Chapter 11 The Softer Landing

The next morning they headed to Phil's office again after breakfast. Jeff was full of energy and Bogg could tell he was feeling much better. Once again, Bogg had to wait outside the office, while Jeff went in for the rest of the evaluation. Once again he wondered over to their assigned rooms.

"So, how long are you fellas gonna be here?" Bogg asked as he walked into his assigned quarters.

"Until they say I can go back out," said the one named Matt that he'd met yesterday.

"Who knows," the other said shrugging, his name was Sam. "Chuck left today, and he was last in," Sam said, motioning to a top bunk, now empty. This left two empty bunks in the same room, but unfortunately both were top bunks.

Bogg paused, eyeing them in confusion. "How long have you two been here?" he asked.

"Two weeks for me, three for him," Sam answered pointing to Matt. "But you just got in didn't ya? Where'd ya sleep last night anyway?"

Bogg paused, unsure how much to tell him. Something didn't add up for them to be held at headquarters for two and three weeks. The last time he was here, he'd been cleared to go back out after 3 days.

"Got yourself a girl, eh?" Matt chided.

"Uh, not exactly," Bogg said. "Listen, remember I told you about my partner, with the broken wrist? He really needs a bottom bunk, look, he's only twelve, would either of you be willing to switch to the top?" he asked.

"Twelve? You don't expect us the buy that, do you? I'll give you the same answer as yesterday," Matt began, "not on your life."

"It's the truth, look, he's just a kid, can't ya help me out?"

"Hey Sam, I just figured out who this is," Matt said as he stood up to face Bogg. "It's Phineas Bogg, he's one of the top 5 Field Workers. He's the reason we can't get out of here. Set the standard too high."

Bogg stared at them in frustration. He'd been ranked one of the top 5 Field Workers each year for the past 4 years, though he knew his accidental stop in 1982 would take him out of the running this year. These two however, seemed determined to make things as hard on him as they could. "Forget it," he murmured and walked out. He crossed the hall to the other bunkroom and opened the door.

Two voyagers looked up, each one sat on a lower bunk.

"Didn't think we'd see you again," said the first, whose name was Ronnie. These voyagers were quite young and Bogg assumed they had only been out of school a year and this was their first Field Check.

"Yeah, I was wondering if I could convince either of you to let my kid have one of the bottom bunks? Remember, I told you about him yesterday? He really needs to sleep on the bottom," Bogg asked hopefully.

"Who took your mattress?" Ronnie asked.

"I did."

"So where'd you sleep last night?" Ronnie continued and Bogg could tell the other voyager was listening curiously.

"Look, I just found a room, I took the mattress because I didn't want him to sleep on the floor," Bogg explained.

"I don't remember learning anything in the academy training about voyaging with kids," the one called Hal said as he looked up from his book.

"Yeah, I know, look, we went over all this yesterday. He's only twelve and he broke his wrist, can't one of you just let him sleep in the lower bunk? You'll be gone soon anyway."

"How many times have you been pulled back?" asked Ronnie.

"Five," Bogg answered.

"So how long will they keep us here?"

Bogg shrugged, "it's different for everybody, but it was always 3 to 4 days for me. When did you get in?" he asked.

"Yesterday," they answered, "and he left this morning, " Ronnie pointed to the previously occupied top bunk. Another room with 2 empty beds, but only the top available.

Bogg sighed, they would all be here for at least the next 3 days.

Hal put down his book and stood up. "Are you saying that you dragged that mattress to some vacant room and slept there because you didn't want this kid sleeping on a top bunk?" he asked.

"Yeah," Bogg said with a sigh.

"I'll move after I see him, till then I'm not sure I believe you," he said.

Bogg smiled, "thanks, I have to pick him up from Evaluation, I'll bring him here so you can meet him."

So Bogg stopped back at Phil's office and waited for Jeff to be done. When Jeff and Phil walked out of the office, Phil was smiling. He reached out and shook Bogg's hand, shaking his head. "Amazing, just amazing," he said.

