The communications office is… a government office, as cheap as can be. It's a plain gray concrete building with no windows; just desks and datapads everywhere… they even skipped lights and ventilation, as undead can see in the dark and don't need to breathe.
I walk in, and a skeleton with a pink soul greets me at the door in a raspy voice, “Do you have an appointment?”
“Yes ma'am,” I nod, “I have a 9 o'clock meeting with the Secretary of Communications, Veltheniel,” why yes, I did do my homework.
I can't see her blink (she has no eyelids), but she jerks back slightly, “You can tell?”
I shrug, “Yes ma'am,” and I would like to find out if the immunity is an undead thing or a Necrovite thing, so… “I can restore your flesh if you'd like so it'll be more obvious, although there may be side effects.”
She doesn't hesitate, “Gimmie!”
I nod, reach over, and cast the spell on her chest, which quickly coats her in muscle, fat, skin, and… oh. I'm now holding her bare… I pull my hand back as I watch her soul become a little more pink.
“Eh… pretty vanilla, and quite dry,” Patricia informs me, “but okay to eat.”
She looks down at herself… with nothing in the way, as she hadn't bothered to dress, “Oh, wow…” she pauses, “I'm breathing? Am I alive again?”
I shake my head as I chuckle, “No, just a close fake. The air in here isn't any good, after all.”
“Right…” she reaches down and starts feeling her arms, then her legs, her face….
I cough as she reaches for her chest, “Ah… I do have an appointment….”
She jerks up, making her chest bounce, “Right! This way please….”
She leads me through a door in the back, up six flights of stairs (I suppose undead don't get tired…) and into an office… with a real stained wood door, and a gold nametag.
The receptionist knocks, “Your nine o'clock is here.”
“Send him in,” a voice whispers from the other side.
The receptionist opens the door, I step through, and am greeted by a display of wealth: The entire office is polished wood (the real deal) and he has live potted plants on either side of his desk. The receptionist closes the door behind me, leaving me alone with Veltheniel.
Who honestly, looks like a standard necrovite. He's a withered corpse with an extra-large head, bones showing all over beneath his tattered flesh… and again: I'm seeing a black soul… or rather, a sucking void where one should be. Oh yes, and he's dressed in an actual silk business suit, complete with a black tie.
“Ah, Admiral Alex Abrams,” seems Veltheniel did his homework as well, “Good to meet you,” he stands up from his chair and extends his skeletal hand.
Which I shake, distasteful as it is, “Nice to meet you as well,” okay, that’s a bald-faced lie. I just want his business.
Which the Secretary of Communications, gets straight to: “I cannot believe what Missavuine told me… are you prepared to demo?”
I smile as I hand him a personal com unit, “Absolutely. This is hooked into a few other worlds: The Sun, Stopgap, and Absalom Station… just a standard infosphere connection until we also cut deals with those worlds. Feel free to browse, place a call, whatever.”
I wait patiently while he places several calls, growing progressively more fascinated, the last to a bookie on Stopgap, where he places a VERY large bet on the upcoming games from Eox… for a game that theoretically finished about five minutes before I walked in, but won't have reached very far due to broadcast delays.
He seems about ready to place yet another call, but I stop him, “So… do I have you hooked?”
He pauses, and hands back the com, “Indeed. What are the terms?”
“Well, we start with a six month free trial”, I begin
He chortles, and I continue, “No, seriously, I'm that confident in my product…” I pause, “...and as mentioned, it will be a bit before we have a number of high bandwidth connections on other worlds, as I need to cut deals with them, as well.”
I pause, he nods, and I continue, “And of course, I'm claiming ‘common courier' status: I am building a channel to move the data, and am renting access to said channel to anyone who is willing and able to sign and pay; I make no claims on what you or anyone else might do with it.”
He nods, “So I don't come after you for hacking or illegal content sent over the network; fair enough.”
I continue, “and, of course, there's standard ‘no reverse engineering’ clauses, and you call me for repairs to the equipment if they become necessary. Your people do not troubleshoot my hardware.”
Again, he nods, “I can understand trade secrets.”
I smile, “Great; those are the high points of the contract, the rest is just money….”
We go over the deal, he actually laughs when he sees the cost line, and signs the three year contract with no hesitation at all.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” I start, “Where would you like me to install the equipment?”
He gives me directions, I get the contract all properly filed, and head over to do the actual installation in their data center. The workers look at me askance when I walk in carrying nothing but a small bag, and tell them I need a ten foot square of wall to mount the new transmission equipment.
I do wait patiently while the site manager makes some calls (I'm doing this on a very short timeline), but he does get through to the right person, confirms we made the deal, and lets me work. They don't know what to think when I magic up a bright pink metal rolling door on the wall, roll it up, and show them the data cabling coming out of the pink iron wall right behind it…but they hook it up, and yes, it passes data.
