All That Glitters

All That Glitters - Ch 67

Byandi plans. A birthday party. Djinaëte murder.

The Byandi plan to expand their new interplanetary passenger service. Ikekia turns two. A Djinaëte is murdered.

© bigtddybr Aug 2024. This story 'All That Glitters - Chapter Sixty-Seven or the series 'All That Glitters', cannot be transferred in whole or in part to any other site besides Literotica.com without the prior authorizations in writing from the author and bigtddybr must be credited for this work.

Due to the number of abbreviations, ship listings, and list of characters, in this story, I include a glossary that is now in a stand-alone chapter called

'All That Glitters: Notes v 14'

. Any and all information that you want or need to know about the series is included in Notes. It will be updated frequently simply by re-issuing the chapter to Literotica as a new version.

There is little attempt to explain the back story, so it is necessary to read previous chapters to fully understand where we are.

As before, I claim sole responsibility for the story line. This story is a fantasy, with no basis in reality. Any similarity that you may perceive to current events, people, or situations real or imaginary is completely unintended. Look no further than the story line for its intent and purpose.

A big shout out to my editors, who wish to remain anonymous, for all the help they provide. If you find any errors still left in this chapter, they are mine, as I have ignored sage advise to make a silly point.

Please rate and comment. But keep your comments respectful. If you rant and rave or are disrespectful in your commentary, it will be deleted.

'Nuff said...Enjoy.

SSP Caye-Ur in Orbit of Liramor Prime, The Liramor System, Thirty Light Years from Terra

Things were not working out the way they should. Captain (Civilian) Jacques Lefebvre was not pleased with the performances of two of his Second Officers. Effectively, the two officers were slackers and their attitudes were having a detrimental effect on the remainder of the crew and officers. So much so that they had petitioned the Captain and asked him to remove them from the team.

"You're serious, Mellissa?" Lefebvre asked of his Number One, First Officer Mellissa Hardman.

"Sorry to say this, sir, but these two need to be removed from our team. They are a danger to our people, to this ship, and to themselves. It has to be done, sir."

"But these two came highly recommended! They are experienced Second Officers!" Lefebvre groused.

"I'm beginning to think that this was a ploy by their previous captains to get rid of them by making them look much better than they actually were. In other words, their former captains pawned them off because they couldn't bother to go through the procedures to dismiss them."

"Never mind. I've seen for myself the work they performed, or rather haven't perform. Write them up and then get them off this ship. We are going to have to petition for at least one more Second Officer as we cannot run short two, especially on our maiden voyage. We need to find at least one replacement, providing that Second Officer McGregory is working out?"

"Arnold is a good find, sir. We keep this one."

"Small miracles. We need to find someone post haste and finish getting this ship ready for its first trip...Can we petition the Lent-Ur or the Mind-Ur and ask them to give up one of theirs?"

"The Lent-Ur has only one seasoned Second Officer, the other two are new graduates. The Mind-Ur has three good ones, but we would have to go through the head of the company to get them to give one up."

"All right. Have the report ready for me to sign in an hour. Call those two bozos to my Ready Room and ask the Chief of Security to attend while they are here. They might not like the idea of being thrown off this ship and I will leave any physical necessities to the Donald (Donald Sheffield, the ship's COS).

"In the meantime, I need to contact Caye-Ur and let her know what is happening. We might very well miss the timings on our debut schedule because of those clowns..."

L-2318 Piscium Apartment, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, 109 Piscium System, 106 Light Years from Terra

I miss my family,

Fayad thought as he stood in the middle of what was to be his family's new apartment.

It was huge in comparison to the old one. He had an actual office in this apartment, with enough space to hold meetings. Fortunately, the office had its own exterior door so people didn't have to come through the apartment.

The living room area was more than double the previous apartment, as was the kitchen and dining area. He would have enough space for many more guests now. The apartment also boasted more bedrooms for the staff and family, which would be needed when the boys came along.

The Plasteel windows were larger and offered a greater view of space, though now without the large mining cages that were being dismantled and transferred to the new Liramor-31 Mining Platform.

