The Technician

by Pyrus_uk

Getting to work

Charlie sat at his workstation, typing away. He was feeling fairly content after waking up from a good nights sleep. He figured that today he would get down to work.

Charlie heard a familiar, computerised voice from across the room.

*DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE*

Charlie looked up to his other workstation across the room, to which he had one of the small communication dishes attached. He scooted over to it on his wheelie chair and peered at the results on screen.

“Well, everything looks to be in order. Proof’s in the pudding though”

He detached the cable that connected the dish to the workstation, and lifted it off the work surface. With a bit more effort than he would have liked, he opened the main door and took the dish outside. It was a slightly cloudier day than yesterday, but nothing too miserable. He had missed seeing the pegasi setting up the weather this morning but the fruits of their labour were evident. He sat down and set up the dish on a small tripod on the ground. He brought out a small PDA from his pocket and connected a small cable into the now standing dish.

“I hope I don’t have to do this with every single dish”

After waiting for the PDA to confirm the pairing with the dish, he pointed the dish up towards the communication tower up the mountain. He twisted and turned the dish, this way and that, waiting to hear the expected beeps from his PDA to confirm the alignment with the tower.

Nothing.

“Oh for the love of-“ He grumbled.

He continued to twist and turn the dish, even placing his head directly next to it in some desperate attempt to try and see the alignment with his own eyes. He could see the dish pointing directly at the tower. He knew that this should be one of the easiest parts, especially at this distance. Grabbing the PDA, he saw that it displayed no sign of a connection to the tower.

“Something wrong with the PDA maybe?” He said to himself.

After removing the connected PDA and grabbing a different one from inside, he connected it and tried again.

Still nothing.

“Oh for Christ’s sake!” He said irritably.

He leant back on his hands, staring up at the tower above him. The clouds had become slightly darker, as if to reflect his souring mood. “Well this is a bit of a show stopper” He said to himself. He continued to gaze up at the tower, pondering what the problem could be.

...

...

“Surely it can’t be the tower itself, can it?” He questioned out loud. He stood up and made his way back inside. Sitting back down at his workstation, he opened up the systems status tab. An obvious glowing red box confirmed his suspicions.

“Tower transmission error” He read aloud. “Well fuck”

After running diagnostics on the communications tower, the problem was made clear. One of the antennas had broken.

“Crap, gotta fix that. The captain might want to get in touch.” He said, before quickly making his way back outside. He started walking over to the storage unit. His mood slightly lifted when he realised that at least he’d get to have another ride on his quadbike. He opened the storage unit door and pushed his quadbike outside before heading back in to find a spare antenna. He emerged shortly after, carrying what he was looking for.

“These things are a lot bigger up close” He thought as he began strapping the antenna to the quadbike. “Is it getting darker?”

After successfully securing the antenna to the quadbike, he went back into the storage unit to fetch his maintenance bag. After strapping his maintenance bag to his quadbike as well, he figured he was ready to go. He climbed onto the quadbike and put on his helmet. Pulling his visor down in front of his eyes, he looked down and flicked the switch. He felt the familiar vibrations of the engine coming to life beneath him. With a twist of the handle, he began driving up the mountain.

The dirt path going up the mountain was much narrower than the one he used the day before going down into town. He even had to slow right down to a walking pace at some points to make the turns. But it wasn’t long before he found himself approaching the base of the communications tower. He pulled up next to its large frame and switched off the engine. He unpacked the gear from the quadbike and began unpacking the safety gear from his maintenance bag.

“Don’t think I’ll need the pulley for this one. I reckon the antenna is small enough to just carry on my back”

After putting on his harness and climbing helmet, he strapped the spare antenna to his back. He connected the tether to his maintenance bag, securing it to the harness he was wearing. Finally, he made his way over to the ladder.

“I remember doing this a couple of times back at base when the engineers decided to have a bad day. Don’t have anyone to help me this time. Even though they always made me do the climbing. Lazy bastards.”

Charlie began his climb, dangling his maintenance bag below him. He wasn’t particularly scared of heights, but he was still nervous enough to double check that his safety hook on his harness was always attached to the tower when he moved. He could feel the moderately strong wind blowing against him as he climbed.

“Slow and steady wins the race.” He thought as he climbed slowly higher.

