"Huh. Well, I guess there's worse thing to be called, eh?" Teisel laughed.

"You been away long?" he asked, trying to look properly interested while at the same time trying to keep orange juice from dribbling down his chin. It was tricky.

And there was that off-balance feeling again, not as bad as before but still troubling. "Yeah, digging," he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "You go into a sub-gate and harvest refractors. And, uh, try not to get lost or trapped or splatted by reaverbots while you're down there, of course. Y'know. Digging." He watched Zelnick expectantly. Though exactly what he was expecting, he wasn't quite sure.