Jammie found her boss back in the Maintenance, sitting at a long table with some dirty, rusted piston in his hands, nervously puffing at his cigar and shaking his head.

“You've got the fibs?” he asked as soon as he heard her step, not caring to meet her eyes.

“Sure did,” Jammie answered in a relaxed, playful tone.

“Oh, good. Give them to me."

He jumped up from the seat with the kind of happiness on his face as if he just won a lottery. "This old girl needs some fixing. I sure as hell was afraid that she might just give up on us this time. I mean, all those executives Maintenance create a miracle out of thin air. You know how little money they put in the Maintenance?”

The bellyaching went on and on as Lucky took the fibs out of the boxes and walked around the unevenly humming machine.

She tapped her finger on the Old Betzy and finally decided to interrupt him, “You know we don’t need fibs, don’t you?”

“What?” the man stopped in shock.

“This is 500 series AGG - artificial gravity generator. It comes with programable optimizers and stabilizers. They can be modified so you do not need to use any stinking old ion blockers.” She was ready to continue giving him the lecture, but the expression on Mr. Lockmen’s face made her stop.

Right away she understood what happened. There was no shock or pleasure but something else there in his boss’s eyes. Who the hell is this kid to tell me how to do my job? Jammie could hear it even if the words did not come from his boss's mouth.

She did not want to make an enemy, not on the first day of her new job. So, instead of saying, ‘Either you knew about this and made me run around just for the fun of it, or you don’t know and don’t deserve to have even the dirty rags you wear and that you should wash at least once a month’, she paused.

It’s not the possession of intelligence that makes you smart. It’s what you do with it that does. If she was going to make it here, she had to be very humble and political, not to come across as conceding and bossy. She needed all these old men to eat from the palm of her hand, not fight her any chance they could.

She needed to be smart, not just intelligent.

So, picking her words, she said in a serious and calm tone, speaking carefully so as not to offend, “I’m sure I have a lot to learn from you. And I’m really looking forward to doing that. But I had the fortune to have this wonderful older gentleman for a teacher in my first year of robotics, Mr. Lamateen was his name. And he actually made us learn how to program and work on one model similar to these.”

Jammie said that as humbly as she could, leaving out the extent of her knowledge, leaving out that actually she learned how to manipulate models ten times more advanced than what he had in front of him, the kind that can produce and modify gravity on a planet-size space rock not on a misle UDSKJ space station.

“You know how to program this?” Hearing those words, Lucky turned his contempt to genuine surprise.

“Yes. Now, I have not done any work in the last five years, but if you give me a chance, maybe I can just optimize it enough that we never need another fib again.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Mr. Lockman said now with pleasure in his tone, now staring her straight in the eyes.

“The kid knows how to program,” he continued, turning his eyes to Old Betzy again. “For the space spirit's sake, what the hell are you doing in this shithole then?”

The question shook Jammie and unpleasantly reminded her of something that happened shortly before she left her home. It happened after the celebratory good-bye party that his parents threw in their home.

“So, you signed the four-year contract, ten thousand credits a year?” Marty, her best childhood friend has asked her with admiration as they stepped outside to the patio, drinking Dark Horse ale in tall glass mugs.

“Yes.”

“Damn, I should have gone to engineering. I’ll be lucky to clear one thousand this year in Tin’s store.”

“Well, I hope it works out the way it was supposed to.”

“It will. You’re the most resourceful person I have ever met. It will. So… what are you going to do with all that money?”

“It’s not that much really?”

“Are you kidding me? Everyone is so happy that finally, someone from our place could get a break.”

“Well, I mean, I have to pay so much debt that my parents accumulated for sending me to school.”

“Yeah, but you can clear that out in what, a year or so.”

“Probably. And then, you know in what kind of poor health they are. I have to help out. So, I will help them out with some credits every year. And my younger brothers and sisters will need help.”

“Yeah, I know. And if you don’t help them, who else will?”

“Exactly. And maybe, I don’t know… I don’t need that much money for myself, but… maybe we can start some business together one day. Who knows? With some capital, who knows what we can do,” Jammie said, suddenly feeling guilty of leaving her friends and family behind.

“Jammie!” the familiar voice of Mr. Lamateen interrupted him. Jammie turned around to see her old teacher waving at her.

“Oh, hi, Mr. Lamateen!” they greeted him in the same voice.

