Consortium 1-4: The Gathering Storm- Chapter 8
Just a solo chapter of Carol being Carol. She takes her job very seriously, even when eating out. Though I have to wonder, if your home is a giant space station and you're eating at a restaurant in that space station, are you really eating out? Also does a good job of showing why people don't tend to mess with her. As she doesn't mess around.
Carol sits down and slowly eats her dinner. Like usual she's eating alone at this restaurant but the food is good enough for her and quiet enough that she can still get some work done. Most of her focus is on the tablet to her side as she's going over all of the information from the various feeds about the station. Some of the other leaders in her department are given this information as well and it's always a good thing for them all to collaborate on this. Everything that has gone on in the station and nearby systems is listed on this tablet. As well as what all the Guardians have been doing so if they need to make a story on that they have the information. She's also kept fully in the loop on what the Shadows are doing but that is more so that she can steer any story away from their activity. Or at least she's made aware of whatever they're doing on the station. She knows that quite a few of the Shadows have been sent out to try and figure out who is attacking the station but she doesn't know any information beyond that. That is one of the few things she is not privy to. The only ones that would know that kind of information would be the leader of the Shadows, Riu and possibly Ret. He really shouldn't know that, but she wouldn't put it past him to know it anyway. But for Shadow activity she is told what they're doing on the station so that she can run interference. It makes it much harder for the group to carry out a raid if she's warning everyone about the raid. Far better to simply have all the coverage ignore the area they're going to raid. There is an increase of bandit activity in the area, one that Toreselia is going to oversee soon. She marks that down as something to mention, especially as it would pertain to things anyone wanting to travel would definitely want to know about before planning any trips in the immediate future.
Sports, politics, poling information about how the people on the station feel about things. The usual stuff. Much of it isn't really all that important for her. It's nice to know but the others can pick up on that as well. She likes being involved but knows better than to micromanage everything. She is given a notification that the hospitals will be making a sweep of the scab areas for treatment in a few days. She'll have to make a note to have that mentioned on the news segments tomorrow. Scabs don't really have much, but it'd be nice to at least have them aware enough to not run away from the doctors trying to check up on them, especially as they'll have Guardian escorts just in case.
She's interrupted in her meal by a bunch of humans coming to her table and standing around. She frowns at this interruption. The restaurant staff knows that she prefers to dine alone. It's one of the reasons they give her her regular table well off to the side that's somewhat cumbersome to reach and has only enough space for two, so that they can still use the table when she isn't. It's also one of the reasons she likes this particular restaurant. Many will try and butter her up and pay extra attention to her because of who she is. And though it can most definitely be flattering to be pampered every now and then, it does become a bit of an annoyance when she's trying to focus on work and has no intention of saying anything about the place regardless. This place is nice in that they just leave her alone. To them she's just a steady paycheck that's very low impact. They take her order, give her that order and then don't really even have to check up on her at all over the entire night. And she typically doesn't linger anyway. That they're here means they likely strong-armed the staff into letting them get to her, meaning likely important. She doesn't recognize any of them, but with that fact and the timing she can only imagine that these must be some of the human delegates.
"Can I help you?" She asks, not even bothering to dignify them by looking up. Instead continuing to make notes on the events of the day and eating.
"There is something wrong with the message that is being delivered to the human sector," what she assumes is the leader speaks up.
"There is nothing wrong with what is being said in the human sector, it is the same information that is being given to all of the sectors. I personally review every story that is transmitted. If there is misinformation we move quickly to correct and maintain a high quality of standard, regardless of what the story is and how it may impact the station, provided of course the story doesn't jeopardize the safety of those inside the station."
"The problem isn't so much that you are providing misinformation, but that you are providing information that has not been approved for our constituents here on the station."
"I am the authority on what gets approved and what does not. Anything I approve for viewing amongst the human sector is something that has been approved for them."
"Work with me here, you're one of us, after all."
Carol looks up with her eyes, not deigning to move her face to acknowledge the implication. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm alive? Look, my species doesn't change the fact that my first loyalties are to this station and to the people here. Now as a professional courtesy, if there is any interview going on that you want to screen to make sure that sensitive information isn't released then we will run that through your head delegate. This is a courtesy provided to each and every faction. But we will not be lying to the people of any section to the station."
"We're not talking about lying. All we're asking is to present the facts in a way that is more favorable to the approved message."
"And that is not going to happen," Carol says bluntly.
"What was that?" the human demands.
"It's as I said. Or rather, it won't be the message you want me to be delivering. I'm not going to go about broadcasting this ‘humans first' initiative you're pressing. The approved message is the truth. People don't tune in to our broadcasts to be given spin. They trust us to give them the truth and so we will give them just that. If you want to spout political nonsense then by all means, we'll give you a space to state your piece. But we will still show them everything that is going on. We go out of our way to be as unpolitical as possible. The only ones on this station with the authority to tell me to only give their approved message to the station would be the Council. And that's only if they overwhelmingly agree that giving people the entire truth would be detrimental to the purpose of this station. So if you want me to spout nonsensical garbage then go take it up with them. Though keep in mind that the Council has three Mythics in them, because this is kind of a Mythics space station, after all. So good luck in trying to convince the people you want to vilify to authorize the news organization of the station to start lying about themselves."
