The interviews I planned out for the next tenday were arranged for and set in motion mostly using student runners and some internal message box systems, for those who weren't already let go. I expected these interviews to be mostly pro forma and perfunctory, more a quick measure of compatibility with my goals than capability. People generally like having an income, and all of these folks had done this work before. I recognized none of the names, but I suspected that they were without "interest", which is to say they weren't from prominent, wealthy or ruling families or possessing any ties to the ruling bodies. This meant that mostly they had all gotten the same shaft that I did, money ran out for the "little people" even if they were the people getting the jobs done. It did not escape my notice that all the higher level administrators managed to avoid getting sacked even though I'm pretty sure just a few of those folks would have covered the monetary imbalance quicker than the accumulated pay of all us lowly peons. Then again, they had connections and interest, which I was now using as well, so… I guess I can't rail too hard against the very system I was using for my own purposes now. I need to establish my own fiefdom before I go rocking that boat.

I guess I should say they were all brief, pro forma and perfunctory until the last one. I hadn't intentionally saved Lunette for last. Ok, that's a lie, I totally saved her for last so I could shamelessly use the opportunity to invite her to lunch afterwards.

I had been "assigned" one of the old labs, a few offices, and a half-dozen smaller interview rooms. Basically, I got the wing they had shuttered when they cut back half a cycle ago. Looking back it'd been an eyeblink, but those two seasons represent most of the meat of this account. Time is strange, but that's yet another thing not relevant at the moment, so back to the journey. I'll skip the parts about cleaning out the rooms (huzzah for the psionic dust screen method!), and trying to cook in my room (it works, but it's far simpler to grab a hand-pie from a vendor on the way home, and storing any kind of fresh food is almost impossible on the fourth floor with no cool root cellar, no refrigeration, and therefore pretty much no way to keep it from going bad quickly. Even on a budget, cooking for one with no way to store extras is a bunch of work, and not worth the effort now that I'm not operating on a complete shoestring budget.)

Fast forward to the next tenday, and the interviews have begun. I held them in the nicest of the small testing rooms. Most went as expected, only a few didn't show up, but I had expected that based on the lack of response to the messages. There were several individuals that I didn't think would play well with others, who I mentally placed into the back of the list. It didn't help that in addition to the rather grating personality issues that even I could pick up on, those individuals had unsurprisingly been among the least skilled at the interview aspects of the job. Unfortunately for them, that was the area where I needed the most help. Worst case, I can carry the analysis section, but my interview skills were relatively lacking, too. Sadly, this moment of reflection didn't truly penetrate through my focus on filling out my staffing, but more on that in a moment. At the end of each interview I asked if the person had anyone they thought would also do a good job. Unfortunately, that didn't find me any extra staff, but it did underscore my resolve not to hire most of the problematic personalities. None of them got a recommendation, which means they weren't skilled enough to overcome the disharmonies they generated. Anyone who did not have a recommendation was moved to the back of the list for hiring. I was relatively exhausted by the start of Threeday, since this wasn't my gift.

Unlike the storybooks, when I saw Lunette there wasn't music playing in the background and flowers blooming or even some random crab singing a song only to be interrupted by an awful seagull. It was at this moment that I realized how stupidly I had handled this process. I had focused on a goal of getting lunch with Lunette and spending some more time with her. I really should have interviewed and hired Lunette on day one, then let her help choose the team, even in just an advisory role. Fortunately, I had an opportunity to rectify that a bit. I just hoped that she'd be as happy to see me and work with me as I was to have a chance to work with her again.

"Ms. Vedlimdt, thank you for coming." The smile on my face crept into my voice, belying the formality of the words.

"Thank you, Mr. Coddlestahl. I was intrigued by your offer." Not a smile on her face, but the words weren't clipped or strained, so I'm left guessing.

"Well then, let me get right to it. I need someone to be the primary research assistant on a couple of projects. The start point is dependent entirely on staff availability and finalized research project design. I have a prepared draft of the design for the first project. If you'll agree to confidentiality on the contents, we can proceed with the interview."

"Certainly, sir." Still stiff and formal. She's not making this simple for me. Not sure if she's mad at me, mad at the situation, or just doing formal interview posturing.

"Excellent. I'll let you read through the pages, and then we can discuss them and what your position will entail, should you accept it." The next few minutes were torturous. I literally had to bite my lip to keep my mouth shut and resorted to meditation exercises as well as cycling though my various body adaptation tricks to burn off some of the nervous energy.

"This is … extraordinary. Where did you get this?"

"I'd love to say it was a stroke of genius, but I got it from trying to hide my stupidity from my mother." That startled a small laugh from her, which got me laughing, and in the contagious way of things escalated quickly into a full-on laugh-storm. This ended the tension that had been building in the room, and also allowed me to discover that she had a tremendous guffaw. It wasn't some simpering little giggle, or a tiny little trilling twitter. She laughed like she meant it. Fantastic. Of course I might be a bit biased. I might have been just as enamored of the twitter or the giggle, since I was admittedly a bit besotted, but I maintain that would have been more a matter of toleration.

"Speaking of mistakes… I should have interviewed you first, and if you had accepted the position, had you help me with the remaining interviews. Any chance you're interested in being the primary assistant on this and hopefully future projects?"

"I'm interested, Mr Coddlestahl. But I'm not available for a few more tendays, after the conference is concluded."

"Of course, I had hoped to start as soon as possible. Would you be willing to accept a small job of assisting with the personnel selection now, and formally join my project after the presentation on your current project?"

"That could be possible. I have the remainder of the day unscheduled, and otherwise could spend the enddays on this if we need more time."

"Fantastic! Let's begin then. Here's the list of names that I was given for interviews. If you'd go through them and do a quick yes/no on each name you recognize, I've got a card for each of the applicants I've interviewed. Let me arrange them in my priority order from the interviews, then we can go grab lunch in the cafeteria and get to work on the staffing. If there's time left afterwards, we can discuss the technique that I'm trying to explore with this project. Does that sound good, Ms. Vedlimdt? "

"That should be fine, Mr. Coddlestahl."

"I'd really prefer you call me Grint, if you wouldn't mind."

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Coddlestahl." She paused for a moment, a slight smile on her face, softening the rebuke. "No. I think we should stick with the more formal address for now. I know our letters were more informal, but those were private. If I'm working for you, I don't want people to get a mistaken impression. Perhaps in private it would be fine, but then it can become a habit and mistakes are often made from habit applied in the wrong circumstances."

Oh. Well that's something I didn't think about. Smart. But also, crap. Not crap is in, bad argument, but crap as in she's right. This might ruin her future. It wasn't fair, but people might just assume she was using her "feminine wiles" to get positions. Even if it was one with so little apparent reward now, when we published the research, it might be problematic. After we were established as a research team, there would be less problems with informality, but since we were both younger than most of the remaining staff would be, the formality at the top would set a professional tone for the whole organization. I could see it now, but it took her saying it to make it so obvious.

"As you wish, Ms Vedlimdt." I did try to keep the disappointment out of my voice, and leave the admiration in, but I have no idea if I succeeded. I stood up and tucked my hands behind my back. "Now, about the candidates…"