Diversity:

Chapter 58

“Well, I do believe that’s everything.” Ardjia smiled politely and gestured toward the room’s exit. “We keep the actually good art in section G3, so why don’t you browse there while Conny and I catch up and discuss business.”
“You know, I can tell you’re just trying to get rid of me so I don’t pollute your negotiations with moronically misplaced attempts at helping.” Renz rolled his eyes. “I’d be offended, but I’m familiar with the frustration of dealing with that one ear-leak who thinks you don’t need the training if you have the brains. There’s one in every engineering school. Ours was named Giren, and he was good at what he did but kept trying to help folks from other classes with what they did.” His eyes narrowed. “So many perfectly good training engines, ruined by the inability of his fragile ego to accept he was out of his element… Yeah, I’m not like that. You don’t screw with my engine, I don’t screw with your negotiations.” He paused. “…What I’m getting at is that I hate it when people tip-toe around me, so if you need me to screw off somewhere while you deal with someone who knows what the hell they’re doing? Just tell me.
“Of course, my apologies. Both rosearn and homgen value tact over honesty, so…” Ardjia placed her mask up against her face. She was going to have some very strong words with her informant later, quirks like this were exactly the sort of thing that should have been in her report. “…I just kinda assumed…”
“Yeah, sure. And I was born on Earth.” A sigh slipped out of Renz’s mouth. “I’m dead serious. I don’t expect a rosearn to be truthful, but at least don’t insult my intelligence with such obvious bullshit.”
“I’m trying! I know it isn’t obvious to you, but I don’t really have a lot to work with here!” Ardjia threw up her arms. “My situation right now is the social equivalent of someone hacking my right arm off, dropping me on a desert island, handing me a roll of duct tape, and then asking me to fix a fusion reactor mid-meltdown.
“Oh… Well.” Renz chuckled and started to leave the room. “In that case you’re handling yourself surprisingly well.”
“Thanks.” Ardjia waved goodbye, waited for Renz to get some distance, then rapped the wall again. Once more the room was sealed and soundproofed. This time without the homgen engineer. “Call Mor-ee.”
A quiet buzz echoed out through the room, followed by a click and the sound of a young treefol man speaking. It was Mor-ee. “Macky-macko, boss. How goes it.”
“That’s confidential. How about you, have you finished your part of the plan?”
“I… think so?” As always, Mor-ee’s voice was mostly monotone, only ever dyed with a lazy apathy. It made him admirably hard to read. “I’m in the Long Con, just like you asked. But I can’t say with confidence everything is going according to plan – since you refuse to tell me what the plan actually is.”

 

A note from the author ninja:

For those curious, ear-leak is homgen slang for “a moron.” It originates from the phrase “a heatwave must have melted his brain, and left the surviving neural cells to leak out of his ears.”

« (previous) next: »

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.