A Conversation in an Elevator Far Far Away

"Is the final date for system failure nailed down?"

"Yes, we have dovetailed it nicely with the launch of the new Planet Miner 1000."

"No regs were broken I hope? You know the GPA (Galactic Protective Agency) is all over us for rushing that last planet.  Seems they are all a bunch of  bleeding hearts when it comes to indigenous species. "

"No regs broken sir.  This planet we carefully nurtured.  There is no paper trail, no way it's failure can be traced back to you or the board.  We just gave the locals some rope and then left them to their own devices.  We figured it would take them a millennium to self destruct.  It only took 8oo of their years.  The planned failure was so far ahead of schedule, we had to put a serious push on the Miner 1000 so it would be ready in time.  But we are ready."

"Good.  I finally have some positive news to bring to the next board meeting.   Uh, you are sure the Miner 1000 is ready?"

"Yes sir.  We just finished the trials out in the asteroid belt of their system.  It will latch on and suck the planet dry in less than a month.  And then we'll be gone.  It will be up to the boys over to the Plausible Denial Section to cover any fall out.  But I have been in close contact with them.  They appear to have all the bases covered. "

"So tell me something.  Have you actually been to this planet?  Are the locals as dumb as the reports indicate?  I heard they had fission and fusion but chose instead to continue running things off of carbon based fuel stocks."

"Uh, no sir I have not been there other than the usual viewing from the monitors in our control room.  But my predecessor was.  His report concluded this species was not worth even the time it was going to take for the 1000 year plan.  He pushed for the quick hit and annihilation strategy.  Not very PC given that the Planet Huggers are in power now.  I replaced him several hundred years ago." 

"Good work Cheney.  You keep producing like this and..........Oh, here's my floor.  Tell you what, call me.  We'll do lunch."

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I have to thank Demeur and Blog Fodder for the inspiration for this piece.  Demeur planted the seed with his post, An Old Fasioned Kinda Guy and Blog Fodder's comment on that post kicked the story into existence.

I wrote it as a dialog only piece because well, I figure the more dialog I write, the better I will be at it.

Later.......................................