From CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.havens-rest
Subject: Re: [Louis/Oberon, Inc.]  Of rodent hiring quotas....
Date: Sat, 08 May 93 16:41:14 CDT

In article <8MAY199309404485@elroy.uh.edu>
cosc19kh@elroy.uh.edu (Happy Mammal Department) writes:
 
>cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows) writes...
 
>>"Hey, now.  You never know until you try."  Then Kevin realized
>>how lame that sounded, and tried another tack.  "Well, even if
>>you haven't been around this part of before, you've lived on this
>>planet for a while, haven't you?  So you've got to know more
>>about it than I do--I just got here a couple of months ago. Just
>>give it a shot, okay?  I promise that I won't hassle you, and no
>>one else will either, if you work for me."
>
>This was all starting to make Louis nervous.  Not nerves nervous,
>more like uneasy nervous.  Jack and Trenton had never really been
>impressed by talk like this; that was why they did their own...
>courier jobs.  What would they think if the kid they'd taken care
>off all that time threw in with an outift like this?
>
>Well, okay, thought Louis, Jack shot me the last time he saw me.
>Though there were, err... extenuating circumstances.
 
Kevin watched the nervous expressions flicker across her face.
 
>>"Besides...there are other things you can do for me besides being
>>a guide.  For example, if something happens, like new arrivals or
>>something, people on the street tend to talk about it.  It would
>>be worth a lot to me to have a source who can tell me about all
>>that."
 
>She nodded vaguely, thinking.  That would make her a sidekick,
>right?  On the streets?  Wasn't that where people got beat up for
>their money?  Who would talk to a little rat-oid?  Was this going
>to require a semester of Info Gathering 1301?  What if there was
>nothing to hear?  Louis had never heard much about new arrivals to
>anything before, would that mean anything?  The Godfather always
>had his network of hired guns; did this make Louis a flunkie, and
>Kevin the Godfather's right hand?  Was this an offer that couldn't
>be refused?  What about medical insurance?  This didn't involve
>blood tests, did it?
 
Kevin guessed at what she must be thinking from her expressions.
"I'm not the godfather or anything..." he said.  "Look at me, I'm
just 18 terran years old.  I'm just a kid who's looking for help
doing MY job--the vice president of Oberon, Incorporated."
 
He snorted.  "Sounds like a big job, doesn't it?  It's not,
really.  I just get to ride around on my Excal bike and do
busywork like putting up fliers, while my big bro does all
the work.  Oh, and I have to help decorate the showroom, too."
He grinned.  "I just want to be of some use to my brother, and
I think I'm going to need some peoples' help to do that.  People
like you."
 
>>Kevin shrugged.  "I guess I just don't want to see people go
>>hungry.  Besides, I think you remind me of an old friend..."
 
>"Weeelll..." she said, not really paying attention to a word Kevin
>said.  "What if I do take this job?  What happens then?  Out of
>curiosity...."
 
Kevin shrugged.  "Oh, not much, really.  If you should hear anything
interesting, you tell me about it, and if I need to find someplace
and you know where it is, you would show me the way there."  He added,
"I could also find you a small apartment in the Oberon workers' 'plex
if you wanted.  It's not much, but it has a bed and a 'fresher, and
locks on the doors so no one can get in unless you want them to."
 
>"Our biggest enemy is going space crazy through loneliness.  The only
>thing that helps me maintain my slender grip on reality is the friendship
>I share with my collection of singing potatoes."
>                        --Holly, Red Dwarf II
 
All right, I tried, but I can't come up with a suitable quote.  The
only thing I can recall is an admonition on the part of Lister:
"Whatever you do, don't let Kryten show you his polaroid collection."
And I probably didn't get it right anyway.
--
Chris Meadows           ||  Andrea & Sheryl
CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET   ||  [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn
CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU    ||  --------------------------------
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