Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
I want to look Cir in the eye and impress him with my professionalism, but he is such an awe inspiring creature it is all I can do not to sort of melt onto the floor and roll around. Is this drink making me drunk?
“As you’re aware, this position is for the role of my assistant, with a focus on human liaison, requiring some technical proficiencies in various scientific fields,” Cir says as he takes a seat behind the desk.
He’s already lost me, so I smile and nod. That usually works on humans fairly well, and it seems to work on him too.
He picks up my resume between his fingers, and the paper looks somehow better for being touched by him. Okay, I’m officially infatuated. I need to get a grip on myself.
“It says here that you went to Oxford and Harvard university, where you received degrees in advanced mathematics and,” he squints slightly to read the font I deliberately chose to be both formal looking and somewhat hard to discern. “Complex physics. What is that, exactly?”
“It’s like physics, but more complicated.”
“Ah. It also says here that you were the valedictorian of both universities.”
“Yes. It does say that.” I look him dead in the eye.
He raises a brow just a fraction. It is a very nice brow, thick and authoritative, set over an eye that is sparkling blue with interest.
“Do universities have valedictorians?”
Fuck. Do they? “Yes.”
I am committing to this ruse no matter what. Worst case scenario, I don’t get the job. I already don’t have the job, so I have literally nothing to lose. I am banking on the fact that we are 20,000 miles above Earth in orbit, and my interviewer is a big shiny alien who is probably not all that familiar with our culture. I might be able to bluff my way through this. No. Positive thinking. I am going to bluff my way through this.
“I see. So you consider yourself a good fit for a role requiring complex calculations and…”
“Absolutely. Yes. Definitely.”
I’ve seen the remuneration. It’s three times more than anything I could hope to earn on Earth, and it comes with an apartment on Eros Station. The apartments are five times the size of anything I could afford to live in on Earth. They’re saying that space isn’t the final frontier anymore. It is becoming a gentrified void, and I want to be one of the new gentry. I’ll tell any lie I have to, and that’s good because everything I’ve said so far is a lie. I don’t know anything about mathematics besides the obvious, and I’m not entirely sure complex physics is a thing. None of that matters, as long as he, Cir, does not know those things either.
“And you’re combat trained?”
“Yes.”
My resume essentially says I am a martial arts warrior genius with qualifications in every conceivable area. I wanted to cover all bases when I put it together. You don’t really know what specific qualities aliens are looking for when they hire humans, so I just decided to say I had all of them.
Lying is getting easier. I have a talent for it, and that’s good because my talents for other things are somewhat lacking. I’m not stupid. I’ve just had a lack of opportunities. I need someone to give me a chance. I’m hoping this alien is the one who will give it to me.
Cir
We received a lot of clearly disingenuous applications when we put out our call for employees. This resume, however, was so incredibly audacious I had to meet the person who had concocted it. I am not in the habit of wasting my time, but I had a feeling about the author of this one page confabulation, which is confirmed now that she is sitting prettily in my presence, doing her absolute best to approximate what humans of her culture consider to be a good person.
Before arriving in Earth’s orbit, our briefing included information indicating humans have a tendency to warp reality to suit their own narratives, though usually not their best interests. They do have the ability to be good and steady workers, however. Several hundred have already been recruited, and the overall results are satisfactory. With such a significant human population to take care of, there are more jobs than we can do for ourselves, and there are jobs that are too complex and situationally dependent for an algorithm to execute.
“So you understand that your position here would involve transcribing and translating our alien technologies into the various languages of your world, so all mankind might benefit from our advances.”
“Yes.”
“So you have already mastered the language of our species?”
No human can speak the language of the Cupid. I am toying with her. She plays along instantly, because that seems to be the sort of person she is.