Old Business and New Business

It had been about a week since Monica and Ness had their date and Cedrick hadn't seen either of them in that time, so she assumed things had gone well.

Masato was now in the holodeck, which Cedrick was happy about. Her last memories were of Cedrick holding her as she 'fell asleep'. Cedrick made the holodeck look like a room in the medical wing and told her daughter she was sick and couldn't leave.

The body Ness was making was growing pretty quickly and was almost grown to the age Cedrick wanted. Ness set it up before he took off for his date with Monica.

As for Cedrick herself, she was busy getting the Federation charter all set and ready to present to the other races. It would be hard, adapting it to suit this dimension, from it's original one. But she was almost there.

Construction of her new ship was going quite well. Those industrial replicators that Zero left behind were saving her months, if not years, of work and she could now belt out ships at an amazing speed.

She looks at her Paragon Tech Smart Watch and sees that it's almost time for her meeting with the princess of Noreal. She wipes her hands off and heads to her office to shower and change. She wanted to look every bit the powerful CEO and owner of a Fortune 500 tech company.

It doesn't take her long to get cleaned up and changed into a stunning Business Suit and she sits at her desk and waits for her secretary to buzz the princess in.

Cedrick taps her desk and a display comes up "Wendy, when Princess Trienna shows up, go ahead and buzz her in." she says.

"Yes, miss Darkside." says a silky female voice on the other end.

Trienna was a bit nervous as she usually was in part of meeting new people, or particularly those of a lot of importance. Sure she had done so plenty of times but now she was doing it more or less on her own on a whole other planet. It felt different then doing it on Noreal soil for her at least.

Once she was let and saw Cedrick, she greeted them. "Thank you for having me and giving me some of your precious time. It's a pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand for a handshake, it was a common custom here.

Cedrick stands and shakes Trienna's hand "The pleasure is all mine." she says as she sits back down "Would you care for something to drink?" she asks "In preparation for your visit, I took the liberty of downloading some of Noreal's menus." she says as a holo screen pops up in front of Trienna's seat. There was quite the extensive list of foods from Noreal.

Trienna was surprised about the hologram menu thing. She may of heard of it briefly but she hadn't ever seen it before and it was beyond what Noreal could currently do at the moment. The young woman eyed the menu before deciding on something light that would go down easy but be decently filling.

"This is my second time seeing anything hologram related. This kind of thing has always interested me. Earth is far ahead of us ever since Paragon became a thing. Does someone from Noreal work here? Because your menu is quite extensive." If that was the case, then Trienna wouldn't be too surprised.

Cedrick shakes her head "It is nothing like that. I just have some friends from Noreal who got me some cook books from your home world." she says "Chamomile tea." she says as a glass of tea materializes on her desk "My desk has one of Paragon Corps patented Replicators installed in it. So when you find the item you wish, just tell the computer and it will materialize as you have just seen." she explains.

"I see. It's very generous of you." The young woman accepted the answer easily enough before ordering what seemed to be some sort of soup that was red in color. Kind of ironic being what she was even if it wasn't blood at all and easily be mistaken for tomato soup. It was rather impressive and again showed how far Noreal had to go.

After a moment, Trienna decided to get to the point steeling her nerves and doing her best to emulate her mother and her lessons. "To respect your time, I will try to get to the main point of why I'm here.  My people would like to see about getting a warp drive from you so we may begin further expanding ourselves. You see, we are basically at the same level and point earth was before the Trojan invasion."

She placed her drink to the side. "We, of course, aren't asking for weapons or anything else just something basic so we can begin the work ourselves. I will give a full disclosure, its not simply to explore but to better our defend ourselves in the case of off world threats. That..and we have a potential ancient enemy coming that we have five to ten years to prepare for barring a way to stop them. It's estimated at best with a victory as we are now, we'd have to close Noreal off to lick our wounds. Having space capable things would be a enormous boon and lessen loss of life. If the worse case scenario comes to be. I will do my best to answer any questions you may have."


"If not that, then maybe at least know someone who can potentially save our Great Tree that acts like a seal. That would actually be preferbal if possible.." Trienna finished.

Cedrick's face was blank, showing absolutely no emotions whatsoever "I believe that jump gate technology would be better suited for your people, at least for now." she says "A ship powered by Quantum 40 is much more stable than, say, Phazon or Antimatter." she says " The ladder, if not handled correctly, can result in a devastating explosion." she points out "I can safely handle it, because I have years of training and the proper equipment to deal with it."

