A large room, the cavernous ceiling far above is lined with humming lights that wash out all shadows and make the clean white of its walls even more stark. The room is bustling with activity, machines and computers are strewn about in an almost haphazard manner as dozens of lab coat wearing technicians scurry about like a colony of ants. High up one of the supporting metal pillars a speaker crackles to life. “Time to drive activation is T-minus thirty seconds.”
The activity reaches a fever pitch as every single person in the large room tries to finish their tasks and scramble to an area where they can watch one of the many large wall mounted screens scattered about the featureless white walls. The screens show a magnified image of a somewhat bloated looking craft hanging in space. The picture quality is decent but the view is obviously magnified from a great distance away, the grainy quality masking the device’s more minute details somewhat. But that is unimportant, for everyone in the room knows the plans for the machine by heart.
The voice comes again this time counting down “T minus ten seconds.. Five, four, three, two, one, Initiating drive.” The image of the craft seems to waver and distort before it vanishes in a burst of sparkling light, the fizzing particles looking like hot embers from a campfire before they are snuffed out by the cold void. The room is still, not a sound disturbs the silence as every soul in the room realises what this means for them, for their entire species. Suddenly someone lets out a great whoop of excitement, shattering the stillness. As if a dam has broken, the crowd erupts into elated cheers and yells. People begin to dance as the nature of their success settles in and the euphoria of what they have accomplished takes hold.
One man in particular walks quickly to the edge of the room and pulls out a cell phone, he quickly taps a number in and raises the device to his ear while trying to shelter from the noise as best he can. The line connects and he turns from the festivities. “Sir, it's me again, no from the Fermi project, yes sir. No it worked, can you believe it. Now we have to wait a few weeks to see if it comes back in one piece. Yes sir, we will get started on it right away. You don't think it's too soon? No sir. Yes, I can do that.” the man hangs up the phone and sighs deeply before smiling and joining their colleagues in celebration.
**********
Leon was having a great day. He was sitting at his favorite cafè sipping a piping hot cappuccino while looking out towards the clear blue sky. There were the remnants of a few wispy clouds but nothing else broke the tranquility of the morning. He looked across the narrow street, the few electric cars he could see were parked further down the road, nothing marring the quaint stillness of the roadside shop. The sidewalks were clean and made of red cobblestones, every few meters there stood a planter box of some manner full of blooming flowers and exotic looking shrubs.
A noise roused him from this dream and he turned to see a waiter smile and walk over to him with a menu. The neatly dressed woman asked in slightly accented English, "Hello sir, are you ready to see the menu now?" Leon nodded and accepted the proffered menu. The woman gave another professional smile and walked away to another nearby table. Leon cleared his throat and looked down at the laminated paper.
As he held the menu up for inspection he once more heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He tensed, his military training causing him to try and decipher the sound as they neared. The steps were heavy and measured, not at all like the quick footfalls of the waiter as she rushed about her tasks. What’s more they sounded far too heavy to be one of the thin baristas that worked the roadside joint. He decided on the classic breakfast as the footsteps approached and folded the menu neatly in front of him as the steps stopped.
He held his surprise as his suspicions were confirmed. Instead of the politely smiling waiter, a severe looking man dressed in an immaculate black suit and dark sunglasses stood before him. The man looked almost comical, the attire looking like it had been ripped straight out of some twenty first century spy action flick.
Leon gave the man a sparse glance before he nodded. "Can I have the classic breakfast, hold the butter though please."
The suited man frowned, looked him over as if determining whether or not to continue speaking. "Leon Muikman, I am here on official United Nations business. I would ask that you act professionally as I have news of the utmost importance to share with you." Leon leaned back and scoffed at the audacity of the man. This man who he had never set eyes on before, had never even known the existence of before they had decided to crash his one man breakfast party.
Leon glanced around and noticed that the area was conspicuously empty. Where had the other customers and the baristas gone? It didn’t matter, he glared at the large man pointedly as he leaned back into the wicker chair with arms folded across his chest. "And who are you to ruin my perfect morning, my mother?" The man scowled slightly before he took the seat across from Leon and replied in a voice that left no room for uncertainty.
"I am Mr. Green, and as I said.. I am here on official business. I'm sure you understand what that means." He finished with a raised eyebrow. Leon felt a twitch in his right arm as a spike of stress jolted through him.
