“Aha, there you go! It’s written right there, in the stipulation – JL 5.96, Chapter 432, Line 30,” The angry man behind the glass of the reception was scolding Alora for her mistake, “I didn’t read that part, I was completely unaware of these modifications Daniel,”
“You didn’t read the specification? That’s your JOB you knobhead,” Daniel reprimanded, “If you don’t follow the instructions, then our lives are jeopardised, and even worse... Our jobs!”
Jake looked up in confusion at that statement, questionable to say the least.
“Regardless of our flaws, we still need to stay professional, this is a public institution, and we shouldn’t be overstating these trivialities,” Alora kept an even tone, “This facility is very highly guarded, the chance of another outbreak is slim to none,”
“Mhm... I would hope so,” Daniel appeared sceptical, but his anger had subsided slightly, until he was talking at an even tone once again, “You need accommodation for them, right?” Daniel looked over Alora’s shoulders, to the group who were sitting on a couch in the reception, completely oblivious to his scrutiny, “It’ll only be for a couple of hours, after they have finished their meeting with The Engineer, I’ll come back to you to see if we can organise some more permanent arrangements,”
Daniel nodded silently, tapping his keyboard as he searched for empty rooms that were available for them. The reception was very grand and elegant, it still felt modern and innovative before, using the luminescent orbs to light up the room and had the same jet black walls that Lucia had made herself accustomed to.
“Rooms QX2 to QX8 are available towards the top of the decagon, these can be permanent, if necessary, there's no reservations to them,” Daniel started, “You can move in right now, they’re vacant,” he stood up and guided them to the main elevator, the steel doors were large and shiny, the Otherworld was really the only place that could make elevators the slight bit interesting, “Bulletproof, ultramodern doors that are physically impossible to break into, state of the art!” Daniel boasted, as he pressed a finger scanner to the side of the elevator. As the doors opened, Lucia could see that one side of the elevator was completely made out of glass, overlooking the park that they had entered the Decagon from, she could see the taxi still, hovering about in the distance. It looked much closer to the building than the building looked to it. How odd....
They all entered the spacious interior of the elevator, Daniel pressing the button to the highest floor Lucia could see.
“FLOOR 165, GOING UP,” A cold monotone voice from the speaker announced, and in the second following, the elevator began to smoothly drift towards the top, it was gradual but peaceful. Magnus pressed his face against the glass looking as the city began to shrink as they rose, the glowing lights and beacons reducing to nothing but glowing dots in the ground, much like the fireflies that dwelled around Kieran’s cottage. “165 floors is quite impressive, must’ve taken a while for this engineering fella to craft,” Jake mentioned, looking over Magnus’s shoulder and leaning against the wall of the elevator, “Days,” Daniel said, to the clear shock of the congregation, “Don’t worry, I’m sure that ‘Days’ here is converted to decades back in the Overworld,” Aiden assured, nudging Cynthia's shoulder, and laughing. “Days,” Daniel repeated, there was a sincerity in his tone that compelled Aiden to believe that he was telling the truth.
“They won’t understand his capabilities, they’re simple newcomers to Qaietiox, they won’t comprehend such power unless they see it for themselves,” Alora commented, “That’s why I've a meeting arranged with The Engineer for them,”
“We gotta see it to believe it, I guess,” Madeleine added, drinking a soda she had picked up from the reception, Daniel shrugged at this, clearly unfazed by their philistine nature. The entire city could be seen from now, Lucia noticed every little detail about it, from the various cars that were hovering around, and the civilians who seemed to be enjoying life to its fullest, a blur to her friends seemed so clear to her.
“FLOOR 165, DOORS OPENING,” The voice announced once again, before the doors slid open once again slowly, revealing the floor they were on, Cynthia stepped out into the storey, ill-lit, but still neoteric and sci-fi, it reminded her of the private chambers in the cruise, “I got a strange sense of déjà vu from this place,” Madeleine started, clearly sharing the same thoughts as Cynthia, “You get déjà vu from this place Jake?” Madeleine turned to face the Wyatt, who seemed more nonchalant and laid back, “You know, it's hard to feel déjà vu when you’re in a hotel floating around in another dimension, that might just be me though,” he shrugged, Madeleine simply giggled at his sarcasm one of the odd traits she’d grown fond of.
