Prominence

Part 4 - A Last Liason

Relv sat in the back of the transport ship staring out the view port as it dropped through the upper atmosphere towards the surface of Vaslus. Vaslus looked dry and much browner than he remembered. He had received another direct message via his special security chip. It simply read.

"I am sorry about yesterday. There is more to all this. Meet me here and keep a low profile. There is a lot I need to explain."

There were a set of grid coordinates with the message. It did not specifically say it was from her, but he knew it was. His initial thought was to crush the chip and let her court martial him or lock him up. However, he knew her well enough that if she said there was more to something then it was probably an understatement if anything. It intrigued him enough to leave the Prominence and book a transport from Prime Station down to the surface.

The transport dropped down onto a small paved landing pad outside the one thousand story government tower and office of the Primariate. It was an imposing structure, still one of the tallest on Vaslus and a testament to the level of complexity and dedication to stability that was required to successfully govern a civilization that had spanned several centuries in time and thousands of light years in distance.

The transport door swished open and the parching heat from outside was intense and very uncomfortable, especially for one used to the artificial climate of a navy ship.

"Please exit the transport and stand at a safe distance. All visitors to Vaslus are advised to wear their radiation skins and remain outdoors for no more than 15 minutes at a time. This has been a public safety announcement. Enjoy your stay," chimed the artificially soothing female voice from within the cabin.

The radiation skin was designed to reflect the growing levels of cosmic radiation that were ever more invasively penetrating the atmosphere of Vaslus. It did this very effectively; the only problem was it was hot, and as itchy as hell. He yanked at the high neck aggressively so he could scratch for about the hundredth time since squeezing into it.

He looked directly up at the tower. It was so tall he could not see the top, but he knew there must be landing pads up there for the high and mighty. He wished just once that she could have let him come see her via the front door.

With the heat beating down on him and the itchy radiation skin aggravating his own skin he was keen to get indoors so he pulled out the security chip and followed the locator beacon towards the coordinates he had been sent.

It lead to a back loading area of the tower. It was the catering entrance judging by the amount of food stuff going in. Like most busy loading docks there is always one person looking more flustered than the others and brandishing an info tile.

Relv made a bee line directly to him.

"Excuse me. I'm here to meet with the Primariate. Can you direct me where to go?"

The loading dock foreman stared at Relv in his casual civilian clothes and with several colorful expletives told him to go away.

Relv was tempted to counter him by revealing his identity and rank, but the message had specifically told him to be low key. Instead he took a deep breath and pulled out his security chip.

"If you can just take a moment to swipe this against your info tile you might change your mind."

"In about five seconds I am calling security," rumbled the foreman.

"Good," replied Relv firmly. "Maybe one of them will be kind enough to check it."

"I don't get paid enough for this shit!" groaned the foreman as he snatched the security chip and touched it against his info tile. The tile suddenly glowed red and whatever was written on its screen had him back peddling at speed. He quickly called up a communication channel with someone inside the tower the whole time apologizing to Relv.