Private So You Want to Buy a Moon?

[Jorik Valnora]

Location: Yesmireen | Office of the Viceroy

Tag: John Locke

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Snow had begun to fall again throughout Galacot City, slowly carpeting the streets in sheets of white. As the Viceroy of Yesmireen peered out over the city from the balcony connected to his office, he couldn’t help but to smile as a gaggle of children below balled up the wet snow and hurled their newly made ammunition at one another with much glee and exuberance to behold. It was a wonderful time of year, filled with much happiness and elation.

“You’ve an invoice from a prospective client, Sir.” The voice came from one of the Viceroy’s aids as she brought in a stack of datapads and arranged them neatly upon his desk. “Seems to be a serious offer as well. A lot of credits at play.” She offered Jorik a warm smile in greeting and he turned to face her.

“And what of my sister, Tess Valnora ? How fairs she?” Jorik’s outlook on life and family had changed in recent weeks. Perhaps it had something to do with his recent visit back to the heart of Confederate space as he met with the Viceroy of Triffis. Perhaps it simply had to do with him turning the leaf to a new chapter of his life. Choosing now to become more personable instead of the hard pressed tycoon he’d been his entire life. The shrewd business he father had raised his son to be. To take over their corporate empire. A vision that had been altered in his thoughts since the move to Yesmireen and everything it had to offer him. Here, he’d been able to open up to those around him, something he’d never have been able to do among his previous surroundings on Druckenwell. Yesmireen offered him a clean slate and it was the gesture that had allowed him to start on this new evolutionary path of him.

The aid sighed as Jorik asked his question, causing his smile to lower into a frown. “We’ve not been able to reach her, Sir,” she said. “She’s been a very busy woman of late and her employer seems to offer her little in the way of leisure.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Jorik remarked. “Please send her my regards and do let her know I’d very much like to establish a reunion with both her and Jari.”

She offered him a slight bow of the head before turning and making her way toward the exit of the office. “And one more thing, Sir. The client has a meeting schedule with you in two hours. They said it was crucial they met and discussed this as soon as possible.”

“Very well,” Jorik responded. “Any other scheduled events I should be made aware of?”

“Just the evening contract negotiations with Shuklaar Kyrdol and Breshig War Forge,” she said. “The mining contract they’re hoping to acquire.”

“Very well,” he said. “Thank you.”

‘Locke and Key,’ Jorik questioned to himself as he picked up the first datapad on the desk. For the longest time now, Locke and Key had been a top competitor to his own corporation, Valnora Enterprise. But if John Locke , himself, was wishing to play his hand in this manner toward his own competitor, then perhaps Jorik, and Valnora Enterprise, could make something of it. Perhaps there was a way he could work something out in this arrangement that could benefit not only himself and Valnora Enterprise, but also benefit those of Yesmireen. They were the ones Jorik had sworn an oath to as he took the reigns of leadership of the world and served to represent them in the greater Confederacy.

And what was it they were looking to purchase? Rogarf? What use was it Locke and Key would have with the arid and lifeless satellite that orbited Yesmireen? Only time would tell.

 

[John Locke]

If looked down on from above the galaxy resembled a disk, a mandala that span slowly around it’s core. From that high up, the planets, the systems of the galaxy became meaningless, lose in the light of the stars and the vast emptiness of space. All you were left with was the feeling of vastness, the sheer size of the galaxy. The man would often sit in his office, the lights turned down, a holographic image of the galaxy slowly spinning infront of him. It helped him to truly grasp how far he’d risen, how much further he had to go. Even though Locke and Key Mechanics might have been one of the largest industrial powerhouses of the galaxy, the territory he could say fell firmly under it’s market share was tiny compared to the vastness of the galaxy.

There were times that John felt like a general or admiral prosecuting a great campaign across the stars, plotting his moves and strategies on a macro scale. With a move of a finger, with a thought he would commit more resources than some planets possessed to a strategy, could move more credits and people than he’d ever thought possible. It was a terrifying amount of power for one person to hold, for one person to be able to throw around on a whim.

All that power focused on one goal, to push Locke and Key Mechanics further and further into the ascendancy, to accumulate more and more power and capability. The man stood, one hand waving in the air as the holographic map collapsed down, his eyes blinking against the sudden absence of light for a moment before he nodded, pacing over towards the door. That was why he was here, that constant, unending need for growth and development.

A company consumed resources like some creature out of nightmares, a never ending, never satiated beast that always needed to be fed. That was why he was here. The system had plenty of natural resources, but that wasn’t what had attracted John’s attention. Raw materials were plentiful in the galaxy and he could acquire them without too much of a problem, resources were cheap after all, but real estate that’s what he needed. A very specific kind of real estate that he couldn’t find in many places, that is to say a moon completely devoid of atmosphere in a system that could defend the installation. It was all about data, about computing power.

Hands slipped into his pockets as the man padded out of the office, dark eyes flicking towards the shuttle door as it slid open, letting them adjust to the light before making his way out, letting the welcoming committee whisk him away towards the meeting that would determine his potential investment in this system.