"Now, jump gate technology, while not As fast as warp speeds, is much more safer to use." she says as she pulls up a file that reads Jump Gate Information.

From what little she knew of Cedrick, the not showing much expression was the norm for them but it made them harder to get a read out of what they may of been thinking.

She looked over the file information which was rather interesting even if she wasn't going to pretend to understand the more technical aspects of things. "So to put it other terms I can understand, the Jump Gate acts like a anchor for a ship to jump into hyperspace?"

Cedrick shakes her head "No. A jump gate is how a ship gets to and from hyperspace." she says "Special hyperspace beacons need to be in place to guide a ship safely through hyperspace itself." she explains.

She pulls something up on her side and looks it over "How far along is your planets space program." she asks "Because from what I have been able to gather, it is a little further along than Earth's common space programs." she says.

Trienna thinks a bit. "We could, for example make it to our moon in two days. The closes planet we can realistically reach on time with our current technology is a desolate world. But besides the testing and exploring aspect its not as worth sending people there long term without terraforming."

Cedrick shakes her head "Paragon Corp is not currently collaborating with any of the world governments about our space programs, so aside from us, the world is still stuck in our own solar system." she points out.

"Now then, what do you have to negotiate for the jump gate and hyperspace beacon technology?" she asks "And shall I assume you would also like the designs for some ships, or will your people be sticking with their own." she asks.

After about a half an hour of negotiating, Cedrick's meeting with Trienna had concluded with the princess heading back to Noreal, telling Cedrick she needed to talk to some people about what all she was allowed to work with and she would get back to Cedrick.

Not too long after that, Ness comes walking into Cedrick's office like it was no big deal, and honestly? It really wasn't. There were only a few whom Cedrick would allow to just walk into her office without an appointment, and Amanda, Anita, Calvine, Monica, and Ness were those few.

Ness takes a seat "So, how did tue meeting go?" he asks "Did she seem interested in the jump gate technology?"

Cedrick nods "She did. She went back to Noreal to talk it over with some people." she says "So how did your date with Monica go?" she asks.

Ness shrugs "It started fine and ended fine. But we decided that our personalities were too similar to comfortably get along and agreed to just be friends, ya know, with benefits." he chuckles lightly.

Cedrick's face was blank "I see. That is too bad." she says.

Ness nods "A little. But I respect her decision." he shrugs "Anyway, Masato's new body should be ready in a week, two at the most. Then all I need to do is move over her consciousness to the new body and Boom! She's back."

Cedrick nods slowly "I see... thank you, for doing this for me.." she mumbles "I appreciate it, more then you can know."

Ness smile and pats Cedrick on the shoulder "Hey, don't even worry about it." he says "It's what friends do: help each other."

Calvine was just tinkering with stuff, nothing in particular at the moment though. He wasn't in charge of anything anymore but Cedrick did allow him to work with her again. Though he still wasn't sure why they accepted him back so easily since he left without a word or consideration for anyone else. Whatever will be, will be as the saying went he supposed.

Ness thinks for a bit "Well, since I don't have anything else going on right now, would you like me to head over to Noreal and see about working out a deal with them over there?" he asks "I can use Lee and Dino's USSR system to bring over a few samples to whet their appetite, so to speak." he suggests.

Cedrick thinks for a bit, then nods "If it is not too much of an imposition." she says "Also, see if you can get mineral rights to some of their mining operations." she says "I have found something out that I wish to confirm and if involves their metals." she says as she gets up.

Ness nods "Give me a few hours to get things ready and I'll head off at once." he says as he gets up as well "I'll also draw up tue necessary contract agreements and have some of your Pencil Neck lawyers look them over." he says.

Cedrick nods "Remember, I want to make this deal fair for everyone involved. I do not want the people of Noreal to think that Earth is ripping them off or giving them a raw deal." she points out.

Ness just nods "Not to worry. It I can negotiate peace between two species at war for decades, I'm sure I can make this a good deal for everyone involved." he says as Cedrick gives him a hug and Ness heads out.

* *

KITT comes walking over to Calvine, as he tinkers in the workshop "Penny for your thoughts, I believe the Human expression is?" he asks as he kneels down next to Calvine "You seem like you are trying to distract yourself from something." he points out.

Calvine turned to his friend, he was wondering if he got a human form like a certain other member of his kind what they would look like but he may never know.

