Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

Pongo Pygmaeus

Sen spent the day laying on her bed concentrating on a tangle of complex pax interchange between several market streams. The matrix that she accessed telepathically was not able to be visualised in two or even three dimensions, it was like a four dimensional spiderweb in her mind, and the pax was an army of tiny, hatchlings crawling about each strand  looking for a way to escape and start a new web of their own.

Her technopathic gift allowed her to find and intercept the threads of buying traders. By following a thread back to the selling trader's internal systems Sen could identify exactly the class of pax that the buyer was purchasing, how many they required, and for what price. In simple terms Sen was generating wealth by internal trading.   Messing with pax in this way was in violation of several laws and, to avoid the authorities, Sen had been operating under the legitimate cover of an outer colony trading company, Retro Sparks. 

Like all trading companies on the market, Retro Sparks operated on the Principles of Greed. Principle 005 of the tenets stated that, "A given level of funding is never enough, always seek more". With this in mind, Sen didn't need to hide her activities to her host company, they could see their accounts fattening and she only ever withdrew a small amount of the gains for her other activities. She counted on the fact that they would remain satisfied with their mystery gains and would always want more -- she figured, always a lot more -- but their gains would not be without a cost.

Her ability to turn off the pax tap to Retro Sparks was her only bargaining chip, but it was a weighty one, as she could tell with a basic analysis of their accounts that the company had become dependent on her extra funds. She had always planned to reach out to her beneficiaries and her message to them would be, "you help me, and I'll continue trading". She had hoped to strengthen their dependence with more time before testing the theory and making a demand, but given the difficulties she was having gaining entrance to the Ethnaa Aashar, she was going to have to test the relationship sooner than she had liked.

The first step in her plan was making direct contact with the company director; he was also Skyean, of the Homino tribe. His name was Pongo Pygmaeus. Sen had done her research by accessing any public or private pax that she could find that related to the director. She hoped that the information would allow her to build a profile of the man with which she would be dealing. She wasn't at all worried that he'd be insistent on maintaining ethical standards, because, by all accounts, Pongo was the most self-interested individual that she had ever come across. Not only was he a glutton for the excesses of the wealthy, but he was a habitual liar and corporate politician. Many smaller companies she had discovered had fallen by Pongo's design; a fact the he would often gloat upon. She also found that Retro Sparks had conned and bribed its way into the Kingdom's treasury on several significant projects -- deals that resulted in little return for the commonwealth and lots of profit for the company.

For protection, Sen would appropriate the identity of a druid named Wu Zetian. As far as she could tell Wu had been missing for over sixty years, so wasn't going to mind if Sen borrowed her likeness for a while.

By-passing the security of Wu's personal pax, Sen was able to access all of Wu's environmentals including her life avatar and had spent many hours ingee practicing with noble beauty of the lost priestess and fantasized that she would one day grow up to be as handsome as the woman that she would pretend to be. Wu's avatar appeared in the true likeness of the woman it represented following a new gefresh (always the age thirty-two). She was tall and slim and had enhanced ivory-coloured skin, the fringe of her straight black hair fell over her forehead like a hood, obscuring large violet eyes. The most striking feature that Sen admired, besides a straight petite nose, was her full red lips. Sen hated her own lips, thinking they looked like the mouth crack of a witchy old hag. Sen's genetic gift was an inherited cognitive iIII enhancement, Wu, so Sen had discovered, had inherited a charismatic cI that accounted the druid's astoundingly a-typical good looks and ensured the phyiscal effectiveness and attractiveness of her line.

Sen had arranged this time for a first meeting with the director of Retro Sparks, she initiated a thread and waited nervously for the other end to respond.

On the second of the new hour, the company director picked up the request and the pair met in an environmentally rendered meeting room that appeared as a silver disk that floated in the darkness of space; on the disk seated directly across from Wu on a hover chair was Pongo. She was surprised how large the man was, not exactly obese, but solid, like a bull. His small eyes set within the frame of a face too small for such a big head seemed placed too close together as they, following an instant of impossible to mask surprise, peered at Wu with a beady intensity that made her look away. At eleven years old Sen had never before experienced the rude leer of the misogynistic male, and while she could not read the message in his pig-like eyes, his attitude made her feel uncomfortable and, in that instant, Sen took an intense disliking to the man who sat across from her Wu avatar. She presented Wu in her formal robes, as it was important for Pongo to guess that he had become involved in an intrigue that involved one of the oldest institutions in the Skyean Kingdom, the Druidic Order.

"Greetings Pongo Pygmaeus, I hope you are enjoying the fruits of my wins on the pax market." Wu's voice was smooth and confident, belying the feeling of the puppet master.

For such a large man, Sen was expecting a powerful, deep voice. Instead, the sound that came from Pongo's mouth was soft, like a high pitched whine. "Yes, wiseone." He used the formal address to one of the order, "we are very much appreciative of the deposits you have been making into our accounts. I have absolutely no idea of how or why you do it, but we are glad that you do." He licked his lips and waited for Sen's reply.

Her pause was intentional, and a little more prolonged than would have been polite. The break was meant to show him that she was in charge -- that Wu Zetian was used to pulling the strings and would soon be pulling his.