Instead of asking his questions aloud, Gwenn nodded and followed his companion. Louis led the boy to his office. From his computer he'd have access to Kay's records. It took him long minutes to find, but he finally did. Records Department! That was it! And her boss was Kevin Davidson.
After Gwenn watched Louis tap at a machine for a few minutes, Louis turned the computer off and they both left the room. They walked across to the other side of the spaceport and into another of the blocky buildings. Gwenn noticed that the buildings seemed very similar to each other. How odd.
Louis walked up to a desk and spoke in Terranan to the person behind the desk. They had to cross the large spaceport (again), and went into yet another similar building. However did the Terranan remember which building was which ? In the dark, they would all appear to be identical.
Once there, Louis announced them to the secretary and waited. "Mr. Davidson is not in the office at the moment. If you'll have a seat, I will contact him and see if he can return", replied the secretary, looking hautily at Louis and Gwenn as he spoke. He then turned and spoke into a comm. After a few moments, he announced, "Mr. Davidson will be in as soon as possible. Gwenn looked confused and decided to follow Louis' lead.
After about a quarter-candlemark, a man came in, ignored them, nodded to the secretary and walked straight into another room. The comm buzzed, and the secretary informed Louis, "Mr. Davidson will see you now, sir".
Louis thanked the secretary. He looked at Gwenn and winked. "I know it may seem strange, but some people are just like that...", he whispered to the younger man. "They walk past you as if you were invisible and just talk to you once they are at their seats...Perhaps it's like an extention of their own body, without which they can't be polite."
"Is that what it is?" Gwenn replied, "or has he just been raised by forest-bandits and knows no better?".
Louis and Gwenn walked into Mr. Davidson's office. Louis introduced himself as a doctor and Gwenn as Kay's brother, than looked at Gwenn and gestured for him to talk."
Gwenn heard his name and Kay's name mentioned. But, since the two men had spoken Standard, he wasn't sure if he recognized the rest of the words. Some kind of greeting, perhaps ?
Louis stopped talking, looked at Gwenn expectantly and gestured. Gwenn stood up and spoke slowly and formally in his most polished cahuenga, "I am Gwenn MacConal of the Bayerd Clan, oath-brother to Kay MacDonal'." Gwenn paused and looked to Louis to translate, then continued, As her closest relative on Darkover, I formally apologize for her missing work and apply to negotiate a settlement for the day's lost work. She took ill unexpectedly last night and is just now beginning to recover. I do not expect her to return to work before tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, assuming she does not have a set-back."
Davidson looked at Gwenn and Louis in confusion. He hadn't really followed the cahuenga in spite of the few tapes he had listened to. "Just what exactly is he wanting to do? If he thinks this will somehow improve her performance review...." he said indignantly.
Louis sighed. He should have expected the man not to speak the most common Darkovan language -- or ANY of them, for that matter. Patiently he translated what Gwenn had said, putting emphasis on the politeness. Then, he added. "I know Kay from the base and I've seen her. Since I'm a doctor, I can assure you that she's ill. However, I expect her to recover in a couple of days." Mr. Davidson really did not have to know what Louis' area of work was.
"Well," Kay's boss growled, "I suppose I'll have to take your word for it, as long as the proper paperwork is filled out. But what's he going on about?" He indicated Gwenn with a nod of his head.
Louis mentally sighed. Paperwork, paperwork,paperwork! He'd never been good with them! "I'll fill whatever forms are needed, Mr. Davidson", he said, managing a smile somehow.
Gwenn watched the entire exchange, trusting Louis to translate faithfully Gwenn's words. He thought that perhaps the price for Kay's illness might be too high--the man didn't look happy. Gwenn wondered what the price for hiring a replacement would be, mentally counted up how much his family's fortune was and how much he would be making as a guardsman, hoping it was enough to reimburse these rich Terranan for the loss of Kay's labor. He looked to Louis for a translation of the Terranan's unhappy words. Worried, he asked, "What does he say? Has he set a price already?"
"Price? Well, apparently the price is filling some forms", Louis answered in cahuenga.
"Does this cost a lot, to fill these forms?" Gwenn asked. "It is my responsibility as Kay's brother, of course, but...."
Louis smiled and shook his head. "No, it's ok...They just need to be sure Kay is really sick and I need to have it written down for them, in case they need to prove she was sick later...". Sensing Gwenn's complete ignorance of the situation,he added. "Nothing you need to worry about, I'll do it."
"Mr. Couvillon, I cannot allow you to fulfill my duty without at least reimbursement," Gwenn explained, beginning to get a little bit exasperated at the confusing Terranan ways. He had expected to come in and speak to someone reasonable, work out an arrangement to make up for Kay's lost labor, and leave. Now Kay's ex-fiance (!) was trying to take care of everything, and Gwenn still had no idea exactly what he was supposed to do.
"I'll answer any question you may still have outside, all right?", Louis said, as gently as he could manage.
Gwenn looked at Davidson, then back at Louis. Louis was right -- this discussion shouldn't be held here. Gwenn nodded, "Aye."
Then Louis turned back to Kay's boss. "Is there anything else you need us to explain, Mr. Davidson?", he asked.
"Not unless you can explain why I must put up with an employee who insists on running off to a primitive 'city' and coming back to work late when she deigns to return at all!" he grumped.
Louis had to fight back the urge to say to the other man that Kay would be lucky if she DIDN'T work for him. Instead, he just pretended not to have heard. The man was just bursting out and letting Louis know of his indignation. He wasn't expecting a real answer.
"Can you ask your secretary to deliver the papers at my office ?", Louis continued.
"Of course," Davidson said, happy that the visit was at an end. That woman was nothing but TROUBLE. Admittedly, she was both competant and efficient. But she had an attitude problem that would certainly prevent her from ever becoming management material.
He recalled the first time that he had told her NOT to fraternize with the locals, and to NEVER AGAIN wear that barbaric clothing of hers while on duty. That cloak made a mockery of her uniform. In it, she looked like she was a LOCAL herself. As if he'd ever hire one of THOSE sorts of people ! If HE was in charge, the Base would be populated ONLY by pure-blooded Terrans (and none of them funny-coloured ones either, or any of those strange ones who worshipped some foreign deity instead of The One True God).
His blood pressure began to rise at the memory of how THAT impudent little scrap of a woman had told him very blandly that "With all due respect, Kevin, as long as you can't show that I've broken any OFFICIAL regulations, my personal preferences are really none of your business anyways". And then she had turned away and busied herself with her terminal, as if he were completely unimportant.
And now, HERE was something even WORSE. Not only did she fraternize with locals, here was living proof that she was RELATED to at least one of them. He frowned, thinking to himself that the sooner he got these two out of his office, the better.
He thumbed the comm, "Baker! Escort my visitors out and see that the paperwork for Ms. MacDonald's unauthorized sick-leave is forwarded to Mr. Couvillon's office." He looked back up with a smile and said curtly, "Good day."