Free Scuzzworms by Ella Mack Page B

of all those arthropodians you keep chasing?”
    Post smiled back sarcastically.  “Who’s to say they’re not scuzzhog tentacles and that your scuzzhog isn’t slurping slime?”
    Imelda shot a nasty look at him.  At least she hoped it was nasty.   “In any case, it will be six months to a year before I can get the Scuzzhogs classified.  You guys will be getting a close look at the worms long before I will.”
    “What?”  Camille asked sharply.  “I thought we couldn’t start groundbase until you had completed your investigation?”  Kellogg and Post stared at her suspiciously.           
    “CHA requires only that I make sure that their sump holes aren’t masterpieces of intelligent technical engineering.  Cranial size estimates aren’t necessary if I can show that their behavior is instinctive.  Once that is done, they’re no longer priority research.  Camille has lucked out and been assigned some of the most advanced species on the planet, with the most potentially useful enzyme systems.  Species complexity will push your team’s priority to the top.”  She shrugged.  “Biotech isn’t going to make money off of a bunch of mud suckers like the ones I’m looking at.  Difficulty in observation will push my priority status down to the fractional.”
    Camille frowned.  “But I thought Caldwell said...”
    Imelda interrupted harshly, as though lecturing a class.  “Priority is also based on team size.  I’m the smallest team.  In fact, I’m not even a team.  I will be the last in this project to get access to a groundbase station.  The best that I will be able to hope for is to piggyback with someone else, which will be difficult to get permission to do.”
    Post was unconvinced.  “The entire division has been instructed to cooperate with you.  I don’t think we’ll have any choice about letting you piggyback.”
    Imelda turned to face Post impatiently. “CHA has strict regs about evolutionarily advanced planets.  Nobody piggybacks on high priority species.  My species is under review only because it is big and hard to see.  Sessile specimens like mine usually have primitive enzymatic systems.  Camille’s are active, highly evolved, and similar to mammalian earth species.  Biotech’s greatest chance of hitting pay-dirt is with them.”
    Her face remained hard, unfriendly.   Her autonomic response to Post was getting more controllable, but she needed him to keep his distance.
    Post’s expression was no friendlier than hers.  His eyes glistened.  “I’ve got an idea.  Piggyback with Geology if you want pictures of subterranean monsters.  They’ll be excavating lots of dirt down there.”  His expression changed to wicked.  “Who knows what lurks beneath the surface? Maybe you’ll find miniscuzzhogs eating miniscuzzworms.”    
    “And then we can minigag,” smirked Kellogg.
    Imelda grimaced.  She slammed the privacy sphere around her workstation.
    She could see their mouths moving and surmised that the comments weren’t complimentary.  Too bad.  Post was making fun of her.  She wanted him to dislike her, not converse with her.  That mischievous little sparkle in his eye… her autonomic system was completely wacko again.  Damn, he would be fun to play with.   Better kill that thought.
    #
    Four weeks of sifting through videos and scans, over and over again.  She was tired and irritable, for a lot of reasons.  Her report on the Scuzzhogs was near completion, but there was more to groundbase clearance than looking at a dominant species.  She had to consider other lifeforms as well, the component she was just starting. Caldwell might be in charge, but she was forced to work through Trefarbe and her administrative connections to obtain CHA clearance.  She had no doubt that Trefarbe would do everything in her power to undermine her reputation and would take credit for anything she happened to do right, claiming that it was her badgering