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Place:
GRS5 office
Time: midday of the next working day after the
first broadcast of the pilot of "Ranger Danger"
Doc
leaned back at his desk, had a look at the chrono and relaxed.
Sure, the work climate had been a bit frosty after "Ranger
Danger," but it seemed to be normalizing slowly.
At
the next desk, Gooseman looked up, too. "Break," he
announced. "Good. I've still got something to correct..."
He threw a predatory glance at Doc, who suddenly knew how a
rabbit feels when it looks up to see a tiger crouching over
it.
"Easy, Goose. Don't do
anything we'll regret later," Doc spluttered at the fangs
flashing in his direction.
"I
won't regret any of it," the ST said eagerly, making a
slashing movement with his claws in the air. "You can be
sure of it."
"Gooseman,
you won't..." As the ST's cruel grin intensified at that,
Doc turned beseechingly to his captain. "Zach, please, do
something. You can't mean this seriously, can you?
Please..."
Zachary sighed
and looked up from his file. "Okay. This has gone far enough
now. Goose, don't do anything to Doc."
"Aye,
sir." The ST relaxed into his seat. "I won't lift a
finger for Doc, I promise."
"Good."
Zach continued his reading.
"Did
you mail the parcel, Shane?" Niko asked from her desk, as
she shoved her work aside and took her thermal coffee pot and a
mug out of a drawer.
"Yes.
First thing this morning. – Do you have a mug of coffee
left for me?"
"Sure."
She leaned back with her coffee and looked up at Goose as he
filled his mug. "When do you think it'll reach her?"
she asked.
The ST shrugged,
leaning against her desk. "Maybe tomorrow. I paid express
mail rates for it." He pulled a white receipt out of his
shirt pocket.
"Fine."
She took a sip. "I hope Daisy watches it
immediately."
Shane smiled.
"I'm sure. I haven't sent her many gifts."
Niko
punched his upper arm. "Don't remind me, you–"
"Aaah!"
Doc yelled as the meaning of their conversation reached him. "You
didn't send Daisy a copy of that film. You couldn't have. She's
going to kill me–"
Niko
looked up at him in surprise. "Sure she will. She's a
gunslinger, after all." She snorted. "I won't mind. And
I mind her a lot," she said with a dark look towards
Goose.
Doc went pale. "Please,
you can't let her come gunning for me!"
Niko
shook her head. "You know as well as I do that she's a
better shootist than me or Zach. The only one of us who matches
her skill with the blaster is Goose."
The
ST chuckled. "And you just made me promise not to move a
finger in your favor." He nipped at his coffee. "I
keep my promises, Doc."
"But–"
Cold sweat prickled on Doc's forehead.
"I'm sorry, but I don't shoot with my feet." Gooseman
shrugged nonchalantly and laid said feet on his wastebasket. "By
the way, I'm sure that whatever Daisy does with you will be much
better than anything I'm allowed to do."
Zachary
looked up from his file as the door slammed shut behind a
horrified Doc Hartford. "Did you really send O'Mega a copy
of that tri-D garbage?" he asked the two.
They
laughed out loud.
"Nope."
The ST said with a grin. "Didn't have her
address."
Niko fetched the
paper out of Shane's fingers. "That's the bill from my
laundry."
"So
nothing's going to happen?" Fox began to smile,
too.
"Nothing, Captain,"
Gooseman confirmed. "But we're going..."
"...to
take at least a month to tell him that," Niko finished. |