Leon shifted uncomfortably and scowled right back. "Yeah, it means you can go and leave me alone. I did my time already, I'm done taking orders from you fucking bureaucratic types. You can go and shovel the remains of the UN’s dignity out of that shithole you all made down south, I wan’t no further part of it." He finished with malice, the slight tingling in his right arm and hand progressing to a muted buzzing that filled the back of his mind with static and made it hard to focus. He tried to calm himself down by taking deep even breaths.
Mr. Green seemed unappreciative of his flowery pros and responded with a placating gesture. "Now now, no need for such language. I'm only here to offer you an opportunity, but you have to accept before I can fill you in on the details.” he paused and Leon shot him a deeply suspicious look. The man’s face never changed, but his tone softened ever so slightly. As much as a mountain could be said to soften, “What I can tell you is that you will be doing something that only you and a select few others have the qualifications for." Leon just snorted at the vague description.
"And that is supposed to reassure me? If anything I want to help you even less. Now please, respectfully get out of my space." Leon sat upright angrily, beginning to reach for the menu again to block out the asshole that stood before him.
Mr. Green smiled and said "Actually it would be you getting out of my space, well, everyone's space to be more accurate. Anyways, if you are truly uninterested I guess I will just have to…" but he was cut off by Leon.
He sat upright at Mr. Green's latest comment, his interest now truly piqued. "Wait, what do you mean? Is this a space related venture? What would we be doing, we already have a colony on mars. Wait.. are you sending people to the outer planets?" He was practically quivering internally with the new potential. Nobody had been sent to the outer planets since the ill-fated expedition of the UNSS Spirit of Gaia in 2284 AD, nearly forty-five years before.
Mr. Green smiled at his new interest and gestured towards the street. "Remember, I said I can't give you the details unless you accept the offer. But trust me, you were specifically selected for your attitude towards the mission parameters. This is the opportunity of a lifetime Leon, you will not want to miss it." Leon watched as Mr. Green’s face split into a snake-like smile for the first time since they had met. Likely knowing that Leon had truly bit the hook.
Leon stood suddenly, knocking his chair over in his haste. "Yes, I accept. If this is truly as life changing as you say, then who am I to disagree right?" Leon's mind flashed with the new information. Space, the one place he had never been. The final frontier as many liked to say. What new mysteries and challenges awaited him out there in the dark void between worlds? There was only one way to know, he would have to find out for himself.
Turning and replacing his chair upon the smooth patio, Leon then turned to Mr. Green and asked warily, "So, when does the mission depart?"
The suited man smiled wider at him and gave a small self satisfied nod. "If you have everything you need for a long drive, we could leave now. Though I suggest you visit your house first and pack a few things." Leon nodded. He gave a gesture for the other man to wait a moment and hurried inside the building to pay for his drink.
Returning quickly to the mysterious Mr. Green he stopped, hands by his sides as he let out a quick breath. "So, would you be willing to give me a lift? I wasn't expecting to go anywhere so I walked here."
The man smiled again and once more Leon was struck by how much the man reminded him of a snake. Mr. Green gestured down the narrow street at a black vehicle parked further down the street before walking towards it, Leon followed him to a nondescript and very out of place looking black suburban. He opened the back door for Leon and then got in on the opposite side. Leon couldn't see the driver as there was a tinted partition between them, but he could tell that this was a government car by the way it seemed to be armoured. The thick door panels and heavy whine of hydraulic assisters making him nod appreciatively.
Mr. Green saw him looking at the thick bulletproof glass on the windows and chuckled dryly. "Don't worry, I am not expecting to get shot at, but you never know when some anti-unity nutjob will turn up with an automatic weapon. It's good to be prepared for anything."
Leon nodded absently, his mind occupied with thoughts of IEDs and roadside ambushes. "That seems prudent."
"Indeed." The man replied in a blunt manner.
Leon fastned his safety restraint as the vehicle slowly pulled out from the street they had been alongside. They traveled along the narrow town road in relative silence for a few minutes before Leon broke the stillness with a question. "So what is the mission?"
Mr. Green gave him a placating look before speaking calmly, "All in good time Mr. Muikman, gather your things first then I will discuss it with you on the way."
"On the way where?" Leon asked, knowing the answer would probably be the same but determined to dig where he could.
