Alluris stared out at the officers as they tried to command their troops on the parade ground. It was an antiquated practice, and now was more for presentation and proving proficiency than anything else. It did a good job of giving the officers a sense of gravitas, however. Alluris watched as one of the Shu punctuated an order with a jab of her talon, the uniform accentuating her bronze scales and showing off her intimidating aspects.
"When do you think the human will arrive?" Gramu asked behind Alluris, moving from her spot at her desk to walk up to the giant monitor overviewing the officers from the camera.
"He was just given the go-ahead to walk again today miss." Alluris began, her sigh punctuated by a group of recruits being led by the same intake officers stumbling over themselves and falling to the ground. "He will likely spend time to get used to walking again and make sure he's safe." Both women let out what was their equation of a wince as the uproar that erupted from the soldiers from the failure was too loud for them.
"Do you believe someone who isn't proactive could run this fleet with any kind of success?" Gramu asked Alluris, causing the woman to let out another sigh of annoyance. "You know the human doesn't think like you Gramu, stop acting like he will do things your" her voice drifted off as a gaze that Alluris took notice despite its size compared to the rest of the image came into view. The dark biped strode into the room with a grace that the outfit lent him. "Who is that?"
Gramu laughed at her side while looking at her favorite pet project. "That, Alluris, is Adam Blake." Alluris was shocked at the change. Whoever designed the human's dress uniform did a good job of giving an air of intimidation. The uniform gave just the right amount of excess to show a lack of care for the resources used, and the way the uniform was designed, it seemed to flutter gracefully no matter how bad the person was acting underneath.
"Do you like my little surprise?" Gramu asked her second in command with the equivalent of a face splitting grin on her. Alluris for her part managed to turn her eyes away from the imposing sight to glare at the CEO.
"So this is what you were mumbling about for the past few days. did you try and hide what you were doing just to see my reaction when the human entered the room?" the only reply Alluris got was Gramu turning back to the video. It was annoying how childish her superior could be at times, doing small things just to get reactions out of those under her.
"It worked, didn't it? I wanted to see the opinion of someone who wouldn't hide their reaction through pride. I asked the tailors to share their designs with me as I tried to help them along to give the human an appropriate image for an officer. His body doesn't have many menacing aspects. but they managed to give the impression that he doesn't need flashy body parts to intimidate people."
Alluris did her equivalent of a scoff as she turned away. Gramu was probably letting her own hopes for the boy seep in there. she didn't expect that the uniform could give that sort of impression on others. Though she could tell it was exceptionally made, She needed to keep a level head or Gramu would go off the rails.
"Did you read the transcript of the shareholder meeting then? you've been so busy with the human's uniforms that it seemed like you neglected your other tasks." Alluris couldn't say for sure as she had no records of Gramu's actions, but she could tell by the amount of time the woman had spent squirreling away at this task that the woman had forsaken other duties.
"'Oh, yes I did. troubling news that meeting. I also finished your request for a field test before the big event. we have set up a location that we can use during the last refill on our trip. Though I haven't heard back from the planet about the price. I did lodge that request late in the night." Alluris grew even more disappointed at her superior. Of course, the woman would sacrifice the one thing her species needed in spades: sleep.
"Could you be a little more aware of your situation?" Alluris berated the woman, in spite of her position. "You going without sleep means I either have to take over executive calls for a day or we get critical mistakes for months!" Alluris almost growled at Gramu. the woman was going too far into her interests lately and Alluris needed to rein her back in. "I want you sleeping for the next day, no interruptions to your sleep cycle for anything."
"And what makes you think I'll listen to you?" Gramu shot back, Alluris should've known Gramu was being childish because of lack of sleep.
"Because you know what happens when I get stressed?" Alluris asked. She was already dreading the work nightmare that was the full day of listening to those damn bureaucrats. Gramu had picked up her political work in her last months as CEO and Alluris had hated the last day where bureaucrats hounded her during Gramu's sleep. this would be even worse.
"I still want to see Adam's progress. the Vanid are hedging their bets now, pulling away from the shareholders in preparation for the handoff. so if I do something that they don't like, they can leave the fleet without support until they conquer it."
This caused Alluris to stop thinking for a moment, just trying to comprehend what was just said. "Wait they what? how can they manage to tie up planet barons enough to cut off all support?" when Alluris' thoughts finally caught up with the situation, she felt the need to find out how.
"It seems the Vanid have been organizing large inspections that repeat each decade." Gramu began, bringing up an image in front of the two about a heresy inspection, it was a planet-wide issue that began a few days ago. "Multiple of my shareholders have received missives like this, and while these things can take only a week, I fear that everyone will be embroiled in internal affairs upon the battle."
That thought alone chilled Alluris' bones, she was on the vanguard of species representation as the second in command of the only fleet not run by the Vanid, if they lost their position. "Are they preparing for a military takeover?"
"I can't say" Gramu stated coldly, looking back to the officers. "Though we need to prepare as if they are. and find a way to avoid it."