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Chapter 28

Chapter 28

December 12th, 2157

Passing through the checkpoint with the food required the small parcels to be scanned before they would allow them to pass.  It was a minor annoyance, but Logan could understand the need for items and knowledge to remain secure.

Once they reached the room where the linguists worked, Mike pardoned himself and left.  Logan had a brief moment of wondering what the Security Special Forces soldier did as Logan and the others worked at problem solving theoretical issues they might face.

Logan sat down with his group and began to organize a brief presentation that they would give to the room at large.  It was decided that every group would give a daily update on what they had done and what they planned on doing.  Then the presenting group would open the floor to questions to allow another point of view to better accomplish their tasks.

Thankfully, Nora had volunteered to present the discussion that she and Logan had had with the engineers the day before.  Logan was having a hard time organizing his thoughts.  Probably, he thought, because of all the exercise that he had this morning.

Logan opened the parcel of food and began the brief preparation before eating it.  He had a moment of guilt, but it was fleeting.  The desire for substance overwhelmed all of his other thoughts.  He dug into his food as he half heartily listened to the presentations.

After the presentations, the groups once again subdivided.  Logan gravitated towards James and Nora.  After a time, Nora shook his shoulder.

"What," asked Logan?

"Are you ready to go," Nora asked.

"Go where," Logan queried?

"You and I are heading back to the engineering lab.  Are you ready?"

Logan stood up, "uh, yeah.  Sorry."  The two headed for the door where Logan noticed that Mike and the female officer were waiting for them.  He glanced down at his DNAC and realized that he had been in this room for two hours.

He didn't think that he had fallen asleep, but guessed it was possible.  More likely however was the fact that he had physically drained himself this morning and his body and mind were just trying to recover.

Logan and Nora followed their escorts down the maze of hallways to the engineering department.  Once again Ed met them.  Ed yelled loudly for John to join them.  It was clear to Logan that Ed enjoyed making John uncomfortable.

After a few moments conversation about the project, Logan followed John and Nora back to a desk away from the hustle of the working area.  Nora and John resumed their conversation, but Logan was having a hard time concentrating.  After a few minutes, Logan gave up on trying to follow the conversation.

"Hey, Nora," Logan said interrupting the conversation.  "If you don't need me, I think I might go see if I can give Ed a hand."

"Uh, yeah sure."  Nora said almost as if she had forgotten that he was there.  It’s possible that she had forgotten.

Logan left the two to work on the specifics of the translation program.  He wandered back into the working area and found Ed working on the basics of a suit that looked much lighter than the rest that he had seen.

A crane that could be raised and lowered by the push of a button hoisted the suit.  This left the framework of a suit dangling a few centimeters above the floor.  Ed was on a stepladder working on some electronics up by the neck area.

"Give you a hand?"  Logan asked.

Ed stopped fiddling with his tools and a few lengths of wire to find who ever had spoken to him.  "Uh, yeah.  I need the soldering gun, it’s on the work bench right there."   Ed pointed over his shoulder where there were several work benches all littered with tools and machine parts.  It took a minute for Logan to locate the soldering gun; he then attempted to hand it to Ed.