by O E Tearmann
He glanced around the hot room, taking in the cracked solar panel on one of the workbenches, the tangle of piping that covered one wall to the ceiling and the array of tools arranged neatly on every flat surface. In the back of the room, the hydraulic pumps that pushed water through the base's plumbing, water purifiers, central air filter and all the mechanisms that kept their recycled water drinkable and their base's atmosphere livable rumbled and clanked to themselves.
"Actually, would you mind walking me through some of your work? I'd like to understand the challenges we have here, see if I can do anything to help."
The older woman tipped her head, thick black ponytail falling over her shoulder as she studied him. After a long, tense silence, she snorted.
"You serious, boy? I ain't never seen a commanding officer give a shit 'bout plumbing before. 'Sides shoutin' at me to do better."
"Way I see it, it's suicide not to care about the plumbing." Aidan smiled weakly. Work was a safe topic. After a day full of screw-ups, he'd finally started to realize that the way to make a good impression was to show interest in the way this crew worked together. Best way to avoid getting hit with a massive wrench. Hopefully. "If we're not paying attention to drilling groundwater and storing electricity, we're dead anyway, one way or another. I'd like to give this base a fighting chance, and that means making sure you have everything you need to do your job well."
Another long silence enveloped the room. Janice's eyes narrowed a little, sharpening the webs of lines in the corners. Finally, she nodded slightly. "Let's see what you got, I guess."
Aidan didn't even have time to respond before Janice was inundating him with information about the groundwater drilling and water reclamation, the bots and valve sensors that monitored water quality and cleaned out pipe blockages, the solar panels, storage batteries, and all the other bits and pieces that provided their base with consistent plumbing and power wherever they moved. According to Janice, it was all quick to disassemble and move when the crew trekked to a new base site every few months, but that only made the systems more complicated to Aidan's eye. He only understood a quarter of what she told him, but he got the important parts.
The Wildcards were constantly under threat of two things: detection and water shortage. Aidan had thought the water restrictions were bad on his former base, but it was worse here.
They were too close to the Denver Metro Grid to drill wells for any length of time. Their water reclamation was pretty amazing when it was properly supplied, but when it wasn't, you could only recycle the same water so many times through failing filters. According to Janice, the system was usually out of something.
Aidan took notes on his tab about equipment she wanted in an ideal world, processes she needed Sector approval for, and all the little irritations she listed off.
Janice paced as she talked, stroking piping and tools as if they were prize cats. Every now and then, Aidan caught her staring at him as if she were sizing him up and his shoulders would hunch a little before he forced them to straighten. He was commander, he reminded himself. He was just trying to get a feel for his base. He was doing the right thing.
When Janice finally trailed off half an hour later, the file of notes sat at six pages long and Aidan's head spun. Everyone else he'd debriefed with had given him maybe one or two simple, hesitant requests, but Janice had apparently thrown everything she had at him.
He glanced up from his notes at the sudden silence and the feeling of eyes on him. "Is that all?"
For the first time, she gave him a smile. Or a smirk. It was hard to tell. "Shit, your eyes only glazed over twice. Gotta say, I'm impressed, boy." She coughed theatrically. "'Scuse me. Commander."
Aidan switched his tab into sleep mode and slipped it into his pocket in a weak attempt to cover his surprise. He'd impressed her? By listening and taking notes? What kinds of assholes had Sector Personnel sent this base before? No wonder the Wildcards were so suspicious. He still wasn't sure he could actually bring them back to fully functional, but if just listening to his crew was going to impress them, he had a bit more hope.
He cleared his throat awkwardly as he stood. "Aidan's fine. I'm not so big on titles."
That earned him another long, appraising look. Janice folded her arms and leaned against the wall beside the door frame. Her smile faded into a stern expression that made Aidan wonder if he'd said something wrong.
