Chapter 2 - Rude Awakenings
Not that she hated being called in for a meeting with the command staff, she hated being called in for a meeting in the early morning hours. It was light outside, but that didn't matter on their "second chance", Earth time it was still supposed to be dark out, even New Terra time it should've been dark, but not on "Second Chance" thanks to the two suns that orbited opposite each other.
She let out a loud sigh and sat indian style on her "bed" a minute or two before actually getting up and getting her clothes on.
The space she called her home was in residential structure 4-A, but as a "residence", it had only the bare essentials, sometimes not even that. The former Edenites tended to call these rooms "boxes", due to just being a grey-metal square with a door, and maybe a window. Furnishings were payed for by stamps you obtained from working, command got the highest level stamps, students the lowest.With these stamps you could get food, water, furnature, and even included bigger and better rooms in an Advanced Residence if you amassed enough.
She exited her "box" and as the door slid shut behind her, she pressed a few buttons it's keypad. This did two things: It locked the door, and it opened a small hatch about a meter to the left of the door. In it was her hover-scooter. Since their time on New Terra, Eden's scientists had remained busy coming up with new conveniences and such for the colonists. The nearly collapsable hover-scooter happened to be one of these conveniences.
These vehicles were all over Second Chance, they had the seat and floor of a moped. In fact, they were almost identical to one except for one thing: they had no wheels and a slightly serated bottom for the hover-jets, not to mention the standard blue and grey color scheme, like all Eden vehicles and structures have.
She pressed a button on the control bars and with a dull hum the hover-scooter unfolded. She swung her leg over the seat and sat down, getting situated before twisting the right bar and shooting off to the nearest exit.
She tried to remember the turns she needed to make to get to the commander center as she zipped along the tube.
"From the residential area you take a left... Or was it go straight?... Damnit!" She grumbled to herself as she zig-zagged around the occasional person you'd see walking through the tubes. She took a right turn around another tube section and immediately came to a screeching halt, if she had wheels. The scooter slides to a halt and nearly falls on its side. But it was still better than smacking into the massive door, stamped with the giant three-fourths symbol of Eden.
"Well, this isn't the right-"
Before she can finish, a loud "Clack" tears through the air as the locking mechanism of the door unclamps, the huge symbol breaking in the middle and slowly retracting into either wall. As the two peices "break apart", and slide into the walls to either side, she notices there are two armed guards standing by to both sides.
She immediately realizes that this really is the command center, the true command center of Eden, housed in what once was one of the new styles of advanced lab and since modified to be a sprawling structure that encompassed what otherwise would be two command center and a residence worth of space. That was plenty space for all the functions of a government anywhere, and more than that.
She cursed under her breath, she almost went back the way she came! She swings herself off the scooter and leans it against the nearest wall, then walking, very quickly I might add, into the Eden Council Center. The breifing room wasn't far away, that's where they'd be meeting her.
She rounded the corner and the door automatically opened for her, swishing open with a satisfying "shick" noise. The leaders of Eden were huddled around a long metal table. The room wasn't much to look at save for a massive black wall that served as a display when needed. It was really quite impressive to see an entire wall illuminated with readouts, maps, and other tactical information. But that wasn't what she was here for.
The head councilman, a man by the name of Brook Panati, looked up as she entered. The other councilmen and women, numbering about thirteen, immediately stopped talking.
Brook Panati, his stature as it was, still wasn't too much of an overwhelming figure. He made up for it, though, with his personality. She'd heard that he changed compeltely after they were forced to flee New Terra, but she wasn't so sure. He seemed like he'd always been the way he is, and that he was too stubborn to change.
"There she is. Sit down, we have something we need to talk about." Panati smiled warmly, motioning to a chair on the opposite side of the table from him and the Councilmen and women.
She twists it to the side and sits down, spinning the chair around to look back over the table. It seems too impersonal to her. There's too much space to talk across for her liking.
One of the councilmen speaks up, "We felt that, as the one who uncovered the 'crater building', you deserved to be the first to know what we happened to find there."
A woman butts in, picking up right where the man left off, "What our survey team discovered... Was a giant building, we've seen a factory in the first floor, but we're not sure what it's purpose is, or what's on the other floors."
She pauses for a breath, then continues, "your job is going to take on a new importance as we send vehicles to guard this 'ghost' building. We can't take any unneccesary risks here, it has the potential to be too costly in resources for anything other than a minimal guard force."
Fijona raises an eyebrow, red flags being thrown up everywhere in her brain. "Wait a second. What're we guarding against, exactly? We're the only ones here, our satillites confirmed it."
A nervous laugh emminates from the council, raising more red flags.
"We thought we were the only humans left in the galaxy, but this discovery proves us to be very, very wrong. Initial testing of the structure shows it to be only a few years old, coinciding with our landing on New Terra. We're not sure where they went, but we have to be careful now, they could be back any time."
Fijona noticed Panati nervously looking around the room at the faces of his comrades. She looks around as well, and notices a tension that she didn't see before. She knew immediately that the council knew something that they were not yet willing to divulge.
"Anything else I need to know? It sounds like I'll be busy the next few days." Fijona says.
The reply, a nod from the council, followed by "You'll be the first to know of any additional developments. You're free to go."
She twists her chair in a 180, standing and quickly walking out. She still has five hours left until her shift, and she wants to spend it all sleeping and reorganizing her thoughts. Tomorrow would bring a new day, today was enough of a rude awakening for her, and for all of Eden, soon enough.
Edit1: Aaargh! I havn't had the time to write anymore! School work and a sport has dragged me into the pits which no writer ever wants to find himself. I'm sorry about this, but ASC will be delayed... A lot.
Until we meet again, OPU,
-Kurgan Out!- :op2:
