Kristen yawned, and cracked her neck. She glanced at the time in the corner of her computer screen, and let out a yelp.

She had been engrossed in the project for nearly six hours, and it was almost midnight.

"Professor, can I leave for the night?" she pinged Ivan on the SiriusChat channel they had set up for the project.

Ivan's reply was almost instantaneous.

"Holy crap! I lost track of time too! Yes, of course!"

Kristen pushed her work to the repository, and got up.

She opened the door of the cubicle, and almost ran into Ivan.

"How was your first day of the internship?" he asked.

Kristen bit her lip, and hesitated.

"Sir, can you keep a secret?" she asked, blushing nervously.

Ivan raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, what is it?"

Kristen took a deep breath.

"I've always wanted to work at Sirius Software. When you offered me the internship, I was so excited! But I was also really nervous. I didn't want to mess up, or disappoint you," she said breathlessly.

"I see," said Ivan, nodding.

He leaned in closer, and lowered his voice.

"Can you keep a secret as well?" he asked.

Kristen nodded, her heart pounding.

"The guy who runs this place? The founder and owner of Sirius Software? He's my son," whispered Ivan.

Kristen's eyes widened in shock.

"Your son?!" she exclaimed.

Ivan nodded.

"Yes. My position here is a bit... unconventional. I work here as a consultant, and now I'm in charge of this internship. It's a fairly recent thing, since I've reconnected with my son only a couple of months ago," he explained.

Kristen's knees felt weak, and she sat back down in her chair.

Ivan entered the cubicle, and looked at her intently.

"Kristen, what I've told you is something that can lose me my tenure at MIT. They absolutely refuse to have any association with Sirius Software. If they found out that I was working here, I would be fired immediately," he said gravely.

Kristen nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation.

"I don't share the same views as the rest of our class or even the rest of MIT. I won't tell anyone, I promise," she said earnestly.

Ivan smiled, relieved.

"All right, let's keep this between us, now you can go home. Get some rest, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow," he said.

Kristen stood up, and gathered her things.

"Um, Professor, Can I still say that I've got an internship at Sirius Software without mentioning your name?" she asked hesitantly.

Ivan chuckled.

"Sure, we've already posted the internship on the Sirius Software website. Just say that you got it through the website," he said.

Kristen smiled, and nodded.

"Thank you, Professor. I'll see you tomorrow," she said, and left the cubicle.

Ivan escorted her to the parking lot, and watched her walk to her car.

Kristen got into her Tesla, and sat for a moment, taking a deep breath.

"Professor Zakhrov works at Sirius Software, and his son is the owner!" she thought, awe and excitement coursing through her veins.

She started the car, and slowly drove out of the parking lot.

"Professor Zakhrov. You keep making me fall for you more and more each day," she sighed, wetness forming between her legs as she drove home.

----

Aaron looked over the newly pushed code in the repository.

"Hmm, not bad for a first day," he muttered to himself.

He pulled in the code changes to his local machine, and started testing the new themes and UI elements that Kristen had worked on.

"Not bad at all," he said, nodding in approval.

He started making a few tweaks and optimizations to the code: mostly around performance and memory usage.

He then pulled up the video and biometric information that his Sirius Software Portals had captured of Kristen when she had walked through them.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" he muttered to himself, as he looked at the images of Kristen's face and body.

"I might just have found the public face for Sirius Software at Trade shows," he mused.

He picked up his phone, and dialed Ivan.

"Dad, how's the new intern's presentation and public speaking skills?" he asked.

"Her technical skills are excellent, but she's a nervous wreck when it comes to public speaking," replied Ivan.

"All right, you'll need to get that sorted out. And tell her that I'm toying with the idea of making her the public face of Sirius Software at trade shows and conferences," said Aaron.

"You're what?" asked Ivan incredulously.

"Well, I prefer not going out there on a public stage, and get mobbed with questions over how much of an evil overlord I am," said Aaron.

"So you decided to throw a nervous co-ed to the wolves?" asked Ivan skeptically.

