PREDATORY PRACTICES
A Tech Infantry Novella
by
Edward Stasheff & Marcus Johnston
Copyright © 2011
Chapter 24: Executive Decision
"Heth! I'm pregnant!" Miu exclaimed, waving the positive test results at him. "Again!"
Oh, thank the stars! Heth thought. I wasn't sure I could keep this up for much longer!
He lay on a cushion covered in fur and blood, sporting a black eye, scratched face, bitten nose… and huge grin. "Wonderful news, precious!" He smiled at Miu as he sat up weakly, exhausted. "How many conceptions does that make?"
"Three! And in only five days!" Miu shot him a wicked fanged grin. "I'm impressed, Heth."
So am I, Heth thought, pleased with himself. With K'Nes only able to reproduce once every eleven years, nature compensated for the fallow period by K'Nes females bearing whole litters of up to a dozen cubs. With the mating season so short, once females began mating, they had a powerful biological drive to not stop until they'd achieved as many conceptions as possible in that brief window… there was a reason females were bigger and stronger! The number of pregnancies usually depended on how well their males could keep up with them… some even went so far as to include a performance bonus clause in their Articles of Procreation. Heth, the runt of his litter, was surprised by how well he was doing so far.
Thankfully, after each conception, females tended to calm down briefly. Why? No one knew for sure, but K'Nes physical anthropologists guessed the behavior might have evolved to give males a better chance to recuperate and survive the mating cycle. Although it was rare, males had been known to be… well… mated to death. This was only Heth's third chance to rest since the Avarice had left Purrfang for the Nhur system five days ago—and he needed it!
"So are you going to take a 'cat-nap,' then?" Miu chuckled.
Heth smiled at Miu's ironic use of the human expression. "No, I'm afraid not," he answered wearily, although he dearly wanted even a tiny twelve hours of sleep. "I've got work to do, deadlines to meet, and time is money." He found his datapad and reluctantly went back to work.
"I know what you mean," Miu agreed with a happy sigh, picking up her own datapad and checking her messages. "I pre-planned for a lengthy conception leave from MIRADI… but I still catch myself checking in with Aie whenever I've got a free moment. I just can't help it."
"I really must remember to eat this time…" Heth muttered, more to himself than his mate. He ran a paw over the scratches covering his body and the ugly scar in his side, a memento from his fight with McNeilly. "I should probably bathe too, I suppose."
"Really?" Miu grabbed a spray bottle of detergent and bounded over to him. "Mind if I join you?"
Sky Father above, this kitten will be the death of me! "Why of course, precious!" Heth answered. He took the bottle, sprayed a little non-toxic cleanser on his tongue, and began licking Miu's long white fur clean.
"So by work," Miu purred, taking the spray bottle from him, "I assume you mean preparing for the Executive Board meeting of the Nhur Llan?"
"Astute as ever, my dear," Heth answered with a sigh, enjoying the soothing lap of her tongue over his pelt. "Yes, I need to break the deadlock for appointing a new CEO of Miao Mercantile. Varrless isn't done with us yet, I guarantee it. It may take him a few days to realize McNeilly is missing—from what you overheard, it sounds like he usually wrecks Pirr's office during assassinations—and maybe another few days to realize the Miao are behind it. But when he does, he will retaliate—and our clan has to be ready to defend our corporation together, instead of the different prides fighting amongst ourselves for control of the company!"
"And just how do you plan to accomplish that at the meeting?" Miu asked, spraying more soap on her tongue. "You do have an business plan… don't you?"
"Well, the quickest way would be to throw in with one of the two major prides," Heth answered, "but Yawr carefully maintained a balance of power between them, and for a good reason. Infighting and power plays are bad for corporate efficiency and productivity. In a worst-case scenario, the disgruntled losing pride might even pull out their assets and spin off into a separate company." Heth paused for a moment, thoughtful. "Actually, that's probably what Varrless is hoping for."
"Obviously…" Miu paused in her lapping, thinking. "So what you need is an acting CEO who won't upset the balance of power between the two major prides—right?"
