Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #134: Assault and Flattery (3/4/01)
Borgmann is in his cage, sharpening his teeth by chewing a roll of cardboard -- I mean, he's getting some last-minute paperwork done before his appointment with the out-Territory reporter.
Borgmann is not a follower of Elte's column, and therefore he is a bit apprehensive that he will be forced to justify Plum's imprisonment to another Gen who doesn't see an attempt to slit Borgmann's throat as murder.
Borgmann really prefers to deal only with people who do consider slitting his throat to be murder, for understandable reasons.
Borgmann's apprehensions would be somewhat different, if he was more familiar with Elte, of course, although they would probably be just as strong.
Elte walks whistling up the muddy track to the IDAS offices, anticipating this long-awaiting meeting with N'vet Borgmann.
Borgmann glances over his latest report on the IDAS-run Gen encampment, just to make sure he has all the facts at his tentacle-tips.
Borgmann has, of course, assumed that Elte wishes to interview him about said program.
Elte enjoys the feel of the sun on his head as the weather is unseasonably warm today.
Elte has been stalking Borgmann for weeks now, but the IDAS official has managed to evade him claiming that he was too busy.
Elte was disappointed to find that Borgmann, unlike Arat, was not important enough to rate personal quarters that could be staked out effectively.
Elte has found cornering Sime bigwigs at the Dam site to be more difficult than tracking down their Gen counterparts, because they don't have to stop for eating and sleeping and don't seem to really care about having a home base.
Elte wonders if Borgmann will be surrounded by a protective circle of attendants like Arat and Duart always are.
Borgmann's job doesn't pay well enough for personal flunkies, so he is only surrounded by shredded bits of -- er, I mean, reports and other documents.
Elte signals at the door to the IDAS office and then quickly steps inside; he doesn't want his quarry to escape out the rear.
Elte scans the crudely constructed and utilitarian offices, seeing neither sycophants nor Companions, but just a few busily working clerks and a single security guard.
Elte sees that Borgmann is actually there at his desk.
Elte unbuttons his coat and takes out his pad and pencil.
Elte: [calling] Good morning, N'vet Borgmann!
Borgmann looks up from his report.
Borgmann: You must be Elte Andover.
Elte: That's me!
Borgmann looks like a balding, middle-aged rodent: in other words, not exactly impressive.
Elte: ~~overjoyed to finally catch Borgmann where he can't get away~~
Borgmann: Please, come in and take a seat.
Borgmann blinks at the projection of joy-at-meeting; very few people are that excited to meet a low-level career bureaucrat.
Elte's practiced eyes take in Borgmann's appearance. Conclusion: this official has a lot to learn in the first impressions department.
Elte thinks that Borgmann's stance is that of a man who doesn't even want to be seen.
Elte figures he can turn that around and goes into his best calm down the nervous subject mode.
Elte settles comfortably on the indicated packing crate.
Elte: I'm so glad to meet you at last!
Borgmann is somewhat wary of such overwhelming Gen enthusiasm. Very few visa applicants speak entirely in exclamation points.
Borgmann: I am sorry that I have not been able to grant you an interview sooner. As you can imagine, trying to keep several thousand people fed and out of trouble is rather a difficult chore, with the limited staff we have available.
Elte catches the cringe and pours on the friendliness; Simes do respond so easily to a positive attitude!
Borgmann finds his lips curling into a very unbureaucratic, and completely atypical manic grin.
Borgmann: Mr. Andover, would you mind, er, curbing your enthusiasm, just a bit?
Borgmann 's tone of voice is rather plaintive, despite the grin.
Elte: Oh!
Elte has tried to understand Nick and Riyyh's explanations of how Gen emotions affect Simes, but he realizes he is missing some of the fine points. Well, a lot of the fine points.
Elte wonders what degree of friendliness would be best, and then decides just to drop all affectation and be himself, which is pretty friendly anyway.
Elte: I understand that you are juggling a lot in your tentacles.
Elte's Simelan is getting better but it too leaves much room for improvement.
Borgmann has to work to decipher the pidgin of Simelan and English.
Borgmann: If you would prefer, we can speak in English.
Borgmann's English is, of course, as fluent as Elte's own.
Elte's weeks spent getting the nitty-gritty experience of renSime life among the refugees and construction workers may not have been the best way of learning to communicate with the elite.
Elte: Oh, excellent!
Elte: You were raised out-Territory, weren't you?
Borgmann is relieved to find that Elte's English is not peppered with the crude and ungrammatical idioms that characterize his rudimentary Simelan.
Borgmann: Yes, I grew up in Salmonton, just across the lake.