"She won't be alone up there, I'm also contracting 7-Star Crossed to be our presenters and booth babes. No filthy mob's going to object to pretty Idol girls and a cute technical spokeswoman," said Aaron.

"Fine, I'll ask, but you better make sure she's well protected up there," groused Ivan.

"I'll make sure of that. Thanks, Dad," said Aaron, before hanging up.

He leaned back in his chair, and smiled.

"Now, let's see how much progress has been made on the fabs," he muttered to himself, as he pulled up the latest reports from Hajime and Friedrich.

----

Mikaela sat in the back seat of Annette's Hyundai Ioniq 5, looking miserably at her hands.

Sky had chewed her out earlier that day, for spreading rumors about Sky's relationship with Annette.

In the front seats, Annette and Sky were both complaining about the SZPD:

How the uniforms were offensive because they were genuine Cowhide leather, how the officers were all pigs, how the cars were too loud, and how the SZPD was an oppressive and authoritarian force.

Their complaints were a stark contrast to Mikaela's own experiences with Officer Vasquez and Officer Martinez, who had been nothing but kind and understanding towards her.

They finally reached the house in Pine Springs, and Annette parked the car in the driveway.

"Oh great! What the hell do those pigs want now?" grumbled Sky, as an SZPD Stormkreuzer pulled up to the house.

"Sky, please. Just stay calm," said Annette, trying to keep her composure.

Officer Vasquez stepped out of the car, and waved to Mikaela.

"Hi Mikaela. How was school today?" she asked.

"Officer would you please stop coming here? It's bothering me," said Annette, before Mikaela could answer.

"We're here to enforce the restraining order, ma'am. Or would you prefer calling 911 if Mr. Zakhrov shows up?" asked Officer Vasquez.

"Fine, but that doesn't give you the right to bother my daughter," said Annette, her tone hard.

"Ms. Petra, may I remind you that you were dangerously close to neglectful behavior just this morning. Aside from enforcing the restraining order, we're also here to ensure that Mikaela is safe and well cared for," said Officer Vasquez.

Annette sighed, and nodded.

"School was fine, Officer," said Mikaela quietly.

"Mikaela, go inside and wash up. I'll be making dinner soon," said Annette, her tone stern.

"Yes, Mommy," said Mikaela, ambling up the driveway and into the house.

Sky scowled at Officer Vasquez.

"All right, you've done your job, now buzz off," said Sky.

"Have a good day ma'am," said Officer Vasquez.

"My pronouns are they/them! Stop misgendering me!" shouted Sky, close to tears, as Officer Vasquez nonchalantly got back into the patrol car, and drove off, the Stormkreuzer's engine rumbling loudly.

"Shh, calm down Sky. It's over now," said Annette, holding Sky gently in her arms.

"T-thanks, Annette. I just hate those pigs so much," said Sky, sniffling.

"Yes, well. Let's just go inside. Dinner will be ready soon," said Annette, leading Sky into the house.

----

"Hey Kristen, there's a Halloween party at the Sigma Kappa Epsilon house tonight. You should come," said Lisa, as Kristen packed up her things at the end of the day at MIT.

"Can't. I've got an internship at Sirius Software," said Kristen, zipping up her backpack.

"Wait, what? Since when?" asked Lisa, raising an eyebrow.

"Since yesterday. They had an internship program posted on their website, and I applied," said Kristen.

"Kristen! Haven't you heard about Sirius Software? They're like the most evil megacorp ever! They literally blew up an entire Boston PD precinct!" exclaimed Lisa.

Kristen raised an eyebrow.

"You believe the ACAB thing right? Doesn't that mean they're on your side?" she asked, deliberately trying to show Lisa the hypocrisy of her argument.

Lisa looked taken aback.

"That's different! ACAB stands for halting police brutality! It doesn't mean that we should all just fire missiles at cops!" she said, flustered.

"Yeah, whatever. Look, I don't give a shit. I applied for an internship, I got an internship. See ya," said Kristen, turning on her heel and walking out of the lecture hall, her stiletto heels clicking defiantly.

"Bitch!" muttered Lisa under her breath, looking enviously at Kristen's hourglass form in her sleek black skirt-suit.

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