241 M03
Papers shuffled as Eli marked down his last few points. He just barely managed to keep the tremor out of his writing. This could cost him his entire career and label him a crackpot until his memory died.
Lux crooned from his filing cabinet, trying to settle his nerves. With a glance up at the fire-bird, he was reassured. He had a phoenix. A living, breathing phoenix, bonded to him, and while it missed out on some of the supernatural characteristics of the fabled species, there was too much, too far beyond what they were capable of making.
He nodded, before capping his pen and offering his arm for Lux to jump onto. Her impossibly light weight seemingly disconnected from her firm grip on the patch he had added to all his clothes. She walked up his arm and nestled into his shoulder, before briefly setting the wrist of her wing on the top of his head, steadying him more than herself with the action.
With one last nervous paper straightening shuffle, he set off towards his ultimate bosses' office. The Director of Biological Studies at New Haven university was not someone to bother on a whim. He was ultimately in charge of the largest faculty of the premier biological research university on the planet, and after double and triple checking his office hours, Eli was prepared to speak to the man that would ultimately decide his future career prospects, or lack thereof.
The door was already cracked so he gave a brief wrap on the door frame as he pushed the door open. "Director Thane? I have something I need to speak with you about-"
The young looking man looked up from his reading to see the serious expression on Eli's face and the single sheet of paper held in a death grip, before putting his printout down and gesturing forward. "Well, let's see it Mr. Carcaal. What can I do for one of our finest rising research specialists?"
Eli handed over his paper, and the words tumbled out of his mouth in a stream as he tried to somehow explain his convictions without sounding crazy. "It's just too advanced. The partners are too elegant to be designed with anything close to our current cutting edge technology, and they're too streamlined to be naturally evolved. Two thirds of the developments our department makes are simply due to studying biology that we've had access to for almost a thousand years now, and yet they appeared out of nowhere. It's like a myth, except we actually have access to the proof of the ridiculous claims. I don't- I can't…"
The Director made a calming gesture. "Ah. So it's one of those conversations. It speaks well of your character that you were willing to bring this to my attention. I do know the answers you seek, but I don't have the time to get into the details personally, so I'd like for you to visit administrative building four, the one with the large wind-vane on the roof?"
At Eli's nod, he continued. "So I'd like you to go to the very top floor, and tell the person seated at the desk that you need a category two introduction. You've got that? I'll make sure your biometrics are cleared for the floor, so no need to worry about that. I look forward to working more closely with you in the future, Mr. Carcaal. I'll be watching your career with interest."
And with that, the Director handed him back his sheet of specific proofs, and politely gestured to the door.
He must have looked like a zombie as he stumbled through campus, trying to find the right building with half his brain running in tight panicked loops, but eventually he made it to the desk at the top floor of the right building.
"Um. Hello?" He asked the woman at the desk.
"Yes? How can I help you?"
"Um. I need a class two? No. Sorry, category two. I need a category two introduction?"
Her eyes crinkled up in a smile as she stood and led him to the door behind the desk. "Well I suppose today is going to be a day of revelations for you then."
She then cracked the door and yelled into the mild din coming from further in the room "Hey Francis? We've got another one. You get this one."
At his confused expression, she gently pushed him through the doorway, earning a mild squawk from Lux, even as a large man came up and shook his hand. "High, I'm Francis. Welcome to the club of 'The Guys in the Know' as we call it around here. Long story short, you're probably here because you were convinced that partners couldn't have possibly been created by human hands. Or, perhaps you're one of the rare space-heads on campus that gets tangled up in where the developments for FTL came from. There are other possibilities, but those are the main two. And the answer? You were right. It was aliens. But it's aliens that have been with us every step of the way, just like the partners themselves."
Eli's mind finally rebooted, and he said the first thing that came to mind. "Wait, but then everyone here stumbled on the secret?"
Francis chuckled. "You could say that. We even had one of the political science guys figure it out. Something to do with Arch-councilor Huges that I couldn't make heads or tails of. It's not a conspiracy or anything, so don't worry about spilling the beans if you happen to need to explain your change in jobs to people. Honestly, at this point, I think it's a cultural taboo to bring it up because it's rather embarrassing to admit that you never noticed the signs, and believe me, there are a lot once you know what to look for."
Eli seized on the most relevant part of the speech. "My… change in jobs?"
Francis just clapped him on the shoulder not occupied with Lux. "Welcome to your promotion, in recognition of the fact that you were willing to question things. The pay's the same, but the perks are great. We have a direct line to the aliens, or alien, that bit flew over my head a bit, but we have a line of communication to ask whatever we want. They can choose not to answer, but if it's related to science, then they probably know the answer already. Honestly, half our job is slow-rolling our progress so that humanity actually has time to keep up with the pace of change. And the other half of our job is understanding what we were told in the first place. You'll learn that they're very big on humans standing on their own two feet."
Eli's mind whirled with the possibilities. Any scientific question he could think of…
Francis grinned at him. "I know that look. That's the same look we all get when it sinks in for the first time. I'll leave you alone for a while as you formulate your thoughts and think up some good questions. Wouldn't want to bias you. We've had some great discoveries come out of new guys who thought up questions that everyone else assumed we weren't allowed to ask. It's good to have you on the team."