Jason Sizemore

Orbital Station 19-YX floated silently 22,241 miles above the earth. Within 19-YX, Clayton Edwards tossed his chair at the porthole offering a fabulous view of Africa. Not that Clayton hated Africa, he was just pissed off. Heads popped over walls like a minefield of gophers jumping from their holes.

Clayton’s boss, Android Earl, assessed the situation and branched into program class “Appeasement”. He approached the upset human, holding a mug of steamy, simulated coffee in his right hand.

“Dear Clayton, why are you so angry?”

“This job, I’m done, it’s over. I am finished!” Clayton bellowed.

“Come now, let us talk about your problem over coffee,” soothed Earl. This was Android Earl’s 212^th year with the company. He knew how to handle employee stress.

“Screw you Earl! I quit!” Clayton raised his middle finger high and proud, waving it around for all to witness. “You see this, everybody, this is what I think of you and the Company.” Clayton gathered his collection of planetary laser pens and stormed out of the room, leaving behind a stunned crowd of his former co-workers.

Earl assessed the situation and branched into program class “Soothing and Reassurance”.

“Please, do not worry; Clayton is having a bad day.” The android took a sip of coffee and grimaced. “The Company will see to it that Clayton receives the best mental care 19-YX can provide.”

The employees looked at each other, looked at Earl, and then disappeared again within their cubicles.

Just outside the office porthole, 22,241 miles above Africa, Earl watched a redundancy pod shoot out of the orbital station and burn up in the earth’s atmosphere.

“Heh,” Earl grunted, as he took another sip of hot coffee. “Humans are easy.”