(58) Day 29 1900 The Director and Sergeant Hatch a New Plan
“Time to being the next phase of the Project, now that we have the gear,” The Director said.
“Yes ma’am,” the Sergeant replied, displeased at the interruption to his ‘family time’.
She’d called him back to her office after work hours, interrupting his post-dinner video watching. His routine mapped specific video types to his daily activities. Upon awakening he watched humorously violent cartoons. His dedication to watching cartoons in the morning was such that he’d used his limited weight allowance to bring a series of waterproof screens, so he could watch in the shower. The cartoons continued through breakfast, but once he arrived at the office he switched to crime dramas – he was a professional security officer after all. Two movies took him to lunch, which was generally accompanied by some sort of sports, usually football. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t live – he enjoyed the spectacle, and switched back and forth between the various views available – the entire field, the key parts of the play, or the perspective from a particular player, (the quarterback, running back, etc.). The autoselect option that showed the perspective of whoever it was that had the ball was his favorite. He’d watch a season at a time, so he could get emotionally invested in several teams and see how they fared, and simultaneously ran a fantasy football bracket. As a result, the lunchtime viewing often bled into the afternoon’s scheduled reality shows – watching those shows he felt as though he was interacting with the best type of friends – interesting, attractive, and never asking for favors. Indeed, the reality shows met 98% percent of his social needs – his official duties, which generally took less than an hour a week (or at least they did before this “special project” of the Director’s became a time sink) requiring interaction with the ‘locals’ and the Director met the rest.
His post-work workout viewing was dedicated to more sports, mostly individual activities, like the AR Games, base jumping, free riding, surfing, rock climbing, and kite surfing. Sufficiently pumped up by the viewing, he’d get into his CentripGym. After his workout he’d have dinner watching another reality show, as though he’d gone home to be with his family. After this ‘family time’ he’d watch funny videos, either comedy shows or cartoons or videos of people doing crazy stuff on camera. Put in a cheerful mood by the videos, he’d fall asleep, the bed sensing when he was entered the initial sleep cycle and stopping the playback so he could start at that precise point the next evening.
“Let’s take the first two donations of blood tomorrow,” the Director said. “I understand that there are not any shipments scheduled, so if our little friend is slightly ‘tired’ as a result of his donation, it won’t matter that he cannot work effectively at the Crane Farm.”
“I’ll send him an email summons,” the Sergeant said.
“Make it for the morning, before he heads to the Crane Farm,” the Director said.
“What time is that?” asked the Sergeant.
“How should I know!” the Director snapped. “You figure it out – that is your job.”
“Yes ma’am,” the Sergeant said, and walked out to his own office.
He sat down at his desk and thought quickly. “Actually, I don’t care when he heads down to the Crane Farm. He can come back if he’s left already. I’m not going to waste the time to figure it out. The decision made he wrote, “Dirk Kamameaha you are directed to report to City Hall for medical monitoring at 0900” and set it to send at 0800. He didn’t want to give him enough notice to find some excuse not to appear.
This project was taking more of his time than he’d hoped. However, his displeasure at the work requirement was assuaged by two factors. First, the income stream this activity promised, and second the pleasure he’d take in causing that bratty jerk Dirk pain. He’d practiced with the needle, but had already decided to skip the pre-squirt of local anesthetic. He’d say that it was too expensive to ship to Mars, even though all needles included it – removing it had actually taken some work, but Dirk’s discomfort would make it worthwhile.