Andy- ÂClean up dutyÂ
Who: Andy
Where: Blue Dwarf, science deck
When: 4 days after Mollopod attack
It wasn't easy coming down from an adrenal high, at least not for
Andy. Almost five hours after attempting to strap laser cutters to a
group of hamsters, he finally had the equipment wrenched from his
hands. Vehemently told that the crisis was over and he didn't need to
outfit a lab's dozen of vermin with pen-sized weapons.
So Andy returned to his duties; which managed to triple from a week
ago. There was a reason that gravity was hooked up to life support. It
was a nightmare and the cleaner honestly felt like spitting the dummy.
Rufus's lab looked like a junk yard (though there are some that would
protest that such a development did little to its previous `charm'),
volatile chemicals had been shaken around like a soft drink can. The
most heavily hit by the anti-grav incident was Parrott's bar. Although
closed, one only needed to take a deep breath within 50 metres of the
establishment to receive a blood alcohol level that exceeded the limit
by 15%. Amber learnt this the hard way.
Keto was angry, as usual. He'd had Andy and 001 (who the cleaner had
found in the middle of a lady's shower room, locked in mortal combat
with a red-headed midget, God knows what they was doing in there)
mopping up his damn ointments all of yesterday. The stench was enough
to put a bull elephant in a coma for three weeks but Andy was just
thankful that he got another one of his insectzoid masks before he
arrived.
Both in and out of the medical closet he noticed the complete lack of
patients in the ward. A few patients made a bit of noise about bruises
and scrapes, a couple of bite mark perhaps- nothing serious. He only
really noticed the oddity when he was going back to his quarters last
night.
He'd thought `Wow, there haven't been many people out in the corridors
recently.' Then he only realised this morning- it was because that
they were dead.
There was no easy way to say it. No polite way to put it. They were
dead. He'd noticed a few people that he used to see on a daily basis
weren't there and they all had one thing in common. He hadn't seen
them since the attack.
And it only got worse. Nobody really seemed to notice.
Everyone just when on with their lives and didn't really show anything
outwardly. Was this that `stiff-upper lip' he'd heard about or did it
just happen so often to the Blue Dwarfers that they just didn't
notice, or worse, care about the dead? But most importantly, would he
turn out like that?
It was a scary thought.
His skutters were all he really had in such a way that he though of
family. 042 was dead and gone, torn to pieces by a group of hungry
Slugs. The irony was not lost on the cleaner. Little wonder its body
was not brought back aboard. Although quiet, he would be missed.
However 001 was back to his old self. Taking equal time to both clean
and take opportune moments to pop out and scare the living daylights
out of any crew member. Perhaps not the brightest ideas as chances are
that the last Skutter they saw was trying to kill them. 099, closest
thing to a female Skutter whirled around Blue Dwarf. Red eye ablaze
looking for anything that she deemed that needed cleaning. Right now,
just about every square metre on Blue Dwarf had something that needed
to be mopped up.
Realising that Andy couldn't possibly do it all by himself; today Jed
saw fit to give Andy a brake, by rostering most of the crew to help
with the clean up. Typically, Jed did not fit into `most'. Hopefully
by tomorrow they'd have made a reasonable dent in the waste factory
that was Blue Dwarf. In Andy's experience, jobs could only be made
easier and never really done.
As Andy's work clothes were pretty much his casual clothes too, he
would no doubt he pushed around from the conscripted crew members.
Only he wouldn't have to listen to them, and when they complained to
Jed it would only create more for their distinguished `captain'.
Score! This day was starting to sound better and better.
"Science deck" issued Holly's signature monotone.
Andy stepped out and into the hall, looking up and down the corridors
wistfully. "Going to see Rufus?" the AI guessed accurately. "Yup."
Andy replied in his thick Australian accent before continuing down the
corridor. "He's busy you know," Holly stated. "Hadn't had a wink of
sleep in days. Last time checked in on him his eyes were redder than a
vampire's tea and more cracked than Tom Cruise."
"So what, you're saying that I shouldn't visit him because he's had a
lack of sleep?" The Cleaner asked the AI, his head flicking from
console to console as he walked down the passage.
"No, I'm saying that if you don't want to be mauled by a teenager you
should bring a peace offering of caffeine, preferably in tea form."
The synthetised human suggested, stopping at a vending machine.
Andy groaned as he strolled up to the machine. He hated these things.
With a redeeming sigh he popped open the side panel of the vending
machine and went to work. At least the Scientists on this deck had
already broken them in. They were normally a nightmare to hack a
virgin console.
A few toggles, a couple of crossed wire and a precisely 7.6 seconds
later Low `bing' noise issued. From the middle of the vending machine
a dirt brown coloured, aluminium can of tea dropped out of the body
and stood perkily at the Cleaner.
Snatching up the can he finally strolled up to the door to Rufus's
lab. Ablaze upon the front in big bold letters were `WORK IN PROGRESS,
DO NOT DISTURB'. Under them in slighter smaller print was `- this
means you!'
Andy coughed and leaned forward before soundly rapping his knuckles on
the metal door. He only hoped that Rufus didn't take after his sister
when he was finally pushed over.
(Tag anyone!)