The Future of Childcare

Posted on 19 Feb 2015 @ 3:19am by EBH Mark I "Raven"

659 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: Childcare Center, Deck 264, Starbase 84
Timeline: MD45 - 1730 hours

[ON]

"I don't like this, Jen, I don't like this one bit." Karen, one of the childcare attendants on Starbase 84, had taken advantage of a quiet moment while the kids were otherwise occupied to take a little coffee break and chat with one of her coworkers in the office about a rather disturbing message she had gotten on her PADD.

"I don't like it either," replied Jen. "I don't trust them. Especially not with children."

"Are we talking about the latest 'temporary addition to the team'?" asked Miguel, butting in on the conversation, quoting the message he had gotten from his director. "I can't believe they're doing this... letting them take our jobs."

"Take our jobs?"

"Yeah." Miguel was livid. "She's supposed to be an experimental program, and it's just a temporary thing, but pretty soon they'll open the floodgates and we'll all be out of work."

"I'm more worried about the children," said Jen. "They can't program a hologram to take care of kids; that's absurd."

"And what kind of name is Raven anyways?"

"Have you seen her photo? Whoever designed her must be some sort of depraved psycho."

"You would have to be to even think it's a good idea to put a hologram in charge of children."

"Yeah, and..."

The not-so-friendly chatter in the office was interrupted as the holo-emitters in the childcare centre activated. Photons and confinement fields, projected by the emitters, took on the form of a young woman whose sartorial choices could most diplomatically be described as questionable.

"Hi, I'm Raven!" she exclaimed in a bubbly tone, desperate to make a good first impression on the people she would be working with over the next few days.

An awkward silence filled the room as the three chatty childcare attendants were confronted with the object of their ire. Silently, Miguel and Jen turned away from Raven and towards each other, ignoring Raven's presence.

Karen was the first to say something. "You must be Raven," she said, with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm as she walked over to the hologram. It was, after all, the polite thing to do, though she wasn't sure if holograms even had feelings which could be hurt anyways. "I'm Karen, and this is Jen and Miguel."

The two other childcare attendants just nodded and went back to talking quietly to each other.

"What's their problem?" asked Raven, put off by the cold welcome.

"I'll tell you what the problem is," started Miguel as he got up from his seat. Adjusting his belt buckle, he sauntered towards Raven. "The problem is--"

"Miguel, don't!" exclaimed Jen, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's not worth starting anything over."

Giving Raven a dirty look, Miguel turned and walked back to his seat, shaking his head.

"Raven, why don't I show you around?" asked Karen, in an effort to defuse the tension in the room. She was less than enthused about the task, but figured that getting Raven away from the other two would probably be a good idea. "I'll show you where all the activity rooms are, the kitchen, and the learning centre. And if the director is still around, I'll introduce you to her. What do you say?"

"That sounds awesome." Raven glanced over at Miguel and Jen, stewing in a corner as she adjusted her purple and black hair. Her torn fishnets, dark makeup and piercings were definitely unusual in this line of work, but whether it was an oversight in her programming or some residual bit of Tuula in her personality matrix, she wasn't in the least bit self-conscious about it. "Strange bunch," she mused to Karen as they left the office to start their tour of the facility.

Karen just rolled her eyes. If this was the future of childcare, she didn't want anything to do with it.

[OFF]

EBH Mark I "Raven"
Emergency Babysitting Hologram
USS Galileo

Karen, Jen and Miguel
Three confused childcare assistants
Starbase 84

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