,” Belle replied, a predatory smile creeping across her face.  “I don’t think our opponents even realize how many of our security staff you’ve managed to quietly upgrade with your subscription stone mining operation.  Most of them are under level three, but depending upon how much mana each shot takes, that could be enough to-”

A loud thump interrupted the two of them, and Kat glanced up to see her mother’s spatula quivering slightly from where the slight women had rammed it into the wooden surface of the picnic table.

“I thought I was clear that business talk waits until dinner is over,” Penelope said crossly, her eyes smoldering.  “There will be plenty of time once your burgers are done.  Until then, we are having togetherness time and that’s mandatory.”

“But-” Belle began only for Kat’s mother to cut her off.

“But nothing.  My burgers, my rules.  If you keep it up, I’m taking both Kat and your lunches away from you.  You can grab something from the chef if you want, but no burgers.”

Belle’s eyes widened as she struggled to process the moment.  A hurried glance toward Kat only yielded a helpless shrug.  Out of options, the two of them had no choice but mumble their assent and return to their food.

A half hour or so of surprisingly tolerable small talk later, Kat was wiping down the picnic table with a rag while Belle stood nearby, gingerly holding a can of generic cola that Penelope had forced upon her.

“This was… nice,” the older shareholder said, her words coming out slow and precise, as if she was sounding each one out to make sure it was correct.  “I don’t think I’ve ever had a get together like this before, and I’ll be honest, I expected to be miserable but it was surprisingly pleasant.  I think I will actually be looking forward to the next one.”

“Me too,” Kat said with a chuckle.  “Jasper is hosting so that means he has to clean up afterward.  I thought I was beyond this sort of thing when I took over partial ownership of one of the world’s largest corporations, but what did I know?  Shareholders are still subordinate to moms.”

“Your mother is a fierce woman,” Belle replied.  “I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”

“It’s not a good place to be,” Kat responded.  “I’m just glad she’s gotten used to not working herself to the bone every day.  For the first couple months I was a shareholder, it was like she thought someone was going to swoop in and take everything away from her.  Now that she actually has some time to herself, she’s starting to pursue personal projects and actually live a little.  It’s one of the small things that makes it all worth it.  I still might be putting in crazy hours and risking my life, but my mom and sister have so many more opportunities than I ever did.  Even if everything else falls apart, that’s worth every drop of sweat and blood I’ve shed to get here.”

Belle’s perfect face scrunched slightly, touched by the barest hint of a frown.  Kat didn’t push it.  Getting Belle to attend the cookout and work on shedding her cold and calculating exterior was hard enough.  Change was going to take time, and there was nothing wrong with that.

A quiet beep from Belle’s wrist drew both of their attention.  A patch of skin lit up, revealing the screen of a watch just underneath.  The older woman sighed.

“That’s my hover car,” she said, tapping her wrist to shut the communicator off.  “I should probably grab Jason- no I think it was Reginald that I brought this time.  It’s time for me to head out.”

“One thing before you go,” Kat called out, leaving her rag on the picnic table.  “We need to work out an exchange of the upgraded shield units.  I’ll pay you back, but I’m going to need the caravan to get ‘raided’ so that some associates of mine can get their hands on our best stuff without us having to admit we gave it to them.”

“Oh?”  Belle asked, a twinkle in her eye.  “Plausible deniability?  You’ve learned a lot girl.  It warms the heart.  Sometimes I feel like I’m just as proud of you as that tiger of a mother of yours.”
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