The Rivening

Shoes Dropping

"Oh great. What now? You here to play bad cop to Grayson's good cop? Or is it the other way around?" Connie snapped at James and wondered how convincing her attempt at bravado was coming across.

The two men merely smiled and proceeded to take turns unveiling their sales pitch of how opening up mining in Dahria would be a win-win for both Dahria and Earthside. Connie noticed how deliberately they maintained a friendly, bordering on deferential, tone to her. They laid out their case for not only keeping the passage open but altering it to allow for easier access back and forth.

Grayson cooed, "We understand that maybe initially, you might have a few doubts about this. But for one, think about at. Getting access to Dahrian rare earth metals will be a game changer to solving the climate change crisis. This is huge."

"And for the Dahrians?" Connie asked.

James shook his head, "Come on, Cons, you've seen how they live, peddling around on bicycles." He gestured to the courtyard. "Brilliant minds like Fanik's stuck with piddly projects like this rain garden. Okay, maybe he's a bit of jerk, but that's probably because he's been held back his whole life."

Grayson continued, "And who knows how many other Faniks are out there? But even more impactful. Our medical advances will be profoundly beneficial to Dahrians. And so much more if you consider it, even for a moment."

"They may be more ahead than you know," Connie gruffed. "Don't you think Dahria will simply be overrun?"

Grayson's patronizing tone began creeping in, "Dear Connie, every aspect of this has been gone over thoroughly and thoughtfully by everyone. You've only been here a few days. This won't be a sudden parting of the Red Sea, but a tightly controlled operation. My father has years of experience successfully implementing large scale operations. No one is better."

They kept going on. Connie listened carefully, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It finally did.

James leaned forward and spoke warmly, "You know, your coming is actually quite timely. There's an opportunity for you to play a crucial role in this project. It would make you quite the hero."

Connie regarded him, "Oh really? And how is that?"

"I've developed a device that, with a little more tweaking, will open the passages so we don't have to rely on signalers. While I finish fine tuning, we need a signaler to move it back and forth through the passage. You may not be aware how rare signalers are becoming." He grinned at her. "I've always said, you're special, Connie."

"There's Gristig."

"And she's the only one here in Ladore still young enough. The others are too old."

Grayson added, "During the festivities, the Dahrians we've been dealing with are having conversations with the other Crustic communities and some domain leaders who might be willing to support the plan to maintain and open up access to Earthside."

Connie spoke ruefully, "Joining the few who would control the passage for Dahria. It would give them a lot of power."

"Well, yes. It would. That is how these thing work. But right now, they want a little more assurance about our ability to alter and control the passage. Having another signaler provides this as we could put our plans in place more quickly."

"Which is why Rennish took me to the program yesterday evening."

James said, "And, because you look..."

Grayson broke in, "...so Dahrian now, great clothes by the way. Sorry James, I didn't mean to cut you off. I'm thinking maybe we should leave Connie alone for a little while and let this all sink in."