One pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09, made in three different color palettes and overlaid upon themselves ... no. 1
“A perennial sense of humor makes for a charming man, but I've never trusted that characteristic in a commander, Rufus. Better dig deep in a potential business partner like this. Consider the business you and Mark have built, and how much time you and he spend charming people.”
“Uncle Benjamin, you don't think I'm charming? You let me marry your niece!”
“Because Khadijah thinks you are charming, and that is all right: she was your wife before the foundation of the world. That's a different calculation, and here is what is different: how much time have you spent trying to charm all the ladies you meet, to say nothing of the men?”
“Oh, I see what you are saying, Uncle.”
I stayed out of the conversations my husband, founder and chief operations officer for Kirk and Dixon Shipping, had with Admiral Benjamin Banneker my uncle about theories of command in business until invited in, just like they stayed out of conversations I had with Admiral Vlarian Triefield about command until invited in. Men and women do have different approaches to the same subject, and I had my own thoughts about VentPortal, a new commercial shipping company run by the ever-so-funny-and-charming Mr. Richard Speed.
VentPortal and Kirk and Dixon Shipping were not direct competitors. The Ventanan frontier was big enough to easily accommodate several shipping companies, and also different companies were classed for shipping different things. Kirk and Dixon Shipping had universal classification, including hazardous and sensitive materials, and had all the appropriate fleet clearances.
“And because of all that you personally have built since age 17 to make that so,” my uncle was saying to my husband, “and because you feel that responsibility, you are the least funny man at work I have ever known. Mark is a little more humorous, but, he's a Kirk: a little more room because of privilege, but Marcus Aurelius Kirk Jr. is as serious as you are about making sure every person in this company is safe and that what you ship arrives on time every time and safely to the customer. Both of you are very young to have the kind of company you have – but it has been by discipline and focus, and with no time except in recreation and relaxation time to indulge in humor.”
Full fleet admiral Chenggis Chulalaangkorn weighed in with my husband as well, from all the position of authority he had on the Ventanan frontier, and all the grim reputation of him using it when some commercial enterprise became a threat.
“I don't trust Richard Speed as far as I could transport him without caring whether I can beam him back -- and I have him on my short list for that,” he said.
"Admiral!" my husband cried.
"And I never bluff," Adm. Chulalaangkorn said. "That should tell you the opinion I am forming of the charming Mr. Speed. On the rare occasion I want to see a stand-up comedy routine, I go pay good money for that. I do not want to see that in everyday business. Out here, it does not matter whether you can convince people you are charming and fun to work with and for. You either understand the job or you and everyone dumb enough to work with you is dead. It's just a matter of time.”
Mark's cousin, Admiral J.T. Kirk, weighed in.
“Richard Speed comes from a good family, and I look at him like I look at Mark, but the difference is, and I've said this to Mark as well, is that Mark took our shared name and looked at all our history back to General U.S. Grant and Sgt. Augustus Kirk and literally said, 'I'm not going to coast on it; I'm going to expand it.' That's the main difference. You can't coast in space for long, Rufus. Death has far too much gravity out there. You need full propulsion and control toward a goal, and then to get there. That's what young Mr. Speed is missing.
“Another difference: you know how much I opposed you and Mark even getting into commercial shipping pushing the frontiers, but Dixons are stubborn like Kirks, and you two not only were going to have your way but did it well, so although I've never been a cheerleader, I've become supportive of your venture. Mr. Speed's family gets out publicly and throws acclaim and money at him for putting on a pair of clean socks after every successful shipping run – and you've got to wonder if a man raised like that is ready to deeply learn from criticism and early problems and mistakes his company may be making.”
Rufus Dixon is the most thoughtful and deliberative and prayerful men I have ever known – more deliberative than even Uncle Benjamin, because my uncle goes into devising an experiment faster in his scientist mode, and is in the habit of decisiveness under the pressure of military command in which time is at a premium.
But Rufus? He is an engineer, one who went from working on engines to engineering the nuts and bolts of the premier commercial shipping companies of its type in the galaxy – a COO of extraordinary gifts, engineering the systems of success.
My husband also has a big heart, and I knew it was involved in this decision for which he was seeking so much counsel. Richard Speed was pursuing a partnership, and Rufus and Mark were considering it carefully, because any company being able to say it worked with Kirk and Dixon Shipping would gain vast advantages … advantages that cannot be given lightly.
On the evening before he and Mark sat down and decided the matter, I heard him heave a big sigh, and then he looked at me.
“Khadijah, can we just go for a walk? The botanical expedition from Intahngell 3 is in town.”
