Rachel's life working for the guild: Chapter 24: The Tempest's Edge

	“Watch it!” Rachel yelled. But it was too late.

	The precariously stacked luggage slid off the flatbed part of the cargo moving droid and spilled into a pile on the passage way between the Hanger bay and the Lab complex. “Damn it Ozzy, I told you to stack them better.” “I did! What the hell did you pack in there?” “Does it matter? Just load it back on it again.” A number of men went over to re stack the luggage in the cold air. This group was the last coming in and Rachel was there to greet them all. The hallway was heated, but there was no heat after being left open for so long to let everyone in from the shuttles, even with the blowers going full blast. That howling blizzard from days ago is still raging outside and does not look like it'll stop in the foreseeable future.

	It's been a turbulent standard week after Ophion had his encounter with that massive Lighting and the pirate gang the same said Lighting took them out for Ophion. The newly trained Roboticists (and general Engineering) workers have started to move into the Ussaihu base with their families. Rachel had been tasked to keep the chaos down to a manageable levels as well as to get the workers settled in and on the job as fast as it can be done.

	Isabelle was so relieved to have extra help on working on the droid units. Even though she is a good hand with putting them together, it just took her ages to assemble them and every prototype had unforeseen flaws that show up in the field tests. Redoing every prototype to correct the flaws took even more time, and it left her very far behind. Now with a green but competent work gang to help, Isabelle can look forward to catching up with her project goals.

	Moira, on the other hand, was a bit concerned and apprehensive about the new crew members. It wasn't like she didn't want more people living along side her in The Guild's R&D base. In fact she enjoyed seeing a mix of familiar and new faces to interact with. What she was worried about, and to a small degree Rachel as well, was keeping the security sealed about breaking the secret of the A.I. black box. Ophion did reassure her that the project will not be uncovered, but it still did not completely remove her worries. Rachel felt that this project was nearly becoming an obsession to Moira.

	“Look, no need to fuss over this. Just get settled in your rooms and Isabelle and I present the orientation run down in three hours in the main lounge. I would use a meeting hall, but we don't have one here so the Lounge will have to do. The base map should be loaded up on your PDA by now. Make sure you have it and use it till you're familiar around here.” Rachel said to the group of workers. Her breath making a small puff in the cold air. She couldn't help but shiver in her thermal enhanced cold weather jumpsuit. The fifty some workers hustled down the hallway after the luggage carrier into the warmer living quarters as they looked around to get use to their new home. Looking over the work gang, she sees just the person she was hoping to find. Just confirming it with her own eyes brought a faint smile to her lips.

	As the workers filed past, Rachel waved to the one man she was glad to find. “Hey Quincy, over here.” She said, sounding a bit more sweetly than she would normally do. In the earth standard months that had passed since she saw him last, he seemed to change for the better in her eyes. She kept in touch with him ever since she moved to Ussaihu in her spare time, and he always was friendly to her. Quincy still had his charming smile and his tall youthful frame was filling out nicely. Well tall for a normal human, Rachel still towered over him due to her being a Void Born.  The last time she saw him his very curly golden brown hair was nearly down to his shoulders, now he had it cut down to a near buzz cut length. Rachel felt a twinge of disappointment at that. She so wanted to run her fingers though his hair while she snuggle up to him. Not that she would admit it out loud. Well not yet anyway. Her growing infatuation for him is getting hard to resist.

	Reining in her feelings for the young man enough so it wouldn't show, Rachel said,”I see you did well enough to join the specialist down here.” “Yea, It was the hardest training I have went though so far. I hope the pay raise was worth it.” Quincy said, but the way he said it and his body language implied something more. The two of them waited till the rest of the workers went out of sight around a corner before they reached out and hugged each other. Rachel's long white hair cascaded down his back as they held each other. The side of her face gently resting on the top of his head. Quietly she said,”I missed you so much Quincy.” “I know Rachel, I know. Life back on Poseidon was getting boring after awhile. I thought being being planet side with you would be more interesting.” Quincy replied.

	Quincy didn't sound to Rachel as worked up over her as she is over him. As painful as it is to admit to herself, Quincy was likely not as attracted on the primal level to Rachel as she was into him. It's been more than a full Sol standard year cycle since Rachel and her family joined up with Mr. McCain and got dragged into the games that the powers that be and Ophion where doing. She arrived on the Poseidon for the first time as a girl, but now she was becoming a young woman.  Now that UGEI have been rather quiet and work is progressing well, Rachel has been slowly thinking of wanting something more in her life. Her heart and desires had changed since those days. It felt like ages have passed when Rachel's world changed completely.

	Quincy pulled back a bit from Rachel and told her,”No need to get worked up over now. I'm here and so are many of our buds. Look Rachel, I need to get settled in and you need to get ready for the orientation.” Rachel lets go of hugging him and he steps back and turns to go and says one more thing,”We'll talk later dear, I have to go. We don't want others to start rumors about the two of us now.” He gave her a smile that melted her heart as he jogged away into the facility. 'Don't start feeling down now. He's down here with me now. My days can only go up from here.' Rachel thought to herself as she watched him disappear around a side passageway.

