Children of the Fleet (Fleet School #1)(37)
“I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t even rude.”
“‘Wrong answer’ is rude, prima facie,” said Zhang. “Teacher to student, it’s even rude. But student to student, it’s kind of awful. And friend to friend—well, you better smile when you say something that condescending.”
“Smile?”
“To show me that the rude thing you’re saying is between friends. That your rudeness is a joke, proving that we can trust each other.”
“I’m such a zhopa,” said Dabeet. “I know what you’re talking about, I’ve seen other guys do it. I just don’t know how to apply it to myself.”
“Hey, at least you get it,” said Zhang. “That’s like being halfway there.”
“Who’s being condescending now?” asked Dabeet.
“Me,” said Zhang. “But let’s face it, if you really want to start taking human lessons, you have to recognize that you’re starting at a pretty elementary level.”
“I think the euphemism is that I ‘show promise but have a long way to go.’”
“Except for showing promise, é, that’s right.”
“You were smiling. That’s what you mean. You insult me that I don’t show any promise, but your smile means that you think I do show promise, or at least that you think I have a chance here.”
“When you’re working on something,” said Zhang, “you’re perfectly easy to work with. You never get mad at me for making mistakes—”
“What would be the point of that?”
“Exactly,” said Zhang. “You’re sensible, you’re respectful. While we’re working on the blocks. The job is what matters, sure, but you also take care not to alienate anybody.”
“You’ve got to remember, the only person I’m working with is you. Smart, hard-working, creative…”
Zhang He gave him a big grin. “So kind of you to say so.”
“Sarcastic,” said Dabeet.
“Completely sincere, but hiding behind a veneer of sarcasm so if you take it wrong, I have an out.”
Dabeet sat there digesting these ideas.
“The food gets worse with age and falling temperature,” Zhang He pointed out.
“Obviously false,” said Dabeet. “This food could not get worse.”
“Good smile. Got the signal,” said Zhang. “And you’re right, the food can’t get worse, because long before that, it’ll cease to be food.” He grinned.
Dabeet grinned back. “Thanks for eating lunch with me.”
“Friends don’t thank each other for being friends.”
“I just didn’t know, for sure, that we were friends. Till now.”
8
—You may not be able to confirm this, but I assume that this complaint originated with the Minister of Colonization.
—Complaints are all bastards. Father unknown. But it wouldn’t surprise me.
—Since I’m not supposed to know about this, I can hardly offer any counter-arguments, but really, how absurd this is, to claim that it’s inappropriate for IF personnel to provide services for inbound and outgoing ships. From the moment that the IF commandeered all fueling and supply and maintenance stations throughout the solar system at the end of the First War, IF personnel have been—
—The problem isn’t IF personnel, it’s Fleet School personnel—
—Do they imagine we’re sending the teachers out to service the ships? It’s our own maintenance staff that does that work, during their copious downtime.
—To which they would answer that if you have a surplus of maintenance personnel with nothing to do, your budget can be reduced accordingly and the redundant workers reassigned.
—Our budget? Are they innumerate? The fees we charge—which, I will add, are no higher than the fees charged at other near-Earth servicing and resupply stations—completely pay for the mechanical operating budget of Fleet School. Life support, orbit maintenance, communications, energy—we may be the only self-supporting agency in the IF.
—Most of the stations are self-supporting.
—There! That’s my point! What Graff is demanding—
—If it’s the Minister of Colonization—
—is that Fleet School’s maintenance be returned to the general fund, so its expenses become a dead loss to the IF.
—Here’s where the minister leaves his fingerprints: The proposal is that the funds come out of the Ministry of Colonization, since the school exists to supply the ministry’s needs.
—This is a flimsy excuse for a bureaucratic budget grab. If Graff is paying, then he’s in charge, and—
—Your arguments are cogent. Your books are in order—that was the first thing we checked. But these points are already known. I’ll tell you what would make the biggest difference with the Defense Council.
—To arm Fleet School and call it a stationary battle cruiser?
—Glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor.
—On the contrary, I have completely lost it.
—If you can show that bringing all these ships in to Fleet School for repair, resupply, and so on, has an educational purpose.