The floor was littered with mounds of trash. Sudoku books, tic tac toe scrawls, and random half finished doodles sat completely at odds with the cold chrome interior of Chase's “Seek to answer request” satellite. It had been a boring cycle indeed, he was stationed in a dim STAR clustered around many others. It had seemed a long time since he had sat in a bright STAR, completing requests left and right. However, being good at your job wasn't of any use if you couldn't play the political game, and Chase just didn't have the social nuances for that.
Chase picked up his pencil with the eraser chewed off, one of his many, and started another doodle when his request board chimed. He jolted upright, junk cascading off his lap and onto the floor, to get a glimpse on the Earth HUD on where the wish had come from, but nothing changed on the HUD as far as he could see.
Chase bent down under his console to make sure everything was running correctly, and as he crouched, he saw the glimmer of a request. It wasn't on Earth though, it appeared to be coming from a nearby STAR. Chase had nothing better to do anyways, so he opened the glimmer to accept the request.
“Make me smile”
A simple request, although odd that another STAR could request a wish. Chase racked his brain but couldn't think of anything preventing it. Smiling was an easy request to fill though, not as easy as most of the material wealth wishes that came through, but still not much of a challenge. He walked up to the console and opened up his on board library, accessing a collection of joke books. He read until he found something that made him guffaw loudly and sent it to the other STAR.
“What is the difference between an old bus station, and a lobster with boobs? One is a crusty bus station and the other is a crusty bus station.”
Chase satisfied with his job well done, walked to the back of the satellite to the drink dispenser and got himself a congratulatory milk to be enjoyed with a pack of Oreo cookies as he waited for the wish to be logged as complete. As he grabbed his mug and turned towards the pantry, he noticed another glimmer from the same STAR. He set down his treat and opened the with on the HUD.
“....”
“Make me smile”
Chase slowly sat back at the console, eager to have a challenging wish to complete. This is where he excelled beyond most STAR operators, he could put himself in anybody shoes and see from any perspective. It really only came in handy on difficult wishes, and it wasn't a skill he got to use to often, but he was glad to put it to use. He thought of why someone might become an operator, thought of what they might have available, why they would need a smile. Chase quickly realized they had the same access to endless knowledge and resources that he did, and that anything from a joke book would be wasted on this operator.
He typed in a joke that was personal to him into the archive, just to see if it was registered in any joke book. It came back negative, as far as he knew only one other person besides him had ever heard it, hell, Nicole made it just for him. But she was gone, so he may as well share it and let it lighten up someone else's day. Besides, this one would be especially appreciated by another operator.
“What did the shy pebble wish for? To be a little boulder”
Heartbeats passed as Chase stared unblinkingly at the screen. He jumped back as the screen he had hoped for flashed in front of him. A green rimmed golden star covered the HUD with a large block of text under it reading “Wish completed”
He felt content, but there was still a small hole in is stomach, something hadn't been completed in him. “Wish completed” was not the feedback he wanted, his victory was hollow. He geared up his STAR to STAR comm to beam a message to the operator he had just talked too, but what to say? He certainly couldn't just say “tell me what you think of the joke”. There had to be a more socially acceptable way to fill this void. The obvious answer would be to initiate small talk and lead a conversation into getting the answer he wanted, but he had no clue where to begin.
As he sat in thought, a glimmer appeared from the same STAR. He tapped the HUD and opened the wish.
“I want somebody to talk to”
Chase couldn't have asked for a better break, he could get his answer, the other person could get their wish, and he wouldn't have to do any of the social leg work. He beamed a quick greeting to the STAR operator.
CM-1099: “I heard you requested someone to talk to, should be an easy request to fill, what would you like to talk about?”
NF-4398:...
NF-4398: “I don't wanna talk about anything, I just want to talk to someone, I didn't know cycles were this long and draining.”
CM-1099: “Yes, as per initiated conversation, I will maintain conversation on the subject of cycles.”
Chase could tell he did something wrong by how long it took the other operator to respond.
NF-4398: “You don't have to be so formal, but I think I may have found something the may have removed the rod from your rump.”
Mr. Funnyguy: “I do not have a rod in my butt...”
