The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. (9 page)

Chapter 8

Biography

Unable to avoid it any longer, Tman agreed to meet with Ernest so the biography could begin.

“So where do you want to start?” signed Tman.

“What about the time you were a pet, how bad was it?” asked Ernest.

“Be glad that you will never know, what depths of cruelty and depravity humans are capable of just for their amusement! To say I don't want to talk about it is an understatement!” answered Tman.

“For the benefit of the historical record, just tell me what you can.” asked Ernest.

“I was the possession of a teenage girl of the worst kind, spoilt rich kid to whom I was just another toy. The imagination and ingenuity applied to my systematic abuse, was beyond anything I have seen from humans since.” answered Tman.

“That paints a horrible outline picture.” signed Ernest.

“You'll have to use your imagination for detail and colour, living that truth was far worse.”

“Being sent into space was a relief then?” asked Ernest.

“It stopped me killing myself and introduced me to the work I love.” answered Tman.

“A great improvement then, can you walk us through the change?” asked Ernest.

“There I was, trying to find the means to kill myself, the only escape possible. Suddenly I'm rushed away to a holding area, given brief instruction in the basic use of equipment and space work, stuffed on a shuttle and blasted into space. Left on a space station wondering what the hell was going on, waiting to be told what to do next and in need of a toilet!”

“So what happened next?” asked Ernest.

“The oldest human, I had ever seen came up to me and said ‘you must be moaners replacement. You certainly look miserable enough, don't worry you poor little bugger we'll look after you. Come on I'll show you the facilities, then introduce you to the rest of the team.' with that he turned and lead the way.” replied Tman.

“Sounds a promising beginning, was it?” asked Ernest.

“It was, it turned out to be the best time I ever had in the human world. The things I learnt from that team kept me and over a thousand others alive! We lived long enough to gain experience and become wiser. To those that passed through my work zone I taught how to use the engineering network to stay up to date and keep in touch. We became a network without realising it initially, sharing knowledge with others we had contact with was just how things were done. We realised we were no longer alone, this changed us and we started to change things, just little things at first, just to make ourselves more comfortable, subtle changes to equipment lists, made our work easier and safer. Food and accommodation was improved, without human oversight being aware of the changes, as long as the cost didn't increase they just didn't look. Attach any capital spend, to a crash program, or special project that just had to meet a dead line, there was little if any restriction to spending on those. All the tooling you needed, no problem, materials had to be at least plausibly connected to the project. Actually I learnt that last bit from Knowledge and his team.” regaled Tman. 

“An odd name for a human?” asked Ernest.

“That was the old man’s name, well nick name, they never used anything else in the team. I started out as poor little bugger, quickly shortened to bug, later Lad and when there was only one of them left on station. He declared pointing at me, 'he is the man now, look to him he'll guide you right'. And I've been stuck with that The-Man or Tman ever since. I know he meant it as a compliment to my ability. He presented me with his tool belt and said 'take care of the other wee poor little buggers, cause no one else will!' He was quite emotional, was Elf he was retired ground side not long afterwards.” answered Tman.

“Did he look like a mythical creature?” asked Ernest.

“No he was from Scotland, the nickname referred to his role as union health and safety man, a bit of slang. He taught me about how to interpret rules for the best, the safety of the station over rides self-important men shouting at you. Especially if they are not your line boss. I think he knew that they wouldn't bother putting any one officially in charge, once the last human team member had left. The post had already been vacant for at least two of years by then. They taught me how to wriggle, to keep the station safe. They also taught me about their specialities and how they interrelated.” explained Tman. 

“A time of your key development then, can you go in to greater detail?” asked Ernest.

“Another time I have to trawl through my memories and notes, its all in the data base so I can refresh them, a biography was something that never crossed my mind, so I'll have to do some preparation.” replied Tman.

“OK Tman, I see you find this hard I'll give you a few days, but please remember O founder of our freedom.”

“Where in hell did that come from?” demanded Tman.

“Like it or not it's what you are, one of the founders, I'm not doing the biography of any old monkey you must realise! See you in a few days.” signed Ernest.

With that, Ernest left. Tman was surprised, and had to gather his thoughts after that shock announcement. To his way of thinking he had just helped out, nothing special at all, just like hundreds of others must have.

A couple of days later, Tman caught up with Chatty at lunch and asked.

“Did you deliberately set me up? I think Ernest wants to make me out to be a sort of hero founder of our freedom, it's not right, I did no more than hundreds of others.” asked Tman.

“Slow down your tail is on fire, you are an icon of freedom, one of a small number of inspirational leaders and organisers. Who dragged those hundreds of others behind you, so the rest had someone to follow. Don't deny it, I was one of the hundreds, you were so inspirational. If I had been forced to replace you, I would have done my best to do it your way. Not that I would be anything like as awe inspiring, from just knowing you made me braver and more decisive.” signed Chatty.

“Let me pick myself up off the floor, that was a bigger shock than Ernest's. I just don't remember you being like that, you were always there to keep me grounded, picking holes in ideas and schemes.” signed Tman.

“That was what you need me to be, a counter point and reality check.” signed an unrepentant Chatty.

“I'm going now; I have a sudden need to lie down in a darkened room for a few hours!”

Chatty watched his departure shaking her head. Her thoughts turned to the next policy chamber meeting; he thinks I'm up to this job so I'd better get on with it. The fusion team, wanted to build a trial reactor, she was told the argument in favour was good. The risks were no greater than the experiments already undertaken, while there was no urgency for fusion power. The potential was undeniable and Tman would have approved it. So she was in favour of it, and one never knew it might be needed sooner than anyone expected.

