Grand opening

I'm not entirely sure how they managed to acquire the installation, or from whom, but I have to say they did a nice job with it. Though, to be honest, I'd have thought the Companion's Guild, or whoever's actually behind the place, would have wanted a location a bit closer to the main trade lanes. Hale's Moon is anything but. Though I suppose if you wanted to take a surplus block-sized grav lifter and put it under a medium sized apartment block, there were worse places to do it.

Who was I kidding? If you had one of those things you'd be using it to build a floating estate on a world that could actually appreciate such a thing. Out here on the Rim, it was just technological overkill. A platform that would leave the locals scratching their heads wondering why such a thing would be here, of all places.

Not that it wasn't the spiffiest place on, or just over, Hale's Moon. It traveled, albeit slowly, over a section of our Outback regions. Technically, it was subject to the Colonial Government. But, being more vehicle than homestead, it fell under a different set of governing parameters. Unless they drove it within, say, fifty clicks of the colony proper, the Alliance force would probably leave them alone.

Probably.

There was no guarantee that they'd leave the installation alone, though, given their recent stance on 'corporate assets' and the simple fact that the 'anonymous donor' must have had considerable resources, it stood to reason that they would try not to annoy the benefactor. A soldier never knew when some politician would take offense to the job they were paid to do, so there were times you trod with care.

Working in our favor, it looked like Owl would be taking over as the place's on-site manager. She wasn't a Companion. Or a whore. She was a spook. Or had been, when we'd worked together in days gone by. It had been a complicated relationship. Sometimes at odds. Sometimes working towards common ends. Rarely on a simple assignment.

I think she holds her memories of those Ops more fondly than I do. I was a different person then. The Ice Queen. I'd done the operations with a kind of clinical detachment, not really involved in the emotional flow of the people around me. In some ways, it had been a blessing. The detachment meant I didn't have any personal involvement with the lives I was tangling with, or the outcomes of the Op. I went in. Did the job. Left. Move on to the next assignment, wherever it might be. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

We'd come out of it something like friends. Not exactly close, but we'd established a professional relationship that worked for us. It still did. Her taking on Management of the roving Companion Hotel would put her right in the middle of an Intel rich environment and would give me a known asset in a valuable position. I would have to make it worth her while, but that went without saying. We were spooks. We knew how the game was played.

Lily'd assembled a rather lavish shindig for the floating hotel's grand opening and, to be very honest, I was proud of her. While I hadn't been entirely comfortable in the party environment, it had been a bright spot to take my mind off the political situation on the ground. And there were some good people to mix and mingle with. Even saw Reese in finery, and Krenshar put on "the good skin." So to speak.

There are some high hopes for the place.

I hope they come to fruition.

Home to tradition
Companions float in the sky
Arid rocks below