“Alrighty! You lot need to follow me, if you don’t, you get lost and if you get lost, I ain’t going back for ya,” Daniel muttered, exiting the elevator and leading from the front down the various hallways of the complex.
“So, children! This is the Decagon! And it’s the largest-” Alora’s attempt at being a tour guide was interrupted by Daniel’s grumpy tone, “Give it a rest will ya? Why don’t you catch up with the specification instead of repeating clear signs,”
Alora rolled her eyes and continued to follow Daniel, who eventually came to a stop by a series of doors with the signs QX1 to QX10. He tossed some keys to Alora, “These keys should open every door in this storey, don’t be stupid with that power, or I’ll have you all kicked from here. Per-ma-nent-ly.” Daniel stormed back into the elevator grunting grumpily. As the elevator doors slowly slid shut, Cynthia could notice Daniel through the small gap in the door gesturing to them ‘I got my eyes on you,’ before the elevator door closed, and they could hear the elevator move once again. They all let out a sigh of relief, “Seems like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Jake muttered, “Oh? No! He’s just like that, you get older and that’s what happens to you, don't mind the fellow! He can be quite a nice colleague to work with once you get to know him,”
“If you say so Laura,” Jake continued, “Alora,” she corrected, “Whatever,”
Twirling the keys on her fingers, she opened each door one by one, the rooms were identical in size and shape, having very similar features, they were the biggest rooms that they had ever been in; Aiden considered the rooms to be larger than some houses in his neighbourhood. They all consisted of 2 layers, A ground floor where there was a large flat-screen TV, a bookshelf sat on each side of it, there were massive beanbags scattered across the floor in a multitude of different colours, each looking incredibly comfortable. The second layer was a mezzanine, with a water bed that sat on it, there were also walk-in closets decked with outfits and clothes already, and railings that allowed them to overlook the entire room. Sitting behind the TV was a massive tinted glass window that overlooked the City of Qaietiox, a euphoric view to say the least. Lucia stepped into the room and was at once embraced by the warmth of the room, so cosy and homely. Aiden threw himself on the waterbed, oscillating under his weight.
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“So comfy,” He mumbled, vis voice muffled underneath the duvet, “You’ve all got a room like this, but they’re large enough to accommodate for a dozen people, so you can all stay here until I open up the other doors,” Alora informed, leaving the room shut and walking down the hallway to another room.
“Well, I’m going to get some shut-eye, wake me up when Laura needs us,” Jake announced, climbing up the stairs to the mezzanine. The rest sat down on the floor, legs crossed, and exchanging glances. “Well, should we watch some TV? Everyone knows that the way to get used to a new culture is through their programmes,” Magnus suggested, Madeleine nodded, “TV is also a pretty good way to pass the time too, from my experiences back on my Ma’s cruise,”
Lucia grabbed the remote control and started to flick through the channels: kid shows, news channels and movies alike. As Lucia flicked through the several channels, Aiden noticed a particular channel that caught his attention. It was for a split second, but he caught sight of the man he’d seen in the poster of the subway, with the same helmet and suit, the so called Engineer, everyone seemed to be head over heels for. “Wait! Go back a second,” he asked, pointing to the TV, ignoring the looks of incertitude from the others, Lucia did as she was told, flicking back through the programmes more slowly, until she reached the programme again, now everyone could notice it too. “Good eye Aiden!” Cynthia commended, giving him a pat on the back. The title of the channel was named, “Interviewing The Engineer,”
The room was small and dark and only had two chairs, the first was for the interviewer, a young blonde woman with crimson-red lipstick, who looked very smart and professional. The second seat was for the man himself, The Engineer, he looked tall and powerful, in a stance that had a strong aura, the woman cleared her throat and asked the first question. “Good afternoon, Mr, Engineer, thank you for accepting this interview,”
“Don’t mention it, I’m a man of the people, it’s the least I can do”
“Im sure you are sir,” he had a metallic voice that was deep and monotone yet comforting and reassuring. The woman smiled, “I just wanted to ask about your new project, that you have in the works, it’s said to be your largest project yet!”
