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Bargaining
© 2021 by Walter Reimer
Thumbnail art by
technicolor_pie, color by 
Major Matt Mason
“So, what do you think?” Meredith asked after Fuji finished listening to Khosrau’s message. When the recording had ended, the Komodo monitor had sat back, his thick tail swishing slightly. The mare had kept quiet while her lover thought things over.
Fuji brought a paw to his chin. “Opening up a new office on Downtime now makes sense. There’s going to be a lot of traffic going on as people start to recover from the war.” He looked up at her as he took one of her paws in his. “The question is, what do you think? He’s making the offer to you, not me.”
“I can’t deny,” Meredith sighed as he made room and she sat down on his lap facing him, “that it’s tempting. I haven’t talked to him yet.”
“No?”
“I wanted to see what you thought of it first.” He smiled, and she leaned down so he could kiss her.
“Thank you,” he said. “Are you prepared to stop being a captain?”
Meredith’s ears swiveled as her tail brushed back and forth across his knees. “I did think about it when I first proposed the idea to the company. I mean, I’d like to settle down sometime, have a family – “
“Which you can’t have if you stay here.” She nodded. “Will you want me to come with you?”
“Why not?”
Fuji chuckled. “Just asking.” He grinned at her as he rested his paws on her hips. “I suppose . . . “
“Yes?”
“I suppose that, after working aboard a freighter in the middle of a war, it’d be nice to settle down for a while.”
Meredith gave a half-smile. “Yeah, I was thinking about that, too.” She leaned a little bit closer to him. “You know what?”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, lir demef,” and Fuji chuckled as her ears flicked at the sound of him speaking Kashlanin. “It’d make our families breathe easier.”
She chuckled. “Yours too, huh?”
He nodded.
***
It wasn’t very easy to arrange a real-time connection. The first step was arranging time on the hypercommsat network, which had been much abused by the recent hostilities and was only now being repaired. After that was requesting the interview, getting it approved, and coordinating things to accommodate both parties.
Still, it was worth doing, and Meredith was determined to talk to the kangaroo in real time. The alternative was going from This Far to God’s Armpit and talking to him face to face, but the A Quiet Life was still in refit.
The golden palomino mare still had to adjust her daily schedule.
It was sometime after one in the morning, and her second mug of coffee sat steaming beside her as the screen displayed the Transcosm logo, followed by Lavrent Khosrau’s face. It was midmorning on God’s Armpit, apparently, judging from the sunlight coming in the windows behind the kangaroo. “Fair day, Captain d’Estcourt.”
“Khosrau-jih,” Meredith said. Her ears were canted forward. “Thank you for agreeing to talk with me.”
The buck smiled. “Not an imposition, d’Estcourt-jih, especially not with the offer that we’ve made. Have you had time to think about it?”
“Yes, I have,” and she paused to take a sip of her coffee, “but I have a few questions to make sure that everything’s clear.” She glanced to her left, where a private text window sat on her padd’s viewscreen. “What sort of office are you contemplating?”
“What the Board – and the AIs concur – envision is having our territory subdivided into several regions, one of which will be centered on This Far, and another on Downtime. Because of the station’s position on the border, we believe that that one will the more important. The basic job duties will be arranging various cargoes, manifests, managing the traffic of Transcosm and Imperial Chartering ships to and from the station, and supervising your staff. Obviously, an important part of this will be communicating with both sides of the station.” The kangaroo smiled. “Your knowledge of Kashlanin language and customs will be a valuable asset.”
“I see.” Another sip of coffee, and she leaned forward slightly. “How will this affect my position as Captain? Can I go back to space?”
He nodded. “If you find that job isn’t to your taste and we have a ship available, yes. We are in the progress of completing the upgrade of our fleet and will be adding new ships and hiring crews.”
Meredith nodded. “I hate to bring up a sensitive subject, but what about pay and benefits?”
Khosrau chuckled. “Not a sensitive subject at all, d’Estcourt-jih. Naturally, you’ll have to give up your part-ownership of the A Quiet Life, but you wouldn’t want this job if it meant a cut in pay or benefits, and we recognize that. Your pay will increase slightly, with no change in your benefits to offset any loss from bonuses and the like.” His ears swiveled. “Your current rank is actually close to equivalent to a Regional Manager’s, which is what your new title would be.”
Meredith took a long drink of her coffee. The offer was starting to look better, almost attractive even. “What about budget? Staff?” she asked, recalling that her job interview had been with Mikhal and the This Far office being a rented hole in the wall.
“There’ll be a budget – office space will be covered between the company and the station – to hire staff and for maintenance. Your pay will include a stipend for living quarters.”
“You’re certainly making this attractive, Sir.”
“We’d be a broke company if we treated our employees poorly, Ma’am.” The kangaroo paused and sipped at a glass of water. “So. Are you interested?”
“Very much so, I admit. I may have my first staff member coming with me off the A Quiet Life, in fact, which brings me to a final question.”
If he looked surprised, he didn’t show it. “Go ahead.”
“Do I have a say in recommending my successor?”
Khosrau smiled. “Of course.”
Meredith matched the smile. “I think that covers everything, Khosrau-jih. I look forward to seeing the full offer in writing.”
“We can get it sent today, and negotiations are already underway with Downtime to acquire the office. Once you get the documentation, you’ll have a week to send it back, signed, with recommendations for a new Captain for your ship.”
“That’s reasonable. Thank you for your time, Khosrau-jih.”
“You’re welcome, d’Estcourt-jih. Fair day,” and the screen showed the Transcosm logo, followed by a string of letters and numbers as the connection terminated.
The golden palomino mare sat back, gathering her coffee mug up in her paws and cuddling it to her chest as her heartbeat set up ripples in the remaining beverage.
