Chapter 34: Dueling Banjos

Ken was slouched down in his chair with a controller in his hand playing a short segment of the game. The imagery was being projected on the wall across the room using an HDMI projector. The image was 100 inches on the diagonal, but sharp as could be despite its large size.

At the moment, his warrior was engaged in a fight with a large and ugly looking ogre. He was testing out the learning AI to see if the ogre changed its behavior from fight to fight. Unlike a lot of computer games, the monsters would flee when it was clear that it was losing rather than fight to the death unless there was a lucky strike by the player that killed the monster. Between fights, regardless of whether it won or lost, the software would analyze the fight and adjust some of the decision parameters.

After making a lucky blow on the ogre, Ken watched the ogre pause for a fraction of a second and then run off. He spun in his chair to face his desk and made some notes in his engineering notebook. He didn't like the short pause while it came to the decision to flee. He felt it was a bug in the software. An experienced gamer would know to take advantage of it and kill the ogre while making derogatory comments about the programmer.

Dave who had been standing at Ken's door watching the fight, said, "That really looks good."

"Raven's characters really look alive," Ken said.

"The animation is really phenomenal. It's like watching a movie of the real thing," Dave said.

After saying that he realized it was kind of a stupid comment. There weren't real ogres nor were there movies of the real thing. He said, "You know what I mean."

Ken shrugged his shoulders. After having played this particular scenario for a hundred times, he had gotten used to the imagery. At first he had been impressed with the graphics. After a while, he had become immune to it. Now, he was starting to pick out little flaws in it.

Dave, seeing Ken's reaction, said, "What? You don't like it?"

Ken said, "You know that I hit the ogre with my sword, but there wasn't a wound showing. It's not that I want it to be bloody and gory, but it is feedback. As it is now, you have to watch the health point meter to judge how much you've hurt it. That distracts from the game."

"I didn't notice that," Dave said.

"When the ogre shows up next time, there won't be any scars. It might sound stupid, but you do need scars. Without them, you can't tell from looking at it if the ogre is young and inexperienced or old and wily."

"You're really going to take this game to a new level of realism," Dave said.

"You bet. That's what Andrew wants," Ken said.

"I'm impressed," Dave said.

"Is Raven back?"

"No."

Ken replied, "Damn. I wish she was here to help me figure out how to add scars to the avatars."

"Sue Ellen says she'll be back in a day or two," Dave said.

He had no idea what was going on and it kind of bothered him. Andrew had been in a pretty foul mood the past couple of days. The guy wasn't sleeping too well and just seemed out of sorts.

"Well, I miss her," Ken said.

"You aren't the only one," Dave said while gesturing with a thumb in the direction of Andrew's office.

Ken glanced in the direction Dave was pointing and looked back at Dave knowing exactly what he meant. The less said about the mental state of their boss the better. Andrew had been in such a foul mood that everyone did their best to avoid him.

"What brings you to my office?"

"Well, I need you to meet someone," Dave said with a grin.

"Who?"

"Your assistant," Dave answered.

"What assistant?" Ken asked somewhat confused.

There was a lot of programming that remained to be completed on the game, but that required another programmer like him. You didn't call someone like that an assistant.

"Andrew learned about a sophomore majoring in computer science over at the college who needed a little financial assistance. He thought you could use an intern."

Ken frowned. He didn't really want to waste time bringing a sophomore student up to speed enough to be able to contribute to the project. All that would accomplish is to slow him up without anything to show from the intern. He doubted the intern had finished a data structures class.

"Where would this intern work?"

"In your office," Dave answered.

Glancing over at his prosthetic leg that was leaning against the side of his desk, Ken said, "Damn. I'll have to start wearing my leg."

Dave hoped that would be one result of bringing someone into his office. Ken was in the habit of removing his prosthetic leg after his coffee run in the morning and leaving it off for most of the day. It was only when he had to go somewhere that he put it on.

"You know you're supposed to wear it all day," Dave said.

"I hate it," Ken growled.

"You're just making it worse by not wearing it," Dave said.

Half joking, Ken asked, "When did you become my mother?"

"Someone has to look out for your sorry ass," Dave said with a smile to let Ken know he wasn't serious.

"I don't need an intern," Ken said grumpily.