I quietly shove the key I used to open the door through the metal wall, using my back to hide that I'm doing it, and give some warnings to the people on site: “Do not breach the pink wall. The energies on the other side that allow this all to work are NOT kind to matter. The cabling has a good twenty meters of service loop: If you decide you need to reterminate it, you can do so safely enough. But never, ever, try to get through that pink wall. Do you understand?”
They give me a “Yeah, yeah,” and go about their day… well, I at least tried.
And we have our first full customer. The others go just as quickly; every telecom exec we speak with (and I cheat, so I get to them quickly if nobody else can get to them) signs up, and loves the price. Which means I should probably raise it a bit when renewals come around. We get Eox, Absalom Station, Stopgap, and Amran. As soon as I'm on the ground with one, the ship on site takes off and moves on to the next: I can always hop into the portal network via a Gate spell, and catch up with whoever is at the next port in minutes. So over the next couple of weeks, we also sign up Verces, Triaxus, one of the moons of Liavara, Castrovel, Bretheda, and nearly every other Pact Worlds planet. We skip the Diaspora, as it's basically an inhabited asteroid belt; there’s no one place to connect properly. We skip the Idari as that “planet” is really just a large colony ship. We skip Aucturn because… well, the only settlers there are mad cultists; we don't really want them plugged in… we don't pitch, they don't ask.
And of course, we travel beyond the Pact Worlds as well: Amran and Stopgap are both outside the system, and there’s no reason at all we can't go interstellar… so of course, we do… which slows progress significantly, as only the Rustbucket is particularly speedy.
And really, the slowdown is a good thing: By the time we're done with the Pact Worlds, all of my real crew members are heavy with child. Both portions of Stephanie are pregnant (neither the ship-body child nor the remote body child has a soul this go round; I'm looking forward to being able to field Cowbird on a ship, but am slightly concerned about what the remote is going to birth). Ocean’s little body is pregnant (ta tells me I'm the father… wohoo…), but the ship portion is not. Star is fully pregnant, with a matching little and big body soul growing. Everyone else (including Patricia, heh) just has a “simple” pregnancy.
I have summons build a nursery on a demiplane… using real materials for the nursery: The kids deserve something other than unending neon pink in their lives.
I'm so glad I won't have to deal with… I feel a kick.
Oh, right.
The communications office is… a government office, as cheap as can be. It's a plain gray concrete building with no windows; just desks and datapads everywhere… they even skipped lights and ventilation, as undead can see in the dark and don't need to breathe.
I walk in, and a skeleton with a pink soul greets me at the door in a raspy voice, “Do you have an appointment?”
“Yes ma'am,” I nod, “I have a 9 o'clock meeting with the Secretary of Communications, Veltheniel,” why yes, I did do my homework.
I can't see her blink (she has no eyelids), but she jerks back slightly, “You can tell?”
I shrug, “Yes ma'am,” and I would like to find out if the immunity is an undead thing or a Necrovite thing, so… “I can restore your flesh if you'd like so it'll be more obvious, although there may be side effects.”
She doesn't hesitate, “Gimmie!”
I nod, reach over, and cast the spell on her chest, which quickly coats her in muscle, fat, skin, and… oh. I'm now holding her bare… I pull my hand back as I watch her soul become a little more pink.
“Eh… pretty vanilla, and quite dry,” Patricia informs me, “but okay to eat.”
She looks down at herself… with nothing in the way, as she hadn't bothered to dress, “Oh, wow…” she pauses, “I'm breathing? Am I alive again?”
I shake my head as I chuckle, “No, just a close fake. The air in here isn't any good, after all.”
“Right…” she reaches down and starts feeling her arms, then her legs, her face….
I cough as she reaches for her chest, “Ah… I do have an appointment….”
She jerks up, making her chest bounce, “Right! This way please….”
She leads me through a door in the back, up six flights of stairs (I suppose undead don't get tired…) and into an office… with a real stained wood door, and a gold nametag.
The receptionist knocks, “Your nine o'clock is here.”
“Send him in,” a voice whispers from the other side.
The receptionist opens the door, I step through, and am greeted by a display of wealth: The entire office is polished wood (the real deal) and he has live potted plants on either side of his desk. The receptionist closes the door behind me, leaving me alone with Veltheniel.
Who honestly, looks like a standard necrovite. He's a withered corpse with an extra-large head, bones showing all over beneath his tattered flesh… and again: I'm seeing a black soul… or rather, a sucking void where one should be. Oh yes, and he's dressed in an actual silk business suit, complete with a black tie.
“Ah, Admiral Alex Abrams,” seems Veltheniel did his homework as well, “Good to meet you,” he stands up from his chair and extends his skeletal hand.
