Aftermath

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Anya Venari"]


"Oh, I see. Of course. Thank you, Your Serene Majesty. May the Goddess light your path," Askari said, looking a bit sheepish when she was introduced to yet another bizarre custom of the Eldorai peerage.


This is ridiculous. It's all about ego-stroking and making yourself look more important than you actually are, she thought. Apparently she needed a secretary now. Presumably they'd also try to force a chauffeeur on her. She bowed again - appropriately deep - and was then ushered out of the throne room by one of the Angelii of the Sacred Band. She gave those brave soldiers a whistful look...but she had made her choice and would now have to do her duty, even if the battlefield was a different one.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Vaena Askari"]
Tegaea was working on some accounts when her new secretary knocked on the door.
“Yes, Blessing?” These Dahomian names were getting more and more abstract.
“There is a Duchess Cadalthor on the line wishing for an appointment.” She saw Tegaea’s expression. “The new one, ma’am,” she added, her soft accent emphasising ‘new’.
“I was about to say, we’d need a medium to have an appointment with the old one,” Tegaea replied with grimly satisfied humour.
“Yes, ma’am. What shall I tell her?”
“Tell her to come around in…” she paused. “Is Siobhan still dealing with the spy?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then tell her to come right now.”
“Of course, ma’am.”

When Vaena arrived she would have been greeted by some human guards who stood aside to let the Duchess entered, and from there Blessing would lead her to meet with Tegaea Alcori.

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Vaena was dressed formally in robes, but still simply. The robes were not embroidered and unlike the average Eldorai noblelady she had foregone being loaded with gems. No makeup was painted on her face. Some human guards greeted at the gate and stood aside to let her pass.


Unsurprisingly, they were Dahomians. Impure thoughts would have filled her mind, but she was wired too tightly to admire their physical attributes and beautiful black skin. The same applied to the poetically named secretary. It did not take long before she was ushered into the presence of Tegaea.


"Lady Alcori," she began, pausing. She had to remind herself that she was not supposed to bow to the noblewoman, for she was a duchcess now. "It is good to see you, though I wish the circumstances were less grim. Thank you for receiving me. I'm Vaena Askari...Cadalthor" she extended her hand. Was that protocol? Eh, whatever. Askari had been less exposed to outsiders than Kaida and so her Basic was heavily accented, but she was determined to get it right.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Vaena Askari"]
Vaena had found the perfect other peer to be a little less formal with. Though she liked having the title, Tegaea was nothing like her wife as far as a love of display went. Tegaea was first and foremost a businesswoman and a noble as just another dressup game to play.

She took Vaena’s hand and shook it firmly.
“Take a seat, please,” Tegaea said briskly. “First of all, congratulations on your elevation. I know this is not an easy time for any of us. The circumstances of the last few days have been trying on us all. However, your family has been the cause of a lot of trouble. Naturally you had no part in it, and I’m glad that it is you in charge and not your other relatives.”

“However, I will get straight to the point, Vaena. Your cousin was directly responsible for most of the turmoil, including the deaths of multiple Firemane and allied personnel. It is our intention to seek a settlement from the Cadalthor estate.”

It was unfortunate for Vaena to have this dropped on her, but Tegaea had to put that aside. Some of her people, people she’d known, had died due to these machinations, and she would see justice served.

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


"I was not involved, but I am head of the family now. So it is my responsibility," Vaena said softly. "Good people died because of my family. It was treachery. I am not an...uncritical supporter of Firemane, but you aided during a time of great distress when our people's survival stood on a knife's edge. What makes it even worse is that my relatives abused the holy faith and twisted it to suit their selfish cause."


She sighed slightly, pushing that aside. "For the suffering caused by my family, I'd like to apologise to Firemane. Trust and forgiveness cannot be purchased with gold, but as a first step I'm ready to pay extensive reparations. My relatives will sulk, but I am not attached to baubles like they are."

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Vaena Askari"]
Surprised that matters had started off so well, Tegaea nodded. She had expected an angry rebuttal or at least resistance.
“Thank you, Vaena. It gives me no pleasure to do this, especially knowing you were not even aligned with them. However, this is the settlement, and I think you will find it fair considering what might have happened.”

Having acquired a list of total asset worth from the Queen’s finance minister, she and Siobhan had settled on a figure of 40% as a restitution payment.
It was severe, even harsh, but it was not crippling. An analysis of the Cadalthor estates had revealed that most family members had more than one lavish residence, more than one luxury speeder or space craft and so on. Tarissa herself had possessed no less than four stately homes, one of which was at an Eldorai exclusive resort on Arkas.
Cuts could be made to line up with the Spartan aesthetics of Vaena without sacrificing either the money she needed to operate, nor what would be expected of her.

Tegaea handed over a datapad with the figures. It was like receiving the absolute worst tax bill one could face.

