Posted by Civilian Karina Enger (Director of Education) in A Much Needed Break

Posted by Civilian Alston ‘Fox’ Mace (Director - Colonial Intelligence Agency) in A Much Needed Break

Posted by Civilian Alston ‘Fox’ Mace (Director - Colonial Intelligence Agency) in A Much Needed Break
Posted by… suppressed (15) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Alston sat himself down in the corner table of a coffee house not to far from the Government Tower. One of the security officers had recommended it as having one of the better cups of coffee around. So far based off the smell alone, he couldn’t disagree. In front of him sat a cup of coffee with a bit of half & half and sugar in it, the lid off so it could cool. For a minute he just watched as the steam came up in curls off of the hot coffee.

Picking up the cup, he lightly blew across it before taking a sip, as he did he looked out at the other patrons in the coffee shop. Despite everything going on, it seemed almost like a normal day to the ordinary citizen. And for the moment it was nice to forget about the Vren, the murder of Federation Ambassador’s Aide, or taking on the burgeoning intelligence department of the colony. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be ‘normal.’

He wondered if these people had friends they were going to meet up with later, or maybe family. For someone who had spent the life in the shadows, it was not something he had ever really considered. Sure he had his teammates, there were even a couple he still touched base with every now and then, and if they asked for his help he would be there in a heartbeat. But that was a family that expected there to be secrets, and lived always expecting to have to pack up and leave at a moments notice.

But now, if he wasn’t already out of the shadows, it was only a matter of time before he would be a known entity here on the colony. And once it was known here, it would surely spread across the rest of the Federation. There was already no going back to his old life, but that would be the final nail in the coffin. So maybe it was time to settle down, or at least try it out.

What did normal people do when they got a new job? Right, first thing would be to find a more permanent place to live. Alston had been making the hike back to his ship in the space port, or bunking down on a cot at the CIA HQ. That was fine while he was still feeling out Oed, but now it was time to find something a bit more, permanent. So first thing, find an apartment, second would probably find a long term docking pad for his ship. The port officials would probably also appreciate that.

Setting down his coffee cup, Alston reached into his coat and pulled out his data pad. Setting it down on the table in front of him, he started flipping through ads for different apartments in the area.

• Mace

Karina had decided that if she wanted things to change, then she had to be proactive about it. So she decided to add a daily trip to the local coffee shop. She could make it at home or at her office, but then she wasn’t seeing new people.

She waited in line for the batista to call her name. She stepped forward and grabbed the cup. She turned looking for a table. It wasn’t too crowded so there were seats, even places amongst the arm chairs and couches. Until her eyes landed on what she thought was a familiar face.

She walked toward Mace. He was familiar in the sense she had read the memo about the new Colonial cabinet member. She hadn’t actually met him yet, and she decided to do so now. Even if the exchange was brief. “Director Mace?” Karine inquired softly in her slightly mechanical voice.

Enger, DOE

Out of habit Alston swiped the screen clear on his data pad, even though there wasn’t anything remotely sensitive on it at the moment. But old habits were hard to break. Looking up he noticed a woman approaching his table holding her own cup of coffee. She seemed vaguely familiar, though he was still trying to remember all of the faces of people he’d met and read about in the files so far.

“Can I help you?” Picking up his own coffee cup again, he took a sip.

• Mace

Karina smiled in a friendly way. “I am Karina Enger, the director of education. I wanted to introduce myself and welcome you to Oed V.”

Enger, DOE

“Well it’s nice to meet you Karina, and thank you for the warm welcome,” Alston said with a smile. “I’m still trying to learn who everyone is, on top of everything else. Would you care to join me?”

• Mace

“Thank you, but only if it is not an im… im,” Karina shook her head, not quite finding the word to express her thought as she sat. “I do not wish to interrupt. Quiet time is worth more than latinum here. The governor’s plans keep us all very busy.”

