Faldom Haze

2

Faldom Haze was pulled slowly from sleep and for a minute he thought he was in another life but he snapped back to reality with the familiar bells of his data pad, repeating with steady intervals. He forced his mind to focus on the bells so he wouldn't get lost in dreams, by now he knew his pitfalls. He moved his limbs while wearily pondering if anyone else thought the tones on the work pads sounded like old church bells. Groaning, he rolled over to look at the device as the bells hushed with his gaze, feeling satisfied. He lifted the pad which revealed three messages from Jethra. "Leave me alone J," He said aloud as if she could hear him. He didn't bother opening them but squeezed his eyes shut, as if putting up sandbags to stop the world from washing in. Faldom tried to remain in a reality between the world and dreams. Because the dreams were always nightmares now and the world wasn't any better. His feet hit the floor with a thud as he rubbed the dark scruff on his face before throwing on his work pants and feeling around his small ship. Dark rays from the alien sun crashed onto the ship's side while he found the latch he was looking for and pushed down. Faldom Haze stepped onto the ship's makeshift porch and felt the cool morning air across his bare chest. He took a drag from one of the metallic sticks in his pocket and watched the smoke drift over the goliath mountain before him, its lush blue and green hues just beginning to show in the morning light.

 Faldom briefly considered a shower before leaving, but knew there wasn't enough time, he'd save the water for tonight. The drive into headquarters was quiet as the heat vents warmed his bones and he gazed at the thriving landscape around him. Soon the vista was gobbled up by the mountain growing in view. The very one he was helping others navigate into, like a river guide except the waters were new to him as well. His position could be done from earth but it would've been near impossible with such a big time delay. Faldom's job was in many ways done for him, with sonic mapping and AI plotting, the risk for collapse was low and new tunnels only needed Faldom's review and approval.

Faldom's destination was beneath the very mountain he had been gazing at, the stillness in the rock was interrupted by the sprawling mining facility that had spread over the past year. As he drove, Faldom couldn't help but feel uneasy about the day ahead. Jethra was going to lay into him for rejecting the tunnel proposal, no way around that but there was something more that pressed upon him, like a building storm.

When he finally arrived at the facility, he was greeted by a team of heavily armed guards. They scanned his ID before allowing him to enter, an escalation from the usual wave and "proceed" that he was accustomed to. It took ten minutes until he was at the central hub where Jethra monitored all operations. He pushed open the door to the hub and was greeted by the sight of Jethra pacing back and forth, her face twisted in anger. Her short and tidy hair reflected her personality quite characteristically.

 "Look what the cat dragged in," she said as she saw him.

"Have you seen the new tectonic projections I sent you the other day? We may need to pack up in a hurry if they continue on the same course," he said.

"I take it you did not bother looking at my messages, could've saved you the trip in," she replied.

Faldom was about to answer her when an indicator light blinking caught his eye and he made his way to the nearest monitor. He typed in his access code and pulled up the overnight data looking for a reason for the indicator. As he scrolled through them, he noticed something. "You started digging in Tunnel 13! I thought we had agreed it was unstable?

"There's been some changes," Jethra said.

Fandom shot her an inquisitive glance before looking back to the screen and pointing to the lone indicator blinking. "What is this?" He asked. Jethra walked over and glanced at the monitor he was looking at.

Jethra shook her head and straightened her outfit. "A spike in radiation, some kind of high frequency emission."

"Did you send someone out to check on it?"

"I have Al and Tyra carving through 13 as we speak, I've asked them to check on the emission also.... Faldom ," Jethra paused " The big wigs are bypassing all of the vetting procedures for new tunnels. They voted this morning"

Faldom looked at Jethra with a raised brow "That's insane! All of the scans show unique density changes and dead spots, besides you can't bypass federal protocols"

"Nothing to bypass, the new president just signed an executive order to remove them."

As she was relaying this information Faldom's eyes drifted slightly near a place where he trained them not to drift and the world began to fade slightly as memories flashed into his mind, like a faltering projector. He physically shook his head slightly, trying to jostle the slides back into their place before turning his back to Kaida working at her desk, but more importantly, turning his back to her mug, the one with her and her husband smiling cheek to cheek. Jethra slowly stepped into his sights and waited till he was back. This was not the first time and knew he only needed a second.

Faldom came back to reality and saw Jethra's waiting eyes. He cracked his neck and contemplated all of the pending information she had told him that was on hold in his mind, waiting to be processed. He should've seen this coming, he knew the consequences of an administration change would eventually reach them up here but he thought he had more time. Switching screens to open his email only confirmed this as a promptly timed message arrived from the board to let him know that his advisory services would be utilized upon request and that this wouldn't affect his salary. A silver lining, Faldom thought.

Jethra waited until he finished the message and stepped closer.

"Just look at it like a vacation, relax, take in the sights, don't make waves and before you know it the tour will be over, we'll be heading home and you'll have a couple less gray hairs." He appreciated Jethra's softened touch even though it didn't quell his frustration. Faldom pushed away from the monitors and stood up and made his way towards one of the exits

"We'll message you if we get any hiccups," Jethra said.

Faldom shook his head while gathering a bunch of geological surveys he had taken from the week before.

"Keep me updated on 13," Faldom said.

Jethra looked at him as Faldom took a step closer and brought his voice above a whisper. 

"If anything looks off in there you pull them out, ok," Faldom said. Jethra stared straight ahead at the screen in front of her and nodded slightly with agreement before Kaida flagged her over to her desk to look at something.

Faldom gathered some papers before exiting into one of the hallways filled with personnel bustling about. He caught a glance of one of the Exo-Linguists slowly walking towards him in no hurry, almost looking bored. Makes sense, Faldom thought, the possibility of alien artifacts was a known possibility but had yet to be a reality in any of these expeditions. Nevertheless she was on retainer for the company but what caught his attention wasn't her lack of hustle but the unique crystal hanging low around her neck. Faldom knew that color well because he had a similar one in his pocket. It was a crystal native to Elysia and almost looked like a tiger's eye from earth, with the familiar mix of amber and earthy colors swirling within it. Faldom had snagged a chunk and smoothed it himself after they discovered a large vein of it in tunnel three. He had kept it in his pocket as a souvenir but it turned into a kind of calming keepsake and found himself holding it more and more as the tour went on. She smiled as they passed each other in the long hallway but Faldom could only muster not frowning and saying "hey!" In no time he was out of the facility on the dirt trail and returning to his ship with his back to the mountain, ready to put another tour behind him, along with everything else.