"Exactly. I've proposed promoting a neutral third party to acting CEO in Yawr's absence as the most efficient and profitable business solution," Heth answered. "The Executive Directors, while not thrilled, at least seem open to the possibility… if nothing else, it maintains the balance of power. No winners… but no losers, either. Besides, there's no point in a pride spinning off from the corporate clan when their pride might still get the majority share eventually. K'Nes are nothing if not patient."
"But that will only work if you can find a neutral party all five Executive Directors can agree on and approve," Miu said, instantly seeing the flaw in Heth's plan. "So who are you nominating as the new acting CEO?"
"That's the problem." Heth sighed. "Anyone with enough wealth, power, and experience to be eligible for the position already allied themselves with one of the major prides long ago—they had to, to get promoted as far as they have! I need to find an experienced administrator who's both unknown and unaligned—but there aren't very many to choose from, and I'm not sure any are qualified for the position. Getting the Executive Board to confirm even one of them will be a hard sell."
"Then appeal to their greed," Miu said. "Give them a financial incentive to approve someone—anyone—quickly."
Heth frowned. "I've thought about that, yes… but I don't think a simple bribe will work this time, Miu. Not with these K'Nes, not when the stakes are so high."
"That's… not quite what I meant," Miu replied, narrowing her eyes. "The Executive Directors are, by definition, Miao Mercantile's biggest shareholders," she answered. "So if you can increase the profitability of the whole company, you automatically increase their profits too, right?" She gave him a slow, mischievous smile. "And from what you've told me, none of them realize yet that their corporate clan recently acquired a new hypergate. Think of the leverage that gives you…"
Heth stared at her, his yellow eyes widening as the pieces fell together in his mind. "Of course!" he exclaimed, then grabbed Miu's face between his paws and licked her thoroughly. "Miu, you're brilliant!"
Miu smiled, pleased, and licked his face. "Well, you always said I was a good investment."
"The best!" Heth agreed. "You haven't stopped paying dividends since you came onboard!"
"Well, you owe me a lot of derivatives," she purred, running her claws lightly down his flank. "Three is a good start, but I expect more. Speaking of which…" She glanced down, then flashed him a wicked grin. "You seem to have another stimulus package for me."
"I can't help it!" Heth protested, but with a smile. "You always increase my inflation rate."
"And you have ambitious stretch goals," Miu purred, batting him in the nose. "Just what do you plan to do with your growth industry?"
"What else?" Heth grinned, running his claws through her long white fur and pulling her closer. "Invest it in your private sector, of course!"
"Oh, you will, will you?" Miu teased, pulling back. "What makes you think you can balance my ledgers?"
"Because I'm excellent at massaging the numbers…" Heth grinned. "And I use double-entry accounting!"
Miu growled in excitement, then pounced on Heth, pinning him to the ground and straddling him. "Then audit me—audit me NOW!" and everything after that was lost in purring and clawing and flying fur.
Unfortunately, before any assets could be liquidated, their merger was interrupted by knocking on their suite's hatch. The young couple ignored it at first—but their visitor was persistent. Finally Heth threw on a robe and angrily slapped the pressure patch to open the door.
"I said we were not to be disturbed until…" Heth's voice trailed off. Rameth, Narrah, and Kirrp the technomancer stood outside. One look at their faces told Heth that something was very wrong.
"What?" Heth asked. "What is it? What's happened?"
"The Engineering Administrator finally cracked the encryption on McNeilly's datapad," Rameth said with a grave voice.
"But that's good news," Heth said, mildly confused. "Did you find out what he and Varrless were up to?"
"Aye." Rameth nodded. "And it's serious. Very serious." He held out a datapad. "You need to read this."
"So how did you finally hack it?" Heth asked as he took the datapad and looked over the open text file.
"Uh… actually, it was your mate who figured it out," Rameth confessed.
Heth spun around to look at Miu in surprise. "You did? How? When?"