He grunted in minor frustration as Mr. Green just gave that same snake’s smile. "All in good time." Leon remained in silent protest until the armoured car rolled up to his home. He wasn't surprised they knew his address, if they knew where to find him eating breakfast then they surely knew where he lived after all. Rushing out of the black transport, he speedwalked across his minute front yard. Space was at a premium, especially in cities, but Leon liked to live in the more rural areas. There was a distinct lack of hustle out in the more remote outskirts of the major urban areas and that suited him just fine.
Leon walked up to the bright yellow front door of his small home and typed in the password to open the electronic lock. He would have preferred an archaic key lock but they were extremely easy to bypass and Leon didn't fully trust the area he lived in. There were way too many anti unity radicals in the area for his taste, he had never openly declared for one cause or another, but in these troubled times it was best to remain incognito.
Leon strode through the inner patio entryway and to his living room, it was strewn with books of all shapes and sizes. Some worn and a little dusty, others bright with crisp covers and sparkling pages that smelled of fresh ink. Leon had always appreciated the feeling of a solid book over the multitude of electronic devices that promised a hundred things and often delivered on none of them.
Leon shuffled through the veritable disaster zone until he reached his bedroom. It was small, even by rural standards, but it was perfect for him. He was a Navy man at heart. As used to the cramped interiors of military ships as he was, this was closer to home than the large spacious rooms that many others seemed to prefer. He quickly gathered some of the more essential items, toiletries, spare clothes, his lucky aviators. He made his way back to the front room and made sure the house was relatively squared away and the lights were powered off. Leon then walked out the front door, locking it behind him, and lugged his duffle bag over to the black government car.
As he scrambled back inside he plopped the stuffed bag in between himself and Mr. Green before letting out a sigh. “I made sure to power down the electronics, I have a sneaking feeling that I might be gone for a while.”
Mr. Green didn’t smile this time as he responded cryptically. “Oh yes, it may be a long while, anyways, now that you are officially on board with the project I need you to swear that you will not repeat anything I am about to tell you or show you upon penalty of suspension from the project and a minimum of life in an isolation block. Is that clear?” Leon nodded mutely and looked at the suited man wide eyed, his muscles clenching and that same dull ache beginning in his chest and arm. Whatever this thing was, it was sealed up tight. That was as threatening of an NDA as he had ever heard.
“I wont say a peep, you have my word.” Leon said stiffly as the well dressed man fixed him with a penetrating glare.
The man continued to stare for another few moments before nodding to himself apparently satisfied that Leon had been sufficiently cowed. Reaching into the small space beside his seat he pulled out a thin manilla folder, it was filled with a various array of documents from written text to engineering schematics and pictures. Leon looked at it curiously as the other man rifled through it and then exclaimed, “Ah, here we are. Please Mr. Muikman.. tell me what you make of these.”
The suited man handed him a series of high resolution photographs. Initially Leon was confused as they didn't seem to show anything that was immediately recognisable. His puzzlement increased dramatically when the crisp image of a planet that was definitely not in the Sol system was revealed. “Wait a minute, what is this?” He paused, holding up the image in question. “Is this some sort of computer generated image?”
Mr. Green shook his head slightly. His stern features were dead serious. “No, I assure you those images are all quite real, and taken just a few months ago in fact.” The words echoed through Leon’s head, only adding to the growing mystery of his current situation.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Leon had to take a moment to try and parse the ideas in his mind. He looked out the window of the vehicle as they flew down some nameless highway. Greenery and tall trees flickered past, but he saw none of them.
Leon looked through the images again, this time noticing that there were three separate stars in the pictures. One was bright yellow, glowing with a fierceness that rendered the image slightly grainy. The second was dimmer and had a more orange hue to it, the dark blotches of sun spots clearly visible on its cooler surface. The third star was so dim as to be barely noticeable in the first picture, its faint red light punctuated in one image by a bright flash of a large coronal mass ejection. Leon racked his brain as to why it seemed so familiar, then he noticed another bright star in the background of the dim red sun. It was much brighter than the other background stars but still overshadowed in the first images by the other brighter stars. As he looked at the last image of the bright yellow point next to the small red star something clicked in his mind.
“Wait a minute, this, is this the Centauri system? That's impossible, we don't have the technology to get these kinds of high resolution images.” He stopped and then picked up the image of the faint reddish star and the yellow dot in the far background. “And then there is this picture. This image looks like it was taken from the perspective of a craft in the Centauri system itself? What is going on here?” Leon declared suspiciously, he knew that something was very strange here.
Leon looked at the other man seated across from him in the dark interior of the vehicle, a sudden intuition formed in his mind but he dismissed it as being too fantastic to be possible. As he warred with his own internal conflict Mr. Green spoke, “I have a short video to show you, but I must stress once more the necessity for silence on this matter. You have been granted clearance due to your seniority and past service to the United Nations. They need you on this, and we're willing to spill the beans to get you on board.” He paused for emphasis. Leon nodded, his lips sealed tight as he refrained from asking the questions on the top of his mind. “Don't disappoint us. Here.. observe, and tell me what you see.” The man stressed to him before pulling out a small tablet and holding it out to him.
Leon accepted the proffered pad and gripped it tightly, his knuckles shaking slightly from apprehension. The universal white triangle of a play button was visible in the middle of the screen. Pressing it, Leon immediately noticed it was a video feed from a space based satellite. The focus of it seemed to be a lumpy, slightly misshapen device floating calmly in the inky blackness of space. While unfamiliar with the design of this device, Leon was versed in engineering from his Navy days and immediately recognised the bulky bulbous form of a fusion reactor housing on the rear of the craft. That would make it rather large and similarly expensive.
The craft seemed to power up, many lights flickering to life across its surface as it started to vibrate slightly. He flinched in surprise as the image seemed to twist and distort before fracturing into many tiny points of bright spinning lights that exploded outwards from where the craft had been. These points drifted like hot embers for a moment before they too were extinguished.
Leon looked up at the other man, his eyes as wide as plates. He replayed the video. There. One moment the craft seemed to be stable and unmoving, then the next it seemed to simultaneously shrink and stretch into the infinite horizon of space. In the very next frame it was a shattered mess of lights that exploded outwards from the location it had been occupying only microseconds before.
Looking dumbly at the now blank screen in his hands, it took Leon a few minutes to calm his frazzled mind enough to form a full complete thought. Looking at Mr. Green he quietly asked, “Was that some sort of teleportation? But, how is that possible? What..” he trailed off, too amazed by what he had watched to comment.
Leon watched as the man smiled at him and replied calmly “No, it was not. What you just witnessed was the craft warping the fabric of space and time itself to generate an artificial event horizon.” Leon’s mouth opened in disbelief. That wasn't possible, but according to the video he had just watched, it wasn't just possible, but it had happened.
He shook his head, the tablet forgotten as his mind whirled madly. “Warping space? Wait, are you talking about faster than light travel? No, I can't believe it, it's too incredible. How has this happened?” Leon blurted incredulously.
“This is the culmination of lifetimes worth of dedicated labor and mathematics by some of Earth's most brilliant minds. The project was started over 144 years ago after the nuclear disarmament treaty of 2185 AD. The project was dubbed Project Fermi, after the old theory of alien existence in our galaxy. The stated goal of the project was to create a method of traveling in between the gulfs of interstellar space in a single human lifetime. The project may have outlived its creators, but that does not take away from its accomplishment.” Mr Green paused and Leon nodded. The man’s speech capturing his imagination as he tried to wrap his head around the fact.
“True FTL technology. This is a scientific discovery that dwarfs every other discovery in the history of all human existence, perhaps on par with the discovery of fire itself was to our earliest ancestors, perhaps even greater.” Leon looked on at the man in wonder as the fire of unbridled passion was kindled in his eyes. He spoke with a fervor of one that knows a truth larger than themselves and who is willing to protect that truth at all and any cost.
Leon began to understand why he had been sworn to silence, if this information was to become common knowledge, it would destroy the very fabric of society, Nations would fall to chaos, religions that had stood for five thousand years would crumble and their followers would fanatically attack any they saw as responsible. No, this had to be kept a secret, no one could know. Mr. Green seemed to see the conviction in his eyes as he said “You feel it too, don't you Leon. That weight settling on your shoulders. We are carrying the very future of our entire species, you know what this could do to our future. We will no longer be bound to the fate of this tiny planet or its star. We can become truly eternal. Humanity will take the stars for ourselves, no longer looking up and wishing to fly, but holding the entire galaxy in the palm of our hands.”
Leon whispered “And I am to be a part of this grand vision?” Mr. Green nodded and handed him another paper. Leon read it and his mouth dropped open again. “But why me? I'm no great explorer, no leader of men. I am completely unqualified for something like this.”
