All That Glitters Ch. 09

Heist laughed at the look on Fayad's face. "Don't thank her too soon, lad. From what I know of such programs, they are grueling and quickly weed out the lumps of coal from the diamonds. If, however, you turn out to be a diamond, you will rise quickly through the ranks.

"I believe you to be such a diamond, as I suspect does Ms. Marsh. You assessed the situation and acted quickly and decisively when confronted with the facts here on Liramor-23 in the last couple of days.

"Few in the manager program will have done what you have done, nor acted so decisively. It bodes well for your future success. It would be better though if you spoke French, as Liramor Prime is a French speaking world," Heist finished with a paternal smile.

"Your name has come across my desk on numerous occasions," Fiona told him. "This is not the first time you acted decisively on issues related to the platform, though never outside of your authority. You have only been here a short time, less than three months, but you have already made a place for yourself here. So many just come here to work. You are doing more than just working and have been since you have arrived. I already have a feel for you that I like.

"You still have to impress Antoine and Annette Liramor in order to secure your place in the program. I can only send a recommendation, but that recommendation, and the brief you will be giving them, will get you the look you will need," Fiona concluded.

Fayad didn't know what to do, his head was spinning at his good fortune, but he knew he had a lot to do in a very short period of time. The next cargo ship from Liramor Prime would be here in only three days, and he would have to be on it when it left with all the information that Dir. Marsh and the navy would want him to personally carry to senior members of Liramor Holdings.

The Senate, Capital City, Terra

Senator Wasim Andjuran was back in his office, his loyal staff surrounding him, being the necessary buffer he needed from the day to day workings of the TGA Senate.

One of three senators representing his planet of Anuura, he had risen far since his arrival in this God forsaken place only a couple of years before. Part of that was due to the money he had appropriated from the Church of Andanii.

Andjuran was the Senior Elder now in the church, had been for several years. He had worked hard to place himself in that position, consequently placing many of his followers in positions of authority within the church in order to support his run for political appointments on Anuura, and subsequently to the Senate of the TGA.

One of those followers was his good friend Amar Kanget, now the CFO of the church. Kanget was skillful at working financial reports to make them show what he wanted people to see, vice what was actually there. If the church had even an inkling of how valuable their assets truly were, Andjuran and his supporters would have been dismissed and arrested immediately, if not killed outright.

After all, Andjuran had not hesitated to kill those church members who got in his way. Though he usually ensured that those who opposed him or his supporters, were publicly humiliated in some way and subsequently forced further and further into the background of church business. His reputation was such, that no Elder dared to oppose him now.

Church finances aside, he was shocked at just how much money it took to follow in the same path here in the Terran Union Senate. The resources he had from the church and his home planet were just a drop in the bucket to what was actually needed to further his ends in this hell hole.

But money wasn't the only resource available to Andjuran. As before, within the church and on his home planet, the secrets that men held were his to exploit, if only he could find them out.

His people were skilled at that and it didn't take him long to find the most useful secret, access to the pirates themselves!

One of his fellow Senators, now long dead, was passing information to a certain pirate group for money. Money that he had been foolishly hoarding rather than using. An older man, he had been making a nest egg for himself for his imminent retirement. He never got to retire, and Andjuran found his multi-million credit nest egg and exploited it, as well as his contacts with the pirates.

While the former senator had only sent a small, but lucrative, number of hints to the pirates to exploit, Andjuran's group of skilled 'researchers' had found much more valuable information to exploit. The results of this information meant that he received contact information for other pirate groups around the Union.

Andjuran became unbelievably rich on his portion of the spoils and found the resources he needed to successfully bribe his fellow senators. Those bribes led him to a position on the HRRC, allowing him to siphon off a minuscule portion of the funds available to that committee for his own use, the building of a larger pirate navy.

What they couldn't gain by piracy, or theft, the pirates legally had built. Building cargo vessels was easy, building warships was another matter. The partnership of Andjuran and the pirates was turning out to be unbelievably beneficial to all of them.

