Pieter nodded, looking down at his holo messages. “Paige has said that the statements are going out as we planned. One media release for each high level sacking, and then a blanket cover announcing the enforcement of the operating agreements.”
The pod lifted off in to the air. Joel watched out of the window as they ascended above the sky line. “It must be obvious by now that these companies are related. Has there been any commentary on that yet?”
Pieter ruffled his hair. “Lemme ask her.”
He typed and waited, slouching back in his seat and only then remembering to put on his harness.
A moment later he got a response back. He shook his head. “No one seems to have put it together,” he told Joel. “Paige suspects that it would be clear to anyone watching, but it’s as if no one really cares. She also mentioned that Maya is on a ship in the middle of nowhere, so that takes our biggest journalistic concern out of the way.”
Joel smiled. “That is true!” he agreed. “We’re lucky to have her on our side, that’s for sure.”
He glanced down at his holo notes and the list of undesirables they were extracting from Molly’s companies. “Ok, let’s look at who we’re sacking next…” he muttered.
2nd floor, Rex Baron’s office
Pascal Randalf poked his head round the door of Rex’s office.
“Settling in ok?” he asked, grinning a wide grin, and showing his teeth, something almost unseen in Estarian facial expression.
Sean looked up, shocked to have someone engaging him in chitchat. When he was Sean Royale people knew not to do that. But as Rex Baron he hadn’t allowed himself to lay out the ground rules or demonstrate that he was not a chatty kind of guy. “Yes. Thank you. Everything is tick-i-tee boo.”
Shit. Maybe that was going too far? Damn, how do civilians talk these days? he wondered, watching Randalf’s expressions for feedback.
“Good to hear,” Randalf continued, completely unphased by the tick-i-tee boo. “Any space sickness?”
Sean spontaneously started laughing, but then realized that this was a thing that people went through. He disguised his laugh as a cough. “Phahhahahaha! Cough cough. No… I’ve been fortunate.”
Fuck. Not normal enough. The cyborg components correct for that shit.
He corrected his error. “I mean… er. I had a touch of it for the first day or so… but got my electrolytes up quickly and am feeling fine now.” Sean watched again, holding his breath.
“Good, good,” Randalf remarked.
Sean felt he needed to offer something back. “Do you still get space sick on these trips, Sir?”
He couldn’t believe he was calling someone who was not the General, sir.
Randalf put one hand on his hip and leaned on the door frame as if he were the office Adonis. “Nah. Not any more. But I’ve been doing this over a decade now… Don’t worry, Sport. If you keep coming out with us, you’ll hardly notice it after a few years.”
Sean smiled, trying to contain his contempt for the sniffling man. “Right,” he agreed.
Randalf turned to leave, and Sean suddenly thought of something.
“Ah, actually. Mister Randalf,” he said, getting up from his desk and pulling up a couple of holos from his desk station, and dragging them across the room with him. “I think I’ve got something on the books that isn’t quite matching up.”
Randalf turned, frowning. “Ah, that’s odd,” he agreed. “Show me?”
Sean showed him the screens. “You see, this shows us weighing in at 4.56 but the official paperwork has us at 4.30.”
Randalf rubbed his chin. “That is odd,” he agreed. He paused, thinking for a minute. Then, in his perfectly modulated supervisor’s voice he spoke again. “Leave it with me. I’ll see what’s what.”
Sean pretended to play the conscientious employee. “Would you like me to go through the inventory and see if I can find out what may not have been accounted for?”
“Oh goodness no, Rex,” Randalf scoffed haughtily. “We have twenty-five floors on this vessel. That would take this trip plus the return journey… and of course we off-load when we get there. No. Leave it with me. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”
The matter was closed.
Sean bobbed his head, folding the holos away. “Yes, Sir. Of course. I still haven’t got my head around quite how big this operation is.”
He walked back to his desk. “It’s one thing to look at numbers in a spreadsheet, or inventory on a search-able database back in the office…”
Randalf nodded sympathetically. “Yes. It takes some getting used to,” he said patronizingly. “You’ll get there though.”
He tapped the door frame and then wandered away down the corridor that felt like it was made of cardboard overlaid on top of metal.
Sean sat back in his chair.
Gotcha! He thought to himself. Now to prove it.
