Living things | A flash fiction story
11 of 💯
She walked into the bright room with confident steps, her flawless posture holding her head above the crew of engineers.
One of them — she was a scrawny little thing, hugging a tablet, her forehead a polka dot pattern of sweat droplets — spun in place. "Miss Atlanta," she gasped.
"Hello, Doctor…" the older woman consulted the engineer's badge. "Dawn Mirkowic."
The engineer nervously flashed her teeth in response while the others scurried away, busying themselves.
Their boss continued. "I saw the alert and had a couple of minutes in my hands." She looked at the plants around her, green living things stacked vertically on shelves, feeding on the LED light above them. Aliens on her planet. "I haven't been here in a while, so I decided to check. What happened?"
"Oh, the situation is under control, madam." Dawn wiped her forehead with the back of her sleeve.
"I didn't ask if the situation is under control," the woman said. "I asked what happened."
"Right," Dawn shook her head. "One of our engineers — he was already fired — mistakingly freed a live colony on the cargo bay. The insects escaped the facility and ended up in the street."
She pointed at a screen behind her showing the security camera footage. In the dark street, armored guards contained a crowd of people trying to get to a massive pile of dead insects.
"The insects were not adults and died almost instantly outside the controlled atmosphere of the facility," the engineer explained. "We've dispatched the security team to stop the product from getting out of our hands and there's another team gathering tools right as we speak to bring it back inside."
The older woman looked at the engineer, all the way from her head down to her feet.
"The problem is," Dawn continued the explanation, "we've unfortunately lost a large amount of stock."
"Ah, no problem." The woman dismissed it with a wave of her hand but kept a serious face. "We'll keep the price tag and reduce weight to keep the same profit margin on each package. You did fine."
Dawn lowered her head. "Thank you, madam."
"And, Dawn, if I may call you by your first name," the woman approached her mouth to Dawn's ear, facing the screen behind her, and whispered. "Why don't you show up at the penthouse tonight?"
Oh my god, Dawn mouthed, her forehead covered in sweat again.
"My new cook bot does a great recipe that involves beetles," the woman said. "Perhaps both our tongues can taste something new tonight."
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