Called Into Work

[FoosballX]

[[This happened a few weeks ago on October 15th. enjoy]]

“Listen, the sign of a good leader is someone who can take command and is willing to take responsibility. The sign of a great leader is someone who can do all of that, and knows when to let go and move on. And right now that’s what keeps Foos from being a great leader. He has no problem getting the respect from the men, but he doesn’t know when to let go. Look what happened with Richards. Foos had know way of knowing, that kid padded his qualifications, he had know way of knowing the kid had never docked a fighter to a ship in space before. If anything it was my fault, I was the one that hired him; I was the one that should have checked him out. But he died on Foos watch, so now in his mind it’s his fault and it will always be his fault and nothing anyone can say will ever change that.
I had hoped at someday Foos would take over the ship and keep the business going, but he can’t he’s just not that good of a leader to do, at least now he isn’t. Maybe if he learns to let go, to understand not everything is his responsibility.
But it really doesn’t matter; Foos is looking to leave soon. He hasn’t told me, and I know he won’t tell me until he’s ready. But his days as a star-runner are coming to an end he’ll be a planet-walker soon enough.
I just hope he finds what he’s looking for.”

The words of his father echo through the canyon of his unconscious, and he laid there restless replaying the conversation that he wasn’t meant to hear.

The image of his younger self working in one of the many maintenance tunnels and over hearing his father’s conversation quickly shifted to a small fighter craft crashing into the ships hanger, as Foos watched helpless watching the event take place on the control monitor.

Foos awoke with a jolt making him sit upright. He was sweating and disoriented. How long was I asleep? He thought to himself as he looked around to get his bearings. He was sitting in his Borealis apartment he could barely remember walking there. He spoke aloud to himself, “Sometimes I hate coming back from the Shadowlands they take so much out of me”… His thought was cut short by an incoming transmission. Since his com was off he knew before looking at the call sign it was Cylie, she was the only one who could contact him as long as he was wearing the com unit, it would automatically be turned on by either her signal or voice. Still in a haze he answered the incoming call.

“Foos are you there?” her voice sounded tired and stressed.
“Yes Love. I’m here is everything ok?” he asked in a reassuring voice.
“Yes. Well no, everything is so crazy because of all that has happened. We’re short handed and to make matter worse I have three ships here that need to loaded and out in two and a half hours and I can’t get these guys to work, they’ve been screwing off all day. If you’re not too busy do you think you could come down and give me a hand on the docks?” her voice sounding frustrated and worried as she asked him.
“Sure, I’m at your disposal anything you need I’ll do. I’m not sure how much help I’ll be, but I’ll do my best” he replied to her, having no clue what he was getting him self into. It didn’t matter she needed help and he swore an oath to stand by her no matter what.
“I’m sure you’ll do fine, I’ll see you when you get here” she said to him, her voice sound a little more reassured as she shut her com off.

He left his apartment shortly after their conversation and made his way to Trade and the Omni-Trans building. As he approached the OT building and stopped dead in his tracks for a moment as the memory of the evil machine that came and took Cylie away all thanks to that blond headed twit, Sotto. Foos could never prove Sotto was behind Cylie’s questioning, but in someway or another he knew he had something to do with it. “Sotto you bastard!” he thought to himself “why did you have to pick now to loose your mind?” He pictured an unflattering image of Sotto standing there in the meeting spouting out “She’s an omega, here’s some crappy photos and a trinket I found to prove it.” Foos shakes his head trying not to laugh. He knew he shouldn’t laugh about it, this was a serious matter. He knew Cylie believed Sotto as well as Tom, but he was still unsure himself. “Sotto why couldn’t you be a good little Omni and just do your damn job. Maybe I could be home with Cylie instead of coming here to help her do your job, you twit.” Foos thought to himself trying not to get angry at the situation, the last thing he wanted was to give Cylie more stress, his job is to help out not to make things worse. “Maybe he worked too much, the man barely had any kind of social life, maybe that put him over the edge and started him chasing shadows.” He shook his head one more time trying to clear his mind so he could focus on his next task, helping his wife. Part of him couldn’t help but feel bad for Sotto, even thought he is a pompous bureaucrat and his latest stunt has made Foos’ life needless complicated, nobody deserved be going where he is going to be going.