He had given me a beautiful image of their most famous trees as an anniversary gift of gold and green gold, for the Intahngellia grew their fig trees into each other as support, and they thus came out in the form the first humans to see them described as "a treeful embrace." We had been meaning to get over and see the live trees for a good while, so ...
“Of course, Rufus.”
No. 2
“The thing is, Khadijah, Mark and I both truly like Mr. Speed. He seems sincere and eager and happy, and he probably hits these older commanders wrong because of that – but fleet men are not the measure of all things. VentPortal is generally respected in its class of shipping companies, and it has no outstanding safety violations or employee complaints.
“But the other thing, Khadijah, and why Mark and I are having a hard time just saying no, is that we remember how hard it was for us when we started out. Nobody established wanted to help us – they wanted to crush us even though there is plenty of room out here for everyone. We had to fight for every inch, and we have always tried not to become the people who hated us as our company matured. We help our competitors out when they need it: we provide safety manuals and trainings to try to keep there from being a need for us to help in an emergency. We make what is coming through Kirk, Dixon, and Oahuapedal Solutions available to them at wholesale cost. Everybody can eat out here, and we want everyone that makes living in space to eat well and stay safe.”
I listened, and I prayed, and I thought, and as we walked on, I answered him.
“I find that it is not a good place for me to make decisions based on how I was not treated well in the past,” I said.
“You're right, of course,” he said.
“But in saying how you and Mark chose to chart a different course, you do have a strong place to stand from which to make a decision. My assignment on Aqiiuibus was a bit more like running a business long-term than the command experiences of the fleet admirals we know, and I always looked at one main thing when assessing what new personnel coming through could do: were they teachable?”
“OK, I'm following the logic … .”
“Kirk and Dixon Shipping taken together with Kirk, Dixon, and Oahuapedal Solutions is the premier teaching organization for commercial shippers that do frontier shipping in the galaxy, and also has a vast impact on the fleet. The shipping side also has a vast number of potential subcontracts to hand out. Suppose you let Richard Speed know that you have a mentor-partner program for young companies like his? If there is more to him than just wanting to be liked and admired, you will know quickly. If he is teachable, then he is likely for real. All that humor could be coming from him being nervous and also feeling like he can't get the help he needs, but not trying to offend.”
My husband paused, took my hands, and kissed my cheek.
“Thank you, Khadijah. That's the answer I need.”
He called Mark when we finished our walk, and Mark answered, “That will work, Rufus. Vlarian offered similar perspective: she reminded me that we deal with challenges with collaborative solutions instead of competitive ones, and that perhaps Mr. Speed is punching way above his weight as a company suggesting a partnership because he is hoping for that kind of relationship. She also said that because what we do does not have a fleet requirement for service, and since we don't want to be in her position at age 75, we might want to take in all these young companies and start preparing them to receive the torch.”
(The fact that we had all missed Admiral Vlarian Triefield's 75th birthday was going to be a whole separate issue with a frustrated assassin trying to use an alien technique he only half understood, but that is another story.)
VentPortal joined the mentor-partner program Kirk and Dixon Shipping set up, and became a respected shipping powerhouse in its own right. It turned out that Richard Speed was indeed just doing the best he could from inside his personality to give himself and his company a chance. Once Rufus and Mark came along as mentors, he was able to settle down and reveal a serious and brilliant young mind well informed by the insights he had from growing up on the Ventanan frontier. He soaked up being in the company of men who did not cheer everything he did but gave him honest feedback, and he applied himself to learning and growing.
“The reason my family cheers everything I do is because I wasn't even supposed to be here,” he explained to the news about that later on. “I was born with a birth defect that would have been fatal in any decade before the one I was born in – and it was still close enough – so, I'm my parents' miracle child. But I'm not out here just coasting on that. I do want to honor that in everything I do, and I think of VentPortal as a company that makes ways for families to live safely on the frontier.”
VentPortal specializes in terraforming materials and also basic infrastructure for planetary settlement, and today, Kirk and Dixon Shipping subcontracts the majority of such matters to that proven partner.
We also get to enjoy Mr. Speed and his family at home, which means we get prime access to the entire Speedy Laughter stand-up routine his whole family does for guests. Uncle Benjamin has unbent enough to come and laugh, Adm. Chulalaangkorn has at last cracked a smile and retracted his not-even-veiled threat to beam the family head to the great beyond, and Mark's admiral cousin has seen the videos and said, “I can't watch any more of that – I'm too old to be breaking ribs like this!”
“All's well that ends well, like a treeful embrace,” I said to Rufus about it one evening as we were walking home from the Speed family home, and my husband stopped, took both my hands, and kissed my cheek.
No. 3
