Back | Next
Contents

Mentor’s Comm Room


“Mentor, I have news.”

Tolly looked up from his screen.

“Always welcome a bit of news. How’re you doin’, Pilot Tocohl?”

“I am well, though—off-center. It has been an unsettling shift.”

“Sounds promising.” He spun his chair so that he sat with his back to the screen. “I’m ready.”

“Yes. Well. It comes about that—Station is sentient.”

Tolly nodded.

“Thought that might be the case,” he said.

“You’re not surprised?” Tocohl sounded a little surprised herself.

“Well…” he said apologetically, “the picks, and the avian, and the bot were kinda clues. Other little things, like the voice that’s not yours picking up the comm sometimes, or answering a short question. Given what I do, my thoughts just naturally tended in that direction.”

Silence.

Tolly counted backward from thirty-six.

“I get the feeling I disappointed you,” he said.

“Not at all,” Tocohl said politely. “As I said, it’s been an unsettling shift.” The pause was shorter this time, like a human taking a breath. “May I ask why you did not act on your instincts?”

“Truth told, I thought she was shy. I didn’t want to push her, ’specially since it prolly wasn’t me she’d want to talk to, first.”

“Who else did you think she would want to speak to—first?”

He took a deep breath, and sighed it out.

“I was thinking Jen Sin, given we found he’d been killed in the storeroom Seignur Veeoni wanted those crates from. Had a little bet going with myself, if there were libraries in the crates.”

“There were,” Tocohl said flatly. “Seignur Veeoni has made them available to Station, and she is—assimilating the data.”

Tolly nodded.

“Amazing mind, Seignur Veeoni,” he said, and lifted his eyebrows when Tocohl laughed.

“You don’t agree?”

“Joyita agrees,” she told him. “Vehemently.”

“That’s gonna be a rocky road, but it might be worth it for ’im. So, Station’s talked to Seignur Veeoni—”

“And to Jen Sin,” Tocohl said. “He assigned her to clear and purge the spinward dorms, and shared the files provided to him by the delm of Korval.”

Tolly grinned in pure appreciation. “Don’t miss too many tricks, does he?”

“I don’t understand.”

Tolly tipped his head, as if considering.

“Well,” he said eventually, “I don’t guess it’s a trade secret. See, Pilot Tocohl—the key to trust is trust. You want somebody to be on your side, workin’ toward a mutual goal, you give ’em a stake in the goal. A real stake, mind you, Pilot Tocohl—no cheatin’.”

He paused. Tocohl said nothing, and after a couple heartbeats, he finished the lesson.

“Jen Sin being Liaden and running on melant’i like he does, he made sure to assert that he’s the one who gives the orders around here—and Station accepted it.”

“She took the assignment,” Tocohl said slowly.

“More’n that. I’m betting she was happy to take the assignment—and now there’s the habit started of deferring to the light keeper, and being pleased to work with him.”

“I…see,” Tocohl’s voice was neutral in a way that said she wasn’t particularly happy. Well, trust was a tough curriculum. Some people never did get the trick of it. Witness a certain mentor he could name. Still, might be room for another lesson, just here.

“So,” he asked brightly, “is Station responsible for those picks you and Joyita been collectin’?”

“I will certainly ask her that, when we speak.”

“She hasn’t talked to you?”

“Both Jen Sin and Seignur Veeoni urged her to do so. She told them that she would, as soon as she had assimilated the libraries.” She paused, artfully, and added, “Joyita thought that it was best to wait and see if she honored her word, rather than stepping forward to introduce myself.”

“Reasonable approach,” Tolly said. “When you talk to Station, Pilot Tocohl, you tell her I’d be pleased to meet her, give her assistance, or just chat, any time she’d like.”

“I will tell her, Mentor.”

“Thank you. Anything you need me to do?”

The tiniest of pauses.

“No, thank you, Mentor. I only wanted to make sure that you were current.”

“’Preciate that. You take care now, right?”

“Yes. You, as well.”

There was the very slightest of clicks to indicate that Tocohl had left the room.

Tolly sighed, and spun back to his screen.


Back | Next
Framed