Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Three: The Egg #19

Sophia stomped down the medical treatment wing, hot on Bankim's tail. Two healers were helping Lucinda, still wet from her treatment, back out into the lounge. They gave the two of them a quizzical glance. Surely they had heard the argument in the lounge, though who knew how much or if they had understood it, either.

Sophia had understood one part, all too well. "You know what?" she demanded angrily when she finally cornered him in a supply room.

"What?"

"You can be a real ass some times."

He shrugged. "So?"

"So? What the hell was that all about? Zeta a nice person."

"She's a squid."

"You don't like squids."

"It's not that. You don't understand."

"I don't," Sophia admitted. "Tell me."

"It's forbidden, to bioengineer a race. And believe me, there are good reasons for that."

Katja appeared briefly and said. "She didn't bioengineer herself."

"I know, but still. It has to stop. The protocol, the black market, all of it. We can't let it go on. The squids themselves, they have health problems. It's not fair to them, either. Why would you condemn your own child to that?"

"You think Zeta wants to steal Tara's egg? Make her own squid baby?" Sophia asked, catching on at last.

Bankim shrugged. "Not personally maybe. Not while Tara's in it, certainly. But on the black market, those devices are worth a lot of money. Not that I think she'd steal for petty gain. But for her kind, that's the only way. Surely there is pressure, from others in the community. She might say she doesn't want to, but look at what's going on in Ghanaharvis."

"I have no idea what that is, or what's going on."

Bankim's expression softened and he sighed. "Sorry," he said. "I don't mean to be so... Ghanaharvis is a province, a section of some fifteen star systems. It's where the union protocol began. There have been protests for months, over new regulations that the overseer there, Ardansaravasi, wants to enact."

Sophia wasn't done being mad yet. "I don't care what Arda... whatever his name is, wants to do. Zeta is a very nice person and you don't have to attack her because you think her entire kind is up to something." She turned and stomped off.