"While you were recuperating from the first conception, precious," Miu answered as she slipped into her own robe. When Heth merely stared at her in dumbfounded silence, she shrugged. "What? I was bored."
"So you decided to crack a Horadrim encryption algorithm to pass the time?" he asked, incredulous.
"Time is money," she answered—then, for a moment, her lovely face darkened as she narrowed her blue eyes. "That, and I do have an account to settle with that rat Varrless, you know. Intercepting the plans with his Horadrim co-conspirator seemed like a good first step toward closing out that account—permanently."
Heth forced his fur not to bristle, and for an instant almost pitied Varrless—he had no idea what kind of ruthless, cutthroat competition he'd unleashed in Miu by betraying her. Heth had been on Miu's bad side before, and it wasn't pleasant. He shook his head in wonder, then turned back to the datapad and continued reading the file. "You never cease to amaze me, my dear."
The compliment seemed to calm her a bit as she slinked up next to him. "I also didn't exactly crack the encryption—not really," she admitted. "I just… found a way around it."
"The digital security was pretty massive," Rameth explained. "My Engineering Administrator said if we tried to hack it, there was a good chance it might delete all the data as a final countermeasure. But then Miu figured out the encryption was unlocked by a Horadrim's Soul Web—in this case, the one keyed specifically to McNeilly's DNA."
"And MIRADI already had a sample of McNeilly's blood and his Soul Web nanobots in our labs," Miu added.
"Aye." Rameth nodded, braided mane undulating. "So we just waited until the Avarice passed through the Urrin system, stopped long enough to pick up the sample, and… it unlocked everything. Gave us full access."
But Heth was no longer listening. He stared in horror at the datapad, aghast at the details of the contract he was reading. He wished it wasn't true… but knew it was. "Sky Father above… If this contract is genuine…"
"It is," Narrah growled, "signed by Varrless and Emperor Vin Dane himself, with the blood signatures to prove it."
"What does it say?" Miu asked, suddenly concerned as she looked over Heth's shoulder at the contract.
Heth tried to summarize the complicated treaty. "Well, there are many conditions and caveats, such as burying Impossibarium… but basically? In exchange for Varrless bringing the K'Nes Llan into the Holy Terran Empire, Vin Dane will award Pirr the title of Duke Varrless… and grant him all six K'Nes planets as his fiefdom."
"In other words," Narrah growled, cybernetic tail twitching angrily, "the entire K'Nes Llan becomes his personal property. No Executive Board, no Board of Directors, no shareholders votes. Just Varrless and the Emperor."
"But… why?!" Kirrp burst out, confused and frustrated. "Why would he do it? Why surrender to the apes? We just got rid of them! And they wrecked our economy—the Occupation was a horrible time to do business!"
"Not for Varrless Financial," Narrah hissed. "Those clawless rats started collaborating with the apes before the war was even over—and got lots of exclusive government contracts with the Federation because of it. The Varrless clan made tons of money during the Occupation!" he spat bitterly. "Pirr probably sees this as a return to the 'good old days.' I suspect he found old Chairman Clarke's autocratic management style very… efficient."
"Well, it hasn't happened yet!" Heth reminded them fiercely. Beside him, he felt more that saw Miu raise a paw to her belly, and knew they were both thinking of their cubs within her, of having to raise them under another human occupation of nobles and cultists… I can't let that happen… "There's still time to stop this—somehow! How far has their scheme gone? How much do we know?"
"We learned a lot from McNeilly's files, boss," Rameth said. "They had a business plan and a timetable for unifying with the Empire. Originally, Varrless was going to do it gradually through the Board of Directors. Y'know, starting off with Non-Aggression Contracts with the Ministry and Jurvain, then an alliance with the Empire, then a trade embargo against the Federation, stuff like that. Apparently everything went according to plan until the Ministry unified with the Federation. That derailed Varrless's agenda. Without a big, neutral Ministry buffer state between the Federation and the K'Nes Llan, the Executive Board got nervous about antagonizing Smythe—especially since the K'Nes hadn't rearmed yet—and pushed for neutrality instead."
