As the Dromedary-class freighter left the high atmosphere of New Berlin, Christian thoughtfully turned course for the Ring docking section. He'd had a good vacation on the planet, with plenty of skiing and natural gravity. A sort of mini vacation, it had been a hell of a long time since he'd been in the space of the great houses, having only visited his hometown on the planet Erie before, but apparently that was something to forget about forever. He shook his head as if waking up from a dream, wanting to perk up and concentrate on the upcoming event. Christian turned to The Ring's control tower to let automatics handle everything on its own "Freighter 'Lyra' to The Ring, requesting permission to dock." Receiving an affirmative response, he engaged the autopilot for docking and left the pilot's seat, preparing to exit.
A shudder ran through the ship and the humming subsided - the ship had successfully docked inside. Christian stepped into the airlock, the door closing behind him. The compressors hummed, gradually equalising the pressure. The door ahead opened and before his eyes stood a huge platform with various ships. Some, like him, had just arrived at the station and were unloading, some were hastily getting ready for departure - initially Christian was confused and couldn't figure out where to go, he wasn't used to the crowd and the rhythm of the houses.
Noticing the signs, he followed them, exiting the mooring deck into the corridor leading to the administrative section of The Ring. Reaching the reception desk, he asked the handsome woman if the appointment with Ms. Toast. Nodding in the affirmative, she led Christian further down the corridor and into a spacious room filled with the white light of natural light coming from the planet's surface through a panoramic window. Once inside the room, the woman left him alone. Christian sat down at a round table facing the panoramic window, watching the sunlight play whimsically in the upper atmosphere of New Berlin, awaiting for the DHC representative.
“– Investors are flowing, at the moment. Our deals with the-
– Your appointment has arrived, Herr Gehrig. Conference Room C, deck 5.”
Rupert Gehrig sighed. The meeting took so long that even Christian Burton arrived before it ended.
“ – Alright, I’ll make my way there, then. Gentlemen, I’ll leave you to it and expect a full report once I return.”
The businessman started to make his way to the Conference Room C. While Der Ring was a great centre of activity for Daumann, there was no noise across the corridors leading to the elevator. The calm contrasted with the movement that you could see from the portholes. Rupert stopped for a second at the fountain, and drank a bit. His throat was a bit dry, as he had been talking for far too long for the past few hours.
A few meters away, he pushed the digital terminal to call for the elevator, entered, and pushed the Deck-5 button.
The door shut, and the elevator moved rapidly. Rupert always liked the feeling of gravity in his stomach as the machine went up or down. A robotic voice announced “Deck 5”, and the door opened. The conference room was right in front of him. Rupert stopped and stretched for a second, and cleared his throat. He then opened the door with assurance.
“Guten Tag, Herr Burton. I am Rupert Gehrig, Betriebsleiter of Daumann Heavy Industries. Welcome aboard Der Ring! I hope that the journey was not too harsh and long to Neu Berlin!”
Rupert put his hand forward, and waited for Christian to shake it.
Christian looked away from the window and took a few steps toward the visitor, extending his hand for a handshake. The handshake was strong and for Christian it was already a good sign, as it is a common trait in the outlying worlds, worlds where people are strong in mind.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Christian Burton, leader of the Phoenix Zoners at your service. Thanks for asking, I arrived on planet New Berlin beforehand and spent some time at your ski resort. It was wonderful, especially since I haven't seen snow with my own eyes in over ten years." he hesitated a moment and gestured with his hand, pointing to the table and continued "I see Daumann's business hasn't changed much in the last few years, since you've been doing us a favor..." he sat down at a chair and leaned back. He continued thoughtfully - "A small favor that could only your industries to handle in tight deadlines. Did Ms. Tost tell you the superficial details of our meeting?"
Rupert sat in front of Christian, and took two glasses in which he poured some water. He smiled joyfully to Christian.
“Straight to the point, I like that!"
Christian took his neural network off for the duration of the meeting, as he did not like to be distrubed during meetings with important clients.
"Indeed, Amelia has informed me that you needed our help in manufacturing parts for a specific vessel, and that our meeting aims at discussing the modalities of the manufacturing. Well, to be frank, our past business with the Phoenix Zoners went very well, and we are more than happy to contribute to your endeavours.”
"Let's talk about the details. Do you need our facilities to only produce some parts of the ship, or the whole ship itself?"
"We're all business people, and there is simply no more valuable resource than time." he looked penetratingly at Rupert, as if assessing how much to be frank. He leaned away from the table and rested against the back of his chair, distracted for a moment by the panoramic window, a Donau cruiser flying past them, momentarily obscuring the entire room from the sun.
"We have a ship called Vega that you used to service. I don't know if you're aware..." he gestured with his hand, a hologram with video recordings of conversations between Daumann Heavy Construction and Phoenix representatives appeared dimly lit over the table. "Earlier, your help was more than sufficient and we were able to repair and complete the ship for an expedition to remote locations in space, beyond the Sirius sector redistribution."
He paused his speech for a moment, gauging Rupert's reaction, for it was obvious that the point was about the battleship. But there was no emotion evident in his face other than interest. Christian sighed and continued "I'm talking about a Bismarck class ship, one of the earliest generations. It was formerly known as the Blitzkrieg, but was lost to the Rheinland during the 80 year war." He leaned forward slightly and placed his hands on the table and crossed them. "But let's not go too much into the history of this ship, though I'm happy to answer any questions you may have."
"The ship was noticeably damaged after the expedition, the armor was 26% damaged. As a matter of fact that is the reason I contacted you." he waved his hand in front of the table and instead of a hologram of bells the Bismarck ship appeared with a damage assessment and all statuses and Christian continued "As you can see some of the decks were scorched almost completely as the armor panels could not withstand the Nomads impact." he leaned forward slightly "We are looking to replace those panels. We've done a material analysis of their structure, they're basically made of titanium alloy. And the parts themselves are rather out of the ordinary shape for our industry, to create them we would need to set up an entire production process to manufacture them, which is not at all feasible. I would like to clarify your capabilities to recreate the reinforcement parts that have been significantly damaged..." He stood up and stepped back to the buffet, giving his interlocutor time to digest the information.
Pouring a glass of water he came back gathered his thoughts. He sat down at the table, took a careful sip of water and continued "I also have another proposal that you may find more financially attractive given the amount of work involved. As you know, titanium alloys are not the best choice for armor panels. For our part, we are in the process of extracting and processing iridium at Omicron Delta." Christian switched the hologram to the next, displaying the difference in alloys their strengths and weaknesses. "We are prepared to finance the fabrication of armor panels for the entire ship, and also, if you are interested, to enter into a long-term contract to supply iridium already for your needs."
He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He smiled slightly and continued, "I hope I haven't confused you or taken you aback by my offer. I realize you are also limited bureaucratically and if you have any capabilities of cooperation at this moment, we are willing to accept it in any form as ship functionality is crucual part in our defence capabilities against Nomads and Corsairs threats."