Tyson looked up at the doorway when he heard a knock. Keller grinned and came to sit down.
"Did you talk to Cameron?" he asked.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"She told me that you needed an assistant and offered it to me. Levi shuffled Matisse back to personnel, and I was free to choose." Keller gave a wide grin. "I can barely believe it. I've wanted out of personnel for," he paused, thinking. "A year, I guess."
His smile faded. "You look confused. Was Cameron mistaken?"
"I'm sure she wasn't," Tyson promised. "And if it came up at the congress meeting, then no one told me this morning." He rose from his seat. "Let's talk to Madison."
Madison was working on her holos in her office; she looked up with a smile when the two came in.
"Cameron just messaged me," she said. "You got here quickly, Keller. You worried Cameron would change her mind?"
Keller managed an uneasy smile. "So I am transferring?"
"Yes," she said. "I'm not sure where we'll put you; I don't have another office in this space. But when we expand, I'm sure we'll work it out."
"Keller can work in my office for now," Tyson said. "But maybe if we could get a desk or something for when I have an appointment. Will that work?"
Madison nodded. Tyson clapped Keller on the back with a smile.
"We should get started," he said. "Thanks, Madison."
They made their way back to Tyson's office. Keller took a seat. Tyson wasn't exactly prepared for an assistant, but he was grateful. He liked Keller from what he could tell.
"One thing," Tyson said. "Videos aside, this job relies on us keeping appointments absolutely confidential. Anything that someone says in confidence has to stay in the room."
Keller nodded. "Will we talk about appointments?"
"Probably, if that is all right," Tyson admitted. "I am still playing catch up here and I am struggling to get the information I need to do my job. But only if you can promise to keep it to yourself."
Keller nodded again. "I am good with secrets," he admitted. "Tekcom, not so much. Baskets, definitely not. But people have let a lot slip in the past couple of cycles. Keeping secrets is the foundation of this base."
Tyson was curious, but didn't press further. He pulled up his schedule, seeing that most of the department heads had set times in the next two days. They needed to build questions for these meetings coming up.
"Madison told all the department heads to set meetings with me," Tyson explained, showing the schedule to Keller. "Your outline will be invaluable; we could set up my holo-rib and make sure it's going to record."
"It should be pretty simple," Keller admitted. "But sure."
"I'm really unused to tekcom," Tyson told him. "I'd rather triple check that it'll work. And we might want to move around the seat for better light or something."
They stood and set the holo-rib down, positioning it so that Keller had Tyson in a midshot view.
"Are you going give an opening statement?" Keller asked. "We could record that."
"Oh, I guess I should," Tyson conceded. "I don't have anything written though."
"So? Neither will anyone else." Keller sat down behind the holo-rib and messed with the controls. "Go on. We can always record it again."
Tyson swallowed, a little embarrassed that he was suddenly so nervous.
"Why do you want to make these videos?" Keller prompted.
"These videos will help transition our members from cryo to the base on our new planet," Tyson said. "We have people from Earth, the Canary, and the Aeneid all waiting to wake, and each of them will have different questions and challenges on this base. I hope that you find this information useful."
He smiled at the holo-rib and Keller nodded, stopping the recording.
"That wasn't so hard," Keller laughed. "Do we want to get Madison in here?"
"Might as well," Tyson agreed. "I'll go ask."
He rose and left the room. Madison wasn't in her office, but by an examination table with a young man who looked very unhappy to be here.
"What do you need, Tyson?" Madison asked, shining a light into the man's eyes.
"Oh, I was seeing if you were free to record your video, but you have a patient," Tyson said. "It can wait."
"It won't take but a minute, right?" she asked. "Here, you sit with Jacques, and I'll be right back. Don't let him run off."
"I'm fine," Jacques grumbled.
"What happened?" Tyson asked as Madison hurried away.
"I got knocked in the head out at the mining camp," Jacques explained. "Esperanza made them send me home with some of the samples. I'm not really happy about it."
"It's a safety issue though, right?" Tyson inquired.
"I know, I know, Esperanza says it's for my safety and others', but it's still frustrating. I didn't do anything wrong, and now I have to come home."
"You're not being punished," Tyson observed. "I know that it may seem like that, but actually it's because people actually care about you, care about your safety. I mean, wouldn't it be a little ridiculous if they let you stay? It would almost like saying you were just as good even with a concussion. That's not flattering."
Jacques laughed. "No, I guess not."
"And maybe you can talk to Edison about helping unload samples, or talk to Vertov about making equipment safer," Tyson continued. "It's not like you've been fired."