Once the last of the great ore ovens are removed, which would happen later this week, Liramor-23 would be known as the 'Station' or as 'Ard Mheydeh' (Neutral Ground in the Anuuran language).

Pallanders-6 was now in the system and setting up its exterior work cages, where they would build new large ships. It would soon begin teaching the member races of the Greater Community how to build human-style ships. It would be known as 'The Shipyard' and was expected to start its operations within a week's time.

Fayad looked around one last time. It would be another two weeks before it would be safe to move the family's things from the old apartment. He could then bring his family back to the station. He was looking forward to that.

************

Fayad met the Sandekk Ambassador, Annnarrrekk, in the corridor outside his new home.

"Looking over your new abode?"

"I am and I am quite pleased with it. It is much larger than my old one, far more comfortable for me," the ambassador replied, the Sandekk were the largest race in the Greater Community.

Fayad opened the door to his apartment and let Annnarrrekk look inside. "Wow, this is even larger than my new place!"

"Perks of being the Station Manager and having an expanding family. Besides, it gives us space for diner parties."

Annnarrrekk laughed at that. "I look forward to seeing what tiny humans look like."

"I will be pleased to have my family back on the Station."

"You must miss them. I know I miss the little ones," Annnarrrekk admitted.

"What of your embassy staff?" Fayad asked.

"It will be some years before our new planet will be ready to let us have Sandekk staff," Annnarrrekk admitted. "We will borrow Asocan staff for now, but we won't get them until next year. All of this year's graduates from the Diplomatic School were already slated for various embassies before we put in our request. I will simply have to muddle through with help from the Asocan Embassy. What of the new political auditorium?"

"We have already started the construction of that site. We are closing in the opening with Plasteel windows as we speak. It will take us some two months before we can complete it. You have seen the plans? The artists renditions?"

"I have. I look forward to much lively debate in this political arena. The plans say it will be right beside the new Interspecies Embassy, which means the commute will be simple."

"When do you expect all the work on the station to be completed, Fayad?"

"By the end of this calendar year. Most of the exterior work will be completed by mid-September. That will only leave the interior finishing work to be finalized."

Liramor-23 was growing in size. It had initially received an expansion of 200 metres over the original mining platform. A second 200 metre expansion had been planned. However, With all the new people coming to the station, that was increased to an additional 400 metres. The station would soon be 2,700 metres in length and 2,250 metres at its widest (it looks like a fat top with large antennae at either end).

"You must be proud of your new creation. Despite the input from so many sources, you managed to juggle their requests with a heavy dose of practicality. It is a testament to your abilities."

"Thank you, Annnarrrekk, for your kind words. Most of what is being done is by artists, engineers, hull workers, electricians, plumbers, and interior construction workers. They are the ones making my crayon drawings into something viable." Annnarrrekk laughed again. Even using crayons, Fayad could make incredibly detailed drawings.

"We should head out; it is still unsafe in this area and you're not wearing an emergency suit."

"We Sandekk are tough, Fayad. A little bit of exposure to space will not hurt us. Not that I wish to tempt that."

The pair headed down the corridor toward the station's core and into a 'safe' zone where they waved goodbye and went their separate ways.

SSP Mind-Ur, In Orbit of Liramor Prime, The Liramor System

The Mind-Ur had just finished emptying her holds. The team of Caye-Ur, Tokussa, and Alya Garrant, were finishing the books on the ship's maiden voyage. So far, they looked very good.

"Damn! This is going to be one hell of a first trip!" Alya commented.

"I agree," Caye-Ur chimed in. "We will make more than 1.18 billion credits in profit, not including the final sale of Wrist Comps and Sprawl II Class ships for the Taddassan Passenger Service. When that gets finished being paid off, we will be very much in the black."

"Black? What do you mean by that?" Tokussa asked.

"In the old days, humans used two different coloured inks to record in our ledgers," Alya explained. "Black ink for positive, and red ink for negative. If you ended up using black ink at the bottom of the ledger, you were said to be in the black, or in positive accounts. If red, well, you were in trouble."

