New Employee Handbook.

  Welcome to QFeed Incorporated! We are thrilled to have you join us. QFeed is the largest and most successful Quantum Data Transfer company in the known galaxy. The purpose of this guide is to help you understand our business, our culture and how we came into being. We look forward an amazing future with you!

  Excerpted With Permission

  QFeed Incorporated, “New Employee Handbook”

  Copyright 3260, QFeed Incorporated

  Leo sat at the big CEO disk that Craig had custom made for his office, head in his hands. The two weeks since the battle had been brutal for all the survivors. Too much work to do, the shock of the death and destruction, grieving for those they had lost. When Ramona had decided to accompany the Guard detachment back to Raeburn, Leo had just nodded, completely numb.

  It was only now that things were settling down and he had time to think that depression had begun to settle in. Craig was dead, Ramona had gone home, Ollu was off doing who knew what. For the first time in his life, Leo felt completely alone.

  As if summoned by those thoughts, Carol knocked gently on the door and let herself in. “Is there anything you need, Mister Timur?”

  Leo smiled sadly. “Carol, please just call me Leo, OK?”

  “I’m sorry, Mister Timur, that wouldn’t be correct. I could never address the CEO of the company by his first name! That wouldn’t be proper!”

  Leo shook his head. “Acting. I’m the Acting CEO.”

  Carol looked down at the paper in her hands.

  “Oh, did it come already?”

  She nodded and handed him the paper. Leo gave it a quick scan. Since Leo, Ramona and Ollu were the only surviving shareholders of QFeed, they were the only ones who got to vote on the succession after Craig’s death. Of course, Leo didn’t really want to be CEO but they all agreed he was the best choice. Because of the laws in UI, they had to officially register that change with the local polity. Their lawyer had assured Leo that this was “merely a formality” but in secret, Leo had hoped that their change in management structure would somehow not go through. The document in his hand told him that wild flight of fantasy was officially over. “That’s it then.”

  Carol came around the desk and put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Are you all right, Mr. Timur?”

  Leo patted her hand. She had been an amazing source of support and strength for Leo throughout the ordeal. It had seemed like Craig had picked her at random, but Craig had apparently vetted all his people very carefully. As he often liked to say, he knew people. “Yes, Carol. I am fine, thank you. This is all just a bit much for me. We all expected that Craig would run the company for many years to come.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Suddenly, Ollu burst into the room. “Leo! There is a trader ship entering the outer system.”

  He jumped up. “What!?! Is it armed?”

  Ollu handed him a pad with the details. “No, it’s a Data Ark.”

  Let glanced at the pad. “What the fuck!?! It’s the Connie!”

  Ollu looked confused.

  “My mother is the master trader on the Connie, remember?”

  Ollu shook her head. “I had forgotten. What the heck are they doing here? I assumed that the Guild would certainly ban UI.”

  “Perhaps the information hasn’t gotten out yet?”

  “And your mother just happens to show up two weeks after a battle where you personally destroyed the Guild?”

  Leo looked down at the pad again. “My mother, my father and as of the last time we spoke, my sister also.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Perhaps the Guild doesn’t know about the virus yet.”

  “Perhaps not, but what are they doing here?”

  Leo shook his head. He had no idea.

  Carol, practical as ever, moved one of the leather chairs over to Leo’s desk for Ollu who nodded her thanks. “Can I bring you two anything? Coffee?”

  “Oh God yes, Coffee for me.” Ollu looked like someone had tossed her an oxygen canister in vacuum. Leo just smiled and nodded. Carol was a rock.

  Moments after Carol had returned with coffee and then quietly retreated to her desk outside, Leo’s console blipped. “A priority message for me.”

  Ollu slurped her coffee. “The last one was so nice. Can’t wait for this one.”

  He started reading. “It’s from my mother.”

  Ollu sat up. “…. And …”

  “She wants to meet me.”

  “Business or personal?”

  “For my mother, there isn’t a difference. Ramona talked tactics with her father over the dinner table, my mother talked trading.” He shrugged. “My father really is the one who raised us. My mother was always clear that our purpose was to become masters and not embarrass the family.”

  “Oh, so this will be fun.”

  “Yeah.”

  Ollu took a couple more sips of coffee. “I don’t like the idea of a Guild ship in the inner system.”

  “This is my mother we are talking about.”

  “Setting aside her motives, is your family the only people on that ship?”

  “No, of course not.”

  Ollu just looked at him.

  “OK, right.” He started typing on the pad. “Can you do me a favor? Take a BR out there and get them for me? I think this is a face to face.” Ollu nodded and tossed back the rest of her coffee. “I’ll have them park out in belt two.”

  Ollu, already halfway out the door. “You mean in firing range of the defensive platforms?”

  “Yeah.”

  Ollu looked at Leo for a moment. “You’ve been hanging out with Ramona too much.”

  Leo smiled. “Is that a compliment?”

  “Not sure, Leo.. Not sure.”

  In the end, it took two full days to get the Connie into a parking orbit under the watchful gaze of several meteor based defensive platforms and to retrieve Leo’s family in a BR. Leo waited nervously outside the small boat dock, waiting for the BR to settle on it’s gear and the systems to safe. Finally, the last telltale by the door winked green and he walked into the large bay. After a few moments the door of the shuttle opened. There was a moment’s pause and his sister, father and finally his mother stepped out and onto the dock.

  Leo set is anxiety aside and smiled. He hadn’t seen his family for over two years and he had missed them. His father strode quickly towards Leo, grinning. Leo held out his hand for a shake but his father ignored the outstretched hand and enveloped him in a big bear hug. “Jesus Christ Leo, are you OK son?”

  Let almost started to cry right there in the bay. “I am now dad, I am now.”