The End of Lessons, Part 1

 Month 14 Day 3

0759 Hours

Smythe

Smythe entered engineering and started for his office. While on his way there, he realized Wilson was approaching him, a determined look on her face. “You’re relieved, Wilson,” he told her. “Anything to report?” But he kept walking, because anything Wilson was likely to report would already be in her written report about how her shift had operated. If only all his supervisors were so succinct and yet so thorough when reporting the goings-on.

“Yes, sir,” she answered, falling in beside him. “May we talk?”

He stopped walking, wondering what was so important that it needed to be reported in person. Maybe this is about— “Where’s Colleen?” he asked, because he didn’t see her with a quick glance around the room.

Wilson pointed to the tool lockers across the room, where a piece of purple uniform could be seen as the woman in question did... something. She not only seemed busy but engrossed in whatever she was doing. “Making sure all the tools are clean and in their proper place. I told her to find some busy work to do, because I needed to talk to you. And then you will probably need to talk to her.”

It does sound serious. Yet, how serious can it possibly be? Wilson’s been giving her glowing remarks on her knowledge and slightly less glowing remarks on her skill level, which will improve with practice. So what’s happened to upset the cart? He sighed, not wanting to hear anything bad at the beginning of his day. And particularly not wanting to hear anything bad about that particular lieutenant. “Come into my office,” he invited sourly. They stepped inside, and Smitty lowered himself into his desk chair, suddenly feeling very tired. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know that anything’s wrong,” Wilson stated. “Except that I can’t teach Mac, uh, MacDowell any more. I’m done with her.”

“What’s she done?”

“Done?” Wilson looked confused by the question. “She’s mastered all the manuals. All she needs is some more hands-on experience, and I suspect she’ll be as good as me. Or maybe better.”

Now Smitty furrowed his brow in confusion. Why can’t she just give me the bad news and be done with it? “So, are you saying she didn’t make any massive mistake this past shift that might have blown up the entire ship?”

Wilson’s eyes grew round, and then she grinned. “Not hardly! I tell you, she’s a natural. She easily catches every blip or glitch as quickly as I do. All she needs to be a first-rate top-of-the-line engineer is somebody to teach her which parts of the manuals can be tinkered with a bit, and which ones can’t. On this ship, in other words, she needs to be taught by you.”

He felt his face drain, and he couldn’t speak, although his mouth formed the words, “Oh, no.”

Wilson looked confused again. “For example, this past shift, we tinkered with the variable gravity in the gym, just as an experiment, and she had that field tossing basketballs at the hoops. Even got one in, once, to everybody’s surprise. I had to have her explain to me how to do that.”

He remembered how rapt Colleen had been when they were adding variable gravity to her bed. “She’s probably been playing with the variable gravity on her bed,” Smitty muttered to himself, and wondered how he couldn’t have anticipated that.

“If she’s got variable gravity on her bed, it’s a sure bet she’s been tinkering with it,” Wilson agreed. “At least, that explains her skill with one.”

This is terrible. I can’t spend any amount of time with the girl. I can’t trust myself to be within arm’s reach of her! To be around her an entire shift, day after day, is unthinkable! Yet he didn’t seem to have any other options. He cleared his throat, consulted the calendar on his desk. “You’ve just finished your 2 days with her, haven’t you?”

“Yes, sir. I keep expecting her to start telling me how things work. Instead of listening.”

He swallowed. “Could you continue to meet with her again for 2 days next week? That would give me time to figure out what to do with her.”

Wilson blinked. “Well, yes, I suppose I could. If you need the time. I could give her assignments and then just keep an eye on her. But I think she’ll pass with flying colors.”

From the sounds of it, she will. Can I really dump her back into communications and ignore her potential? Normally, it wouldn’t be fair to her to do that, and I wouldn’t think of it. But if I try to give her the training she needs, and things get out of control... “No doubt,” he agreed. “From everything that you’ve told me. But I do need some time. To think.”

“Very well,” Wilson stated. “Oh, but I’m not in any hurry to return to C shift. I’ve got those people trained. The A shift people are still... somewhat sloppy. As for MacDowell, what do you want me to tell her?”

Good question. What do we tell her? I thought I’d have weeks, maybe even months before I was faced with this. I just have to steel myself and get through it. Maybe she isn’t that interested in joining engineering, after all. He coughed, wondering what he would do if she was interested in a transfer. “I’ll tell her. Send her in as you leave, please.”

“Yes, sir.”