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 Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:24 pm
"Rubbish," said Merroth, "the Earth has whatever I give her. If she needed interstellar cruisers --" which sounded like a swingers club -- "she would have them. Since she doesn't need them, she doesn't have them, but I'd give them to her if she needed them."
It sounded a little crazy the way Merroth said it, but he meant it. His circular logic pointed right back at his own perceived greatness. It wasn't an ego problem where he sat. It was a failure of others to realize his greatness. Someday, people were going to regret making that mistake. He would make sure of it.
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Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:35 pm
Orli narrowed her eyes at the boy. Clearly, he was delusional. "You know, that doesn't make any sense," she said. "You're the same age as me. We're kids. You can't just give a planet interstellar cruisers on a whim."
"Technology has to evolve," she continued. "My Mom studies this stuff. She's employed by the galactic government. One of the reasons you need a special visa to go to Earth if you're not from there is because they're not a part of galactic society yet."
Eshaa devolved into this speech at least once a week. Orli knew it by heart.
"What's your name, by the way?" she asked.
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Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:47 pm
"Tenebras Merroth Clark!" said Merroth as if he expected her to know that already, emphasis on the Clark. The name really meant something to him, even if it didn't to Orli. "And that's ridiculous! Of course I can. I'm T. M. Clark! The son of Boston Clark, CEO and President of Clark Co. The world has what we give it. Just because I haven't done it yet doesn't mean I can't. I've been busy bettering the Internet." The last sentence came out as a reluctant admission. Tackling the Internet was a big problem. It was hard to work on that, and do his schoolwork, and compose music, and spend time with his parents on the weekends, and still eat and sleep somewhere in there. Even if he had been aware there was a problem with the space program, there was simply no time left in his day right now.
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Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:52 pm
Orli sat and let the boy finish his bragging. She wasn't particularly impressed by boastfulness - her brother did that sort of thing all the time, and it didn't make him anything other than her brother.
"I'm Orli Cooper," she said, even though he hadn't asked. Perhaps somewhere else in the galaxy, the name would have reminded someone that the Cooper family had once been rather powerful in the scheme of things, but that was something like sixty years ago and it was a common surname as it were. On Gaia, it was rather unremarkable. She would have liked to know her Star name to add to that, but she wasn't sure if Stars even had names. She supposed they must. In Star language, anyway.
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Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:06 pm
"I know who you are, you're in my class," Merroth deadpanned. She had not been in it for long, but all the same, he would have expected her to notice him by now. The alternating accolades and headaches that characterized his interactions with the teachers were hardly private. Merroth scowled and rubbed his eyes. People! What did he need to do, start wearing a cape to school?
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Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:21 pm
Orli made a slight hmmphing sound and fiddled with her goggles. She checked her watch.
"Recess'll be over soon," she sighed with a frown. She picked up the pieces of her model and put them in to a bag that was next to her on the picnic bench and closed the book. She got up.
The bell rang.
"Seeyah," she shrugged, and took off for the building.
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