The Jolly Robot was filling up quickly with decompressing office workers,
but Walf and Sarba had acquired a booth near the back. They waved as Eager and
Lyre came through the front door. "Quick! Vultures are circling over the
empty seats," shouted Sarba.
"So, Eager, how was your first unvirtual day on the job?" asked
Walf.
"Quite different, I have to say," said Eager. "You know, from
home I thought I had a pretty good idea what was going on. But being there in
person is like a whole new experience."
"Yes, I find that too. But does it matter? I guess that's the
question," replied Walf. "I think as long as the tasks are well
defined, then it shouldn't matter. And if you have a shurpa trained to pick up
on the organizational cues, that should cover the rest, right? What was your
experience with EagerShine.shurpa on that?"
"EagerShine is good," said Eager. "Thax is much better at
office etiquette than me. Which is important these days. Say the wrong word and
Bing!, you're out of a job. EagerShine's upgrades were expensive, but I think
of it as cheap insurance."
"Oh, come on guys," said Sarba. "You just have to be aware
and a little bit caring. It's just not that complicated."
"What was it Mother said yesterday?" asked Walf, "BigCorp has
5,000 odd deportment protocols? And those are just the in-house ones. I bet
half of them even conflict. So you need a lawyer on hand before you even open
your mouth. I'm surprised anyone is willing to take the risk of coming to work
in person."
"I agree, we have to be careful with Mother," said Lyre. "I
guess thax can override Forge, and maybe even Lincoln, if thax thinks there is
a problem."
"Don't forget Mother is just a shurpa," said Walf. "There
must be an owner somewhere, monitoring thamx activities. Does anyone know who
that is?"
"It must be someone in Central," said Sarba, "but I don't
know anyone there. Mother is pretty scary. But do you think we could use thax
to our advantage somehow?"
"You mean like hack thamx?" said Walf.
"No, I wouldn't even want to try that," said Sarba. "I just
mean if we had some sort of disagreement with Lincoln, then it would be good to
have Mother on our side."
"In theory, yes. I bet thax could get Lincoln to back off." said
Lyre, "But it gives me the creeps just the idea of agreeing with Mother on
anything."
* * *
The noise level in the Jolly Robot had cranked up to the next level and the
space grew more and more crowded. People moving around the bar leaned closer to
their table while squeezing by. One woman even half-sat on the end of their
table for a second, upsetting a bowl of peanuts.
"Hey guys, I just ordered another round", said Eager. They could
take a while to get here, though. So sip, don't gulp.
"Speaking of getting friendly with Mother," said Eager, "what
are you guys going to say when thax asks if you're a couple?"
"We're not a couple. What are you talking about?" said Walf.
Sarba turned in her seat and stared at him.
"Not officially. Well, not until I move into Sarba's place next month.
It's all a matter of the definition, right?"
"We're officially in love," said Sarba.
"Huh, yeah, that's right," said Walf.
"I'm very happy for you," said Lyre.
"A toast to the newly weds," said Eager. They all laughed and
raised their glasses.
"But seriously," said Lyre, "isn't there some sort of
protocol against that? Does it mean you have to work on different projects? Or
does one of you have to leave the company?"
"The BigCorp protocol prohibits romantic relationships between
permanent contenders. But it doesn't say very much about Associates, which is what
we are," said Sarba. "There are rules about 'behavior that affects
the working relationships', but it's vague on the behaviors or the
affects."
"Both our shurpas come up with different legal opinions on this
situation," said Walf. "I'm pretty sure a judge would just throw out
the complaint, if it ever came to that."
"But if it comes to that, you're hooped anyway," said Eager.
"It's Mother's opinion that counts, don't you think?"
"You're right. So we're trying to keep it under the radar. I hope you
guys won't let it slip. Hey, I'll pay for the next round," said Walf.
"Don't worry," said Lyre, "you can trust us. Right
Eager?"
"For sure. We won't say a thing. Everything is cool," said Eager.