Quite a few trips to Liberty have been made as of late. The shuttle captains have taken notice of Albert's frequent trips and he's been granted a discount for travelling so much. It's all the same to Albert, only wanting to reach his destination and keep up with the research developments back on Starflier Base. This time was a little different, the NX-01 will be his way into New York. After notifying the crews to take positions, the Bustard disembarks from Starflier Base and the Jump Drive begins to charge. After 30 seconds, the dark and gloomy scenery of the Kepler system changes to the calm Liberty sky. Looking at the navigational screen, the vessel jumped into the system at an odd vector, so an hour or two was spent flying Baltimore Shipyard's second docking bay. Once the NX-01 was moored, the Starflier heads out into the station whilst a message was sent notifying the DSE crews of his arrival. An empty seat gets taken in the main lobby and the waiting game starts.
As the message hit Barclay's inbox it was instantly rerouted as the system knew that Barclay Bestendas resigned the day before and was no longer a valid recipient of any incoming messages.
The system did what it was programmed to do and rerouted the message to the designated DSE official...
Lu woke up way before the alarm she had set had gone off.
This time it was an automated message telling her that she had a new assignment.... "Oh come on! I haven't even woke up yet let alone had a full night's sleep!!!." she softly shouted as she became angry at the management who had approved this way of tasking... So glad she resigned she thought to herself...
And with that she put on her robe and walked towards her desk and answered the message sent to her...
"Good morning Albert, my name is Lulatia Bellisario and I'm attending Mr. Bastendas' affairs for the moment. How can I help you?" And with that she stepped away from her console towards the coffee machine as to grab her latte and head for the shower...
She simply did not care anymore...
Albert saves two tabs on his device. One displaying the entire suite of hardware currently installed within the NX-01, the other with proposed changes and a second set of hardware, showing what the vessel would look like after the refit. Seeing as how Burton couldn't be with him, considering his current situation, Albert would have to take point with this project himself. The screen shuts off as he locks the device, and before it was put away, the display turns back on with a message alert. A button labelled "Text response" is hit, and a keyboard module appears on screen.
"Good day, Ms. Bellisario. I see, are you familiar with the request I sent to Mr. Bastendas? If not, I'm happy to meet you in a place of your choosing as I'm already at Balimore Shipyard. "
"Send" is hit, and Albert awaits a response.
Not long after she came from the shower her datapad buzzed showing that she had a reply. She made herself another coffee and started typing a response...
"Good day Albert, thank you for your swift reply. Mr. Bastendas has forwarded all his communications between the both of you so I am fully aware of any and all agreements made. I see the docking bay supervisor has received your pre-boarding information so you are all cleared for docking. I also see a personal note from Barclay, I'm sorry, Mr. Bastendas attached it to the corporate file so I'm not really allowed to share this yet... It addresses your communications so I see no harm to share this with you... He writes that he sends his apology for his sudden leave yet it was a personal decision."
[The story continues 4 days later as Albert from Starfliers has brought in his vessel for the upgrade...]
Lu walked into her office as Becky Adams from Dispatch sent a message telling her that the engineers had finished the evaluation of the Starfliers vessel upgrade job.
"Great, this makes my day so much better." she thought as she started writing a message to Albert telling him that the upgrade would not cost 63m SC but a mere 50m SC.
She always liked to be the one to give good news to a customer.
If there was an empathy well for Albert, it wouldn't have existed in the first place. Quickly moving along to the job at hand was the only reason why he made his way into New York again. Fifty million sirian credits. Albert gives a confused look at the price, with the proposed changes he assumed Deep Space Engineering would price it much higher than the number seen on screen, even after the discount given a few days ago. Though, his trust of their service doesn't waver as the NX-01's Jump Drive issue from a previous visit was handled excellently.
"Unfortunate Mr. Bastendas resigned his position. Tell him the Starfliers say godspeed. I assume at this point your crews would like to know what kind of work they are getting into? Would they rather a full schematic or a simple list of proposed improvements and changes? "
"Hello Albert, good to hear from you again. As we still have the engineering specs of your vessel from the last time she put in a simple list will suffice."
She paused for a moment as she thought of the day of her resigning was a mere 5 days away... Not like any of the DSE execs had picked up on her 'subtle' notice but then, she still had a job to do.
Albert, let me be honest with you... Like my colleague Bastendas I too resigned from DSE and this will take effect on the 26th this month. Now I will do my very best to help you yet I want you to know that on the 26th someone else will take over.
Sorry for this inconvenience.
Once the message was read, a feeling of unease started to grow. The person who has spent their time communicating with Albert to get the NX-01 refitted is now under a time limit. Seeing as there's not a lot of time left, a few quick taps on the keyboard module gets a brief message out.
"Another? You surprise me, Ms. Bellisario. Since there's little time left until your leave from Deep Space Engineering, I'll save this list for the individual who relieves you from this particular task. As much as I want this project to succeed, I do not wish to continue the changing of hands over time."