index


Message-ID: <56726asstr$1192475401@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: "Victor Echo" <victor.echo@gmail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Disposition: inline
Subject: {ASSM} Luci - Chapter 8 (MF+, anal, cheat?, food, tech, slow, rom....etc, etc, etc.)
Lines: 949
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:10:01 -0400
Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d

(c) 2007 Victor Echo

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
are either the product of the author's disturbed imagination and are
used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead,
undead or mostly harmless, business establishments, events, or locales
is entirely coincidental.

Author's note: Thanks for reading and thank you for your comments.  I am
also online at http://storiesonline.net/auth/Victor_Echo

This is the second LAST chapter.  One to come in the next few weeks.
Thanks for reading.

Luci - Chapter 8

I had been staring at the same passage in the email for close to 10
minutes now, and it was not making any more sense than the first time
I had read it.  Maybe I needed more coffee.  I was already on my third
cup and it was just helping me to stay focused on the job at hand, but
was not helping me understand what I was reading.  I was beginning to
suspect the problem was me.  I decided to send it to print.  Maybe
seeing it in hard copy would help my comprehension.

I had left Fay and Luci snuggled together, both very much asleep and
come to work in the wee hours in an attempt to get something done.  I
had lost most of Wednesday and it was going to take all my focus to
get back in the game.  At least there was some good news.  My office
had been unsealed at some point yesterday and while it still looked
like a tornado had blown through, it was accessible and that is what
mattered.  I had spent about an hour putting it back into something of
a workable fashion.  Eric had set me back more than a little bit.  He
had smashed two key machines on my workbench, one of which was the
email gateway for Craig's project; the other was my log server.
Fortunately, he had missed or did not know about my backup server
which had snapshots of each of the other boxes on it.  So, while I
would loose time rebuilding some hardware, most of the work that Luci
had done since we started this project was safe.  I started moving the
requisite information off to DVD and set about responding to the
emails that had piled up in my absence.

I was rereading one from Jason about the state of the database when
someone knocked on my door.  People had been flowing in and out of the
spaces for some time I just had not really been paying much attention.

"Yes," I said, sort of looking up.

"I am looking for Mr. Preston," she said with a bit of a question in
her voice and I could not remember if my name was outside my door or
not.  She was an average looking woman, maybe mid-thirties with
strawberry blond hair cut close to her head.  She was dressed in a
blue suit, skirt falling to below her knee, white shell. Her jewelry
and makeup were normal and it looked like her shoes needed a shine.
She was generally unremarkable.  She was also not a member of the IT
department.

"You found him, although, these spaces are restricted.  How did you
get in here?" I asked, indicating she should come in.  The office was
almost back to its normal state of chaos and she took in the mess with
a critical eye as she made her way to my desk.

"Ms. Eaton gave me the code, sir," she said.  Where Patricia got the
code, I was not even going to speculate.  Our door code was one of the
most closely guarded secrets in the company (or so we liked to think).
 Security had a key, so they did not need it.  I suspect Jerry had
given it to Patricia, or maybe Missy.  I would have to have it
changed.  It should have been done already, but I suspect someone had
overlooked it and we were down two people.  I typed up a quick email,
having forgotten about the person in my office until she interrupted
me again.

"Mr. Preston?  I am Tanya Ridgeland.  Your assistant," she said,
extending a hand.  I noticed she had a small pad of paper in the other
one.

"My what?" I asked standing slightly and taking her hand.  She was
married the light glinted off the diamond in its setting as I sat back
down and indicated that she should do the same.

"Your assistant, sir," she said again, in a clear voice.

"You must have the wrong Mr. Preston," I said as my phone started ringing.

"Gary Preston," I said answering it.

"Good morning, Gary," Maureen's voice sighed across the line.  Did I
mention she has a sexy voice to go with her body?

"Good morning, yourself.  How did you sleep?  Or did you get any?" I asked.

"Wonderfully, and you?"

"I am on my third cup of coffee and I cannot make heads or tails out
of an email Louise sent me.  I think it is written in English, but I
have read legal briefs that are more to the point.  Is she in yet by
the way?"

"I did not notice," she responded.  "But you have to come up here
anyway so we can finish your office preparations."

"Fat chance," I said with a small laugh.  "I just got back into my
office, which still looks like a tornado went through it.  I lost two
machines to the little shit and that will take me the bulk of the day
to replace and I am three days behind on Craig's email project, which
I owe him a status report on yesterday.  What's that line?  No one
get's 10 minutes today."  I had already sent an email over to Jerry
asking permission to spend a couple of hundred of the company's money
to go and get some new machines off the shelf.  If he approved it, I
would not be able to start until after lunch.  If he did not approve
it, then I would have to go and scrounge hardware, which meant I still
would have to submit a purchase order for new standby machines.  I
made a note on my pad as Maureen continued talking to me.

