Questions

Month 7 Day 30

1619 Hours

Lt Ragamuffin Oakhurst

Lt ‘Rags’ Oakhurst glanced around the rec room, gave a more intense look at the female using a computer in a corner. Yikes. Della was right about MacDowell’s hair color. That has got to be her. Looks like she’s busy, but Smythe wants this done.

When he approached, the redhead actually had 2 computer screens facing her. One held a schematic diagram that didn’t look complete, and which he couldn’t identify. The other screen showed what appeared to be random groups of words and symbols connected by lines. Sitting next to MacDowell was a dusky-skinned yeoman. “Mind if I join you?” Oakhurst asked.

The yeoman turned her head to look him over, muttered, “Lit.”

MacDowell glanced at his sleeve. “Comp spec.” Sounds like they have a private language. The redhead sighed. “I’m busy, Negron. Go away.”

“I’m not Negron.” Oakhurst waited, but she seemed absorbed in her 2 screens.

A man paused to look at the 2 screens over the redhead’s shoulder. “Working on your projects?”

“One of them.”

“Isn’t this movie night?”

“Give me a minute to see if this makes sense.”

The dark man sat opposite her, gave Rags a look-over. “Oakhurst, isn’t it?” As Rags nodded, the other man offered his hand. “Bugalu,” he identified himself. “Sit down. Otherwise, she’ll refuse to acknowledge you.”

Rags hesitated, but pulled out the final chair and sat as the redhead absently stated, “No, I won’t.”

“You already are,” Bugalu told her. “It’s rude.”

She briefly stuck out her tongue at Bugalu and inched closer to the screens. “Are you here to test me, Lt... ah, not Negron?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what do you want?”

This isn’t going the way I expected. But when Smythe wants something done, a smart person does it. “I’m trying to figure out what Lt Negron’s report means.”

Red placed a finger on one screen and turned green eyes his way. “So he turned it in. How did you get it?”

“Mr Smythe kicked it to me. I’m the senior ‘comp spec’.”

Her mouth thinned, and her eyes flashed. Both hands balled on the tabletop as she turned to Bugalu. “He could have asked me himself! Why didn’t he-“

Bugalu shushed her. “Think about how well you answer questions for him.”

The anger drained from her face. She realized her finger no longer pointed to either computer screen. She spouted unintelligible whispers.

“Watch your language!” Bugalu told her. She broke off her tirade and gave him a quizzical look. “I listened to Gaelunde cursing for 2 years before you got to the academy.”

She smiled. “Of course. All my brothers are cursers. I sure didn’t learn it from ma!” She looked at her computer screens again and gave a sad sigh. “Guess I’m done; I don’t remember where I was. But it looked logical. I think.” Now she turned her attention to Rags. “Well, Oak, what do you want to know?”

Nobody shortens my last name. They find my first name too comical, and I can’t blame them. “How much computer training did you get at the academy?”

“The usual for communications.”

“You didn’t take any computer courses as electives?”

“No.”

Rags frowned. That confirms her record. Negron thinks she cheated somehow. But cheating isn’t easy. “What about high school?”

The yeoman yawned. “Dog’s right,” Bugalu stated. “You’re not asking the right questions. Let me. Mac, what did you study on your own at the academy?”

“Languages,” she answered.

“Sure. But as Matt and I neared graduation, you said human languages were too much alike.”

“Of course. They all get used by humans.”

“So, after that, what did you study?”

The redhead shot a glance toward Rags, and her face went pink. “Computer languages.”

Now it gets interesting. “Which ones?” Rags asked. The redhead rattled off several translation programs, a number of decoding programs and a few general purpose programs. “You seem to have programs confused with languages, but you studied all that in 2 years? Um, 18 months?”

“I didn’t go home after my freshman/sophomore summer, so it was 26 months.”

“24,” Bugalu corrected. “The academy uses Earth years.”

“Right. Short on gravity, short years.”

“Were the programs harder than human languages?”

The question surprised her. “No. They were created by humans for machines that can’t actually think. Well, compared to humans. They got boring pretty quickly.”

“Then what did you study?” Bugalu asked.

Startled green eyes flashed at the dark man as Red’s tongue nervously moistened her lips. For a moment, she seemed unable to speak, then her eyes darted all around them, she leaned far over the desk and as her face went red, she whispered, “Engineering!”