Heth nodded, remembering his negotiation with Varrless weeks ago over the Federation's non-aggression contract, how Pirr had opposed it and pushed for an alliance with the fledgling Empire instead. It had seemed like an odd preference at the time; it made much more sense now.
"A bigger Federation also made the war more desperate for the Empire," Narrah continued, "so now Emperor Vin Dane wants the K'Nes to open a second front against the Federation to take some pressure off the Empire."
"A war with the Federation is the last thing the K'Nes Llan needs right now!" Miu exclaimed, exasperated.
"At any rate," Narrah continued, "from what we can tell from Pirr and McNeilly's correspondence, they've begun taking a more… direct approach to achieve their goals recently."
"Like making Yawr and Miu disappear," Heth said, "along with his other political opponents, presumably."
"I'm afraid that was just the beginning, boss," Rameth said, shaking his head with a swirl of black braids. "Varrless is planning to openly unify with the Empire. We're not sure when… but soon, very soon."
"Well, then we refuse to join!" Heth scratched behind his ear nervously, thinking. "Look, quite simply, this is an illegal contract. According to the K'Nes Llan Articles of Incorporation, diplomatic treaties—like unifying with the Empire—must be approved by the Board of Directors. This contract is simply… unenforceable!"
"Anything is enforceable," Narrah said, "with enough boots on the ground and ships in the sky."
Heth's eyes widened in shock at the idea. "A military coup?! He wouldn't…"
"Varrless is clearly planning a hostile takeover of the K'Nes Llan," Narrah snarled, "by force, if necessary."
"Force? What force? A corporate security team?" Miu scoffed. "The K'Nes Llan has no war fleet, and as for the Llan Army… is there even a Llan Army?"
"Not an official one," Narrah growled. "Varrless proposed quickly cobbling together a Llan Army by subcontracting it out to the new private mercenary companies that have formed since the Human Occupation ended—but the K'Nes Llan Executive Board voted down funding for it, said that approach was too expensive, inefficient, and disorganized."
"Not to mention unreliable," Rameth added, "given that mercenaries sell their loyalty to the highest bidder."
"Some of those private mercenary companies are run by former colleagues of mine from our old Tor Army days." The old hunter's face darkened even more. "They tell me Varrless went ahead and hired them anyway—he simply had Varrless Financial pay for them instead of the K'Nes Llan. Said it was a temporary stopgap measure until an official Llan Army could be formed. Apparently the K'Nes Llan Executive Board went along with it because it saved them money… and was better than nothing."
Everyone stared at Narrah for a moment, stunned. Finally Kirrp spoke, her voice trembling. "You mean… Varrless has a mercenary army loyal to—"
"Varrless Financial." Narrah nodded. "Not the K'Nes Llan."
Silence reigned for moment as everyone absorbed that. "Do…" Heth asked hesitantly, "do you think they'll actually follow Varrless order for a hostile takeover of the K'Nes Llan?"
Narrah sighed and shook his head. "The mercenary company chiefs signed contracts, boss. Maybe a few will break them and refuse to follow orders… but definitely not all of them. And it gets worse." He pointed a claw at Imperial contract in Heth's paws. "According to the Varrless's contract with Emperor Vin Dane, if the mercenary companies refuse to fight—or even if they do, but meet too much resistance from the population—the Empire will move in to support Varrless's takeover."
"Support him? How?" Miu scoffed. "The Empire's on the other side of the known galaxy, and the Federation is between them and us! They'd have to fight their way through a lot of enemy territory just to reach the K'Nes Llan."
"That's, uh… not entirely true," Rameth said with a scowl.
All eyes turned to the old spacer. "Explain," Heth demanded.
"Horadrim ships," Rameth said, looking miserable. "Emperor Vin Dane is a Horadrim, after all. I'm sure he's got a few Horadrim warships in his inventory."
The other K'Nes exchanged confused glances. Rameth may have been a former Tor Navy manger and a spacefaring expert—but none of them were. "So?" Miu asked. "They're still on the other side of the known galaxy."
