17846/The meeting of corporations...

The meeting of corporations...
Date of Scene:	04 May 2024
Location:	Stark Tower: Pepper's Office
Synopsis:	'Stark Aeronautics' and 'Cranston Interplanetary' are christened in a meeting where the beginnings of a space port are discussed.
Cast of Characters:	Pepper Potts, Tony Stark, Natasha Cranston

---

Pepper Potts has posed:
Spring has absolutely sprung in New York City. The sun is hidden behind clouds, the grey, overcast competes with the grey and silver sleek lines of the streets stories below. The view outside Ms Virginia "Pepper" Potts' window is still remarkable, however; the architecture of the buildings giving the tableau an artistic tableau. Everything obviously was considered when the building was built.

There is a small meeting table set in the entry way of her office; her work desk sits empty just beyond. Chairs are set up, there are the gratuitous plate of danishes, bagels, hot water for tea, coffee carafes; anything and everything one could want in a meeting.

Within this room are perhaps some of the biggest movers and shakers for the American GDP, representing technology and how to move it all; logistics is everything.

Pepper is seated, her chosen suit for the day is a cream color, a long sleeved jacket with A-line skirt, ending in a pair of off-white pumps. Red hair is pulled back into a pony-tail, and the jewelry she wears is professional; green-gem posts with necklace and rings to match. She has a cup of coffee before her, a tablet on the table for notes, though it's hardly required thanks to HOMER.

"I am really very glad you reached out, Ms Cranston. I think it's been too long in coming, and with events, I think it's the perfect time to start making new avenues."

Tony Stark has posed:
    Tony is sitting in a chair at the table, kicked back with his legs out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. He's got a hologram floating in front of him and is using small gestures to rotate and zoom in on parts. As a slight nod to this being business he's got on a suit, even if it is a bit rumpled.

    When Natasha walks in, he looks up and gives a languid wave, "Hey there, welcome to Stark Tower. Pepper says you're interested in space, and we've been expanding our footprint in that field lately. Sit, grab a danish or something and toss some ideas around." He waves a hand towards the breakfast supplies that have been laid out on the meeting table.

    Looking over to Pepper, he adds "Ok, do CEO things, I'm just here as technical consultant."

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Tony's reputation as a womanizer meant that generally when a woman wanted to get something from him -- a reporter or paparazzi looking for a juicy quote, a debutante hoping to 'score', or even the occasional business representative angling for a good deal -- they'd go for something provocative. Nothing too blatant, just enough to suggest that temptation might be an option.

    Nowadays, with word having gotten out that he and Pepper are actively dating, that has gone down significantly, although there's still the occasional hopeful.

    Natasha, on the other hand, has quite clearly gone the other route -- a long-sleeved knee-length dress in a subdued yet tasteful cut that, while it certainly doesn't detract from her figure, makes no attempt to emphasize it.

    She smiles warmly at Pepper, then nods in greeting at Tony. "Miss Potts. Mister Stark, thank you for agreeing to see me," she addresses the pair, a slight twinkle in her eye as she acknowledges who's the one in charge by name precedence, then turns to address Tony. "As miss Potts undoubtedly informed you, a rather obnoxious opinion piece about the Atlantic spaceport recently caught my attention, and I'd been giving the matter some thought..."

    She pours herself some coffee before continuing. "Some people are expressing extreme discontent at the spaceport's existence, and more specifically the fact that 'the people' -- by which I suspect they intend to mean the US or UN -- does not have ultimate authority over it rather than, as they put it, "three absolutist monarchies answerable only to themselves" having full control over it. Their preferred solution to this terrible conundrum of course being that said monarchies hand the entire thing over lock, stock and barrel to the UN's appointed representatives."

    She snorts softly. "I'm sure that if the only such spaceport was on US soil and someone were to suggest it be made available to less fortunate countries those very same 'the people' would be up in arms about their 'sovereignity'..."

    She takes a sip of her coffee to compose herself again, then leans back and gives the pair a frank look. "The entire argument is, of course, preposterous. Sixty years ago, the United States claimed victory in the Space Race by putting a man on the moon, and then did it again a few times. Forty years ago, the Space Shuttle was considered the achievement in space exploration, an achievement of technological genius and national pride... And then we went and did nothing with it. No more improvements, no new great leaps or challenges, not because we'd lost the ability, but because we'd lost interest. Aside from a rare few who kept the candles burning, people lost interest. And now someone else has stolen a leap while we were sleeping, and they are feeling resentful because their pride has been stung."

