TGoaW-139

----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 139 - The Glow of a Worm inside a Child's Eye==
"...why wouldn't I...
----
...send you a copy of the report, Katherine?" Science Minister pro-tem Elizabeth Ngo asked. Her office was a hub of activity that was, given what Katherine Steiner-Davion knew of the girl Elizabeth had been as Arthur's girlfriend, almost a stereotype in itself. "You are Victor's Heir...and his senior civilian advisor now that your mother's withdrawn from public life."
"That isn't what I wanted to talk to you about." Katherine admitted. "I have...concerns, regarding some of the projects you're seeking to fund."
"Okay." Liz shrugged, "I thought I was clear, but if you need further exposition, I'm sure-"
"I brought in an outsider to look at the extracts." Katherine added.
"Nothing's classified in that bundle, so...okay? Is this something you couldn't delegate to a subordinate?"
"Elizabeth, to be gentle about this...some of those extracts should have been classified." Katherine continued, "Several of them pose significant issues with safety and...sanity."
"Huh?" Liz regarded her guest skeptically, "It's not even new stuff, Kate, it's basic field research on things the realm relies on every day-it's more like reclamation of lost information, than new frontiers. Filling key gaps in our understanding that we're going to need when we finally have the time to start advancing again. I was honestly more afraid I'd have to argue the material isn't too redundant to be worth the effort!"
"You're so much like Arthur, Liz." Katherine shook her head, "Things that you find so easy, are so damned hard for the rest of us...and you don't understand the ramifications when what you think of so simply and easily are put into common hands."
"I'm not hearing argumentation or reasoning here, Kate." Elizabeth said quietly. "Who did you show it to?"
"Precentor Dow." Katherine stated.
"Oh...right, the guy from the agency that turned into a cult." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Katherine, I promise, nothing in this fiscal year's budget proposal is world-shatteringly powerful on its own."
"That may be the problem." Katherine said, "You're very careful to steer this."
"That's not me steering the conversation, that's you worrying because the tech-priests are upset we might up-end their last trump card and start growing on our own again...and you let them convince you, so now, you're here to...what?" Liz stepped from behind her desk, "Are you here to ask me to stop doing my job?"
"Of course not!" Katherine hurriedly defended, "I'm just...expressing concerns, is all."
"Well, don't worry so much, or show up at the lecture hall and listen in if you want to understand more." Liz told her, "We're all trying to understand more and it's only natural and right for someone in your position to seek to inform herself-who knows? you may have insights some of the most degreed people in the Federated Commonwealth don't." The smaller woman's eyes seemed, to Katherine, to flash with implied threat and hidden contempt.
"Of course, Elizabeth...Now I'm sorry to have taken so much of your time, good day."
"You as well, Katherine, you're welcome here any time." Liz said it, to her back as she left the office without another word.
------
Katherine mentally ticked off another offense. Make her pay.
She knew just how to do that.
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
139