There was a murkiness on Mr. Lamateen's face that Jammie could not interpret right. It certainly was in contrast to the jovial celebrating atmosphere that marked the whole evening.

“Hi, Marty, nice to see you here,” Mr. Lamateen said and then put his hand on Jammie’s elbow before he continued. “Do you think I can have a word with you?”

“Sure, Mr. Lamateen, of course.”

They stepped a few steps away even though Morthy turned around and waved them goodby.

Jammie started to feel uncomfortable as Mr. Lamateen grabbed his elbow seemed too firm, alarming as was his facial expression.

“I know what everyone is expecting you to do, dear girl,” his teacher started to say. “But did you really thought this through? Going to some distant space station that is not even in the Union’s territory?”

“I…” Jammie did not know what to say.

“For all you know, it might be just a shithole of a place that is ready to eat your young soul up till there is nothing left of you.”

“I won’t let them do that.”

“I hope not. I have… I always had high hopes for you. You were always special. Smart and intelligent.”

“Thank you. Probably part of that is thanks to the teaching you were part of.”

“Bullshit. You’re unique. The way you think and reason. There’s more to you than what I could have taught you.”

“Thank you for saying it.”

There was a long, uncomfortable moment of silence as Mr. Lamateen stared deep into Jammie’s eyes as if trying to make sure that his words get carved somewhere inside Jammie’s brains, as if he did not want his warning words to get forgotten. “I see your mind is made up and that you can’t change your mind. Just please, please, remember what I’m about to tell you. No matter what you find there, remember, don’t, don’t! Just don’t become their victim. Space full of them. Merciless space will just eat you and spit you out. And you’re too smart and good...” There were traces of tears in Mr. Lamateen's eyes as he suddenly let Jammie go and then lowered his eyes as if all the energy was drained out of him. “So, please, my dear girl, don’t be anyone’s idiot. Be smarter than them. And that means, you play them, and don’t let them play you. Understand?”

She was starting to.

“I was so lucky to have Mr. Lamateen as a teacher. Putting those fibs in would take you what? Half an hour at least?”

Lucky nodded his head, not daring to say it would take him at least an hour.

“Just give me twenty minutes and I’ll fix the old Beatzy to pour like a kitten. And from now on, she’s going to be our little Kitten, Mr. Lucky.”

There just can’t be any excuse - it’s untenable to still use these modulators. They are just too unstable. To even have a name for them, like fibs? That’s just all crazy! I do not know what I’m more shocked off, Jammie went on and on, venting everything out of herself, “That you still use these fibs or that you guys did not blow up this station already!”

Twenty-five minutes later...

“I can’t believe you did it!” Lucky said to Jammie. “Hot damn! You were right. She’s purring like a little kitten now. I bet she did not work this smooth even when she was brought here new.”

“Yes,” Jammie answered, with pride in her shining eyes. “It did take me a bit longer than what I thought, but I think we got it now.”

A few more keystrokes, a few more commands, and the job was all done.

“I can see it now, you nailed it at one hundred percent prescribed gravity. My step already feels lighter. Amazing. You’re a genius. You’ll have my job in no time.”

“Mr. Lockman, I do not want your job. Not now, not ever.”

“Oh, I think you’ll get it anyway. As soon as they find out what you can truly do, you’ll run the whole station.”

“No, I do not want that. Besides, nobody needs to know how I did this. And I can certainly show you how to run the optimizations. It’s not that hard.”

“Yeah, you’re a good kid. I can see that now. Maybe it’s my time to retire.” Lucky took a deep breath before he continued his self-pitying lament. “In reality, it was my time to retire a long time ago, but you know how little they pay us. And…

“No. I don’t think it’s your time to retire at all.” Jammie said with impatience, not understanding why Mr. Lockman could not understand him. “And you should not be saying those things. You know I could not run the whole station even if I wanted to. And I really do not want to.”

They stood there for a moment looking at the operating statistics. “Not only have you brought the gravity to its targeted area, but I see Old Betzy is running now with only sixty percent of power! I don’t know what to say.”

Jammie sighed and then said in a subdued tone, “We don’t need to tell anyone.”

“They will know.”

“Not if you don’t tell them.”

“They will know based on how much power it uses.”

“We can always use the extra power for something else. I’ve seen a lot of machines here that could be rebuilt. You even have a lithiu-tion scrapper here. The extra power we saved on Old Betzy, I could feed it into that machine, and we can produce the stuff right here. And you know what that stuff is good for, right? I mean,” Jammie stopped herself, reminding that she did not want to sound like a smart ass.

