Page 78 of From the Noblest Motives
"I appreciate that you're moving around a bit," she said as she nodded to them. "Don't overdo it."
"Yes, ma'am." Shudder's grin didn't fade one lumen. It was good to be home. "I think you both remember Wave, our head of water engineering."
"Hello," she said softly as she and Damien exchanged nods.
He stopped behind the chair of a young woman with umber skin and a cloud of black hair. "This is Geo, our head of agriculture. She's the best kind of variant."
She held up a hand to bump fists with Shudder. "Earth, of course."
"And this…" Shudder stopped at the final chair, where a slender young man sat. Milk-pale, freckled, he could've been Airmed's cousin. "Is Glitch, our Head of Technology."
Glitch ducked his head and wouldn't meet anyone's gaze. He wasn't at all comfortable with humans, and Shudder felt bad exposing him to new people, but they wouldn't be new for long.
He finally took his seat between Blaze and Toby. "Hello. Good to be home. You have no idea how good it is to see you all. I hear you saw my press conference, yes? Good. That saves lots of time. I don't have the energy to rehash all that. Tell me how we're doing here, instead."
By unspoken agreement, Toby went first. "All quiet here, boss, though we were worried sick about you. Itoldyou that call was hinky."
"I know, Tobs. Believe me, no one wishes more that I'd listened than I do."
Toby heaved a put-upon sigh. "Anyway. No incursions. No one's been near us. We did have a shipment left at the donors' cave. Mostly clothes and sheets and cloth. A good haul of hardware. Definitely stuff we can use."
"Thewhatcave?" Blaze interrupted.
"Donors." Shudder put a finger on his shoulder and eased him back so he wasn't so much in Toby's face. "We have a couple of wealthy patrons who leave donations for us in a designated cave system. It's far enough from the redoubt that they don't come near and not so far that we can't retrieve things without traveling for days. Excellent news, Toby. Geo, how goes the growing season?"
"Good so far. The only thing that hasn't done so well 'cause the goats got into it is the kale." Geo flashed a crooked grin. "I know you're heartbroken."
Shudder put a hand to his heart. "Devastated."
"The buffalo gourds self-propagated this year, which is what we were hoping for. We're still learning with them, but we've figured out when to pick them for eating and when to leave them on the vine for other things." Geo took some seeds out of her shirt pocket and slid them across to Shudder. "The seeds roast really well, and we've gotten our first batch of soap out of the gourds."
"Fabulous!" Shudder put one of the seeds in his mouth and crunched. "Ooh. Not bad at all. Not all bitter like our first try unroasted."
"Sorry you missed the baby goats being born while you were, ah, away. But they're still really small and cute. And there's new chicks, too. Incentive to get your exercise, coming down to see them."
"Rats. Someday I'll be here for delivery." Shudder turned his attention down the table. "Wave?"
Poised and straight-backed, Wave clasped her hands on the table. "We're nearly done with the wastewater irrigation piping. We're looking at catch-basin irrigation, too. That will all be so much easier than taking buckets to water the crops."
"Thank you, thank you—you're a wonder. We needed so much manpower to keep the plants alive in the dry summers." Shudder sent her a nod of thanks and turned to Airmed.
"No medical emergencies while you were gone. Everything's quiet enough. And I have the current analysts working on your brain thing." Airmed let out a slow breath. "Echo's convinced Maia to help, who seems to have caught on that something's not right. She's rather special."
Toby squinted at her. "You trust her?"
"It's not like she can run to Cyril." Airmed shrugged. "She's a good kid. Just got scooped up by the wrong rescuer."
"That's fine." Shudder patted the air with both hands, hoping to head off an argument. "I trust Maia. She likes me. Glitch?"
At the far end of the table, Glitch jerked and blinked at him, obviously surprised to be called on, even though it happened every staff meeting. "Almost done, boss."
"Oh, good. What's almost done?"
Now Glitch's blinking clearly indicated that Shudder was an idiot. "Your secure comm connection, boss. So you can call your mom."
Shudder gaped at him for a moment since he hadn't gotten around to asking yet. But one of the others must have mentioned it, and Glitch took it upon himself as an immediate need. "Thank you… Oh. My. Thank you. Whenever you're ready. I'm very grateful."
With the staff round done, it was Shudder's turn, and he told them everything that had happened since the news conference, though he struggled to keep to the facts. He wanted more knowledgeable people to do the conclusion drawing and conjecturing.
