He was walking down the hall, keeping his facial expression under control, displaying that required helpful attitude. A young lady, her dress and access badge indentifying her as a young office clerk barely out of training, approached him in a slightly reluctant manner. He stopped and smiled politely at her as he saluted.
Hesitantly she asked him for directions to the level 5 archive for medium classified material regarding transportation assets and after looking at her badge he started to tell her. However, he quickly realized that she was too overawed at her new responsibilities to remember the complex route from where they were standing.
With an understanding smile, he said: “You certainly have gotten yourself lost, Miss. Would you like me to escort you there?”
She accepted, trying hard to hide her relief and the same time appear in control. He began to walk, just in time remembering to keep a pace that wouldn't require her to half-run to keep up.
To some it might appear unconventional, but he began to chat with her about graduating, being far from home, suddenly having big responsibilities and a career to look out for. At first taken a little by surprise, she quickly realized that he was sincere – and safe, as he was a 'Trox, he guessed with an inward smile.
Remembering his own tenure at an office complex he suggested a few things to her and some people to see, assuring her that most Omni officials were quite eager to help out young people, just as it was supposed to be in the Corporation. He also, however, cautioned her against those few, who might try to take advantage of her lack of experience with office politics.
At the door to the archive he bade her fare well as he didn't have access to those files (he had never understood how you could be cleared for top secret but not medium secret at the same time) – and anyway, he was now behind schedule. Her grateful thanks and best wishes followed him as he set out to complete his own mission.
As he went deeper – that is, higher up in the building – he began to meet more inquisitive glances, but his uniform was in perfect order and his regimental insignia belonged to a well known regiment frequently involved in clandestine operations – and, for his purposes, pleasantly out of reach by normal channels. He was left alone.
As he walked on by these busy people, he let a part of his mind wander back in time, back to his younger years..
After basic training he was assigned to duty as guard at an administrative complex. It was an easy duty which gave him plenty of spare time to study.
He kept a strict regime of rising early and doing his PT before breakfast, staying in the boot camp habit much to the other guards’ amusement.
Then he would do his 12 hours of keeping the complex secure, checking passes, guiding lost people to the correct entrance, everything a doorman’s job entrails.
Then, after dinner, he would practise with his weapons, before cleaning both weapons and uniform, getting them ready for the next day. This left several hours worth of study time.
After a days work he would study things like psychology and behavioural sciences, to better understand when and why people would fight. Or he would read up on the latest in weapons development.
He got to know the economic structure of Rubi-Ka and found ways to make money, a handy thing when he retired in a mere 140 years.
The various kinds of landscape found around the planet gave him plenty of good memories from his trips during his bi-annual leave. He walked in the forests, climbed the mountains and hiked in the arid desert, using his knowledge from boot camp – and keeping it fresh in his memory for any future use, believing in being prepared for most eventualities imaginable.
On some of these trips he went with friends but on most he went alone, needing to get away from the bustle of the city and calming down, getting his life in perspective. He always returned to work with a renewed sense of happiness that he was making peoples lives better in a small way by being polite and helpful.
When his thirst for knowledge became known, the officers – and the employees at the offices – would help him if he found the subjects difficult. They would also suggest new things to look into and help him acquire the necessary literature. In short, they were exactly what OT always claimed of its employees – helpful and willing to assist others.
Some of them even allowed him to read manuals on new technology or reports on advances in genetic research, again helping him with the more difficult parts and obtaining further literature to help him understand these new texts.
He learned as much as he possibly could, much more than others suspected.
Not least because he had learned one thing above all else in boot camp: never volunteer for anything, never volunteer an opinion, never volunteer any knowledge not directly involved in saving your life, in short never volunteer.
The years at the office block passed quickly although each gate duty was drawn out boredom. In fact, he later considered it some of the best years of his life, a period of truly satisfying work amongst good co-workers, knowing that he was doing his bit to make the world a better place for all.
Of course not everybody was polite and happy, some people were obviously under a lot of stress, some in a state of grief and some too filled with their own importance. This was to be expected, he guessed, in a big city with a lot of people going about all the time. On more than one occasion he got yelled at by someone not able to find his or her way around, but he always kept his calm and found ways to help them out. If he did not know the answer himself, he usually could find someone who did or in some other way be of assistance.
On more than one occasion he even helped people find solutions to their problems on his own, using his Atrox sense and his accumulated knowledge of OT and its activities. Or he advised them to seek out someone more suited to help them than the person they originally were going to see. This earned him respect from the visitors and praise from his officers, as every OT employee should be all he or she could be and always help others.
In a few instances he had to use his weapon when someone got out of line and began to act threatening towards other people or even began to attack the building itself. These things were very rare but he did as he had been taught and used only a minimum of force to subdue them until they were taken away to jail, hospital or morgue, as the case may be.
Most of these cases involved someone using illegal drugs or being under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. A few got angry when they could not get the answer they wanted, maybe no one could help them, but that did not give them the right to cause grief to others and so he stopped them from causing harm.
Only a couple of times did he have to use deadly force, like that time a doctor had taken too much of his own medicine and came calling with a shotgun and a grudge.
And so the time passed, he got praise from his superiors for his work and he was content with his life.
However, as all good things must come to an end, so did his time at the offices and one day he was told that he was being reassigned to a mining complex, where he would protect the workers, much as he had been doing in the city.
It sounded like a nice thing, to protect honest, hardworking people and giving then peace to do the work, so he was happy and soon set out for his next assignment at Area P.
He turned a corner and shook his head to clear it of the memories, focusing entirely on his objective, which was now only one flight of stairs away. He took a breath and walked on..
