Hardship Troopers

Walking into his office, Cam set his bag down and called for his terminal to activate. The screen and the rest of the tech in the room fired up, illuminating the room with flickering yellow light.

As he sat down and attempted to type commands into the holographic interface, the terminal appeared to be operating sluggishly. He just thought it was a case of the system being in sleep mode for the entirety of his off-shift was taking it a few seconds to reconstitute its operating integrity. But then seconds turned into minutes and it was still operating sluggishly.

Dread swept over him. "No..." he groaned. It definitely became apparent that it wasn't a matter of the system merely switching back from sleep mode. This appeared itself to be a systemic issue of some type, one he alone couldn't remedy.

Cam just sat there for minutes glaring at his impotent terminal and realized he was just as impotent and helpless as it was. The terminal stared back at him mockingly, seemingly knowing what predicament it had gotten Cam into. He knew what the solution to the problem. He knew who could simply inoculate the terminal and set the system right. He also knew how unattractive an option that was.

He determined that another squabble with Max was something he just did not want to stomach so he got on his knees and pulled off the front access panel to the terminal's mainframe. He sat there looking into the maze of dumbfoundingly confusing hardware, completely lost.

Max ascended from her infernal abode in the sub-basement beneath her workshop and strided out into the hallway, heading for the cafeteria. As she walked past Cam's office, she noticed him sitting on the floor glaring into the exposed mainframe. Her brow crinkled and she stormed in. Cam heard her clomping boot stamping the floor and glanced up before looking away, knowing the next few minutes were likely going to be a storm of shit.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked.

He sighed. "Look, I was having some issues with my terminal and I didn't feel like bothering you with it."

She stepped in and brushed him away, resetting the access panel and sitting in his chair, dialing up the holographic interface. "Fixing these things are my job. Just because we have some high school kid squabble doesn't give you license to start screwing around with a terminal when you don't know what the hell you're doing."

Cam could only stand there, hands futilely on his hips, feeling like a completely neutered domesticated animal, stripped clean of his manhood. Max went in, eyes furiously scanning the holographic display as she typed in commands. After about a minute, she looked over at him. "Corporate reset the security protocols and installed new firewalls. All the terminals on the station were undergoing a routine update. You would've known that if you would've just checked your administrator messages." she said, flustered.

He put his hand on his head. "Listen, umm, I'm sorry. Corporate hasn't installed new firewalls in a long time and when they did in the past they usually notified department managers at the quarterly teleconferences. I wasn't informed. Based on how buggy the system's been lately I just assumed it was more of the same."

Max stood up, not completely sold, still wearing that smug, infallible look of restrained revilement. Cam had grown to despise that look. "From now on, if the terminals seem buggy, you come get me. You've got to separate the business from the personal. If you can't take having a woman around here that doesn't just bat her eyes and giggle every time you talk to her, you and me are going to have issues. The terminals go down, you call me. Period, the end, got it?" she said, laying it out mercilessly.

He had to regain some face. "I got it. I don't have an issue about you not being the type to bat your eyes and giggle every time I talk. I don't even know how things got derailed so bad," he admitted. "Listen, I want to apologize for how I acted at Anchorpoint last night. I kind of snapped when I shouldn't have. I guess I've been a little stressed from work and I probably took a comment you made out of context or something." He said this, but knew in his heart of hearts that he hadn't misinterpreted her snide comments but wanted to build a bridge between them, even if he had to make some concessions.

Max's stance hadn't softened but it hadn't worsened, either. "You said that you just wanted to keep to yourself and that I should do the same. I agree. You stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours."

Cam didn't understand her undeserved aggression. "Did I do something to you on a personal level? If I did, let me know and I'll be happy to apologize. If I ever offended you or did something..."

"Look," she interrupted. "I don't really care about your political correctness bullshit, okay?"

"I understand you don't like me. I don't know why but I can respect that. I don't really know what I can do. The second you walked into the department you were eyeing the place like you wanted to take a couple of firebombs to it and you always look at me like you want to punch me in the face. We happen to bump into each other at Anchorpoint and you give me attitude there, for no reason. I don't get it. Would punching me in the face actually get you to loosen up a little? If so, please just go ahead and do it." he chuckled.

