“Ensign Kaval” began Brigid, outside Cpt. Sturdivant’s office, “I’m sometimes told I’m hard to work with. That’s when people are being polite. But what I hear behing my back is ‘bitchy’. However, I flatter myself that I’m very good at what I do, and in this matter I have a personal stake. Well, more than one actually.”
John summoned a cart and gave it directions, and it coasted away at moderate speed.
“I understand about your friend, Ms. Connell. I’m very sorry.”
“El didn’t deserve what happened to him. I want payback.”
“Well, between us maybe we can comb through what we have and get it. But, call me John. You’re a civilian, so we don’t have to be formal.”
The older woman had had very few people in her life she could honestly call friends, and she didn’t expect for this young man to become one of them. But there was no reason not to return the courtesy he had offered. After a brief internal struggle she replied “And you can call me Brigid.”
The cart slowed and came to a halt in a corridor Brigid had not yet seen. John helped her clamber out and the two entered a door marked with the simple legend “Computech”. Brigid noted that it felt markedly cooler here, although not unpleasantly so, than the corridor outside. The small foyer seemed almost a duplicate of the waiting room outside Cpt. Sturdivant’s office, right down to the young corporal and the spiky leaved crystal plant. The young non-com affixed a chip to Brigid’s collar that marked her as “authorized” to security devices, and then she was lead down a short hallway by Kaval.
“Not much further” he promised as she followed slowly behind him, looking around at a series of unmarked doors. “Here we go” he said, halting a bending his head slightly to let a scanner view his retinal pattern. The door slid open and Kaval motioned her inside. “Ladies first” he said. Glaring at him, Brigid entered.
“Whoa” she breathed, impressed in spite of herself. The room had lighting that imitated the sunshine as seen on Earth, humanity’s original home. It appeared to come from “windows” on the walls, that showed an outdoor scene with Terran trees, grass and flowers. Occasionally a bird flew by, or an animal appeared from the woods. The scene changed constantly.
Of course there was the usual setup of scanners, computers, and technical wizardry. But the chairs looked actually comfortable, and adjustable to fit individual height, weight, and visual requirements.
“It’s really something, isn’t it?” grinned Kaval, relishing the look on Brigid’s face. “Sometimes analysts or researchers are in here for a long time. This setup breaks monotony, helps keep folks alert. That outdoor scene is on a 24 hour, standard day loop, from day to night and back again. Sometimes there’s even a storm thrown in. Looking at long streams of pictures, vids, or printed data can be boring, and workers can zone out.”
“Your tax credits at work” muttered Brigid. “I sure never rated a set-up like this. Can we get going now?”
“You bet. If you want to sit here, I’ll take this station, and we can get started.”
Sometime later the two realized they were actually working well together. There was little off tpic chit-chat, but no discord either, and both were coming to a realization of each other’s talents.
Brigid was still wondering how to bring up the matter of the information “Rose” had tossed in her lap, when the matter was taken out of her hands. The Compupad she’s been given was not all that large, and, not thinking about it earlier, she’d thrust it into her jacket pocket when she’d returned to Capt. Sturdivant’s office so abruptly.
Now it began a faint signaling beep, and at the same time a small red light began flashing at Kaval’s station.
“What the frell?” he said, in a surprised tone. Brigid glanced at him in consternation.
“That’s for an unauthorized signal” he said. Making a few adjustments he glanced at a small screen. “But the source is from in this room.” Before he could say anything else Brigid decided to come clean.
With a muttered apology she took the device out and wordlessly laid it down between them. The signal, getting no response, had ceased.
Kaval was pissed, thinking of spies and deception. “What in frak is that?” he rasped.
Brigid sighed. “Something I should have told you about sooner.”
“How long were you going to wait? And you still haven’t answered my question!”
Even knowing she’d been the one to make an error in judgement Brigid was annoyed. "Look, youngster, it’s been hard to know who to really trust around here. “We’ve been getting along pretty good so far, if you’ll simmer down I’ll tell you what little I know.”
And she did, starting from the moment she’d arrived on Victory Station. It took quite a while, and the scene outside the “window” was dark by the time she had finished. And young as he was, John Kaval was still shrewd enough to understand that what he had been told was too long and detailed to be a lie made up on such short notice.
After showing the ensign some of the files she had already viewed he began to get excited as well, and willing to forget Brigid’s error in judgement.
"But who the frell is “Rose”? he wanted to know.
"All I know is he seems to come from the Daestral embassy, and said he ‘doesn’t want to come out yet’ " was the answer. “You can make of that what you will”
Before Kaval could go on Brigid felt her stomach rumble, and other urges as well. Until this “break” her body had been ignored, and even her back had been comfortable enough in the wonderful chair. Now she had to do something about it.
“Umm, where’s the…” but before she could finish Kaval just pointed to a door on the far wall, and with a murmur of thanks she got up.
On returning she sighed in quiet relief, then asked if they had to leave to eat.
“Well, it isn’t fancy fare, there’s also some basics in the fridge here. Do you eat meat?” “Sure do” she replied, as John rummaged around in a built in cold cabinet, ending up with coffee crystals ready to be heated, and sandwich fixings a human could eat, and would probably enjoy. If the two had had much different biochemistries they’d have been working in another room, one keyed for non-humans.
The two munched away, easy again with each other now that the misunderstanding seemed to be resolved.
Brigid glanced at out one “window”. It really was a remarkable device, now showing a nearly full Earth moon rising. The “night” scene, combined with a meal and long hours of work, began to make her feel tired, and she yawned involuntarily. “Do you suppose we could take a couple hours break?” she asked. “I’m not as young as I used to be…” But before she could finish the little red light began to go off at Kaval’s station again.
“Don’t look at me” she said, even as the CompuPad began it’s low beeping again. “this time yours went off first!”
“It’s an outside signal again, but legitimate this time” he said, turning to take a call. Just see what’s going on with yours."
Brigid flipped the device open and found Rose staring out at her. She was alarmed to see him with a gash across his face that was oozing the bronze colored blood of a Daestral. He immediately began speaking.
“Ms. O’Connell, I don’t have much time, and you don’t have any reason to trust me, yet. I said before I wasn’t ready to ‘come in’ yet, now I have to. If you can had for the Daestral embassy… please come, I’ll find you along the way. You may feel better with backup, that’s fine…”
Something off screen distracted Rose for a few seconds, then he turned back. “I was getting a signal from Dona Salo, when all hell broke loose. I think I’ve finally been traced, so I can’t go on anymore without better protection.”
“I’ll see what I can do” she said, “I can’t promise more than that”
“I don’t blame you. Over”, and the screen went blank.
Looking up she saw Kaval ending a call as well.
“Seems there’s been problems planetside again” he told her, “a couple of subterranean bombings, or explosions of some sort. And to top it off, at nearly the same time there was some kind of sniping shots outside the Daestral embassy. A couple of deaths, and several injured.”
Hurriedly Brigid told him about Rose. Her earlier feelings of tiredness were overridden by a surge of adrenalin. “Look” she said, “whatever he is, or has been, he’s an adult, and must have known what he was doing. I don’t feel any moral obligation to help, but it seems to me that helping him now is worth some risk.”
“So do I” replied Kaval. “Think you can handle it?”
Brigid gave him a dirty look, as the two prepared to leave.