NARRATOR: Haven Hive, in an alley on the edge of the Incertezas and Baffler's Bulkhead...
BUNNI: How do you feel, Sergeant?
SCHLOCK: Whole. Angry. Been a while since I lost a fight like that.
HAZMAT CHIEF: Someone cut you into pieces and dumped you into bins because you lost a fight?
SCHLOCK: That's how you win a fight with an amorph.
HAZMAT CHIEF: It's also attempted murder.
ENNESBY: Slow down a moment... are you SURE you want to use those words in your report?
HAZMAT CHIEF: Oh, the report... this is going to be messy.
ENNESBY: Only if you use the wrong words. "Attempted" and "murder" are on the list.
ENNESBY: So are "illegal," "dumping," "toxic," and the phrase "public menace."
HAZMAT CHIEF: But this was all of those things.
ENNESBY: Shhh... not so loud. You want to file this one as a section three-dot-fifteen, subchapter eleven, "exotic biochemistry sophont under duress."
HAZMAT CHIEF: Three-fifteen-sub-eleven calls for a xeno-gotiation expert. We don't have--
ENNESBY: *interrupting* Section one-dot-forty-six: you pressed an on-hand civilian expert into service.
HAZMAT CHIEF: That would require us to compensate the expert.
ENNESBY: A happy side-effect of letting me navigate the starless wastes of your bureaucracy for you.