Her level of spite had actually subsided, her face had gone slack. She'd apparently given up the fight. "Your terminal is clean. If something else happens, just let me know." And with that, she backed out of the office.

Over the next few days, Cam had some unintended run-ins with Max. He saw her in the cafeteria standing with her back to him at one of the automat kiosks. He steered clear and went to a kiosk on the other side of the cafeteria. This was a common occurence. If they were both in the cafeteria at the same time and Cam saw her first, he would keep a safe distance. If he was there first and had ordered his meal, then noticed her walk in, he took the safe route and gave her a wide berth. Not so much out of fear but out of respect for her apparent need for space.

There were moments that they made eye contact but Cam was always the first one to break and look away, pretending the glance was accidental. The glances were never accidental. He was captivated by her, just the sheer dichotomy of what she was; a self-imposed scarred beauty, always brooding and scowl-faced on the surface, but some kind of mysterious tortured beast on the inside, incapable of outside intrusive analysis.

He'd be walking through the facility looking for someone, Archie or Ko'Lokk or someone else, and he'd stumble upon Max in the midst of a terminal repair. He'd see her and his loose confidence immediately became a rigid trepidation. A mere lazy, empty glance from her would draw him in and slow his heart. He'd quickly look away, of course, as he had grown to do with increasing patheticness and frequency.

Or worse, he'd walk past an office and would notice Max responding to a repair ticket. She would be facing him, but hadn't noticed him and was bent forward, her loose tanktop drawing away from her chest exposing a valley of cleavage. That was the worst for him, when he knew she hadn't seen him, but was unintentionally posed in such a way that he couldn't divert his eyes.

Other times, he'd walk past the docks and find her on her knees before an open terminal control panel, expertly swapping out a controlboard with her sweaty, toned arms, her face agonizingly slack and sensuous and her swollen lips dry and pursed. She had one facial expression; calm, cool and collected.

None of these images ever escaped his memory and he'd usually subconsciously draw them up in the middle of work or at home, in the shower, in bed. She'd invaded his mind and likely had no idea she had. For Cam, that was probably the worst insult. Of all those little run-ins, though, they hadn't spoken a word to each other.

*****

Cam returned home from work, exhausted, both emotionally and physically. As he entered his quarters, his holographic alert system was triggered and projected an image that occupied the far corner of his living space. It was of his mother, Haliatha. "Cam, sweetie," she said. "Give me a call back when you can, okay? Love you, honey."

Cam shut his door and collapsed onto his couch, his body limp. "Holophone, call mom," he commanded. After a few rings, the three-dimensional, holographic image re-appeared, now in real-time.

"Hi, honey," Haliatha said. "I thought I'd give you a ring before we left for the shuttle."

"You guys got your tickets secured?" he asked, an obvious lack of enthusiasm in his slouching posture.

"Oh, yes. We'll be leaving around noon time tomorrow and we'll be arriving at the shuttle terminal where you around forty-five minutes later. Will you be able to meet us there?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah. That won't be a problem," he said.

"Your dad's not looking forward to having to ride the shuttle, but you know him. He's got no problem with water but it's the air that gives him the heebies. Amy is really looking forward to seeing you, though. You excited to meet your niece for the first time?"

"Definitely!" he said, his voice excited but his posture betraying him.

Haliatha sensed an issue. "Is something wrong?"

Cam sighed. "Ahh, it's just this co-worker of mine. Having some issues with her."

"Her? I didn't know you had any girls working in your department."

"She's a new hire. She replaced Hamolde. Remember the saracian? Yeah, he was the head terminal repair technician."

"So, what problems are you having with her?" she asked.

"Just, basic stuff. I don't know. She's just been copping a real attitude ever since she got hired on. She's not exactly Miss Congeniality with everyone else, but with me she turns it up a couple of levels." he said, a degraded weakness in his voice.

"Well, did you ever think that possibly she might just be flirting with you?" she joked.

"That's what one of the station docs said. Where would you guys get that from?" he chuckled.

"Is she a cutie?" mom teased further.

"Mom, I'm not going to talk girls with you. I don't even talk girls with dad and you think I'm going to talk girls with you," he said, his mood lightening.

