Time of Scorn

Chapter 13: off on the right foot

Lully woke up early and carefully got out of bed, not wishing to wake Esperanza. Their kitchen was filled with food from yesterday. People were trying to help them without saying so, and while Lully was grateful, he was also overwhelmed by the aid.

He pulled out a muffin and both of his holo-ribs, reading his many messages while hoping Esperanza would wake before he had to head into work. He was sure to have a long day ahead of him if Libba wanted to manage even half of what she was talking about yesterday.

He was glad it wasn't Dashiell. He was even more glad that his mother wasn't captain. Libba seemed like she was quite serious about bringing the base together and he wasn't sure that the other two were. Still, he wished someone else could be lieutenant, or that someone else had run against him. He would rather have regular hours and be with Esperanza.

His holo-rib chimed with his alarm and he sighed, rising from his chair, getting a pot of water to boil and setting out the tea out for Esperanza with a muffin and butter. Although Lully didn't like just leaving a note, he didn't want to wake her.

People would greet him in the halls now that he was lieutenant. He wished he knew everyone's name; there weren't so many people on the base. He knew botany well, they were a small department and he had been friends with Alcott forever.

His new office was sparse; Lully hadn't moved anything over from printing yet; if he had time, he planned on doing that after lunch. Libba was already in the room, and gave him a smile as he entered the room. She had already managed to do some decorating, and waved him over. She had a photo of her family from back on Earth on her desk and a nanoprint that Lully had done for her a cycle ago.

"I'm thinking of moving back the congress meeting," she told him. "I would rather meet with each department individually first. Is there anything pressing I should know about that might complicate that?"

"I would meet with Madison first," Lully recommended. "Cameron should have a list of people we can wake from cryo. Madison was hoping we had a doctor."

"Yes, I read the minutes from the meeting last night," she said. "Teren thought they were very exciting and Mia fell right to sleep. Biscuit loves her more than he loves Teren, poor kid. Anyway sorry, I'm rambling. Let's chat."

She tapped on her keyboard and sat down at her desk.

"Get your chair, let's chat."

Lully pulled his chair over from his own desk and Libba sighed.

"One of the downsides of being suddenly elected to office is that I'm not very prepared," she confided. "And my dear husband stayed with Titus and Val last night like a petulant child otherwise, I would have asked him some questions. How are you doing, Lully? I know you've had this office for like, two weeks."

"Not even," Lully laughed. "And I'm fine. Just catching up as well, wish I could be more helpful to you."

"Nonsense. We'll figure it out together or they'll elect someone else next time," she told him. "So tell me what you think so far."

"About what?"

Libba leaned back into her chair

"About congress. About the base. Dashiell had nothing but praise for you."

"Um," Lully couldn't think of a single thing to say. He hadn't known what to expect from his first day, but he assumed that Libba would be issuing orders or scheduling meetings, nothing that required more than a cursory opinion.

"I think that congress has made a lot of changes to paperwork to give people more freedom and peace of mind," he said. "I think we have a lot to go. People, at least the people I've talked to don't seem to think that congress gets anything done. That the people on it are somehow a class above the rest of the base. And there's so much infighting, it's hard to tell what would be actually good for the base, because every department has separate opinions on how to grow. And it does feel like some of that could be solved with adding people, but we have solve the genetic diversity and partnerships, but if we do, there are people on the base who don't want to be partnered, and so they should have a place to go. And we have built some spare berths now if those people would want to separate, but of course, Madison needs a doctor. And other departments have personnel needs too. So how do we do this all at once without overwhelming the base and ourselves? I don't know."

"You have thought a lot about this," Libba remarked.

"Well, I have to approve builds' queues for the new berths," he pointed out. "We only have so many materials until we have to go back out on a expedition and that takes much of our manpower out of the base. And we can't make policy changes while they're gone; that's not fair."

"But many people have spare rooms; we should be utilizing our space better," Libba mused, typing up her thoughts. "I'll talk to Cameron about it. What are you working on?"

"I still approve all the print queues, so that's a daily task," Lully explained. "And Dashiell was supposed to be done with the paperwork for transfers and schedule changes so I'll probably go find him to get those. This afternoon, if you're going to be in meetings, I'd like to work from my berth if that's all right."

"It should be," she agreed. "Lully, another question I have that I've never managed to ask someone; are there sick days here? Vacation days?"

"You can take them, yes?" Lully questioned, a little bewildered. "Of course you can take off work if you need."

"But that's unpaid, yes? And how many days could you take off?" she grimaced. "I'm not about to run off, but sick days were standard on Earth. I think we should have a better safety net in place for people, especially as people get sick or hurt."

Lully was unprepared for the emotion he felt towards such a concept. He needed to be able to take time off for Esperanza. And he knew that Esperanza would probably not be working before too long. He blinked back a tear, but not before Libba noticed and leaned forward, putting her holo-rib down.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"It's fine," he replied. "A safety net would be nice."

Libba rolled her eyes. "I was serious about caring about people, Lully. You and I are going to spend a lot of time together. We shouldn't start this term on a bad foot. So what's on your mind?"

"Esperanza is sick," he managed. "And I've been worried about us. And have any sort of cushion, I mean, I have some credits saved, and we don't have a lot of expenses, but I didn't want to rely on my friends. I mean, I can't even cook."

He didn't realize that he had all these thoughts bubbling in his head. He had just focused on the debates and the baskets tournament and so he hadn't had a chance to fret about this week.

"Is that why Madison needs more medical staff? To replace Esperanza?"

Lully nodded, certain if he tried to speak another torrent of words would come out.

"You have a spare room right? If we find someone to replace her, how would you feel about them staying in your spare room for now?"

"I'd have to ask Esperanza," Lully admitted. "But I think she would be amendable. Merci."

"Who's in charge of those in cryo? Louis and Rainier?"

"Oui. But last congress meeting Cameron said she'd go through the files and find any possible matches to our needs. She would know."

"Fantastic. Then I'll get more information from her when we meet. And you'll let me know how Esperanza is doing; I'm more than happy to have you work at home as much as you can."

"Merci beaucoup," he replied, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"Is there anything else I should know?" she questioned.

He shook his head, and then paused.

"I might move my nano-printer in here," Lully told her. "It's a little loud. I would run it at night."

"That sounds fine," Libba laughed.

____

Short chapter, but I think I have all my ducks in a row now. This is the trouble with publishing while I'm writing; I have a little bit of word vomit on the page rather than a well thought out plan. So the previous couple of chapters might get updated in the next month or so, but I'll give you a heads up if that happens. 

Also, I have a Facebook page for Constant Stars! My plan is to make some backgrounds, quotes and more author notes about my process there, as well as have the previous books in the series for sale.