Dave said, "It's not for you. It's for me. I need someone to mother you when I'm not around."

"Shit," Ken said.

Although Ken put on a good face, the fact was that he wasn't settling into civilian life very well. There was hardly a night when he didn't have nightmares that destroyed any chance of a full night of sleep. He never remembered his nightmares, but he woke covered in sweat and screaming. Some nights he tried to drink his way to sleep, but that didn't work and he felt even worse in the morning.

A general lack of sleep wasn't the only problem Ken had. He was angry at the world. He didn't show that anger often, particularly around the office. Dave didn't take any attitude from him having experienced the same things he had and having many of the same issues in rebuilding his life. The only difference was that Dave had a wife who stood by him and Ken was a bachelor.

There were times when he wanted to lash out at Andrew, but the guy was just so sincere in feeling that he was helping a nation pay off a debt to someone who had sacrificed for his country that it just didn't seem right. There wasn't an ounce of pity on Andrew's part, just honest concern about him as a man and that mean a lot to Ken. He appreciated the job, the benefits, and the respect given him at the office.

Ken also had a few fears. In particular, he was afraid that one day his anger was just going to explode out of control and people were going to get hurt. He knew that he was wound tighter than a drum and that one day it was going to unravel on him. That was one of the reasons he cherished his office so much. He could close the door and work undisturbed. It freed him from having face his anger.

Dave turned and said, "Kate. Come on in and met Ken."

A woman stepped into the office behind Dave. She had brown hair, cut in a short utilitarian fashion. She wasn't wearing makeup and that tended to give her a rather plain appearance. She wore pants and a loose shirt that more or less hid her body.

She took one look at Ken's absent leg, glanced at the prosthetic leg against his desk, and then said, "You could at least wear your leg."

"What the fuck do you know?" Ken shouted suddenly furious.

"I got a pair just like it," Kate answered back.

Ken looked over at Dave. Dave nodded his head. Ken frowned.

Making a long story short, Dave said, "You know Andrew. He heard about her and had to help."

"He makes it impossible to dislike him," Ken grumped.

"That's right."

"Where will I work?"

"In here," Dave answered gesturing around the office.

"We'll have plenty of room in here without our legs taking up space," Ken said sarcastically.

The office was more than large enough for the two of them. The problem was that he did not want to give up the privacy that his office had provided. He liked sitting in there alone without having to worry about being nice to people.

Kate said, "I guess we'll have to put a sign on the door stating no legs allowed. You're going to have to lose the other one."

The comment struck Ken as funny. He chuckled, started laughing harder, and finally broke out in to guffaws so hard that it hurt. It took him a minute to calm down and stop laughing.

"It wasn't that funny," Dave commented staring at Ken.

The fact of the matter was that Dave was worried about Ken. He knew about the nightmares and understood the anger. There were times when Ken over reacted to things. He felt that Ken should be seeing a therapist to work out some of his issues, but Ken was steadfast in resisting that. Ken wasn't the only veteran who refused professional help. One way of dealing with things was to deny that there was a problem. It didn't actually help, but that was a natural reaction. Then one day, everything burst and that was when the real problems started.

Looking around the large office, Kate could see only one desk in the room. There wasn't a table for her to work at. There wasn't even an extra chair for her to sit on. She wondered how she was supposed to work in that office without a place to sit.

She said, "So where's my desk?"

"We have to get one for you. Sue Ellen will take you to the office supply place so that you can pick one out."

"Oh," Kate said less than enthused about the prospect of going shopping.

She wasn't looking forward to walking around that much. Getting around campus was a bit more work than she had anticipated and she'd already spent the morning there. She was ready to sit and rest her stumps for a while.

"I'll just take one like his," Kate said.

Ken said, "You better go with Sue Ellen. She doesn't take no as an answer very well."

"Tough?"

"No, not really," Ken said not knowing how to put it. "She's correct too many times."

"I don't get it," Kate said somewhat confused by his cryptic answer.

"You will," Ken said earning a sour look from Kate.

Hoping to change the subject a little, Dave said, "Why don't you show her a little of what you've done?"

"Okay."

Kate asked, "Could I have a chair? My stumps are killing me."

"Sorry," Dave mumbled running out of the office to fetch a chair.