    She regards the pair with suddenly surprisingly intense eyes. "As a transportation company, Cranston Multinational never really had any incentive for surface to space freight -- after all, all our customers and destinations are on this planet, and there wasn't anywhere out there to transport things to. But with the uproar over the Atlantis spaceport galvanizing governments, there very soon will be -- and in my experience, once the logistics infrastructure to somewhere exists, expansion will start happening very rapidly."

    She leans back, a small smile playing along her lips. "My great grandfather, rest his soul, inherited his father's share in a cargo ship, bought out the co-owner during the First World War and founded Cranston Oriental Shipping. My grandfather inherited the business just in time for the Depression, and by the time he'd finished steering it through that and the Great War, he'd turned it into Cranston International by the time he was ready to hand the reins over to his son. And before his untimely death, my father had managed to turn it into Cranston Multinational Shipping. I myself don't have an heir yet, but I admit that the thought of leaving them in charge of Cranston

Pepper Potts has posed:
It is all too true; in not so many years past, pretty things would absolutely have turned Tony's head. They'd get attention at various levels, from a ride in a car to a ride in the bedroom, and at the end of it, it was left to Pepper to escort them out. They still try, just not as often these days, and it's not because Tony's NOT desirable, no. Pepper's just become more of a presence, and their movement outside of Stark Tower is set to film thanks to the paparazzi.

Pepper glances at Tony's languid stretching out, and her brows ever so slightly. The holograms floating in the air at his command brings a soft sigh to the woman, but that's covered almost completely as her attention shifts to Natasha. Green eyes are rapt, listening to every word, her head nodding in places, underscoring perhaps her agreement, or at the very least, her understanding of the situation.

The cup of coffee is taken, cradled in two hands, and when things come down to a likely end, Pepper begins.

"I had tried to have a presence in the Spaceport. We were given slight access and offered an office space presence." Insulted? Probably, but she's not showing it. "We were made quite aware that there would be no accessing either the technology nor having any meaningful participation in any potential research and development."

Lifting the coffee to her lips, Pepper takes a sip to take that moment to consider her next words carefully. "We do have the ability to launch satellites, and have. Lower level orbit, but beyond that payload, we hadn't really considered the vastness and opportunity there. And I do agree with you, a more multinational, or in our case, a multicorporation presence would probably ease certain fears and tensions."

Her fingers cradle the mug once more, and Pepper looks between the two, Tony and Natasha, her lips pressed in a tight line as she considers. Her posture is straight, attentive, and it's obvious that behind those green eyes, she's considering angles, meetings with Congress, land management..

"We would be playing a game of 'catch up'," comes, an obvious 'con'. "Even if we do have the basics in place."

Tony Stark has posed:
    Tony nods at Natasha's opening sally, then says "Yeah, it's more than a little bit of a mess. Trouble is that people seem to want it under control of everyone in the world but at the same time don't want a world government. I mean, it's not like we don't already have aliens living on the planet. Hell, some of them have been here for decades like Superman. I don't have a really good answer for the whole thing, but like you said space is starting to open up and I see opportunities out there."

    He grabs the hologram he's been messing with and throws it towards the center of the table, where it expands to be clearly visible. It's a large structure, and after a moment it becomes obvious that it's actually a space station. "I'm thinking that the Starport is already in everyone's crosshairs here on Earth, and if we tried to build another, we'd be hassled by whatever government had jurisdiction over the area we built it in. But what if we steal a jump on everyone and build it in space? Stark Industries already has a large launch facility, so if Cranston Multinational wants to invest in a station with us, we'd get that jump back, and we don't have to worry about aliens coming down to Earth to deliver or pick up cargo, it can all be done in space and just use the rockets to ferry cargo up and down."

    So much for letting Pepper do the talking. But honestly, it's fairly par for the course. He means well, but once his brain starts running, the mouth tends to follow, even when he meant to be in the background for this meeting. Taking a breath, he pulls the plate of danishes over and grabs one, taking a bite to block his mouth from running on, giving Pepper a moment to take in the totally new direction he just went with this idea and respond to it.

    Isn't it fun being Tony's girlfriend and CEO at the same time?

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Natasha nods as Pepper lays out the pros and cons, but her smile widens when Tony lays out his suggestion. "A centralized, commercial station and trading hub would go a long way towards taking the wind out of the detractors' sails," she agreesm, then tilts her head as a thought strikes. "Would you consider some amount of orbital shipbuilding capacity on board of the station? After all, Sir Isaac Newton does not play favourites, but if we had craft that don't need to go all the way up and down the gravity well by themselves, but could just dock at the station to load or offload freight, exploration and exploitation of the rest of the Solar System could be done a great deal easier and more cheaply, which would open it up for a much wider potential customer base."