Elte has researched Borgmann's life as well as he could, but he is curious how the Sime will frame his own story.
Elte: You must have crossed the Border not long after the Unity.
Borgmann: I was one of the first changeover victims to reach Palisades in time to avoid killing.
Elte: Did they have changeover training in Salmonton that long ago?
Borgmann: No, they didn't. I was very lucky.
Borgmann: I doubt, though, that I would have been permitted to take changeover training, even if it had been available.
Elte: Tell me about your family.
Elte has already heard this part of the tale from both Minister Plum's and Ms Afred's perspectives... which differ considerably.
Borgmann thinks that this interview is not going as he had expected; so far, Elte has shown no interest in the interment camp.
Elte is always most interested in the human interest angles on the stories he covers.
Borgmann: My parents were decent people, who tried to raise their children as best they knew how. They grew up before Unity, however, and they were never comfortable with the idea.
Elte nods.
Elte: Then how did you manage to make it over the Border?
Borgmann: Sheer, blind luck. Or perhaps it was divine intervention: I've never been sure.
Borgmann: My parents went out one evening, and hired a neighbor boy to look after me and my siblings.
Borgmann: He happened to be very tired, and fell asleep while I was getting ready for bed.
Borgmann: When I woke up a few hours later, sick with changeover, the door to my room was still unlocked.
Borgmann: I was able to make it down to the pier, and hide on a fishing boat.
Borgmann: Fortunately for everyone concerned, her crew had decided to fish the lower end of the lake that day.
Borgmann: They brought me to Palisades and dumped me on the pier just in time.
Borgmann shrugs.
Borgmann: The Tecton sent me to an orientation camp, where I learned Simelan. I joined the civil service when I graduated, and have been working for IDAS ever since.
Borgmann: It's one of the few departments where a childhood in Gen Territory is an asset, instead of a liability.
Elte: What was the most difficult part of adjusting to life as a Sime?
Borgmann: Accepting that I could still be a decent person, even with tentacles.
Borgmann: I had always been taught that Simes were evil, you see, even if they didn't kill, simply because a Sime has no choice but to live on selyn.
Borgmann: I was convinced that I had no right to ask that of any Gen, you see.
Borgmann: It never occurred to me that a Gen could not mind such an imposition.
Elte: Yes, some Gens don't mind at all.
Elte is certainly one of those.
Elte: But others do.
Borgmann sighs.
Borgmann: I know. Fortunately, most of those have the sense to stay on the Gen side of the Border.
Borgmann looks more than a little depressed at the reminder, though.
Elte: Your role, as an immigration official, requires you to screen Gens for their willingness to donate.
Elte: How has your thinking evolved?
Borgmann falls back into his "bureaucrat" persona.
Borgmann: IDAS policy requires all Gens to be informed of the laws regarding donation, at the time they apply for border-crossing privileges.
Borgmann pulls open a drawer without looking and pulls out two pamphlets and a form.
Borgmann: These are the materials -- I'm sure you saw them before you came here.
Elte's lips curve in a wry smile.
Elte: Yes.
Borgmann: Gens who refuse to donate, and who can convince the Tecton that their business in Sime Territory is urgent enough to justify assigning a full-time channel or Donor as an Escort, can avoid donating as long as they don't stay more than a day.
Borgmann: Of course, the Tecton has its own priorities, and such Escorts tend to be limited to high-ranking diplomats and other officials.
Borgmann: It isn't an efficient use of a channel or Donor's time.
Elte: Have you come to believe that you have every right to impose on Gens to donate selyn?
Borgmann: I have accepted that donating does Gens no harm, physically or otherwise, and that most do not view it as an imposition.
Elte: And those who do should remain on the Gen side of the border?
Borgmann shakes his head slightly.
Borgmann: If a Gen has business on this side of the border, and feels it is important enough to be worth donating to accomplish, I have no business overruling that decision.
Etta charges briskly up to the IDAS building. This is how she always moves; like she is on a warpath, even when she isn't. Not that she isn't right now, mind you.
Etta is. She's going to find out just what IDAS thinks it's doing, allowing its prisoners to attack the channels come to heal them.
Borgmann: Just as Simes may not be prevented from journeying through Gen Territory, if they are willing to accept the imposition of wearing retainers.
Elte: Do you, personally, feel that the laws you're empowered to enforce are fair and right?
Etta may be aggressive and even a little abusive, but when it comes to outsiders she is also fiercely protective of her husband.
Borgmann's laterals cringe at the thought of retainers.
