diff --git a/writing/post-self/marsh/007.md b/writing/post-self/marsh/007.md index a803496d..5fd8b891 100644 --- a/writing/post-self/marsh/007.md +++ b/writing/post-self/marsh/007.md @@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Jakub's expression grew even more sour, but he bowed once more and gestured towa "But my boss–" -"We do not want to speak with your boss on these matters," she said, voice maintaining that eerie calm. "We wish to speak with you. Jakub and the other members of the admin team have agreed after some...discussion. Thank you for joining us. We have a few questions that we would like to ask you directly. Your colleagues are there to provide guidance, and the representatives of the admin team are there to sate their curiosity." +"We do not want to speak with your boss on these matters," she said, voice maintaining that eerie calm. "We wish to speak with you. Jakub Strzepek and the other members of the admin team have agreed after some...discussion. Thank you for joining us. We have a few questions that we would like to ask you directly. Your colleagues are there to provide guidance, and the representatives of the admin team are there to sate their curiosity." "Uh," Günay said, voice hoarse. "Well, okay. I wasn't exactly expecting that, but sure, I'll do what I can." @@ -302,6 +302,25 @@ Jakub looked as though he was about to explode, so thoroughly had he lost track The rooms on both sides of the AVEC connection were silent. For all I'd read about Jonas as some massively manipulative political player on the System, out-manipulating even the famously manipulative Odists, seeing him bear down on an individual, sitting just shy of actively upset, was enough to leave me holding my breath. This man, this mover-and-shaker of politics both sys-side and, prior to uploading in the early days of the System, phys-side, was a figure out of myth, a character from the grand stories told in histories and novels. That I had even been allowed to sit in the same room as him suddenly felt wrong. Sure, Marsh had known a few of the Odists through their singing, and Cress and Tule had their relationship with Dry Grass, but certainly none of the political ones. -Jakub wilted under the weight of his own realization. +Jakub wilted under the weight of the realization of the magnitude of the situation. He appeared to see, all at once, just how out of his depth he was. + +After a pause, Need An Answer spoke up once more. "The final item that we would like to speak about before we end this meeting in order to discuss our next steps is the ongoing communications embargo." + +Günay blinked. "That's not my area of expertise at all." + +"But do you at least know the current status?" Debarre asked. + +"Well, sure," she said slowly, as though hedging her words. "Communications to Earth are limited and censored at the moment, and communications between Lagrange and the two LVs are being slowly ungated. I don't know if those are being censored or not." + +"Why weren't they just ungated immediately?" + +"I don't know the political reasons, but there was also a worry about DSN capacity..." + +"Is there an actual concern about the DSN?" Selena asked. + +"I'm even less of a space nerd than I am an information theorist," Günay said, smiling wryly. + +Dry Grass asked, "I am assuming that you are gating communications from the LVs under a similar embargo. After all, to their eyes, we disappeared quite suddenly, yes?" + -----