Eela had been careful about how much she checked messages. Cort had put out an announcement about her time off so that people weren’t surprised by her absence in the office, but that didn’t mean her inbox wasn’t just as busy. Fortunately, her staff flagged the things that they knew she would want to see or were urgent and Eela had filtered her messages to show just those.

The message from the Chief Justice checking in on her had made her smile and Eela sent a reply saying that she was doing her best to manage but would be happy for some company. And so they arranged for Astrid to come over for a little while. Eela could manage tea or coffee just fine, even if she was still moving slower than she would have preferred.

When Astrid arrived a block and a half from the Government Tower, she found a modern and clean building with the security desk set to the left in the large open lobby. From there, one could see the sets of lifts, with one set farther at the back on its own. To the right was a hallway and large windows that showed a glimpse of a pool. The junior grade Lieutenant working the desk, a Denobulan female greeted him and seeing that he was on the approved list, did a very quick screening. “You’re all clear. The Lieutenant Govenor’s apartment is on the twelfth floor and that back lift will take you straight up there. We’ll let her know you’re on your way up.”

Up the lift, Rousseau stepped out into an entry way in front of a large door that was flanked by two CCDA agents. The small upper floor had only the one penthouse apartment.

The door opened and Eela appeared in her grey mourning outfit (sans hooded scarf), offering a tired but sincere smile. “Astrid, come on in,” she said, stepping to the side and using her cane for stability.

Her apartment was essentially a giant rectangle broken up into visible and hidden spaces. Iven was standing in a large foyer, which had a closet to the right and another door on the left that led to a storage room. But there were also two comfortable arm chairs in a floral pattern on either side of a console table. On the walls were a couple of art pieces: a delicate pencil drawing of some sort of shop with jars of items on shelves behind the counter, and a watercolour style painting of an aurora sweeping over the night sky, illuminating a lush looking hillside. The sight lines from the front door looked right into the open plan dining room, which held double doors amongst the span of floor-to-ceiling windows and led onto the large patio that spanned two-thirds the length of the penthouse. There were no buildings right beside hers that blocked the view, so one could see the central part of the colony in and around the Government Tower.

The dining room had a solid wall on the left (the kitchen was on the other side, and it was divided from the living room on the right by two smooth pillars and a transparent fireplace. A long hallway bisected the entire place, passing in front of the foyer. The hard floors were a black matte stone with white veining, and the walls were painted a light taupe colour that added warmth.

“I thought we could have tea or coffee on the patio if that would work for you?” Dasca said.

~Eela Dasca, Lt. Gov.