Etta created a scandal the day she descended upon the 53rd District Controller's office to demand of its Controller why Rifan was being kept such long hours at work.
Borgmann: I think they are at least a reasonable compromise between freedom and safety, most of the time.
Etta didn't let the fact that Rifan had requested extended hours get in the way of her tirade, either.
Borgmann: And they have held the peace intact for over thirty years now, after thousands of years of war.
Etta slams through the front door of the IDAS building.
Borgmann: That's not an insignificant accomplish...What was that?
Borgmann has visions of a mule breaking into his newly repaired building.
Etta is a short, vivacious Gen with long crinkled hair in a pony tail. She is dark in coloration and would have resembled Rifan quite a bit except that her hair is brightly hennaed.
Etta quickly evaluates her surroundings, then picks the correct office and barges in.
Borgmann half-rises in alarm.
Etta: You! [to Borgmann, angrily... then she notices Elte and her expression changes entirely] Oh... you! ~~lust~~
Elte glances around to see what is coming. His reflexes are trained from duty reporting on crises for a decade.
Borgmann has grown a bit more touchy about angry Gens, since his throat nearly got cut.
Elte tries to interpret Etta's reaction, but it doesn't add up too easily.
Borgmann tries to make sense of the dizzying shift of emotions.
Etta is momentarily thrown off course, which is quite an unusual state of affairs. It is a pity neither Elte or Borgmann can truly appreciate that.
Etta: Elte Andover, I've waited so long to meet you!
Etta grabs Elte's hand in hers.
Etta's dark eyes are alight with genuine admiration.
Etta: I'm Etta Rif - er, Etta. I've read your column every week ever since day one.
Elte lets his hand be captured. He is sure he hasn't seen Etta around before, but being accosted by fans is a frequent occurrence.
Etta: See, I even carry your picture with me.
Borgmann warily settles back in his chair -- well, improvised bench, anyway -- and waits to zlin developments.
Elte smiles warmly.
Etta drops his hand to show him the cut-out of a press photo, which is inside a heart-shaped locket on her necklace.
Elte: I'm flattered, Miz Etta. Or should I say N'vet Etta?
Etta: You can call me anything you want, Mr. Andover.
Etta: I can't tell you how much your travels have meant to me... and how long I've wished I could go there with you.
Etta: To have seen all the things you've seen, to have met all those people and studied all those different lives... ~~starry eyed~~
Elte laps it up.
Etta somehow doesn't find the issue of Rifan's injury by Plum such a big deal anymore.
Elte has an appetite for adulation that is never fully sated.
Etta: Tell me Mr. Andover, are you married?
Etta: Because I'd leave here in an instant, you know.
Elte has encountered both groupies and matchmakers before, and prefers to keep control of his personal affairs strictly... personal.
Etta tugs her wedding ring off her finger and drops it into a pocket of her skirt, when she hopes Elte is not looking.
Elte: I would never ask any woman to live the kind of life I do, always on the move from one catastrophe to another.
Etta remembers sobbing with joy when she got the ring from Rifan. The trouble was, he did not turn out to be the vibrant, energetic adventurous type he seemed when they were courting.
Etta: Oh, but that is what I want! To see all of those things, to be there with you.
Elte smiles gently at her.
Elte: The world is here for everyone to see and experience.
Elte: All I do is repeat the stories people tell me.
Elte: Right now, N'vet Borgmann was telling me his story, and we were just getting to the good part.
Etta can tell a rejection when she hears one.
Etta does not take "no" lying down. So to speak.
Elte: He is a very busy man, and I'd like to hear the rest. I'd like to hear your story, too.
Etta's fists tighten and a look of determination sparks in her black eyes.
Elte catches the admiration transforming into something rather dangerous.
Borgmann zlins the gathering storm.
Etta swings around to face Borgmann.
Borgmann: Now, now, I'd hate to disappoint a lady.
Etta: You! I have a bone to pick with you.
Etta charges up to Borgmann's desk.
Borgmann's eyes widen in alarm.
Elte: ~~distress~~
Etta's red hair flies in all directions, like a halo of fire.
Elte: If you want to be with me, perhaps you would like to join me in listening to what N'vet Borgmann has to say?
Borgmann tries frantically to remember if he's ever met this woman before.
Etta: My h... your prisoners are dangerous! Why, a channel was actually bitten here.
Elte has waited weeks for this interview and doesn't want it stolen by this interloper, no matter how charming or intriguing.
Etta: Blood running from his ear, my gods! What sort of animal house are you running?
Borgmann looks distinctly unhappy.
Elte discovers that Etta has a story of her own worth listening to.
