New Dawn

“Looking good Chia!”

Primath made guns with his fingers at the receptionist, a white Vulpeculan, who was busy typing away at her computer in the lobby.

“Good morning, sir.”

Primath had a gold suit on that sparkled in the sun that effortlessly poured in through the glass walls of the office. With a carefree trot and reassurring body language, Primath carried himself as the kind of boss who was always open to talk but his suit made sure to communicate just who he really was.

“Bill, Bill, Billllll!” he grabbed a short and round middle-aged human by the shoulder. “When was the last time we grabbed a beer?”

“Uh…” Bill sucked on the tips of his graying mustache, “...reckon that would be my first anniversary here.”

“Where does the time go…” Primath shook his head and chuckled, “...well, we’re gonna have to grab a cold one soon, your second anniversary is coming up isn’t it?”

“Sixth.”

“What?” Primath blinked.

“Sixth, it’s my sixth year here.”

“Right, uh…” Primath squeezed Bill by the shoulder gently, “...where does the time go, am I right?”

“Yeah…”

Bill slowly slipped out of the Regulian’s embrace and quickly jogged over to the cubicle rows as fast as his little legs could carry him.

“Jiana! Hey!”

A Sirian with brown fur who was nothing more than skin and fur slowly walked across the lobby with a stack of papers tucked between her palms and the chin of her muzzle.

“Let me help you with that,” Primath put his paws on the top half of the stack.

“No, I’m good, sir, just-”

“No, I insist!”

“Please, don’t!”

“C’mooooon…I insist,” Primath punched his chest with a thud, “...you know you want it.”

“I said-AHHHHHHH!”

The stack fell to the ground with a deafening thud before the papers scattered in all directions.

“Oh fuck,” Primath grabbed his forehead. “Oh fuck, I’m sorry, shit…let me-”

“I’m good!” Jiana said with a tensity in her throat. “Just…I’m good!”

“Okay, yeah, uh, okay!” Primath shuffled around the pile slowly before chuckling and pointing his fingers at Jiana. “I respect what you’re doing, okay?”

“Okay…”

“Great, okay!”

Humming a little song, Primath danced up the stairs leading to the second floor. He gave a little nod over at his receptionist’s desk before taking a pause.

“Uh…” Primath blinked at the ancient human woman sitting beside his office, “...you look new.”

“Rick’s on medical leave, dear, I’m a temp that HR got a hold of, my name’s Agnes,” she put down a pair of knitting needles and pointed towards a glass bowl full of white and red candy. “Ribbon candy?”

“No thanks, I’m…” Primath cleared his throat, “...I don’t suppose you have his number? I’d love to wish him well.”

“WHAT?” Agnes pulled out a speaker from her suit pocket and pointed it towards Primath.

“I SAID I’D LOVE TO WISH HIM WELL!”

“Oh my goodness, you’re in love! Ah, dearie…” Agnes sighed, “...that takes me back to the evenings of passionate love Haresh I gave me.”

Haresh I died before the first human ever reached the harem…

“I think some folks would call it rape though.”

Primath’s skin went cold.

“What, no, it wasn’t…” he whispered. “Rick…”

“WHAT?” Agnes pointed her hearing aid at Primath again.

“I said…WHAT?”

“I SAID,” Agnes shouted, “I THINK SOME PEOPLE MIGHT THINK IT WAS RAPE!”

The glass windows of the office shook.

“BUT YOU KNOW, HE REALLY WAS A SWEETHEART AND HIS POWER. OH MY WORD, HE COULD PIERCE A GLACIER WITH THAT COCK OF HIS! IT WAS THICKER AND SPINIER THAN A SAGUARO!”

Primath covered his ears, “Alright, that will be…just keep at it, okay? I got a meeting, right?”

“GIVE EM HELL, BOSS!”

“Yeah!” Primath finger-gunned Agnes and turned around as fast he could. “Yeah!”

Pushing open the meeting room door, another room that was one of the few not constantly covered in open windows, Primath found a figure sitting at the end of a long table along with a Regulian so scrawny he could have been mistaken for a hairy human.

“Hello, t’Osgar,” the Sirian at the other end had a velvety smooth voice. Her coat was mostly brown and tan, save for a black muzzle. She wore a silk robe that matched her coat and helped cover up her rows of breasts that hadn’t receded from nursing yet.

“Good day, Larga,” Primath bowed slightly and sat down across from her. “How are the little brats?”

“Devilish,” she sighed and brushed back a stray bit of fur atop her brow. “You try raising a full litter of eight while running your husband’s company.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t give them to a nurse-slave.”

“My father didn’t spend as much time as he should have with me when I was small, just as I allow our employees time off as they need I intended to give it to myself as well,” Larga sat back and rubbed her round breasts. “I’m used to working hard to catch up after his treason.”

