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*Laura was looking at herself in the mirror with a head full of thoughts. For last time she started to check if everything is ready for start of a party.*

Food and drinks are prepared on the tables, despite order quickly some good food and not any Synth Foods crap was not easy. All people were invited... Oh dear, I made everything more difficult. It supposed to be like behind garage barbecue party for some chiefs of workers groups, technicians and pilots. Now it is almost little banquet. But I could not invite guild master of GMG just to steak and beer. Or could I?

She was still unsure how to act towards him. On the one hand, he is guild master, one of the five most powerful men in GMG. Person on the level like a prime minister. But apparently he also is not like that top guys in big corporations or high ranked politicians. Especially during that one conversation which changed into more personal chat, he appeared to be really different man than what she expected. For the second time in her life, and for first time after several years, she get impression that somebody could know how she feels. And his vouice sounded so nice.

But now I´m going to meet him for first time in person. And first impression is important impression.

*She pulled mascara and started to make up.*

Wish I learned this better. But hell, I didn´t need it for all my life!

*Laura looked at her dress. It was the best piece of all her clothes which could be considered as evening dress. Too far from any piece which can be seen at Honshu boutiques.*

Well, I did my best. The hell, most of the time I´m wearing pilot overall. And moreover, this is still just kind of working meeting to improve business relations. Only issue is to make a good impression and especially don´t offence him in any way. Despite it seems he is not one of that conservative stiff Kusarians who strictly require obeying of superiority and social customs.

*She touched two pairs of shoes. One on high heel, one on small one. Only two pairs with heels that she has at all*

"Nothing to think here honey. If you don´t want to kill yourself on first stairs, choice is simple," she told for herself and put on the pair with small heel.

*She checked herself completely in the mirror for the last time.*


Then she came out of her room into the hallway, having in mind that party formally started and she is late. Few minutes later she arrived in one of the currently unused storage halls in section B where in the future should be one of the factories of Stone Bros Ltd/GmbH, but where the party was held today.

Laura looked around. It was of course impossible to make party for all 800 people who work on Shuri. Moreover most of them commute to Shuri. For these reasons the party was intented to around 50 most dedicated people who in her opinion worked most hard on construction of Shuri core upgrades.

There were several tables. As an attempt to show some kind of idea of connecting people and cultures, Laura prepared side by side Kusarian and Rheinland food and drinks, so there were plates of sakidzuke next to the anothers with toasted bread with ham and cheese around. Bowls with kyushu rice and plates with various fish species and sushi were lying next to the plates with bratwursts and schnitzels. Porringers with various rice sauces were beside others with mustard.


And on the table with drinks, there were bottles of rice wine and tray with heated cups filled with sake next to the Rheinland wine, apple cider and classic strong Rheinland stout.

Laura nodded in greeting with some people who were already there and who looked at the door to know who came. Some chiefs of worker groups, two handsome warehousemen whose main advantage however was the willingness to unload materials from transport quickly at any time...ship engines technician which found that damn hidden faulty component that caused repeatedly engine failure of her ship... But she was looking for more familiar faces. And first of all, one face that she knew only from photo at GMG Neural Net information page so far...

Captain and pilot Sebastian Stein stopped checking systems of his Colossus train and looked at watch. Time to go, he thought and started with changing clothes, from pilot coverall to his leisure time clothes. He choosed the better ones from his little wardrobe that he had in the ship and on Shuri base. He had in mind words of Laura when she invited him.

"Come, it will be fine to see you again. But Sebastian, take something good-looking on yourself, okay? Maybe GMG guild master Katsuo will appear here too, so it must be something presentable. Don´t dare to come in that overall which you so like wear but which is covered with old oil stains! Or I swear that I hide all the beer!" she told him.

Oh, the beer. He used to be for long time out of Rheinland, but every time he missed Rheinland beer and food. And now he was for more than month in Kusari.

"Nothing personal against local people, but everywhere you can get only rice, rice with something or a rice with rice. Or a fishes. Bleh. And local beer...nothing to compare with real beer," he thought.

After he arrived in the storage hall, he looked at tables with food and drink. It was amazing view. He immediately desired for a schnitzel with mashed potatoes and a bottle of beer. Then he noticed Laura in a evening dress. She was his colleague and friend, he was the one who learned her basics of flying with transports because she began on train class ships as his second pilot. They spend lot of time together in a cocpit or on various stations and planets, but this was the very first time when he saw her wearing something like this. Something at least little sexy. She looked amazing, but still it was a surprise to see her in this clothes.