	With a heavy heart that's longing for that man, Rachel got her self back into gear and into all business mode. After checking back in with Moira and Isabelle, She headed to what passes as the meeting hall and recreation room for the base. Summoning and ordering a couple of labor drone to bring in extra chairs and rearrange the furniture to seat all the new workers, Rachel felt the place was as ready as could be made. As she thought about what to start with for the presentation her PDA pinged with a message from Ophion. He himself informed her that he will take make a showing via the holo display and give an opening speech before taking some questions. 'Oh thanks, that will take a load off me. But it kinda ruins the reason for me leading the whole thing.' She typed back. 'We can take turns taking questions if you like. I'll answer any ones you can't or shouldn't answer.',Ophion text back.

	'Now that freed up a couple of hours for me. What to do now. Ah, that's right...'Rachel thought to herself. She remembered that she should bring out the appointed head of this research base from out her lair. Walking at a brisk pace over to the closest elevator lifts that had access down to the Lab Bay One where Moira was at the last Rachel checked in with. The lift ride deeper into the base was not a fast as one would have been on an orbital station, but time was something she had enough to work with. The size of the cavernous room Lab Bay One covers is comparable to the super size sport stadiums that could seat nearly a million people. The over head light fixtures have been turned down to dim levels. Bright enough to get around in and read by, but the brightest spot was in the center of the room where a two story building was sitting at. Brighter light was streaming from it's windows that helped brighten up the place. The air was cold enough to see your own breath in, but the air was also much more cleaner and crisper than inside the living quarters of the base. Many thick power cables with a number of emergency disconnect points on them run out from wall conduits over the concrete floor to the building. Rachel had to watch where she stepped to keep from tripping over them. Jogging at a good pace, she reached the building's human personnel entrance only to find it locked. There was a number of biometric scanners to use to unlock the door, but she didn't even try to try them as she looked up to a security camera that was looking down on her. “You can open the door Ophion. It's just me.” She said to the camera. A moment later, the door buzzed and unlocked itself. Not wasting a moment, she let herself in.

	Inside the inner lab is a single open room with a small bathroom in the back corner. What greeted Rachel's view was an organized mayhem of tools, computer parts, Server banks, both old tech flat solid monitors screens and holo display screens, work stations all over the place. In the center of it all, a secured in a rigging, partly dismantled black box. The captured black box was still a wonder to behold in beautiful inner crystalline and circuitry patterns. Although parts of it where in various places around the lab on different work stations. Some where being measured by a myriad of sensors, others had leads and other contacts attached to them and in turn into stand alone computer systems. Only three parts that was removed Moira and herself figured out what they did and how they worked.  Those parts where put on a simple shelving in the back corner of the room. To the uninformed, the Lab would look like a mess that needed to be picked up. But this is exactly how Moira likes it.

	Speaking of Moira, she was already inside and hard at work extracting another part from the Black Box. Rachel waited till Moira slowly and carefully extract another part from inside it. After she placed a translucent crystal like object in a tray on a nearby table, Rachel spoke up. “Want to take a break? Me and Ophion are going to address the new guys in a little while.” Moira rubbed the bridge of her nose and gave out a tired huff. “I'm hitting a wall right now in figuring out how this Gordian Knot of a computer works. I've been poking and testing five different types of crystal and circuitry mix that I have never seen before from this box alone. I had an easier time healing Orphy than figuring out how this puzzle box works.”,Moira rambled off and gesturing to the UGEI made black box. She turned to Rachel with a weary but grateful look on her and said,”Yea, Taking a break sounds like a good idea. I've been at this long enough, so clearing my head out of this should help. Let me grab my jacket.”

	Moira has never been one to prettying herself up on a regular basis, even though she's naturally beautiful. She's well known to everyone is that Moira is a modern day wrench wench and one of the most brilliant minds out here on the fringe worlds. So it was understandable to Rachel to find her with motor grease on her face than makeup. But today she looks worse than ever with her frazzled hair, dirty coveralls and exhausted look over all. “Long enough alright, you've been down here for a standard week strait working on that Moira. It might be best that you make an appearance to the incoming crew. Get freshened up and all that.” Rachel said, voicing her concern for Moira's condition. “Yea, yea. I'll do it. It shouldn't be too bad.” Moira said, brushing off her worries.

	Moira strode past Rachel on her way out the door and back into the cool air of the Main Lab vault itself. “Brr, It's cold even down here. To bad Orphy don't think that heating up this area is worth the energy use.” Moira said. “At least the showers and the sauna is nice and hot.” Rachel replied with a smile in her voice. On this frozen world, there is little here one can really say that's hot. One of them is the showers and other water works that Ophion repaired and improved upon when he had this base rebuilt. Yesterday was the first time Rachel had ever tried out a sauna in her life. Sitting in a hot and steam filled room just to sweat was just weird to her, but she felt much better afterward. Ophion even fixed up the swimming pool down on the lower levels. She did have an inclination to try it out one of these days. Then a realization hit her,'I don't even own a swim suit! I can't risk skinny dipping with the new workers living here. But I wouldn't mind if Quincy caught me, or joined me, and....' Rachel though to herself and her imagination took off from there. It flew right into lewd places inspired by the salacious romance novels she had read before.

