MOAB

Chapter 17: Galene @ 0.7x nhs

Chapter 17: Galene @ 0.7x nhs

An arrow flew past her and lodged itself to the target on her right.

“I’m pretty sure the last time I was here, the living room wasn’t an archery field,” Gal said, frozen at the door.

“Indoor archery, to be precise,” said Greg and placed his composite bow in a weird stand. It had a long counterbalance in the middle that had to stay upward.

“Is it safe to step inside now?” Gal joked.

“Come on in,” he motioned.

“What are you doing?”

Greg tapped the air for some interface commands and her veil showed two enormous screens beside them. One had a picture of a young woman in athletic clothes, and the other had videos of archery competitions. The colours she wore were yellow t-shirt and blue slacks, the Ukrainian national colours.

“Artemis,” he presented, “back in her Viktoriya Marchenko days. My new assigned project.”

The words ‘Top Secret’ flared red on top of everything in she could see in Augmented Reality.

“I see.” She decided to be professional. She was still on the clock, after all. And Greg was too. Wait, was he ever off? “What did you need me to do?”

“What I need from you,” Greg said smiling, “is to work your magic here.” He showed his workstation.

“Sure. But what exactly?” She put her laptop bag down.

“The first time you were here, it took you five minutes to come up with a simple improvement that increased my speed by 10%. Naturally, I’m at a level where everything has diminishing returns, no matter what I do. Lots of people have brainstormed improvements, trust me on this, but you came in here with a fresh set of eyes. So I asked for you to be assigned on this.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Plus you get to see me more.”

“It is an added bonus,” he bowed.

“Please don’t misunderstand my intentions. I actually do need your expertise.” He stepped closer to her. He smelled sweaty, but it was nice.

“Okay. Just so we’re clear, during work hours, we work,” she pointed a finger.

“Of course.”

“I’ll have to tear your set-up to pieces. Do you have a secondary one you can use?” She sat on his chair.

“I’ll have Mel bring something up here.” He threw himself on his couch and drank some orange juice.

Gal paused. Without turning, she said, “Are you gonna sit behind my back all day?”

“I’m going for a shower. Can’t wait to hear about all your innovative ideas,” he clapped and left.

Galene sat there alone, immobile. Nothing new came to mind. No new ideas. She slapped her side of her head, maybe something would dislodge.

Well, skata.