As the office building elevator slid closed Eager saw someone outside in the hallway running towards the door. Tha reached through the gap to hold the door open and Lyre stepped through, clutching thas briefcase with one hand, pushing thas hair back with the other.
"Thanks so much!" Lyre gasped, backing into an empty space and rearranging thas trench coat. Then tha looked up again and smiled widely into Eager's face. "Hello Eager, very nice to meet you finally. Your shurpa is a very good likeness, even in a bear skin."
"Can you tell? I don't know if we look the same or not," said Eager. "Hello Lyre. The last time we met you were wearing buckskin, if I recall."
"Oh, that's just a little thing I picked up in the stone age. What did you think of Walf's venue?"
"Nice. I mean, very creative. Tha has put a lot of thought into it, obviously. Next time I'll try swimming in the lake with them."
"Skinny dipping?" said Lyre laughing.
"I don't quite know what they had in mind," said Eager.
"Is this a special occasion? How come you're here in person?" asked Lyre.
"I took your advice to heart. What you said at the lake about meeting in person."
"That had nothing to do with work, though," said Lyre.
"I know, but personal contact makes a difference at work too, I realized," replied Eager.
"Well, here we are," said Lyre as the elevator stopped on the 74th floor. "Have a good day."
"Thanks. This is actually my first time here. Can you recommend a good place for lunch?"
Lyre stopped outside the elevator and looked squarely at Eager. "That is such a complicated question. Stop by my cubicle later and I'll give you an overview."
"Deal," said Eager smiling, and waved as they headed in opposite directions.
* * *
Lyre entered thas cubicle at the far end of the Productive Thinkspace outside Forge's office, hung thas coat on the hook and dropped thas briefcase on the desk. Instead of sitting in the chair, tha paced slowly, two steps from one corner to the opposite corner, and back.
"SHURPA Charlotte."
"Ready damsire," said Charlotte.shurpa over the telecranial communication channel.
"Just record my immediate impressions, Charlotte. We can do more analysis later. Don't have to make any decisions at this point."
"Yes damsire."
"Saw Eager in the elevator this morning. Tha has come into the office in person. I wonder if tha was not satisfied with thas shurpa's performance yesterday. It seems like a reversal. Yesterday EagerShine.shurpa suggested tha would be handling things here in auto mode. Apparently Eager has changed thas mind. Maybe strategy as well? But to what?"
"On a related point, Charlotte. It's critical that I establish good relations with the Technicals on this project, Eager and Walf. They're going to tell me what's really happening down in the nuts & bolts. I'll need to have a head start on Forge and upper mgmt.
"By the way, Charlotte, what do I have common with Eager? Can you find some childhood interest or incident that we can reminisce about? I need a good talking point if we meet for lunch."
* * *
Eager turned a corner into a huge open Productive Thinkspace filled with cubicles, shared table pods and braindumping bins. Office workers as far as the eye could see were settling in for the day. At least half were shurpas, as far as Eager could see, though it was hard to tell with the more distant ones.
Tha had expected a maze, but this was too big to navigate by trial & error. "SHURPA EagerShine," tha said.
"Ready Eager," said EagerShine's voice, only audible within Eager's proxLoc.
"Hi. I'm at the entrance to the Productive Thinkspace, but now do I find my cubicle?" asked Eager.
"Turn left," said EagerShine. "Proceed 20 meters along the passageway, turn right, and your cube is 4th row on the left, number 1378. By the way, for future reference, BigCorp has a local FLO appliance you can use for local navigation."
Eager arrived at the opening of a half-height silver grey cube with one desk, one cabinet w/ plastic fern coat hook and two chairs. On the desk was a hand-written note: "Welcome to your new cube".
"Did you leave me a note?" asked Eager.
"Yes," said EagerShine. "I hope that's ok. I thought you'd be coming in person sooner or later."
"It's very thoughtful of you. Thanks very much," said Eager.
"Don't worry, it's a feature of my latest Liaison Skills upgrade."
Eager put thas man purse on the desktop and sat carefully back into the chair. The semi-frosted glass surround of his cube blurred the view of thas cube neighbours. White noise muffled the sound of conversations, although tha could hear what was being said if tha paid close attention.
Full length windows along the outside wall of the building were mostly hidden by the private offices surrounding the Creative Workspace. To compensate for the lack of natural light there were rows of overhead synglow units.
"EagerShine, did you record my conversation with Lyre in the elevator?"
"Yes. I have indexed and added it to the archive."
"Do you think tha was flirting with me?"
"Thas specific intentions were unstated, although thas demeanor was friendly and tha did make an explicit invitation," said EagerShine.shurpa
"Flirting. That's what I thought too," said Eager. "What do think we should do about it?"
"I recommend that we respond in a friendly manner. That will acknowledge thas good will and establish the basis for a cordial relationship."
"Right. But does tha like me?"
"At this point all we can do is enter an exploratory negotiation phase to define the nature of this relationship. My advice is to go to thas cubicle just before lunch time, as tha suggested."
"After all your upgrades and special training, you still have no instinct about people, do you EagerShine?"
"That is literally correct," said EagerShine. "I take an objective point of view. But, to use an old expression, isn't that why you pay me?"