Just then there was a rattling and jingling in the corridor, coupled with footsteps.
Maya, he predicted immediately, and just as he recognized the sound, Maya walked past, looking backwards as if she’d been checking all the offices she walked past looking for him. Spotting him, she spun back around and strode straight into the room, unceremoniously.
“Hey,” she said, bringing the feeling of a whirlwind of activity with her.
“Hey,” he replied, the stagnation of a day in the office in his voice.
Maya stopped suddenly, realizing the hell she had walked into. “You ok?” she asked, looking from side to side and coming to terms with his shoe box office.
He nodded. “What can I do for you Marissa?” His natural impatient look had returned to his face now that he wasn’t having to fool people he was Rex.
“I’ve found something,” she disclosed quietly. “Well, I think I have. And I need your help. Brock, I mean Tallus can’t help coz he’s on shift for the next three days. And Jack has just collapsed. I could go on my own-”
Sean shushed her. “No. I’ll help. Just not right now.” He discreetly touched his ear with a finger, and Maya nodded.
“I’ll see you in the mess at feeding time,” he told her, getting up and ushering her out of the office.
“Are you shooing me, Rex?” she asked, mock indignantly as she was walked backwards out to the corridor.
Sean held her upper arm. “Yes Marissa. I have work to do. See. You. Later,” he said, gritting his teeth and glancing down the corridor to make sure no one had seen them together.
Maya rolled her eyes and straightened her atmosjacket. “Later Rexy!” she called flippantly, twiddling her fingers in a wave and trotting away back down the corridor.
Sean took a deeeeeeep breath as he returned to his office, and then to his desk, to continue to poke around the files he could actually access.
Looks like she’s having way more fun on this undercover lark than some of us… he thought, noticing how she was coming out of herself more on this ship than she had on Gaitune.
Maybe it’s the act? Or maybe it’s the liberation of not being herself…
Ok Royale - back to work, he told himself, staring blankly at his holoscreen.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Staðall University, Lecture Theater 21
Von sat in the darkened lecture theater, the only lights the ones on over the front bench giving an atmospheric hush which would normally enhance the academic awe.
Molly strode in, dropping down the steps two at a time. “Paige says hi,” she said brightly as she arrived at the front where Von had been marking assignments on her holo.
The professor looked up. “Ah… Wonderful. She’s an excellent student you know. One of the best I’ve ever seen… And we get the cream here,” she said with a glimmer of pride.
Molly smiled. “She’ll be pleased to hear that,” she responded, wondering how to convey the sentiment to Paige without sounding like she’d been to a parents evening. “So, you said you wanted to talk through some issues with the existing course? What’s up?�
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Von closed her holoscreens and looked up. “The course itself, and the students, are fine.” She paused, correcting herself. “Actually, better than fine. They’re excelling, and excited, and though we’re several weeks in now there are people still trying to sign up for it.”
Molly grinned. “That’s… awesome!”
Von matched her grin. “It is. Isn’t it.”
Molly’s smiled faded. “I sense a but…”
Von’s eye dimmed and she became more solemn. “Yes. There is a but.” She sighed. “We’re facing resistance within the department. Our head has suggested we cut it short… so still award the same number of credits but end it three weeks early. I think I’ve staved him off for the time being, but this may unravel quickly.”
Molly’s eyes widened. “Wow… they really don’t want this material being taught!”
Von bobbed her head sadly. “It seems like.” She stood up and started packing her things away. “I suspect they’ve gotten wind of what we’re doing with moving to the new campus and it’s a little bit of sour grapes,” she said slowly as if contemplating the idea as she spoke it.
Molly sucked her lip into her mouth. “I guess it was inevitable they would find out,” she said, her eyes defocussing, contemplating how it might have become common knowledge.
“The other problem you’re facing,” Von explained gently, “is that these people walk around thinking they already know everything about everything. If you look at improving policies to help the masses, they call you a socialist. If you talk about not killing and not going to war for the sake of it, they say that you’re unrealistic. They take no time to consider what you’re actually talking about because they bring all their filters and pre-formed ideas to the table.” She shook her head, her eyes showing how hard this had been for all the years she’d been trying to make a difference with her work. “It just makes them unwilling - and in a lot of cases unable - to even hear what you’re suggesting. They just filter it out and decide what you mean based on their sound bites and prejudices.”
