ChronoNicles - Stories Beyond Time

The Office Notes

A/N:

This story takes place in an alternate world, SHARE #2256455, shortly before SoR Vol.1. somewhere in the management office of the Archive Europe Branch.

She was glued to her desk for over 12 hours already, but no one suggested her to take a break. How could they? You don't go order your boss around and tell them when to sleep, eat and use a bathroom, do you? And as a senior manager she could work on her project as intensely and without a break as she pleased.

"Matt?" her muffled by glass voice reached the people sitting in the open space. "Matt, get your ass here! Please?"

A short, chubby man with a long brown beard, looking like a dwarf in a suit, quickly got up from his chair and run to his manager's office.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm here."

"I can see that." she said constantly looking at her many monitors with graphs and numbers, all cramped on her desk. "What I don't see is how in blazes did your team manage to screw up the entire monthly KPIs so badly?"

"I..." the dwarf named Matt fixed his tie, coughed and started sweating a lot. "I think I don't know what exactly you're referring to, ma'am."

She typed something frantically hitting the keys and turned one of the monitors around towards Matt.

"I mean the project <Technom>."

Matt's face turned blue and drops of sweat covered every inch of his skin.

"I... m-ma'am... I can explain..."

"Oh please do, I'm dying to know the reason why the Director has to put more money and more time into a project that was supposed to end LAST YEAR."

Matt loudly swallowed his saliva and looked at the set of graphs. He took out a pair of thin, rectangular glasses and moved closer to the monitor.

"Project <Technom>. High level security clearance private outsourcing project, started in mid-1990's and furthered technological advancement exponentially. The goal was to research, analyze and ultimately develop a technology, level of which would be similar to the extraterrestrial devices dating millennia ago found shortly before the World War 1 around the world. Practically every piece of modern tech is more or less extracted from what was believed to be a vessel or a spaceship of an alien race from planet Technoma. The planet was not found in our galaxy, therefore it has either been destroyed or this ship came from another galaxy beyond our reach."

"Yes, yes, get to the point."

"Ekhm. The point is - we based everything we have on the alien technology we're not even fully understanding, gave the entire research department minimum  funds to progress in any way expecting some magical miracles, and the entire project is lead by a teenager. We were bound to hit the wall eventually, ma'am, we simply didn't know when."

"And the wall is...?"

"The elemental analysis of the most recent compounds found in the yet unexplored parts of the ship contain barely 86% of the chemical elements we could recognize. The wall is figuring out the remaining 14%. To recreate the extraterrestrial elements we need more than just time, ma'am, we need manpower and enough money to get the best of the best."

"Aren't WE the best of the best?"

"N-not quite, ma'am."

"Go on."

"According to our external business investigation, some other organization very similar to ours is also researching project <Technom>. I believe they're called..." Matt looked at the screen and zoomed in on second to last quarter of the year. "<The Order>? And our sources state that they are closer to the next level than we are, and by a very large margin. If we could just..."

"Let me stop you right there, Matt. We're a leading company in worldwide technology advancement, we are public. Many of our competitors who are running next to us or behind us are also public. But this one is beyond our pay grade. Thank you for your analysis and very insightful commentary, Matt, you can go back to work."

Matt bowed and walked to the door.

"Oh, and Matt?" Matt stopped before reaching the door knob. "The Order and everything we discussed here is very confidential information. I hope you understand what I'm saying."

"Yes ma'am."

Matt left the office and slowly went to the closest male bathroom, vomiting the contents of his bowels.

The boss lady looked intensely at different sets of data on different screens and after a few minutes picked up her smartphone. The dial tone was changed for a relaxing ocean music and after a few seconds someone answered.

"Hey, boss, this is Ann, RAnD Department. We might have a problem with the side project, sir."

The voice coming from the speaker was distorted and creepy, echoing and breaking in turns.

"Proceed as pla-a-a-a-anned. The project must be in the f-f-f-final stage, use everything at your disposal. You can even contact Direc-c-c-ctor Cheng from the Elite Specialization Unit."

"Yes, sir, thank you." she paused for a moment and added: "What about The Order?"

"T-t-t-taken care off-f-f. The specimen should ar-r-r-rive soon. Project <Susanoo> continues without delays. I expe-e-e-ect project <Technom> to do the same. Await further i-i-i-instructions."

"Yes sir."

Ann's boss ended the call. She sighed loudly and relaxed on her chair. She looked up at the ceiling fan spinning above her and for a moment she felt like she was being pulled up by the wind current.

"3 more months. Just 3 more." she whispered to herself, closing her eyes. "I just have to deal with him for 3 more months. Then I get paid, leave this wretched place and never turn back."

3 more months...