Sky Angel by Karen Blayne

Oh by the way red tape first.

Be warned these short stories contain mature content or naughty bits and as such may corrupt you if you’re under 12, 16, 18, 21 or 25 depending where you live thus they are not suitable for you so put them back on the shelf and let them age for a year or two.

They were sort of scribbled for fun. They were first posted on asstr.org. If you’ve paid money for this book just be aware the author has not received any payment. In fact no one has permission to charge money for this book and copyright is retained by the author. All copies must be of the complete document. Asstr.org accepts donations if you’re feeling rich or even if you’re not.

Luv Karen

 

I’d chosen the wrong course, Computer Science, five years ago it had been hot, now it was not. “Well dear there’s a lot of construction work going on.” Yeah right I could see me as a brick layer, oops no that needed a trade certificate in brick laying.

I put on my shortest skirt and wondered down to the city centre and found the building site with the tallest tower crane. Well it made it easy to find. I knocked on the port-a-bin’s office door. “Got any jobs?” “What can you do?” “Computers?” “Great, the office calculator is over there, and the bill of ladings need adding up.” OK a calculator is a sort of computer and the pay was definitely OK. I settled down to work in the back corner. Soon I was accepted as part of the office furniture. The construction guys basically ignored me. I hadn’t realised how much paperwork there was to do and as for updating the project plans there was I yet again. Well I streamlined a few things, like got bar code reader and printer then bar coded everything, faster than typing, besides it gave me time to relieve myself after looking at all those gorgeous hunks carrying things around the site.

“Sam we’re off to some planning meeting or other can you hold the fort?” “Yeah sure, I’ve got your cell number.” The place practically ran itself, well not quite true, the central character was called Charlie, the tower crane operator. I’d never met him but he was legendary. He arrive at some unearthly hour and climbed up his tower and left at some very late hour but he was one of the best. Charlie’s wife arrived at the door with his lunch box. He picked up the wrong one. The choice was simple, either Charlie climbed down or I climbed up. There was no one else and we were a bit behind schedule so Charlie climbing down was out of the question. Thank god I was wearing jeans today. I put his lunch box in my back pack, picked up my white safety helmet and the hands free radio and started out. The first section ladder wasn’t so bad. At the start of the second section I called Charlie up on the radio and told him I was carrying his lunch up to him. By the time I’d climbed up six sections I was beginning to think this wasn’t one of my better ideas. Charlie talked me all the way up, telling me to just concentrate on climbing one rung at a time and not to even think about looking down.

Well I got there well over two hundred feet in the air totally shattered and handed over his lunch box. Charlie had me sit down at the controls to recover and started on his sandwiches. He switched channels on the radio, “Now do you think you can pick up a load of concrete for me?” Who me, I don’t haul bags of concrete. “It’s easy set the distance out to 30 feet, the direction to twenty five degrees, then hook to ten feet off the ground.” I did as I was told. “Now call up the spotter, its Joe by the concrete mixers today and ask him to guide you in.” “Joe, I’m having lunch but Sky Angel here will be working the crane so help guide her in.” Joe came on the radio and guided me in the last part. “Hoist, not too fast, direction thirty eight degrees, height sixty three feet off the ground and distance twenty two feet.” We called up Bill to guide me in the last part to the shuttering. Well it took my mind off just how high I was which I think was what Charlie had intended. I glanced down at my watch to time how long it took.

I was still on a high from it all when I left Charlie after his lunch break. I’d climbed down the first hundred feet or so when I started to freeze. I knew then that no way was I ever going to do that climb again. Bill’s voice came over the radio and he talked me down the rest of the way and at the bottom there was a hunk of a carpenter who caught me and then carried me effortlessly back to the office as I was a bit unsteady on my legs to say the least, no mean feat as I’m not the slim five foot type. I lent into him in his arms and kissed him as he smelt nice. He looked at me and I sort shrugged “I decided I deserve a kiss better.”

Still my climb and working the crane earned me the nickname of Sky Angel and acceptance from the guys as a sort of mascot. So much so they gave me a proper union card at a little ceremony on a Sunday morning with the president of the local chapter and Charlie together handing it over.

I just happened to be passing my carpenter so I asked him I he’d like me to cook him a meal to repay his kindness. His two workmates looked so spaniel eyed at me that I invited them along to. Oh well that was the end of my dream of a candle light dinner for two.

They brought two insulated boxes with a pack of twenty four in one and what they called a girly pack of twelve tall brown wine bottles in the other. I’d cooked enough for twelve thinking to freeze some, no way, it all disappeared. Well someone liked my cooking at least. My carpenter dropped to one knee “The girl of my dreams, will you marry me?” “Do I get to try you out first?” I really shouldn’t have asked that I mean I wouldn’t have done with less than two glasses of whatever it was inside me. “What about us?” “I asked first.” Never never ever tease with “How about the best of three?” to construction workers. I was scooped up and dumped on the bed before I could catch my breath. I had to iron the creases out of my gown just no consideration some guys, still they might not have soft hands but God they had stamina.