"Nothing much. Though what I've been thinking about it feels like, I dunno got accepted back so easily?" Calvine thought with a shrug. "I had my reasons but I never gave anyone a heads up or any consideration just up and left. But at the same time, I've known people that got blasted for a lot less."

KITT was silent for a moment "Would it make you feel any better if your friends were upset with you for suddenly leaving?" he asks "I do not know, but having my friends happy that I am back seems to be much more preferable to them being upset with me." he points out "And you have to keep in mind, that the two who's opinions matter to you the most, have had a great deal of experience when it comes to people leaving them and rarely, if ever, returning." he says "So rather than being unsettled that your friends are not upset over you leaving, be relieved that they are happy you have returned to them."

Cedrick comes walking down to the workshop "Here you are." she says as she walks over "Hello KITT." she says to the artificial Cybertronian "Apologies about missing lunch. My meeting went on longer then I had thought it would." she says to him "Would you like to go out to eat or order in?" she asks.

Calvine would have to admit KITT had a point to what he was saying and it made logical sense. Just beings with emotions, never mind human beings were hardly the most rational things at the best of times when it came to stuff. "You're not wrong. Still, I guess it comes down to emotions being a conflicting mess at times."

Cedrick came before too long and he greeted them. "It's fine, you're a busy woman after all, and I think eating in would be just fine. How did the meeting go?"

Cedrick shrugged as she heads over to a replicator "A princess from Noreal came to bargain for FTL technology, like we thought. So, I managed to talk her out of warp technology and into jump gate technology instead." she explains as she gets lunch for the both of them "That way if anything goes wrong, it will be in space and not on the planet." she says as she sits down, oblivious to Calvine's inner turmoil.

Calvine nodded a bit to what they said. "Yeah. A race just getting truly into space is no small thing and shouldn't be rushed to that from the jump without knowing what they're doing."

He took a bite of his food, mulling over something before talking. "I know its kind of old news by now but why weren't you more upset at me for leaving without a word?"

Cedrick sets his lunch down "Because I understood your reasons for leaving and yes, they hurt, at the time, but I knew why you felt you needed to leave." she says as she sits next to him and nudges him with her shoulder, her face was a little red from being so close to him "But that aside, I am just happy you are back, more than anything else." she says, all embarrassed.

Calvine found Cedrick cute when she got like that, though to this day it still surprised him she had a shy side at all. Just went to show you can't judge things by the cover. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "So am I. Like I said no plans on going anywhere now that I'm back. I know its much easier said then done, but we should go somewhere on a vacation one day. Just us."

"About that..." she starts "I have, started something big. Something Really big, and I fear that I am not overly qualified to handle it." shebsays, referring to the founding of the Federation "Earth has joined, at least Paragon Corp has, a burgeoning United Federation of Planets, with at least five major worlds ready to sign up and, we will be needing an ambassador, to represent Earth, at least until the United Nations can assign someone... I still need to talk with them... I may ask for Ness' help..." she mumbles.

"United Federations of Planets? Not against the idea but curious why you decided to try to start something like that here." Calvine with his background definitely keep a eye on it.

"If no one else can, I could but I'm pretty content where I am at the moment." Calvine said. "A suggestion that came to mind is Anita. Given her background and what she was trying to do, I think she'd be perfect for it. Plus she lost her world so giving her something big where she can help and strive for may help them."

Cedrick thinks for a bit "Well, now that I think about it, you make a good point." she says "After all, the reason I started the Federation was because the Trojan came back and they were looking for you, specifically, so putting you back out there might not be the best idea at the moment." she points out.

She regards Calvine "So, what are your plans after lunch?" she asks. She was considering bringing Calvine in on her new ship design, but she had a feeling that he would be opposed to her making a war ship. So, the NS-5s could handle it for the time being.

Calvine shrugged slightly. "I don't know. After this I was thinking of maybe just heading back and mellow out a bit. Yeah not exciting but at this point I'll more then take it. So did you make it just because of the Trojan or did you have other things in mind? Because that specifically its more then just a normal defense pact."

Cedrick shakes her head "Not entirely." she says "It is not only the Trojan, the planet brokers, and whatever else is awaiting us. It is also to help other races out and to build up alliances and interstellar trade with other planets." she explains "We all live in this galaxy together and it would only benefit all of us to cooperate with each other, rather then be hostile towards one another."