Change of strategy
27 Mar 2021Prochaska
Early in the morning, Zoe was jolted out of a brief deep sleep phase of an otherwise sleepless night. She picked up the Wristcom and found a message marked urgent from her boss Osbourne. "Urgent meeting on Shen Terminal this morning." was the content, and as her eyes fell on the clock, she cursed inwardly. Less than half an hour left. She sat up slowly and staggered across the room, picking up her scattered clothes. Briefly splashing some cold water on her face, she frantically got dressed. She's about to run out the door when she remembers she should leave a note about where she went. Hastily, she scribbles a note together, then finally runs through the corridors to the Icarus and flies off.Once on Shen, she made her way to the OSA offices, housed in the Universal Cartographics facilities. The conference room is already full, of course, and her empty chair is at the far end of the room, so everyone in her path has to get up to make room for her. At the front of the lectern was Osbourne, pausing in his text and watching her disapprovingly until she was seated. "Thank you for finding your way to us after all, Ms. Prochaska," he puts in sarcastically, and some of the assembled chuckle. Zoe's reaction takes a few moments, then she just says, "Sorry," and adds an exaggeratedly goofy grin. If there was anything Osbourne couldn't handle, it was not being taken seriously in his importance, and so he turned away irritably and continued in his lecture.
It took Zoe a bit to follow the content, but it was apparently about the latest NMLA attacks and a realignment of intelligence activities. The Thargoid threat moved a bit to the back of the prioritization because it had been decided on the upper floors to devote attention to the NMLA activities. In this, Osbourne was completely in his element, decked out in a shiny uniform, pompous ceremonial talk. Every point, no matter how insignificant, was verbally raped until it dropped dead. Zoe struggled to keep her eyes open. Finally she had to rest her head on her hand, then Osbourne's voice grew more and more distant until she was enveloped in soothing silence. Suddenly she is nudged by her side neighbor, and when her eyes are open again, she looks back into the impatient and angry eyes of Osbourne; in a stern tone he rebukes her: "Having been in the service of an imperial princess does not entitle you to any special tours in our organization. Remember that, or you will suffer the consequences." Zoe is suddenly wide awake from the shock and feels her face turning red. Her fighting spirit gives way, and she excused herself in the direction of Osbourne; he then brought his presentation to a close without further interruptions.
When the meeting broke up, Zoe hurriedly jumped up and pushed her way through, then ran back to the Icarus as fast as she could. She obtained launch permission from Shen Terminal flight control and picked out the course back to the INV Achenar's Courage in the navigation computer.