Round One... Ding

Posted on Wed Feb 14th, 2024 @ 1:29pm by Ensign Eimi Santiago
Edited on on Thu Mar 7th, 2024 @ 3:07am

1,451 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: New Hope Colony
Timeline: Prior to transfer to the Athena

[At the Orphanage]

Eimi sat there, her back against the tree. Her knees bent, a scab on one was coming loose where her opponent had dragged her legs over the various sand and gravel near the edge of the lot. Eimi sighed softly to herself as her five year old self held a dirty rag to her bleeding nose. As Eimi looked across the sand lot at her opponent at the kid that was twice her height, twice her weight. He seemed to look worse then she did. One eye swollen shut and its colors varied from, black, to purple to red dependent upon how may times a certain spot had been hit. She also knew he would come back with a vengeance that included kicking, biting and generally picking her up and slamming her against the ground or the very tree she sat against at the moment. She was a small scrappy girl but he was stronger and out weighed her.

The fight this time was because he had flicked her ears repeatedly in arithmetic today as he called her a traitor and low life. Eimi was neither, but some of the kids where she resided politically didn’t see it that way. It was ok and she wasn’t alone. But the skinny Klingon boy didn’t get picked on near as much as she did and maybe that was her fault but heck who was she to argue or rather not argue her point on the matter. At any rate, she often swung and connected first. After that, she took a beating.

Eimi saw a shadow that blocked the harsh view of the two suns where she was against the tree. She glance up just in time to see a boot headed towards her face.

[New Hope Colony]

Eimi jerked when she heard and alarm of sorts a small ding. She glanced up at the screen that revealed that her sample had finished being tested.

“Shit” Eimi said softly “This one is a fail too.” She took the next test tube and proceeded to gather the next sample and added the correct mixture of components that would help break down the solid particles that still remained in the substance to see if it would be usable enough to generate a fertilizer or not naturally. Eimi set the tube up and pressed run. Then capped the failed tube noted its number and placed it in the box with the rest. Fifty seven times she had ran the test and no positive hits at all.

Within the next hour she or one of the others would head out and search for a new local with new vegetation, soil compositions, anything that was different they what they had already tried. The local families here at the colony would not fair well if they couldn’t find something to use as fertilizer for their basic needs. It would mean more costs to ship in off world foods. Especially since construction had ramped up and more had settled here to make a go at it in the mines.

Sure Eimi thought it was tedious to gather, test and find a solution to this small problem. But she was one who was so very persistent in doing even the boring stuff. She actually like it at times. Eimi watched the test tube swirl a bit and then turned back to the other project she was in mid process of.

Setting up a small robot to do exactly what she was doing. Pick up tube, add mixture, place tube and press run. The the machine could run at all hours as they didn’t have round the clock staff unless she or her Chief stayed up all night and worked the extra shift. Eimi was going on three weeks now of doing just that, double shifts and it was why she had nodded off before. Night time was not her favorite time to be a wake. After about oh three hundred she was out like a light unless she was up and moving. Even then she was known to fall down on the job and sleep. Basically stop long enough and lean against the wall and nod off for five minutes. Thankfully she hadn’t been caught but it was only a matter of time.

Eimi puckered her forehead for a long second and she connected a wire to a diode and soldered it into place. She released holding her breath and the pucker and turned the robot over to do the other side. Soon it would be ready but so many wires to connect, double check and then she would have to adjust her program to move in the increments she wanted and leave a note not to move the thing afterwards or it wouldn’t function properly until she put markers not the machines to designate the distance it was away from it.

A small beetle looking thing walked up the leg of the table and unto the table top and beeped at her. It walked because someone had smashed something down on it and she hadn’t the credits to replicate the needed mechanism to replace its wing so it could fly.

The economic running here was a bit odd, there was the federation and then there was the ‘Faction’. The faction was simple the council of the leaders that decided what the colony would do, what it could do and how. It was trying to be sustainable in its own right. But like every new thing, it had its own growing pains to deal with. Commerce and credit handling along with energy conservation was the hot topic of the day.

The beetle beeped again.

“Ok, Chiaki play message”

“Ensign Santiago report to the Commanders office, immediately.”

“Crab cakes, what did I do now?” Eimi said out loud and someone snickered behind her.

It was the snicker of someone she knew. Eimi shook her head as she turned around. “Really? You sent Chiaki to bring me a message and then walked down the hall to follow it, knowing it would take my machine a long time to make its way here. Why not use the comms?” Eimi tilted her head “Let me guess, that is on the list of things not to use today for energy conservation.”

“Actually I stood outside the door, gave the directions and placed it on the floor about three feet from you after you had nodded off and stepped back to wait. The smile on her chiefs face was open and friendly with the slightest of mischievous hints of a smile lifting one corner of her mouth. She held out an official looking PADD “looks like you got your transfer. Get going or you’ll miss the transport leaving in two hours.” The PADD was handed to Eimi who took it glanced at it briefly. Set it down.

Eimi looked at the robot on its side and then at her chief. “Nope. This has to be put together first then I’ll pack.” Eimi had one thing to pack. It fit in her pocket, The other thing was a lid to be tightened on top of her crate. It would take all but two minutes and it sat all the way across the room against a wall under her personal work station.

Her chief shook her head “I wish you were staying here. Its not like you don’t make our lives easier.” She gestured to the various bots around the room on shelves, tables etc that did most of the tedious hand work for them. Each had been assembled, then programmed by Eimi. They broke down a lot but it was because of the inability to use brand new parts more then the inability of their creator. The chief then stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Eimi to her other shoulder in a backwards grasp and gave a quick squeeze. It wasn’t a hug really but it was a reassurance that Eimi was doing the right thing. “You got this.” She whispered at the side of Eimi’s head. “Prove to them they made the right choice.” The chief smiled and squeezed once more “Also don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

Eimi nodded once, quickly. The Commander was really the closest thing to any family the she had, ever. Eimi didn’t want to show that she would indeed miss her Chief as well. The chief squeezed once more and released and walked out the door to let the girl figure out the robot. Because she knew Eimi would not move until it was right. Even if it meant missing her transport.

 

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