Enger, DOE

“It’s not an imposition at all, please,” Alston said holding his hand out towards the seat across for him at the table.

“He’s definitely got all sorts of plans, but thankfully I was able to snag a bit of free time for myself. And I had heard that this place had a pretty good cup of coffee, so I figured I would use the break to find out for myself.” He paused to take a sip of coffee. “So far I’m definitely not disappointed. How long have you been here on Oed?”

• Mace

“I usually do not have time to stop. I usually grab mine from their cart outside the government building when I am not at the university.” Now there was a thought - she would have to see if the owner was interested in opening a location on campus. Karina thought it would do very well. “Mmmm, I have been here just over three years. I came thinking the job entailed just the primary and secondary education levels. Then I was tasked with establishing a quadrant competitive university within 10 years.”

Enger, DOE

“Only 10 years, very generous,” Alston said with a laugh. “Thankfully I seem to have inherited the start of a pretty solid department, but this isn’t exactly what I had imagined what my time retirement would look like.”

Karina laughed lightly, “It does not leave room for anything other than a drive to work.” She took a sip of her coffee. “What did you think your retirement would be like?”

Picking up his cup he took another sip. “This really is good. I wonder where they get their beans from.”

• Mace

Sitting her cup down she contemplated his answer. “Somewhere local maybe. Oedian businesses are very concerned with helping each other.”

Enger, DOE

Alston nodded, as he took another sip.

“I always imagined retiring to an isolated beach somewhere, with some sort of fruity cocktail next to me. Somewhere where my greatest worry would be did I want to jump into the water to take a swim that day or not.

“Unfortunately, I’m really not good at staying still that long. Maybe someday I’ll be able to settle down somewhere, and find that beach. But for now I’m kind of looking forward to this new job. It brings some unique challenges, and it is nice to be able to work with a team again.”

• Mace

Karina laughed, “I can not imagine slowing down. I do like the work now though, no more just me in a classroom, but working with a team to build it all is grati… excuse, I think the word is fulfilling. With the terraforming we may have beaches relatively soon.”

Enger, DOE

“The fear is if they will actually live up to the dream I’ve had in my head all these years,” Alston said with a bit of a far off look as he pictured the beach he had dreamed off.

“But more power to you, I was never good at the whole teaching thing. They sent me away after one tour at the training station, something about scaring off the recruits,” he said with a chuckle. “Though with all the terraforming I’m sure you’ve seen your job expand quite a bit, with the influx of new residents.”

• Mace

“A lityle healthy fear is good. Reality with the dreams,” Karina grinned, “It expands every time a new ship arrives. We simply do not have room. Building and Construction is over… over whelmed with it all. It is wonderful though.”

Enger, DOE

“I don’t think the all of the new people are making any of our lives easier.” With each new ship that arrived it made it that harder for his people to keep an eye out for potential bad actors. It became that much easier for them to slip through the cracks, and hide in the crows. “What is it about the colony do you think draws so many people? Usually there is a point where the infrastructure of a colony just can’t keep up, so things start to get prohibitively expensive. But I’ve noticed that OED doesn’t seem to be following the usual pattern.”

• Mace

Bump

“I can not say for sure, but from what I have observed,” Karina took a sip of her coffee, “Oed was once a huge colony before the comet strike. So there was already a large infrastructure here. The amount of resources were not cut after that. In fact, I believe they increased, to help the colony rebuild. So we have not reached the limit yet. Add to that, that lots of people and companies want to come here to try out new technology, have land and room to claim. There is also a strict set of rules for new companies to come here. They have to provide opportunities and funding and such. I am not sure of all the specifics. The University is an internal initiative.”

Enger, DOE

“Hmm, it’s something I might have to look into,” Alston said as he took another sip of his coffee. There was usually some sort of motive, and better to be aware of what it was early on in his line of work. Plus the last thing they needed was some bad actors slipping in to create government instability. But that was a future problem to look into.

“So what new programs have you been able to start recently?”

• Mace