"Then I will come down there, but we really need to get this done
Gary," she said, her voice firm as if she was not going to take no for
an answer.  Nikki chose that moment to walk in, two cups of coffee in
her hand and put one down in front of me, looking at the Tanya sitting
in the chair.

"Maureen, I don't need an office.  The one I have is just fine, thank
you, albeit a little messy at the moment," I could see Nikki nodded
enthusiastically out of the corner of my eye, the brat.

"Gary, you are an officer of the company now," she said, like it would
actually have an affect on my stance, "and as such, you need to have
an office as befits your position."

"Maureen, you are not listening to me.  While I may be an officer on
some mythical org chart, at the moment, I am a technician who is way
behind in his work, work that the CEO of the company expects me to
have done in a timely manner and is not willing to listen to trivial
excuses about why it isn't done.  I still have a phone, desk, chair
and data drop.  This is all I need in an office.  That and six
bookcases," I amended.

"Gary, you don't understand...," she started before I cut her off.

"Maureen, I don't mean to be rude, but I really do not have time for
this today.  I am hip deep in alligators and the boat is sinking.  I
will talk to you later.  I'm sorry," I hung up the phone and looked
up.  Nikki had seen the look before and you could see her shifting as
she went from brat to professional.

"Luci called.  She should be here in about 10 minutes," she said.
"Also, Janice needs to speak with you about Patricia's old machine and
security cleared Eric's machine for reformatting."

"Tell Janice to stick her head in when she get's a minute and go ahead
and reformat Eric's machine.  Make sure you wipe the disk a couple of
times before you do though," I said and she nodded sagely.

"Already wiping, sir," she said.  She almost never called me sir.  I
must be grumpy today, or she was trying to be professional.  She had
on khakis and a red departmental golf shirt.  She rarely wore red.
Her diamonds glinted from her ears.

"Go then, get," I made shooing motions with me hand which got me a
mock salute.  "And thanks for the coffee," I said before she cleared
the door.

"You're welcome," she replied.  "I will collect the fee later."  A
class-A brat.  Tanya was still sitting in front of my desk.

"At the risk of sounding rude Mrs. Ridgeland, go away.  I have neither
the time, nor the need for an assistant.  I have more than enough help
already," I turned back to reading through Louise's email and it was
beginning to make some sense.  I also sensed that Tanya had not moved
from her position.  I glanced up.  There was a look of almost shock on
her face.  Janice chose that moment to stick her head in the door.

"Got a sec?" she asked.

"No, but I hear you need more than that, so come on in, everyone else
seems to be," I sat back in my chair in a sort of dejected slump.

"You look beat, Gary.  Did Fay keep you up late last night?" She had a
quirk to her smile and we both knew what she meant, which got a little
bit of a smile out of me.

"Yes, she did," I responded, reaching for my coffee.

"Hi, I'm Janice," she said, extending a hand to Tanya.

"Sorry, my CPU is slow this morning.  Janice Williams, head of
application support, this is Tanya Ridgeland," I said by way of
introduction.

"Mr. Preston's assistant," she added helpfully.

I could see Janice trying not to laugh.  "I thought that was Luci's
job," she said looking at me with a smirk.

"I believe she means administrative assistant," I said.  "Since I have
not seen a resume and I do not hire anyone to assist me with out a
resume or some sort of bona fides.  Patricia and I will have words
when I have a moment to deal with it," I concluded.

"Speaking of Patricia," Janice said all business and having seen me
grumpy before, knew better than to go down any road too far.  "Her
infected machine has been released by security for rebuild and I will
put Nikki on that."

"I just put her on a rebuild of Eric's machine," I said. "What is her
workload like?"

"Not too high at the moment, why?"

"Thinking outside the box," I responded.  "Patricia has a machine now.
 Will it hold her?"

"It should.  You have a plan." she said.  No need to ask the question.

"Yes, I do.  I have to cut an order for about a dozen new machines,
mostly for standby purposes, but a few upgrades as well are needed.
What is one more?" I reasoned.

"Who needs them?" she asked.  I rattled off a bunch of people that I
knew were in the pipeline for new machines plus where the hot spares
were most likely needed.

"Any particular specs?"  She asked.

"No, standard stuff will do.  Check with Patricia and see if she wants
anything beyond normal.  I am waiting for Jerry to get back to me on a
question I put in this morning and I will cut the PO." I said, making
another note.

"Don't bother, I can do that," Janice said.  "You have enough going on
right now without having to do that.  It wouldn't be the first time I
covered your load."

"Thank you, Janice, I appreciate it.  Consider it delegated.  I will
get you some final numbers later this morning I hope."

"Let me know.  I will drop Patricia's machine off with Nikki then,"
she said with wave as she headed out of the office.

