Welcome to Hanm Centre for this week’s Station Keeping this is installment #10 of our first season, and it will be posted in two parts, one today, and one on Thursday. I hope you enjoy. Remember, as always, that SK is a community project and we would very much enjoy and encourage your `participation <http://tychoish.com/>`_, and as always we welcome your feedback to: tycho@tealart.com. It’s time for Station Keeping. --cheers tycho
Marc walked into the bar, “Another Round,” as the sign now read. He had just gotten done with a tiring but ultimately uneventful shift and was ready to change into more comfortable clothing. “It looks like you’re almost done here, you’re opening next friday?” Marc hadn’t been by the bar in a week or so, David knew what he was doing, or at least pretended well, and didn’t much need his input. Despite his worldly academic credentials and lengthly service record he was really mostly a homebody.
“Yeah. It’ll be good to have this weekend off, and I’d rather not have to deal with the opening and finishing up all at once.”
“You ready to head home?” He asked pointedly.
“Yeah, I’m done; but I agreed to hang around to let the tech admin come in to reinforce the network connection here, I suspect we’ll need a lot of pull when this place is full.” So mostly I’m just biding my time. He picked up the rag he was dusting with. “You have a good shift?”
“I did, but it was long, the usual run of the mill complaints mostly,” Marc said taking a seat at the bar and holding his head up with his arm. “Which is for the better, I’m afraid of what this closed system will do once we have anything more virulent than a flu, or some such,” he continued, pausing for a moment to remember anything else from the shift. " I’m never quite sure what Doctor Reese is going to do, but she’s effective and people seem to like her. Anyway, I only had one meeting today, and got a chance to work on some research: so not a bad shift just long." Marc rambled on, for a while and then paused. He checked his time piece, “When did she say she was coming by to do the work?” he asked finally.
“About twenty minutes ago, I think. She said she’d been busy…”
“She’s always busy. The woman doesn’t work, it seems to me. You’d like her she’s got personality, or something.” Marc paused, and chuckled. “Actually you should see her doodling from our staff meetings, they rival your ‘early period,'” he said, the laughter perking him up a bit.
“Oh, come on, my later doodles were better, I was just in charge of the meetings during my ‘late period,’ I think I deserve some slack.” David retorted, grinning by now: of all their “canned arguments,” this one might just have been his favorite.
“Sorry I’m late,” Julia said as she walked quckly and abruptly into the bar. The lights weren’t on, but the door was unlocked, and David had told her to just walk in incase he was in his office or the store room. “Network drop reinforced, you said?” She asked, not wasting any time on pleasantries.
“Yes. That was the plan.” David said. " You’re…"
“…Julia, we talked earlier,” she said quickly, unable to come up with a more witty response sooner.
“The tech systems administrator?”
“Aye, Sir.” she said goofily, showing the badge. on her shirt.
It was the first time that anyone on Hanm Centre had called him “sir,” in a situation that didn’t make his skin crawl. realized that she might not realized that he had been Navy. “Aren’t you a bit young for that. There must be 15 people on your staff or something.”
“Well, I have 20, right now, but I’m still looking for a few more. You know any Enhancers that want to clean up?” Julia retorted.
“Not yet, but I’ll keep you out here. Is it big out here? Enhancers, that is.”
“Bigger on Grish, they say, but I haven’t been there in the flesh for,” she paused and thought for a moment obviously counting in her head, “Well lets not try and count that one out. But yeah, there’s some on Hanm, but not enough. The node here is pretty big for the rim, and I just need more people to keep it working well,” Julia said. “I’ll get started?”
*to be continued…*
“Network Upgrades” was written by, `tycho <http://tychoish.com/tycho>`_, the creator of `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and `Station Keeping <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_. He is a student and knitter by day and a science fiction writer by night, you can read his work elsewhere on `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and at `~/tychoish <http://tychoish.com>`_.