"Oh, I see," Tokussa remarked. "That is interesting to know. We just use negative symbols for negative results. Colour is not a factor. But these calculations do not include the remainder of the price of the ships, right?"

"That is correct," Alya confirmed. "We bought the ships with a 350 million credit down payment on 1.08 billion for 36 ships at a cost of 30 million per ship to us. We sold them for 1.8 billion to Ehrrinno's company, who gave us a 750 million credit down payment for them.

"We will purchase the next fleet of 36 ships for the Byandi and use the profit of 400 million to purchase ships for the SSP Caye-Ur, and the SSP Lent-Ur, which will go into Asocan space and Harradi space, respectively.

"As for the Byandi, if all goes well, the Taddassan Passenger Service will be able to pay us off for their first fleet and give us a good down payment on their second fleet. That will give us roughly 2 billion credits profit on this trip.

"And that doesn't include the sale of Comps being conducted for us by Essorra Electronics, for which they will return half their sales to us," Alya finished.

Caye-Ur had used the same card trick she had with the Hallat Corporations of the Harradi, and found Essorra Electronics to act as a distributer for their electronic products on Mylatinyl, the Byandi home world.

"That was actually a good deal," Tokussa remarked. "It will keep Essorra Electronics happy and prevent them from using the courts to interfere with our selling the Comps in the Byandi Realm, and we don't have to remain on the planet to sell the product, giving us the opportunity to return here and pick up more items to sell."

"We still have to factor in the returns from those products we purchased on Mylatinyl for resale in human space," Caye interjected. "We probably won't know the full profit from our trip for two or three months. But it looks to be well in excess of 4 billion credits."

"So what's the next step?" Tokussa asked.

"I need to contact Pallanders Shipyard and tell them the 'good' news and that we need the next set of 54 pairs of ships including the second fleet for the Byandi, and the first fleet of ships for the Asocans and the Harradi," Alya replied. "Pallanders will be happy, sort of, that we are moving ahead. They won't be satisfied until the cost of the Byandi's first fleet is paid off. Hopefully, that will be by next month, if the Taddassan company gets it together. Fortunately, the Asocan and Harradi governments are paying for their ships so we'll see immediate profit from them."

"We also need to find a place for our business offices," Caye explained. "Somewhere we can have a warehouse and offices. That will be a tall order as such places near shuttle ports will be expensive to rent or buy."

"A challenge then," Tokussa commented, getting nods from her friends.

Piscium Private Villa, Denders Resort, Southwest Coast of North America, Terra, The Sol System

It was spa day for the adults, and study time for the children.

Children under two were not allowed in the Denders Spa, so the children opted to study at the villa. The children had plenty of security with two Brucomma in the villa as Mylat Alafka had come in late the night before and had offered to split her security people with that of her sister while the adults, including Krissiya, had gone to the spa.

'Aunty Amy', a.k.a. Professor Amy Halen from Morgan High School, had finally sent the first of the work she expected the girls to complete.

"This should take you about a week, girls," she had let them know on an internet interview. But after quickly scanning the workload, Zarreniya had raised a hand. "Yes, Zarreniya?"

"This is maybe two days work for us, Professor," she informed her.

Long practice working with genius-level teenage students allowed Prof. Halen to hold back her surprise at the statement. "Take your time going through the work, girls. Make sure you understand it, as there will be a quiz after. If this work turns out to be too light for you, I can increase the workload."

"No, Aunty Amy. We busy now for summer concert. Two days per week is good. It allow us to work on other projects we need," Ikekiya had replied. Halen nodded in agreement.

"Very well, I will not increase your workload until after the summer. However, I expect excellent work from you in return."

"Aunty Amy!! We always do our best," the girls chorused in return, getting a grin from Professor Halen.

Hanalei had arranged for a tutor for the girls. Patricia Forden had been one of the original day care workers during the first Denders Summit and remembered the girls as tiny babies. She was much surprised to have been engaged as a tutor for the pair as she was working toward being a high school teacher.

