Seek and Find

[Kamon's OOC]

The transport on Eshan was filled with largely white skinned humanoids. She had to admit that it was a little odd how pale they were, but at least they were almost human looking. She didn't have to worry so much about them having spikes coming out of their face or something. They were a bit scary, though. She'd heard that they were all proficient combatants. That explained why she had yet to see one that was even remotely overweight. They were all skinny as bean poles.

She shook her head as the transport came in for its stop at the main complex of Eshan Industrial Corporation, well outside of city limits. She was the only one to get off. A quick glance around, and a shiver, sent her scurrying to the door. She was admitted when she flashed her Republic credentials, and entered the main level of the facility, only to approach a desk with a young Echani woman seated behind it.

"May I help you?" the woman asked, giving her a thorough once over.

"I have an appointment with Niamh Raste."

"Ahh, her ten o'clock. I'll let her know you're here. Please take a seat."

Caaithiel looked around, and then walked to one of the mentioned seats and sat down. She hoped she didn't have to wait long. Even inside it was cold.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Niamh was sitting in her office, spinning around and around in her chair, when her commlink buzzed at her. She stopped the spinning, and watched the room start spinning instead. After a few moment, she shook some sense into herself and grabbed the commlink from where it was sitting on her desk.

"Go for Niamh."

"Ms. Raste you're ten o'clock is here."

"Oh. Send her in."

Sitting back in the seat, she bobbed back and forth with her hands resting on her stomach while she stared at the ceiling. A little tune whistled through her parted lips as she waited for the door to open. When it did, she sat forward and the whistle turned into more of a cat call before she stopped herself and cleared her throat. She smiled, and waved a hand towards the seats across from her, motioning for the young woman to have herself a seat.

"Ms. Deschart. Glad you made it. I understand you have some work you'd like us to do for you?"

 

[Kamon's OOC]

"She'll see you now, Ms. Deschart."

Caaithiel looked up from the game she'd been playing on her datapad and nodded. Putting the device back into her pack, she walked to the desk, and the woman behind it pointed her down the hall. At the very end was a set of steel blast doors. She walked to the doors and they opened to admit her into a rather spacious office with a nice view of the wintery landscape of Eshan. If she liked that kind of weather then she would certainly admit that it was rather beautiful. She didn't like the cold, though.

When she was motioned to take a seat, she walked over and did so, nodding her head at what the woman said.

"Yes, I have need of a ship and I understand your company is the one responsible for making the Amathia-class Corvette. I've been authorized by Republic Intelligence to purchase one specifically for my use, and I've acquired the technology for several modules I'd like to incorporate into it to improve it's intelligence gather and stealth capabilities."

She pulled her datapad back out and tapped a few commands into it. After a few moments of playing around with the device, she set it on the desk and slid it across the table towards the Echani woman that was going to build her the ship she'd been waiting for.

"I believe you'll recognize one of them. I worked with a member of your company to create it."

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Niamh reached for the data pad when it was slid across to her. Lifting it, she skimmed through the schematics. Sure enough, one of the ones that was included was something that her people had worked on developing. It wasn't something grand in scale, but it certainly provided someone in the intelligence field with a viable center for use in their work. If nothing else, it was a nice, self-contained unit that allowed the user to do their work without being bothered by outside sources.

It was the other things that she listed that were most interesting. Apparently she'd acquired a piece of rare technology that had been previously installed on another one of her designs: the Antilles-class. Couples with the gravitic modulator that the woman was providing via the Republic, and a piece of MandalMotors tech, well, the ship surely did have the capability of being pretty darn stealthed. Not invisible, but dang near close.

"This is a lot of tech. How did you manage to swing the funds to get all of these?"

She looked it over again and then shook her head.

"Nevermind that. If you actually have all this, and want to get it to fit into an Amathia-class, we're going to have to trim the weapons load to account for power needs. You're alright with that, correct?"

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Caaithiel shrugged.

"I'm pretty good at pulling strings. And I have friends."

It was true. She did have her friends. In fact, one of her friends, the leader of the Rebellion, was also the chief of the Republic senate. That was how she'd gotten access to the funds necessary to purchase some of the tech. The rest of the tech was being provided to her, either by the manufacturer or by the Republic itself. It helped that she knew a little bit about how to be persuasive when she needed to be. In this particular case, she didn't think she could persuade the Echani woman to do anything. This woman was tough as brass tacks.

