I need to explore the building and the only safe time to do that is at night. But, where do I start? Lok mentioned there’s a directory in the lobby, so maybe that’s where I should go first. I slip out of bed, put my clothes back on, and step into the hallway. If I take the lift, it could alert Troy and Lok that I’m moving about. I can loop great distances in the open, but I doubt I can do that in a building of this size. I go towards the stairwell, open the door, and gently close it behind me.
I begin looping down every few floors. It doesn’t take me long to reach the bottom. I exit into the lobby and try to find the directory, but I don’t see one.
I carefully look at every pillar, display, and countertop, but find nothing. I then scan all the wall hangings, pictures from a very different time in Pentras’ history. Still, I come up empty. I plop down on one of the couches, frustrated. While seated, I look around the room, and finally notice that there are paintings every few feet apart, except in one spot. I get up, walk over to the blank section of wall, and just as I get close my wristband begins to glow yellow, and projects an image on the blank wall. A directory sparkles in front of me. Every floor carefully mapped out and labeled.
How did the Patrician know this was here if they’ve never been inside the building? Who could possibly be helping them? Does the Dracken have a traitor in their midst?
I try and remember as much detail as I can. Two floors interest me the most; the eighth and thirteenth. I know the eighth floor is one of the sealed floors, and it’s not shown as having an actual label on the directory. The thirteenth floor is part of the research section, and it’s the only floor that doesn’t directly connect to floors nine through twelve. I won’t be able to access the eighth floor until I can use the lift, so I’ll start with the thirteenth. I take the stairs back up and stop just outside the door to the floor, then take a deep breath and loop.
I project myself just on the other side of the door. The lights turn on the moment I step forward revealing a crammed room filled with old work stations, broken displays, and cracked plasma tables. I have to squeeze myself between sharp edges, shattered glass, and metal shards. The door at the other end of the room is slightly ajar, but I’m forced to move some of the junk so I can open the door wide enough to get through.
The room I enter has minimal lighting. The walls and floors are covered in a rough, dark metal that scratches the bottom of my bare feet. Hidden blue lights illuminate the outlines of immense workstations, the three lift doors on my left, and two disk shaped stands secured to the far side of the room. I carefully step over to one of the stands and realize they’re actually virtual imagers, machines that require someone or something to stand in the middle of it while an image is projected down from the upper casing. I’m not sure how I know what these machines are, since they’ve never been used in the Outer Limits, but I do know, which frightens me a bit.
A pedestal with a small display is set to one side of the machine. I touch the surface and it springs to life. I scroll through the inventory of prototypes, finally stopping on the one for the suit. The imager lights up. I step over the small ridge that encloses the base of the machine. A shield made of pure light rises from the floor, intersects with its other half in the ceiling, and I find myself draped in an image of the suit. I can feel the material as if it was touching my skin. A menu displays in front of me on the wall of light, providing me with the description of the material that makes up the suit: highly compressed polymers that have been radiated to allow the wearer to blend into their environment. Metallic threads woven into the material allow seamless blending with all objects that come into contact with the material.
I tap on the menu and I’m surprised that I can actually touch it. I slide my finger over various schematics about the outfit and stop when I come across a file labeled “Practical Applications”. Inside of that is what looks like a memo written by one of the researchers and marked with several red bullet points at the top.
This new technology will not only allow our citizens to explore the worlds around us in complete safety, but if applied correctly, all devices, machines, and equipment can be synthesized using this new technology. This will allow our world to transport seamlessly across the outer rims of space without any risks.
My eyes stop on the last two sentences and I find myself reading it again aloud.
The Patrician don’t want the suit itself, they want the technology behind it. If they get their hands on this, there’s no stopping them from invading other worlds. Those citizens will not know they’ve been taken over until it’s too late.
I scroll through the menu again trying to locate an inventory list. It takes me several minutes, as it’s cleverly buried under a file labeled “Maintenance Equipment”. I have to read the number a couple of times to make sure I’m seeing it correctly.
Suits created:
