Fan Fiction ❯ Game Over [FFC] ❯ Murphy's Law ( Prologue )

By Time Lady

Prologue

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This is an original story belonging entirely to me. Please do not copy or reproduce without my written permission. Copyright Time Lady/Hali Denenberg.

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Tegan Caprivi wasn't sure what she had done to offend the great god Murphy, but she knew she must have done something. Because anything that possibly could have gone wrong that day did. It started with one of those awful nights where she woke up around 2 AM, looked at the clock, hit the timer button on her clock radio, fell asleep for about an hour, woke up, looked at the clock, hit the timer button, and repeated the entire process over and over, until she gave up around 5:25 and dragged herself out of bed. The day went downhill from there.

On the way to the shower she knocked over a lamp, which fell to the floor with a resounding crash, and was nearly run over by the auto-clean droid that sped forward to take care of the mess. She barely made it to the shower. For some unknown reason, the hot water cut out mid shower. Tegan thought she would freeze by the time the shampoo rinsed out of her hair. And her eyes. Soap-blind, she realized her roommate had taken the towels off the towel rack and not replaced them. Dripping and unable to see, Tegan stubbed her toe as she groped around the bathroom for a towel.

She limped into the bedroom to find her room mate Mandisa going through Tegan's closet. "May I help you?" asked Tegan irritably.

Mandisa jumped, a jacket in one hand, a blouse in the other. "Oh, I was just returning this and borrowing this," said Mandisa as she handed Tegan the blouse. "Ta ta!" she said as she flounced out of the room. Sadly Tegan looked at what had once been her favorite blouse. It was covered with unidentifiable stains. Tossing it on the floor, she avoided the auto-clean droid and went to her dresser.

Tegan opened one of the drawers. She noticed a few drops of water on top of the chest, next to her favorite bottle of perfume. The label was also wet. Tegan opened the bottle and smelled the contents. Then she looked towards the bedroom door. So that's why her perfume seemed to lose its scent - Mandisa must be using it to fill that little sprayer of hers, then adding water to the bottle. Tegan decided she would be looking for a new roommate starting that evening.

Somehow she managed to get dressed without any major incidents. Tegan went over to the Food Dispenser Unit in her apartment and ordered her usual breakfast of hot chocolate and a toasted buttered bagel.

"Thank you for your order," buzzed the FDU as it served Tegan tomato soup and a baked potato with bacon and cheese.

"This is not what I ordered. I want coffee and a toasted buttered bagel," she said.

"Thank you for your order," buzzed the FDU as it served Tegan tomato soup and a baked potato with bacon and cheese.

Great. Now the FDU is on the fritz, she thought. "Okay, let's try something different," she said aloud. "Give me tomato soup and a baked potato with bacon and cheese."

"Thank you for your order," buzzed the FDU as it served Tegan a banana split with hot fudge, caramel, marshmallow and rocky road ice cream. Tegan banged her head on the table out of frustration. She ate the banana split for breakfast; the rest she could re-heat for dinner.

Thinking she still had plenty of time to get to work, Tegan went to her over car, hoping she could get a head start on her new ad campaign. Murphy wasn't done with her yet. The hover car wouldn't start.

Tegan wasn't ready to let the day get to her yet. She walked to the stand to catch a hover bus. And missed the hover bus by only seconds. Fine. She'd walk to work. A great idea, except she forgot that weather control had scheduled the city for a rain cycle that day. No wonder Mandisa had borrowed her jacket.

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Her sandy hair hanging in sopping tendrils around her face, her drenched clothes dripping water on the polished marble floor, Tegan entered the foyer of Golembe Brothers' Advertising Agency. She sloshed her way to the reception desk.

"What happened?" asked the receptionist.

"Better you didn't ask," replied Tegan

"Well then, I recommend you wring yourself out. The Golembe brothers want to see you."

"See me? Why?"

The receptionist just shrugged. "They didn't say. Their secretary told me to have you come to their office the moment you came in."

"Great." Tegan trudged into the ladies' room. The only time the Golembe brothers saw any of their employees personally was either to promote them or fire them. With the way her day was going, she doubted it was for a promotion. Be optimistic, she told herself. Maybe they liked the last idea you submitted for the Mortiro project.

Thank Murphy the ladies' room had blow type hand dryers. In a few minutes she was somewhat presentable. Bloodshot blue eyes stared back from the mirror as Tegan tried to fix her makeup. Of all the days for the Golembe brothers to call her in, why did it have to be today?

Nervously she stepped into the elevator. "Top floor," she said to the elevator's control system. The elevator went up two floors then stopped. Without opening the doors, it went down to the basement. Then up five floors, down two, up four, down one, up and down until it finally reached the top floor. Tegan dizzily lurched out of the elevator and into the plush executive offices of the Golembe Brothers' Advertising Agency.

Tegan tried to steady herself as she walked over to the receptionist's desk. A slender, bleached blonde dressed in the latest fashions, exactly the kind of woman Tegan instinctively despised, sat behind the desk using a laser file on her perfectly manicured nails. She looked at Tegan disdainfully, brushed a stray hair back into her absolutely perfect hairstyle, and said "May I help you?" From the tone, Tegan interpreted it as meaning "What the hell are you doing here, why are you bothering me, and how can I get rid of you and get back to something important, like filing my nails" all rolled into one.

Ignoring the receptionists tone, Tegan said "My name is Tegan Caprivi. Mr. Golembe asked to speak with me."

"Please be seated while I let them know you are here," said the receptionist in her falsely courteous voice. Tegan sat in one of the ultra modernistic body conforming chairs. The chairs were programmed to detect and relieve tension. Slowly, massaging vibrations from the chair tried to ease her tense muscles. The vibrations became stronger and stronger until Tegan's teeth rattled. She jumped out of the chair, afraid it would vibrate itself to pieces.

