Curtains Of Time Page 7
Chapter 7 - Orientation
Following their medical examinations, Gizmo and Marco were again reunited to get on with their orientation. The next stop on their tour / orientation was at a classroom in the communal wing. It was a small room with a table and two chairs facing a lectern in front of a chalk board that extended the entire width of the room. They were told to wait there for the first instructor.
“First instructor?” Marco asked in a low voice. “This is sounding more and more like school to me.”
Just then the door opened and a man entered carrying an old fashioned leather briefcase. He had long hair and a long bread, and wore a floor length robe that seemed to float around him. He eyed them curiously as he approached the lectern. There was silence in the room as he arranged his papers, continuing to eye them suspiciously, and then he approached them with two small objects.
As he approached, he asked to have their personal communication devices. With each in turn, he inserted a computerized chip, then handing the devises back to them, he said, “You will probably need these.”
Back at the lectern now, he held their steady gaze, “My name is Alexur Thoren, the Director of Security, from the Noraz Galaxy, and I have just given you everything you need to know about Colony security. You will be expected to review the contents of those chips and know everything on them. If you breach Colony security in any way, there will be dire consequences. It may include anything from revoked privileges up to and including termination.”
Gizmo and Marco exchanged a look. Neither one of them liked the sound of that.
His voice softening, he continued, “But in the history of The Colony, we had only had one mandatory termination. The lesson here is the importance security plays in the day to day functioning of The Colony. Once you understand that, everything else will fall into place. In the meantime, I will give you both a chance to review those chips, and then we will talk further. Any questions?”
“How long do we have?” Gizmo asked.
“Take as long as you like, but you will not be leaving The Colony until we have had a chance to talk again.”
With that, he picked up his briefcase and headed for the door. When the door closed behind him, Gizmo and Marco looked at each other and wondered, not for the first time, what they had gotten themselves into, or whether it was too late to get out.
They picked up their communication devices and found that each chip had been programed to their individual brain patterns. Just thinking about a security issue, a voice resonating inside their head would explain the identified section. It would take some experimenting and fine tuning on their part to be able to get the devices to pull up the precise issue in question, but it seemed all security issues were now at their fingertips; so to speak. With that realization, it dawned on them that it would take a long time to get through the entire contents of the chips.
Just then the door opened again and another person walked in. To refer to this individual as a person is to use the term in its widest possible sense. The creature, if you will, looked like a cross between a humanoid and a lizard. It walked upright on its hind legs with the long tail trailing out behind. It had a long snout with a forked tongue that tested the air with eerie regularity.
When it approached the lectern, it carefully and gracefully wrapped its tail around its feet. There was a moment of silence as if waiting for their full attention. It should go without saying it had their full attention from the moment it passed through the door.
“My name is Lizbeth Lizarmbro, Director of Housekeeping.” She hissed.
And so the day went.
§§§
That day they had heard from the Director of Security, the Director of Housekeeping, the Director of Research, the Director of Engineering, the Director of Agriculture, the Director of Internal Affairs, the Director of Operations, the Director of Health Care, and the Director of Food Services.
They could only imagine what tomorrow would bring.
§§§
The following day, their breakfast was served in their room. They barely had time to finish it when their guides arrived to take them to the classroom again for another fun filled day of lectures.
Donning their white robes, they climbed aboard the transports, with their guides, and off they went. Gizmo watched all the other traffic zooming by around them and wondered when he would be able to have free run of The Colony and travel alone on his own transport. As he watched the other members of The Colony around them, he knew they had all started with the same orientation. His day would come.
He still didn’t understand how the transports worked and would have loved spending some time taking one of them apart and learning its secrets. Did everyone have their own transport that operated only by their individual brain waves? How did they float so effortlessly above the floor with no sense of movement? How did they keep from colliding into other transports in a busy hallway? But all that would have to wait for another day.
They arrived at the classroom and were just getting settled in when the door flew open and Sula and General Brand came rushing in. Sula was extremely agitated and out of breath. General Brand followed a step behind him. They were both in an extreme state of excitement.
“I know this is highly irregular and I hate in interrupt your orientation, but your assistance is needed in an urgent matter that cannot wait,” Sula started.
General Brand stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak but Sula raised his hand, silencing him.
“Not here. These matters are best discussed in private. General Brand, can we use your offices?”
General Brand, the Secretary of Defense, just nodded and took a step back.
§§§