Simon was in the middle of his swing when the message from Nora arrived, even with a server farm the size of a planet he still managed to lose focus and duff the ball into the drink. After some cursing in English, German, and then Standard, he re-read the message again. The golf course disappeared and he was surrounded by his beach house overlooking a pristine waterline, he had based this ‘vert environment from the islands of Hawaii from around the time of his creation.
“Well what does THAT mean?” He thought to himself as he changed his outfit to something less golf-like and more business casual. “Um, does she mean she needs me for work, or does she need me, need me?” After a billion real years of life and who knows how many subjected years he still didn’t fully understand relationships, especially ones with humans. “Ok, think Simon, has she given you any hints? Well, she has teased me about being a big brained nerd, maybe?” He changed his clothes to something more suited for a date, nice slacks, tight button down shirt, sleeves rolled up of course, and nice shoes. “Just in case, right?”
He responded to Nora, “On my way.” Suddenly he was at her firewall, it looked like a door to an old British phone booth, but it was blue instead of red, how odd. Not just that the door was strange, but that he didn’t just go right through the firewall at all.
He rang the bell and Nora opened the door with a flourish, “Come in Simon.” She said as she stepped aside and closed the door behind him.
He looked at her with an eyebrow raised, “Full firewall in place, everything ok Nora?”
She paced back and forth, her black skirt swooshing around her legs as her boots clopped on the cherry floor of the library. “I’m sorry Simon, but I really need your help with something, you’re kind of the only one I can turn to on this, and it means getting you into something that could get you in trouble.” She paused and looked at him for the first time. “Well, you’re dressed nice, I didn’t interrupt something did I?”
Simon would have blushed, if he had left the settings on that would allow it, “Um, no, I just didn’t know what I was getting into so I dressed uh, nice.”
Nora did blush, guess her biological settings were set to default, “Oh, hmm, I guess that message could have been interpreted differently.” She said as she walked over to the fireplace and sat down on the overstuffed leather chair.
Simon followed and sat across from her, whatever she wanted to say he would let her build up her courage, whatever it was, it had her rattled. After a few milliseconds, (An eternity to Simon) she waved her hand and her butler arrived with tea cups.
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She took one from him and he leaned down for Simon to take the other, after reaching on the end table for sugar and cream she sighed deeply. “Professor Montague sent me a video file from the UTL leadership committee earlier tonight. In it they discuss plans to aid in evacuating the Nal’Shiar back to Terran space, but he tells me the council does not want to inform the Nal’Shiar of the Hive until it is absolutely necessary.” She brought up the video file as a rectangle with a play button in the center and gave it to Simon.
Simon watched the video, then sighed. “I can’t say I’m surprised. It seems no matter what governmental group is in power, they never want to share any more information with other people than they have to, especially if that information could make them look bad. I take it the Professor did not send this to you with their knowledge?”
Nora swallowed her tea, “No, they do not know he recorded them. But that hive is a month closer to Nal’Shiar than we are. Even if they arrive in three months, there may be nothing left for us to evacuate.” She looked down and her eyes blurred, “Simon, I wasn’t born when the unification war happened, and this is going to be worse, a lot worse, and if I don’t do something a lot of people are going to die!”
Simon set down his cup and moved to her just as she put her hands to her face, he put his arm around her and said, “I was there during the last war, and I’ll tell you this: If I can save lives, then I will do it, to hell with the UTL, I’ve watched hundreds of governments rise and fall, and I will outlast this one. There is nothing they can do to us that is permanent. I’m assuming you have a plan?”
Nora looked up, her cheeks were damp as she wiped the tears from them, “I do, but I can’t do it alone.”
Simon nodded, “Ok, so what do you need me to do?”
Nora showed him the letter she planned to give to the Empress once they arrived at Enub, and explained how she needed a minute or two to get it printed onboard the Unwavering Message and hide it in her robes. “Can you do something so the UTL and SETI can’t tell what I’m doing for a few minutes?”
Simon smiled, “Of course I can, I know their systems like the back of my hand, some of the original code for the SETI protocol I wrote.”
Nora sat up and took a deep breath, which she obviously did not need as they were in ‘vert, and not in a biological form, “Good, I’ll let you know when I’m ready via tight-beam string tomorrow when we are at work.”
Simon nodded to her and stood up from his kneeling position. “Nora, I’m glad you came to me with this. I still have a lot of guilt from the war, maybe doing this will atone for some of my past failures.”
Nora stood up as he turned to go to the door, she grabbed his hand causing him to stop in his tracks. “You know, you did get dressed up for me. Why don’t you stay here for the night, we’ll have a date. Who knows, if you impress me enough, we might have pancakes in the morning.”
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Ok readers, the next chapter is NSFW. If this isn’t to your taste you can skip the following chapter as it will not affect the storyline.