When Niamh mentioned the fact that some of the firepower would have to be taken off of the Corvette she nodded. She'd known at least one gun was going to come off in order to make the use of the EWC-1 possible. The fact that a few others had to come off was not a surprise to her. When you added certain tech to existing vehicles, power became an issue.

"I'm aware of that fact, yes. It doesn't bother me. If the ship, and the modules, do what they're supposed to, I shouldn't need to use the guns that often."

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Niamh nodded. Of course the woman had thought all of this through. Considering she was in the intelligence field, as evidenced by the modules she wanted to install in the ship, it made sense that she was also at least somewhat intelligent. If she hadn't thought all of this through, there wouldn't have been a point to coming to Niamh in the first place. Surely one of the other companies could have made her the ship that she needed. But she'd come to EIC because of EIC's practice of excellence.

And that was about to become evident.

"These modules won't make you completely stealth. We don't have the kind of technology, or resources, at our disposal at the moment to make that happen, either."

She frowned and mused over this for a few moments.

"We'll paint the ship a matte black finish so it at least blends in with the space around it. It won't be perfect, but it will certainly help. The rest will make you virtually invisible to machines. I think we can get this done within a few weeks. Amathia's aren't difficult for us to build at all. Does that suit you?"

 

[Kamon's OOC]

"Yes, that will certainly be beneficial."

So it was true what they said about this company: they prided themselves on excellence. Not just excellence, but actually going above and beyond the line of duty to make sure that their clients were happy. Caaithiel would have been fine with the standard paint coating applied to the exterior of the ship, but the fact that it was being painted matte black would certainly be beneficial. She was alright with this as long as it didn't cost her any extra money, and since the woman hadn't mentioned extra cost, she doubted that it would.

"A few weeks is faster than I expected. Don't scrimp on the quality."

She held out her hand to take her datapad back, and then went through the motions of transferring half of the funds over to the EIC banking account. The other half would be paid when the finished product was delivered. That was standard practice as she knew it. And she could always steal the money back if she wasn't satisfied. Not that she would, though.

"Half of the funds are transferred over. So I guess that means we're done for now."

 

[Kamon's OOC]

"Pretty much."

Niamh stood and offered her hand to shake the other woman's hand. After this point, it was likely they wouldn't see each other again for a while. Niamh tended to keep herself busy, and she wasn't directly involved with the production of ships at the drive yards. That was left to the construction crews. She only worked hands on when it came to armor and droids. That was her real passion. Ship design was a side gig that she did for fun and happened to be relatively decent at.

"Oh, well, one more thing. What do you want the ship to be called? And the VI that's part of the module will need to be coded. Do you have a name for it as well?"

She shook the woman's hand and then walked to the door so that she could see her out. It was only polite, after all.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

She stood and shook the woman's hand, and then came the question.

"Oh. Well. I'd like the ship to be called The Prometheus Latch. And the VI, we can call it Corona. I like that name."

As Niamh walked to the door, she stuffed her datapad back into her pack and slung it back over her shoulder. Even though this had been a relatively short meeting, it was worth the trip to Eshan if only to see another world and the people that lived on it. Though she was certainly glad that it was over and that she now had the chance to go back to where it was warmer and get back to work updating the Republic's networks. One or two trips to Eshan would certainly be enough for her.

"Thank you very much, Ms. Raste. It's been a pleasure. I will certainly recommend you to others who need similar services. Take care."

She left through the doors and headed back to get a transport back to the starport so she could get warm. The sooner she escaped Eshan the better!

 

[Kamon's OOC]

A month and a few days later, the ship was completed. It would normally be a glistening new specimen, but as this one was special ordered, it wasn't glistening. Instead, it was almost as if it didn't exist at all. Niamh had pulled out all the stops, making sure to keep everything under wraps with what was going into the ship, and giving incentives to the construction crews in order to make sure that they maintained their silence. It was essential that no one knew about all of the technology that had gone into the ship.

To make it further difficult for anyone to divulge the vessel to outside sources, she did all of the programming herself. Normally she wouldn't have, but the special nature of the vessel meant that few should ever know what it could do. If they didn't know the name, they would never know what ship to look for.