© 2021 by Walter Reimer
Thumbnail art by
technicolor_pie, color by 
Major Matt Mason“So, what do you think?” Meredith asked after Fuji finished listening to Khosrau’s message. When the recording had ended, the Komodo monitor had sat back, his thick tail swishing slightly. The mare had kept quiet while her lover thought things over.
Fuji brought a paw to his chin. “Opening up a new office on Downtime now makes sense. There’s going to be a lot of traffic going on as people start to recover from the war.” He looked up at her as he took one of her paws in his. “The question is, what do you think? He’s making the offer to you, not me.”
“I can’t deny,” Meredith sighed as he made room and she sat down on his lap facing him, “that it’s tempting. I haven’t talked to him yet.”
“No?”
“I wanted to see what you thought of it first.” He smiled, and she leaned down so he could kiss her.
“Thank you,” he said. “Are you prepared to stop being a captain?”
Meredith’s ears swiveled as her tail brushed back and forth across his knees. “I did think about it when I first proposed the idea to the company. I mean, I’d like to settle down sometime, have a family – “
“Which you can’t have if you stay here.” She nodded. “Will you want me to come with you?”
“Why not?”
Fuji chuckled. “Just asking.” He grinned at her as he rested his paws on her hips. “I suppose . . . “
“Yes?”
“I suppose that, after working aboard a freighter in the middle of a war, it’d be nice to settle down for a while.”
Meredith gave a half-smile. “Yeah, I was thinking about that, too.” She leaned a little bit closer to him. “You know what?”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, lir demef,” and Fuji chuckled as her ears flicked at the sound of him speaking Kashlanin. “It’d make our families breathe easier.”
She chuckled. “Yours too, huh?”
He nodded.
***
It wasn’t very easy to arrange a real-time connection. The first step was arranging time on the hypercommsat network, which had been much abused by the recent hostilities and was only now being repaired. After that was requesting the interview, getting it approved, and coordinating things to accommodate both parties.
Still, it was worth doing, and Meredith was determined to talk to the kangaroo in real time. The alternative was going from This Far to God’s Armpit and talking to him face to face, but the A Quiet Life was still in refit.
The golden palomino mare still had to adjust her daily schedule.
It was sometime after one in the morning, and her second mug of coffee sat steaming beside her as the screen displayed the Transcosm logo, followed by Lavrent Khosrau’s face. It was midmorning on God’s Armpit, apparently, judging from the sunlight coming in the windows behind the kangaroo. “Fair day, Captain d’Estcourt.”
“Khosrau-jih,” Meredith said. Her ears were canted forward. “Thank you for agreeing to talk with me.”
The buck smiled. “Not an imposition, d’Estcourt-jih, especially not with the offer that we’ve made. Have you had time to think about it?”
“Yes, I have,” and she paused to take a sip of her coffee, “but I have a few questions to make sure that everything’s clear.” She glanced to her left, where a private text window sat on her padd’s viewscreen. “What sort of office are you contemplating?”
“What the Board – and the AIs concur – envision is having our territory subdivided into several regions, one of which will be centered on This Far, and another on Downtime. Because of the station’s position on the border, we believe that that one will the more important. The basic job duties will be arranging various cargoes, manifests, managing the traffic of Transcosm and Imperial Chartering ships to and from the station, and supervising your staff. Obviously, an important part of this will be communicating with both sides of the station.” The kangaroo smiled. “Your knowledge of Kashlanin language and customs will be a valuable asset.”
“I see.” Another sip of coffee, and she leaned forward slightly. “How will this affect my position as Captain? Can I go back to space?”
He nodded. “If you find that job isn’t to your taste and we have a ship available, yes. We are in the progress of completing the upgrade of our fleet and will be adding new ships and hiring crews.”
Meredith nodded. “I hate to bring up a sensitive subject, but what about pay and benefits?”
Khosrau chuckled. “Not a sensitive subject at all, d’Estcourt-jih. Naturally, you’ll have to give up your part-ownership of the A Quiet Life, but you wouldn’t want this job if it meant a cut in pay or benefits, and we recognize that. Your pay will increase slightly, with no change in your benefits to offset any loss from bonuses and the like.” His ears swiveled. “Your current rank is actually close to equivalent to a Regional Manager’s, which is what your new title would be.”
Meredith took a long drink of her coffee. The offer was starting to look better, almost attractive even. “What about budget? Staff?” she asked, recalling that her job interview had been with Mikhal and the This Far office being a rented hole in the wall.
“There’ll be a budget – office space will be covered between the company and the station – to hire staff and for maintenance. Your pay will include a stipend for living quarters.”
“You’re certainly making this attractive, Sir.”
“We’d be a broke company if we treated our employees poorly, Ma’am.” The kangaroo paused and sipped at a glass of water. “So. Are you interested?”
“Very much so, I admit. I may have my first staff member coming with me off the A Quiet Life, in fact, which brings me to a final question.”
If he looked surprised, he didn’t show it. “Go ahead.”
“Do I have a say in recommending my successor?”
Khosrau smiled. “Of course.”
Meredith matched the smile. “I think that covers everything, Khosrau-jih. I look forward to seeing the full offer in writing.”
“We can get it sent today, and negotiations are already underway with Downtime to acquire the office. Once you get the documentation, you’ll have a week to send it back, signed, with recommendations for a new Captain for your ship.”
“That’s reasonable. Thank you for your time, Khosrau-jih.”
“You’re welcome, d’Estcourt-jih. Fair day,” and the screen showed the Transcosm logo, followed by a string of letters and numbers as the connection terminated.
The golden palomino mare sat back, gathering her coffee mug up in her paws and cuddling it to her chest as her heartbeat set up ripples in the remaining beverage.
Category Story / General Furry Art
Species Horse
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 51.3 kB
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