"Before you get cocky, let me tell you how this is gonna go. You seem to got more brains than the other chicken-fuckers they sent us, so maybe you'll get it. I'm an engineer, see? I talk straight. I come to you once a month and tell you how we're doin' on water and power. If it's shitty, I tell you how much we got to use for how long, what parts I need, an' why. You don't tell me to look harder for water or get higher efficiency rates outta the shit we use for photoelectric cells. You understand that if it's bad enough that I'm comin' to you, I done every damn thing I know how, and trust me, Aidan, that's everything you can do.
"You don't tell me to do a better job. You don't act like I sit in my chair diddlin' myself 'til it's quittin' time, 'cause I ain't even got a quittin' time on this job. I'm working 24-7 to take care of this base.
"In return, I don't lie to you." Janice held his gaze as if daring him to look away. "I don't tell you we're doin' fine when I know we're in shit up to our eyeballs, just 'cause I don't wanna deal with your whiny ass screamin' in my ear like a two-year-old. You're straight with me. I'm straight with you. You understand that, we're gonna get along just fine. That gonna work or do we got a problem?"
Aidan blinked as the tirade ended. A slow, awkward smile spread across his lips. "Janice, honestly, that's exactly how I want this base to run. I trust you to do your job to the best of your abilities, and you trust me to help you however I can. You tell me there's a problem, and we work to find a solution."
She studied him one more time before jerking her chin toward the door. "C'mon. Reckon it's about lunchtime. Let's get you somethin' to eat."
"Sure." Aidan stood and smoothed his uniform jacket, making sure it lay as flat as possible. Something about the way she looked at him made him feel exposed. Easier to focus on that than wonder about the sudden change of topic. "Anything else you want to talk about before we go?"
"Figure I talked your ear off enough for one day," Janice said with a throaty chuckle. She pushed off the wall and motioned for him to go first. "Go on. I got somethin' to grab from my room first."
Aidan realized she was trying to get rid of him and smiled weakly. At least she hadn't threatened him. He'd take it. "Yeah. Right. Thanks for your time, Janice."
The older woman gave him a dry look. "You were doin' good," she remarked over her shoulder as she followed him out of her office, shut the door and turned away. "Don't start sounding like a condescendin' pissant now."
Aidan's stomach dropped. Condescending? He had meant it to be polite! Had he just ruined any progress he'd made? He swallowed a mouthful of anxious bile and forced himself not to watch Janice's retreating back. Running his hands over his hair, he turned toward the canteen and hoped he could make it through lunch without too many problems.
Event File 7
File Tag: Comestibles
Timestamp:12:45-4-2-2155
In the canteen, Kevin took his customary seat on the bench between Yvonne and Topher and listlessly considered his lunch. The protein patties and reconstituted vegetables looked slightly less soggy than usual, but Kevin still wasn't certain what sort of veg it was supposed to be. He amused himself by considering the question. The mash of green and orange could have been broccoli and carrots, or sweet potato and asparagus. Not that it mattered. It would taste like sour cardboard regardless.
After nine years out in the Dust, one would think he would have adjusted to the awful food, but he still unconsciously compared it to the fresh produce his parents had always had on the ta
ble. And good God did it fall short.
He really had to requisition something better than this. Anything better. But how? Only the CPS Standard Ration Allotment shipments were monitored so loosely by American AgCo and its subsidiaries that they were easy to recode out of existence and steal. He'd tried for fresh produce before, and it had been a massive mistake that landed him and Yvonne both in the med bay. So how-?
Yvonne elbowed him in the ribs just as he managed to get his first bite situated on his plastic fork. "We supposed to salute or something?"
Kevin glanced up as he was yanked out of his train of thought. Commander Headly-no, Aidan-stood awkwardly in the doorway, looking like a child uncertain if he should intrude on his parents' conversation.
The analogy made the corners of Kevin's lips twitch up. If the commander was that uncomfortable with the idea of intruding on his subordinates' time, maybe their debrief hadn't been a fluke. Maybe Aidan really was a decent human being.
