18855/Better not upset the teamsters union.

Better not upset the teamsters union.
Date of Scene:	17 August 2024
Location:	Cranston Plaza, 40th floor, CEO's office
Synopsis:	Following on from some grand planning with Felicity Smoak the Temporary Head of GIRL Vivian Vision visits Natasha Cranston to bring up the potential for a future R&D partnership.
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Cranston, Vivian Vision

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Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Cranston Multinational -- now rebranding to Cranston Interplanetary -- Shipping has its main office right in downtown Manhattan, close to the pulse of industry and business. The exterior itself looks surprisingly old, in that dignified way that classy 30's construction could get, but the interior of the ground floor is remarkably up to date.

    Most of it is dedicated to the lobby, where a pleasant-faced receptionist sits behind her tastefully appointed desk, ready to see how she can be of assistance to anyone who comes in, and just in case someone missed the logo above the doors the name of the company is helpfully spelled out on the wall behind her.

Vivian Vision has posed:
It's very rare for one Vivian Vision, temporary lead of GIRL, to enter into the corporate world. GIRL's funding largely comes from grants, donations, and from Janet being a billionaire using it as a tax write off. I mean project for the public good. Always be careful there could be lawyers listening.

But when her announcement of a GIRL FTL space mission received almost immediate offers of financial support. Well sometimes it's worth giving matters a personal touch. It's something she's picked up by watching powerful people like Janet and Susan Richards. Show someone is worth your personal time and it creates a much better impression than a video conference call. No matter how efficient that call might be.

There's no attempt to dress up though. Canary yellow cargo pants, green t-shirt, and a physical appearance that 100% marks her as the daughter of an Avenger. A business suit hardly matters in the grand scheme of things!

Of course she /did/ ring ahead to book the meeting. Citing important space related R&D matters as the subject.

Given the dangerous nature of the universe the synthetic visitor submits to any reasonable security checks, reports to reception, and politely waits for the CEO of a major (now interplanetary) shipping firm to become available. It doesn't matter to her how long that might take, is was a pretty short notice meeting request after all, because she can still perform the majority of her GIRL duties from half way around the world.

So her teleconferencing abilities aren't going to waste after all!

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    As Vivian comes into range, she can sense multiple wireless networks; the 'visible' guest network, and two more strongly encrypted and hidden ones, both of which are humming and thrumming with the 'noise' she associates with heavy active traffic - unsurprising, for a business that lives by its networking.

    The perky receptionist notices her the moment she enters the lobby; to her credit, Vivian's obvious nonhuman appearance doesn't cause more than a brief startle, and by the time the synthoid girl makes it to the desk her professional courteous welcoming smile is back in place.

     "Good afternoon, and welcome to Cranston Interplanetary. How may I help you?" Asks the woman, who according to the sign by her desk is named Emily.

    Meanwhile, several dozen floors higher, Natasha receives a "Possible VIP just walked in" notification, and she raises one eyebrow as her monitor opens a window displaying the lobby camera output.

    Well. This promises to be interesting...

Vivian Vision has posed:
The entire world is filled with electronic noise. More than most people think. Especially in a big city. But it's impolite to snoop. Without an officially sanctioned warrant or the threat of an active supervillain threatening loss of life. Or at least that's the code Vivian tries to live by anyway. It's easier to be good than to risk getting a lecture from an angry Avenger or SHIELD agent.

Vivian has at least got a Human form. If clearly non-standard construction. So it's probably no more unusual than a mutant or metahuman walking in. "I'm here to see the CEO," she says brightly. "I did email ahead."

Hours ahead rather than the typical days, weeks or months you'd normally assume.

"It's regarding... Well the matter is confidential. I could prepare a suitable NDA for you to sign if you need to relay the details directly?" Not really something she wants to do. Information should be free as much as possible and an NDA is against that spirit but... Well sometimes it's better not to tell everyone everything.

There's a beats pause.

"I'm also happy to wait as long as necessary," She grins. "Assuming Ms Cranston is available today that is. I'd rather not stand outside overnight!"

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    A polite smile and nod and the woman begins typing. "I will see if she's available. May I ask who wishes to speak with miss Cranston?" A mostly pro forma question, given how recognizable Vivian is, but like networking protocols, formalities exist for a reason.

    One of those reasons being to buy time, as Natasha reads the message forwarded to her by Emily. She considers for a moment, then reaches a decision and sends a response.

    Downstairs, Emily pauses for a moment as she reads another message. "Ah. Never mind; miss Cranston will see you now." She reaches into her desk and produces a visitor's badge, which she holds to a terminal as she enters its credentials before offering it to Vivian. "This will let you through the doors and access the elevator. Fortieth floor, down the hall andto your left. Have a nice day."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Vivian Vision," she states. "In my capacity as Temporary Head of the Genius in Action Research Lab."

