I run two businesses, one open, one clandestine. My open business is running catering to the wealthy, deregger CEO's love me. My clandestine business is taking rescues from their worlds who want to escape, and making sure these rescues eat in a way the CEO's only WISH they could eat. I never charge the rescues for the food though, they deserve as much kindness as I can give them.
Both jobs pay, but only one of those jobs makes me truly happy. -- DaniAndShali
Who, when you get down to it, really wants to live forever? Some say they do, but even those with the capability to do it get bored of life after a small handful of centuries.
What do I do? I offer the next best thing. Sort of. It's a manipulation of the ability of dreams to condense time. The people within the experience can live a life of their dreams, and skip over all the fiddly bits that make life... real. They can experience centuries within a week, if they want to. While they're under, they get everything they want. Or everything they think they want.
I'm part of the Alliance. I wouldn't be a decent being if I didn't at least try to settle a few lessons into that sort of thing. And yes, I have received a few complaints about the reality of the experience.
I consider it a badge of pride.
But that's the business that pays for the rest of it. My paying clients are so wrapped up in their own nonsense that they don't even notice what else I do behind the curtain.
See, they come with space yachts. They come with staff. More accurately, they come with slaves. I take them in to a covert rehabilitation facility and the people in my factories print up some non-cogniscent humanoid constructs to take their place. Some "face" replacements border on cusp-cogniscent and so far? The Dereggers emerge from their dreamlands unable to tell the difference when they leave.
And no, I don't have any influence over that. They're either that dim or that uncaring about their "staff".
There's others who smuggle Deregger citizens from Deregger polities. There's some who wage war against those oligarchs. There's others who go into those territories and foment sedition.
I provide services. Funding one with the other. Honestly? Giving CEO's their pathetic little dreams is a doddle. The fun part is saving the people they force along with them.
[Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash]
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