Culture ShockValtteri Nikulainen looked out the window of his passenger seat as the corporate transport ship completed the final jump of its week-long journey into the Kador region.
“Gold,” he thought to himself as he took in the nebula surrounding them.
No wonder the Amarr cover everything in the metal; space itself seemed practically covered in it here. Valtteri took another sip of his tea and continued looking over some figures on his screen. He was almost finished with his calculations, and was hoping his superiors would put the information to good use in the coming negotiations. Valtteri was a “numbers” man. He crunched pricing data, analyzed market capitalization, stock prices, statistics, etc, and turned the information into usable recommendations for his corporate superiors. His corporation, a small Sukuuvestaa subsidiary, was one of several Caldari corporations competing to secure a trade agreement with a large Imperial grain exporter. Valtteri took another look at his data and felt proud of his work. His data showed his group to be in an excellent financial position, and that they had the logistical capability to handle the Imperial grain imports with ease. With some luck, the negotiators would be able to work their magic and they’d return home proud of what they’d accomplished. Valtteri transmitted his report to his superiors in 1st class (“eggheads” were relegated to the back of the transport with the other support staff) and allowed himself a break to take in the sights as they entered the Kador station docking perimeter.
The PR department had made sure they received the appropriate pamphlets and instructional videos required of all employees crossing the border into Imperial Space. Valtteri had found the whole thing extremely tedious and boring. For every “do” on the list there was about 50 “don’ts” when speaking, walking, ordering food, etc. There seemed to be protocol and a proper way to do everything, and Valtteri couldn’t care less. He wasn’t going to come within 50 meters of any Amarr, and in fact wasn’t planning on leaving the transport ship for the entire trip. He always had more work to do, and reading up on the proper method of greeting in Amarr standard on the 3rd holy day of the month and in which order to address a new business partner was not going to help him run his quantitative analysis.
The transport ship had pulled into the docking bay by this point, and the docking clamps had engaged while the ship’s engines powered down. The executives of their delegation had all rented suites in the station and were already disembarking. Lower-level employees like Valtteri were to stay on the transport and continue working during the negotiations, and that suited Valtteri just fine. Negotiations were set to start in... 36 hours by his count, and there was plenty he could get done before they started. Valtteri set another pot of tea going in the small transport kitchenette and sat down for a long night of data crunching.
Valtteri awoke with a jolt as the vidscreen in his small sleeping cot alarmed on with a red priority “incoming call” flashing message. Red meant executive. Red was bad. Valtteri wiped the bleariness from his eyes and tried to focus his attention before receiving the call.
“Nikulainen, is that you?!” said one of his superiors, a woman named, what was it... Laura. Definitely Laura. And she looked awful? Laura was practically green skinned and with bloodshot eyes.
“Yes, maam, that’s correct. Are you... are you alright ma’am?”“Do I look allright?! Of course I’m not. None of us are. I’ve been throwing up for 8 hours, and the rest of the delegation is doing even worse. Ugh.....” Laura seemed to turn an even paler shade of green.
“We seem to have all caught some sort of ridiculous Amarr stomach virus. The station restaurant we went out to for dinner last night was not on the approved PR list and we’re paying for it now.... Nikulainen, they aren’t letting us out of our suite, we’ve been quarantined, do you understand what I’m saying?”“No, ma’am? If this means you can’t respond to my report until later it’s quite alrigh -”“No, you idiot, it means we can’t attend the negotiations! The entire executive delegation cannot attend the negotiations! There’s no one left! You are next on the chain, Nikulainen! 13th on the list, in fact, but that’s where we are at. You’re the most senior employee not in quarantine. Do you understand?!”It was finally starting to sink in.
“But Ma’am! I... I don’t talk to … to people, I file reports!”“You think we don’t know that?! It’s you or the secretary! You’ve got... 4 hours! I’m transmitting our notes and our negotiating positions to you now, you need to focus! If we lose this contract for Suvee we are all going to be fired, do you understand?”Nikulainen’s mouth had turned to cotton, and he could barely get the words out.
“Yes, ma’am, I understand.”Part Two to Come!
Author
Topic: Culture Shock (Read 1594 times)