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As
he read through the last page of the investigation file, Captain
Zachary Fox leaned back in his seat, stretched his tense shoulder
muscles, grabbed his coffee mug, and enjoyed a deep sip of his
afternoon coff– "Ugh!" The coffee had gotten cold
again, acquiring the distinctive taste of fresh-brewed dishwater.
With a disgusted expression on his face he emptied the mug with a
bold movement into the wastebasket next to his desk.
"Ahem,
Zachary..." Niko had seen his action but hadn't been fast
enough to stop him. "You'd better get a rag."
"Eh?"
The captain looked up.
"We
got the new wastebaskets while you were at lunch."
"And?"
He knew he was less polite than usual, but it had been the third
of today that had gotten cold while he worked, and he yearned for
a hot, steaming mug with fine, slightly bitter scents of
fresh-brewed coffee reaching his nose... His right boot grew wet.
He looked down. "What–?!"
"The
new ones aren't waterproof, Zach. That's what I wanted to tell
you."
Now he saw the
battery of mugs on his team meambers' desks: their own mugs,
unfamiliar mugs, a couple of mugs "borrowed" from the
cafeteria, paper cups...
"This
can't go on." He nodded towards her desk. "You need a
place for your work, too." It'll be pretty nasty to carry
each cold mug over to the restroom just to get rid of the
dishwater.
"Goose is
already working on a solution." Doc smiled. There were no
mugs on his desk, but the rubber plant his mother had sent him
for his birthday this year looked rather... brown.
Fox
frowned and went over to the small restroom next to their office
to get some paper towels. He knew the ST as a man with pretty
strange ideas about solutions.
The
door slid open and Gooseman strolled in with a big, bright red
bucket in hand. "This should do it, girl." He dropped
the big metal bucket in plain sight of the whole office between
Niko's and his own desk.
She
snickered, regarding the bucket large enough to be used as a
stool when turned upside down. "Where did you get that
monster from, Shane?"
"Fire
department," he grinned. "They're always glad when I
don't volunteer for their jobs."
"Why?"
Niko was already emptying the mugs on her desk into the
bucket.
"They get nervous
around anyone who doesn't wear breathing apparatus and fire-proof
clothing in a fire." The cold slop in the five mugs on
Goose's desk joined the liquid sploshing in the big bucket. "But
honestly, Captain. How does the person who invented melting
wastebaskets think we use the things?"
Zach
sighed, swabbing the floor next to his desk and shoving the
melted paper mache into a soggy heap. Sh– He didn't
have a wastebasket to throw his wastebasket into! "I'm sure
the person didn't think at all, Goose," he grumbled. "At
least, the person has no clue about the use of
wastebaskets in field units."
Niko
noticed his problem with the wet remnants of his new wastebasket.
"Use our bucket," she suggested.
Zachary
did, then went to clean his hands.
The
new wastebaskets next to his people's desks were all clean and
untouched. Goose turned his over to lay his feet on and
discovered a sign on the bottom. After reading a moment, he
laughed out loud. "Hey, you've gotta hear this! This
wastebasket – paper friend – is designed and
manufactured to be both useful and decorative..." The ST
began to snicker maniacally.
After
a moment, Niko continued, looking at her own basket: "...It
is meant to increase the comfort..." Zach looked down at his
coffee-soaked right boot. "...and appearance..." All of
them now stared at the big red bucket in the middle of the room.
"...of your workplace to the max while combining..." It
was hopeless. Niko began to giggle
helplessly.
"...functionality
with ecologically friendly materials," Doc finished. "Yeah!"
He prodded the wilted leaves of his rubber plant. "Sure
looks that way."
"Okay!
Let's do our own improvements!" Zachary fetched his hat from
the coat rack. "Five credits a head, please."
"What
do you plan?" Niko asked, flipping a credit chip into the
hat.
"Going shopping,"
Zach shrugged. "What else?"
END
Thanks
to Elizabeth 'fatima' Bales for her help with English. :)
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