Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in IntSec Office/Tom’s Quarters

Posted by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) in IntSec Office/Tom’s Quarters

Posted by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) in IntSec Office/Tom’s Quarters
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
“Fine,” she said feeling Tom remove her hand from his shirt. “Wherever but we need to make the call now before Hoffman does something that is going to require me to get a lawyer to defend my actions.” It was clear Vanessa was infuriated as she made a shooing motion for Tom to lead the way.

When we get there I need you to open up a comm line to Judge Wilkins, O’flannery at the fourth precinct, and Father 0’Boyle of the Immaculate Conception on tenth street not first street,” she rattled off names as she walked. “Do you need me to write this down or are you getting all this?”

Vanessa Slade. cns

Tom lead the way. It didn’t take long before they were in the corridor of a section of crew quarters.

Tom entered a door and inside was a very sparsely appointed room. An entertainment system along one wall, a rug with large pillows opposite the entertainment system, and a desk with three chairs. One on one side and two on the other.

“Oh we are in your quarters,” she said looking around the room. It was not that she was bothered being there. She had just assumed the man had an office somewhere and not the necessary equipment in his room for what she needed to have accomplished. Looking around the room, she took in all the details. It was so minimalistic in design that Tom could probably move out with only a bug-out bag instead of the customary cases and duffles most people owned. It also appeared very clean. From her experience, men tended to only have quarters this clean when they were expecting guests or had a partner who kept it clean. So much of Tom was a mystery when she put all the notes about him on the table. Vanessa had been on the ship for about a month now and for the life of her, she could not ever have remembered meeting him before. When she returned back to her office, she would look up his dossier. Right now though she had more important things to worry about.

Tom indicated a seat at the desk as he went around to the seat on the other side. With a gesture, holo-panels seemed to rise from the depthless black surface of the desk as Tom dropped into his seat.

From her indicated seat, Vanessa watched the partitions close off a section of the room. It made sense with his profession but again something she would never have expected. Curiouser and curiouser, she quoted Alice in Wonderland to herself.

“Open channel, priority IS3.” he spoke clearly.

“Biometrics confirmed.” came a voice form nowhere, “Passphrase…”

Tom was feeling a bit dramatic and play straight to Vanessa with his reply.

“Unbearable, isn’t it? The suffering of strangers, the agony of friends. There is a secret song at the center of the world, Vanessa, and its sound is like razors through flesh.
Come, you can hear its faint echo right now. I’m here to turn up the volume. To press the stinking face of humanity into the dark blood of its own secret heart.”

Vanessa could believe that Tom was actually saying this to her until… “Passphrase verified.” replied the voice, “Parameters?”

“Okay Tom that is one hell of a password,” she joked more sarcastically than humorously. “I thought mine was complex with a number, capital letter, and special character.”

“Judge Wilkins O’Flannery at the fourth precinct and Father 0’Boyle of the Immaculate Conception on tenth street.”

Algorithms would extrapolate the individuals they were trying to reach and the IS3 priority would bring up the Internal Security splash screen as well as playing the notification chime at a very noticeable volume.

The holo-panels that lit up for the communication showed Vanessa waiting for the connection.

• Tom, IntSec

As she waited for the comms to connect, Vanessa looked at Tom. “Is all this…typical?” Her gesture and expression showed Vanessa’s question was an honest one. This was the first time she had ever been on a ship where space was at a premium. On Earth, one could just expand an office or move to a larger space if needed. On a ship that was impossible.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Tom leaned back in his chair. The panels automatically adjusted for maximum comfort. It was the same kind of chair Vanessa was sitting in and, if she looked at it, though feeling very solid, the panels were held in place by what she could only assume was electromagnetism or gravity manipulation technology.

“This is typical for me. Special installation and accesses that require specific clearances.” he said matter of factly while gesturing to the desk.

“There is a certain aspect that I should inform you about. This is all being recorded. I’ll send you a copy of the recording. People usually find the recordings a little disorienting as I have a condition that will cause you to forget me within three minutes after you leave line of sight with me. People I work with have a tendency to use methods of recording or taking notes to keep track of interactions with me.”

• Tom, IntSec

Vanessa broke out in a full bout of laughter hearing his comment. She knew the jokes about spies and spooks associated with the intelligence division but never someone telling her she was going to forget him. Her laughter began to slip from full bodied to more nervous as she looked at his calm and neutral expression. It was never good for therapeutic rapport to laugh at ones patients and although Tom was not technically a client, one day he could be. The last thing she wanted was from Tom to come back with ‘the last time I shared something important with you Slade you laughed at me.’ Coughing she tried to roll into a more serious tone although it would never have actually hidden her initial reaction. “Wait, so you are serious? I am literally not going to remember you when I wake up tomorrow?”

Vanessa Slade CNS

Tom shook his head.

“No…”

Leaning forward…

“You won’t remember me three minutes after leaving this office.” he said.

“Because I will have developed an acute case of amnesia?” Her comment sounded maybe slightly sarcastic but aside from the odd night of heavy drinking, Vanessa rarely forgot a face. “What kind of condition makes someone else forget things?”

Tom leaned back again.

“It’s a low level psionic field that operates on personal line of sight. It’s not in just one part of my brain either, it’s given off by my entire neural system. Every last nerve and neuron and I have no ability to control it. It’s always on. It intensifies if I get intoxicated which is why you’ll never see me using intoxicants.”

“So there are no exceptions,” she asked very interested in the topic.

“Of course there are exceptions. Cybernetic memory augments, brain damage, extradimensional beings, machine intelligences, AIs… Although with Machines and AIs, for some reason, the sentient ones are affected by my condition. There’s also extended contact for more than three hours.”

Tom looked at the holographic displays floating above the surface of his desk.

“We should have connection by now. Though people do have a tendency to get nervous when they see Internal Security pop up on their monitors. Forgive me, I’ve been rude. Would you like something to drink?”

• Tom, IntSec

“I guess if I ask for a double shot of whiskey I won’t have to feel weird about seeing you in the halls later,” Vanessa replied with a half smirk.

Tom changed course from the replicator to a cabinet under the media center. He pulled a bottle and a single glass and set them just outside the camera’s field of view.

=/\=Slade this had better be good. You know it is three in the morning here=/\= Judge Wilkins said in a tone thick with the grogginess of sleep. =/\=Speaking here were are you?=/\=

“Not in town but that is not important. I need you to write an emergency order granting my parents custodial rights for Frankie and Johnny until I can figure out what to do to straighten out their parents. If you do I will send my brother over to fix that up stairs bathroom you have been getting estimates on.”

=/\=How can you know....you know what…forget it. Our problem is going to be however who is going to serve it and pick them up. I am assuming they are sending them to a shelter for the night?=/\=

“Let me handle that. Just upload the documents to me and I will do the rest,” Vanessa pleaded.

Vanessa Slade

Tom waited for the next request.

• Tom, IntSec