Page 100 of I Married A Syllen

That left us very little time to whip together the messages that we flooded the airwaves with. On top of providing a dos and don’ts list, it drilled into them that they had to comply. People were terrified of being executed the way the Procrea employees had been. They feared expulsion from Mazeria, or having their businesses or properties destroyed if the Syllens found the slightest fault with them. Therefore, our messages also sought to reassure them.

At the end of the day, so long as they weren’t doing anything illegal or abhorrent, they had nothing to worry about. If they were innocently doing something that was detrimental to the land, they would be given guidelines on how to fix it or be asked to stop or get rid of whatever they were doing that was not fixable.

On the first day of the audit, the tension hung over the city like a canopy of ominous black clouds. A ridiculous number of Enforcers patrolled the streets. Considering how few civilians could be seen out and about, you’d think the city was under martial law and its people under a strict curfew.

Taelen landed our Nordjarimm at the waste management plant. A part of me thought maybe we should have started with a place that had a smaller risk of contention. For sure, every citizen was sitting with bated breath while awaiting the outcome of the first audit. How this one went down would set the tone for everything else. Then again, we had very straight rules as far as composting and recycling were concerned. Maybe this had been a good choice after all.

A wave of sympathy swelled within me as Taelen, Nym, and I walked towards Lana Khoury, the Director of the plant. She’d come to greet us at the entrance and was nearly shaking in her boots despite her best efforts at putting up a brave front.

She gave us a tour of the facility, going into great details as she described the composting process, the recycling or transformation of biodegradable products, and the smokeless incineration of trash. As I expected, that last part raised a few red flags. But Lana wasn’t some airhead regurgitating talking points prepared in advance. Throughout the tour, I’d noticed how she didn’t call in experts to explain how things worked but took care of it herself with the confidence of someone who mastered the topic. She wasn’t a pencil pusher with a pompous title who didn’t know her head from her ass.

“Our incinerator uses an advanced filtration system that allows us to have some of the cleanest emissions anywhere in the galaxy,” Ms. Khoury said proudly.

In light of Taelen’s positive reaction to what she’d described so far, her nerves steadily abated as the tour progressed.

“Cleanest but not clean,” Taelen challenged in a non-confrontational manner.

“Correct,” she replied, unfazed, having apparently expected this. “Our incinerator still releases a small amount of carbon dioxide. But none of it affects Mazeria as we bottle it and ship it off world.”

Taelen recoiled, his eyes bulging in shock.

“You ship it?!” he echoed.

She nodded. “Some of it is dumped on planets that naturally have a high concentration of carbon dioxide in their atmosphere. And some of it is converted to synthetic hydrocarbons. Those are used as fuel, lubricants, or to create a variety of goods like plastics, rubber, detergents, or resins.”

Taelen frowned as he studied the emissions levels in the report Lana was showing us.

“Is it beneficial for you to ship those residues off the planet?” he asked hesitantly.

“No, it’s a real pain, but a necessary one,” Lana said with resignation.

“Then that’s silly. Your levels are too low to justify this much logistics to get rid of it. You should just plant surak flowers instead,” Taelen said in a self-evident manner. “They turn extremely large amounts of carbon dioxide—and other gases—into oxygen in record time. And based on these readings, all you need is between ninety to one hundred flowers. They’re extremely low maintenance as they only require fertile soil, water, and sunlight.”

“Surak flowers?” Lana repeated, perking up with interest.

He nodded. “We grow them to help eliminate our own emissions. If you wish to use that method instead, we can bring the flowers to you tomorrow.”

Lana’s jaw dropped, and she stared at him with bulging eyes.

“Really?! That would be amazing! What will be the cost for one hundred flowers?” she asked excitedly.

I flinched inwardly even as I repressed the urge to snort. Naturally, she approached this in the usual transactional fashion that governed many intergalactic species. It would take a long time for the members of the colony to understand what future interactions with the Syllens should look like. But this was a first great step in the right direction.

As expected, Taelen looked at her as if a third eye had suddenly grown in the middle of the forehead.

“The cost? Why would there be a cost?” he asked, genuinely confused.

“Because you are giving resources that are going to help reduce my own operational costs,” Lana said as if it was obvious. “I shouldn’t profit off your generosity without fairly compensating you.”

Taelen blinked before exchanging a stunned look with Nym, then with me. In that instant, I could have hugged the Director. She could have answered in so many different ways or simply jumped at the opportunity to get some lucrative freebies. Instead, she showed him that off-worlders were not all driven by greed and the desire to exploit others.

“Those are considerate words,” Taelen said carefully. “But this logic does not apply in this instance. We’re not offering these flowers for you to increase your wealth, but to optimize ways of protecting Mazeria. When Mazeria thrives, we all benefit. That it also reduces your operational costs only makes it better.”

“When you put it that way, I can’t argue with it,” Lana said sheepishly.

“You will receive the flowers in the morning,” Taelen replied firmly. “And we’ll help you find the optimal setup for them. We will also bring you a fungus to add to your compost piles that’s more efficient and will accelerate the breakdown process.”

“Thank you,” Lana said with a thrill in her voice. “My team and I look forward to it.”