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Fritz comes out of the backroom of his tailor shop, a plate in one hand and a teacup in the other. He sets them down on his front counter and is just about to settle on his stool there when the front door opens. An unlikely person walks through, the radical Louisa. It’s been about a week since she left the dome with that fascinating, well-dressed fellow named Mariah. Fritz is surprised to see her back so soon, but more so, to see her in his shop.
Under one arm is a paper-wrapped package, tied with string. “Delivery for you,” she tells him, holding it out.
Puzzled, Fritz takes it and hands over a small tip as a courtesy.
“See you around,” Louisa says, as she turns for the door. “I’ll be in touch.”
That makes Fritz’s eyebrows shoot up. Why would she be doing that? “Stay out of trouble now, you hear?” he cautions her. She shrugs in reply and slips outside, pulling up the hood of her long duster. She glances back and forth warily and then heads left, disappearing out of view.
Fritz unties the string and pulls apart the wrapping. The package contains a letter atop some folded clothes. Wondering who this could be from, Fritz picks up the letter and starts to read.
Fritz,
When we first met, you said you’d like to take a closer look at my clothes sometime. Well, here they are, the blazer and the dress shirt, at least.
Fritz glances from the letter back down at the clothes. He runs a hand across the shirt. It’s smooth under his fingers; this soft twill has some seriously high thread count. “Ah, this is from Mariah!” he realizes, recognizing the clothes now.
As you can see, they’ve suffered some damage. There was an accident on the way home, and I broke my arm—that’s why the left sleeves have been cut off and have tears elsewhere as well.
“Oh, no!” Fritz murmurs upon reading of the injury. He moves aside the dress shirt, and sure enough, folded under it is the detached sleeve of both it and the blazer, roughly cut and with ragged tears around the forearm.
This is probably beyond the bounds of what you can mend, so if it’s a hopeless cause, feel free to repurpose these fabrics. They’re from Earth, so you’re not likely to see others of this quality around Chiron. Not where you live, anyway.
It is nice material, and while there are things Fritz could do with it, he’ll definitely investigate mending these items first. If that doesn’t work, perhaps he can work up something else worthy of their quality.
I told you I’m from Earth, but I didn’t really elaborate. Maybe you thought I came over as a little kid? But no, I’ve only been out of my cryopod for just over a month.
“Oh, he just woke up! Now that is interesting…” Fritz settles onto his stool, making himself comfortable for what is now looking to be an interesting afternoon of reading. He brings his cup of tea up to his lips for a sip.
I expected to wake up to a new world and explore it with everyone else. Instead, I find everything so different from what I imagined, including myself, as you saw with the shimmerfly. What I did then… it’s not normal.
“No, it is not,” Fritz mutters in agreement.
Or not yet, anyway. If I’m going to figure it out fully, I need to find people who better understand this planet and its native life. So I’m headed east,
“Headed east?” Fritz echoes. Data Haven is to the east, but beyond that…
and I don’t know when I’ll be back in your neighborhood again. But hopefully it’ll be sometime soon.
Fritz smiles. “Ah, so he is planning to come back.”
In the meantime, there are some more presents for you in the blazer’s inner pocket. I talked with your coffee-drinking associate about your interests, and they prepared a program for you.
Fritz digs through the pile of clothes and produces a data stick from the indicated pocket. Confusion about the obtuse coffee reference shifts to understanding as he realizes Mariah is talking about Roze.
In addition to that, there’s some more material to add to the ledger for the previous project we talked about. It’s all circumstantial, but maybe it will help lower his prestige among planetfallers. I’ve got some ideas for other leads to pursue next time I’m in your area. Shu-Fen in prospecting recovered some material from the Unity wreck for Morgan.
“Ah, I’ve heard of Shu-Fen. Interesting idea…”
There’s got to be a reason he wanted to quietly get back his cryopod and the terminal from his module.
“Morgan and cryopods… Now what can that be about?”
I suspect he woke up earlier than anyone was supposed to so that he could be in a position to seize power.
Fritz eyebrows go up once again. “This is a new tack, indeed.”
You know your dome far better than I do, so hopefully you don’t take umbrage at my suggestions, but there are a few people you should consider networking with.
Fritz sets down his teacup and slides his plate closer, then picks up his scone for a nibble.
For one, Louisa. Not everyone in her little club is as militant as she is,
“Well, that’s good to know about the others,” Fritz mutters. He doesn’t have high hopes for Louisa, but there might be some possibilities with her folks after all.
and maybe now that she’s met with an actual stepdaughter and learned a bit more about what that group is all about she understands better the type of action they would support.
“A stepdaughter… Right, the Stepdaughters of Chiron.” Fritz realizes they must be what Mariah was alluding to earlier, when he mentioned heading further east. That’s why Morgan’s troops are headed that way, after all.
So, yeah, getting her folks involved in the smear campaign against Morgan, I think that’d be a good idea. Surely someone in that group is a graffiti artist.
“I’d bet! At least one.”
They can advance multiple agendas: xenofungus isn’t the enemy, debt is!
An appreciative smile breaks out across Fritz’s face. “Why, Mariah, were you in marketing? That is punchy, indeed!”
Meanwhile, Roze’s people will be doing what they can to slow the march.
