Re: Recent history of Quadrant: Adamant 4
Naxiv Civix no longer bothered to curse under his breath; he did it loudly and frequently. He cursed the fates that had played this malicious joke on him. He cursed his luck, which seemed to be nothing but bad. And most of all he cursed whichever Superior Officer’s idea it was that had forced him back into this most undesirable of positions, under the most undesirable of circumstances.
The day his world crumbled like a day old sandcastle had started innocently enough. It was a particularly beautiful sunrise; at least for Canus 5, anyway. Since there were no clouds to block it that morning, the light from dim, distant Canus sparkled through the large amounts of stellar dust in Canus 5’s upper atmosphere. Canus was only bright enough to overpower some of the night’s stars, but as it’s light played across the stellar dust, it twinkled like an entire galaxy of stars. It was truly breathtaking.
Not that Naxiv had any breath to take, of coarse; but he was awed, nonetheless. Then he went to work, happily tilling the soil and tending to the crops in his sector of the farm. As he worked, he contemplated just how fortunate he was to have been assigned to the Farms project. He had heard rumors that the units in the mineral mines hadn’t had a day off for 3 weeks straight. But that was ok with him; he was just glad that he worked on the farms instead of in the mines. He didn’t ever want to leave the farms.
Of coarse, now he realizes his folly in actually saying those words aloud. He had done nothing less than invite the cruel fates to stick their fingers into his life to stir things up. But at the time, everything seemed to be going his way. His seemed to have found his calling. He’d finally found something he’d enjoyed. Everything was looking up. He should have known better.
It was during the lunch break that his entire, happy world came crashing down around his sonic input devices. Mail call usually occurred in the mornings, but today there had been some foul-up in the mailroom, and it arrived late. So it was that he received one short, curt, world-shattering telegram during lunch:
“Civix, Naxiv, E2, re-assigned to the Orbital Construction Platforms as Construction Operator. Report to Transport 34-5p at 11:27 today for immediate transfer to OCP – 2.”
He groaned as he glanced at the clock; it read 12:32. He disconnected from his Battery Recharging station and went to his commanding officer to explain the situation. 2nd Lt. Hycix Batav was very understanding, of coarse. She told Naxiv to report to the transport pads immediately, and she would take care of the rest. Unfortunately for Naxiv, Batav was very busy that day. She never exactly got around to sending a memo to the Construction Ministry that day explaining why Naxiv had arrived late. In fact, the incident was purged from her RAM by other, more important information before she had a chance to save it to permanent storage. Which is why Naxiv was met at the transport pad by MP’s.
After 3 days in a holding cell, several interviews by Security Ministry investigators, and a disciplinary rank reduction to E1 for tardiness and insubordination (later repealed), Naxiv was released to the Ministry of Construction. There he was put to work on OCP – 2 with his old friend, “Hardnose Hadix”. And so, in the coarse of 72 hours, Naxiv Civix’s life has come full circle.
[ August 12, 2002, 11:08: Message edited by: dumbluck ]
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