Cloaked

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  Von thanked the Dean, and the board members and stood up. She closed up her holo, encouraging Molly to do the same. As if in a dream Molly did as she was expected, thanked the board for their time and then allowed herself to be shepherded out of the room by Professor Von.

  “What just happened?” she asked, as they were half way down the corridor and out of ear shot.

  Von’s lips were tightened around her mouth. “I’m not sure. We should have carried that proposal, but… something else was going on. A number of those people I had talked to… even just last night, assured me they were on our side.”

  Molly shook her head in disbelief. “Something must have changed their minds. Or someone.” She recalled the look on Radcliff’s face. She stopped walking.

  Von stopped and turned back to her. “What is it?” she asked.

  Molly cocked her head. “How long before we went in were they convened?” she asked.

  Von shrugged her shoulders, her face confused as to why the question. “No idea… why?”

  Molly started walking again slowly. “I think Radcliff didn’t want the proposal to be accepted. I think he talked to them…”

  Von was confused. “But whatever for? Why would he not want us to go ahead and-”

  “Ms. Bates, Professor Von…” A voice was calling from down the corridor. Molly and Von looked back to see one of the board members running down the corridor towards them.

  Molly looked over at Von, puzzled.

  Von’s eyes widened briefly conveying that she had no idea either. She turned to the board member. “Mr. Atkins? Is everything alright?” she asked.

  He was slightly out of breath when he came to a stop in front of them. “Yes, everything is quite alright. Apart from what just happened in there,” he remarked, thumbing back towards the meeting room. “But I had a thought, and… well. Here isn’t the place, but if you’d agree to meet me in a couple of hours, there is something I’d like to show you.”

  He looked from Estarian to human and then back to the Estarian professor.

  Von nodded. “Yes, of course. She glanced at Molly to make sure she was in agreement. “We’d be glad to.”

  Mr. Atkins nodded his thanks and then turned to head back the way he had come.

  Molly watched him leave. “So, what do we know about Mr. Atkins?” she asked.

  Von shrugged again as they started walking. “Board member, family man. Third generation alumni… Not really much to tell,” she mused, racking her brain for some explanation or inkling of what to expect. “Let’s go grab some lunch while we wait for him. He has my holo on the board contacts list. Besides, I’m in the mood for a milkshake after all that…”

  Molly grinned. “That sounds like a very good plan, Professor,” she agreed.

  The pair wandered off in the direction of the senior common room, churning in their brains to figure out what piece of the system they had so drastically misread.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Aboard the Flutningsaðili, Jack and Maya’s shared quarters

  “Two weeks of traipsing around corridors,” Jack complained, “and what have I got to show for it? Blisters!”

  She collapsed on the lower bunk.

  Maya sat cross legged on the top bunk, working away on her holo. Her eyes never left her screen.

  Then she looked up, realizing something.

  “Hang on,” she said. “You guys visit every floor?”

  Jack had closed her eyes and was already almost dozing. “I don’t think so. I’m allocated one through five, most of the time. I think there are three others of us… So assuming they each do five, that leaves five unattended. Unless they’re doing more.”

  Maya scratched her head, pulling her mouth to one side. “That’s strange. And have you noticed anything odd on any of your floors?”

  “Mess hall on two is a shit hole…” Jack responded.

  Maya grunted. “Yeah, I saw some interesting animalistic feeding at dinner the other night.”

  Jack muttered in her half-conscious stupor. “Yeah, I’d say it was because they were coming off nights, but I’m not sure those guys wouldn’t be like that even if they were day-workers.”

  Maya mumbled something, and then was quiet for several minutes.

  “You know,” Jack said slowly, “there is an area on four that I can’t get through to. Terry finally explained to me today that I just don't have clearance after I bugged him enough to spit fire. Told me someone else is taking care of that sector.”

  Maya shifted on the bed above her, and a moment later Jack saw her scrambling down the ladder. “Show me,” she instructed, opening a schematic on her holo.

  Jack whimpered in exhausted protest and then hauled herself upright and sat on the edge of her bunk. She rubbed her eyes and Maya pointed out where the main elevator was.

  “It’s around this way somewhere I think,” Jack said, still trying to stay awake. She paused. Hang on. “Something isn’t right.”

