Michael P. Calligaro - Emotion

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2024-11-24 0 0 112.59KB 13 页 5.9玖币

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Emotion

by Michael P Calligaro

Talas bin Grakin hastily put down the duosplicer and wrapped four of her arms around herself. It was all

she could do to keep from shivering uncontrollably. She was afraid, very afraid. No, she was terrified.

She had been for over a light cycle. It had been novel for a short time, and interesting for a short time

after that, but she was starting to wonder how much more of this she could take.

In her standard, uneventful life she'd never experienced anything like this. Her days were full of taking

care of the young, keeping the domicile in order, and preparing sustenance. She probably bored her

transmout to tears. And, for the longest time, her own transmin seemed boring as well.

She'd had the fantasies that most Grakin had. She and her friends had often spent time imagining exciting

roles for their transmins. "Wouldn't it be great if mine were a shadow spy, or a fire warrior, or an

emergency healer?" But she was starting to doubt the wisdom of such wishing. A nice, boring, transmin

was rapidly becoming appealing.

* * *

Samantha paused and stared at the tag on the door. Dan Carena. The name still brought back infuriating

memories. She took a deep breath and held her hand up, but paused again. Wouldn't it be better to just

go away, to pretend she'd never gotten his message?

No, she decided, it wouldn't. She couldn't imaginewhy he'd want her to come in, and wondering about it

would slowly drive her crazy. She had to find out what this was about.

Cursing her curiosity, she quickly rapped on the door.

"Yeah."

After taking another deep breath, she strode inside. The room hadn't changed much. The walls were still

covered in those tacky, fake wood panels that bowed in the middle and the floor was still a faded green

carpet. But the five months hadn't been good to Dan. He looked worn out, and his hair seemed grayer

than she remembered.

He nodded to her, but didn't smile. Coolly, he said, "Thanks for coming in, Sam. Have a seat." He

motioned to the guest chair in front of his desk.

Samantha stared at the chair for a moment. She remembered it being hard and uncomfortable, but that

wasn't what really stood out in her mind. She'd been sitting in that chair when he told her what had

happened to Kiko. It had taken every last ounce of her reserve to keep from throwing it at him.

"Get over it," she told herself. "You're bigger than this."

With a quick nod, she sat down.

Dan stared at her for a moment, then sighed. "Look, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. My team

efficiency is up eighteen points since you left. You had no respect for your superiors, and you always

questioned every decision we made. Hell, you were downright belligerent most of the time."

Samantha stood back up. Calmly, she said, "Belligerent? That's a pretty big word for you, Dan. But don't

you really mean, 'bitchy'? Or are you afraid that if you say what you really think I'll slap you with a

discrimination suit? Don't worry; you're not worth the time." She turned to leave.

"Sit."

While turning back around slowly, she fixed him with a bemused stare. "Let's review history, shall we? I

didn't leave. You fired me. One of the many things you lose when you fire someone is the power to

command them to sit...."

He sighed and rubbed his temples, then said softly, "I'm sorry.Please sit back down."

That actually sounded sincere. She raised an eyebrow as she realized that he needed something from her.

The same burning curiosity that had made her knock on the door forced her to sit back down. But she

couldn't leave what he'd said unchallenged. "Your memory is selective. I didn't become belligerent until

after you murdered Kiko."

He exhaled angrily. "Kiko was ananimal , Sam. You can't 'murder' an animal--"

Growing angry herself, Samantha cut him off. "She was ananimal with an active vocabulary of four

hundred words!"

"And we learned an enormous amount from the autopsy."

Samantha opened her mouth for a retort, but realized that she'd had this conversation with him twice

before. Nothing good had come of it then, and nothing good would come of it now. She sighed and said

calmly, "Look, I don't know why you called me here, but we're never going to get through this if we keep

reminiscing about the past. So can we cut to the chase?"

With a nod, he said, "You can imagine the straits I must be in to ask you to come back."

Samantha blinked. "You're kidding."

He stared evenly at her and shook his head. Her mind started to race. What could possibly have

happened to bring this about? As much as she hated the idea of working for the bastard again, she knew

that the same curiosity that had made her knock on the door and sit down would make her accept.

Carefully, she asked, "What's the job? Another gorilla?"

"Part of the reason you're here is that you had Top Secret clearance during your former tenure with the

military. This is beyond Top Secret. They say they'll kill anyone who talks about it inappropriately." He

leaned forward and said quietly, "And I don't think they're kidding. I haven't seen an ounce of humor in

these guys since they arrived."

What could possibly be so important yet need her? She was just a researcher who worked on

communicating with animals. In an even tone, she said, "My clearance has expired."

"They've been doing background checks for the last week. It's been renewed."

Frowning, Samantha said, "Oh damn, they want me to teach a monkey to carry a bomb, don't they?"

Dan shook his head. "It's not a monkey."

"What then? A dolphin? Do you have a dolphin locked up in a tiny little tank downstairs? I won't do it."

He shook his head again. "Not a dolphin either. And they're not trying to make a soldier. When I offered

the same suggestions, they told me point blank that they abandoned that research when they realized that

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