"See you tomorrow, sweetie." Haliatha said.

"Bye, mom. Love you," he said as the hologram fizzled out.

*****

Quarterly evaluations were coming up for the entire staff of the department. Cam was to report to the regional manager regarding performance quality for all staff and any other evaluative information that would be deemed important enough to report. Of course, he had to notify all staff of the impending reports. Cam had went around, giving everyone clear notice of the evals. The only one left to notify was the new hire, namely Max. He wasn't particularly looking forward to the face to face with her.

She wasn't in her workshop or even in the sub-basement, where she usually was. He checked the monitors and couldn't find her anywhere in the department. As he was scouring the facility, he passed the ladies restroom as Max was coming out.

"Oh, Max, I gotta talk to you real quick," he said, much to her apparent dissatisfaction. "It's just a matter of regulation that everyone be informed that quarterly evals are coming up. I'll be reporting to corporate about everyone's performance assessments. I already let everyone else know, I just had to make sure you knew, too. It's not a big deal. I'll be having a teleconference with the regional head tomorrow and letting them know where we all stand."

She took a defensive stance, arms crossed, eyes narrow with suspicion. "I get it. So, this is where you tell me what it's going to take for me to get your endorsement, right? I do for you, then you do for me?"

He was clearly confused. He shook his head. "No, not at all. I--I just had to notify you about the report. You'll get an honest performance analysis like everyone else. My boss reports to the regional head about me."

"So, if I give you a little under-the-table action or come over to your place for an improptu one-on-one private staff meeting, that'll guarantee me a shining commendation from you? That it?" she prodded, still defensive.

He shook his head again in refusal. "Max, no. No, it doesn't work that way. You've got nothing to worry about. You know your stuff, you come in on time every day and you get the job done. I don't want anything from you. Just letting you know, okay?" He walked off. Max followed him with her eyes, still not fully convinced.

*****

The next day, Cam received his holophone message from the regional manager, a saracian named Gar'Ahnthian. He was a decent fellow; professional, fair, his deep, bellowing voice was a little intimidating at times, though. He came off like an actor that could be cast to play the evil overlord in a gaudy war movie. Thankfully, Cam only had to talk to him a few times a solar cycle.

After going through the bulk of the staff's evaluations, the only one who was left was Max's. "So, the last I see on the docket here is the new hire for the terminal repair technician spot. Maxa--," Gar'Ahnthian stumbled.

"Umm, Maximillia von Barlaphon, sir. Yes, this is her first eval. She's only been on staff for a little over a month but I thought I'd put her on the list, too," Cam clarified.

"That's fine. How is she working out?" the saracian asked.

"Oh, fine, sir. She's a top-notch technician. Really knows her stuff. She's on time every shift. Never any kinds of issues like that to report on. In fact, operation time lost to downed terminals has been nominal since she's been handling the repair tickets so quickly," he extrapolated.

"No disciplinary actions to speak of? No behavioral issues?" Gar'Ahnthian prodded.

"No, sir. She pretty much keeps to herself. I haven't had any issues with her and no one else I've spoken to on staff has, either," Cam concluded.

Gar'Ahnthian nodded with approval. "Pretty cut and dried report on her, then."

Cam jumped in. "She's genuinely an asset to the company and my department, more specifically. She's already gotten me out of a few jams and kept my operation on this end running. I hope she remains on staff for as long as we can keep her."

The saracian was pleasantly surprised. "Well, it appears she's earned this glowing review. I had my doubts, personally."

Cam wasn't clear on the cryptic offering. "Sir?"

"Well, considering her background I expected there might be some interpersonal conflicts with at least a few of the staff," Gar'Ahnthian admitted.

Cam didn't want to let on that he was completely in the dark in regards to what he was referring to. He opted to play along. "I can understand, sir, but no issues on this end at all."

"Life is full of surprises some times. Happy to hear it. I think that's a sufficient set of assessments, Mr. Zyzerbachus. I appreciate your time and hard work. Your department is consistently a model of efficiency. You have my personal commendation," Gar'Ahnthian offered.

Cam nodded respectfully. "Thank you, sir. We'll strive to maintain our production efficiency." And, with that, the report concluded. The holophone screen flickered off.

