We Shadows

Chapter 26: machinations

Esperanza frowned at her holo-rib and wished she could go back to the base so that she and Lully could have a proper talk. He had sounded strange on the call and she worried that Lully was jumping into far more trouble than he was ready for.

"Congratulations, I think," Harriet told her. "Though you don't look happy."

"I'm sure I'll feel better after I talk to Lully," Esperanza agreed. "I'm not upset, just confused. Though if he's had time for such a meeting, I'm sure Joan is on her way back."

"I'm looking forward to getting out of here," Harriet agreed. "The two of you won't be far behind."

"Everyone will be heading back soon," Bell said, stepping into the tent. She wiped sweat from her forehead and sat on Esperanza's cot to let down her hair. "We're running out of iron."

"So soon?" Oliver questioned. "That's not going to be enough, will it?"

"No," Bell agreed. "We never did have high hopes for this vein. We're going to check the scans and see if perhaps there's something close, but I'm not optimistic." She sighed. "At least we will be ready for the next earthstorm; this was still better than scrapping the Canary."

"Or the Aeneid," Harriet added. "I know Ibsen wants to turn it into a satellite base, but that ship is buried far to deep to go anywhere. And it's much closer than the three hour trip to the Canary."

"We chose the four hour trip here," Bell pointed out, rising to get a glass of water. She paused at the spigot. "We need to get someone from botany, plant some grasses around the spring we found here. Seems moonshy to let the spring not be of some use and the grasses could, in theory, propagate. The more grass, the less loose dirt to smash against the base in the earthstorms."

"You should have said something; Joan could have picked someone up," Oliver told her. "Why didn't you?"

"I'm just research," she scoffed. "No one important. People don't listen to me."

"I think they will after this expedition," Harriet countered. "We pulled an absurd amount of iron out of the ground. Only Jacques was injured and we were able to send people back to the base far sooner than expected. Much of that was you."

Bell rolled her eyes. "Joan said the same thing. But congress calls the shots."

Harriet and Oliver fixed their gaze on Esperanza and grinned. Esperanza found herself smiling too.

"Lully is on congress," she said. "Vertov made him lieutenant."

"What? That's...seriously?" Lully?"

Esperanza nodded. Bell let out a laugh and pulled her holo-rib from her pocket.

"Do you know when the next meeting is?" Bell asked.

"Oui, tomorrow," Esperanza supplied.

Bell chuckled to herself and focused her efforts on her holo-rib. Emerson came up to the tent, and seeing Bell, entered. He wasn't nearly as sweaty as she had been, but had streaks of dust and grime on his clothes as if he had been attempting to mop the dirt outside.

"I'm upset with Lully for stealing my ride back to the base," he announced. "Also, is dinner soon?"

"Already ate it," Oliver told him.

"What?"

Emerson was so plaintive that Harriet smirked.

"He was messing with you. Dinner will be ready in a half hour or so. Will that be acceptable?"

"Very," Emerson laughed. "Sorry, I truly thought I had missed it. Babysitting that printer is swallowing up my every waking second. And some of my sleeping ones. I'm dreaming about that printer breaking."

"Why is it so fragile?" Esperanza inquired.

Emerson shrugged.

"It's one of our older printers, so it's just a little temperamental anyway. And it doesn't like the dust. We should have transported it better, and I think most of the problems I'm having would go away. It just loses alignment too quickly to be useful; I have to test it before every print job and that takes time. Bell, what are you doing?"

"Messaging the new lieutenant of the base, and then spreading the word." Bell's grin couldn't get any wider. "We've got one of ours in congress now."

"We have a lieutenant now? Who is it?"

"Guess," Bell waggled her eyebrows.

Emerson pouted. "I don't know."

"Emerson, no wonder Bell says you're boring," Harriet scoffed. "Just make a wild guess. Who is the least likely to be lieutenant, but still mostly qualified? You know it's probably not one of us."

"Um, Lully? I don't know, someone just tell me."

Bell just grinned at him and then nodded.

"Lully?" Emerson repeated cautiously. "Wait, what? How? Did I miss something? Why would Vertov make Lully.... He's like, my age. He's not old enough to be in charge of.... Seasons, that means if Vertov has, like, a heart attack, I'll be print leader and Lully will be in charge of ..." His eyebrows furrowed. "You're joking."

"That's what Esperanza said," Bell replied. "So I guess start worrying about Vertov's health? Or don't, depending. Would it be so bad to be department head?"

"Of printing? With Lully in charge of the base?" Emerson paused. "You know, probably not. Is that what Vertov called him back to the base for? And you're already messaging him, what? Congratulations?"

Bell rolled her eyes. "No, don't be moonshy. I am sending him a list of things I think congress should approve so we can actually get things done."

"Why don't you just tell Ibsen?" Esperanza inquired.

Bell gestured to the room. "Do you see Ibsen here, out in the field? He has his own projects he wants to get funding. I was left on my own this whole trip; no one ever came because Ibsen didn't think it was necessary. But if I would have had another person, we could have run the electrolysis twenty-six hours a day and we would have time to analyze the surrounding area. We could have brought the topo-hover with us and sent back data. But no, no one came and I was left trying to do all of that without anyone."

"You could have said something, Bell," Emerson told her. "I would have helped."

"You were busy."

"I would have sent Lully to help," he amended. "Our new lieutenant. What a rotated afternoon." He shook his head. "You know, I shouldn't be the next department head, we're just be making this Aeneid Canary split worse. I don't think making Charles deck manager was a good idea, but skipping all the other printers in favor of me wasn't a good choice either."

"You've been there the longest," Bell objected.

"It's printing," Emerson pointed out. "At the end of the day, it's not complicated. I don't do any of the designing, the Canary members of printing do most of that."

"Should it be split then?" Harriet questioned. "Clearly there's precedent what with the archive situation."

"But that was because Dashiell wanted Levi on congress," Bell said, flipping her hand as if it barely mattered.

"No, Cameron wouldn't let Dashiell boggart her department," Oliver protested. "Levi isn't some sort of all-solving genius."

"There were probably multiple reasons," Harriet cut in before it turned into an argument. "So back to printing, do you think the design is separate?"

"Not really," Emerson said. "They're different, but if the designers don't know how the printers work then it's just a waste of materials. And the printers need to know how to design some, just to tweak things if needed. I don't think splitting is the right choice, but I..." he sighed. "I think this trip is the first time both sides has worked so closely together. And it went really well. I think we need to bring it back to the base, oui?"

"So long as I can continue to use the word 'yes'," Harriet joked.

___
Poor Lully. He's probably not ready for what Bell is sending him.
A shorter chapter today and my updates might get spotty for a bit; I was bitten by a dog and my hand has been swollen for the past week. Why couldn't it have gone for a leg or something? Anyway, it's been slow going.
Thanks for reading!