Planet New Paris
Ile du Palais
Ile de France Shipping HQ
It is 10 AM Standard Paris Time, Fernand has just finished his second cup of coffee. To him, coffee is more like a ritual that it is anything else. Although many people fancy their coffee with a good cigarette, smoking in Fernand's office wasn't allowed. Mélanie - Fernand's secretary, is required to ready the reports from the previous day and place the pad on Fernand's desk each morning before he arrives at his office. It is known that Fernand never shows up to his office before 8AM. Once he does, he has his coffee at 08:02 while he systematically inspects the reports his secretary left his on his table.
The time is 10:30 AM SPT, the secretary has notified Fernand that Mademoiselle Augustopolou has entered the building. Très bien, when she gets to the hall offer her a seat and let her in my office after two minutes, I have to make a quick call. Fernand has never officially met Mademoiselle Augostopolou, but has heard about her and where she comes from, which was mainly the reason why this meeting was set up. The current state of Ile de France Shipping requires Fernand to act quickly and decisively as every passing day is crucial for the company's existence.
... oui, oui the food will reach Metz in time... no I don't care she's pissed... she can be a Marshal of Gallia for all I care, tell her that our transports never fail... never. The sound of doors opening can be heard, Mademoiselle Augostopolou has entered Fernand's office without him realizing. She slowly approaches Fernands desk and gazes at the big screen with stock data on it. She doesn't want to interrupt Fernand's conversation.
Fernand ends the call and turns towards his desk realizing that Mélanie let Lydia in. Oh... pardon Mademoiselle Augostopolou I didn't hear you walking it, did Mélanie... ah nevermind. Bonjour and welcome, I am Fernand Dimont, please take a seat. You have to excuse my rudeness, a Seigneur of Lorraine is "crying" about the situation on Metz, like I don't know that they need food. And on top of all that, I have this guy constantly being in my hair about our transports not carrying enough food. It's like they forgot who IDF is, ugh! We're working day and night and it's still not enough.
Mademoiselle Augostopolou... Dia, can I call you Dia? What can Mélanie get you? Wine, coffee...? Let's get comfortable, then we'll talk business. Fernand went back to his chair, he put his phone on the desk and pressed his secretary button while he waited for Dia's order.
The morning on Ile du Palais was, for once, somewhat sunny. The place never enjoyed particularly good weather, but that day Dia would have preferred to remain at her New Paris estate instead of making way all the way to the capital of the capital. However, the opportunity to meet the new CEO of IDF Shipping was too good to pass up.
Pomeroy had clearly been overwhelmed by the difficulties that the past year had thrown at Gallia and Ile-de-France Shipping. Dia hoped that the new director, Dimont, would be up to the task. The fact that he decided to get in touch and leverage her privileged position with Crete only confirmed those hopes. She was in best spirits.
She was familiar with the layout of the IDF headquarters, having been there earlier on a couple of meetings in person with Pomeroy as well as to conduct trainings for the company's security. Her appearance, exquisite and foreign taste in jewellery and fashion, demeanour and overall aura made her memorable, to the point where the woman sitting at the front desk of the ground floor of the building did not even ask for her identification. She walked past, smiled at her, nodded, and made her way to the lifts.
The buttons in the lift — specifically the labels in French, a language she still could not get used to after many months spent in Gallia — took her a minute until she figured out which one would take her to the Directeur Général's office. She had the car all to herself, which was in itself surprising at this time of day. She looked at herself in the mirror, adjusted her necklace and rings, smoothed the collar of her cream-coloured turtleneck, yanked the bottoms of her white trousers' legs, combed her hair and struck a few practice expressions. Satisfied, she patiently awaited the lift to slow down as it reached the upper levels of the tower.
* * *
"Dia is perfectly fine. And I'll just take a glass of water, thanks." She glanced at the high-tech table with market data displayed on the holoscreen above it. Making little sense of the graphs, she turned instead towards the window and admired the view.
The director still had time to make his first impression on her, but for a reason she did not fully understand, he reminded her of El Comisario Pepe Ladron, the ancient, seemingly eternal fixture in the ever moving landscape of Cretan politics and diplomacy. A figure she disliked with passion, but at the same time felt a certain homely fondness towards. She hoped Dimont would prove to not be similar to Pepe in terms of his competence.
"Beautiful view," she commented as the secretary brought her a glass of very cold water with a few ice cubes clinking inside. She took it from her and sat on the white couch, a good couple metres away from the director's chair, without waiting for an invitation. "I don't want to take up too much of your time, kyrie. How can I help?"
Oui, the view is truly mesmerizing from up here, I often find myself standing here... thinking. You see DIa, as soft as Sophie was, she brought you here for a reason. The society we live in today is rough, strangers like you certainly have a hard time "fitting in", and you... you seem to not be bothered by judgmental people that are the Gauls. Point being, whatever you're looking for or running away from must be a huge burden, just have in mind that I am not like Sophie, I can help you with whatever you need. Fernand stood up, took his glass of Cognac with him and slowly walked back to the big window. He took a sip of Cognac that he seemed to not enjoy and turned back towards Dia.
