As the Dromedary-class freighter left the high atmosphere of New Berlin, Christian thoughtfully turned course for the Ring docking section. He'd had a good vacation on the planet, with plenty of skiing and natural gravity. A sort of mini vacation, it had been a hell of a long time since he'd been in the space of the great houses, having only visited his hometown on the planet Erie before, but apparently that was something to forget about forever. He shook his head as if waking up from a dream, wanting to perk up and concentrate on the upcoming event. Christian turned to The Ring's control tower to let automatics handle everything on its own "Freighter 'Lyra' to The Ring, requesting permission to dock." Receiving an affirmative response, he engaged the autopilot for docking and left the pilot's seat, preparing to exit.
A shudder ran through the ship and the humming subsided - the ship had successfully docked inside. Christian stepped into the airlock, the door closing behind him. The compressors hummed, gradually equalising the pressure. The door ahead opened and before his eyes stood a huge platform with various ships. Some, like him, had just arrived at the station and were unloading, some were hastily getting ready for departure - initially Christian was confused and couldn't figure out where to go, he wasn't used to the crowd and the rhythm of the houses.
Noticing the signs, he followed them, exiting the mooring deck into the corridor leading to the administrative section of The Ring. Reaching the reception desk, he asked the handsome woman if the appointment with Ms. Toast. Nodding in the affirmative, she led Christian further down the corridor and into a spacious room filled with the white light of natural light coming from the planet's surface through a panoramic window. Once inside the room, the woman left him alone. Christian sat down at a round table facing the panoramic window, watching the sunlight play whimsically in the upper atmosphere of New Berlin, awaiting for the DHC representative.
“– Investors are flowing, at the moment. Our deals with the-
– Your appointment has arrived, Herr Gehrig. Conference Room C, deck 5.”
Rupert Gehrig sighed. The meeting took so long that even Christian Burton arrived before it ended.
“ – Alright, I’ll make my way there, then. Gentlemen, I’ll leave you to it and expect a full report once I return.”
The businessman started to make his way to the Conference Room C. While Der Ring was a great centre of activity for Daumann, there was no noise across the corridors leading to the elevator. The calm contrasted with the movement that you could see from the portholes. Rupert stopped for a second at the fountain, and drank a bit. His throat was a bit dry, as he had been talking for far too long for the past few hours.
A few meters away, he pushed the digital terminal to call for the elevator, entered, and pushed the Deck-5 button.
The door shut, and the elevator moved rapidly. Rupert always liked the feeling of gravity in his stomach as the machine went up or down. A robotic voice announced “Deck 5”, and the door opened. The conference room was right in front of him. Rupert stopped and stretched for a second, and cleared his throat. He then opened the door with assurance.
“Guten Tag, Herr Burton. I am Rupert Gehrig, Betriebsleiter of Daumann Heavy Industries. Welcome aboard Der Ring! I hope that the journey was not too harsh and long to Neu Berlin!”
Rupert put his hand forward, and waited for Christian to shake it.
Christian looked away from the window and took a few steps toward the visitor, extending his hand for a handshake. The handshake was strong and for Christian it was already a good sign, as it is a common trait in the outlying worlds, worlds where people are strong in mind.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Christian Burton, leader of the Phoenix Zoners at your service. Thanks for asking, I arrived on planet New Berlin beforehand and spent some time at your ski resort. It was wonderful, especially since I haven't seen snow with my own eyes in over ten years." he hesitated a moment and gestured with his hand, pointing to the table and continued "I see Daumann's business hasn't changed much in the last few years, since you've been doing us a favor..." he sat down at a chair and leaned back. He continued thoughtfully - "A small favor that could only your industries to handle in tight deadlines. Did Ms. Tost tell you the superficial details of our meeting?"
Rupert sat in front of Christian, and took two glasses in which he poured some water. He smiled joyfully to Christian.
“Straight to the point, I like that!"
Christian took his neural network off for the duration of the meeting, as he did not like to be distrubed during meetings with important clients.
"Indeed, Amelia has informed me that you needed our help in manufacturing parts for a specific vessel, and that our meeting aims at discussing the modalities of the manufacturing. Well, to be frank, our past business with the Phoenix Zoners went very well, and we are more than happy to contribute to your endeavours.”
"Let's talk about the details. Do you need our facilities to only produce some parts of the ship, or the whole ship itself?"
"We're all business people, and there is simply no more valuable resource than time." he looked penetratingly at Rupert, as if assessing how much to be frank. He leaned away from the table and rested against the back of his chair, distracted for a moment by the panoramic window, a Donau cruiser flying past them, momentarily obscuring the entire room from the sun.
"We have a ship called Vega that you used to service. I don't know if you're aware..." he gestured with his hand, a hologram with video recordings of conversations between Daumann Heavy Construction and Phoenix representatives appeared dimly lit over the table. "Earlier, your help was more than sufficient and we were able to repair and complete the ship for an expedition to remote locations in space, beyond the Sirius sector redistribution."