Which I shake, distasteful as it is, “Nice to meet you as well,” okay, that’s a bald-faced lie. I just want his business.
Which the Secretary of Communications, gets straight to: “I cannot believe what Missavuine told me… are you prepared to demo?”
I smile as I hand him a personal com unit, “Absolutely. This is hooked into a few other worlds: The Sun, Stopgap, and Absalom Station… just a standard infosphere connection until we also cut deals with those worlds. Feel free to browse, place a call, whatever.”
I wait patiently while he places several calls, growing progressively more fascinated, the last to a bookie on Stopgap, where he places a VERY large bet on the upcoming games from Eox… for a game that theoretically finished about five minutes before I walked in, but won't have reached very far due to broadcast delays.
He seems about ready to place yet another call, but I stop him, “So… do I have you hooked?”
He pauses, and hands back the com, “Indeed. What are the terms?”
“Well, we start with a six month free trial”, I begin
He chortles, and I continue, “No, seriously, I'm that confident in my product…” I pause, “...and as mentioned, it will be a bit before we have a number of high bandwidth connections on other worlds, as I need to cut deals with them, as well.”
I pause, he nods, and I continue, “And of course, I'm claiming ‘common courier' status: I am building a channel to move the data, and am renting access to said channel to anyone who is willing and able to sign and pay; I make no claims on what you or anyone else might do with it.”
He nods, “So I don't come after you for hacking or illegal content sent over the network; fair enough.”
I continue, “and, of course, there's standard ‘no reverse engineering’ clauses, and you call me for repairs to the equipment if they become necessary. Your people do not troubleshoot my hardware.”
Again, he nods, “I can understand trade secrets.”
I smile, “Great; those are the high points of the contract, the rest is just money….”
We go over the deal, he actually laughs when he sees the cost line, and signs the three year contract with no hesitation at all.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” I start, “Where would you like me to install the equipment?”
He gives me directions, I get the contract all properly filed, and head over to do the actual installation in their data center. The workers look at me askance when I walk in carrying nothing but a small bag, and tell them I need a ten foot square of wall to mount the new transmission equipment.
I do wait patiently while the site manager makes some calls (I'm doing this on a very short timeline), but he does get through to the right person, confirms we made the deal, and lets me work. They don't know what to think when I magic up a bright pink metal rolling door on the wall, roll it up, and show them the data cabling coming out of the pink iron wall right behind it…but they hook it up, and yes, it passes data.
I quietly shove the key I used to open the door through the metal wall, using my back to hide that I'm doing it, and give some warnings to the people on site: “Do not breach the pink wall. The energies on the other side that allow this all to work are NOT kind to matter. The cabling has a good twenty meters of service loop: If you decide you need to reterminate it, you can do so safely enough. But never, ever, try to get through that pink wall. Do you understand?”
They give me a “Yeah, yeah,” and go about their day… well, I at least tried.
And we have our first full customer. The others go just as quickly; every telecom exec we speak with (and I cheat, so I get to them quickly if nobody else can get to them) signs up, and loves the price. Which means I should probably raise it a bit when renewals come around. We get Eox, Absalom Station, Stopgap, and Amran. As soon as I'm on the ground with one, the ship on site takes off and moves on to the next: I can always hop into the portal network via a Gate spell, and catch up with whoever is at the next port in minutes. So over the next couple of weeks, we also sign up Verces, Triaxus, one of the moons of Liavara, Castrovel, Bretheda, and nearly every other Pact Worlds planet. We skip the Diaspora, as it's basically an inhabited asteroid belt; there’s no one place to connect properly. We skip the Idari as that “planet” is really just a large colony ship. We skip Aucturn because… well, the only settlers there are mad cultists; we don't really want them plugged in… we don't pitch, they don't ask.
And of course, we travel beyond the Pact Worlds as well: Amran and Stopgap are both outside the system, and there’s no reason at all we can't go interstellar… so of course, we do… which slows progress significantly, as only the Rustbucket is particularly speedy.
And really, the slowdown is a good thing: By the time we're done with the Pact Worlds, all of my real crew members are heavy with child. Both portions of Stephanie are pregnant (neither the ship-body child nor the remote body child has a soul this go round; I'm looking forward to being able to field Cowbird on a ship, but am slightly concerned about what the remote is going to birth). Ocean’s little body is pregnant (ta tells me I'm the father… wohoo…), but the ship portion is not. Star is fully pregnant, with a matching little and big body soul growing. Everyone else (including Patricia, heh) just has a “simple” pregnancy.
I have summons build a nursery on a demiplane… using real materials for the nursery: The kids deserve something other than unending neon pink in their lives.
I'm so glad I won't have to deal with… I feel a kick.
Oh, right.