Everything had run smoothly until Andjuran received word of an unusual occurrence in the little known and out of the way mining platform of Liramor-23 in the Piscium system. Rumour had it that alien technology had been discovered in the system. So Andjuran sent word to his pirate contacts in Sector Forty-Three.

While the pirates had been able to take prize ships on occasion, and had other ships built for them, the remaining ships of the pirate fleets were in bad shape. Especially older warships late of the Confederation of Planets. The pirates needed material to rebuild these ships. Material that would be noticed if purchased in large enough quantities to make major repairs on their fleets.

Naval intelligence had already found one pirate base in Sector Forty-Two simply by following the trail of exotic metals needed for such repairs. They had taken the base and broken the back of the pirate group that worked that sector.

Quick reactions by the pirates had ensured that only one of the precious remaining warships had been captured and information at the base had been destroyed before it was abandoned. The remaining warships and some cargo ships had fled to other pirate bases, most into nearby Sector Forty-Three.

The disaster of Liramor-23 had almost cost Andjuran his life, when his pirate contacts had suspected him of setting them up. Andjuran had gone to Liramor-23 to see for himself what had happened.

Much to his surprise, the rumours of aliens had actually turned out to be true! The pirates had been discovered by accident as they lay in watch of Liramor-23 in preparation for their attack, the platform itself apparently looking for such an attack, but by a suspected alien fleet, not pirates!

Rumour had it, that the navy had used naval resources from Sector Forty-Two so as not to tip off their hand to the pirates with unusual patrol changes in Sector Forty-Three. The plan had worked perfectly, the navy capturing or destroying a number of pirate vessels. Including four warships that had originally escaped the destruction of the base in Sector Forty-Two. A total of fourteen ships had been lost, including six warships. A loss of capabilities the pirates could ill afford.

Fortunately, Andjuran had set up a shell company that was supposed to create luxury yachts from decommissioned warships. The new group had successfully outbid several other shipbuilders for access to three recently decommissioned Fairling Class Frigates. They hoped to do the same in a month's time when four more ships would be offered.

The new company had no intention of remaking the ships into luxury vessels, instead, they intended to repair them as warships, decommissioning the older CP warships in the pirate's fleets in order to have access to the heavy guns they needed.

Heavy guns were not commercially available, and Mk-48s were simply not enough against the current batch of more powerful naval vessels. Andjuran's company was working on finding access to heavy guns. After all, they could sell warships to the pirates at a considerably higher mark-up compared to the sale of luxury vessels to corporations or individuals, a rather limited field that was currently tightly controlled by a relatively small group of well-known shipbuilders.

Andjuran had taken a 'day to reflect' on his return to Terra at his private villa near a known Terran vacation resort. It was not uncommon for many of the resort's patrons from Anuura to attend the simple Church of Andanii in Andjuran's private compound, thus allowing for a steady trickle of people going to and from the resort. Including, on occasion, certain contacts that needed to be kept secret.

Andjuran had met one of those contacts and had passed on the information he had attained from his trip to Liramor-23. He also let him know of his new shell company and the fact that they had acquired three newly decommissioned warships that would be recommissioned as pirate warships for sale within the next six months. The information assured that Andjuran would not be immediately killed.

Andjuran also passed on very lucrative information for the pirates to exploit, at much reduced rates for his normal share of the spoils, thus further placating the pirates.

It pained Andjuran to do this but, he reasoned, he didn't need to be looking over his shoulder for an assassin twenty-four hours of the day. The new information would buy his life from the pirates after the disaster of Liramor-23.

But Andjuran had plans for that mining platform, and especially its director, that damned woman, Fiona Marsh!

VIP Suite, Liramor-23, Piscium System

Raymond woke up when his nose was tickled by hair. Henadi Noor's hair to be specific. The woman had nestled into his body, spoon fashion, during the night, her hair eventually tickling Raymond awake.