Etta: Now I know Rifan, and he wouldn't hurt a fly.
Elte settles back to watch the interchange. What prisoner bit what channel?
Etta: These, these beasts you have here should be put out of their misery!
Borgmann: Unfortunately, the law regards that as murder.
Etta: And biting a channel isn't assault? [counters]
Borgmann: But if you can suggest a measure short of that, which might persuade Minister Plum to be more cooperative?
Borgmann: He is evidently not deterred by the threat of further charges.
Elte: Minister Plum bit a channel?
Etta turns to Elte, who is temporarily on her shit list.
Etta: You bet he did. It was an unwarranted assault.
Elte knew that they had to take a razor away from him, but he hadn't expected the portly middle-aged churchman to stoop to using teeth and claws.
Etta: The conditions in this jail are unsafe and dangerous!
Etta: I'm going to contact the appropriate authorities and let them know exactly what is happening here, unless you [to Borgmann again] get off your mousy little butt and do something proactively about this.
Etta always speaks in a shout. She is a very intense person.
Borgmann: Madam, it isn't the jail which is unsafe: it is Minister Plum personally.
Etta can usually sustain an outrage or obsession for at least three weeks, more than long enough to cause a lot of trouble for anybody she takes a dislike to.
Borgmann: The alternative to having him imprisoned here, is to have him running around free, murdering every Sime he can catch.
Etta: You could be doing a lot more and you know it.
Etta: There is absolutely no reason why a channel of all people should have to worry about being attacked.
Etta: I'm going to go straight to Controller Arat about this.
Elte: Are you a Donor, Ma'am?
Etta turns on Elte.
Elte thinks Etta's lack of emotional control is distinctly non-Donor-like, but her protectiveness reminds him of Nick.
Etta: What is it to you?
Elte smiles.
Elte: You said "your channel."
Elte of course assumes his right to know anything about everything.
Etta looks momentarily confused, as she had not intended to say anything that linked her to Rifan personally.
Etta: It's none of your business!
Etta: Why don't you just keep your nose out of it, anyway?
Elte has had many other people tell him this.
Etta didn't like being brushed off by the famous journalist, and her pride is smarting.
Elte: Because I'm curious. I want to hear your story.
Elte thinks that just because he wants to know about Borgmann too doesn't mean Etta has bored him; quite the contrary.
Etta looks at Elte suspiciously as she runs that through her BS filter.
Etta: Well, I'm no Donor.
Etta: I wouldn't give up that much freedom.
Elte nods.
Etta wouldn't have gotten married either, if she'd realized what a ball and chain Rifan and the kids would be.
Etta is a bit older and wiser now.
Elte: You don't act like the Donors I've met. What's your relationship to this channel... Rifan?
Etta looks flustered. How did he managed to zoom in on the one thing she would really rather he didn't know?
Etta: Well, he's my, my ex-husband. ~~lie~~
Elte has no idea he is asking something touchy; he usually likes to buzz around a subject before targeting the bullseye.
Etta: My soon to be ex-husband. [amends]
Elte: Oh!
Elte knows the topic of ex-es is always touchy.
Etta's wedding ring feels like it's burning a hole against her leg.
Elte puts this together with the offer to follow him wherever he goes and realizes he is already hip-deep in quicksand.
Borgmann zlins that Elte is quick on the uptake, and prudently decides that a warning is unnecessary--at least where Etta is around to hear.
Etta: I won't have it said that I bit him on the ear, which is what everybody is saying.
Borgmann looks at Etta in consternation.
Borgmann: You are being suspected of causing Hajene Rifan's injuries?
Borgmann looks perplexed.
Elte tries to decide if he should discourage Etta's interest in him or follow up on it.
Etta: Well what do you expect? A channel doesn't get injured on the job. At least, not under safe and sanitary circumstances.
Elte thinks if the marriage is really on the rocks a fling with this spitfire might be interesting, and Simes don't seem to care that much about marriage anyway.
Elte of course has had as his examples Riyyh, Arat and a bunch of itinerant laborers.
Borgmann: If you have objections to your husband's working conditions, you really should take them to Controller Arat.
Borgmann: Although I would be happy to consider any constructive suggestions you might have, as to how Minister Plum might be better handled.
Etta: I certainly will! And you are going to regret it, you squeaking little rodent.
Etta shakes her fist at Borgmann, then turns to leave.
Etta: It was nice meeting you, Elte Andover. [rather insincerely, since she temporarily thinks he's a jerk]
Etta storms out.
Etta's red hair and patterned skirt swirl after her.
Borgmann looks after Etta, visibly shaken.
