Almost Convinced

Month 6 Day 30

1828 Hours

Smitty

Smitty wandered the living room of the visitor suite. The only personal item he saw was a 6 inch holo-vid of the newlyweds during what must have been their wedding. The kiss near the end seemed too intimate for him to watch. He moved away, walked to the screen showing the planet they orbited.

They don’t think it’s too personal a moment. If I’m truthful, it makes me uncomfortable, because it makes me eager to take a particular redhead in my arms and give her a similar kiss. And I can’t do that.

“Good. You’re still here,” S’thyme said as he emerged from the bedroom.

“You asked me to stay,” Smitty stated as he turned around. S’thyme had changed into his gray dress uniform, and was fastening the front. “Isn’t Kolla going down tonight?”

“She takes her time getting ready. I can’t complain, because she’s always the best-looking woman there. Wherever ‘there’ is.”

“You may be biased on that point,” Smitty pointed out.

“Of course,” the other man agreed. “I fell for her the moment I saw her, and I spent a good deal of time trying to convince her to marry me and settle for life as a mother. Actually, she seemed rather empty-headed. She talked incessantly, and it sounded like nonsense.”

“I know the type. But that’s not your current opinion of her.”

“Definitely not.”

“What did she do to change your opinion?”

S’thyme’s smile flashed as he adjusted the jacket’s shoulders and sleeves. “She didn’t do anything different. I started listening. And I realized she was thinking out loud. It didn’t make sense because people think faster than they talk. So what she was describing wasn’t the entire explanation. When I made her slow down - which was hard for her to do - she had fascinating ideas. Engineering ideas. Ways to improve efficiency, tighten the transport beam so it would go further... Trying to list them would take all day.”

“Anybody can have ideas,” Smitty stated, but stopped before he added, ‘but were any of them good?’

“I suppose.” S’thyme watched the holo-vid fondly. “Have you ever fixed something, or re-calibrated something, for the 100th time, all the while wondering why somebody didn’t make it easier to get to, or not needing that much attention?”

Smitty gave a small snort. “All the time. Desk-top engineers!”

His gray version gave a wry smile. “Do you ever do anything about those items?”

“No. I don’t have time. Not to mention the ship wouldn’t be correct according to the manual, and all my subordinates would have to be trained on each thing I changed, as well as the way other ships have it.”

S’thyme nodded. “On one of our early dates, I complained about a piece of machinery that I had calibrated 3 times in 2 days. I found myself explaining exactly what that piece did. I didn’t want to spend the entire evening discussing this... irritant, so I changed the subject. When we were saying good night later, she suggested that I... well, rebuild the equipment, in essence, changing some of the items inside so it wouldn’t de-calibrate so easily. I puzzled over her suggestion for several days, finally decided it should work. Then I had the same reactions you just had. Finally, I contacted one of those ‘desk engineers’, and we discussed it. He wasn’t very interested, but a few days later, he’d built a prototype based on her suggestions and tested it. His boss called, wanted me to write up the changes so the entire office team could study it. I said I could, but it wasn’t my idea. When he asked who had the idea, I said, If I have my way, my future wife!”

“Oh, dear,” Kolla said as she entered the room in her dress uniform. “I apologize, Smythe. That’s been his favorite story this past year. I’m sure the entire planet has heard it by now.”

Smitty cleared his throat. “That’s when he asked you to marry him.”

“No,” she returned. “That’s when he had me transferred to his team, which meant we weren’t allowed to date.”

“I should have thought that through more thoroughly,” S’thyme stated sheepishly. “Should have married her and then had her transferred. Worst 14 weeks of my life. She hardly even talked to me!”

“I wasn’t happy you liked my ideas more than you liked me. You didn’t even ask if I wanted to transfer.”

“The way our dates were going-“

“You thought I’d eagerly marry you, give up my career, have a dozen kids and stay home with them.”

“Dozen?” Smitty repeated under his breath, shocked by the idea of so large a family.

“My dear, I gave up that notion when I realized what your babbling was about. Field engineers seldom get to improve our equipment. We don’t have time to figure out how. It might take a team years to figure out one improvement. But your mind figures them out as you eat your salad, it seems. I couldn’t let that talent go to waste, and-“

“And nobody would consider them as long as I was a mere technician,” she finished. “Yes, you’ve said that. I didn’t like it, but eventually admitted you were probably right.” She scrunched one side of her mouth. “I don’t know which of us is using the other more; me for letting you rush me to a higher rank, or you for making use of my ideas.”

“I think of it another way,” S’thyme stated, and slid his arms around her waist to gently pull her closer. “Not that we use each other, but that we love each other, want to help each other, and work wonderfully well together.”

“You sweet talker,” she murmured, and gave him a quick kiss. “Does that mean I might someday be listed first on one of those papers we write?”

“I always list you first,” S’thyme stated, and grimaced. “The editors change the order because I’m the higher rank. But, this latest paper will only list you and Coline as authors. After that, I’ll argue that your name should remain first.”

“Would they do it?”

“If not, I won’t put my name on the papers.”

“That’s not fair! You work on the prototype as hard as I do.”

“But you think things through so thoroughly that building a prototype is practically a game.” He broke off her protest with another kiss, and this one became quite passionate.

Smitty turned slightly, and his gaze landed on a smaller holo-vid he hadn’t noticed before. This one featured Kolla and Colleen standing together, grinning, talking, laughing and holding readers so the audience could see the screens.

“When are you going to help your Coline get some rank?” S’thyme asked.

Smitty gave him a sharp look. “We don’t ‘help’ subordinates get a promotion. They have to get it on their own.”

The newlyweds looked at each other for a moment. “If someone is suggested for a promotion, don’t you have the power to say yes or no?” Kolla asked.

“If they come to the Fireball with a new promotion, but I determine they are not suitable for this ship, I have them reassigned. That means they might not maintain that promotion. If I accept them, then they keep that new rank. If that’s what you mean.”

“You feel Kolleen is not suitable for this ship?” she continued.

Do I? I can’t even say. “She... can’t pass the oral examination,” Smitty replied.

The Yukoskians looked at each other again, and then S’thyme asked, “What is ‘oral examination’?”

“It’s to see how much she knows about her field. I ask a number of questions, one at a time, and she gives me the answer. At least, she’s supposed to.”

“Does she babble, instead of answering?”

“No. Her answers get slower and slower and less and less specific, until she can’t answer at all.”

“Very strange.”

“Especially when she knows so much,” Kolla added. “I get dizzy just thinking about the hundreds- thousands of pieces of equipment that her mind considered for each step I gave her, and then settled on the one she felt would be the easiest to... change.”

“You 2 did build a strange contraption.” Smitty smiled.

“Not me,” Kolla answered. “My husband says the mind can think faster than the mouth can talk, but her mind moves like lightening when it isn’t trying to explain to an invading alien mind. I explained what I needed for a step, she picked a piece of equipment and did... whatever she did to it. I wasn’t familiar with the equipment, the theory or use it normally had, nor any idea how to make it do what I needed it to do. That was her, plain and simple.”

Smitty froze, unable to speak, not sure he really understood what Kolla was saying.

S’thyme took Kolla’s elbow and urged her toward the door. “Come, my dear, or we’ll be late getting the humans to the surface. May I come to your office in the morning, S’mythe?”

Smitty had gotten used to the slight mispronunciation. He automatically followed them. “I look forward to it.” But right now, there’s something I need to study that I left in my office.