“I’m sure the Empire doesn’t blame you for Argus.”

“When convenient it does, when inconvenient it doesn’t,” Larga shrugged and sighed. “But I manage whether they support me or not, such is life.”

A sharp bell rang out from the center of the desk.

“Mr. t’Osgar?” Agne’s voice squeaked out from an invisible speaker. “Larga is here to see you.”

“I’m with her right now!” Primath snarled.

“WHAT?”

“I’M WITH HER RIGHT NOW!”

“No need to yell!”

Another ding rang out, silencing the speaker.

“Not quite the receptionist I thought you’d have,” Larga chuckled. “My father would have had a skinny human slave that’d he’d fuck on the side.”

Primath bit his lip.

“Yeah, no, you know me, I try to treat people fairly.”

“Yes, and that’s why I’m here…”

The skinny Regulian suddenly moved, making Primath jump for he had forgotten he was there. Papers were scattered across the table showcasing a variety of economic forecasts and statistics.

“This uh…investment we’ll call it, for your game…” the Regulian lawyer paused.

“I mean, it is an investment.”

“We filed it under charity.”

Primath blinked.

“Who the fuck is this guy?” Primath growled and pointed at the lawyer. “Is he serious?”

“I actually believe in the mission of your project,” Larga sighed and tapped her claw on a piece of paper. “But at the same time filed it that way for tax reasons and believe it or not, there is an Angel Investor clause in the law that allows us to classify it as that for a sufficiently struggling business.”

“But not struggling too much either!” the lawyer wrinkled his snout. “If the business does not turn around after repeated investments then questions start getting asked about money laundering or other delightful things. Auditors start showing up then, something we cannot afford to deal with at this moment, do you understand?”

“I mean, if your business is on the up and up, you have nothing to worry about from the government, right?”

The lawyer stared daggers at Primath and grit his jaws together before calmly replying, “My client’s business is clean but auditors always find some way to implicate honest business owners or at least disrupt matters and cause a loss of productivity. This is unacceptable.”

“We have to pull our funding,” Larga closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mr. t’Osgar, but with my father’s history I cannot risk catching the eye of the Claw like this.”

Primath clapped his palms together and leaned forward across the table, his head held low, “Please, don’t do this. I’ll do anything, ANYTHING, just please don’t…”

Larga sighed.

“Look, it’s…it’s really coming along now, we’re so close but with my father’s death and all the-”

“Your father is in a coma, not dead.”

“Right, yes, but like…we need your investment. We won’t last half a year if you pull out now, just, please give us time!”

“We don’t have time, Mr. t’Osgar,” Larga rubbed her belly and grunted with a smile. “Oh, they kicked!”

“I am this close to becoming CEO of System to System! There has to be something I can offer you when that’s done!”

“I already have a board seat with them, hm…”

“Wait, seriously?”

Larga leaned to the side and the lawyer began to whisper in her ear.

“Very well, we’ll hold off until you’ve won. Expect a favor from us, no questions asked.

“Oh thank you, thank you, than-”

“And you have our vote, of course.”

A pain suddenly shot through Primath’s butt.

The smell of Vulpeculan musk wafted through the air.

Once more Primath was back in the car with the two Claw agents as they drove, snickering and taunting their captive.

“Don’t you remember what we told you?”

Their heads turned and plastered upon their faces was the visage of Primath’s father, IV tubes wrapped around his neck like a noose.

“You’ve really fucked up this time, son.”

“NO, DAD, NO! IT’S GOING TO WORK OUT!”

Coughing, the older Regulian’s drooping jowls flapped around.

“You know, your brothers might be fuck-ups, but they never got the Claw knocking on my door. Never much cared for poetry, but I have to admit, this rhymes very well.”

“I’m going to comply with the Claw, I just need a bit of time to delay Larga, dad!”

“Some advice. Shit yourself every day they have you. That’ll disgust them enough to hold off on any sexual tortures. I did that on the first night and I never got raped once! Not once, you hear me!?”

“Stop talking about-”

“They’ll rip out your claws first thing though, kind of an initiation. They won’t take the whole knuckle out though, so they’ll grow back just so they can rip them out again and again and agai-”

“STOOOOP!”

“Hey!”

Primath was back in the office once more and immediately began to drown from a torrent of water being poured directly down his throat.

Thrashing his arm around, the water suddenly vanished as the person next to him suddenly jumped back.

“DEAR!” Agnes shouted, holding a water bottle in her right hand. “Are you okay, DEAR!?”

Primath blinked. He was alone, save for his temporary secretary.

“Yes,” Primath nodded, “just dehydrated I guess.”

“No need to get MAD when I give you water then!” Agnes huffed and stomped out of the boardroom. “My dear Haresh never complained when I tended to him, no, not ever, he was a grateful master and-”

The door slammed shut and Primath was once again truly alone.