Part of the reason I invited you here was to get to know your character. The main reason however is that I need someone who is familiar with... how to put it? People of limited psychological bandwidth if you may. I understand that people ,where you are originally from, are like that, yes?
To my knowledge, Ile de France Shipping established a deal with the Corsair Empire a while ago, before the war against Kusari. In exchange for food, the Empire provided us with valuable artifacts - something that people on New Paris and even other major planets greatly desire. Unfortunately, the war against Kusari greatly crippled us and the Gallic economic state as a whole. Many years ago this company was at the very top, yet now we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. At this moment, we're unable to provide food to the Empire due to a Metz crisis. Not only that, our borders are almost completely shut, yet the desire for Artifacts was never as high as it is now.
I would like to know your thoughts about this matter Dia. As it stands right now, the Gallic Union isn't going to allow the Empire to freely enter our House so we have to think of an alternative. The demand for said Artifacts is high, people are ready to pay, but my company cannot provide such goods without many people raising their eyebrows. It has to be under-the-table.
Have you had contact with the Empire since you left your home? Fernand crossed his arms as he gave Dia a sharp look.
Dia patiently ignored the blatant offensive remark about the Corsairs' mental abilities. "My experience with Gallia all in all has been nothing but pleasant. I mind my own business, let others mind theirs. It perhaps follows that I don't know many people here, but I'm sure the escort pilots of the IDF are happy with the trainings they've been provided. And given Gallia's new found respect for soldiers, I suppose I do deserve a little of it, having been in charge of our entire fleet for a couple years."
Having said that she chuckled slightly. "Pardon the observation, but given the last ten years of Sirian history, Crete has been one of the most stable polities around, while Gallia enjoyed its fair share of coups, wars and takeovers. The deal with Crete did not reach the results it was meant to reach, interrupted by the war, as you said. Many others would abandon you, considered this place a failed state, and moved on."
She sipped her water and continued. "But we are a honourable people. And I personally want to do my best to help IDF carve its place in the new order of Gallia, not only because I'm paid to do it, but because it promises long-term benefits. And over the last years, Gallia, whether it wanted to or not, had to become a nation of warriors, a nation very much like the Corsairs have been for the past four centuries at least."
"Now, coming back to the matters at hand. It doesn't seem that the internal supply lines of commodities essential and highly-priced on Crete have been particularly affected by the wars, but the blockades of Kusari and Cologne are a big hit to our exports. That has not escaped my attention. So to figure out a way past them would be a challenge that could lead to reaping great rewards."
"As far as my continued relationship with Crete is concerned, you need not worry. I am in contact with my family there, and I personally visited a number of times. If I can't broker something on my own, I'm sure I can find someone who can."
Moving back to his chair, Fernand complimented Dia's way of dressing, especially the necklace she was wearing, to which Dia smiled. As you mentioned, my people suffered a lot. From external to internal wars, but finally we're at peace, well sort of. I believe that The Union will be able to maintain this and that the people of Gallia will finally be able to go back to their previous lives.
The time of prestige that the Gallic people are fond of will return once again and IDF will be the company that's going to enable that way of life. For that Dia, I will require capable people at my side, people such as yourself. Unlike Mademoiselle Pomeroy, I will take action that is required for achieving our goals, some of which will come at the price, but... all in due time.
Let me show you something. Fernand took the pad that was on his table and opened an image on the main screen. Here are the statistics of our beloved Bouvet S.E. for the past three years. We're at the backfoot here, even the Sirian company like the Orbital Space & Cruise has drawn more interest from our people, not to mention the Unione Corse. Fernand turned off the screen and threw the pad on the table. That isn't right.
The time has come to change this and we'll begin now. Dia, your task will be to get in contact with your family on Crete, if you need anything, my secretary will be at your disposal. Second, the alternative route has to be taken, the Cologne - Zurich corridor is off limits as the relationship with Rheinland must not be compromised. I want you to keep me up-to-date with everything that's going on.
Keep in mind that The Union will not allow pilots of the Empire to freely roam around Gallia, hence why maximum secrecy is advised. This is but the first step, once we have a somewhat steady flow of Artifacts going, the Bouvet will be good to go.
As she drummed her nails against the glass, listening to Dimont's words, the depth of the hole that IDF had dug itself into started to slowly dawn on her. The dry clinks of the glass filled the room. There were a number of problems with the director's suggestions, including a possible conflict of interest against Orbital Spa & Cruise. OS&C provided valuable space for Artifact exchange between Corsairs and Hogosha and no deal with IDF could ever come close to jeopardising that partnership. She did not see fit to inform Dimont of this.
"I suspect this is going to be a little more difficult than you imagine, kyrie," she said out loud. "Corsair smugglers are already stretched pretty thin. There are markets for Artifacts everywhere, not just in Gallia, but in Kusari, Liberty, even Bretonia. I can pull a favour here and there, but smuggling is the kind of operation that requires the balance sheet to be in order. The supply is not a problem, but the demand elsewhere is so high that it will require something extra to match the prices. That is, as long as you intend to keep the IDF fleet out of this. Perhaps the Corsicans would be interested in a partnership to keep the Orbital Spa & Cruise out of Gallia..."