I heard Luci in the hall before she got to my door.

"Good morning, Gary," she said, far too bright and chipper for this
hour of the morning, even though it was close to 9 AM.

"Good morning yourself," I tried not to grumble.  "Sleep well?" She
looked beautiful as always.  She was wearing khakis and a powder blue
shirt, her hair bounced, revealing little hoops in her ears as she sat
down in my other guest chair and looked over at Tanya.

"Luci Phelps, Tanya Ridgeland," I said, making the introduction.
"Luci, we have a problem.  Eric smashed the gateway server.  I have a
backup of the configurations, but no machine to run it on yet.  I have
a 'funding request' in to Jerry as we speak."

"That little..." I held up a hand forestalling her further outburst.
I agreed, but there was not much more that we could do about it.

"I know.  Go and get some coffee and see what else around here is in
need of your tender mercies.  I have a plateful at the moment.  If we
get approval, I will call you."

"OK.  You need anything?" she asked with a grin.

"No, thank you.  I have everything I need and then some," I replied.

"Pleased to meet you, Tanya.  Stay out of trouble, Gary," she said and
left the office.

Minx, I thought to myself.  I needed to see Louise.  That would mean
going upstairs, which would put me in Maureen's gun sights as well,
but it could not be helped if I was going to be able to answer the
issues Louise had raised.  I also had to talk to Patricia about my
"assistant" who was still sitting in front of my desk.  I reached over
and picked up the phone and dialed Louise's number.

"Louise Hampton," she said picking up the phone on the second ring.

"Good morning, Louise.  I have spent several minutes trying to
understand your email and I think I have figured out what you want to
know, but a face-to-face would be better then trying to frame an email
back.  Have you got a moment and when?" I asked.

"Good morning, Gary.  Come on up.  For you, I have more than a few
minutes," she said.

"Great.  Give me five minutes and I will be there," I said before
hanging up the phone.

I picked up the email and took a look at the office.  It needed more
than five minutes worth of work and so I decided to ignore it.  Tanya
stood up when I did.  I was going to have my own shadow.  Without a
word I walked out of the office and she followed me to the elevators.

"Why don't you like me," she asked while we waited for the elevators.

"I don't not like you," I responded.  "I just have no need for an
assistant, at least, not one that is not well schooled in technology.
Further, I resent having anyone thrust at me to fill a position that
does not need filling."

"But, sir, I was told you are the Chief Technology Officer," she said.

"That is the current rumor, yes," I responded as we stepped into the elevator.

"As such, you need to have someone to answer your phone and manage
your schedule," she seemed to have this down to a science.

"No, actually, I don't.  What I need is someone to procure and rebuild
two severs, install software and get my project back on track," she
was about to open her mouth and I continued on, "which is Ms. Phelp's
job.  One she is more than sufficiently trained to do.  Beyond that I
am quite capable of managing my own calendar and answering my own
phone, something anyone in this company should be able to do with out
assistance."  I climbed down off my soapbox as the elevator doors
opened.  Rather than heading for Louise's office, I walked around to
Patricia's office.

"Good morning, Gary," she said brightly when I knocked on her door.
"What can I do for you this morning?"

"Good morning, Patricia.  You know Mrs. Ridgeland?" I asked.

"Of course," she responded.

"Good, then I am sure you can find her something as befits her
skills," I said, turning and leaving without a second glance.  She may
have called after me, but I was not in the mood.

I found Louise in her office and we sat down to tackle the problem she
had laid out before me.  It was not that it was complicated.  It was,
but not overly so.  It was the arcane mechanics she was going through
to make it happen.  It took us about two hours to hammer through the
issues.  In that time we came to a series of conclusions.  The first
was that the accounting system we used was so byzantine that we were
probably expending money instead of saving it following the procedures
we had to follow to get from one point to the other.  The second
conclusion was that her solution to some of the technical issues was
too simplistic and would take more effort than she had envisioned.  It
could be done, just with more effort and I would provide her with a
better estimate of what was involved to pull it off.  The third
conclusion was that we worked well together.  We set a tentative
meeting for tomorrow morning to review the extra work I estimated it
would take and left it at that.  Maureen caught me coming out of
Louise's office.  Well, I knew I was not going to get away totally
free.  She invited me into her office.

"I really don't have time Maureen," I said as I slumped into her
couch.  The conversation with Louise had drained me and I was thinking
about an early lunch.

"You are going to have to make time, Gary," she said.  "I have an
email here from Patricia that says you don't like your assistant?
What's that all about?"

"I am not sure what you are talking about," I said, playing dumb.
"Luci is a fabulous assistant.  She has initiative, takes chances.
She moves things forward.  I would say she was after my job, if I had
a job she would be interested in."

"Smart ass," Maureen said with a slight grin.  "I meant Tanya."

"Who?"