  She turned the holoscreen around, and then back again. “Show me another floor?”

  Maya pulled up another floor plan. “This is three.”

  Jack overlaid the two, showing that on four there was a whole segment missing, and that the ship didn’t just end beyond the door she didn’t have access to.

  Just then, Maya’s search completed and she pulled up the results, murmuring to herself.

  “What is it? Jack asked.

  Maya’s forehead wrinkled. “According to my analysis of keycards, that door is never accessed. Which means either it isn’t accessed-”

  Jack finished her thought. “Or that your data doesn’t include that access point.”

  Maya nodded. “And since I’m meant to have clearance for the whole ship, in case something goes down…”

  Jack looked over at her, concern and excitement brewing in her expression. “Then they’ve clearly only given you the official “all-access pass” and not the real all-access pass.”

  Maya sat down next to Jack on her bunk. “Which is looking more and more like they have something to hide.”

  Jack fell back on the bed, putting her arm over her eyes. “Great. Lemme know when you’ve cracked it,” she said.

  Maya giggled and picked up a pillow and threw it on the exhausted Jack. “Fine. I’ll see if Sean wants to come check it out with me.”

  Jack made a noise in acknowledgment. It was more of a mouthless sound, than a word. “Uhh.”

  Maya stored the map, closed her holo and then put some additional clothing, and boots on, for braving the world outside their shared sleeping quarters. It was nearly time for dinner and she needed to talk with Sean.

  Staðall University, Senior Common Room

  Molly and Von sat chatting and finishing their milkshakes as Gareth Atkins arrived, bustling in having come directly from the board meeting.

  “Milkshakes here are to die for!” he remarked as a he approached their table. “Honestly, when I’ve been working late, I’ll sometimes get them to add a shot of whiskey into the mix. Gives it a little something extra.”

  His eyes sparkled in a way that Molly didn’t expect from someone who appeared quite straight laced.

  Molly grinned. “I think I’d like to try one of those some time,” she confided conspiratorially.

  Gareth smiled. “Well, maybe when we have something to celebrate we should all do that,” he said quietly, glancing around to make sure that no one could hear that they were plotting something.

  “I’m in,” Von said brightly, her academic seriousness cast aside for a moment.

  They chuckled.

  “So, Mr. Atkins,” Molly started.

  “Please, call me Gareth,” he interjected.

  “Gareth,” she corrected herself congenially. “Tell me what was so urgent for you to come running out of your board meeting for?”

  “Well,” he said, pulling out a seat at their table and sitting down. “Thankfully the old codger called a recess after your segment, so I was able to hop out without rai
sing suspicion, but I wanted to talk to you about a possibility that perhaps you haven’t considered yet.”

  Molly, intrigued, nodded for him to go on.

  “Well,” he said again, including Von in the conversation by glancing at her now and again, “it seems that your course is getting so much traction, and the students are not just excelling, but finding a new way of interacting with the larger world… I, and a few others agree, that it would be a shame to have that ripped from them. I mean, if anything, this is something that we should be encouraging more of… at a society-wide level.”

  Von’s face lit up, eyebrow raised in a look of ‘I told you so’ directed at Molly.

  Molly grinned. “It’s funny you should mention that… This project began as a pilot. A proof of concept.”

  Gareth turned his ear closer towards her, genuinely fascinated. “A proof of concept for?”

  Molly glanced around to make sure they weren’t going to be overheard by prying ears nearby. Satisfied, she continued. “A new type of university. One that could educate and inform not just the next generation, but the next generation of leaders in the system.”

  “Oh my!” Gareth exclaimed. “That sounds very much along the lines of what I was going to suggest!”

  The excitement bubbled as the three talked, laying their cards on the table. After an hour or so of conflabbing it became apparent that they all wanted the same thing.

  “Ok, so how I thought I could help was with the buildings,” he offered. “It will cost money, but we can figure that out. However, after today what is obvious is that your days here are severely numbered.”

  Molly nodded solemnly, hoping that Von wasn’t going to be too disappointed by the realization.

