A Visitor to the Future - 38 - An Office at Altitude

When Alexandra had said 'office', I had pictured a small, formal space in keeping with the look of the room we had met her in. As we walked through the small connecting corridor, my expectations were utterly shattered.

A series of carpeted platforms, both round and square, were connected by walkways that hung suspended above the ship's observation dome, a semi-sphere of transparent material that extruded from the bottom of the ship, which I had seen on my way in with Blaise. The transparency of the dome was so good that you could almost believe it wasn't there at all. The platforms were furnished with various pieces of furniture - a seat here, a sofa there, even a pair of bookcases, and had transparent walls that looked like glass. At that moment, I only took them in briefly, my gaze distracted by the sheer mass of blue sky, sea, and wisps of cloud below. It took me a moment to steel myself and move across the walkway, but my steps were still hesitant as I slowly made my way forward. Alexandra had left us behind, moving confidently to one of the platforms.

"I imagine this would have made quite an intimidating office in your corporate days," Tungsten said loudly to Alexandra, noticing my discomfort and waiting patiently for me, "Perhaps less so these days - getting familiar with heights is a necessity of life in the Consortium."

"I feel ridiculous," I said, "I was absolutely fine in space, and on the elevator - even flying I have no issues with, but this gives me pause!"

"Fears aren't always rational," said Tungsten, "Perhaps the unfamiliarity of space negated your fear somewhat - and when flying you're comforted by the craft, which you know keeps you in the air. On the other hand this may be a lot more instinctual - just you, platforms, and seemingly open air. Take all the time you need."

Meanwhile Alexandra had made her way to a nicely decorated platform at the very edge of the room, with cupboards and an old-fashioned coffee maker. She poured a cup into a transparent mug and then led us to another platform with a large desk with a transparent surface. Alexandra sat at one side, and Tungsten and I at the other, as she briefly tapped the surface of the desk, which lit up with a series of messages in a language I didn't recognise. She dismissed them immediately and took a sip of coffee, closing her eyes briefly to savour the taste. I noticed a framed photograph on one side of the desk - it was of an older Alexandra and Sasha on a larger catamaran, both hanging onto the railing of the boat. Their advanced age and the lack of Sasha's modified ears suggested it had been taken quite some time ago.

"I didn't choose this location to intimidate," said Alexandra, answering Tungsten's earlier comment, "There's a reason that I ended up as CEO of Crux - I've always loved heights and aircraft, and here I never forget that we're flying. That aside, is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

I had a burning question on my mind, something that I wanted to learn more about. It seemed like a good time to bring it up.

"Sasha showed me a recording of the Mosmos offensive, but she said you could explain things in more detail. What caused it?"

"Now that's an important piece of corporate history," said Alexandra, leaning forward in her chair. "Mosmos were one of the more ruthless energy Multispheres and one of the leading factions in the Multisphere conflicts. They had control over Mercury, a monopoly on most solar power arrays, and a blatant disregard for whatever laws they were operating under. When the Consortium began to undermine their market share, they decided that they should meet with an unfortunate accident, and put themselves back on top. They managed to gather ships from three other Multispheres with something to gain to help, and went to attack the Consortium's growing solar array. Some of the ships never made it there - overwhelmed by cyber-attacks and flown into the Consortium's waiting hands. But nonetheless Mosmos continued their approach. They intended initially to simply fire railguns and missiles at the array from range - which is exactly what they did. To their surprise the Consortium's point defence completely wiped out the barrage."

Alexandra paused, taking a sip of coffee before continuing. "That should have been enough of a red flag for them to turn around and leave - it was a technological feat that had never been seen before. Prior to that, first strike advantage had been the deciding factor in almost every space engagement, especially during the corporate skirmishes and wars between Multispheres. The alternative was mutually assured destruction because no group of ships could prevent the other group firing and destroying them too. But it went up the chain to the Mosmos CEO, who was a mean businessman but not a military strategist. He told them to proceed no matter the cost. The rest, I think you know - Sasha does like to show that recording off."

"How did people react to the battle?"

"Bewilderment, mostly. Taking the crew of the attacking ships alive? Not a single casualty? It was practically unheard of. All sorts of rumours circulated about how the Consortium must have bought off the crews, fabricated the whole thing. But those were dashed when we found out that while Mosmos were attacking the Consortium, their own solar arrays had been seized by other Consortium assets! Very few people tried to target the Consortium after that."


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