"Don't let their ages fool you, Patricia," Hanalei had informed her when she had been hired. "These two are incredibly intelligent and will likely push you to your limits as a tutor."

What Patricia had thought was wishful boasting on the mother's part turned out to be a true statement as the children ran through the work. They were working individually, and she was hard-pressed to keep up with them as they were not necessarily working on the same subjects. Fortunately, she was pretty good at high school math, and that was most of the children's work today, with some geography and Standard language study thrown in.

She was somewhat surprised to note the children could do calculus. "We use for working out loads on jump grid, Miss Patricia," Ikekiya told her, showing her some of the calculations they had recently surprised Aunty Ohi with. Doctor Aruna Ohiraha (known as Ohi to her friends) was a close friend of the family though they didn't get to see her that often because of her busy schedule. She was a much sought after electrical engineer.

Patricia was good at math, but she was literally being left in the dust with the kinds of serious calculations the children had previously done. Fortunately, she was helping the children understand advanced algebra and beginning calculus, high school level math. Right up her alley.

Apparently, the children seemed to have moved beyond this more basic level math in order to complete the higher-level work they needed. Which meant they were working off formulas rather than understanding the math behind it. At least she would be able to help them attain a good foundation in math so they would eventually be able to fully understand the work they were doing. It was always better to have a strong foundation in anything you were doing, whether it was math or music.

Two new Byandi carrying staffs came in and each tapped their staff against the two already in the villa. The girls greeted them in their own language. The two new Byandi eyed Patricia up and down like she was some kind of garbage to be taken out.

The girls spoke again to them and the pair bowed to Patricia, an interesting thing to see as the Byandi had no necks to speak of so they bowed from the waist. They then stepped back and became vigilant.

"We told them you are our tutor. They are happy to have you here to teach us, Miss Patricia," Ikekiya told her. "They not able to help us with our math," she explained to her in a quiet whisper.

No,

thought Patricia,

not so surprising. Higher algebra and beginning calculus would be complex math for most that hadn't specialized in it in high school.

"The Byandi value education and respect teachers. They will tolerate you now," Zarreniya took over.

"Thank you, girls. I'm not sure how I would have felt if they were going to be suspicious of me all day."

"Oh, they still suspicious of you, Miss Patricia. You not family. But they please you teaching us," Ikekiya said with a smile.

"Do you mean 'they are pleased you are teaching us'?" asked Patricia.

"Oh, you taking lessons from Krissiya," Ikekiya grumped making Zarreniya giggle and Patricia smile.

The girls worked for a couple of hours before a group of Byandi came into the villa.

*Hi, Mallitana. How are you doing?* one asked.

*We are doing good, Elder Cousin Alafka, but we need break now.* Ikekiya admitted.

*That is why we are here, to assess your progress and to have the staff provide tea and cookies for you,* Alafka's sister, Errlla answered for the pair.

Moments later, the maid came out with a service and provided for the girls, their tutor and all the Byandi while Alafka and Errlla scanned and reviewed the girl's work as the girls introduced Patricia and the Mylat (Mylat is both singular and plural) to each other. Once again, Patricia was surprised at just who the 'Elder Cousins' were.

Alafka laughed at that and explained the Asocan reference to her, and the fact that their mother and step-father would soon be Godparents to the new Piscium Mallitano, which would sort of make them family.

*I am very impressed, Mallitana, that you are able to work at this level,* Alafka admitted after their review. *How do you assess them, Tutor Patricia?*

Patricia was getting all this from the language matrix so it took her a moment to respond. "Both of them have surprised me with their capabilities. I am working to certify as a high school teacher and these two are successfully doing work at that level. I have met genius-level children before, but not at this age."

*They do impress those who initially meet them,* Errlla admitted.

The Children finished their cookies and tea and went back to work as the Elder Cousins returned to their villa. A little later, around 11:30, the pair of Mylat returned to check on them.

After the review, the children crawled up into the laps of their Elder Cousins and promptly took a nap in their arms. There would be no tea and cookies as they would be having lunch soon. Patricia smiled at the sight.