When she alerted the client that the ship was done, a crew arrived to man the vessel. Niamh personally turned the ship over to them, after instructing the crew on the various systems installed, and all of the procedures for operating the ship. She made sure to only tell the Captain of the vessel about the special chamber that had been installed, the EWC-1 module. Only he and the client herself would even know it was there.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

When she arrived, all she could do was stare at it. It was so beautiful. A sleek black hull, situated on the white backdrop of Eshan. It was like a masterful painting. Clean, smooth lines. She walked up to it and ran her hand over the cold metal. It didn't even phase her that it was frigid to the point where prolonged contact would lead to her skin freezing to the metal. She was just absolutely enthralled with the vessel and its outer beauty. But it wasn't the outside she'd bought the thing for.

Up the boarding ramp she went, where she was met by Niamh and the Captain.

"This is a beautiful ship, Ms. Raste. My compliments. I can't wait to take her out for a test."

She grinned and then looked at the Captain.

"Captain Rorch, I'm glad you made it. I hope you like your new charge."

"She's a masterwork, Ms. Deschart. I'll be happy serving on her. I shall attend to the others to prepare for departure and leave Ms. Raste to conduct your tour."

With that, the Captain saluted her and then left the two of them alone. Caaithiel was so excited she was bobbing on the balls of her feet.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Niamh smiled at Caaithiel. The compliments on the work of her company were always welcomed. It made her happy to hear when she and her people had done well. Doing good work led to return customers, which led to more money that could be put into research and development, and brought more jobs to Eshan. Niamh was all about helping to keep her people in emotional and financially good condition. The company was often her way of giving back to the community that helped raise her.

When the Captain left, she motioned for Caaithiel to follow her and led her down the hall and to the lower level. Forward five steps, she touched her palm to a nondescript looking wall before motioning for Caaithiel to touch the same place.

"Touch your hand there."

When she did so, her palm would be read by a biometric scanner and encoded. Then the door would open to the EWC-1.

"Step into your office."

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Caaithiel followed the Echani woman into the craft. It was hard for her not to look everywhere. The ship was so spotless and clean that she just wanted to run over and touch everything. The last ship she'd had command of was one that she stole on Kalee so she could escape the world. That freighter had been so old and grotesque it was a wonder the thing hadn't fallen apart while they were in hyperspace. This ship, however, was not going to fall apart anytime soon.

When Niamh stopped, she almost ran the Echani over. Then she watched as the woman pressed her hand against the wall before instructing her to do the same. She removed her glove, and then pressed her hand to the same spot. Immediately she felt as if she was being scratched repeatedly and she winced but didn't withdraw her hand.

"Ow. Biometrics. Nice. Impossible to slice."

She shook her hand when it was done, and paused mid shake when she saw the inside of the room in front of her. Walking inside, she approached the command seat and settled herself into it. Wide eyed, she ran her hands over everything. Then she grinned.

"Corona. Activate."

A blue hologram appeared beside her.

[Ready and capable. What shall we do?]

"This is just too cool."

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Niamh grinned at the womans reactions to the ship. Yes, she was certain that this was going to work out well and that she had another satisfied customer. The biometric scanner had been her own touch. Only Caaithiel, Niamh, and Rorch would ever be able to enter the EWC-1 module. Niamh kept herself coded into just in case maintenance ever needed to be done. Caaithiel might be a capable intelligence operative for the Republic, but that didn't mean that she was qualified to do repairs on the kind of hardware in the module.

"I'm glad you like it, Ms. Deschart. I'm sure it will serve you will."

She moved to the door and stopped briefly.

"If you ever need any service let me know. I'll make sure it gets it. For now I'll leave you to enjoy your new home away from home."

With that, she left, and headed back to EIC Headquarters. She had a meeting to attend in regards to the Soldat project.

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Caaithiel didn't even hear a word that Niamh said. So enthralled with Corona was she that she was simply sitting there and staring at the hologramic projection of the Virtual Intelligence. Not only could she work in peace within the room, but she actually had something to talk to, and something that could assist her in her work. It actually gave her an idea. If she could code VI's into a virus, she could implant them into enemy computer systems. Wouldn't that be something else?

Shaking her head, she sighed and sat back.

[Everything alright? You haven't given a command, Ms. Deschart.]

"It's fine, Corona. I'm just amazed at the beauty of this ship, of this warfare module, and of you."

[That's very kind of you to say, but if you don't need me I will return to routine tasks.]

"Very good, Corona."

The hologram disappeared and Caaithiel sat back with a grin before she grabbed the comms line.

"Captain Rorch, you may take us out when ready. Let's get The Prometheus Latch to work. We've got intelligence to gather."