NaNoWriMo 2014

Chapter Fifteen

"You, your replacement?" I asked, surprised, "I don't even know who you are!"

"If course you don't." said Braiz, "Who cares about what I think anymore."

"Braiz, you're being unreasonable..." started Haman but Braiz interrupted before he could finish.

"UNREASONABLE!!!" he shreiked, "HOW AM I BEING UNREASONABLE?! I'VE PUT MY LIFE INTO THIS SOFTWARE AND NOW THE CHIEF FINDS SOME WHIZ KID AND PRETTY WELL TELLS ME TO MOVE ASIDE AND LET THE NEW KID ERASE IT ALL!!! HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TAKE THAT CALMLY, HUH? HOW!"

I backed up a bit, this guy whom I'd never met seemed to be harboring a pre-existent grudge.

"Braiz man, calm down please. Ralim isn't here to replace you, he's been appointed co-head of the department with the job of upgrading the security of the system, however he has a personal system with no way to adapt it. I was hoping that the two of you could work together using your experience with the network and his program to get things working." said Haman quickly in an attempt to get the situation under control.

"There's still one issue with that idea." said Braiz.

"What's that?" asked Haman, relieved that Braiz had gained control of his temper.

"MY LIFE'S WORK THAT I'VE DONE FOR THIS STATION!" burst our Braiz, giving way to his anger again, "DO YOU EXPECT ME TO JUST LET GO OF MY LIFE?!"

"No, I expect you to calm down and realize that your old system is no longer adequate. It covered us well enough when you first made it but now it's become obsolete." Haman informed Braiz, "Now I'm going to leave, I expect you and Ralim to get acquainted and begin to work on ways of adapting his system."

He left the storage room then without turning back slamming the door on his way out.

"Well, let's see this program of yours," Braiz said, "shoot me a copy."

I did and sat down on a shipping crate to let him examine it in his own time.

As he read I saw him cock his head and talk quietly to himself a couple of times. When he finally looked up there was a new respect visible on his face, "Not bad Ralim, not bad at all. It will be challenging to get set up on a wider network but I do believe we can do it."

Glad to see that he'd calmed down, at least for now, I said, "I was thinking that I'd brief any team members who will not be involved on the port on how to install it for personal use and have them set up each officer in the station. Then Me, Haman, and anyone else who was qualified, you now, would work on getting the server security operational."

"Sounds good but, Haman?" Braiz questioned me, "He may be head, well co-head of the department but he's pretty well useless at coding. He knows it too; he's said so from day one. He has a great mind for organizing though so as a result when the promotions gang made the rounds he was a better choice than me even though I'm the department's top coder. That title however might not be owed to me now that you're here; that's some crazy shit you've got going here. I hope you'll forgive my behavior earlier, I just feel pissed that twelve years of my life is being erased just because it's become out of date. It freaking sucks Ralim. Before we start on this project I recommend that you back out; otherwise in another twelve years your system will become obsolete and you'll get shuffled out into the back corner of the force just to make room for the next big thing once you're usefulness has run it's course."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you but I'm here to stay." I said with a grin, "Shall we begin? My equipment ought to be here by now."

Braiz laughed, "Is your equipment here? You can freakin' bet it's here! All equipment orders come through me. It got here just after you did." he said, gesturing to a large box sitting on the conveyor behind him. "Get it set up and I'll be right out there to help you get the crew to work on making personal arrangements for our officers."

I grabbed my box of components and walked out. Haman was sitting at his desk when I stepped up to my own. "How'd it turn out?" he asked me.

"It was fine. We've got our plans for working and he explained his position." I told Haman.

"Yeah, he got the short end of the stick when it comes to promotions. When Sandongsky and his office managers came around they promoted me even though I insisted that he was the better choice. Afterwards he assured me that he felt no hard feelings towards me but I know that he never really forgave Sandongsky for not giving him the position. You're hiring and task you've been ordered with re-opened the anger he felt towards The Chief which has resulted in his anger." said Haman, "Thank God he hasn't tried to cause trouble in the office though. If he did..." Haman shuddered, "the whole station would go down for a month."

"I've never tried but I'm sure you're right, especially since it's my own security software that I designed." chuckled Braiz from behind Haman.

Haman jumped, he had evidently thought that we were alone, "Hey Braiz, umm..."

"Relax Boss, I realize that you were just warning Ralim about getting on my bad side. However, I think if it came to a fight between the two of us; I wouldn't stand a chance." said Braiz with a wide grin.