There were days that DeeDee Dawn was convinced she had more in common with the lab hamsters than the people she worked with. Endless days where she ran around in the same small "cage", while people in white lab coats ordered her about, controlling her life, irritating her to no end and then the constant requests for information and demands for results, otherwise ignoring her until something went wrong.
Her morning routine with the treadmill did not help either.
DeeDee was not a morning person. Unfortunately, her friend, Trish, was.
"Come on DeeDee," A sickeningly cheerful voice came from next to her. "Pick up the pace. Try running a little. It really helps to get the juices flowing."
"Unless there is a gun involved in your scenario somewhere I am NOT running anywhere." DeeDee snarled.
The pretty golden blond next to hear merely laughed, quite used to her friend's dark morning moods. With a little jump she was off her own treadmill as it slowed to a stop.
"What you need is a cool glass of lemon-melon spritzer." Trish grinned up at DeeDee as she blotted herself with a towel.
"Isn't it illegal for someone to be so perky in the morning?" DeeDee glared at her friend.
Trish thrust her chest out, "Only if I take my shirt off."
A smile twitched at the edges of DeeDee's lips as Trish twirled around and left with a laugh.
"Wrap it up here Dee," A commanding voice ordered.
She looked over to see her supervisor, Shawn "The Wizard" Stevenson, striding towards her. His massive build never failed to impress her. While his nickname referred to his ability to fix just about anything, no matter how badly someone had broken it, she always thought a more appropriate name would have been "Tank" or "Bulldozer". The man was a walking wall.
"Just got word that Swann has arrived." He stopped in front of her, crossing his tree-sized arms across his barrel chest. His dark, almost midnight colored skin, contrasting drastically against his white t-shirt. "I'm counting on you to keep your boys in line today. No swearing. No goofing off. No non-standard "equipment" lying around."
DeeDee's treadmill started to slow to a stop as he emphasized his last statement with a hard glare.
She nodded in compliance, "I understand sir."
While he was normally willing to overlook certain irregularities in the parts shipments she received and the unusually lax atmosphere she allowed at her work station so long as her crew got their work done, if there were any problems during Swann's visit, he would very quickly bring it all to an end.
He nodded, "See that your team does too."
She sighed as he walked away. She hoped Swann's visit didn't last long she had enough complications in her life.
Walking towards the shower room she began to mentally review what she needed to do for the day. After instructing the morning crew on the rules that would be in effect during Swann's visit she then needed to get a team working on fixing the drilling equipment for Dr. Kalif and his archeological team, get someone on finishing up with the robotic sentry, finish up the installation of the remote sensors in Hazardous Materials Facility, then make sure all of the backup cooling monitors in the HVAC station were working and somewhere in there find the time to stash the shipment of beer and adult vids she had just received in with the new air filtration parts.
While most people would probably see getting out of Enyo as a good thing, DeeDee was fairly content. She had found herself a niche. She had a boss who didn't bother her most of the time, she liked her work and she had a nice, though small, group of friends. Not to mention the extra bucks she was making smuggling in goods. It had taken nearly three years to set up the operation, but a few more years and she would have enough saved to quit UAC and start up her own business. It was a day she dreamed of every night.
