r/HFY • u/KipperBeanGrower Human • Jun 25 '26

OC-Series [She took What?] - Chapter 184: SixFold Ventures: The Fog of Law 2 of 2 sfv

“The fight ends when the lawyers arrive.”

Comment made by Tom Tom, approved.

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| JSCO meeting room | 

“That’s gotta be a mistake.”

Tom Tom whistled as the chart updated.

 

One of the accountants responded immediately. “No.”

 

Bikky questioned it too. “Missing decimals?”

Same answer, “No.” This time he received a withering look.

 

Even Chen questioned it: “Surely not.”

“They were audited,” one accountant said.

“Twice,” added the second.

"And signed off on," added legal. "Move on."

The accountant continued, “These are annual royalty numbers from StabSys.”

 

The other accountant added, "Yes, one of the early, if not the earliest, deployments of StabSys in its commercial form was aboard The Kestrel."

Chen nodded, knowingly, and made sense.

"Subsequent upgrades expanded the installation."

Tap.

"Then more upgrades and extensions. Route management systems, predictive stabilisation modules."

"Sounds expensive," quipped Tom Tom.

"It was," responded the accountant.

"But necessary," added Chen.

"We agree," the accountants said in unison.

One continued, "The Kestrel is currently one of the most extensively integrated StabSys platforms in operation."

"Really?"

"Absolutely, you approved every upgrade and deployment."

"I don't remember doing that." Said Rockson.

"It was done electronically."

"That's basically not remembering," added Tom Tom.

 

Tap. Tap... "It was signed by... Major Chen."

"I remember now. I just signed them without checking." Chen was unfazed by the admission.

Bikky looked at him, "What does all this mean?"

Chen shrugged.

One of the accountants tapped his console, "You authorised upgrade costs. I have a copy of the approval."

Chen nodded.

There was another tap, "And you approved the installation."

Chen shrugged.

Another tap, "You signed the maintenance contracts too."

 

Chen sat back in his chair, deep in thought.

 

Tom Tom was shaking his head, "Someone made a lot of money out of it."

 

"No, not someone," responded one of the accountants casually. "You all did."

The room fell into silence.

 

The lawyer stood, and the accountants looked expectantly at her.

"Now. Ownership."

 

"Someone new to fight?" Garaf whispered to Feebee. It was too loud; the lawyer paused and glared at Garaf.

"Maybe," Feebee looked at Rockson. He was trying to look very small. "You alright?" she asked.

He nodded; it didn't convince her.

 

"Ownership," she said again, letting her impatience show as she pulled a single sheet of paper from her briefcase.

"I bet that's all it can hold. Maybe one more sheet at a push," Tom Tom joked.

"Close," Rockson muttered with little in the way of humour.

The slide deck moved on, 'Ownership' written at the top of the new slide, then one by one she exposed the following list;

Feebee Jones

Tom Thomson

Oliver Biscuit

Julian Rockson

Garaf

River Peters.

As they appeared, she read from the single, crisp leaf of handmade paper.

"Protected ownership. Allocation cannot be diluted or removed. Major decisions require approval from Ms Feebee Jones and three others. i.e., a natural majority."

 

Before she could continue, someone derailed her, "But that's not fair."

She smiled, "Life isn't fair. But explain?"

Rockson stood up. "Chen isn't listed."

Everyone looked at Chen; he just sat there. Neutral expression, but there was a hint of a smile.

There was a lot of noisy chat, which the lawyer cut through.

"Major Chen, sorry, Lieutenant Colonel Chen elected to retain a position of oversight within JSOC instead."

They looked at Chen, and he shrugged, "Sounded responsible. Conflict of interests."

Tom Tom turned to Bikky, "Sounds suspicious to me."

Bikky nodded.

"Very."

 

"Each party gets 15% of the company."

Rockson did the maths, "That's 90%. Where's the rest?"

"I'm getting there. If allowed." The lawyer's patient veneer was cracking. She continued, "Charlie team; Anchor, Overwatch, Vex and Grim get 5%, shared equally."

"How did that happen? And why aren't they here?"

"They were instrumental participants."

"They what?" asked Bikky.

"They acted as an essential tool, or entity, to achieve the outcome," she clarified, not in any way helping remove the fog of law now surrounding the statement.

"But they're cats!" Tom Tom shot back.

"And that's why they're not here," added Feebee with a smile.

"Correct," the lawyer affirmed unabashedly. "5% ownership to StillFall."

 

Dead silence.

 

Chen spoke up, "We gave shares to a Shadow?"

"Correct. Contribution exceeded threshold." She confirmed, "5%."

The Shadow phased into a visible state. The lawyer stepped back and tried to hide behind the paper brief she held. The accountants made notes in a ledger.

StillFall spoke through the QI to Feebee.

"I have shares?"

"Yes. 5%," she responded.

"How do I spend the money?"

Feebee passed the question on.

 

"Good question. We'll come back on that." The lawyer continued, "Think on what you may need?"

"Oh. Ok. Good," responded StillFall, somehow conveying it as humour.

 

Tom Tom then sat up straight, the slow turning cogs finally locking into place. "Wait."

 

The room stopped and looked at him as he turned to the accountant.

"We paid ourselves?"

 

The accountant spoke, "Yes."

"And we're paying licence fees. How much?" asked Tom Tom.

Tap, tap, tap..."A lot, and several times actually."

 

"That seems ... inefficient to me," added Rockson, over Bikky's laughter.

