LOG-013.Parker's brow rose at the image of the screen in front of him. Namely that of a woman he'd never seen in his life, rather than the director he was supposed to be talking with."Right yeah-what was your name again?"The person on the other end of the call swallowed for a moment, glancing at something out of sight, before turning back to stare at the camera."D-Doctor Alma Cortez, sir."It was a spare few seconds spent muttering the name silently, until he gestured towards the woman with his patented 'annoyed higher up' expression."Great. So as far as I recall, I was supposed to be on a call with one director John Mercer, in charge of the…TAP program, right? The whole thing with the abandoned Na'vi kids?"Alma nodded at that, glancing at something again.Parker frowned."So why am I talking to you?"There was hesitation in the doctor's voice as she spoke, running a hand along her arm with an uncertain expression."Director Mercer…is currently tending to other matters. He told me to handle whatever this was instead."…Oh the gall of that fucking-Frowning severely now, the head of operations leaned forward, bringing up a finger and poking at the screen of his monitor."You tell that asshole to come talk to me right now. Recent developments might just have neutered your little ambassador program entirely, which means cuts to funding, personnel, the whole nine yards. I don't need all that spare equipment just sitting out there when it could be put to better use here, got it?"Served the idiot right. He'd never liked Mercer, from what little he'd seen of the man.Almost looking to reach past his station, that guy. Still, for whatever bloody reason, Alma's eyes actually seemed to light up at that, the doctor leaning forward slightly with an almost desperate expression."TAP is getting cancelled? But that would mean-no. Sir I…I have something I think I should really report to you. I understand this is probably an overreach of authority and grossly unprofessional and all sorts of other things but-"The woman paused as a sharp knock rang out from outside Selfridge's office, drawing his eyes towards the door."One moment doctor. Yeah!?"The muffled voice of what had to be one of Quaritch's goons answered his call."Blue Squadron's back from the jungle sir! They've just landed out on the airstrip!"Oh? Well then, convenient timing. Or inconvenient, Cortez seemed pretty worried about whatever she was trying to snitch to him about, all things considered.…Probably some fucking corrupt shit going on behind the scenes. Which meant he was going to have to figure out just what it was and whether it was actually acceptable or not, so long as it didn't mess with the quarterly reports being sent home.God he just hoped it wasn't another sexual harassment situation. He hated dealing with those.Bringing up a hand to rub at the bridge of his nose, he waved at the door (not that the man on the other side could see it) and called out, even as he turned back toward the monitor."I'll be out in a minute! Listen, Alma, right?"The doctor nodded quickly, to which Parker inclined his own head, navigating through the viewcall with a few clicks and bringing up a messaging tab."Alright I've got to go deal with something, so I'm going to give you my comm ID here, and you're going to privately contact me about whatever you need to report later, understand?"The woman's seemingly surprised stare prompted the head of operations to snap his fingers, features scrunching in annoyance."Do you understand, doctor Cortez?"That got a distinctly grateful affirmative from the employee, giving him free leave to cut the call shortly afterwards."Ugh."As he got up and let out a big stretch, Parker pondered whether it was a sort of overreach of his own, getting one of the director's subordinates to skip the line of communication and just talk to him directly.Mm, definitely a little sketchy, but that was par for the course when it came to jobs like these. Besides…"No one leaves me hanging on a call. Damned jackass."Now, to see if Opal had actually managed to put her money where her mouth was. He was gonna be pissed if his little present had been arranged for nothing.—It was with a bright smile on my face that I strode across several dozen feet of tarmac before settling to a stop in front of one Parker Selfridge.The man himself had seemingly just finished adjusting his mask by the looks of things, even as the Ikran I'd parked nearby were tended to by my fellow clansmen, alongside some particularly brave flight personnel."Hey pal, I heard some chatter while I was getting out here. Did your little visit to the tree clan go well?"Quirking an eyeridge at the man, I jut out my hip slightly, planting a hand on it and shooting him a smirk."So little faith, Selfridge. Gee, I'd almost say I'm hurt. Thankfully for the both of us, I'm not, and I come bearing good news."It was kind of amusing, just how blatantly eager the guy got in response to that, even as I turned back to stare at what I knew was the vague direction of the hometree."So, to cut a long story short, I've done more than the rest of your diplomats and avatars have ever accomplished, and gotten the Omatikaya to agree to settle down at the metaphorical negotiating table. With me as go-between, naturally-""Yes! Oh man, I was really hoping you'd say that."Turning back towards my shorter counterpart with a bemused expression plastered across my face, I tilted my head at his fist pumping gesture."Mm, I figured. Suffice to say I'm probably going to be doing plenty of flying around for the next while."The sound of a distant rotorcraft taking off briefly prompted both of us to glance at the vehicle as it soared off for this or that mission, before Parker shook himself, waving a hand at me."Right-right-right, okay. Yeah, that's great news. Great enough that I nearly forgot that I've also got some good news for you."…Oh?"Oh?"The word left my mouth in actual curiosity. There were a number of things that could be considered good for me. Some short term, some long term, and some just silly like the extra large pizza I'd asked some of the guys in the cafeteria to try making for me-"So get this, I dipped into some personnel funds and took charge of getting a message sent out and back to Earth. We explained the whole situation with your clan, and what you were doing here-higher ups really liked the photos of you posing with the sec ops by the way, great optics right there-anyway, we also gave them some of your requests in exchange for the initial work you've been doing for us."The head of operations inhaled slightly, before giving me a thumbs up."We've got a response back. They're still deliberating on the land leasing situation, but there's one thing they were pretty happy to hand over immediately. Mostly because I pressed for it and-well again, good optics."My eyes widened slightly as Parker's grin widened, his hand extending outwards to offer me a shake."Congratulations Opal, you and your clan are now officially recognised as not only worthy of human rights, but also of citizenship in exchange for continued efforts in helping the RDA on Pandora. Eurasian specifically, since those were the first guys to take the bait, but my dad says other groups will probably be down to join up and hand over their own papers once we-"The man's happy explanation was cut off as I lunged."-seal the dea-WOAH!"It was probably an incredibly amusing sight, judging by the trio of distant sec ops troopers chuckling away as I held the surprised executive up by his armpits, his arms pointing straight towards me. Kinda like a cat's, actually.Ironic."Aw, you actually pulled through! My little guy!""Put me down Opal!""Nah, celebratory hugs for my little go getter.""Opal!"In the end, I did in fact put Selfridge down....After I nearly squeezed the life out of him and made him turn a distinct shade of red beneath his mask, anyway. Good stuff, all in all. Especially now that I knew I was actually making some level of headway in securing a proper future for myself.Now...could I get away with carrying Parker all the way to the canteen...