The formalities are important!

"I'll be sure to keep it on me at all times," she promises. Accepting the badge. GIRL has a similar policy about ID. You can never be too careful in a world with doppelgangers and clones. Especially when there was an actual invasion from an evil AU.

"Have a wonderful day."

And with that she's off. Simple instructions are easy enough to follow. Besides it's generally not hard to find where the CEO is. Just take the most impressive looking route possible. And generally it gets you there.

For the sake of the building security teams sanity she avoids phasing through anything. Walking along with calm confidence but using conventional Human standard locomotion. In that she walks rather flies.

All the way through the building until she comes to the beating heart of Cranston Interplanetary. Probably there will be someone outside the door to let her in. And if not. She can just knock.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    The elevator is reasonably quick -- not as fast as flying would be, but then again it is intended for use by normal civilians who would not appreciate extreme G-forces -- and once she presents her badge it takes her up to the 40th floor without incident. The route to Miss Cranston's office goes along the outer wall, and the view would probably be amazing for people who don't fly on a regular basis.

    There is a waiting area, but the secretary on duty -- A woman named Nour, going by the plate on her desk -- clearly already knows to expect her and gets up. "Good afternoon. Please go right in, miss Cranston is waiting for you."

    As CEO offices go, Natasha's is relatively low-key; ostentatious, yes, and the view out of the full-size window behind the desk is a lovely understated declaration of power, but the desk itself is downright utilitarian, and the computer on it can -- to Vivian's eyes, at least -- best be described as 'quaint'; not a single quantum processor to be found in the entire thing.

    The woman behind the desk looks up as Vivian enters, and Miss Cranston looks almost exactly like she does in the footage; although to Vivian's enhanced senses the application of makeup is more noticeable than it would be to most humans.

    Natasha looks Vivian over for a moment, and then rises and smiles the warm, practiced smile of a powerful businessperson hoping to convince the person they're talking to to buy, sell or sign something. "Miss Vision, good afternoon," she says, extending a hand. To what do I owe the unexpected pleasure of this visit? Please, do be seated. Would you care for some refreshment?"

Vivian Vision has posed:
Everyone Viv passes gets a smile or a nod. Acknowledging everyone she meets however briefly as she makes her way through the building. Until she finally reaches the top. Or rather the woman at the top because presumably there is a roof above them which is /technically/ the top of the building itself.

"Please call me Vivian or Viv for short," she says brightly, returning the offered handshake. "I sent across some documents electronically although they might be with your digital security team. I noticed your interest in our recent announcement of our FTL expedition. And given your recent involvement with Tony Stark in the construction of an orbital facility.. Well I thought you might be interested in some potential fields of study I'm hoping GIRL can explore using our particular set of resources."

She takes the offered seat once the handshake is concluded.

"As for refreshments I have no real need for food or water," she explains earnestly. "Basically a few years ago GIRL created a limited asteroid base for... well the reason isn't really important." It was for Great Aunt Nadia's birthday doesn't seem like a winning corporate strategy. "But it's basically been mothballed until recently when I did a little test of the G.S. Tereshkova and relocated it further from Earth orbit." All the way from Jupiter to the Kuiper Belt. Why? Why not? It's probably the first time any Earth made spaceship has towed an asteroid before. Anything made by Reed Richards or Doctor Doom doesn't count. They don't share after all! "Anyway I was chatting with Ms Smoak from SmoakTech about space stuff. And we've got some ideas around the development of drones for debris clearance, maintenance work, and quite likely asteroid mining. Now obviously that sort of research isn't very useful for a space station until it's completed but... I expect it's all things you and Mister Stark have discussed at least in theory. As part of your mutual projects longer term requirements."

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Natasha's lips twitch slightly as if she can read between the lines of Vivian's omission, but her smile only widens as the synthoid explains the reasons for her visit.

    "Indeed? How much further?" she asks, but seems willing to let the details be for now as she keeps listening, occasionally nodding in agreement.

    "I must say, all of those sound fascinating -- she eventually comments. "Debris clearing seems to me like it should carry first priority -- from what I've read, NASA estimates that there are over a million pieces of debris larger than a pebble in Earth orbit, and at orbital velocities it doesn't take much more than that for a collision to be catastrophically destructive. The sooner actual effort can be put into actually cleaning that up, the safer space will be for all of us."

    "You're right; a permanent commercial-size orbital station would be a perfect deployment point for such drones -- as it is right now, the cost of launching an orbital cleanup mission from the surface is prohibitive, and no single body wants to commit to a general cleanup of orbital debris without arguing endlessly about who is the 'most' at fault for the debris and should therefore pay the majority of the costs."

