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     Capt. Sieven Drexler |
Xanadu It had been four days after the attempted rescue of the damaged Pfhor transport and nothing new had been discovered in the investigation, but the situation had begun to show signs of difficulty. When Drexler informed the Pfhor government that all hands had been lost, they became extremely suspicious. They requested to come to Xanadu and see for themselves, and seemed to think that Xanadu had somehow caused the deaths of the crew. Drexler knew this was a delicate matter now, and without being defensive, did his best to explain to the Pfhor what had happened. He paraphrased the events much as he did in his log entry: Excerpt, Captain's Log, 9293.12688.7301.23 The damaged transport approached Xanadu, was asked to halt their approach until their situation could be assessed without endangering the asteroid. The ship was too damaged to stop, so Churchill assisted in slowing the ship down before radiation leaked into the atmosphere. Marine teams were dispatched as soon as the ship had come to a complete stop to rescue any survivors. Seven survivors had been recovered, but they had all received fatal doses of radiation from the damaged reactor and died within minutes of their extraction. Their bodies, and the bodies of all dead, were recovered and placed in investigative stasis, pending return to their homeworld. While this seemed to be of sufficient believability, the Pfhor representative insisted he come to see the damaged transport and its deceased crew, and Drexler completely agreed. Drexler notified the Alliance government, via his immediate superiors, of the situation, and was asked to keep them informed. Drexler didn't need to be told that provoking the Pfhor into aggression was the last thing the Alliance needed, with the imminent Xur threat lurking over them. + + + There had been some improvements, however. After the Pfhor transport had been pushed back outside of Xanadu to await the representative's arrival and to undergo whatever repairs were possible, a convoy of packets and cargo ships had arrived with personnel and supplies for Xanadu. Six floaters were delivered for local transportation in Alexandria. Civilians came, also, with an opportunity to open restaurants around the main office complex. Three industrial replicators and several hundred tons of materials were delivered to empty warehouses in Alexandria, and a makeshift construction area was set up. The materials delivered by Ironside's convoy were there, too, though some of the phaser platforms had been shuttled to the outside entrances of the First Chamber to see if they could be installed as a forward defense of the asteroid. Xanadu gained six new personnel shuttles, six workbees, and a runabout. Now that Xanadu was not so understaffed, they could locate operations in a more permanent place. The Fourth Chamber CIC was still functional and would become a base of operations for the staff assigned for the Tuberider mission, as well as function as a backup command center if the Second Chamber was compromised. Sieven was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to work there, but the Second Chamber was a much more appropriate location for a base of operations. He took comfort in just knowing and being aware of his proximity to the Timeless Place he now considered almost sacred. He could better control the constant magnetism of the Way just knowing he was close to it. Drexler had coordinated a small team of two of his early officers to survey several of the larger buildings in Alexandria as candidates for a base of operations within a week of first being assigned to Xanadu. Two weeks later, they had narrowed it down to three candidates, which Drexler was able to choose from. Now that he had a reasonably staffed asteroid, he made the choice to set up the permanent base. Within walking distance of the Library was a towering, undamaged building. Many such buildings in Alexandria had been burned and damaged long ago, but there were a few that were still relatively untouched. Alexandria, after all, was a huge metropolis wrapped along the interior of the Second Chamber, the circumference of which was over 150 kilometers. The area surrounding the would-be base of operations was a quiet, two-square-kilometer area of tall buildings that could probably comfortably support over 40,000 inhabitants without blinking. Many of the new officers assigned to Xanadu commented that the place felt too empty and spooky. Much of Xanadu felt that way, though; a city designed for millions upon millions of people, currently supporting less than 200. Today, the atmosphere was especially supernatural: the sky was dark with rain clouds; a cool, humid breeze blew throught the halls of the building when the doors opened; the unique architecture and acoustics of the tower emitting a crystalline vibration up and down its struts as the wind swelled and swirled outside. Every window framed the bleak weather outside. Sieven loved it, though. It reminded him of "home". The tower was wide at the bottom and had three major entrances from the outside. Each one came directly to the center of the building and entered into a tremendous lobby. Looking up was a straight shot to the sky where the singularities would normally be visible if they weren't covered by rain clouds. The artistic-minded were already at work in the great lobby of the tower, where, engraved in the polished stone wall, the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge began to materialize. The antiquated English version was the central and largest segment, the centerpiece. Each other segment of the wall surrounding the lobby would also be engraved in other languages; first Federation Standard, then the other tongues of the Alliance would come. Operations was going to be located on one of the highest floors of the tower. The view from there was amazing: a panorama of the city and its surrounding countryside. Just "east"--the direction one would face if they first faced the First Chamber and then turned to his right--was the Library tower looming in the foreground. Things were finally beginning to come into place. Things were finally beginning to make sense--the little things, anyway. Computer systems were installed, offices and quarters were finally assigned and furnished as needed. A sense of settlement began to take hold, though Sieven knew that the lives of everyone on Xanadu could soon be thrust into chaos once again... When the bigger things, those that were still unanswered, begin to play out. When the real storm comes. BTC |