Rags sat back in surprise, though he wasn’t sure if his surprise was at her admission or at her obvious nervousness in making that admission.

Bugalu shook his head. “Should have changed your field your first semester.”

“You know I couldn’t!” she declared.

“He was light-years away. He couldn’t have kept you from doing it.”

“Except he did!” she hissed.

“Brain-washed,” Bugalu stated.

MacDowell seemed ready to give another hot retort, but hesitated a long moment. “Maybe.”

“Don’t let him win.”

“That’s not as easy as you make it sound!”

“You’ll be cross-trained. Just... let it happen. I bet he never wanted you to be a bad employee.”

“Pa never expected me to be an employee! And when I did enlist, he expected me home as soon as my first tour was over!”

“You’re still here.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, gave her dark friend a tremulous smile. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good,” the yeoman grunted, and touched the redhead’s shoulder.

Red turned back to Rags. “What else, Oak?”

Rags hesitated before offering, “I do answer to ‘lieutenant’.”

“So do I. So does Bugs and others in this room,” MacDowell returned. “Think how confusing that could get. The truth is, I was concentrating when you arrived, and I didn’t catch your name. Thought it started with ‘Oak’ or ‘Oats’. ‘Oak’ seemed more likely.”

“Watch out,” Bugalu warned. “She shortens everybody’s name.”

“I’m used to being called ‘Rags’. One more won’t make a difference.”

“I’m not ‘everybody’,” she told him. “To me, you’re ‘Oak’. Unless the situation is formal. Any more questions?”

“Sounds like all you did at the academy was study. First, languages, then computers-“

“Computer languages,” she corrected. “Yes, I did study. A lot.”

“Did you test out of any courses?”

She nodded. “Several languages.”

“Computer languages?”

Now she frowned. “No. Professor Ingalls thought communications people only needed to use a keyboard. When I asked to test for a computer language, he refused. I never asked again.”

“Negron gave you 3 tests. Did those tests cover all you know about computers and their languages?”

She crossed her arms and leaned on the desk, deep in thought. “I don’t think my knowledge is that organized. Plus, each time I answered a question, he got more upset. No idea why.” She paused, her lower lip caught between her teeth, and lowered her gaze to the desk. “As far as I know, I flunked.”

Flunked? She did better than Negron when he came aboard. And he’s a comp spec. Names isn’t all she shortens, I guess. “You revealed a lot of knowledge. Negron... was supposed to figure out how much you have, and I’m not sure he did. Do you mind if I finish the job?”

She searched his face for a moment. “Are you going to get irritated as I answer questions?”

Rags shook his head. “I like meeting people whose eyes don’t glaze over as soon as I open my mouth.”

Bugalu snorted. “Mac’s are more likely to glow with interest and she’ll dig for more details.”

She turned to the helmsman. “That’s a strange thing to say.”

“No, it’s not. Matt said you were always watching your brothers, pestering them with questions.”

“Well, yeah. I hated being the baby. They could all do things that - supposedly - I couldn’t do.”

“And every time Kevin... Keith? tore into a broken instrument -“

“Karl,” she corrected. “Karl was always cracking open something electrical. And when he wasn’t looking, I’d put it back together.”

Self taught. Some say that’s the best way. “Look, Mr Smythe wants this report back, finished, so would it be possible for you to come to my office now?”

“Well...” She looked to her 2 friends. The yeoman waved her away.

“We can see the movie tomorrow,” Bugalu told her. “I haven’t even ordered the pizza yet.”

“Okay.” She stood up. Rags stood also. She turned one computer to face the yeoman and the other one off. “Engineering?”

Did she just break a date? He realized she was asking about his office location. “Yes.”

She started off, and he adjusted his stride to her pace. She gave him a quick glance. “You’re the senior, but you work C shift?”

“D,” he corrected. “Lets me keep an eye on the others. If I’m handed a problem that the shift specialist has already worked on 3 times, someone’s irritated and won’t be shy about giving me an earful.”

“That’s an interesting way to do it.”

Rags chuckled. “Some say it’s devious. Now, would you prefer I open a test and ask you the questions, or do you just want to talk about computers and programs for a while?”

She looked at him in surprise. “I prefer the latter, but would that be sufficient?”

“Let’s give it a try. Sometimes it works better than questions and answers.”