Starbound: A Space Odyssey

Back at Nicole's side...

She slowly walked at the hallways towards the room in which she would meet with some important people.

On her way, everyone that she passed respectfully and dreadfully bowed their heads and waited until she was fairly away before straighting up and going on with their business as usual.

Nicole just give a casual glance to those people and didn't waste a split second, she just kept walking forward.

After reaching her destination, she opened the double door and walked in.

It was a relatively small room with only a round table at the center with 12 seats available.

Above each chair, there was some kind of electronic device that greatly resemble the projector that Jevil used back at the Ice Planet when he was attacked by Itsuki's forces to capture him.

As soon as she sat down, one of the devices in the room made some noise and a light came out from it.

Nicole looked up at the holographic figure at the opposite chair.

"Jason?" Nicole was surprised to see the blonde young man in front of her.

She was surprised as she expected Travis to be the one.

The holographic image of Jason smiled, "Hello, president Nicole Gonçalves. I should congratulate you for taking the office."

"Where's Travis?" Nicole frowned and directly asked with a cold tone as she didn't have time to play around with Travis's son.

"He's dead." Jason said indifferently without a single change on his expression and kept a wide smile plastered on his face.

"It wasn't a natural dead, right?" Nicole's eyebrow lifted a little. She continued to stare at Jason as she was searching for something.

"That's right, I killed him and took over the Syndicate." Jason happily said as he spread his arms and looked deeply into Nicole's eyes. In the face of Nicole's aura and glare, Jason remained indifferent and casual.

"Oh..." Nicole exclaimed before mockingly saying, "I should have expect nothing less than a crime syndicate. A son killing his father for power...how barbaric and lawless."

Jason's face remained the same but his eyes turned cold for a moment before returning to normal.

The change was so fast that almost no one would've been able to see it, unfortunately for Jason, Nicole wasn't a normal person, and she clearly saw that split second change.

Of course, she decided to pretend not to see, as she needed a favor from the Black Star Syndicate and didn't want to get on the bad side of the new boss.

If humanity wasn't in a perilous situation, she would've never try to make a deal with heinous criminals such as the people from the Black Star Syndicate. Unfortunately, she needed every single power available to bring peace and stabilization back to Beta Sector.

Not only the Syndicate, Nicole already made some deals with a lot of underworld powers, mainly those that control the lawless planets in the Frontier in her sector.

[I might need their help now, but...] Nicole lowered her head and her eyes gleamed with a cold and ruthless light, [As soon as humanity comeback to it's feet, I'll completely and utterly destroy all of them. These criminals deserve no mercy...]

She rose her head and smiled at Jason, "It doesn't really matter who's in charge. Do you know what I was talking with Travis?"

Jason deeply stared at Nicole as seems he wanted to see her soul, "Not much. This meeting between him and you were very secretive. I must say, you surely are ballsy, starting to make deals and alliances even before winning the election."

"It was all in my plans." Nicole said emotionlessly, "If I haven't won by the vote, I would've done a coup'd'tea and taken the power to myself. I already had the complete backing of the military, it would've have been easy to take office by force, if it was necessary."

"I must say, you are just the kind of woman I like." Jason licked his lips as he looked up and down at Nicole. He didn't even care about the burnt scar that covered half of her face, what he really value in the opposite s.e.x is the personality and will, not something artificial like appearance.

"Sorry." Nicole wasn't bothered about how Jason was checking her out, "You are way too young for my taste. Young and inexperienced."

"Age isn't a problem, my dear." Jason spoke with a sweet and gentle tone, "How do you know I'm inexperienced? If you want, I can show you how much experience I have."

Nicole didn't blush and neither acted bashful like a young girl. In front of the flirty moves of Jason, she just kept a straight face and a faint smile, "Maybe in the future. Who knows? You might turn out to be the type of guy I like, but currently you are not even close."

"That's a shame..." Jason said with some regret in his tone, "You really picked my interest. If you want, we can do an one night stand and see how it goes. How about it?"

"I must decline." Nicole shook her head, "I barely have time to take care of myself, how will I have time to do night activities?"

"What ab-"

*Tzzt*

Jason was interrupted by the sound of the other projectors around the table turning on.

"I'm sorry, Jason." Nicole said, "It's time to start this reunion, no more chitchat. I'm going to give you a brief resume about what I discussed with Travis after this, okay?"

"Okay, Mrs. President."

As soon as Jason's voice dropped, all the seats in the table have been taken by holographic figures.

All of the people present were humans and around the age of 40 to 50.

On the 12 seats of the table, there were 6 men and 6 women, including Jason and Nicole.

The moment they appeared, they immediately switched their attention from Nicole to Jason as he was standing out.

"Who's this?" One of the middle-aged men asked as he squinted his eye over Jason.

"I saw him before. If I'm not wrong he's Jason Silverhand, Travis's bastard son." A middle-aged woman identified Jason with a single glance.

The moment he heard the name bastard, Jason's eyes became several degrees colder, but he decided to keep quite.

"As you all know, he's Travis's son, Jason Silverhand." Nicole interrupted both parties before a conflict could arise, "Travis is dead, and Jason will be taking over the Syndicate." Nicole then gave a resume of the Syndicate and Jason's situation.

All the other 10 people gave a glance filled with different meanings toward Jason.

"Alright, if that out of the way, we can continue from where he stopped last time." Nicole started, "I don't think we need to go through the names of everyone here again, right? Okay, let's begin."