"Not for long," Rameth replied, shaking his shaggy head. "Horadrim ships are fast! They have some kind of super-advanced propulsion systems called a 'tunnel drive'." He spread his paws. "Look, I don't know how they work—no one does—but according to rumor, they bypass hyperspace altogether, and just sorta… teleport from place to place." He paused, narrowing his eyes, then shook his head again. "Well, I know they don't really teleport, that's just what it looks like… but I don't know how else to describe it."
"How long would it take a Horadrim warship to reach the K'Nes Llan?" Narrah demanded.
Rameth shrugged. "No knows for sure—the Horadrim are real protective of their technology. Could be days, could be minutes. And the worst part?" He pointed at the datapad in Heth's paws. "According to McNeilly's files, at least one Horadrim warship—McNeilly's ship—is already here, hiding out somewhere in K'Nes space. And when McNeilly's crew figure out what we did to him, they're not gonna be happy."
"Just one ship?" Miu asked, puzzled. "How much of a threat can that be?"
"Any warship in orbit over a populated planet can do serious damage—and a Horadrim warship? Those things are… terrifying." Rameth shivered as his fur bristled. "They call 'em 'god-ships' for a reason, you know. Besides, what are we gonna fight it with—freighters? The K'Nes haven't rebuilt our war fleet yet."
"It sounds like Varrless has all the competitive advantages," Kirrp said, sounding dismayed, "and the K'Nes Llan doesn’t have any of the resources it needs to complete with him. Personally, I'd say to run—but I'm not sure there's anywhere in the known galaxy that's safe to go!" She hesitated. "Maybe we should just use our inside knowledge to negotiate for a good position in the new regime…?" Her voice trailed off as the other K'Nes shook their heads and Narrah let out a low growl.
"It'll be the Occupation all over again!" Rameth hissed.
"Monopoly power will ruin the free market!" Miu spat.
"The K'Nes Llan must remain a self-regulatory organization!" Heth insisted. "And the only way to guarantee that is to prevent this merger with the Empire! No, we have to find a way to stop Varrless—and soon."
"But how can we?" Kirrp yowled. "We're talking about Chairmen and LEOs and Emperors here, who control fleets and armies and whole economies! How can we possibly stop people with that kind of power?"
"By being proactive," Heth answered, his voice firm. "Once Varrless launches his takeover, it'll be too late to stop it. But if we can oust him before he puts his business plan into action, we might have a chance—especially since eliminating McNeilly probably threw off Varrless's timetable."
"That's a good idea… in theory," Miu replied, skeptical. "But how, in practice, can we remove a sitting LEO of the K'Nes Llan on such short notice?"
"To begin with," Heth said slowly, thinking, "we can get on the K'Nes Llan Board of Directors… or at least I can." He looked up at the K'Nes surrounding him. "I'm going to need your help with my presentation to the Nhur Llan Executive Board."
A day later, Heth stopped outside the door to the Executive Boardroom of the Nhur Llan, fumbling nervously for his snuffbox. Even through the closed door, they could hear the Executive Directors roaring and hissing. The meeting hadn't even officially started, and already negotiations were in full swing… and breaking down. Heth sniffed a tiny pinch of nepeta, then looked over his shoulder at Miu and Narrah. They nodded at him, ready. They'd rehearsed Heth's presentation hastily but thoroughly, and knew their roles well. Time for the attention getter, then, Heth thought. "Suit, armor!" His waistcoat morphed into a breastplate as Narrah snapped to attention and Miu wrapped an arm around Heth's shoulders and her tail around his waist, purring. Then he hit the pressure patch to open the door and strolled into the boardroom.
"Don't worry, my treasure," Heth said in a deep stage whisper, just loud enough to be heard. "This shouldn't take long, and then we can get back to our merger."
"Excellent!" Miu whispered back (loudly) with a smile. "I can't wait!" She rested a paw on Heth's cheek and licked his battered face quickly but thoroughly, scratching Heth's cheek with her claws as she turned away.