He paused his speech for a moment, gauging Rupert's reaction, for it was obvious that the point was about the battleship. But there was no emotion evident in his face other than interest. Christian sighed and continued "I'm talking about a Bismarck class ship, one of the earliest generations. It was formerly known as the Blitzkrieg, but was lost to the Rheinland during the 80 year war." He leaned forward slightly and placed his hands on the table and crossed them. "But let's not go too much into the history of this ship, though I'm happy to answer any questions you may have."
"The ship was noticeably damaged after the expedition, the armor was 26% damaged. As a matter of fact that is the reason I contacted you." he waved his hand in front of the table and instead of a hologram of bells the Bismarck ship appeared with a damage assessment and all statuses and Christian continued "As you can see some of the decks were scorched almost completely as the armor panels could not withstand the Nomads impact." he leaned forward slightly "We are looking to replace those panels. We've done a material analysis of their structure, they're basically made of titanium alloy. And the parts themselves are rather out of the ordinary shape for our industry, to create them we would need to set up an entire production process to manufacture them, which is not at all feasible. I would like to clarify your capabilities to recreate the reinforcement parts that have been significantly damaged..." He stood up and stepped back to the buffet, giving his interlocutor time to digest the information.
Pouring a glass of water he came back gathered his thoughts. He sat down at the table, took a careful sip of water and continued "I also have another proposal that you may find more financially attractive given the amount of work involved. As you know, titanium alloys are not the best choice for armor panels. For our part, we are in the process of extracting and processing iridium at Omicron Delta." Christian switched the hologram to the next, displaying the difference in alloys their strengths and weaknesses. "We are prepared to finance the fabrication of armor panels for the entire ship, and also, if you are interested, to enter into a long-term contract to supply iridium already for your needs."
He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He smiled slightly and continued, "I hope I haven't confused you or taken you aback by my offer. I realize you are also limited bureaucratically and if you have any capabilities of cooperation at this moment, we are willing to accept it in any form as ship functionality is crucual part in our defence capabilities against Nomads and Corsairs threats."
Rupert was startled for a second, but did not let it show to Christian.
A Bismark-class battleship? One of the many Rheinwehr assets lost during the 80 Years War? 'A mere fantasy' was the first though of Rupert. But what if it was true?
On the one hand, it could be a formidable way to put to use the billions of credits allocated to the Research and Development Department of Daumann, and the study of the panels may have answers to improve the hull integrity of Daumann-manufactured ships. On the other hand, it may as well be as suicidal as flying up to a Red Hessian squad in the Dresde system: the Government would never allow the company to restore the ship's integrity and systems, to be used by a foreign force, be they as useful, understanding, and necessary as the Zoners.
Rupert had to make a split-second decision. He decided to elude the question.
"Well, if that was a joke, that was a great one!", he said, bursting into a laughter that no one could expect to be fake. "If it was not, though, I mean no disrespect, but I cannot believe your crew found a semi-functional Bismark-class battleship, lost in the 80 Years War. Rheinwehr Search and Rescue parties retrieved most of the re-usable ships, especially the higer classes. When it comes to the most damaged ships, it was ALG that won the salvaging market in the Sigmas, thus rendering the probability of salvaging such a ship almost completely null.
As for the slim probability that you indeed retrieved the battleship, I think you perfectly understand that the Rheinland government would not appreciate that a foreign party would use one of their ship without consent of the Rheinland Military.
But I am more inclined to my first guess, and I do not believe you could have gotten your hands on a Bismark-class ship."
Christian paused for a second. He knew Christian would not appreciate such an answer. But while he was giving his answer, he thought of another way to access to Christian's demand.
"I can offer you an alternative. Let's say that you want our expertise to... "build a Rheinland-themed resort", where exactly would you... "build it"? We could agree on a contract to help you build it for you, send a crew of engineers to help you with the panels, and talk about the financing and the possible long-term contract with you on the iridium supply? What say you?"
Christian had expected few people to believe his words, to say the least, given the sacred importance of each battleship to the Houses, and the age of the vessel, which should at most be a museum or buried in the dense nebulae of the Omicrons in the domain of the Outcasts... Although it was the way it had been before the extraction operation and transportation to Livadia Shipyards. Realizing the subtlety of the situation, he decided to disguise the offer a bit, though the Daumann representative might well guess at the purpose of their products, but legally they would be completely clean and the customs authorities would be unlikely to prevent the export of metalwork that more closely resembled station parts. "I wanted to be completely honest with you, but it is up to you to take this information as truth or fairy tale, the Omicron sector is full of unknown stories, believe me." Christian said ambiguously with a slight smirk, waved his hand and the hologram with the ship's chart disappeared and the room was once again filled with natural light coming from the panoramic window.
