Challenge #02102-E278: Faint Praise
"Now look, you 'orrible little bastard, this is the last time I'm going to tell you: no more low gravity rugby in the cargo holds!" -- Anon Guest
"It's not like there's a lot of room to play it anywhere else," protested Human Dave.
"That," said Freighter Captain Jokk, "is not the problem, here. The problem here is you destabilizing my cargo hold with your horseplay."
"How can it be unstable? It's nul-grav. There's no balance to be had in zero gee."
"You never took Elementary Physics, did you?" Jokk didn't need to know the answer. Ze could already tell.
"Never been one for the math stuff." Human Dave shrugged.
This meant that Jokk had to explain things to this human without math. "I've had to learn the math," Jokk began. "And it says that certain cargoes go a certain way or my engines will want to blow up from trying to push an uneven load."
This made zero impact on Human Dave. "So where 'm I supposed to play?"
"I'm not saying you aren't allowed to play," said Jokk patiently, "I'm saying you can play literally anything else, literally any where else. If you disrupt my cargo again, I'll extract the cargo management fees from your accounts. If you don't have accounts, then I'll have to press charges."
The Human, unfamiliar with the Galactic Alliance penal system, evidently ran a quick estimation based on any prior experiences. "If I help you reconfigure the mess, will that be beneficial?"
"Yes," said Jokk. Deliberately not telling Human Dave that it might help them learn something. All evidence pointed to Human Dave being allergic to learning.
On the plus side, Jokk never had a chance to get bored with Human Dave around.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ouhdesire]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [23 remaining prompts!]