“So?” “Err I lost track, could you come back next week?” I batted my eyelashes at them. I called Emma whom I used to do my labs with and invited her to dinner the next week as well. Well she’d been bitching about not having a regular supply since she caught her boyfriend two timing her.

The following week I opened the door to see the three of them all freshly scrubbed and looking lustful. As Emma came out of the kitchen carrying knives and forks I introduced everyone and mentioned Emma was chaperoning me that evening. Those guys looked so sad, but gamely they wolfed down their food and gave Emma lots of attention which she lapped up, well until I returned from the bedroom wearing a sheer night gown that didn’t matter if it got creased. They stopped looking at Emma and I basked in their attention. “Sam what exactly are you not wearing?” Asked Emma is disbelief. “Well after we ate last week the guys and I retired for a little lie down and I couldn’t decide which was best so I asked them back this evening and wondered if you’d like to give a second opinion and perhaps take the edge off them for me?” “You mean?” Hank scooped her up and carried her off followed by the other two guys and I didn’t hear a single protest. We talked about their performance the next day and we still couldn’t come to an agreement so Emma volunteered to cook a meal the following week and we’d try again.

One morning we had a visitor of an engineer from the crane company. I thought he was going to climb up to test it but no he just plugged his laptop in to a special plug in the office and checked out the crane from the ground. I gave him a flash of knickers, well I was wearing a short skirt that day and he explained that he could check it all out remotely and test it all remotely. The only reason he came on site was that they didn’t want some hacker coming in over the Internet and causing havoc.

Well I was bored, so I loaded up the documentation and yes just about everything you could do from the cab you could do remotely with the right XML string. One of those fascinating things in life you can safely ignore. Well until Charlie broke his leg of course. Being office staff I drew the on call cell once a week, you know the one that someone has to carry anyway it paid extra and the guys liked to get away for the weekend. So Friday night was on call night. Charlie’s wife rang and told me about Charlie’s broken leg. Saturday I coded, Sunday I coded and Monday morning I arrived on site at 5 am, same as Charlie normally did. I copied my code over to the server with its fancy uninterruptible power supply and error correcting memory, plugged in the diagnostic cable and prayed to the god of device drivers on computers. Searching for device driver, a few moments later it had found the crane. I called up Joe by the concrete mixers “Hi Joe, Charlie is a bit late so you’ve got Sky Angel on this morning. Are you ready to go?” Joe gave the OK. I needed to calibrate the cable, well with that length it stretched according to the temperature. I reread the manual that recommended using a two cubic yard bucket for most of the site and a one cubic yard bucket for the bit furthest away then I grabbed the coordinates by clicking the mouse in the CAD program where the concrete mixers arrived, my code would pick it the mouse click up then set it off. “Joe can you guide me so I’m just touching the ground?” Magic calibrated, wait for Joe to tell me it was loaded, then a click on the form work on the third floor and just over four tons of concrete were quickly dispatched. Unload then repeat. Second load to different form work. Bill and Joe guided me carefully and by hooking up the monitors to the security cameras I could get a good idea of where it was all going. I sure wasn’t as fast as Charlie would be and I really didn’t think I could work the hours he did without a break. I called Emma and asked her to come over by ten and to bring her sleeping bag and a pillow.

She did and I first got her to get me a bacon sandwich before showing her how to click the mouse whilst I took a break. “Joe you’ve got Sky Angel Two taking over now so look after her.” I caught an hour or two’s sleep. Joe and Bill were replaced by other spotters and I took over again working away until the light grew dim. Emma left about fiveish. It was three days before Joe caught on that I wasn’t operating the crane from the cab and then thinking about what would happen to the site without a crane operator he decided not to say anything to anyone. Well apart from the Restricted Area, No Entry and the Hazard signs that he managed to get put on the office door. There was a sort of silent conspiracy floating over the site. I called in Cassandra another old student friend and explained how to do the books whilst Emma and I worked the crane. We were still not as fast as Charlie so I dug out all the books and the specs and the recommended acceleration guides etc. I allowed for temperature, the sun warming the cables, wind, you name it, it got coded in the program. I was getting optimal performance according to the books. I still wasn’t anywhere near Charlie’s time with the concrete bucket.

“So sad about Charlie breaking his leg.” Joe looked up to see one of the second rate crane drivers standing there. “I guess there’s a job for me after all.” “There’s a pretty stiff competency test.” “Watch me.” “I’ll show you.” Joe dug out a box of half a dozen eggs and grabbing a handful of sand placed them three inches away from the bucket on all four sides. “You have to place the bucket without breaking the eggs.” “No way it can’t be done.” “$500?” “Easy money, $500 it is.” The bucket whirled away and a few minutes later I dropped it in for a refill. Joe didn’t even bother to call it as it descended at maximum speed just slowing down at the last few seconds. A couple of minutes later and Joe called me to take it away, so I whirled it away. “There you see not an egg broken.” “Sheer luck.” “$2,000 says it happens another five times consecutively.” My carpenter held the stakes. Joe told me about it later when he slipped me $500. Those construction guys have more money than they know what to do with still my reputation as a crane driver didn’t suffer either.