  Gareth continued. “I have contacts, within my family. They control a trust which holds an old building within an estate. The trust’s funds have been depleted by the building maintenance costs because ultimately they have no tenants, but it used to be an old seminary back in the day. It would be perfect for a new university.”

  Molly’s face lit up in sheer delight. “You’re serious?”

  Gareth nodded. “I am. I’d like you to see it.” He looked to Von. “Both of you. Would you like to?”

  Von clapped her hands together. “I would indeed!” she agreed enthusiastically.

  Gareth grinned. “Well, no time like the present.”

  The three agreed and got up from their empty milkshake glasses and collected their belongings, and made arrangements to meet out front, on the road, so that Gareth could pick them up in his car.

  As they walked back across the quad, Molly could barely contain her excitement. “If this works… this will be the beginning of something completely new. Something no one has ever done before!”

  “It will, indeed,” agreed Von.

  ***

  It had been a short car ride to the buildings, and Gareth had made good time of it with his interesting driving skills. Heading through the main gates and up a long driveway, they pulled up in front of a main building. Though they had been warned it was deserted and in need of some upkeep it certainly looked majestic and more than functional.

  “I love it already!” Molly exclaimed as they got out of the car and Gareth led them up the steps.

  Once at the top he located a side door to the porch and used a keycard and key code to gain access. “Right this way ladies,” he gestured chivalrously towards the open door.

  They stepped in, one after the other, via an old style air lock.

  Once inside, the porch opened out into a great hall. It was like stepping back in time. There were several floors bumping onto the central area like an atrium, which felt almost castle-like on account of all the stonework.

  Molly looked around, awe-struck by the size and the grandeur. “It’s incredible…” she whispered, noticing there were old style book cases on the upper levels. By the looks of it they were filled with actual paper-printed, books.

  She blinked, then looked again straining her eyes to see. She could barely believe it. No one used books anymore.

  Gareth scuttled ahead of them like a kid showing his friends around his candy store. “Down here we have facilities like kitchens and common areas. Over this way there are a number of lecture theaters. And then,” he waved his arms in the direction of the back, “over and around the outskirts of the gardens - behind the main building - there have been a number of buildings added over the years which have been used on and off as offices and labs.”

  Von put her hands to her face. “It’s beautiful…” was all she could manage to vocalize.

  They toured the site, allowing Gareth to point out the various features brainstorming what each area might be used for.

  When they had been around the entire campus Gareth walked them back to the front porch where they had started out.

  “So, what do you think?” he asked.

  Molly and Von looked at each other.

  Molly grinned. “It’s perfect,” she said, beaming away. “I think our next move is simply to figure out how we can cash flow it and what we need to do in terms of staffing and building up a faculty.”

  Von nodded. “No small feat,” she agreed, her face bright, but clearly aware of the work ahead of them.

  Gareth bobbed his head. “Of course, I’ll work with you any way I can to make sure that the buildings are as affordable as possible. But as you already know, I want to see this project go ahead. This won’t be a commercial venture for me, or the trust. It will be merely a way of making sure these magnificent buildings are put to good use.”

  The three chatted a little longer and then Gareth took them back to the university, where they promised to reconvene and do some more work on the project.

  Molly mulled the possibilities in her mind as her pod whisked her back to Gaitune. She couldn’t believe how wonderfully everything was coming together… and after the epic failure of her presentation to the board only hours before.

  She smiled to herself. Sometimes you just never know what you’re being led to, she mused.

  Downtown Spire, Estaria

  “Wow, that was… er, interesting,” Pieter commented, stepping out of the airlock of the enormous office building.

  Joel traipsed out behind him. “It was,” he agreed grimly. “But you know, we expected some friction.”

  Pieter’s eyebrows were high. He shook his head in dismay. “I know… but they treat it as if it’s their company. Their industry. Their money!”

  Joel nodded, starting off down the street to the alley. “I know. And this is one of the reasons they seem unable to grasp the new mandate.”

  The pair of them disappeared into the alley way, and their pod descended quickly. They headed over to it and hopped in.

  Joel programed up the next destination. “I think they’ve just had it their way for too long. They’ve grown up thinking that fear and greed are just a fact of life, and this is all they know. Unfortunately, those on our hit list have shown us they’re not willing to try anything differently… and we just have to respond to that.”