~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ARR PEE BEGINNAGE
Four rather harried, rather worried individuals made their way along the street towards the former Gaia Fleet HQ as fast as they were able. Like everyone on Gaia, it was a struggle, made all the more difficult by the throngs of people in the streets, posting their thoughts to the open-air forums and conducting trades. For too many of those users, these simple transactions would end in bannings, their victims unaware of the crime until too late. Life on Gaia was hard.
For one of the four, the effort to get to the HQ was made slightly more difficult by the presence of a limp, a product of childhood accident. He walked with a white cane, helped along every so often by one of his comrades, a man clad in dark navy blue. The man in navy glared at the crowds, willing the peak-hour throngs to part. His methods seemed to be working. The small quartet made good time, all things considered.
Half a step behind the limping man walked a fellow dressed as a respectable doctor, most likely because he was a respectable doctor. A tousle of reddish hair topped a face crinkled by years of smiling. He was not smiling right now. In his hands he carried a black bag, hugging it to his chest to prevent it from being overly jostled by the crowds. The equipment inside was well-secured, but one could never be too careful, especially now that the Fleet was gone and technology was scarce. It was still better than anything Gaia or Earth had, but the nanomachines and engineered medicines were gone, replaced by earlier counterparts. Peace in the multiverse came with a hefty price.
The final member of the group was the odd one out. Tall and leggy with even features and high cheekbones more suited to a fashion runway than the street, the blonde woman in the white lab coat frowned at the noise of the crowd and the faint remains of a headache. Her glare was as potent as her navy-clad acquaintance, and far colder.
The reason they were walking was that the dimensional portal system, their prior mode of transportation to Gaia, was destroyed along with their former government. The portal would have taken them straight into the Battle Fleet HQ waiting room. Instead, they had to use the Bridge, a more limited system that could take a person to infinite dimensions, provided there was a bridge structure on the other side. No suitable explanation had yet been established as to why the Bridge required a physical bridge and could not simply use an open field or a road. Its users could only accept the limitation and walk the extra distance required.
Finally the end was in sight. With a final thrust, they broke through the crowd and found themselves at a plain, featureless door. The respectable doctor cast a glance at his fellows but no one glanced back. The other three were possessed by a steely determination as the navy-clad man placed his hand on the door and turned.
It was unlocked, and by some miracle this fact had not been abused by any of the passerbys. The door led to a long stair.
"Will you be alright, Wilbur?" asked the navy-clad man.
The man with the cane, dressed in white jacket and grey slacks, nodded. "Yes, don't worry." But he waited for the other three to begin ascending the stairs before following them up, thumping his cane heavily with each step and the last of the three, the blonde woman, was several steps ahead of him by the end.
The stairwell opened up into an empty waiting room, trash scattered about the floor. The place stank of beer and old carpeting and hinted at smells far worse. The navy-clad man was first to comment. He pinched his nose. "Ugh." No one else commented, either too brave or too polite.
A grim air surrounded the group. The stench was not promising. They made their way down the short hallway to the only closed door and there they stood, staring at it with a mixture of trepidation and resolve.
Once more the navy-clad man was first. He balled his hand into a fist and raised it up to the door. He took a breath and rapped his knuckles on the wood.
There was no immediate answer, so he followed the knock up with, "Jonathan?"
They waited. Dead silence. Suspecting the obvious, the navy-clad man tried the door. Locked. He called out again.
"Jonathan, we know you are in there. Open up."
((Beckham))
