Into the Black

(Shvehona City College Career Fair, Shvehona City, Dimiya)

As one of the industrial centers of Dimiya, Shvehona City had a lot of people, even in a world where automation could do a lot. A lot of people meant a lot of kids, and those kids eventually grew up and needed to look for jobs. As it so happened, I needed to hire a bunch of people because of the losses and expansions Black Star was facing, so I did something I really wasn’t used to, and put on an actual suit with a tie and everything. All nicely tailored, of course, so that it made me look like a professional businessman. Or a Man in Black, but most people here wouldn’t get that reference, so that was fine.

Shvehona City College was not the most prestigious school on the planet, but it had a lot of smart kids that couldn’t afford better schools, and were hoping for some kind of education to improve their chances at getting good jobs. Even better, the College opened their annual Career Fair to the public, so anyone who was looking to make a change could come in, see who was hiring, and fill out applications.

The Black Star Company had actually paid for four adjoining tables, with a very nicely done banner with the corporate logo stretching over them. The in-house art department did good work with it. The leader of the art department was actually a widow, who lost her husband at Nuevo Edo when the Artemis took a nasty hit. After my speech at the club, she sought me out (along with pretty much everyone in attendance, but we’d planned on that so it was quickly organized with numbers being called) and said that she was an artist before Jagloth. She showed me some of her work, and I had her get in touch with the HR people to start up an art department. She was actually at a similar job fair at the art college in Thelorious, just like one of our best eggheads was holding an interview event at one of the better known research institutes on the planet. Both of those were also open to the public.

The four tables were separated by the roles Black Star took on. We had the ‘military’ table, with a representative each from the Black Star Navy and the Black Star Marines, the ‘shipping’ table, with Captain Chaebella of the Articuno, one of the Raven-class freighters I employed, the ‘production’ table, with Nondrin taking a break from the yards, lured by the prospect of getting fresh hands, and finally the ‘not sure’ table, where Raven and I were sitting (and also going through applications and interviews of people sent to us by the other tables). Suffice to say, we had a lot of people interested in what jobs we had available. We were, after all, the hot new company that was going out and doing crazy things. When we had reached out to Shvehona City College to arrange our attendance, they were happy to have us. When we made clear what kind of presence we were going to have, they were thrilled, since this would bring visibility to their college from across the planet.

Most people fit into the first three tables. Dimiya was a big planet, but public transport was fairly cheap, and we’d publicly announced where we were going to be, so most of the ‘science’ and ‘creative’ types had gone to those interviews, although we did have some of them come here, if only because they weren’t sure about us, and were looking at the other groups hiring as well. Some really couldn’t afford the transit fees. That was fine with me. The poor people who were getting a hand up were the ones more likely to be loyal to a company that didn’t treat them like dirt, or a cog in the machine.

I had Raven with me, of course, and Cali and Jaynie were providing discrete protection nearby, officially listed as ‘helpers’ who were arranging the gift bags we had put together for those who put in an application. Also with me was Liviana Armata, the former pop star who had been brutalized in the Empire for her stance on slavery, now acting as my assistant. She’d been making good strides lately, and while she wasn’t ready to become a pop star again, her counselor said that it would be a good move to have her out in public without the Stepford protocols on. She was more reserved than she had been as a pop idol, and with how she wore her hair now, one would be hard pressed to recognize her, even if we were on Earth.