    There is a gleam in her eyes now. "Docking, repair and refueling services, warehouses, R&R... " she murmurs in the slightly distracted tone that Pepper probably recognizes from when Tony is having new ideas faster than his mouth can keep up, then she looks back up at the pair with another smile. "My grandfather liked to say that once you build a port somewhere, a town will develop around it even if one didn't exist yet."

    She leans back again, thoughtful. "The biggest major hurdle for a space program has always been the so-called 'Rocket Equation' -- the need for vast amounts of fuel and reaction mass to get something out of Earth's gravity well. The Apollo Program made use of a frankly unsightly amount of non-reusable boosters in order to get the payload into orbit, and most current-day rocketry does much the same, albeit with slightly better fuels and technology, but they are not vehicles, in a somewhat sentimental but crucially important sense."

    "Every ship, every plane, every train locomotive, every truck, every single draft animal and cart in the history of the art of moving things from one place to another, has had a name. Something that their driver or owner could call them affectionately; a sense of personality. Even NASA understood this, which is why each of the Shuttles had their own names, but even they had to leave pieces of themselves behind for every lift. I believe that if we want to convince mankind to explore beyond our mutual cradle, we'll need to do it with craft that can get to and from orbit in a single piece, reusably. If we want to have space truckers, we'll need space trucks -- not giant piles of rocket boosters to lift a single cargo pod that doesn't live long enough to get more than a serial number."

    She looks at Tony directly. "In short, we'll need a better way to get to orbit than throwing as much mass out the back as quickly as possible in the hope we'll go up faster than gravity pulls us back down."

Pepper Potts has posed:
There is that moment when Tony begins to talk, or rather, brings the attention in to what he's doing. Not unexpected, of course. What is, however, given the reaction from Pepper, from that even expression to her head cant, her shift in posture, and the quieting of fingers on mug. Green eyes narrow slightly, and she looks to the display that is now exploded before them.

There's a look that flickers across her features, there and gone, as she glances back towards Tony, then the holographic display, complete with moving parts.

Now that Tony is taking the lead for what essentially would be his project (she's the checkbook), there is a certain level of comfort in it, complete with the understanding of how his mind works. It's hard to know really which way he'll jump on any given topic; she's given up on predicting him, which, oddly enough, makes him easier for her to predict. Go figure.

"A space station," something she obviously hadn't considered. And as Natasha begins to add on, her lips press, now listening to the conversation quietly, her eyes not leaving the station now.

"This could bring countries together in a way that the UN simply can't. Or.. or any major government organization. We'd have to be very careful at moving forward because countries still believe their governments own space." But that's her job, isn't it? Or rather, Tony's and hers, to go in front of Congress and possibly the UN.

Tony Stark has posed:
    Swallowing the bite of danish, Tony reaches up and rotates the holo of the station, revealing a row of large doors. "I figure these would be large enough to admit a pretty good size of ship, and we can also use them as construction bays. So we can build, load, unload and do maintenance, at least on ships that use technology we currently have access to."

    He pauses, glances over at Pepper and shrugs a bit. She'd probably recognize it as a silent 'sorry for taking over', but once Tony starts going, it takes something akin to an alien invasion to pull him out of it.

    Turning to Natasha, he nods and says "Yeah, rocket fuel has always been a problem... until now." He taps on his phone, and the holo switches to a video feed of Iron Man. The suit is in flight, going up, and up, and so forth until the background fades to black. The camera turns to face the planet, making it obvious that the suit has made it out of the atmosphere and into space. "I've actually been tinkering with larger repulsor based engines. Which means that we can easily build cargo vehicles without a need for heavy fuel loads to make it into space. I've been thinking something roughly plane or shuttle shaped, that way it's got wings for emergencies if the engine goes out for any reason. And your grandfather was absolutely right. A lot of the space in the station concept is empty at the moment, but it can be filled with lots of things.. hotels, restaurants, various entertainment venues as well as business offices and the like. Heck, I was talking to Pepper the other day about getting into the space tourism business, let people pay to go to space. With this, we could do space vacations, not just an hour long flight."

    "Now, I have to let you know that I just totally hijacked this meeting, so let's give Pepper a moment to think over the business ramifications, but personally, if your company wants in on this, you could be one of the founders of Earth's presence in space. Our first step into a galaxy we're quickly realizing we don't know nearly enough about. The few aliens that have used the spaceport are just the tip of the iceberg, and one truth I live by is that if you have a population, you have a need for commerce."

    "Oh, and just to let you know, we wouldn't be at the mercy of the first pirate or criminal that comes along. Space is basically neutral, so I can arm the station with defensive systems so it's not just a giant target floating in space. I'd actually call that a necessity to be honest."

