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	Re: The NeverEnding Story
	Posted By: •M	Date: 4/13/05 1:42 p.m.
	In Response To: Re: The NeverEnding Story (Yossarian) : Ralph exited the office with forced determination, putting the radio to his : mouth: "Crew chiefs and platform supervisors, I want you and your : leads in the conference room in ten minutes." His radio chirped and : clicked and his crew sent back confirmations. They liked using the old : radios, seeing as how the P-coms never seemed to have enough range and : were prone to software glitches; when you're in a pinch there's nothing : like good old reliable radio waves to get the messages across. : Ralph holstered the radio and started towards the conference room. : "You're doing a wonderful thing for the Council, Mr. Cameron." Said : the officer, his hands clapsed behind his back, following behind Ralph. : "If you're as good at shipbuilding as we've heard, you're going to go : very far. You should consider yourself lucky you've been considered to be : a part of the U.E.S.C.'s most ambitious program to date." : Ralph punched the arilock release opening the door, as they exited the : platform into the main corridor. "Ambitious how? As ambitious, as, : say, feeding several million Martians? Or what? Another useless : battlecruiser to protect us from an invisible fleet of aliens? Or how : about a great big colony ship to start another settlement Earth can't : support? Then I suppose I'd end up back here working on CRISTs : again..." : "Mr Cameron, I understand the mindset the death of your wife has put you : in, but the designs of the Council-" : Ralph stopped the officer dead in his tracks. "You want to know : something? Fuck you and your beloved Council." Technicians passing in : the corridor stopped and stared at the big engineer speaking down to the : little black-uniformed spook. "Look, it's enough I'm coming along : with you on this, but if I have to hear you parrot the whole time about : our glorious Council and their amazing exploits and grand schemes for the : future, then we're going to have a problem. Your black uniform and slicked : back hair mean about shit to me, if you don't think everyone here can see : you're nothing but a little man with a big ego then you're fooling : yourself as well. You know why? Because we produce . We work . We use : our hands to make a goddamn difference. Blood, sweat, and tears. You : spooks sit on your asses and intimidate, wasting good air and good : food." Ralph swung around, out of the officer's face. "Let's : go." They started back towards the conference room. : The little man tagged behind, quiet, scowling at any passing tech or crewman : that dared look in his direction. : Most of the crew were in the room by the time Ralph got in, making them : early. Like Ralph, they hated wasting time. If he told them to be : somewhere in then minutes, they were usually there in four. This made : Ralph smile, his crew and the CRIST were, after all, what he lived for. : Ralph looked out into the group of yellow, green, and blue coveralls and : helmets. "Okay everyone, I want to make this short and sweet." : Ralph addressed them, standing with arms folded at the front of the room. : "The situation has changed a little. We still have millions of tons : of shit sitting in depots planetside waiting to go; we still have millions : of Martians needing that shit pretty bad, we still have politicians all : over our asses, and we've got less time to do more things that need to : happen to get that CRIST up and going." : Ralph knew they knew the importance of what they were doing. They had the : fastest turn-around time of any CRIST repair and refitting team in the : past 100 years. They were the best welders, structural engineers, and : equipment operators between Earth and the Moon. : "What has changed is me. I'm leaving today. The most important thing is : that you stay to the schedule and get back on track after today's mishap : with the cranes. I don't want anyone getting sentimental. All these years : you've all been able to remember that this isn't about us, and it isn't : about me. I know that all of you would cut off your hands if it meant a : CRIST could leave dock the same day it came in, and that's is why you're : the best. You've got heart and you always have." Ralph shot a glance : to the spook while he said that final sentence. The officer was staring : through Ralph, beyond the wall, out into space. : Ralph knew a lot of his crew had family on Mars. They'd gone without sleep : before, and without comfort working on the ships. They'd go without pay if : it came to that. : Ralph took his helmet, radio, and P-com and handed them to Eddie. : "Eddie's the new CE as of right now. He knows what to do and so do : you. I know you're itching to get back out there so..." Ralph paused, : wanting to say more. : "That's it." : Instead of jumping up to return to work, everyone sat staring at him. : After moments of silence, Eddie stepped forward, removing his helmet. He : looked Ralph square in the eye and gave him a good handshake. His goodbye : said, Eddie put on his gloves and new helmet and starting walking back to : the platform, back to work. Frank did the same. Then the crew chiefs and : sup's one at a time took off their helmets, standing in line to say : goodbye to the best boss, the best leader they had known. Ralph's eyes : misted as the line grew, giving handshakes and hugs as they filed past to : go back to work. : After all was gone, Anika was the last to say goodbye. As supply coordinator : she had made sure they always had everything they needed; work had never : been delayed due to shortages or late shipments. She held out to him a : white paper box. He regarded her and then slowly opened the package, : smiling as he pulled out a silver bolt. Since the early days of the CRISTs : it had been considered luck for the cheif engineer of the refit to keep : the last bolt of construction. The old engineers and captains said it kept : them running longer and out of Earth's spacedock. : Anika kissed him on the cheek and walked out to join the others. : Ralph stood there in the empty room, his helmet and tools gone, with nothing : but the silver bolt in his hand, turning it over, his eyes wet, a lazy : smile on his face. : "You're a lucky man, Mr. Cameron." The officer in black said : quietly from the corner of the room. : "Yeah." Ralph pocketd the bolt. "Let's get out of here." : Ralph went to his quarters, stuffing piles of dirty laundery into a duffel : bag, leaving the empty bottles and food containers to the next occupant. : By 14:45 he was on the Archangel Michael Bravo, sitting down and wishing for : a drink... "Michael, finish launch, destination unchanged", the officer spoke sitting infront the pilot's chair. Without touching anything on his console, he looked over his shoulder to Ralph who was clearly unimpressed. "Hmph, damn AI's are everywhere". The sleek vessel manouvered smoothly out of the bay and made a wide half-circle around the shipyard which looked dwarfed next to the almost finished solarsail of the CRIST, the ion-thrusters started heating up and there was a slow rumble noticeble while the ship accelerated. "Well Mr. Cameron, we're about to have 45 hours of doing nothing before your new assignment comes in view and the first briefing is scheduled right after your 'first contact'." "45 hours before visuals..." Ralph was doing some quick calculations, but the outcome didn't make any sense. What on Earth was going on around Mars? They had a lot of big orbital satelites around the planet and a few miner-bases around the moon Deimos. The little Phobos had one of the larger military bases. But there was nothing like a shipyard or anything remotely interesting for an tired ship-engineer like him. The orbital satelites had been finished a long time ago, so qualified personal was abundant and he was not the type for fuzzing about posh interiours, fancy colourscheme's and other rich geo-sat playgardens. Most likely he was taken to another bigger transportship, and that ment going deepspace for months, maybe years. He was not happy.