“In general terms we have a need to manufacture armor panels for our drawings..." he smiled faintly - " for the Rheinland themed resort at Kadesh Orbital City, if that would suit you. " He stretched out his arms and gestured to open the next slide, above the table appeared an impressive list of armor panels with suggestive material requirements "as you can see, the nomenclature is indeed extensive. Don't let the energy absorption and deformation requirements scare you off - our engineers report that it will be more than feasible compared to classic titanium based alloys and other more common options." Christian said and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting peacefully for a response. He knew that the possibility of getting support from the leading manufacturer of ships and components in Rheinland was pretty slim, but he was obliged to try every way to speed up the reconstruction of Vega, given the simmering conflict with the Corsairs and the ever-present threat from the Nomads might require throwing all resources at the defense, and a ship of a class like the Bismarck could prejudge the outcome of battles, unless of course they were in nebulas and other tactical confined spaces.
Rupert smiled, when he heard Chirstian’s answer. Finally, someone that can understand the subtext of a proposal! At most, both Daumann and Kadesh would benefit from this business proposal; at the very least, should Daumann be found guilty for shipping armour plating to refit a Bismark-class battleship, not for Rheinland but for a foreign military, the Board of Administration would know none of it, and be only aware of this fake, Rheinland-themed resort. And Rupert would never be held accountable for that, as the only business offer he would have signed up for, would be for the made-up resort.
"Well, it seems that we have an understanding, Herr Burton! I will need the list of materials you require on a secured channel, over the Neural Net. As soon as I get it, our facilities will begin the production, and you will be kept updated of its advancement."
Rupert paused for a second, and then added: "Of course, Daumann will handle both the production and the shipment. As such, we will need to settle on a relatively fair price for the service we are providing. But I have no doubt, given our past partnerships, that we can arrange the best deal possible, profitable for both Phoenix, and Daumann Heavy Construction."
Rupert stood up, walked around the table, and offered to shake the hand of his new business partner.
"While we have the chance of meeting up in person, is there anything else that you would want to discuss, Herr Burton?"
Christian, hearing Rupert's position relaxed in his chair - one of his group's big problems had been solved. It would be extremely expensive to produce armor panels and related equipment for just one ship, which would also greatly facilitate the future operation of Vega, which would greatly strengthen the defensive capabilities of Kadesh Orbital City and give potential for the development of the station, freed up more resources for the study of the planet Palmyra. "Pleasure doing business with you Rupert" he smiled and took the glass of water in his hand slightly sipped the water, nerves made his throat dry.
"My people will be in touch with your office later with all the details" he took another sip from the glass and put it back on the table and continued "As the nomenclature is quite extensive we will need to calculate how much processed Iridium you will need to ship to fulfill the order..." Christian spoke and halfway through he noticed the constantly flashing red light on the wrist of his comm. It couldn't mean anything but a force majeure situation, otherwise no one would dare distract him - all business in Christian's absence was on Alec Reed, Christian's right-hand man. “Excuse me, I have an urgent call.” Christian said and hurriedly pressed his comm to answer the call.
A short distance above his wrist the silhouette of a stocky man appeared, in the background Kadesh station was visible and ships, mostly military, stood in formation "Christian!" shouted Alec, his voice high and hoarse, his face was dead pale. "A joint force of Nomads with the infected are preparing a strike on Kadesh Orbital City that we haven't seen before. Our long range scanners detect a huge fleet in the nearest nebulas and they could strike at any moment. All Phoenix forces are already on the line of defense of the station, with allies on the way." Christian nodded his head and said "Hold the defenses, I'm moving out immediately to coordinate the operation." - he wasn't too surprised by the Nomads attack, it was far from the first time, but it was the first time he had seen Alec so alarmed and that was saying a lot.
Christian turned off the comms and turned to Rupert “As you can see, life in the outskirts of Omicrons has its own peculiarities. I'm sure my men will do their best to protect their home, but I'm obligated to be with my men to share the fate in any case. Moreover, I am glad that we have found common ground on our issue. My men will be sure to contact you if all goes well." Christian almost rose from his seat, but Rupert cut short his movement.
Rupert was satisfied with the deal they made. It was beneficial for both, and there should no major hinderance to their plans, except for piracy - but that was something that could be dealt rather easily.
"Pleasure is all mine, Christian!"Rupert stood up, grabbed a glass of water as well, and quickly put it back on the table when Christian got his transmission.
"I understand that you have to get back to Kadesh Orbital Station. I will make sure the docks are free to let you take off as soon as possible. As a good gesture, to prove we are serious in our business, I will also dispatch a unit of our Convoy Security Division to make sure you get home safe, and help you out if needed."
Rupert sent a quick message to the deck manager of the station, and another one to a gunboat unit available. His business partner will not be harmed until business is done, he will not allow it.
"Everything is in order on my side, and the arrangements made for you to get back to Kadesh safely. I hope to see you again very soon, Christian."
Again, Rupert offered a shake of hand, as all business partners do when closing a deal.
