Tanis Richards: Blackest Night - A Military Hard Science Fiction Space Opera Epic (Aeon 14: Origins of Destiny Book 3) by Cooper M. D

Author:Cooper, M. D. [Cooper, M. D.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The Wooden Pen Press
Published: 2018-09-05T16:00:00+00:00

TANK

STELLAR DATE: 03.01.4085 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: TSS Kirby Jones, Hyperion Service Yard 17-32

REGION: Saturn, Jovian Combine, OuterSol

Connie bit her tongue and counted to ten before responding to the woman from the Portmaster’s office who had reached out over audible comms.

“So you’re telling me that I can’t get a new helium tank for the Jones why, exactly? I’m trying not to be dense, but I’m totally flummoxed here.”

“Well, you see,” the woman began in a nasal tone that made Connie wish they were face to face…so she could test a theory about breaking her nose. “Your ship commander failed to file a JR-182A. She filed a JR-182B. That’s for a new H3 tank on your class of ship when the old one is past its service date. Yours still has four years on its service date, so we can’t replace it with a JR-182B.”

Connie muted the audio pickups and placed her hands over her temples, doing her best not to scream. Marion was with her in the engineering bay—they’d been chatting about a new card game they’d heard of called Snark, debating whether or not they should buy official cards or just fab some, when the woman from the Portmaster’s office had called in.

“You know,” Marion whispered, watching Connie trying not to lose it, “I like my job a lot more. I still have a lot of shitty paperwork, like dozens of forms for ammo and charge cylinders, but at the end of the day, I get to use my gear to shoot shit.”

“Wanna stage a raid on this woman’s console?” Connie asked with a hungry grin, before unmuting her pickups. “Sergeant Hanja, I cross-checked those forms myself. The B version is for a new tank because of a structural issue. The A form is for it going past its service date. You have them mixed up.”

“No…no, I’m pretty sure you have them wrong.”

“Pretty sure?” Connie fumed. “Pretty sure? I’m curious, if I were to file an A as well, would that get us the tank? Just for funsies?”

Sergeant Hanja cleared her throat. “Oh no, that won’t work at all. You see, we pushed the B you filed into procurement. They have a pending rejection on it, but they won’t accept an A form until the B clears. The system’s just not set up to have two tanks requested for a ship that only takes one.”

Connie pursed her lips and muted the pickups again and pounded her fist against the edge of the console, causing Marion’s eyes to widen in alarm.

“Connie…this isn’t healthy. You can’t get so worked up about stuff.”

“You’re right,” she replied, trying to regulate her breathing. “I’m just…just.…”

“Something to do with the commander’s secret orders?” Marion prompted with a wink.

“Yeah,” Connie nodded. “We can’t sit here for weeks while they get their heads out of their asses, and I’ve seen shit like this take that long to clear up.”

“I’ve got this,” Marion said as she leant over and toggled the pickups, doing her best impersonation of Connie’s accent. “Uhhh…Sergeant Hanja, we’ve checked over everything, and we see that you’re right.

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