Dashiell was as giddy as a child when he walked into personnel with Titus. Cameron yawned discreetly. It was too early in the morning. She hadn't expected a meeting today with Dashiell and Titus, but she was glad that it was before she was due at the medical bay. She could always excuse herself to pick up Harper.
"So we really have video logs?" he asked. "That's amazing, I didn't think that you'd have data from Earth so soon. Levi is a wizard."
"A what?" Cameron inquired.
Dashiell laughed. "A wizard. It was a fictional person that solved tremendous problems quickly."
"Oh," she responded, not sure what to think. "Anyway, here you are."
She booted up the tekcom monstrosity and flicked on the holos. The older tech whirled and whined, the holos were as quiet as a whisper. It took her longer than it had taken Levi to locate the video logs, but she pulled them up and demonstrated the strange quality of the monotonous woman on the screen. The three of them watched for several minutes, no one speaking as the woman droned about facts from 2074.
"And this is it," she said finally, turning the volume down. "Levi said that we have some files on the older tekcom, but they haven't finished downloading. Matisse thinks that the signal either made it to the last buoy and was stored, or that the Canary intercepted it and carried it here. We have some old files on this system."
"And Levi figured all this out so quickly? What was the holdup before?"
"He's worked with this technology before," Cameron explained. "My father would have been a better resource, but he died in the crash without an apprentice. Perhaps we could wake someone from the Aeneid's cryo that worked in communications before they switched to quantum, but you both know how difficult it is to pull anyone from cryo."
"Well, you'll need Harper, of course," Titus mused. "Probably Levi. Is there any tech we can print to make this process go faster?"
"What? No, I don't need any of that," Cameron replied. "We're fine."
"Really? Your team has been working on this for weeks and Levi strolled in and fixed things," Dashiell said. "And I know the dates and facts maybe nonsense to you, but I know what these dates are referencing. I was President during 2074. She's detailing out policy changes, wars we were involved with, the beginning of the Wheat Crisis. She's making a timeline."
"Having dates for events doesn't help us," Cameron pointed out. "It tells us what's happening on Earth, but that was nearly a hundred years ago. Ancient history."
"And I'm more than certain that we'll get more current events. Now. What do you need to make this a priority? There are a couple of empty berths we could convert, provided, of course, this mess can move without damage. Or perhaps we can just remotely access it? I just imagine you're running out of space, especially I want more people working on this. Harper couldn't even fit with his wheelchair."
"Harper doesn't want to work for me," she objected. "And I don't think we need a whole team for anything from Earth when the data doesn't make sense and the video logs seem like random ramblings to anyone who isn't from Earth." She gestured to the tekcom with a scoff. "Of course we'll still work on it, but after the earthstorm and with less priority."
"I thought you wanted to make this base better," Dashiell replied. "Why have you chosen this to argue about?"
Titus was watching the videos at the tekcom, seemingly paying little attention to the argument behind him. She had hoped to prove that this was not worth being a priority at all and instead Dashiell had countered with greater funding.
"Because I don't think you're choosing willing participants," Cameron replied. "And just...adding members to my department makes it look like you're showing a lot of favoritism for one project."
"So? It's a project I care about."
"We have to breath air and plant food and other things that deserve equal treatment," she protested. "I don't need extra resources."
"Then create a new department, Dashiell," Titus remarked. "I wish that had been a solution back on Earth. That way it doesn't look like favoritism at all, but just reallocation. It's not like this tekcom actually belongs in personnel. And it's not exactly a communications priority. And this way we can build a team out of the other departments. Harper doesn't have to work for you. I think Grimm would a good asset, he's the guy who built the satellite, right?"
"Not a bad plan," Dashiell mused. "Okay. Cameron, the new department would still need this tekcom, and probably Matisse and Libba."
Cameron was speechless. She opened her mouth, hoping that some eloquent protest would come out. Never had she imagined that Dashiell would take the whole project out from under her.
"Matisse doesn't want to do this full time," Cameron managed.
"He'll get a pay raise, he'll be fine," Titus scoffed.
"We don't...not everyone works for credits," she warned, finally getting ahold of herself. "Some people love what they do. You have to ask Matisse; this is not how the Aeneid has done things in the past."
"He'll say yes," Dashiell replied. "This is a good time to do so, we're in the eye of the storm, Austen has her precious hours for repairs and there's nothing more we can do to really interfere with the earthstorm repair and prep. Cameron, you look horrified."
Cameron didn't like that Dashiell was better than most at seeing through her usually calm expression. She worried that he was upsetting too much of the traditional way of life here.
"This work isn't making this base better or safer," she said simply. "I don't think you have the collective in mind."
"What are you talking about?" he demanded. "Of course I want to make this a better place. But it's just good common sense not to start from the ground up but instead use the resources we..."
"We don't have other resources," she snapped. "You're basing your hope of a better future on files we don't have on video logs that don't make any venting sense!"
Neither Titus nor Dashiell seemed very surprised at her outburst. They seemed to glance at each other as if she was acting out like a petulant child. She was shocked at herself, barely believing that she had spoken out against the captain of the base.
"I'm sorry," she sighed. "This project had never had much importance before. I worry you have too much faith in them."
"Then we'll just have to find what we do know," Dashiell said calmly. "Levi has all his books, you said he has discs of information. We can use him and his as our resources you say we don't have."
"Levi has a job," Cameron pointed out.
Dashiell didn't respond for a moment but seemed to share a knowing glance with Titus.
"I know you're stressed what with the baby and Harper in medical," he said. "And I think if we continue we will regret this conversation. Take some time off, collect your thoughts. I don't want you to throw away our partnership over this. I want to work with you, Cameron, not against you."
Cameron felt that she had no choice but smile and nod.
"You still have to ask Matisse and Libba," she said. "You ought not relocate them without their consent."
"We'll get it," Titus promised, rising from his seat. "Come on, Dashiell. We have some builds to queue and access codes to create."
He spared another glance at the tekcom and the two men exited the room. Cameron turned off the devices with a sigh.
"You sounded angry," Libba said.
Cameron turned toward the doorway, trying to muster up a smile at the other woman.
"I am just tired," she lied. "And Dashiell is trying to change too much. I'm running out of ways to tell him to slow down."
Libba shook her head. "He's used to getting his way. I thought he'd change on this planet, but of course, that was silly of me. He has no reason to change when he can get the world around him to do so. I had wanted a life that we could be a part of something instead of running it. Being in charge is exhausting. We never found time to be just a family."
She glanced at the tekcom in the room. "I think he just wants to know what happened to Earth. I'm worried it was something horrible and we weren't there to stop it. That's why the data stream is so important to him. He just wants to know if we did the right thing."
"I could understand if we could change anything," Cameron responded. "But the past is dead. And our future will be too if we don't survive these earthstorms."
""I'll talk to him," Libba promised. "I can't guarantee he'll see reason, but I can try, right?"
"Anything would help at this point," Cameron sighed.
___
Cameron is a difficult character to write. I have to remember that just because she says something aloud doesn't mean she believes it. She is very...duplicitous like that. Hilarious because Harper is terrible at lying.
Finally, I have a buffer. Hooray!