The day after Emma and Elijah had their talk with Olivia, Liam was at work in Building 3 as usual.  He had come to a bit of an accomodation with the agrobots, which he had to admit (to himself, anyway) were actually doing a reasonably good job.  He moved ahead of them, checking for any unplanned plants and rescuing these.  He had, at one time, also gone behind them to see what they had screwed up, but after several days of finding nothing to really complain about, he stopped doing that as much.  It was still his excuse, however, whenever asked why he was still working in Building 3 even though the agrobots were now fully up and running.

Ophelia steeled herself for a confrontation, and approached Liam.  She had been sent by Helene, and wanted to make sure that she justified Helene's trust in her.  Helene had been about to do this herself, but Ophelia could tell that tensions between the ship crew and the colonists had reached unhealthy levels, and asked to be able to handle the issue instead.  Helene in particular seemed to be getting dirty looks from the colonists, and she wanted to keep things from boiling over.  Ophelia greatly admired Helene, and also wanted to be on friendly terms with the colonists, and seeing the acrimony between them was very disturbing to her.

"I'm not sure, Ophelia," asked Helene, trying not to make it sound dismissive or doubtful.  "it might not be an easy conversation."

"I know," said Ophelia, "but I think I can manage it, if you'll let me."

Helene hesitated, but ultimately decided that if she vetoed the idea now, Ophelia might take it as a lack of confidence in her abilities.  She liked Ophelia, who she considered her protege, and did not want to dent her self-confidence.

"All right, but make sure there are others nearby," said Helene.  "Liam is unstable, and may lash out.  Be prepared for the possibility of physical violence.  Don't go alone."

"Ok," said Ophelia.  She hovered on the edge of doubting Helene's assessment of things; she had been around Liam enough by now to know that he was normally quiet, placid, and industrious, much like the quickly growing plants he liked to spend his time with.  But, she had heard that he had once seemed prepared to punch Helene when she ordered that the agrobots be rolled out to all of Building 3 at once, so she smothered any doubts in her mentor's assessment, and made sure to bring Theodore and Joshua with her to Building 3.  They stayed a few steps behind Ophelia, so that she could talk with Liam with some privacy, but close enough to intervene if necessary.

"Don't worry," said Joshua, who did not consider himself particularly adept at violence, "if he causes trouble I'll just hit his fist with my face until he gives up."

"No, no, nothing like that," said Ophelia, who was a little nervous and hadn't noticed exactly the way Joshua had phrased that, "let's not start anything.  I think if you're there, in the background but visible, it will all be fine."

Theodore, who had been in his fair share of scrapes as a younger man, did not find any of the colonists to be particularly likely brawlers.  However, he was by nature not prone to give his opinion unless asked, or he saw some reason he needed to.  All he was being asked to do was stand in the vicinity of Ophelia while she talked with Liam.  This did not seem like a difficult assignment, so he said nothing.  They walked into Building 3, and near the far end found Liam alone, inspecting the plants very closely.

"Liam?" said Ophelia, trying (mostly successfully) to sound calm and confident.  "Can we talk?"

[shoot, why did I phrase it as a question, now what do I say if he says not now]

"Sure," said Liam, without looking up from the plants whose soil he was minutely inspecting.

"So, the crops, it seems like the agrobots are doing a pretty good job, wouldn't you say?"

[crap, again with the questions, why invite him to disagree on something that's not even what we're here to discuss, Ophelia get a hold of yourself]

"Lately they seem to be working well enough," said Liam, still not looking up.  He was not actually attempting to be rude, he just didn't like talking all that much, and was hoping that if he didn't engage too much or make eye contact, Ophelia would take the hint and leave him alone.

Ophelia did not take the hint; she was here to force a conversation.

"Liam, why are you still spending so much time on the plants in Building 3?" asked Ophelia.

[ok, finally I manage to ask a question that is relevant, thought Ophelia, and her self-confidence steadied a bit]

Liam did not immediately answer, which caused Theodore and Joshua to soon decide (correctly) that Ophelia was onto something, something that Liam did not want to talk about.  Liam was good at remaining taciturn, but he was not good at acting, or concealing his intentions.

"Is it a problem?" he asked finally.

"Well maybe, yes," said Ophelia.  "There's only so much in the way of resources, and the plants on Mars have been carefully selected.  They can grow in the amount of light available, they don't require any minerals that we don't have much access to, they don't require an excessive amount of water, they're nutritious.  Would you agree that all makes sense for the Colony, in our current situation?"

[crap, why can I not stop phrasing everything as a question, thought Ophelia]

"I am happy about every plant we can get," said Liam, which could have been taken as agreement, but Ophelia could tell now, that he knew where she was headed.

"Well, maybe not every plant," said Ophelia.  "If we are spending time and water and other resources raising other plants, that were not approved by Central Command, then it's pulling away from the efforts on other plants, like the ones we are supposed to be growing."

