7. Public + messages to David & Iris

[exnihilo]

[Private to David 8]

I wasn't any different there. That I could tell.



[Public, voice]

How many people have you been? How many people have you pretended to be?

[She's not sure where exactly the distinction is between these things.]

You may estimate.



[Private to Iris]

I'd like to be allowed in the labs. I've been researching hydroponics.

Comments

[routemistress]

Absolutely.

...well, I suppose that's for David to say, now I think of it, but I'd love you 'ere. I wanted to show you the work I'm doing with the artificial bodies, any road.

[exnihilo]

He'll approve, I think.

[He thinks she needs intellectual stimulation.]

[routemistress]

Aye, I'd be shocked if 'e didn't. But warden courtesy and all that, you know. I'd've gone ballistic if anyone didn't run it past me.

At least six outside the barge, and ...oooh, lots during breaches. I think Aeris Navem were me favourite. I were a sky pirate, it was brilliant.

[exnihilo]

[Warden courtesy. She turns it over in her head. Because David - doesn't own her, and certainly Iris wouldn't defer to it even if he did. And although she has been treating him as something in the manner of a commander - an intermediary assigned between her and the admiral, who is obviously God here - he has never done anything terribly in keeping with the role.]

Because he's...responsible for me.

[routemistress]

You're responsible for you. But it's 'is job to work with you. To sort out what needs sorting. I've done this job a year and a bit, I've 'ad two inmates and - well, Wade was one thing, bless 'im. But Victor needed a bloody firm 'and at times. I 'ad to ask the others not to let 'im in the CES without me, stuff like that.

I can't ask for things like that and not ...show the same manners to someone else. And David 'asn't done wardening before. What'd I be like if I obstructed and messed with 'im?

Besides, 'im and me don't like each other. So courtesy's all we've got.

[exnihilo]

I like him.

[It's not defensive, precisely. It's something in the realm of an experiment, testing out a definitive opinion, stating it clearly. She doesn't know she understands him at all yet, but she likes his manner, his observant hyperfocus, his steadying equanimity, his quiet encouragement.]

[routemistress]

[That provokes a brilliant Irisian smile.]

Good. That's all that's important. Our Chris does and all. I trust 'im all right; that's a man that takes care to do 'is job right. We just never could get along, 'im and me.

You thinking of growing crops for the boat?

[exnihilo]

[She nods.]

Ben thinks we should be more self-sufficient in case. In case.

I've been studying how ships did it my world. All the large ones were basically closed systems, except for occasional changes in passenger rosters.

[routemistress]

Aye, that's a damn good plan. Did they use a lot of algae and microfungi? I love fungus, you can do practically anything with a good mycelium.

'Course, some of the sentient ones've got terrible attitudes, but those are rare.

[exnihilo]

[She nods.]

The trick is a lot of permeated nanostructures, to increase the surface area for those kinds of ecological substrates. One of the tricks, anyway.

[routemistress]

And the fun part's modifying your single-cell plants not to taste like seaweed and cabbagewater. Ooh, we can 'ave some fun with this, all right!

I want you to 'ave a look at my 'orse schematics and all. I borrowed a lot from when you 'ad that artificial body. And what I remembered from me and Babs getting Rixed.