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“Grandstanding,” the old ers around Bless You’s throat “It’s immature, is what it is”

Bless You tried to say so Before he could, the old man used him to send

a e

Self-rule for them Not for us

Mona knew enough about psychology to put her feelings in context As Veronica sat across the table fro down the datasets into digestible su an overviehere the labs stood with the active experiments, Mona knew intellectually that the wo Veronica’s habit of interrupting herself and never quite getting back to the first sentence wasn’t all that rare a quirk Her haircut didn’t reallya “respectable administrator” costume Those were all artifacts of Mona’s own state of mind

The knowledge didn’t help

“We’re expecting to see some data from the photosynthesis study at North Field by the end of the week,” Veronica said “The preliood”

She had to know, Mona thought There was no way that the tension and antipathy were going under Veronica’s radar The smile was just the same as it had always been, the solicitous manner, the ready facts and reports The won of it So either Mona was very good at hiding her emotions or Veronica was

“What about the microbiota compatibility studies?” Mona asked

Veronica shook her head as she spoke “Those aren’t in North Field Balakrishnan’s workgroup is all in the old facility I ht? We’ve only been on the planet for a couple decades”

You’re changing the subject, Mona thought Making Veronica Dietz uncomfortable was one of the few real pleasures in her day

“When do we expect results from Balakrishnan’s study?” she asked

“I think the next assay starts in about a month, but I’m not a hundred percent on that,” Veronica said “I can check if you want”

And tell ht If Balakrishnan’s results needed to be a failure to keep Veronica’s ski unnoticed, Mona had no doubt that the study would mysteriously fail Just the way Dr Car when this woet a piece of it

“Take a look for o over it in… five?”