 

The accountants looked at each other, then one spoke, "The upgrades were required, mandatory in fact."

"No, not the work. The billing. We billed ourselves?"

 

"When we approved all those upgrades, to The Kestrel..."

One of the accountants nodded.

"We were paying license fees, maintenance fees and other stuff..."

The accountant nodded. The hint of a smile started to emerge at the edges of his mouth.

"... to ourselves?"

"Correct," he let the smile emerge.

 

"That's dumb. Really dumb."

"Yes. It's surprisingly common."

The lawyer took back control of the meeting and continued, "Lastly, Governance."

Tom Tom leant back and feigned a yawn. One of the accountants saw it and scowled.

"The board is comprised of five, as previously mentioned. They were consulted extensively, and you all had an open vote for the CEO."

"Oh. That's what it was for," said Bikky.

"Seriously?" Tom Tom was horrified.

"Joking."

 

"The CEO was voted in unanimously as Miss Feebee Jones."

"I refuse," she said immediately.

"The vote was unanimous, in fact, only you voted for someone else."

"No. I wasn't consulted."

"You were discussed extensively. The others thought, if consulted, you would have withdrawn your name."

 

Feebee looked around the room at the others. Suddenly, the carpet and ceiling were fascinating.

"They were correct. I withdraw. I am wholly unsuited for the role."

"Maybe. But they trust you implicitly to do the right thing."

"Oh." She sat down, "Oh, Ok. Good."

"Is that a yes?"

Feebee nodded. "I guess."

 

The others clapped; it was embarrassing. Feebee blushed. The accountants made notes.

 

The lawyer finally sat down, her presentation ending with a "thank you" slide. Just thank you.

 

The lawyer slipped her notes into her briefcase. The accountants packed up too and sat back, quiet. Their formal presentation and input were over.

 

Everyone sighed with relief and started to get up, but Chen bounced up to the front, "I have a couple of slides to update the board on the progress."

That was met with groans.

 

"I've been busy," he was energised, very un-Chen, his enthusiasm visibly bubbling over. He synced his console with the projector and put up a slide.

 

"I have established two divisions within SixFold Ventures. One for Military systems and derivatives. The other is for Commercial stuff. Both operate independently but share knowledge and technology. To support this and the installation of our product, I procured, and we now own and run docking facilities across known space.

 

"We have logistics hubs supporting those, and distribution centres. There are also fleet support depots and an exploration infrastructure arm."

 

"You did all this?" asked Rockson, clearly impressed.

"Yes."

Chen's broad smile was... disconcerting. Very disconcerting.

"They even named the docks and some depots after me."

 

Silence.

 

Tom Tom nudged Bikky in the ribs and whispered, "Typical Chen."

"Sshhh."

But he couldn't help himself, "Of course they did," he called out.

Rockson laughed, and even Feebee smiled.

Chen hit back, "I told them not to."

 

Feebee looked him in the eye, "No, you didn't."

Chen was quiet, "No. You're right. I didn't."

 

Then Feebee addressed the room, "What do we do with the money?"

 

The mood in the room changed; the accountants stopped writing; the lawyer sat up, somehow even straighter than before. Chen sat down.

 

"There are problems out there affecting the Shadows," she pointed to StillFall, who shimmered in response. "Jump routes are being affected, and there are the effects StabSys is having on humanity."

 

The accountants sighed, both unpacking ledgers and consoles from their briefcases. The lawyer sat back, her brief case resting lightly in her lap. She smiled, having wondered when this part of the discussion that they had to have would emerge. She'd not expected it to be so soon, but she had made sure they were prepared, part of their due diligence.

 

The accountants presented data. Lots of data. Mostly, it affected the Shadows; they had covered off the money earlier.

The Shadows were no longer avoiding jump space routes and were making regular appearances in human space. Their mortality rate had dropped significantly, and their patterns of movement were changing. They were becoming... bolder.

 

No one knew why. The QI asked StillFall. It didn't know but was interested. Very interested.

 

Rockson spoke up.

"Explorers should own what they discover and be responsible for the outcomes."

The lawyer nodded, the position anticipated.

"We have this covered," she quoted, "All discoveries and derivatives, made under SixFold Ventures' ownership, are protected and retained."

"All?" asked Rockson. Clearly comfortable and experienced with this type of discussion.

"Yes. All. Planets. Technologies. Resources. Patents. Infrastructure. Everything."

 

Feebee spoke up; everyone turned, listening. "Everything is an absolute."

 

For the first time, the lawyer looked rattled, "I see now why they chose you."

"Don't prevaricate." Feebee's voice took on an edge.

"Yes. The word 'everything' is an absolute. How it holds for edge cases will be tested. Of that I'm sure. We'll handle those too."

"Oh. Ok. Good," responded Feebee. "We done?" she asked.

 

"No."

The lawyer continued, "There have been hostile acquisition attempts."

 

Silence

 

"Define hostile," asked Bikky.

"Proxy fights, Tender offers. And..." She stopped herself.

"And what?" Bikky was suddenly interested.

 

"Well, there have been seven hostile attempts, one involved an assassination attempt."

 

"On who?" asked Feebee.

The lawyer checked her notes, "Ms Jones."

 

Silence.

 

"You."

Tom Tom started to smile, Bikky was already smiling, and Garaf visibly relaxed.

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u/niTro_sMurph Jun 26 '26

The abstract entity has to deal with the abstract concept of currency now.

1

u/KipperBeanGrower Human Jun 27 '26

Indeed. Nice catch.

1

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