He eventually reached the broken antenna. It wasn’t at the very top, but it was close enough in Charlie’s opinion. He reattached his safety hook and lifted up his bag. He could hear the low hum of the red tower light about three feet away from him. The wind blew in his face with considerable force, but Charlie stood firm. He secured the bag next to him and opened it. He didn’t notice the clouds looming over him growing ever darker as he searched for his tools.

“Alright, so I can take the old antenna down first, secure that to one side while I put the new one in place.”

Charlie started to unbolt the old antenna. Just as he was about to start on the last bolt, he felt the first few drops of water drip onto his face.

“Bloody perfect” He thought to himself. “Gotta get this done quick”

He successfully unbolted the old antenna and carefully pulled it from place. He strapped it to his back next to its replacement. Charlie wasted no time in retrieving the new antenna as carrying both proved heavier than he thought. He could feel the rain becoming stronger and stronger as we worked on installing the new antenna.

“Shouldn’t the pegasi give weather reports?” He thought. “They even know what’s going to happen!”

Charlie sighed with relief as he secured the last bolt. After reconnecting the wire to the antenna, it was now officially installed. The rain was now lashing down.

“I sure hope there’s no lightning scheduled.” He thought as he placed his tools back in the bag. “Alright, best get down quick”

Charlie started his descent whilst the rain whipped across his face relentlessly. He grumbled and groaned in annoyance with each step. He continued to descend slowly, with his maintenance bag dangling below him. He was soaked to the bone now and very irritated. He decided to quicken his pace. The dark clouds loomed over him, releasing an arsenal of rain upon the mountain. His mind was now focused on one thing: getting back inside his home. He was about three quarters of the way down, when his soaked left foot suddenly slipped. The sudden unexpected weight burden on his wet hands was enough to make him lose his grip. The fact that one foot and two hands were no longer on the ladder, brought a split second realisation to mind:

He’d forgotten to attach the safety hook.

The weight from the maintenance bag pulled him backwards, away from the ladder. His right foot was also pulled from the ladder and with that, he plummeted toward the ground.

“AAAAAAH!”

His maintenance bag slammed into the ground a few feet from the base of the ladder. Charlie hit the ground right next to it, slamming his head into the bag full of tools. He felt a sharp pain in his left foot. He lay on the ground, staring up at the tower. The rain lashed against his face as he tried to focus his blurry vision. He groaned as darkness faded in and out. He could hear the faint sound of beating wings, before everything faded into darkness.

---

“...long do....will.......awake?”

“......on.....far the fall”

Charlie could hear voices around him. Voices he didn’t recognise. His body was aching but he felt warm and dry. He stirred.

“He’s waking up!” The voice closest to him said.

Charlie tried to open his eyes, but quickly shut them due to the horrendously bright light. Instead, he opted for a groan. “...ugh...my head....hurts”

He heard the sound of hoofsteps slowly approach. “Easy there, Charlie. You took quite a nasty fall. Try not to move, at least for now.” A soothing feminine voice said. “Can you open your eyes for me?” Charlie attempted to do so, but at a much slower pace than before. After fighting through the bright light assaulting his eyes, he slowly opened them fully. He saw a white mare peering down at him. She wore a nurse’s hat and had a concerned frown upon her face. “Welcome back, my name is nurse Redheart” she said.

“Where am I?” He asked, looking around.

“At the Ponyville hospital.” Redheart replied. “You were brought here when you fell from that tower. You took a knock to the head and also sprained your ankle.” Charlie tried to move his feet and instantly felt a sharp pain from his left foot. Redheart held open his left eye and shone a light into it, before doing the same with the other. “Well, nothing seems critical. It was a good thing you wore that helmet. You were only brought in about 20 minutes ago, but I think you’re through the worst of it.”

Charlie gave another groan. His head was throbbing. “I don’t remember anything after the fall. I guess I was unconscious the entire time....ugh....who brought me in?” He asked.

“Miss Hooves, the town mailmare. She’s right over there” The nurse said, gesturing over to the other side of the room. Charlie tilted his head to peer over to where Redheart was pointing. Standing in the corner, was a grey Pegasus. He quickly noticed that both her eyes looked in slightly different directions. Her ears were flat and she peered to the ground shyly, circling one of her hoofs on the ground.

Charlie simply watched, before the mailmare spoke. “Umm, I came to deliver your mail. But I didn’t know where to put it. Since it was raining, I couldn’t leave it by your front door. So I went to look for you.” She raised her head as her ears suddenly perked up. “That’s when I saw you climbing down that big tower on top of the mountain. I started to fly up to give you your letter, but then I saw you fall.” Her ears drooped again.