The humans seem to be getting rather annoyed and angry at her statement and she can see some of the restaurant staff looking in from around the corner with a worried expression. Either they bullied their way past them or didn't know. She won't hold it against them. She waves them off. Everything is fine enough. No reason to risk anyone else getting involved, and especially no need to have the Guardians sent in. The head human leans in really close while the others start moving around her table as if to flank her. All things considered she's somewhat disappointed that she has to share a species with people like this. But she makes a point of ignoring them deliberately and goes back to her food, though one hand dips below the table.
"We could make your life very unpleasant if you don't give us what we want. As the human delegation you are required to allow us to rule our sector however we want. And that includes how the media will give its information."
"Oh?" Carol raises an eyebrow. "Is that so? Hate to break it to you but that's not how things work on this station. There is no jurisdictional distinction between the sectors. It doesn't matter what sector you're in, if you are on this station then you are on this station's jurisdiction and are bound to the laws it gives and no other. This station is effectively an independent body, kept intentionally separate from the ruling bodies of any of the member races. No race has any authority on what goes on here. No system has any authority on how this station does business. Why do you think the Family likes it here so much? So long as they never break any station laws, the station will do nothing. The laws of your worlds mean nothing here. You have no authority on this station. You politicians are nothing more than mouth pieces here to express the concerns of your worlds to anyone that will listen and if you can convince the others that the cause is needed, the actual authority on this station will move to assist as is required by our constitution." Carol looks back down and goes back to what she was doing before they interrupted their meal. "And in the future, I'd be very careful about trying to threaten me of all people. I do not take kindly to such things. You say you can make my life unpleasant. And what are you going to do? Beat me up? Attack the studio? You aren't the first ones to have the gall to attack me and what we do and allow me to let you in on a little secret."
Carol pauses for effect, looks back up at them and even leans in a little closer. "Whatever you think you can do to me pales in comparison to what I could do to you. The worst you can realistically do to me is just have me walk around in a cast for a little while. But there are two things you have overlooked. A few things rather, but a few things on threatening me. One, As you can see on my badge I am rated for magic," she says and raises up an arm to show there's nothing on it other than a nice little diamond bracelet a diplomat gave her a few years ago for doing them a favor. "And because of being on the council I don't have to wear the restrictors. Further, as an added bonus for being on the council," she reaches down into her bag and pulls out a small phase pistol, causing them all to take a step back at seeing the gun. "I am fully authorized to carry this around however I want and to use it with lethal intent if I felt threatened. But I don't need these to make your lives miserable. I am in charge of the media. I get to decide what people do and do not see. If I so felt inclined I could have the entire story of the day throughout the entire station be to release all of your own dirty laundry. Completely, factually accurate, mind you. I have standards. But how likely do you think anyone will want to do anything to do with you if we made it publicly known that you are actively threatening to harm members of the council and other politicians. How well do you think the average person on this station will react? Then how will your planets react when we tell them that you aren't able to carry out their instructions because the mobs have forced you to hide out in your quarters and no other politician will ever receive your calls?"
The humans look more than a little unnerved, but Carol couldn't really care less what their response is, so long as they learn the lesson and take it to heart to not bother trying to bully her organization into giving them what they want. Not even the Family tries that route, though they do occasionally ask her to run particular stories, but this is them asking for her to say factual news to the entire station so that the entire Family can get the facts of the story, rather than just politicizing things. And she's okay with the Family's requests, when they aren't being too absurd about it all.
"Now, you just so happened to catch me in a good mood. The Jhereshii head delegate gave us permission to air almost the entire interview to the other sectors, allowing us to give some really genuine insight into the culture of the Jhereshii. And though it isn't the stated purpose of the station, I have always held that one of the primary goals for this station is to help these disparate races to come together and have some common ground. And the Jhereshii gave us something that will help to that end. So, on that note I'm just going to let you all go with a warning. Leave now and don't try pressuring us to adjust the story ever again and I'll just pretend this conversation never existed. Continue, and all your bad laundry will be exposed to the station."
The human delegates flinch at the threat but Carol doesn't really care. She knows they're very frustrated but it serves them right. Thinking that they'd be able to just show up and run the station without actually doing any research about how the station is actually run or putting in any real strategy other than to just resort to bullying tactics. Even still, she goes about typing instructions to her subordinates on her warning. That they've just made a play at trying to pressure her and even went so far as to threaten her. So if anyone else got pressured they'd all react according to her threat. She does not make threats idly. Also lets them know to go about looking up anything that would be revealed if they needed to.