	While Rachel's thought went off track, she had to pull up her jacket collar to cover up the grin on her face that she just couldn't hide other wise. As the two of them stepped over the power cables, Moira asked,”How much time before the show gets started?” with out even looking away from the elevator doors. “Less than two and a half hours. Give or take.” Rachel replied after checking the clock on her PDA. “Plenty of time for a shower and sandwich. You have an idea as to what to say to the new guys?” Moira asked as they reached the lift and the doors opened up for them. “I'll go over the basics things. Then Me and Ophion are just going to wing it when open the floor for questions.”

	The two of them got back on the lift and rode it back up to the living quarters. Moira split off from Rachel to get herself cleaned up in her apartment. Rachel just headed back to the main lounge and impromptu meeting hall. A slight surprise hit her when she saw Isabelle was already there along side a couple of the new workers. They all pulled up chairs from around the room to watch the large holo projector field display Ophion's newly acquired carrier. Most likely seen from one of Athena's cameras not doubt.

	“Wooo!”
	“Awesome! That is so freakn' awesome!”
	“Not bad, but the Blue Angel squad performed better in their last show.”
	“I never knew The Guild got their own carrier now. Just how rich IS Mr. Ophion anyway?”

	“What did I miss?” Isabelle turned look back to Rachel from her chair. With a smug little grin on her face said,”One of the best air show I had ever seen Rach'! I don't know who this fellow Big Boss got to run that new carrier of his, but he sure knows his stuff to get those pilots to do all that.” Rachel so wanted to drop the truth about that rather new V.I. running the carrier and it seems, those fighters as well. Mentally she bit her tongue and kept it to herself. “I hope you recorded it. I would like see that myself.” Rachel asked as took a seat herself. The live feed of the carrier played on as it repositioned itself along side Ophion's Athena flag ship. But something else caught her eye in the star field beyond it.

	“Wait. Isabelle, did you just see that?” “See what?” “There! There it is again! I'm seeing light flashes right here. Doesn't those look like warp field dropping?” Rachel said and pointed them out in the holo display field. The other rookie Technicians also took notice. A number of them arose from their seats and moved in close to get a better look at the video feed. More flashes of light blink in one area of the star field in a burst pattern and then it stopped. “That has to be a warp jump flashes. I wasn't aware of such a big number of ships coming into our system...” Rachel said with her voice going quieter as an uncertain feeling welled up in her mind.

	Isabelle caught on the realization of what those lights might mean from Rachel's voice from the look on her face. “We need to call this in to Big Boss Rachel.” She said with a calm voice. She might have sounded calm, but Rachel knew her better than that. “Right. Calling Ophion now.” Rachel said as she pulled out her PDA and opened up her speed dial to a direct line to boss. She never had a reason to directly get Ophion's attention like this before, but her gut instincts was telling her something was wrong here. She only hoped that he was already aware of what was happening over there. Everyone stopped talking and took notice.

	“This is odd for you to call me Rachel. Is there something on your mind?” Ophion replied though a voice only connection. “Isabelle, me and a couple of the fellows here saw something like incoming warp jump lights when we watched that video feed off your Athena. Can you double check to make sure if we have someone coming in system or not?” Rachel asked as she walked away from ear shot as best she could. “I did not pick up any inbound traffic. Let me recheck the sensors then.” Ophion replied sounding completely unaware of what everyone here saw. An uncomfortable silence stretched out for several moments as it seemed that she was put on hold.

	“Forgive me, We have a serious problem now. Stand by. I will contact you all again shortly.” Ophion said in a serious tone and then cut the channel. 'Damn it Ophion, I hate it when you leave me hanging like this.' Rachel thought to herself. She turned around and walked back to group. Addressing everyone with a best authority tone of voice, Rachel said,”No need to panic everyone. Yes, we have intruders in our system, but they are being checked if they are friendlies, or blown out of the sky if they are raiders.” She prayed that would help stave off any panic. “If they're raiders, then they got a death wish then! Big Boss has the biggest war ships right here.” Isabelle said sounding chipper.

	Just as the tension in the room starts to relax, the light fixtures kick over into emergency lighting and warning alarms of flashing lights and loud piercing siren. It is a familiar alert to Rachel. It was the same pattern when the tyrants over humanity first attacked both The Guild and the UFW. She didn't need to try to contact Ophion to know who arrived. Rachel's gut instinct told her that the UGEI is about to pay them all a visit.

	They didn't even have the decency to knock before kicking in the door.

End of chapter.