"It seems she really want to impress on GMG guild master. Haha, she is even wearing shoes with heel. How long it was...maybe half of the year...that she told me that shoes with heel are an instrument of torture ? She was little drunk but I never saw her in shoes with heel anyway. Definitely time to go taunt from her," he thought and began to smile.

Faint footsteps could be heard echoing through one of the corridors leading to the storage hall and the banquet. As the sound grew stronger, the distinct sound of a pair of high heels walking on metal were unmistakeable. A sleek, beautiful woman in an elegant dress stepped through one of the entrances to the hall. She was clearly of Kusari descent, though remarkably taller than the rest of her kinsmen.

She calmed her pace after a few slender steps into the hall, almost coming to a halt. It appeared that she was looking for someone at the party, looking at everyone's faces. She fixed her eyes at one of the guests and started walking towards her focus. She stopped just a few feet away from it.

"Konbanwa, Craft-chan" she said, as she bowed her head slightly, "I am Naomi, honoured assistant of the Esteemed Katsuo-sama. He asked me to attend to your party invitation in his stead, though he wishes me to tell you that he sorely regrets he can't come here in person." She paused for a few seconds to let it sink in, "Katsuo-sama had pressing.." she hesitated for a split second ".. duties to attend to. I know he would have liked to be present here with all of you tonight. After all, this is a time for celebrations after a job well done!"
She looked around the hall and saw the tables stacked with various dishes. "I see you've spared no expenses on tonight's dinner. I'm sure it will be much appreciated by the guests this evening. And if there's anything you'd like to ask of Katsuo-sama, please don't hesitate to talk to me directly." She said with a pleasant, though trained smile.

Openly disappointed expression appeared on Laura´s face for a short moment. Then she realized it and changed it back, trying to smile.

"Greetings...Naomi. Nice to meet you, I heard a lot about you as a person who help Mr. Katsuo to handle so many matters that he has to handle in his position," Laura said, trying to get more time for think how to deal with this unexpected situation.

She expected him, and instead her appeared there. Maybe HER was the right word. Laura noticed Naomi immediately after she entered storage hall because she heard sound of the heels from the corridor. But after she came in, everybody noticed this woman, especially all men gave her full atention. Even Laura´s friend and colleague Sebastian Stein stopped eating and was intently observing Naomi.

Of course there was a reason why she get this attention, she was...perfect.

"I thought I look nice in this dress, but next to her I´m looking like a...waitress from a restaurant. Brilliant..." appeared in Laura´s mind.

Moreover, despite Laura was quite tall in compare with common Kusari women, due to Naomi´s tallness and heels she had to look upward when she wanted to look in her eyes.

For a second, Laura felt something what might be called jealousy. Feeling that she usually never had. But then, she came back from her thoughts and focused on conversation.

"What a pity that Mr. Katsuo can´t come, I was hoping that we finally meet after so many conversations in space via ship communication device only. May I ask what requsted his presence on friday evening? I hope it was not anything like safety alert due to some danger here in Okinawa. Because if I got it right, despite his position, he still fly combat flights when hostile forces appear here. Or not?" Laura asked.

Sebastian stepped towards Laura, thinking about a joke about her shoes with heels, but the way led by tables with food. He couldn´t resist and took plate with schnitzel. Once he bit into it, he enjoyed taste of Rheinland which he so missed. After he started looking at table with drinks, choosing which beer will he open first, he heard quite strong sound of heels moving on the metal floor.

He turned from tables to source of the sound and spotted incredibly tall Kusarian woman which was walking towards Laura. Despite generally girls and women from Kusari were not the type he liked, this one looked really pretty. He remembered times when he whistled on girls like this one in Rheinland, but that was more than thirty years ago, when he was teenager. And of course before he got married...then divorced...and then married again...and definitely before he had three children.

Because he stood relatively close to Laura and unknown beaty, he heard start of their conversation when woman introduced herself.

"Hmm, assistant of guild master Katsuo... It seems that Katsuo hired as his assistant winner of Kusari´s Next Top Model contest," he thought and smiled for himself.