Charlie couldn’t believe how lucky he was. This mare just happened to be around when he came off the tower. He knew he owed her big time.

“And you brought me all the way here? In the rain?” he asked.

“Well, when I saw that you were knocked out, I went to go find Rainbow Dash. I brought her back and she helped me bring you here.” The mailmare replied.

“Where is she now?” Charlie asked.

Nurse Redheart stepped forward. “She’s gone to find Miss Sparkle. I expect they’re both on their way here by now.”

“Brilliant. Both of them are gonna chew me out for this.” Charlie thought before turning his attention back to the mailmare.

“Miss Hooves, I can’t thank you enough for helping me. I really do owe you one.” He said with a slight smile. This immediately perked her up.

“Oh that’s ok! Oh, and please call me Derpy.”

Charlie was about to reply, before the door swung open. Standing in the doorway in front of Rainbow, was a very wet and upset looking Twilight. “Where is he!?” Her eyes scanned the room before quickly meeting Charlie’s. She rushed over. “Oh my goodness, do you have any idea how worried I was when Rainbow told me what happened!?”

“Uhh” Charlie managed to get in before Twilight interrupted.

“And why were you doing such work on your own anyway!? You should have had help!” She yelled with her nose pressed against his.

“Twilight I-“

“You’re lucky Derpy was around to send for help and bringing you back here. Do you realise what would happen if you were killed!?” Twilight yelled, now pacing around the room. ”A human killed in Equestria!? It’s not even worth thinking about!”

“TWILIGHT!” Charlie interjected. She stopped suddenly and looked over to him. “Listen Twilight, I’m fine. It was my own stupidity that led me to this, not the work. I’m sorry if I worried you but I was just doing my job. I lost my focus because of the rain. I’ll try to be more careful next time.”

Twilight sighed before slowly walking over to him. “I know it’s your job, but please do be more careful. We don’t want to see you getting hurt, ok?”

Rainbow made her way into the room. “Yeah, doofus! I had to take the afternoon off to drag your sorry butt over here.” She said jokingly.

“Heh, sorry about that Rainbow. But thanks all the same. I owe you one too” Charlie replied. Rainbow simply smiled back.

“So are his injuries serious?” Twilight asked Redheart.

“Fortunately, no. He should stay tonight, just to be sure. But I honestly expect him to be fine.” Redheart replied.

“So I don’t need to send word to Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. “That’s what I’ve been instructed to do if something serious happens to him.”

Nurse Redheart waved her off. “Absolutely not. I should be able to handle things now that he’s safely in this hospital bed. If things escalate, I’ll be sure to let you know Miss Sparkle.”

“By the way, nurse.” Charlie said, looking over the Redheart. “How do you know so much about humans? Y’know, medically.”

Nurse Redheart smiled. “Well, you’re not the first human I’ve treated. The construction of your facility didn’t go without its accidents. Thankfully none too serious, but I received quite a bit of training from the human medical teams that were around for that. But let me assure you, I only know the basics. If you come back here with anything serious, we’ll need to send you back home for human treatment. I believe that’s where Miss Sparkle comes in.”

Charlie smiled back. “Well, thanks”

“I’d like to keep you here overnight, just to make sure everything’s fine.” Redheart said, looking at her clipboard. “Is there anything you need taken care of at your facility?”

Charlie thought for a few moments. “Oh! The dish and PDA! Could you bring those to me? I don’t really want them out in the rain overnight. It’s all waterproof, but the weather still won’t do ‘em any good.”

“I can get ‘em.” Rainbow said confidently.

“There’s three parts: The dish, a portable battery and the tablet PDA. They should be the only things outside the front door. Just bring the lot, please.” Charlie said. With a salute, Rainbow opens the window, jumps out and takes to the sky.

“She never uses the door.” Redheart said rolling her eyes. “Well I believe that’s everything. We better leave you to your rest.”

The three ponies started to make their way out before Derpy gasped. “Oh! I almost forgot. I still have your mail to deliver!” She made her way back over to Charlie and pulled a single letter from under her wing. Charlie began to open it, not really able to guess what it could be. He wasn’t expecting any mail from anyone. A single piece of paper came from the small envelope. When he inspected it, his left eye began to twitch.

“Oh” He said irritably. “Today’s weather schedule forecasts heavy rain.”

Comments

[LE_MALEM]

Weather Report has been derped!

[Warlord-1]

This was funny.

[Arxsys]