"We're off-duty," Kevin replied quietly, shrugging. He shoved the forkful of mushy vegetables into his mouth. They barely required chewing. "If he wants us to salute, he'll say something. Unless he does, enjoy dinner."
Yvonne snorted.
"Yeah, right," Topher grumbled, stabbing his protein patty disinterestedly with his fork.
Kevin gave a long-suffering sigh and adjusted his glasses. "I know, I know. It was the best I could land this month. Have some pity. I'm eating it, too, aren't I?" He did his best not to watch Aidan skirt the edges of the room toward the long table that operated as a serving area between the dining table and the kitchen.
"Hey, Sarah," Yvonne said in a voice just loud enough for Kevin to hear. "We should start the betting pool up. Five to one odds on Kev jumping the commander's bones next week."
"Yvonne! Must you?" Kevin groaned, knowing the conversation would keep going no matter what. Yvonne, her cousin Lazarus, and her wife Sarah had been playing this game with him since he'd arrived a decade ago, teasing and encouraging him about what passed for his romantic life by turns.
The game never really changed, much to his chagrin. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only one of their quartet who'd really grown up. The Three Stooges had just gotten older and better at their pranks.
Sarah giggled and slung her arm over her wife's shoulders. "Nah, three to one. Did you see that blush last night?"
"There's betting?" Lazarus asked as he slid into his seat on the opposite side of the table, an extra protein patty on his tray in place of the reconstituted veg. "Who're we looking at?"
"Kev and the commander," Topher snickered.
Lazarus turned a huge grin on his base mate. "Awesome! If he's busy with your ass, maybe he won't try to bust mine every-"
"Will you lot shut up?!" Kevin hissed, glaring at the three of them. "The new commander does not, in fact, need to know I'm unconventional on his second day, thanks."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Oh, drop the Morality Laws crap Kev. The term's 'gay as hell.' You can say it. Besides, he's seen me and Yve already. He's not Corporation."
"Yeah, he's a human being, with, like, normal reactions," Yvonne added. "You can tell Corps kids, they've got faces like plastic dolls and a sign that says 'your ad here' behind their eyes. This guy won't care that you're-"
"Commander Quinn did care, if you recall," Kevin interjected, words pointedly clipped.
Yvonne grinned wickedly. "Yeah, well, we got rid of him for a reason. And this guy's nice. Besides, when was the last time you got your system debugged? That technical specialist eight months ago? You're overdue."
Kevin gave her a look over the rims of his glasses at the euphemism. Since his last boyfriend had decommissioned from the Force and gone Fringe, he'd made a habit of finding some cute guy for a night among the visiting specialists or the bases he occasionally helped out on once every six months or so. It did help take the edge off. Unfortunately, once they'd realized that he had a time table of sorts, the Three Stooges had started calling it 'debugging his system' and the damned phrase had stuck.
"I hate you sometimes," he muttered.
Sarah draped herself over her wife and blew him a kiss. "Love you, too."
Kevin slipped his glasses off and turned his eyes to the ceiling in exasperation as the conversation continued around him. He could feel the blush creeping up the back of his neck.
Damn his pale skin. If he could tan, he wouldn't have such an issue with these warning-beacon blushes. But Cavanaugh Corporation had always liked its top people and their families to have a certain look, and, thanks to skin cells that produced their own zinc oxide sunblock, he was stuck with skin the color of cream. Lowered chances of melanoma weren't much use if he died of mortification one of these days.
Or, for that matter, if his base family ever caught on to the reason he was so damn pale. His life would basically be over at that point as well. They wouldn't take well to learning he was a Cavanaugh executive's son. Let alone which executive.
Heaving a sigh, he shoved the old fear back down where it belonged in order to focus on the present disaster. At least he didn't fit Yvonne's description of a Corporation kid.
"In all seriousness, everyone, do me a favor and don't start meddling. I'm not idiotic enough to make a pass at a superior-"
"Hey, Joker!" Janice's voice cut through the chatter in the canteen like a gunshot.