His response to Henadi's nude form was typical of most naked males, his erection slid up along her legs and between the cleft of her callipygian ass. A simple shift of his hips moved his now hardened shaft along the underside of that rumpilicous rear aligning with the seam of Henadi's labia and eliciting a groan from her sleeping form. Her sex began to weep, swiftly lubricating Raymond's slowly moving cock.

Raymond's shifting cock eventually found its way inside of Henadi's body, to another sleepy moan. In no hurry to wake her, he kept up the slow movement of his hips, gently rocking back and forth pushing himself further into her body.

Raymond's hand found one of her breasts and softly cupped it. His fingers and thumb, strummed along her nipple, pulling and softly pinching it. A shiver ran through Henadi's body as she unconsciously responded to his touch.

Somewhere over the next few minutes, Henadi's body began to move with his as she slowly roused from her deep sleep. Their combined movement quickly brought Henadi to orgasm, her sleep now banished in the warmth of her pleasure.

The quivering of her deep muscles on his cock, quickly brought him to his peak. He pushed forward to impale himself as deep as possible as he pulsed several times into her receptive body. The two held still as their respective orgasms pulsed through their bodies, before relaxing in post coital bliss.

"Oh, I could get used to being woken like that," she muttered, still half asleep.

Raymond chuckled and kissed the back of her head, silently agreeing with her. This was indeed becoming a running theme, one that he liked very much.

Capital City, Liramor Prime, Liramor System, Thirty Light Years from Terra

Liea woke bored, something that was happening more frequently now. She had taken the advice of her financial expert and had joined several charities that she now sat on the boards of as a means of relieving her boredom. But even that wasn't enough to dispel the need for something to do.

She slipped out of her bed and headed for the huge shower in her bathroom, the thrill of water showers now having been displaced as she had grown used to them. She still liked the feel of the multiple jets striking her but was somewhat disappointed that she had no one to share the experience with since Raymond had returned to Liramor-23.

The maid was waiting for her with the big, fluffy, warm towel as she stepped from the shower. One of the perks she promised she would never get used to as the maid helped dry her body. A few minutes later, she was sitting in a large, fluffy, pre-warmed bathrobe as the maid tended to her hair.

Lissette came in with a pout on her lips. She had missed the shower with Liea and had to step into it alone, though she did enjoy the same warm towel and deferential treatment by the maid. Soon the two were ready to meet the day.

Liea, Lisette, Liea's bodyguard Kim, and her PSec, Analisa were going over the day's itinerary at the breakfast table, determining what was going to happen and in what order, when Liea received a notification that she had a new personal message waiting for her at the Comms unit in the Liramor Holdings building. That would be the first item on the list as she had little to do until later in the afternoon when her first meeting of her many charities was being held.

The trip to the Liramor Holdings Comms Unit, where Liea was greeted by Charlie in his costumery manner, was uneventful. After receiving her messages, Annette appeared at the door to Comms and invited Liea and her team up to her office.

They sat companionly in Annette's office while they each reviewed the items from Liramor-23. It was a habit of the two to go through these items together in order to see things from the other person's point of view - the executive and the worker.

"So, there seems to have been some fallout after the pirate attack with a TGA senator showing up after the fact on Liramor-23," Annette started. "It appears that the senator didn't impress our Fiona, nor her new Aide-de-camp Cdr. Henadi Noor.

"It's nice that Fiona now has an aide. As a director of a mining platform, she is not entitled to an EA/PA. Having a navy aide will give her a new perspective as an executive," Annette teased, grinning at Liea who had not taken long at all to find an EA of her own.

Liea giggled in response but had seen the notes from Raymond on the senator. "Raymond thinks the senator is kind of backwards with his view on women. Apparently, the senator is an Elder in the Church of Andanii from his home planet of Anuura, from which Cdr. Noor also hales.

"Oh, she used to be a member of the same church! Her father is an Elder in the church, so Noor is unable to go home because she broke ranks with the church. Apparently, women are supposed to be submissive to their husbands wishes and stay at home moms! That is backwards now-a-days," Liea said.

