Noctis was standing outside the laboratory, looking a bit ruffled and anxious; she was tapping her feet and nervously moving her hands around, restless.
" Lyewa," she called. " Lyewa, I need you to ask for the staff to follow my direction in the lab construction. The axis of the anti-gravitation engine they're building into the Kalvinate Negation chamber is off by a margin of between 0.35 and 0.25 Standard Rotational degrees and so the chamber will not be maintaining below absolute zero for more than seventy hours at a time-"
This was a pretty big change in attitude from how she'd blown him off earlier, so he just kind of stared as she rambled.
" I'll go, I'll go," he said, as she got onto a bit about how the coolant pumping system wasn't fully optimized, and he stepped inside.
The workers seemed to be having a nice, genial little time, and it didn't seem like they were doing anything wrong that he could tell.
" How's the construction going?" he asked, and an older Noahl man looked up at him.
" Ah, we're really getting pressed by this schedule," he said. " Your Commodore General must be completely off his rocks. This is too ambitious for a two week build. We haven't even been told what half these machines actually are."
Yeah, that seemed like a problem.
" Well, ah, the... the research director was concerned about some of the construction, and wanted me to check in," Prima said, trying to think about how to say what she said without sounding stupid.
" That girl outside? Ah, puer decorim. Isn't she just a figurehead for the sneaky General?" the man said. " If she has a problem, she can come fix it. We barely know what we're doing."
He went back to work.
Prima was kind of surprised by how blunt that he had been, and didn't know the Standard slang he'd said, so he kind of stood there for a second.
Well, there wasn't anything left to do but go back out to the hall.
" They said that they don't really understand what kind of machines they're building, so if you need something a certain way, you'll have to do it yourself," he reported to her.
She bit her lip, curling her hands into fists, and cursed in Storam, muttering. She sank down against the wall and was quiet for a minute, hair obscuring her face.
" Call the Commodore General," she said weakly. " Tell him I'm dismissing the construction crew and I need the blueprints."
" Um, will that be okay? It's a lot of work and you're kind of like, small," Prima questioned, hesitant. She was small, and out of shape, and probably already tired. If it was a two-week build, there was like no way she could get it done by herself.
" You do the heavylifting, then," she sniped.
" Why not have the crew in there, then-"
" They're not doing it right and I don't like being around other people," she snapped. He recoiled a bit, not expecting such venom from her.
" I can't be around so many people," she repeated, sinking back down. " I'll have to do it myself if it's not done right and I can't have other people in my way."
She went back to muttering.
Prima was of half a mind to write her off as too much trouble, but he did have an obligation to fulfill to William, and so he grit his teeth and set out to do it.
He called him.
It rang through.
He called him.
It rang through.
He called him.
It rang through.
Return......Next