This is a Test

Ch. 8 - Part II - New Friends

Later in the evening, Dante and Miranda asked for another meeting. They were all smiles as everyone assembled in the Lounge. Miranda escorted Roger in, probably to ensure he showed up on time. Karina joined the table, a placid smile on her face, and she folded her hands before herself. Cashe sensed she was trying for the cameras that she felt only focused on her. Once they were together, Dante waved a hand to Miranda, as if he were giving permission to lead the meeting.

"With new friends coming in to join us," she began, "we were thinking that we should have some sort of party for them. We can't place banners around the facility, as we have no paper available here, so we were looking for suggestions."

Lia and Cashe raised their hands in near unanimity. Miranda looked between the two before choosing Lia. It was sensible. They had not been too pleased with his earlier ideas and he wanted to see if Lia's contributions would eclipse his, as he had already been considering this as a way to show team unity.

"There are monitors all over the facility. We could create digital images like fireworks and computer simulated banners. We would have no limits in the color palette and the like."

Cashe nodded, and noted all doing the same. Her virtual idea would give her more choices than Cashe, but he believed his had merit. "I do not know if this will be as strong, but we could take the 3-D printer and create block letters that say, 'WELCOME.' Also, we can generate a particular image of objects that may represent their countries. Two seem to be French, but I don't know if the Eiffel Tower would be a good present. It would be like giving an American the Statue of Liberty. Maybe we find something from their home towns or current place of residence and we print out an object from there."

Karina surprised him by nodding and saying, "That's a great idea. Really heartfelt."

Miranda looked rather confused as she leaned forward. "And you are willing to do that? I would think you wouldn't want to waste resources, use them in a way not devoted to the project."

"It would not be a waste. We are trying to make new arrivals feel welcome, which is good for morale and thus productivity." Eyes of suspicion focused on him. He knew this was not something he would usually say, and if his co-workers doubted him, Anoptica might be dubious as well. "Granted, it would not be a waste if we do not combine two different colors of plastic together. I am assuming after the greetings, the block letters would no longer be needed, so we could recycle them. As solid blocks, it would be rather easy, and we could also test the 3-D printer's plastic recycling system, which has not been used yet. We have no idea on how it works in a real world scenario and we should see what issues may arrive before trying in a real emergency.

"As for the figurines, we are allotted a small amount of plastic for personal use, though I do not know if we will be permitted twice the amount now that we have twice the people. Again, I would recommend that whatever we do, we do not blend two different colors of plastic to form a new color, but there is no reason we cannot create something if we start early enough and the printing does not interfere with current work projects."

"That's really smart," Karina said, turning to Miranda. "We can welcome them with a party, beautiful visuals from Lia and her computer skills, and hand them little gifts representing their homes. Kia could maybe generate flags flapping from their nations. I think that would be a great first impression."

"Well, Cashe, that is really awesome," Dante said, watching him carefully. "Are you sure that this would not tax our resources? I wouldn't want anyone to say that we had to melt people's presents to keep the building running."

"I don't know who would say that," Cashe replied. It was only them in the facility to comment, but then he realized that Dante meant him. He shook his head. "We are each allotted one-percent of the plastic and metal to create things for ourselves. We have constant shipments, as we knew would happen, so the only reason I could see that we would need to melt them down is because we have no further resources and have some pressing need to keep the facility functional. If that happens, we have bigger problems than we thought."