Foos entered the Omni-Trans building and was met by a mass of commotion, people scurrying about carrying papers and files, repair crews patching up the walls and cleaning up the blood left by Tom’s group. He had been to the Omni-Trans many times in the past to see Cylie and had never once experienced the dismay currently being played out before him. He weaved his way through the chaos making his way to the front desk. He waited there for a few seconds letting the receptionist catch her breath. She saw him there waiting patiently. She took a moment to trying to neaten up her messy hair. She looked at Foos and an in a pleasant tone she said, “Thank you for coming to Omni-Trans. Please excuse our mess as we are currently going through some changes. How may I help you today?”
Foos looked at her for a moment, surprised and impressed with ability to regain composure so quickly and said, “Hello, I’m Mr. Cross I am here to help out, Mrs. Cross should be expecting me.”
“Oh yes Mr. Cross, if you could please place your thumb on the scanner here for verification.”
Foos takes his thumb as asked and places it on the scanner, almost immediately his ID is verified.
She smiles at him and says, “I have everything you need right here.” She starts digging through the mess of papers and boxes on her desk. “Just one moment please, it was just right here” she smiles and continues to look. “Here it is”, she hands Foos an electronic pad and ID badge. “Use this pad, it will give you directions to the docking hangers and this ID will give you temporary command access and authority”.
“Command authority?” he asked her with a puzzled look on his face.
“Yes Mr. Cross, you have full command authority over the docks. As of right now you are the acting dock supervisor. Now please make sure you follow the directions on the pad, due to a recent mishap some of the passages ways have been closed down for repairs. Have a nice day, and remember Omni is your friend.” After speaking she returned to her previous work, and didn’t pay attention to Foos’ blank stair.

Foos takes the direction pad in hand and follows the path giving too him. Along the way he sees repair bots and workers patching up holes in the walls. He thinks to him self, “More of Tom and his men’s handy work. And what about Tom, now that he’s off Sotto’s leash, could Cylie be in danger. Judging by the damage done here he doesn’t seem to think much about the Omni-Trans employees that decided not to follow him. Besides I know he hates Cylie, I’m sure he would love nothing more then to put a bullet in her head, especially now she has Sotto’s job. I’m going to have to keep my eyes open, even though he did tell me last night he had not plans to go after Cylie. Still I would be the last person he would tell if he did. I need to keep a close watch on things and listen to what he says on the node. I’m not even sure if I can take him in a fight. No! I can’t allow that kind of thinking, if he means any harm to Cylie then I have to stop him at all costs. But I also can’t go running off the handle, track him down in the Shadowlands and strike him first, that could make matters much worse. I’ll just have to wait a bit and see what happens next.”

[FoosballX]

Foos arrived at the dock entrance and was greeted by two guards. He could tell by the nervous look on their faces they were new to the job. More then likely trainees quickly promoted too fill positions after half the guard staff left with Tom, he thought to himself.
After an ID scan Foos was quickly allowed entrance to the dock. Upon entering the dock he was greeted by the sight of workers sitting around doing nothing, with inventory scattered about the hanger floor. He switched on his com to open channels, and walked onto the supervisor platform.

A friendly voice came over the node, “Hello Foosball” it was Feyde.
“Hey Freyde, hang on a sec”, Foos scanned over the works below him and said, “Come on guys, there's some work that needs to get done and.....” with the clear impression they weren’t going to listen to him, Foos was debating to either leave or start loading the ships himself. He let out a sigh, and turned around and looked up to see Cylie pacing on the overlook about him. He could tell she was stressed out, her hair was unkempt and her clothes were a mess. A wave of anger came over him when seeing his beautiful new wife under duress. He walked over to the guards and asked, “Now I have command over the docks as of right now, does that mean I have command over you as well?”
“Yes Sir”, the one guard replied with a salute, “We are currently at your disposal Sir, is there something you need of us.”
He felt slightly uncomfortable by the guard’s salute and use of Sir; however, he didn’t have the time to really let his mind wrap around such things, there was work that needed to be done. He looked at both guards and spoke, “I need you two to step outside and make sure nobody comes in here. You are not to come back in until I order you too, is that clear?”
In unison the guards looked at him and with another salute said “Yes Sir!” and left the hanger through the door behind them.

Foos walked back to the platform and looked over the workers one last time, and not seeing any change in what they were doing. He put his arms down and out from his sides, and his guns came out from resting place in his sleeves and into his hands. He raised his right arm above his head and fired several shots into the air. The crowd of workers and pilots quickly stop and turned to look at Foos. He’s eyes peered over the group and yelled out “Do I have you're attention now!” Seeing that he had there full attention he continued, “My name is Mr. Cross and I am in charge here. There are 3 ships that need to be out in 2 hours I want them done in an hour.” He lowered his gun from holding it above his head, and waved it across the group, like it was a pointer, “You roughnecks have been slacking off too long, if I see anyone taking a break you better be dead or I will make sure you are. Do I make myself clear?!”
With loud and clear voices the group responded in a group shout, “Yes Sir!” For a moment they stood there looking at Foos with their eyes and mouths wide open. Foos looked at them once more as yelled, “Well? Don't just sit there gawking. Go! Go! Go!” The group of workers and pilots quickly got to work. Foos turned to Cylie and over the com said, “Everything is under control hon.”
She said, “Thank you” and continued to pace up and down the walkway above him.

