On the job

Dren wiped the sweat off his brow. He had just completed cleaning the
thirtieth of one hundred or so chicken soup machines. He had hardly stopped
for the past few days. He was fed up, not with his work, it was easy enough.
He was fed up with this damn ship. On no more than two occasions his civil
liberties were violated, once for being locked up without charges and not
being fed for four days, and then by being brutilized by a superior officer.
But this, this was the last straw. Not only was he passed over to host Robot
Wars, his replacement was the holigram of a crewmember of another ship.
Whatever happened to keeping it in the family? "Chicken Soup." He said to the
dispinser. He took a sip and nearly gagged. We could reach the stars, bring
back simulations of dead people, Have AI computers with an IQ of 6000, but
the damn chicken soup was nearly uneadible. He took another sip. After being
starved nearly to death he welcomed the slop in his system. Every time a crew
member passed him he's salute and say "Dren Walker, third tech, at your
sevice." no one seemed to pay him any mind. It didn't bother him since he
really wasn't a crew member. But what did bother him was nobody was working
on the mission. Plays, Robot competetions were all fine and dandy, but a ship
was lost and needed to be recovered. Oh well, as long as the trains run on
time, he thought. Then an idea struck him. Dren reached inside the machine
and crossed some tubes. He attached the laxative dispensing tube to the main
valve, now when anybody ordered anything, it would be laced with laxative.
Dren got busy doing the same procedure on all the machines, starting with the
one outside Harris' room and the entire officers block. A couple of scutters
wheeled by. "Hey guys, remember me?" Dren said. They nodded. "wanna help me
with a great gag?" Once again they nodded in approval. "Go take all the
toilet paper from the officers quarters and hide it." The scutters noddes and
began thier quest. "Don't get caught either!" Dren warned.