“That’s true yes,”
“Well, if you don’t mind me asking, what is it? And what does it do,”
“Aha, well, the collider is my most ambitious project yet, it’s unfinished as we speak right now. I don’t have the resources to complete it yet, but once it’s done it’ll allow members of the Otherworld to access the Overworld and vice versa at will,”
The woman looked very impressed at this, “Well, how does it work?”
The Engineer laughed through his helmet, “The complexity in which this collider operates won’t be understandable to most, but the contraption is supposed to be able to manipulate the Dreamspace, the barrier, if you have control of the barrier, you have control of both realities,”
“Very interesting, very interesting indeed, and where is this collider right now?”
“I cannot disclose that information, its falling to the wrong hands would be... Inconvenient to say the least,”
“What would be the wrong hands sir?”
“The rebels who seem fond of causing havoc, I think they go by ‘The Nevokai’ they seem to have a distaste in my... Operations,”
“Do you fear the Nevokai?”
“I fear what will become of that organisation if they tamper with my work further,”
The Engineer punctuated that statement by pulling out a blaster the size of his arm, “One of my favourites, I don’t want it to have to come to this, but if these...Terrorists, transgress these boundaries, I’ll have to put them out of commission, one by one,”
He placed the weapon down, much to the relief of the interviewer.
“I’ll tell you one thing though, even though im not too intimidated by their endeavours, I am not fond of them at all, they cost me about 20000 Xanar in fees for the Decagon attack that happened, and their lower operatives seem rather invested in locating the C.O.C,”
“You won’t disclose the whereabouts of that facility either I’ll assume,”
“Depends, would you like Qaietiox VI to be ran by the Nevokai?”
“Fair enough,” The interviewer adjusted her papers, “How long will this collider take to finish?”
“It gets done the second I find the necessary resources,” The Engineer was cold and silent, but he was well informed and knew what he was saying,
“Where are these resources exactly?”
“I cannot disclose the nature of the resources, but they are kept within Nevokai confines, I cannot enter that region, and I’m not exactly on board with losing valuable men to these rebels,”
“Ah, well that’s reassuring,” the woman said sarcastically, “It’ll be back to us by the end of the week, you should be reassured by this information,” The Engineer continued, “I have a meeting in a few hours from now, so I'm going to have to conclude this meeting, but we can continue this at a later date,”
“Thank you for giving up your time in your schedule to speak with us today,”
“With pleasure,”
And like that, The Engineer left the room. And the programme switched to a commercial break, they all exchanged glances, thoughtful of the things mentioned in the interview, a lot of information to take in. “That’s an interesting first impression, I’ll say,” Aiden started, scratching his head and laughing awkwardly, “I’d need to ask Alora if the rebels she was talking about where members of the Nevokai,”
“Maybe, but I doubt that this is an intimidation tactic, more of a way to assure protection for his people,” Cynthia added, Madeleine was stunned silent, “Did you see the size of that blaster?” She spoke at last, “It was the size of a desk!”
“It was quite impressive, heh,” Magnus uttered, still impressed by The Engineer’s tone and confidence, perhaps he was worth the praise he was given.
“We’ll get the opportunity to ask him more questions when we get to meet him at his place, if we can get of here, im 100% sure that he’s the guy who can do it.” Lucia said. Ther conversation was abruptly interrupted by a knock on the door to the room a knock that had awoken Jake from his premature slumber, Aiden went to open it... It was only Alora, she had a hug smile plastered on her face, entering the room, “The Engineer is ready to meet you now!” She beamed, beckoning them and ushering them out of the room. Taking the elevator down to the reception area they hastily made their way past Daniel, the grumpy receptionist and out of the Decagon, the taxi was exactly where she’d left it and they all bundled into it once more, Alora taking the driver's seat once again, starting up the car, he looked back at the passengers who were crammed into the back of the taxi
“You guys ready?” She asked, responded by silent nods and groans from them, “Well, the C.O.C is 300 Ultons from here!” Alora giggled, much to the exasperation of the children.
“Buckle up! Next stop, the Citadel of Cognition,”
And like that, the taxi took off...