Chapter 4: My name is Stephen.
Fred was my father and Shannon my mother. They aimed me toward a career as an engineer, but I really wanted to be a pilot. While I was studying for my degree in engineering I also took as many courses as I could relating to piloting. Orbital mechanics was almost as much fun as the course on gravitational computation. All my friends think I'm nuts because I like the puzzles that numbers can solve. I graduated 9th in my class of 31.
At my parents insistence I applied for a job in habitat construction design. Dad informed me that the council was considering building a pure warship. It is to be paired with a habitat that will have a 8000 meter radius. Six cargo ships are also planned along with a bunch of fighters. I'm certainly qualified on paper.
I saw all my classmates at the interviews last week.
My interviews didn't go as Dad told me they would. When I compared notes with my friends I noticed that the questions I was asked and the problems they had me solve varied from what my friends reported. The posting go up next week, however I've been notified that I have to report back for more interviews. Mom thinks that it's because of the extra courses I took.
For the last four days I've been given problems in half a dozen different fields. The reason I recognized this was because I spent a week going through all the courses available before I started on my engineering degree. Mom and Dad insisted that my sisters and I strive to be the best in school and made all of us research and completely outline our educational plan and goals before we even started. The normal 4 year plan stretched to 5 because of the extra courses I had in mine. They both tried to talk me out of the extra courses and logically they were right, but at sixteen I was rebellious enough to stand my ground and I told them I could drop the extras any time I wanted to. Mom was worried about me being called back for extra interviews and Dad just told me that I told you so. He told me that I would probably be place on probation because I wasn't focused. Anyway tomorrow morning I'll find out, my final interview is scheduled for 2nd shift in conference room 391. That's half way across the habitat. When I told Mom, she said a word that I only heard in the gym before. Then she called Dad and they went into their bedroom for a conference and turned up their entertainment system so I couldn't hear what they were talking about. Neither one of them would answer any of my questions at supper.
This morning Mom insisted that I wear my best college jumpsuit and carry all my ID along with my original college plan and transcript. The strange thing was she had tears in her eyes and all Dad did was growl at me and say the decisions you made have finally caught up with you. Keep alert and don't take any guff.
I'm finally here. The 35 minute trip has taken over an hour. Talk about security, I've been stopped at 3 check points and at the last I was strip searched and every document I had with me was copied. The guard at this door told me grab a seat in the room across the hall and wait because I was 20 minutes late. He laughed and stated that if they didn't want to see me, I should just jump ship. There was one guy sitting in the room and when I said Hi, he just said, shut up, we're bugged. After awhile he was called across the hall. I watched the door for over an hour figuring that I would be called in as soon as he came out. Then a woman came in, looked at me, and said for me to follow her. The guard opened the door as we approached and the first thing I noticed was we were in an airlock.
The conference room was about the size of our gym. I followed her all the way across to the single chair in front of an empty table. She told me to have a seat and them left through another door. I've never been in a room that quiet. I mean there wasn't even the usual background noise and after awhile I realized that the normal vibrations you feel were absent.
An old guy walked in the left door, stared at me for a minute and went out the right door. I was getting nervous. Suddenly I remembered a book Dad insisted I read years ago. A section covered interrogation and intimidation techniques they used back on earth. They used to use some of those techniques on us until we left for college. Then I leaned back into a slouch and crossed my ankles. Not a comfortable position in a straight back chair, but it allowed me to lean my head back. I closed my eyes down to slits and watched the doors. I could feel my pulse in the back of my neck so I started counting it and doing deep breathing every 4th beat. After about 10 minutes I noticed movement to my right. There were six old guys coming through a hidden door.
I immediately sat up straight and turned to look directly at them and they froze. Then I heard one chuckle and comment that they'd better review the recording before they started the interview. A woman came in through the right door and set up a monitor on the table and they clustered around it and watched intently as she scrolled through the recording several times. Then one of them said, see this movement, he was faking all the time. Very interesting. If he had the training he'd be good in security. Then they sat down and started firing questions at me. They were using the same tactics that Mom and Dad used when they were trying to confuse me enough so they could get at the truth when I did something wrong. I then leaned back and stared at them and didn't answer any more questions until one of them said, Jan was right, he catches on quick. Are we sure he never had any advanced security training? Then I volunteered an answer by saying, you're using similar techniques that my parents use when they want information from me or my sisters. I continued by stating, the second set of interviews I went through covered subjects that were outside the major courses I took at college. So what position do I qualify for and what plans do you have for me. The gal at the end of the table then began reading from her monitor.
The individual know as Stephen 2R1N2ON, having been evaluated and found unsuitable for assignment to the construction engineering section is hereby committed to section 8 deck 7 asylum 3. Work assignments will be determined by the other occupants. By order of council 3 this date. Then she said, exit through the door behind me and you'll be escorted to your new living quarters. Have fun.
Numbly I followed her instructions and was met by middle age woman in uniform that just smiled at me. We'd passed 3 cross corridors before the comment have fun finally clicked. I laughed out load to see what effect it would have on my escort. She stopped so fast I almost knocked her over.
Turning she commented, usually most of the inmates don't get it until we get them inside. Just exactly what do you think you'll be doing?
Thinking quickly I said, I'll be doing what I've been trained to do except I'll be covering all the angles from outside the box.
She then just told me to follow her. The five individuals she introduced me to tried to have fun with me by acting nuts. After a minute I went over to one of the monitor stations in the main room and wrote a message to Mom and told her that I was fine and in with a couple of nuts and would send her an update in a few days.
As I hit the send key one of them commented, he ain't crazy enough to be here, send him back.
I turned around in the chair, leaned back, and stated crazy is just a state of mind. My parents wanted me to stay in the box, but I like looking around outside. Does anyone have any toys I can play with? If not I'll have to make my own.
They all turned to my escort and she simply said, he figured it out 3 corridors away from the conference room. My bet is that he'll be the chief nut here in a few years.
Well, I've been here for over a year and still trying to catch up with the advanced design concepts they are working with. We have access to every technical database in the computers. I've yet to get a file my access code won't open. My ID card has my occupation as construction supervisor level 5. That puts me one level below Dad and he has worked in engineering his whole life, and he's near the top. It's embarrassing when we're out and he calls me sir and ask my opinion in front of other supervisors.
Mom told me last week that my youngest sister is just as ornery as I was and her college plan is just as screwed up as mine
was. My comment was, I hope that Dad made her read the same books he made me read. They were a good foundation. I'll drop by this weekend and talk to her.
After looking over her outline I suggested a few changes. She told me I was nuts, but incorporated two of them. I then told her that her plan was tough and not to give up on her dreams.
The plans are complete for the warship, habitat, fighters and the overall weapons systems. Construction will start when we enter the next star system and start mining operations. The councils decision is to build 2 and then split the population into groups and go to different stars. A rendezvous star was designated with 2 alternates.
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