A couple of days later, after he had regained his composure, Tman agreed to meet Ernest again, then prepared notes to help keep the time line straight.                             

“Tman thank you for meeting me again so soon.” signed Ernest.

“Well it's better than letting you make stuff up.” signed Tman.

“We don't do that; it would be as accurate as possible without you.” stated Ernest.

“Exactly my point, hero worship does distort the truth. Anyway we start with my first day in space. After Knowledge had shown me where the facilities were and let me use them, he introduced me to the rest of the team. It went like this,

“OK you lot, this poor little bugger is moaners replacement, we're going to have to train him up, give him an apprenticeship.”

A black man interrupted.

“Knowledge he's probably still got more going for him than Afro-man.”

“You may well be right Sparks, but until we're sure he's fit to be let out on his own, he's just another lad here to learn the job, got that.”

“OK you’re the boss they chorused.”

“Sure right!” Knowledge snorted

“Right lad” he said turning to me, pointing,

“You see that dopey looking one in the corner”, I nodded,

“That's Afro-man and this is the very important bit, never ever do anything he tells you to.” He must have seen the confusion and panic in my expression.

“Calm down lad, officially he is the environment technician, but he acquired a habit in his youth, that has eaten the good mind of a good man. We are protecting what is left, so he can get his pension, as he has no wit’s left to get by on.

Sparks is electrical systems and unofficially covers over half of environmental. The chap next to him checking his finger nails is Plumber, any pipes, ducts, pumps, anything connected to them and unofficially the rest of environmental. On the computer filling yet another report is Elf, mechanical engineering, union health and safety man, the one management really want to get rid of.

He is the youngest of us and his speciality is essential, so they are stuck with him, until one of you new guys is trained up to replace him. I'm called Knowledge as I helped build this station, and am supposed to know more about it than anyone else. Also as the oldest assumed to have acquired some wisdom along the way.

You're in moaners old cubbyhole, it’s the one with 'we're all doomed' on the door, you can remove the gratify if you like, it was a comment on moaners obsession with death and disaster, if you wanted the worst possible interpretation of any situation you could depend on moaner to supply it. So you should be a big improvement over him.

Food is over there, select a meal out the cupboard, use the rehydration gun to inject the hot water, leave for five minutes, open eat with the spoon provided, disposal in the bin underneath the cupboard. Here is your text pad, so any questions?”

I thought for a second, then used the pad and asked.

“What am I going to do here?”

He laughed then said,

“Learning to maintain this station for starters, get something to eat, get some sleep and we'll start in the morning, that'll give you a chance to get over the shock.”

We did start in the morning, they said you need computer access, you can use moaners log on, for now until we get you your own. User name Kilkenny, pass word foredoomed. They showed me how to use the engineering data base, station plans and maps. Then it was out with one of them on the job, they would explain what they were doing and why. Initially give me a few simple tasks, then back to base.

I was given a study list for the day, manuals, theory, health and safety requirements. I spent time with each of them benefiting from their explanations. I was also encouraged to use the pad to ask questions. The exception being Afro-man, the only times I was out with him was when there was no one else to baby sit him. I had to make it look like he was supervising me, when in fact I was doing the job and supervising him. He was usually well behaved, he called me his wee hairy elf, he really was in la la land most of the time.

The station was in microgravity, each day everyone had to do an hour on the bikes. There was a track round the middle of the station with bikes captive mounted on rails. You had to pedal fast enough for the timer to start, once up to speed you were effectively working hard at half gravity. Monkeys could adjust the bikes so they could use them, for Squirrels we had to make cut down versions for you to use. The humans were rotated down every three months, for three months to protect their health. The new work-force couldn't go back down. The station manager objected to monkeys using the bikes. Fortunately Elf was on his case straight away, stating as the union was opposed to slavery, he had been authorised to intervene. Without the bike time we would waste away, Elf pointed out death by wastage of bones and muscles would be horrible.

A video might find its way to the media, the company would be out a substantial amount of cash, with only the station manager to blame, and by the way I have videoed this meeting. That manager withdrew the restriction, but used his own bike seat thereafter. Elf explained it was now a matter of record now, the right was established and while managers liked to enforce their frequently bazaar interpretation of the rules, they seldom deliberately broke them.

It turned out that the union was our only friend, their challenges fixed rules for us, fighting the battles we couldn't. If I was completely cynical it was to protect their members jobs for as long as possible. But they had objected to our creation in the first place on the grounds it was immoral make a slave race. I liked most of the union reps I met, but the level of idealism was very variable.

The next shuttle after the one I arrived on, brought five more monkeys and ten squirrels. They all had to be inducted to the station, and integrated in to its operation, they were all dumped on maintenance initially, it was chaos but we sorted it out.

The Squirrels couldn’t physically manage most of the human maintenance equipment, but could manage all the office stuff, so that's where they ended up. Even though I had only been there two months I was pressed into training the new arrivals. It carried on like that for the first year that was how long they had to get us all into orbit.

After that they started to retire the humans in my team, Afro-man was the first, much to our relief, followed by Knowledge, Plumber, Sparks and finally Elf about two and a half years after I first arrived. For a while we exchanged news with them through the engineering network, Knowledge and Elf kept it up for years, but slowly tailed off over time. For the next twenty months I was busy running maintenance, training the others giving them all the help and advice I could. Then with no warning,