Working Title: Strangers
an excerpt

“Aren’t you going to describe the Izreet?”
“Are you reading over my shoulder now too, Finn?”
“Chase sent me to check on your progress.”
“You’re a coward Cam’ree!”
“I’m not a coward; I just have a healthy sense of self preservation.”
“Come out here and do your own dirty work.”
“I sent Finn to bring me a progress report. I do not consider that to be dirty work.”
“Are the two of you going to continue yelling back and forth across the sit-op? I think you’re annoying my wife. See, look, she’s nodding, I told you so.”
“I think I’m done talking to him at all today. So Bailey, you can stop sending me dirty looks and get back to the payroll reports, and Finn, you can go tell General Pain-in-the-Pants back there that I am progressing along just fine.”
“Those farmers were more than a bit nervous about meeting the Izreet, I thought we were going to have to turn The Unepar around and take them home.”
“I know. Those poor little purple people, I can’t understand what the farmers found so intimidating about them. They wouldn’t hurt a zoomsi bug.”
“Which they figured out as soon as they stopped cowering in the hold and came out to meet the delegation.”
“I was going to write about that, but I don’t want to embarrass the farmers by documenting their initial fears. They got over them quick and behaved quite nicely after that.”
“Don’t leave out the part about the koles. That was the best part of the mission.”
“I’m not up to the koles yet. And Cam already reminded me about that, Finn. Please go away, you are impeding my progress. Unless you want to write the next part? Actually, that’s an idea, you sit here and write the next part and I’ll go out and put your second year trainees through the obstacle course. ”
“Low’ree, belay that! Don’t you dare allow her to coerce, bully, coax, cajole, wheedle or entice you into doing that assignment.”
“Sorry, Kitten, Cam says no. I’m going to go work with my second years now. Have fun writing history.”
“You’re on the list, Low’ree. You’re on the list, right after Cam.”