He finished eating schnitzel and opened bottle of beer. Life was beautiful now. He noticed that lot of men in the hall were more or less openly looking at Naomi, some of them were apparently talking about her. He looked at Naomi discreetly too, trying to guess how old is she.

"Be honest, did you truly believe that I'd let anything come between me and this party?"
All guests together, in one swift motion, turned their heads towards the direction of the voice. Somehow, when everyone were occupied by looking at Naomi and trying to eavesdrop on her conversation with Laura, a small group of five people had entered the hall unnoticed. At the forefront of the group, a man was standing ostentatiously in the evening dress uniform of the Gas Miners Guild. He was in his late thirties and of Kusarian birth, wearing no accessories but an amulet around his neck. The rest of group, clearly his retinue, were all wearing the formal Guild uniform with blaster holsters attached to their belts.
They were unmistakeable. It was the Guild Master Taro Katsuo himself, accompanied by his elite Seibyou aces.

He walked up to the spot where Naomi and Laura were standing, took Naomi's hands in his own and kissed her on the cheeks,
"My sweet Naomi-chan, arigato for playing along with my little deception so well! You did wonderful!" He released her hands and turned his attention to Laura, "And you must forgive me, Craft-chan. I know you've been most anxious to meet me; but I just couldn't resist playing such a cruel trick on you." He bowed his head as a gesture of respect for her "Though the expression of your face was flawless in its sincerity. I hope you won't hold this stunt against me, however!" he said, with a genuine and inviting smile.

Laura turned in the direction of voice and her feelings were taken on the rollercoaster. Just a moment after she experienced let-down, a wave of excitement suffused her body. He came! She started to examining him. Surprisingly, he looked definitely how she imagined him. Handsome man with a charm, about ten years older than Laura. He looked perfectly in GMG evening uniform. Or rather GMG evening uniform just looked perfectly on him.

When he stepped towards she and Naomi, Laura´s heart started to beat rapidly. When he approached, she was speechless. And then Taro took Naomi's hands in his own and kissed her on the cheeks.

Rollercoaster with Laura´s feeling took another downhill. She felt totally like...maybe confused was the right word.

"Maybe Naomi is more than just assistant...but why I care?!" she thought.

Laura realized that she started to feel this meeting more personally than commercially or as courtesy, and she knew that it´s wrong and it could become big mistake.

Laura forced herself to speak, trying to focus what she say.

"Konnichiwa...eh...Konbanwa, Katsuo-san," she said nervously but with almost right Kusarian pronunciation, which she trained for an hour in the afternoon. But when she continued to speak, she returned to her usual slight Bretonian accent. "I am so pleased that we can finally meet. And I´m very sorry that I forgot to mention that your men and your...Naomi are of course invited too so I´m glad that they came with you," Laura added, trying to inconspicuously found out what relation is exactly between guild master and his assistant.

Sebastian was looking at the Taro Katsuo and group of aces after his voice disturbed him from looking at Naomi.

"He really knows how to get attention," he thought.

He heard some stories about Katsuo no Seibyou from other pilots or technicians when he talked with them off duty on Shuri or in bar on Fujisawa. They apparently had massive respect here. But Sebastian had generally respect for all combat pilots because he knew what means fight for a life in space. He remembered his short service in Republican Shipping scout and escort wing, which was full of encounters with criminals and pirates. Every day could be the last.

While Sebastian watched Taro joining Laura and Naomi and listened discreetly part of their conversation, he opened second bottle of beer.

"Interesting. Calling assistant 'my sweet Naomi' is quite unusual," he thought, but remembered that some people said him that Katsuo in really not that type of director or guild master who is sitting in his room in a marble tower away from regular workers. Moreover, how many guild masters are shipping materials to the base themself.

"Maybe they are friends...but maybe more than that. Powerful and rich man, and a beautiful woman. We all know that this is how the world works."

After he heard Laura speaking Kusarian words, he smiled. So this will be joke number two on her. He loved memory when they together arrived first time with his Colossus to New Tokyo and all people talked to her in Kusarian because of her look, and she didn´t understand a word. He was native Rheinlander, but even him knew more Kusarian words than she.