"The Golembe brothers will see you now," said the receptionist. Tegan backed away from the chair.

"You better have that fixed," she told the receptionist.

The receptionist shrugged impassively and pointed. "Through those doors," she said. Tegan looked where the receptionist pointed. Two massive, antique wooden doors slowly opened by remote. Swallowing hard, Tegan tried to regain her composure before facing the Golembe brothers.

Beyond the doors was an imposing polished desk. Over the desk hung a larger than life painting of the Golembe brothers in their prime. Beneath the painting, in large, overstuffed desk chairs sat the Golembe brothers, who were now well past their prime. The elder brother gestured to a chair across the table. The younger brother didn't even look at Tegan. Not a good sign.

"Miss Caprivi, the reason we have called you in here is because of some of the ideas you have submitted during your time with our establishment," said the younger Golembe.

"Our company prides itself on our tasteful way of presenting client's products," said the elder.

"Yet you submit ideas such as…," the younger brother flipped through his papers, "…dancing vegetables, talking animals, and talking china."

"Hardly the kinds of proposals we would present to our clients," added the elder.

"Not that your ideas lack creativity, it's just not what our clients would want," said the younger.

"And if it is not something our clients would want," interjected the elder, "then submitting these proposals is simply wasting good work time."

"As time is a valuable asset, we have decided to let you go," ended the younger.

Tegan was stunned. "I'm being fired because I'm too creative?" she asked incredulously.

"You can think of it as that," said the younger. "Two weeks severance pay and a reference letter will be waiting for you at the reception desk when you leave."

"Thank you Miss Caprivi. That will be all." With that, the Golembe brothers dismissed Tegan. She staggered out past the receptionist to the elevator.

The little gray cubicle that formerly served as her office was a stark contrast to the executive offices. The most the chair did as she plopped down was roll a bit over the standard gray office floor coverings. Numbly she looked around. At least she didn't have much to pack. Just a few magazine cartridges and image crystals.

Picking up the image crystal activated it, projecting a picture onto a surface. Tegan grimaced as she put an image crystal of her parents into her purse. She could almost hear her mother's voice when she told her what happened. Tonight was not the night to call Mom. Besides, tonight Tegan was going to meet her fiancée Prol to discuss wedding plans. The day wouldn't be a total loss.

Tegan stopped by the lobby receptionist on the way out. She walked across the street to the bank. The way her luck was running, she was afraid she would get mugged. Or the bank would be robbed. But nothing happened. The rain even stopped by the time she finished.

Hoping that Murphy had finally tired of her. Tegan stopped at a few employment agencies on her walk home. All promised to call her if anything turned up. But Murphy wasn't through with Tegan yet. The rain started on the way home.

By the time Tegan reached her apartment it was early evening. Prol's hover car wasn't outside. He was probably running late. Mandisa's hover car wasn't there either. Tegan opened the door, hoping to dry off before Prol arrived.

Something wasn't quite right. Ignoring the feeling, Tegan walked directly to the flashing light of her communications console. She flopped into a chair as the first two hang ups showed on the com-screen. Prol's face appeared as the next message began.

"Hi babe," he began. "Uh, about tonight. Maybe it's better if I tell you this way." Prol took a deep breath. "I don't think it will work out, you and me. Mandisa and I are in love." Tegan's mouth dropped open as she listened disbelievingly to her now ex-fiancee. "We're going to get married. She's moving in with me tonight. Mandisa wants to tell you something."

"Hi," said Mandisa's perky voice as her face came into view next to Prol's. "I just picked up my stuff from the apartment." As she blathered on, Tegan looked around the living room. The holovision was gone. So was the audiotron. And a few other things. And probably half of her closet too. Murphy damn them. "So, uh, don't worry if you don't get an invitation. We're eloping. Bye!"

Static replaced Mandisa's face between messages. Tegan watched as her mother's face appeared on the screen. "Hello dear," said the recorded message. "I just wanted to let you know I came up with some wonderful ideas for the wedding. Call me when you get in and you and Prol can discuss them tonight." Her mother's face disappeared from the com-screen. Tegan lamented her mother's lousy timing and decided not to return the call.

Forcing back her tears, Tegan considered her options. Buying a lazgun and tracking down Prol and Mandisa wasn't really a viable option. Satisfying, but not viable. She could accuse Mandisa of stealing. Everything Mandisa and Prol took belonged entirely to Tegan. But Prol was a lawyer and he would find some way out. Instead, Tegan decided to take a long walk.

Tegan walked down a dark, desolate street, the rain now a heavy mist hanging over her. Briefly Tegan considered taking the proverbial long walk off a short pier. Or bridge. That was out. Underwater life-droids always arrived in enough time to prevent someone from drowning and that person usually was in for government required psychiatric treatment. The way her luck was going, she'd probably get mugged. It wouldn't matter. Murphy apparently singled Tegan out and was throwing the worst at her.

Bright, flashing lights attracted her to one of the stores. In the window was a holo-display. It projected an image of one of the handsomest men she had ever seen. Blue eyes and hair complemented his golden skin. Muscles bulged under a skin-tight black flight suit. The drawn lazgun and concentrated expression on his face brought only one word to Tegan's mind - dangerous. The image shifted to show a platinum blonde woman in the same position. Next a caption appeared, promising adventure, excitement, …a once in a lifetime opportunity. Then the man reappeared.

Maybe that's what I need, Tegan said to herself. A little adventure and excitement never hurt anyone.

<to be continued>