R.T.M - Return To Mother

8 - Anicus & Oseser

She sighed, "Yes- I get it. Thank you for explaining it to me." Anicus' voice dropped as she moved her headset piece closer to her face. "I need you up here. Pareese was taken in last night. I want to question him about the sample and anything else he knows. Beltha agrees that you were framed for it and so does General Roarialis. He signed the arrest warrant."

"I thought you were only planning to detain him?" He asked, feeling around for some fresh clothing as he spoke aloud to the room. The woman shot a look at him that could kill in the darkness.

"They overruled me obviously. They thought the threat to the project was bad enough- so they plan on holding him here until trial. Meanwhile- the foreman downstairs is saying Mother is having some weird as fuck readings." She trailed off, looking at a different screen somewhere. "And I haven't been here long enough to understand what I'm looking at. How long will you be?"
Oseser thanked anyone who would listen to him that the lights were darkened. He covered his mouth with his hand. After too long of silence Anicus' tone grew colder. "Alright there, Oseser? Or will I have to run this shift by myself. I know you're under a lot of-"

"No! I mean-," He spluttered, "I mean, no, thank you. I can do it. Just a little bit of- food poisoning. Yes, from last night. I'll be there in a minute. Lost track of the time. I had a breakthrough and I..." He looked at a roach that was catching the light of the monitor in his kitchen. "I'll be right there."

Anicus looked at the black screen for another moment before it was cut off from his end, sitting back in her chair. That was odd, even for Oseser. She shook her head, snorting to herself. Oseser had a big enough time frame with his 'food poisoning' to do something she wasn't aware of- but what?

Pareese would surely turn him in and things would be back at square one again. Maybe a guilty conscience from Oseser making the report? That was usually the reason why people gave up very good positions in war to do something stupid. But Oseser wasn't that type of man from what she could tell. Her eyes flicked back to her monitor, something was definitely different. Mother's charts had gone from red and downward- to blues and greens- flashing stranger readings that the foreman and some office workers truly seemed surprised at.

But as she had told Oseser, she wasn't used to this. And even without her credentials- she was a soldier who infiltrated for rescue missions or detainment... or worse. But reading graphical charts about efficiency ratings that she didn't even know what connected to? She was a fucking soldier not an engineer. Not fifteen minutes later Oseser was at his desk, twitchy and irritated as usual. "Didn't sleep well?" She asked him curiously, running a pen across an official document. The man glanced at her with a look of utter disdain from every part of his being.

"No, throwing up is not my favorite activity." Oseser shifted, as if he had hurled after all and didn't want to talk about it. "Why do you ask, do I look tired? Because I'm in the finest shape I've ever been in."

Anicus nodded slowly, with a smile as if she believed him, "Sounds like it really put you down then. When I've had food poisoning it usually lasts a few days. Especially on station food. Where did you go to eat? Now I can avoid it."

Oseser hadn't thought anyone would question why he had been late- so he hadn't thought about how to make it more believable. Like, where he had eaten to get sick or how long it usually lasted. On a planet, people could go out of their way to get new food- on station the rumor of food poisoning could make or break a business. "I-I cooked myself." It came out wrong and he rephrased immediately, "I cooked. At my apartment."

She whistled, "Wow, I don't think I would have admitted I was such a bad cook out loud..." She chuckled at him and Oseser grew red in the face. Her smile was coy, as if she knew he was lying but wanted to rub his nose into his own theoretical shit.