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Replies:

	The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/2/05 9:55 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	blake37	4/2/05 11:05 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/3/05 4:49 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	4/3/05 9:46 a.m.
	Keep going! I'll post this to the MaraFF in awhile *NM*	Blayne	4/3/05 3:31 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/4/05 5:33 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	blake37	4/4/05 11:50 a.m.
	Just a reminder about pre-FTL communication *NM*	Steve Levinson	4/4/05 12:31 p.m.
	Opps, your right.... Erm, crap :-\ *NM*	blake37	4/4/05 1:10 p.m.
	Re: Opps, your right.... Erm, crap :-\	D-M.A.	4/4/05 8:00 p.m.
	Correct - wanted to be sure others didn't slip up *NM*	Steve Levinson	4/4/05 8:19 p.m.
	Re: Opps, your right.... Erm, crap :-\	blake37	4/5/05 10:33 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	•M	4/4/05 9:45 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Forrest of B.org	4/5/05 8:02 a.m.
	Re: AMB	•M	4/5/05 8:13 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	4/9/05 8:11 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Forrest of B.org	4/10/05 5:48 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story - note	Blayne	4/11/05 3:38 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	•M	4/13/05 1:42 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	4/18/05 5:25 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	duality	5/21/05 12:02 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Blayne	5/23/05 5:41 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	5/23/05 7:55 p.m.
	lazy baztardoz! *NM*	Johannes Gunnar	5/24/05 6:22 a.m.
	did it	duality	5/24/05 1:51 p.m.
	Re: did it	Blayne	5/26/05 12:34 p.m.
	Re: did it	duality	5/27/05 3:11 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	6/1/05 7:40 p.m.
	Wow! Great job, Yoss. *NM*	Steve Levinson	6/2/05 3:56 a.m.
	Agreed! *NM*	D-M.A.	6/2/05 7:21 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	chotinai	6/22/05 9:07 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Yossarian	6/22/05 10:19 p.m.
	weirdest spam eVer mb?! :P *NM*	Johannes Gunnar	6/23/05 2:26 a.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Enkidu	6/23/05 4:20 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	Blayne	6/26/05 12:03 p.m.
	Re: The NeverEnding Story	D-M.A.	12/2/06 9:52 a.m.

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