Snippet #2348003

"Ticktzzz pleazz" said the unnatural monotone voice of the Robco machine, Charles eyed the metallic contraption menacingly uselessly trying to put it off.

"Pleazzz show your valid Metro tickettt" said the machine once again much to the annoyance of Charles.

Charles shut his book abruptly and wrote "99" on the back of his cigar case; his current progress with the novel.
Charles stood up from the bench and slowly put out his cigar taking his time leisurely as if to purposely aggravate the tin can standing before him.

Charles presented the small blue card as the machine scanned it seemingly returning Charles the favor and taking as many as nine seconds above the usual scanning time to clear him for entrance.

"Valid Metro ticket detected, thank you for traveling with Metroo" said the Robco machine still fizzing the words because of the mechanical fault called Mr. House's sense of humor.

Charles hoped that by the time of his next transit the damned machines would be a little bit more compliant with the passengers. The last time someone accidently confused a blue ticket for a red one the robots had almost lopped of his arm as they dragged him out of the station.

Charles lit another cigar, for all he knew those machines would start shooting people; at least then he would be getting a more efficient service!

Charles boarded the train walking past the cabins until he found his pre-arranged seating arrangements. They were first class of course as always and since Charles was by now a long standing and loyal costumer of DC Metro a bottle of wine was surely enough present and waiting for him on the table.

"Ahh there you are Mr. Hastings I have been waiting for you, please sit and make yourself comfortable" said the familiar German accented voice on time as usual.

Charles put down the case and took his seat putting out the cigar knowing the man in front of him was a prominent anti smoker.
"What amazes me Mr. Kessler is the way by which you seem to find yourself in this cart before it has even departed its first station for the day" said Charles making conversation despite him knowing the answer to his question very well indeed.

"Come, come now Mr. Hastings, you should know by now that gaining entry to a closed train is little effort for the organizations I represent" said Kessler pouring the content of the bottle into the two glasses… it did not seem like wine as Charles had expected. Kessler appeared to have noticed and brought the bottle to view for Charles to see its identity.

"I thought for today's meeting we would taste something more potent, Schnaps to be precise. Do please taste it, this bottle has come a long way… from my birthplace Austria in fact"

Charles glared at the small glass before him and sipped from it gaining a taste of the liquid, he had to admit this drink was far more enjoyable then their normal wines.

"Most excellent indeed Mr. Kessler" said Charles draining his cup and waiting for Kessler to explain this hastily planned meeting.
Kessler took slightly more time to finish his drink measuring the quality as savoring the taste once he found it satisfying. By the time Kessler had drained his cup Charles had finished another cursing himself for his lack of control.

"My colleagues have requested me to inquire after your progress concerning operation Eagle"

Charles denied his bodies impulse for another glass of the beverage and focused on his compatriot's strange request. Why would they be looking into the development? Hadn't he made it clear that years would be required before he could even hope to test his theories?
"I must say Mr. Kessler that I am surprised at this request, there is nothing to be said of Eagle at this time"

"We are not asking for the technical details we have all those from our sources. What we want is your words on the program" interrupted Kessler with a somewhat more earnest approach to this meeting than usual.

Charles pondered this for a moment and wondered how on Earth was going through with another meeting just for him to repeat himself worth such a waste of time?

"I have little more to say on the matter at this time, the fuselage itself could be constructed easily enough using existing technology but the power generation system for this machine would have to be extraordinary… many hundreds of times humanities current energy output in total.
My team and I have seen remarkable progress I would have not dared hope possible after our original meeting but we are still years away from any experimental system let alone a fully operational one"

Kessler listened intently showing no signs of his thoughts until he opened his brief case taking out a black file.
"There are some alterations to the plan; I would like you to read this file and make your assessment of it"

Charles took hold of the folder and opened the file finding no clues as to its origin nor it author as he examined its opening page. Resigning himself to reading it Charles proceeded intently and was soon bemused as to what he saw.

"Kessler, what is this about? These figures can't be right"

"Our organization expects a resource short fall in the near future"

Charles tossed the file back to the desk, was this some joke?
"A resource shortfall? How could 97% of currently available resources become inaccessible and 99% if your reported industrial capacities become unavailable? What is this all about Kessler?"

"Like I said our organization expects a resource shortfall in the near future, think of it as expected budget cuts. My colleges would like to know if production of Eagle could proceed despite these shortcomings"

"Not smoothly that is certain" said Charles as he examined the more detailed information in the file." Well, if you compensated for your lack of resources with existing construction you would not need to produce any heavy equipment for Eagle. You could in theory rebuild a Repcon Rocket ship to suite your purpose but it would be a cheap alternative at best. But it would not matter if you could not create a working propulsion system"

Kessler nodded as he took a second black folder out of his case and placed it at the table. "Read it" he said filling his glass again.
Charles read the file; this was nothing like the previous one and contained years' worth of propulsion system development among its pages.

"You are not the only scientist we contacted for this task; many hundreds more have made their contribution to our case"

"Why then did you need me? You have what you need in this file" Said Charles quite angry about being played around with like this.

"We need alternative perspectives for our work. Do you think we can build this system using the resources available in the previous file?"
Charles pondered this question; he could not deny that this discussion as a hypothetical one was fascinating but he knew that his work with these people was far from hypothetical… they were bloody serious about it.

"No, I can't see it being accomplished with such drastic cuts; it would be like cutting the funding of the US army to the level of a boy scouts platoon"

Kessler nodded and stood up packing his suitcase and putting on his hat.

"The Enclave thanks you for your time Mr. Hastings" said Kessler as he turned to leave the cart.

"Are you leaving?" Said Charles surprised by Kessler's breaking of habit.

"It's quite early relatively to our normal; I have never seen you break with schedule like this Mr. Kessler"
Kessler smiled, Charles had never seen him do so and this alien face gave him chills down his spine.

"Today I have to make an exception, it is actually quite late. You may keep that bottle… I expect before this day is over you will find yourself in need of it. Goodbye Mr. Hastings"


With that Kessler departed the cart; the train stopped which was strange considering this station was not a part of its route but Charles had learned to expect that sort of thing from these people.

"Goodbye Mr. Hastings", in all their Meetings Kessler always said "Until we meet again". Something was up… A sudden meeting out of the blue which demanded no delay, a hypothetical 99.9% cut in production capability, serious details about the accommodation of many hundreds of people into space and sudden breaks of habit due to haste?

Charles grew grim, there was no such thing as hypothetical with these people.
Sirens started to shriek their message of doom answering a question to which Charles already had the answer.

Kessler was right; he would indeed need that bottle.