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Vaena took the datapad without a further word and read through its contents. She took her time. All those numbers were rather daunting. A frown creased her features. She was shocked...though not for the reasons one might expect. But because she'd had no idea that the Cadalthors possessed so much frivolous stuff! Who needed all that? What practical purpose did it serve? Bottom line, she was operating on a different scale of priorities than most aristos.


"It seems like a good chance to get rid of baubles. The Goddess did not want her ministers to grow greedy and value her children less than gold. I am baffled by the idea that anyone would need...these luxury speeders and several palaces," she muttered to herself, then applied her signature at the end of the long document, before returning the datapad.


Considering the glamorous life style of the Kerrigan-Alcoris and indeed every noble family, this might sound like trolling, but that wasn't her intent. The young duchess was genuinely confused. "My only condition is that some of the proceeds go to charity or other worthy causes."

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Vaena Askari"]
Tegaea, who had been preparing to offer subtle and not so subtle threats sound the wind taken from her sails. Clearly Askari was a woman of her principles, unlike so many.
“I will arrange a quarter of it to go to charities helping those who lost lives or property to this insurrection through no involvement of their own,” she said.

Rising to her feet, Tegaea spoke. “Is there anything else which needs discussing? I must say I am very pleased at how you have understood this situation, Vaena, and my thanks for that. This is not easy for either of us, but you have made it a little less difficult.”

 

[Vaena Askari]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Vaena thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No, Countess. I believe that's it. You should hear from my secretary...once I have one, regarding the payment of reparations. I hope that our families can eventually put this strife behind us. It will be an arduous journey, but I want the Cadalthor name to one day stand for loyalty and service, not treason and greed. May the Goddess light your path." Hands were shaken, pleasantries exchange.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Vaena Askari"]
Tegaea nodded. “May the Force be with you,” she said, offering a bit more of a secular blessing.

When the Eldorai was gone, Tegaea smiled to herself and reached for her commlink. A brief call later and she was through to her wife.

“Sio, just dealt with the new Cadalthor, the Angelii formally known as Vaena Askari. She agreed to our terms without even an argument. Her only condition is some goes to charities repairing the mess below. I’ll get our people to start seizing the proscribed assets and get them sold.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


"I'm surprised. Good work. I doubt the measley mafia that's her family will take it well. Presumably they'll try to poison her. We shouldn't get complacent and expect everything to be settled." Siobhan's cynicism was deeply ingrained.


"I've finished up with the...traitorous queen. She's being sent to Correction. She'll rue the day she turned on us. Are you gonna be there for the Board meeting?" The Board of Control was very ironically named, since few of its members were in control of anything. They'd still have some time before it convened.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Tegaea winced slightly at the fate of the traitor. Even she didn’t really know what Sio’s ominous words meant. It was something she let her wife deal with.
“I suspect we’ll get more fight from the rest of the Cadalthor clan. That’s why I’ll send our prize agents with some backup. And firepower.”
Something about the sight of an Archon gunship hovering menacingly above you made arguments dry up.

“I’ll be there. I’m going to leave in five minutes so if you wanted to talk before it starts I’ll be there a bit early.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


It was not rocket science to figure out that the traitor's fate would be horrible. Siobhan had a moral code of sorts, but she did not believe it applied to traitors, Sith and slavers. Their fate in Firemane prisons was...extremely unpleasant.


Regardless, she nodded. "Good idea. Gunship diplomacy is the only one the Cadalthors understand. You know what? Send Freya, Hunter and some of our Tygaran Sepoys. That'll piss them off." A calculated insult to a cabal of racists. "See you at HQ. Think we got time forr a quickie?" Clearly torturing a traitor made her horny.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Tegaea smiled. “I’ll see to it that Sahal and her troops go along,” she promised.

At Siobhan’s last she chuckled. “I don’t think so, love, but after the meeting we can have something much more fun and have the time to play.”

With that she headed on the tram, speeding towards the corporate HQ of Firemane.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Siobhan pouted slightly. "I'm holding you to that. You, me...maybe Harmony and Blessing?" she suggested. Alright, she had to be incredibly horny right now. Regardless, she cut the connection, then dialled another number on her comm. device


Within a moment or two, the holographic projection of Freya Solveig manifested in her room. The Sergeant was tall, broad-shouldered and had a mane of blonde hair. She was dressed in fatigues that emphasised her beautiful muscles. "Hey, boss, the queen has arrived at the farm. You coming over to give her the treatment or should we start without you?" she asked gruffly. She never bothered much with ceremony or decorum, but Siobhan liked her enough to let it slide.


"There's been a bit of a diversion. Remember the Cadalthors? Unexpectedly, the new duchess isn't an idiot and agreed to reparations without protest. However, all her other relatives are still bitches, so I want some of my top agents to go along with the collectors when we seize the proscribed assets."


Freya looked a bit disappointed about her fun being interrupted, but the nodded. "Piss off some snooty Eldorai aristo bitches by seizing their stuff? Sure, I'm in. We taking the Sepoys with us? You know how the blue bloods hate being bossed around by 'sub-elves'."


"Exactly my thoughts. Standard gunship diplomacy."


