Ralph stopped as some sort of robot (some of you will see the irony
) came down the passage the other way. It stopped and addressed him:
"Mudokon organic, I take it you are coming from the fire. Can you describe the situation before I go there myself?"
"Sure," Ralph stopped and looked back the way he came, "I've just been in there so, basically, it's not as bad as it looks, all the machines were running for some reason before, but I've shut them down so there's just the one machine which is on fire to take care of. It's putting out a lot of smoke, but..." he looked back at RG, "I'm sure that won't bother one such as yourself."
<•-•-•-•-•>
Anni made a sarcastic snort, "A nice vykker? There are more talking slurgs! Trust me, vykkers might pretend to be nice or kind but inside they just want to gain for themselves and hurt people for no reason."
"Yeah, I reckon," Hembar agreed, "I had just wondered, because no one I know has ever met one, I mean, we even befriended a glukkon once, but never a vykker."
"This place was ok for the first year or so I was here, but then there were a couple of sligs...
"It's all the Magog Cartel's fault, wherever they go they ruin things and make people miserable. After those sligs everything was different."
"I think that's what they
try to do." Hembar was thoughtful now, "Though actually, I guess that's wrong. They
try to become powerful and rich and who knows what else, and that just so happens to make everyone else miserable.
"But sometimes I think they're worse when they go on their own. Many times I've heard of a factory or some other place like that, that at first glance it just seems to be a normal Magog facility, but then you find out they've got some sick secret that they're hiding, because even the Magog Cartel have limits.
"Not that I'm saying I agree with them, I'm just saying, the Cartel are bad, but sometimes those without it are even worse..."