Jacques nodded. Tyson was glad he could help. Canary members were easy to spot in their uniforms, but they also placed such a burden on themselves to be perfectly efficient, almost robotic. Tyson wasn't certain that was a healthy outlook; it meant that one couldn't go get help when it was needed.
"You're Titus's son, right? The one from Earth?"
"I didn't realize I was famous," Tyson snorted. "But yeah. I'm from Earth."
"There's only six people from Earth on the base," Jacques pointed out. "It's a big deal. None of us have ever seen it. I grew up in space. Anyway, this is a little random, but was the violence as bad on Earth as it is here?"
"Like gun violence?"
"Any," Jacques said. "We never had things like this happen on the Canary. Some scuffles, a couple of court martials, but no one shot another person in the middle of the night, you know? So what was Earth like?"
"When I was a kid, where I lived was really great, really calm," Tyson said, knowing that he would soon feel homesick if he indulged his nostalgia. "But when America ran out of food, things got ugly. People were killing each other in the streets. It was much worse there than here."
Jacques sighed. "I think it's because people are inherently awful. No way we start out good; I think we have to learn to be good."
"You may be right," Tyson agreed.
"Thank you, Tyson," Madison said, coming back into the room. "I'm glad Keller will be working here; he's a nice young man. Let me know if you need me to hound any of the department heads. I think this will be really important once we start waking people from cryo again."
"Thank you, Madison. Feel better, Jacques."
"Thanks," Jacques called.
Keller smiled at Tyson when he walked in the door.
"You look quite happy," Tyson noted. "Did the video go well?"
Keller nodded. "Madison kept it short and simple, and threw in a statement about your work here too. It was nice." He sat down in the chair behind the desk. "Mostly I can't believe that I am out of personnel. I'm just happy to be here."
"Care to explain?" Tyson questioned, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"What do you know about the murders last cycle?" Keller asked.
Tyson was a little bewildered by the change of topic, but said: "I keep hearing whispers of what happened, but I don't like to ask in the appointment. I know that some Canary members were killed in the dead of night?"
Keller sighed, leaning back in his chair. "What we were told is that O'Keefe –he was the former captain and he's related to Dylan- decided to take revenge when his partner and his sister were killed on Landing Day. He snuck into the berths of the leaders of the attack: Charles, Victoria and Lincoln during the first three days of the earthstorm; it's loud and he had better cover. On the third day, Harper found out what O'Keefe was planning and tried to stop him. O'Keefe shot him. In the struggle for the gun, Lincoln and O'Keefe were both killed. Cameron called Dashiell and they had a statement issued the next morning." Keller leaned forward. "Do you want the other version of the story?"
"So much for secrets," Tyson joked.
"What we say in this room is confidential, right?" he pointed out. "Tyson, this is the only place I can tell someone."
"Okay, go ahead," he said cautiously.
"Now, I don't think that Cameron pulled the trigger," Keller mused. "But she and Harper were definitely involved. I overheard her talking to her mother, Anita, about it after Charles was killed. I'll bet that Harper was with O'Keefe that night, and Lincoln shot him with a gun he had saved from Landing Day. Based on how messed up Cameron was after Harper was shot, I would say she was there too. And of course, she called Dashiell and made a statement and suddenly she's in Dashiell's inner circle? That whole mess let Dashiell wake your parents and you earlier than he would have been allowed by normal rules."
Tyson frowned at his holo-rib and then at Keller. "But what you're saying that is that Dashiell has to know that. My father has to know that Cameron and Harper were responsible. He let O'Keefe die and take the fall for the whole incident."
"Basically," Keller replied. "Which is why I couldn't leave personnel. I couldn't tell anyone that Cameron is a murderer and I don't want to work under her anymore. I don't want her to know because what if she got spooked and decided to shoot me? I have a little sister who could have been in harm's way. No way I was going to risk it."
"I don't think that Cameron would shoot you," Tyson told him. "Regardless of what her involvement was, I think she's remorseful for her actions. As for my father covering it up? That sounds like them. I don't know what we can do with that information, but we can file it away and remember it next time he tries to spin another story."
"Hopefully, we can also come up with a plan to do something about it," Keller said. "I don't want to sit back and let something like that happened again. I was worried and scared, but that was no excuse. Maybe Harper wouldn't have been shot if I had said something. Dylan and Levi wouldn't have been suspected and arrested. I should have done something, but instead I just went to work every day like nothing was wrong. Smiling at people and checking payroll."
"We won't let it happen again," Tyson promised.
___
Oof. Secrets are starting to unravel on this base. Thanks for reading!