by Bob Blanton
“Amazing that they just intuited this themselves,” Catie said. “Then, there are the hand push-offs they do when they’re just changing their vector a little.”
“Even I do those,” Natalia said.
“Yes, but are you as subtle about it as they are?”
“Nobody is.”
“And the last set of moves are their flips and twists. Forward and backward, then flip twist, and twist flip. With all the permutations, you get eighty-four moves.”
“We’ll never be able to keep up with them,” Natalia said.
“We don’t need to keep up with them; we just need to be able to stay ahead of Kal and Liz,” Catie said. “Let’s go in and just practice the moves by themselves for today. Tomorrow we can try to actually do them while we’re moving.”
◆ ◆ ◆
On Wednesday, Catie met Sophia for lunch.
“Where are the twins?” Sophia asked.
“Liz is watching them for me,” Catie replied. “They’re having a quick lunch before heading to the obstacle course.”
“Those two are nuts!”
“They’re driving me a bit nuts,” Catie said. “I have to take them to the obstacle course twice a day so they burn off enough energy that they will do their homework, or watch a movie.”
“There’s Chris,” Sophia said as Chris made her way to their table.
“Hey, Catie, it’s been a while,” Chris said as she sat down. “What are you two talking about?”
“The twins,” Sophia said.
“Are they driving you nuts?” Chris asked.
“A bit, but they’re still a lot of fun,” Catie said. “I’m teaching them how to fly, and they’re teaching me how to maneuver in microgravity.”
“I thought you already knew that,” Chris said.
“I do, but not like they do. It's amazing how they maneuver! I had their moves analyzed; they have eighty-four moves that they use,” Catie said. “Can you believe they figured all that out by instinct?”
“That is amazing,” Chris said. “It’s nice to learn things like that when you’re really young. Anyway, have you ordered yet?”
“No, Catie just got here, and I was waiting for both of you,” Sophia said.
“Did Sophia tell you that I’m moving up here?” Chris asked.
“No, I was waiting for you to tell her,” Sophia said.
“You are, full time?” Catie asked.
“Yes, Mom and Dad both got assigned up here; Mom works with the Zelbars, and Dad is working in the VIT fabrication plant.”
“That’s cool, we can get together when we’re working then,” Catie said.
“And we can hang out,” Chris said. “Don’t you ever have fun?”
“Yes, I have fun,” Catie said to defend herself. “I get to fly a lot, I’m going to the obstacle course with the twins and chasing them around, I’m having lunch with you guys.”
“When’s the last time you went to a party?” Chris asked.
“Christmas,” Catie said.
“So, one party in a month,” Chris said. “I can see you’re overwhelmed with fun.”
“Parties aren’t the only way to have fun,” Catie said.
“How about a boyfriend?” Chris asked.
“There’s nobody I’m interested in,” Catie said.
“How would you know? When was the last time you met a guy your age?” Chris asked.
“At the Christmas party,” Sophia answered for Catie.
“I see I have my work cut out for me,” Chris laughed. “Now Sophia, how’s Chaz doing?”
“He’s doing fine,” Sophia said. “He’s starting to take some engineering classes at school, so he’s busy a lot.”
“Are you doing okay with that? Him being busy?” Chris asked.
“I am, I’m kind of busy too, with the Gazette and my studies,” Sophia said.
“Is he behaving himself?” Chris asked.
“Oh yeah!” Sophia said. “Too much. Dad made a comment about how many spies he has working for him; it kind of scared Chaz.”
“I’d guess so,” Chris said. “Was your father worried?”
“I don’t know,” Sophia said. “He said it like a joke, but you can guess how it went over.”
Chris laughed. “You and Catie are the two most intimidating girls to date,” she said. “You both have fathers who can make a boy just disappear if they decide they don’t like the way he’s treating their daughter.”
“Don’t say that in front of Chaz!” Sophia scolded. “He’s nervous enough as it is.”
“I’ll bet,” Chris said. “You know you’re going to have to be the one to take charge and move things along.”
“What do you mean?” Sophia asked. Catie leaned forward, very interested in the answer as well.
“Well, you’re going to have to control the temperature of your relationship--how long you kiss, is he allowed under your shirt, things like that,” Chris said.
“Ooh, that takes the fun out of it,” Sophia said.
“You’ll have to think of ways to make it fun, but he’s going to be so cautious you’ll be an old maid before you French kiss,” Chris said.
Catie was obviously looking up French kiss in her HUD, and when she got to the definition, she grimaced. “Who would want to do that?”
“You will,” Chris said. “Just wait.”
Their food finally came, and the conversation settled down while they ate. Catie had a burger and fries, while Chris and Sophia both had a salad.
“How can you eat like that and stay thin?” Sophia asked Catie.
“I work out two hours a day,” Catie said.
“Two hours! How do you have time for anything else?” Sophia asked.
“It’s just two hours, and there are twenty-four in a day,” Catie said. “Besides, I do a lot of email while I’m running.”
“You’re a little insane,” Sophia said.
“How are you doing with VIT?” Chris asked. “I just see your assignments, but we never talk about work.”