Mr. Green interrupted him saying “Incorrect, you are the most qualified person we have ever seen. You have the experience, you have the capability, but most importantly, you have the passion. We need more than just skill for a venture like this, you understand how important this is, we cant put some warmongering general in charge of this, nor some bumbling politicians son. We need a true believer, someone who will make the right call, not because it's what they have been commanded to do, but because they know what they must do. I will not lie to you. This mission will test you to the breaking point, you may not survive, but I promise you that it will be the most important thing you or any of your ancestors have ever done in all of living memory.” Leon watched his face for a moment longer before bowing his head.
“Then I have no other choice but to accept, and pray to all the powers of reality that I am up to the task.” Leon said solemnly.
Mr. Green affirmed “Amen, but you needn't worry, you won't be alone. In fact, the other crew members have already been gathered, they are awaiting us at the training facility. None of the others have been briefed yet, but I would be shocked if a single one of them felt any differently than you do now, thay have been told they will be embarking on a long duration space mission, but that's all.” the man told him matter of factly.
Leon felt the vehicle start to slow, then make a few turns, looking out the window he could see that they were arriving at a train station. As the two of them exited the vehicle, Mr. Green motioned Leon to follow him. They made their way across the small parking lot and to the large glass paned doors of the terminal itself. Waving a small card over the door scanner, Mr. Green held the door open for Leon as they entered. They walked past the long lines and to the train directly, Leon mused that he must have used the service entrance and probably had some sort of special access card to allow for the bypassing of normal civilian systems.
The train was old, but well maintained. It had the shiny chrome of the early 2100s era style and was shaped in a manner that allowed it to reach astonishing speeds on its magnetic rails. The two of them reached the first class car and checked into a reserved cabin. As he sat across from Mr. Green, he asked him “Where are we going?”
“Not too far, we are heading to northern Germany around the ruins of Denmark. We have a coastal launch facility there. It's not the best location, but it gets the job done without bringing us too much heat.” Mr. Green said.
Leon nodded once more and said “May I see those documents, if that's okay of course.”
“Of course Mr. Muikman, please feel free to familiarize yourself with the technology, but I warn you, it is still kind of magic, even to me.” Leon nodded distractedly at the man’s comment.
Leon dived into the documents with a hunger for understanding. The more he read the more he came to realise just how out of his depth he truly was here. The warp field generator seemed to defy his understanding of classical physics, but the fact that it worked on some fundamental level told him that his view of the universe must be inherently flawed or incomplete. He read up on the probe mission and marveled at the incredible speed it had achieved. At something like 180 times the speed of light, it had crossed the titanic gap between the two systems in just under nine days. And if he was reading this next page correctly, the prototype had been deliberately throttled down to avoid it overshooting its target entirely, the generator was capable of achieving almost double that speed theoretically.
Again he looked up at Mr. Green and asked “How is this even possible? Where is the probe now?”
“Somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific ocean I believe.” Was the man's reply.
“The ocean? What happened?”
Mr. Green looked at Leon and said “After its return it was deemed too hazardous to leave it intact in orbit, and so the craft was deorbited and plunged into the ocean to destroy all evidence of its existence. Not the path I would have recommended, but I understood the need for such caution.”
Leon mulled it over, it seemed so wasteful, but there was the bigger picture to observe after all. Leon looked out the window to the slightly steamy jungle outside. He had heard that northern Germany used to be cold and arid in the past, but after the climate collapse of the late 2100s, the entire global climate had shifted. The northern parts of Europe were now covered in vast wet forests and small jungles while the central areas of most continents were vast swampy wetlands.
Leon turned his attention back to the documents in his hands. He shuffled through them and looked over the crew list. Many of the names were unfamiliar to him, but a few stood out in his mind as great academics and researchers. There was a name that stood out above the others however, one that brought the face of a smiling woman to his mind's eye. Sabine Dietrich, fair haired and tall with striking green eyes, she had been an engineer of peerless skill that he had known from his days in service to the United Nations. She was a good friend, and the closest thing Leon had ever had to a daughter. Sabine’s own parents had died in an anti government terrorist attack when she had been a teenager, and Leon had taken it opon himself at the time to shelter her under his wing and cover that role of stability in her life. She had joined the service shortly afterwards and quickly made a name for herself as an extremely skilled engineer and mechanic. Leon was not all that surprised to see her here, and the addition of a friendly face would make this entire process much more enjoyable.