"Tanya Ridgeland, the woman who is to be your administrative
assistant," she said.

"She knows nothing about administration," I replied.  "At least not
that I have seen.  Of course, no one slid a resume past me.  Does she
have any certifications?  How long has she been in the business?  How
many OSs does she know?"

Maureen paused for a moment and really looked at me.  "You didn't get
much sleep last night did you?" she asked.

"No, but that has nothing to do with the conversation," I replied.

"No, you're right, it doesn't.  But I notice you dig your heels in
when you are tired."

"And behind," I mentioned.  "Anything else?"

She sat and looked at me for a moment.  She was wearing grey wool
slacks and a light weight brown sweater with 3/4 length sleeves.  It
looked very good on her, but I was trying not to look at her.

"No, Gary, nothing else for the moment," she said.  I took it as a
dismissal and headed back down to my office.  I took the stairs so I
would not have to wait for the elevator.  I was back in my office a
few minutes later and working on the issues Louise and I had pounded
out.

"You need to eat," I heard Luci say from my doorway.  I was not really
conscious of what time it was.

"Sorry, not today," I replied.  I heard her walk around my desk.

"My sweet, darling, dunderhead," she said with some force spinning me
around to look at her.  "You have had nothing but coffee since dinner
last night, and I believe you mentioned that you did not eat anything
substantial the day before, at least nothing that contained calories,"
she corrected.  "So, put on your coat and let us go and get some
lunch. It is almost one o'clock."

She must be taking lessons from Fay.  I decided that giving in to her
would be easier than fighting with her.  To emphasize the point, my
stomach chose that moment to grumble.

"See, I knew I was right," she said smugly

Nikki was waiting for us by the elevators and we rode down together,
my arm around each one of them.  We took my car, since it already had
seating cleared for three, well four really, but Ellen's seat was
always clear and drove around the corner.  The hostess seated us and
took our order and left us to ponder the menu.  I was hungry, I
discovered as I sorted out the options I had to choose from for lunch.
 Nikki and Luci were both sitting across from me, their toes dancing
on my legs.  It was a fun lunch with a lot of innuendo and lust looks
all around the table.

Jerry caught up to me as we were coming off the elevator and we went
back around to his office.

"How many PCs do you need?" he asked.

"Well, I had two damaged, there are six that are needed for upgrades
and another six as hot stand-bys, so that is 14."

"Make it an even 2 dozen then and we will start the rolling upgrades," he said.

"Twenty-four PCs it is," I said as I left for Janice's office where I
let her know the total.

"Thanks.  You better go up and see Patricia," she said.

"Oh?" I asked.

"When two rocks collide against each other, there is bound to be some
friction," she said pointedly.  "You and she are cut from the same
cloth.  Go see her it will do you some good."

"Yes, ma'am," I responded and headed back upstairs.

I knocked on Patricia's door and she motioned me in while she finished
typing an email.  When she finished she turned to me.

"I screwed up didn't I," she asked in a quiet voice.  Instead of
responding I got up and gently closed her door.

"I am not used to people doing my work for me," I responded and that
got a laugh.

"Tell you what," she said.  "I won't assign you an assistant again
without at least letting you review the resume.  Deal?"

I walked over to her and bent down and kissed her.  She wrapped her
fingers in my hair and I kneeled down so we were on the same level.  I
broke the kiss and cupped her cheek.  "Deal," I said.

"I understand you lost two servers," she said, changing gears on me.

"Two workstations really," I said standing back up.  "Jerry's approved
the purchase of some new machines and they should be here in a week."

"When will we see the PDAs working?"

"Well, I have scrounged all the hardware that is left, I think," I
said, trying to remember if there was a PC somewhere that I had
missed.  "The short answer is no time soon I am afraid."

"Sorry, darling," she said, standing up and molding body to mine.
"That is not good enough.  Craig will skin both of us," she continued,
leaning in to kiss me again.  Our tongues fought a small skirmish
while our hands floated over each other's body.  Patricia has a
delicate ass, and it seems like she had forgotten her panties again as
I floated my finger up and down the crack.

"Now, enough of that," she said, breaking the kiss and capturing my
hand with her own.  "Where is your coat?"

"In my office," I replied, half in question and half in statement.

"Go and get it and I will meet you in the lobby," she said, reaching
for her own coat.

"OK," I said.  She had me curious, so I decided that doing what she
told me to do was the better part of valor.  I rode down to the 4th
floor and picked up my coat and returned in time to catch the same
elevator that Patricia was in.  Unfortunately, there were a couple of
other people on it as well so we had to behave ourselves.

We walked out into the cold February afternoon and I followed her to
her car, parked near the entrance to the building.  She tossed me the
keys and I unlocked the passenger door for her and held it open before
walking around to the driver side and sliding behind the wheel.