    Natasha smiles as she continues. "On the other hand, the spaceport could dedicate a relatively small amount of space to servicing and deploying a few flights of 'cleaner drones' that can retrieve or deorbit debris at an industrial rate."

    "Likewise, maintenance and repair of other orbital craft or stations would be much cheaper if the service is based from a station already in orbit. As to mining, that will likely come last, but very much not least -- any resources that can be obtained and processed already in space means several tons of mass that don't first need to be flung into orbit..."

    She pauses for a moment, and smiles at Vivian. "Yes, Mr. Stark, Miss Potts and I have been thinking quite a bit on this, and your suggestions mirror our thinking. We'll need to get both of them into this discussion as well, especially Mr. Stark, and see how to best incorporate servicing and deployment facilities for your drone designs..."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Oh that's not even the worst of the debris problem," Vivian notes, nodding along in agreement at the data. "Given the number of alien invasions and space battles over the last decade or so there's potentially some very dangerous material in our solar system. Which needs safely, responsibly, removing and potentially studying. Not to mention keeping away from anyone who might mis-use it for nefarious purposes." Statistically such debris probably only accounts for a very small amount. But even just /one/ space based doomsday weapon in the wrong hands is one too many.

"Actually the asteroid mining would be my preferred method of gathering the resources for the initial project," she admits. "Given the logistics of moving materials out to the Kuiper belt and back. Well it makes sense to just refine metal in situ. Not to mention how the mining process can also be used for creating labs and office spaces inside the asteroids.." A somewhat ambitious project to say the least. "It'll probably take some time to get our deep space facility back up to a full operational state. It was never designed for long term habitation so we'll need to make a few interior changes. Especially for the lab equipment."

The synthetic young woman remains remarkably still throughout. Like she's using up all the extra processing power people would normally use for frivolous gestures to think.

"GIRL is more of a think tank than a commercial enterprise. So I expect once the technology is proven a service company can be established to hire and operate the drones. They will of course have some level of autonomy, but keeping people involved creates jobs and reduces the risk of any public outcry about AI drones taking over all of space."

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Natasha nods, one eyebrow climbing for the ceiling at the mention of 'Kuiper Belt'. "You make a good point. Of course, there is an order of magnitude in difference between the amount of materials necessary for research and proof-of-concept ventures and the demand generated by a viable economic production chain."

    "... On the other hand, figuring out how to most efficiently extract and refine resources from the asteroid and Kuiper belts would be another good research initiative."

    Resource mining and refining means a demand for moving said resources from where they're mined to where they can be processed. It's obvious why Natasha is interested.

    She chuckles at the commentary about AI drones. "At the very least, it would go a long way to ameliorate the Teamsters' Union; they'd be most upset to find out that 'space trucks' would be piloted entirely by drones rather than 'space truckers'... And, to be frank, I'd agree with them. Efficiency be damned -- We explored every square inch of this planet back when the most advanced technology was wooden sailing ships. If we're going to finally start properly exploring the rest of this solar system, we're not going to be doing it from the safety of our couches. We need to go out there and see what there is to see ourselves, not via a video screen."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Obviously GIRL isn't going to be mining the entire Kuiper Belt," Vivian admits with a shrug. "So /our/ needs at least will probably be taken care of on site. Mining and processing all locally done. But it's really only a matter of time before that initial space site you're building with Mister Star has proven itself viable. And once that's done people will be want to expand further out, exploit the resources of the solar system, then eventually leave our immediate location entirely in favour of new planets."

She laughs at the comments about space truckers.

"More personally I'm definitely trying to avoid anyone mistakenly assuming I'm secretly making an armada of space drones. It's hard enough trying to advocate the cause of AI rights without everyone thinking I'm the next Ultron." If she had a dollar for every skynet joke she's heard. Well okay. She's part of the extended family of JvD. Access to funds has never been an issue. "It's all very early in the conceptual stages right now of course."

She moves to get up from the chair. "I've electronically sent some reading material which you can share with Mister Stark and Ms Potts. And of course everything we've talked about is not ready for public release. I still haven't confirmed the asteroid is suitable for the upgrades we have in mind yet. Or that the relocation process didn't cause any harm. Still assuming no problems occur and we can get the location up and running.. Well best not to count proverbial chickens and all. But if things seem mutually beneficial we can discuss potential terms."

She tilts her head slightly. "I expect you probably have many other important matters to deal with. So I should probably keep this meeting brief, given it's still in the very early stages. But please feel free to get in touch or even to stop by round the GIRL HQ sometime. Visitors are always welcome!"

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Natasha nods, rising as well. "I look forward to reading them," she replies. "And rest assured, we know how to remain discreet until the time is right."

    She smiles. "I think I'll take you up on that invitation sometime. Thank you for your visit, and good luck with your research."