Heth heard the arguing quiet down as male noses twitched and eyes turned toward the young white kitten in a tight business suit. Both males in the room—even M'Grrah, the elderly new First Patriarch of the Miao—turned to gaze at Miu. Of the two female Directors, the older Frrou, the new head of the Nhur Llan, looked coldly amused, while the younger Aou shot a venomous glare at Miu and growled under her breath.
Then the Executive Directors noticed the runt in power armor… and the old scar-faced thug behind him.
"Who the scat are you?" Frrou demanded.
"Miao K'Rrowr K'Heth," Heth said, cowering politely as he sauntered up to the negotiating table. "I apologize for my absence—I came home as soon as I could, but my last contract took me halfway across the known galaxy."
Turr, a plump orange tabby, blinked in disbelief. "You're the fifth Executive Director?"
Frrou's eyes narrowed in suspicion, tail swishing pensively. "And who are your… associates, then?"
Heth turned to Miu, grinning. "May I introduce Prurr K'Aou K'Miu, my contracted mate and CEO of Miao Mercantile's newest subsidiary, MIRADI." He paused long enough for Miu to drop a quick cower to the Executive Directors. "She's graciously agreed to assist me in presentation to the Board. And this…" He turned and held a paw out to Narrah. "…is Rror K'Gurr K'Narrah, my bodyguard." He threw an apologetic look at the Executive Directors. "I told him it wasn't necessary to escort me, but I'm afraid he takes his job rather seriously."
"Narrah?" The elderly M'Grrah squinted at the battle-scarred old solider. "Tor Chief Narrah?"
"Just Manager Narrah now," the old cat replied, cowering politely, "of the Miao Mercantile Mercenary Company."
Turr turned to other Executive Directors, dumbfounded. "We have a mercenary company?"
"We do now," Heth answered, hopping up onto the only empty perch at the negotiating table. "I had to assemble rather suddenly, at Yawr's request, for a confidential contract with the Earth Federation. I'm happy to report that our first engagement was successful—and lucrative! I've received confirmation from Chairman Smythe that the hypergate has been moved into orbit."
"Hypergate?" Frrou asked, confused. "What hypergate?"
"The Nhur-Andersvald hypergate," Heth replied. He paused for a moment to let that sink in. The Executive Directors stared at him silently with wide eyes. Everyone in that boardroom understood exactly how vital rebuilding the commercial hyperspace lane was to reversing the economic woes of their home planet and corporate clan. "Yawr, I understand," Heth continued, "was keeping the contract a Miao trade secret until the deal was completed. You see, in exchange for extracting Federation loyalists from an Imperial siege on Cronos—which I did successfully, I might add—Smythe moved the Federation's defunct Phoenix-Avalon hypergate into orbit in the Andersvald system. Now that we can finally take this news public, I imagine stock prices for both the Nhur Llan and Miao Mercantile will see a considerable rise in value. If we handle our assets carefully, we might even be able to beat out Gurrmew & Yeomurt LLP for a seat on the Executive Board of the K'Nes Llan."
Around the table, the Executive Directors stared at Heth speechlessly, delighted but overwhelmed by the torrent of new information. Turr turned to Frrou, incredulous. "We have a mercenary company? Really?"
"Now, according to the contract," Heth continued, "Miao Mercantile is responsible for rebuilding the hypergate on the Nhur side—it's only fair, considering we ripped the old one apart to build the gravity drives for our super-freighters." He sighed. "Unfortunately, constructing a hypergate is a very expensive proposition. Miu?"
Miu had already connected her datapad wirelessly to the holoprojector in the center of the boardroom table. As she tapped a claw on her pad, the image of an itemized quote appeared floating over the tabletop. "This is our latest estimate of the hypergate construction cost," she explained. Around the room, eyes widened and jaws dropped at the staggering expense. "Unfortunately, as you can see," Miu continued, "the price of certain components on the galactic market has been driven up due to the economic disruption caused by the ape's wars."
"It's a significant investment, no doubt," Heth said, "but still well within reach of Miao Mercantile's assets—and with an excellent rate of return! The faster we get it built, the faster the money will start pouring in."
