Carli slammed the communicator into its cradle, her body trembling with pent up fury.
"You are\x85upset?" a digital male voice carried through the room, questioning her as a static-y visual fuzzed into view before her.
"Oh, really, Damon? You think? My, I didn't realize how advanced they'd made your powers of observation." She growled at the hologram, her low voice dripping with sarcasm. She whirled away from him, practically stomping across the floor as she began to pace angrily.
Damon, a computer generated holographic companion, or CGHC, watched the young woman, remaining quiet for the time being. A look of vague amusement tugged at his mouth as she paced the floor, arms crossed over her chest and tail flickering quickly behind her in agitation. Carli glanced his way and caught the amused look before he had a chance to change the expression on his face.
"Oh, you find this funny, huh?"
Before Damon could respond, Carli flung the communicator she'd just finished using at him. He blinked out for a moment, letting it fly past him, not that it would have done any damage to him. Then he blinked back on before her.
"That was a little uncalled for, don't you think, Carli?" A snarl and a paw, claws bared, swiping at him was her reply. His image fuzzed in and out momentarily as static crackled through the speakers from the disruption. "Come now, it can't be all bad. Why don't you settle down before you do something you'll regret and just tell your friend, Damon, what's wrong, hmm?"
Carli narrowed her clouded green eyes at him, but knew he was right. If she didn't calm down soon, her temper would get the best of her. Again. Her stance changed, and though she remained tense and kept her arms crossed, Damon knew she was on the path to calming down.
"Fine, but I don't see what harm there would be if I just cut off the power supply to a certain meddling CGHC\x85"
Damon smiled. "Oh, you'd miss me, and you know it. You'd reconnect the power before the hour was up."
"Miss your nagging, you nosy hologram? Pfft. Right."
"Yes, exactly."
Carli's tail twitched behind her, and Damon could tell by the way her ear flicked that she was fighting to keep from smiling. "You know there isn't another CGHC on this base that would agree to work with you\x85you're much too difficult. Besides, you love me."
A smile tugged at the corner of her muzzle. "Do not." She knew Damon was right, though. With her temper, Carli was lucky there even existed a CGHC willing to put up with her, but Damon did that, and so much more. Carli truly did have a soft spot for the computer, but she wasn't about to tell him that.
"Of course. Now, come sit down, have a cup of tea, and tell me what that call was all about, okay?"
Her eyes darkened in anger again, but she nodded and made her way over to the small table in her room, which was more properly labeled as a one bedroom efficiency. As she sat down, Damon's image blinked over to the chair across from her, and he folded his arms companionably. A small panel in the middle of the table slid open with the sound of metal sliding against metal, and a cup of warm tea rose up from the grip of a mechanical hand.
Carli reached over and took the cup and saucer and set it before her, watching the steam rise as she fumed silently. Damon merely bided his time until she was ready to speak up on her own.
"It was the captain," she began quietly. Her voice was practically shaking with her fury. "He's denied me a place on the next mission\x85again. I've assigned to maintenance detail once more, and I'm supposed to be 'happy and content with that!'" She growled as she looked up from the cup of tea before her, her eyes fixating on Damon. "I'm supposed to be happy with that!?"
"Come now, Carli," Damon rumbled in a soothing manner, "I'm sure there's a valid reason for that."
"Damon! How can you say that?" Carlie asked, surprise expressed on her muzzle. "It's been three years since I graduated from the Academy. I was the top in my class, and I'm the best engineer on this base, and I haven't left this God-forsaken dump since I was assigned to it after graduation!"
"Maybe it's because of your temper?" he asked, arching an eyebrow questioningly. Carli shot him a look.
"What, does the captain program you to say that?"
"Captain Jameson has nothing to do with the CGHCs on this base, or anywhere else, for that matter," Damon replied defensively. "Our programming is all classified material."
"Hmph. I'm sure\x85someone, somewhere, is getting a damn good laugh at my expense." Carli sighed, ignoring the tea before her as it was slowing cooling to a tepid temperature. She placed her elbows on the table and buried her muzzle into her handpaws. "I didn't join the Academy to get stuck on this dump of a base for the rest of my career. There's no challenge here for me; no opportunity\x85nothing changes here. It's all the same, day in, day out."
Damon watched Carli closely. He could hear the sorrow in her voice, and it touched him. His brow furrowed as he realized that. His concern for Carli touched him\x85touched something inside of him. Inside of him? But, he's just a computer program, isn't he? Silence reigned between the two of them as they each considered their own thoughts.
A loud beep broke the quiet, followed by the dispatcher's voice crackling over the loud speaker. "The time is now 1500. Group C, please report to your duties within the next quarter of an hour."
Carli sighed again as she lifted her head from her hands. She rose from the table and straightened out her overalls, tugging the front zipper up the rest of the way.
"That's my shift, Damon. You can power down, now\x85I won't be back until 0300, and I shouldn't need any company this shift. I have enough to do."
"All right, Carli. Take care tonight."
The feline smiled at Damon as she pushed the button next to the door, and it slid open swiftly. "And hey, see if they can't reprogram you to nag less while I'm gone, 'kay?" She winked and stepped out into the hall as the door slid shut behind her.