"OK, so where are we going?" I asked as I put the keys in the
ignition.  Maybe if I was good she would let me drive her Z when it
warmed up.

"To which ever computer store you frequent and will have the parts or
boxes or whatever you need to get back on track," she said.  "And no
argument," she continued as I was about to do just that.  Rather than
argue, I started up the car and headed for the computer store Luci and
I had visited barely a week before.

It was a short ride and we talked about the weather or something
equally as frivolous as we parked and walked into the store.  Patricia
walked over and grabbed a cart before I could even move in that
direction and we walked over to the selection of PCs they had.

"Now, let's see, you lost two to vandalism, and three should be
retired, if I am a judge of computers, so that is at least 5 you will
need, right?" she asked looking at me hard.

"Technically yes, but Patricia, the company does not have the funding
for this," I said in a vain attempt to redirect her efforts.

"Are you up for some horse trading?" she asked, looking at me.

"Depends on the horse," I replied.

"Craig needs to learn how to use one of these things," she said,
waving her hands in general at the PCs.  And, honestly, we need a
couple of new ones at home."

"OK," I was not quite sure where this was going.

"Here's the deal.  Help me choose a couple of decent machines for the
house.  You get use of them for the time it takes us to order some
machines through channels, under your budget, and then you help me set
them up at home.  What do you think," she concluded.

I rubbed my temples.  My head really hurt.  Too much caffeine, or
maybe not enough, I wasn't sure.  "What do you have at home now," I
asked, stalling a little.

"Nothing really.  An old clunker that looks worse than what you have
in your office.  I want a wireless network, connected to the Internet,
with two laptops and at least two workstations.  A colour printer and
a laser printer," she said, ticking off what she wanted to do with
each of the devices.  Any of the machines on display would do, so we
walked through the various aisles and looked at our options.  She
settled on two cube like machines for her workstations and I have to
admit they were great looking machines, both inside and out.  A couple
flat panel monitors and we had half the shopping done.  We picked up a
couple of laptops and walked over to the network hardware.  One
router, a duplex-enabled colour laser printer, a firewall and a couple
of network cards later and we were all set.

We paid the bill and somehow managed to get all the boxes in the car
and returned to the office.  Patricia waited while I went and got a
hand truck to take the PCs upstairs.

When we reached my office, I found Luci trying to bring order to the
chaos and Patricia lent a hand, against my wishes, while I unloaded
the new machines.  One thing I had picked up was a KVM switch to
connect the boxes to.  The fewer monitors there were the more room for
systems.

"Luci, were there any network cards left from this debacle or do I
have to go and fetch some?" I asked, trying to figure out how I was
going to put this all together.

"Nope, he smashed up the insides pretty good.  Not to worry though, I
have a couple in my office.  How many do you need?"

"Umm, three...no, better make that five," I said, the wheels turning
in my head as I tried to figure out what I was going to do.  One of
the machines I had been planning to move onto the log server was the
router and now I did not have the log server.  Rather than move the
router to the log server, I decided to move the log server to the
router and put the router on one of Patricia's donated machines.  The
other would be the mail gateway.  I was making room when Nikki came in
with a screwdriver and two network cards.

"I come baring cards, oh Worker of Miracles," she said with a smile.
Patricia had made herself at home on the couch to watch the show.

"Put them on the desk, would you and help me disconnect this mess.
Now is as good a time as any to rearrange the furniture," I said,
putting one of the old CPUs on the floor and pulling cables out from
behind the workbench and tossing them on the floor in separate piles.
Luci came in a few minutes later with three more boards, still in
their wrappers and added them to the ones on the desk before helping
to unplug and move things around.  It took about an hour to get all
the PCs moved and put back into their new positions.  Nikki and Luci
were unpacking one of the new cubes while I was making up labels and
documenting where things were supposed to go.

"Make an image of those two, please Nikki," I asked while they were
setting looking at the cube.

"This thing is sexy as hell," Nikki said.  "What's it got inside?"

I told her and got a whistle for my efforts.

"You know how to turn a girl on don't you big boy," she said as she
put the cube on the bench and went to get some tools to image the
disk.

"I take it these were a good choice," Patricia said from the couch.

"A very good choice, Patricia," Luci said, pulling the second cube out
of its box.  "I take it one is going to be the mail gateway, but
what's the other one for?" she asked putting the PC on the table.

"Router," I said.  I explained how I wanted it all wired and Luci
walked over to the whiteboard and wrote it all down, then started
adding the various networking information we would need to make it all
work.  I pulled a CD off the shelf, blew the dust off it and put it in
the machine that was currently the router and set it to the task of
rebuilding.  Nikki had returned and was imaging the cubes to an
external hard disk.

"Shall we turn your laptop on, Patricia, and see if it works?" I asked.

