Sunday 13 May 2007

Symbiosis - 2

2543 (17-4th-5) New Calendar - Prima Centurai

“…and then he says, ‘the problem with you, honey, is that you think anyone with a chipped nail needs demoting,’ and I said, ‘well, goes with the job, you know?’ Of course, the problem with him is that he’s jealous of the job, I mean, the man works in Worker Feed Storage, you know? I mean, someone has to do it and all, but really, it’s hardly Elite is it, you know? And I’m not saying everyone should be demoted, I’m just saying that there should be another level between Elite and worker…”

Over the years, Calin had managed to develop a highly sophisticated system of only imagining killing Lall, instead of actually doing it. It was taxing, but deeply rewarding, and she had even managed to find a way of working at the same time.

“…and then he says I’m being Elitist! I’m like, yeah I’m Elitist you retard, do you see me fixing pipes? And then he calls me stupid! You know? Me! When he thinks that ‘flammable’ and ‘inflammable’ are the same thing! And he wears green shoes! I mean…”

Calin imagined demonstrating Lall’s inflammability.

“…so now we apparently need this big Talk or something, but I don’t want to miss the show at the Fennorim embassy tonight, so I told him – ”

“You should go now, then,” Calin interrupted. “I can cover for you, it’s no problem.”

“Really?” Lall turned around from her monitor, smiling dopily. “Excellent! Oh, Calin, you’re such a good friend! Now we just need to find you a mate…”

Calin liked her imagination.

Lall bounced out of the office. Calin waited for half a minute, then carefully closed the door and thumbed the lock shut.

“Time for some real work,” she muttered. The holo-com link beside her flickered into life. “Hi, Adan. Am I clear to go in?”

“Yes,” Adan’s holographic image responded. “I can guarantee you half an hour tonight. Extra news from Inge though, that might help you – he thinks she’s quite young.”

“How young is young?” Calin asked rolling her eyes. “That’s quite the margin.”

“Twenties? Thirties? Practically a child, poor thing.” Adan’s image looked downcast, and in spite of herself Calin felt for him.

“We’ll get her out, Adan,” she murmured awkwardly. Sympathy wasn’t natural for her. His hologram smiled briefly at her, and flickered out. Sighing, Calin hooked the Records Database back up with her implant, and added the age cap.

Cases flickered across her mind’s eye as the implant searched for every parameter she had given it. It had been hard work at first, but by now she had finally learned to ignore the section for each case that contained the reasons for demotion. Instead, Calin was left staring at numbers and faces, most names now deleted; ages and wasted ability ratings. Her implant clicked and whirred quietly in her ear, wiling away the possibilities. Wearily, Calin rubbed her eyes. Was there still a point to this, she wondered? At first she’d been more worried about the prospect of rehabilitating this girl, but after almost two years of searching for that one single needle in the vast haystack of Prima Centurai’s workers, Calin was beginning to despair of ever actually finding her in the meantime. And all the reports coming in…

Time was running out.

The implant beeped suddenly, making her jump. Thirty case summaries were neatly lined up on the screen before her, all within the specifications. She stared at them.

“That suddenly?” Calin demanded. She almost felt cheated that there was no fanfare. Quickly, she downloaded them directly into her implant, disconnected from the database and re-opened the holo-com link.

“Calin?” Adan seemed surprised. “Is everything okay?”

“Call a meeting,” she answered. “Do it now. I have the short list.”

“You – what? Seriously?”

“No, I just thought I’d open this risky and illegal channel to play a practical joke of the wittiest proportions on you,” Calin snapped. “Call the meeting! Now!”

Adan’s image vanished, and Calin stood abruptly. Finding the saviour of the Lesser Races, eh? she thought. She headed for the bar.

2 comments:

Jester said...

Ooh- very good! I loved the bits with Calin- and was very pleased when Lall went away!

Steffan said...

Hooray for annoying characters juxtaposed with the deeply sarcastic! Very enjoyable.

Brilliantly nippy development of plot too. I like that.