But from the Laura´s voice he also noticed that she is really nervous. As her friend, he was not happy to hear that. She was nice, clever and quite skilled pilot, but she had one big imperfection - lack of self-confidence. She probably really disappointed someone it the past what had some consequence for her, and this left traces on her so she had fear that she will fail again. And the worst situations everytime were when she had to speak with any person that she considered as authority or superior.

He remembered when she was sent to his Colossus to learn flying with train class ship from him, and because director told her that Sebastian is "captain in charge" what she considered as a really imporatant position, she talked with him in the way that he is big boss which is ready to fire her after she make just a little mistake. Fortunately he fixed this soon, when he took her in the bar few times and drunk her. Then she finally started to treat him as regular colleague and later as a friend. You can´t treat as a boss person which was singing with you coarse songs previous night.

Sebastian really wanted to help but unfortunately drunk her was not good idea in this situation. He started to think what to do...

"Arigato for receiving it so well, Craft-chan" Taro answered, while doing his best not to reveal the slightest hint of a smile when he heard the apparent practiced greeting phrase. "I hope that I didn't take too much liberty by inviting Naomi-chan and a few friends of mine." He interrupted himself, "But where are my manners..."

He turned to Naomi, taking one of her hands.
"You've already met my irreplaceable assistant, Naomi-chan. Without her, I wouldn't know what to do, or even when to do it!" he said, as he gave Naomi a friendly smile while exchanging eye contact.
"You give me too much credit, Katsuo-sama...!" Naomi replied unflustered, but with a smile.
"Nonsense!" he asserted, "There's no use in denying it, we both know it's very much the truth!" They both laughed.

He released Naomi's hand and turned around to gesticulate towards the group that had entered the hall with him, "And over here, you'll have to forgive me for my lack of modesty, you can see my trusted Seibyou pilots." Each of the Seibyou bowed towards Laura. "You won't find better or braver fighters on this side of Sirius, and certainly none who are more devoted to the Guild and our cause. I trust them with my life." He said proudly, and took a moment to admire his prodigies.

"Enough of me and my people for now, though." he exclaimed, turning back to face Laura again. "Any one here that I should get acquainted with?" he started to slowly look around at the guests in the hall, "I'm sure you've had some help with running this project, much like Naomi-chan has been of assistance to me." He glanced at Naomi, revealing a smile.

Laura got a moment that she needed during Taro´s speech. She finally caught her breath and calmed down a little, partially thanks to the guild master´s informal attitude and behaviour, and paid more attention to his words. She knew that those Kusarian name suffixes express relations between people, but she really wasn´t familiarized with them. She also tried to force herself to stop thinking about questions related to personal aspects of this meeting and any kind of her feelings.

"Stop behave like a sixteen year old teenage girl on the first date. Stay calm and just try to be charming and nice, aye?" passed through her head.

"As I said, all people that you invited and came with you are welcome here. All of them are precious guests. I have to say, frankly, that it is honor to meet brave and famous Seibyou pilots. What I heard so far, men...and their commander," Laura said with a short look at Taro, devoting only him deep eye to eye look and more than friendly smile, "with great respect among friendly pilots, feared by their enemies, and admired by all women...including me," Laura said with a smile and bowed back the pilots behind Taro.

"And about my help for running Shuri issues - well, unfortunately I don´t have any assistant, so I have to deal with all the paperwork and delivering administrative by myself. I think you know how this is annoying and how it kills the pilot when he had to sit in the office. But what can I do... Wish I could borrow your excellent Naomi sometimes," Laura added with a humorous tone in her voice on last sentence and smiled friendly to Naomi and Taro.

"But of course there is one very important person, you met him in Okinawa multiple times. Pilot who is willing to make lot of extra shifts...of course for lot of extra money, but the deliveries for Shuri modules contruction can continue in times when I can´t fly with my train for needed materials. Now he is here too, of course," Laura stated and turned around to find the person. During this, she revealed her half-naked back to Naomi, Taro and his aces due to shape of her evening dress.

She quickly found Sebastian who stood nearby and motioned to him to come. After the clearly Rheinlandian looking man in late forties joined the group, Laura turned back to the guest.

"So, this is him. Transport captain and ex-escort fighter pilot Sebastian Stein. The man who survived encounter with Nomad capital ship, and who also never lost the Rheinland beer drinking contest," she said hoping that established informal tone of the conversation will stay and already allowed her to make jokes too. And Sebastian was the last person who ever ruined the fun.