Benny and the Grieving Man (short story)

Benny is attracted to a stranger to the Braxiatel Collection from Planet 12 and calls Jason, who is away with Mira, to discuss their open relationship. Two days later, in Café Vostra, the stranger sits with her and identifies himself as Irinidoi Saluja, father of deceased student Reep. Benny tells him about his daughter's death and later meets with Braxiatel, who is concerned about Saluja due to him being an accomplished lawyer.

Two days later, Benny visits Saluja at his rooms and confronts him about upsetting her students by asking them about Reep. He initially refuses to accept that he has crossed a line, but admits that he does not want the students to be forced to make official complaints about his conduct. He says that it is his last night at the Collection and she agrees to go to dinner with him in a dress supplied by Braxiatel. During the dinner, they kiss and Benny is tempted to go back to Saluja's room with him, but decides that it would not be in either of their best interests.

The next day, a student cries and tells Benny that she has been told not to talk to her because she is a person of interest. Benny cancels the seminar and goes to Saluja's room where she finds Braxiatel looking through the wardrobe. Saluja has gone missing and Benny picks several older students to help her, Adrian, Hass, Joseph and Cruger search for him, believing that he might have committed suicide somewhere on the Collection. The search is fruitless and, when Benny returns to her rooms, she finds Itsak Avellio, a distant relative of Mister Crofton's, waiting for her to inquire about compensation.

Braxiatel calls a meeting of the heads of department after a total of seventeen people put forth claims for compensation following their relatives' deaths on the Collection. He accepts that they will have to pay up, but Benny asks why they have only heard from these seventeen people when several other people died there during the Fifth Axis' occupation and spends the night with Cruger going through Joseph's report and trying to find a connection between the claimants. The next day, she meets with Avellio, who is accompanied by Saluja. Benny punches Saluja in the jaw.

Five days later, Benny travels to Saluja's office on 12K Island on Planet 12. Saluja claims never to have met her and that he has never gone off-world, to which Benny accuses him of sending robots to the Collection to trick Braxiatel and the staff into accepting liability for the deaths of Reep and the sixteen other people, whose deaths were the most well-documented. The sixteen other claimants had no knowledge of the claim and, as robots cannot legally claim compensation, Saluja would not have made any money from the scheme.

Although Braxiatel was unable to understand why Saluja would do this and had thus discounted the possibility that he sent the robots, Benny understands grief and has deduced that the scheme was all about revenge rather than money. The Collection has begun talks with a tribunal for compensating the relatives of the seventeen who died and is looking into doing the same for relatives of the others who died there. Benny thanks Saluja for bringing this to the Collection's attention and tells him that she is sorry for his loss. She exits, leaving her feelings of guilt behind her.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Professor Cruger gives lectures.
Cruger drinks tea.
Peter is in pre-school.
Wolsey is ill.
Jason Kane is away with Mira when Saluja arrives.
Braxiatel once took Benny to the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in 1851. They saw a percussion target pistol made by Alfred Gauvin which, in 2604, Braxiatel tracked down for the Collection.
Lancing is in Reep's rooms.
Braxiatel gives Benny a dress worn by Madame Smorfette at the opening of the Neptune Bridge.
Saluja has seen the mass graves of thousands of women and children on Pythagoras IV, killed in Fifth Axis camps. All nineteen officers were found guilty and sentenced to death.
Saluja fought in the war against the Fifth Axis. His then-partner suggested his tattoos.
Benny and Saluja talk about Mister Crofton and Hass.
Professor Deadsnake is a head of department and expert on law.
Itsak comes from New Japan. It is very far from Planet 14.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Benny was with Reep Saluja when she died. (AUDIO: Braxiatel in Love)
The Collection was damaged in the Fifth Axis occupation. (PROSE: The Fall, etc.)