The air was hot and dry, when you took a breath it left a metallic after taste in you mouth. The light was either so bright as to burn your eyes, or so dark in the shadows as to give you vertigo when you crossed into the darkness. The mines of Camelot were not the most pleasant of work places.
Depromalan stood in the glaring light of a work lamp, operating a miners drill with a deft touch. It was pure craftsmanship to be able to remove the clear dilithium crystals from the bedrock without fracturing them. Setting the heavy drill down on the floor the Jem'Hadar looked over his shoulder down the passageway and saw……A human.
Humans rarely came down into the mines since the Jem'Hadar had taken over the operations. A humans presences could only mean trouble. Depromalan quickly caught up with the man, not very tall, not very heavy. He had very short blonde hair and light blue eyes. Who was this intruder Depromalan wondered. Placing a heavy hand on the mans shoulder Depromalan was shocked to his core when, in a single swift motion the man d grabbed his hand, twisted and some how spun him to the floor. He stared up at a tiny hand phaser pointed at his face. The man had nerve, that was without question.
The man stood over him for a moment and then extended his hand to help the huge Jem'Hadar to his feet.
“Sorry old man. Reflex action.” he said.
“Who the hell are you? And what are you doing down here?” Depromalan asked getting to his feet, ignoring the offer of assistance.
“Victor Stone. Stone Energy.” Victor answered putting away his side arm. “I wanted to see how things are going.”
“Why?” Depromalan growled.
Victor bit his lip, looking up and down and corridor. “How many on this shift?”
“Twenty, you didn’t’ answer me.”
Looking up at the hulk of a creature Victor pointed at the drill laying on the floor.
“A Masters model XL5.….isn’t it?”
“You know drilling equipment?”
Victor walked over and lifted the heavy drill on its end. Pulling out a small tool he made an adjustment, Depromalan raised a hand to object. But before he could say anything Victor tossed the drill to him.
“That will help. Your cutting beam was off a bit.”
Depromalan could not believe the audacity of the human. He fired the drill at the wall and true enough, he could see the improvement. When he turned around the human was gone. Setting the drill down he looked up and down the corridor, there was no one.
“All stations report, we have company, a human, anyone see him?”
All the other miners reported in, most thought Depromalan was making a joke, no one had seen anything.
*****
Sitting in the rear lounge of Stone 1, a business ship of some size, Victor looked over his notes as the image of Starbase 756 came into view on the forward monitor. The rear door parted and a young woman in her late 20’s stepped in. Dressed in a crisp brilliant white business pants suit that contrasted with her jet black hair hanging straight and full almost to her hips. Her face was obscured by the bangs over her forehead and pitch black glasses set over her eyes. Without a word she walked over and handed a paper folder over to Victor, then went to the bar and made herself a drink before sitting down in the opposite chair.
Victor put down his pad and opened the archaic folder. “Thanks Sam.”
Samantha Stone, Victors daughter took a sip of the Alterian brandy and smiled.
“Grandpa will never approve of this.” she said quietly.
“My father has no say in the matter.”
“Hum…” she sounded as she took another sip.
Victor scanned the document, taking in the important points, A complete bio on one Nicole Branson.
“Well….isn’t she quite the character.” Victor mused as he reached over and picked his pint of Ale.
“You’re crazy to go thru with this you know. The entire group is clearly unstable.”
“Yes, so it would appear. But…..” he looked up at his daughter. “You have to go where the money is.”
‘I’m not convinced there is enough return here to warrant our attention.”
“You… have not seen the mines. Have you secured us office space on New Cyndrial?”
“Yes, not that there was much to chose from, but it will be a start. My god … there isn’t even a decent nightclub.”
“Time enough for play later.”
***
Nicole Branson pulled back her long blonde hair behind her ear as she read over the Bio of Mr. Victor Stone. Not that there was much there. Her secretary had alerted her that Stone’s ship had docked and he was making his way to her Starbase office. She could not imagine that he was going to make any kind of business offer she would be interested in. But… production was still faltering, even with the Jem'Hadar working round the clock.
The doors parted and her secretary announced Stone in. Wearing a dark gray Annoish business suit Branson found the man striking. His assistant……very much more so.
“Ms. Branson.” Victor smiled extending his hand. “Thank you for taking the time this morning.”
Nicole shook the offered hand, and nodded to the dark haired assistant. “Please Mr. Stone, have a seat.”
Victor and Samantha settled into chairs opposite Nicole’s desk. Nicole notice the woman seemed not to be looking at anything behind the dark glasses.
“Oh, please let me introduce my assistant. Samantha Stone. Excuse her glasses, can’t get her to take them off a second.”
Then Nicole noticed Samantha was wearing Zoren’s . Constantly tied to the Federation Web they displayed any number of apps for the user while still allowing full field of vision.
‘Of course. I never have been able to get the hang of those.” Nicole smiled, wondering what kind of eyes lay hidden behind the dark lenses. “So Mr. Stone. What do you have for me.?”
Samantha handed over a padd as Victor began his pitch. “Stone Energy is recognized as the leading experts on Dilithium mining. I’d like to offer to help with your production issues.”
“Issues Mr. Stone. I’m not aware of any issues.”
“I’m not here to try to take advantage of your situation Ms. Branson. Your production is down 25% since you took over. Your employment of the Jem'Hadar has help a bit but you are still falling behind in your quotas, your equipment is second rate and the employees are skimming from you.”
“The Jem'Hadar, stealing?”
Victor reached into his inside breast pocked and produced a 50 carat dilithium crystal. Large enough to service his ship. “I bought this not an hour ago, from a black marketer several decks below us.”
Nicole looked at the diamond like gem, speechless.
“Here is my offer Ms. Branson. Let me take over half of the production facilities. I’ll give you a guaranteed 25% profit margin. I’ll keep 10% of the gross for Stone Energy. In return all the mining equipment will be up graded to the latest available. I’ll replace all the minors in my half with my own staff, transferring the current miners to you half. In addition I’ll provide all the energy needs of New Cyndrial thru my solar and geo-thermal power plants.”
When Victor finished Samantha handed over a contract, sitting back without a smile.
Nicole looked down at the contract, Out of the blue a huge issue for her would be elevated. But. Nothing was ever as good as it seemed.
‘I’ll have to consult..”
Victor cut her off. “I’m sorry, I thought you…. were in charge. Have I been misinformed?”
“No Mr. Stone. You have not. But I will need some time to consider.”
Victor and Samantha stood up. “Of course. The offer is on the table for 5 hours Ms. Branson. My contact info is there on the preamble. I hope we can do business.”
“We shall see Mr. Stone.”
***
Sipping drinks in the Camelot Lounge on Deck 10 Victor and Samantha watched the foot traffic walk by. Victor could sense Sam’s unease.
“Trust me, no one is trying to probe your mind.”
Sam shook her head. “Still, I’ve never been comfortable around Betazoid’s.” She looked at him taking off her glasses for the first time that day. “Why are you giving away the store for this deal?”
“I have my reasons.”
“But you’re not ready to share them yet?”
“Not yet……Soon.”
“She may not take the deal. She’s not rational all the time you know.”
“We’ll see.”
“The crystal….that was priceless.” Sam smiled.
“Watch and learn.”
Just then the com in Victors pocket buzzed. “Here we are right on time.”
He pulled the com and opened the channel.
“Yes Ms. Branson………”
Off:
Victor Stone
Stone Energy
New Cyndrial
Camelot
Samantha Stone
Stone Energy
New Cyndrial
Camelot