Miu tapped her pad again and different chart popped up on the holoprojector. "This is our initial ten-year profit projection," she said. The Executive Director's eyes widened again, but this time for a very different reason.
"This is all assuming, of course, that Miao Mercantile stays intact," Heth added. "If rival prides spin off into separate companies, none of them will have the enough capital to build a hypergate." He narrowed his eyes and glared at the other Executive Directors. "Let me be clear: It is in the interest of everyone's portfolio for Miao Mercantile to stay intact and coordinate our resources toward a joint investment." Heth folded his paws on the table. "Now, I understand our best chance of doing that is to retain the balance of power within the clan by appointing a neutral Miao as acting CEO of the company, one not aligned with either of the two major prides." Heth sighed. "Unfortunately, despite exhaustive research, I haven't had much luck in finding a qualified candidate who meets that criteria. Do any of you have a suggestion?"
Once again, the shareholders stared at Heth silently. Frrou turned to Turr, hissing, "Who is this K'Nes?"
Turr poked at his datapad. "A K'Rrowr… a minor pride of a cadet branch of the clan… Junior Director of Transit, then Senior Director of… Human Operations?" He looked up at Frrou, bewildered. "He's… nobody!"
Frrou bared her fangs at Heth in a predator's grin. "He's perfect!"
Inwardly, Heth smiled in satisfaction. Outwardly, he kept his face innocent. "Perfect for what, exactly?"
Heth and Miu collapsed into the cushion, panting, bleeding, and blissful. It took Heth a moment to recover. "I wish I could always celebrate a promotion like this," he sighed. "Talk about an incentive to perform!"
Miu curled up around Heth. "Well, it looks like I entered into a reproductive partnership with the CEO of major corporate clan after all," she purred, still panting, "and I much prefer you to the CEO of Varrless Financial!"
Heth grinned. He loved hearing her say stuff like that. "Yes, well… it's still a downgrade for you, I'm afraid," he teased her. "Pirr was LEO of the K'Nes Llan, after all. I can't claim a title nearly that illustrious."
"You also didn't try to have me killed for power and profit," she reminded him. "I consider that an upgrade, thank you very much." She nuzzled up against him and gave his neck a quick, reassuring lick. "Besides, Miao Mercantile may not be on the K'Nes Llan Executive Board, but it is on the Board of Directors. And, since it holds the most K'Nes Llan shares among the lesser shareholders, that makes you Chair of the K'Nes Llan Board of Directors—in addition to CEO of Miao Mercantile. That's not exactly something to sniff at, Heth."
Heth shrugged. "It comes with the job. I only hope I'm a worthy successor to Yawr," he said, exhausted, aching, and euphoric. "I just got lucky at the Miao Executive Board meeting, I suppose. I wasn't sure our plan would work."
"Oh, I knew it would," Miu said. She held up a paw and began ticking items off on her claws. "Let's see… you show up in power armor with a war hero as your personal bodyguard and a beautiful young kitten on your arm who you've clearly just mated. Then you announce a contract you've negotiated with one of the most powerful apes in the galaxy for a hypergate that will drastically improve the entire clan's profits. And finally, of course, there was the implication that you had a battle-proven mercenary company under your personal control."
"Yes, a little fear does lead to more favorable terms," Heth mused, "as long as it's not taken as a threat."
"So," Miu said, "you entered the boardroom and established yourself as dominant male within seconds."
"Yes… yes, I suppose I did, didn't I?" Heth said, sounding mildly surprised with himself. "I guess I hadn't quite thought of it that way…"
"Well, I did." Miu gave Heth a lecherous fanged grin—then her tail whipped around Heth's throat and yanked him over on top of her. "And I have to admit… I like it!" Her claws began digging into Heth's fur.
He wasn't sure he had the stamina for another round so soon… but it simply wasn't polite to keep the lady waiting. Besides, Miu wasn't the type of person who took no for an answer.
TO BE CONTINUED…