"I'll grab my gear and hit up Sahal. What about the traitor?"


Siobhan's features hardened. "Begin Stage One of the Correction, but hold off on two. I'm going to come to the farm later this week."


"My pleasure, boss," Freya's lips curled into a cruel grin.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
“Blessing’s never…uhh…given me that blessing yet. We can ask her though. I know Harmony and her have been having ‘training’ sessions for the last few weeks.”

The call cut she headed straight to the corporate HQ. As she stepped out, she was escorted into the meeting room by one of Firemane’s many Amazonian guards.

When Siobhan appeared Tegaea gave her a quick kiss and handed her the datapad with Askari’s signature on it.
“So, what’s on the agenda for this meeting?”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


"We're gonna put a statue of me in every Firemane base. And make it mandatory for employees to kowtow before me and kiss my feet," Siobhan replied with a completely straight face, before chuckling. "That was a joke." For now. It was only a matter of time before her cult of personality became all-pervasive...


"Main points on the agenda are fleet and ground forces modernisation. We could use modern Star Destroyers that are more readily available to us, since the Crusader is a bit aged. Likewise, some of our AFVs are dated by now. I believe a few new designs will be unveiled," she explained in a more serious tone. Moreover, thanks to a deal with [member="HK-36"], Firemane soldiers maimed in the line of duty would be reconstructed with cybernetic augmentations, allowing them to continue serving the megacorporation!


"Furthermore, infrastructure development on Arkas, Southern Tygara, and our revised healthcare programme for employees." Being a progressive force, Firemane was light years ahead of those interstellar governments who had been unable or unwilling to provide their citizens with free, affordable healthcare. KerriganCare was best care.


"We're gonna close down a few less profitable locations and expand into FWC space, but I don't need anyone's approval for that. You should have the opportunity to present your initial plan for the exploration division, if you want. I can make time for that."

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Tegaea had first raised her eyebrows. “A joke…right. So it’s on the agenda for the next meeting for real?” she asked cheekily.

“I’ve been discussing with our naval contingent. I have plans for the Vindicta, a new Destroyer with powerful capabilities. I also have been given some contenders for our new MBT.”

“I’ll give my ideas on the exploration side of matters, yes. I also want to raise a plan I’ve been developing for a new early warning system for monitoring certain hyperspace vectors.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


"Yes, yes, it is," Siobhan insisted. "Baby steps. Building a good cult of personality takes time. By the time I'm done, everyone in Firemane will be united in worship of me. I've already allocated funds for that Xioquo cult." Hopefully she was joking. Her ego was big enough.


Anyhow, she nodded. "I look forward to your proposals. There's been too many cases of Sith magically popping up, so an early warning system that does its job would be welcome. Especially if we don't have to buy from Rekali or Theed. I've been looking at some designs for an anti-tank guided missile and a new AA tank. I'm not happy with the Hydra. It's armed with glorified machine guns. I'm still waiting on our naval contingent to get back to me on our stealth warship and give me a good proposal for an e-war ship and other electronic countermeasures."


E-war was a bit of a hobby horse for Siobhan. Being a total laywoman, she had little about clue about how it worked, but it seemed to her that it had seriously mucked up the Coalition's fleet at Ruusan. Whether this was accurate or not was another question, but few dared to argue with her. She had the feeling that the naval bureaucracy was stalling.


"I also believe it's time we formally integrated our Tygaran Sepoys and gave them decent weapons, instead of just using them for internal security. We don't need to hold back because of the Eldorai anymore. Anyhow, let's get started." Taking her wife's hand, she headed towards the conference room. As usual, she was fashionably late. A Queen came whenever she wanted. Moreover, she liked it when all her ministers had to get up and greet her. The most sycophantic showered her with compliments.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
The ‘Board of Control’ consisted of 6 members and then Tegaea and Siobhan. Tegaea had not attended many of the meetings lately, and so did not even recognise two of them. Five of the six were women, with the token male probably added there to give a perception of equality.
“Welcome, Lady Kerrigan and Lady Alcori!” one of them said as all rose to their feet. “Lady Alcori, I am Kana Farden, a pleasure. I’m a big fan of your work,” she added.
Tegaea managed to shake the proffered hand without conveying the disgust for this blatant brownnosing.
She looked over the others. Warm platitudes flowed over her and Siobhan, each member - especially the man who probably realised his position was expendable – outdoing the others in their praise and welcomes.
This was one of the reasons Tegaea had avoided these meetings. This board was a toothless fawning competition with little real power.

Two women were neither as sycophantic nor as clearly toadying. They’d been with them a long time. Tegaea decided it was time to make her position clear.
“Kaylah, Tana, nice to see you both. Keeping out of trouble?”
“You know it, boss,” Kaylah Danton said. “Lady Kerrigan’s been keeping us busy.”
“Glad to hear it. Alright, let’s get down to business. Siobhan, did you want to start?”
Tegaea looked over the table with a curious eye. How many was Siobhan sleeping with or had slept with in the past? Something to ponder.