Fritz snorts. “Good luck with that,” he says pessimistically. He’s pointed many people to Data Haven over the years, but few that he would pit against Morgan’s new troops. Fritz sets down the scone and takes another sip from his tea.
Another person you might carefully sound out is Yushi. He’s the leader of one of the repo squads,
Fritz nearly spits his tea out all over the counter, so surprised is he by this suggestion.
or at least he was. He recently suffered some major lung damage due to miasma exposure and isn’t likely to get back out into the field again. Why do I suggest him? Well, I met him a few times, and though he’s definitely bought into the whole Morgan Industries dream, he also really loves the planet.
“You mean he loves money, I think,” Fritz mutters.
He joined a field team so he could be out there in nature. If he can be made to see that his current condition is due to mismanagement and ill treatment of workers maybe that’s an in to unionize the repo squads. Sure, you don’t want them to exist, but it’s a step, right?
“Unionize the repo squads?!” Fritz sets the letter down for a moment and stares off, trying to wrap his head around this idea. He shakes his head and picks up the letter again. “I’ve read about organizing efforts of the past, fraternal orders and whatnot. They’re not necessarily for the people’s good,” he says to it, though of course its writer cannot hear his objections.
One thing about that though, be careful how you use my name when introducing yourself; he believes I work for Morgan Prospecting.
“Mariah, Mariah, what have you been up to? Sure seems like you’ve been busy.” Fritz flips over the letter to continue reading what’s written on the back.
I’ve been thinking about you a lot,
“Aww, I’ve been thinking about you, too!”
and I hope you take that in the complimentary manner it is intended, not in a creepy sort of way.
Fritz chuckles. “Ah, Mariah, so smooth one moment, so nervous the next!” It’s endearing.
It’s just… that day we met, it was a really, really hard day for me. The dome itself was physically taxing, and I’d been on an emotional rollercoaster,
“Yeah, me too,” Fritz agrees. He certainly hadn’t been expecting that day to go the way it did. Meeting an intriguing new man was a nice bonus.
what with the Planetary Security Force reveal.
“Oh, right, also that.”
I was really touched that without even knowing me much, you looked out for me when you thought I was getting tangled up with the wrong crowd.
“Well, of course I did!”
And you did it without expectation of anything from me. Way to buck the transactional nature of the Morgan domes! And of all humanity, really.
“Drat! I was really hoping people were like that just here.”
So many people expect or want so much from me… It was refreshing to just be with you for a while. To just walk and chat and get to know each other, as much as our short time together allowed.
Fritz smiles as he reads this. It was a fraught evening, what with the repo squad tailing them for a while, and then that crazy stuff with the bug and the purple lights that almost made Mariah collapse. But somehow, among all that, they fit in a pleasant—nay, romantic—arm-in-arm promenade down the central boulevard together. It was unexpected, and even if it didn’t end exactly the way Fritz had thought it might, it was nice.
¡Ah! I almost forgot! I told you there are amazing things out here beyond the domes, well check out what I saw on my way back! The sketch below is a craw den.
“Aw, that is cute,” Fritz coos, glancing down to the bottom of the page.
They like shiny things—I’ve seen them looking through rocks and they’ve swiped small metal tools from our supplies. They even make exchanges! It turns out they use their treasures to line the path to their home. It’s like a little catwalk!
Fritz idly considers what kind of customers these craws would be. What sort of styles would they like? Shiny brass buttons. No, even better: sequins. He imagines them clacking down their little catwalk, displaying his fashions, and the corner of his mouth quirks up in a smile. Another unexpected but pleasant diversion, thanks to Mariah.
If you still don’t mind complicated…
“No, no I do not. And you are just getting more and more interesting…”
maybe we can put aside all the scheming and plotting for a bit and just spend some time together next time I’m at the dome.
“Oh! So you really are coming back!”
I’d love to see your shop and whatever designs you’re working on there, if you’re willing to share.
Mariah
PS: One last thought I want to leave you with, mister small business owner…
Fritz chuckles to be referred to that way.
what does it take to get on the Morgan Industries board? I hear there might be a vacancy opening soon, if Morgan gets ousted. Maybe a public position of power would suit you?
The laughter swiftly dies. Fritz sets his tea cup down and rereads the postscript. “What, me? On the board? I can’t even… How…? Oh, you are ambitious, aren’t you, Mariah?”
Fritz lets out a long breath and shakes his head to clear it. Then he goes back to the start of the letter, skimming through it and noting what he needs to follow up on. “The clothes… He hasn’t been around much yet… Program from Roze… Dirt on Morgan… Maybe look into Shu-Fen… Louisa’s group, yeah we’ll see… Repo union? I doubt that… And he’ll be back sometime. And wants to get together.”
He holds the letter, considering what to do with it. Above the first trifold, Mariah was oblique enough, but as the letter went on, he spoke far more plainly—too plainly for it to be safe to keep around. Fritz should probably burn it or shred it. For now, though, he refolds the letter, slides it into the inner pocket of his jacket, and gives it a reassuring pat. Then he adjusts the set of his hat on his thick hair and turns his attention to the clothes in front of him. He’s got a busy afternoon ahead of him, thinking about what to do with them and imagining what else he might put together for Mariah.
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Fin