“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady. I’m the one who’s been working night and day to save your beautiful…,” Monq caught himself just before he finished that sentence with an unrefined word. “…self.”
“Really? Well, if you’re going to persist in calling me young lady, I’m not sure I want to be saved. Just kill me now.” Monq ignored that as completely as if she hadn’t spoken at all. “And if you keep taking all my blood, I’m not going to be able to make enough milk for my elfling.”
He waved his hand. “We’re done with that.” Then looking away as if something had caught his interest, he said, “At least I think so.
“Here. Sit. Let me tell you the news.”
“Should I call the press?”
“This is not a joking matter, Elora.”
“Lady Laiken.”
“Is Rammel standing behind you with his hand up your shirt?”
She looked stunned. “Monq! You made a joke!”
“Pffft. Will you just stop and listen? Please?”
“Yes, I will. I’m all yours.”
“I never use your blood frivolously. In fact I used some that was collected before you left for Edinburgh to mutate a strain of rats for testing purposes.”
“You did what?!?”
“So I’ve been using the rats to test an airborne chemical that would weaken potential assailants from your home world.”
“Deliverance says it’s called Stagsnare Dimension in his circles.”
“Um-hum. Stagsnare Dimension. The biggest obstacle was coming up with a chemical solution that has no harmful side effects to other species that might frequent Jefferson Unit. So I’ve been testing on both normal rats and Elora rats.”
“Elora rats? Please. I’m begging you. Tell me you did not name a species of rats Elora Rats.”
Refusing to be distracted, he dismissed that with a characteristic wave of his hand. “And I think we’ve got it.”
She stared and blinked a few times. “Are you saying that, in the event of an attack by natives of Stagsnare Dimension, you could gas the intruders without adverse effects to Jefferson personnel?”
“Yes. I believe we understand each other.”
“And they’ll be weakened to mimic indigenous physical ability?”
“Yes.”
“Why not just terminate while you’re at it?”
“Good question. Because then there would be side effects. Bad ones.”
“Okay. So the assassins will lose the edge they would normally get from slipping to this dimension.” He nodded. “And that’s without any negative consequence to the rest of us. Including the tiniest of us,” she said pointedly.
"Um. More or less. Do you want the good news or the bad news?"
Elora's shoulders sagged as she sat back in the chair and sighed deeply. "It has been my experience that, when you ask that question, there’s usually a teeny weeny tiny tidbit of microscopic good news and a shitload of bad."
"Young lady...!"
“Especially when you add ‘more or less’ to that.”
"Just give me the news."