Foos walked over to the shipping terminal and started to keep track of the items being scanned in and loaded. He placed is guns back into his sleeves, he switch his com over to the public channel and spoke, “so Feyde are you still working for omni-trans? Or did you jump ship too?”
Feyde’s voice came in clear, “Yes Sir. My loyalties are with Omni-Tek, thus with Cylie, Sir.”
A smile came too face as he spoke, “Well that's good to here”. At least everyone did abandon her, that’s good, he thought to himself. At least now I can feel a little safer for her, Feyde is a good man. She’ll be safe with him around.

Foos stood there watching over the progress of the ships being loaded on the screen in front of him, when he noticed a lull in the item scan of the one ship. He quickly looked over and saw the pilot and crew standing there talking and point at Foos. He looked back down giving them the benefit of the doubt. He saw out of the corner of his eye one of the crewmen walking toward him. Foos pretended not to notice as he climbed the steps to the platform and stop there about an arms length away from Foos. The crewman looked at Foos and said, “Hey you're just a neutral why should we listen to you?”
Foos briefly glanced over at the man and said, “Hmm, good question…” before he could finish, he heard Cylie’s voice shouting from above him yelling “Because I’m standing right here and if you don’t get to work you're fired.” as she was leaning over the railing scowling at that man.
Foos glanced at the man standing next to him looking unimpressed by the threat. “Hmm,” Foos thought to himself, “maybe with everything that’s going on these guys think they’re all too important and she’s only bluffing”. Foos turned his head back to the shipping screen and raised his right arm so he was pointing at his face. Foos stretched out his fingers and his gun flew out from sleeve and into his hand. Without looking at the man, Foos pointed the barrel of his gun directly between the crewman’s eyes and said, “Because I have a gun and I love to shoot Omnis.” Still watching the screen and not paying attention to the man’s shock Foos continued speaking, “Any more dumb questions, or are you looking for a reclaim vacation boy?” The crewman slowly backed away in fear, once down the stairs of the platform he turned and ran to his ship and immediately started back to work.

Foos stood there watching the inventory being loaded into the ships. He tried to remember the last time he stood at a consol doing this kind of work. “I can’t believe I’m doing this again” he softly spoke aloud. It feels kind of good to be at this again. I’ve somehow missed doing this. Maybe I should fill out an application and get a job here. His thoughts made him laugh. While he was contemplating going to work for Omni something on the screen caught his eye. He noticed one of the ships was being loaded wrong. “Not good, not good. What the hell don’t they train these people” he said to himself, as he left the platform toward the ship.

He got to the ship, looked at the crew, and said, “Stop, you’re doing this all wrong.” They stood still looking at each other and then turned to him. One of them spoke up, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Foos looked at the man trying to figure out if he was dumb or just new to the job. “Look at the order. This ship has five stops, the first stop goes in last, and the last goes in first. You guys are doing it backwards. Pull it out and re do it. And remember times a ticking and my trigger finger is getting itchy.”
The men look at Foos and sigh, “But we are half way done, well never meet your deadline if we redo it now” one of them says.
“Look” Foos replies, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll stay and help you. You’re half way through the third order now, if we pull this one out. We should have enough room to switch the first to orders. Now let’s get a move on.”

Foos spends the last half hour working with the crew getting the ship set up right.
It’s important all this ships are perfect, I’m in charge, I can’t let Cylie down, he thinks to himself. Foos helps the crew load in the last item, and then runs back to the platform to check the screens. He goes over the check lists and inventory scans, and then makes an inspection of all the ships. It has been an hour and ten minutes since he took over the dock. He looks at the men and the ships with pride, and called the crews over to him. “Well guys it was a tough job but we got it done. Now you guys did right by me, so I’ll do right by you”, he looks at each pilot and hands them each a cred chip. “Here, when you guys get a brake go out and have some dinner and a few drinks on me.”
The men look and him and smile and head to their ships. Foos turns around and starts for the door to leave the dock. “Hey Cylie” he calls out on his com, “The ships are loaded and ready to go.”
“That’s great Foos, you can either go home, or come up to the office and wait for me and walk me home” her voice sounded relived, and for a moment almost playful.
“Sure I’m on my way up” he said as he left the dock.

Foos enters Cylie’s office to see her on the com talking with a customer. She turns to him and places the customer on hold, “I’ll be done in just a bit. Okay?”
Foos looks at her and smiles, “Its okay, I’m just going to lay down on the couch over there and stay out of your way. Just tell me when you’re done and will go home.” Foos walks over to the couch and lies down, and thinks about what tomorrow with bring for them.

[Nulion]

((Very nice, I enjoyed it! ))