Work Text:
Miorine Rembran sits in the cramped breakout room, bouncing her leg nervously. The table is durable and unassuming, the carpet is an unappealing patterned grey; the chairs are flat-backed and utilitarian. This room was built for students collaborating on group projects, and its limited construction budget is oppressively obvious.
And yet here she is, about to host some of the finest engineers in the solar system in this shitty excuse for a conference room. The contracts have been signed, the funds have been transferred, and the gundam projects of both Peil Technologies and the Shin Sei Development Corporation now belong to GUND-ARM, Inc. It owns the facilities, it owns the intellectual property, and it owns employs the researchers. Two hundred and forty billions have been staked on this venture.
Miorine Rembran has never had any particular desire to run a defense startup, but now that she is she's going to do the best she can. Plan A is still – has always been and continues to be – escaping this godforsaken space station, escaping her psychopathic father, escaping his insane plans for her future... but she feels responsible for GUND-ARM, Inc, and she wants to give it a solid foundation.
Her business-partner-slash-fiance sits to her right, doing her best impression of the actor in a management video Miorine made her watch. Miorine sometimes wants to joke that the most challenging part of spinning up the company has been teaching Suletta how to be an effective leader, except it really, really, isn't.
She looks at her watch. 13:03. Her engineers are late. They absolutely know what they're communicating by showing up late to their first face-to-face meeting with the new boss.
It was hard enough getting everyone to meet face-to-face at all. She only put in the effort because textbooks are clear on this point: there's a hierarchy to the spatial distribution of functional teams. The ideal team, her professors tell her, meets in-person in an open-plan office. This environment, she has read, encourages unplanned and organic interactions between team members, and helps build the bonds of trust and camaraderie that enable effective mentorship and coordination. If it's not possible for a team to share office space, her teachers tell her, the team members should within a couple thousand kilometers of each other– on, or at least near, the same planet. This facilitates instant messaging and real-time videoconferences – a poor substitute for working in-person, as she once wrote in an exam, but workable when necessary.
The one thing to avoid, she has been told time and time again, is to distribute teams across planets. The speed of light is a cruel master. The distance between planets is measured in light-minutes at best, and light-hours at worst. Real-time communication is quite literally impossible, specifically forbidden by the laws of physics themselves. So naturally, the team and facility she bought from Peil Industries is on obscure rock in the asteroid belt while Shin Sei is, of course, on fucking Mercury. (How could those yokels possibly have built Aerial?)
At exactly 13:07 a group of former Shin Sei engineers lead by Prospera, her mother-in-law Co-Lead of Engineering, enter. (Miorine reluctantly considers the Mercury family her Plan B. There are worse people to spend her life chained to than Suletta.) Prospera sits at the end of the table, directly across from Miorine, who can barely notice the seething hatred this woman feels towards her. Prospera does a good job hiding her dislike of Miorine, especially when Suletta is present, but Miorine remembers that first conversation they had at the incubation party. They've had plenty of conversations since, as Miorine has tried to get GUND-ARM off the ground, and time and time again Prospera has slipped up and let her true feelings show. Miorine can only guess at why this woman hates her. Is it because she's kind of stolen Mercury's work out from under her? No, that first meeting was before the GUND-ARM presentation. Does she not want her daughter to marry a girl? If so, she can just fucking say that. Miorine wouldn't take it personally. This arranged marriage is insane, and unlike her the Mercury family has the option of just rejecting it. She kind of wishes they'd just exercise that option.
"I'm sorry we're late," Prospera says while smiling smugly, "but I had trouble finding this room. The directions that were sent out were quite confusing." Miorine has to lead the Shin Sei engineers into a discussion on expectations regarding punctuality until the Peil engineers arrive around 13:11, looking oddly nervous. They're lead by her other Co-Lead of Engineering: one Kondo Tatsumi, a slight, dark-skinned fellow with straight black hair and narrow eyes.
Miorine kicks off the meeting. "I'm glad that everyone has finally arrived. Why don't we all introduce ourselves?"
"I'll start," says one of the Shin Sei engineers. "I'm Kraft Lawrence, and I have spent fifteen years working on the machine that your bosses at Peil tried to fucking scrap!" ...yeah, this has been an ongoing thing between the two teams. She does her best to defuse the brewing argument, even though everyone present (excepting Suletta) is between two and six times her age and clearly does not respect her.
"Alright," she says, after the introductions are done and over with, "let's start with the basics. This company exists because you all have made tremendous breakthroughs in solving the bioethical challenges of the GUND format," she says ignorantly, "and by combining our approaches we might able to bring something revolutionary into production. Prospera, could you start by giving us a high-level overview of how Aerial works?"
The woman just smiles. "With all due respect, I'd rather not discuss that around current or former Peil Technologies staff."
Miorine sighs. "And why not?"
"Well, as Lawrence pointed out, Peil Industries has made their intentions towards Shin Sei quite clear. I have, ah, concerns, about-"
"-you don't work for Shin Sei anymore. You work for me," Miorine interrupts. It's awkward as hell treating her own mother-in-law this way, but she's used to awkwardness around the Mercurys. "And need I remind you that Aerial is GUND-ARM, Inc, property? I'll let Kondo and his team pick the machine apart if I have to."
"Um, actually, I still own Aerial," Suletta says quietly, shrinking desperately into her chair. "I, I, I, I wouldn't want that."
Crap. Miorine remembers that clause from her contract with Shin Sei. Prospera had insisted that it was just a formality, had exhorted her to consider just how much Suletta's sister means to her, and by the time Miorine had realized what Prospera was trying to pull the contract had been signed and it was too fucking late. She tries and fails to enforce her will on the Shin Sei engineers, and then turns to the Peil team. "Kondo, why don't you be the adult in the room and tell us how the Pharact's interface works." Elan Ceres has apparently been piloting Peil gundams for some time, and he seems to be doing alright.
Kondo clears his through awkwardly. "That's, uh, well, that's- it's confidential," he stammers.
"Confidential?!? I bought Peil's gundam research, Kondo! I own the IP!"
He looks down. "Well, ma'am, you bought the materials that Peil sold you, yes."
"The contract with Peil very clearly says that we get all their gundam research. Surely you're not implying that they're in breach of contract?"
He says nothing.
Miorine takes a shot in the dark. "You know what? Why don't you all give Kondo and I a little space. Everyone out, please." Prospera started it, really.
After spending several minutes trying to enforce her will on her subordinates, Miorine successfully evicts everyone except Co-Lead of Engineering Kondo Tatsumi. "Well?"
He nervously chews on his thumb. "I, um, I think it would be best if I didn't tell. Best for both of us. Peil Technologies isn't- they don't- I've said too much, I should go."
Alright, it's time to start playing hardball. "Absolutely not, Kondo. If you leave you're fired."
"...just tell Peil's board that I said nothing. That's all I ask." And he walks out.
It occurs to Miorine Rembran, far too late, that she never really thought this venture through.