"Yes please," she said.  I slit the plastic and gave her the honor of
opening the box.  She passed me the power cables and some manuals and
I put the cord into the power strip behind my desk.  I passed the
other end over to her and she plugged it in.  It booted up nicely and
Nikki imaged it off before we got too far along with it.

"You know, Gary," Patricia said as we waited for the systems to get to
a point where they needed human intervention, "I don't think I have
ever watched you work.  The three of you move like you are in a
ballet, or a complex play."

"We have worked together before," I responded.

"Even up right," Nikki threw in as one of the cubes finished their
image process and she bent over to eject the boot disk.

Patricia giggled as I pinched Nikki's ass.

"Well, she is right, Gary, you do move like lovers in some ways.  You
seem to know where each other is and where they are going to be and
even when you intersect, there isn't the stiffness of people who don't
spend a lot of time with each other.  Maybe that's what we need.  A
better working relationship." She was thinking out loud and I could
almost hear the wheels turning.

"Unfortunately, Patricia, what you see here is a very good mesh of
personalities, both at the intimate and professional levels.  It
doesn't happen very often and when it does, you run with it as long as
it will last," I said.

"You sound like a man of experience," she said.

"I am.  Janice and I used to work like this," I said, bring Nikki to a
screeching halt and drawing a gasp from both Patricia and Luci.

"And I suspect we could work tightly together again, Gary," Janice
said from the doorway.  "After all, I have managed to put up with you
as my supervisor for the better part of three years now." She had a
twinkle in her eye as she said it, then walked into the room and
kissed me.

"I suspect you are correct," I replied hugging her.  "But if we get
any more people in here, we might have to build a second level to get
everyone space to work," I said moving a little so Janice could see
our new toys.

"Where do you want the boxes, Gary," Luci asked me.

"We will have to stick them somewhere.  Probably in front of my desk
for now, and I will find them a home later," I said.

"Mind my asking what broke up the team?" Patricia asked from the couch
where she was looking through the package of information that came
with her laptop.

"Fay," Janice and I said almost at the same time and then pointed at each other.

"You owe me a drink," Janice said.

I looked at my watch and did a quick review of the state of the
workbench.  "You are on.  Who is joining us?" I asked.  It was
unanimous, so we grabbed our coats and whatever else we needed to take
home with us and headed for our cars.  The restaurant where we had
lunch was also a popular after work watering hole, so it made sense
that we would go there.  A small caravan pulled out of the corporate
parking lot and headed out.

"So, are you going to tell us the story, Gary or do we have to worm it
out of Janice," Nikki said once we all had our favorite libation in
front of us.  Some how we had picked up Maureen and Craig in the
process, but all eyes were on me.  We had a couple of tables pulled
together and Nikki and Luci were flanking me, Janice to Nikki's right
and Maureen on Luci's left.  Crag and Patricia completed the circle.

I looked over at Janice and she nodded her head slightly, giving me
permission to tell our story.

"As most of you know," I began, "I got my degree at Auburn.  I
honestly don't remember a lot of my college days.  They were spent in
a dark lab somewhere or rushing from class to class.  I wasn't on any
teams and I did not join any fraternities.  I just did not have time.
When you are taking a course load that will get you through a
bachelor's degree in three years, you don't have time for anything.
And when you are three years younger than your classmates, you really
don't fit in."

"Wait a minute; you were 16 when you started University?" This came from Craig.

"Fifteen actually, Craig.  My birthday is in October.  I have always
been a bit of an over achiever.  The school system didn't know what to
do with me, so I started taking University courses.  I had my B.Sc by
the time most people are just starting to think about getting a
degree.  Worse, I looked my age, or a little younger.  I did not
really get my height until my second year in law school."

"Law school?" this from Nikki.

"Fay didn't tell you?" I asked taking a sip of the bourbon I was drinking.

"No, Fay most assuredly did NOT tell me," she said with a look of fury.

"Hmm, she must have forgotten.  I tend to forget.  Anyway, I managed
to get into Georgetown's law program at the ripe old age of 20.  By
that time, I had some experience in the computer industry, but I
shelved it.  I really thought I wanted to be a lawyer.  Turns out I
probably could have been, and a good one if all the offer letters I
received mean anything, but I was having trouble reconciling the law I
was studying with the way the way the world was working, especially in
information technology and security.  You might say I was ahead of the
curve in even thinking these things, let along worrying about them.  I
chucked the whole mess and got an entry level job at a consulting firm
in DC, which is where I first met Janice," I said with a nod and
another sip.

"It seems they were just starting with the support of government
computer systems.  I was in on the ground floor and ran with the
program.  Fast."

