Chapter 16 #2
He blinked. “Of course I can. Ah. I see. Credits are sensitive. Like sex.”
She groaned.
“All right,” he continued smoothly. “Don’t tell me. I’ll give you ranges and you decide where you fall. First, you know how much they deduct for Helios docking and storage, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Add that back to your thirty cycles pay. If it comes out under two thousand credits, that’s unacceptable. Between two and four thousand is not outrageous, but still low. Four to six is reasonable. Anything above that means you negotiated well.”
He saw the answer on her face before she muttered it, eyes downcast.
“Looks like I’m terrible at negotiating.”
Now it was Khar’s turn to brace his temple beside a horn.
“You should not be earning thirty percent less than colleagues in the same role. That violates Equal Access law. It applies even more strictly to abductee status. Wasn’t that covered in your integration program?”
“It was,” Lily said quietly. “I just assumed they were acting legally. I’m bad at this. I’m scared they’ll fire me if I push.”
Khar frowned.
“Even without the statute, you should be earning at least four to five thousand. You lack formal certification, but you operate at Herion engineering level. You unload half a cargo bay without antigrav support, and your endurance is exceptional.”
“Well,” Lily said hesitantly, “maybe I’ll talk to Vegrun after we land. He’ll be in a better mood then.”
Khar stared at her.
“No,” he said flatly. “We strike now.”
She blinked. “Strike? They could fire you because of me.”
He crossed his arms stubbornly.
“I will not work another cycle under these conditions.”
She looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
Time to change tactics.
Khar crouched in front of her, lowering his voice.
“Lily, if you want to handle this your way, I trust you. But if you trust me, let me speak to Vegrun. I’ll call him now.”
She shook her head. “I won’t let you get fired because of me. This is my problem.”
Khar laughed softly.
“No one is getting fired. I promise. Colleagues stand up for each other. If they don’t, this keeps happening.”
She chewed her lip, thinking hard, then gave a barely perceptible nod.
“All right. Worst case, we look for a new job together.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Khar said. “Now let me do my second favorite thing in life, which is extracting obscene amounts of money from a billionaire. One question. Who set your pay? Horos or Vegrun?”
“Horos.”
Khar smiled. Now he knew exactly how to frame it.
As he turned toward the control room to place the call, Lily stopped him.
“What’s your first favorite thing?”
He glanced back over his shoulder.
“You are.”
The memory of her Harmun-red blush lingered long after he walked away.
The negotiation went well.
At one point, Vegrun muttered something about organized rebellion, and Khar realized that orchestrating one might also rank among his favorite activities.
Despite the magnate’s bluster, Khar never broke character. He presented himself as a concerned worker simply drawing attention to Horos’s serious oversight. Clearly, the responsibility lay with Horos alone. Vegrun, after all, was just as much a victim as Lily.
Whether Vegrun truly had not known or simply reacted to Khar’s polite threats hardly mattered. He agreed quickly to amend the contract.
Khar did not stop there.
He assured Vegrun that he himself had been reluctant to finish the paint job on time. Lily, he explained, had insisted.
Then he deployed heavy artillery.
They would, he suggested, conduct a full deep sanitation of the pool area.
As Vegrun surely knew, the Mokra, Silomarila’s species, were mortal enemies of the Goror, to whom Lady Iroxella belonged.
Mokra olfactory sensitivity was legendary across the galaxy.
It would be tragic if all their work were ruined by such a minor oversight.
Vegrun’s tone changed immediately.
“Khar,” he said warmly, “you are like a son to me from another sea. I knew I could always rely on you. Handle this matter. And please convey my sincerest apologies to Lily. I will personally ensure her compensation is corrected.”
Khar judged Vegrun’s apology to be about as sincere as his own concern over pool sanitation, but the mission was complete.
So was the sanitation, the moment Iroxella left the ship.
Khar could not tolerate Goror stench, and he needed something to occupy himself while Horos temporarily separated him from Lily.
She was exactly where he had left her, sitting atop a paint crate, visibly trapped in dark thoughts.
Khar sat beside her.
“It’s settled. Vegrun regrets what happened and will correct it shortly.”
As if on command, Lily’s VoidBrace chimed. She read the message, then looked up at him in disbelief, joy breaking through.
“They’ve already updated it. Six thousand five hundred credits. They deduct one thousand for Helios docking, but still. Starting this chrono-cycle.”
Khar nodded with satisfaction.
“Correct. You deserve no less.”
She smiled at him, eyes shining. “Thank you for doing this.”
He waved it off. “It should have been handled long ago, but something has taken all of my attention lately. I tried for retroactive adjustment, but Vegrun resisted.”
This time, she did not bite at the obvious flirt.
“Still,” she said, “on Earth people usually don’t discuss salaries. It’s rare for someone to stand up so others get paid fairly.”
Khar stood and began scanning the crates for instructions while Lily went to activate Vitro’s service drones.
“Fascinating place, your Earth,” he muttered. “Perhaps… that tentacled Cradle-dodging bastard!”
“What happened?”
Apparently, Khar had not squeezed Vegrun hard enough.
“Lily,” he said grimly, “the paint cannot be applied in dock. It’s vacuum-set.”
Walking the entire hull centimeter by centimeter without suits was bad enough. An EVA in full gear would make it exponentially worse.
They stared at each other.
Finally, Lily spoke. “Fuck Vegrun.”
“I thought you liked him.”
“There are some things you don’t come back from.”
Khar nodded solemnly.
Busy chrono-cycles lay ahead.