Hmm, that fits a little better with movie star, and maybe still fits in with the first week back at school... :)
Hearsay There was little point interfering any further in their jobs so I needed to let them get on with it. Security were already alert and would be combing the grounds for any sign of an intruder or a runner, and reminding them of that would not earn me any brownie points. I considered if I needed to tell the Ambassador, but dismissed that thought as quickly as it had come. The Ambassador needed to know, but not in the middle of entertaining his guests unless it seemed that they or he were in danger. And... and security had already strengthened their presence around him, so unless he asked about it, there was no need to interfere there either.
I walked down the main flight of stairs, ones I rarely used as they were inconvenient for anything that wasn't a public function room. There were little crowds of guests clustered on the stairs as well. They were wide and grand and could accommodate this, but I still wondered that the Fire Chief wasn't complaining at least a little that they were a fire hazard. At the foot of the stairs, still slightly indecisive, I turned right and showed my pass to the security guard who was standing in front of a narrow, dark corridor as though he'd stopped there by mere chance. He grunted and shifted enough to let me by. Halfway along the corridor I stopped and waited, knowing that at least two camera were pointed at me. A few seconds later a door opened a crack, a line of yellow light beaming out into the corridor, and I pushed it open and went in.
This was security's satellite command post. They had another one in the basement that was better defended and that I'd so far not been allowed in. It had been a suite at some point in the past, so the view from the windows was normally spectacular. Now, at night, there were just hints and shadows of things that might be interesting in daylight. There were four rooms in total, and this was known as the decompression chamber: I was being frisked at soon as the door closed and I knew there were metal detectors and a handful of scanners that worked like X-rays without the radiation dose. One of them at least had been obtained from the Norgs and there were distinct question marks about what it was really intended for, but so far no one had found a way to weaponise it so it was assumed safe. Hands pulled back, the frisker stepped away and nodded curtly at me. She was a woman with short-cut dark hair and brown eyes. No smile. "Go in, they're expecting you." Expecting me? I had come here more on a whim than any other reason, how could I be expected?
"...is just hearsay," said Alf as I walked through an arch that linked the decompression chamber to the situation room. No-one seemed to know exactly why these rooms had these names but they were apparently traditional for this kind of house. There were four people in there, two women, Alf, and an eCalbetian from eCalbi, one of the original discoverers of Earth. I didn't know them, or the women, but Alf was familiar from daily briefings. He largely ran the team here, though he had a boss still. "And hearsay is worth the paper that it's written on." I smiled at his joke, poor as it was, but it looked like it went over the heads of the others in the room.
"You're late," said the eCalbetian, and they could only be talking to me.
2 comments:
Hmm, that fits a little better with movie star, and maybe still fits in with the first week back at school... :)
Hearsay
There was little point interfering any further in their jobs so I needed to let them get on with it. Security were already alert and would be combing the grounds for any sign of an intruder or a runner, and reminding them of that would not earn me any brownie points. I considered if I needed to tell the Ambassador, but dismissed that thought as quickly as it had come. The Ambassador needed to know, but not in the middle of entertaining his guests unless it seemed that they or he were in danger. And... and security had already strengthened their presence around him, so unless he asked about it, there was no need to interfere there either.
I walked down the main flight of stairs, ones I rarely used as they were inconvenient for anything that wasn't a public function room. There were little crowds of guests clustered on the stairs as well. They were wide and grand and could accommodate this, but I still wondered that the Fire Chief wasn't complaining at least a little that they were a fire hazard. At the foot of the stairs, still slightly indecisive, I turned right and showed my pass to the security guard who was standing in front of a narrow, dark corridor as though he'd stopped there by mere chance. He grunted and shifted enough to let me by. Halfway along the corridor I stopped and waited, knowing that at least two camera were pointed at me. A few seconds later a door opened a crack, a line of yellow light beaming out into the corridor, and I pushed it open and went in.
This was security's satellite command post. They had another one in the basement that was better defended and that I'd so far not been allowed in. It had been a suite at some point in the past, so the view from the windows was normally spectacular. Now, at night, there were just hints and shadows of things that might be interesting in daylight. There were four rooms in total, and this was known as the decompression chamber: I was being frisked at soon as the door closed and I knew there were metal detectors and a handful of scanners that worked like X-rays without the radiation dose. One of them at least had been obtained from the Norgs and there were distinct question marks about what it was really intended for, but so far no one had found a way to weaponise it so it was assumed safe.
Hands pulled back, the frisker stepped away and nodded curtly at me. She was a woman with short-cut dark hair and brown eyes. No smile. "Go in, they're expecting you."
Expecting me? I had come here more on a whim than any other reason, how could I be expected?
"...is just hearsay," said Alf as I walked through an arch that linked the decompression chamber to the situation room. No-one seemed to know exactly why these rooms had these names but they were apparently traditional for this kind of house. There were four people in there, two women, Alf, and an eCalbetian from eCalbi, one of the original discoverers of Earth. I didn't know them, or the women, but Alf was familiar from daily briefings. He largely ran the team here, though he had a boss still. "And hearsay is worth the paper that it's written on."
I smiled at his joke, poor as it was, but it looked like it went over the heads of the others in the room.
"You're late," said the eCalbetian, and they could only be talking to me.
Greg - hah, I suppose so.
Expected and late to a destination chosen... not haphazardly, but somewhere along those lines. What an intriguing place this continues to be!
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