"Very fast," Janice said.  "We had people in there that ate, slept and
breathed UNIX and along comes Gary and in weeks, he understands and
can apply some of the most complicated theories that these guys have
struggled with for years.  It was amazing to watch and scary to be a
part of.  We didn't know what to do with him.  We would put him on a
project we had been struggling with for months and he would have the
issue resolved in days.  Worse, if there was no commercial solution,
he would program a solution before anyone had an understanding of the
requirements."

"I remember one project," Janice began.  "The project manager tells me
that the customer has this network they want to monitor.  This is
before most of the common monitoring tools we have today.  They want
some simple statistics. He estimates that it will take us between six
and eight weeks to come up with a solution that will do what the
customer wants to have done.  He tells me he is putting me on the team
with Gary, another UNIX engineer and two other programmers.  My job is
to make sure the customer has articulated the requirements and that
the programmers understand the issues.  Simple task really.  Most of
the work is in the programming of the scripts to capture the data and
store it for retrieval and alerting."

"We had a kick off meeting and reviewed what they wanted to collect.
Again, simple stuff compared to what we monitor for today.  Gary,
here, doesn't seem to be paying too much attention during the meeting.
 Something I now know is a very dangerous thing.  When he does not
appear to be paying attention is when he is really solving the
problem.  At the time, we joked that he goes into an idiot-savant
mode.  Come to find out that is pretty much what happens.  Anyway, the
customer isn't looking too kindly on this kid at the table, but since
he doesn't interrupt the meeting, I don't think much of it.  Until the
end.  Just as we are getting ready to break, Gary looks at the lead
engineer and spouts about two minutes worth of technobabble at him to
which the lead engineer gets this pale look on his face and then turns
to his boss who hasn't got a clue what Gary just said.  Frankly,
neither did I.  Gary tells them it doesn't matter, he can work around
it and we all get up and leave."

Janice paused in her telling to take a drink and continued.  "We go
back to the office and the UNIX guy, Phil, I think his name was,
corners Gary and tells him the next time he talks like that he is
going to rearrange his anatomy.  Gary, dear, sweet Gary, tells him
that he fully understands that Phil does not grasp all the concepts
that we have to deal with, but if he pays attention, he might learn
something and walks away.  Phil was so stunned he didn't know what to
say.  The program devolved into two camps.  Phil and this old dinosaur
of a programmer in one camp and Gary and Ted, I think his name was, in
the other camp."  She paused to take a breath and indicated I should
pick up the story.

"Ted," I continued, "was good.  He was fast on the keyboard and we
meshed really well.  Within 3 days we were collecting statistics and
within a week we had a user interface written.  Now this is before the
pretty GUIs we are used to, so we wrote some code that would spit
graphs out to a printer.  That took the most amount of time, about
three more days.  I shipped the first cut over to the customer and
they were delirious.  They loved it.  Phil and Greg were not amused.
Neither was Janice if I remember rightly," I said.

"No, I wasn't.  My own damn fault really.  Phil had thrown down the
gauntlet and Gary had scooped it up and slapped him with it all in one
motion," she said with a chuckle.

"The program manager was even more upset.  Here he thought he had an
eight-week cash cow and the bulk of the task was done in two.  Anyway,
long and the short is that Janice, Ted and I became the sole support
to the customer and I think Ted wound up working there.  The company
loved us."

"So you two worked closely together?" Patricia asked.

"Very," Janice replied.  "There was just something about him," she
said, getting nods from all the ladies at the table and a shake of the
head from Craig.  "We were an item for about three years, and then the
company sent him to California to support something or other."

"So here I am in California and I get laid off.  Flat.  Two weeks pay,
thanks and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out," I tried
not to sound bitter but I was, still.

"Fortunately, I was smart enough to get myself another job.  In the
meantime, I had been taking courses at Berkeley sort of half hearted.
Pick-up courses to keep my mind sharp in a variety of subjects.  I was
in the computer lab one evening working on some project or other and
this poor professor was having a devil of a time getting something to
compile.  I don't remember what it was, but I asked if I could help
him and in the course of an hour we had worked through all the bugs
that he put into it and even tightened up his code.  Turns out he was
the head of the department and wondered what school I was in.  Anyway,
he offered me a position in the new IT Security program they were
developing and that is how I wound up with my third degree, a
Masters."  Nikki almost choked on her drink when I said this.

"You have three degrees?  Why don't I know this?" she asked.

"You never asked?" I responded with a slight shrug.

"Does Fay know?" she asked again.

"Let's see.  She knows I have a B.Sc.  She found the diploma from
Georgetown a couple of years ago.  I think I mentioned the Masters but
I don't remember.  Actually, that is about when we met, so I am fairly
certain she knows about that degree.  I forget if I mentioned the
Ph.D." Luci was laughing out loud at this point and Nikki had gone
quite pale.

"You are a doctor?" she asked.

"Technically, I guess I am, but it isn't for common knowledge.  None
of this is," I said.  Craig was shaking his head in wonderment.