“I’m doing okay,” Catie said. “It took me a while to get the work under control.”
“What do you mean by that?” Sophia asked. “I can’t imagine anything that would take you long to get under control.”
“There was just so much code to deal with,” Catie said. “The first six weeks, I was spending almost fifty hours a week to get through the test assigned to me. I’ve finally got it down to the twenty hours a week it’s supposed to be.”
“Gawd, I’m definitely not doing computer science,” Sophia said. “If it’s that hard for you, I’d never be able to do it.”
“It’s not that hard now,” Catie said. “It just took me time to learn all the code.”
Chris was laughing hard, “Catie, you do know that you’re supposed to just run the test and identify the defects.”
“Of course I do,” Catie said. “But you have to read the code to find the defect, and since you’re right there, you might as well suggest a change.”
“No!” Chris laughed. “You’re supposed to point out where the code fails the test, not where in the code the defect is. No wonder they all fight over who gets you as their tester.”
“I don’t understand,” Catie said.
“You’re doing their job, debugging the code is for the software engineer; we’re just the testers. We run the test, identify the failures; they are supposed to figure out where the defect in the code is and how to fix it. No wonder you had to work so hard.”
“Just run the test,” Catie said disdainfully, “that would be boring.”
“It is,” Chris said, “but it really is easy. They’re having me review the changes now. That way, I can start to learn about how the code is written. I wondered why they didn’t have you sit in on the reviews.”
“So they’re laughing at me,” Catie said.
“No, they’re fighting over you,” Chris said. “You should probably talk to the manager and see if he’ll start giving you actual coding a
ssignments. The engineers tell me that defect isolation and fixing are harder than writing code in the first place. Especially when it’s not your code you’re fixing.”
“I guess I should,” Catie said. “I’m starting to get bored with the defects. Some of them are so stupid.”
“The engineer I work for says they are mostly typos and brain farts,” Chris said.
“Brain farts, that’s gross,” Sophia said.
“But very descriptive,” Chris said with a grin. “Okay, back to boys, are there any living up here?”
“Artie is up here a lot, Jason too,” Catie said.
“I mean boys we’d want to date,” Chris said.
“Then no,” Catie responded.
“Well, then someone who has some control over assignments needs to figure out how to get more up here,” Chris said.
“What?” Catie squeaked.
“Come on Girl, put that brain of yours to work. Use your connections to get the right people transferred up here, those who have boys we might like,” Chris said.
◆ ◆ ◆
By the end of the week, Natalia and Catie had improved on their microgravity maneuvering skills enough that the two of them could catch one of the twins, that is, when it was two against one. Now they were ready for Liz and Kal. They arranged to meet the two of them at the obstacle course.
“So, what do you want to show me?” Kal asked.
“First, I wanted to show you the reservation list for the course,” Catie said.
“You could have done that in an email,” Kal said.
“I wanted to make a point,” Catie said. “Look at it, in the last three months there are only four time-slots reserved by anyone besides myself, and now the twins.”
“Sure, we only use it to qualify the new recruits on their exosuits,” Kal said.
“How about without exosuits?” Catie asked.
“Not really necessary,” Kal said. “They always wear one when on duty.”
“But what happens if they’re needed in an emergency, or if their air runs out on the exosuit?” Catie asked.
“That’s not likely to happen. Here on the station, their suits replenish the air from the atmosphere,” Kal said. “And we only have the hub to worry about.”
“What if we stop the rotation or the station loses spin?” Catie asked.
“I guess that could happen, but they have magnetic boots to hold them to the floor,” Kal replied. Liz was watching the exchange with a smile. She knew something was coming; Catie had to have a trick up her sleeve.
“What would your team do if they ran into a delinquent like one of the twins?” Catie asked. “They’d never be able to catch them.”
“We’d just send two,” Kal said.
“I bet two of your guys couldn’t catch one of the twins,” Catie said.
Kal got a big smile on his face, “How much?” he asked.
“Five hundred,” Catie said.
“You want in on this, Liz?” Kal asked.
“I don’t think so,” Liz replied.
“I’d take a piece of the action,” Natalia said.
“Sure, five hundred okay with you?” Kal asked.
“Sure.”
Kal called in two of the security guys who were getting ready to go off duty. He had them report to him at the obstacle course. He had picked two of the slimmer guys on the team, figuring they would be more agile and handle the twins better.
“Can we put a time limit on it?” Catie asked when the two men from the security team arrived.
“Sure, say thirty minutes,” Kal said.
“Fine,” Catie said. “Guys, take off your exosuits.”
“Hey, I don’t recall anyone saying my guys couldn’t wear exosuits,” Kal said. He rubbed his hands together and smiled at Catie.
“You rat,” Catie said, sounding angry. “Fine, they’ll beat them anyway!”
“You want to up your bet?” Kal asked.
“Sure, how about five thousand instead!” Catie almost shouted.
“You’re on,” Kal said. “Nattie, how about you?”
“I can go a thousand,” Natalia said.
