That was new information. “I didn’t know he was married.”
Stephanie glanced over toward the lines of cubicles and back to . “Office rumor says that she’s in California most of the ti and I happen to have t her on one of her visits here, so I can confirm that. For the record, her na’s April and I kind of like her.
“Funny how Sandy can do the awkward geeky guy thing at the sa ti he does the executive screwing the secretary thing. I never thought it was impossible, but I wasn’t looking for an example.”
“I know I wasn’t.” As I spoke, movent caught my eye and I turned to notice a taller guy standing up from his cubicle.
A few inches over six feet with light brown skin, dark hair, stubble on his cheeks, and a goatee, he wore a t-shirt and jeans. His t-shirt said, “No, I won’t fix your computer,” in white type on a black shirt.
As he ca around the nearest line of cubicles, he asked Stephanie, “Is this the new guy?”
“Yes,” Stephanie waved him over. “Nick, this is Victor, our sysadmin and helpdesk guy.”
To say that Victor towered over would have been an exaggeration but he had a good five inches on so it felt like towering.
As he shook my hand, Victor said, “What Stephanie didn’t tell you is that I’m also in charge of deciphering the alien languages that appear in your head when you touch so of the devices as well as any writing you see.”
Stephanie nodded, adding a touch of an eye roll. “He’s the lead on the linguistics team and does so programming. We’re working on a program that will translate the major languages we’ve encountered.”
I looked him over. “That’s a bunch of different things to be involved in.”
He gave a wide smile. “My undergrad was in computer science. My doctorate and masters were in linguistics. I worked my way through school doing helpdesk and later system administration and since it’s a small company, that’s part of what I do here.”
I hoped he didn’t do it alone. The computer security this place needed had to be a huge hassle. “How did it happen that you got hired here?”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
He snorted. “Since you’ve got your security clearance now, I can tell you. Like at least half the company, I took a test that tested for more than expected. My prof called in the governnt and the next thing I knew I got an offer here.”
Half the company? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
Victor laughed. “The expression on your face, kid… You too?”
“Yeah.” Admitting it seed safer than denying it and if I wanted to fit in, maybe I’d have wanted to lie even if I’d been hired normally.
Stephanie nodded. “ too. I’m working on a masters in neurolinguistics and the sa thing happened.”
Considering that Stephanie specialized in creating images that hacked the brain, that fit.
Victor looked from over to Stephanie. “I guess we’d better take him over to the labs and show him around.”
“That’s what we were told to do. Let’s get it done.” Stephanie glanced at the wooden door and Emmy and Sandy had disappeared into. “Besides, I’m going to feel better if we’re not here when they co out.”
With that, they led out the sa door that Stephanie brought out when my implant started acting up. This ti, instead of leading into the grass between the buildings, we walked across the sidewalk from the side door out to the side door of the laboratory building.
After the retinal scanner finished and we’d scanned our cards, the door opened, depositing us into what was for all practical purposes an airlock. I didn’t have a better word for whatever a door opening into a tiny room that had a door on the other end would be called.
When we finally stepped into the main room, though, I felt like I knew exactly where we were.
When the Hrrnna, a race of evil, alien ponies, hired rcenaries to find Abominator artifacts and potentially push the Xiniti into destroying the planet, most of the Heroes’ League found ourselves protecting a scientific lab that was studying Abominator artifacts.
Except for being several tis the size, this lab reminded of that one. Computers and desks were scattered around the big, concrete-floored room. Enclosures the size of small rooms dotted the inside of the main room. Machines stood near the enclosures and the desks.
I recognized so of the equipnt—ultrasounds, an MRI, an X-ray, electron microscopes.
“The idea,” Stephanie told us, “is that they don’t have to ship anything out for analysis.”
Ahead of us stood the birthing machine, a platform with larger than human-sized tubes. Across the room stood a streamlined cylinder that might have been a spaceship—a small shuttle, maybe. The implant needed to get closer to identify it.
Just to my right, a pockmarked ceramic sphere two feet in diater sat on top of a table. Grayish-blue, it sat on a black plastic mat.
“We’re still trying to figure out what that thing was,” Stephanie began.
Victor laughed. “An alien soccer ball?”
My implant identified it as a thousand-year-old ansible, a device that allowed faster than light communication.
I didn’t have ti to wonder if it still worked because it began to hum as my implant inford , “Incoming communications.”
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