When Cam packed up and left hours later, Max stayed behind. When she made certain that he'd left the facility for home, she snuck into his office. Punching up commands on his terminal, she bypassed the meager security measures, meager by her standards, anyway. She navigated directly to recently archived holophone recordings and found the datastream of Cam's discussion with the regional head. She dialed it up and watched it carefully. Near the end of the datastream, she heard the part of the conversation regarding her and what Cam felt was her invaluable contributions to the company and, specifically, his department. She was stunned, not expecting him to give her such a positive assessment, especially with the strained conditions of their discourse, imposed mostly by her.

She expected him to unleash a scathing expose of her combative and antagonistic behavior, if anything, to spite her for her undeserved treatment of him. The positive nature of his appraisal confused her. He had absolutely zero reason to commend her to upper management and had every reason to divulge her expressions of hostility to Gar'Ahnthian. Why didn't he? Cam wasn't acting predictably and Max was used to dealing primarily with predictable people. She was confounded. She couldn't do anything else but shut off the terminal, pack up and leave for the shift.

*****

Cam, on the other hand, was trying to bring a sense of normalcy back to his life. Knowing that he'd be seeing his family definitely raised his spirits. He hadn't seen anyone from home in almost six months. Part of him missed the cozy house, the tweeting of the birds outside his old bedroom window, the old street where he grew up, blue skies, being able to drive a transport, the little things. The holophone conversations had sufficed but he didn't want to see fizzy, crackling, intangible versions of his parents for months and months on end anymore. He wanted to see the real thing.

If anything he just needed interaction with some loved ones to bring some levity back into his routine. Work lately had been so dreadfully suffocating and his growing infatuation with Max was growing so sexually tortorous that just the thought of having his parents on the station to where he could mentally get away from the monotonous ins and outs of work was enough to get him through the day. Shipping and receiving invoices, insurance claim packages and internal review documents were a far cry from the company of his blood kin. He needed to feel that connection again. He looked forward to reminiscing about old times, listening to his sister bitch and moan about how cool it was to be off-world, making a living and being independent, as well as bouncing his infant niece on his lap. He was thoroughly looking forward to it and tried to shut out everything else as much as possible.

Cam took a break around mid-shift and took the mag-tram over to the shuttle terminal to welcome his family aboard. The shuttles were usually timely, arrived when scheduled and without incident. He stood anxiously in the waiting area near the docking tunnels where the disembarking shuttle passengers were coming aboard the station. He scanned the incoming throngs of sentients coming through the tunnel, excitedly anticipating recognition of a familiar face.

The first face he recognized was his dad. It was easy considering he was relatively tall and stood a few inches over most of the other shuttle passengers. Then, came the rest; mom, his sister, Amy and her daughter, Valencia. Cam couldn't wipe the smile off of his face as he went to greet them. He met dad with a firm handshake and his mom and sister with firm, loving hugs. The next thing he did was take the chubby little Valencia out of Amy's hands, into his own arms and greeted the cherubic angel-face with a nuzzling kiss to the cheek.

They all took the tram back to Cam's department. As they rode through the superstructure, Cam marveled at how big Valencia had grown when compared to the last hologram he'd seen of her. Valencia mostly just stared off into space, wide-eyed, mesmerized by all the sights and sounds that the space station bombarded her with.

Once in the department, Cam escorted the family through the docks, greeting Archie, J'Ahnatharius and Ko'Lokk. Then, he took them to see Marti and even Moto, whose response was surprisingly cordial. Impressive, regardless of if Moto's response was just generated by a hyper complex emotive algorithm system or not.

He chose to bypass taking them down to meet Max, who he doubted would give two shits about his family. Instead, he took them to his office and showed them around, giving them a little tour of exactly what the doldrums of his day-to-day operations required. He showed little Valencia the control terminal and showed her on a screen how he could remotely control the lights in one of the unoccupied hallways. He showed her the hallway video feed on one of the screens and everytime he tapped a key and she saw the hallway light go off on the screen, she giggled like mad. He needed that, to hear the sound of unadulterated joy. He'd been embroiled in so much confusion and frustration, the entire visit was completely cathartic.