“You’re covered,” Kal said. He turned to his two men, “Now you two are to catch one of these little girls,” Kal pointed to the twins. “They’ll be in the obstacle course, but you’ll have your suits, they’re just going to be wearing their shipsuits.”
“No problem,” the older man said.
“Who wants to go?” Catie asked.
Both twins raised their hands and declared, “I do.”
“Roshambo,” Catie said. The twins quickly did the three pumps with their fists, Aalia came up with scissors while Prisha chose rock.
“Prisha is it,” Catie said. She slapped Prisha on the butt and called out, “Give it to them.”
Liz sidled up next to Catie, “How many times did you test this?”
“Three times yesterday,” Catie said, “Natalia and I chasing one of them.”
“Did you catch them?”
“Not even close,” Catie said, “and we’ve been working on our moves all week.”
After thirty minutes, two dog-tired security guys came out of the obstacle course, followed by Prisha, who was telling them all the mistakes they had made. The two men had been totally embarrassed, and from their faces, you could tell they weren’t up to a lecture about it.
“Okay, you made your point,” Kal said, “but how many people are there like those two?”
“Who knows, but your guys are so bad they couldn’t catch anyone with an iota of skill,” Catie said.
“Hey!” the two men shouted together.
“I’m serious,” Catie said. “I could outmaneuver you.”
“Yes, but you’re not a typical person either,” Kal said.
“I bet Natalia could outmaneuver them,” Catie said. “The two of them couldn’t catch her and bring her out of the course.”
Kal started laughing, “I don’t think so. Look at her; she’d hurt herself trying one of those moves that girl did.”
“Hey, I don’t appreciate your snarky remark,” Natalia said, giving Kal a mean glare.
“Sorry, but really,” Kal said.
“Put up or shut up,” Natalia said angrily. She moved up next to Kal and glared down at him.
“Okay, double or nothing,” Kal said. “I’d like to get my money back.”
“You’re on,” Natalia said, glaring at him.
“You want to give me my money back too?” Kal asked Catie.
“You got it,” Catie said. “You’re back on boys!”
The two guys groaned as they moved back toward the airlock to the obstacle course. “Do we get a cut?” one of them asked.
“You get paid, and this is part of your training,” Kal said. “Now don’t waste time, just grab her and get it over!”
Kal moved back to the observation room, and Liz looked at Catie with a question on her face.
“They have to bring her out,” Catie said.
“Oh,” Liz said, the slight twist in the rules dawning on her.
Natalia danced around the obstacle course for about ten minutes before the two men finally figured out how to coordinate their attacks. They finally pushed her toward a corner. Natalia set up like she was going to push off to the right away from the first guy; the second guy quickly moved that way to cut her off. As soon as he was committed, Natalia pushed off right toward the first guy as she pulled the faux belt off of her shipsuit and opened the loops she had added to it. She and Catie had practiced this move a hundred times.
The first guy was shocked when he realized she was coming right at him; he used his thrusters to avoid a collision. Natalia threw the big loop on her belt around his head. That allowed her to pull him to her; she quickly took a second loop and applied it to his left foot and then cinched the two loops as close together as the guy's body and exosuit would allow. Then she pushed off of him and away from the second guy. She and Catie had quickly learned that you couldn
’t get all three loops in place before you were set upon by the second target.
Natalia clinched her toes, activating the magnetic coils in her boots. When she landed on the wall, she bent her knees to absorb her momentum, and with the magnetic coils, she stuck. She could hear Kal screaming over her comm.
“What was that?” he yelled.
“I don’t remember anything about Nattie having to let them catch her,” Catie said in that innocent little-girl voice of hers.
Natalia quickly scanned the room and zeroed in on the second guy. He was clearly torn between jetting over to his partner or going after her. Apparently, he let his anger make the decision for him, and he headed toward her. Natalia adjusted her stance, clinched her toes to disengage the magnetic coils, and waited. As he got close, she pushed off hard, bounced off a second wall, and slammed into the guy from the side, sending him across the room. She used the momentum from the collision to reach another wall and pushed off of it, sending her back to the first guy. There she put the third loop around his other foot and cinched it up tight. She grabbed another loop from her pocket and tied his hands together, then pushed away before his partner could react.
“Okay, I know when I’m beat,” Kal yelled. “Call it off, there’s no reason to let Nattie beat up my other guy. I should have learned my lesson on Manuae last year.”
The second guy breathed a sigh of relief and jetted over to his partner and released him. Natalia simply headed for the airlock. As she came through, she gave Catie a high five.
“How long did you guys practice that?” Kal asked.
“Six hours over two days,” Catie said.
“And your point?” Kal asked.
“You guys need more training in microgravity,” Catie said. “I just sent you the training routines Nattie and I worked up with the twins. You should have your guys do some serious training. Nattie and I have only been working on our moves for a week. Think what it would have looked like if we’d had a few months.”
“Okay, you’ve proved your point. I’ll schedule some training right away,” Kal said. “Will you two give me a few private lessons, so I don’t look like a complete rube?”
“Sure, I think that will be fun,” Catie said.
“Fun for who?” Kal asked, his voice full of worry.
