Marsh

marsh/content/007.tex

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The scene was much as I had left it previously, expanded and cleaned with desks,
 
 ``Ah, Reed!'' an instance of her said brightly as I entered. ``Welcome to the madhouse. We're having fun!''
 
-``\,`Fun'?''
+``\hspace{1pt}`Fun'?''
 
 She smiled all the wider, an expression lacking earnestness. ``Isn't this fun for you? Billions dead and us having to make up answers on the fly?''
 
@@ -88,11 +88,11 @@ I shrugged. ``I'll send a fork, sure. Don't want to leave Hanne in a lurch if sh
 
 Sedge laughed. ``Fair enough. You have good timing, though. It starts in\ldots uh, five minutes, actually. Come on.''
 
-I stood up and forked, my root instance stepping back to the house while my new fork followed along after Sedge --- or at least one instance, her down-tree remaining in the chair, kneading her palms against her eyes.
+I stood up and forked, my root instance stepping back to the house while my new fork followed along after Sedge—or at least one instance, her down-tree remaining in the chair, kneading her palms against her eyes.
 
 The headquarters room beyond the boundaries of Marsh's study proved to be much larger than anticipated, stretching out to either side, where it was ringed with glass-walled conference rooms, many already populated with `politicians', as Sedge had called them.
 
-``They've got a bunch of people working on different aspects of this. Jonas, of course, and a lot of the Odists --- don't tell Lily, but I'm starting to really like them --- plus some folks from way back. The black guy is Yared Zerezghi, who wrote the secession amendment. The weasel is Debarre, who was on the Council of Eight. The blond woman--'' She nodded over towards a huddle people matching that description. ``--is Selena something-or-another. I never did catch her clade name. She seems neat, though. Ex-System Consortium. Well connected.''
+``They've got a bunch of people working on different aspects of this. Jonas, of course, and a lot of the Odists—don't tell Lily, but I'm starting to really like them—plus some folks from way back. The black guy is Yared Zerezghi, who wrote the secession amendment. The weasel is Debarre, who was on the Council of Eight. The blond woman--'' She nodded over towards a huddle people matching that description. ``--is Selena something-or-another. I never did catch her clade name. She seems neat, though. Ex-System Consortium. Well connected.''
 
 ``So are you, seems like,'' I said, grinning.
 
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ Need An Answer interrupted, and there was danger beneath the calm in her voice.
 
 There was no response for several seconds. The tension, even across the AVEC feed, was palpable. Eventually, he bowed. There was a moment of fiddling with something we could not see before he said, ``Günay, you may carry on.''
 
-The systech nodded slowly, looked off into space for a moment --- consulting something on her HUD, I imagined, after some NDA or another had been lifted --- before sighing. ``We only have an estimate, but yeah, our estimate is 0.977\% of the total instances on Lagrange were lost or corrupted.''
+The systech nodded slowly, looked off into space for a moment—consulting something on her HUD, I imagined, after some NDA or another had been lifted—before sighing. ``We only have an estimate, but yeah, our estimate is 0.977\% of the total instances on Lagrange were lost or corrupted.''
 
 A low mutter filled the room, this time from those sys-side.
 
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ Another pause, longer this time, before Günay spoke. ``We aren't sure, yet.''
 
 ``I do not believe that,'' Dry Grass said, smiling and bowing toward the stage. ``And I mean that in all kindness, Günay. The phys-side news feeds are being slowly ungated, and the tone is not one of questions with no answers.''
 
-The tech wilted under the cold kindness. ``Well, okay. There is some suspicion of malicious actors, yeah. I say `suspicion' in earnestness, I promise.'' She winced as a wave of discomfort washed over her face. ``A lot of what you see --- or will see, I guess --- on those feeds is gonna be speculation, and I can promise that that's all I can--- that's all I've got, too.''
+The tech wilted under the cold kindness. ``Well, okay. There is some suspicion of malicious actors, yeah. I say `suspicion' in earnestness, I promise.'' She winced as a wave of discomfort washed over her face. ``A lot of what you see—or will see, I guess—on those feeds is gonna be speculation, and I can promise that that's all I can--- that's all I've got, too.''
 