"What?" Bogg asked, glancing from Jeff to Phil.

"I never would've believed you could actually complete voyages with a kid Phineas. But after talking to Jeffrey, now I believe it. Honestly, we all thought your omni was giving us false information. And when you were here for the trial with Drake, everything was kept confidential, so we never really knew what was going on."

"So, did you make a decision yet?" Bogg asked.

"All I can do is write it up. A Tribunal will have to decide on discipline." He shrugged, "sorry."

"Are we done?" Bogg asked.

"Yeah, I'll see you Tuesday, at the hearing," Phil said and went back in his office.

As they started to walk away, Jeff stopped and faced Bogg. "Will you give me a straight answer about something? Actually two things?"

Phineas looked at his partner's serious expression and sighed, "what?"

"When we came back here, you said you were setting the omni to give me the softest landing you could."

"Yeah," Bogg answered.

"You never told me you can pick how hard we land. How does that work?"

Bogg stared at him and shook his head. "Do you ever stop thinking?" he asked. Jeff just stared at him. "Okay, up to a point I can set the omni to distribute the force of the landing the way I want." He waited and Jeff still stared at him. "When we came back here, I put it in emergency mode so it would give you 90% of the cushion during the landing."

Again there was silence.

"And normally, what percentage of the cushion do I get?" Jeff asked.

"I only have so much leeway in the normal mode," Bogg said.

"What percentage?"

"The most you can split it is 75/25,"

"And what percent of the cushion do you usually give me?"

"75," Bogg said quietly. There was no point in lying. He looked at Jeff and shrugged, what was he supposed to do?

"So all this time, you've been giving me the softer landing and you didn't even tell me?" Jeff shouted.

"Look, it never came up!" Bogg yelled back, "it's no big deal."

"You taught me how to use the omni, it should have come up, there must be settings for it!"

"I just taught you the basics okay, just so you'd be safe!"

"And what about you? What if you were hurt and I had to omni you back here. I had no idea there was a way to give you a softer landing!"

They stood staring at each other in silence, until Phineas looked away.

"All right, maybe I should have told you. But honestly, after I changed the setting from one to two people I never really thought of it again."

"I complain about the landings all the time," Jeff said quietly. "You should've told me off a long time ago."

Phineas paused uncomfortably, then changed the subject. "Look, I got us space together in a bunkroom for tonight, let's move the mattress."

They walked together down to the storage closet and Bogg carried the mattress, while Jeff took the blankets and pillows up to the bunkroom. They entered and Phineas introduced Jeffrey to Ronnie and Hal.

"I can't believe it's true," Hall said standing up to get a good look at Jeffrey. He smiled, turned back to his bunk, and gathered up his few belongings. "Okay kid, the bed's yours," he said as he climbed up to the top bunk and lay down.

Bogg spread the sheets over the bottom bunk and as soon as the bed was ready, Jeff laid down on it. Bogg held their second pillow out to him so he could put his arm on top of it.

"They said to take this one today," Bogg said, pulling a container out of his vest pocket. "It's not as strong," Bogg told him filling a cup of water at the sink in the room and handing him the medicine.

Jeff took the medicine, glad to be lying down. The walking they had done had jostled his arm, and though the pain wasn't as severe as it had been, he did feel very sore. After he swallowed the pill, he rested back on the pillow and watched as Bogg took a blanket off the upper bunk and unfolded it. As he spread it over Jeffrey, Jeff's thoughts flew to his Aunt Elizabeth again. She would never think to put a blanket over him to keep him warm. Why did he keep thinking of her? He could feel tears in his eyes and blinked hard to stop them. He couldn't start crying in front of these strangers. He even hated to cry in front of Bogg, but sometimes that couldn't be helped.

Phineas looked at him with concern. He looked like he was trying not to cry.

"We're gonna get some supper, wanna come?" Ronnie asked as Hal jumped down from his new bunk.

"No thanks," Bogg answered, sure that Jeff needed some privacy.