Two weeks later Charlie arrived on crutches and on letting himself into the office he sat down. “Thank god you’re back.” I exclaimed, “I haven’t been able to move the concrete buckets as fast as you. I’ve been working longer hours and Emma has helped out by giving me a break in the middle of the day but what’s your secret for speed?” “Joe tells me you haven’t done so bad we’ve poured 50% more concrete in the last two weeks but how are you managing to do it all from here and not in the cab?” “Well I couldn’t face the climb and the engineer showed me where the interface was for testing so I wrote a bit of code and I’ve been running all on the server we normally use for the accounts but Cassandra has been doing those on my lap top. She just does them twice and compares the results.” Charlie looked at the security screen above. “You’re using the two cubic yard bucket?” “Well that what it recommended in the manual.” “I never bothered with it and just used the one cubic yard bucket for everything, it saved having to do the calculation about which to use.” “Oh I programmed it into the code, so it asks for the right bucket size.” “Well that explains how you managed to move so much concrete.” “But its slower.” “True but not twice as slow. Let me call Brian in.” He picked up my mobile and invited Brian over to the office. “Now can some one get me a mug of coffee? That’s the one thing I miss in the tower.” Innocently I asked him couldn’t he take a thermos and got looked at. “It’s not the drinking it, it’s the letting it out afterwards that’s awkward.” Honestly I’d never even thought about it. Another reason for never wanting to work the crane from the cab.

Brian arrived shortly afterwards, I recognised him from the Union meeting as being the one who handed me my union card. “So what’s up with the egg lady? And who is in the tower?” “Sky Angel here is working it from her computer.” “Does it work?” “Seems to be, we’ve still got the spotters working, anyway the problem is she’s managed to move a lot more concrete than normal and I’m not sure what’s best to do.” “How long has she been doing it and does management know yet?” “Two weeks since I broke my leg and no there’s a conspiracy of silence over the site. No one wants the site to close down and put people out of work.” “How much extra has she poured?” “Well as far as I can see we’re four days in advance after being a day behind two weeks ago.” “Bloody hell. Pity its not a month then the early completion bonuses would cut in.” He looked thoughtful, “Was she working by herself?” “No Emma helped me by giving me a six hour break midday.” “Could Charlie work it from here?” “I don’t see why not.” “Do I get paid sometime?” asked Emma quietly. Brian and Charlie exchanged looks, “Trainee Crane Operator?” Brian offered and Charlie nodded. “Let me go and talk to management.” Brian wondered off returning twenty minutes later. “They must have been born yesterday. If we pull it off we get 75% of the bonus paid to the union members.” “Generous.” “Well they pulled out their progress reports that haven’t been updated for two weeks that showed they were a day behind and I mentioned Charlie’s broken leg. They looked like they were going to panic but I said we’d find them union members to run the crane. I’ll have to put it to the membership officially of course but they’ll vote it through but to pull it off we’ll need to work the crane seven days a week, still there are three of you even though Emma ought to be baby sat and Charlie shouldn’t work too much overtime whilst his leg is playing up.”

We worked seven days a week, well either Charlie or I was physically present and Emma took the mid day shift whilst either I or Charlie took a break but three months later we were finished more than a month a head of schedule. The bonus was very nice, even Emma got paid a million, my share was a little more, apparently billion dollar office blocks that get completed before schedule are very lucrative. The construction guys were delighted with their bonuses as well, only Emma moaned about her sex life, working the long hours meant the guy she’d been hoping to date had drifted away. Some executive assistant from the developers turned up and said she had three all expenses paid tickets for some sort of developer sales conference that was being held at some exotic resort, they were each good for two people. Charlie accepted them and handed one each to Emma and myself. “They’ve done this before when we’re early, you don’t have to attend any sessions and the food is very good.” “I haven’t any one to go with.” moaned Emma. Charlie waved his magic wand, Emma and I got our pick of the unmarried construction hunks. Educated maybe not but god those muscles, and as Charlie says it’s not for life so what if they are only good for sex, its only for two weeks or so until the next job. The next job? Well Brian has something lined up, crane operators apparently get a very good bonus based on performance and with my software ten to twenty percent improvement in performance was achievable with little effort. I get a cut of their bonuses but its running on military grade lap tops in the cabins at the moment, management hasn’t figured it out yet and none of the dozen or so crane operators are going to tell them. Charlie is helping me enhance the code for other cranes.