Deep Space Epoch

Returning to CTHQ after his business travel, Ivan was first greeted by Iris, standing outside of a makeshift segmented ring-shaped subspace dock that was beginning to form around the centre of the Celestial's growing city. All subspace ships in the future would be docked here when they were not being used.

Iris smiled calmly as she said, "Welcome back dear, you have a meeting with the new board of directors, they have been waiting for the past half an hour."

"You chose more senior executives?" Ivan asked with a stony expression.

"Of course. I wish to head out myself next time."

"How are their quality?"

"Hand chosen out of every possible person. Their quality is assured as nothing but the best."

"Good. Well, they've already waited half an hour, they can wait a little longer, follow me back to my office first."

Iris was a bit confused on Ivan's intentions, but still acquiesced without questioning him. The passengers of the Kraken, although less than when the ship departed on its journey, all flew out on after another and began checking in with an employee there to check attendance before assigning each person their next roles.

Ivan even ensured he kicked Flintlock out with the guards to go patrol the surroundings and maintain contact with the nearby beasts.

Entering his Presidential office, Ivan pulled Iris over and sat her on his desk before kissing her, rummaging about her mouth with his tongue.

Iris slowly closed her eyes and allowed Ivan to do as he will with her. She snaked her arms around him and held him close to her. When Ivan pulled on her clothing and nearly tore it open, she twisted her body around in concert with his movements, her clothing loosening up and nearly completely fell off.

Her underwear slipped off and Ivan grabbed on to her supple breasts, during which Iris responded in lieu and removed his pants.

Iris pressed the button on Ivan's desk to darken the glass wall viewing the hallway just before he thrust inside of her. Her fox tail wrapped around Ivan's waist, pulling him into herself as she tried to take the initiative.

Ivan turned seemed especially fiery today as he turned her over and pressed her face down against the desk before continuing. Iris was moaning to loud that neither she nor Ivan noticed when Valeria walked in, standing against the wall while waiting for them to finish.

"Valeria!?" Iris called out in shock and astonishment as soon as she turned around. "How long have you been here?"

"About ten minutes, several senior executives came to me to see when Ivan would be showing up for a meeting they had scheduled."

Valeria responded immediately, unfazed by Iris' embarrassment.

Unable to watch the awkward interaction between the two, Ivan pitched in. "I'll be there in ten minutes, tell them to wait."

"Understood,"

Valeria left the office and Iris had trouble composing herself as she asked, "Do you mind telling me what that was about just now? You usually aren't that passionate."

"I will have to introduce you to Lanise," Ivan sighed exhaustively as he continued. "She holds extremely patriotic views, and in conjunction to that, equally heavy discriminatory views to three-dimensional being. It's a lot more than the usual case."

"But that doesn't explain why you are like this."

"I've been helping her redirect her subjective views, and its not like I didn't expect her to develop a more favourable liking toward me. I just didn't expect that… it would be as extreme as all her other thoughts."

"It sounds like you have quite the fan," Iris couldn't help but chuckling.

"Please, I have the guards keep her at bay, but when she I deal with her personally, I end up having to physically hold her back."

"You seem to enjoy it."

Iris's was slyly grinning as she sat across Ivan's lap, at which point Ivan simply exhaustively shook his head.

"What man wouldn't enjoy a beautiful woman demanding their attention and affection. The problem is that giving her that portrays an extremely bad example to the rest of the Celestials. I must remain someone they all look up to but are unable to touch. If I lose myself in indulgence, I will easily fall off the throne."

Iris thought about the situation before nodding her head in understanding.

"Furthermore, to have to fend her off every day, my tension kept building up. I almost had to have Valeria help me relieve the tension.

"She wouldn't reject you, dear."

"I know, but I wouldn't want to take her unless she wanted me to. She missed out on several years of brain development due to being too young when undergoing the Celestial transformation process, so she may never consider those feelings. Wanting something and not rejecting something are two very different things."

"Sigh, fine, but I wouldn't be against it, you know."

Ivan looked at Iris like she was an alien, at which Iris quipped, "I know how you have the practice of one wife, but I come from a culture that powerful men often have more than one wife. Here, we have two words for it – main wife and concubine. Alternatively in the case of a powerful woman-"

"I get it," Ivan cut her off with a sigh. "How could I forget you come from a feudalistic society. It is indeed a cultural thing, but that doesn't make it any easier to accept."

"It's fine, just don't forget the difference between a main wife and a concubine."

Iris placed a heavy emphasis on the words 'main wife'.

"Shouldn't you be getting to your meeting now, Mr. President?"

"Indeed. You're forgetting you will be joining me so hurry and straighten yourself up. Although you acted as interim president whilst I was gone, you are still my personal secretary and it is your job to write down the minutes."

"Can't I pass on it? I know nothing about that," Iris complained meekly, appealing to Ivan's protective side.

"You'll pick it up fast enough."

Ivan kissed Iris one more time before kicking her off his lap and heading toward the business meeting. Meanwhile, engineers and programming experts elsewhere in the galaxy were scratching their head in confusion.

*****

Within a research department of Northern Star Mining Co, a team of individuals were working diligently.

"How is this possible!?" A short engineer who scratched his bald gray head shouted in frustration.

"Calm down, Zepl-Q. What is it this time?"

"What is it!? Have a look and your tell me what it is!?" Zepl-Q threw his arms up in the air and storm off.

The other engineer walked over and was dumbfounded by what he found. The SubNet Tablet they were researching was at its final stages of testing.

The engineers and programmers' first surprise that no matter how hard they tried to isolate the device, it could always continue to connect to the SubNet as the device called it. Their second was that it was truly unhackable, unless you gave your device to another person and told them all your passwords.

Surprises continued to come as the material the device was made from was harder than any known matter in the universe and had seemingly unlimited energy. There was several such cases which befuddled everyone involved, who could only come up with conclusions based on the fact the device was produced with a new technology.

What caused this current engineer to give up was that after expending a week of effort with a fusion powered atomic splitter, he final cut the device open. His frustration lied in firstly the fact that despite cutting it in two, the two pieces seemed to be mysteriously joined and couldn't be separated, while secondly, looking closely revealed the entire inside of the device was solid metal.

This particular scene occurred at various locations all across the galaxy, from the powerful syndicate leaders assessing the security of the device, to those who were planning on making knockoff devices to take advantage of the new and exclusive network.

The only individual who had any idea what the SubNet Tablet was, was Everal Argentear.

"Truly intriguing," Everal stated with a sinister glint in his eye, a thorough report on the device was on his desk along with a SubNet Tablet he had a proxy purchase immediately and send with the fastest shipping possible.

"The SubNet is very basic, but it has all the necessities. Especially for building a business it is an intriguing platform. Stores selling goods all over Delta Quadrant began opening up under various pseudonyms. There appears to be some syndicates and not so legal corporations also opening these stores, but there truly is no information to link the two. Even if I know who is behind one of these stores, not even I can prove it."

Everal began filling out a template business registration and connecting it to an offshore account.

"As they say, those who arrive first, finish first."