Yesterday, 02:03 AM
Jez caught Alex a bit off guard. His mind had been fixed on Beno and he was a little disappointed that their conversation had been interrupted. When Beno motioned for Jez to join them, he managed to rise just enough to show good manners, but clearly his mind had been elsewhere. Still, Jez was quite upset about this ex of hers and placed a PADD for him to glance at.
Alex listened as he took in the message on the PADD, then responded to her as if commenting on a game of 3D chess. "Yes, let's examine your options. You ask about consequences if the embryo were terminated. The law is quite clear in this matter and as the mother, you have first say. That point could be argued in a court though and custody of it could be transferred or won in a judgement. There is nothing to contest the fact that mechanical malfunctions happen and if it were to be the victim of simple misfortune, it would be quite difficult to prove it was other than accidental."
Alex paused a second before looking her in the eyes and continuing, "You don't strike me as a person who is considering such an action at this time, so let's move to other options. Speaking as a single father, I can say that having some variant of a nanny or surrogate parental figure in the life of the child is an entirely workable option. My choices obviously lean to the synthetic over the organic, but I play to my strengths. You do have a number of options, including recruiting a highly skilled professional to see to such matters."
Alex then leaned forward and smiled at Jez, "I think it is very thoughtful of you to worry about my family, but I'm not the least bit worried about this individual. You see, my family is also quite influential in the 9th House. My parents are very well known in their social and political circles. Our family wealth and influence are hard to sum up in simple terms, but suffice to say that I can afford better lawyers and am fairly confident that I could literally buy his family home and evict him from it, just to make a point." He lowered his voice to a conspiratorially low whisper, "Don't worry, I'll play nice."
I suggest that we send him a legal notice and court order. He will be forbidden from contacting you directly and will not be permitted to knowingly be within 100 meters of you until the court reaches a final determination. All contact will be required to go through your legal council, which is being retained by a prominent member of the 9th House, but that will remain under seal while the facts are established in preparation for a hearing to determine if the case will be allowed to remain in civil court or if there are to be criminal charges filed as well. This will classify it as an official investigation while they gather evidence. Part of that will require him to reveal detailed financial holdings and establish his own genetic status in a pending property claims case."
Alex smiled again, "You see, Jez...this kind of guy loves to use his money as a symbol of his power. If you have real power, the money is only a tool. He's not going to know exactly what we're after. He might think you're only trying to secure custody of the property he has threatened to take away from you, but we're going to make him realize that you might have a claim on some of his estate, by right of an heir and that there could very likely be a judgement in your favor to grant you and the child a significant portion of his family estate, which his parents might not even be aware of. This will send a ripple through his world and the fact that it will be coming from me, naming you as a ward of my family...well...that is going to point out that you are very well prepared to go on the offensive in a battle that he didn't even know he was already engaged in. He's a bully. He made a threat. I'm going to fire the first shot."
Almost as an afterthought, he added, "Oh, as for you family and their scientific efforts, I'm thinking that funding their work as part of academic and cultural enrichment for universities and museums will be pretty easy. I need you to speak with them and come up with a name you would like for a foundation to be set up for that purpose. Take some time and think about it. I can then give you contact information for your parents to be able to get with a management team to make it happen. If you can't decide, don't worry, we'll get a small marketing team to help them sort it all out."
He took a sip of his tranya, gave a small sigh and then calmly concluded, "Jez, I told you I would help you. I also don't like bullies. Oh...and...welcome to the family."
Without him doing anything more, Cindy's voice came from the device on his wrist, [I'll have the documents ready for your review whenever you wish.]
Alex held up his glass and asked Jez, "Can I interest you in some Tranya?"
== Tags Beno and Jez ==
== To be clear, Cindy is sitting at a table on the other side of Ten Forward, but never even looked over at where Alex and Beno were sitting. ==
Alex listened as he took in the message on the PADD, then responded to her as if commenting on a game of 3D chess. "Yes, let's examine your options. You ask about consequences if the embryo were terminated. The law is quite clear in this matter and as the mother, you have first say. That point could be argued in a court though and custody of it could be transferred or won in a judgement. There is nothing to contest the fact that mechanical malfunctions happen and if it were to be the victim of simple misfortune, it would be quite difficult to prove it was other than accidental."
Alex paused a second before looking her in the eyes and continuing, "You don't strike me as a person who is considering such an action at this time, so let's move to other options. Speaking as a single father, I can say that having some variant of a nanny or surrogate parental figure in the life of the child is an entirely workable option. My choices obviously lean to the synthetic over the organic, but I play to my strengths. You do have a number of options, including recruiting a highly skilled professional to see to such matters."
Alex then leaned forward and smiled at Jez, "I think it is very thoughtful of you to worry about my family, but I'm not the least bit worried about this individual. You see, my family is also quite influential in the 9th House. My parents are very well known in their social and political circles. Our family wealth and influence are hard to sum up in simple terms, but suffice to say that I can afford better lawyers and am fairly confident that I could literally buy his family home and evict him from it, just to make a point." He lowered his voice to a conspiratorially low whisper, "Don't worry, I'll play nice."
I suggest that we send him a legal notice and court order. He will be forbidden from contacting you directly and will not be permitted to knowingly be within 100 meters of you until the court reaches a final determination. All contact will be required to go through your legal council, which is being retained by a prominent member of the 9th House, but that will remain under seal while the facts are established in preparation for a hearing to determine if the case will be allowed to remain in civil court or if there are to be criminal charges filed as well. This will classify it as an official investigation while they gather evidence. Part of that will require him to reveal detailed financial holdings and establish his own genetic status in a pending property claims case."
Alex smiled again, "You see, Jez...this kind of guy loves to use his money as a symbol of his power. If you have real power, the money is only a tool. He's not going to know exactly what we're after. He might think you're only trying to secure custody of the property he has threatened to take away from you, but we're going to make him realize that you might have a claim on some of his estate, by right of an heir and that there could very likely be a judgement in your favor to grant you and the child a significant portion of his family estate, which his parents might not even be aware of. This will send a ripple through his world and the fact that it will be coming from me, naming you as a ward of my family...well...that is going to point out that you are very well prepared to go on the offensive in a battle that he didn't even know he was already engaged in. He's a bully. He made a threat. I'm going to fire the first shot."
Almost as an afterthought, he added, "Oh, as for you family and their scientific efforts, I'm thinking that funding their work as part of academic and cultural enrichment for universities and museums will be pretty easy. I need you to speak with them and come up with a name you would like for a foundation to be set up for that purpose. Take some time and think about it. I can then give you contact information for your parents to be able to get with a management team to make it happen. If you can't decide, don't worry, we'll get a small marketing team to help them sort it all out."
He took a sip of his tranya, gave a small sigh and then calmly concluded, "Jez, I told you I would help you. I also don't like bullies. Oh...and...welcome to the family."
Without him doing anything more, Cindy's voice came from the device on his wrist, [I'll have the documents ready for your review whenever you wish.]
Alex held up his glass and asked Jez, "Can I interest you in some Tranya?"
== Tags Beno and Jez ==
== To be clear, Cindy is sitting at a table on the other side of Ten Forward, but never even looked over at where Alex and Beno were sitting. ==