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Natasha smiles at Pepper. "CMS has a decent amount of goodwill banked with the UN as well as various national governments," she replies. "One of the side benefits of having a long history of being an excellent and reliable source of transportation. Once we get started with the actual planning we'll need to compare notes to see what leverage we have and whose ears we can most conveniently bend."

    As Tony lays out his general idea for a new generation of orbital delivery vehicles, she nods again, then pulls out her own tablet and brings up a map overlay. HOMER, being his efficient self, examines the open file and translates it into a holographic globe with glowing points and a legend for the overlay.

    "CMS has subsidiaries or facilities in almost every country that borders an ocean, and quite a few that don't -- not just warehouses and leased port terminals, but a few private air fields here and there as well. Depending on the requirements and capabilities of your orbiter, we could conceivably adapt some of the latter as groundside facilities -- and, again, once the infrastructure is there, we can expect others to follow suit. Stark Aerospace might find itself taking a great deal of manufacturing orders..."

Pepper Potts has posed:
This is exactly why Pepper wanted Tony present. Brainstorming, taking models from a large source and bringing it down into something necessary and marketable is part of his genius. It's just daunting(?), and interesting to watch other aspects of it all come together, working in potential partnership. She's honestly here for red light, green light, and how to make it all possible for them to move ahead. Tony is still, and always, the main push as to direction when it comes to high tech, bleeding edge applications.

There is something different here for her, however, as she studies the display, watching it rotate. It's like she's transfixed by the model before Tony brings out his space video. There's a soft exhalation, perhaps a quickening of pulse at the sight of one of the suits heading up into space. Stuff of nightmares, right there. The void, the vacuum of space.

"It's fine," and Pepper shakes her head quickly to dispel thoughts and find her way back into the here and now. "And we have, actually. It seems a larger draw than under the ocean, and I think a little easier to navigate." The last bit is said with a hint of a smile. So much easier going up!

Pepper watches as Natasha's overlay comes into play. She's very aware of the size and scope of CMS, as well as its history. Such research was done just after the first conversation. There's awareness, and then there is //knowledge//.

"I think this is potentially doable." After she starts to run figures, of course. This is coming into the billions, which may be a hard sell to the Board, though the shareholders will probably be quite happy about it. (How exactly did Stark Industries get a conservative board?!)

"I will need to have a fiscal breakdown of stages." Which, in Pepper speak, brainstorming is great, we just need numbers! "Including shared assets, if we are going to seek outside sources beyond our own for funding and building.."

That's not a 'no', by any means.

Tony Stark has posed:
    Tony nods, "It's definitely doable. It'll be expensive, no doubting that, but less than a government doing it. With the repulsor engines, we don't have the huge cost in fuel that anyone else would have. If Cranston Multinational signs on in the development stage, I'd say we should set up a Stark facility right next to one of Cranston's ports, so we could bring cargo down and transfer it right over to CMS to deliver it to it's destination." He pauses for a moment, eyes going a bit distant. Pepper will recognize this as an idea hitting and his brain running through it in three or four directions at once.

    He blinks and comes back to the present saying, "You know, we can also bring a lot of businesses in on the ground floor as it were. If we're building a port up there, we can approach hotel chains, restaurants and fast food places, hell, even casinos, there's no gambling regulations in space. We'll also need to set up a security force, of course. We've got almost unlimited potential here, especially if we move quickly to be the first. You can be sure others will try and copy us, but without my repulsors they'll all be stuck depending on more conventional transports, which will raise their costs significantly."

    Looking between the two businesswomen, he asks, "So, what do you two think? Shall we embrace the bleeding edge of space privatization? I see big things for any company that gets in one this early, and a partnership between Stark and Cranston would be perfect. You've got the transportation all around the world that we'd otherwise have to take the time to build up, and we've got the access to orbital vehicles. Once we get some contacts with alien races, CMS could even look into expanding to space cargo, build a few of their own ships, that kind of thing. You'd have first shot at an entirely new market."

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Natasha's smile widens even further. "I do admit, 'Cranston Interstellar' has an even better ring to it," she agrees. "And certainly, once the infrastructure is there and we've proven it can be done, I've no doubt others will try to find their own wings as well. Kord Industries, Oscorp, Starr Labs, possibly even Lexcorp if Luthor gets bored of being president at some point..."

    She lifts her coffee cup in a toast to those unseen, fairly unconcerned with the prospect. "And best of luck to them; after all, having a near monopoly on space would be so boring in the long run. We need competition to keep ourselves sharp, after all. May the best woman win."