Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Four: Meteor #2

Maghda Joshi had a strong face, a thin ropy form and her short dark hair was streaked through with gray. She walked with a careless grace that spoke of years as a deep space walker. She walked into the diplomacy office like she owned the place and she accepted a cup of coffee from one of the female secretaries with a wink that caused the younger woman to blush and stammer.

She defied almost every stereotype of America's youth and beauty obsessed culture, but the consortium apparently had different standards. A Hollywood rag had hosted a "most beautiful woman in the universe" poll recently. Thanks to the portal, many consortium citizens had voted as well, and Maghda had placed in the top one hundred.

But she wasn't here on Shoshone Station because of that, Jack reminded himself as he went through introductions. "We are thrilled that you agreed to come to speak at this press conference," he told her.

For the last two days their daily press conference had gone from a few recognizable faces to every reporter from every major news outlet on the surface, as well more than a few bloggers or conspiracy nuts. The days business would be quickly swamped with questions about a supposed asteroid or meteor.

And today was obviously not going to be any different, he thought as they stepped out into the crowded room. Most of the forms shimmered, holographs projected from the growing number of stations on the surface. Glad that they'd decided to get proactive on this, he called the conference to order.

It didn't help that he had so little news to share. They were "getting close" to having the red tape worked out. No, there weren't really any new details. Energy production was at full capacity. Utilization waited on the people below upgrading their infrastructure and that was only happening in a very piecemeal fashion. Several Midwestern states had announced projects, big or small. The rest of the country languished.

The moment he opened the floor for questions, it began, "is there any word about an object that could possibly strike the planet surface?" a woman asked.

"I wouldn't let anything hit the home of such a pretty girl," Maghda replied before Jack could introduce her.

The entire room gave her a startled look, not quite what to make of such a bold or casual declaration. Maghda had already hopped off the platform and was speaking directly to the woman, but loud enough for the entire room to follow, "Maghda Joshi, Joshi enterprise."

Jack gave Zeta a look. "She's a character, for sure," Zeta whispered. "But she knows how to work a crowd like no other. Let her go. It's what we called her for, after all." Jack nodded.

Indeed Maghda did seem to know what she was doing. She had the room crowded around her in a semi-circle and she was projecting holo-displays as she talked. Joshi enterprises was one of the biggest asteroid removal companies on Shin. Joshi was also a tribe and Maghda had been born to the work, or so her company bio claimed. Received her level one space certification before she was fifteen and one of the youngest people to ever work in deep space. She'd risen through the ranks, having worked in almost every part of the industry before becoming first a ship captain and more recently named Matriarch of the tribe and head of their council.

"Javas would have come if we asked, no doubt," Zeta said as her Jack watched Maghda talk. "And he'd have provided a great scientific explanation of why these rumors are ludicrous. Or how we could prevent such a disaster. But what your people need is confidence."

"And she has that in spades," Jack commented.

"You don't blow up asteroids," Maghda was scoffing, in answer to some question. "You move them. Here." Another holodisplay came to life, showing an asteroid tug, and she began to talk about how they moved to asteroid, put them in orbit of small mining stations to be disassembled.

Jack spied Maka Jains on the edge of the crowd, talking to an earth reporter. They were leaned in close. Jack's eyes narrowed.

Then he remembered that Zeta was at his side and he forced himself to look away before she noticed. "Maka is still on the station? I would have thought he had work back on Shin." He hoped his voice was neutral.

"One of his clients is a real estate mogul. Wants an interest in some of the hotels here. Maka is negotiating the deal."