“You mean the elevators?”

“Yes. We could fix them to run smoothly.”

“I know. Because lithiu-tion is so expensive, we could not use them anymore. The last time I asked for them, they said it was worth over a thousand credits for a kilo of that stuff. That’s why our elevators are running so noisy and slow. We had to go back to the iron wires again.”

Jammie nodded his head as he chuckled. “Go back to the iron age.”

“I know, but five years ago, the estimates we ran was that we needed about fifteen hundred kilos of the stuff to fix the whole elevator system up. The cost was astronomical.”

“Yeah, and now we can do it little by little, saying how we found the stuff on the black market and how we can fix it up for a fraction of the cost. In other words, everyone wins.”

“Everyone wins.”

“I’ve seen your scrap yard. I bet there is enough material there to harvest at least ten tones of the stuff. And you know, all the big cruise ships need it. We could set up a nice side business here.”

“You’re right about that too.”

“I mean, we could just set it all up here. There is plenty of space in the basement here.”

She could see how she was converting him, one word, one thought at a time. But it was far from over.

“No. That would not be smart. Anyone can come down here. And then what? We lose even what we have."

"I know. I know exactly what you mean. I know the Maintenance never gets any respect. They just shove the stuff for us to do, and don't ask how hard it is to do it. It's the same in the Union. No respect."

"No respect."

"And, my god, the way they've been treating you here..."

Should have fired your incometent ass a lifetime ago.

"Expecting you to perform miracles with next to no good equipment at all."

"I know."

"It's despicable."

"Young girl, I could not have said it better."

"I know I'm new here and do not know anything, but even a blind man can see they will never respect us. And what we do for them, nobody else could. Could you see one of them office boys fixing up Old Beatzy and getting their hands greasy?"

Shit. If my hands ever get greasy by fixing up old gravity generators, that's the day I'll shoot myself dead.

"But we need to take their crap and the crumbs they give us. you may not know, but I've got a whole family to feed. Most people on my planet have next to nothing."

Jammie let those words hang in the air, sighed and rubbed her back, and looked away toward the door.

It did not take long for Lucky to scratch his head. "Let me think. Let me think. I mean, we should not be suckers."

"I know. But what else is for us to do? Take their crap and say 'thank you.'"

Let him say it. Let him be the smart one.

"Well... There are better places to do what you suggested. Better places than down here. And that way, nobody needs to know.”

“Nobody needs to know.”

“Yes, yes, I see. I can see it clearly now.”

“I hope you do, Mr. Lockman, because, none of that I can do without you. In reality, I need you more than you need me.”

“I would not go that far, but... I see where you’re coming from. And I have to tell you, kid, I like the way you think. With that brains of yours and my experience and connections, we certainly can make us a nice coin.”

“And, you were right, it’s not like they pay us that much. Why should we wait to retire with nothing in our pockets? This can double what we make, maybe even triple. I know my family will not say no to the money, and I doubt yours will. don’t you agree? And nobody needs to know.”

“Jammie, my girl, I like how you think.”

“I mean, why should we be stupid? We’ll give them the best running station they could ever have, and in return, we’ll make us some extra credits. It won’t cost the station nothing.”

“Nothing at all.”

“They should be glad to have us.”

“Yes, they should.”

“Mr. Lockman, it’s only right we look for ourselves.”

“Kid, just call me Lucky from now on. And let me buy you a drink after our shift tonight.”

“Oh, I think I need to buy you one.”

Lucky looked her up all surprised.

“On account of your cousin,” she said. “He saved my hide today. By the way, what is his name?”

“Lion, I bet you mean Lion. He’s a good young fella,” he answered, suddenly his eyes gleaming even more.

“Oh, I agree. He helped me today.”

“Oh, now did he? Well, let me tell you a bit about him…” Lucky started to talk with pride in his voice, and Jammie for the first time in a long while set down and took a deep breath, relaxing, thinking how in the end things just might work out for the better.

Then, she remembered her classmates from ToKo University. She graduated ahead of her class at twenty. They would be staying and studying for at least another four years. Some would have the luxury to study for another ten years, maybe even fifteen, twenty, depending on how many degrees they decided to pursue.

But, she, she thwarted that life choice. She had an obligation. Her family needed her and the credits she could send them, and the hell with studying if there was enough money to be made that could keep them all alive.