"If I had a Ph.D.," he said, "I would have it on all my stationary."

"Yes, but remember, in your position, it is prestigious.  In mine, it
is pretentious, especially if you are still on the short side of 25
and trying to get a job in a very competitive market.  Ph.D.s don't
impress employers, they scare them.  The National Academies of Science
did a survey once.  Most Ph.D.s were driving taxis or some such,
rather than actually employed in the field in which they received
their degree.  Something like less than 1 percent were actually
working in their actually credentialed field, and most of those were
social workers or NASA engineers," I concluded.  "Most employers don't
want people that 'smart.'  So I don't advertise it."

"Gary," Patricia said quietly, "how many Ph.D.s do you have."  All
eyes turned on me and I looked down at her.  She simply nodded her
head.  She wanted the truth.  I took a big gulp of my bourbon to
fortify my soul before I answered.

"Three," I responded.  The table erupted.  Luci squeezed my leg under
the table.  Nikki was beside herself.  I signaled for another round.
Patricia was shaking her head at me like she did not believe me.  OK,
so I really had 5, but two were honorary and I did not count them.
The other two were based more on work I had done in Information
Security law with a buddy of mine, but I had to pick up a couple of
law courses in the process.  I think I spent more time teaching the
professor, a judge, than I did learning from him, but it was a fun set
of exercises.  They could not decide which department I should get the
degree in, so they gave me one in each of Law and Computer Science.
The other two were for speaking engagements I had done at a couple of
symposiums.  They were the honorary ones I neglected to mention.

Patricia got up and walked over to where I was and leaned down to
whisper in my ear, "You are a lousy liar, Gary." She kissed my ear and
continued on to the ladies room, which started an exodus, leaving
Craig and I at the table.  He was still shaking his head.

"And you still prefer tinkering with hardware.  Well, if I didn't know
before, I know now that I made the right choice in moving you into the
CTO slot.  Congratulations, professor," he said saluting me with his
drink.

I returned the toast and we watched the general ebb and flow of people
in the bar while we waited for the ladies to return.

"I understand you are getting back up to speed on the PDAs," Craig
said a few minutes later.  "Any chance they will be ready this week?"

"Well, since tomorrow is Friday again, I can pretty much guarantee
that, no, they won't.  Luci and I will put a full court press on it
tomorrow and hopefully catch up the time we lost at the beginning of
this week, although I have a couple of tasks from Louise that I have
to work through as well," I replied.

"What if we spun off your little hobby shop into a full blown research
lab?" he asked.

"I feel Patricia's hand," I replied with a smile.  I got a slight
acknowledgement for my effort.  "Jerry won't like loosing his people.
In fact, he specifically told me he wants Luci back when this effort
was complete.  It would reduce the load on IT, but I don't know how
you would fund it."

"Jerry and I have already discussed that," he said.  "We will put a
tax on all the departments that you have worked miracles for over the
last few years.  Almost everyone has benefited from something that
came out of your office.  I don't think most departments would object
and those that do will get shouted down.  Louise actually suggested
something similar in one of her departments.  Seems she has a couple
of folks that tinker, but don't have the operational support to
continue their efforts.  If we put them all under one roof, then we
can solve a lot of problems."

"Do we have the space here to host it?" I asked.  "Otherwise, I either
won't be in the building or I won't be able to do much," I said.

"What would you need?"

"I don't know, I haven't really thought about it.  I suppose it
depends on what sort of work we wind up doing."

"Well, think about it.  And talk to Louise as well," he said as the
ladies came back to the table.

"Talk to Louise about what," Luci asked with a nervous look.

"About and R&D facility," I replied.  "And the manpower to staff it."

"We have a dinner party to go to," Patricia said, standing up.  Craig
joined her and we all wished them a good night.

"I wonder who is for dinner," Nikki said with a grin watching them leave.

"I know what I would prefer," Maureen said, looking at me and licking her lips.

"Lusty women, the lot of you," I said, finishing off my drink.
"Ladies, if you will excuse me, I have to be getting home myself.  I
am supposed to help Ellen with some lines for her school play and Fay
said something about pulling the tax information together to get it to
the accountant, so I have a night ahead of me.  Sleep well."

I stood up and got a round of kisses from the ladies and headed home.
It was a nice quiet night with the family.  As I was falling asleep, I
realized two things.  One I had not had sex with anybody all day and
two, I had told more people more about myself than I had ever told
Fay.  The last thought I had as blackness engulfed me was I would have
to fix that.

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.sex.stories.moderated ------ send stories to: <ckought69@hotmail.com>|
| FAQ: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/faq.html> Moderators: <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|ASSM Archive at <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org>   Hosted by <http://www.asstr-mirror.org> |
|Discuss this story and others in alt.sex.stories.d; look for subject {ASSD}|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+