The Draconian Woman. Chapter Four

Chapter Four – The Interview

Emma looked nervous.

Serakha looked...curious.

"Remember," Emma whispered as they entered the glass building, "this is just a job interview."

Serakha nodded.

"I understand."

"You answer their questions."

"I understand."

"You don't tell them you commanded interstellar fleets."

"I understand."

"You don't mention planetary invasions."

"I understand."

"You don't explain orbital logistics."

"I understand."

Emma smiled.

"I have complete faith in you."

Serakha tilted her head.

"That concerns me."

The receptionist smiled warmly.

"Good morning."

"Good morning," Serakha replied.

"Can I offer you some water?"

Serakha looked at the glass.

"It appears uncontaminated."

The receptionist blinked.

"...I'll take that as a yes."

The interview room overlooked the entire city.

Three people sat behind a polished table.

A woman from Human Resources.

A senior engineer.

The company director.

The director smiled.

"Welcome, Serakha."

"Thank you."

"We've read your résumé."

"So have I."

The engineer coughed to hide a laugh.

The director continued.

"Tell us a little about yourself."

Emma silently prayed.

Serakha thought carefully.

"I enjoy solving complex systems."

"Excellent."

"I dislike unnecessary meetings."

The engineer nodded immediately.

"So do I."

"I prefer decisions supported by evidence."

"Reasonable."

"I believe every problem has an elegant solution."

The director smiled.

"So far, so good."

Serakha continued.

"And I once coordinated the movement of approximately four million personnel."

Emma closed her eyes.

The HR manager laughed.

"Four million?"

Serakha nodded.

"Approximately."

"What company was that?"

"It no longer exists."

Technically true.

The engineer leaned forward.

"Let's try something practical."

He opened his laptop.

"We've been working on a logistics problem for six months."

He explained the issue.

Supply chains.

Warehouses.

Traffic delays.

Resource allocation.

Serakha listened without interrupting.

When he finished, she asked only one question.

"Why are you solving five problems separately?"

The room fell silent.

The engineer frowned.

"...Because they're different problems."

"They are symptoms."

She stood and walked to the whiteboard.

"Observe."

Within minutes she had redrawn the entire system.

Boxes became circles.

Arrows disappeared.

New connections appeared.

Nobody spoke.

Finally the director whispered,

"...We've never looked at it like that."

"You organized information according to departments."

She placed the marker down.

"I organized it according to reality."

The engineer stared at the board.

"I think..."

He paused.

"...I think she just eliminated half the project."

"No."

Serakha corrected him politely.

"I eliminated half the confusion."

Human Resources decided to ask something easier.

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Serakha looked puzzled.

"I possess insufficient information."

The HR manager smiled.

"It's a hypothetical question."

"Then my answer is hypothetical."

"...Fair enough."

"I hope to become unnecessary."

Three people looked confused.

She explained.

"If an organization depends entirely on one individual..."

"...it has already failed."

The director slowly smiled.

"That's..."

"...actually brilliant."

The interview ended after ninety minutes.

As Emma and Serakha entered the elevator, Emma groaned.

"You told them you managed four million people."

"I reduced the number."

Emma stopped walking.

"...Reduced it?"

"The actual figure was considerably larger."

Emma burst into laughter.

"I can't take you anywhere."

Two days later, the phone rang.

Emma answered.

"Hello?"

A cheerful voice replied,

"We'd like to offer Serakha the position."

Emma smiled.

"Wonderful!"

The voice continued,

"Actually..."

"...we'd like to create an entirely new position."

Emma frowned.

"What position?"

"We're not completely sure."

"But every time she spoke..."

"...our problems became smaller."

Her first day was unforgettable.

Nobody knew what to call her.

Consultant?

Strategist?

Systems Analyst?

Innovation Advisor?

Finally someone printed a temporary nameplate.

SERAKHA

Professional Simplifier

She looked at it for several seconds.

"I approve."

By the end of the first week something unusual had happened.

Meetings became shorter.

Emails became clearer.

People stopped arguing over tiny details.

One afternoon a project manager rushed into her office.

"We have a crisis!"

Serakha looked up from her notebook.

"Describe it."

"The client changed everything!"

"Everything?"

"...Well..."

"...not everything."

"What changed?"

"The deadline."

"Then you do not have a new problem."

"You have the same problem..."

"...moving faster."

The manager blinked.

"...I hate how much sense that makes."

Emma noticed another change.

People no longer came to Serakha only for work.

They came when they were overwhelmed.

Confused.

Heartbroken.

Anxious.

She never gave long speeches.

She asked questions.

"What are you afraid of?"

"What can you control?"

"What remains true even if everything else changes?"

Most people left her office lighter than when they entered.

Not because she solved their lives.

Because she helped them remove everything that wasn't the real problem.

Late one evening Emma found Serakha standing by the office window.

The city shimmered beneath them like a sea of stars.

"What are you thinking about?" Emma asked.

Serakha smiled faintly.

"In my world..."

"...intelligence meant predicting the future."

"And here?"

She watched a father kneel to tie his daughter's shoelace before they crossed the street.

A young man held the elevator door for strangers he would never meet again.

Someone laughed so loudly that people on the sidewalk smiled without knowing why.

"Here..."

"...intelligence often looks like making another person's day a little easier."

Emma nodded.

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"I don't think you came here by accident."

Serakha was silent for a long moment.

"In my civilization," she said quietly, "we believed the universe rewarded the strongest."

She looked out at the ordinary people below—people carrying groceries, walking dogs, kissing goodbye before catching the last train home.

"Perhaps..."

"...the universe has been trying to teach me that it remembers the kindest."

For the first time since crossing the timeline, the thought no longer frightened her.

It felt...

inevitable.