Part One
The Kamokor Solar system
Kaalakiota sector, Waschi City
May 2, YC 110
Utilusa Oinasen handed the water vendor her script chip and accepted the plastic bottle in exchange. She didn’t have to pay of course, one of the perks of a mid-grade executive was free refreshments during the morning tram ride but she just liked to. She was very grateful for the privliages provided to her but she just didn’t want to stand out from her fellow commuters. Most of them were her juniors, and she had no need to rub their nose in that fact. Besides she thought with a smile, the script just went back to Kaalakiota’s profit pool and what was good for Kaalakiota was good for everyone.
She sipped her water and thought idly of the work day ahead of her. Oritsa-haan had seen fit to award her entire division a with a nine percent salary increase
and a six percent decrease in the working cycle after last quarter’s earnings statement had been posted. More pay with less work! She’d been so proud over the Ortisa family’s acknowledgment of her team but now she sometimes felt a little rushed to get everything done. She and a her peers had started ‘cheating’ and putting in a few extra hours off the clock in order to make sure this quarters numbers was even wider. It felt so naughty!
She’d spent most of yesterday’s extra hours considering a request by two of her subordinates to marry. It was not something she took lightly and had re-allotted a three and a half hour block she’d originally intended for derivative analysis to carefully compare their personality metrics. The metrics weren’t promising but something in her gut told they’d make…
She lost that train of thought as her perception enchantment, another perk of middle management, flashed a priority news alert over her field of vision.
She quickly opened it as something big enough for her NeoCom not to filter it into the queue would probably have dire consequences on her division’s earnings.
She never notice the water bottle hit the tram’s deck or realized she was holding both hands over her mouth as she watch live footage of Home Guard mechanized infantry firing into a factory. The news anchor said something about a mad man threatening hostages and Caldari Constructions’ stock prices losing value.