Snapdragon tea party

[Docent]

Arrival

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The Director was sitting on the ops deck of Alabama Shipyard browsing through the news feeds. His newly acquired after breakfast routine felt somewhat off. As the man who pulls the strings on all public broadcast within the Edge Worlds, he exercised his mind guessing authentic journalism from political propaganda and subliminal commercial plugs. Clearly this time his mind was wandering. Nauru. Silverstone. Shipbreaker. Engele. Interspace. Loyola...

A blink on his hand terminal brought him back. The message on screen indicated a an internal connection request. It was consignored from Alabama Traffic Control. Normally the official channel does not account for such shortcut. This call however was expected. The face of the deputy traffic officer appeared.
- Director, The Titanic has just entered wet dock one. Dr. Wight is asking permission to step out onto Alabama Shipyard. Your orders, sir?
- I will receive the Doctor on the ops deck. Make sure he is escorted and his craft under surveillance at all time. As soon as he gets here, release control of the wet dock to Senior Engineer Adam Ope at AP Maintenance. See to it that the clamps get a firm grip of the ship.
McKinsey killed the connection before his interlocutor could speak. He did not have to. The only acceptable response anyway would be a Yessir or something equally compliant.

It will take a little over 30 minutes before the visitor passes through several levels of security, undergoes personal revision and is delivered to McKinsey's doorstep. Enough time wrap up the straggling thoughts on current affairs. Forlorn. Silverstone. Loyola...