Chase did a double take at his screen cap, the other operator had changed his name in the chat log! Well two could play at this game, but what could he do, the only thing he knew about this operator was the info from their tag and their wish. All he knew about the tags were the first letter was the name initial, and the second was the gender, there were so many meanings behind the numbers he could never memorize all that. Well, he would just have to work with that.
Mr. Funnyguy: “Well with my rod removed then I figured I could do you a favor and take a whack at yours.”
Mrs. Needy: “well, let's see then”
Ms needy: “I'm just gonna assume you meant it sarcastically and take it as a compliment.”
Ms. Needy: “Hey, did you drop the misses into miss, or am I getting a malfunction.”
Mr. Funnyguy: “Well I just figured someone that needy couldn't have a spouse.”
Ms. Needy: :P
Chase had to really look to try to understand what symbol she had sent. He checked his data banks when he couldn't figure it out on his own, the only thing that came back that made sense was an archaic emoji for sticking out ones tongue in a playful manner. Such a basic emoji would have eluded him without his data banks, all emojis nowadays were animated colourful things, but on his chat board, he was limited to only text and symbols. Chase figured he'd try his best to send one back
Mr. Funnyguy: :E|
Ms. Needy: “and what is that supposed to be exactly?”
Mr. Funnyguy: “It's a smiley face with buck teeth”
Ms. Needy: “Not even close :/”
Chase spent the entire rest of the cycle expanding his knowledge of old emojis and having enjoyable witty banter with NF-4398. He didn't even mind the fact the he got no wishes to fulfill, his time was much better spent talking, just the way she liked it, not about anything, just pointless chatter.
As the cycle drew to a close, NF-4398 became increasingly withdrawn, to the point of barely talking with Chase. Although he wasn't good at social cues, he didn't need to be, it felt like he had known NF-4398 his whole life.
Mr. Oreos and milk: “What's got you down, I know it was your first cycle, bummed about not getting any wishes?”
Ms. Narcoleptic : “Not exactly”
Mr. Oreos and milk: “and that's “not exactly” an answer to my question.:P”
Ms. Narcoleptic: “Oh how I should have never taught you those emojis.”
Ms. Narcoleptic: “It's no big deal though, A long time ago I made a wish, I wanted to reconnect with a person who I let go of and have desperately wanted to come into contact with again, and my wish led me to becoming a STAR operator for this cycle.”
Mr. Oreos and milk: “Well, not all requests get their results seen immediately, I'm sure the operator did a great job and this is part of a path that will take you to them, even if you don't see it now.”
Ms. Narcoleptic: “No the operator did a fantastic job, he gave me everything I wanted, I did get to reconnect with them. It's just I'm sick, so doing this cycle means I am off my treatment, I'm not gonna last for much longer. I'm just being greedy, I got what I wanted, and now I want more, you know how wishers are :P.”
Chase felt his heart drop. NF-4398 was one of the few people he had ever been able to talk with his entire life, it felt unfair that they be taken away from him. That hollow feeling returned in full and he knew he would never get the feedback he wanted to make him feel whole. He spent the rest of the cycle talking about some of the previous wishes he granted, about NF-4398's life on Earth and how she liked her STAR. Eventually their relief was on their way to cover the next cycle and now was the time for goodbyes.
Ms. Narcoleptic: “I'm just glad I made it this long you know, better than just keeling over mid conversation with you, you'd have never known.”
Mr. Oreos and milk: “I'd have just assumed you'd have run out of your knowledge of the alphabet.”
Ms. Narcoleptic: “That made very little sense, anyways my relief is here so I've gotta reboot the system and then it's on my way back down. So I guess it's goodbye.”
Mr. Oreos and milk: “Yeah, I guess so, I've never been good at goodbyes”
Nicole: “I know, well almost forget something, there you go, well good bye, I'll miss you.”
The bright letters of the wish completed sign appeared on the HUD, but Chase couldn't tear his eyes off of the screen name that appeared at the end. He should have known, why hadn't she told him. All he could do is stare at the chat log that would never ping him again, because wish as he might, no operator was good enough to bring give him what he wanted now.