After a short time, Leon felt the train begin to slow and looked up to see them approaching a station. Looking up to Mr. Green he asked “Is this our stop?” to which the other man nodded his head. Leon gathered the pages together back into the manilla folder and handed it back across the room to the suited man before gathering his own gear and preparing to depart.
The train slid to a halt inside another station that looked nearly identical to the last, and they stood in preparation to depart. They exited the first class car and walked into the station itself, as they neared the check in booth Leon watched as Mr. Green pulled out a small card and handed it to the security officer manning the side gate, the man scrutinized the small chip before scanning it with some sort of handheld device. Seemingly satisfied, the guard waved them through and they exited the building into the much more humid coastal air.
“Well, this seems like a warm welcome.” Leon said as a trio of armoured Black suburbans rolled over to the side of the parking lot they were standing on.
Mr. Green looked over to him and said “It's for your own safety, the second you agreed to the Fermi program you became one of the most valuable people on this planet. We can't afford to let anything happen to you, I would have given you a ride there with a military escort if I thought for a single second there was any real danger.”
Leon raised his eyebrows at the comment but remained silent as he climbed once more into the dark interior of the car. They traveled in silence for nearly an hour before the landscape suddenly changed. The twisting vine covered trees gave way to vast open expanse that was surrounding a large structure. This structure itself was tall and had no ground level windows, though there were windows higher up on its sides. In the distance behind it was the unmistakable gantry-like structure of an orbital launch tower as well as a large flat expanse that looked to be a small airfield.
The three cars pulled off the main road onto a small service road that led them to a security checkpoint, after a minute they were allowed through the thick concrete barricades and into the facility itself. They pulled up to the front area of the huge building and exited, as Leon looked up at the expansive structure he mused out loud “Holy Smokes, thats a big ass building.”
Mr. Green chuckled beside him before saying “Yeah, and that's only the surface installation. We have many huge underground complexes under this and the surrounding area.”
“What is this place?” Leon asked as they walked to the non descript front doors, he noticed the glass was armoured as were the walls themselves. The building looked like it was built to withstand a close range nuclear blast, and now that he thought about the work that was going on here, he realised that it was probably exactly the case.
“This is a culmination of the remnants of the Old US and United Nations special research division. It is called by its predecessor's name, Area 51.” Leon heard him say.
Leon opened his mouth and closed it with a snap. Everyone who knew of scientific breakthroughs or studied pre collapse history knew or at least had heard of Area 51, but to suddenly learn that it still existed, and then to see it for himself. He was a bit overwhelmed. That meant that he was standing in front of the culmination of almost three hundred years of cutting edge developments and near insane engineering.
“I, wow. This is a lot to take in all at once. I guess it makes sense that it would be Area 51 that would finally break the laws of the universe I guess. Are there, is there alien technology in there?”
Mr. Green gave him a smug look as they entered the structure and walked down a long featureless white hallway lined with shining metal doors. “Now that's a question that even I dont have the clearance to answer, but I have always scoffed at the idea that aliens had visited earth in the past. I mean, if there are so many aliens, then where are they now, I see no evidence of them.” the man replied stoically.
They walked down the hallway together, Leon lugging his duffle bag over his shoulder, Mr. Green led him to a door and used another card to open it. As Leon walked through he saw it led to another hallway, this one was also lined with doors. This was beginning to feel a little disorienting, but Leon followed. They walked down the hall for a short distance before Leon began to make out faint voices.
Mr. Green opened another door and the voices immediately increased in volume, then slowly died away as Leon followed him inside the room, it was long and had a large metal table in the middle surrounded by chairs. On the far wall an archaic projector was sitting idle, pointing towards a white pull down projection screen. There were others occupying the room, and Leon noted with a smile that Sabine was here. She smiled as she saw him and bounced excitedly while shooting him a wave, Leon waved back as Mr. Green walked to the head of the table.
“Alright, may I have your attention please, Now that we are all gathered here, I would like to introduce my long time friend, and your new boss, The Director.” thirteen pairs of eyes swiveled to follow the man's extended hand as they looked towards the door.
Standing in the doorway was a man of indeterminate age, seeming to be simultaneously young and heavily aged at the same time. His eyes were covered in a pair of dark reflective glasses and his hands were gloved. He wore a neat black suit and wore a gray tie that was kept clipped to his white shirt by a small ruby clasp. The enigma of a man stepped forwards and said in a raspy voice “Hello, I am The Director of Area 51.”