Elte watches the retreat, making a mental note to look her up later.
Borgmann knows he's going to have more nightmares about angry Gens and razors.
Elte turns his attention back to his prime subject.
Elte: Ah, N'vet Borgmann, she's upset you.
Elte thinks rattled subjects sometimes spill more than calm ones.
Elte: ~~sympathy~~
Elte: Is it that unusual, for a channel to be injured on the job?
Borgmann: Quite.
Elte: How badly was Hajene Rifan hurt?
Elte would think that taking selyn from scores of unemployed, homeless, unsanitary tramps with criminal backgrounds would be inherently dangerous.
Borgmann: His ear was bitten -- it bled quit a bit. And he was bruised and shaken.
Elte: Would you say Minister Plum is one of the most violent Gens being detained here?
Elte remembers his own interview with the Grenade, and how Hajene Roliver managed his donation.
Borgmann: He is the only habitually violent Gen being detained here. The other two cells function primarily as a place for obstreperous drunks to sober up. 1
Borgmann: IDAS would not normally be holding a felon awaiting trial on an attempted murder charge, but there is at present no way to transport him to the nearest real prison.
Elte: So although the other Gens here here are outcasts from out-Territory society, they have been living and donating peaceably on this side of the Border?
Elte has been wandering among them so he knows the answer to this question, but wants to see Borgmann's take on the situation.
Borgmann: For the most part. There are always differences of opinion, when several thousand strangers are forced into close quarters for months.
Elte: But your security has been adequate until now?
Borgmann: We have not had any more serious attempts at cold-blooded murder, no.
Borgmann: We have had some brawls, and some accidents which resulted in various injuries.
Elte: Minister Plum tried to murder Hajene Rifan by biting him?
Elte envisions the scene and wishes he had been there to take a picture.
Borgmann: No, he tried to murder me, two months ago.
Borgmann: He is being held here until he can be given over to the authorities for trial.
Elte: I've read the file.
Elte: Josef Plum was a childhood acquaintance of yours, wasn't he?
Borgmann: Yes.
Elte: In fact, he was the negligent caretaker who left your bedroom door unlocked, allowing you to flee in Changeover.
Borgmann: That is true.
Elte: Why do you think he tried to murder you?
Elte has read the file about this too; he wants to hear Borgmann's version of it.
Borgmann: He says that he wishes simply to rectify his mistake of that night.
Borgmann: He doesn't view doing so as murder.
Elte: How do you feel about that?
Borgmann: I am afraid I disagree with his definition.
Borgmann: ~~ wry ~~
Elte: Certainly the Northwest law does.
Borgmann: Yes. And although Plum refuses to recognize the validity of this Territory's laws, he did sign the standard agreement to abide them, while he was on this side of the Border.
Elte nods
Borgmann sees no reason to reveal just how blatantly Plum violated said agreement, even before the attempted murder of Borgmann himself.
Elte: What do you say to a man who thinks your very existence is nothing but a mistake to be corrected?
Borgmann hunches over, looking depressed.
Borgmann: In two months of trying, I have not found anything to say to Josef that has impressed upon him the reason for his incarceration, or persuaded him that further assaults will only make his position worse.
Elte is not at all surprised that Plum's Church of the Purity sect broke their word to the Sime government, since they don't acknowledge that government's legitimacy.
Borgmann: He refuses to acknowledge that he committed a crime, even by the definition of Norwest law, and chooses to believe instead that he is being held for purposes of spiritual torment.
Elte raises his eyebrows.
Elte: Why should you want to torment him spiritually?
Elte finds this a rather interesting and novel concept.
Borgmann shrugs helplessly.
Borgmann: I have no reason to do so. In fact, I was about to facilitate his return to Gen Territory when he pulled out a hidden razor and tried to slit my throat.
Borgmann: Since then, I have done my best to make his incarceration as bearable as possible.
Elte: But given that behavior, you consider him a violent and dangerous criminal?
Borgmann: Yes. IDAS policy requires that all assaults on its on-duty personnel be prosecuted fully. It is an important protection for our staff, who sometimes encounter smugglers and others with reason to resist a routine border inspection.
Elte: Policy aside, do you think a man who wants to end your life should be let free?
Borgmann: I have no wish to die myself, and every reason to believe that Plum would attack other Simes if he couldn't get to me. No, I don't want him at large.
Borgmann wishes, however, that keeping Plum behind bars didn't require quite so much of his personal participation.
Notes:
1) It is not clear how IDAS, as an immigration authority, came to be responsible for the overnight detainment of drunks. [return]
Go on to Episode #135: Mountain Air
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