Sennai walked to work as usual, humming her tune as she went. The avioids tried to tease by swooping her as she went, but Sennai didn’t squeal and duck, she just walked on steadily, humming the whole time. The squealers didn’t have Sennai’s knack for setting up a soothing hum, or they liked the tension and the excitement of the swoop. It made for an exciting journey, the most exciting thing likely to happen in their lives.

The squealers, the other workers, perhaps craved the excitement, Sennai decided. She craved peace and quiet, so she hummed through the trees, along the patch, all the way to work. She could have taken the commuter hover, and flown above the avioids, but the din of commuters and the high pitched drone of the hover’s engine stressed her, too much information, too much noise. The squealers and the commuters looked at Sennai askance as she walked, but they left her alone, gave her the peace she craved, the peace she seldom got at her crowded home-place.

She got to work without upset, but there was no way to get in to the work building.

‘What’s happening?’ she asked the calmest looking worker. The one standing at the edge of the crowd of a couple of dozen sqealers.

‘What’s not happening?’ the squealer said. “We’re not going inside, that’s for sure. We’re not going to get paid today. We’re getting sacked. My child will die. They’re killing my child! That’s what’s happening!’ The squealer reached grasping fingers out to Sennai. “They’re killing my baby!’

Sennai pushed away the squealer’s hands. She looked at her closely, it was Miriale, one of the older workers, one of the quieter ones. “Miriale, do you really know anything? Have the Bosses announced anything yet?” She reached out to Miriale then, remembering that Miriale had once quietened the squealers when Sennai nearly lost herself in the noise one day a few weeks ago.

Miriale looked toward the closed door, beyond the raving crowd. She shook her head. “I’ve heard nothing, nothing but these crazed animals here. The Bosses won’t come out, they’ll be torn to pieces. The Bosses are scared.’

‘The Bosses are never scared,’ said Sennai. She knew that so well. She had to make sure everyone knew they weren’t going to die. They’d had more than enough excitement. It was time for peace and quiet now. It was time to try living the way Sennai liked to. She looked around and squared her shoulders. Time for her true work now.