 Jakub, apparently unable to restrain himself any further, stepped back to the center of the stage and bowed curtly. ``Dry Grass, if I may.''
 
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ Her expression far more subdued, the systech nodded. ``Yeah, we trimmed about fi
 
 Selena lifted a hand and, when Dry Grass nodded to her, said, ``We seem to be talking around what \emph{actually} happened. Jonas said we're talking about either an attack or gross incompetence. I'd really love it if you'd tell us what actually happened.''
 
-Günay looked nervously back to the audience of administration and technicians behind her --- many of whom I suspected outranked her --- and stammered, ``Uh\ldots well, I mean\ldots{}''
+Günay looked nervously back to the audience of administration and technicians behind her—many of whom I suspected outranked her—and stammered, ``Uh\ldots well, I mean\ldots{}''
 
 ``Günay, please,'' Dry Grass said, her voice quiet, earnest.
 
@@ -286,9 +286,9 @@ Günay looked nervously back to the audience of administration and technicians b
 
 Towards the end of her statement, she had to raise her voice to speak over the upwelling of murmurings and gasps that showed through sys-side. Holding myself separate from the whispered exclamations being shot around the table at which I was sitting, I watched as the representatives up near the AVEC stage scanned the audience.
 
-``\,`Was released' implies a deliberate action,'' Selena said once the room had quieted enough. ``Do you have any confirmation on that?''
+``\hspace{1pt}`Was released' implies a deliberate action,'' Selena said once the room had quieted enough. ``Do you have any confirmation on that?''
 
-``Uh\ldots{}'' Günay clutched her tablet in her hands. ``Even if I knew anything --- and I'm not on that team, promise --- I'm \emph{really} not qualified to talk about this. Mr.~Strzepek only just lifted the inhibitor.''
+``Uh\ldots{}'' Günay clutched her tablet in her hands. ``Even if I knew anything—and I'm not on that team, promise—I'm \emph{really} not qualified to talk about this. Mr.~Strzepek only just lifted the inhibitor.''
 
 Jonas Fa raised a hand to silence any further questions. ``No, you're right. Much as I hate to say, it's probably not the best time to talk about this.''
 
@@ -358,7 +358,7 @@ Everyone on both sides of the AVEC link stood and bowed. Some, I noted, more cur
 
 When the transmission ended, the noise in the room rose to a low murmur, and then a quiet chatter. Several instances quit or stepped out of the sim entirely while many more streamed back out into the ballroom-sized workspace. A few lingered, though, little knots of conversation in a still-dim room.
 
-``I am fucking exhausted,'' Dry Grass --- or at least the instance that lingered with us --- said, slouching down in her seat. ``Less than an hour, and I am fucking exhausted.''
+``I am fucking exhausted,'' Dry Grass—or at least the instance that lingered with us—said, slouching down in her seat. ``Less than an hour, and I am fucking exhausted.''
 
 ``Weren't you exhausted before the meeting even started?'' Sedge asked.
 
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ Sedge's expression soured. ``We can't just ask?''
 
 ``Why promote Günay, then? She looked really uncomfortable getting stuck in the middle of that.''
 
-She shrugged. ``I am guessing, here, but I think that that was intended to say to phys-side,''What is most important to us right now is the `what', rather than the `why', except inasmuch as the `why' might help illuminate the `what'.'' It is a way of saying, ``We will have talks on whether you fucked up or we were attacked soon, but not until we know the full status of the System.''''
+She shrugged. ``I am guessing, here, but I think that that was intended to say to phys-side, ``What is most important to us right now is the `what', rather than the `why', except inasmuch as the `why' might help illuminate the `what'.'' It is a way of saying, ``We will have talks on whether you fucked up or we were attacked soon, but not until we know the full status of the System.''\hspace{1pt}''
 
 I shook my head. ``None of this makes any sense, but neither did all of the politics stuff in the \emph{History}, so I guess that's par for the course. You certainly seem to know plenty, even if it's not your area of expertise.''