Molly slumped down in a seat on the front row. “So what do we do?” she asked, frustration hanging in her tone.
Von tilted her head in a sort of surrender. “Deal with it I guess. You’re not going to change their minds by going head to head or trying to have a rational discussion. I suppose the only thing you can do is keep doing your thing, and just engage with those who are truly willing to see a new alternative.”
Molly smiled weakly. “So I guess that means the students then?”
Von nodded. “For the most part. I’ve had a few of the faculty be in touch privately to offer words of encouragement… Except, for the most part, it comes with a warning: ‘Don’t be too XYZ, else they’ll think you’re this. Or don’t push too hard with your ideas because they’ll stop entertaining the idea of this course and shut it down…”
Von sighed and perched on the front bench, as she often would when she was lecturing in this hall. “It’s just the way it is with these things,” she explained, shaking her head. “Anything that pushes peoples’ buttons is going to be met with resistance.”
Molly looked up, her face galvanized with a sheen of determination now. “I suppose that since we’re going down this route, we just have to accept that some people aren’t going to come with us.”
Von nodded. “I think so.”
She got up and ambled over to take the seat next to Molly. “But you didn’t start this whole thing just for entertainment. If you did, there were other courses you could support… Courses that would have ruffled fewer feathers. You started this for a reason.” She paused. “Because you had a bigger vision for what is possible.”
Molly nodded, remembering. “Yep. I guess if the students want intellectual popcorn they’d be taking other courses too.”
Von gazed at the floor for a moment. “So… we proceed?” she asked.
Molly nodded, without any new energy, as if it were just a continuation of her original concept. “We proceed,” she confirmed.
Aboard the Flutningsaðili, Mess hall, Level 2
“Ok, let’s go!” Maya said sharply from behind him.
Sean had been sitting down for about 84 seconds before Maya had searched him out, prodded him in the ribs and then circled round the table to plonk herself down in front of him.
He looked down at his food. Assuming one could call it that. “I need to eat,” he told her, his tone sounding more like a negotiation than a statement.
Maya pretended to be exasperated and huffed, putting her head down on her arm on the table. “Oh. My. Ancestors! You’ve got to work. You’ve got to eat. You know, you’re taking this Mr. Rexy Boring thing waaaay too seriously.”
Sean narrowed his eyes. “And you’re taking this Marissa-flusey thing way too lightly,” he said quietly, leaning over the table a little and lowering his voice.
She looked up from her arms, strands and clumps of her dark hair falling over her face in a haphazard way. She sighed. “Just coz I want to get on with this and get it solved.”
“Patience you must learn, young one,” he told her.
Maya sat up a little. “Ok. So after you’ve eaten then?”
Sean nodded. “Sure. But where is it we’re going?”
Maya looked over to check the queue at the food station. There were relatively few people. “Ok. Lemme grab some food and I’ll fill you in,” she promised.
She was up and making her way across the mess room in a shot. Minutes later she returned with a tray of food, plus her supplements.
“You actually eat those?” Sean asked her nodding at the colored pills in the little side tray.
“Yah-ha,” she said, putting a couple in her mouth and slinging them back with a sip of water.
Sean shuddered.
“Why?” she asked.
He shook his head and continued eating. “Reminds me of my days on Teshov, when that was mostly all we had to keep us functional.”
Maya’s eyes widened in horror. “You’re kidding? You mean no food? Like real food?”
Sean pulled his head to the side for a moment. “Nope. Anyway - what’ve you found?”
They sat eating, quietly catching up on Maya’s activities over the last several hours. After they were done they cleared their trays away and left the mess hall, casually, so as not to draw any attention.
Once they were out in the corridor Maya spoke again. “You wanna go there now?” she confirmed.
Sean nodded, and Maya led the way.
Gaitune-67, Hangar Deck
Molly’s mind was whirring following her emergency meeting with Von that evening. She was still distracted by it as she ambled absently back through the hangar deck after returning to Gaitune.
You know, the more I think about this, the more I think we just need to get on with it.
I thought that’s what you were doing?
Yes, but I mean, put a stake in the ground.
Uhmmmm….?
Well, what if we were to start making offers to faculty members. Those that we want on board… regardless of whether they’re at the university already or not.
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