Lazarus' shoulders hunched automatically, his face twisting in an expectant wince. Kevin replaced his glasses and resigned himself as best he could to a shouting match.
If Liza was the elder sister in Kevin's base family analogy, Janice was the crotchety base aunt. A member of the Wildcards since she was a teen, the older woman encouraged shenanigans if they suited her agenda, but she steamrolled anyone whose behavior wasn't good for the team.
Kevin had been scolded by her vitriol-laden tongue more than once for being reckless, finicky, sullen, or a nuisance. He'd arrived at sixteen, and, since being sixteen mainly consisted of being reckless, finicky, sullen, and a nuisance, he'd gotten more than one lecture peppered with curses. But at least she had always pulled him aside and berated him privately. If Janice was yelling at someone in public, she wanted the entire base to know what they'd done, and she had a point to make.
The wiry hydroelectrics specialist stalked forward and slammed a dark bottle on the table beside Lazarus hard enough to make everyone jump. She leaned down, one calloused hand on Laz's shoulder, and spoke loud enough for the entire canteen to hear. "Saw your message this morning. Nice move, asshat."
"What'd I do? I just-" Lazarus began, but Janice cut him off.
"You just nothin'. Since when was it cool to prank people who didn't do nothin' to you? Talkin' about stickin' the commander in some goddamn dress 'fore you even know if this one's good or not. Cut that shit out!"
Considering he'd grown up with Janice, Laz ought to know better, Kevin reflected. But he always did try for the self-defense clause. Which, generally, only made things worse for the spectators. The munitions man's voice sounded thin and downtrodden after Janice's. "C'mon, Janice, it was just a joke. Commander won't make it here if he can't take a joke."
"He's not gonna make it if you keep fuckin' with him, neither." Janice smacked the back of Laz's head, and Kevin winced in sympathy. "This one's got some brains where all you got is balls, so quit bein' a fuckwad. You get me?"
Kevin blinked, shoving his glasses up his nose with one finger. So Janice was defending the new commander? That was a change. She'd practically led the rebellions against the last two idiots Sector had sent them. What had Aidan done to earn her trust?
He glanced at the commander, who was frozen wide-eyed beside the serving table, questionable vegetables dripping from the spoon. Kevin blinked. The man looked… frightened.
"What'd he do, eat you out?" Lazarus asked bitterly, which earned him another smack to the back of his head.
/>
"What'd I just say about not bein' a fuckwad? He listened, dumbass. Which's better'n you bunch of fucking kindergarteners." Janice straightened, taking her bottle with her. "All I'm sayin' is give him a chance, for fuck's sake. Lay off unless he deserves a goddamn wakeup call an' then I'll give it, got it?"
"But Janice-"
"And another thing. This rum bottle had a hell of a lot more in it last time I checked. Did you-"
Kevin shook his head as the tirade rambled on. Shoving one more forkful of so-called food into his mouth, he slipped off the bench while everyone else's attention was on Janice and Laz.
Someone had to tell the commander to close his mouth before one of the more mischievous members of the crew noticed. Carrying his tray so he looked like he might be grabbing seconds-God forbid-he slipped to the long table and cleared his throat delicately.
"Excuse me, sir."
Aidan visibly stiffened, and nearly dropped the serving spoon. He turned, blinked. "Oh. Um. Kevin. Hi."
"Hi." Kevin gave him a small smile.
Now that he was over here, he realized he should have figured out what he was going to say beforehand. One simply did not approach a superior officer to tell him to stop gawping. Of course Yvonne's teasing didn't help either. The heat of embarrassment was still burning the back of his neck, threatening to spread across his cheeks. Damn it, he was a logistics officer. He bluffed his way past ZonCom personnel and EagleCorp security contractors three times a week. So why did this have to be so unnerving?
"Can I help you with something?" Aidan asked. He seemed to realize then that he was still holding the serving spoon and returned it to the bowl as if it might be explosive.
Kevin adjusted his glasses in a weak attempt to hide his nerves. How did he get himself in these kinds of situations again?