"Um... I'm not sure what your standards are. We're up to galactic par, mostly, in some places. I think - if you found someone to work with on Barrayar, it would probably reflect well on you."
"I'll sit on the message to Escobar, then, I may as well look into it. I built this one by myself in a workshop intended to let us make cunning electrical sculptures, I'm sure I can teach someone who knows the rudiments how to make more of them with cheaper materials."
"What do you think of the form factor? I was making it a priority to have it come off as plausible jewelry on casual inspection, but I'm not sure if that's a positive or a neutral for the general case."
"I think... if I have the option for mine, I'd like it to really look like an old-fashioned pen, if possible. I'm not sure of the size of the market for that aesthetic in the wormhole nexus at large."
"For the projection to work right there does need to be something clear on each end. I suppose I could possibly make it look like a pen cap on the nib side," Linya muses, shuffling her screen around and switching back to full color to write this down.
"It has to - well, it's easiest to make it work if it's a hemisphere. I suppose I might be able to figure out enough optics to get it to behave in a nib shape." Note note.
"Quite possibly. Let's see if this ship library has anything I haven't read in the relevant problems of making light go through oddly-shaped things." She goes and browses through the available texts, humming.
So instead she kisses Miles.
(If Miles is capable of complex thought he might notice that she kisses like someone with only theoretical knowledge of the practice, but Linya vaguely suspects that he might take long enough to have this power of discernment for her to catch up on the learning curve.)
He already pretty much knows that she has only theoretical knowledge of the practice. He doesn't really consider it a detriment. She's kissing him. It's lovely. The end.
And then that seems like enough kiss for the time being. Although she does decide that his hair requires petting.
Miles hugs her and leans into her and makes contented humming noises of the sort one might make if one were discovering the joys of hairpets.
Linya kisses his ruffled hair and goes back to Russian for the time being.
Miles spends a few moments Being Very Delighted and then sets up to start working on his report again.