Dysart- 'Men in Brown'

Who: Dysart
Where: Blue Dwarf
When: Second day back
Return; Day 2.
A single man drowned out in the sea of brown and green hazard suits.
Dysart, in his stark blue JMC jumpsuit, sat numbly upon his cheap
metal foldout chair. In many ways he was anxious and in another he
felt almost excited. He looked around slowly at his peers. People of
all ages and race, from all walks of life sat along side him. A
cynical man might say that it fit right into the Blue Dwarf circus theme.
At the very back of his mind it reminded him of Sunday church back in
the orphan-... no that was Andy. He was Dysart, he was different.
The question was- where did Andy go?
A single pudgy man, also dressed in the now-standard Mark V Hazmat
suit worked his way up onto a small podium. The man was clearly
uncomfortable in the plastic suit pivoted and latched onto the podium
as though it was a life preserver.
Any preconception of apparent cultured attitude was shattered as the
stout man spewed out a angry sentence in a heavy accented Yorkshire.
"*ahem* *AHEM*!! You lot 'un dah front 'row, either put dah *BEEP*ing
toke out or pass it to dah *BEEP*ing left!!" Fortunately for any child
(that didn't happen to be present) the auto-presentable microphone
bleeped out any harsh language. They tried this once with Gordon
Ramsay. Poor bugger could only get a few verbs out before his dialect
ceased to sound like English and more like an album of Daft Punk.
"Now you're all here to be briefed on yer new jobs aboard the JMC Blue
Dwarf." The man finally pulled back from the Mic, no longer in danger
of swallowing it an now in an audible dialect. "As you're not doubt
aware 120 janitors is a sizable amount. Many of you pull double duty
in some other job or service. Some of you are engineers, some cooks or
other miscellaneous but nevertheless essential jobs. This out of
necessity rather than mere petty wage shifting. The... unique...
situations that the Blue Dwarf often finds itself in means that the
previous Blue Dwarf cleaner members have always been a small but
dedicated team. Due to a near constant threat of violent contact you
have all been trained and instructed in basic firearms, zero-gee and
hand-to-hand training."
"Holy crap... these guys are like the Black ops of Cleaners." Dysart
mumbled as his eyes drifted around the various nationalities of loo
brushers. On second thought the previous statement would make them
more like the French foreign legion of janitors.
"Now for your briefing." Pulling a single plastic sheet out from the
middle of his poedium he slapped it onto a vintage projector. A
justifuiably large picture of the Blue Dwarf appered behind him.
"The Blue Dwarf is a near asteroid-sized mining vessel, although it
like many other JMC mining vessals have been converted to other uses.
Most notable 'Dwarf conversions are the Black dwarf spec ops, the
White dwarf roleplayers, the Green dwarf hippies and the Pink Dwarf
nurses."
Giving a few moment to let it sink in the speaker then continued.
"With a official crew exceeding 5,000 and an unofficial crew bearing
innumerable.. well... as you can see, this is a LOT of shit. Things
have only gotten worse over the past year and a half. If the reports
are to be believed the Blue Dwarf's total number of artificial
intelligence had be reduced to two. Either of these two robots were
more concerned with either creating things that or actually blowing
holes in the sides of the ship. Even worse the entire janitorial staff
had been reduced to one man... who even then had somehow managed to
get himself killed a few months ago."
Like being kicked in the balls by mickey mouse, having the 7th Harry
Potter book spoiled in polite conversation or princess Diana coming
back to life and raining unholy death on God's creation- Dysart just
didn't see it coming. The feeling like as though an ice cube had been
slipped into his stomach as Dysart processed what he had just heard.
"I knew... somehow... I just knew." The AI hoarsely mumbled through
his voice box.
"The result has been rather expected. Half of the latrines are backed
up, forty kilometers of pile are damaged, nearly 70% of the ship's
inner workings are rusted and Parrot's bar has had so much smashed
glass littering the floor that it would eviscerate anyone with the
balls enough to walk in barefooted. Now the teams will be split into-."
Dysart had heard enough.
Somehow he just didn't process what the First cleaner had said. The AI
pulled his body out of the meeting as though he was in a stupor.
Nothing seemed to matter really. In his heart of hearts he knew that
justice had been served but he also knew that he Andy Roos once.
Andy never expected anyone to mourn him when he died, it was just all
the more galling that he was right.
"OI! You!!" Suddenly a loud pipping voice called over the speaker.
A wave-like sound of motion carried over the auditorium as all eyes
turned to the Blue-dressed robot. Dysart slowly turned to the angry
little man, a suitably small and pudgy index finger outstretched
accusingly at his forehead.
"Where do you think YOU'RE going, eh?!"
<To be continued>