COMMAND CENTER: CONGRESSMAN

“This is one hell of a game you have here,” Congressman Tilers said.

“Sure is,” Henry Andle answered. Henry, one of the owners of Space Opera LLC, knew that these VIP visits were part of the corporate game. University President Dorothy Corman was there too. Congressman Tilers sat on several committees that could help or hinder both the university and Space Opera LLC.

Along with congressman were two aides. One of them stayed close to the congressman. The other was staring at the monitors over a tech’s head.

“What is going on here?” Congressman Tilers walked to where his aide was staring. “That’s not the game, is it?” The monitor was showing one of the work spaces- half workshop-half computer lab.

“No. That’s one of the teams work areas,” Henry answered. “We look in on them to see what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.”

“IS it true that you hire many of your people from here?”

“That’s right, congressman,” Dorothy answered. “A good number of our graduates are snapped up by Space Opera, and some of their competitors. Fortunately for us, some of the grants you have sponsored have helped keep our programs top notch.”

The congressman, and the aid standing near him nodded. Dorothy had been playing the fundraising game long enough to know how to score some easy points. Flattery and thankfulness were easy points.

“What do you look for in your new employees?”

“Good Technical skills to start. Intangibles pay a huge part. Can they think through problems? Grace under pressure, ability to learn, all sorts of intangibles.”

“What about now, what are you looking for?” This came from the aide fascinated by the monitors.

“There is a ton of pressure on the tech teams. And is it a well run team? Are people lazy or industrious? Sometimes are there interesting things happening?

“Do you ever catch them, uh,” The young aide tried to find the word. “problems, challenges, mistakes. Do you ever catch them making or about to make mistakes?”

Henry breathed an internal sigh. He worried the question was going to be about catching them in sexual situations. “sometimes. Sometimes we wind back the recording to see what happened too. Especially to see how they react. It’s one of the reason we don’t allow remote work during the competition.

Something caught Henry’s eye- at one of the stations two of the techs were smiling. One laughed. When they saw Henry looking, they stopped. Henry wandered over, the congressman followed.

“What’s up?”

“We, uh, we just remembered a time that one of our classmates spilled a water bottle into a server,” one of the techs said.

“Ouch.”

“He was building his own server. The whole thing fried. Took him a week to rebuild.”

“What brings that to mind?” The congressman asked.

The tech pointed at the monitor. “She has a cup of soda perched on the edge of one of their servers.”

Everybody leaned in close. The biggest problem wasn’t that there was a cup of soda on the server. The biggest problem was the soda was on the edge of a server with the panel doors open. If it spilled there was nothing stopping catastrophe.

“What team is it?” the aide asked.

“Team Bloop.”

IN THE FIELD

The artillery barrage would start in 9 minutes. They were hauling ass to get there on time. Angie checked the time again. It hadn’t changed from 20 seconds ago. There it is, she thought. The artillery barrage would start in 8 minutes.

Staff Sergeant Emm, commander for this part of the assault, was riding in the gun jeep at the head of the small column. There were just two trucks and a gun jeep. Angie, deputy commander for the assault, was riding in the rear truck. Team Bloop, Team MYNdBendz, Team Crayons and Team PepMotion were the assault force. On the other side of the target, four other teams would be attacking.

There was an urgency to the assault. Command was worried that if they delayed the assault then Carmen and her people would escape with the case. Nobody had explained what was in the case. It didn’t really matter. The quest was to get the damn case. Having a chance to shoot Carmen and her henchmen was a major bonus. Shooting Maresa would be amazing. That bitch had shot her, payback would be a, well, bitch.

They should have moved out hours ago. As it was, they would arrive just barey after the artillery salvo landed. With anti-personnel bomblets and high explosive blasts, the defenders shouldn’t know what hit them.

“BREAK BREAK BREAK” The radio squawked in her ear. “All units, the package has moved. It is now in the village of Torro. Northern Assault team will attack the village. Southern assault team setup a blocking force. Subtern unit, continue assignment. Bukowski out.”

Well, Angie thought, that’s interesting. The maps displayed on her helmet’s visor. Torro itself wasn’t interesting. The target was on the edge of Torro so they were pretty much going there anyway. The orchard they were driving through wasn’t terribly interesting- trees in orderly rows. It was interesting that Carmen and her important case were on the move. And we should reach the edge of Torro about now….

An explosion punctuated her thought. Somehow, for some reason, the gun jeep with Sergean Emm exploded. Angie’s truck swerved and skidded to a halt. The other truck swerved and hit a couple of trees. “DEPLOY!” Angie yelled. The teams didn’t need much urging as they spilled out of their trucks.

“In line, in line!” Angie was trying to spread everybody out in the orchard and keep them all facing the village.

Gunfire reached out of at them. Everybody dove for cover.