"Fiona is sending a Runner to brief my father and I specifically on the subject of the senator's short visit. It must be important if she is not sending it on the daily comms probe. It will be at least a week before the latest Liramor cargo ship returns from Liramor-23," Annette said.

"Well, the Runner's specifics are very interesting. He has only been on Liramor-23 for three months and already has made an impact. Fiona is recommending him for the manager's program. That's significant! What are your thoughts on the Runners?" she asked Liea.

"The workers were always afraid of them," Liea admitted. "They were so stand-offish, and usually only appeared when something was wrong, and a worker was being summoned for punishment. It wasn't until I was summoned from on high by a Runner when our claim came in, that I got to know them as anything but doom and gloom." Liea told her friend.

"Oh! Raymond has a ship!" Liea continued. "He was sold a ship that was going for scrap and is going to have it refit as a private vessel! He's asking me if I want to take part in the outfitting of the ship!"

Liea was ecstatic at the thought of finally having a personal yacht, even if she had to share it with Raymond. Mind, she wouldn't mind sharing Raymond...

"Raymond says the ship should be decommissioned inside of the month and arrive at Liramor Prime for refit not long after, he doesn't know the exact timelines. He says they are decommissioning the NS Korman, a large Fairling Class.

"Raymond says I can do the refit; he will offer half the cost if I want in on it. He liked the design ideas that I showed him when he was here last." Liea finished.

"Do you have a name for your new ship?" Annette asked her.

"I was thinking 'The Wonderer', as we will be travelling the planets together," Liea admitted.

"That's actually a good name. So many people just name their ships after their companies or after themselves, Liramor One a case in point," Annette admitted with a smile.

"Oh, this ship is huge!!" Liea said, surprised. She had opened the page on the Korman and flipped it from her comp to the holo-vid monitor so that Annette could see it too.

"Wow! That is big!" Annette said with surprise, reading the information on the page. "Why would he want such a large ship?" she asked of no one in particular.

"I'm sure he will tell us the next time he sees us," Liea suggested, "he is going to take his retirement two months after the ship arrives at Liramor Prime.

"Oh! They sold it to him for scrap. Because of its size, they apparently wouldn't be able to sell it for anything but. The ship is relatively new, it wouldn't have been decommissioned if they had a purpose for it. That's why they sold it to Raymond.

"I'm going to have to go to Pallanders Shipyards today!" Liea exclaimed, finally happy to have something significant to do.

Annette was happy for her friend. She knew how difficult it was to live at this level if you had nothing to do. Boredom was the curse of the wealthy and often caused them to do rather stupid things.

Pallanders Shipyards, Liramor Prime, Liramor System

Liea arrived at Pallanders two hours after her conversation with Annette. The Pallanders executives were surprised to hear from her, as they had informed her that they had not been able to bid on any of the available ships previously being decommissioned.

When Liea arrived, they put out the red carpet for her, as per usual. Liea waved away the fuss and asked for the interior designer and executive construction foreman for her yacht as well as the presence of the VP Finances.

"What I am about to tell you is confidential, so I want it to be kept as quiet as possible for the next couple of months," Liea started. "My partner, Raymond Clark, has managed to procure a ship that was going to go for scrap because of her size. We intend to refit her as a private vessel, renaming it 'The Wonderer'.

"I will need estimates on her refit and on how much we can downsize her, crew wise. I know you have said that Fairling Class vessels can be downsized to between seventy-five and one hundred crew, but this ship is quite large. She is the NS Korman."

Liea called up the information on the Korman and fed it to the monitor in the office. The Pallanders executives were quite surprised when they saw it.

"If she has the standard electronics layout for the Failing Class ships, then we can still bring her down to the crew estimates we gave you before. This ship is huge, there will be plenty of space on her for a number of VIP staterooms and guest suites. With a ship this size, you will need a larger VIP staff than what would be carried on say, Liramor One," the construction foreman intoned. "You will have to indicate to us what number of staterooms and quarters for specialty staff you would need," he concluded.