Arvium

15:Orientation

Aella slowly walked down the long hallway of doors that made up the twentieth, and top, floor of the Beta Game dorms. She had been assigned a small, simply furnished and decorated room at the end of the hallway. Fox and Seashell had been given rooms next to hers, Leon's room was across the hall, while the rest of the six rooms were occupied by the guards assigned to them.

She flipped over the paper in her hand, memorizing the room numbers of the places she was to visit. She jumped as she saw the guard appear next to her, quickly apologizing. She glanced over his uniform and paused for a moment, noting the Diplomatic Corps badge on his left arm. "Which Quadrant?" she asked, pointing to his uniform.

He grinned. "35th."

"I'm from 56th, new graduate," she said. She glanced up to the high ceiling as the Computer blared instructions through a loudspeaker.

"Attention, Beta players," it said. "All players are required to attend the informational session in their assigned auditoriums in fifty minutes."

She turned back to the guard, noting the grin on his face.

"It's always nice to meet a fellow Diplo--where were you assigned?"

She smiled, glancing down at her hands. "Security Advisor branch."

He whistled. "That's pretty advanced. You must have gotten a much better score than I did on the testing."

Aella smiled. "Thank you. Do you mind telling me where the Auditorium is located? I wasn't given a map in the folder that was on my desk."

"I can take you there, miss," he said, nodding his head down the hall where the elevator was located. He waited until Aella had started to walk before following at her side.

"Please, call me Aella," she said, smiling.

"I'm Derrick," he said, pressing the down elevator button.

As she walked out of the elevator into the Atrium, she felt the hair on her body stand up. She glanced around the empty room and frowned when she saw that it was empty. I must be hallucinating. She took a deep breath as the guard led her up the sloping hallway and to a small door next to the archway, a small plaque on the wall noting it as the correct room.

"After you," Derrick said, holding open the door.

"Thank you," she said, walking into the smaller room. All of the seats were empty save from a few in the front row, and she chose one near the back.

"Hi," a voice called to her. She glanced toward the front of the room and recognized Prince--Leon--as he stood and waved to her. She smiled and nodded her head and he turned back to a small group of people that were sitting around him, a quiet hum of voices from their conversation filling the room.

She glanced back at the end of her row as the thin, tall man who had spoken at the welcome session the day before came in a different door and entered her row. What was his name? Ender.

She sat down and folded her hands in her lap. Maybe I shouldn't have shown up thirty minutes early. Now I have to wait with nothing to do. She sighed as she saw movement in the corner of her eye, and heard the rustle of fabric.

"Good morning."

She turned her head and nodded to Ender, who had made his way down the row and was sitting next to her.

"You look nice today. Here for the informational session?"

Aella chuckled. As if anyone would look nice in a metallic one-piece that looks like it came from a 1940s horror film. "I'm glad to be out of those formal clothes" she admitted. "This getup at least reminds me of my uniform."