"I thought we were letting the agrobots take care of these?" asked Liam.  "So, it shouldn't cause a problem if we had any extra types of plants."

"Liam, we're not supposed to be growing unapproved plants in the Colony," said Ophelia.

Liam pondered, for a moment, shooting back with, 'according to who?'  However, he had a feeling that Olivia would not appreciate him making things more confrontational.  He also didn't want to force the issue of who, exactly, had authority to make decisions about what was allowed on Mars, until he had talked to people like Noah about it.  He thought it was clear that Olivia should be making those decisions, and Helene was an interloper who ought to be deferring to the locals who had a permanent commitment to the Martian colony.  Recently, however, he had gotten the impression that perhaps this was not how the Earthlings saw it.  He wrestled with whether or not it was a good idea to force this question now, and as a result, said nothing for several long moments.  Eventually, unable to come up with a better answer, he decided that nothing was as good an answer as he was going to come up with.

Ophelia waited.  Liam said nothing, and was now once again looking at the soil of the pots that the plants were in, not even returning her gaze.  As far as he was concerned, it appeared, the conversation was over.  Ophelia began to grow angry.  So, she was not Helene, she was not even Olivia, she was not high-ranking here, but she deserved to be treated with respect.  If he thought he could just disregard her like that, it was time to turn up the heat a bit.

Unknown to her, Liam was mostly looking away from her because looking other people in the eyes made him uncomfortable, and he rarely made eye contact during conversation with anyone.  He was, in fact, desparately wanting her to go away.  His wish was not going to be granted yet.

"Liam!" said Ophelia, sharply.

"What?" he asked, sounding annoyed.

"I can tell what you're doing!  We're not supposed to be growing unapproved plants in the Colony!" she said, nearly shouting.

Liam stood up straight again, and looked at Ophelia.  His facial expression was tight lipped, and and he looked frustrated and angry.  He still didn't say anything in response to Ophelia, and her frustration boiled over.  He had no right to shrug her off like a minor annoyance; she was raising a valid concern about a violation of protocol per Central Command's (i.e. Earth's) instructions, and he was treating the whole conversation as if it were not worth his attention.  Or, perhaps, treating her as if she were not worth his attention.

Unknown to Ophelia, Liam was actually not responding because he didn't know what to say.  He often didn't know what to say to people, which is why he was normally pretty quiet.  He knew that Ophelia represented a distant, powerful, and (to him) mostly unknown force (Central Command, on Earth).  He didn't want to say the wrong thing, and see years worth of his efforts (to grow a wider variety of plants on Mars) destroyed.  Dimly, he was aware that not saying anything was probably not the right choice either, but he didn't know what to do instead.  He wished Olivia were here.

Ophelia's anger boiled over.

"LIAM IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO ME..." she began.

"Ophelia," came a voice from behind her, which Ophelia did not at first register because she was angry.

"...I AM QUITE PREPARED TO TAKE DRASTIC MEASURES, YOU ARE TOTALLY OUT OF LINE AND..."

"Ophelia!" came Helene's voice, this time a tiny bit sharper.

Ophelia froze, mortified, as she realized that Helene had just witnessed at least the last part of the exchange.  She suddenly remembered that the entire point of her having this conversation with Liam was to prevent Liam's evident dislike of Helene from causing trouble.  She had, she suddenly realized, made it a lot more of a problem than it should have been.  Why had she lost her cool like that?  She froze, silent, unsure what to do or say.  Helene stepped up beside her; Ophelia, from embarrassment, did not look at her.

"Liam, if you want to ask Command for permission to grow new crops, go ahead and ask, but don't try to hide it," said Helene, calmly but firmly.  She put a hand on Ophelia's shoulder, and gently steered her away from Liam and towards the exit from Building 3.  "Ophelia, let's go to my quarters and talk."

Theodore and Joshua, who had witnessed the entire exchange silently, watched Helene and Ophelia walk out, Helene with an arm around Ophelia's shoulders, somewhat like an adult calming (and also corralling) an upset adolescent.  After they were gone, Liam walked quietly out as well, presumably going to wherever he kept his illicit (and now threatened) plants, so he could relocate them to somewhere better hidden.

"Well," said Joshua to Theodore when they were all out of earshot, "does this mean I don't have to hit him with my face?"

"Helene, I'm sorry," said Ophelia miserably, once they had gotten somewhere private to talk.

"Don't worry about it too much, Ophelia," said Helene calmly.

"I screwed up.  He just made me so mad, he was just totally ignoring me like I was nobody..."

"Don't let him mess with your head," said Helene, firmly.  "Liam is probably the real leader, here; Olivia is just his spokesperson.  He's trying to undermine everything we do; you don't want to let him get in your head.  Shake it off."

Ophelia, not wanting to appear "shaken" to her mentor, straightened her back and nodded calmly.

"You're right.  But, sorry, I did screw up.  I guess I let him get under my skin."

"Don't worry about it, Ophelia," said Helene calmly.  "It really isn't going to matter for much longer, anyway."